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9 June 2010
The 2 half-wild piglets and Joy’s 5 piglets went off to the butcher last Wednesday. By all accounts it was a fairly easy load-and-drive-off job for Aaron.
This job always has to happen on a Wednesday as I still don’t feel ready to watch the piglets leave our property. In fact just thinking about it brings tears to the eyes and a lump in the throat. If it wasn’t for Aaron we’d have the place overrun with pigs because I’d never be able to let them go.
I’m looking forward to the bacon of course and a nice ham for my 40th in a couple of weeks time.
It’s funny but Joy had quite clearly decided she’d had enough of her babies just a week or two before they left. When it came to feeding out she just lost all patience with them and she had little interest in following them around or checking up on them.
I noticed she was like that with the last litter. In fact it’s been the same with all the mums. Some time between 5 and 6 months the mums just want their kids to leave the nest and do their own thing.
Olive Needs A Break
Olive, the poor thing, has been diligently feeding her babies for 4 months and during that time has not grown at all. She’s never been underweight but she is now barely bigger than her babies.
Like Joy she loves them dearly and mothers them terribly. So Aaron made the decision that they had to be separated. On Monday we coaxed Olive out of the paddock with a bucket of food and led her into the pond paddock. She ate her meal then after a quick wander around decided she wanted to be back with her brood. She studied the electric wire for a while and then, once we had left to go back up to the house she ran through.
Aaron found her searching for a way back into her old paddock. We put her back in the pond area and within minutes she was on the other side of the wire again.
We put her back and went off to do some tree planting around the stream. Maybe 20 minutes later we heard a squeal and there she was on the other side of the wire again. This time we doubled the wire and she stood for hours looking through the wire over at her old paddock.
She was clearly upset and no doubt somewhat uncomfortable from her milk-engorged udder. We were unable to console her but in the end it is the best thing for her.
About 7pm I headed down the hill to check on her. It had been raining quite heavily and I wanted to make sure she was in bed warm and dry. No such luck. I don’t think she’d moved from the fenceline. Her brood would have been well asleep in their bed and there she stood, soaking wet, next to the wire, staring into the dark.
I spent a while talking to her, trying to encourage her to bed but she refused to move. I plodded back up to the shed and put some fruit into a bucket and came back down.
“Olive darling,” I waved the bucket under her nose “come out of the rain darling”. She half-heartedly followed me into the house. I put the fruit on the floor and she ate while I scratched and massaged her body.
Eventually she lay down and I continued to massage her. Aaron appeared out of the darkness, concerned that I had been gone so long. After another couple of minutes I said goodbye and hoped she would curl up in the hay and sleep.
She was certainly doing that when we got up to feed at 4am on Tuesday morning so hopefully she stayed there after I left.
I know she doesn’t want to be alone or separated from her babies but she’ll have them back on the weekend, providing she’s dried up. We’re more than happy for them to be altogether providing she’s no longer feeding them.
It is interesting that in the NZ Pig Welfare Code it is illegal to let sows feed their piglets for more than 6 weeks. The way the code is written it is strongly implied that to do so for any longer is tantamount to animal cruelty and that sows will only do so for longer if they feel bullied by their youngsters.
Yet to see the distress that Olive and Joy, and to a lesser extent our other girls, feel when they are separated from their youngsters I think it’s a load of hogwash.
I prefer to let nature take its course but in this instance we have to consider Olive’s welfare. She is in perfect condition but she is small. She needs a rest so that she can grow. At least I hope she grows now. I really don’t know how these things work in pigs. Will her early pregnancy leave her with stunted growth?
When I look at her sister Emily there is quite a discrepancy in size.
A Nervous Disorder?
Emily still has the shakes. Not so bad now I think but she’s still not 100%.
I am not convinced it’s the paspalum staggers she was diagnosed with but I find it difficult to believe she is still suffering from a nervous disorder from her experience with Joy.
I had hoped the mineral lick would eliminate the condition. It certainly seems to have helped but it’s not fixed it.
We may need to up the dose slightly until we can start fertilising the pastures.
As far as I can tell her and Stanley seem to get on well. Occasionally there’s a heated exchange of grunts but for the most part they seem to be just fine.
Maybe she just needs more cuddles and reassurance that she’s a lovely piggie.
When she goes into the maternity paddock I plan to reunite her and Olive. They had a good relationship and it would be nice for them to be together again.
I know Olive has spent many hours in Mabel and Rose’s paddock and I suspect her and Emily have talked through the fence quite a bit.
One Big Happy Family
I have to say that one very nice discovery has been seeing Mabel, Rose and Olive all in the same paddock with all the piglets together, all intermingling pleasantly. Olive certainly has had no problem when all 3 sets of piglets are in her paddock and over time Mabel and Rose have become quite comfortable having Olive and her lot visiting.
They are supposed to be separate but it’s impossible to stop pigs digging under fences if they want to get to the other side. Aaron’s hammered into place plenty of barriers to stop the visiting but still they find a way.
In my mind this just goes to prove that much of the NZ Pig Welfare Code is a joke. These pigs don’t get stressed from being together, they get more stressed from being kept apart!
A Year On
12 months ago we had just said goodbye to HelpXers Alex and Tristan and said hello to Jay and Bex. Projects were being completed at great speed and we finally felt we were getting somewhere.
A year down the track we are in our 4th HelpXer-free week in a row and while it would be nice to have some extra hands to help us out, I think we are both enjoying not having to host.
Certainly the bank account is noticing it. At roughly $75 per person per week the costs can soon add up, especially if we have 4 HelpXers staying at a time.
I thought I would never cope again without those extra hands but it turns out that hosting is the last thing I want to do when I feel tired.
We had 3 lots of HelpXers lined up for this month but all have cancelled. We’re still getting requests but either from people with no farm-type experience or people who are at the end of their holiday and want somewhere cheap to stay. I just can’t be bothered with hosting now unless people actually genuinely want to experience the lifestyle.
The other thing we now have to consider as well is whether we’re prepared to take on girls who travel alone. The amount of heavy lifting, shifting loads, etc that needs to be done these days I’m dubious as to whether most females could cope. I consider myself pretty strong these days but even I struggle to cope at times. Just carrying the crates of veges and fruit and bags of cheese between shed and coolstore can be a mission.
I’m regularly swinging around 10 – 20kg weights, and while my biceps are impressive, it’s not difficult to strain my back or shoulders if I’m not careful.
The Joy of Learning???
Whether it’s the Vitamin D, the zinc or a combination of the handful of tablets I swallow daily, my fatigue levels have dropped considerably. I still feel in need of a holiday but I am once again functioning mentally.
With the mental function restored I am now back to reading books about the nature of food and documentaries about the state of the world.
We watched 2 DVDs on the weekend – ‘The End of Suburbia’ and ‘Escape from Suburbia’. The 2nd one was okay, a bit like most sequels, but The End of Suburbia was quite frankly a little disturbing. It’s all about the Peak Oil crisis and its impact on the US, which of course has massive global implications.
I’d dismissed stuff I’d heard about the world running out of oil. “Yeah whatever. It’s just an excuse for oil companies and oil rich countries to charge more”. Every decade we hear these “The end is nigh!” statements and it’s always a case of the boy who cried wolf.
Turns out I may be wrong about this one. ‘The End of Suburbia’ certainly made me think about things.
Apparently crude oil won’t run out in my lifetime but it will become a luxury item. Experts predict that crude oil is going to start running out by 2015 at the latest. By 2015 we will have consumed half the world’s oil and by the year 2100 we will most likely have consumed the remainder.
That means the prices are going to continue to rise at the pump until most of us can no longer afford it.
And now, as I read ‘What’s Not on the Label’ and its comments on the global food trade, I’m starting to feel more than a little concerned.
Aaron and I believe that the way countries like New Zealand currently live and shop is unsustainable and will change dramatically in the next 50 years. There are many people globally who believe that as we run out of oil, societies like ours will return somewhat to the way they were 100 years ago. The suburban sprawl will halt and more people will move to the country in order to lead more self-sustainable lifestyles.
Small communities and towns like ours will need to become more self-supporting, just like they were 100 years ago. The old and the new will start to merge as we learn to adapt.
And so, we’re anticipating that by 2020 we are going to start noticing some subtle changes. I think farmers markets, community supported agriculture and barter & trade will become a bigger presence.
I love the thought that one day our suburban malls may become giant markets full of locally grown produce and locally manufactured goods. I like the idea of the return of small businesses of olde and the death of multi-national conglomerates.
I like the idea that in my lifetime I may see the end of ‘Made in China’ labels on manufactured goods in our shops.
Of course, the possible good things that may come out of the Peak Oil crisis doesn’t change the bad stuff happening now.
The more I read about the global food trade the more sickened I become. The human rights abuses experienced in 3rd world countries are more often than not linked to the food trade. I am now stuck with the knowledge that every time I buy something from the supermarket that isn’t 100% New Zealand made or isn’t organic or isn’t Fair Trade, I am very probably contributing to the torture or misery of someone in a Third World country.
And even if I do manage to only buy these things and to avoid supermarkets altogether, every time I buy animal feed, whether it be for pigs, chickens or dogs I still continue to contribute to these horrors.
For instance, I can never, ever go back to buying non-Fair Trade coffee or tea. The human rights abuses behind those 2 items products alone are just appalling.
And now I have just finished reading about the prawn industry and it has left me feeling physically sick. In the last 10 years prawns have been a fantastically cheap, healthy product that I used to have no problem buying in the supermarket. When I think of how many I have consumed; and now I wonder how many came from Asian countries where it is common practice to farm them in ponds into which huge amounts of antibiotics, growth hormones and all manner of chemicals have been emptied in a bid to grow prawns as big as possible and as fast as possible before they die from chemical overload.
Acres and acres of mangroves have been cleared to create numerous ponds which regularly become chemical wastelands, too toxic to farm anything.
The organisations that own supermarkets are truly evil. On a quest for maximum profit they have become responsible for a huge amount of global suffering, whether it be people, animals or environmental.
It’s sickening, it’s depressing and it’s frightening.
31 May 2010
Another month bites the dust and I’m wondering how it is that time seems to be racing by so fast.
Only 2 short weeks ago I was cursing the lack of rain. 6 months of drought conditions was playing havoc with animals and pasture. And then the rain started…
It really hasn’t stopped since. There’s been 3 days of no measurable rain but we’ve had 193mls since the 20th. Hell, we’ve even flooded once.
The flood was a great chance for us to see our newly cleared stream in action. It coped beautifully, and in fact most of the flooding was on DoC land which we have not yet cleared. There was a bit around the pond area but not a lot.
The only downside is that with the free flow of water, logs and branches from the non-cleared end went hurtling down stream, under the bridge and crash, bang into the first blockage on Gary’s side. What Gary now has is an enormous wall of debris blocking the first part of his stream. He’s going to come home in a couple of week’s time and have a fit if he sees it.
So although most of it is due to the free flowing water, his assumption is bound to be that we didn’t clear our side properly and he’s copped the fall out from a shoddy job. Aaron is in 2 minds whether to clear it as it will take several hours of hard graft but I don’t see we have much choice. We cannot afford to fall out with Gary as we utilize his land quite a bit.
Once we’ve cleared it once, what happens after that is not my concern.
I’m just stoked that we had minimal flooding on our land in a normal flood situation.
Flooding aside, the pig paddocks are disappearing under several inches of sludgy mud. Already feed out is a mission. The troughs are sinking, so each breakfast I’m in there trying to pull them free of the sludge so I can either move them or empty them of rain water.
Most of the pigs are knee deep in it when standing at their troughs.
Were there really big cracks in the ground only 3 weeks ago? Hard to believe.
So already we’re at the stage where this week we are going to have to order in our first truckload of winter woodchip to spread around trough and housing areas.
Most everybody I talk to assumes the pigs will be loving it but in fact they dislike it almost as much as I do.
In summer the pigs seek out the mud to avoid the sun but as the cooler temperatures hit the pigs seek out the sun and avoid the mud.
Finally our water supply is back to normal. In fact it’s flowing stronger than normal and not only filled our tank but overfilled it. Turns out the tank’s ballcock is not working and so we had water spraying out the top of the tank as the water kept on coming.
I actually can’t remember the last time we had a full tank. What bliss not having to run the water pump anymore and oh what a blessing we forked out the money for the pump 18 months ago.
And best of all the duck ponds are full. The ducks are loving it and I’m loving not having the daily chore of cleaning and filling the temporary duck baths.
Now if they would just start laying eggs again!
Open Day Post Event Meeting
Yesterday we invited Bev and Dave up for lunch to discuss the Open Day and what could be done better.
We covered good ground, came up with heaps of suggestions for improvements and Bev is keen to make it a 6-monthly event. Since Koanga Gardens stopped their Harvest Festivals there’s a gap in the market and the timing is perfect for Bev to fill it.
Aaron and I are keen to continue to be a part of it, even if it’s not from a speaking perspective, as it will help us to network and become known ourselves. This is just what we need as we start up a business ourselves.
I think they will probably ask us to help next time.
Happy Meat from the Farm Gate
Speaking of business, now that the open day is out of the way Aaron and I can now invest time in trying to set up our (hopefully) new business Shed On The Hill Free Range.
Last week I started scrubcutting outside the gate. We need the okay from Transit NZ that our driveway entrance is a big enough area to park a chiller truck and sell from the gate. To do that we need to make the area look as big as possible. That means scrubcutting several year’s worth of kikuyu growth. I went through 2 tanks of fuel last weekend and barely made a dent. I’d just had the blade professionally sharpened and it’s blunt already. The rain didn’t help of course. Wet, ropey kikuyu is virtually impossible to cut.
I will have to get it done next weekend so we can get the ball rolling. I suspect getting sign off from Transit NZ, Kaipara District Council and NZFSA is going to take some time. Then we need to get a business loan, and well, there’s lots to do.
Aaron wants us up and running by Labour Weekend and I think that’s a good date to aim for.
We had a good business planning meeting a week ago and we’ve decided to really put a big effort in to making it work.
We’ve come to the conclusion that in order to make it work one of us needs to be at home most of the time. As Aaron earns twice as much as me it makes sense that it will be me. So now the plan is for me to cut down to 2 days (20 hours) a week by the end of the year. As the business grows (which of course is the plan) we will then consider my working from home fulltime.
To be honest, I’m mentally ready to go part-time already. Quitting altogether though is too much of a scary proposition at this stage.
We still have a big mortgage and once I quit work it will make it that much harder to get back into the job market should I need to.
So the plan is for me to try convince my boss to let me work Wednesdays and Fridays in a job share position and for Aaron to continue having Wednesdays off and to convince his boss to let him work from home on Fridays.
That way there will always be one of us at home.
5 Years On
So now we’ve owned this property just over 5 years and this weekend, as Aaron and I planned our next 12 months, it hit me how much we’ve achieved.
Our plan was to finish the infrastructure and setting up phase by our 5th year of ownership. Not only have we done that but I think we have exceeded our goals. The next 5 years is all about maintenance and beautifying.
This I think is where it starts to get exciting.
Now we can spend our money on improvements.
And so a few nights ago Aaron and I nutted out our goals for the next 12 months.
There’s –
Setting up the business
Finding an extra $6,000 for the mortgage (while we’re still on a low rate)
Saving $10,000 for an overseas trip next year
Fencing the house site with post and rails
Completing the permaculture vege garden
Connecting all our electric fencing to a mains unit
Starting an organic pastoral management programme
Starting a planting programme for the cleared stream
Fencing the House Site
6 months ago fencing the house site wasn’t even on the radar but, as luck would have it, I spent several hundred dollars last spring on rolls of brand new chicken mesh I found on Trade Me. We then had our HelpXers fence the duck paddock, chicken run and vege garden. 2 months ago (before the drought ended I might add) the ‘Made in China’ wire all started to disintegrate. A month ago the wire keeping the ducks from coming onto the house site gave out all together and so we’ve had ducks and chickens sitting outside the house all day every day constantly harassing us for food, shitting on the verandah and basically making a nuisance of themselves.
A couple of weeks ago Aaron saw a special for fencing rails and decided we should fence in the whole house site. That way we could keep the fowl out and the dogs in.
We spent the money and already Aaron has completed half the project. The ducks and chickens are now once again off the house site.
In a month’s time Aaron is going to buy 3 gates and then will complete the project.
The hope is that we will be able to let the dogs stay out all day while we are at work, without fear they will go wandering.
We will also be able to keep little kiddies in should they ever visit.
Electric Fencing
Connecting the electric fencing to a mains unit is well under way, with most of the project money already spent. Our Kaiwaka mate Marty has been a god-send once again. Helping Aaron to set it up, showing him what to do and volunteering a few hours of his time again. I don’t think I can ever cook him enough dinners to repay him for all his help on our property.
The idea is to have most of our electric fencing connected to a mains unit by the end of June.
What a relief it will be not to have to continually recharge all the car batteries we currently use for our electric fencing units. Our biggest hope of course, is that it will eliminate most of our animal escape problems. Just not having the pigs constantly invading the shed will be a relief. Little piglets running around the house are a great amusement but in the end they wreak havoc in their constant quest for entertainment and food scraps.
Organic Pastoral Management
You must read ‘Natural Farming’ by Pat Coleby said workmate Mike many months ago, “And while you’re at it, talk to the guys from Agrissentials”.
I’d never heard of Agrissentials but filed the name in the back of my mind. I wrote the book title down on a slip of paper and Googled it a few weeks later. It looked somewhat interesting so I wrote the title down in my notebook for that time when I had a little money to spare.
I bought the book a couple of months ago and read it 2 weeks ago.
To sum it up in one word - Wow!
It’s Food Matters in book form for livestock. The information and facts are mind blowing.
It’s another piece of the nutritional puzzle. It’s another answer to why animals and humans suffer so many illnesses.
Every night, as I sat on the sofa reading this book, I kept bursting out with “Oh my god, you’ve got to hear this!” comments. I drove Aaron mad but it’s just one of those books I know is going to make a huge difference to the way we live our life.
It’s an easy-to-read science lesson that all makes perfect sense.
Nutrition starts in the soil. If the soil is deficient then so too are the crops and livestock. What the plants and animals don’t get from the soil they don’t pass on to the human who eats them.
Modern farming practices and fertilizers rob the soil of essential minerals. Those minerals are not only vital for good health on their own but also react together in the body to convert to essential vitamins.
When a particular mineral is missing it results in animals and humans developing illnesses, skin conditions or susceptibility to parasite attacks.
So as I read this book and about the various illnesses suffered by animals and the corresponding illnesses in humans it was one of those lightbulb moments.
When we eat minerally deficient meat and plants we too develop similar illnesses to livestock.
I can now look around our paddocks and just by looking at the weeds can start to see what we are deficient in. The best way to rectify it is by applying organic fertilizers and that is where Agrissentials comes in.
We had the local Sales Rep. call in on the weekend and as he talked he started to sound like the book I’d just read. I actually understood what he was talking about. And Aaron and I have started to get excited.
There’s a cost involved of course, and plenty of manual labour. To spread the fertilizer we will be doing it by hand, by the bucket load, dusting the ground with rock dust and lime as though we were sprinkling icing sugar on a sponge cake.
The plan now is to get a soil test done to find out what we are missing and then to spend the next 12 months working from paddock to paddock fertilizing the pasture, orchards and vegetable garden.
And we will repeat the process on a yearly basis, hopefully giving back more than what we are taking out.
We have 7 acres to manage, which will cost us roughly $700 a year. And at this stage we absolutely think it’s worth it. It is of course another selling point for the property when we eventually decide to part with it.
Vitamins For The Piggies
Of course the only issue with organic pasture management is that good things take time! We’re not just spreading some wonder chemical that provides an instant reaction.
Like our original seaweed and willow liquid fertilizer, the results are great but can take up to 18 months to become apparent.
However, it shouldn’t take so long for us because we do not have to counter the effects of previously spread man-made fertilizers. There are a couple of areas we originally sprayed lethal poison to eradicate alligator weed and wandering jew but they aren’t major animal areas and they flood often so hopefully the repair of these areas won’t take so long.
So in the meantime our livestock are mineral deficient and experiencing the consequences that go with that.
I now know that when our young calves arrived on the block and very suddenly contracted scurfy/lice it was because of the sudden change in quality of pasture.
I also now know that lice on the pigs, ticks on the cows and excessive piggie digging can also be traced to mineral deficiencies.
The organic mineral lick for livestock suggested in Natural Farming is:
25kg dolomite
4kg copper sulphate
4kg yellow dusting sulphur
4kg kelp
Aaron went to Falloons and roughly $125 later we now have 4 bags of fairly toxic looking minerals.
We make it in 2 litre batches and give a dose of 1 teaspoon per adult pig per day.
Sprinkled over the feta I assume that the pigs manage to take most of it in.
They’re certainly not complaining.
We’ve tried a couple of times to give the lick to our cattle but it keeps raining so we have to keep covering it. 46 and 84 definitely had some the other day but we will have to build a rainproof trough before we can give them daily access.
Vitamins For Humans
And so here we are 3 weeks down the track and every night Aaron and I pop B, C, D, E and Omega 3.
There’s certainly some obvious changes.
The dermatitis inflammation on my hands has calmed right down, although it hasn’t disappeared yet.
I wrenched my shoulder so badly last weekend while scrubcutting that I was popping voltaren for 2 days just to manage the pain. I was dreading the physio cost to sort it out. But here I am a week later and the pain has completely gone. I’ve done nothing. In fact I haven’t even rested it. I’ve still had to hurl buckets of feed around every morning. Is it fast cell repair, tissue repair, or more supple joints? I’ve got no idea but something I’m taking just fixed my problem.
After an exceptionally grey week I have had no bouts of SAD. This is a huge plus for both Aaron and me.
It’s not all been good news though. None of these vitamins have helped with the fatigue, the debilitating exhaustion I have been dealing with for the last 2 weeks. There’s been the head cold, the acne break outs, and to top it off there has been no improvement to the raw skin on the bridge of my nose.
And so I thought I’d experiment on myself again. The ‘Natural Farming’ book advised that facial conditions, like facial eczema in livestock are due to zinc deficiency. New Zealand soils are deficient in zinc and so I bought some zinc tablets.
4 days later my acne is clearing and the bridge of my nose appears to be almost healed. I’m struggling to believe it and have to keep looking in the mirror to check because my nose has been raw underneath my glasses for at least a year.
Surely I haven’t been suffering the human equivalent of facial eczema?!?
And the strangest thing of all? My fatigue levels seem to be abating.
If the skin on my face and hands is inflammation free in the next couple of weeks and my energy levels return then I’m a total convert to vitamin therapy for good health.
What Now?!?
It’s proving to be a tough year for me mentally. I have no desire to give up or give in but sometimes I just want to stop and turn off time. I want to put the world in a holding pattern while I try to make sense of it all. When I try my best and it’s still not good enough the ego takes a hammering and the mental exhaustion sets in.
Our roosters over on Gary’s side have been doing really well until we noticed one had a limp last weekend. We brought it back to the house and attempted to nurse it. 3 days later it was dead and it was all very odd.
Then Saturday one of the other roosters sat down to eat. This was not a good sign. We brought it back to the house and I fed it oily tuna with kelp and cider vinegar. It wolfed it down and I felt quite happy. But today, as I was down at the shed preparing pig meals, it passed away.
I’m gutted. I’m annoyed and a little upset. But most of all I’m concerned. What the hell happened to these chickens? They looked healthy and just went down hill so rapidly. I’m assuming it’s poisoning but what did they eat? Aaron and I agreed that if the 2nd one died we’d chop all their heads off and put them in the freezer before we lost any more.
Hopefully the rest make it through until next weekend. Oh what fun that will be!
18 May 2010
Well, I knew I was tired and stressed but wouldn’t you know it, my body has decided knowing isn’t enough and has decided to make it as plainly obvious as possible.
The dermatitis is going crazy. I’m also having really bad reactions to all metal, which means my nose under my prescriptions glasses , which is usually irritated and flaky is now constantly raw. My engagement / wedding rings caused such a bad reaction that my finger swelled up and it took one of the Charge Nurses at work an hour to get my ring off. Oh the pain and oh relief to get the rings off! But after a month the dermatitis on that finger still won’t go.
I can’t wait for my Vit D, B and E to arrive from the States because I’m desperate for relief from this skin disorder. Please, please, please let it work.
I’ve had an outbreak of acne, which I only ever get when I’m stressed.
I’m having really bad allergic reactions to dairy products. Insomnia’s driving me nuts. And now, to top it all off I’ve got a head cold.
I’m popping Vit C tablets like crazy and I’m in the worst physical condition I’ve been in for at least a 12 month period.
I feel utterly and completely worn out. I’m in desperate need of a holiday and there’s no immediate relief in sight.
Mum came for a visit for a couple of days. It was good to chat and she helped me put things in perspective.
And so today I called in sick. I am sick so therefore no guilt there. I think maybe I’m going to need to do the same tomorrow. If I don’t find some time to just unwind and relax I think my body will just pack up on me altogether.
Muriwai Valley Farm Open Day
Well, the weekend of 15 May rolled around pretty quick. I was supposed to help out a lot more than I did but I just couldn’t find the time. Working fulltime, running the farm and constantly hosting new HelpXers left me with precious little time for anything else. What I hoped to achieve in the evenings didn’t happen because I spent every evening talking to our guests.
Still, despite the lack of time I still managed to find some somewhere to design fliers and signage and attend 3 meetings. Then on Saturday Aaron and I went down for the day to help out.
We arrived and it was glorious sunshine. We helped out with this and that and then Aaron took off to be parking warden and I the admissions lady.
The weather forecast was bad but I was hopeful. And things were fine at 10am when the event started but blue skies had turned to grey by 11am and then at 12:30, when Aaron started his talk on pig-keeping all hell broke loose. Lightning, thunder and torrential rain had me and Marilyn tucked inside a tiny tin bus shelter at the end of the driveway and Aaron in a large tin shed with a sudden loss of power and having to compete with the external din.
It only lasted 20 minutes or so but the drizzly weather continued for and hour or so after that. Then it was blue sky and pleasant weather again.
For a first event that wasn’t organized by an event company it wasn’t bad. There are lots of lessons to be learnt and discussed at the post-event meeting. Hopefully next year it will be a much bigger event.
Aaron had to leave at 2 to be home for the afternoon feed out but I hung around until just after 5. It was good to catch up with ex-HelpXer Clare and to talk to visitors at the event.
Aaron it seems made a good impression. He was accosted post-talk by several attendees wanting more pig-rearing advice and was also invited to speak at another small farming event in the near future.
If this Open Day does become an annual event I hope that Aaron will be invited to talk again. It will certainly be good for us if we start up our own business this year.
