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.

Our New Arrivals

Skipping ahead a bit to keep you abreast of our livestock arrivals.

First to arrive on 2 May were four Dorper ewes - all hopefully in lamb. We chose Dorpers for a few reasons - we are interested in rare and heritage breeds; they are a meat breed and they do a good job of self-shearing. The Dorpers have black heads - note the wooly top coats that rub/wear off.

They are a South African breed, and are able, it appears, to have three breeding cycles as against two of most other breeds in the same timeframe. Rams and ewes mature at a more early age as well. We don't know yet how old ours are - we have yet to get them yarded - we found out very quickly it takes three or more people or two and a good dog - but we did get Astra in for a hoof trim.

We picked up four smaller white lambs at the Clareville weekly Livestock Sale on 4 June. There are two ewes and two wethers. They don't have names. They were a bit boney when we bought them but they are fattening up nicely, eh? The two wethers are Christmas dinners and freezer pack. We'll keep the two ewes and get them in lamb next year to produce more freezer packs.

The Dorpers (in front) : Annabel, Abigail, Aroha and Astra. All hopefully in lamb. Freezer packs and mothers of freezer packs behind

Great excitement last Sunday 26 June - our first cattle arrived. We decided to go with Dexter cattle, which are about three quarters the size of regular beef cattle. They say the meat is excellent - but it will be a few years before we can start eating the offspring. We were lucky enough to find two for sale nearby, and the seller kindly delivered them.

Bonnie and Bella, our black and red Dexters. Bonnie is rising 3 and expecting her first calf early September. Bella is rising 4 and has already raised one calf, expecting again late September. You can get a good idea of their height by comparing them to the 7 wire fence behind!

Both the Dexter Cattle and the Dorper Sheep are registered with the NZ Rare Breeds Association.

We are awaiting delivery of a 4 bay implement shed - but like the second water tank we purchased 6 weeks ago which is still sitting inside the fence, things have been held up by continual rain. We have a lot of surface water at present. We are hoping the shed will be up in the next 4-5 weeks, and the plan is then to get a few four-day calves and rear them. Another freezer pack ...

YAHOO! We're back on line and lots of news ...

Hello again dear readers

We have now been established at Fossils Retreat for about 8 weeks and have only in the past few days got our landline on and computer connected with a new email address. Lots has been happening at Fossils Retreat and lots hasn't happened due to lots of rain - good for our solo connected water tank - our second 30,000 litre tank was delivered about 6 weeks ago and is sitting waiting at the front gate. Our plumber tells us our water table is now so high it will be at least October until it can be sunk and connected to our implement shed which we hope will be delivered and assembled in about 4 weeks' time. However - thanks for your patience. We WILL be updating the blog over the next few days and more frequently and lots more photos. Check in in a few days' time.

Jennifer and Denise

Belated Catch Up

Sorry, folks, sorry - it's been a busy many past weeks and although we have been visiting and carting up stuff to Fossils Retreat, there does not appear to have been a lot to progressively chart photographically. It just seems we have been plodding along with not a lot to show at times. (Plus we FORGOT to take the camera twice).

What has been happening quietly on the scenes whenever we have had days off to get up there - is painting and cleaning up. We now have the newly built laundry/utility room painted with two large cupboards erected and painted; the kitchen dining room has been all painted (except for some window joinery); the kitchen is all installed and electric oven and gas hob working fine; the hall (12 foot stud!) has been painted, along with ceiling (ghastly job - enamel paint); the living room was completed painting this weekend (today, in fact). That's with all the skirting boards and architraves primed and x2 enamel coats, as well.

We've been busy scurrying round and about picking up bathmats, towel rails, toilet roll holders and the like. We have had and still have although tailing off, a minor cluster flies epidemic along with nearly everyone we know in the Wairarapa.


We hired the largest possible skip and made a slight dent in the three demolition piles behind the house. We made a gate and hung it and painted it one coat (1 to go).

Feijoa plants/hedge are doing just fine. Ditto the silver birches we have planted at the entrance. Vege garden is going crazy with all the mushroom compost we have virtually at our doorstep from Parkvale Mushrooms. (1 ute load for $30).

Tomorrow is moving day. The movers are coming around 8am. At Fossils Retreat, we have worn and used and paint splattered although clean, wood floorboards throughout, stuck sash windows, and peeling lino to take up in the kitchen. Over three days, the corpses of thousands of cluster flies have been discovered and disposed off. We know truly know the real truth of that old saying 'dropping like flies'. Three huge piles of wood to sort through into usable (and denail) / firewood / brazier burnoffs. But a woodshed needs to be built first ... and quotes for a fireplace and heat transfer units to be done.

FRIENDS - We apparently are going to have to get a new service and email address etc. but it won't happen for 2-3 weeks. Have faith ... the blog will continue with heaps more progress note and photos.

And we'll leave you for a few days with the most recent autumn morning photo from Fossils Retreat ...

Looking east from our dining room about 09.30 one morning. This is our only view of the Tararuas from the house. Expect lots of snowy caps in winter. We had 50 heifers from the over the road dairy farmer come and chew down our grass over a few weeks. Where the hot wire stopped you can see in the foreground and get an idea of how much long grass we had. That old deady brown tree on the middle left is the macrocarpa we had taken down last November that we haven't had time to go out and deal to.

And Rats to You Too

Last time we were up at Fossils Retreat was the weekend of 13-14 February. We had arranged for a huge skip to be delivered so we could make a start on getting rid of a lot of our three huge piles of demolition materials. As there is plenty of timber (and plenty of nails in it) in the three piles that needs careful sorting (usable/useful/hmmm/firewood) we concentrated on filling the skip with stuff like plasterboard, old lining boards and the like. As we were turning over and throwing off wood to get to the rubbish, I warned Denise of the possibility of rats. When the skip was nearly full, Denise loaded up the barrow with smaller bits of debris scooped in armfulls into the barrow. She had just chucked one armload in when I looked down into the barrow and saw ...


These wee babies (7) were pink and nearly transparent, no more than 2.5cm (1 inch) long. Denise reacted immediately and for some reason did a rather peculiar dance consisting of stamping her feet, clutching and pulling out the front of her singlet and screaming her head off. When she had calmed down and realised none had gone down her front (remembering the mouse episode in the potato tyre), her motherly instincts kicked in. We figured they were just newly born - probably while we were partaking of a long lunch and reading the weekend papers. Sadly, motherly instincts were quashed when Jennifer reasoned that 7 rats were better taken care of now as against in the house in 3 months' time.

Note : They were given 2 'instant death' treatments by Denise. There were no survivors and the wee corpses were reverently covered and disposed of in the rubbish skip

So, now we have three still large, but flatter piles of timber - a lot of matai - to be sorted and denailed (we're looking for helpers who want to develop their arm muscles. This is hard wood). The front gate has been finished and hung after several trials and tribulations. We have two raised vege beds up - one filled with soil and mushroom compost, and have planted lettuces, silver beet and brassicas. We just hope we get some rain in between our next visit.

Twilight, looking south from the front gate of Fossils Retreat

It's Bye Bye to Louey the Fly and a few Other Inconveniences

Things have slowed a little as far as interior renovations are going at Fossils Retreat. We now have a working bathroom (we just need a shower curtain); toilet; all kitchen conveniences including TWO filters from our rainwater tank, and laundry tub and water. Electricity in most rooms. Our builder has started another job, so it appears we only see him on rainy days (or any day Jennifer is there to put a few hours in).
Next trip up, we bring up a permanent queen bed and 'make' a bedroom of one of the front rooms.

Bye Bye to making up and dismantling the rather uncomfortable couch/bed each day. This photo shows our 'studio' living just prior to the new kitchen being installed.

Spent a fair bit of time doing smallish jobs that took a while. Had a good old scrub and tidy up and got two raised vege beds completed. Spent a lot of exhaustive time excavating and sieving some of our topsoil hill and transporting it by barrow to the beds. Well, one bed. A barrowload doesn't go far when you're filling raised beds. We have a good stash of mushroom compost under a tarp nearby - got a ute load full a few weeks ago from the Mushroom Factory down the road.

Bye Bye Louey the Fly. Denise wanted a photo before she scraped the stickers off and cleaned the window. The cracked pane has since been replaced. This is the view above the kitchen sink. The two new raised vege gardens in the bottom panes

The potato leaves are dying off (the ones we planted in tyres with old hay around). Denise was excavating the first tyre with delight when a tiny field mouse ran up her arm and dived over the fence. I'd like to see her if it was a rat ...

Another little job done. Our mailbox finally up. It wasn't that easy as we had to make a whole new little supported shelf for it level with the others. Tansy has just come back from chasing a hare