December 2015

This year’s lambs are quietly growing away.  Most of them are shedding reasonably well, but one has perfectly beautifully surpassed himself.  He was promising from the day he was born, but we weren’t sure how he’d end up.  He’s now destined to be our flock ram.   We named him ‘Leggy’ and he was different (in a good way) from his twin brother ‘Fluffy’ and the other ram lambs- i.e. longer-legged and less woolly.  It’ll be a bit unfortunate for him if that name sticks, but at least he’s probably got a life-time of indefinite shagging ahead.

At long last, one of the chooks went broody and is sitting.  She’s currently on 6 eggs, and they’ll be due to hatch in early January.  Of course this means that the other hens have pretty much stopped laying in the interim, or maybe they’re just brilliant at hiding their eggs.  Not really sure why this happens, but it always does.  Hopefully I won’t have to resort to buying eggs for our Christmas Egg-Roulette.

Hay has happened!  Sooner than we thought, but we’re glad to get what we got.  Despite liming this year, we only got 50 bales compared to around 70 last year.  It’s been the same for everyone in the region though, because of the drought.  It’s been the driest November since records began, and December’s not looking too flash either.  We’ll try and buy a dozen more bales to make sure we have enough for winter. 

This winter though, we won’t have to account for Zeus’ appetite.  The home-kill man came, saw, gasped, and did the deed.  Zeus was so big that he had to use his truck pulling-power to turn him over.  His hoof weight must have been literally about a ton because the carcass weight was 512kg.  That’s 512kg of prime, organic, grass-fed beef.  The butchers were pretty impressed with his size too, and with the tenderness of the meat.  It took 4 of us over 3 hours to bag up portions and get them in the freezer.  We had to offload some into Karyn’s freezer, and we’re still waiting for sausages.  Mince has finally returned to the menu!  We were getting quite sick of steaks and joints all the time.  It’s a hard life etc.  Hera and Athena have been a bit jittery since Zeus’ departure, and have been entertaining themselves by chasing the lambs. 

The bees have been ridiculously busy.  I went into the hives to remove the varroa strips, and found them both completely choc-a-bloc of honey and brood.  One hive has definitely swarmed.  I was away in Christchurch and Peter called to say there was a noise like a small aircraft high up in the tulip tree.  He declined the job of clambering up the tree and knocking the swarm off into a box, so alas they were lost.  The hive must have made good its reduced numbers rapidly.  Ideally I should have added another honey box to each hive, but I don’t have any spare equipment.  Instead I took off a few frames (11) and extracted the honey.  11+ litres of the best honey in the world, now potted up and ready to gift.  The next day it rained (hurray) so the empty frames were returned 2 days later.  In that short time the bees from one hive created stalactites of wax comb hanging down from the lid.  The other hive created stalagmites up from the queen excluder.  The beautiful virgin wax was easily snapped off.  It’s immaculate and won’t need to be filtered and strained.  It’ll be ideal for face cream.

The vege garden is growing nicely – weeds and veges all in fine health.  The soft fruit is ripening – strawberries, desert gooseberries, red, black and white currants already in abundance, and raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries and blackberries nearly there.  Some greens are also ready to eat, but most of the rest is just quietly getting there.  There are several artichokes, which should please the bees – I haven’t yet developed a taste for them, but probably I need to persevere with that. 

The figs are coming away, as are most of the orchard tree fruits.  Each of the fruit trees has been blessed with a circle of burned hay around its trunk.  Some of them also had a couple of spades-ful of vermi-compost under the hay.  When I get round to it, they’ll also get a splash of diluted vermi-liquid.  It looks like there’ll be a significant crop this year.  The stone and pip fruit in particular are doing great - can’t wait to get picking.  Maybe in a couple of years we’ll need a ladder.

Flowers are also gloriously abundant.  They’re in the tunnel house, the vege garden and in the flower gardens around the house.  Even the water lily has thrown off its first fat bud.  It’s great to see such a showy riot of colour, even if it’s all a bit haphazard.  And a good feeling to be contributing to the bees’ nectar and pollen sources.  There are always bees – honey and bumble – buzzing around the property.  Shame they're always outnumbered by the sand-flies.

The home-made wine has been re-racked, and some of it is pretty darned good this time, though I say so myself.  The mead is already totally delish, and the pear wine is shaping up beautifully (and possibly approaching ‘Thunderbird’ calibre - you have to be pretty old and quirky to remember this particular ambrosia).  All of the others are promising – even the rhubarb.  Most still have plenty of lees, so not likely to be bottled in the near future.  No hurry though – still plenty of last year’s wines left.

Peter has converted an old wine barrel into a bar-leaner/sun umbrella stand.  It’s a bit rustic and to my eyes, a triumph of craftsmanship.  It will provide some much-needed sun shade and somewhere on which to rest our elbows when they’re laden with wine or gin. 

Lucas came home for a weekend and got stuck into the Christmas cake marzipan decorations.  He’ll be back over Christmas, staying in the plush accommodation which is the new tent.  It was erected today, and will have to be dismantled and taken to Picton where we are camping later in the month. 

Sam has been busy with Christmas band stuff.  The photo was taken at the Mistletoe Market, just one of the events that the band attends over the festive season.  He’s also worked a few shifts at the winery with Peter, and more recently he’s working for a flower company in Wairau Valley.  His boss there is the partner of his other new boss at Giesen’s – a wine company who have offered him work over summer before he starts his course, and during key times like vintages.  He seems to have fallen on his feet there.  Hopefully he’ll get enough exam credits to be accepted onto the Viticulture/Wine-making course that he’s applied for.

Billy received a Chief Scout Award at his final scout meeting.  It was presented to him by local MP Stuart Smith.  It marks the end of scouts, although he could go on into Rangers if he wants.  He’s recently finished school for the year and has been helping out big time cleaning up at home in anticipation of our Christmas visitors. 

Any minute now the house will fill.  The Christmas tree is vibrant, decorations are up and food is sorted.  Entertainment plans are made.  Soon it’ll be 2016 but first there’s holiday time to enjoy.  Merry Christmas and happy blessings for the New Year.

November 2015

A couple of very late frosts (November 5^th the most recent) brought the choppers out to protect the vines.  We can hear the roar of the engines as they fly low, though the nearest vines are more than 10kms away from us.  The frosts nearly took us by surprise too.  A haphazard assortment of items were hurriedly chucked over the newly planted citrus.  Not pretty, but it worked.  Since the photo, an orange and a lime have completed the grove.  They’ve even all been mulched and staked.  Some plants that we didn't protect - our own vines, the fig tree and cocktail kiwifruit - all got significant frost-burn, but seem to recovering now.

Madame Cholet is nearly fully-planted out.  The tomatoes have had their first pinching out of side-shoots and we’re eating lettuce.  I planted out most of the remaining seedlings into the vege garden today.  The ground is really dry, in-keeping with the vineyard moisture levels in Marlborough which are at late December levels.  An el-nino weather pattern is predicted for summer, and we’ll cop the dry and windy conditions.  It doesn’t bode well to be so dry already.  Our water comes from an underground spring so we just have to keep everything crossed that it doesn’t run out. 

The horse arena is (drum roll please) finished.  Ironically, it now looks more like a horse arena than it did before, but that's because the weeds aren't hiding the gravel ground anymore. The pea metal arrived safely and without munting the paddocks en route.  It’s been spread and has really smartened the place up.  Numerous strawberry plants have joined the feijoa bed and are beginning to flower, and some vagrant comfrey has been re-homed among the citrus.  There are now a dozen olive trees, 4 each of Frantoio, J2 and Mission.  Incredibly they are also all mulched and staked.  The young trees are attached to their stakes by an ingenious combination of cut-up old tea towels and baling twine.  They have a certain eclectic charm.  The unoccupied beds are only letting the side down if you don’t find mounds of weeds attractive in any way.

Fruit is developing in the orchard and in the other gardens.  Gooseberries and blueberries are abundant and are fattening up beautifully.  The first blushing-red redcurrant is visible, and clusters of pip and stone fruit are swelling.  The raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries are in full bloom and competing for the sunlight.  They’re such a pleasure, an oasis of sweet promise. 

Cornelius and his harem have temporarily been confined to barracks.  They had been becoming more adventurous, tackling the herb and fruit gardens, and the beds around the house – scratching around and leaving the less secure plants in their wake.  Yesterday the flower garden was fully planted with a range of annuals grown from seed and a few new perennials to fill in the gaps.  Then it was mulched with barley straw and the chooks were lured back to their run.  It feels a bit mean locking them up, but it’ll only be until the plants get a chance to dig their roots in.

The sheep are looking very raggy and are in danger of being coerced into a haircut.  We’ve decided to splash out on another (and better quality) set of hand-shears this year.  It still won’t be a pleasant task, though it usually provides some entertainment value.  They’re shedding bits of wool all over the paddock.  After foraging for elder-flowers from the various trees around the property, Karyn and I collected the wool up.  It will be used to make duvets for the worms, beginning as one king-sized duvet until the strands are claimed.  Batch one of elder-flower cordial is promising, but the recipe will be tweaked for subsequent batches.  It just needs to be elder flowerier.  Now that I’ve introduced Karyn to the joys of foraging, who knows where it might end?  I’ll wager she’ll be making something into wine by the end of the season.

It’ll be D-day for Zeus very soon, so we’ve been clearing out the freezer.  We’ve sought out recipes for less-familiar cuts like lamb neck, lamb shank, pork hocks and oxtail, which had been lurking in the bottom of the freezer.   Mostly they've been slow-cooked and delicious, and it's been quite satisfying to stretch our culinary horizons.  I also discovered a couple of bags of cooked borlotti beans which made a delicious alternative to baked beans when mixed with some of our own tomato sauce. 

The vege garden continues to take up massive amounts of time.  Amazingly, and despite my worst predictions, the bulk of the weeding is complete, and some of what’s remaining will be left to its own devices unless I’m overcome by an overwhelming urge to clear it.  Not likely.  It’s great to see the low hedges around the keyhole beds taking shape and actually finally even looking like they’re supposed to be hedges.  Some of the keyhole centres have been planted with herbs and flowers, rather than anything which will grow too big.  That’s a lesson learned from the rhubarb and globe artichokes which are bursting out of their circles in other zones.  The pomegranate, which was a bin-end plant, had been coming away before winter.  Now it’s dead except for some tiny new shoots popping up from the base.  If it manages to resuscitate itself, then I’ll erect frost protection. 

Potato shoots are popping up through their mulch – always a proud moment and one which elicits a premature desire to bandicoot.  Crowds of Jerusalem artichoke shoots are popping up and the asparagus are ferny and wispy, but hopefully edible next year.  The herb garden is gorgeous, and has a few new additions – Clary Sage, curry plant, Echinacea and bergamot.  It’s already a popular hanging out place for bees, and they should be kept happy for many months ahead. 

The academic year is drawing to a close, and I’m optimistic that the recent paid work overload will wind down soon.  It’s time to start planning for Christmas (only 35 sleeps to go) and enjoying the spoils of summer.  In the meantime, spring in the garden is the bees knees.

October 2015

The mercury has hit the late 20’s, but only with a nor’wester wind.  When the wind comes from the south it’s usually much cooler, and the risk of frost lurks until around the end of the month.  We’re getting used to these weather patterns now that we’ve been here 4 years (gasp).  The gorgeously happy lime green spring growth is endlessly delightful, and the longer days really just mean more time to spend outside working the land.  With the exception of the cherries, the stone fruit have mostly finished their blossoming frenzy, and now the pip fruit have taken on the mantle.  Apples, pears and quince are in full bloom.  It’s very satisfying to see tiny fruit developing on the damson and blackthorn trees – bodes well for next year’s gin!  For the first time, the step-over espaliered apples have blossom. Maybe my hatchet pruning hasn’t been totally devastating for them after all.  Flowering weeds are adding to the show, and there is a sense that they’re running away with themselves and mocking me. 

We had the pleasure of Grannie-Annie’s company for a very happy couple of weeks.  We took the ferry to Wellington for the World of Wearable Arts show.  It was our first time and hopefully not our last - truly spectacular theatre.  We also visited Peter Jackson’s ‘Gallipoli’ exhibition at Te Papa – another jaw-droppingly awesome kiwi creation.  Back home we went to share some flowers and have a chat with Dad at Karaka Point. A few day trips and several thousand games of cards (including the addictive ‘Kings and Arse-holes’) filled in the rest of Ann’s time.  She was considerate enough to give our stock of Chardonnay a decent hammering.

Billy’s done some clearing up around the acer and grass seed has been sown.  There are 2 tall tree stumps behind the acer, the heads of which were lopped off to avoid shading the solar panels.   While we were in Wellington, Peter began work on a new and previously secret project.  By the power of his craftsmanship and the humble chainsaw, one tree stump is now transformed into a seahorse (my favourite creature).  He wants to work on more of the finer detail and also to carve another seahorse in the second stump. 

The horse arena is definitely finally getting there.  Billy has worked on the currently unoccupied beds, levelling them and turning the clumps of weeds upside-down to kill off the roots.  Those that remain unoccupied are the ones ear-marked for grains next year.  There are 3 feijoas in one bed, under-planted with strawberries, and so far 4 citrus – just another 2 more needed to complete the grove.  The weed-mat is down between the beds, awaiting the delivery of a load of ‘pea-metal’ (cheap gravel) next week.  There’s a new teuchrium hedge marking the divide between the vege garden and the horse arena, and a young korokia hedge along the pig-run-to-be.  A blackboy peach (a 50^th birthday gift from my students) marks the end of the korokia hedge and hopefully will feed future pigs as well as us.  Only a few of the vine prunings have rooted, so we've added 3 new varieties of table grapes.  We'll probably get a few more prunings next year and try to look after them a bit better.

Madame Cholet has been accommodating a range of beautiful seedlings.  A trailer-load of compost has been mixed into the remains of last year’s broken-down straw bales, so it’s now ready to receive the transplanted seedlings.  Here’s hoping I manage not to overdo it with the cucumber seedlings this time.  Some seedlings are ready to be planted outside too.  They're hardening off outside, so that small matter of some serious weeding is definitely in order.  I was deluding myself that the weeds are just shallow-rooted annuals and it’ll be a breeze to deal with them.  Then I calculated that, based on recent progress, it'll take around 36 hours (a conservative estimate) to completely clear them.  Hmmm.

The lambs seem to visibly get bigger and they’re all enjoying the surge in pasture growth.  The chooks are enjoying each other’s company.  Though they’re straying onto the driveway, the vege garden is as yet undiscovered by these fowl critters, so they  can all continue to free-range.  It’s a pleasure seeing and hearing them as they go about their scratching and cock-a-doodle-doo-ing.  Hopefully one of the hens will go broody very soon.

It seems that Hera is probably just fat and not actually pregnant.  She should be due any day, but though she is well-rounded, she’s not pendulous or obviously imminent.  There’s been no udder development either, so we’re bracing ourselves for no calf.  Very disappointing indeed.  Fingers crossed that the same fate is not awaiting Athena.

The bees are busily buzzing and both hives are jam-packed with bees, brood, pollen and honey.  None have attempted to make queen cells, at least not yet.  Varroa strips are in, but some re-organisation of boxes and frames has to happen.  In one hive I’ve repeated the same ingenious mistake of trapping the queen above the queen excluder.  In the other hive I’d already previously trapped the queen above the excluder and had removed the excluder.  That queen has since decided to lay her brood in all 3 of the boxes, creating a slight management issue.  It’s a very good job that the bees know what they’re doing.

Edible crops are sparse, but the newly sewn seeds should begin to feed us within a few weeks.  We’re down to  carrots (still plenty of them left), some beetroot, jerusalem artichokes and a bit of kale.  Our precious stocks of firewood and hay have just lasted long enough.  Peter’s been working on the firewood supplies.  He’s sourced some gum from trees which have been felled at his workplace.  We have plenty of pine and willow on the property, but gum burns for a lot longer than them, so it’ll be good to have this variety.  We’ve allocated a couple of paddocks for hay.  Once the truck has delivered the pea-metal (it’ll have to cross both paddocks to get to the horse arena), we’ll shut them down from grazing so that they can be cut for hay before Christmas.  And talking of Christmas, we’re expecting visitors – Kaja, Jeremy, Michael and Melissa – to join us for the festivities.  We’re also very much looking forward to a repeat visit from David, Peter’s cousin Janet’s son, sometime over the summer holidays.  He came for a few days a couple of years ago and has now returned to NZ for work.  Hopefully it’ll be possible to squeeze everyone in somehow.  

In the meantime it’s head down, bum up and getting on with work – paid and home.  No surprises there.  Sarah, one of my Polytechnic colleagues, says this quotes makes her think of me.  Love it!

“Behind every good woman is a flock of chickens”

September 2015

It was my special birthday on August 23^rd – half way towards getting a card from the queen, as Sam kindly pointed out. Peter and me decided to have a weekend away and opted for Nelson as our destination.  The boys were left home alone and in charge of the animals.  We spent a lovely Saturday meandering around the market and then the shopping mall, before heading back to the motel for DVDs and chilling out.  It was such a luxury to be able to spend ages in a 2^nd hand book shop and a spa bath without anyone getting bored or whinging.  On Sunday morning, Peter took me to my surprise birthday destination – the airport at Motueka for a sky-dive.  It was a fantastic and truly memorable day, and very worthy of a special birthday celebration.  Thank you Peter – great to know that you can still surprise me after all these years!

Other memorable presents included knit-your-own-gumboot-cuffs and a bee necklace.  There was a wheelbarrow of assorted poo – specially selected by my chief poo-picker Billy, and on the same theme, this stunning painting of a turd was created by the talented Emily (to her ‘mad auntie Silke’).  Aw shucks, you lot know me so well.

Happiness is…..planting seeds, with all their seductive promise of abundance.  Though I’m wise enough to know that the promise may not quite match the reality, it remains a favourite pastime.  This year I’ve started some seeds off in the house in a miniature heated and covered seed-tray.  Last year some early tomato plants got frosted in the tunnel house, so no plans to repeat that.  So far cucumber, melon, gourd, tomato, pepper, aubergine (egg-plant), Echinacea and nasturtium have germinated, and I’ve just sown some brassicas and asparagus.  Some have come through nicely and are already potted on.  They’ll go into Madame Cholet after the current cold-snap, ensuring that they’re not close to the walls where frost damage is more likely.

The horse arena has progressed a little.  Four olive trees are planted and staked, and some very reluctant weed-spraying was done prior to laying down weed mat.  Proud of finally getting round to planting the trees, I splashed out on a length of expensive jute tree-tie.  It wasn’t enough to secure the 4 trees, and I’ve no idea what possessed me to pay dearly for it, instead of using the usual old ripped T shirts or bits of crappy rope lying around.  So I untied it all and re-fashioned it using baling twine extensions.  A much more satisfactory outcome all round.  Spurred on by this success, the remaining posh jute was used to re-stake the nut trees too – they should now be much better able to withstand the spring winds which are probably on their way.

The lambs are ever-robust and have found their way into the wetland on several occasions.  I’m prepared to let that go, as long as they keep out of the vege garden.  We’ve only recently stopped feeding out ‘sheep nuts’, and the flock still turn up religiously when we feed the chooks to see if there’s anything for them.  The ewe mother of the single lamb is the tamest – she’ll even tolerate me patting her head.  The lambs keep their distance.  Maybe they haven’t yet forgotten the indignity of tail-docking and vaccination. The photo shows their strategy for sheltering from the rain.  Here's hoping we don't have to move the trailer in any hurry.

Hera’s getting rounder in the abdomen, and we’re hoping that’s not our imagination.  Her calf is due mid/late October, assuming that she’s definitely pregnant.  The cows (and we’re mostly blaming Zeus) have now destroyed 3 gates.  Recently they took out the gate to the tiny paddock behind the house and were happily munching on the stored hay in the shelter.  Billy and me had to persuade them to return from whence they came.  Zeus was surprisingly cooperative, and it only occurred to me afterwards that we were lucky he wasn’t having a bad hair day.

We had 6 roosters and 4 hens, and so much carnal carnage there were occasions when it was like a porn movie out there.  When it verged on episodes of what appeared to be gang rape, it was clearly time to do something about it.  So now we’re down to 1 rooster (the new Cornelius) and the 4 hens, and a bit less space in the freezer.  And a much smaller chook-food bill.  They still free-range every day, and so far have kept to the orchard area.  They can continue to free range until the time comes when they discover the vege garden, then their activity will be curtailed. 

In the last week of August we welcomed Japanese boys Kakeru and Mikiru to our home.  They travelled over with around 40 fellow pupils from Jissen Gakuen school in Tokyo and were here for a week of English Language immersion.  They were billeted out to us, though attended school at the usual times.  Being the end of winter put the dampers on a number of activities we usually offer to guests, but we were determined to get some fishing in.  Happily our friends Jeff and Vanessa Hammond also had 2 Japanese boys, and they took them all out with Peter and Billy on their boat into the Sounds on a fishing trip.  At home they particularly enjoyed numerous games of table-tennis, table-football, Mr Bean DVDs, as well as the obligatory PlayStation.  They were prepared to have a go at everything and were really lovely company, despite the language difficulty.  We hope that one day we might be lucky enough to see them again.

Sam’s band activities have been newsworthy lately.  He was interviewed by the local paper and they published a half-page article and photo.  The Brass Band has a concert coming up for which he’s the poster-boy.   As the current NZ National Soprano Cornet champion (slightly long story), he’ll be doing a solo and a duet.  It’ll be quite an adjustment for us when he leaves home next year.

Despite the chilly nights, we’ve been getting our fair share of stunning sunny days.  Plenty of rain too, and finally some visible pasture growth.  Sam’s already mowed the lawn twice, and it‘s nearly ready for its next trim.  Spring blossom is popping up everywhere and bulbs are flowering.  The wetland has been a happy recipient of the rain and is looking stunning. The weeds are already onto it – they never miss a trick.  It seems I’m beginning to get my come-uppance for my laissez-faire approach to the vege garden of late.  Partly that’s been because of the focus on the horse arena, but also that we’ve occasionally escaped the life-sentence block and done other stuff, even a bit of guilty day-time reading.  Have we reached a watershed in the natural progression of the life and work of a small-holder?  Or have we perhaps lost our marbles?  Spring will no doubt have its revenge. Moo ha ha…