Alter-natives

 

 

 

 

Last weekend we headed south over the Mangamukas in the brilliant autumn sunshine. It was the first weekend of decent weather we had had in several. We were heading for a tree nursery that was described as being in Waipu, but which was actually dozens of km away on the otehr side of State Highway 1 up in the hills south of Whangarei. No matter as this very generous nursery had put a small piece into the free newspaper saying that they were giving away 93 lots of 100 native trees to any land owners who cared to apply for them. I duly put in an application and was later stoked to get a phone call saying that I had won a lot.
The nursery was stacked full of very healthy looking trees of lots of different species. We loaded up our 100 and thanked the kind lady and drove off. We now have 100 holes to dig! I have put in about 10 so far in the last week. The plan is to have them in 3 places: one load as a south west wind break on Stuart Island, another third as a windbreak for the house itself and a final group on the road edge to give us more privacy.

After visiting the nursery we popped into Waipu caves not far away. The cave goes in quite a way and had huge stalactites and mites and a stream flowing out of it. The setting reminded me of Woodwell in Silverdale, except the trees growing up the limestone cliffs were totara instead of yew.

We headed for Whangarei after that and shopped for clothes. Burger King for the boys and then we belted back home.

In the local news this week: work has started on the new community centre. Our tech block at school has been knocked down to make way for a new one.

 

Autumn rains

We are heading into Winter quite quickly it seems. We have gone from light and warm and dry to wet,wet,wet in the last week. So much so that we have lit our woodstove to make the house toasty and to keep the place from getting damp.
The good news is that the drought is officially over. The river level down the road is slowly rising. Our dam has gone up by a few feet. The veggy garden is soaking in all the water and is becoming sticky again in places. The microbes in the soil can start breaking down all the mulch that has been sat covering the soil all summer. There is a satisfying mouldering smell in the air. Life's cycles that have been temporarily slowed, can once again turn and put old plant material back into humus. The grass has put on a spurt and there is knee high kikyu to wade through where I have not scythed it.
The beds in the garden are looking a bit sad, but the trick over here is to remove old summer crops and replant with winter veggies. The broccoli and cabbages are doing well. The broad beans are cautiously sticking shoots through the tilth. They are such an exuberant plant and the smell of their blossoms is lovely at a time when flowers are in short supply. Their seeds are good for the first few meals but then tend to be ignored because of their gassy consequences.
The chooks are doing their work of turning and scratching and shitting all over the straw that they live in. Every few weeks I scrape a load out and tip it on one of the beds. It makes great soil. We are getting a few eggs most days, but most of the birds are having a winter rest. I don't begrudge them that. We were given afew hens from town friends who had outgrown them. They had got some of them from a local battery farm. 3 of them integrated well with the existing flock, but one was in a bad way, with few feathers and a dripping back end. I checked it for a stuck egg, but it seeemed ok. She is now enjoying retirement walking around the garden free at last. I am not particularly sentimental about animals and don't have much time for animal rights, but I do not like to see an animal being mis-treated either. A food production that churns out chucks in the sort of condition that this one is in seems to be wrong in my book. We were talking about the price of dressed chickens at tea the other night and although $16 seemed expensive, in some ways it is not unreasonable for something that has taken quite a bit of effort to grow. Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect to eat cheap meat every night if this is the cost?

I will try and remember to take my camera out and document some of the things that are happening about the place.

Not much other news really.

ANZAC day

Here is the photo (Northland age), of ATC , 64 squadron ,Kaitaia on parade for ANZAC day.