We’ve gone from wet wet wet to dry dry dry in a matter of
weeks. There’s barely any water in the
wetland, and irrigation has become an urgent priority. I rooted around the shed and found an old
sprinkler, which can cover quite a broad area.
In the veg garden, the whole area can be accounted for by siting it in 3
key spots. Using a hose timer means that
I only have to remember to move it between those spots and it’s not a disaster
if I occasionally forget. The spuds are
flowering, the carrots are just popping up and the corn is stunning - not a
time to be slack. Cropping is well
underway - snow peas, lettuces, spring onions, kale, silver beet and some
bandicooted new potatoes for starters.
The orchard has also been treated to an irrigation system
(of sorts). I was considering a soaker
hose system, but this would end up wetting the whole orchard rather than just
the trees. Instead it’s now adorned in a
dripper system, using a sequence of connected black hoses. The hose begins in a line up the soft fruit
area with small upright sprinklers at intervals, and then continues through the
orchard tied to the tree stakes and with a single dripper for each tree. It’s very DIY and certainly not pretty, but
seems to be effective. Another hose
timer completes the setup. The newish trees are
too young to fruit this year, but all have survived with most looking very
healthy. The two original stone fruit
trees are laden with fruit this year - probably a nectarine and a peach, but yet to declare themselves. It was quite a surprise to see them, since last year they
produced nearly nothing and we considered chopping them down. We’ve neglected them just as much this year,
so it must relate to the natural variability of stone fruit cropping.
Much weeding and mulching has taken place in these
productive zones, and hopefully that’s the lion’s share of the hard graft for
this season. Now that the plants have
been given a head-start over the weeds, they’re on their own. All new weeds will be left to provide ground
cover and help with soil water-retention.
The worst to deal with were the thistles, which have left numerous
prickles in my fingers. They’re all over
the property too, and thistle-bashing is our least favourite but most required
activity. I plan to complete the final
phases of the veg garden development in autumn/winter when the pasture growth
slows. It will be lovely to have a pond
and gravel/woodchipped paths and no grass to mow.
4 baby chicks hatched but alas 3 were taken by hawks. We should have wised up to this much sooner
than we did, but it is a lesson well-learned.
The chicken run now has some raggedy old electric fence ribbon running
in zigzags across the top, in the hope of deterring the hawks. The remaining chick seems to be doing well
and is a feisty little critter. Probably
we’ll look at separating hen mums and chicks in future, and using a properly
wired enclosure to protect them. We’ll
also get a few more hens so that we don’t lose out on egg production when hens
are brooding. This would also provide
Bob with more females to harass - the hens sport bald patches on their backs
from Bob’s claws during his moments of conjugal rights. I do wonder if he abuses his privileges from
time to time.
The cattle have visibly grown in the last few weeks, as have the sheep (and lambs). Despite being a ‘shedding’ breed, only Rambo has significantly shed his wool. The others have shed to some extent, but clearly needed a bit of help. Bring on the total amateurs and their one set of hand-shears! After the usual lengthy debacle of rounding up (during which there is plenty of time to ponder on which is the more intelligent species), we eventually contained them in the race and began the process of shearing. Wiltshires are a big breed, so getting them turned over onto their backs was quite a challenge. I think they were a bit worried that Peter might be trying to dance with them (his reputation as a daddy-dancer seemingly extending into sheepdom), but we did manage to kind of wrestle 3 of them to the ground and hack off their wool. The 4th sheep was absolutely not having a ‘baa’ of it, and we ended up using a new, and as yet undocumented, technique of shearing her whilst she was standing wedged against the gate. It was surprisingly effective and her haircut was no worse than any of the others. However, we may well have set a new standard for appalling shearing, and are sincerely hoping that the lambs will be more considerate in their shedding-capacity.
The solar power was connected and has been quite busy
generating power. We can check on
production from the comfort of home using a device which connects to our
computer modem. It tells us how much
electricity we’re producing that day/week/month and what the temperature
is. On the hottest day the panels
reached a whopping 44°! We’re looking
forward to our next power bill.
Amazingly we’re coming to the end of the immediate priority
job list, so hope to have a few days off from the graft of lifestyle-block work
and sit back and enjoy the summer. As
well as Christmas cake decorating and pie-making, there’s plenty to enjoy, from
swimming in the watering holes, picnicking in the reserve among the mighty
kahikateas, days out to the beach, bush walks and barbecues. And Father Christmas might even bring us some
new toys!
Cheers, Merry Christmas and warm wishes for a very happy 2013.
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