Categories: From the Farm This Week
      Date: Jul 28, 2011
     Title: 28 July 2011
We started the week planting fruit trees, some Ruth has grown from cuttings and four (yes four) large Monty Surprise apples (one tree for each of us).  Beate gave us these for a leaving present along with chocolate, coffee, tea, wine glasses, oven gloves and much more. NOW she can stay again.
Had a bit of a wobbly wheel in the ute, just kept driving as you do you know, thinking must get those wheels balanced, must have lost a wheel weight.  Well as long as you drive and not your partner all is fine.  Ruth took the ute to town and came home with two new tyres, seems the others were faulty to the point Ruth could not hold it on the road due to them wearing like goose eggs and then breaking down (yes i know Ruth told me).
While in Wanganui I called at Aarons to pick up pigeons for Wally and we drove down to Aarons work - very interesting doing hothouse lamb.
Bronwyn and Brian moved out of the valley this week to their new property somewere up the bush line of Egmont.
Elton and Sina have been busy planting more artichokes in the food forest and helping me feed out hay.  Sina is looking after the shed pigs and pet lambs.  They did go and help Wally for a day to put a new roof on his shed.
Ila has been doing her Ag course up until the time she had another asthma attack and had to spend two days at home.  The next day she had an appointment with Betty the orthodontist.  Ruth asked if i would like to come and go for a coffee while Ila and Shawn went shopping .... Wow Ruth asked me for coffee so i went ....It had to be the day it snowed so, worrying about the lambs, off we went.  As we got closer to Stratford the thicker the snow got and as we went past Stratford it got even thicker until the most snow in Midhurst and in Midhurst the highest house (Wallys) had more snow than anywhere.  That's right i must go and dig him out.  Anyway the few hours off were good.
Samuel came home with a wild pig he caught at the farm he is fencing at - about the size of a corgi dog and guess what its blue ...unbelievable a blue sow - you would think it came from Canterbury.
We have been mustering all the hills, moving the ewes and lambs on to the flats that have saved grass for the rest of winter, fitted up the hay racks and will be feeding them daily.
Had a Farmers Market meeting and I stepped down from the chair - its in good heart and im getting so busy keeping the wheels turning.
Ross has been out again for the photo essay.  Every call he gets 3 or 4 images that are really out there.  3 months in and only started, it is really feel like, not look like.
So See ya Sunday.