Welcome pigs!
Paid work is just starting to wind down, but farm work isn’t
quite so obliging. We’ve just had some
very welcome rain – not quite enough to make me dance naked around the garden
in joy, but a happy occasion nonetheless.
Not only does the rain do the watering for us, it also means that
outside work takes a back seat for a change.
It gives us a chance to get on with some inside work instead. Though there is housework galore to be done,
there are other indoor priorities like writing cards, buying presents,
decorating the tree, the Christmas cake and gingerbread house. Making mince pies and planning food and
festivities definitely come before mopping the kitchen floor and cleaning the
toilet.
The wetland has had another make-over. Lynne and husband Miles came over to plant
the 186 native plants that Lynne had grown from seed as part of a garden course
project. Lots of flax, cabbage trees,
kowhai, kahikatea, kanuka and tree fuschia, plus a few others that I can’t remember
right now. Lynne’s putting in the first
plant in the photo. It was a really
great day and everything went surprisingly smoothly. Good company and good food - the lovely Lynne
also provided lunch in the form of delicious bacon and egg pie (made from their
own produce). All up a very exciting
day, and great to spend time in the wetland and see lots of the original
plantings up close. Here’s hoping that
most of them survive and thrive and set the scene for more native growth.
Bees are very busy, and recent hive checks have revealed that
the new hive does indeed have a queen who is getting on with the business of laying
eggs. There’re plenty of bees, brood and
pollen, and even some honey stores. The
original hive was left with 2 boxes of brood, topped with a queen excluder and
a honey box above. I’ve no idea how it
could have happened but somehow the queen ended up in the top honey box, above
the queen excluder! She’d also been busy
with egg-laying as there was plenty of brood in the honey box. That must be a real rookie mistake, though it
was easily rectified by moving the boxes around. Here’s hoping there’s a honey flow happening
soon, as I’m onto my last jar.
The orchard is not only beautiful, it’s also bountiful. Most of the fruit trees are growing and
maturing several fruits, and their foliage is lush and healthy. The photo shows some of the Bramley apple crop, which should eventuate into apple pies and crumble. The irrigation was amazingly was still intact from last year, so easy to re-attach.
An extension pipe has yet to be fitted so that the nut trees can be watered on
the same system. That’s in with a chance of reaching the top
of the priority list next week, though will probably be usurped by Christmas.
Madame Cholet is now a riot of green. Most of the plants are taking off – tomatoes,
cucumber, chilli and aubergine. Peppers
have been a flop. The current pepper
seedlings were bought after the ones I raised from seed got chewed to
death. The new ones look to be going the
same way. It’s the same story for the
melon seedlings although the new ones are still alive and maybe even
growing. I’m not sure what’s eating
them, but have scattered some slug pellets in case. 
The veg garden is verdant and abundant. We’re eating a range of greens, lettuce,
broad beans, beetroot and leeks.
Potatoes are also maturing so we’ll have new spuds for Christmas dinner. Even the corn crop is finally looking
promising. Early corn seedlings were
scoffed by rodents (which in retrospect is what I suspect also happened last year) in the
tunnel house, so others had to be raised in the house under a mini-cloche. Most have survived transplanting into one of
the keyhole beds, so hopefully the corn circle will become a reality. 
The hen mother was starting to get cabin-fever, cooped up
with her boisterous off-spring. She was
trotting up and down the same stretch of fence-line repetitively. Then she started to lay again, so we moved
her back into the main run with the others.
Hopefully a bit of adult company was what she needed. Cornelius continues to rule his roost, and
has developed a very loud and penetrating cock-a-doodle-doo. This presents somewhat of a problem, as our
‘guest accommodation’ sleep-out is right next to the run. We’re still working on this. The cute chicks are still too young to be
sexed, but if one (of the 4) turns out to be male, then we can consider dispatching
Cornelius. But not too soon, as we’re
also hoping that another hen will go broody so we can get more chicks. One hen did sit on a clutch of eggs, but disappointingly she
abandoned them when we decided to move her out of the main house/run into a
more private space. No hen has done this
before, and we have usually managed broody hens in the same way.
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The rabbits are fine and dandy, and up for sale. We’ve decided to stick with the decision of
not continuing to keep them, and they’re worth more alive than dead. Hopefully they’ll be snapped up as their
breed (NZ White) is quite difficult to come by.
It’ll be a sad day when they go, but no regrets. Mostly they’ve been a very enjoyable and engaging
project. 
Pigs are go!! We
managed to get hold of 4 Large White X Hampshire pigs at 6 weeks old. We selected the biggest 4 of the litter and
have ended up with one girl and 3 boys.
For a while we thought they were 2 boys and 2 girls, but it has become
obvious that we were mistaken. They were
named by Rea after characters from King Lear – Cordelia, Regan, Edmund &
Edgar. Shakespeare’s Regan was female,
but ours now has to be male. A bit of
artistic license perhaps. Cordelia is
the biggest and is currently chief pig.
They’re bigger for their age than pigs we've had previously, and are already growing rapidly. They're reaping the benefit of veg garden crops going to seed. When they get beetroot, they look like they've put their lippy on (as modeled by Cordelia in the photo)! They are
demolishing their sprouted grains (wheat, barley, maize and peas) and have
shocking table manners. But their
presence is uplifting and their peaceful grunting is like music to my ears. It’s great to be back in pig-land again!
The wild bird population seems to be increasing. A flax flower spike just outside our living
room is frequently visited by tui and bellbirds, and there are often quail on
the driveway. There’s a busy starling’s
nest in the car port, built under the tarpaulin on the high shelf. Their young are constantly chorusing. The photo shows them, or rather their beaks, anticipating their next
meal – which they seem to do a lot of.
Insects are also profuse, including lots of honey bees and
bumble bees. The flower bed hosts many
of these visitors. It’s great to see
these plants serving their purpose, and a warm and fuzzy feeling that I grew
many of the plants from seed. Several
others self-seeded from last years’ flowers.
Every now and then I add a perennial plant in the hope of filling all
the gaps. The straw mulch has been
really effective at keeping the moisture in the soil and reducing weeding.
The wine has been happily neglected for weeks now, and I'd assumed it would be ready for bottling, but only the demi-johns of Sauv Blanc and Mead were clear enough to bottle. The others still had too much sediment. Peter has printed off some labels which look quite effective. Right now they are drinkable, but very much taste like young wines - here's hoping they mature into something well worth drinking. The mead is labelled 'Ti Kouka', which means 'cabbage tree'. We have lots of Ti Kouka on the property, and the flowers they produce are much loved by bees. Our honey is 'Ti Kouka honey' so it fits the theme. There's also 'Silke's Sassy Sauv', 'Powell's Pea Pod Wine', 'Krusty Krab Apple Wine' and 'Perky Peach Wine'.
Lucas has been busy graduating and has decided to continue with another course in web design next year in Christchurch, rather than get full-time work. He's hoping to get part-time work within the design industry as he studies. Sophie's earning her dollars at Air NZ, and they're happily ensconced in a central apartment.
Sam and Billy have both felt the need to earn money so have been (relatively) willingly doing jobs for us. Sam is the 'mower man' and it turns out that Billy has a talent for poo picking. Quite enterprisingly he's been selling sacks of cow poo ($5 a sack - come and get your bargain poo) - under the name 'Poo-well's Ltd'! He's also been monitoring the eel population in the wetland. The photo demonstrates the dangers of posing for a photo and thereby taking your eyes off an escape-artist wriggly eel.
Rachel, Jif, Sam and Joe are in NZ (in Russell) and are heading our way next week to share Christmas. The cake theme is 'London' in their honour. The last time they came we went mud-wrestling on Christmas Day. This year we'll have more traditional after-dinner events - the sack race, egg-and-spoon race, 3-legged race, and of course, egg roulette. Bet they can't wait....
So another year comes to a close. Another glorious year on the land, indulging my feral nature. Tending the land is both my craft and my art. There's nothing worth celebrating more than the beauty of a row of carrots (you can just imagine mine here Karyn), or the twining koru of pea tendrils. I've been trying to think about what I've learned over the 3 years we've been here. Too many mistakes to remember, but also plenty of 'wow' moments when we've got something right or when the beauty that surrounds us suddenly reveals itself.
Quite profound eh? On reflection, my best advice to any would-be small-holder is: 'Never put an egg in your pocket'.
Merry Christmas!
