This year’s lambs are quietly growing away. Most of them are shedding reasonably well,
but one has perfectly beautifully surpassed himself. He was promising from the day he was born,
but we weren’t sure how he’d end up.
He’s now destined to be our flock ram.
We named him ‘Leggy’ and he was
different (in a good way) from his twin brother ‘Fluffy’ and the other ram
lambs- i.e. longer-legged and less woolly. It’ll be a bit unfortunate for
him if that name sticks, but at least he’s probably got a life-time of
indefinite shagging ahead.
This winter though, we won’t have to account for Zeus’
appetite. The home-kill man came, saw,
gasped, and did the deed. Zeus was so
big that he had to use his truck pulling-power to turn him over. His hoof weight must have been literally about a ton because the carcass weight was 512kg.
That’s 512kg of prime, organic, grass-fed beef. The butchers were pretty impressed with his
size too, and with the tenderness of the meat.
It took 4 of us over 3 hours to bag up portions and get them in the
freezer. We had to offload some into
Karyn’s freezer, and we’re still waiting for sausages. Mince has finally returned to the menu! We were getting quite sick of steaks and
joints all the time. It’s a hard life
etc. Hera and Athena have been a bit
jittery since Zeus’ departure, and have been entertaining themselves by chasing
the lambs.
The bees have been ridiculously busy. I went into the hives to remove the varroa
strips, and found them both completely choc-a-bloc of honey and brood. One hive has definitely swarmed. I was away in Christchurch and Peter called
to say there was a noise like a small aircraft high up in the tulip tree. He declined the job of clambering up the tree
and knocking the swarm off into a box, so alas they were lost. The hive must have made good its reduced
numbers rapidly. Ideally I should have
added another honey box to each hive, but I don’t have any spare equipment. Instead I took off a few frames (11) and
extracted the honey. 11+ litres of the
best honey in the world, now potted up and ready to gift. The next day it rained (hurray) so the empty
frames were returned 2 days later. In
that short time the bees from one hive created stalactites of wax comb hanging
down from the lid. The other hive
created stalagmites up from the queen excluder.
The beautiful virgin wax was easily snapped off. It’s immaculate and won’t need to be filtered
and strained. It’ll be ideal for face
cream.
The vege garden is growing nicely – weeds and veges all in
fine health. The soft fruit is ripening
– strawberries, desert gooseberries, red, black and white currants already in
abundance, and raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries and blackberries nearly
there. Some greens are also ready to
eat, but most of the rest is just quietly getting there. There are several artichokes, which should
please the bees – I haven’t yet developed a taste for them, but probably I need
to persevere with that.
The home-made wine has been re-racked, and some of it is
pretty darned good this time, though I say so myself. The mead is already totally delish, and the
pear wine is shaping up beautifully (and possibly approaching ‘Thunderbird’
calibre - you have to be pretty old and quirky to remember this particular ambrosia). All of the others are
promising – even the rhubarb. Most still
have plenty of lees, so not likely to be bottled in the near future. No hurry though – still plenty of last year’s
wines left.
Lucas came home for a weekend and got stuck into the
Christmas cake marzipan decorations.
He’ll be back over Christmas, staying in the plush accommodation which
is the new tent. It was erected today,
and will have to be dismantled and taken to Picton where we are camping later
in the month.
Any minute now the house will fill. The Christmas tree is vibrant, decorations
are up and food is sorted. Entertainment
plans are made. Soon it’ll be 2016 but
first there’s holiday time to enjoy.
Merry Christmas and happy blessings for the New Year.