June 2019

We returned from a balmy British spring to a chilly kiwi winter.  June's been a mixed bag of some rainy dull days interspersed with frosty mornings and sunny days.  The best days are always those that follow the coldest nights, and the morning feed-out is a tinglingly refreshing wake-up.  Only a few outdoor tasks have been completed, and though this is because nothing is urgent, I'm acutely aware that spring won't be so forgiving.



A little sweeping up of leaves and some general tidying has happened in the flower bed and vege garden.  All the compost zones had been tucked up for winter, so some creative thinking was needed to work out what to do with the leaves and trimmings.  As there's more than enough planting space, I figured that adding a few compost zones among the vege beds would be a good idea.  A few bamboo sticks and some mesh should hold in the decaying matter.  Et voila: compost in situ - very permaculture.




44 cuttings each have been taken off the two varieties of hebe hedge plants, in the hope that they will eventually replace the lavender.  It'll be sad to dig the lavender up, but the hebes will also provide pollen and nectar for the bees.  The lavender is patchy and leggy and never wanted to stay as a low hedge.  Hopefully, the hebes will be more obliging.




Frost protection for the citrus this season has been solely the organic frost spray that needs to be re-applied every 6 weeks.  So far so good - it's a pretty impressive product.  The 4 citrus that were transplanted from the horse arena to near the sleepout have not only survived but thrived.  The original lemon tree has never fruited as well as it is right now.  That savage haircut courtesy of Karyn may just have been responsible for its fine form.  Please don't tell her though.  The new lime tree in the half barrel under the eaves is also hanging in there.  It has the added benefit of its own puffer jacket to keep it warm on cold nights.  I bought the jacket to keep me warm in the UK but never needed it.  I'm happy to gift its services to the lime.


The beehives had their final wintering down inspection on a sunny 16-degree day.  The new swarm colony is doing great - loads of brood, plenty of bees and adequate stores should see it through the winter.  The original stalwart hive was also healthy, with heaps of bees and stores, but not so much brood.  This was the hive that ended up with miticide strips in the honey box because I'd managed to trap the queen above the excluder.  I took out the newer replacement miticide strips, and guess that the reduced brood is because the varroa mites got away.  Hopefully there were stopped in the nick of time; I'd hate to lose this long-standing colony.  Finally I got to the Queen Bitch hive.  Silence.  No bees at the entrance, and no bees inside either.  Ding Dong the Bitch is Dead!  Unfortunately so are all her offspring.  Though these bees have taunted me mercilessly and stung me numerous times, I felt a little emotional about their loss.  Gotta love feisty females, and they did bless me with fabulous honey.   

The new zone by the pizza oven seems to be rotting down into soil nicely, though despite being buried in horse poo and mountains of weeds, the woody sticks at the base are surprisingly intact.  I had to dig down to clear space to put in a half barrel that Karyn gifted.  Its base had rotted out so it'll be perfect to sit in the garden where whatever's planted in it can also access the ground below.  No decision yet what that will be, but it will probably include some spring bulbs.  Peter took a huge limb off the tulip tree to allow head space for the small copper beech to expand into.  He also chainsawed a side branch off the silk tree, to open up the new zone to more sunshine.  It looks like major surgery.  It is major surgery.  It feels way too radical, but I do tend to pathetically err on the side of caution when it comes to pruning.  My advisors (you know who you are) have no such qualms.


Karyn joined me for a currant pruning session.  Heaps of pruned branches later, we could finally see where we'd been.  We charged up Karyn's chipper and began the process of feeding the branches through.  Unfortunately, they were a little moist and supple so didn't chip well.  Should be ok once they've dried out a bit more.     


The sheep are just being their usual sheepish selves.  It's possible - though I wouldn't dare believe - that the ewes could be pregnant, as they have received a couple of doses of selenium.  Walter has grown into a magnificent specimen, and young Junior is fast catching him up.  Lambs would be an absolute joy, so here's hoping that selenium is the answer. 
We're feeding out the cows twice a day.  The girls are always first to dive into the hay, and Noddy is always last.  But he does get there.  He looks nearly normal now, just an occasional stagger that occurs when he tries to run quickly.  Erebus is increasingly affectionate, demanding a stroke and a scratch even before he tucks into the hay.  His demands can err on the slightly aggressive side, but he seems to have genuine intentions.  Neither Poseidon nor Noddy have any need for this kind of contact and generally give us a wide berth.

In my absence, Peter was instructed to pick 5kgs of feijoas.  You'd have to ask him how that ended up as 15kg, but there they were, filling every last crevice of the freezer.  The feijoa wine recipe used 5kg of fruit, so with much reluctance (yeah right) a triple, insteead of the planned single batch was commenced.  I re-checked the recipe as it was steeping, only to realise that the 5kg recipe was already a double batch.  A little re-interpretation has finally resulted in a quadruple batch (20 litres).  I'm keeping everything crossed that the cold temperatures don't stuff up the fermentation completely.  The Red Bartlett pear wine had to be bottled to free-up demi-john space.  6 bottles were put aside (for posterity...or at least a few months) and we're drinking our way through the remainder.  It's quite a pleasant little tipple.   

The orchard has had a big clear out.  It was getting worryingly overgrown, particularly along the boundary where the brambles were getting away, and also in the former chicken run zone.  Our neighbour Craig did lots of the grunty work along the fence line, and Sam did the mowing.  There's still a little more clearing to be done, and the trees need a decent prune, but otherwise, it's looking quite tidy.  Come spring that'll probably be a different story.

The giant pumpkin weighed in at a phenomenal 46kg and needed Peter and Sam to shift it.  It was gifted to a local kindergarten.  I don't know what happened to it there but hope that much fun was had.  Some seeds were saved for next year.  Several other more edible, chunky pumpkins were harvested from the garden at the same time, probably Queensland Blues.  They were from 2 vigorous plants that had self-seeded, and are absolutely delish.

Maggie takes her walks down the forestry road, close to the end of our driveway.  She never recovered from the experience of getting stuck in the electric fence soon after we arrived, and won't step a paw beyond the fence around the garden.  We have to walk her off the property - 8 acres and nowhere to go eh Maggie?  The forestry road goes down to the river, which is possible to ford when there hasn't been much rain.  One of the trees in the photo is dead but draped in lichen.  The other is a native black beech covered in honeydew.  The photo doesn't really do them justice - they're a stunning sight under a deep blue sky.  It's likely that my bees partake of that honeydew.  The bee club ran a workshop on honey tasting and the presenter (a honey judge) could taste honeydew honey in my offering.  


We finally traded in the old Subaru for a small and fuel-efficient car (a Mazda Demio).  To be honest, I'd been trying to drive the Subaru into the ground for a couple of years, but it admirably refused to submit.  With no sons at home (yippee!!!) we don't need a spacious car.  The new car (Gine - short for Aubergine as that's her colour) uses about half the fuel of the old one.  I did feel oddly emotional when I drove away.  That Subaru has been with us for many years and absolutely doesn't owe us anything.  Hope it goes to a good home.



June 2nd was a truly awful day.  My awesome buddy and colleague Tai (Dixon) was killed in a head-on car accident.  She leaves husband Scott and two beautiful daughters, Iona (6) and Lucia (3), to face a future without her.  I put this poem in a memory box created for her girls.                                                                                                                            RIP Tai.  
  
                                         Tai

We don’t love you because you were an inspirational and fabulous midwife.

We don’t love you because you were a beautiful, outstanding, proud mama and wife

Though you were all of those things in spades.

We love you because you were you. You were real, you WERE life.

Warm, vivacious, cuddly and passionate

Enriched with deep integrity and a wide-open, intelligent mind

All wrapped up in an immense bundle of humanity

And a heart as big as the earth.

Your amazing spirit lives on in your gorgeous daughters

Who are both blessed and bereft

To be part of you yet parted from you.

The world is a lesser place without our precious friend Tai.

We grieve for the tragic magnitude of all that is lost.