New Zealand Life

February 2013

This month was BIG!! We had so much stuff going on that it was insane!! With visitors, changing animals count numbers, more work, Valentine’s Day, and tons of fun, this month has been rather hectic.

The most exciting part of the month was the visitors. Mom’s aunt Carol, better known as Nonnie, and her [Mom’s] cousin Debbie arrive on the 12 of February for the New Zealand celebration of Nonnie’s 90 birthday! Mom went all out with delicious rye bread, bagels, pizza, seafood dip, fondue, peanut chicken, cakes, and much more.
Mom gave Nonnie and Debbie the tour of our 2215 South Head Road property. The future-EVER estate was greatly admired and both Debbie and Nonnie enjoyed feeding and petting PB&J!

We also went to see the gannets, beautiful white birds, with yellow necks and heads, which breed in a special area on Muraiwai Beach. There were adorable babies all over. Some were older and nearly ready to fly off on their instinctual, often deadly migration to Australia. Only about 25 percent of the gannets live the migration. Those that do, fly back again a year later in order to breed at the same spot they were born.
Nonnie and Debbie also got to see Shelly Beach. We had appetizers at Shelly Beach Café, which had upgraded enormously over the last year, and then went to Helensville. We all laughed over the 10-minute bathroom time limit the public bathrooms give, and had a great time.

Valentine’s Day was mostly a stay-at-home affair. Dad got everyone chocolates and Mom got me a much-needed mini-stapler among other special things.

Then on Saturday, (the last day we had with both Nonnie and Debbie), we took a scenic drive to the Matakana market. We had a good time, and then continued on to Auckland to fulfill Nonnie’s birthday request: the Sky-tower buffet. We enjoyed seafood, salad, soup, desert and more. And at the end they brought out Nonnie a birthday plate while we sang “Happy Birthday.”
Afterwards, we dropped Debbie off at a hotel, where she would begin her tour of New Zealand.

The rest of Nonnie’s trip was extremely relaxing and Nonnie and I must have played 20 card games over the course of her stay! She flew back to the States on the 18, but not before we made her promise to come back in a year and a half when the house is built!!

After our visitors left, we returned to our usual work mode. Mom and I sprayed thistle (as always), and Mom had a meeting with the representative of the herbicide company. She got two liters of thistle-specific herbicide, and we have sprayed one take of the new poison. Hopefully it will do the job!! Dad took the weed-whacker and mowed all the tall grass in the orchard down, and then Mom sprayed special grass-killing herbicide and I painted round up around the fruit trees. We also took a hose and used our new water spout in the orchard to water all the plants. Many were beginning to wilt due to the really dry weather we’ve been getting. Reporters said that February was the driest month N.Z has had since 1973!!

The dry season didn’t just affect the orchard, though! Pastures all over South Head are drying up and looking brown. Our grass is in desperate need of rain, and our property is way too big to take the hose to! Meanwhile, our cows are foraging for food and the cows with babies are looking really skinny. Afraid they’d soon run out of food, we opened up another paddock for them to graze on. Those of the cows that didn’t calve in January, are expected to give birth around the months of March, April, and May.

PB & J are doing splendidly. We are now putting them on corn, as dog food is way too expensive, and they don’t seem to mind as long as they get fed!! I can’t say the same for Tic, Tac, and Tow, however. One duck disappeared and we found the skeleton off another in one o the paddock along with its feathers. Therefore, we assume that both got taken by a hawk. One duck still remains on the EVER pond, and we’ll put it with Snap, Crackle, and Pop (The SCP Gang) when they get launched. We were going to launch the SCP gang when Debbie returned from her tour; however we decided against it as they are still somewhat young and the hawk’s attack on the full grown Tic and Tac, increase our awareness of what the hawks are capable of. So, we will probably launch SC&P when Jason comes (on the 5 of March), instead.

The Webber Road animals are doing well. My four flowers seem to grow a little more each day, and are looking rather stunning in their sleek black summer coats. They have recently acquired a taste for tomatoes. Dahlia especially loves them and gives deep, masculine moos when I throw them to far away from her (she still walks and gets them, though!).

The chickens have decided to venture out and to lie in the pasture instead of their nesting box, so I have to go out tramping through the grass to find the very well hidden nests. Just the other day, I found a next of 17 eggs!! Mom was very surprised. We did a water test that my grandmother sent us. This is where you place all the eggs in water (surprise, surprise!) to see how rotten they are. If they float, they are completely rotten and inedible. If they lie flat, then they are fresh. If they float on one end or the other, then they’re in various degrees of freshness. All the eggs were edible, so we put them in the fridge. I put two fake eggs in the old nest, so the chickens will hopefully continue to lay eggs in that area. If they don’t, then I’ll be off on another Easter-egg hunt!

Another exciting bird event was that the Silkies got let out!! We cut open one side of their pen, and so we have three white balls of fur grazing in our hedges and lawn now! Topaz, our rooster, thinks he’s really tough, and will stalk my feet and then dash forward, peck at my heels, flap his wings and run off. I’ve caught him a few times at it, and now he usually stalks, but rarely attacks. I’ve come to take it as his affection and often laugh at him, and occasionally walk really slow in order to tease him into attacking. Since they are still small (and always will be since they are bantam, or miniature, chickens) we have restricted the Silkies to the back area of the lawn and hope that a hawk will not decide to make his dinner out of them. They were quick to learn to go to bed on time. Thank goodness, too! It took mean nearly ½ and hour to catch them each night. Luckily, Jaynee was a big help and would stare at them and help me locate their hiding places! Now, however, I leave them out until 8,00pm (when it starts getting dark) and happily find them in bed, ready for me to close the pen up! What relief!!

This month we also kept Ivory and Ebony up on the lawn for about 2 ½ weeks. They munched through the grass like true lawn mowers and made a mess pulling up the grass roots. They soon got very bored with the lawn and so we had to let them back into the pasture, where they immediately began munching on the long grass greedily.

My garden is growing like crazy, and we have a huge surplus of tomatoes and peppers!! I have attempted cucumbers, and there isn’t much progress. Hopefully they will do better as cooler days set in and more rain comes. My cabbages, which had been growing new heads, aren’t doing well. Apparently, this isn’t their season and I might pull them out in order to create more room for other plants. We shall see. J

Next month will be another exciting month, as Jason is coming!!! He will be here, by himself, for two days, and then his girlfriend, Jessica (all the J’s) will arrive as well. We’re all going to go on the most difficult level of the tree top adventures, and are sure to have a blast!! Next month, Mom is also going to get her knee fixed. She’ll be as good as new and will be able to straighten her leg out completely. All of this, and no doubt more will come with March! It is sure to be another month of excitement and fun!

J.L. Stephens