February 2014

 

It’s been a glorious February so far, and a dry one too.  The day time temperatures have rarely been below about 24 degrees.  So it's pretty warm, and when combined with clouds of pesky sand-flies, outdoor work has been somewhat challenging.   Paid work is also seriously hindering what outside progress might otherwise be made, though at least the boys are back to school.  The tasks of driveway weeding and preservative-painting of the balcony must be the least popular as they’ve been totally ignored despite being on the priority list for months.

The new chook-house and run is beginning to take shape.  The aviary idea has been binned (won’t go there…) and instead the space in the crate unoccupied by the chooks will be a wood and vegetable/fruit storage area.  I’m getting quite excited about the prospect of building a raised and netted box with shelving to store our winter supplies.  It’s fair to say that plans are still in the conceptual stage, though that’s probably the most exciting.  In the meantime the chooks are healthy if not a little cramped.  One brave hen has decided it’s time to brood, so we may end up with even more chicken dinners.

The lambs are sold and gone to pastures new, leaving us with our original 4 ewes and Rambo, and the 2 boy lambs which will be in the freezer by Easter.  We finally bit the bullet and got round to shearing the worst of the non-shedding wool from the 3 ewes who were clearly in need of a summer outfit.  Once again it was a task and a half, not least because the cheap shears we bought last year, in anticipation of only a little use, are now seriously crap.  The shearing-whilst-wedged-up-against-the-fence technique was re-introduced for those ewes who refused point blank to remain lying down for long enough.  Sadly our standards of shearing haven’t improved since last year, so those shorn look like they’ve been mutilated.   That said, when all the sheep are together, they don’t look that much worse than those that have messily shed some of their wool themselves.  

The cattle have been un-troublesome for a while now.  They’re probably deep in the planning stage of their next adventure.  Athena and Zeus have grown considerably, though are still pretty cute (but probably only if you like cows).  This year’s hay pastures are re-growing beautifully – bright green and with a range of pasture plants.  The dastardly grass-cutter was fixed, and the go-kart goes, but is stuck in a high gear so can’t pull the weight of the cutter.  The interim solution is to use the car to pull the grass-cutter – it’s effective though does look a bit unusual trawling through the paddocks.  Hopefully we’re in time for a bit of fresh growth before everything slows up in autumn.

The plums are now over but we have plenty of plum jam to see us through the winter as well as plenty of plums frozen to use in baking.  The damsons were starting to soften, so they have all been picked (bar a few left for the birds) and steeped in gin.  They were frozen overnight first, in the hope that this would help release the juices.  The photo shows the gin on day 1, looking a bit like a snow-scene.  Less than a week later it's already a gorgeous soft pink.  It’s my first ever damson gin and I’m looking forward to seeing how it compares to sloe gin.

 

The veg garden is still productive, with most of the plants either ready for cropping or getting there.  We have spuds for Africa, miles of beans (yellow bush, soy, runner and borlotti) and peas.  The pumpkins, which were grown from seed saved last year, have created a jungle of vegetation which is threatening to overspill into the entire garden.  The pumpkins themselves are pretty impressive too.  They’re in the keyhole bed which was supposed to be a corn circle.  What’s left of the corn crop hasn’t grown tall, but the cobs look to be a good size.  There’s one more batch of seedlings to plant out which will be the last to be planted this year – mostly brassicas, but also more lettuce and beetroot.

Derryn and I have started our Apiculture Knowledge course and it looks to be pretty comprehensive.  The bees remain delightful and I’ve continued to harvest small quantities of fabulous honey and wax.  The bee club met at our place to look at honey extraction and autumn varroa treatment.  We used the centrifugal extractor for Doug’s manuka honey, and scraped out and sieved one of my frames.  The honey is potted up, and the wax was washed with cold water and put in the freezer.  Once I have plenty of wax, and I’ve built a solar wax filter, the wax can be fashioned into candles and face cream (to avoid disappointment I’ll give myself 5 years to get round to this).

 

 

The tobacco that was harvested a year ago was finally dry enough for the next phase of the processing.   A pretty technical phase actually, involving my bare hands, a pasta maker and no skill whatsoever.  The tobacco leaves were torn from the main woody stems, and then fed through the spaghetti roller to be shredded.  The precious and sweet-scented tobacco has been gifted and I’m awaiting feedback on whether it’s worth doing again. 

 

 

One of my top ten parenting tips is to be so bad at doing something that the kids feel obliged to take over in order to avoid humiliation.  Sewing is a case in point.  My standard for the sewing-on of scout badges is so low, that one by one, all the boys have eventually decided to do their own.  Billy has heaps of badges, mostly from the Jamboree, which he wants to be displayed on a blanket.  He learned to use a sewing machine in Technology classes at school, so here he is getting on with the task. 

 

On a personal note, I’d like to confess that my hair hasn’t been washed in 3 weeks.   What I mean is that I haven’t used shampoo for that time.  A little research revealed that hair-washing with baking soda and rinsing with apple cider vinegar are effective alternatives until your hair balances out its natural oil production and self-cleansing capacity.  It’s known as going ‘no poo’!  Probably that’s only so that those with a seriously toilet sense of humour can enjoy the double-entendre concept of calling it ‘the no-poo movement’.  It allegedly takes weeks or months to get to the point of being able to use only water, and in the meantime it can be pretty challenging.  So far so good – my hair feels a bit strange and it may have a faint aroma of vinegar, but it’s not been unbearable.  Watch this space…

The flowers in the photo were a gift from the UK with a NZ twist.  They were delivered by Hayley, whose surprise arrival was just in time to meet Peter, but alas I was in Christchurch.  Hayley has recently moved to Wellington and is Janet’s (now Graham’s wife) daughter, and for me, a lovely connection to my friend Joanna and her family.  It was a very pleasant and emotional surprise indeed.  Joanna was a truly special person and gifted midwife, and is often in my thoughts (the Rosa Remember Me and true-blue forget-me-nots are always a happy reminder).  So cheers to absent friends and family - long may you continue to positively influence my thoughts and actions.