General Update and A Bit of Trivia

What with lots of things happening and our grass going wild - pigs a'wandering through the water race into the neighbours' (we're pretty sure we've plugged all the escape routes now); rams having to be separated and moved in with the cows; thistle-grubbing; drenching, etc. - haven't had time for many photos. The weather has been hot and dry, with the nor'wester doing its share of the soil drying. The cattle and pigs have been drinking plenty, and Denise is developing a truly admirable set of biceps carting 20 litre containers of water from our water race. The sheep are able to access the race from their current paddock, but there are still large trecherous muddy areas along our banks, so we don't risk the smaller Dexter calves. Jennifer is currently exempt from water-hauling duties due to pulled R arm tendons, but is keeping up with watering and tending our copious-producing vegetable beds.

We left it too late to organise Pharoah for Christmas ham and bacon, and also Phyllis for pork. Pharoah has developed, it appears, into a fine, healthy young boar and the girls are advancing at a great rate so we are a little worried but however can do nothing until 10 January, when the home-kill man comes to terminate their short and romantically sweet lives. We imagine Penelope and Poppy will make wonderful roasts, ribs and chops and like to hope they will be destined for a visit from the home-kill man shortly after. We will seriously need another big freezer.

Hence, when visiting our nearest branch of The Warehouse this last weekend, we were thrilled to find that chest freezers were on sale ... read on ... Jennifer's letter to The Warehouse :

Dear The Warehouse

On Saturday 11 December 2010 I visited the Masterton branch of The Warehouse, and discovered in-store advertising of a considerable percentage off the normal selling price of your chest freezers. The notice stated that the discount was valid for this past weekend only.

There was a flyer advertising the 300L freezer, showing the discounted price if purchased.

I enquired at the Enquiry counter at the Masterton store whether I could pay for one now, and return the next morning with a suitable vehicle to take it from the store. I was told that there were no 300L freezers in stock. No rain checks as it was a weekend only special. I asked if I could buy the freezer displayed in the Masterton store. I was told 'No'. (No reason). I was told that Masterton had never got any of the 300L freezers. (Yet there was a flyer advertising the discount price off the 300L freezer in the Masterton store). The helpful Enquiries person advised that the Petone Warehouse was showing 300L freezers available.

As I was returning home on Sunday 12 December, I detoured a considerable way and visited the Petone Warehouse store. In store was the same advertisement above the same 300L freezer, advertising the discounted price for that weekend only. There were 300L freezers in stock. I asked if I paid for one now, could it be held and picked up the following Saturday when we had a suitable vehicle? I was told that goods would only be held for 24 hours. I asked about courier/freight charges, and was told there was no delivery to Carterton (where I live).

By then, I had had enough. Well, wouldn't you? Mainly because :
There was an advertisement in the Masterton store telling me I could buy a 300L freezer at a discounted price, yet it appears that was untrue
I live in Carterton. It is a good 20 minute drive to your Masterton store anyway; and I deviated about 40km to visit the Petone store.

I must say I don't think much of your advertising or P R policies. I would be interested to know just how many of the freezers you did sell in all your stores this past weekend if there was no advertising apart from weekend store advertising? I mean, I am looking for another new freezer as I am sure a lot of other rural folks are (for a start) to put all their Christmas hams and homekills in. If I had read in advance that The Warehouse was going to heavily discount chest freezers over the weekend, I certainly wouldn't have made the 20 minute drive to and from in my car, and would have obviously taken my ute and tie-downs, assuming, naturally, that my local store had a freezer in stock to sell me.

I look forward to your comments

JENNIFER M NIDD

p.s. I would be interested in buying the floor model in your Masterton store. Why take up the floor space advertising something it doesn't even have?

We'll keep you posted ...

Our Dexters Become Mums

We weren't quite sure of the dates our two Dexters would be calving, so it was with great surprise when we spotted a small black shape on the grass near Bonnie back on 22 October. One dear little fellow who we have called Charlie.

Proud first-time Mum Bonnie, with Charlie - one day old

Not to be outdone, Bella then produced, with no fuss, nine days later on 31 October while we had visitors, little Clarissa

Bella with Clarissa, one day old

So, Charlie is now just over four weeks old and Clarissa is just three weeks old today. Clarissa is finer and taller than Charlie.

To try to give you an idea of size - remember, the Dexters are three quarter sized cattle. The top of their backs are probably not even chest high.

Jennifer trying to get up close to Charlie who is four weeks old in this photo.

Meet the Freezer Packs

We both happened to be home one Friday, and went up to the weekly Friday Clareville Livestock Sale. We had hastily hammered up a pen at the back corner of our new implement shed (complete with FREE wooden pallet which, tied up with baling twine, has made a splendid gate) and shot up there. Quite a few weaner calves on sale. (No weaner pigs either). We wanted heifers, so while spending half the time keeping an ear out on the going prices for bull calves, we picked 'ours' out. We got one that we wanted, a nice, large friesian/hereford; missed out on another (opposition bidding too high), and were undecided until we realised the auctioneer was trying to get just $5 for a dear little brown friesian/hereford calf that nobody seemed to want. Denise's hand shot up like greased lightning, and she was ours instantly.

We have had a nice solid stock crate with spring-loaded gate tailor-made for our farm runabout ute - one which we middle-aged folk can easily manouevre on and off, so it was no problem getting them home. Unfortunately, we were still suffering from the effects of an extraordinarily wet September, so couldn't drive the ute right up to the shed, so they were lifted off the back of the ute and 'guided' in to their new pen.

Zita, the little $5 bargain baby, being 'guided' towards her new home by her two new Mums. Note our new fence now sealing off the big paddock enabling us to create a 'home garden'. We had the posts put in several weeks ago, and we have been buying and nailing up the planks as we have progressively sold our baleage. There are still 4 gates to be made ...

First thing we did was to give the two babies a couple of litres each of electrolyte solution as a precautionary measure, as we are now going to start feeding them with powdered milk. The solution clears up minor diarrhea and scours which can easily occur through sale stress, change of environment, diet, etc.

Denise enjoying feeding her first calf. This one, we named ZELDA. She is the biggest of the two. The pink spray mark on her head is to show she was our bid.

As stated - Zelda is a big-framed strong little girl - we estimate here, about 6 days old. Unfortunately, at this tender age, the stomach takes a while to tell the brain that the tucker has actually finished. Even at a few days old, she packs a strong 'surprise'.

Zelda and Zita have continued to do well, with only a minor case of scours each in the first few days. Zita is turning out to be a not so tiny calf now, and we are thrilled at how she has come on.

Zelda and Zita enjoying the last of their milk powder feeding. Here - they are about 7 weeks old, and we will be switching to calf growing pellets and hay as alternative grass feed. They have been regularly browsing well on Moozlee, a molasses sweetened crushed grain and corn mixture

Zita and Zelda learned very quickly about electric fences. They are 7 weeks old now, and are hoping for more feed. That's the rest of our new fence, giving us an enclosed home garden.

All going well, we hope to keep Zita and Zelda for almost two years, and then, we are afraid, (but secretly looking forward to) we will have them home-killed. You will all be able to say in a couple of years when you come for a BBQ - 'Oh yes, I remember reading about Zita - she was the $5 runt that nobody wanted, right?'

A Lesson Well Learned - or How We Wanted 2 Pigs, Paid for 5, Ended up with 4 ...

When we purchased the land for Fossils Retreat, there was a set of unfinished yards. We built and put up two new gates, Jennifer sorted through the huge stacks of derelict wood from the house renovations, and Porker Villa was built - a very flash and roomy dwelling constructed of 4x2, 17mm ply and solid matai plank floor, topped with recycled removable corrugated iron roof.

We had noticed with growing anxiety, very few weaner piglets for sale, due no doubt to folk with more foresight than us having already snapped up all the available weaners who were now, no doubt, well on their way to being Christmas fare. Jennifer found some on offer on Trade Me and won the bid for two. Porker Villa was all but finished, when the piglet gilts arrived a day early - and very small they were too. Realisation dawned that these two could easily escape by burrowing under the yard planks, so much hurried scrabbling (in foul weather) to find suitable extra planks from the mountainous scrap wood piles. However - all in vain as the little sods were out within 10 minutes and spent the afternoon hooning all around the neighbourhood paddocks.

We spent most of the evening rounding them up (they had been christened Penelope and Poppy at this stage) only to have them escape from a new place in the enclosure. As it was dark and we had already walked miles and miles and miles, we turned in for the night. We were out at daybreak the next morning after fixing the last escape exit by torchlight, and found them huddled far out in a neighbour's paddock. They were duly rounded up and herded home - only to escape again later that day. The frustrating thing was that they didn't respond to the usual 'rattle clunk' of the feeding bucket, to 'Here, Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig' or to following you with bread or feed nuggets, so we assumed they must have just been taken from their mother.

Regular escapes occurred over the next two days, with each exit blocked after discovery. After herding them home again at near on dark, they broke out of our fence and under the neighbour's fence and off into the moonlight. We had had enough. Denise swore she was off pigs forever. We both lost some weight over these few days and developed blisters on our heels.

As so much time and effort had now been put into the construction of Porker Villa and its sunken water trough, abundant pea straw bedding and sunny recreational area - Jennifer went off to the Livestock Sale held weekly at Clareville, north Carterton, and came home with two more gilts. Quite a bit bigger than Penelope and Poppy. These two were named Phyllis and Prudence. Later that evening, while entertaining a guest for dinner, three glasses of wine down and it was already dark, we had a knock on the door from a neighbour advising that two pigs were running around the paddock. We managed to retrieve Phyllis and block the escape route, but Prudence was last seen heading south. We hoped she would turn up at the villa next morning, but she never appeared again.

The price of three pigs down, and we had one. Pigs need company, both for amicability and general wellbeing, and they snuggle together to keep warm. Phyllis was rather dejected. Her tail never quite made it to curly. The following Friday, Jennifer visited the Livestock Sale again and came home with a companion for Phyllis - a handsome lad who was christened Pharoah. Phyllis was well pleased, and upon his arrival, after a shared lunch, they disappeared into the villa to make the bed.

Phyllis and Pharoah were getting along just fine, and both had very curly tails within a day or so. Anyway, about 4 or 5 days later, a neighbour rang to say that a dairy farmer away east about 2kms away had our two piglets - Penelope and Poppy. They were duly collected from the kind dairy farmer who had been fattening them on excess milk with a promise from us to return with some bacon.

So now we have four pigs. We hope to be able to send Pharoah off for hams and bacon in time for Christmas. He is getting to be a bit of a worry and is getting very athletic with Phyllis, but we are sure they are both too young for such shenanigans.

Penelope, Phyllis, Pharoah and Poppy waiting anxiously to be let out for the afternoon's free range. We only let them out when we are home, and in the afternoon. They range all over the paddocks (under constant supervision!) and get under the gates and annoy the sheep and cows. They now respond beautifully to 'Here Pig Pig Pig Pig' and the rattle of the food bucket and hassle you back to their yard to get fed and locked for the night.

We are lucky in that Denise gets to bring home a 10 litre bucket full of yummy food scraps such as left over bread and fruit and the like. Neighbours and friends also help out. Every night we cook on our woodburner, a big stock pot full of peas. Lovely warm mushy peas for breakfast every day - yum. When there's a shortage of food scraps, we use pig nuggets. With the free ranging in the afternoon - a pig will eat grass and forage in dirt for nutrients and will consume one third of its daily food needs. Plus all that sunshine and fresh air and running around!

Phyllis (at back), Poppy and Pharoah doing what pigs do best - using those little snouts to forage and dig. Note those lovely curly tails!

So, the lesson well learned - don't buy livestock off the net. Much better (and cheaper!) to buy at the Livestock Sale where you can see what you are getting - just hoping nobody else is after weaner gilts when you want two.

Spring was in the Air - briefly

September continued to be wet, with a couple of tempting fine days in between heavy showers and gale force winds. As usual, a very cold southerly snap came through which closed the Rimutaka Hill road for a few hours. Jennifer was caught out after a night watch and waited 3 1/2 hours at the Hutt side of the hill until the road opened at 09.45, and was in the first convoy over.

Snow on the lower slopes of the Rimutaka Hill Road connecting the Wairarapa to the Hutt Valley. At the top of the hill, snow was laden on tree branches and had been cleared to metre deep banks at the side of the road

We continue to be frustrated at home with the weather. We have given the idea of a wood shed for 2010 away, as we managed to just keep ahead of our firewood, but the wet weather did not let us get the skilsaw and electrical leads out to get stuck in when we were both home and available.

We are still waiting for the water table to drop so we can get the second water tank in - 4 months later, it's still at the gate. This will take water from the implement shed erected a few weeks ago. Once this last truck has been to place the water tank, we can get the digger man in to relevel and do us a top coat on the driveway so we won't always have a lake after rain

Here's a shot taken from our kitchen window showing six raised vege beds made. The two piles of topsoil have been there for weeks as it's been too wet to get out and fill the beds. Note the huge lake in our neighbour's far paddock - this is just surface water. September rainfall 2010 was double that of last September - and that was considered wet!

One of the Dorper ewes didn't lamb. They are doing really well, although we have had a few problems with their feet with continual wet weather and ground.

Annabel, with the last of the lambs to be born - twin ewes Beatrice and Bianca

Our First Lamb and it's STILL Raining

One of the Dorper ewes, Abigail, produced a lovely big ram lamb on 1 August. Since then, we have had two sets of twins. More on the lambs and mums at a later date - if it ever stops raining and we can get the flock gambling and prancing with joy to see some sunshine ...

Baa aaa ry (just kidding - BARRY) our first lamb at 4 days old. That's his mum, Abigail, just behind him, with 3 aunties getting in the act on the right

In the meantime, between all the rainy days, we have had fence posts dug in (five weeks ago - and it's still too wet to ram them in firmly) all around our house recreation/orchard area. We have managed to get up one small section of rails, with another big stack of palings ready and waiting (in the rain) for the weather to clear so we can use the skilsaw outside and slosh through the mud to nail on another section of house boundary fence.

We have been lucky in that we ended up with 58 big bales of baleage, and we have sold all but 3, so that profit has been channelled back into fencing the house section off so we can get started late planting our orchard trees.

Bonnie and Bella, our two Dexter cows, are doing well. They are getting good break feed tucker on firm ground (sort of firm) determined by electric fencing. Bella is starting to show signs of being well in calf, but Bonnie is showing little at this stage. They continue to remain skittish and are also fed baleage every night - depending on how much green tucker they have been allowed that day.

Sorry we've been a bit tardy of late in keeping the blog up to date. I have heaps more chapters to come - it just seems a little difficult to get time to get to the computer - all sorts of livestock problems keep urgently cropping up, but we promise to make much more of an effort.

Madge and Tansy sure don't mind the rain and cold and aren't complaining ...

Rain, rain and more rain

Honestly - it has done nothing but rain, rain rain over the last few weeks. Our progress outside has been sorely limited. We have managed to get a good old fashioned clothes line in, and a roof bearing on the garage for a wood shed - hence the timber lying around.

Another gloomy outlook taken from inside the utility room. Our new implement shed is nearly completed (with massive problems and further expense due to water-sodden ground); the saw horses are ready and waiting for a break in the weather so we can saw up more old timber from the house for firewood (under the blue tarps).

Tansy has had a deck extension to keep her from being stranded in a lake. Our second water tank is still waiting at the gate, and it appears it will be another few weeks yet before our water table is down enough to install and connect it to the implement shed.

However, we have been able to get odd jobs done like grubbing thistles, new gate latches, raised vegetable beds in place (now awaiting topsoil) and a start has been made on the new pig house. It has a very grand solid matai plank floor. We hope to be getting a couple of weaners in 2-3 weeks' time, so pig housing has moved to the top of the priority list - completed in the rain if necessary. We were hoping to have one ready for hams for this Christmas, but it's a bit late now in the year, so it will have to be Easter Ham.

We have been making a conscious effort not to complain about the wet weather, as we are reliant on rainwater for our house use. Droughts in the Wairarapa are common, and we are very aware we could well be bemoaning the lack of rainwater in six months' time. Lucky we have baleage for the Bonnie and Bella.