Already somewhat of a distant memory, we
had a fantastic summer break with Marcus, Nikki, Arthur, Jago and Freya during
their latest New Zealand tour. We went
all the way to Picton (about a 30 minute drive) to stay at a holiday park in
cabins. One of us had to return home
every day to care for the animals, and this worked fine. Christmas Day, despite a fairly dire
forecast, was hot and sunny, and many happy hours were passed lounging in the
campsite pool, eating and drinking.
Dinner was a range of kebabs – meat, fish, cheese, tofu and veg to
account for all preferences, with fresh fruit and chocolate dipping sauce for
desert. All washed down with a few cool
beers. During the holiday we also fitted
in a boat trip to the stunning Lochmara Bay where, among several other
activities, we were entertained by Banjo the talking parrot. At home the first of the sunflowers bloomed
in honour of their last day with us in Onamalutu. Now we have many magnificent sunflowers whose
stems are creating a welcome hedge (about 3 metres high) of wind shelter and shade for the chooks.
It’s been a warm summer so far, but
amazingly for the season there’s been quite a lot of intermittent rain. Not our usual weeks and weeks of dry, at
least not yet. Mostly that’s been great
– the veg garden and orchard have been growing fabulously and even had to be
un-irrigated at times. It’s been really
unfortunate for the hay-makers though, who have to make hay when the sun shines
and so be pretty sure of a few rain-free days before cutting. About 4 weeks later than planned, our hay has
finally been cut. The paddocks looked
beautiful when the hay was drying on the ground, and now happily we have 64 hay
bales to keep the animals fed over winter.
That’s hopefully about what we’ll need but probably not enough spare to
sell – a shame as we’ve already had enquiries.
The rain’s great for the woodlot trees too,
assuming they’re alive. I haven’t
checked them out for ages, and they’re now entirely obscured by the weed
growth. Our intentions to keep the area
mown were scuppered not only by the kaput grass cutter, but also the knackered
go-kart. There are plans to get them
both fixed but it may be a while. I’m
also not sure how many native plants in the wetland have survived. Certainly several are now visibly growing
above the weeds, but a great many are not and there’s a depressing volume of
crack willow making a come-back. There’s
simply not enough time to intervene, so we’re keeping everything crossed that
it all comes right.
So far we’ve only managed to coordinate the
Artificial Inseminator with Aphrodite’s ovulation. Hera and Persephone remain un-impregnated,
and Persephone is now up for sale. Our
lambs have also been up for sale and there’s been a lot of interest. We’ve sold all 5 ewes (including last year’s)
and two ram lambs. It’s great to know that they’re saleable. I was a bit worried that people may not be interested
in them because their tails are undocked, but that hasn’t come up as a problem
– in fact the contrary. The remaining
ram lambs will be dispatched to the freezer (lucky that we’re not completely
sure which one Harry is any more), leaving us with our original 4 ewes and
Rambo. We’ll also look into swapping
Rambo for a new ram in the interests of varying the genetics. 
The chooks are growing and eating
phenomenally. The 5 Cochin chicks are
now big enough to join the main flock, so have been transferred in at the same
time as the 2 mother-hens whose broods are out-growing the chick-mobile. The 9 youngest chicks are now raggedy teenagers
with a fair bit of attitude, and they will be combined with the other raggedy
teenagers currently living chez Derryn.
The total of 14 chicks will be transferred to the partitioned-off run/house
so that they are all close and in sight of each other. That will cut us down to only 2 lots of
feeding and watering instead of 3 which we’re doing at the moment. 
Peter’s managed to bag a huge (4m x 2m)
wooden packing box from work. It housed
a large piece of winery machinery in transit, and is fully lined with builder’s
paper. It’s in the orchard and will
become our second chook residence. It
was a helluva job getting it off the trailer it was forklifted onto, using a gung-ho approach including several jacks, clover hay bales, an old
stainless steel bucket, logs, lumps of wood, pallets, 2 boys, Peter and
me. Amazing that it’s in one piece and
none of us were fatally injured. We’re
looking into partitioning off an end section so that Billy can have his own
aviary, and the rest will be a second chook residence. It just needs to be fitted out with nesting boxes and
perches, and a run built. It will mean
that we’ll be able to separately accommodate our laying hens and meat birds,
and we’ll be able to close down the runs periodically to allow the pasture to
re-grow.
There’ve been 2 more rabbit deaths. This time it’s the youngest kits, so there’re
now only 3 of them remaining. I’m
wondering if it was their mother who died previously (they were living with 2
does and we didn’t know which one was the mamma) and that they have therefore
been without her ultra-nourishing milk from a relatively young age. Either that or it’s viral. The national rabbit population is higher than usual this year, apparently owing to a relatively warm winter. Maybe that means that rabbit diseases are more wide-spread. We’re feeling pretty helpless to do anything
other than watch and make sure that they’re well-fed and watered. It’s very sad indeed.
Another beehive check revealed plenty of
brood and honey stores. However, hive
1’s new honey box (added about 2 weeks ago) was totally vacant – all the bees
were in the lower 2 boxes. I think that
I may need to brush the new plastic frames with melted wax to encourage the bees
to feel at home, but really I need some advice in case there’s something else
worth doing. The more I read about
beekeeping, the more I’m struck with similarities to child-raising – there are
some sound principles, but the successful application of these principles
depends on the individual child or bee colony.
One size doesn’t fit all, and that gives plenty of leeway to be
experimental. Probably the bees should
be very afraid. During today’s check I made
a spur-of-the-moment decision to remove one of the honey-filled frames. The honey and wax was scraped out roughly,
sieved and jarred, and the frame returned.
The wax will be used in the new plastic frames, and the 5 jars of
absolutely delicious raw honey can be enjoyed - the proudest moment in my
beekeeping venture to date.
The veg garden is positively thriving. That means the weeds are running amok too of
course, but production is definitely on the up and it’s looking great. Potatoes in abundance, beans, cabbage,
courgette, artichoke and lettuce so far, with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and
beetroot on their way. The sugar beet
and mangels that are being grown for the animals are also coming on. The giant circular compost heap which will be
the last keyhole bed next year is magnificent.
A quick prod with a stick reveals more worms than you can shake that
stick at. It’s made up of woody
materials at the base, some seaweed, heaps and heaps of weeds, poo of all
varieties (cow, sheep, chook, rabbit), used hay, plus a few dead rabbits (a
horrible thought I know, but not as horrible as putting them in the rubbish
bin) and all covered over with an old trampoline mat (when the wind hasn’t
blown it off). Hopefully that’ll all
magically turn into gorgeous chocolate-cake compost by next spring. Yeah right.
Maybe it would if I could get round to turning it. The trouble is that it’s now too big to be
turned, and there’s nowhere to re-stack it.
So I’m going with fingers crossed instead.
The orchard is really satisfying. The trees are looking great. Even those which were nibbled by the cattle
and those with untreated leaf-curl are the picture of health. And let there be fruit indeed. Several pears are ripening, including nashis
which are on a double-grafted tree.
Apples are becoming rosy, particularly the Broxwood Foxwelp (or was it
Foxwood Broxwelp?) cider apples which needed to be thinned. Plums are plumping and there’re enough damsons
to add to gin. The 2 original and quite
well-established stone fruit trees alongside the pig run are having a bumper
year. The plum tree in particular is
laden with fruit which is juicily ripe right now. The photo shows only one of several branches
weighed down with enough fruit to touch the ground. Yum.
The orchard has been kept mowed (mostly thanks to Sam) so it’s still
looking quite tidy. Come autumn, once
the trees have cropped and leaves fallen, we can re-introduce the sheep as
lawnmowers.
Meanwhile the boys are making the most of the holidays. Billy’s back from the Scout Jamboree, and hoping to go to the Australian Jamboree in 2015. He’s also going away to Kiwi Ranch in the Marlborough Sounds for a few days of fun-filled adventure. Sam’s been getting quite a few hours’ work at McDonalds and has decided to save up for a car. He’s also soon going away on camp with the air cadets. At home we’ve been celebrating Lucas’ 19th birthday and him flying the nest. He’s been working and saving for over a year now, and his Christchurch plans are underway. Yesterday he cut the strings and went out into the big wide world with Sophie. It’s very exciting for him to move into the next chapter of his life. It won’t half be strange without him though. Gulp…
