Sunday can be the Busiest of Days

Couldn't sleep after waking at 4 am. Got out of bed at 4.30, may as well make the most of it. Stirred up the fire, had coffee, did the emails and wrote the blog. Got the yoghurt (that we made a few days ago) draining.

Draining and Tubbing the Yoghurt

By then it was light enough (although very misty) to check the neighbours cattle. Still no babies on the river. One or two look promising and will need to be checked again this evening. Took the trailer full of rocks (ex Nuttery) down to the spot near the hayshed that we are filling to extend the flat ground. Emptied the trailer (by hand) and brought back a load of firewood that had been drying (never waste a trip). The extended area is getting quite large and should give us a better storage area for firewood. Living on a ridge makes flat land very valuable.



The rock platform growing

Over morning tea of coffee and scones we went through the Tomato planting list. July is the time we put our seeds down ready for Spring. The seed trays will sit on one of the hot composts to germinate. and then be planted up to larger pots as needed. Despite every attempt to keep the numbers down we still managed to pass the 20 mark. There are just too many favourites. Some are chosen for colour, others for texture and flavour, a couple are really early ripening, a couple are really late ripening, some are better for bottling and a couple are just good standby fruit in bad years when the others struggle. We look at what we grew last year and take out any we didn't like and go through the catalogue to see if there interesting additions. The first column is last years planting, the second is the proposed 2013 planting and the third is how many seeds need planting. We like to have a couple spare of each variety.

The Tomato List 2013

Tomatoes in trays in the cold frame

Put the tractor away in the hayshed, taking a load of rocks back in the scoop then went onto putting all the grape vine pruning's through the mulcher and start the next hot compost. Got down two layers. This will take a while to fill as we will be pruning the fruit trees as we go.

The beginnings of a compost with central hole

Last job of the day was to check the springers on the neighbours hill and on the river. The girls on the hill can be easy as the hill is in view from the house but not today, it needed a walk which the dogs enjoyed. Success a new calf born only a couple of hours earlier. On the river there was more productivity. A new calf just born, mum was still cleaning up as I arrived.

Only minutes old

Fasting, Cattle Work and Rock Picking

Checked the neighbours 7 girls on the river and still no new babies. Noticed the cows and calves that were moved a few days ago standing in a tight bunch along the fence line. went up to see what was going on. Nothing, they had found a spot on the rise that was getting maximum morning sun and were enjoying it. Although by coming over it reminded them to have a whinge about getting a new paddock.

The trailer had been in the Nuttery for a couple of weeks waiting for us to get around to picking up more rocks and removing weed matting. Got stuck into it for a couple of hours and almost finished that section before going over the river to help with some cattle work.

The boss was up for the weekend and it's a lot faster putting the animals through the yards with three people. One person can be dedicated to keeping the race leading to the headlock full. One on the headlock doing the work and one person keeping records and doing the general duties. The only mistake was the boss had greased the headlock. This eliminated any friction and the calves were able to push through. This was solved by me holding the lock down handle in place manually. No big deal and hopefully the grease will weather away before the next yarding.

The calves had been wearing their weaning nose rings for 4 weeks and it was time to remove them otherwise the nose can grow around it requiring a scalpel for removal. In most cases these rings seem to work but it's not a 100% certainty. We had already noticed the odd calf had worked out how to slip the spikey top up higher and by coming in at a steep angle they could still suck without spiking the udder. We separated them from the mums after removing all the rings and they will now graze in paddocks at the other end of the property until the bulk of them are sold. Hopefully they won't bellow too much and disturb the neighbours.

Weaning Nose Ring

Got home in plenty of time to finish collecting rocks in this section of the Nuttery. A worthwhile job which will help the mower blades last that little bit longer. Some of the weed mat was still in good shape and we folded it for storage. It will come in handy when we build the Spring Tomato bed in 6 weeks time.

Close to a ton of rocks taken out of the Nuttery

Because we had visitors on Thursday we missed one of our fast days. Rather than miss the day completely today became the alternate fast day. Just tea or coffee in the morning then maybe a couple of mandarins early afternoon then that's it until dinner which usually is just a thick soup of beans. Tonight's soup ended up being Barley and lentils with piles of Stinging Nettle and a scoop of Salsa Verde. Having picked up fresh oysters in the shell the previous day we had a dozen. Fasting doesn't have to be painful. If you keep busy you seem to notice the lack of food.

Back to Work

After a day off it's time to get back to the routine. A not so quick check of the 7 Springers on the river. They decided not to make it easy and stand near the road but instead I found them on the hill overlooking the river. They weren't taking in the view because the whole valley is shrouded in mist and remained that way until after noon. No new babies.

Remembered I hadn't used the neighbour's tractor for a week. Took it out of the shed and let it run for 10 minutes before putting it back to bed. Have you ever driven some else's car and found the controls are different from yours? You know, where the indicators are on the opposite side and you keep engaging the windscreen wipers instead of indicating you are turning right. Well it's the same with tractors. At the moment I'm driving three different tractors and the gears are different on each. A year ago I was using six different tractors during the week, that's a challenge.

The 50 HP 4 WD tractor from our work property, the forks are really handy.

Our 30HP 4WD with 4 in 1 bucket

80HP 4 WD with Bale Handler

Having finished at the neighbour's it was a quick trip across the river to put out silage and then off to the local guy who fixes broken metal things. The boss had driven one of the silage feeders into a fence post and it needed some panel beating. Brought it back (after a long chat) and put it out with some more silage.

Home for breakfast and a look around the Orchard. The Tropical Nectarine is in flower - this is a bit early?


Tropical Nectarine flowering in July?

Took the pushbike and rode back across the river to finish a 100 metre stretch of replacement fencing. Pulled the first wire and used it as a string line to bang in the steel posts, attached the insulators and pulled the second wire and ditto. Tensioned both wires and attached all the electrical connections. Drove over to the cut-off switch located over the rise about 300 metres away and found one of the poplars had come down during the week right across the first stretch of fence we had completed two weeks ago.  Cut up the tree into 3 metre strips and cleared the fence line, repaired the damaged section, tensioned and turned on the power and tested everything. All clear.

At least it missed the water trough

As it is Friday and the boss is arriving tonight, did a quick clean up of the RTV and put away any tools I'd used during the week. Packed all the silage wrap into the garbage and rode home, pushing hard to get some aerobic activity. It's about 8 kilometres home but the worst bit is the 300 metres from our front gate to the house. It is extremely steep. I've only ever ridden up to the top once as it really hard going and I'm sure I need more gears. Anyway I make it worth my while by walking up briskly and gasping.

The work vehicle

The reward at the top is a glass of wine, cheese and biscuits. The end of a good week.

Not all Toil

Moved next door's cows and calves into a paddock which is too big to strip feed, but that's OK they love it. Still no new babies from the Springers, they just look closer and closer to calving. Quickly put out silage across the river and flew back to get ready for guests coming for morning tea.

The tractor man arrived at 10 as scheduled to look at what we thought was a problem but it turns out to be a feature. The gearbox does not have synchromesh and if you change gears too quickly it produces a grinding noise as the gears engage. OK that means getting into the habit of pausing for that second too allow the gears to stop turning. Doable. This is a pristine new tractor replacing the old one who's engine needed major work i.e. it would overheat in 30 minutes when slashing. The old one didn't have power steering and was very difficult to turn when loaded and in tight places. The new one is a dream. A big investment but one that had been in the back of our minds for many years and was the object of a special savings program. We spent a long time evaluating the different makes and deciding on the size and features we needed. In the end the choice was between two Japanese engineered makes and the smallest physical size that would run our 4 foot slasher. Being only 25 acres and having lots of trees easy manoeuvrability between obstacles was a must. We really only use the tractor to slash grass and move things about with the front end loader but having that moving muscles saves a lot of time and a sore back.



Provencal Garden

10.30 and our guests arrive bringing with them a perfect sunny Winter's day. Coffee and cake in the garden jokingly known as the Provencal Garden. A little bit glary with the sun low in these cooler months but the warmth of the sun and absorption of vitamin D was a pleasure. Morning tea moved to a freshly opened baby Havarti ( only 4 weeks old) with sesame and Oregano Lavoch. A dry cider for some and a European Lager for others. At midday we moved inside to enjoy lunch of Radicchio and Mint omelette.



Havarti & Lavoch 

Life is not all toil and hardship.

Yoghurty Day

Collected milk yesterday evening and put it into the 25 litre cheese vat and the fridge overnight. This morning took off 2 litres off the top which was mainly cream to make cultured butter, bottled 8 litres for home use and set about making yoghurt with the rest.

This is the door of the freezer section of the spare fridge where we keep our cheese making supplies. The packet contents are kept in glass bottles and the packet labels are cut and tapped onto the bottle with Use By dates.

The usual morning chore of checking the neighbours cows but despite all the signs on one cow yesterday there were no calves. Later in the morning went over the river to feed silage and got some fencing work done. We are replacing a 100 metre section of old rusty steel posts and rotten wooden posts with a 2 wire electric and galvanised steel post fence. Todays effort was straightening one existing wood strainer and installing two stays made of recycled plastic. Pulled through one wire ready to partially strain before using it as a string line to position the steel posts.

Back home put out some organic pelletised chook manure on one paddock by hand (20 KG). and spent a productive late afternoon turning a NZ compost for the second time. It was a bit dry and needed a good water as it was turned.

Guests coming for lunch tomorrow meaning there has been a lot of house work and general tidying going on. We are not big on the house cleaning work so its good to invite friends over from time to time to force us to clean and tidy. It always looks good after the effort. Sometimes I think this is the best way to do it. That way you get this great contrast between the original dirty mess and the lovely spotless result. Some of us are just not designed to keep a regular schedule of housekeeping. That seems to apply to both us - what are the odds of this marriage match? It's also the reason there are almost no posts on making cleaning agents.

The Seasonal Cycle

Things are just putting along. Planting the odd new tree a little weeding (not as exhausting as Summer) and catching up on odd jobs.

Finished work in the vineyard with some Layering and transplanting last years cuttings. Slowly filling in any blank spots where vines had died or in some cases pulling up varieties not required.

Layering, the rock holding it down until roots form

Last years cutting planted

Down to daily checking of the different herds to monitor calving progress and new calves. Its a bit of a guessing competition to see who will drop overnight. Even though all the signs are there it can be days before it actually happens.

The girls presented them selves for inspection today right by the road negating the need to walk 500 metres to the other side of this paddock.

Two day old bull calf looking very healthy

This girl is showing all the signs of getting ready, moving away from the herd, udder full, swelling at the rear end etc.

The fire is ticking over all day and every night as you settle down to dinner it's warm and cosy with the cats and dogs taking up their choice positions in front of the fire.

Meals are really delicious as there is an abundance of vegetables. Celery for cheese, Cabbages, Kale, Broccoli, The last Eggplant, Daikon Radish, Radicchio, Rocket, Spinach, lots of different green leaves and the best Yellow Sweet Potato crop ever.

Each Sweet Potato plant that we put in has produced a mass of large tubers, very pleasing. Each of the plants was grown from a single tuber sitting in a bowl of water in the kitchen window until small shoots formed and tiny green leaves grew. These then went into a pot until fully established and then transplanted into the bed allocated which was heavily fed with compost.

 

The loveliest Sweet Potato

TV Update

A very early start this morning to put out silage before going out to meet up with family for morning tea.

On the way home stopped at the electrical goods retailer to gather more information on our options with regard to PVR (Personal Video Recording) add on. Wandered about the store for about 10 minutes with out encountering a live human being. Didn't find any sign of a display of PVR units. Eventually approached by a middle aged salesperson who retraced my steps and admitted he couldn't find any either. What frightened him off was my question "How much do you know about PVR units?". He retreated to the far corner and had an animated conversation with a fresh faced young man who clearly objected to being disturbed from whatever he was doing on the store computer.

Eventually the young person approached me. There is a look that people get on their faces which translates as "I wish you would disappear". I put on my most cheerful exterior and explained my dilemma and pleaded for information. Too my surprise (well maybe not) I was led not to a $100 plug in box but to a $695 plug in gold plated unit. Eventually, there was an admission that there was a cheaper unit beside it, only $650. But it didn't work very well.

I retreated to the car wondering why all these intricacies and options hadn't been conveyed at the original purchase and more importantly why I was stupid enough to not do all my own in depth research. When 18 months ago we went out to purchase a computer, every sales person asked the same question "What do you plan to use your computer for?" the response would dictate which range that was shown with some guidelines as to accessories. TV systems must be far more complicated. Maybe that is why people replace their TV systems every 12 months so they don't lose touch with changing technology.

There is some comfort in knowing that my brother in law has to get his wife out of bed to start a DVD in their media centre.