February 2015



It’s been an exciting few weeks, though at times a bit more excitement than was good for us.  After weeks of dry weather in Marlborough, the fire risk has become extreme.  Fire started in a forestry block in the Onamalutu Valley, close to its junction with the Wairau North Bank.  At the last count, it burned through 600+ hectares and took more than a week to be fully contained.  Luckily for us, the wind direction was in our favour, and it blew the fire further away.  The fire-fighting efforts have meant that no harm came to stock or properties.  Only a few farm buildings were damaged – an amazing feat given the ferocity and extent of the fire.   The Onamalutu residents had evacuation plans A - D in place (plan D – most favoured by the boys - was being helicoptered out from the reserve), and we were given lots of advice about making our properties easier to protect from fire.  The neatly stacked firewood and the barbecue gas can are now in the trailer in the middle of the hay barn paddock, and I’m researching fire-resistant plant varieties to replace some of the plantings around the house.  The boys were definitely more excited than scared.  Missing the first day back to school was a triumph, and having a nearby film set of choppers, planes, monsoon buckets, fire engines, huge bulldozers and clouds of thick smoke was definitely an added bonus.

The lack of rain is visible on the property.  It’s never browned off like this before.  We’re having to feed out hay to the cows and sheep as there’s very little for them to eat.  The long range forecast suggests that there isn’t much rain on the horizon for the next few months, so hopefully the hay will be enough see us through winter.  Even the garden lawn is browning in places.  On closer inspection it’s mainly the grass which is dying off – where it’s green it’s thanks to the weeds.  Another good reason to avoid a beautifully manicured lawn.   And another good reason to start reducing our stock numbers.  The home-kill man is coming out this week for 2 of the ram lambs.  He was originally booked to come earlier but the fire closed the road to non-residents for several days.
                             

Progress on pizza oven Mark II has been swift.  It’s good-to-go, but ironically can’t be tested until the region’s fire ban is lifted.  It’s a considerable improvement on pizza oven Mark I, which looked OK but collapsed one rainy day before we could use it.  Mark II began with a layer of fire bricks (our only expenditure, though quite expensive at $9 per brick x 20) on which a dome-shaped mould of sand was placed.  The first, inner layer was made of river sand and clay.  This was followed by 2 insulation layers of sand, clay and sawdust.  The final weather-proofing plaster layer was constructed by adding the traditional building material of fresh manure (cow) to the sand and clay mix.  Making the plaster was a bit like rubbing fat into flour in cake-making, and as expected, the men of the house were too precious to get their hands in and mix it properly.   Thankfully I had no such qualms, and it all came together beautifully and without aroma.  It’s been decorated with some paua shells, a heart-shaped rock and some signatures.  Oh and an old ‘Ipod Touch’ of Billy’s to create a modern theme, or something like that.  Maybe one day we’ll decorate over it with mosaics. 

 

Valentine’s Day was memorable this year for being one out of the box.  We’d decided to forego a meal out (good food at home/too tight/Marlborough’s Food and Wine Festival the same day) and go to the cinema instead.  We sat on the back row (everyone else was watching 50 Shades of Grey) and the film (The Kingsman) was great.  When we got home we discovered that Billy had washed and dried the dishes, tidied up the house, walked the dog, and arranged red rose petals in a heart shape on our bed with our names on either side.  Who is this child????  

The bees have been enjoying the array of flowers in the flower border and Joanna’s Patch.  Some of them are perennials, and some are annuals grown from seed.  Many are annuals which have haphazardly seeded themselves.  Whilst it’s been lovely to have plentiful flowers, there isn’t enough time to keep on top of dead-heading and clearing away those that are past their best, so the garden looks colourfully unkempt.  On the plus side it does mean that seed-collecting is straightforward.  And there hasn’t been much need for weeding as the straw mulch has worked brilliantly at keeping them down.  The weeds have had to be more subtle and disguise themselves to stay alive.  It’s amazing how weeds are clever to pop up among similar-foliage plants.  The photo shows a dandelion alongside a red Geum.   You wouldn’t know it was there except for when it flowers and gives itself away.  I’ve seen this happen with other weeds elsewhere in the garden – the feathery foliage of yarrow in the lavender; leafy wild sorrel within the arnica.  Maybe these are just the weeds that take off because you miss them when weeding, or perhaps it’s a phenomenon for which there’s a very long word.

The bees have also been busy making honey.  Hive 1 yielded 11 litres which was extracted manually – scraping off each side of the frames and then straining the honey and wax through a colander and a sieve.  The resulting honey still has small amounts of wax in it, but for me this adds to its scrumptiousness, rather than makes it less perfect.  Of course it’s stickily spread onto just about every surface in the kitchen, but it is totally delicious.  It doesn’t look like there’s any spare honey in hive 2.  That’s OK because it’s a new colony and they should have enough to last them through winter.

The veg garden continues to be abundant and beautiful.  In the old trough pond, the water lily is getting on with the business of flowering.  It’s definitely one of my favourite flowers.  We’re harvesting carrots, peas, salad, brassicas, spuds, beetroot and greens.  There’re loads of giant sugar beet (now closer to a football size than a foot) and sunflower seed-heads for the chooks.  Amazingly the corn is magnificent, and I’ve finally got my corn circle.  It may not technically be a corn circle as it’s a circle of standing-up corn, rather than an alien circle of mown-down corn.  Alas, as with most of my brilliant ideas, it’s totally flawed.  I’d pictured myself sitting on a deck-chair inside the shady circle, glass of gin and slab of chocolate in hand.  But I’d somehow overlooked that in the centre of the corn bed are the globe artichokes – massive, spiky, full of bees, perennial…  Other than that, the bed is doing well.  The pumpkins are creeping everywhere and keeping the weeds down.  Some of the peas have germinated and are climbing up the corn.  And the 6 tobacco plants grown from seed are outside the corn circle and looking stunning.  They’d started to flower, so the lower leaves have been harvested.  They’re now hanging from a pole in the car port, gently swaying in the breeze.  Alongside them are the plaited onion and garlic crop. 

 

         

Two hens became broody, but only one of them (a Cochin) has remained steadfastly sitting on her eggs.  The other broody hen was the hen-mother of the current pullets.  It was a surprise when she went broody again, and we had to put some fertilised eggs from the other hens under her.  She was as uncommitted as she’d been with her previous brood, happy to hop off the eggs relatively frequently for a feed or stretch.  Last time she did stick it out though.  The Cochin hen is still with the others in the main run - hopefully they’ll all be OK in there.  We didn’t dare risk moving her and the eggs out, after the last experience when the hen abandoned her eggs.   Once they’re hatched we’ll probably move them.   That won’t be long - the pitter-patter of tiny chick feet should happen any day soon.

The pigs are growing and generally behaving well (hope not famous last words).  Aside from upturning their feed trough most days, they’re managing to stay in the run and it still feels safe to get in there with them.  They’re loving their grains, which have remained their firm favourite food.  Next on their list are the plums which are chucked in from the tree alongside on a regular basis.  Other scraps come their way from the vegetable garden, like apple cucumbers of which there are hundreds.  A recent tidy up of Madame Cholet revealed a mass of overgrown cucumbers.  Though there are 6 cucumber plants in there, it’s the single apple cucumber which has gone bananas.  Cucumbers had been a bit of a nemesis crop for me until this season.  Now even the ones planted outside are prolific.

Peter’s built another raised bed in the old horse arena, which was necessary because the last raised bed is full enough of organic materials to be shut down.  This includes the added kelp seaweed which Billy and me collected from Kaikoura when we were coming home from a Christchurch trip.  It’s also blessed with masses of cow poo.  I’ll cover it with straw for a few months and put the next weeds in the new bed.  We’ve opened up the huge circular compost bed in the veg garden and have started to spread it in the gaps where crops have been harvested.  It’s gorgeous stuff – black, soft, crumbly and cool.  It’s never been turned (didn’t think through how that could happen so never did it), but time looks to have done the deed.  Once the compost has all been distributed, the bed will be key-holed and used for planting in spring.  It’ll need a hedge border.  I’d planned to do a step-over espaliered fig, but more research suggests that it’ll just get too big for this purpose.  I’m now leaning towards using an upright rosemary instead, which are apparently easy to propagate from cuttings which can be stuck straight in the ground.  Perfect!  

Note the professionally tied up raspberries, boysenberries and blackberries in the bed behind the compost.  It was a good morning's work to untangle the mass of prickly canes and secure them - which would have been impossible without the skill and dexterity of Karyn, who nobly offered her services in exchange for eggs. 

I’ve been able to get on with a whole lot of tasks outside because I’m finally enjoying reduced working hours.  I worked several extra shifts last month, which have provided the leeway to actually have a couple of days off in the week.  It’s a good time of year to have a bit of extra time on your hands.  Harvesting, storing, preserving and clearing up are enjoyable but lengthy, so it’s great to have the luxury of getting some of them done during the week.  Having been through the experience of possible annihilation by forest fire, such work is even more gratifying.  We feel truly humbled and blessed that we’re not facing a total wipe-out of the last 3+ years on this land.  We’ve fallen on our feet again. 

Right – time to get on with bottling wine, making beeswax candles and putting some crumble over the rhubarb which was harvested yesterday.  It’s a hard old life etc etc.

January 2015

 

Working night shifts over New Year meant that it didn’t exactly begin with a hiss and a roar.  Christmas was pretty memorable though.  The gorgeous Rachel and Geoff, Sam and Joe flew into Woodbourne airport and we spent a few heady days at home before setting off for Westport.  Joe did the karate chop honours with the gingerbread house before we all tucked in.  The highlight of Christmas Day itself was undoubtedly ‘Egg Roulette’, though the three-leggy, egg-and-spoon and sack races were quite competitive, and the box game ‘Linkee’ agitated a few egos.  The West Coast was magical as always.  The sea at Carter’s beach, south of Westport and just across the road from the campsite, was beautifully warm and wavy – just the place to wear everyone out at the end of a sunny day. 

 

The weather has been, and continues to be magnificent, but only if you’re holidaying.  Farming and working in 30+⁰ heat can be pretty heinous, and drought is looming its ugly head.  On the plus side, it’s motivated me to get round to extending the orchard irrigation to include the new nut trees.  And the hay was cut, turned, baled and stacked without any need for speed.  It remains very satisfying to see the hay in the shed, albeit stacked higgledy-piggledy.  It’s the same with firewood and food-preserving – preparing winter supplies somehow nourishes your primeval soul and warms the cockles of your heart.  It’s a good feeling.

 

The rabbits haven’t sold yet, but there has been some interest so we’ll see how that goes.  No more hens have got broody.  The 4 chicks have grown rapidly.  We returned their mum to the rest of her flock, but that put her back to the end of the pecking order.  She wasn’t impressed, and managed not only to escape from that run, but also break back into her previous run to be with her chicks.  Quite a feat.

 

 

 

 

Sam and Billy managed to locate a source of clay in the Onamalutu River whilst walking the dog one day.  It’s beautiful stuff – all silvery grey and velvety.  They’ve now increased the volume to a wheelbarrow full, so building a pizza oven has hit the radar again.  We’ll probably need to get more bricks and some builders sand, but essentially we’re good-to-go.  Just need to find a little time, that’s all…

 

 

The Artificial Inseminator has been round and done the deed to Hera.  Peter was there and has picked up a few tips in the hope that we can do the next insemination ourselves.  Hera was definitely showing signs of being on heat, but Athena hasn’t done so for several weeks.  There’s still an outside chance of her being pregnant (from Zeus), so it’s really just a waiting game for her to declare herself.  All 3 of the cattle are hefty, robust beasts.  Zeus can be a bit of a handful at times, and stubborn with it.  Peter manages him with ease, but there have been moments when he’s turned on me and given me an aggressive stare.  I always make sure to have an escape route. 

The sheep are shedding.  Well, some of them are.  The photo shows one full-shedder, one partial, and one non-shedder.  All the same breed, but some must be less pure than others.  We’re hoping in time to have the luxury of choosing the best shedders from which to breed.  Hopefully the next generation of sheep will have a few more ewe lambs.  Rambo has lived on with us for much longer than we’d anticipated, and we don’t want him to impregnate any of his daughters, so we’ll be looking to get a younger replacement as soon as it’s feasible.

 

 

 

The division of the single beehive into 2 separate hives was successful.  Both queens are laying well.  The original hive is also gathering plenty of spare honey, though the frames will have to be moved around the hive boxes as many have a mix of brood and honey (plenty of it capped).  Though I’m managing to get the bee smoker fired up and smoking really well, I’m still quite clumsy and seriously upset the bees when I open the hives.  The photo shows one of the hives several hours after I checked it out.  There was even still a cluster around the hive entrance the next day.  Oops.

 

 

 

The orchard continues to delight.  Some trees are not fruiting (maybe next year), but most of the rest are weighed down by their fruit-bounty.  Even the 2 mature trees (plum and peach) that fruited so profusely last year are again heavily laden.  Some of their branches hang over the pig run, so hopefully they’ll be gifted from above.  The plums are pinking up nicely, so are thinned whenever I’m passing for pig treats.  In time (a very long time) the nut trees will also be able to contribute to the pig treats.  In the meantime they’re leafing-up well, optimistically rooting-up well too.

The pigs are still cute, and still hungry.  They seem to particularly enjoy their sprouted grains (wheat, barley, maize and peas) – quite satisfying because it’s a real chore to rinse all 5 buckets twice a day.  They’re a good protein source, much cheaper than commercial pig tucker and we’re going with the assumption that they’re nutritious.  They also enjoy weeds (how convenient!) and any other waste from the veg garden and orchard.  Though they have plenty of shade and water, they are susceptible to sunburn, and have a tendency to become pink behind the ears and backside.  I’ve heard that some pig-owners lather them with sunscreen, but I’ve drawn the line at that.

 

The veg garden is truly a wondrous place.  It took me a half-day to entirely weed the beds and paths on the left side.  Much easier than last year, when it would have taken the same time to clear half a bed.  Potatoes and peas are being harvested, along with onions, beetroot, artichokes, broad beans, silver beet and kale.  Carrots and beans will be ready soon, and the bulbous sugar beets are becoming huge.  Those in the photo resemble feet both in looks and size.   The soft fruit has also been amazing.  Bags and bags of blackcurrants and gooseberries are in the freezer, and raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries and redcurrants are regularly grazed.

    

Madame Cholet’s crops are also coming of age.  Tomatoes and cucumbers are ready, and the chilli, melon and watermelon plants have survived the slugs and are growing away.  The basil isn’t very prolific, nor are the pepper plants, though they have also survived the slugs.  It’s been necessary to water twice a day when the outside mercury hits the late 20’s and above, but this is now easily done as I’ve installed an irrigation system in there.   It’s just made up of off-cuts from the orchard irrigation – not ideal but considerably better than nothing.

 

This month’s blog is early only because I’m away working on the West Coast.  It’s quite liberating to just have myself to look after, to have a little head-space.  But I do miss home big time.   Not just the people, but also the place: our sanctuary.  It’s the only place I’ve ever lived that I’ve felt a connection to, and a responsibility for honouring the land.  We’re really happy with the work we’ve done so far to this end, even if it means we’re turning into unsocial hermits.  In the meantime the boys are growing into adults.  Lucas turns 20 today – no longer a teenager.  Must be getting maudlin in my old age!  Talking of old age, I'll leave the last word to Rachel and Geoff:

 

 

December 2014

Welcome pigs!

Paid work is just starting to wind down, but farm work isn’t quite so obliging.  We’ve just had some very welcome rain – not quite enough to make me dance naked around the garden in joy, but a happy occasion nonetheless.   Not only does the rain do the watering for us, it also means that outside work takes a back seat for a change.  It gives us a chance to get on with some inside work instead.  Though there is housework galore to be done, there are other indoor priorities like writing cards, buying presents, decorating the tree, the Christmas cake and gingerbread house.  Making mince pies and planning food and festivities definitely come before mopping the kitchen floor and cleaning the toilet.

The wetland has had another make-over.  Lynne and husband Miles came over to plant the 186 native plants that Lynne had grown from seed as part of a garden course project.  Lots of flax, cabbage trees, kowhai, kahikatea, kanuka and tree fuschia, plus a few others that I can’t remember right now.  Lynne’s putting in the first plant in the photo.  It was a really great day and everything went surprisingly smoothly.  Good company and good food - the lovely Lynne also provided lunch in the form of delicious bacon and egg pie (made from their own produce).  All up a very exciting day, and great to spend time in the wetland and see lots of the original plantings up close.  Here’s hoping that most of them survive and thrive and set the scene for more native growth. 

Bees are very busy, and recent hive checks have revealed that the new hive does indeed have a queen who is getting on with the business of laying eggs.  There’re plenty of bees, brood and pollen, and even some honey stores.  The original hive was left with 2 boxes of brood, topped with a queen excluder and a honey box above.  I’ve no idea how it could have happened but somehow the queen ended up in the top honey box, above the queen excluder!  She’d also been busy with egg-laying as there was plenty of brood in the honey box.  That must be a real rookie mistake, though it was easily rectified by moving the boxes around.  Here’s hoping there’s a honey flow happening soon, as I’m onto my last jar.

The orchard is not only beautiful, it’s also bountiful.  Most of the fruit trees are growing and maturing several fruits, and their foliage is lush and healthy. The photo shows some of the Bramley apple crop, which should eventuate into apple pies and crumble.  The irrigation was amazingly was still intact from last year, so easy to re-attach.  An extension pipe has yet to be fitted so that the nut trees can be watered on the same system.  That’s in with a chance of reaching the top of the priority list next week, though will probably be usurped by Christmas.

Madame Cholet is now a riot of green.  Most of the plants are taking off – tomatoes, cucumber, chilli and aubergine.  Peppers have been a flop.  The current pepper seedlings were bought after the ones I raised from seed got chewed to death.  The new ones look to be going the same way.  It’s the same story for the melon seedlings although the new ones are still alive and maybe even growing.  I’m not sure what’s eating them, but have scattered some slug pellets in case. 

The veg garden is verdant and abundant.  We’re eating a range of greens, lettuce, broad beans, beetroot and leeks.  Potatoes are also maturing so we’ll have new spuds for Christmas dinner.  Even the corn crop is finally looking promising.  Early corn seedlings were scoffed by rodents (which in retrospect is what I suspect also happened last year) in the tunnel house, so others had to be raised in the house under a mini-cloche.  Most have survived transplanting into one of the keyhole beds, so hopefully the corn circle will become a reality.

The hen mother was starting to get cabin-fever, cooped up with her boisterous off-spring.  She was trotting up and down the same stretch of fence-line repetitively.  Then she started to lay again, so we moved her back into the main run with the others.  Hopefully a bit of adult company was what she needed.  Cornelius continues to rule his roost, and has developed a very loud and penetrating cock-a-doodle-doo.  This presents somewhat of a problem, as our ‘guest accommodation’ sleep-out is right next to the run.  We’re still working on this.  The cute chicks are still too young to be sexed, but if one (of the 4) turns out to be male, then we can consider dispatching Cornelius.  But not too soon, as we’re also hoping that another hen will go broody so we can get more chicks.  One hen did sit on a clutch of eggs, but disappointingly she abandoned them when we decided to move her out of the main house/run into a more private space.  No hen has done this before, and we have usually managed broody hens in the same way.

The rabbits are fine and dandy, and up for sale.  We’ve decided to stick with the decision of not continuing to keep them, and they’re worth more alive than dead.  Hopefully they’ll be snapped up as their breed (NZ White) is quite difficult to come by.  It’ll be a sad day when they go, but no regrets.  Mostly they’ve been a very enjoyable and engaging project. 

Pigs are go!!  We managed to get hold of 4 Large White X Hampshire pigs at 6 weeks old.  We selected the biggest 4 of the litter and have ended up with one girl and 3 boys.  For a while we thought they were 2 boys and 2 girls, but it has become obvious that we were mistaken.  They were named by Rea after characters from King Lear – Cordelia, Regan, Edmund & Edgar.  Shakespeare’s Regan was female, but ours now has to be male.  A bit of artistic license perhaps.  Cordelia is the biggest and is currently chief pig.  They’re bigger for their age than pigs we've had previously, and are already growing rapidly.  They're reaping the benefit of veg garden crops going to seed.  When they get beetroot, they look like they've put their lippy on (as modeled by Cordelia in the photo)!  They are demolishing their sprouted grains (wheat, barley, maize and peas) and have shocking table manners.  But their presence is uplifting and their peaceful grunting is like music to my ears.  It’s great to be back in pig-land again!

The wild bird population seems to be increasing.  A flax flower spike just outside our living room is frequently visited by tui and bellbirds, and there are often quail on the driveway.  There’s a busy starling’s nest in the car port, built under the tarpaulin on the high shelf.  Their young are constantly chorusing.  The photo shows them, or rather their beaks, anticipating their next meal – which they seem to do a lot of.

Insects are also profuse, including lots of honey bees and bumble bees.  The flower bed hosts many of these visitors.  It’s great to see these plants serving their purpose, and a warm and fuzzy feeling that I grew many of the plants from seed.  Several others self-seeded from last years’ flowers.  Every now and then I add a perennial plant in the hope of filling all the gaps.  The straw mulch has been really effective at keeping the moisture in the soil and reducing weeding.

The wine has been happily neglected for weeks now, and I'd assumed it would be ready for bottling, but only the demi-johns of Sauv Blanc and Mead were clear enough to bottle.  The others still had too much sediment.  Peter has printed off some labels which look quite effective.  Right now they are drinkable, but very much taste like young wines - here's hoping they mature into something well worth drinking. The mead is labelled 'Ti Kouka', which means 'cabbage tree'.  We have lots of Ti Kouka on the property, and the flowers they produce are much loved by bees.  Our honey is 'Ti Kouka honey' so it fits the theme. There's also 'Silke's Sassy Sauv', 'Powell's Pea Pod Wine', 'Krusty Krab Apple Wine' and 'Perky Peach Wine'.

Lucas has been busy graduating and has decided to continue with another course in web design next year in Christchurch, rather than get full-time work.  He's hoping to get part-time work within the design industry as he studies.  Sophie's earning her dollars at Air NZ, and they're happily ensconced in a central apartment.  

Sam and Billy have both felt the need to earn money so have been (relatively) willingly doing jobs for us. Sam is the 'mower man' and it turns out that Billy has a talent for poo picking.  Quite enterprisingly he's been selling sacks of cow poo ($5 a sack - come and get your bargain poo) - under the name 'Poo-well's Ltd'!  He's also been monitoring the eel population in the wetland.  The photo demonstrates the dangers of posing for a photo and thereby taking your eyes off an escape-artist wriggly eel.


Rachel, Jif, Sam and Joe are in NZ (in Russell) and are heading our way next week to share Christmas.  The cake theme is 'London' in their honour.  The last time they came we went mud-wrestling on Christmas Day.  This year we'll have more traditional after-dinner events - the sack race, egg-and-spoon race, 3-legged race, and of course, egg roulette. Bet they can't wait....

So another year comes to a close.  Another glorious year on the land, indulging my feral nature.  Tending the land is both my craft and my art.  There's nothing worth celebrating more than the beauty of a row of carrots (you can just imagine mine here Karyn), or the twining koru of pea tendrils.  I've been trying to think about what I've learned over the 3 years we've been here.  Too many mistakes to remember, but also plenty of 'wow' moments when we've got something right or when the beauty that surrounds us suddenly reveals itself.  
Quite profound eh?  On reflection, my best advice to any would-be small-holder is: 'Never put an egg in your pocket'.  

Merry Christmas!