December 2011 / January 2012

Like most other folk we've had a busy few weeks.  This is only one of my excuses for a belated December entry.  Another plausible excuse is the the hay baler took out our internet satellite just after Christmas and we've only just got our connection back.  Combined with a very patchy cell phone signal we've had a quiet time on the technology front
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However, farm and garden progress has been made.  The photo above shows the current status of 'Joanna's Patch'.  The area extends beyond the photo and includes a range of flowering plants.  There are seahorse windchimes and a bird bath, and the wooden sign reads 'Joanna's Patch' - carved by Christmas visitors, the talented Geoff (Jif) and Rachel (thank you poms!).  Scattered around are favourite rocks and shells which will be added to over time.

The hay was baled the week after Christmas - found a very local haybaler who cut it first, then came back to turn and bale a few days later.  Peter, Geoff and I popped (2.5 hour drive) home from our camping holiday in Golden Bay to stack it before the rain.  Rea, Mark and Ruairi who were cattle-sitting for us helped out too, and a total of 248 bales are now proudly stacked in the hay shed.  Hope we can sell them as that's about 245 more than we need.

And we did get round to turkeys!  8 white turkeys aged 3 weeks arrived in early December, one died soon after (not unusual for baby turkeys I believe) and the remaining 7 are now growing (and eating)exponentially.  They've been moved from the shed, where they refused to keep inside the enclosure, to a run in the orchard which is secured to protect them from predators.  Peter and Geoff built the enclosure using an assortment of netting and wire from around the farm.  It's very DIY but is appealing and the turkeys have given it the claws up.  From being very cute baby bundles, they are now looking more like turkeys.  Opinion is divided on their intelligence, with most favouring the 'completely stupid' rather than 'quite bright' verdict.  I'm still on the fence but I have seen more evidence for the former.







Pigs are still a twinkle in our eyes, though we have friends queueing up for a share if we do get them.  Peter's been working on converting part of the garage into a bedroom and bathroom, but pig fencing/housing is definitely on our list.  The bees are now in 3 storey accommodation and they are happily buzzing around and making honey.  I'm not sure if we'll get any to keep this year, but in my (totally uneducated) opinion, it's looking promising.  My friend Derryn, who also got a beehive, found queen cells at the bottom of a frame and is working out a plan B for if they swarm.  She's also checking her hive for Varroa mite using a cereal box and icing sugar.  All sounds a bit technical but she's confident she knows what to do.  I'm trying to read up as much as I can about bee-matters - very easy to do as it's so fascinating.  Apparently some beekeepers clip the wing of their queen bee, like you would a chook, to prevent swarming (though this may only happen in America!).  How the heck do you do that?

We're going to need lots of wood to keep warm over winter, so have begun to gather it.  There's plenty around, it's just a case of cutting it and stacking it, and we've got a long way to go.  If I can justify the expense of putting in a wood-stove (heating, hot water, cooking - what more justification??) we're going to need even more.  The novelty of log-splitting may not be altogether sustainable, though I think that chain-sawing is likely to retain its popularity.  We are now the proud owners of a tatty old ute (purchased after the sad demise of the Toyota Starlet - enough said) which is perfect for the wood-transporting job.  We would never have managed to stack the hay without it - you can't get that many bales into a Starlet.  The Ute is also a popular form of transport around the farm, holding and bouncing several boys at a time.









The cattle are growing and are becoming cheekier.  Peter was adamant that we didn't name them, but seems to have developed an understanding (or maybe even a close relationship...) with the most feisty, who he refers to as 'Strangely Brown', or just 'Strangely' for short.   In my book that's a name. 

And the vegetable plot has been sadly neglected.  It got to a point where I put off even thinking about weeding because it was too overwhelming.  I have made considerable progress since, and some vege plants (like pumpkin) seem to have thrived with the weed competition.  Some onions and carrots are lost though.  I've decided to heavily mulch with hay for a couple of months to try and reduce the most invasive weeds, then sow some green manure before it gets to cold for them to germinate.  That's the plan anyway.  The orchard is also totally overgrown, though the fruit trees are coming away, as are the herbal leys around them.  The pigs will most likely go into part of the orchard so I'm hanging out for them to sort out the weedy growth.  Probably not a great plan really.

Here in the Southern hemisphere we still have plenty of summer holidays ahead.  Three more weeks until the boys go back to school.  Rachel, Geoff, Sam and Joe are on their kiwi travels of the South Island, with Joe sporting his latest, and very cool, scar.  A go-kart accident (yes, it turns out it is possible to roll it over!) thankfully resulting in no broken limbs.  Another visitor who felt the need to try out the ED at Wairau Hospital.  And at the weekend we're expecting the gorgeous Ann to pop over for her hols from Sheffield, who at this point has no idea what we have planned for her...
The photo above is this year's Christmas cake.  The year's theme was 'our new home', with features made from coloured marzipan (not easy to get hold of in NZ - thanks Rea!).  We also created a gingerbread house with a twist - it was actually a 'ninja-bread' house and was scoffed in one relatively violent sitting.



And a final word on the meaning of Onamalutu - it's fabulous and if I wasn't already here, I'd have definitely chosen to live in such an intriguingly-named valley.

From: Te tau ihu o te waka by Hilary Mitchell & Maui John Mitchell

Onamalutu is a small valley on the north bank of the Wairau River in Marlborough.  The name often elicits queries, as the letter ‘l’ is assumed to be absent from the Maori alphabet.  According to Rangitane informants, the correct name of the valley is O-Hine-a-Mahuta, an abbreviation of Te Tete o Te Hine a Tane Mahuta, meaning ‘the pubes of the daughter of Tane Mahuta*’.

In pre-European times, the valley was covered in very dense bush.  The easy way to travel to and from the valley was to wade along the stream Te Mimi o Te Hine a Mahuta (the stream of urine of Te Hine a Mahutu) through a ‘tunnel’ over the dense forest ahead (her pubic hair).  To the tangata whenua the geography and ambience of that densely wooded valley has been captured in a series of graphic sexual images as given in the name.

Apparently the present name arises from a process of laundering of the sexual images conveyed in the direct translation of Te Tete o Te Hine a Tane Mahuta by shortening the name to Ohinemahuta, thereby avoiding giving offence to Victorian niceties.  The second step was due to a …”well-known and respected negro living in Ohinemahuta and the nearest he could get to pronouncing it was Onamalutu, so out of respect for him the local Maori accepted his pronunciation”.

*Tane Mahuta was the eldest son of Tanginui-e-tu-nei and Papatuanuku and god of the forests.