Viva Muntanui!
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Background
    • Muntanui site details
  • Solandri Saffron
  • Q&A
  • Video
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Background
    • Muntanui site details
  • Solandri Saffron
  • Q&A
  • Video
  • Links
  • Contact

chronicles

Winter, Muntanui-style

14/6/2012

8 Comments

 
I’d been looking forward to winter at Muntanui: the natural slowing down that comes with short days and cold weather. Stick-to-your-ribs soups. More time to work on very important projects, like daydreaming about next summer’s vegie garden or how to set up a fully-functional Polytunnel of Love.

With Farmer Wan away for a few weeks, I made ready to implement Operation Reverie. I put together a routine of animal feeding, domestic chores, garden maintenance and trips to town for supplies. I revelled in slow-cooked dinners and sat in cosy snugness every evening while the log burner glowed and the temperature outside plummeted. In short, I lived the winter dream.

Until last Wednesday, that is...
Picture
At midday. There were still "Yay!"s to be heard.
Last Wednesday brought frigid easterly gales flinging copious amounts of snow everywhere. Snow! I thought at 9am, when it began to settle on the ground. Yay! 

I was still Yay!-ing at midday as the wind hurled snow horizontally over the tree-tops.

At 3pm, when I had to go outside and push a hay-laden wheelbarrow up a slope to get to the back paddock where the cows were sheltering, I quietly put the Yay!s back in their box. Twenty minutes later, when the electricity went off, I padlocked the Yay! box and resolved not to open it again until Farmer Wan returned home.

The power situation wasn’t really a problem – I could heat a pot of soup on the log burner, the candles lent a romantic ambience and our emergency plug-in phone (as opposed to our standard cordless, electricity-reliant phone) meant I could still have contact with the outside world. Besides, the service was restored just under six hours later. The real bummer was when the water went off. In the middle of my shower. On the coldest day of the year. Terrific.

Picture
Yeah, it's lovely. Now on to the water situation. Focus, people.
I knew what the problem was: one of the water filters was blocked. I knew how to fix it: next morning, walk up the slope to the tank. Dig through the snow to uncover the pit where the filters are located. Turn off the supply to the tank and the house. Use a hammer and wedge of wood to unscrew the filter housing. Clean filter. Return to housing and screw back on. Turn supply back on. Do the I’m So Capable! dance.

There were some things I didn’t allow for, like turning off the wrong valves. Or watching while freezing water spilled out the top of the tank and flooded the filter pit. Or having to run up and down the slope in knee-deep snow to make four increasingly panicked phone calls to Farmer Wan.

Picture
The Raglan Range with Recumbent Dog.
I got everything fixed in the end but was a little too winded for the Capability dance. Anyway, there were still the tiny matters of digging out paths and excavating our front gate.

I knew that winters here are long and harsh. I knew that they damage infrastructure and shut down services. But, despite knowing all of this, I didn’t really understand the implications. This is our first full winter at Muntanui and Farmer Wan will be away for most of it. I knew this would be the time when any weaknesses in our system would most likely be exposed and that our water supply would probably be the culprit.

In hindsight, I was wrong. The problem wasn’t our water system, which only needs regular maintenance to be trouble-free. The problem was my ignorance of how it works. I’d watched Farmer Wan checking the filters but obviously hadn’t paid much attention. Last week’s experience hit home to us both that I need to learn how to do things he’s traditionally taken care of. He’s home for a week, so yesterday’s lesson was how to fit snow chains to our 4WD. In another, improbable universe, it's possible I could even master reversing a trailer.

I’ll get to do that Capability dance yet. And I continue to hope that before the winter’s out, having mastered everything there is to master about the blokier side of farming, maybe there’ll still be some time for daydreaming in front of the fire too.

Posted by Farmer Nik
8 Comments
Tessa
14/6/2012 11:12:51 am

Loved reading your experience as a novice plumber. Before you know it you will be on to the novice mechanic. Keep the stories coming Farmer Nik.

Reply
Farmer Nik
21/6/2012 06:29:05 am

Thanks, Tessa, will do. Hope all is going swimmingly for you in BrisVegas x.

Reply
JB link
14/6/2012 06:29:32 pm

That improbable universe exists, for I come from it. Come join me, and the legions of female trailer reversers who rejoice silently in our skills. And besides, it'll make you smug as shit.

Reply
Farmer Nik
21/6/2012 06:29:59 am

Hahaha! That motivator totally does it for me.

Reply
Fiona Stewart
15/6/2012 12:55:37 am

Hi, Pioneer Lady!! Brings to mind The Oregon Trail and other such sagas - the women keeping the home fires burning against the odds. Thinking of you often. X

Reply
Farmer Nik
21/6/2012 06:31:56 am

Ah, Fiona, but you did it yourself. PLUS you had three young boys to look after. I dreamt about you last night: Ewan backed a truck into your front fence (which isn't really your front fence but was for the purposes of my dream). You were very understanding about it. Thanks for that. x

Reply
Rean
23/6/2012 11:00:26 am

Well done Nik, thanks for the updates, we love reading about what it's like living in the real world!!

What is Ewan up to - not on the farm must mean FIFO somewhere in OZ?

Reply
Farmer Nik
25/6/2012 04:02:39 am

Lovely to hear from you, Rean. Big hugs to you, the gorgeous Steph and the boys. Yeah, Farmer Wan got an offer he simply couldn't refuse. He's sent you an email but isn't sure that you got it. Where are you guys based now? Send us your email address via the "Contact" form on this site. xx

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    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.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    November 2016
    October 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All
    All Blacks
    Alternative Fodder Sources
    Bee Keeping
    Bees
    Biodynamics
    Chooks
    Earthquake
    Ethics
    Farmers Markets
    Food
    Hay
    Highland Cattle
    Honey
    Hot Beds
    Livestock
    Muntanui
    Nelson Lakes
    New Life
    Nz Wildlife
    Pasture
    People And Community
    Permaculture
    Plastic
    Polytunnel Of Love
    Power Tools
    Random Merriment
    Recycling
    Rwc 2011
    Saffron
    Soil
    Solar Power
    Spiderbuilder The Ram
    Sustainable Farm Solutions
    The Muntanui Dictionary
    Tramping
    Trees
    Weather
    Weedmat
    Weeds
    Wiltshire Sheep

CONTACT US

FIND US

RANDOM PRETTY PICTURE


​PO Box 5
St Arnaud
Nelson Lakes 7053
NEW ZEALAND

Phone +64 3 5484 684

Picture

Viva Muntanui! Sustainable living . . . with merriment.

COPYRIGHT 2011-2017