9 October 2012

Now come on who sent my newsletter to her .......... Just got the phone call .... hello the dentists receptionist here, the dentist has called in sick, she'll be back in a week. We are going to change your appointment, would 2 weeks be ok, what time suits you .................Great i had the whole day sorted HA. So i will have a gap for a few more weeks ......In my mouth that is.

The Barberry is flowering and the bees are working them. The old Taranaki saying "when the barberry flowers you will have surplus grass on the farm" And yes its true the ground temperature, sunlight and rain is just right to kick it off. It had been earlier this year so it may be a good spring.

The old 100 year old oak tree that went down early in the season lying north and south as it has two trunks is still alive bursting buds as it still has roots in the ground so we may give it a stay from fire wood and see what happens.

I have been moving stock around to make sure that surplus is put to good use and i can see a lift in their condition. I am bringing the donkeys hard behind them as along with the grass comes the thistles and if there were to be only one plant in the world a donkey would want, it has to be a thistle as they love em. The foxgloves on the other hand are a problem, the goats will trim them but if anything else eats a lot of them they die. So we have been pulling heaps and we are sick of them. A good dollop of lime would sort them but we have to find the money for that.

So we just have to keep flat out on the house truck. Ruth has painted the inside and Beate is sewing the curtains and seat covers. Beate asked if she could pick and sort the colors and be the project design person. I have found this hard as its usually my job but i have to say its looking good. I am still working on the toilet and shower and then we need to get onto the 12 volt solar for lighting.

We are leaving the outside paint and fencing etc until we get woofers or the like that can help and the sooner the better, then we will get help with other stuff.

We are well behind with everything and with both Ila and Samuel building their own lives we need to get workers and the only way will be woofers, helpx and interns.

Unless of course we start making heaps. We are looking at other things to help, some way off left field. I will keep you posted on that.

For the last two days we have had rain, thunder, lightning and heavy wind that is blowing the blossom of all the trees. When it started the blossom from the plums and cherries filled the air like snow. Its times like that we need a movie camera as it only lasted for a few hours. As the wind came up branches came off and the iron, etc on the timber stacks blew off. An old Lombardy poplar tree is on a precarious lean heading for fire wood.

A sad but good lesson with the prem pigs Beate is rearing. She has been getting them onto solids, running them out and cutting out the Manuka honey and unfortunately we lost two with some bug that they were vunerable to. The remaining two were touch and go but once the Manuka was reinstated they came right. It had an impact on Beate but all is good now. I have talked to a lot of pig breeders about these pigs and not one can believe any would survive past a week as they were so small. But we have put it down to both Beate's input and the Manuka honey. Talk about a super food.