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!
The monumental task of pruning the orchard, amazingly, has been completed. I'd made a start and taken off huge limbs from a few trees. Then enter Karyn: I'll help you, says she. Silent gulp and small prayer for the souls of the trees who know not what's ahead. Thank you, says I. Peter joined us with a chainsaw, while we were armed with a reciprocating saw, 2 Stihl pruning chainsaws, secateurs, and step ladders. Those trees had no chance. The huge limbs I'd taken off earlier looked pathetically small in comparison to what Karyn was taking off. To be fair though, the trees were due a significant prune this year, having only had a tidy-up last year. And they are getting quite substantial, so probably I should concede that they needed it and be grateful to Karyn for mutilating my trees. Um, thanks Karyn. For daring to go where I hesitate...
Laura and I finally got our garlic planted. A little later than the shortest day, but in nonetheless. A few elephant garlic bulbs went in, but most were bought Printanor bulbs. Fingers crossed the very wet soil won't rot them before they can make headway above ground. Laura planted hers in a bed that has been gifted to her. It's still got harvestable purple sprouting but once that's done she'll be able to use the whole bed. She's got some vege seeds good to go too.
