December 2013

With the lion’s share of my paid workload over for this year, there’re just a few days left before the arrival of our Christmas visitors.  Unfortunately, tidying up the property hasn’t yet hit the top of the priority list.  Higher on that list are the usual suspects like weeding, planting, mowing, irrigation and thistle-bashing.  Progress has been made on all of these tasks, but they never seem to go away completely.  Summers’s well and truly here and there have been many days when it’s just too hot to work outside in the heat of the day. 

Chicken numbers have increased significantly over the last few weeks - it’s chook-city out there now.  Derryn’s 5 cochin chicks have grown up into pullets and are housed in a partitioned-off section of the chicken run.  In the meantime, 9 of our own eggs hatched into yellow striped chicks, currently resident in the mobile run (and very reluctant to pose en masse for a photo).  They’re being tended by 2 mother-hens and so far that seems to be working well.  Another hen has just become broody, so more fluffy bundles may be on their way.   Keeping the poultry fed and watered has become quite a task, albeit made enjoyable by their delightful cuteness.

 

 

The cattle and sheep are mostly behaving themselves, give or take some fence leaning and munching of fruit trees.  When I'm pottering around in the flower garden, Butch comes over for a chat, to chew the cud.  He's worked out that weeds will be on the menu so it's worth hanging around.  The Inseminator was summoned when Aphrodite came on heat.  Hera is due next, but Persephone hasn’t shown any sign at all.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  We’re hoping to sell both Galloway cows sometime over the next few months, and have also advertised the ewe lambs (this photo shows the ewe in the process of shedding - though it may look like it, we haven't been near her with our hand-shears...yet).  We could do with reducing our stock numbers by winter, though that will depend on how much hay we get.  It’s due to be cut any time now, and it may be possible to do a second cut in a couple of months if the weather’s kind.   The hay paddocks are looking gorgeous right now, gently swaying in the breeze.  I’m quite excited about the prospect of stacking hay bales too – it’s a profoundly satisfying task to prepare for the next season like this.

 

Another mysterious rabbit death is concerning, though all the youngsters are all thriving.  If there is a disease that’s killing them, then we’ll have to carefully consider our rabbit-keeping future.  American rabbit keeper, Daniel Salatin (son of Polyface farmer, Joel), has written that in his early days he lost about 50% of his rabbits to disease.  He decided to ride it out and continue with his plans, in the hope that his remaining rabbits would become disease-resistant over generations.  It was a successful strategy for him, and the path which we’ll probably also take.  The alternative is to look at vaccination, which would be complicated as well as expensive.

 

 

Birds have enjoyed our cherry crop this year, scoffing every single cherry just before it ripened.  The word ‘crop’ is a bit of an exaggeration, but it may be worth netting them next year.  There are quite a few developing pears, apples, quince, medlars, plums, nectarines and peaches, so hopefully we’ll get to eat some of our own fruit.  We’re eating home-grown veg in the form of lettuce, leeks, peas, broad beans and greens, and hopefully plenty more to come.   It's all looking good, except for the corn crop which has been a bit of a disaster (neither seeds nor seedlings successful).  A different strategy is a clearly needed.  Most of the ground-sown seeds didn’t germinate, and potted germination of corn seeds wasn't much better after the birds feasted on them.  There will be enough for us to eat fresh corn, but it’s a long way from the corn crop circle I’d planned for.  I'll get some fresh seed and keep trying as there's enough time in the season remaining.  Alternatively there will be millions of peas.

The bees have been fascinating.  The new queen in the hive which had swarmed was quite slow to produce brood.  It was about 2 and a half weeks before eggs and larvae were clearly visible – just in the nick of time as I was about to re-queen with a bought queen.  The other hive followed suit and swarmed today.  I was weeding in the veg garden and became aware of an increasingly loud hum from the hive.  There was lots of bee activity too.  Then all of a sudden the sky was filled with a cloud of bees, all flying around and around.  They weren’t concerned about me being there, so I was able to enjoy the thrill of being totally surrounded by bees but feeling absolutely safe.  What a privilege to be among them like that.  The bee-cloud slowly headed towards the river and I lost sight of them.   Of course, it isn’t a great moment for a beekeeper to watch her honey production capacity plummet.   And of course, had I checked the hive sooner I may have spotted the queen cells and prevented the swarm from happening.   But hell, it was brilliant.  Though it's probably naive of me to think so, it may well have been time for a new queen in that colony given that it came to me as a swarm anyway.  Here’s hoping that she’ll be magnificent!

 

Peter’s back to work after his finger accident, though it looks like the healing will be a long-term process.  The stitches are out and the wound itself seems to be healing well, but it’s still very sore to touch.  Billy had his last day at the local school and will move to year 9 Marlborough Boys College next year.  He actually asked to wear a suit to his leaving party (hard to believe he’s related to Peter and me).  We agreed to hire him one as long as he agreed to photos!  So here he is, looking terribly grown up. 

Some Christmas preparations have been happening, including our annual cake-decorating session.  This year’s theme is ‘Lucas Leaving Home’ – a great idea for a theme as it can be repeated when Sam and Billy fly the nest too.  The Christmas tree, which was ‘acquired’ from the side of the road using a saw (it was dangerously too close to the road so we were actually providing a public service by removing it!), is also decorated and presents are wrapped.   Having spent most of our lives having winter Christmases, it’s still a bit weird celebrating it in summer.  It’s a pleasant kind-of weird though.  We have plans for a Christmas Day barbecue dinner on the beach.  Fingers crossed for glorious days ahead in this fabulous place. 

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.

Merry Christmas and all best wishes for 2014.