The drought isn’t over but we
have had some rain. Not enough yet to
fill water tanks, but enough to trigger some pasture growth. Combined with some cooler
nights and dewy mornings, the land is looking a little fresher and less
brown. We’re still having some warm days
(25 degrees a couple of days ago) but nights are definitely getting longer and day
temperatures are occasionally dropping below 20 degrees. It’s completely dark by 8:30pm now and the
end of daylight saving is nigh. There’s
a sense that we’re plunging into winter with only a brief glimpse of autumn. Happily the council have just announced that the fire ban has been lifted. The pizza oven was fired up, and we've already enjoyed home made garlic bread, roast beef and of course, pizza. Truly delicious - even Peter said it was the best pizza he's tasted. We're really thrilled that something we built actually works. It just requires a bit of fine-tuning, things like checking out which woods burn longest and hottest, how soon to crank it up, how best to move things around etc. In the interests of good taste perhaps, Billy has decided to remove the decorative iPod. Sighs of relief all round. 
The sprinklings of rain have been
very much welcomed by the weeds, which seem to come up overnight. I’ve started closing down some of the keyhole
beds in the veg patch using compost and straw.
We’ve been lucky enough to bag as much burned straw as we can take from
a local farmer whose giant stack went up in flames. He’d already been approached by other
neighbours and is grateful that he won’t have to find a way of getting rid of it
all. From a gardener’s perspective it’s perfect – already composting and with
added charcoal. The orchard trees have all had the same nourishment. and even some rain to bed it all in. All they need now a bit of end of summer pruning and they're sorted for winter.
We’ve also bagged a huge pile of
mulch chippings for the vege garden paths.
It’s immediately tidied the place up, even though it’ll only be a matter
of a few days before the weeds that were covered find their way to the light. Our ‘hayman’ Steve, who’s also an arborist,
dropped it off and we paid for it using the usual currency of beer. In the vege garden, autumn/winter seedlings are planted out, mostly crops for animal feed (sugar beet, mammoth mangels and
kale) but also some extra brassicas, soy beans and a couple of packs of carrot
seeds which will hopefully have enough warmth and moisture to germinate. We still have plenty of mature carrots and
other vegetables that we’re harvesting. Thankfully these pukeko weren't interested in the vegetables as they passed through.
The pigs are being seriously
indulged with fruit. We have a
relatively steady supply from friends, which is supplemented from our own
orchard. The stone fruit are coming in
big time now, especially the peaches.
The peachcot has a magnificent crop for such a young tree, and the fruit
is totally delicious - much better than peach or apricot alone according to my humble taste-buds. The plumcot and
tomcot trees alongside haven’t fruited at all and look a bit raggy. Perhaps next year they’ll come right.
The sheep and cows seem to be
doing fine. We’re still not completely
sure of the pattern for when Athena is on heat, so haven’t managed to get her
inseminated yet. We’re still feeding out
hay, but neither the cows nor the sheep get too excited about it like they do
in winter, so probably they are managing to find enough pasture to eat.
We’re down to one last rabbit as
the others have sold. He seems a bit sad
out there on his own, but probably that’s just our projection. Maybe he’s delighted to finally have the run
to himself. It’ll be the end of an era
when we have no more rabbits to feed. At
least it’ll make the whole feeding round less complicated when we’re busy or
away from home. Maybe we can move onto
thinking ducks…
8 chicks hatched but we’re down
to only 5 beautiful little bundles of mischief.
We’re not sure what happened to those that didn’t make it, but it seems
that they can get out of the run if they want.
We’re not sure where their escape route is yet. The mother hen has been a very dutiful parent
and takes great care of them. She does
have a habit of bedding them down on the ground, so maybe rats have taken the
opportunity to grab themselves fresh food.
Cornelius is in the freezer, and our dreams of peaceful nights were
immediately scuppered by 2 of the young chooks who have decided to compete for
top rooster. Their cock-a-doodle-doos
are still on the pathetic side, so they’re putting in lots of practice.
The grape harvest is starting and
Peter’s about to start working ‘vintage’ hours.
He’ll be on night shifts again, which makes life a bit tricky at
home. Hopefully he’ll be able to bring
home some of the excess grapes. The home
harvest is also coming in. There are
batches of tomato sauce going into the freezer every couple of weeks, and other
veges bagged up in the freezer. The corn
is just ripe and is being eaten daily. The
excess kernels will be stored with the sunflower heads for feeding the chooks
in winter. The ripened chillis have been
threaded onto cotton and are now hanging to dry alongside the herbs on the
suspended clothes dryer in the living room. Strawberries are jammed, crab apples jellied. Autumn wines are in progress – so far pear, blackboy peach and rhubarb,
and there’s plenty of honey to make a few more bottles of mead. Last year's wines are nearly all bottled now, and are definitely better than just drinkable. There are also several litres of sloe gin and vodka, and new for this year, Blackboy Peach brandy. 
The bees are looking
fabulous. Hive 1 worker bees had totally
re-filled the honey frames which were emptied a few weeks ago, so I’ve had to
take off a few more frames, remove the honey and return them to the hive to
give them a little extra space for more storage. Hive 2 has also made great progress in terms of
honey supplies, so should have plenty to see them through winter. It’s lovely to have abundant honey again and
of course a real privilege to have the best-tasting honey in the world. I’ve designed some sticky labels (actually
‘designed’ is quite a stretch, but I did manage to print them out from our
computer, eventually) and put the honey into 2 different sized plastic jars for
gifts. The recently extracted honey
can’t be given away as there is a risk of tutin poisoning this late in the
season. I’ll just have to be a beefeater
and eat it all myself, or at least eat enough to know it isn’t harmful.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the
company of Claire (second cousin and little sis of David from England who came
a couple of years ago) who spent a few days with us. We had a glorious trip to Lochmara in the
Sounds. The day got off to a brilliant
start when we spotted several starfish, and a couple of seahorses in Picton harbour. None of us had ever actually seen a seahorse
in the wild. The photo’s not great, but
there it is – a seahorse in its natural environment. We also had a day out in the Abel Tasman
National Park – Marahau and Kaiteriteri.
It was a bit showery but we had a gorgeous walk along the first part of
the track and a boat ride. Claire’s wanderlust is taking her further
south and then onto Australia. We’re
hoping that she’ll persuade her parents to come here on holiday. If you’re reading this Janet and Steve, please
consider yourselves invited!
Another month in paradise passes
by for us. But sad news from the
mother-land has meant we’ve been in touch with relatives in the UK quite
often. It’s usually lovely to catch up
with everyone, but not in these circumstances.
Take care Jeremy, we’re thinking of you.
Kia kaha (stay strong).
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are
tiny matters
compared to what lies within us”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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