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!
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