August 2013

 

Never a dull moment - all up it’s been a thoroughly exciting and emotional month.   Though it’s technically still winter and there’s been plenty of rain (especially at weekends), there have also been many spring-like days which are fooling some of the plants into new growth.  Let’s hope it won’t be harshly destroyed by winter deciding to make a come-back.  We’re definitely enjoying it while it lasts, and hopefully we’ll start to see the pasture growth kick-started as well as the fresh new buds. 

The main excitement has been on the animal front.  Persephone and Aphrodite are now proud mothers.  Persephone was first up with a prolonged labour.  Peter and Lucas happened to be on their first day of a new job, and were subjected to a barrage of my texts about what to do next.   After watching her on-and-off most of the day, and then 3 and a half hours of being able to see the calves hooves sticking out, the vet was eventually called.  Her big calf, Athena, was finally extracted using extensive pulling with chains around her front hooves.  Both mother and daughter were quite shocked immediately, but amazingly were mobile within the hour.  The gorgeous Athena has since put her traumatic entry into the world well and truly behind her.

Aphrodite had an even harder time.  Her boy calf, Zeus, was born using chains and a calf-puller.  It was over an hour before she could stand up after the birth, but poor Zeus wasn’t so lucky.  He’s now several days old and cannot properly stand as his front hooves were damaged during the birth.  It was definitely touch and go at the beginning.  We had to lure Aphrodite into the shelter and then move Zeus so he was in a position to feed from her.  He’s even bigger than Athena so this was no mean feat.  After a day and a half, the vet prescribed him a painkiller and antibiotic, and these definitely seemed to help.  At least he was able to prop himself into a feeding position.  Probably he was in considerable pain, with his left foot still severely swollen from the chains.  We give him daily ‘therapy’ in the form of bridging him over a hay bale and soaking his front hooves in a solution of Epsom salts.  He is making progress and can now get up onto his right foot, and he’s had a repeat dose of both medications.  We're really hoping that it's tissue damage and nothing's broken.  I’ll shed a tear when this cutie does eventually take his first steps! 

 

The hens are finally laying properly, meaning way more eggs than we need.  Alas that means way more baking than we need, but usually not too many complaints about that.  We’re going to try and sell a few of the hens.  Many rabbits have been sold, and we’re now down to just 9.  The twice daily feeding round had been becoming easier, until the calving and lambing.  Now the new mothers get a few extra tid-bits in the interests of postnatal nourishment.

 
In between the calving we had lambing.  A set of twins first (Hermione and Neville) who just arrived and settled in.  So little trouble compared to calving (famous last words).  Two days later another set of twin lambs arrived (2 boys) but this was going to be far less straightforward.  The mother ewe rejected the first lamb (Harry), and set about caring for the second (Ron).  Despite Harry’s best efforts, she just wasn’t having him.  Advice to pen them up together and pin the mother ewe down so that the lamb could feed seemed promising at first.  The idea is that once the lamb starts to process her milk she recognises him as one of her own.  After the first 2 days of persistent resistance, young Harry was really no further forward, and being repeatedly and aggressively bowled away by his mum.  Suffice to say he’s now bottle-fed, though we’re doing our best to keep him close to his mum and brother.  She doesn’t look out for him, but if he hangs around she tolerates him.  Only if he wanders away and loses sight of them is he all alone and potentially in trouble.  So far so good with keeping them together as a family, and fingers crossed he can hang on in there.  For the record, they were named by Billy who also named the older lamb ‘Hagrid’.  Harry Potter had no parents, hence his name.  Ron as the younger lamb, stayed slightly more orange than Harry for a while. 

The orchard has been grazed and groomed by the sheep and is now looking considerably less untidy than it has for a while.  They have knocked down a few stakes, but nothing that can’t be easily replaced.  Optimistically it should be being well-fertilised.  Around the property there are signs that the native planting is coming away - those in the wetland and in the horse arena (destined to provide wind-protection for a tunnel-house) are thriving and big enough to be more visible.  That’s good news and a great feeling to be successfully returning native plants to the land. 

 

The veg garden is definitely getting there, with or without my imagination.  Wood chippings are now covering well over a 1/3 of the paths.  The gin palace is complete, even decorated with a beautiful bench cushion crafted by Derryn.  I couldn’t resist being prepared and filling up seed trays with potting compost.   I made the compost primarily for hedge cuttings but it should also be good for seedlings.  The ordered veg seeds have arrived and early potatoes are busy chitting under the bed. Three of the circular beds are now planted with a low hedge on their perimeter - box, dwarf lavender and lonicera.  They should grow to be no higher than about 50cms, so should provide a great living border and wind-protection.  Enough cuttings to do 3 more beds have been taken, plus another batch of cuttings from an existing teucrium in the garden.  Hopefully that means that next year they’ll be ready to plant out around some of the other circular beds.  A couple of apple trees trained as step-over espaliers will make low hedges around a bed which houses fruit.  Hopefully I won’t stuff that up with useless pruning.  Next year the same will be done with a fig tree - apparently they can grow several feet a year horizontally if they are well-managed.  I’ve also bagged a plain metal archway which is hammered into the ground at the entrance to the veg garden.  In a few years there will be pears drooping from its branches to be grabbed in passing.  A bit of height in the veg garden is definitely needed for shade and wind-protection - here’s hoping that will make a difference come spring.

 

The veg garden and its surrounds are also benefitting from music.  A local vineyard owner (Peter Yealand) famously plays classical music to his vines, and his staff have also noticed a considerable increase in egg size from hens who are within hearing distance of the music.  Maybe totally mad, but a brief Google search suggests that there are many other mad people around, as well as research evidence of music’s effectiveness.  Classical music is the most commonly played, but Indian music (such as Ravi Shankar) is believed to work too.  I’ve loaded an old ipod with classical music from the library and bought a small solar-powered speaker.  It makes for pleasant gardening.

The woodlot is!  It’s all fenced and gated, and planted up with over 60 young trees.  The holes were dug and back-filled with a soil/compost mix.  Each tree is marked with a bamboo stick, and should probably be staked but I’m hoping to get away without the hassle.  They’re all young trees and optimistically they shouldn’t put up much wind-resistance.   Yep, a pretty crap excuse I know.  The land is also particularly prone to thistles, so managing that will be another job once spring really gets its foot in the door.

 

 

Along with plant-life, we’ve also enjoyed the many opportunities to bird-watch.   Spotted so far are: kingfisher, tui, silvereye, kereru (wood pigeon), pukeko, shelduck, mallard, bellbird, weka, Australasian harrier, spur-winged plover, white-faced heron, Californian quail, swallow, yellowhead, fantail, yellowhammer, goldfinch, redpoll and Australian magpie.  Despite the local population of mice, that’s quite a few reasons not to keep a cat, though Maggie would absolutely love to have one of her own to torture. 

Surely by now we must be getting towards the end of the development phase and nearly at the maintenance point?  I’d really like to think so, but alas that’s not  obviously the reality.  Maybe it is a life-sentence block after all.  There’re still an awful lot of jobs to be done, many of them needing to be completed before spring.  I’m really holding out for a garden angel, or maybe a miracle.   Whatever the property looks like, it’ll be great to spend time with visitors in October (Mum and Nick) and December (Marcus, Nikki, Arthur, Jago and Freya).  Must go, I can hear Harry bleating outside - it’s time for another feed.