April 2017

Cyclone Cook has been and gone and was much less of a disaster than predicted.  For us at least, though not for the far north east of the North Island, who really copped it.  Otherwise it’s been quite a mild autumn so far.  There’s been a run of cloudy days that are definitely not conducive to solar dehydrating, but can’t really complain.

The gardens had been neglected a bit, and the weeds were thriving as usual.  The Easter weekend allowed for some good progress in terms of clearing and tucking up most beds for winter.  The last of the tomatoes have been harvested, and the green ones are now ripening indoors.  Only a few crops remain in the ground.  The cleared beds are receiving a top dressing of horse poo and a layer of pea straw that should serve them well.  The pea straw contains lots of pea seeds that should add more soil nutrients by germinating.  I’ve also thrown in a few broad beans and lupin seeds for good measure.  The pea straw copped that recent deluge of rain and is now very difficult to handle.  It’s slimy, mouldy and is generating a fair amount of heat as it decomposes.  Yum.  It has an earthy sort of smell too, not unpleasant, though not the kind of scent you’d want to dab behind your ears.

Weeding of the pathways has started, and that’s a stern reminder of the drawbacks of using gravel.  It gets very hot in summer, too hot to kneel on to work the beds.  It’s also impossible to keep out the soil that falls from the raised beds, so weeding becomes an ever-present task.  Then there’s the pain of kneeling down with gravel in your gumboots.  It always manages to find the most painful place on your foot or ankle to dig into.  And old-age knees mean that kneeling down to weed for long periods is just not going to be a forever option.  I’ve bought some ‘organic’ weed-spray, but have been reluctant to use it.  Probably I need a long hard word with myself.

Cropping is still ongoing – carrots, cabbage, beetroot, kale, tomatoes, turnips and of course, pumpkins.  The cabbages are mine, but the cauliflowers in the picture below are Karyn’s.  She’s feeling smug because she’s got 3 more parsnips than me, i.e. she has 3.  But with a pumpkin that big, I’ve surely got the monopoly on smugness.  The plan is to pick it at its biggest and before it starts to rot.  What could possibly go wrong?

There are herbs lined up ready for planting.  They just need to wait until the pea straw has bedded itself down, and in they’ll go.  The thyme cuttings weren’t very successful – only 3 survived, and they’ll be planted with some bought thyme (pizza, purple, silver and golden).  The sage (plain and variegated) have propagated much more prolifically and will be planted alongside the thyme in the remaining raised bed in the horse arena that was the previous compost bed.  A few bronze fennel will also be added.  Parsley seedlings (that self-seeded in the peppermint bed) are poised to go in the rosemary-hedged bed next to the Gin Palace.  Hopefully they’ll all put down some good roots over winter and take off in spring.

There are a few autumn raspberries, and the strawberries have fruited again - a smaller crop that the birds mostly got to first.  The strawberries need some serious thinning, that one day I’ll get round to.  In the meantime I’ve potted on several of the runners.  These will be planted in one of the citrus beds.  They’ll eventually be crowded out by the citrus, but we should get a couple of years fruiting out of them before that happens.  Wild alpine strawberries in the flower garden have been dug up too.  Some are potted, and the rest are planted in the other citrus bed. 

There’s been a late flush of flowers that have brightened up the flower garden.  The nigella is a long-standing favourite, and the dahlias are abundantly cheery.  That the hollyhocks are still upright is a tiny miracle.  Dandelions and other weed flowers add a touch of sunny yellow.  Some serious weeding and a good dollop of pea straw mulch is on the cards.  That’ll be quite a task once it hits the top of the priority list (probably the middle of winter).

 

We’re still holding out that there are some pregnancies among the cows and sheep.  We

moved them all into the hay barn paddock when the heavy rain was forecast (it’s our highest land) and it’s here that they enjoy finding many ways of making mischief.  The hay barn itself is a source of much entertainment – how best to break in to get to the pristine hay for example.  Then there are the joys of crashing through the chicken wire into the chicken run, and the potential for breaking into the wetland or orchard. The cows are the worst culprits, though their naughty behaviour can sometimes be quite endearing.  Hermes, the last in the cattle pecking order, has discovered that he can exert his power over the sheep, and spends many a happy hour herding them onto a corner again and again.  Dionysus is the noisiest and the beast most likely to give you an ‘I’m a big angry bull’ look, before shooting off with his tail between his legs when you raise your voice and arms at him. 

‘Solly’ has been cranked up at every ray of sunshine.  We’re still trying to tweak her to increase the heat capacity, and have added a fan powered by a solar panel to improve the air flow.  Peter’s also rigged up an attractive fan ‘brake’ – a piece of wood that can be swung down to shade and thereby halt the fan.  It was a joy to discuss the fan with the geeky staff at Jaycar’s, who seemed quite genuinely intrigued by the whole solar dehydrator project.  So far the fan experiment is looking very positive, and optimistically will extend our dehydrating season. 

Three batches of cider are bottled up, just in time for the 2017 Onamalutu Cider Competition in June.  Batch 3 (‘Silke’s Rough Again’) is not looking a likely contender because of its explosive tendencies.  The first clue came when the brown plastic bottles wouldn’t stand up because the pressure generated by the wild yeasts pushed out the base, and also the flat-caps were strangely convex.  An earlier and relatively minor eruption from a bottle of ‘Scrumpy Jill’ that coated the kitchen benches and windows, meant that we figured it would probably be a good plan to open ‘Silke’s Rough Again’ outside.  The video proves that this was one of my best plans.  On balance, I won’t be entering it into the cider contest, though it’s tempting. 

The chooks had gone off the lay, and we made the decision to not carry them over winter.  They’re now in the freezer, except Sweet Pea – last year’s hen who’s younger than the others.  Luckily we found another home for her at our neighbour’s place.  Shona and Craig have several other hens and were happy to add another to their flock.  Having no foul means we can really sort out and clean the hen house/run, and in the absence of stored feed, optimistically we’ll have a better chance at hammering the rodent population.  It’s been a while since we were without chickens, and it’s quite an adjustment. 

The pigs are on countdown too, probably early May or before.  There are still a few old apples around, and plenty of weeds when I get round to weeding, so they’re not devoid of food treats.  But these are drying up and the pigs are robust and a decent size.  And there’s space in the freezer.  We just need to make a few decisions about processing (in the absence of that cold-smoker that’s been on the to-do list for a few years now).

Peter hadn’t ridden a motorbike for years, and figured if he didn’t get round to it again soon, then old age and senility could well prevent him from doing so in the not too distant future.  A cute little red Ducati for sale on TradeMe tempted him, and it’s definitely his new toy.  He’s made a couple of work trips on it already, but the plan is to use it as a commuting vehicle in the warmer months.  Maybe I’ll even take it for a spin one day (if I’m allowed).

Sam has just had confirmation the he’s starting in the army as a musician.  He’d been waiting months, and suddenly it’s all happening and he’ll be moving to Burnham, Christchurch next week.  The lengthy process to date had lulled me into a false sense of ‘never-going-to-happen’, and it’s only really dawning on me now that he’ll actually be leaving home.  I’m feeling a sudden urge to dig out baby photos and assemble a survival food pack.

As another child packs his bags in search of a life more exciting and happening than the one he’s leaving behind, it’s an appropriate moment to reflect on our not-very-exciting life here on the block.  It’s not something I’d have aspired to as a young woman, but somehow my life has driven itself to this place.  It’s more a place of contentment than excitement, and so arguably more in-keeping with my life-stage.  I do get excited about things others would find mundane (like solar fans and giant pumpkins), and I’m massively grateful that my good health enables me to work hard physically when that’s required.  I love a good old belly laugh, and the firewood in the photo really tickled me (and shows that we don't only do rude carrots here...).

However weird I might be, I feel blessed that this is a felicitous life for me.  Happy days.