Wild Hope Homestead

Let me introduce you to the new toys of the household. Rather than buying each other a Christmas present this (or do we now call it last?) Christmas, The Husband and I agreed to get a rather big combined present, which is something I’ve been wanting for a while. And so it was with great joy and deep pocket delving that we welcomed an Excalibur food dehydrator into our home. Oooooooh, ahhhhhhh. We ended up buying it from the US then buying a transformer so it works in NZ, as this was cheaper than buying the dehydrator here. Now, I haven’t gotten to try it out yet since I’ve been slowly ploughing through my mountainous to-do list. But soon, soon. Not only can you dry fruit with it but also veges like mushrooms and chillies, seeds, which you can then grind for spices, you can make potato or kale chips, jerky and even rehydratable meals. So many possibilities. So many experiments…

The other new toy is also big and a whole lot more grunty. The Husband had been gathering birthday and Christmas money for it and finally purchased it in a post-Christmas sale. It was actually my idea to get one first, for pruning purposes, but once The Husband got the idea into his head he wanted one for cutting up firewood and various other things. And because he’s a man. And men like chainsaws. Hello, Mr Chainsaw!

The Father kindly bought some safety gear for The Husband, and as soon as he had a moment alone, The Husband was out there cutting things. Then, before I could say goodbye, he had cut down the dying orange tree. So long, sweet but ailing orange! This has let more light into the orchard though. I will just have to be patient while my potted baby orange tree grows up. No doubt there will be some more tree felling in the near future. I just have to be careful what I say out loud…