Three bonus lambs greeted us on our return from
Queenstown. Happily it turns out that
the barren ewe isn’t, and she’s now the proud (and attentive) mother of twin
girls. She’s definitely knocked herself
off the home-kill list for the end of the year.
The 3rd lamb (pictured above) is the daughter of last year’s lamb, Sunday. At only a year old, she’s very young to have
lambed herself. She’s effectively a
teenage mum abused by her father (and we did nothing to keep her safe from him). We had no idea that either of them were
pregnant, and certainly had not imagined that fertility was possible at such a
young age. However, all seems well, so
there are now 4 boy and 4 girl lambs, making a total of 14 sheep all up. Some of the grown ups are starting to shed and looking pretty raggy - probably fervently keeping hooves crossed that they won't again be subject to our renowned sheep shearing skills. We’ll have to get on with making a decision
about which ones to keep, sell and eat.
We’re still learning about rabbits too, and our inexperience
has led to another tragedy. Gandalf and
Belladonna seemed to be enjoying their time together, so we only removed
Gandalf when Belladonna started plucking out her fur just before giving
birth. She had a litter of 7 and
everything seemed fine. When the kits
were 4 weeks old she started plucking her fur again and we were at a loss to
understand why she would do that. The
next day she gave birth again. The 4
week old kits weren’t old enough to be separated from their mum, and in the
absence of any alternative plan we decided to leave them together for a few
days. None of the tiny kits survived,
whether through neglect or being killed by their mother or the older kits. Very, very sad.
The veg garden is still taking shape, with most of the
pathways created - thanks to a team effort (including Grandpa Nick) when many
hands did indeed make light work. The
attention to the pathways has of course meant that the beds themselves have
been neglected. Obviously it’s very
unwise to neglect them in spring, though the substantial weed growth does make for
an easy source of rabbit greens. I have
managed to clear some of last year’s mandalas and plant up some crops - so far
broad beans, yams, silver beet, lettuce, celery, peas and kale. Progress has also been made on the new
circular beds - the green manure has been chopped down and weeding has
commenced. This weeding is much easier
as it seems that the newspaper layers have worked a treat. There are plenty of weeds among the green
manure, but they are all so shallowly rooted that they’re a breeze to dig
up. The chitting potatoes are the next
priority, and many more seedlings are popping up in the trays in the Gin
Palace.
The bee hives are buzzing again thanks to Derryn and a couple of swarms. The first swarm turned up at a friend of Derryn’s, and the second was actually from one of Derryn’s hives. We managed to get them home and ensconced in their new hives without too much difficulty. There’s quite a temperament difference between them. Derryn’s former bees were quite placid and set up home happily. The first swarm were pretty cheesed off with being transported and transferred into a new hive. I got stung twice that day, and they were still unhappy to be disturbed a few days later when I opened the hive to put in the varroa strip (Apivar). Anyway, it’s a delight having bees buzzing around the place again, and there’s plenty of nearby pollen in the form of fruit blossom and wild broom. The hobbyist bee club has got off the ground at last, and Derryn and me were interviewed by the local press (page 5, Marlborough Midweek October 9, 2013) so we got some good publicity. We’re also planning to do an online beekeeping course – Certificate in Apiculture Knowledge - with Telford (division of Lincoln University) which should take around a year to complete. Very exciting.
The half-wine barrels which have been dotted around the property have now been re-located into their new homes in the veg garden. I’m going to experiment with carrot and lettuce and see how they compare to those grown in the soil. A bargain grapefruit tree which was originally in the garden has been re-planted in one of barrels to see if they’ll be good places for dwarf fruit trees. The tree height should look great, but the barrels' capacity to dry out quickly may rule them out. Probably not the best idea to trial this with grapefruit (a big citrus) but that’s what we’ve got.
The orchard is looking really beautiful (at least to
me). The lawn-mower cranked up to the
highest setting has managed to cope with the pasture growth, so it’s even relatively
tidy. The trees themselves have been
blossoming away - first the stone fruit, then the cherries, pears and
apples. They’ve all grown significantly
too, and I’m very relieved that I took the time with staking. We had another storm last week, gusty enough
to completely blow our new pig shelter to smithereens (most of it is in bits
yet to be retrieved from along the river bank).
It brought down several big branches too, and damaged fences. But the fruit trees withstood the onslaught -
only the quince with its long straggly branches looked like it had been
whipped, but already seems to be coming right.
The herb garden is looking better than ever after much lush
growth in the last few weeks. Every now
and then I find something new to put in.
Caraway and dill are recent additions, and flat parsley seedlings are
popping up everywhere. The thyme is
delightfully spilling out over the edge and the basil-mint is attempting a
take-over. It’s a perfect site for herbs
– dry and with the sun reflecting from the garage wall.
The boys were busy over the recent holidays - Sam away in
Rotorua for his first foray with the National Secondary Schools Brass
Band. His highlight was a trip and
concert at Hobbiton in Matamata. Adverts
are out for the 2nd Hobbit film, so it’s very much current. We can’t wait to see it as some of it (the
dwarves in barrels scene) was filmed at Pelorus, one of our favourite nearby
picnic spots. Billy played soccer for
Marlborough in a Queenstown tournament.
Peter and Lucas stayed behind at work.
And I went to Queenstown and Te Anau with mum and Nick, catching one of
Billy’s games. We were lucky enough to
take a Milford Sound cruise on a particularly stunning day. The coach trip made several memorable stops
on the way over too. Such a beautiful
corner of the world. 
In the meantime, the life-sentence block work mounts. Relentless really, always several jobs to do
and not enough time to do them. Happily
we’re also in a beautiful corner of the world, which more than makes up for it. The flower garden is putting on a bright happy show of colour in the form of the perennials that weren't weeded out by accident. Even the wetland is gorgeous, as long as you can look past the weeds and focus on the native planting and the wild ducks. We’ve been here 2 years now, and definitely
no lust for city-life. If anything, it’s
hard to imagine not waking up to the views of the hills and valleys and the
sound of bird-song and Bob-junior crowing.
First up there’s always a quick cattle and sheep head-count, followed by
the gathering of breakfast for the rabbits and chooks. Then it’s onto watering the seedlings and
cuttings. Chores indeed, but always a
pleasure nonetheless. Home sweet
home. 
And on a final note, here's one for Dave. Usually you don't make your grandest creations when there is someone around to impress, but Dave managed to be present for the best ever Yorkshire Puddings to be made in the Powell household. Hope you enjoyed your stay here (and that Korea was awesome too), and hope you manage to persuade your family to come and visit too!