Today I did some real, actual, proper farm work. The neighbours have been grazing their stock in our paddocks. I was speaking to M the other day who commented that we needed to run the tractor/mower over the grass to break up the big lumps of grass and to spread around the horse manure. I wasn't sure if the 'we' meant him or us but I quickly volunteered to do it.
I got stuck in as soon as I was back from dropping the girls off at creche. First thing to do was change the attachment on the tractor to the mower, which was a lot trickier than it sounds. Then I went up and down the lavender field, mowing the grass around the lavender plants, cutting down the big clumps of grass in the rest of the paddock, and spreading the manure around as much as I could. For the record the lavender is only in 2/3 of the paddock and the rest is just long grass that we have allowed to grow long rather than wasting time and energy and fuel cutting it.
It took me two hours to do the entire paddock. I've certainly gotten a lot faster at it than when I first started. It used to take two hours just to do around the lavender, let alone the entire field.
I saw M while I was out working and he said I was doing it right. He also said the other fields didn't really need to be mown as it was really only the lavender field where the horses had spent a lot of time and it needed some attention. There certainly was a lot of manure!
After I'd finished doing that I got out the weedsprayer for the first time in a couple of months and wandered down the driveway spraying weeds. It was a little annoying when I got to the end (half a kilometre from the house) and ran out of spray. Got lots of exercise today, that's for sure!
As the days become colder, the wildlife comes closer to keep warm. We possibly have a possum living under the house. I'm pretty sure I've seen mouse droppings around the house too.
-M
26 May 2009
19 May 2009
Week 23 - Rain
It's been raining a lot lately. It hardly rained for all of March and April, and now it won't stop. I'm no longer worried about the amount of water in the tank. If anything we have too much water now. I've spied small leaks in the pipes leading to the water tank and also at the pumphouse.
I last sprayed the weeds on the property about two months ago. After that weed growth died down quite a lot - because of the lack of rain more than anything else. About a month ago(?) I noticed small weeds starting to poke up and thought I'd better spray again before they took off. But I was busy and then the rains came. And with the rain came renewed growth. Plus I can't spray again until the rain stops for a few days. So the place is starting to look quite overgrown again.
Today was relatively dry. It rained overnight and for a time (quite heavily) this morning. When it wasn't raining I spent some time in the vegetable garden, pulling out weeds by hand. My gardening books recommend this time to year to dig over the garden before winter and/or plant green crops. Well I've left it too late to plant anything but was intending to dig over the garden today. I got a quarter of it weeded before I ran out of energy. Found several more potatoes. What I don't quite know is what the books mean by "dig over". I understand it to mean digging up the ground so the top layer goes down and the lower layer comes to the top (to aerate the soil??). But what the books don't say is whether this is a one-off event or something you do continually over the winter. Any experienced gardeners wanna give me some advice? I would like to hope it's a one-off but knowing the way weeds grow it's probably continual. Darn it.
However, I did find out a few things today. Our soil type is clay. My friend L measured the pH the other week and it is 7, which is pretty good for growing things. The garden is approximately 5 metres by 15 metres. All this information makes me feel a lot more comfortable about making a plan for what to plant in the garden in springtime.
On four occasions over the last couple of weeks I have found birds in the fireplace in the sunroom. The first time I opened all the doors and windows and it flew out straight away. The second time it landed on the windowsill and the cat promptly jumped up and got it. The third time it landed on the curtain rail and didn't want to come down. The fourth time it again flew straight out. Not sure why they're suddenly falling down the chimney. Luckily we've not been using that fireplace much.
I picked another 5kg of feijoas this week. We made a yummy feijoa cake yesterday which used up some of them. Have been making lots more passionfruit juice too.
The neighbour's horses and cattle are still grazing in our fields. They are doing an amazing job at getting the grass down.
-M
I last sprayed the weeds on the property about two months ago. After that weed growth died down quite a lot - because of the lack of rain more than anything else. About a month ago(?) I noticed small weeds starting to poke up and thought I'd better spray again before they took off. But I was busy and then the rains came. And with the rain came renewed growth. Plus I can't spray again until the rain stops for a few days. So the place is starting to look quite overgrown again.
Today was relatively dry. It rained overnight and for a time (quite heavily) this morning. When it wasn't raining I spent some time in the vegetable garden, pulling out weeds by hand. My gardening books recommend this time to year to dig over the garden before winter and/or plant green crops. Well I've left it too late to plant anything but was intending to dig over the garden today. I got a quarter of it weeded before I ran out of energy. Found several more potatoes. What I don't quite know is what the books mean by "dig over". I understand it to mean digging up the ground so the top layer goes down and the lower layer comes to the top (to aerate the soil??). But what the books don't say is whether this is a one-off event or something you do continually over the winter. Any experienced gardeners wanna give me some advice? I would like to hope it's a one-off but knowing the way weeds grow it's probably continual. Darn it.
However, I did find out a few things today. Our soil type is clay. My friend L measured the pH the other week and it is 7, which is pretty good for growing things. The garden is approximately 5 metres by 15 metres. All this information makes me feel a lot more comfortable about making a plan for what to plant in the garden in springtime.
On four occasions over the last couple of weeks I have found birds in the fireplace in the sunroom. The first time I opened all the doors and windows and it flew out straight away. The second time it landed on the windowsill and the cat promptly jumped up and got it. The third time it landed on the curtain rail and didn't want to come down. The fourth time it again flew straight out. Not sure why they're suddenly falling down the chimney. Luckily we've not been using that fireplace much.
I picked another 5kg of feijoas this week. We made a yummy feijoa cake yesterday which used up some of them. Have been making lots more passionfruit juice too.
The neighbour's horses and cattle are still grazing in our fields. They are doing an amazing job at getting the grass down.
-M
12 May 2009
Week 22
We have livestock in our paddocks now! The neighbours next door have fixed up all the fences, cleaned out the water-troughs, and, as of Monday, there are horses and cattle in at least one of our paddocks. It's a great feeling of relief to finally have some stock in there, even if it's not ours.
Winter has arrived early this year. It has been SO COLD this week. And I shiver just thinking that there is still much worse to come. There is snow on the Tararua Ranges and the mornings have been about 1 or 2 degrees outside, 10 degrees inside. I've had a fire going most mornings and evenings. We've hung up a blanket to separate the dining room (where the fireplace is) from the hallway (where the cold air is) and it has made a noticeable difference to how quickly the room heats up.
The girls and I have all come down with our first cold of the winter. They were both supposed to go to daycare today however because they were sick I kept them home and we watched TV and played games instead. It has been a Very Long Day.
Despite all the cold weather, we have daffodils blooming in the garden. In Autumn! What's up with that? The only reason I have is that it's in areas where I put down a heavy mulch back in January. Maybe that fooled the ground into thinking it was winter? It's very weird.
Still haven't figured out what to do with all our feijoas yet.
-M
Winter has arrived early this year. It has been SO COLD this week. And I shiver just thinking that there is still much worse to come. There is snow on the Tararua Ranges and the mornings have been about 1 or 2 degrees outside, 10 degrees inside. I've had a fire going most mornings and evenings. We've hung up a blanket to separate the dining room (where the fireplace is) from the hallway (where the cold air is) and it has made a noticeable difference to how quickly the room heats up.
The girls and I have all come down with our first cold of the winter. They were both supposed to go to daycare today however because they were sick I kept them home and we watched TV and played games instead. It has been a Very Long Day.
Despite all the cold weather, we have daffodils blooming in the garden. In Autumn! What's up with that? The only reason I have is that it's in areas where I put down a heavy mulch back in January. Maybe that fooled the ground into thinking it was winter? It's very weird.
Still haven't figured out what to do with all our feijoas yet.
-M
05 May 2009
Week 21
T came over today and we pruned the lavender bushes using his cutting machine. We were supposed to do it a couple of weeks ago but it has rained the last two Tuesdays. The drought appears to be breaking, it has bucketed down the last few days.
It took half a day to get the lavender trimmed. T drove the cutting machine while I spent all my time ferrying the cuttings from the field up to the house where I have them piled up near the vege garden. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them. I read something about mulching the vege garden over winter which seems like a pretty good idea, but I'm going to have to read up on it a bit first. I'd originally been planning on loading the clippings onto the back of the truck but at the last minute discovered I don't actually have the keys to the truck, P does. So I used the tractor instead, and singlehandedly managed to change the lawn mowing attachment for the scoop attachment. The only downside was that it could hold one bagfull at a time, hence the constant back and forth.
We have been enjoying drinking homemade passionfruit juice. Have discovered it is very easy to make, and can just go out and pick 4 fruit off the vine whenever we need to make more juice. The only time consuming part is that you need to wait for the syrup to cool down before you can strain the pulp out and turn it into juice.
Our feijoas are now getting ready to pick. I've already picked 3kg worth. I know we can't eat that many but I'm not sure how to preserve them - have done a bit of a search and not found very much. I've never eaten a feijoa before and on first taste found it a bit bitter. But have since been told they still need to ripen a bit after they fall off the tree.
Our mandarins are also maturing. Have eaten a couple already. They are the perfect size for V to eat.
Have noticed a lot of fantails and wasps around lately. Not sure if they are drawn by the ripening fruit or what. I love watching the fantails flitting about.
Our neighbours at the cafe have said they are interested in grazing on our land. We've agreed that if they can fix the fences then they can put their stock there. I've noticed some of the fences have been mended already but haven't seen them doing it. It will be nice to have something happening in the fields finally.
-M
It took half a day to get the lavender trimmed. T drove the cutting machine while I spent all my time ferrying the cuttings from the field up to the house where I have them piled up near the vege garden. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them. I read something about mulching the vege garden over winter which seems like a pretty good idea, but I'm going to have to read up on it a bit first. I'd originally been planning on loading the clippings onto the back of the truck but at the last minute discovered I don't actually have the keys to the truck, P does. So I used the tractor instead, and singlehandedly managed to change the lawn mowing attachment for the scoop attachment. The only downside was that it could hold one bagfull at a time, hence the constant back and forth.
We have been enjoying drinking homemade passionfruit juice. Have discovered it is very easy to make, and can just go out and pick 4 fruit off the vine whenever we need to make more juice. The only time consuming part is that you need to wait for the syrup to cool down before you can strain the pulp out and turn it into juice.
Our feijoas are now getting ready to pick. I've already picked 3kg worth. I know we can't eat that many but I'm not sure how to preserve them - have done a bit of a search and not found very much. I've never eaten a feijoa before and on first taste found it a bit bitter. But have since been told they still need to ripen a bit after they fall off the tree.
Our mandarins are also maturing. Have eaten a couple already. They are the perfect size for V to eat.
Have noticed a lot of fantails and wasps around lately. Not sure if they are drawn by the ripening fruit or what. I love watching the fantails flitting about.
Our neighbours at the cafe have said they are interested in grazing on our land. We've agreed that if they can fix the fences then they can put their stock there. I've noticed some of the fences have been mended already but haven't seen them doing it. It will be nice to have something happening in the fields finally.
-M
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