March 2015

The drought isn’t over but we have had some rain.  Not enough yet to fill water tanks, but enough to trigger some pasture growth.  Combined with some cooler nights and dewy mornings, the land is looking a little fresher and less brown.  We’re still having some warm days (25 degrees a couple of days ago) but nights are definitely getting longer and day temperatures are occasionally dropping below 20 degrees.  It’s completely dark by 8:30pm now and the end of daylight saving is nigh.  There’s a sense that we’re plunging into winter with only a brief glimpse of autumn.  Happily the council have just announced that the fire ban has been lifted.  The pizza oven was fired up, and we've already enjoyed home made garlic bread, roast beef and of course, pizza.  Truly delicious - even Peter said it was the best pizza he's tasted.  We're really thrilled that something we built actually works.  It just requires a bit of fine-tuning, things like checking out which woods burn longest and hottest, how soon to crank it up, how best to move things around etc.  In the interests of good taste perhaps, Billy has decided to remove the decorative iPod.  Sighs of relief all round.  

The sprinklings of rain have been very much welcomed by the weeds, which seem to come up overnight.  I’ve started closing down some of the keyhole beds in the veg patch using compost and straw.  We’ve been lucky enough to bag as much burned straw as we can take from a local farmer whose giant stack went up in flames.  He’d already been approached by other neighbours and is grateful that he won’t have to find a way of getting rid of it all. From a gardener’s perspective it’s perfect – already composting and with added charcoal.  The orchard trees have all had the same nourishment. and even some rain to bed it all in.    All they need now a bit of end of summer pruning and they're sorted for winter.

We’ve also bagged a huge pile of mulch chippings for the vege garden paths.  It’s immediately tidied the place up, even though it’ll only be a matter of a few days before the weeds that were covered find their way to the light.  Our ‘hayman’ Steve, who’s also an arborist, dropped it off and we paid for it using the usual currency of beer.  In the vege garden, autumn/winter seedlings are planted out, mostly crops for animal feed (sugar beet, mammoth mangels and kale) but also some extra brassicas, soy beans and a couple of packs of carrot seeds which will hopefully have enough warmth and moisture to germinate.  We still have plenty of mature carrots and other vegetables that we’re harvesting.  Thankfully these pukeko weren't interested in the vegetables as they passed through.

The pigs are being seriously indulged with fruit.  We have a relatively steady supply from friends, which is supplemented from our own orchard.  The stone fruit are coming in big time now, especially the peaches.  The peachcot has a magnificent crop for such a young tree, and the fruit is totally delicious - much better than peach or apricot alone according to my humble taste-buds.  The plumcot and tomcot trees alongside haven’t fruited at all and look a bit raggy.  Perhaps next year they’ll come right.

The sheep and cows seem to be doing fine.  We’re still not completely sure of the pattern for when Athena is on heat, so haven’t managed to get her inseminated yet.  We’re still feeding out hay, but neither the cows nor the sheep get too excited about it like they do in winter, so probably they are managing to find enough pasture to eat. 

We’re down to one last rabbit as the others have sold.  He seems a bit sad out there on his own, but probably that’s just our projection.  Maybe he’s delighted to finally have the run to himself.  It’ll be the end of an era when we have no more rabbits to feed.  At least it’ll make the whole feeding round less complicated when we’re busy or away from home.  Maybe we can move onto thinking ducks…

8 chicks hatched but we’re down to only 5 beautiful little bundles of mischief.  We’re not sure what happened to those that didn’t make it, but it seems that they can get out of the run if they want.  We’re not sure where their escape route is yet.  The mother hen has been a very dutiful parent and takes great care of them.  She does have a habit of bedding them down on the ground, so maybe rats have taken the opportunity to grab themselves fresh food.  Cornelius is in the freezer, and our dreams of peaceful nights were immediately scuppered by 2 of the young chooks who have decided to compete for top rooster.  Their cock-a-doodle-doos are still on the pathetic side, so they’re putting in lots of practice.

The grape harvest is starting and Peter’s about to start working ‘vintage’ hours.  He’ll be on night shifts again, which makes life a bit tricky at home.  Hopefully he’ll be able to bring home some of the excess grapes.  The home harvest is also coming in.  There are batches of tomato sauce going into the freezer every couple of weeks, and other veges bagged up in the freezer.  The corn is just ripe and is being eaten daily.  The excess kernels will be stored with the sunflower heads for feeding the chooks in winter.  The ripened chillis have been threaded onto cotton and are now hanging to dry alongside the herbs on the suspended clothes dryer in the living room.  Strawberries are jammed, crab apples jellied.  Autumn wines are in progress – so far pear, blackboy peach and rhubarb, and there’s plenty of honey to make a few more bottles of mead.   Last year's wines are nearly all bottled now, and are definitely better than just drinkable.  There are also several litres of sloe gin and vodka, and new for this year, Blackboy Peach brandy. 

 The bees are looking fabulous.  Hive 1 worker bees had totally re-filled the honey frames which were emptied a few weeks ago, so I’ve had to take off a few more frames, remove the honey and return them to the hive to give them a little extra space for more storage.  Hive 2 has also made great progress in terms of honey supplies, so should have plenty to see them through winter.  It’s lovely to have abundant honey again and of course a real privilege to have the best-tasting honey in the world.  I’ve designed some sticky labels (actually ‘designed’ is quite a stretch, but I did manage to print them out from our computer, eventually) and put the honey into 2 different sized plastic jars for gifts.  The recently extracted honey can’t be given away as there is a risk of tutin poisoning this late in the season.  I’ll just have to be a beefeater and eat it all myself, or at least eat enough to know it isn’t harmful.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the company of Claire (second cousin and little sis of David from England who came a couple of years ago) who spent a few days with us.  We had a glorious trip to Lochmara in the Sounds.  The day got off to a brilliant start when we spotted several starfish, and a couple of seahorses in Picton harbour.  None of us had ever actually seen a seahorse in the wild.  The photo’s not great, but there it is – a seahorse in its natural environment.  We also had a day out in the Abel Tasman National Park – Marahau and Kaiteriteri.   It was a bit showery but we had a gorgeous walk along the first part of the track and a boat ride.   Claire’s wanderlust is taking her further south and then onto Australia.  We’re hoping that she’ll persuade her parents to come here on holiday.  If you’re reading this Janet and Steve, please consider yourselves invited!

 

Another month in paradise passes by for us.  But sad news from the mother-land has meant we’ve been in touch with relatives in the UK quite often.  It’s usually lovely to catch up with everyone, but not in these circumstances.  Take care Jeremy, we’re thinking of you.  Kia kaha (stay strong).

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters

compared to what lies within us”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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: