It’s been an exciting few weeks, though at times a bit more
excitement than was good for us. After
weeks of dry weather in Marlborough, the fire risk has become extreme. Fire started in a forestry block in the
Onamalutu Valley, close to its junction with the Wairau North Bank. At the last count, it burned through 600+
hectares and took more than a week to be fully contained. Luckily for us, the wind direction was in our
favour, and it blew the fire further away.
The fire-fighting efforts have meant that no harm came to stock or
properties. Only a few farm buildings
were damaged – an amazing feat given the ferocity and extent of the fire. The
Onamalutu residents had evacuation plans A - D in place (plan D – most favoured
by the boys - was being helicoptered out from the reserve), and we were given
lots of advice about making our properties easier to protect from fire. The neatly stacked firewood and the barbecue
gas can are now in the trailer in the middle of the hay barn paddock, and I’m
researching fire-resistant plant varieties to replace some of the plantings
around the house. The boys were definitely
more excited than scared. Missing the
first day back to school was a triumph, and having a nearby film set of choppers,
planes, monsoon buckets, fire engines, huge bulldozers and clouds of thick
smoke was definitely an added bonus.
The lack of rain is visible on the property. It’s never browned off like this before. We’re having to feed out hay to the cows and
sheep as there’s very little for them to eat.
The long range forecast suggests that there isn’t much rain on the
horizon for the next few months, so hopefully the hay will be enough see us
through winter. Even the garden lawn is
browning in places. On closer inspection
it’s mainly the grass which is dying off – where it’s green it’s thanks to the
weeds. Another good reason to avoid a
beautifully manicured lawn. And another good reason to start reducing our
stock numbers. The home-kill man is
coming out this week for 2 of the ram lambs.
He was originally booked to come earlier but the fire closed the road to
non-residents for several days. 
Progress on pizza oven Mark II has been swift. It’s good-to-go, but ironically can’t be
tested until the region’s fire ban is lifted.
It’s a considerable improvement on pizza oven Mark I, which looked OK
but collapsed one rainy day before we could use it. Mark II began with a layer of fire bricks
(our only expenditure, though quite expensive at $9 per brick x 20) on which a
dome-shaped mould of sand was placed.
The first, inner layer was made of river sand and clay. This was followed by 2 insulation layers of
sand, clay and sawdust. The final
weather-proofing plaster layer was constructed by adding the traditional
building material of fresh manure (cow) to the sand and clay mix. Making the plaster was a bit like rubbing fat
into flour in cake-making, and as expected, the men of the house were too
precious to get their hands in and mix it properly. Thankfully I had no such qualms, and it all
came together beautifully and without aroma.
It’s been decorated with some paua shells, a heart-shaped rock and some
signatures. Oh and an old ‘Ipod Touch’
of Billy’s to create a modern theme, or something like that. Maybe one day we’ll decorate over it with
mosaics. 
Valentine’s Day was memorable this year for being one out of
the box. We’d decided to forego a meal
out (good food at home/too tight/Marlborough’s Food and Wine Festival the same
day) and go to the cinema instead. We
sat on the back row (everyone else was watching 50 Shades of Grey) and the film
(The Kingsman) was great. When we got
home we discovered that Billy had washed and dried the dishes, tidied up the
house, walked the dog, and arranged red rose petals in a heart shape on our bed
with our names on either side. Who is
this child????
The bees have been enjoying the array of flowers in the
flower border and Joanna’s Patch. Some
of them are perennials, and some are annuals grown from seed. Many are annuals which have haphazardly seeded
themselves. Whilst it’s been lovely to
have plentiful flowers, there isn’t enough time to keep on top of dead-heading
and clearing away those that are past their best, so the garden looks
colourfully unkempt. On the plus side it
does mean that seed-collecting is straightforward. And there hasn’t been much need for weeding
as the straw mulch has worked brilliantly at keeping them down. The weeds have had to be more subtle and
disguise themselves to stay alive. It’s
amazing how weeds are clever to pop up among similar-foliage plants. The photo shows a dandelion alongside a red Geum. You wouldn’t know it was there except for
when it flowers and gives itself away.
I’ve seen this happen with other weeds elsewhere in the garden – the
feathery foliage of yarrow in the lavender; leafy wild sorrel within the
arnica. Maybe these are just the weeds that
take off because you miss them when weeding, or perhaps it’s a phenomenon for
which there’s a very long word.
The veg garden continues to be abundant and beautiful. In the old trough pond, the water lily is
getting on with the business of flowering.
It’s definitely one of my favourite flowers. We’re harvesting carrots, peas, salad,
brassicas, spuds, beetroot and greens. There’re
loads of giant sugar beet (now closer to a football size than a foot) and
sunflower seed-heads for the chooks. Amazingly
the corn is magnificent, and I’ve finally got my corn circle. It may not technically be a corn circle as
it’s a circle of standing-up corn, rather than an alien circle of mown-down
corn. Alas, as with most of my brilliant
ideas, it’s totally flawed. I’d pictured
myself sitting on a deck-chair inside the shady circle, glass of gin and slab
of chocolate in hand. But I’d somehow
overlooked that in the centre of the corn bed are the globe artichokes –
massive, spiky, full of bees, perennial…
Other than that, the bed is doing well.
The pumpkins are creeping everywhere and keeping the weeds down. Some of the peas have germinated and are
climbing up the corn. And the 6 tobacco
plants grown from seed are outside the corn circle and looking stunning. They’d started to flower, so the lower leaves
have been harvested. They’re now hanging
from a pole in the car port, gently swaying in the breeze. Alongside them are the plaited onion and
garlic crop. 
Two hens became broody, but only one of them (a Cochin) has
remained steadfastly sitting on her eggs.
The other broody hen was the hen-mother of the current pullets. It was a surprise when she went broody again,
and we had to put some fertilised eggs from the other hens under her. She was as uncommitted as she’d been with her
previous brood, happy to hop off the eggs relatively frequently for a feed or
stretch. Last time she did stick it out
though. The Cochin hen is still with the
others in the main run - hopefully they’ll all be OK in there. We didn’t dare risk moving her and the eggs
out, after the last experience when the hen abandoned her eggs. Once they’re hatched we’ll probably move
them. That won’t be long - the
pitter-patter of tiny chick feet should happen any day soon.
The pigs are growing and generally behaving well (hope not
famous last words). Aside from upturning
their feed trough most days, they’re managing to stay in the run and it still
feels safe to get in there with them. They’re
loving their grains, which have remained their firm favourite food. Next on their list are the plums which are
chucked in from the tree alongside on a regular basis. Other scraps come their way from the
vegetable garden, like apple cucumbers of which there are hundreds. A recent tidy up of Madame Cholet revealed a
mass of overgrown cucumbers. Though
there are 6 cucumber plants in there, it’s the single apple cucumber which has
gone bananas. Cucumbers had been a bit
of a nemesis crop for me until this season.
Now even the ones planted outside are prolific.
Peter’s built another raised bed in the old horse arena,
which was necessary because the last raised bed is full enough of organic
materials to be shut down. This includes
the added kelp seaweed which Billy and me collected from Kaikoura when we were
coming home from a Christchurch trip.
It’s also blessed with masses of cow poo. I’ll cover it with straw for a few months and
put the next weeds in the new bed. We’ve
opened up the huge circular compost bed in the veg garden and have started to
spread it in the gaps where crops have been harvested. It’s gorgeous stuff – black, soft, crumbly
and cool. It’s never been turned (didn’t
think through how that could happen so never did it), but time looks to have
done the deed. Once the compost has all
been distributed, the bed will be key-holed and used for planting in
spring. It’ll need a hedge border. I’d planned to do a step-over espaliered fig,
but more research suggests that it’ll just get too big for this purpose. I’m now leaning towards using an upright
rosemary instead, which are apparently easy to propagate from cuttings which
can be stuck straight in the ground.
Perfect! 
Note the professionally tied up raspberries, boysenberries and blackberries in the bed behind the compost. It was a good morning's work to untangle the mass of prickly canes and secure them - which would have been impossible without the skill and dexterity of Karyn, who nobly offered her services in exchange for eggs. I’ve been able to get on with a whole lot of tasks outside because I’m finally enjoying reduced working hours. I worked several extra shifts last month, which have provided the leeway to actually have a couple of days off in the week. It’s a good time of year to have a bit of extra time on your hands. Harvesting, storing, preserving and clearing up are enjoyable but lengthy, so it’s great to have the luxury of getting some of them done during the week. Having been through the experience of possible annihilation by forest fire, such work is even more gratifying. We feel truly humbled and blessed that we’re not facing a total wipe-out of the last 3+ years on this land. We’ve fallen on our feet again.
Right – time to get on with bottling wine, making beeswax
candles and putting some crumble over the rhubarb which was harvested
yesterday. It’s a hard old life etc etc.
