A Cottage in Clarkville

The family recently went on holiday to Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura and had a jolly good time. In Hanmer we rented a holiday home close to the hot pools and enjoyed fudge, playgrounds and watching music videos on Sky. We went to Kaikoura to check out seals and say Hi to friends Lyn and Gino, as well as their lovely dogs and pet lamb, Katherine. We stayed in a little cottage owned by a couple from Britain (which may explain all the signs). See what you think 🙂

Fair enough, ok, we won’t smoke.

Okey dokey, will leave boots outside

A bit of light reading BEFORE you touch the telly

Crikey, DANGER? Is this place suitable for kids? Will the logburner eat them?

We provide free wood… but don’t use the logburner unless your lips are blue… DANGER

For those of you who are stupid, here’s a 12 step guide to lighting a fire

We bought this for ourselves. Please don’t let your children use it. We will be watching you.

This week I got myself a new beehive. Readers may remember that in November last year I had to destroy my hive due to it getting the bee disease AFB. This disease almost certainly came from the apiary across the road which belongs to a commercial beekeeper. That apiary is still there, I am just hoping that the organisation trying to eliminate AFB keeps a close eye on it.

It feels good to have a hive back on the property, here’s hoping for some lovely honey at the end of summer. It feels like good timing as the fruit trees are bursting into blossom and the daffodils are starting to bloom.

A few people have requested more pictures of Louisa, so here you are! She is a beautiful wee girl, but not so keen on the sleeping 😦

The snow started falling this morning and hasn’t stopped since. It makes the property look like a winter wonderland and it’s nice to not have the road noise for a while. When it stops Chris and Noah are going to try and make a snowman.

Louisa Tess Miller finally decided that she wanted to see the world last Friday, the 20th of April. She was a healthy 8lb 11oz (3.9kg), and was 10 days over her due date, which she obviously put to good use doing plenty of growing. The labour was pretty tough and Paula had to stay at Christchurch Womens Hospital longer than planned, but a bit more than 24 hours after Louisa was born was ready to transfer to Rangiora for some recovery. That didn’t work out though as Rangiora didn’t have a spare bed so it was decided that Paula and Louisa would come home to be looked after by Noah and Dad.
Paula is recovering well but still taking it easy and Louisa is doing great. Feeding has been going fairly well and there has also been a good amount of sleeping too, which is helping Paula get some rest.
Noah seems to like his new sister, he has been very gentle, gives Lu lu nice kisses and is keen to help where he can.

I hae just realised that I had this post written back in November but I hadn’t published it! Read on and I will give an update at the bottom…..
I had a cunning plan for our chickens, but the girls were having none of it. I decided that we could make use of them to help weed out parts of our vegetable garden. I thought that they would be excited about this, as although they have a very large run, they have scratched it bare and don’t often get out for a run around the garden, and when they do they make a mess in areas we don’t want them.
I found on Trade Me a lovely little portable coop suitable for 6 chooks, and then got some netting that can be hooked up to an electric fence unit. I set it up in the area of the vege garden closest to the house where we want to plant the pumpkins. I moved the chickens in one evening, but by 9am the next morning they had all got out and gone to lay their eggs in their old house. I hadn’t been able to hook up the electric fence unit because the grass was too long and would have shorted it out.
I will have to mow a strip around the edge before starting again, but I think my best bet will be to get some new chickens in for the new coop, and leave the others where they are.
I am still keen to get the system going, as there will always be somewhere to set them up, I have plans for them around the fejoas, and then in the orchard when there is excess fruit dropping on the ground.
Will keep you posted!

Latest news….. As I said I would I cleared around the edge of the garden and set up the electric netting. I then purchased 4 nine week old brown shaver chickens and put them into the moveable coop (the other chickens are still in their original coop). The man I bought them off said I should leave them in their coop for 5 days before letting them out into the garden.

After 3 days (yesterday) I thought they would like a run around so I let them out in the evening. I kept an eye on them but when I went to lock them away there was only 3 in their house! I had a big look around the garden with a torch but no sign. Luckily this morning she was found in a nearby bush. I have done the same again tonight, hopefully they are all safe in bed, I will go and check soon. Here is a picture of the area I want them to clear, they have their work cut out!

We got a couple of building projects achieved late last year, one of them was done by me, the other we got a real builder in to do.
We are so happy with our new veranda over the back door. It has made life so much easier when it rains, trying to get inside with groceries and Noah is no longer a mad scramble with the keys while you get soaked. Toby likes it too.

I finally made some cheese using the equipment my family kindly got me for my birthday. I had made a couple of batches of yoghurt but I got organised and made some feta. The milk came from the farmer down the road, I used 4l. All went well, it tastes like feta and several people have eaten and all have lived to tell about it. Obviously it isn’t all in perfect blocks, I will work on that.