May 2022

 Despite the 'Rona' visitation at the end of last month, we managed to squeeze in a small holiday after all.  It was a good job we'd delayed a decision to fly up north, as that would have been scuppered by being unable to fly on the dates we'd have booked.  Instead, we took a road trip - a tiki tour starting in Hokitika on the West Coast, heading south as far as the road goes, then inland to Wanaka and Lake Tekapo before hitting the East Coast and back home.  As always, the West Coast was totally magical.  We took an unmissable chopper flight from Franz Josef to the glacier on a perfect blue sky day.  Alas, climate change is shrinking it at an alarming rate.  Then we fell in love with Fox, and in particular, Lake Matheson, which was just jaw-droppingly beautiful.  The photo (at the top) shows it perfectly reflecting Mounts Aoraki/Cook and Tasman.  The walk through the forest to the lake edge was simply astounding.  Definitely have to go there again.

We then headed inland, stopping at Wanaka (catching up with the lovely Roz for coffee), Lake Tekapo and Geraldine.  We're planning a return trip to Tekapo with Sam and Molly one day, so that we can check out the starry night sky and do a spot of fly fishing.  Kaikoura was our east coast stop, and of course, stopping by at the Store in Kekerengu for brunch. All up, a precious reminder that New Zealand's South Island is a truly remarkable place.  Our next trip will cover the deep south, whenever that'll be.

  

                                                      Meanwhile, back on the ranch, winter has arrived.  Most mornings are pretty chilly and the fire is lit every day.  Several wintering-down jobs have been deleted from the to-do list, though there are still plenty left and I do insist on adding more as I go along.  Some of those are pretty big jobs, like weeding the flower gardens and pruning the orchard.  Probably I'm guilty of getting on with the easy stuff and deluding myself about what's left.  No surprises there.  I am glad that I did actually get round to potting on the oak trees that we grew from acorns the year before last.  Assuming they grow up to be big and strong, we'll plant them out in the original woodlot in one of the back paddocks.

The pruning saw has had a little outing though.  When the septic tank was emptied, it was clear that access needed to be better in the future.  We decided to extend some of the rocky zones along the path, rather than have bitty bits of lawn around the access lid.  Laura came to help out with the grunty clearing of the excess soil.  Some of the low branches of the lawn maple tree were in the way of clearing up the zone, so the saw was the perfect tool.  Might as well take off those dead branches too, and voila.  There it was, gone.  Oops, just a bit carried away... Now only the small matter of digging up those maple roots and re-seeding with lawn - might be some time before that reaches the priority task list.

                          Most of the harvesting in the vege garden has been completed, just a few purple-sprouting, kale, cabbages and daikon radishes left, and some impressive mammoth mangels (for the cattle and sheep).  Also yet to harvest is the new kid on the block - the yacon.  Now that the foliage has had enough frost to kill it back, the tubers should be sweetening nicely.  I'm intrigued about the taste but will have to report this in next month's blog as those tubers need to spend a few days seasoning once dug.  The asparagus patch has been cleared and topped with bags of horse manure.  The lion's share of the weeding is mostly done - even Karyn's bed has finally been cleared and green manure sown.  Green manure sown elsewhere is all happily coming through now.  The vege garden generally still looks a mess though, with lots of netting, pots, mesh, sticks and general debris littered around.  Hopefully that'll be sorted before spring. 

                                                         

Madame Cholet is still nurturing peppers and chillis.  The turmeric leaves started to die back when the cold temperatures hit, so the tubers were harvested.  Not a bad crop really, since they weren't actually planted on purpose - they grew from tiny tubers accidentally left behind.  Though they're not the finger-sized tubers found in the shops, they'll be fine for smoothies.  I tentatively dug up some ginger too, but I regret doing so because the leaves were very much alive and the tubers immature.  Luckily there's plenty left behind still growing.  

                                  New wines have been started.  I traded honey with my Havelock beekeeping friend, Jo.  Her honey is much darker than mine and therefore, in theory at least, more likely to make good mead.  So a batch is bubbling away.  We hit peak-feijoa - far too many for me to handle alone - and Clare and Laura helped with the task of scooping out several kgs of flesh.  Twenty plus litres of feijoa wine are now bubbling away.  I've also been offered bulk persimmons (not quite ripe enough yet) by one of Peter's workmates, Kim. We have a persimmon tree but it's not mature enough to produce excess fruit.  The small quantities will have to be eaten fresh - they're far too delish to not eat straight from the tree.  Kim assumed it'd be possible to make wine out of them, and when I googled it, sure enough, persimmon wine is a thing and apparently beloved by Koreans.  That should be my last wine of the season, and frankly, it's quite a relief.  The success of the elderberry wine (happily in mass volume) has significantly increased our homebrew stock, and the feijoa wine will add another welcome boost.  Don't really want to risk too much of a good thing, but maybe, just maybe, some of my wine will manage to mature in the bottle, rather than be drunk young.  Probably I'm dreaming - Peter can work his way through quite a quantity of wine, and now Lucas and Laura are helping him.

                                               Also abundant right now is beef.  Our bull Noddy (Kronos) met his maker and his carcass was bigger than expected at 455kg.  Peter's colleague Matt gladly took half, and the half we kept was halved again to share with Lucas and Laura.  We shared the task of bagging up the meat, and this division of labour made it a much quicker (a couple of hours only) and more enjoyable process than previously.  We got mountains of mince and I managed to make 3kg batches of meatballs and burgers prior to freezing.  They'll make some handy quick meals.

                           I was nicely spoilt for Mother's Day (8th May).  Lucas and Laura got me a beautiful plant pot, and Sam and Molly sent a voucher for Bunnings (obviously that's gonna be a plant).  My house plant collection is growing (literally) but there's always space for more.  Billy sent two parcels designed to add to my waistline.  The first was an assortment of marzipan goodies, and the next was full of British sweet treats.  Totally yum.  Didn't last long alas.

                        'Rona' left me with a very unwelcome sequel - a 13 day head pressure/ache.  It came after the cold symptoms had diminished and never left me all that time.  Resting was the only way to keep it in check, and it took me a while to work that out.  Happily one day it just lifted and hasn't revisited.  The food parcels from Billy were probably a crucial part of recovery, but not without a downside. Not only was there way too many calories, but also I couldn't get out to run when I had covid and subsequent headache.  I'd been running most days since early January, admittedly without a great deal of improvement even before the old Rona.  It's around 4kms to the Onamalutu Reserve and back along the road, pretty flat and easy, and slightly downhill on the way home.  Sometimes I had been able to extend the run into the reserve, but that extra effort has eluded me post-covid.  Probably I should get some advice on how to either go faster or further, but at least I'm doing it. I'm thinking of registering for a half marathon (probably the Saint Clair half next May) in the hope that this is motivating.  The photos were taken when out running, along the Onamalutu valley road.  The morning mist rising from the frosty ground and the sun lighting up the disappearing clouds at this time of year are unmissable. 

                                              Gladys has been tucked up in the carport, and maybe that'll be it for her until spring.  Peter managed to get out fishing one day with our neighbour Al.  His boat is bigger than ours, so easier to take further out.  They caught lots of (inedible) dogfish, but also a few snapper for the freezer, adding to our already generous freezer fish supply.  Peter took the photo on their way home.  It's a hard life etc - roll on retirement.

                       The carport behind Gladys is in the process of a transformation.  We've long planned to create a kind of workshop zone out there but hadn't got round to anything.  Lucas asked if it could be transformed into a Pool Room, and he'd provide the Pool Table.  So it got cleared of crap, and Peter added walls, windows ($4 each from the recycle centre), and a door.  Lucas and Laura scrubbed and painted.  Now it looks fab, and so much more spacious than we'd imagined.  The freezers are in there and we'll get a new workbench so Peter can use it as a workspace and tool storage. Just a few finishing off jobs left now.  Hopefully, there'll be enough space around the pool table to account for every type of shot (and if not, at least everyone will be similarly disadvantaged).  

                      Also on the home DIY front, the porch has been re-vamped.  The dodgy old trellising, along with its myriad of spider webs, was removed and replaced with board and batten to match the house.  The external areas were all treated with preservative and the internal walls were re-painted in white.  It's now water-proof and hopefully less appealing to spiders.  The shelving unit that Billy constructed from pallets was treated with the same colour preservative, as was the old front door.  Peter's going to construct a firewood holder that'll store way more than the tatty old trunk that we've been using.  We inherited the characterful trunk with the house, and it'll be re-vivified as a planter box.

 

One of the joys of having Lucas and Laura around is occasional food-sharing.  This impressive meal was my Mother's Day treat.  We've also begun a weekly Cards Night during which lots of alcohol is consumed, even though it's usually a school night.  The spirit of competition usually builds over the course of the evening, though hasn't yet got violent.  Laura is often victorious, even when we try new games.  Our current go-to's are Rummy, Scrub and Exploding Kittens.  Lucas and Laura usually walk Maggie most days too -  the short walk to the river and back suits elderly Maggie and tiny Woody.  Woody is still quite cautious of me and Peter unless we have food treats for him of course!  Hopefully, he'll adjust to us in time.

                                                      

It looks like I might finally get to Australia to do the Spinning Babies Aware Practitioner course later next month.  This will be my fourth attempt to get there, and it's looking dangerously promising this time.  So, Melbourne here I come - a lovely little winter warmer treat to look forward to.  As always, it'll be heart-warming to return home afterwards.  Happy days!           

                                                                               

 

April 2022

The last-minuteness of this blog can be blamed on the dreaded 'Rona' which finally made a visitation on the Powell household.  Peter succumbed first, along with a number of workmates (10 out of 14 staff - of the remaining 4, 3 had already had it), and then passed it onto me a few days later.  We've both had a decent dose, though different symptoms.  We're well over the worst now, just a bit tired and snotty and coughy.  Hopefully that's our immunity properly boosted.

  

Before Covid (BC) some tasks did finally get crossed off the monumental list.  All the vege garden beds are weeded, hedge-trimmed and most have green manure seeds sown around the remaining crops (in the hope there's time and warmth enough for them to germinate).  The fig tree bed has become the new compost area, and it's pretty high in weeds already.  I'll add a few bags of horse manure when most of the weeding is done - still the flower gardens and horse arena beds to clear yet.  Hopefully the actual compost bin will have usable compost by spring.  

Cropping of vegetables is ongoing.  Silver beet, cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, and the last courgettes and tomatoes.  There's also a quite impressive crop of Mammoth Mangels, grown from scattered seed, that can boost the livestock nutrition over winter.  Madame Cholet is still hosting heaps of peppers and chillis, and the ginger and turmeric have yet to be harvested.

The beautiful Aztec corn has also been harvested.  The one single plant that was missed by the rabbits in the first sowing had grown to an impressive plant.  It had 6 stems, and each grew 2 heads of corn.  Presumably this was a deliberate strategy to ensure that it could pollinate itself.  The remaining cobs grown in the second planting ripened later, and interestingly, none of those plants had multiple stems.  All up there's still a reasonable total crop volume that's being dried and will eventually be ground into corn flour.  Next year I'll do my darnedest to get the seedlings in the ground and protected earlier in the season.

The gourd foliage started to die back one cold night, so they were harvested as part of the tidy-up.  Not so many this year - quite a relief.  There are only so many days of your life you can justifiably commit to the interests of gourd art.  They're still endearing though, and I'm not sure I'm ready to lead a gourd-free life just yet.

I spent some satisfying hours clearing the broom from the new woodlot.  I'd been putting it off for ages, imagining it to be a thankless task.  Bring on the Stihl mini chain saw!  Once I'd worked out that it was worth grovelling around in the undergrowth to get to the main broom trunk, it became deeply joyful to take out those dastardly woody weed stems.  One cut on the right place and ...'TIMBER', again and again.  We bought a new bad-ass weed whacker and Peter chopped down heaps more weedy growth.  The woody branches were burned in a fire, along with some other crap lying around the car port.  Finally, 27 new trees have been planted! They are a mix of Kowhai (from Jane and Al), hazelnuts (from Shona), stonefuit (from Karyn), Pine Nuts (from Jenn) and a Horse Chestnut, that have been lovingly watered and nurtured in pots for months.  Such a good feeling to get them planted.  I'd been gifted some sheets of wool packaging from a few people who get supplies of 'My Food Bag'.  They were cut down to squares and are now providing a mulch base for the new trees.

Feijoas are on tap.  I had a bash at crushing whole feijoa and then pressing them.  There was a concern that the juice may be bitter from the skins, but although it looked like pond water, it didn't taste too bad.  That first batch is bubbling away as feijoa cider, and that hideous green/grey swamp look is slowly improving.  Whether it will make a drinkable nectar is doubtful, but gotta try these things.  I'll also get Crusher Clare onto the next batch which will be skinless.

The fig tree has created even more of a bumper crop than ever.  Can't fault its enthusiasm for life.  It's a shame it's too late in the year to solar dehydrate the abundant fruit.  The tree will need a very serious prune to keep it in check. Laura loves figs, but even she can't make any kind of dent in the volume.  What's a girl to do then?  Fig wine, of course.  The initial bubbling 'must' absolutely resembled a bucket of vomit - always a good sign in wine-making (in my vast experience), though it looks quite acceptable now it's now strained.  The hallway cupboard is full of various bubbling alcoholic potions.  I'll have to get on with some bottling (probably the elderberry wine) to release demi-john space for the next round of racking.  

We were enjoying 'Cards Night' with Lucas and Laura one evening, when we heard the unmistakably-near mooing of a cow.  Pandora was on the driveway and trotted happily into the paddock when we opened the gate for her.  But how had she got out? There were no open gates and no breaches in the fencing that we could see.  Worse, a check on the other cows revealed that Nike was missing.  We scoured our property and the roads each way but no sign.  In the end we had to go to bed and resume the search in the day light.  We found her unharmed the next morning on the river bank behind our neighbour's property.  She'd managed to get over a dodgy bit of fencing, and was easily persuaded to return to the herd.  We can only assume that Pandora also went the same way, breaching the boundary fence and then finding a way past the neighbour's property, out onto the road and back down our driveway.  That's quite an adventure and pretty miraculous that she got back at all.  Maybe there's another explanation - I'd love to have been a fly on the wall.  Meanwhile, Noddy is on the list to meet his maker.  Peter thinks that both Nike and Pandora are pregnant as there's been no sign of heat for a couple of months.  Noddy is becoming quite bull-like with lots of snorting and aggressive stances, and we have avoided being in the same paddock as him for quite a while.  He was once our baby though, and it'll be sad when he's no longer around. Hopefully his off-spring will bring much joy.

The final tree to crop is the persimmon and that's only a small crop again.  Last year the possums finished off the few fruit that it produced.  We haven't had much possum damage this year so here's hoping they're not just hanging out for the persimmon.  Once it's ripe, the whole orchard will reach the priority list for a serious prune.  I'm looking forward to doing the job with my chain saw pruner, though some of the branches will need attention from a grown-up chain saw.  The trees in the photos are the stunning mulberry and the fruit-laden medlar.

Once the flowers stop flowering and the flower garden is weeded (might be a way off yet), pea straw will be put down.  I managed to find a relatively cheap pea straw source so it's all lined up, good to go for when that magic weed-free moment arrives.  The dahlias and cosmos have been prolific, and also notable is the orange abutilon which has been in constant flower for months, and is much beloved by bees, especially bumbles.  It nearly died over winter last year, but has come back bigger and more beautiful.  Fingers crossed it continues to thrive - it's got a place in my garden for however long it wants to hang around.  The native Jasmine, that had the unfortunate accidental pruning during a hedge trimming episode, has come back fabulously.  It's now once again making its way across the chain, so hopefully will be glorious in spring

Pre-Rona, I'd ordered an inversion stool so I could do head-free 'headstands'.  Lots of health benefits apparently, and quite a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to getting back into it once my Covid sinuses and headaches are fully cleared.  Woody, Lucas and Laura's dog, finally arrived safely after quarantining in Auckland.  Hitherto he'd been an apartment dog, and is now very much enjoying his new freedoms.  So much more space and excitement than he's used to.  Maggie is uninterested in him, quite a blessing in a way - at least no argy-bargy or separation needed, though I think Woody would love more of a play-mate.  I'll get some pics of him in next month's blog.  Sam is currently in Gallipoli.  He was delighted to be selected as a band representative for the ANZAC Day dawn service in Turkey.  Such a proud moment for him and us.  Hopefully we'll catch up with him and Molly soon.   

Anyway, too much gassing.  Time to winter-down this month's blog.  Bring on May!                  

March 2022

                                              

So, March disappeared and Autumn has quietly landed.  It is one of my favourite seasons (along with Spring, Winter, and Summer), and I'm loving the morning chills.  The land is being all productive and bountiful, but time to work on it has a habit of being very hard to find.  Peter had another paid week off work as part of covid-planning, and managed to achieve the monumental job of painting preservative on the house and deck.  I did the gaps between the decking planks, a very thankless task that just has to be endured and I'm now in the process of treating the outside furniture.  Might as well get it all done in one hit.  Peter's mowed the thistles in the meadows (after a lengthy process of fixing the mower) and cleaned out the water pump.  We've had the septic tank emptied - the same company as before that has 0800 FARTED as their logo - and the chimney sweep is coming in a couple of weeks.  I'm writing this in my blog so that we'll have a reference point when we later forget when these maintenance tasks were done.

The biggest event of the month was the epic return of Lucas and Laura.  After months of waiting, disappointments with MIQ places, and heaps of finger-crossing, they finally arrived safely.  It was almost too easy in the end.  Their flight landed early and there were very few passengers on it, and there were no other flights at the same time.  That meant a swift transit through customs and out they popped to greet me and meet their new car (very cool indeed - a Mazda Demio just like mum's!).  Within a few short days, the sleepout was re-configured, up went their desks and the 75 inch TV, and in they settled.  Their dog, Woody, took a later flight and is currently in transit from an Auckland quarantine facility with Laura.

 We took them out in Gladys for their inaugural fishing adventure, and though the fishing was pretty tragic (total: 4 sharks), the day was beautiful. We launched from Waikawa into the stunning Queen Charlotte Sound.  Blue skies, calm waters, and hardly any other boats.  Probably everyone else knew that the fishing would be hopeless.  Laura is really keen to have another go, so we'll probably head out soon while the weather is still pleasant enough.

                                     

The fruit has been ripening and we have the delightful problem of what to do with the excess.  Several kilos of assorted apples will go into the annual Apple Cider Vinegar batch.  There are 4 batches of cider/perry on the go now and I'll be gutted if they don't live up to my expectations.  I recently bottled the blueberry mead and it's quite acceptable.  We've awarded it 3 stars (out of 5) but quietly I hope it'll mature into an even more pleasant tipple.  The elderberry wine was racked.  It has retained its amazing purple colour, and it tastes pretty good already.  Better not gloat too soon though, not out of the demi-john yet.  

Figs are just starting to ripen and it's an enormous crop.  The tree has been blown right down to the ground more than once, but it's so resilient, coming back bigger and better each year.  Also yet to crop are the feijoa.  I'll be obliged to turn them into wine of course, and also I'm going to have a crack at feijoa cider (though being non-apple, it wouldn't be called that - ideas on a postcard please).  I want to see what happens when I put the whole fruit through the new crusher.  If it works it'll save bags of time that would have otherwise been engaged with cutting them in half and scooping out the juicy inside.

 The main honey crop was tutin-tested and it's absolutely fine so has been bottled.  There have been several happy recipients, including the 0800FARTED guy who was well chuffed with his honey bonus.  It made a lovely wedding gift for Jenn and Jules too.  2 out of 4 hives have had their autumn miticide strips inserted, and the others will get them in a couple of days when the forecast is particularly good.  It's an ideal opportunity to do a thorough disease check, and so far so good.

  

Vege crops are also abundant.  Heaps of tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, greens, onions, and chilies to hand. The foliage of the pumpkin plants started to die back, so I harvested all 52 of the gorgeously petite and bright orange 'Baby Bear' globes.  I'll definitely grow them again if they're as delicious as they look.  Their diminutive size makes them perfectly portioned for me (Peter is a pumpkinophobe).  

I was thinking about including some shocking pictures of the vegetable garden in its current, pre-tidy-up state.  It might have shamed me into actually getting my arse into gear and getting on with some of the million tasks that need to be done before winter.  But somehow, I haven't even found time for taking photos.  At least this way I can continue with the old denial mindset.

                           

Our rural peace and tranquility were disturbed by a noisy chopper hovering over the forestry land just next to our boundary.  We soon realised it wasn't a rescue helicopter, but it wasn't until someone was dropped down on a rope, and a shrub was pulled back up that we worked out it must be a cannabis seizure.  Duh.  Apparently, the Defence Force help the police out with these aerial missions.  They pulled up another plant from just over the road and looks like they were spraying in both zones.  Amazing that there were 2 crops of marijuana within spitting distance of here and we didn't know about them.

Sam is heading to Gallipoli in a few days.  He'll stop off in Wellington for a few days to practice with other musicians and then head out to Turkey from there.  He's started to study for a degree in Music Production with my old employer Ara, in Christchurch.  He'll be able to do much of his study online but will probably take more than 3 years to fit in all the study around his army work. Molly has finally got her NZ Resident visa (yippee, such a long time coming), so they could go ahead and get a mortgage if only house prices weren't so steep.  

We're hoping to take a little holiday to the North Island to visit relatives Shena and Doug after Easter but will wait until nearer the time to put plans in place.  Covid might yet scupper that -  Omicron cases and deaths have risen exponentially in the last few weeks and are yet to peak in Marlborough.  Hopefully, they will diminish in the next few weeks, but who knows what's next? 

The clocks change at the weekend so our evenings will be cut short.  Better brace myself to start tackling the backlog of garden jobs before Jack Frost puts in an appearance.  Honing my mini chainsaw skills on Peter's neck is at least a start.