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.