That was the year that was...

Frog on the blog

When our water tanks were cleaned out last week, the technician found a live frog swimming around inside. So all our lovely country water was pumped out and the tanks scrubbed. Horrid old mains water was used to top them up again.

And earlier this week, J found a frog hopping around the perimeter of our house - looking for a way back in? Hopefully not...

Shots of Suburbia 3

Shots of Suburbia 2

Shots of Suburbia 1

Now that we've moved back to our rural idyll, I thought I'd post a few shots of our adopted neighbourhood from the last six months.

One of the things that I love about NZ is that all the houses are different. Liberal planning rules, the relatively slow pace of development and the fact that house-building is something of a cottage industry mean that a wide range of styles have flourished.

Here's a simple art deco house on the edge of Centennial Park.

Moving House

If all goes according to plan, we will be moving house today. And so will the rabbits.



Since we have a new house now (nearly), I could hardly make them live in their old leaky house.

Bathing Beauty

Here's the family bathroom nearly finished... Apparently the toilets will be installed tomorrow once the vinyl has gone down. We'll have to cross our legs as we move in!

Island Time

After many months of waiting, the stainless steel worktop is finally in its rightful place, atop our plywood kitchen island. And we're really rather pleased about it, not to mention relieved.

The house couldn't be sealed until the worktop had been brought in through one of the window holes upstairs but it was damaged in transit and had to be returned to the factory for repairs. So it was rather an eventful part of the project. And don't even get me started on the tap...

We picked the materials for the kitchen on the basis that they wouldn't date and would age well. There are no handles to deteriorate either - just cut-aways on the doors and drawers. I'm sure it won't be much fun to sand down the stainless steel or the plywood but at least we won't have to replace the kitchen as it gets battered over the years.

Unveiled

The scaffolding and the shrink wrap came down last week and we could finally see the house in all its weatherboarded glory. The moment that all the neighbours have been waiting for!

Luckily we like the paint colour even though it's so much lighter than we originally intended.

Think Tank

Our water tanks are going to be cleaned out today. They've been disconnected during the renovations - both in and out - so last winter's water is ready and waiting for us. But we thought it would be a good idea to have the sludge vacuumed out first so that our drinking water is as fresh as the cloud juice offered on this Auckland restaurant menu.

Fleeced!

Are these the same rams back in our field, having been sheared, or different ones? Who knows?!

Growing Wild 3

Growing Wild 2

Apparently you can make clover wine but it takes ages to collect all the flowers that you need...

Growing Wild 1

Any ideas what this pretty little weed might be?



It looks like gorse or broom but it's much smaller and seems to be a creeper.

Here it is with a kind of daisy for scale.

Kitchen Confidential

We took a few chances with the kitchen - a stainless steel worktop, plywood cupboards and drawers and cut-away handles - not anything like what we'd seen in the showroom.

Luckily we think that those risks have paid off, having seen the carcase in place...





The only question now is what we'll cook first!

The Wild Rumpus Begins...

The rumpus room is almost unrecognisable compared to how it was just a week or so ago.

It looks so much lighter now that the gib is in place and the undercoat has been done. The perfect space for reading, working and crafting.

Finishing Touches

The house is now close to completion. Apparently.

And the moment that all the neighbours have been waiting for is fast approaching - the great unveiling. Hopefully they'll like what they see when the scaffolding and shrink wrap comes down.

We were certainly pleased with the Half Hillary paint on the weatherboards when we sneaked a peek - a great relief!

Beginner Baking 8

My latest cake creation was a Somerset Cider Cake, courtesy of River Cottage.

I skipped the hazlenut topping and replaced it with a cream cheese and cider frosting. HFW's recipe for cream cheese icing was better than the ones that I'd used previously - more icing sugar, less cream cheese, more juice (or, in this case, cider).

The best feature of the cake had to be its aroma - really rather alcoholic, thanks to soaking the fruit in cider for a few hours first. And I was delighted to find out that the cake was similar to one that my paternal grandmother used to make.

There might be a slight cake shortage for the next few weeks though as the chickens seem to have taken to laying their eggs in the bush so our supply is dwindling. I'll have to switch to baking biscuits instead.

Pottering About

When I took the truck in for repairs recently, I found the Salvation Army opshop next door to the garage. On browsing through their stock, I was delighted to find a vinegar jug - just what we need for the nights when we have fish and chips.



I didn't really need the other jugs but think they'll come in handy.

And I've definitely felt the lack of a platter.



I need to decide on a theme for our house though before I get tempted with too many other things. As you can see, I'm quite partial to earthy colours and designs. But I've picked up a few bright pieces as well. Decision time...

Wacky Wallpaper

Readers will be relieved to know that I've limited the patterns to the curtains - no crazy wallpaper like this orange design that I found in the cupboard at the bach where we stayed recently.

Soft Furnishings and Hard Decisions

So we thought that we had the colour scheme sorted for the outside of the house. It turned out that we didn't.

The original fibrolite and concrete block was painted a lovely green-brown which blended with the surrounding land. We wanted to recreate that with the weatherboards but found out rather late that the warranty on the weatherboards would be invalidated if we chose a paint with a light reflective value (LRV) below 45.

We went back to the drawing board and eventually selected Resene Half Hillary, with an LRV just over 45. Apparently it's "a genteel well mannered ochre, a green and beige blend".

It seems apt given that Sir Edmund Hillary's house looked rather like ours anyway and I think we'll get used to it being so light.


The next hard decision was the curtains. We started looking at curtains only for the bedrooms where we'll need to block out the light when we move back in. We quickly realised that we needed to look at the other rooms too in order to develop a consistent theme. So we added in the living rooms in the main house and the granny flat.

The first fabrics that I picked out were all far too expensive and all of them needed to be imported from Europe with a delay of several months. I have a taste for the finer things in life obviously.

I started again and this is what we came up with - Free Range for Lark's bedroom and the other children's room (looking ahead), Urbis in Lime and Natural for the granny flat (one granny vetoed some more eccentric fabrics!) and Gloria and Fragrance respectively for the master bedroom and living room upstairs.



The bold patterns should give a hint of 1960s design without being overbearing. I still have the windows in the rumpus room and on the stairs to play with and might look for even more of a statement there.

And we need to decide whether to put blinds or curtains or nothing at all in the bathrooms. It all depends on how well our new neighbours can see the house...

Everything and the kitchen sink

The kitchen worktop is now on site but only after a great deal of grief.

We've chosen an island kitchen because the windows are so low to the ground in the living area. But it's a very large island, more like the North Island than Stewart Island. And because it's so large, a concrete benchtop wasn't practical - too big and heavy to transport and no-one seemed keen to make it on site. A formica worktop would have had to come in two pieces with a messy join and a stone worktop was well beyond our budget.

A stainless steel surface turned out to be the best option. Until it was damaged in transit and then the company manufacturing it had a few difficulties re-fitting the kitchen sinks after repairing the dent.

But now it features two big sinks, just like the old kitchen downstairs. And the builder has been able to fit the final sliding door now that the worktop is inside.



Here's the worktop propped up on some saw horses, roughly in the right position (though not quite at the right height), viewed from the dining area.



There'll be a pantry cupboard in the back right corner, the only wall unit, and large standalone fridge and freezer units alongside it.

And here it is viewed from the living room corner. The dining table will sit to the left.



The kitchen units - made from plywood with cut-away handles, should be being fitted as this post goes to press. I think that seeing it all in place will be one of the most exciting points in the project to date.

Out of the closet

Here's our walk-in wardrobe with the en suite bathroom behind. Both are a touch small but I'm looking forward to working out how to fit out the wardrobe to maximise the available space - it's the kind of organisational challenge that I love!



And the family bathroom is designed to use all four corners to full capacity as well. Although we got a bit of a surprise when the builder realised that the shower door wouldn't open without banging into the bath in one direction or the toilet in the other. So we've swapped it for one with sliding doors now!

Waiting...

Here are all the remaining windows and doors waiting in the rumpus room...

Wild Rumpus Room

Here's the concrete floor drying in the rumpus room. We'd considered having a polished concrete floor in here but decided that it would be too cold, particularly as the far wall is a retaining wall with an earth bank behind it. We're going to have the floor laid with a cosy wool carpet like the rest of the house instead.



The home cinema system will project onto the far wall on the left hand side whilst my desk and sewing table will be placed on the right. It's going to be a great space for projects and family time - so much more useful than the garage ever was.

We've finally decided on a colour for the beam too. My first choice would have been to leave it in its natural state but rustiness dictated against that. My second choice was to have it black like a lock gate but I was overruled. My third choice was fire engine red but we couldn't find the right colour in the swatches.

So eventually we've settled on pea green - the second shade from the bottom on this colour testing plank.

Wet Rooms

And here's some of the gib board in place - green Aqualine gib for the wet areas in the laundry (left) and granny flat bathroom (right).

Mystery Object

Any guesses what this piece of equipment might do?


We're fairly certain that it is used to lift pieces of gib board up to the ceiling so that they can be fastened in place. Much easier than balancing at the top of the ladder with the board waving backwards and forwards!

Steps in the right direction

After weeks of almost imperceptible progress, the renovations are now coming on in leaps and bounds. I'd been worried about whether or not we'd make it home by Christmas but the builder always assured us that it would happen. Now, on the first day of December, I almost believe him.

Our new, straight staircase

The windows are nearly all in place now, the internal walls have been gibbed and stopped, the internal doors are all on site and the bath is in place. The whole house is beginning to take shape.

Our neighbours are impatiently awaiting the grand unveiling when the shrinkwrapped scaffolding comes down to reveal the work so far. But they'll have to wait until the painter is finished first.

(If you'd been wondering why I haven't been posting over the last few weeks, it's because we've had visitors. Hop over to Tales of Jo to see what we've been doing.)

Our Lifestyle Block

Yesterday I described how we went about finding our little piece of New Zealand. Today, I thought I'd let you know a bit more about our block - in anticipation of moving back there over the next few months, at the end of the renovations to our house...

(This account is part of a longer answer to an assignment question on my correspondence course so regular readers can gloss over the bits they already know.)



Our small farm is a lifestyle block on the outskirts of Auckland. It is surrounded by similarly sized properties and benefits from being close to several small communities.

The land is about 6 acres in size and is a mixture of park-like garden, patches of bush and a large paddock. The soil is clay and the land is steep in parts. There is a spring which flows across the paddock although it tends to run dry in summer. The block is bounded by two other lifestyle blocks, which were subdivided from our block, and a bush block.

At the point of purchase, there was a 7 bedroom house, dating back to 1968 with most original features intact. This house is now being extensively renovated. The land also boasts a workshop and an open-ended half-round barn, both serviced by telephone, power and water. There are no stockyards, stables or animal housing and no vegetable garden. There was only one fruit tree – grapefruit – when we purchased the property.

Our small farm was originally part of a larger 6 hectare block which was subdivided into three blocks after purchase by a developer. The farm was divided into paddocks. We have been told that a chicken farm occupied the property before the house was built in the late 1960s. The family who built the house in 1968 and lived in it until 2007 ran a small family business on the land. I presume that they also kept a few sheep on the land and probably chickens too.

When we first viewed the property in early 2009, it had been recently subdivided and the gardens had been landscaped. A large number of pine trees had been felled and some native species, mostly flax and nikau, planted. New post and rail fencing had been installed around the boundaries and between the paddock and the gardens. The paddock was occupied by the owner’s alpaca and some sheep which were being grazed by a local farmer.

After we purchased the land, we acquired some chicks and set up a chicken coop and run, as a base for our free-ranging chickens which we keep for eggs and (occasionally) meat. I would like to acquire some ducks as well but will need to build a duck pond first.

We have continued the grazing arrangement with the local farmer until such time as we are ready to acquire livestock – hopefully sheep, goats and pigs, over time. We have declined to host a horse as we are not sufficiently happy with the water supply to the paddock.

We have planted some fruit trees (one each of apple, peach, plum, lemon and lime) and are in the process of building two large raised beds for vegetables and herbs. We have established three compost heaps and a “weed tea system”. Otherwise, we have dedicated the time we have available to maintaining the garden – cutting the grass and controlling the weeds (mostly broad-leaved weeds and some convolvulus).


Before too long, I'll post a list of projects that we have lined up for the next few years. There's lots of work to do around the farm but lots of fun to be had too.

Finding a Lifestyle Block

The fourth module in my correspondence course on small farming is all about ownership options for small farms.

I thought readers might be interested in how we went about choosing our lifestyle block and all the decisions that we had to make along the way...



When hunting for our lifestyle block, we viewed about fifty different properties. These properties were in a range of locations across the Auckland region, some almost suburban, others much more rural. Some were bush blocks, others enjoyed a pastoral outlook. There were properties with sea views and with city views. The farming options were different on each block, as were the existing facilities.

Viewing such a large number of wide ranging properties helped up to develop our objectives and ambitions and to have a clearer picture of what we wanted to achieve. After each property visit, we would discuss our respective visions of what projects we could undertake on that plot of land. Where one of us became infatuated with a particular property, the other would take a more objective viewpoint and look for possible disadvantages, shortcomings and limitations.

For example, I was particularly attracted to hillside properties in the Waitakere Ranges – these properties offered a pleasant and private bush environment, amazing views and fascinating wildlife. However, in most locations we would have been limited to a small raised bed for a vegetable garden, a handful of fruit trees and some chickens, at the very most. There would have been no grazing land for sheep, goats or pigs and many of the properties were so shaded that growing fruit and vegetables would have been very challenging. The limited amount of open space on such properties would have left no room to expand and to attempt near self-sufficiency. The steep land would also have been challenging when it came to developing a food garden.

This process of viewing and discussing a wide variety of homesteads also helped us to resist those properties with gardens which were already well-established and very attractive but which again offered few opportunities to keep livestock. One of the key questions that we asked ourselves was whether or not we would have to move again in the future in order to fulfil our dreams of a rural lifestyle. If it was likely that we would have to move, the property would be relegated to the bottom of our wishlist.

For example, if a property had no paddock for grazing livestock (and no potential to create a paddock), we knew that we would probably want to move to a different property as our farming activities expanded and so the property was more than likely ruled out. By the end of our property hunt, we were certain that we needed a paddock and were able to narrow down our shortlist accordingly.

The lack of farming infrastructure on any given property (fencing, water supply, barn, workshop etc) was also a deterrent as our limited knowledge of how to develop such facilities and the cost of contracting out such non-essential developments would have slowed down our smallfarming activities considerably. Being aware of our limitations in this way helped us to understand which property features were non-negotiable. We made certain that we looked carefully at what was already available at each site and measured against the criteria that we had developed, assessing the cost and complexity of farming systems that we would have to introduce.

Come back tomorrow to find out more about the block that we eventually chose...

Farming Systems 2

Following on from yesterday's post, here's a closer look at one of the components in our planned farming system - the vegetable garden. The diagram shows how the system will be implemented, what processes are involved and how those processes, or subsystems, can be integrated.

Again, just click on the link below to examine the plan in more detail on Scribd...

2 Systems - Illustration - Vegetable Garden

With the right system in place, could I produce prize-winning vegetables?

Farming Systems 1

Having defined the purpose for our lifestyle block, the next task on my correspondence course in Small Farming was to consider the systems that we might want to put in place on our property.

After completing the reading for the module, I set about sketching out the different system components - or farming activities - that I have planned for our block. The various animals (from sheep and goats to pigs to ducks and chickens) were all included, as were the fruit trees, citrus grove and vegetable garden. I then thought about how the way the different activities might interact - both positively and negatively.

For example, the chickens will fertilise the fruit trees and keep pests down. However, the chickens would destroy the vegetable gardens if I let them free range over the raised beds. But the excess matter from the vegetable gardens will help to feed the chickens.



By considering how the activities complement each other - and how any risks posed by one component to another can be mitigated - set me to look at the principles of permaculture.

To quote the Permaculture in New Zealand website:

"Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems."

Bill Mollison from Permaculture: A Designers Manual

I have a lot more reading to do before I fully understand this farming system but I'm already intrigued. I hope too that the farming system which I'm developing for our property will help me to meet at least some of the permaculture principles such as:

• Produce no waste
• Integrate rather than segregate
  

Allowing the chickens and ducks to wander around the orchard, fertilising it and munching on insects, will integrate those components well. Segregating the chickens from the vegetable garden is the only sensible option but adding their litter to the compost and using vegetable gluts or bolted plants to supplement the chickens' diet will significantly reduce the waste on our small farm.

The diagram below shows more interrelationships, including how some subsystems such as watering troughs for the animals can be used to service more than one component.

Just click on the heading below and you can examine it in more detail over at Scribd.

2 Systems - Illustration - Components

Beginner Baking 7

I wasn't going to bother blogging about these lemon muffins. Another Alison Holst recipe, they're not really all that exciting though they are nice for a little snack.

But then I was doing too many other things and let them overcook and I couldn't get them out of the tray to cool afterwards. Necessity is the mother of invention and so J invented his Patented Muffin Extractor Tool.

Carefully constructed from an old sour cream tub, the Tool has just the right curve for slipping down the edge of each stuck muffin. And the flexibility to slide underneath said muffin and ease it off the tray. Perfect! The muffins came away more or less intact and my coffee group was fed once more.

Beginner Baking 6

This week's Beginner Baking is a seasonal treat - parkin. This is a heavy, sticky, gingery cake, traditionally eaten by northerners around the time of Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night. Controversially I used a southerner's recipe - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's variation on a Derbyshire cook's recipe - rather than a Lancashire or Yorkshire version, though it's not noticeably different to all the other parkin recipes that I found.

I made it a few days before Hallowe'en in the hope that it would mature. It started off strong and dark though and J thought that his piece would keep him going for a few months. Perfect winter food. Just a shame that summer is fast emerging here!

The true test will come later today when my parents arrive and conduct a taste test to determine how close it is to the original Lancashire cake. Fingers crossed!

Antry Points

I've worked out how some of the ants are getting into the house - through this ventilation brick.



What I don't know is what the little structures are at the entrance to the ventilation block - are they ant nests? Or a cocoon or pupa for some other kind of insect?

Past Plantings

The Complete Vegetable Grower: this book is my latest garage sale purchase for 50 cents. As the title suggests, it's a pretty comprehensive volume. But when I started leafing through it, I found a little something extra inside.

One side is an invitation to the 13th Annual Dinner of the Ten Year Club (surely a contradiction in terms!) at the Tramore Grand Hotel in 1973.

But the other side is a planting schedule - which seeds were going in which row, when, and at what distance. I can just imagine Mr Flynn working his way through the book, determining the requirements for each crop then carefully noting them down on his quick-reference guide.

It's a fascinating glimpse into someone's gardening history. Maybe I should try to replicate his garden... I might skip on the sprouts though.

The Eternal Optimist

I am a dreadful gardener. Far too sentimental. Good gardeners are ruthless. They thin out seedlings and cull plants on death's door. I'm neglectful too, easily distracted by other tasks and projects - not a good combination.

The kindest thing to do would have been to put my houseplants out of their misery by laying them to rest on the compost heap. They'd been savaged by snails on the front doorstep, starved of sun and infrequently watered.

But I couldn't give up on them and so I planted them out in a border, hoping the Auckland spring will perk them up.

(Have you spotted the Christmas poinsettia there? Still limping on...)

And then a few days after my mercy mission, I found cause for optimism. I had picked up this ginkgo tree at the school fair at the end of last season. It lost all its leaves over winter until it was nothing but a stick, stuck in some soil, and I left it at the house, on the building site, forgotten under the scaffolding and shrinkwrap.

But, all of a sudden, glimpses of green had appeared. There was life in the old stick yet! So I popped it in the back of the truck and brought it to our temporary abode for some tender loving care. I've dutifully watered it daily and it's rewarded me with sprouting leaves at intervals along its twiggy trunk. The top leaves have unfurled and seem to be thriving. Now I just have to keep it up!



My adopted vegetable garden seems to be coming along nicely, though there are a few bitemarks from the snails. With a bit of luck, the seedlings will tough it out...



Let's hope the cherry tomato seeds sprout too - under their makeshift greenhouse.