Boy, it has been a busy week for us, and it still is. I have some photos to post from the weekend, but I haven't had a spare minute to upload them - maybe tomorrow.
Hugh had a 24 hour tummy bug on Monday - actually the first tummy bug we've ever had in this house as far as I can remember. I had to call my (nurse) mother to find out how to treat it as I'd forgotten.
Yesterday I had my 19 week ultrasound, and the baby is looking good. It was the roughest ultrasound I've ever had. My abdomen is a bit tender today - the radiologist had a hard time getting a good picture, and she was rough!. She put the due date at January 10 and my date is January 16. I saw my dear obstetrician afterwards and she said she never takes it by the scan date (dear lady). That is exactly what I was hoping for. One of my girlfriends told me she was 'flexible' on due dates which is why I was happy to go with her. I have a midwife as well, but I have a history of not progressing past Stage 1 labour without extra help, and the obstetrician is the only one who can give me that by law here in NZ.
Today we get our 6 hens - in about 3 hours time (and I haven't had breakfast yet)! And our hen house isn't quite finished, so Robin is going to try and get it done before we go pick them up, and I have to pick up the feed and the hay as well. Thankfully, the hens have to stay in the coop for at least 3 days, so that will give us a chance to get their run finished.
On Friday Meredith has her first ballet exam - first thing in the morning, so it will be an early start for us. I'm looking forward to next week - I hope things will settle down a bit and be a bit quieter.
Poppy has come home, safe and sound. Late last night, after searching everywhere for her, Robin went out to close the garage doors before we went to bed, and as he stepped into the garage a little ball of black and white threw herself at his legs. She was very wet, but very cheerful and we were very glad to see her. I don't know where she'd been, as we'd searched all over calling for her, but it was so nice to go to bed knowing she was safe and warm in her basket.
We finally went ahead with our bonfire last night for the neighbours. It was a clear, cool night with no wind - so perfect for a bonfire. Robin started about 4pm to get the bonfire set up and even made a little seat in case someone needed to sit down. Here he is with the children cutting up the long strips of wood.
One of the neighbours dropped off his barbeque after towing it over here on a quad bike and his little son and Hugh had a drive around in it by themselves. I ran inside for the camera, but by the time I got out (after hearing Teddy wake from his nap), they'd finished their little joy ride after crashing into the water tank. The boys were ok, the water tank was ok (it's concrete), but I think the quad bike came off with a few more dents on it.
Here is a picture of Meredith making a 'necklace' out of nails, and Teddy by the bonfire now all ready for the first match.
Right on 6 o'clock the neighbours started to arrive. It was a bit of a mad dash to find hats and gloves and get the coats on, but we had such wonderful time. Just about everyone came and there was no alcohol and lots of children running around and having fun with the dogs and sticks and playing on the dirt heap. Sausages and bread and tomato sauce were flying everywhere and the bonfire burned down and down and down. I was so busy chatting that the bonfire had burned right down before I had time to pull out the camera and take a snap.
It was such a lovely, lovely time. We have some wonderful neighbours. They're all so different and so interesting. The kids got into the marshmellows pretty quickly - they certainly didn't last long. By the end of the night Teddy (3) had marshmellow smeared all over his face and his hands were black with dirt. He actually had about 3 little girls running around after him, cooking his marshmellows for him. He's a charmer, that boy! We heard one little girl say to her mother, "he's soooo cute Mum." He knows it too, I might add and uses it to his advantage.
I'm actually really surprised that a lot of these pictures turned out ok - my camera is not really that good at night shots.
Meredith put herself in charge of the little toddler girls. I found her and two girls inside at one stage - one of the neighbour girls likes dressing up in her fancy dresses. Please take note of the pink gumboots starting to get their first layer of dirt. The diamantes don't seem very sparkly anymore.
Here is one of Meredith's little girls.
One of the neighbourhood men started the fireworks. I actually thought he probably did them too close to everyone - I was a bit scared and so was one of my other neighbours so we backed off a little ways, but they were beautiful and spectacular in the clear, dark sky. I wish I'd tried to get a good picture of one - but I see this one has come out ok.
Boys - being boys - decided to make their own fire a little way off from ours. They made a teeny little circle of stones and put some paper and wood in it and carried flames on the ends of their sticks from our bonfire to theirs. They had fun and nobody got hurt. Here is a picture of Hugh by the boy's bonfire after everyone had gone home.
And our three children finishing off the remainder of the marshmellows after everyone had gone.
Everyone said they had a wonderful time, and how nice it was to meet all the neighbours. It's going to be such a lovely little community. If I do a rough guess I think there were about 44 people there including the children. There were only about two families who couldn't make it. We all said it would be nice to have something in the summer again - in daylight this time!
We had an unusually warm day this week after all the rain of last week, so we spent most of the time outside in the garden. My husband was working on our chicken house (they are arriving in less than two weeks and we don't even have the roof on yet), when he heard one of our boys call out......
"Help. Dad! Help"
He looked over about 200 metres away and saw this:
Hugh and Teddy had been playing in the ploughed up mud and dirt (where our wheat is soon to be sowed), and had about had enough and suddenly realized that they couldn't move - their feet (in their gumboots) were set like concrete into the mud. Look at our good dog Cricket, faithfully guarding them.
I don't even know how Robin got them out, but they did eventually, he even managed to save their gumboots, and the boys came running inside - absolutely covered in mud - laughing their heads off - "what great fun, Mum" - and hit the showers. See that umbrella in the background. That used to be my prized Eddie Bauer umbrella that I bought in Chicago in 1993 - it has Eddie Bauer engraved into the wooden handle, and I treasured it for over 10 years as possibly the only girl in New Zealand to own an Eddie Bauer umbrella, and I looked after it and was so proud of it, and then my children discovered it.
Today has been one of those lovely mid-winter days. It didn't warm up until after lunch when we all went outside to get some much needed sunshine and to plant the rest of our garlic. I have eight rows in now, and approximately 10 garlic cloves per row. It's the first time I've tried growing garlic.
Here is a picture of my parsley bed. I don't actually know why I planted so much parsley as it is my least-liked herb, and it has done really well, even though I have neglected it. But we had some visitors the other day who were admiring it and they said there is an old wives tale (or an old Maori tale - I forget which now), that says if you have abundant parsley beds, then you're going to have an abundant (large) family! We did have to laugh at that! We're onto our fourth - not exactly large to many, but large to some! When I'm in the throes of really bad morning sickness I will recite to myself over and over, 'donot plant anymore parsley!"
Here is a picture of my late-afternoon shadow. You can see I'm starting to get a baby bump.
My children have been enjoying the fine weather and have made the most of the mud and being outdoors. The result of many days cooped up indoors and watching Little House on the Prairie episodes has resulted in our own very little house on the prairie. Yesterday some neighbours came over to play and this was the outcome of an afternoon's work. I loaned the Little House DVD's to my neighbour who is from England and she had never seen them! She'd heard of the books, but never read them, and certainly never knew there was an entire tv series out. How deprived is that! I so love being the one to introduce people to lovely worlds like Little House.
When I went out to take a picture this afternoon I also found this out there....
It used to be a really useful kettle.
And I found this - which used to be a highly prized ornament for decorative candles that my husband and I bought on our honeymooon 10 years ago! Does anyone else find valuable household articles buried in the dirt where their children have been playing?
We're two days past the shortest day. We were supposed to have our dinner last night, but we forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer the night before, so we decided to have our celebration tonight.
Thank you Leanne for making me do this. It was soooooo worth it! We had heaps of fun.
It was a very much scaled down mid-winter Christmas celebration. Normally I like to have all the trimmings but that just wasn't going to be possible this year. We had roast chicken and vegetables (with our own potatoes). Jessie and the children made special place cards for the table:
Aren't they great!
We didn't quite manage to get out the silverware, but we did have the silver candelabra, the Christmas cloth and the nice glasses and grape juice, and I had a few napkins left over from last Christmas. We ate by candlelight while listening to Christmas caroles.
After dinner we gathered round the fire and roasted marshmellows and made smores while listening to the totally pagan song, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer. We sang along in the chorus and had a good laugh. The kids loved every minute and have gone to bed with a lot of food and a lot of sugar in their tummies.
We'll definitely be doing this again - on a bigger scale I hope - next Winter Solstice.
This is a plea to all you Pumpkin Pie loving Americans. I have about 12 huge pumpkins that I grew this year and I'm very proud of too - they looked soooo pretty in my garden with their beautiful orange skins and lovely shape, but they taste awful! It was an American variety that I planted and I think it's the type that you mostly use for decoration - now I know why you don't eat the flesh!! We kiwis are used to the smaller, sweeter, grey-skinned pumpkins that are so yummy when roasted or boiled or made into soup. I have tried these orange pumpkins all those ways, and boiled is about the only way that is slightly palatable.
So, I'm thinking that they are probably the type of pumpkin that is best for pumpkin pies, which we love as well, but again, have always used the sweeter type of pumpkin and probably the sugar and spice has been adjusted to match that. So I'm pleading with anyone who bakes pumpkin pies from scratch over there in the USA - could you, would you, P L E A S E (I'm begging here), share your recipe with me? I think I need oodles of sugar and spice.
Incidentally, I have always cut a pumpkin straight through the middle (from the top down) with a sharp knife. It is always a job I hate as I'm nervous the knife is going to slip and I'll stab myself, and if my husband is around I get him to do it, and I stand well out of the way; but I happened to be watching an episode of The Waltons the other night (I love the Waltons), and saw Grandma cut the top of a pumpkin from the side near the stem - how great is that! That is a revolutionary, life-saving (literally) idea for this kiwi-gal, and I tried it and it was so easy!
On this ANZAC Day, the day we remember those who bought freedom for my generation of New Zealanders, I think about my life and what has bought me to this point in history.
Rhonda over at www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com (link in my sidebar as well) has asked her readers to give a brief description of what our lives are and how we live. Here is mine, though maybe not too brief. I tried to condense it!
I think about my childhood, happy and uncomplicated within a small but loving family and extended family. I think about my youth, with its joys and tragedies of love won and lost, of the years of independence traversing foreign lands. I have dined with kings and rulers in those days, and I have supped with the poor and persecuted and refugees of other lands. My life is rich with experience and excitement. It has changed somewhat now - I don't have the daily thrills and drama of those single years, but there are thrills in the discoveries of the every day - of the three little souls I have in the power of my moulding, and the journey of returning to a simpler, less complicated life.
I live with my husband of 10 years on 10 acres in the countryside of Canterbury, New Zealand.
We have 3 children. Hugh is 8, Meredith is 6 and Teddy is 3. We have two dogs - wonderful, funny, cuddly pets and both good guard dogs; Cricket (a Labrador) and Poppy (a Jack Russel). Poppy is the alarm - she will hear something before Cricket, and Cricket is the policeman. He's big and black and looks and sounds intimidating (though he isn't really). We built our own home, and have dug our own garden which is 25 metres long. I have a five year plan for our journey back to the simple life. I grew tired of depending on other people for my survival. I am a self-confessed control-freak. I'm the type that doesn't like flying anymore, because I'm not the one doing the driving, although now I love living this way because I am finding more and more that it is the better way, the nicer, gentler, more wholesome way to live.
The first year we planted our vegetable garden.
What a saving this has been already, and it is only half dug. This year we plan to extend it. I love the thrill of growing things from seed and eating the result. What a miracle! In August we are getting 6 hens, and just now are in the middle of building the hen house ourselves. I homeschool my children and they hankered after a wood working project, so this is it!
Over the next five years we plan to add livestock, a milking cow or goat; bees; plant woodlots (for fuel) and have a good time doing it all. My big project is my orchard - I call it my orchard of friends. Every tree has been planted by a family member or a friend who has visited us. So far I have 9 trees; 7 apples and 2 cherries. I am planting along the lines of an old-fashioned orchard with trees close together and organic.
My husband's big project is truffles. 5 acres are set aside for our Truffiere which is our long term investment for our retirement. With 10-12 years being the minimum for the first harvest of a truffle (5-8 if you are especially lucky), we do plan to stay here a long time, Lord willing.
We are in the process of opening up a little old-fashioned bookshop in our community where atmosphere and charm and friendliness are more important that stock and sales.
I have recently written a children's picture book which was released last year, and is bringing in a small income for us. I love to write about New Zealand and the rich, beautiful, privileged golden years of the 70's and 80's growing up here. My country is no longer the country it was 30 years ago, and people who recognize this love to hang on to the old ways and the old memories. That is what I like to incorporate into my writings.
My side interests are many. I love to cook from scratch, preserve, make jam. I love to sew, make clothes for my children, quilt, knit and decorate my home. I love classic literature and old out-of-print children's books. I'm enjoying the discovery of living frugally and the challenges that brings. I bake my own bread now, and I recently made my first batch of soap which I find is rather addictive. I've tried making my own butter (a fun thing to do). I find this way of life is fun and exciting and adventurous.
I love staying at home all day during the week, (although the children's activities often take me away from here). I think I could be a hermit if allowed, although I do love the company of others and good friends, so I probably wouldn't last as a hermit very long. The world has become a scary place and I sometimes like to think I could escape to a remote area with my family and forget that the rest of the world exists, but in reality I probably couldn't do it. I do love the colour of other people. People are interesting whatever their story is, and everyone, even the humblest, most unlovely, has something interesting to tell.
Today is my grocery shopping day and with food prices sky-rocketing, I am trying hard (like everyone else) to keep the bill down. And because we don't have a regular income coming in at the moment it is even harder. We are in the process of setting up a business and there have been a few bumps in the road. So, I am having to work to a very tight budget and trust me when I say I am not a budget girl! My Dad tried to teach me, my maths teachers tried to teach me and my dear husband tries oh so very hard to teach me, but me and math and money do not compute... but I am trying hard because I have to.
Anyway, I was reading in our local city newspaper yesterday that a stay at home mother of three with her husband being the sole 'bread winner' has a weekly grocery bill of $400 and she has managed to reduce it to $350 a week. I was feeling quite proud of myself, because our weekly bill has been $350 and I can get it down to $200 a week if I try hard. ;o)
Because I have been growing vegetables we have not had to buy veges in months - just eating what we grow - this does make you get very sick of the vege that you're eating day after day, but it has saved us at least $50 a week. And I am also finding recipes that I can use for more than one day. Today, all the meat that I have to buy is 2kg mince and 2 whole chickens. This will do us for the entire week, and that is eating well too.
Here is my menu plan:
Friday - Mince Burgers
Saturday - Roast Chicken
Sunday - Mince Burgers
Monday - Chicken Casserole
Tuesday - Chicken Casserole
Wednesday - Lasagne
Thursday - Lasagne
* And I should still have one meal of Mince Burgers left over in the freezer, and I have been stock piling meat on special as well, so this week I should be able to do two meals for two friends who are going through a difficult time.
This may not be very good frugality, (I mean, perhaps I can do better and make a meal stretch even further), but for someone who does not take to this naturally, I am feeling pleased with myself for achieving this much.
I'll post the recipes in the next post in case anyone else wants to try it.
Today I had to homeschool the children with the electrician in the same room. It was kinda fun - he was having fun with the vacuum cleaner anyway. We have an internal system and he'd never used one before, so he enjoyed trying it out when he was cleaning up his mess and accidentally sucked up some school counters and his own handkerchief! Theodore (3) kept following him around and asking him questions and calling him 'man'.
After school was finished I had already planned to try out two new things seeing as today is one of my home days when I don't have to go out anywhere (the best kind of day). The first thing is making homemade Apple cider. When our American friends visited recently Ginny was telling us how she loved hot apple cider, and it's not something that I've seen a whole lot of here in NZ - I don't think it's readily available - I've never seen it in the supermarkets anyway. The very next week my favourite gardening magazine, NZ Gardener came out and to my delight I saw they were doing a special feature on apple cider and how to make your own at home! So I froze my apples (1.5kg) a couple of days ago, and today I blended them - peel, core and seeds and all, put them in my brand new 10kg bucket and then poured the 5.7 kg cold water over it. The instructions then said to put a clean tea towel over the top and set it in room for a week, stirring once in the morning and then again at night. So that is what I've done and in 7 days time, I'll do the next step. I took a picture of it, but trust me - you don't want to see it - it looks revolting!
The other thing I tried today was making soap using plain unscented soap and grating it, then melting it in a double boiler with the other ingredients. When it liquified I added Essential Oil of Vanilla and poured it into my moulds which were just what I had on hand at the time - some wax paper cup cake pattys.
They're in the freezer now and I'll get them out soon and let them harden for a couple of weeks before I use them. It's kind of addictive. I think I might get into this - I found a place online that sells soapmaking supplies wholesale in NZ. Here is a picture of my soap after I'd poured it into the mould. I don't think I had a truly pure soap, but I will next time after I get the proper supplies.
Yesterday I mentioned that I am thinking of opening up a small bed and breakfast here. When we built this place we added a guest room and ensuite on the end of the house next to the school room. It was mostly to be for family and friends, as we love to have people to stay, but we had the thought recently of opening it up for paying guests as a way of bringing in a little more income. It's reasonably easy to set up in NZ as we don't have to have licenses or special training if it's for housing under 5 people, and mine would only be for a single or couples.
We especially would like to make it available - as a family ministry - for other Christian people passing through the area and not charge anything for this. I grew up in a home where my parents always had visiting missionaries, ministers or christian leaders to stay. It added so much to our lives to have these wonderful faith-filled people staying in our home, so my husband and I would love to do the same thing, and we want to use this wonderful extra space as a ministry towards other chiristians, but in the meantime, I'd also like to try the bed and breakfast thing for when we don't have friends or family to stay.
Our first guests in the guest room are going to be friends of friends from the USA!! They will be staying a couple of nights with us this coming weekend, so we have had fun fixing the room up. It's not finished yet - still to get pictures up and a few towel rails and things, but it is such fun getting it ready. I got the duvet cover and new pillows and bathroom towels and things in a department store sale this week. I saved over $200. The chair we missed out on getting on Friday actually worked in our benefit, because yesterday we were in the same store again and found another lovely wicker chair for 1/3 of the price of the chair we missed out on - and it's much nicer - so it all worked out for the best.
We can't wait for the Americans to arrive - it is such fun for us. I'll get to practice my bed and breakfast idea on them. A week later my parents arrive to stay, so I'll get to practice again. If anyone else wants me to practice on them...... well - we'd love to have you!!
Here are some pictures of our guest suite. For some reason I'm having trouble with the resizing option on photobucket, but I hope you'll enjoy these anyway.
This has been one dramatic day weather-wise! We even made the national news tonight - our area of New Zealand hit record highs for heat today. There were 3 major fires in our area alone, including the one across the road; high winds - a 'nor-wester, which our province is famous for; and finally tonight we have rain. Lovely, beautiful, wonderful-smelling rain. We haven't seen any for weeks, and are in a summer drought. I pray it rains all night long and all day tomorrow.
It's still blowing a gale - my poor apple trees are getting a real battering. All day long we've had the 'nor-wester and they were blowing in a southerly direction. Now the wind has changed bringing the rain up from the south, and we're getting a chilly Southerly, so now the poor trees are blowing in a northerly direction. And my beans are looking a little the worse for wear, and poor Mr. Roger Scarecrow blew over and landed on the corn - I think it has survived, though I can't be sure about poor Roger - he's bootless!
Please could you say a prayer for our little neighbourhood. There is a big fire happening just down the road from us right now. I can count 3 helicopters and it is the hottest, windiest day today. I have the air-conditioning on in our house and it's really struggling to beat the heat.
There has been a complete fire ban in our area, so I don't know how this started.
It looks pretty close to the place belonging to a dear Christian couple who are friends of ours and who have just started building their home - there are lots of new homes in the area, so I'm sure the fire-department are battling really hard to get it under control. I can't see much smoke - just a haze, but it's so very windy, it could just be blowing into nothing.
Thank you so much! My dh has gone down to check it out, so I'll update later.
I am just loving the month of January. I'll be really sorry when it is over. It is so nice to just have the days quiet and without having to think about schooling or running the kids around to this and that. The less I have to go into town, the better.
Having just moved into our new home just before Christmas, this is the first time I've been able to try and get my systems set up in the house. Kris recommended several websites for diaries and home organization methods. I am not a big user of diaries. I've tried in the past, but it usually only lasts the first week before I go back to using a calendar on the wall. But Kris mentioned Bahama Blessings at
and I really liked the simplicity of these forms, and they're very inexpensive too. I got a set for $3.95, which works out less than $10 New Zealand dollars, and no postage, as it was a download, and I can just print off new sheets when I need them, and they're pretty too. All of this brings me to my new pantry. I spent all day Saturday arranging it and sorting things out. We're still unpacking boxes, so I know I'm going to have to tweak it here and there, but I'm just loving the extra storage space, and the extra bench where I can prepare my baking. If someone calls in, I can just shut the door on all the mess!
I have been getting noticeboards for the children to put above their desks in the school room, and decided to get one for myself as well to put on the blank wall in my pantry. I am going to work on that today, but that is where I plan to put my planning sheets from Bahama Blessings, and my menus and have a running grocery list on there as well, with a pen attached - I'm always having a hard time finding pens!!.
It's so much fun getting organized. There are not enough hours in the day for me right now. I can't think of a better job/career right now than just being at home getting my house in order for the year.
So here are some pictures of my pantry. This first one shows the entrance from the main kitchen.
The next two photos show the top part of the shelves and the bottom part of the shelves which are around the corner in the pantry. I'll post a picture of my noticeboard once I've completed it.
Today I baked my first ever really homemade bread. I didn't use a machine or a kneader. I had the opportunity to go into town and the library today, but after an undecided morning (I hate it when I can't make up my mind), I chose to stay at home. I'm sure I would have come home hot and frazzled. Instead I'm feeling cooler and productive having just put my first loaf in the oven, along with some buns to go with our dinner tonight. It didn't take that long either and the kneading sure was a good workout for my arms. Now if I could only get up earlier in the morning I could do this every day. I hope it's cooked through, but I cant wait to try it. The only thing is, it's not wholemeal, as I didn't have any in stock, so it is a (gasp) white loaf, but it was fun to do all the same.
While I'm here, I made my jam yesterday, and it turned out great.
After waiting for our house for two years - we finally have a moving in date - November 24th! Although we can start moving in the weekend before.
The kitchen is being installed today, but now we have to start praying for God's protection over the next couple of weeks. Alot of new homes out in our area are being targeted by burglars ripping out all the new appliances and breaking windows to get in. Of course the insurance will cover it, but it's not a very nice thing to happen. We have thought about camping out there or my husband and the dog sleeping out there at night, but we heard that it's not necessarily during the night that they're robbing the homes. Some actually drive right up in the daylight, and nobody questions them because there are so many tradesmen coming and going all the time, or they think the client has 'changed their mind' or a mistake was made or something like that. Unbelievable.
My little plants are coming up nicely. The beans have broken through the surface, and so have the peas. I need to find out if I should be thinning them or not. The potatoes also are looking good, and I discovered an extra row that I had forgotten I'd planted. I haven't been watering them at all, but they've managed to grow, so that's good.
My parents are in Canada at the moment with my sister who lives there, and I am in the middle of ordering homeschooling supplies for my children in the hopes that they'll be able to bring it back with them. Postage from the USA is horrendous - almost as much as the school supplies themselves. My parents surprised my sister by just turning up on the doorstep about morning teatime yesterday. I would have loved to have seen my sister's face! Air New Zealand now has direct flights to Vancouver which is fantastic - saves alot of hassle with changing planes and avoids US immigration. It's a long flight though - 14 hours. Although my Dad said it wasn't that long, but Mum said it was! They flew over Fiji, Samoa and Hawaii on the way. I'd love to go one day, but I don't like flying anymore.
I planted the seeds for my herb garden a few days ago - I need to find some rosemary though - that's my favourite herb.
We all spent about 6 hours yesterday out at our land. The house is almost completed - the painters are starting this week. Hopefully in two weeks time, we can move in.
Because it's Spring here in Down-Under land we've been able to focus on the outdoors area and the garden in particular. It was Labour Day yesterday so we had a day off school and could spend the good part of the day in the garden.
It had rained quite a bit in the last week or so, and the soil had compacted down, and developed a hard crust on the top after a few days of hot sun and dry wind. At first I started to rake and pick away at the soil with the adze - that's how I got a sore back - but thought it would be much easier just to do the part where I was planning to plant than try and do the entire plot! That horrible cooch grass is starting to come through even after twice rotary-hoeing and dedicated raking every couple of days. One of the tradesmen that came to the house last week said he gave up on his vege garden because of the cooch - but I'm determined that I'm going to beat it!
I planted two sets of climbing beans yesterday in circles as I plan to use the old-fashioned method of bamboo sticks tied at the top (like a teepee) for them to climb up. That way I can move them into the next 'break' in my 5 year cycle much easier. I had a hard time keeping the dog and my 2 year old from stepping all over it, but I got it done. After that I started on my rows for the peas. The ground was quite hard and compacted, but the adze soon loosened it up and I got three rows of peas planted. I think I'm going to have to order more seeds though, as I'd like to have a lot more than three rows.
While I was planting my 7 year old son, Hugh had wandered out into the paddock. We have had a local farmer plant some barley on our land this year as we had no immediate plans for it ourselves and it helps keep it tidy over the summer. I had noticed a couple of birds out there earlier - in the distance it looked like one of the neighbours hens - as it turned out though, it was a couple of nesting plovers.
I heard Hugh yelling and looked up to see these two nasty plovers attacking him - they were swooping down on him and scaring the poor boy. His arms were flying all over the place in an attempt to keep them off. I think his yells must have helped. I yelled at him to run back to us in the garden, which he did. My dog (a big black labrador) was tied up and I was about to go and let him off (he loves chasing birds and is very protective of us - especially the children), but there was no need as Hugh got back ok. I tried to explain to him about the nest and he understood that, but I could see he kept an eye on them for the rest of the afternoon.
We planted another apple tree yesterday too - I wanted to get the Quince tree planted as well, but I'm still not sure of the best place for it, so I left it. I'm glad I didn't plant in now, as we have high winds today. It's a 'nor-wester which is a hot wind. It plays havoc with the plants. I think it's killed my olive tree which I feel terrible about. My parents gave it to my husband about 7 years ago. We've neglected it and carted it with us for every move, and it has thrived. We finally get it to its resting place and it goes and dies on us. Well, I think it's dying. I'm not sure what to do about it - if anyone has any idea about what is wrong with it, and what I can do to help it, I'd be grateful. The leaves have all curled up and are turning brown. I think it's in too windy a spot (we have no shelter yet), or I might have paid too much attention to it by watering it too much.
Some good news - we won an auction on our local auction site: www.trademe.co.nz for 20 bales of peastraw to use as shelter around the garden. It was selling at such a great price. Can't wait to get that, although I'm so amazed that I'm so thrlled about buying peastraw!! What has happened to my sensibilities - gardening is becoming as much fun as clothes and shoes shopping!
I was born and raised in either a town or a city. But when my husband and I bought 10 acres just north of Christchurch City (New Zealand), I wondered what I was going to do with all that good earth!
After speding a fortune on groceries every week and the entire family being susceptible to winter flu's and colds and general illness, I thought that it was time I did something about improving our quality of lifestyle and eating habits. So, I have planned an organic vegetable garden, and orchard. My husband is in the process of cultivating truffles. This Spring I am seeing all the planning and learning being put into practice. I have dug over a 25 metre patch of garden, and I've divided it into 5 metre plots, for a 5 year rotation gardening plan.
I went and did a one day course last year on this style of gardening, and I've spent the entire winter reading all I can on the subject. It is only now that I'm getting to put it into practice.
I'm very keen, very naive when it comes to gardening. I'm a previous high-maintenance, whatever is easiest kind of girl. This is a completely new path for me, although I come from a long line of good gardeners, so it is in my blood. I don't really know what I'm doing though - just learning more and more each day and relying on my husband to tell me when to plant etc. I have great plans. When I've mastered the art of gardening I want to add hens, and a goat, bees and plant my own wheat. Of course all the canning and preserving and baking and freezing that goes along with all of this is part of the charm for me - I have learned how to do that! I hope to use this website as a kind of journel of my journey.
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 3 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
