March 2013



The big dry continues, and not just for us in Marlborough.  Much of the North Island has been officially declared a drought zone, and with no significant rain on the horizon, probably the South Island will follow suit.  We haven’t been affected by the water restrictions because we’re not on mains water.  Ours is pumped up from an underground well/bore, which means that we don’t have any idea how much there is.  It’s quite worrying when the flow of tap water stop/starts all the time, which it’s begun to do lately.  I’ve stopped automatic irrigation, and now hand-hose to eke out whatever supply we may have.  It’s time consuming, but not half as inconvenient as running out of water would be.

The 6 chicks at Derryn’s are now 5, but are growing beautifully.  And we have 5 of our own chicks too - truly gorgeous bundles of yellow fluff.  As soon as they were born, we moved them and their hen-mum into new accommodation.  We designed and built a hen house/run on wheels so it can be moved around.  It’s two-storey with the sleeping accommodation upstairs.  The stairs themselves are ultra-designer - a floating staircase no less!  It solved the problem of the stairs not trailing on the ground when being wheeled around.  Peter added some decorative features too, as you can see in the picture.

 

The farm animals seem contented. The cattle and sheep still have sufficient pasture and continue to grow. The lambs are 6 months old now, and nearly as big as their mothers. They could be processed any time really, but we’ll probably wait a couple of months until there’s less available feed. We noticed that a couple of ewes had very large udders (one particularly so). The books told us about black bag and blue bag - forms of sheep mastitis, but they didn’t appear unwell. Droopy udders, we’ve heard, is quite common in ewes and thankfully it’s looking like that’s what it is after all. Ah - the ravages of childbearing and breastfeeding!

 

And we have other babies - a nest-ful of rabbit kits.  One day there was white fur all over the ground in their run, and the next it had all been gathered up and made into a nest which wriggled.  For several days they were blind, pink and ugly, and we didn’t know how many there were.  Disturbing them wasn’t really an option for us rabbit-keeping beginners, and now they’ve declared themselves as 6 beautiful bouncing babies.    Galadriel’s the proud mother, and it even took a while to be sure about that.  Rabbits only feed their young about twice a day, and don’t seem to spend much time with their in-nest youngsters.  Gandalf was removed soon after the birth, and despite his new and luxurious accommodation in Derryn’s former chicken house/run, he seems quite grumpy.  He is a new father I guess…

The pigs drive us insane at times.  When we approach with food, they charge into the fence.  They surround us when we enter the run and can only be briefly distracted by the throwing down of food.  One sunny day I returned home with a gruesome migraine and Sam.  There was a pig on the driveway and 2 more behind the hedge.  It took a while to work out how they’d escaped, and in the time it took to attempt to secure the run, the 3 pigs had managed to get themselves into the chicken run.  It’s quite amazing that they managed to squeeze under that fence - a feat eluded by the considerably smaller chickens.  We lured them back with food, only to find they’d escaped again an hour later, and were on the road.  Holy crap!  A few days later they escaped over the fence, at the place where they’re usually fed.  Necessary fortifications (higher fence and low barbed wire) mean that now we either have to climb in or chuck the food over to them.  It depends on available time.  They’re really enjoying the sprouted grains and sweetcorn (demolishing whole plants) and have several treats in the form of apples, stone fruit and occasionally kids’ leftover school lunches.  And yep, they’re still always hungry.

 

Delicious sausages have featured in our meals lately.  After attending a ‘Pig in a Day’ workshop (http://www.preserved.co.nz/pig-in-a-day-workshop.html) and getting a hand-mincer and sausage-maker, I’ve been getting into the swing of sausage production.  We haven’t got enough of our own pork left, so I grudgingly had to buy some belly and shoulder pork and get to work on them.  The workshop also included bacon, salami, black pudding, prosciutto and pancetta, which I’ll have a go at when we have our own meat supply.  We’re thinking about processing our own pigs at home (with the help of the home-kill man and a butcher-friend) next time.  I get a sense of nausea even thinking about it now, but hopefully I’ll get over myself. 

 

The orchard and vege garden are mostly wild and weedy, but nonetheless productive. I'm finally getting more relaxed about weeds, and beginning to really appreciate their role in soil biology and chemistry. They've also provided much needed shade for the vege crops as well as food for the animals (dandelions are a new source of delight!). Some of the vegetables end up as stock-fodder too, for pigs, chooks, rabbits and worms. If they're lucky, the cows and sheep also get a look in. Unlike the children, they're not picky about dodgy-looking produce.   The photo shows one cropping session, and I'm about to harvest another batch of tomatoes to make into tomato sauce. Herbs and onions will be added, then everything roasted and pureed and put into jars to store. 

The sunflowers are nearly over, but have yielded an immense crop of seeds which will keep the chooks and the rabbits happy.  Many seeds have been saved and there’s now quite a good supply of a range of flower and vegetable seeds for next year.  The flower garden still provides much pleasure and should be even better next year.  Check out the stunning rose ‘Rosa Remember Me’.

 

Touches of autumn are appearing - some fallen leaves, shorter days and chillier mornings.  Sometimes we get a morning mist which seems to be providing moisture before it’s burned off by the sun.  That could explain why our pastures are still a quite green, and not completely dry-brown as much of the region is.  The Onamalutu valley is a sight to behold on these mornings, with sunny and shady spots, dappled light, and trees and animals emerging out of the mist along the river.

“Maybe if we are surrounded in beauty, someday we will become what we see”.