This year Piopio's Next Top Model is pet lamb Fuzzy. About a month ago she took a tumble into the pond, and had to be rescued by Karen. Who nearly tumbled into the pond herself hauling Fuzzy out!
All the best for a Merry Christmas from our family to yours. Let's be optimistic, and hope for peace and joy in 2025.
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This year pet lamb "Snowball" is Piopio's Next Top Model 2023. Recently she sat patiently on John's lap while he was interviewed by TV1's Breakfast show, this picture was taken right before. The interview was meant to be about the revival of Waitomo's "Running of the Sheep" in Te Kuiti as part of the Great NZ Muster. And it was, but what they didn't divulge upfront to John was that they also had an animal rights activist from the SPCA along to complain about how this was hurtful to the sheep! No one asked Snowball what she thought, or even acknowledged her. So much for animal rights. If they'd asked her she would have said she's cool with it all, that sheep are used to being mustered. In any event, we thought it was only appropriate for Snowball to grace this year's Christmas card.
All the best for a Merry Christmas with friends and family from ours to yours.
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Yes, I'm actually sitting down this morning at Struan Farm to write a blog post, WOW. Perhaps I may get back into this particular groove, we'll see. Peak tomatoes is probably not the best time for that.
But something happened this morning that warrants a post, especially for long time followers.
Farmer John arrived at the house this morning. He's dosing and sorting sheep this morning. The ram lambs are being sent off and he's checking everyone else. It's not been the best season with dry conditions and unusual worms plus the risk of facial eczema. So he's onto it.
But he was coming up to talk to me about Rosie. He said she had severe mastitis. This meant she couldn't breed again. We talked about possible treatment, but he said that there are subsequent risks associated with that. The best course of action was humane euthanasia.
In rural life (and life in general) there are times when you need to make decisions that you'd prefer not to have to make. I told him if this were the best course of action for her that of course that's what we would do. But I wanted to come down to see her, feed her an apple, and say thank you and good bye.
As if we all aren't dealing with enough sadness, uncertainty, etc. at the moment with Omicron on our doorstep. I also wondered how the heck Hubby John was possibly going to move the sheep from paddock to paddock around the farm without Rosie in the lead. The lambs pay no attention to him whatsoever. Rosie and Cookie are teaching them the ropes.
There's good news. I went down to the yards at the wood shed to see Rosie and all the lambs, apple in hand. She was standing right at the front of the yard, predictably. It turns out that Farmer John had made a mistake, the ewe with mastitis was someone else, not Rosie!!! A few months ago she lost her ratty red collar, and he isn't able to identify the pets and former pets as well as I can. She is fat and healthy, doesn't even have her usual runny nose. The other ewe, another former pet no longer socialised, was gaunt and had red irritation visible on her udder.
Major phew. LONG LIVE ROSIE!
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Former pet lamb Rosie, now diva of the mob at Struan Farm, and her adopted daughter Ruffles are Piopio's Next Top Models this year. Both they and we wish you and your family and friends a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.
Stay safe in this uncertain world, and although the phrase is now a bit cliche here in NZ at this point, be kind. We're all anxious and stressed about what's may be around the bend next.
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For the past two weeks we've had a morepork, our native owl or "ruru," visiting the bush outside our bedroom window here at Struan Farm. Ruru tend to hide out in that bush every so often at night. They have a loud, haunting "morepork" call, and are viewed to be the guardians of the night. When they call like this it is considered to be a good omen--we can only hope!
The calling usually cranks up between 1-3 a.m., goes on for at least a half an hour. While John slumbers blissfully, it wakes me up. If you see me with dark circles under my eyes this will be why. I've taken to calling the bird "Leroy." We haven't been able to determine if Leroy is looking for a mate (sometimes the calls are returned by a second ruru), hunting, or just generally shooting the breeze.
I haven't tried to answer him back, but if he keeps at it for too long one morning I just might have to see if we can have a chat.
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The climbing rose over the pergola down in the Homestead gardens here at Struan Farm has started to flower, hooray. Her official name is Souvenir de Madame Leonie Viennot, although she is also known as the "dunny rose" here in New Zealand, having been planted by settlers around long drop toilets. Both for camouflage and scent!
In the extended Robertson family she is also known as "Roma's Rose." Family friend Roma Ronaldson grew this rose for years and years. Our rose would be a progeny of hers most certainly. She grows easily from cuttings and I would recommend her to you.
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This afternoon the heirloom tomatoes got planted, staked and tied and the associated bird netting put up here at Struan Farm. I had to arrange for special delivery of more weed mat staples to pin the netting down properly; the birds otherwise get pretty sneaky finding any gaps, such is the temptation of my tomatoes.
It seems my previous supply of weed mat staples had been otherwise deployed to John's ever expanding native tree nurseries. These things happen in my world, requiring a flexible approach.
I'm thinking the netting looks a bit like the tents of Cirque du Soleil, if you remember those? Minus the blue and yellow stripes, of course. Henry our scarecrow agrees. Inspired, he asked me to consider a trapeze with which he could entertain himself. This got the thumbs down from me--our scarecrow needs to stay on the job. Even if the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz did go for a wander down the Yellow Brick Road with Dorothy, Toto, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man.
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I was pleasantly surprised to look out on Veggie World this morning here at Struan Farm and see that one of the Black Coral zucchini plants I'd planted out decided to flower, hooray!
I have not tempted fate planting tomatoes outside until it is officially Labour Weekend. While I am raring to go, I've learnt not to cross Mother Nature or she'll whip out a frost to put me squarely in my place. However it was sufficiently warm yesterday that I decided to plant zucchini and pumpkins that have been growing in pots in the glasshouse, as well as butternut squash, green bean, and parsley seeds. The Asian wild fire chiles also asked to be planted and I acquiesced.
I'm waiting a wee bit on the corn and seed potatoes too. The former needs heat to germinate. On the latter I haven't ventured down to check on the state of the main potato bed at the back gate just yet; suspect it will need a major weed before any planting can happen. Loins need to be girded for that and the moon cycle checked.
But that zealous zucchini makes me smile. We're can't be too far away from grilled zucchini and zoodles!
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Our trusty scarecrow "Henry" reported in for his seasonal duty today here at Struan Farm. He tries his best to keep naughty birds at bay. Last year we deployed him in the raised tomato bed near the workshop, this year I'm testing him back in Veggie World. I'll plant rows of corn beside him.
I've managed to pull the accumulated cobwebs from the shed off his outfit and refreshed his chapeau with vibrant fruits and veg. Next year he might get a new pair of jeans.
Henry participated in our first Community Fruit & Veg Stand float in the Piopio Christmas parade several years ago now. One of the little boys who volunteered to be a bunny rabbit eating carrots in the veggie garden scene gave him his name. And so he's been Henry ever since.
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I am so ready to plant out my heirloom tomato seedlings here at Struan Farm, really I am! But we had a light frost this week and I know better than to challenge Mother Nature. So I must wait somewhat patiently until next weekend, our Labour Weekend, to plant them. Along with zucchini and pumpkin plants and other veggie seeds. Plus quite a few chitted seed potatoes, Purple Heart, Kowiniwini and Agria.
I've tried to content myself with the associated prep work, setting up stakes, weeding, raking and feeding beds. I've thrown caution to the wind and sown some hardier lettuce seeds, edible flower seeds, and "seeds for bees." This will have to do for now. The tomato seedlings are bursting out of the glasshouse at this point, begging me to be planted. This year we've got Oxheart, Black Oxheart, Black Cherry, Purple Cherokee, Vintage Brandywine, Chef's Choice Black, Big Red Heirloom, Big Black Heirloom and Big Red and Big Black Heirloom. Latter three are seeds I've saved from last year's good fruit.
I know I can always go and spend hours and hours weeding and cleaning up in the flower gardens to expend my surplus energy. But while I love my flowers, it's not the same as growing tomatoes. Or veggies. It's just not.
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Yes, I know the old song is about roses rather than radishes. But here at Struan Farm the spring radish crop is starting to pop up in Veggie World. I've had leaves for awhile, but now there are red, purple, white and yellow radishes bursting through the soil.
Here's hoping we move into Alert Level 2 on Friday so I can share this bounty at the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand!
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I've been amused to find wee seedling peach trees poking up from compost dumped on our veggie gardens here at Struan Farm the past month or so. Predictably this happens after I tried to sprout some from stones in a handful of compost in the fridge unsuccessfully this past season! I'd done so previously, and managed to convince the heritage Grandpa Anselmi and Mapiu Settler damson stones to cooperate this year, but not the peaches.
Obviously this was Mother Nature showing me she knows best, once again. She puts me in my place whenever I get too cocky about growing things in her world.
What I don't know is whether these are Sanguine (formerly called Blackboy) or Golden Queen. Either way they will be delicious heritage peach trees with time. I'll put these wee fruit trees out at our Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand to share once we're back in Alert Level 2. They'll need to be grown on in larger pots for at least the next year before planted out and protected from stock and feral rabbits. The latter love to dig around their roots.
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Our new puppy Boo continues to be a work in progress here at Struan Farm. At the moment John does her early morning feed and takes her for a long run with the quad bike, tiring her out. I feed her lunch and we play with balls or sticks and walk out to Chook World, where she pretends to antagonise the chooks from the fence while I feed them and collect the eggs. The hens decided early on to ignore Boo and I think they've made the right decision!
John and I take turns feeding Boo dinner, and John takes her for another run at the end of the day with the quad bike yet again. She has learned to sit and stay, isn't jumping up on people the way she was, will even come sometimes. John keeps trying to get her to obey farmdog commands like "come behind" and "get up." I don't feel the need to do this training since I don't really understand the point. She is not going to be a working dog, although she does need to coexist with the sheep and not bother them.
It seems John wants the dog to stay behind him when he walks, while I am quite happy to have her run ahead. So long as she returns when called. When we go out together with her there's the inevitable discussion that "someone" should be spending hours each day training her. I wish that "someone" would magically appear and get on the job!
Nephew Mike is another variable in the training equation. We have all had to agree absolutely no jumping on people, even in play. She doesn't understand the difference and we need to be consistent.
At least in my perfect world.
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You may recall that I've been discovering and trying to propagate heritage/heirloom trees from around the wider Piopio area here at Struan Farm over a number of years now. I've been learning and finding my way, and it's a long game. I should note upfront that some of these will be conventional varieties that people will recognise. To make life easier I have named them for the names of owners or properties.
We've had the "Huia fig" growing for many years. Figs are really easy to grow from cuttings. This is tree #2 growing on the point out past the tawa groves, #1 is down in the Pet Paddock by the Homestead. What's interesting is that this one tends to fruit earlier than the other, so we manage to have an extended season.
This past winter we decided to turn this point past the tawas behind our house into a heritage fruit tree orchard, protecting it from stock. The Huia fig is already established and fruiting. I was able to plant out "Grandpa Anselmi" and "Mapiu Settler" damsons after sprouting them from stones and growing them in pots for two seasons. I've protected "Mapiu" from rabbits since it's still quite small.
For plums we've got "May White" and "Waitouru" growing away in this area. These trees were also sprouted from stones. The former is a red skinned, gold flesh fruit, very sweet and good for eating. The latter is red and red.
I've got some surplus damson trees to share with the community, as well as some seedling peach trees and red currants.
In our other orchard areas we've got "Karen J's peach," "Hester's peach," "Henare's peach," and the "Northland nectarine," while in Chook World I've planted two grafted "Peter the Hermit's Golden Delicious apples." The latter were my first and only attempt to graft, and I managed to have beginner's luck. I still have some apple and pear rootstock growing down at the back gate, and hope to get out next July to take scion wood from a few other special apple and pear trees around the district. The scion wood is taken in July, after which it sits in the fridge in plastic bags until September, when it gets grafted. So you can understand how this all takes just a wee bit of time?
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The past few days I've cracked into the backyard, aka "Veggie World" at Struan Farm. We're getting close to prime time for planting at the end of October. I've been feeding the garden troughs with compost, blood & bone and manure to refresh them for the upcoming season. Now it's time to turn over the soil in the beds in the ground at the back. Of course weeding is always required, it comes with the territory.
At the moment we've got rocket, radishes, coriander and spring onions growing away in the troughs, with broad beans, garlic and shallots at the back. Per usual I need to encourage the broad beans to hurry it up. I plant them for nitrogen, flowers for the bees, and beans if we manage to get them in the short window of time. They'll be pulled up for tomatoes shortly. I rotate tomatoes and corn between these two back beds with the supporting wood and wire frames each year.
Now comes the back breaking work of cleaning out the cracks in those paving stones, ugh! Once I've done some reasonable digging the job gets finished with a light water blast to blow away whatever I've missed.
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It's all happening in the glasshouse here at Struan Farm. Basically we're out of space to pot up any more seedings until the end of October, when the risk of frost is meant to be past and veggies can be planted outside in the garden.
This year I've got 500+ tomato seedlings potted up, with surplus of some varieties still in seed trays. Varieties include Oxheart, Black Oxheart, Vintage Brandywine, Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Pink Berkeley Tie Dye, Chef's Choice Black (King's Seeds mix of different good black varieties), and then my saved seeds from the best tomatoes last year: Big Red Heirloom, Big Black Heirloom, and Big Red and Black Heirloom (I got a bit lazy at the end of the season and mixed them). This year I decided to try colour coding varieties with their pots to avoid having to use quite so many craft sticks and labels. It should work as long as I don't mix them up in the glasshouse by moving them around!
Seedling "Musquee de Provence" and "Blue Prince" pumpkins, "Black Coral" Zucchini and chiles are also growing away. For some reason the butternut squash doesn't want to germinate, I may need a new packet of seed. I plant lettuce seed, corn, beans and potatoes/kumara out directly, those aren't started inside since they don't especially like being moved.
In terms of flowers seed trays of marigolds, snapdragons and straw flowers are growing away. If I had space I would pot up some of those, but they'll have to hold on a bit longer in the seed trays. Flowers are pretty understanding like that.
At the moment garlic, shallots, broad beans, radishes, rocket, spring onions and coriander are taking off outside. I'm also feeding beds and troughs with manure, blood & bone and lime to gear the soil up for the main event. Compost was dumped everywhere a few months ago too.
So now I'm girding my loin for Labour Weekend. I will start sharing tomato plants at our Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand, Maniapoto Maara Kai Roopu community garden, and a few local schools in late October as well. I've been told that the kids love Black Cherry tomatoes to snack on and I'm happy to encourage that.
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Some months ago now we lost our beloved dog Clifford here at Struan Farm. His back legs failed him one day, at age 18. He just couldn't stand up. The local vet came out to put him to sleep, but first time around he wasn't having any of that, resisting her attempts. This was a dog who didn't want to go. She came back out later that day. John stayed with Clifford and I went for a walk, coming back later to say goodbye. I was pretty much a sobbing mess. We buried him out past the tawa groves looking out on Mt. Taranaki. I can talk to him there while I'm picking figs.
It takes time to recover from the loss of a beloved pet. At least for me it does. I still miss Clifford. We also hadn't given much thought to which breed of dog we might want next, although we knew we needed a breed that wouldn't cause problems with the ewes or lambs. So farm dog stock more or less.
I tend to keep an eye on the FB posts of our local animal control officer, both in terms of coming across people's lost pets as well as those in need of new homes. A few months after we lost Clifford I saw a post about a wee Huntaway puppy who had been picked up along a remote rural roadside. She had big brown mournful eyes that spoke to me. I commented that if no one claimed her we would be interested in adopting her. I followed up a week later only to learn she was being turned over to a dog rescue charity that works with the pound so that abandoned animals don't get euthanised. They did say I could get in touch with the charity directly to adopt her. Here the plot took some twists and turns. The rescue charity, which truly does good work rehoming animals, insisted that the dog must be kept inside with people and sleep in the house. This is not something that works well on farms, and definitely doesn't work for my husband John. The organisation had its rules and thus deemed we were unfit parents, something I found very hard to accept. I decided to let the animal control officer know what happened, and he intervened on our behalf. You see Huntaways are farm dogs and this little puppy is going to grow into a HUGE dog. This was not an inside dog by any stretch. Turns out he still had the puppy at the local kennel and spoke to the charity.
And so I went and picked up "Boo." That afternoon we went directly to the vet for a check up and micro chip. Also got her registered and she's had her jabs. Neutering happens a bit down the road.
Boo is high energy and needs to go for big runs with John when he's out on the quad bike. I've stocked up on tennis balls, which she chases and plays with until she loses them somewhere. She retrieves but doesn't really "fetch" them back. It's all about high speed racing around with Boo. Once she has a good run she settles down in her kennel and keeps an eye on things.
It seems Boo is happy at Struan Farm. I'm glad for her she didn't end up inside in some house up in Auckland!
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Yep, trying to get back into the blogging groove here at Struan Farm, we'll see how I go. Thought it made sense to start with where we are on the pet lamb front this season. We have four happy, healthy lambs in the pet mob this year: "Poopy Pete," "Houdini," "Ronaldo," and "Clover." Two ewes, two rams. They are a lovely foursome. No scrums at bottle times, everyone gets along.
We had two other ewe lambs briefly. "Georgie," a big brown lamb who was adopted by a family wanting a pet for a local school pet day, and "Ruffles," who rather miraculously we were able to "re-mother" to former pet lamb Rosie.
Rosie lost both of her twins this year, one was too big for her it seemed. John found her in the paddock beside the dead lambs seriously upset, being a very good mum. We decided to try to convince her that little Ruffles was one of her lambs. Sheep operate according to scent, so John smeared some from one of the dead twins onto Ruffles. (This may be a bit too farm-y for some, but the old school way of doing this is to take the fleece/skin of the dead lamb and put it onto the potential adoptee. John decided to try rubbing Ruffles with the scent instead.) We also helped Ruffles, who had been drinking bottles for almost a week by then, to drink from Rosie in the woolshed yards. It was an experiment to say the least.
Yes, there was a happy ending, they walked off together into the sunset! We suspect that while Rosie had figured out what we were up to, she decided to cooperate seeing it as a "win-win." And I agree with her on that.
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Lately while gathering walnuts here at Struan Farm I've been thinking that most people seem unable to disagree respectfully with one another. Yes, politics and views have become far more polarised. Misinformation is accepted as "alternative facts." Social media allows people to attack others they don't know from Adam. People are attacked personally because of their perceived political views, race, origin, even their name. There isn't discussion about differing ideas, mostly just personal attacks. Can I say try being named Karen and express an opinion these days?
So this is a bit of a rant on all that. Regular readers of this blog, if we still have any, will know when the "Garden Boy" appears it will be something philosophical.
On social media there are certain pages that are decidedly worse than others. I've grown somewhat tired of reporting hate speech, misinformation on COVID, and filing official complaints about the lack of monitoring by hosts of abuse and bullying on their pages clearly at odds with published "community standards." RNZ (Radio NZ) is one of the worst, along with Q&A (a political television show here in NZ). I've stopped reading the comments on CNN, MSN to avoid an aneurism. But I won't stop reporting offensive remarks, abuse and misinformation. Most recently on RNZ's FB page I reported a picture of former Prime Minister John Key as a penis, morphing into Christopher Luxton of NZ's National Party, also as a penis. Even if you disagree with the politics of these individuals, the image was offensive and should have been removed immediately. While RNZ tells me they're not responsible I beg to differ on that.
There's something in me that resists bullies of any persuasion. In these instances they are trying to suppress others with opposing views or differences by being nasty or at best immature. Especially when they are unable to articulate their own views and why they have them. There's the old saying that if you can't win the argument, attack the person; otherwise called "ad hominem" arguments.
This past week ahead of the Finance Minister's appearance on its show Q&A asked for ideas on addressing the serious housing crisis in NZ and reactions to the government's recent policy changes. I wrote a response about the need to increase supply first and foremost, even if that meant bringing in skilled labour from overseas, and considering innovative schemes used overseas like rent to own and equity participation to assist first time home buyers. I was told to go "back overseas!" While I was tempted to start a scrap, I removed my post. But I'm concerned that these bullies are out to stifle opposing views and thus debate, something critical for democracy. Note: for the avoidance of any doubt, I am in no way condoning hate speech.
I'm not someone who is inclined to attack people. I will debate opinions and ideas, particularly if mine are different. But it's hard to have a fully formed opinion on something if you haven't considered the merits of the other side of the argument, and why people might believe what they do.
In today's world it seems some people haven't really thought through why they hold certain beliefs or opinions; it's about alliances and opposing "the other." It's faster and easier not to think things through. It's also faster and easier to attack people rather than explain why you believe what you do. Because maybe you actually don't know yourself, you haven't considered the other side of the argument for whatever reason, or don't really understand the issue. "I'm red," or "I'm blue." Well, I've never been one of those people! For me it actually depends on the issues and the people involved, factoring in the rule of law, ethics and moral imperative. And given my background in economics, banking and finance I have an annoying if pragmatic habit of needing to work through the financial and economic implications of things since in my mind those cannot be discounted in the real world.
There is a way for rational people to have respectful disagreement. One that involves discussion of differences and ideas without personal attacks. And sometimes with friends once you're done that you simply have to agree to disagree on certain matters.
Please don't tell me that I am a disappearing breed, democracy depends on our ability and willingness to debate and question. And we won't talk about local government here in Waitomo and a certain Mayor either!
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It's been a sad week here at Struan Farm, New Zealand's America's Cup win excluded. Our beloved dog Clifford went to sleep, aged 18. He really didn't want to leave us, but his back legs and bladder gave out. While he wasn't in pain, we couldn't let him go on like that. We can blame the feral turkeys he loved to chase, that makes the most sense.
We adopted Clifford from the Deighton family when they moved to Dubai many years ago now (15?16?). Originally he was meant to be a companion for John's dad Maurie, here at the farm. But it was clear from the beginning that Clifford was really our dog. Later on he commuted back and forth between town and country, but (like me) he preferred the country. Rabbits and turkeys to chase, possums to kill, security to provide for Karen when John was away. Swims with John down at the river.
I was in charge of his visits to the vet for skin problems and other issues, so he became known as "Clifford Barrett." He loved kids and pats, barked at anyone with a beard and always barked at Farmer John. He hated cats, and would absolutely go after any wild cats that appeared on the property. Except when an injured kitten dropped on the road appeared in the backyard who decided Clifford was mum. He found that all a bit confusing, but accepted the little creature tagging after him and sleeping on his bed until it died of its injuries. At one point hubby John ran him over with the tractor, another almost crushed him under the garage door. The dog was a survivor, until now.
There's a big hole in our hearts. I can't think about him too much without getting teary. We keep wanting to find him when we go outside. I'm even missing the morning and evening sprints to the workshop for meals.
Clifford is buried out on the point behind our house here at Struan Farm near the second tawa grove, looking out on the hills. He was a unique personality and irreplaceable, really. Rest in peace, (sometimes) good boy.
Here are a few pics from over the years.
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