October 2013

Three bonus lambs greeted us on our return from Queenstown.  Happily it turns out that the barren ewe isn’t, and she’s now the proud (and attentive) mother of twin girls.  She’s definitely knocked herself off the home-kill list for the end of the year.  The 3^rd lamb (pictured above) is the daughter of last year’s lamb, Sunday.  At only a year old, she’s very young to have lambed herself.  She’s effectively a teenage mum abused by her father (and we did nothing to keep her safe from him).  We had no idea that either of them were pregnant, and certainly had not imagined that fertility was possible at such a young age.   However, all seems well, so there are now 4 boy and 4 girl lambs, making a total of 14 sheep all up.  Some of the grown ups are starting to shed and looking pretty raggy - probably fervently keeping hooves crossed that they won't again be subject to our renowned sheep shearing skills.  We’ll have to get on with making a decision about which ones to keep, sell and eat.

The cows are enjoying the rapidly growing pasture, and the calves are getting bigger by the day.  Interestingly both Zeus and Athena feed from Aphrodite, and she doesn’t seem to mind.  Persephone’s teats are noticeably diminishing, and we’re wondering if she’s lactating at all.  Aphrodite always had bigger udders, and they were huge at the end of her pregnancy and when Zeus was little.  We’re not sure if it’s unusual for mother-cows to allow other calves to feed from them, but we do intend to find out. 

We’re still learning about rabbits too, and our inexperience has led to another tragedy.  Gandalf and Belladonna seemed to be enjoying their time together, so we only removed Gandalf when Belladonna started plucking out her fur just before giving birth.  She had a litter of 7 and everything seemed fine.  When the kits were 4 weeks old she started plucking her fur again and we were at a loss to understand why she would do that.  The next day she gave birth again.  The 4 week old kits weren’t old enough to be separated from their mum, and in the absence of any alternative plan we decided to leave them together for a few days.  None of the tiny kits survived, whether through neglect or being killed by their mother or the older kits.  Very, very sad.

The veg garden is still taking shape, with most of the pathways created - thanks to a team effort (including Grandpa Nick) when many hands did indeed make light work.  The attention to the pathways has of course meant that the beds themselves have been neglected.  Obviously it’s very unwise to neglect them in spring, though the substantial weed growth does make for an easy source of rabbit greens.  I have managed to clear some of last year’s mandalas and plant up some crops - so far broad beans, yams, silver beet, lettuce, celery, peas and kale.  Progress has also been made on the new circular beds - the green manure has been chopped down and weeding has commenced.  This weeding is much easier as it seems that the newspaper layers have worked a treat.  There are plenty of weeds among the green manure, but they are all so shallowly rooted that they’re a breeze to dig up.  The chitting potatoes are the next priority, and many more seedlings are popping up in the trays in the Gin Palace.

The bee hives are buzzing again thanks to Derryn and a couple of swarms.  The first swarm turned up at a friend of Derryn’s, and the second was actually from one of Derryn’s hives.  We managed to get them home and ensconced in their new hives without too much difficulty.  There’s quite a temperament difference between them.  Derryn’s former bees were quite placid and set up home happily.  The first swarm were pretty cheesed off with being transported and transferred into a new hive.  I got stung twice that day, and they were still unhappy to be disturbed a few days later when I opened the hive to put in the varroa strip (Apivar).  Anyway, it’s a delight having bees buzzing around the place again, and there’s plenty of nearby pollen in the form of fruit blossom and wild broom.  The hobbyist bee club has got off the ground at last, and Derryn and me were interviewed by the local press (page 5, Marlborough Midweek October 9, 2013) so we got some good publicity.  We’re also planning to do an online beekeeping course – Certificate in Apiculture Knowledge - with Telford (division of Lincoln University) which should take around a year to complete.   Very exciting.

The half-wine barrels which have been dotted around the property have now been re-located into their new homes in the veg garden. I’m going to experiment with carrot and lettuce and see how they compare to those grown in the soil. A bargain grapefruit tree which was originally in the garden has been re-planted in one of barrels to see if they’ll be good places for dwarf fruit trees. The tree height should look great, but the barrels' capacity to dry out quickly may rule them out. Probably not the best idea to trial this with grapefruit (a big citrus) but that’s what we’ve got.

The orchard is looking really beautiful (at least to me).  The lawn-mower cranked up to the highest setting has managed to cope with the pasture growth, so it’s even relatively tidy.  The trees themselves have been blossoming away - first the stone fruit, then the cherries, pears and apples.  They’ve all grown significantly too, and I’m very relieved that I took the time with staking.  We had another storm last week, gusty enough to completely blow our new pig shelter to smithereens (most of it is in bits yet to be retrieved from along the river bank).  It brought down several big branches too, and damaged fences.  But the fruit trees withstood the onslaught - only the quince with its long straggly branches looked like it had been whipped, but already seems to be coming right.

The herb garden is looking better than ever after much lush growth in the last few weeks.  Every now and then I find something new to put in.  Caraway and dill are recent additions, and flat parsley seedlings are popping up everywhere.  The thyme is delightfully spilling out over the edge and the basil-mint is attempting a take-over.  It’s a perfect site for herbs – dry and with the sun reflecting from the garage wall.

The boys were busy over the recent holidays - Sam away in Rotorua for his first foray with the National Secondary Schools Brass Band.  His highlight was a trip and concert at Hobbiton in Matamata.  Adverts are out for the 2^nd Hobbit film, so it’s very much current.  We can’t wait to see it as some of it (the dwarves in barrels scene) was filmed at Pelorus, one of our favourite nearby picnic spots.  Billy played soccer for Marlborough in a Queenstown tournament.   Peter and Lucas stayed behind at work.  And I went to Queenstown and Te Anau with mum and Nick, catching one of Billy’s games.  We were lucky enough to take a Milford Sound cruise on a particularly stunning day.  The coach trip made several memorable stops on the way over too.  Such a beautiful corner of the world. 

In the meantime, the life-sentence block work mounts.  Relentless really, always several jobs to do and not enough time to do them.  Happily we’re also in a beautiful corner of the world, which more than makes up for it.  The flower garden is putting on a bright happy show of colour in the form of the perennials that weren't weeded out by accident.   Even the wetland is gorgeous, as long as you can look past the weeds and focus on the native planting and the wild ducks. We’ve been here 2 years now, and definitely no lust for city-life.  If anything, it’s hard to imagine not waking up to the views of the hills and valleys and the sound of bird-song and Bob-junior crowing.  First up there’s always a quick cattle and sheep head-count, followed by the gathering of breakfast for the rabbits and chooks.  Then it’s onto watering the seedlings and cuttings.  Chores indeed, but always a pleasure nonetheless.  Home sweet home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on a final note, here's one for Dave.  Usually you don't make your grandest creations when there is someone around to impress, but Dave managed to be present for the best ever Yorkshire Puddings to be made in the Powell household.  Hope you enjoyed your stay here (and that Korea was awesome too), and hope you manage to persuade your family to come and visit too!