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Bleat, spray, gloves

28/11/2013

5 Comments

 
Wow . . . two months since the last update. Just confirms what I already knew: we have been busy!

Muntanui is exploding with life at the moment -- baby animals, rampant weeds and the beginnings of what looks like a bumper season of produce. Our trees have been laden with more blossom than we'd ever seen before, we desperately need to cut hay before everything bolts to seed and my vege garden's assuming triffid-like proportions. The mild winter and very wet spring seem to have triggered a massive mast (flowering en masse) in the surrounding beech forest. Our hills are tinged with gold and red -- a palette you'd normally associate more with a New England autumn than an alpine Kiwi spring.

It's an incredible time of year.
Wiltshire lamb at Muntanui, Oct 2013Happy, healthy, contented wee lamb. We're stoked.
Bleat
If there's one thing we managed to nail properly this year, it was lambing. Waiting until May to let Spidey in with the girls was the best thing we could've done. We had a higher pregnancy rate, more lambs born and the mortality rate was halved. The weather, although very wet, was a great deal warmer than it was last year and we used a paddock with plenty of shelter as the nursery. 

We had a no-interference-unless-absolutely-necessary policy this year. It paid off -- no ewes rejected their young'uns, And, to top it all off, Farmer Wan became a dad, delivering two lambs all by his big, soft-hearted self. 

If you'd like more of a blow-by-blow account of this year's lambing, including numbers and stats, check out our 2013 Lambing Diary.

Picture
Spray
We remain committed to converting Muntanui to biodynamics, so on Sunday 17 November we stirred and sprayed our second lot of Preparation 500. We distributed it over a paddock we're re-vegetating (more on that in the next post), with some left over for the orchard.

This time, we managed to get through the entire process without arguing, so we're counting that as a win.

It's way too early yet to know how successful our biodynamic practices are, especially when the conditions generally have been so ideal for rampant growth. The grass in the orchard is the lushest it's ever been and while it's true that we sprayed Prep 500 over it in autumn, it also got the benefit of drift from all the soil amendments we spread back in June. So it remains to be seen but we're very happy to persevere with the process for the foreseeable future.

Muntanui vegetable seedlings ready to be planted outSeedlings ready to be planted out
Gloves
The vege garden is totally full of plants for the first time since we arrived here and I'm feeling smug about that. Planting it all out was set back by a month because October rained solidly and I couldn't work the saturated soil without risking damage to it. We won't have our own tomatoes for Christmas, but we should have them by late January, which is better than this year, when we didn't get them until May.

The warmer weather means we've had our first wave of visitors and they've willingly donned gloves to help us out, for which we're very grateful. Big thanks to Kim and Jan, who cheerfully assisted with everything from tailing and rubber-ringing the ram lambs to weeding my woefully overgrown knot garden. Thanks also to Big Lil, weeder extraordinaire and best mate of St Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. I'm still not sure how much he had to do with Farmer Wan's sunglasses turning up again but hey, we're very grateful nonetheless.

Last, but not least, this:

Highland heifer calf born at Muntanui on 25 Nov 2013
Maggie, born Monday 25 Nov 2013 with mum, Sonsie
Posted by Farmer Nik
5 Comments
Cristy-Lee Macqueen
28/11/2013 07:29:06 pm

Loving keeping tabs on your life from across the ditch!! Your writing tickles my senses and makes me feel like I'm there seeing it with my own eyes haha hopefully next year I'll be over to visit! So proud of you both, its unreal what you've achieved :) love you long time Nikstar xxo

Reply
Farmer Nik
2/12/2013 01:02:45 am

Wonderful to hear from you, Rock Star! It's lovely that you read and enjoy this. Looking forward to catching up over a drink or two if you make it here next year -- you know you're always welcome. Arohanui (lots of love), darlin' xxxx.

Reply
Cristy-Lee Macqueen
8/12/2013 03:40:42 pm

A trip is definitely on the cards and you can put me to work!! (Also many wines!) Think of you very often, everythings going great in karratha, dont think you'd recognise the place though with 5 sets of traffic lights, multiple 9 story buildings in the centre of town etc! Im almost ready to move on I think :) Love you! Say Hi to Farmer Wan!

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Thots Tennessee link
11/3/2021 09:46:10 pm

Great reading your blog

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Minnesota Women link
15/12/2022 07:03:08 pm

This is a great post, thanks for sharing it.

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    About Ewan and Niki

    Picture

    Farmer Wan

    Scottish mechanical engineer with a deep and abiding passion for good food. Outstanding cook. Builder of lots of stuff. Cattle whisperer. Connoisseur of beer. A lover rather than a fighter.

    Picture

    Farmer Nik

    Kiwi writer and broadcaster who hates cabbage, even though she knows it's good for her. Chook wrangler. Grower of food and flowers. Maker of fine preserves. Lover of dancing and wine. Definitely a fighter.

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