Not much has been going on this week. I am in hibernation mode.
Today the weather forecast was for a very cold southerly change. I got home from dropping the girls at daycare and the weather was quite nice. I considered getting out in the garden to do some work. Then I figured the southerly snap would probably hit in about an hour and I'd have only just gotten started and would have to stop again. So I spent the day inside catching up on other stuff. The cold weather didn't hit till 2.30 this afternoon. And, boy, is it cold.
Earlier in the week I attempted to make some feijoa sorbet using this recipe. I didn't follow the recipe exactly due to the time of day and not having the proper equipment. It doesn't look exactly like I would expect it to. But, it still tastes pretty good.
We also made some pretty good feijoa and orange muffins. So now all our feijoa's are used up for another year.
-M
16 June 2009
09 June 2009
Week 26 - Cold and Cows
Had our first frost of the year this week. And our second. And our third.
We have a thermometer in our dining room. It has been around 9 degrees (Celcius) most mornings. The thing about living here is that the mornings are very cold but the afternoons are usually alright. The clear, cloudless days are when it is coldest in the mornings but the sun gets quite warm by afternoon. It's been getting up to around 15/16 degrees or more in the sunshine. But as soon as the sun goes down I have to start closing all the curtains to keep the warmth in as much as possible.
The house really does not heat up very well. I've been worrying about this for a year now (even though we've only been here six months this week, we actually bought the place over a year ago) and still haven't come up with any solutions. I'm disappointed to find that the woodburner doesn't heat the house as well as I thought it would (unless I'm doing it wrong).
The woodburner is in the dining room, which is the central room in the house. Off it is the living room, the kitchen, and the hallway. It's all sort of open plan apart from the kitchen which has a door. We've hung a curtain (blanket) up between the dining room and hallway to save heat loss in that direction. It has made a big difference in terms of heat loss, but heating the dining room alone is still difficult. The woodburner really only heats up the immediate vicinity, and even then the most I've gotten the room to is 14 degrees. No way it's going to heat the living room at all.
When we're at home all day we eat three meals plus snacks in the dining room, so it's good to have that room warm. But I've pretty much given up on using the fireplace since it makes so little difference to the room temperature.
We have oil column heaters in the bedrooms, and I find that those are the warmest rooms in the house. So when we're at home we tend to spend a lot of time playing in K's room. Which isn't such a bad thing because we've had to move all the toys into her room anyway to stop the dog from destroying them.
-----
Now here's a funny story. And like all funny stories, it wasn't particularly funny at the time.
As I've mentioned before, the neighbours have been grazing their stock in our fields. This week they've been in the field closest to the house. Which is cool to be able to look out the window and see cattle.
Now last night they were particularly noisy, mooing in the middle of the night. I got woken up by it but went back to sleep, only to be woken again by V crying at 1.30am. I went and cuddled her and she insisted she wanted to look out the window. I said to her "you won't see anything there, the cows are on the other side of the house". So we looked out and lo and behold there were three cows* there, nibbling on our lawn. And the one still in the paddock was making a heck of a noise calling out to these three to return.
K woke up soon afterwards and started crying as well. I had a bit of dilemma, given that P is still away and I was there on my own with the girls. Stay inside with the girls and spend the whole night awake listening to the mooing. Or go outside to try and shoo the cattle back into the paddock but leaving the girls inside crying.
I figured it was worth a bit of short term pain for the long term gain. I quickly got dressed and ran outside, looking the part in my Swanndri, gumboots and jeans. The first thing I did was to shut the gate from the yard to the driveway, to prevent any possible escapes. They were now fenced in on three sides, with the fourth side being a steep bank downwards to I don't know where as I haven't been down there yet.
I took a look at the fence to the paddock. It seemed intact. There is a "Taranaki Gate" between this paddock and the house. The gate was leaning slightly. I figured they must have trampled over it. I opened the gate and then tried to herd the cattle back through.
There were three cows in our yard, two brown and one small black/white. In the paddock were another 4 small black/white cows and one big white bull who was the boss and kept calling out for the others to return.
I grabbed a stick and tried to get around the cows so that they were in between me and the gate. By doing that I hoped that they'd move away from me towards the gate (and hopefully not run towards me instead!). I managed to get them going in the right direction and got them into the corner of the yard next to the gate. But then we had a bit of a standoff. Meanwhile I could hear lots of screams coming from the house as two little girls cried and cried for Mummy to return. And lots more mooing coming from the big guy in the paddock.
Eventually the small black/white cow decided to make a run for it back into the paddock. And at that point I decided to give up as the other two showed no signs of wanting to follow and once again tried to make a break for it in the wrong direction. I closed the gate and went back into the house to cuddle my girls.
As we were cuddling we realised the mooing had stopped. Obviously the bull had just been concerned about the little one coming home. At that point I decided to just leave the two brown cows in the yard, figuring there wasn't much harm they could do.
I finally got back to bed at 3.30am.
This morning after I dropped the girls off at creche I went to see the neighbours and told them their stock had escaped. M came straight up and together we herded the two brown cows back through the gate, and then M took them all away to a different paddock. I was pleased to see him using the same technique as I'd done (i.e. big stick). Maybe I can learn to be a farmer after all.
The good bit is that there wasn't a lot of damage done. They've trimmed the lawn so I won't need to mow again quite so soon. A few cow pats on the lawn, one on the vege garden and a couple on the driveway. Nothing to really worry about.
Just two very tired little girls and one very tired Mummy. And a very exciting story to tell.
-M
*I'm still a city slicker so I'll call them cows even though I don't know if they were male or female.
We have a thermometer in our dining room. It has been around 9 degrees (Celcius) most mornings. The thing about living here is that the mornings are very cold but the afternoons are usually alright. The clear, cloudless days are when it is coldest in the mornings but the sun gets quite warm by afternoon. It's been getting up to around 15/16 degrees or more in the sunshine. But as soon as the sun goes down I have to start closing all the curtains to keep the warmth in as much as possible.
The house really does not heat up very well. I've been worrying about this for a year now (even though we've only been here six months this week, we actually bought the place over a year ago) and still haven't come up with any solutions. I'm disappointed to find that the woodburner doesn't heat the house as well as I thought it would (unless I'm doing it wrong).
The woodburner is in the dining room, which is the central room in the house. Off it is the living room, the kitchen, and the hallway. It's all sort of open plan apart from the kitchen which has a door. We've hung a curtain (blanket) up between the dining room and hallway to save heat loss in that direction. It has made a big difference in terms of heat loss, but heating the dining room alone is still difficult. The woodburner really only heats up the immediate vicinity, and even then the most I've gotten the room to is 14 degrees. No way it's going to heat the living room at all.
When we're at home all day we eat three meals plus snacks in the dining room, so it's good to have that room warm. But I've pretty much given up on using the fireplace since it makes so little difference to the room temperature.
We have oil column heaters in the bedrooms, and I find that those are the warmest rooms in the house. So when we're at home we tend to spend a lot of time playing in K's room. Which isn't such a bad thing because we've had to move all the toys into her room anyway to stop the dog from destroying them.
-----
Now here's a funny story. And like all funny stories, it wasn't particularly funny at the time.
As I've mentioned before, the neighbours have been grazing their stock in our fields. This week they've been in the field closest to the house. Which is cool to be able to look out the window and see cattle.
Now last night they were particularly noisy, mooing in the middle of the night. I got woken up by it but went back to sleep, only to be woken again by V crying at 1.30am. I went and cuddled her and she insisted she wanted to look out the window. I said to her "you won't see anything there, the cows are on the other side of the house". So we looked out and lo and behold there were three cows* there, nibbling on our lawn. And the one still in the paddock was making a heck of a noise calling out to these three to return.
K woke up soon afterwards and started crying as well. I had a bit of dilemma, given that P is still away and I was there on my own with the girls. Stay inside with the girls and spend the whole night awake listening to the mooing. Or go outside to try and shoo the cattle back into the paddock but leaving the girls inside crying.
I figured it was worth a bit of short term pain for the long term gain. I quickly got dressed and ran outside, looking the part in my Swanndri, gumboots and jeans. The first thing I did was to shut the gate from the yard to the driveway, to prevent any possible escapes. They were now fenced in on three sides, with the fourth side being a steep bank downwards to I don't know where as I haven't been down there yet.
I took a look at the fence to the paddock. It seemed intact. There is a "Taranaki Gate" between this paddock and the house. The gate was leaning slightly. I figured they must have trampled over it. I opened the gate and then tried to herd the cattle back through.
There were three cows in our yard, two brown and one small black/white. In the paddock were another 4 small black/white cows and one big white bull who was the boss and kept calling out for the others to return.
I grabbed a stick and tried to get around the cows so that they were in between me and the gate. By doing that I hoped that they'd move away from me towards the gate (and hopefully not run towards me instead!). I managed to get them going in the right direction and got them into the corner of the yard next to the gate. But then we had a bit of a standoff. Meanwhile I could hear lots of screams coming from the house as two little girls cried and cried for Mummy to return. And lots more mooing coming from the big guy in the paddock.
Eventually the small black/white cow decided to make a run for it back into the paddock. And at that point I decided to give up as the other two showed no signs of wanting to follow and once again tried to make a break for it in the wrong direction. I closed the gate and went back into the house to cuddle my girls.
As we were cuddling we realised the mooing had stopped. Obviously the bull had just been concerned about the little one coming home. At that point I decided to just leave the two brown cows in the yard, figuring there wasn't much harm they could do.
I finally got back to bed at 3.30am.
This morning after I dropped the girls off at creche I went to see the neighbours and told them their stock had escaped. M came straight up and together we herded the two brown cows back through the gate, and then M took them all away to a different paddock. I was pleased to see him using the same technique as I'd done (i.e. big stick). Maybe I can learn to be a farmer after all.
The good bit is that there wasn't a lot of damage done. They've trimmed the lawn so I won't need to mow again quite so soon. A few cow pats on the lawn, one on the vege garden and a couple on the driveway. Nothing to really worry about.
Just two very tired little girls and one very tired Mummy. And a very exciting story to tell.
-M
*I'm still a city slicker so I'll call them cows even though I don't know if they were male or female.
02 June 2009
Week 25
Haven't done much work on the farm this week. The girls and I have all been sick, and P has been away.
Last weekend P got the chainsaw out and got stuck in chopping up one of the trees that came down in the storm a couple of months ago.
I've done the odd bit of weed-spraying and weed-pulling in the garden.
Took the dog to the local dog park in Levin for a run around. He enjoyed it a lot. So did K, who loved running in and out of the trees and bushes. Timmy (the dog) has just graduated from four weeks at Puppy Pre-School. During that time he got to know the other dog in school and went from being very shy the first week to being all over the other dog by the last week. He learnt to sit. He has not learnt how to stop jumping on the children, or chewing on their toys, or pulling on their clothes with his teeth. I have learnt that the distraction technique only works for a couple of seconds. I have also learnt that if he is to be inside with the girls he has to stay in his cage. However, when there are no children around he is mostly pretty good now.
I made up a batch of feijoa juice today. Couldn't find any recipes so made it the same way I make passionfruit juice. It turned out quite nice. Very refreshing. I think it would make a better sorbet than juice so might try that out later in the week.
Also made a loaf of bread for the first time in ages.
-M
Last weekend P got the chainsaw out and got stuck in chopping up one of the trees that came down in the storm a couple of months ago.
I've done the odd bit of weed-spraying and weed-pulling in the garden.
Took the dog to the local dog park in Levin for a run around. He enjoyed it a lot. So did K, who loved running in and out of the trees and bushes. Timmy (the dog) has just graduated from four weeks at Puppy Pre-School. During that time he got to know the other dog in school and went from being very shy the first week to being all over the other dog by the last week. He learnt to sit. He has not learnt how to stop jumping on the children, or chewing on their toys, or pulling on their clothes with his teeth. I have learnt that the distraction technique only works for a couple of seconds. I have also learnt that if he is to be inside with the girls he has to stay in his cage. However, when there are no children around he is mostly pretty good now.
I made up a batch of feijoa juice today. Couldn't find any recipes so made it the same way I make passionfruit juice. It turned out quite nice. Very refreshing. I think it would make a better sorbet than juice so might try that out later in the week.
Also made a loaf of bread for the first time in ages.
-M
26 May 2009
Week 24
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
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
