June 2013

Life’s been a bit quieter on the farm lately, or maybe the shorter days are creating an illusion, tricking us into believing that we’re doing less because we’ve got fewer daylight hours.  We’ve had plenty of very frosty mornings, and also plenty of rain.  That’s made it harder to get outside jobs done, but has given us the opportunity to do some thinking and planning.  At least the shortest day has passed (and celebrated traditionally with the planting of garlic), so I guess we can start looking forward to spring.

We’ve been greeting some new animal additions.  Another litter of rabbits (beautifully tucked up in their fur nest) - congratulations Galadriel!  My bad dreams and lost sleep over the young kits either floating away in imagined floods, or frozen to death during a minus 6° night have happily not eventuated.  It seems that they’re tougher than they look.

Plus a new heifer.  She’s a gorgeous Speckled Park cross, who now goes by the name of Hera* (Greek Goddess of marriage).  She’s just 6 months old and is very petite next to the others.  She travelled down from the north island and was picked up by Peter and Lucas from the holding yards in Blenheim.  She’s a feisty girl (maybe already living up to her namesake), and it took them ages to load her onto the horse float.  They’d chased her round the paddock many times, and were about to give up when Lucas’ Iphone came to the rescue (see - they do have their uses after all).  By using it as a torch, the horse float was illuminated and Hera trotted in.  On arrival at our place, she ran over to greet the other cows, only to find that they ran away in fear - the not-so-butch Butch leading the way.  It was quite a sight, the 3 large cows running away from the tiny little one.  Anyway, all was quickly resolved and very soon Hera became one of the herd.

 

The fruit trees in the orchard have now lost most of their leaves, and most of the low hedge has been transplanted into the veg garden.  A couple of new fruit trees have gone in too – a very pretty loquat, and a mulberry to replace one which didn’t survive.  We plan to get the sheep into the orchard so they can enjoy the range of herby weeds and hopefully tidy the place up a bit.  Optimistically they won’t be interested in the leafless fruit trees.  One of the ewes was limping, and we’d made plans to round them all into the race and check her out.  Of course she then decided to stop limping; hopefully it was just something like a small rock stuck in her hoof.  So far our animals have remained healthy and reproductive despite our lack of farming knowledge.  Maybe more good luck than good measure, but fingers crossed it lasts at least until we have a bit more know-how.

Some visible progress in the veg garden, with another mandala and 3 new fruit trees in a newly-created oval bed.  The idea is that these trees are hedge-like, contributing towards the ultimate wind protection of the as-yet-virtual tunnel-house.  They are all modern hybrids - a plumcot, a peachcot and a tomcot, which shouldn’t grow too big and which will be under-planted with strawberries (including delicious alpine strawberries which will be able to run wild).  I also couldn’t resist buying 3 blueberry bushes, and am in the process of developing a bed for them.  I’m digging in a sack of peat which ages ago was bought cheaply from a garden centre’s closing down sale.  Hopefully it will nourish and provide a good pH for them.

The woodlot is now much more than a twinkle in our eyes.  We’ve identified where it will be (at the back of the property near the river boundary), sourced the necessary fencing, collected about 60 young trees and marked where they will all go.  Just simply a case of actually fencing and planting.  Probably a few more trees will be added as we go along.  Kahikatea and black beech are not available this year from the local native nursery, so they will have to be added next year.  There are 3 ‘sugar maple’ trees, from which we’ll be able (allegedly) to tap maple syrup in 5 years, plus some other trees for colour, like liquidamber and witch hazel.  It’s very satisfying be planting so many trees, can’t wait until they’re established.

It’s come to the end of an era for the chooks.  Bob and Bob Jnr are no more, so the flock will have to hammer out its new leader – find the new Bob.  Their processing and eating was another time of mixed emotions for me, but not anyone else of course.  The pigs will be with us until early next month.  I’m still much less attached to them as I was to last year’s pigs.  This seems to be a process, because I haven’t deliberately tried to withdraw from them.  Their numerous adventures out of the run haven’t been endearing, and have led to many fortifications.  This means that we avoid going into the run because it’s not easy to get in and out.  We throw food in from the outside, and only really go in to add more hay to their bedding and sort out their water.  One of them once bit my hand when I was repairing a probable escape route.  It was more of an exploratory bite than anything, but has made me more cautious about going in.  Their current feeding troughs are wooden, which the pigs play with, moving them all round the run.  They also don’t have drainage, so when it rains the troughs fill up with muddy water.  They don’t seem to mind, but we’d definitely prefer an easier and cleaner way to feed them.  We do have plans for a new pig run, which should be better designed for access and feeding.  It’s on the to-do list after building my veg garden shelter.

On the family front, we are now parents of only teenagers.  Our ‘baby’ Billy had his 13^th birthday last week, celebrated with movie and sleepover and lots of junk food.  He’s gone from having a Northern hemisphere summer birthday to a winter one.  As I chuck another log on the fire, which has also heated the bath water and cooked the dinner, I feel deeply contented and a bit smug.  There’s a lot to enjoy about winter.

*Hera is the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian Pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function is as the goddess of women and marriage. The cow, lion and the peacock are sacred to her. Hera's mother is Rhea and her father Cronus.
She's portrayed as majestic and solemn, often enthroned, and crowned with the polos (a high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great Goddesses).  Hera was known for her jealous and vengeful nature, most notably against Zeus's lovers and offspring, but also against mortals who crossed her, such as Pelias. Paris offended her by choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess, earning Hera's hatred.