On the Farm, Part 2

Tomorrow we are leaving the lovely farm that has been our home for the past two weeks. Sorry about the infrequency of the posts, but as you can see, we've been pretty busy...






Our main project (taking about 5 days of work) was clearing out the weeks along the shelter belt in order to plant native bush. We put in about 40-50 new trees: flax, cabbage trees, kauros, and one we referred to only as "the green shiny guys" since we never learned the real name. While planting was the goal, weeding and clearing the ground proved to be the main obstacle. The result was a 4ft high, 12ft long and 6 ft wide pile of grass, buttercups and wildbackberry. The particularly bad weeds were burned by us in a 55 gallon steel drum in the chicken/compost area.
The end result is a beautiful shelter belt of native plants that wil attract pollinators for the garden and give a bit of privacy to the farm.

Feeding and minding the chickens and ducks is a daily chore. Sean loves the ducks. They are pretty hilarious, actually, waddling around in a group and quacking raucously at everything.




This is the site of the infamous sheep nail trimming episode. All of the lambs (about twenty) were driven into one side of this large pen and then, one by one, each was lifted over the railing, set on its bum and give and proper cliping followed by a drench (a de-worming medicine). Next, the lucky amb was again lifted over the rails into a zinc foot-bath where it sat while we (Sean and our host Michelle) did the next sheep. When it was over we had happy lambs and filthy clothes :)




The return of the feijoa: along with our host, Michelle, and the family's German foreign exchange student, Isabelle, we put up eight jars of stewed feijoas and made two jars of jam. It is so exciting to learn how to do this and we've both been impressed with how easy it is. It's possible that from now on you are all getting jam or preserves every Christmas! : )




We harvested tomatoes, parsley and basil from the garden to make a great tomato sauce, which we later had on homemade pasta. This was just on of the tasty garden fresh meals we've enjoyed here. I made chocolate chip pumpkin bread yesterday (which turned out delicious thanks to Tasha's awesome recipe) with pumpkin from the garden and last week I did a fresh zucchini bread. There is no doubt that we are eating well!



The garden. We didn't get the chance to do much in the garden besides harvesting (carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, basil and parsley) and a bit of weeding.




In our free time, after dinner and before bed, we find ourselves with the family cat in our lap. Chi-Chi is, by far, the most exceptionally adorable cat on both sides of the Mississippi. She'll jump into your arms, cuddle under the covers and will sleep fitfully in any position. We wish we could take her with us to be our mascot.




Ahh, the gummies. I don't know what we would do without them! We live in these things and they allow us to walk freely through mud, droppings, sludge, rain and everything else without a second thought. By far, the best advice we were given so far (and we've had a lot of good advice) was to get gum boots.



One of the prime reasons for the gumboots is this kind of weather! It rains fairly often, so that means that everything is lush, green, and muddy : )





Now we are preparing for a drive o the Northland where we hope to visit ancient Kauri forests, beautiful beaches, small islands, old towns and a sacred place where two seas meet and the Maori believe the souls depart the island and head home. It should be incredible.