January 2014

 

Already somewhat of a distant memory, we had a fantastic summer break with Marcus, Nikki, Arthur, Jago and Freya during their latest New Zealand tour.  We went all the way to Picton (about a 30 minute drive) to stay at a holiday park in cabins.  One of us had to return home every day to care for the animals, and this worked fine.  Christmas Day, despite a fairly dire forecast, was hot and sunny, and many happy hours were passed lounging in the campsite pool, eating and drinking.  Dinner was a range of kebabs – meat, fish, cheese, tofu and veg to account for all preferences, with fresh fruit and chocolate dipping sauce for desert.  All washed down with a few cool beers.  During the holiday we also fitted in a boat trip to the stunning Lochmara Bay where, among several other activities, we were entertained by Banjo the talking parrot.  At home the first of the sunflowers bloomed in honour of their last day with us in Onamalutu.  Now we have many magnificent sunflowers whose stems are creating a welcome hedge (about 3 metres high) of wind shelter and shade for the chooks.

It’s been a warm summer so far, but amazingly for the season there’s been quite a lot of intermittent rain.  Not our usual weeks and weeks of dry, at least not yet.  Mostly that’s been great – the veg garden and orchard have been growing fabulously and even had to be un-irrigated at times.  It’s been really unfortunate for the hay-makers though, who have to make hay when the sun shines and so be pretty sure of a few rain-free days before cutting.  About 4 weeks later than planned, our hay has finally been cut.  The paddocks looked beautiful when the hay was drying on the ground, and now happily we have 64 hay bales to keep the animals fed over winter.  That’s hopefully about what we’ll need but probably not enough spare to sell – a shame as we’ve already had enquiries.

The rain’s great for the woodlot trees too, assuming they’re alive.  I haven’t checked them out for ages, and they’re now entirely obscured by the weed growth.  Our intentions to keep the area mown were scuppered not only by the kaput grass cutter, but also the knackered go-kart.  There are plans to get them both fixed but it may be a while.  I’m also not sure how many native plants in the wetland have survived.  Certainly several are now visibly growing above the weeds, but a great many are not and there’s a depressing volume of crack willow making a come-back.  There’s simply not enough time to intervene, so we’re keeping everything crossed that it all comes right. 

So far we’ve only managed to coordinate the Artificial Inseminator with Aphrodite’s ovulation.  Hera and Persephone remain un-impregnated, and Persephone is now up for sale.  Our lambs have also been up for sale and there’s been a lot of interest.  We’ve sold all 5 ewes (including last year’s) and two ram lambs. It’s great to know that they’re saleable.  I was a bit worried that people may not be interested in them because their tails are undocked, but that hasn’t come up as a problem – in fact the contrary.  The remaining ram lambs will be dispatched to the freezer (lucky that we’re not completely sure which one Harry is any more), leaving us with our original 4 ewes and Rambo.  We’ll also look into swapping Rambo for a new ram in the interests of varying the genetics. 

The chooks are growing and eating phenomenally.  The 5 Cochin chicks are now big enough to join the main flock, so have been transferred in at the same time as the 2 mother-hens whose broods are out-growing the chick-mobile.  The 9 youngest chicks are now raggedy teenagers with a fair bit of attitude, and they will be combined with the other raggedy teenagers currently living chez Derryn.  The total of 14 chicks will be transferred to the partitioned-off run/house so that they are all close and in sight of each other.  That will cut us down to only 2 lots of feeding and watering instead of 3 which we’re doing at the moment. 

 

Peter’s managed to bag a huge (4m x 2m) wooden packing box from work.  It housed a large piece of winery machinery in transit, and is fully lined with builder’s paper.  It’s in the orchard and will become our second chook residence.  It was a helluva job getting it off the trailer it was forklifted onto, using a gung-ho approach including several jacks, clover hay bales, an old stainless steel bucket, logs, lumps of wood, pallets, 2 boys, Peter and me.  Amazing that it’s in one piece and none of us were fatally injured.  We’re looking into partitioning off an end section so that Billy can have his own aviary, and the rest will be a second chook residence.  It just needs to be fitted out with nesting boxes and perches, and a run built.  It will mean that we’ll be able to separately accommodate our laying hens and meat birds, and we’ll be able to close down the runs periodically to allow the pasture to re-grow.

There’ve been 2 more rabbit deaths.  This time it’s the youngest kits, so there’re now only 3 of them remaining.  I’m wondering if it was their mother who died previously (they were living with 2 does and we didn’t know which one was the mamma) and that they have therefore been without her ultra-nourishing milk from a relatively young age.  Either that or it’s viral.  The national rabbit population is higher than usual this year, apparently owing to a relatively warm winter.  Maybe that means that rabbit diseases are more wide-spread.  We’re feeling pretty helpless to do anything other than watch and make sure that they’re well-fed and watered.  It’s very sad indeed. 
 

Another beehive check revealed plenty of brood and honey stores.  However, hive 1’s new honey box (added about 2 weeks ago) was totally vacant – all the bees were in the lower 2 boxes.  I think that I may need to brush the new plastic frames with melted wax to encourage the bees to feel at home, but really I need some advice in case there’s something else worth doing.  The more I read about beekeeping, the more I’m struck with similarities to child-raising – there are some sound principles, but the successful application of these principles depends on the individual child or bee colony.  One size doesn’t fit all, and that gives plenty of leeway to be experimental.  Probably the bees should be very afraid.  During today’s check I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to remove one of the honey-filled frames.  The honey and wax was scraped out roughly, sieved and jarred, and the frame returned.  The wax will be used in the new plastic frames, and the 5 jars of absolutely delicious raw honey can be enjoyed - the proudest moment in my beekeeping venture to date.

The veg garden is positively thriving.  That means the weeds are running amok too of course, but production is definitely on the up and it’s looking great.  Potatoes in abundance, beans, cabbage, courgette, artichoke and lettuce so far, with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and beetroot on their way.  The sugar beet and mangels that are being grown for the animals are also coming on.  The giant circular compost heap which will be the last keyhole bed next year is magnificent.  A quick prod with a stick reveals more worms than you can shake that stick at.  It’s made up of woody materials at the base, some seaweed, heaps and heaps of weeds, poo of all varieties (cow, sheep, chook, rabbit), used hay, plus a few dead rabbits (a horrible thought I know, but not as horrible as putting them in the rubbish bin) and all covered over with an old trampoline mat (when the wind hasn’t blown it off).  Hopefully that’ll all magically turn into gorgeous chocolate-cake compost by next spring.  Yeah right.  Maybe it would if I could get round to turning it.  The trouble is that it’s now too big to be turned, and there’s nowhere to re-stack it.  So I’m going with fingers crossed instead.

The orchard is really satisfying.  The trees are looking great.  Even those which were nibbled by the cattle and those with untreated leaf-curl are the picture of health.  And let there be fruit indeed.  Several pears are ripening, including nashis which are on a double-grafted tree.  Apples are becoming rosy, particularly the Broxwood Foxwelp (or was it Foxwood Broxwelp?) cider apples which needed to be thinned.  Plums are plumping and there’re enough damsons to add to gin.  The 2 original and quite well-established stone fruit trees alongside the pig run are having a bumper year.  The plum tree in particular is laden with fruit which is juicily ripe right now.  The photo shows only one of several branches weighed down with enough fruit to touch the ground.  Yum.  The orchard has been kept mowed (mostly thanks to Sam) so it’s still looking quite tidy.  Come autumn, once the trees have cropped and leaves fallen, we can re-introduce the sheep as lawnmowers.

 

I’ve ended up (by accident, long story) with a huge bag of (seed) peas. I’ve really had to wrack my brains to work out how best to make use of them, and have come up with a cunning plan. I’m going to use them as green manure. I’ll add a few other green manure seeds like mustard and rye, and sow thickly after cropping. That’s it. Instead of paying vast sums for pea straw to minimise weeding and improve the soil, it’ll grow itself on-site. Let’s hope it works well. At the very least we should have plenty of fresh peas.

 

 
Meanwhile the boys are making the most of the holidays.  Billy’s back from the Scout Jamboree, and hoping to go to the Australian Jamboree in 2015.  He’s also going away to Kiwi Ranch in the Marlborough Sounds for a few days of fun-filled adventure.  Sam’s been getting quite a few hours’ work at McDonalds and has decided to save up for a car.  He’s also soon going away on camp with the air cadets.  At home we’ve been celebrating Lucas’ 19^th birthday and him flying the nest.  He’s been working and saving for over a year now, and his Christchurch plans are underway.  Yesterday he cut the strings and went out into the big wide world with Sophie.  It’s very exciting for him to move into the next chapter of his life.  It won’t half be strange without him though.  Gulp… 

 

 

December 2013

With the lion’s share of my paid workload over for this year, there’re just a few days left before the arrival of our Christmas visitors.  Unfortunately, tidying up the property hasn’t yet hit the top of the priority list.  Higher on that list are the usual suspects like weeding, planting, mowing, irrigation and thistle-bashing.  Progress has been made on all of these tasks, but they never seem to go away completely.  Summers’s well and truly here and there have been many days when it’s just too hot to work outside in the heat of the day. 

Chicken numbers have increased significantly over the last few weeks - it’s chook-city out there now.  Derryn’s 5 cochin chicks have grown up into pullets and are housed in a partitioned-off section of the chicken run.  In the meantime, 9 of our own eggs hatched into yellow striped chicks, currently resident in the mobile run (and very reluctant to pose en masse for a photo).  They’re being tended by 2 mother-hens and so far that seems to be working well.  Another hen has just become broody, so more fluffy bundles may be on their way.   Keeping the poultry fed and watered has become quite a task, albeit made enjoyable by their delightful cuteness.

 

 

The cattle and sheep are mostly behaving themselves, give or take some fence leaning and munching of fruit trees.  When I'm pottering around in the flower garden, Butch comes over for a chat, to chew the cud.  He's worked out that weeds will be on the menu so it's worth hanging around.  The Inseminator was summoned when Aphrodite came on heat.  Hera is due next, but Persephone hasn’t shown any sign at all.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  We’re hoping to sell both Galloway cows sometime over the next few months, and have also advertised the ewe lambs (this photo shows the ewe in the process of shedding - though it may look like it, we haven't been near her with our hand-shears...yet).  We could do with reducing our stock numbers by winter, though that will depend on how much hay we get.  It’s due to be cut any time now, and it may be possible to do a second cut in a couple of months if the weather’s kind.   The hay paddocks are looking gorgeous right now, gently swaying in the breeze.  I’m quite excited about the prospect of stacking hay bales too – it’s a profoundly satisfying task to prepare for the next season like this.

 

Another mysterious rabbit death is concerning, though all the youngsters are all thriving.  If there is a disease that’s killing them, then we’ll have to carefully consider our rabbit-keeping future.  American rabbit keeper, Daniel Salatin (son of Polyface farmer, Joel), has written that in his early days he lost about 50% of his rabbits to disease.  He decided to ride it out and continue with his plans, in the hope that his remaining rabbits would become disease-resistant over generations.  It was a successful strategy for him, and the path which we’ll probably also take.  The alternative is to look at vaccination, which would be complicated as well as expensive.

 

 

Birds have enjoyed our cherry crop this year, scoffing every single cherry just before it ripened.  The word ‘crop’ is a bit of an exaggeration, but it may be worth netting them next year.  There are quite a few developing pears, apples, quince, medlars, plums, nectarines and peaches, so hopefully we’ll get to eat some of our own fruit.  We’re eating home-grown veg in the form of lettuce, leeks, peas, broad beans and greens, and hopefully plenty more to come.   It's all looking good, except for the corn crop which has been a bit of a disaster (neither seeds nor seedlings successful).  A different strategy is a clearly needed.  Most of the ground-sown seeds didn’t germinate, and potted germination of corn seeds wasn't much better after the birds feasted on them.  There will be enough for us to eat fresh corn, but it’s a long way from the corn crop circle I’d planned for.  I'll get some fresh seed and keep trying as there's enough time in the season remaining.  Alternatively there will be millions of peas.

The bees have been fascinating.  The new queen in the hive which had swarmed was quite slow to produce brood.  It was about 2 and a half weeks before eggs and larvae were clearly visible – just in the nick of time as I was about to re-queen with a bought queen.  The other hive followed suit and swarmed today.  I was weeding in the veg garden and became aware of an increasingly loud hum from the hive.  There was lots of bee activity too.  Then all of a sudden the sky was filled with a cloud of bees, all flying around and around.  They weren’t concerned about me being there, so I was able to enjoy the thrill of being totally surrounded by bees but feeling absolutely safe.  What a privilege to be among them like that.  The bee-cloud slowly headed towards the river and I lost sight of them.   Of course, it isn’t a great moment for a beekeeper to watch her honey production capacity plummet.   And of course, had I checked the hive sooner I may have spotted the queen cells and prevented the swarm from happening.   But hell, it was brilliant.  Though it's probably naive of me to think so, it may well have been time for a new queen in that colony given that it came to me as a swarm anyway.  Here’s hoping that she’ll be magnificent!

 

Peter’s back to work after his finger accident, though it looks like the healing will be a long-term process.  The stitches are out and the wound itself seems to be healing well, but it’s still very sore to touch.  Billy had his last day at the local school and will move to year 9 Marlborough Boys College next year.  He actually asked to wear a suit to his leaving party (hard to believe he’s related to Peter and me).  We agreed to hire him one as long as he agreed to photos!  So here he is, looking terribly grown up. 

Some Christmas preparations have been happening, including our annual cake-decorating session.  This year’s theme is ‘Lucas Leaving Home’ – a great idea for a theme as it can be repeated when Sam and Billy fly the nest too.  The Christmas tree, which was ‘acquired’ from the side of the road using a saw (it was dangerously too close to the road so we were actually providing a public service by removing it!), is also decorated and presents are wrapped.   Having spent most of our lives having winter Christmases, it’s still a bit weird celebrating it in summer.  It’s a pleasant kind-of weird though.  We have plans for a Christmas Day barbecue dinner on the beach.  Fingers crossed for glorious days ahead in this fabulous place. 

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.

Merry Christmas and all best wishes for 2014.

 

 

 

November 2013

A very busy month all round.  Not only work-wise, but also the spring activities at home.  There’s the enjoyable stuff like seed/seedling planting and watching new growth emerge; the fresh bright green of the pastures and trees awakening from their winter slumber; the reality or prospect of baby animals.  This beautiful blossom is a tulip tree flower, on a tree in the garden which we can see from the kitchen (under the rainbow in the last photo). Then there’s the other stuff.  Bottom of the list has to be thistle-bashing - a tedious and unsatisfying, but sadly necessary, task.  Also low down is weeding, which ordinarily I do quite enjoy, but right now the volume is pretty overwhelming.  Then there’s the stuff that’s so far down the priority list it’ll be lucky to get a look in by 2015.  That’s mostly the kind of thing that doesn’t grow - building a pizza oven out of wetland clay and river sand, glamming up Lazy Mazy the caravan, and housework.

We've had our first really hot days, with the mercury hitting 29/30 degrees in Blenheim so probably a couple of degrees higher here.    Orchard irrigation immediately moved up that priority list.  Right now everything’s lush and green in there, but that’ll soon change.  I've begun the process of setting up the hose but ran out of attachments so fingers crossed for some rain soon.  It’s a particularly beautiful place to hang around in the early evening of a warm day.  It’s the first zone to lose the day’s sun, so it’s refreshingly cool and there are plenty of trees to admire and communicate with.  There’s a good view of the wetland too.

Most of my outdoor time lately has been spent in the veg garden.  Happily it has turned a corner in terms of becoming manageable (zikes, that seriously sounds like famous last words).  I’ve cleared out the hefty weeds in the fruit beds, and re-filled them with thick layers of pea straw.  That should retain moisture as well as reduce weed growth.  It’s tidied them up too, and frames the developing fruit so it’s much more visible.  It’s looking like a bumper year for gooseberries, with several currants and blueberries on the way.   Any fruit is really a bonus, given that they’re newly planted.  The low hedges around the bed are coming away.  Some of the lavenders needed replacing (chicken-damage I think, during one of their escape-missions) but otherwise they’re looking like they might one day grow up to actually be hedges.  Potatoes and corn are planted in the newest keyhole beds, with plans for another spud patch and bean/pea bed once weeds have been cleared.  The weeding is relatively easy here, as the thick layers of newspaper have done the job of holding back the hardy pasture weeds.  Last year’s beds, which had largely been abandoned during the creation of this year’s beds, are another weeding matter entirely.  Though there’s no sign of any of them catching the gardening bug, I’ve felt obliged to shell out sums of money to pay boys to help - a strategy which has sometimes bitten me on the bum.  If you want a job done properly…. etc. etc. 

On the flying livestock front, the bees have been tremendously busy.  Their presence around the place is incredibly delightful - many a happy few minutes stretch out just watching the hive activity.   We were the venue for the bee club this month (when housework did temporarily jump up the priority list, though only the minimum).  Several people attended a talk on swarm prevention (thank you Philip!) and it was great to have my hives checked over by an expert.  He found that one of the hives had already swarmed and located the virgin queen and several queen cells.  This meant that the hive could be divided, and a very happy Neville (who’d lost his bees to varroa and was desperate to get up and running with more bees) returned later that day to collect a frame with queen cells and a couple of frames of brood from the other very vibrant hive. 

The calves and lambs are getting bigger by the day.  Oddly, Athena and Zeus have swapped colour.  Athena was white with black patches, and Zeus white with brown patches.  Now it's the other way round.  I guess hair colour changes happen with human babies too as they age.  The cattle are spoilt for choice in terms of pasture options.  Peter’s been in touch with the ‘Artificial Inseminator’ (which you feel obliged to say using an awful American accent) to plan the next pregnancies.  The plan is for Hera to become pregnant with Speckled Park semen, and for Aphrodite and Persephone to have pure Galloway calves.  Given the difficulties that both heifers had during calving, we don’t want to put them through that again.  Galloways are likely to be smaller calves, so hopefully will have easier births this time (not necessarily the same for humans!).  Here's hoping it all goes to plan.  We have to watch out for signs that they’re coming into heat (noisy mooing and the playing of ‘mounting’ games), and then hope we can get the Inseminator here on time.  It’s one of those events that I fervently hope will happen on a weekend when Peter's around. 

The sad demise of Gandalf, the buck, has significantly contributed to our unhappy run of rabbit bad-luck.  His was the first rabbit loss which may have been due to an infectious disease.  He basically just went downhill over a period of days, eating less, then moving around less.  We’ve always been aware that wild rabbits may pose a health risk, and maybe this is what’s happened.  He’s buried under a strawberry patch in the veg garden.  However, his offspring live on.  Belladonna’s 6 kits are lively and healthy, and another doe has recently had her first small litter of 5 kits.  This little family is currently sharing a run with another rabbit, which we think is also female.  We’d like to move her into a different home, but are having difficulty working out just who’s the mumma.  We haven’t observed them during their very infrequent (only twice a day) feed times, and removing the wrong one would be simply disastrous.    Assuming that this is indeed another female, it also means that we won’t be having any more kits until one of Belladonna’s sons reaches maturity (and then shags his mother and/or Aunty). 

One of Derryn’s hens has been sitting on a dozen of our eggs and now has a clutch of 6 chicks (hurray - Bob-Junior has got lead in his pencil after all).  Another hen is proudly raising her clutch of 5 cochin chicks, and they will come out to us when they’re a bit older.  They’re already well-behaved, having been taught by their mum to clean under their wings before bed.  They have fun riding on her back before the settling-down routine, after contented days of scratching around the whole garden.  Coincidentally 3 of our own hens are also broody and sitting on eggs.  We’ve moved them into their own mobile run so they’re not disturbed by the others, and also in the vain hope that the others will continue to lay.  It seems that as soon as one hen gets broody, the others decide to slow down on the old egg production.  That would be fine for a few days, but given that they take 21 days to hatch, it can get quite frustrating.  Alternatively they may continue to lay but in a different place to usual, meaning that someday you chance upon a heap of un-eatable eggs.  We clearly have much more to learn about the art of the chook-keeper.

Things are happening on the home front too.  Sam is just old enough to be whizzing around on our motorbike.  What we’ll be saving in time and fuel costs will no doubt be replaced by episodes of parental anxiety.  He’s got himself a part-time job (at McDonalds) and bar an exam or two, has finished up at school for the year.  Peter’s been forced to have a couple of weeks off work following a nasty accident at work in which the end of his middle finger was sliced off.  The surgeon had to grind down the bone further so that there was enough tissue and skin to pull over the end of what’s left of his finger.  The after-math of the surgery was considerably more painful than the chopping off.  He’s now wandering around with his middle finger bandaged up, looking like he’s giving the finger to everyone.  We’ve had a lot of comedy mileage out of it, fingers crossed the pain diminishes for him soon though!
Roll on Christmas and safe travels to Marcus, Nikki, Arthur, Jago and birthday girl Freya.  Cant'wait to show off the place to you all!

October 2013

Three bonus lambs greeted us on our return from Queenstown.  Happily it turns out that the barren ewe isn’t, and she’s now the proud (and attentive) mother of twin girls.  She’s definitely knocked herself off the home-kill list for the end of the year.  The 3^rd lamb (pictured above) is the daughter of last year’s lamb, Sunday.  At only a year old, she’s very young to have lambed herself.  She’s effectively a teenage mum abused by her father (and we did nothing to keep her safe from him).  We had no idea that either of them were pregnant, and certainly had not imagined that fertility was possible at such a young age.   However, all seems well, so there are now 4 boy and 4 girl lambs, making a total of 14 sheep all up.  Some of the grown ups are starting to shed and looking pretty raggy - probably fervently keeping hooves crossed that they won't again be subject to our renowned sheep shearing skills.  We’ll have to get on with making a decision about which ones to keep, sell and eat.

The cows are enjoying the rapidly growing pasture, and the calves are getting bigger by the day.  Interestingly both Zeus and Athena feed from Aphrodite, and she doesn’t seem to mind.  Persephone’s teats are noticeably diminishing, and we’re wondering if she’s lactating at all.  Aphrodite always had bigger udders, and they were huge at the end of her pregnancy and when Zeus was little.  We’re not sure if it’s unusual for mother-cows to allow other calves to feed from them, but we do intend to find out. 

We’re still learning about rabbits too, and our inexperience has led to another tragedy.  Gandalf and Belladonna seemed to be enjoying their time together, so we only removed Gandalf when Belladonna started plucking out her fur just before giving birth.  She had a litter of 7 and everything seemed fine.  When the kits were 4 weeks old she started plucking her fur again and we were at a loss to understand why she would do that.  The next day she gave birth again.  The 4 week old kits weren’t old enough to be separated from their mum, and in the absence of any alternative plan we decided to leave them together for a few days.  None of the tiny kits survived, whether through neglect or being killed by their mother or the older kits.  Very, very sad.

The veg garden is still taking shape, with most of the pathways created - thanks to a team effort (including Grandpa Nick) when many hands did indeed make light work.  The attention to the pathways has of course meant that the beds themselves have been neglected.  Obviously it’s very unwise to neglect them in spring, though the substantial weed growth does make for an easy source of rabbit greens.  I have managed to clear some of last year’s mandalas and plant up some crops - so far broad beans, yams, silver beet, lettuce, celery, peas and kale.  Progress has also been made on the new circular beds - the green manure has been chopped down and weeding has commenced.  This weeding is much easier as it seems that the newspaper layers have worked a treat.  There are plenty of weeds among the green manure, but they are all so shallowly rooted that they’re a breeze to dig up.  The chitting potatoes are the next priority, and many more seedlings are popping up in the trays in the Gin Palace.

The bee hives are buzzing again thanks to Derryn and a couple of swarms.  The first swarm turned up at a friend of Derryn’s, and the second was actually from one of Derryn’s hives.  We managed to get them home and ensconced in their new hives without too much difficulty.  There’s quite a temperament difference between them.  Derryn’s former bees were quite placid and set up home happily.  The first swarm were pretty cheesed off with being transported and transferred into a new hive.  I got stung twice that day, and they were still unhappy to be disturbed a few days later when I opened the hive to put in the varroa strip (Apivar).  Anyway, it’s a delight having bees buzzing around the place again, and there’s plenty of nearby pollen in the form of fruit blossom and wild broom.  The hobbyist bee club has got off the ground at last, and Derryn and me were interviewed by the local press (page 5, Marlborough Midweek October 9, 2013) so we got some good publicity.  We’re also planning to do an online beekeeping course – Certificate in Apiculture Knowledge - with Telford (division of Lincoln University) which should take around a year to complete.   Very exciting.

The half-wine barrels which have been dotted around the property have now been re-located into their new homes in the veg garden. I’m going to experiment with carrot and lettuce and see how they compare to those grown in the soil. A bargain grapefruit tree which was originally in the garden has been re-planted in one of barrels to see if they’ll be good places for dwarf fruit trees. The tree height should look great, but the barrels' capacity to dry out quickly may rule them out. Probably not the best idea to trial this with grapefruit (a big citrus) but that’s what we’ve got.

The orchard is looking really beautiful (at least to me).  The lawn-mower cranked up to the highest setting has managed to cope with the pasture growth, so it’s even relatively tidy.  The trees themselves have been blossoming away - first the stone fruit, then the cherries, pears and apples.  They’ve all grown significantly too, and I’m very relieved that I took the time with staking.  We had another storm last week, gusty enough to completely blow our new pig shelter to smithereens (most of it is in bits yet to be retrieved from along the river bank).  It brought down several big branches too, and damaged fences.  But the fruit trees withstood the onslaught - only the quince with its long straggly branches looked like it had been whipped, but already seems to be coming right.

The herb garden is looking better than ever after much lush growth in the last few weeks.  Every now and then I find something new to put in.  Caraway and dill are recent additions, and flat parsley seedlings are popping up everywhere.  The thyme is delightfully spilling out over the edge and the basil-mint is attempting a take-over.  It’s a perfect site for herbs – dry and with the sun reflecting from the garage wall.

The boys were busy over the recent holidays - Sam away in Rotorua for his first foray with the National Secondary Schools Brass Band.  His highlight was a trip and concert at Hobbiton in Matamata.  Adverts are out for the 2^nd Hobbit film, so it’s very much current.  We can’t wait to see it as some of it (the dwarves in barrels scene) was filmed at Pelorus, one of our favourite nearby picnic spots.  Billy played soccer for Marlborough in a Queenstown tournament.   Peter and Lucas stayed behind at work.  And I went to Queenstown and Te Anau with mum and Nick, catching one of Billy’s games.  We were lucky enough to take a Milford Sound cruise on a particularly stunning day.  The coach trip made several memorable stops on the way over too.  Such a beautiful corner of the world. 

In the meantime, the life-sentence block work mounts.  Relentless really, always several jobs to do and not enough time to do them.  Happily we’re also in a beautiful corner of the world, which more than makes up for it.  The flower garden is putting on a bright happy show of colour in the form of the perennials that weren't weeded out by accident.   Even the wetland is gorgeous, as long as you can look past the weeds and focus on the native planting and the wild ducks. We’ve been here 2 years now, and definitely no lust for city-life.  If anything, it’s hard to imagine not waking up to the views of the hills and valleys and the sound of bird-song and Bob-junior crowing.  First up there’s always a quick cattle and sheep head-count, followed by the gathering of breakfast for the rabbits and chooks.  Then it’s onto watering the seedlings and cuttings.  Chores indeed, but always a pleasure nonetheless.  Home sweet home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on a final note, here's one for Dave.  Usually you don't make your grandest creations when there is someone around to impress, but Dave managed to be present for the best ever Yorkshire Puddings to be made in the Powell household.  Hope you enjoyed your stay here (and that Korea was awesome too), and hope you manage to persuade your family to come and visit too!

 

September 2013

A much less emotional month compared to August, at least so far.  Animals are thriving, buds are bursting, pastures are fresh-green, sand-flies are biting, and weeds have well and truly unleashed themselves.  Spring is in the air, a few frosty nights but some stunning sunny days.  The seasonal wind has also set in, and a recent storm damaged more trees and branches, and threw the trampoline into the bushes again. 

The calves are simply delightful.  Athena is like a sturdy toddler now, mischievous and prone to episodes of lively darting around.  Zeus still has a marked limp, and we wonder if his left front leg was broken or if it was extensive soft tissue damage during his traumatic birth.  Investigations to confirm this would be tricky and costly (how to X-ray a calf?).  Despite his limp he has no difficulty getting around and playing with Athena, so we’ve decided to let the healing process take place without intervention.  All the cattle are peacefully together now, but Butch is getting to be a bit of a handful.  Peter has occasionally had to bop him on the nose to sort him out.  He’s next in line for the freezer, so his behaviour is probably a bit unwise!

We’re enjoying the sheep too.  We now have a total of 11 (Rambo, 5 ewes and 5 lambs) so they make up quite a flock.  The 4 boy-lambs and the one ewe which didn’t birth are also destined for the freezer in a few months.  Harry, the rejected lamb, is now the fattest, even though he’s down to one milk feed a day.  He’d feed way more often than that if he had the choice.  Many of the hours we spend pottering around outside are serenaded by his constant baa-ing.  We give him a 2^nd feed of warm water in the evenings, which he knocks back in exactly the same way as he guzzles his milk.  He’s still pretty cute, though now quite capable of bowling me over at feed times.

4 of the chooks have moved residence, so we’re now left with 7 hens and Bob-junior the rooster.  Not the original Bob-junior, but his brother who had lived chez Derryn pretending to be one of the girls.  He eventually gave himself away with some cock-a-doodle-doos and was swiftly dispatched back to us.  In the short time he’s been here, he’s grown considerably and there is no doubt that he’s male.  Derryn is looking into getting some fertile Cochin eggs (a meat-breed) to put under her broody hens.  They’ll come to us when they’re a few weeks old - we’ll be a bit like a chook finishing school.

The rabbit numbers are down (though Belladonna has a new litter), and we’ve been on another learning curve here.  The two tiny (stunted) kits from Galadriel’s litter had been fostered by Karyn and fattened up.  They’d had a great time, spoiled with food and affection.  On their return they went back to the remainder of their siblings.  The biggest of these was a very dominant bully and for the first time I really understood where the pet name ‘Thumper’ comes from.  When he stamped his foot we could hear it from the back of the house.  One of the kits was found dead after the storm, and the other a few days later.  Our suspicions were confirmed when we found another rabbit with a wound on his back - a result of unwanted attention from Thumper.  Suffice to say that we have enjoyed rabbit pie for tea tonight….

The orchard is looking beautiful, and nearly looks like a real orchard now.  It’s still pretty well cropped by the sheep, and several of the trees are full of blossom.  Some of the herbal ley plants are also re-awakening, and the comfrey is well on its way.  Roll on fresh fruit in the summer.  The native planting in the wetland and the horse arena is also much more visible.  Hopefully the plants that have survived this far will continue to do so.  I’m still dreaming of that tunnel house once there’s enough wind protection.

The veg garden is the apple of my eye, even though in many places it is in serious need of weeding and tidying up.  About 2/3 of the paths are created, recently using some chippings from a neighbour further down the valley who has a tree business (and does our hay).  A giant load for the princely sum of a few beers.   One more load like that should be enough to finish it all off.  I have had some nightmares in which all the wood chippings are blown away, but this has yet to materialise.  The pathways are uneven in places after strong winds, but that’s easily remedied.  Though we have now scoffed all the carrots, the garden is still productive.  Mostly right now the mainstays are brassicas, swedes and leeks.  Hopefully it won’t be long before the recently sown seeds will crop.  In the absence of a greenhouse, they’re lining the shelves of the Gin Palace.  Seed growing continues to fill me with a childish sense of magic and wonder, and so far so good - there’s quite a good strike rate.  This year there’ll be more crops for the cows, sheep and rabbits - kale, sugar beet and mangels, and plenty of corn for the chooks.  The expectation of an abundant crop of everything is totally mesmerising, probably more exciting than the eventual reality.  The joys of a vivid imagination!

The herb garden has had a bit of a face-lift.  Well just a good old weed-out really.  It is looking pretty good though.  Particularly gorgeous is the arnica, which has been showing off its happy bright yellow flowers for weeks now.  A little while ago I planted a pack of 6 curly-leaved parsleys, and discovered at least 12 of them during weeding.  Hmmm, patience obviously would have served me well.  There are also some gladioli popping up, which keep doing so even though I’ve believed them to be all dug up several times.  No doubt they’ll get hammered by the wind as usual.

We’re delighted to be finally welcoming one of Peter’s relatives to New Zealand (visitors so far have been my family and friends, so quite a momentous occasion).  Dave, his cousin Janet’s son who we last met many years ago when he was a little boy, has been travelling around Australia and is now heading here.  We’re also eagerly anticipating the arrival of Mum and Nick next week.  They’ll be flying into Christchurch where I’ll meet them and bring them home.  We can’t wait to show them around the property.  Then I’ll be taking them on a short holiday to Te Anau, whilst Sam goes to Rotorua with the National Secondary Schools Brass Band and Billy plays his soccer tournament in Queenstown.   Daylight Saving starts on the day Mum and Nick arrive.  Long and happy days ahead. 

 

August 2013

 

Never a dull moment - all up it’s been a thoroughly exciting and emotional month.   Though it’s technically still winter and there’s been plenty of rain (especially at weekends), there have also been many spring-like days which are fooling some of the plants into new growth.  Let’s hope it won’t be harshly destroyed by winter deciding to make a come-back.  We’re definitely enjoying it while it lasts, and hopefully we’ll start to see the pasture growth kick-started as well as the fresh new buds. 

The main excitement has been on the animal front.  Persephone and Aphrodite are now proud mothers.  Persephone was first up with a prolonged labour.  Peter and Lucas happened to be on their first day of a new job, and were subjected to a barrage of my texts about what to do next.   After watching her on-and-off most of the day, and then 3 and a half hours of being able to see the calves hooves sticking out, the vet was eventually called.  Her big calf, Athena, was finally extracted using extensive pulling with chains around her front hooves.  Both mother and daughter were quite shocked immediately, but amazingly were mobile within the hour.  The gorgeous Athena has since put her traumatic entry into the world well and truly behind her.

Aphrodite had an even harder time.  Her boy calf, Zeus, was born using chains and a calf-puller.  It was over an hour before she could stand up after the birth, but poor Zeus wasn’t so lucky.  He’s now several days old and cannot properly stand as his front hooves were damaged during the birth.  It was definitely touch and go at the beginning.  We had to lure Aphrodite into the shelter and then move Zeus so he was in a position to feed from her.  He’s even bigger than Athena so this was no mean feat.  After a day and a half, the vet prescribed him a painkiller and antibiotic, and these definitely seemed to help.  At least he was able to prop himself into a feeding position.  Probably he was in considerable pain, with his left foot still severely swollen from the chains.  We give him daily ‘therapy’ in the form of bridging him over a hay bale and soaking his front hooves in a solution of Epsom salts.  He is making progress and can now get up onto his right foot, and he’s had a repeat dose of both medications.  We're really hoping that it's tissue damage and nothing's broken.  I’ll shed a tear when this cutie does eventually take his first steps! 

 

The hens are finally laying properly, meaning way more eggs than we need.  Alas that means way more baking than we need, but usually not too many complaints about that.  We’re going to try and sell a few of the hens.  Many rabbits have been sold, and we’re now down to just 9.  The twice daily feeding round had been becoming easier, until the calving and lambing.  Now the new mothers get a few extra tid-bits in the interests of postnatal nourishment.

 
In between the calving we had lambing.  A set of twins first (Hermione and Neville) who just arrived and settled in.  So little trouble compared to calving (famous last words).  Two days later another set of twin lambs arrived (2 boys) but this was going to be far less straightforward.  The mother ewe rejected the first lamb (Harry), and set about caring for the second (Ron).  Despite Harry’s best efforts, she just wasn’t having him.  Advice to pen them up together and pin the mother ewe down so that the lamb could feed seemed promising at first.  The idea is that once the lamb starts to process her milk she recognises him as one of her own.  After the first 2 days of persistent resistance, young Harry was really no further forward, and being repeatedly and aggressively bowled away by his mum.  Suffice to say he’s now bottle-fed, though we’re doing our best to keep him close to his mum and brother.  She doesn’t look out for him, but if he hangs around she tolerates him.  Only if he wanders away and loses sight of them is he all alone and potentially in trouble.  So far so good with keeping them together as a family, and fingers crossed he can hang on in there.  For the record, they were named by Billy who also named the older lamb ‘Hagrid’.  Harry Potter had no parents, hence his name.  Ron as the younger lamb, stayed slightly more orange than Harry for a while. 

The orchard has been grazed and groomed by the sheep and is now looking considerably less untidy than it has for a while.  They have knocked down a few stakes, but nothing that can’t be easily replaced.  Optimistically it should be being well-fertilised.  Around the property there are signs that the native planting is coming away - those in the wetland and in the horse arena (destined to provide wind-protection for a tunnel-house) are thriving and big enough to be more visible.  That’s good news and a great feeling to be successfully returning native plants to the land. 

 

The veg garden is definitely getting there, with or without my imagination.  Wood chippings are now covering well over a 1/3 of the paths.  The gin palace is complete, even decorated with a beautiful bench cushion crafted by Derryn.  I couldn’t resist being prepared and filling up seed trays with potting compost.   I made the compost primarily for hedge cuttings but it should also be good for seedlings.  The ordered veg seeds have arrived and early potatoes are busy chitting under the bed. Three of the circular beds are now planted with a low hedge on their perimeter - box, dwarf lavender and lonicera.  They should grow to be no higher than about 50cms, so should provide a great living border and wind-protection.  Enough cuttings to do 3 more beds have been taken, plus another batch of cuttings from an existing teucrium in the garden.  Hopefully that means that next year they’ll be ready to plant out around some of the other circular beds.  A couple of apple trees trained as step-over espaliers will make low hedges around a bed which houses fruit.  Hopefully I won’t stuff that up with useless pruning.  Next year the same will be done with a fig tree - apparently they can grow several feet a year horizontally if they are well-managed.  I’ve also bagged a plain metal archway which is hammered into the ground at the entrance to the veg garden.  In a few years there will be pears drooping from its branches to be grabbed in passing.  A bit of height in the veg garden is definitely needed for shade and wind-protection - here’s hoping that will make a difference come spring.

 

The veg garden and its surrounds are also benefitting from music.  A local vineyard owner (Peter Yealand) famously plays classical music to his vines, and his staff have also noticed a considerable increase in egg size from hens who are within hearing distance of the music.  Maybe totally mad, but a brief Google search suggests that there are many other mad people around, as well as research evidence of music’s effectiveness.  Classical music is the most commonly played, but Indian music (such as Ravi Shankar) is believed to work too.  I’ve loaded an old ipod with classical music from the library and bought a small solar-powered speaker.  It makes for pleasant gardening.

The woodlot is!  It’s all fenced and gated, and planted up with over 60 young trees.  The holes were dug and back-filled with a soil/compost mix.  Each tree is marked with a bamboo stick, and should probably be staked but I’m hoping to get away without the hassle.  They’re all young trees and optimistically they shouldn’t put up much wind-resistance.   Yep, a pretty crap excuse I know.  The land is also particularly prone to thistles, so managing that will be another job once spring really gets its foot in the door.

 

 

Along with plant-life, we’ve also enjoyed the many opportunities to bird-watch.   Spotted so far are: kingfisher, tui, silvereye, kereru (wood pigeon), pukeko, shelduck, mallard, bellbird, weka, Australasian harrier, spur-winged plover, white-faced heron, Californian quail, swallow, yellowhead, fantail, yellowhammer, goldfinch, redpoll and Australian magpie.  Despite the local population of mice, that’s quite a few reasons not to keep a cat, though Maggie would absolutely love to have one of her own to torture. 

Surely by now we must be getting towards the end of the development phase and nearly at the maintenance point?  I’d really like to think so, but alas that’s not  obviously the reality.  Maybe it is a life-sentence block after all.  There’re still an awful lot of jobs to be done, many of them needing to be completed before spring.  I’m really holding out for a garden angel, or maybe a miracle.   Whatever the property looks like, it’ll be great to spend time with visitors in October (Mum and Nick) and December (Marcus, Nikki, Arthur, Jago and Freya).  Must go, I can hear Harry bleating outside - it’s time for another feed.