Wild Hope Homestead

We have just come back from a lovely holiday. We don’t go away on holiday very much, and so, as departure day drew closer, the lists came out. There are many things to be done before Twiglet Homestead is deprived of our presence. This holiday was an 11-day visit to Christchurch, so the to-do list was no small thing. And it’s probably a tad different from most what most people need to get done before they go away. Some things didn’t make it onto the list because I just did them, like configuring my holiday packing list spreadsheet, organising the animal-minding and harvesting the kumara grown in the pots.

This kumara needed to come out. It may have been in just two pots, but it was growing like a mad thing. This photo was taken after I had begun tearing down the kumara vines from the potting shed wall and rain barrel on the left. There’s a small child somewhere in there too.

The kumara vines were growing into the joins of the potting shed. Oh dear! They must not be left to their own devices. The paper wasps seemed to have taken up a winter residence behind the vines too.

There is something in there. Hooray!

Harvested things: kumara and walnuts, plus giant pumpkins lolloping about.

Here’s my main pre-holiday to-do list:

• Set rat trap
• Dehydrate capsicums
• Make chicken soup
• Cut hair
• Make roost holders
• Clean chicken coop
• Check Frodo’s feet
• Install chicken waterer
• Plant peach tree
• Move pot plants
• Put together thank-you items for people we’re staying with
• Cull Lorelai
• Make kombucha
• Harvest walnuts
• Harvest feijoas
• Pick apples
• Chop and freeze veges
• Plant seedlings
• Pack

Some of these things need a little explanation. Hold on, what now?! Way to bury a major chicken event, plonking it in a to-do list. Those who know how much I loved Lorelai will know there are only two likely reasons I would kill her: illness and egg-eating. You can probably guess which one applies. After a couple of suspicious occasions earlier on, it became clear that Lorelai had succumbed to the dark side, following the rest of her old flock mates into the downward spiral of egg-eating. I was gutted but not surprised. I was always afraid this would happen, after exposure to so many egg-eaters. And so it was that the day before we left, I had to cull Lorelai. Another one bites the dust. Frodo is the last of the old flock standing, and she continues to amaze me with her respect for eggs. As I did my final check of the chickens on the morning we were leaving, Frodo was standing in the pen looking puffy and making minor screechy noises. Yup, she was going broody again at a very inconvenient time. But I don’t care, as long as long as she keeps respecting the eggs!

In other chicken news, Frodo’s feet healed up well before we went away and I managed to finish making a new waterer for the chickens and roost holders so the roost could be set in its proper place in the coop.

These side-mounted drinking nipples are good quality European ones. The chicken pecks the silver bit and this allows water to dribble out onto the lip.

Drilling holes in the 20L food grade bucket.

The nipples are simply screwed into the holes.

And there you have it, a covered waterer that keeps the water clean! Now I don’t have to clean a water bell every day or two.

The chickens cottoned on straight away after I poked at the nipples to show them that water was coming out. Juliette was first to have a try. They seem to really like it. I guess it’s because they like pecking things.

I am trying out some plastic roost holders.

This is a rather long roost. I need something to support it in the middle. An upside-down bucket is doing the trick for now…

I needed to plant the peach tree before we went away, as it was really in need of planting and kept getting dry quickly in its planter bag. It could be facing death if I didn’t plant it. Of course, the spot I wanted to plant it in the Cedar Pen was on the dirt mound that has formed with the demolition of the raised garden bit during the Demo Project. I had to do some dirt removal to lower the ground level before planting the peach tree, but I got it done. I also had to move some of the pot plants from the deck out into the weather. I was supposed to plant out the leek, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings that have been growing inside, but they weren’t big enough to handle the garden, so I left them on a windowsill in a tray of water. They survived, but some only just! I didn’t plan that seed-sowing timing very well.

The flare of the peach tree is where the main roots start to come out from the trunk. Trees should be planted with the flare just above the soil/mulch level. You will often read advice that says to plant plants at the same level as the soil in their pot, but that is not the best advice when it comes to trees (and some other things). I find that nearly all trees are planted too deeply in their pot or planter bag, as can be seen by the dark line here. To get your trees growing their best, get down to that flare, even if you have to scrape back dirt and small roots.

I chucked some mulch under the peach tree then covered the base with a chicken wire mound. I am seeing if this works well compared to wrapping a wire cylinder around the tree, as it will be easier to keep the crazy weeds down this way. And it uses less chicken wire.

The peach tree gets staked and watered. The chickens are, of course, very interested.

The peach tree stands in front of the coop, joining the almod tree and apricot tree in the Cedar Pen.

The brassica and leek seedlings were at an awkward size come holiday time.

The seedlings managed to survive, some just. The brassicas are looking a little worse-for-wear but they’ll come right.

The craziness of Autumn harvesting and preserving continued, which found me climbing the apple tree again and harvesting lots of walnuts with The Little Fulla. You’ve gotta get ’em while you can or they’ll be gone. There were more paprika capsicums to dehydrate, other capsicums (purple, green and red) to chop and freeze, beans to chop and freeze and tomatoes to chop and freeze. I doubt most people find themselves chopping and freezing 20-odd capsicums the night before they go away on holiday… The kombucha also had to be bottled and a new batch made before we went away.

Harvesting the walnuts isn’t just about picking them all up, it involves trying to sort the good from the bad.

The walnut tree seems to have some interesting bark colours.

I put the walnuts on a couple of the old window fly screens in the potting shed to dry out. If they work well I will figure out a more permanent place for them to sit, instead of balanced on top of random things.

I prepped some things from the homestead to take with us to give to people as part of little thank-you baskets for having us to stay at their place: dried herbs and paprika and walnuts, the best-looking ones I could pick out. Somehow, I even managed to sneak in time, much time, to cut my hair short again before we went away.

Because it is Autumn, some rodents decided to take up residence in our roof. There is soft, warm stuff up there and the rodents appeared to take great, noisy delight in their accommodation discovery. We responded with breakfast on the house, served in both a rat trap and the bait station.

Oh, and we did get the packing done, eventually.

What do your pre-holiday to do lists look like?