Just about managed to squeeze in December’s blog before the
end of December. My excuse for this
tardiness is that I’ve spent much of the month away from home. I was asked to do 9 days of emergency
midwifery cover in Westport at very short notice at the start of the month, and
also holidayed in Kaiteriteri with Kaja and kids in the week before Christmas.
Westport was its usual lovely place. Being on call restricted me to local walks
only, but happily there are plenty of those including the gorgeous Carter’s
Beach. Beautiful and full of happy
memories. The stint in Westport came at
a crucial time of year in the garden.
Peter was left with a list of instructions, and I took with me the seeds
I’d just planted, and a whole bunch that were germinating in a damp tea towel
in the kitchen. I packed some potting
compost and suitable containers and off I went. 
I finally got round to getting myself another bee suit, so
that Peter can help with some of the beekeeping, especially the heavier
lifting. The first batch of this year’s
honey is due by the end of the month (to avoid the tutin risks) so I’ll be
putting the suit to good use fairly soon.
Full honey boxes can weigh up to 40kg, so a bit of extra muscle won’t go
amiss. We’re nearly out of last year’s
honey so the timing couldn’t be better.
On the bee front, one of my best Christmas presents was a
beehive mailbox, crafted by Peter. It’s
much bigger than our old one so should be more practical. Our postie Mike is happy with it too.
We stayed in an old bach in Kaiteriteri, famous for being
the only bach that’s actually on the beach. It's in the distance in the centre of the photo. Kaiteriteri is quite a visitor mecca, and it’s easy to see why. A breathtakingly beautiful bay, safe swimming
in azure sea and golden sands. We had a
day trip to Marahau and took a walk up the Abel Tasman track to the first
beach (Porter’s). 
The lifestyle block’s definitely taken a bit of a back seat
recently. Everything seems to be
thriving on a bit of neglect, though obviously that includes the weeds. They’re not such a priority now that the
plants are establishing, and will help keep the soil moist over the coming
summer months. The hayman came and cut
91 bales out of the two back paddocks.
Hopefully that’ll be enough to carry through our 5 cattle over
winter.
The animals are all just getting on with their lives. The cows have been relatively well-behaved
for a while, the sheep are just being sheepish, and the pigs are visibly
growing. We’re hoping to move them to
the new pig run in the horse arena, but will probably need to put aside a whole
weekend for the move. Karyn has kindly
offered to video the process.
It's been lovely to spend time with our grown up sons over the holidays. Their plans mean that opportunities to be together as a family will become less frequent. They have their own life plans and it's good to watch them get on with their lives. The photo shows them with cousins Michael and Melissa in the Onamalutu Reserve.
Looking forward to 2017 being another great year on the land.
