Lambs

One lamb, then twins, and then another.

I love watching lambs dancing in the paddock.

The sheep are using their new mineral feeder lots to get the extra nutrition needed to feed their growing lambs.

MIlk

Fresh milk. Thank you Lilly and Peter.

Duck food

Slug and snail populations can grow dramatically over winter so it is great to see our ducks hard at work. They are continually roving the paddocks turning slugs and snails into tasty duck eggs.

Calving

Lilly was the last of the cows on the farm to calf.

Welcome Fat boy!!

Pupae

Lots of insects spend the winter as pupae waiting for springs warmth to hatch.

Pollinators

The air is full of buzzing and the sweet smell of nectar.
Tree lucerns help kick start the pollinators ready for their invaluable pollinating services.
This tree is only 3 years old.

Fantails

A perch in the garden, and they spend their days catching insects and fertilising.

I love their cheery dance and the click as they catch a meal.

Blossom

Our Almond trees are showing the first blossoms of spring.

Maybe it is beacuse they are on a warm west facing basin.

SPRING!!

Sorted!!

First step was to explore and find treasure.

Then after a little food Ari started sorting her rock collection. Once this was done she found our rock books and started trying to work out what she had.

Exploring

New places are always fun to explore with cousins.

We plan our holidays together. A trip to the beach was one idea.

Yams

We dig them up as needed after the first frosts. Carefully putting the biggest tubers from the best producing plants in a basket hanging from the ceiling for next years crop.

Fencing

It feels realy good to have time to clear out the old barb wire fences and put up new ones that will hold the sheep. Next job -hedgerows.

Broad beans

Our early broad beans are flowering and the bees are loving them. With this mild weather we may have beans sooner than I thought.

As well as making mulch and capturing nitrogen for our summer lettuce crop, they are acting as a catch crop at the moment -I have spotted the odd aphid and stink bug warming in the winter sun.

I am feeding the stinkbugs to the chickens. The aphid population will hopefully balance out when I encourage more waxeyes and earwigs into the garden.

Preparation

Getting ready for another workshop.

It is always exciting thinking about all of the new people you are going to meet and knowledge that will be shared.

This workshop will look at edible playscapes. We will be focusing on gardening with and for children and encouraging natures many gardeners.

Grass hoppers

As the days cool down so do our insects. They find warm places to get moving in the mornings. This grasshopper is on the top of one of out Tagasaste in the Peach orchard.

Compost

What a heap. Everyone from our Organic horticulture course brought compost materials and by lunch time we had a giant compost heap. Now it is steaming. Hopefully by spring it will be ready for planting.

Willow knot

What a wet workshop.

We;

- went for a hikoi and found out about the different types of willow.

- looked at willow working techniques.

- designed our own projects.

- harvested our willow.

- built our own living hut.

And it rained!!!

Pruning

Time to prune. Unwanted branches should be cut back to the wrinkly 'healing tissue' on the main branch so the tree can heal itself easily.

Shells

Blackbirds do a great job of collecting snails. All they need is something hard to help them crack open the shells.

Winter bonfire

It was a dark, cold night...............now we have lots of lovely woodash for our garden.

Nothing beats a BIG fire.

Green manure

Some of the garden has its winter coat of lupine, mustard, phacellia and broad beans. Other parts have a thick mulch and the areas I was a little behind on have covered themselves with an amazing diversity of weeds.

Winter tomatoes

Nothing beats opening our cuboards on a cold winters day. They are full of summer harvest.

Stories of blackberrying picnic's, family fishing trips, climbing the plum trees, foraging for fejoas .....................and tomato soup -an old family recipie chocka block with garlic, basil and capsicum.

Babies

They are so cute!!!

Ari and Toby have spent a lot of time researching, planning, saving, building, feeding........and now we have three baby guinea pigs. For four weeks anyway as the plan is to get more pocket money.

Willow fodder

Our sheep really enjoy willow at this time of the year. It is usually high in tannins so should help with any worms they may have.

Drying

Some of our Luffa are drying out nicely. I cannot wait to start using them. It is fun watching them slowly change from heavy, solid fruit into light, dry Luffa.

Garlic

Time to plant garlic.

The beds are all ready with a good layer of compost and a sprinkling of woodash. My best cloves off my best garlic from last year are soaked in a weak solution of cow manure and worm wee overnight and then once planted blanketed in a thick layer of mulch.

Homeward bound!

I have found this old golf trundler invaluable for carting all sorts of tools, animal food and fencing paraphernalia all around the farm.

Worms,

Noke or as Aristotle would call them the 'intestines of our earth'.

These ones are tiger worms -see their stripes.

They are one of the biggest eaters as earthworms go.

Munching through our kitchen scraps and making a valuable addition for our potting mix in spring.

Yacon flower

Yacon have beautiful, small, composite flowers heralding a long awaited harvest. Yum!!!

Baskets

I love collecting old baskets. A valuable addition to any playscape.

They are great for carrying vegies, food for a picnic, eggs, flowers, fresh scones...............imagine.

With a pully and some rope the possibilities are endless.