New Zealand Life

December 2012

Merry Christmas!!
Here at E.V.E.R, we had a wonderful New Zealand Christmas with just the three of us! December was a nice, relaxing time before the new year of 2013 and the general rush of activity after New Years! We worked at the farm, in order to beat the rainstorms predicted for Christmas, and had our first experience with cutting our fields for haylage. Our forever growing animal collection has accepted another kitten, and the EVER animal family members have had an exciting month as well! This December was definitely a month full of fun, Christmas spirit, additions, and (inevitable) farewells.

This month, like all others, included a lot of work that needed to be done. The weather forecasts said rain was on its way starting the week before Christmas, and continuing on until the weekend after the holidays. But, we’ve learned not to trust the weather man 100%, and the skies proved him wrong yet again. The full week before Christmas gave us traditional Kiwi Christmas weather: hot, humid, and sunny. Mom and I jumped at the chance to spray weeds the whole week before the predicted rainstorms came. We sprayed somewhere around 10 or 11 100L tanks over the whole week and were exhausted at the end of each day from the work. We still have our fingers crossed that we weakened at least some of the apparently impermeable thistle mother root beneath the googles of thistle that continue to sprout up all over our pastures. Then, over the weekend (which also sported nice weather), Mom, Dad, and I went to the orchard and worked to make it nice. We fertilized with lamb berries, sprayed the grass with herbicide, painted roundup around the trees, and trimmed the grass. Some plants were completely covered in grass, and Mom and I went around with hand trimmers so that they could get some light.

Dad and I also filled up 25 sand bags with sand, and made a dam in the small Valley pond. It’s currently three bags high, and we’ll go back again to make it higher once the rain stops. We also met a plumber this month. Mom is scared they’ll be a drought, and so she arranged for the plumber to install a pump to pump water up from our back pond into a huge water tank to feed water troughs around the property. The big green water tank was put on the Noll; we just need the piping and pump put in, and then we'll have a full water tank, just in case of a drought.

Mid December we had our pastures cut for haylage. Haylage is different from hay in that it is plastic wrapped air tight the day it’s cut. The hay will then ferment, becoming sweet and while maintaining a high vitamin and mineral content. It took a full day for the grass to be cut and wrapped, but when we went back to the property (2215 South Head Rd) that evening, we had 16 gigantic rolls of haylage in rows of 8 on the fence. It smelled terrible - very sweet - for days (because of the fermentation), and is only just starting to smell better. We also had our neighbor’s paddock cut for them, and so we now have a total of 29 bales sitting in rows like soldiers. When we need to use it, we’ll fork it onto the Ranger (our 4-wheeler), and feed it out. Once a bale is opened, though, it must be used with in 4 days or it will rot.

We didn’t have too much work at the Webber road property. We mowed the front lawn for Christmas, and sprayed for weeds in the paddock again. The amount of weeds had diminished significantly since last time, so it only took twenty liters of spray to finish the whole property.

Meanwhile, my garden has grown splendidly. My tomato plants are about three feet tall, not to mention how wide they are. My cabbages are getting bigger each day. Mom cut one, and it’s now growing three new cabbage heads from the center when the cut was made. It’ll be interesting to see how that comes about. My celery plants are growing back splendidly, and continue to regrow each time we cut them down. My pepper plants have finally taken off and are starting to grow rather rapidly. My potato plant had decided that life is so nice right now, that it doesn’t need to die. We can’t harvest the potatoes until the plant dies – so, I’m still waiting. My chives are growing back, despite the huge thinning job my mom gave them. And my one lone beetroot plant is doing well, and growing bigger and bigger. We’ll be able to harvest my red cabbages soon, as they are getting bigger now, as well as my remaining green cabbage. My celery is always ready for partial harvesting; we just don't cut the whole plant down. My tomatoes have dozens of flowers, and I have three tomatoes growing already. My beetroot can be pulled out any day now, but we don’t need it so I’ll probably let it continue to grow. My strawberry plants, which were planted in the flower beds (instead of my garden) are really taking off. They keep producing more and more strawberries, and every couple days we have fresh strawberries with our breakfast. The EVER orchard is flourishing as well. Nearly, all the fruit trees at EVER and at our Webber Road property have fruit or flowers. In a few years, we will have more fruit than we will know what to do with. This year everything has taken hold and is growing very well.

The garden and orchard aren't the only things growing: our animals are developing in size and number too! Our collection of animals has expanded to welcome in another Tonkinese kitten: Chase! Chase, born on October 1, is a little boy kitty with beautiful green eyes and a sleek cream-colored coat, who will grow up to be our stud cat. We got him early so that Carley and Cassy wouldn’t throw fits about him when they got older. We introduced the three kittens the day we got Chase, and found we were terribly wrong: Carley and Cassy through very big hissy-fits (no pun intended)! So, we locked them in a small bathroom space together to sort out their problem. It took four days and three nights, for them to resolve their conflict, and now they are great friends. They all play together during the day, and then I take Chase to my bedroom at night, so he can sleep with me.

My GemStones are all doing very well, too. The Silkies have gotten much bigger and will probably be free ranging in a month or so with their big sisters. Meanwhile, the older GemStones are continuing to lay eggs! They eggs have grown from about the size of quail eggs, to ¾ the size of a normal egg from the supermarket. We get one to two eggs a day total from the three chickens; I think they switch off on egg-laying duties each day.

My duckettes PB&J are doing well, as usual. They seemed to have gotten friendlier lately, and let me pick them up and pet them without thrashing or running away. I still haven’t seen any more eggs from them, and I’ve essentially given up hope that they will be laying routinely. Hopefully the other ducklings won’t be as bad. Talking about Tic, Tac, Tow, X, & O, they got launched this month! The triple T’s got put up on our EVER pond and X & O were placed on the small Valley pond. They were all doing fine, until one day X decided the wild ducks were cooler than O, and left with the wild ducks. Mom and I, astounded that X would leave O, took O up to the EVER pond to join Tic, Tac, and Tow. Not wanting to have a missing piece to my naming puzzle (Tic, Tac, Tow, X & O), the four duckettes on the EVER pond have now been renamed: Ennie, Mennie, Minnie, & Mo!

X wasn’t the only beloved feathered fried to go off this month. Autumn, my only remaining turkey after Voldemort (the hawk) got Fall, had been growing bigger and bigger. I decided that she was big enough to free range, so I let her out. After many unsuccessful attempts to indoctrinate her into a flock of turkeys, we decided she’d just have to free range by herself on our property. Dad and I moved Autumn’s cage to the far end of the paddock by the line of bushes on our property line. I opened up the cage so she could free range, and by the evening she had left to explore a new world. Autumn was big and strong enough to defend against Voldemort, and we all hope she found a flock of turkeys to free range with.

The calves are all growing as well. They are losing their baby coats now, and look rather awkward with some sleek patches in various spots on their bodies. They’re out in the paddock grazing nearly 24/7, however they are still very friendly and come running for their cup of whole corn each evening. I groom them everyday, and am continuing to halter train them. They’ve gotten a bit feistier, and don’t like the halter as much anymore, but they still respond well.

The cows at the 2215 property are growing width-wise this month. We still have our pure-bred Angus bull running with our cows, and we’re hoping all of the cows are pregnant. A few of them should be calving within the next month, and the majority of the herd will be giving birth around March and April.

Another important event this month was Jess’s birthday! Our little Yorkshire terrier is now three years old!! She celebrated with a new bone and a raw chicken neck (store bought). Her little party continued for three days (an new record for us!), showing just how special she is to us. J

And last but not least in the animal news is that mom is looking for a young horse. Last month she looked at a 2 year old, Darmada, from Starlight Farms, and this month she looked at a 4 year old named Bonte. Though she seemed to have a sweet nature, Bonte turned out not be the one. She had a rather big head, which Mom and I didn’t like, and didn’t move as well as Mom was hoping for, despite her good blood lines. She was especially downgraded on the good list, when she spooked, bucked off the trainer, and raced off. Mom decided not to ride her, and is not sure whether she’s completely ready for a young horse right now, when we don’t have plan set in stone on how we’re going to take care of it. She is still looking for that special young horse but will wait until the time is right.

We also went to a couple parties this month. On the 21st, we went to Rosemary’s house for a summer solstice party. (Rosemary’s a friend of Mom’s who does natural horsemanship clinics.) We also went to our South Head neighbors for a holiday party. We met up with the Steve, Jill, Steff, and James and stayed for a couple hours.

And finally was Christmas!! We made Christmas cookies on the 23, and the tree was (of course) up a month early -- in November. We celebrated Christmas on the day of, as it would them be Christmas Eve in the States (which was when we celebrated traditionally). Mom made a huge feast of stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, bagels, peas, lemon cake, rum balls, & chocolate cake. We exchanged Christmas presents after dinner. I had gotten my big Christmas presents (my piano and Chase) earlier on in the month, however I also got a pair of shoes and some candy as well. I got Mom a crystal swan figurine, and a horse coat hanger she’d wanted. Dad got Mom a saddle pad, halter, and pair of riding gloves, and Dad got candy and tea from Mom and me.

That sums up this month and 2012. Next month will be the start of the New Year 2013 and as some say, a new era.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
~Juli@~


Just a quick glimpse of what’s coming up in 2013:

The excitement of the New Year is going to start right off in February. We are planning on finally starting the building process for EVER estate! You can see the plans in the EVER Estate tab on our website (www.ever-nz.com). Then, in mid-February Mom’s Aunt Carol (or Nonnie) will be coming over with Mom’s cousin Debbie to celebrate Nonnie’s 90 birthday! That’s not all! Early march, my brother Jason, whom we haven’t see in over a year is coming to NZ with his girlfriend. Around that time most of our cows will be calving, and then in mid- March, my Dad’s parents and his sister Caren are coming! What’s more, our animal collection might expand even more! Our kittens might be breeding towards the end of next year, and if one of my Silkies is a rooster, we might get Wyandotte-Silkie chicks! Mom is still looking for that perfect filly, and by the end of next year, she might have one! Next year is bound to be new era of excitement!