Friday, Sept. 18, 2015

Finally some down time to add to the blog.  I've been out of commission for a couple of days.  Just overdid with weeding and fertilizing the perimeter trees and ended up with quite a sore knee and back.  But all seems better today.

Now some of the promised pictures.

Garden beds are finally weeded and ready for planting. We have planted seeds in little pots and when they are big enough we will transfer to the garden . . . probably in another week or two. 

These are the perimeter trees planted last year.  The plastic protection is coming off, the grass and weeds are being pulled, and a dose of fish emulsion fertilizer is being given.  This is the job that messed up my knee, since all the work is done on the ground on hands and knees!!

This is the infamous Miss Bebe.  She followed Terry all over the place last year and she misses him dreadfully!  She also has many interesting things to say. 

 Here is the male goat who lives in the paddock on the east side of the property.  He has a mate and she has just delivered two little kids.  Pictures to follow.

A picture from the balcony off Mike's office - these are the Port Hills just outside of Christchurch.  We had a very cold rain and sleet storm, but they got snow.

This is Heather's maidenhead fern.  Last year it was a tiny little thing and Heather and Terry celebrated each time it sent up a new sprout.  Look at it now!

Here is the promised picture of the alpaca who lives across the road.  He/she (not sure which) is one of three that live there.

This is a 'frizzle' chicken who lives across the road and down towards the mailboxes.l  Her feathers are always sticking out like that so she looks like she is standing is a strong wind!

Heather is finishing up this 1500 piece puzzle.  I did one corner and part of the sky and she did the rest.  I think I need to get my eyes checked!

A better picture of the puzzle.

 And here is the mama goat and her two kids. Here they are just one day old.  They spend a lot of time just sleeping in the sun.

Mike has purchased and installed a large water tank.  I will get some pictures and post those next time.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Nothing exciting going on here.  Still gathering brush and filling the pits for maybe one more fire.  Spent several afternoons weeding the garden beds and around some of the perimeter trees that were planted last year (pictures will be posted at a later date).  Weather has been cold and rainy with lots of wind out of the south.

So here are a few pictures, mostly to update Terry, of things he worked on last year.

This is the last fire we had.  The pit was the first one that Terry dug last year, on the north side of the property. 

Willie and Annmarie, neighbors from across the road, came over to have the obligatory Kiwi drink with Mike, and to watch the fire.  I think they were sipping whiskey.

Last year Terry and I spent several days splitting and stacking wood on the north side of the garden area.  We did not get it all split, maybe half, but Mike finished it off and here it is waiting to go into the wood shed.

But, as you can see, the wood shed is full, with more waiting to be stacked.

And here is another pile of logs waiting to be cut and split.  And there is another pile behind the garden that I did not get a picture of.  So needless to say, there is plenty of firewood!

Heather has completed the baby blanket, really a floor covering, she was working on last year.  It is unique!

Each 'bubble' is knitted separately. . . 

and then they are all stitched together by hand.  There are about 275 bubbles.

Heather collects different editions of "Lord of the Rings" as well as many

science fiction and fantasy authors.  Mike built her a bookcase for her collection that covers one entire wall of the living room.  But, she is running out of space!!

The boxes at the bottom and the left have more books in them.

Here are a pair of Paradise Shelducks that visit the property on occasion.  

We have a herd of cattle in the paddock behind the Wee Mansion and across the road are sheep and lambs, goats, and alpacas.  Don't have pictures of those yet, but will get some and post them, along withe the perimeter trees,  when the weather gets drier.

Sunsets have been nice but not spectacular.  In this picture, facing east, what looks like a mountain between the trees is actually a bank of storm clouds.   When the clouds are not there, we do get a peek of snowy mountain tops.

And turning immediately to the west, is the moon rising.

Until next time . . .

August 9, 2015

Yesterday I spent some time pulling weeds in the garden.   Weeds grow like crazy during the fall and winter which take a great toll on the garden.  When I started working it was in pretty bad shape.

But after about three hours, I had made some headway.  

The bed on the far right is the artichoke bed and that is now cleared of weeds.  The next bed over usually has peas and carrots.  I did about half that bed but then had to quit.  My fingers were very VERY cold, and my back had had enough!!  But there is so much more to do, so as long as it's not raining, I'll tough out the cold and get the garden in shape for planting.


This morning, Mike decided that since rain was expected for the afternoon, and the wind was calm, we could go ahead and burn one of the piles of brush.  He chose the one on the north side of the property next to the driveway.  Last year Terry had dug an enormous pit out there and Mike had filled it with brush. The pits are 10-12 feet across and 8-10 feet deep, and Mike piles the brush up to
 8-10 feet above the rim of the pit.  Here is what the piles look like before we start to burn.

Then Mike sets it on fire.

And after two hours it's gone.

It will smolder and smoke for several weeks before it goes out completely.

But before it was completely burned, we had a rain and sleet storm blow in from the south.  I got a picture of it coming.

It rained and sleeted for about 30 minutes and then the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  About 2 hours later another storm blew through, again rain and sleet for 30 minutes.  But it stayed cloudy and more rain is predicted for tonight.

Heather is making pizza for dinner!  Yeah!!  I love her home made pizza.

Friday, August 7, 2015

Arrived in New Zealand yesterday after the 12 hour flight from LA to Auckland and then the short hop to Christchurch.  Heather and Mike met me at the airport and we went immediately to get a cup of my favorite coffee, Vivace Espresso, which is actually based in Seattle.  But for some reason, it just tastes better in New Zealand!

Because of the 19 hour time difference between California and Christchurch, I was up bright and early this morning at 6:45.  The sun was coming up and I got this picture of the sunrise just before it completely faded out.

Hopefully better sunrises will be forthcoming, but I usually find that sunsets are much better.  Here is one from a previous visit.

Terry asked me for pictures of the property so he could see what had changed since he was here last year.  The biggest change is that the dairy company that bought the paddock behind the Wee mansion has just cut down the shelter belt along the west side of the paddock.  The trees below in the background, beyond the ones that are falling over, were the trees that made up that shelter belt.

Here is what it looks like now.

The trees were not on Heather and Mike's property, but they did provide some shelter from the winds out of the west, and now they are gone.

There are still many piles of brush to be burned and we will probably be doing that next week.  I'll take pictures and post them then.

November 11, 2013
Reclaiming the Chicken Yard                                                

Tim made a comment on my last post about all the work we had done.  My response was that, in the pictures I posted yesterday, you can't really see all the work we've done.  So I took a walk around what used to be part of the chicken yard and took some pictures.  The area is a little over a 1/4 acre of land that had almost 400 trees on it.  All of them are down or damaged and will have to be cut down.

This shows the progress on uncovering the turkey hutch.  Mike did some major log cutting and stacking, so this area is pretty opened up.  

Here are a couple of the brush piles a stack of larger branches.  The green in the background are downed trees that are outside the chicken yard.  

This is just beyond the turkey hutch and to the left.

This is past the hutch heading toward the eastern boundary of the lot.

This is further to the east and just to the left.

And this is to the right.

Another log pile.

Another shot to the right.  And yes, that is Heather sitting up on fallen tree cutting off the limbs.

Go Heather!!

At this point we are still about 20 feet from the eastern boundary - still lots of work to do!

November 10, 2013
Finding the Turkey Hutch                      

Since our return from Auckland, we have continued the clean-up and have finally uncovered the turkey hutch.

Three tress fell in front of it, three on top of it, and I'm not sure how many fell behind it, because we haven't cleared those yet.  Mike worked through yesterday afternoon to clear the front.

Obviously it was seriously damaged, but it did not collapse.  Kudos to Mike for building a strong structure!

We've also cleared some of the mess behind the garden and cleaned out all of the garden boxes. 

 We had actually planted most of the garden when about 10 days ago we had another wind storm.  We lost everything planted in the garden,except the potatoes, as well as another 25-30 trees.  Two fell in the orchard and damaged some of the trees that had survived the first storm.  Many trees behind the Wee Mansion went down and again blocked our path to the south boundary.  Mike spent another day clearing that path again.

Mike cleaned out the wood shed and disassembled it so it can be re-built.  That is a work in progress right now.

And we continue the work to clear the chicken area so it can be re-fenced.

And it is a large area - probably a quarter of an acre or more.

This is what it looked like before we started the clean up.  You can see the top of the chicken coop just to the right of the one still standing tree!

Here is a picture of 6 small chickens.  Annie sat on her nest, nestled in the stump pile, through the September storm and two days after the storm hatched these chicks.

And the chickens keep laying their eggs!!  Many have started nesting the in brush piles all over the yard.  As we find them we remove most of the eggs so Heather and Mike will not be overrun with little chicks again this year.  So we have four Splash Orpington chicks from eggs Heather had gathered before the storm.

Two hens were hatched by a turkey last year and practically hand raised by Heather.  They each went broody after the storm and were sitting on eggs in nests in brush piles.  Heather took out most of the eggs and they ended up hatching one chick each.

Here is Bebe with her chick.

And here is Golden with hers (and of course Heather)

So we continue the clean up and at the end of the day, with few tress in the way, we enjoy beautiful sunsets!