Bottling up Elderberry Port Wine

Today is just about 6 months since I made up the first stage of the Elderberry Wine and put it into my cask.  Out came the cask this morning, and I steralised some wine bottles, tops and muslin.  Then Mark helped me to bottle the wine.

Only 3 years till its ready to drink!

Uh Oh, Spring is coming and I am not ready

I see the roses putting out new leaves, the lavender greening up, the garlic sprouting at a rate of knots and huge buds on the grapes.

I am not ready, help!  I haven't had time to do half the stuff I planned. Today I rushed out in a frenzy and cut the lavender back by 1/3 to give it a chance.  But on the way I saw so many things I havent done...pulled out the blackberries, tackled the winter weeds, moved the roses and some of the clematis.  Lordy, lordy, lordy, I can see it's all getting away from me already eeeek.

PS...cos I haven't killed the old chooks yet (ahem) and the new chooks are installed, we have 17.  And what do you know?  11 eggs yesterday, and 9 today :-)

Chickens for the Chop

Ever since the beginning of winter our chickens just haven't been doing their job.

We only have 7 hens now (since one got snaffled by a ferret, see earlier posts!), and we have been lucky to get 3 eggs a day, if that.  So, we have decided to give them the chop and put them in the pot.

A couple got a reprieve tho!  I took them to Little Wonders, for a new life with the kids.  Into an old guinea pig cage they went, new straw, made a bigger door then let them out.  The kids were great, really interested in what the chooks were doing scratching around the playground.  They helped fill water containers, fed them some of the lunch leftovers and had their photos taken with them.

The chooks rose to the challenge.  They were relaxed, happy, and got straight down to the business of being a chook!  no eggs yet, but watch this space.  The kids will be so excited if they get an egg or two!

It's been a real mixed bag

Not only the weather!

First it was cold, freezing fog, frosts, snow and miserable.  Now we are having a week of "Psuedo Spring", it's warm during the day, (well if 10C is warm), and it feels kinda balmy.  The garden is in a false sense of security, the buds are out on the roses, and even the artichokes havent died off completely.

I pruned the grapes out the front, which involved a bit of wishful thinking.  When we "rescued" them, they had had their main arms cut off, so I am having to imagine which of the shoots sent up last year will become a permanent branch.  Anyway, I did my best...

The roses also had a look in.  I have pruned 2 of them, the 2 that are going to be moved.

Garlic has shoots up, and the onions (despite their teeny tiny size) have not died!  which has to be good...

Things have been pretty busy here, which is why I havent posted much.  We said a very sad goodbye to Luan, who went back to Brazil (with dreams of NZ still in his head) and said KiaOra to Majan from Germany.

Also, Mark is now working away during the week, leaving me with 5 kids to look after, as well as working about 25hrs per week!  jeepers, I am stuffed by the end of the week!

Garlic and Onions are in

I am sure that this is the time to plant Garlic.  In NZ they always say to plant garlic on the shortest day of the year.  It's pretty cold now, but garlic needs some cold weather to germinate.

I am not sure about the Onions tho'.  Mark found onion seedlings in the garden centre,and optimistically brought them home. I have duly planted some of them, and so far they are not dead.  That's got to be a good thing.

It's a waiting game now, I'll keep you posted.

The first snow morning...

Teenagers and friends playing in the snow on the first snow morning.  Montana-Rose even made a "snow angel", awww

A visit to Franz Joseph

Gee, I look so happy here LOL...(bad camera angles).  Anyway, behind us is the marvelous Franz Joseph Glacier.  An hours walk from the carpark, with 2 little kids, and 3 teenagers (who climbed rocks and ran about all over the place).   Then the hours walk back again, dragging both sets of children LOL!  The weather was sunny, fresh and just right for walking.  A very nice man at the start took a picture of all of us, here we are...