busy, busy, busy

December. Oops lost November completely in the rush. Oh well, managed to do lots of other things - visited unwell Mum, hosted several hundred students and teachers in the camp, weeded alot of gardens and became LOOK magazine's new gardening columnist! I'm loving that. They also have rather a good contributor named Abraham Larsen. The December issue might not be on line yet so check back later.

In the kitchen garden I have lots of strawberries (which we occasionally dip in Whittakers darkest chocolate) broccoli,lettuces, potatoes zucchinis and lots of herbs. The passionfruit vine which I have been sloshing with chook manure, sheep manure, cow manure and buckets of soaked teabags, has finally rewarded me with hundreds of flowers which I am hoping will become hundreds of passionfruit. The grape vine that I thought I might have killed by over pruning has lots of adorable little bunches of frogs-eggs lookalikes. The sunflowers are taller than me and starting to develop faces. All is good in the world.We have had lots of amazing flowering shrubs burst out and surprise us - well maybe they are surprised that there is someone here that talks to them and tells them how beautiful they are everyday. This actually works - try it. x to you all

I say poster, you say imposter

It's 2 months since I posted - NO! that can't be right. Next you will be telling me it is only 9 weeks to Christmas. Ha!

It has been so long, I have just had to spend an hour trying to get back into my blog page to update. I must have seemed like an imposter. Ah yes, now that title makes sense...

Anyway here are the latest photos and news headlines. Most days I need to be in 3 places at once. Either at the camp or at the gardens, and on Sundays, at the Kerikeri craft market selling creatures. One year of this is probably all we will survive. Our fingers will be worn down to a nub.

Meanwhile, we have been eating cheramoyas! Very yummy old fashioned fruit which I bet will become the latest fashionable fruit found at all the farmers' markets. Ours come from the very old lichen encrusted tree pictured.

I've been sowing seeds flat out to plant into the huge garden we have dug over (more about this in my next post) and after this month of horrible weather I have had to employ cunning tactics to encourage germination. The difference between the daytime temperature and the night time chilliness has resulted in lots of failures so I now have a wee hothouse made from the packaging that a duvet came wrapped in. It works. The seeds are planted in loo roll holders which encourages good root growth and can then be put straight into the ground. The cardboard rots and becomes compost.

I made cauliflower pickle, which I have made dozens of times before - it looks great and I took this photo before trying it, and consequently discovering that it was too runny and not sweet enough, so I had to boil it up again with more sugar. Ahhhh! Moral is, don't cook 3 things at once to try to save time.

And just for fun, I have included a photo of cherry blossom in the nursery ponds.
May the sun shine upon you

We had a real treat the other day when a Right whale came into a nearby bay with her calf. We had just had several days of rain and she was in really close - an elderly seaman we met said that they come in close for the fresh water which they use to remove barnacles and cure ear infections ...(whales have ears??)

Anyway it as a rare event and we spent an hour or so watching to catch a glimpse of them. They spouted and waved their tails and exposed their humpy backs enough for us to see how HUGE the mother was - about 15 metres long. It was difficult to see very much at all. Just knowing they were there was enough.

And apparently they are called a Right whale because they were considered to be the "right" whale to hunt for whalebone used for things like corsets and riding crops. They also produced more oil than other species, hence they were hunted nearly to extinction. So we were especially lucky to see them. You can't see much in the photo but if you follow my gaze, somewhere out there is a rare whale and her baby!

I was really missing my spinning wheel (couldn't fit it in the bus) and a lovely new friend called Anita lent me hers to help restore my sanity. The cool thing about living in a small community is that as soon as you say something out loud, someone hears and responds. Hence I have been given or lent heaps of cool stuff since we have parked up.

I have been spinning for 37 years (on and off) but have never spun carded wool. I was taught to spin straight from the fleece and back in the day, I used to take my wheel to the woolshed when the shearers were there and spin a warm fleece straight off my knee. Nothing finer. But when Anita delivered the spinning wheel to me, she also brought a bag of carded wool. When I started spinning I couldn't believe how much quicker it is to spin! Then another new friend Helen lent me her carder while she is in Oz so I am learning lots of new stuff. I find the secret to carding is to feed it in really slowly with lots of tin showing on the tray (this will make sense when you are doing it) and turn the handle slowly.

I prefer the uncarded yarn, but in the meantime I'm having a great time spinning for the grandchildren.

yummy winter goodness

Goodness! Can't believe it has been 2 weeks since I blogged - been VERY busy. And goodness! Winter is still producing lots despite my (unintentional) efforts to kill off all my vege beds. Read: I haven't weeded in months. Never mind, obviously all the hard work I put into actually sowing the seeds and planting the plants earlier in the year was enough to keep my little bundles of chlorophyll enthusiastically sprouting until I returned to them, trowel in hand... actually I exaggerate. I have returned, many times, but without trowel in hand - more like a bucket and a knife to harvest whatever I can find amongst the weeds. Thank you for being so resilient little plants. You will have nice new friends to join you soon I promise!

Thought you (readers)might like to see today's harvest. Dinner was homemade sushi NZ style, with crunchy vege salad. You can get healthy just looking at that picture.

And wheat-free apple muffins - yummy winter goodness!

Eggy surprise

Eeek! Just to emphasise the fact that my 5 year old grandson has a better grasp of social media than I have, I managed to give the wrong link to this blog to "Get Growing" who generously published my blog address. Well, with their 22,000 readers each week, I was pretty sure that I would get at least one follower, so I was alerted by that little sentence that says "no followers yet" (sigh)

So I have asked them if they would consider re-publishing it, but I think I'm pushing it to tell you the truth!

And no I haven't come up with a new eggy recipe for you, though I'm sure I could if the garden would just stop calling me. Instead I'm sharing this morning's surprise with you: my one-big-brown-egg-a-day-each chooks suddenly went off the lay and actually I was pleased in a way because I have been telling them to slow down a bit. They aren't looking too flash at the moment and I think a couple of them are laying themselves to death. As if one egg a day is not enough, we get double yolkers. The smaller egg in the photo is actually quite a big one - the bigger one is just plain scary.

Today I followed one of the chickens into the bush because they seldom go off on their own and I was a bit suspicious - sure enough, there was the cutest little nest tucked into the fern with 10 eggs in it. Too dark to photograph them in there - that would have been a great photo. I left 2 eggs in the nest so they don't go off and find a new spot to lay tomorrow, and brought the rest home. Today I've left them locked up until they have laid just to remind them to use the lovely little nesting box with fresh hay that is in their pen.

Omelet for lunch.

Facebook

Oh my goodness! Someone sent me a link to their Facebook photos and to see them I had to create a log-in; that took two minutes and before I knew it I had dozens of people wanting to 'be my friend'. Some who I haven't heard from for 10 years! It was like I flicked a switch that flashed a spotlight onto me. I don't know whether to crawl slowly backwards and pretend it didn't happen, or embrace the social media that I have so diligently avoided (till now)

So please, dear readers, give me a while to get over the shock of landing FACEfirst in the facebook pool and don't take it personally if your 'wall' isn't adorned by my greeting next time you check. It will take me weeks to learn the jargon let alone the process. My photo on Facebook says it all!

Meanwhile, the garden takes priority!

Winter colour

Even though it is the middle of winter (don't believe the stories about the winterless north)there is till a lot of colour around in the garden. Through the raindrops today I took photos of some of the splashes of colour around us - bromeliads, prunus and the first daffodil.

manure

Neighbours say this vine has the best grapes ever. So I thought I'd better do the decent thing and give it some food and a prune. Buried 4 dead possums under it (grapes love blood and bone) and took off several years growth. As you can see it is a very old vine so we are looking forward to trying the grapes - that's if it survives such a hard pruning.

Next is the passionfruit vine but I think I will leave that till September when it is a bit warmer, but before the new growth gets too big. They are very heavy feeders so I plan to give it a treat with lots of compost and mulch with sheep manure mixed in.

We are lucky to have lots of animal manure available to us - mind you, it takes quite a bit of work to access it. There are cow pats in the paddock next door, and we have 4 sheep who I go around behind with a bucket and spade every few days. All chook manure gets raked out and put in a drum with water then fed as liquid manure. Comfry is good too but I'm a bit short of that after the chooks scratched out all my small ones. WE have a composting toilet too that gets mixed with sawdust and used around native trees when completely broken down. Amazing how people cringe at that, but it really is no different from waste from any other animal. I knew someone once who grew his pumpkins under his dog kennels - I draw the line there I have to admit. Too gross even for me. But you get my point.

Darn jersey

This jersey has been worn practically everyday in every winter for about 10 years, It's a working jersey so it's been in mud, caught up in trees, slept in - and it has been mended so many times I have practically remade it. But it's such a great jersey so darning it is almost a pleasure. I found a ball of wool in an op shop years ago that is similar enough to do the job - I am a fanatical op shopper so look out for photos of my favourite finds from time to time. And I've just mended my boots with dental floss - it withstands any punishment you give it.

Bob's your aunty

Someone has kindly donated a rooster called Robbie to the clan. The girls have been giving him a hard time but I've see the odd one cosying up to him over the last few days so today I took a chance and let him out to free range with his girls - I don't think he will go far from them, and they all seem to be clucking away together happily in the edges of the bush.

Yet another kind soul has offered us 10 more chooks, younger ones that will eventually be called 'the girls' and the old ones will graduate to being 'the aunties'. There may be a few feathers flying for a while as they get used to each other but they do have 17 acres or so to lose each other in. By bedtime they are so tired and full they will hardly notice eachother, ha! Fingers crossed.

Never a dull moment

The last month is a bit of a blur. We have taken over the care of a neighbouring property - yes another good cause! This one is an outdoor education camp for children that is used by schools and also hired for private groups in the weekends.Lonsdale Park is a bit rundown due to lack of finance and they need a couple of people who love restoring things and love a challenge - the first two lines in our CVs!

Some would say we are mad...Each property is still at the stage of restoration, and the plan is to have them both to the point where we just need to maintain them over summer when we will be at our busiest with visitors. That's the theory anyway. I'll keep you posted on that one, so to speak.

We have had the pleasure of working with a couple more Wwoofers, Michael from Germany and Mike from England. Amongst other things, they helped us build another chook run, and have also put in another couple of raised beds of veges and herbs. We are still eating well out of the covered garden with bumper broccoli, plenty of silverbeet, beetroot, red onions, leeks and salady things but in these recent winter months that garden doesn't get much sun. The new beds have lots of sun, so in go the strawberry plants, herbs and more salad stuff.

And I have been trying to make use of every resource I possibly can. This has become an exercise in living off the land, (much like we did in the 70's but with older bones!) Some lovely friends have given me lots of fleeces and I have been spinning heaps and knitting a jersey for Chris plus some small things for grandchildren. We don't have TV, so the evenings - that's the bit between dinner and collapsing into bed by 9pm - are perfect for crafty things by the fire.

I've been curing sheepskins too - they may become slippers, or mats, not sure yet.

We did an unofficial kiwi count at the Water Gardens and it looks like we have at least a breeding pair and two single males who are both calling for mates. So exciting. Unfortunately we also have a growing population of pukeko who delight in pulling out all the new plants we have painstakingly put around the ponds. It's very frustrating. We are still getting possums in the traps and now of course we have to start afresh at Lonsdale with a pest programme.

I have recently made contact with the local seed saving group and am looking forward to swapping some of the seeds I brought with me in the bus (I knew there was a good reason!) for some local goodies.

Roll on summer!

We are winning!

The kohekohe trees are in flower! Everyone says that if you see these flowers you have made a serious dent in the possum population, these being one of their favourite treats. They have bunches of delicate white flowers a bit like a hoya which grow straight from the wood of the trunk and branches. Very pretty. So now we have white kohokohe flowers mingling with the pink puriri flowers and berries on the track and the wood pigeons are having a great feast. They get so full they can't fly and plummet through the bush in a most ungainly way before regaining their balance. Hilarious.

Recording kiwi calls

Three of us, on a hill overlooking a stunning wee coastal bay, in the dark, the milky way lighting up the sky, shooting stars providing bursts of magic. Pen in hand we wait for the first kiwi call...then not one, but two start calling each-other just 200m away, clear as a bell on a still night. A pair (their calls are distinctively different) What a thrill. We recorded 7 calls over the two hours. That's pretty good we are told by the experts. Just in case we needed even more entertainment, we also heard lots of moreporks, a few nocturnal pukeko, the odd possum and one very strange high-pitched whine that none of us could identify until we realised it was the thermos lid leaking air after a very welcome hot cup of tea at half time.

We have joined up with the local Landcare group who focus strongly on maintaining a supportive environment for kiwi. We recently attended a workshop to learn how to record the calls as a way of keeping track of where all the local kiwi are. They are keeping us awake at night at the moment - it is truly amazing to know they are right there digging around in the bush beside us - this might be our only chance to actually see one too so when the weather clears up we will do a 'kiwi and glow worm watching night' Apparently each kiwi has several burrows and sleeps in whichever one they find themselves closest to when dawn breaks. Then after dusk they call to their mate to find them ready for foraging all night. They are getting ready to nest at the moment. Very exciting.

surviving the recession on four wheels

In early 2009 life changed for us and we left our house and wonderful organic garden in Nelson and hit the road in an old Bedford housebus. Six months into a tour of the North Island we came to a shuddering halt when we found a gardening project that we couldn't resist. I created a website with a blog to record our progress - all good.

Another six months on, we have taken on a second project (another good cause) and I am creating another blog for that property. Will post the URL when it is ready.

But there are lots of other interesting things going on in our lives that have no place on the other blogs so here we are with a third blog JUST ABOUT US


We have lots of interests and projects going on, so expect gardening news, seed saving stuff, musings about living in a bus, craft projects, 70's style living-off-the-land ideas and general sharing of experience and knowledge, particularly about how to enjoy life to the full without spending money.

We use everything, don't waste a thing, and live off practically no income (at the moment, though that will change in summer hopefully.) Our general philosophy is recycle, renew, restore, reuse.

Here we go....