Sharing some NZ farmlife with others

As you may have gathered reading some of our historic blogs, we have a tendancy to have a number of foreigners coming to stay.  This year we have had 4.  Although it is great to have foreigners here and share in our story and life, and hear about theirs, we would also welcome NZers to take part!

In February we had Priscillia from Montreal.  Main tasks while she was here was to do a bit of spring cleaning in the house which was well overdue and to do some child care, entertaining Alice after school, but I am not sure whether it was the other way around, and some farm stuff.  The things we did included:



Priscillia and her helper Alice feeding Mal Time Capsules
 (Zinc Bullets for Facial Eczema protection)

Blackberry picking ... we all managed to fill our containers up but
 Alice ate most of hers!

Priscillia had a go at crutching some lambs.



















Then we spent a day at Raglan beach enjoying the sand and surf.

Then some pre-tup ewe drenching ...












And putting them away, note we were in February, and yes
it was dry!

 

Then we had Thomas from France.  We did a bit of sheep work (first time for Thomas) and lots of feeding out as we were in the throws of the drought and we put lime on a chunk of the farm, using the neighbours strip

Weighing lambs - Thomas got the hang of it
reasonably well.

Thomas having a go at drenching ... bit of hard
work!





Did lots of feeding out, with Thomas loading the trailers most
mornings.  Near the end he was left to feed out to one or two
mobs.  This is the R2 mobs of heifers being fed.







The fertiliser plane being loaded with lime

Dumping its load.

Just recently we had Chris-Ann and Shaun from Toronto.  We had the local cluster schools Arts Festival.  Te Akau did a Pacific Theme where they sung, danced and played the ukelale and doing really well at it.  Links to their performance are http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLaZv35jsUoEsUYvwJuco9g?feature=mhee.  Here you can see the dances and also go through Room 1s Gobble Gobble Moo Tractor Book that the kids have narrated. 

 

Room 1 doing the Gobble Gobble Moo Tractor Book at Te Akau School

 We then travelled into Hamilton to take Alice to her dance lesson at Dance Effects (http://www.danceeffects.co.nz/), where she is doing Jazz Intro 1.  They are currently learning their exam moves, with exams in August.

Jazz Intro 1 class at Dance Effects

Shaun testing his drenching skills on the rams

Chris-Ann getting up close and personal with one of the rams

Then we caught a possum - so far at a rate of 1 per week

And then we plucked it ...

Mustering in the 2-tooths for their 5 in 1 vaccination before set stocking for lambing

 Our main project for the week was to start planting up the garden with natives.  Below are the before and after shots and there is still more plants to go.  Their help was greatly appreciated.

 

 

Before

Before





After



After

And the chook lady ...

 

 So, if keen to help out check out Help Exchange (http://www.helpx.net/) or contact us directly.  We will be seeking some extra help for docking in September.

 



Busy Week - bulls, fertiliser

Lots of different things happened this week.  First priority was all the lease bulls were going home.  We started on Monday, bringing them home and weighing them in mobs, and then trucking them out on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The first up the road were a mob of Angus, and into the yard for weighing.  Probably not the best mob to have in the yards for Fridolin to gain experience on as they were a bit toey.

Angus bulls coming up the road

Knowing where to stand with cattle is important and acting calm.  Loading the race with 3-4 bulls at a time, reading their tag, weighing and recording weights, then letting them out.  The Jersey mob we did in the afternoon were a lot quieter and by the time mobs 3 and 4 came in, there was an established routine.

All these bulls trucked home and will be leased out to dairy farmers.

We also started work on a paddock that had a 'pan' caused by pugging over the years.  In order to improve the soil structure we have applied 2 tonnes lime/ha and have aerated the soil.

First the lime went on

Then the tractor aeratorated the paddock using...

aerator, leaving the paddock like ...

this.

On Wednesday we also managed to get the rest of our spring planned fertiliser.  Earlier we had taken soil test (see earlier blog), and as a result of those tests we have worked out what fertiliser we will apply based on need and financial constraints.  The fertiliser included lime at 1.2 t/ha on our other block.  This was flown on by plane.

And Maxi Super at 250 kg/ha on our home finishing country via tractor.

The rest of the spare time in the week was spent attacking some of the thistles in our finishing paddocks and doing some repairs and maintenance on the fencelines.