Struan Farm

On the Road: Blogging Break

Heading off on a short trip here in NZ this next week, then off overseas to see friends. So I'll take an official break from blogging until 30 September. If I have time I'll try to post, but no promises! Enjoy spring starting to happen in the meantime.

Magnolia Magic

It seems to happen like that--abra cadabra! And the huge magnolia tree outside the Homestead at Struan Farm is bursting into bloom. 

Reminds me to pay attention to what's going on around me, really.

Kids & Kids

Another adventure this past weekend was going off to visit a commercial dairy goat farm not far from Struan Farm in Piopio. It's a relatively new operation, part of a co-operative that produces goat's milk for infant formula, amongst other food uses.

It was interesting to see the set up, but more fun to see the kids interacting with the kids, and to see the kids finding out that kids will nibble just about anything!

Kids really just want to play with other kids.

The Gnomes, Named

It was a fun time at Struan Farm this past weekend. Ella, Livvy, and Charlie visited with Daniel and Sarah. Best of all, we had some great names suggested for the gnomes. It was hard to choose between them all, but decisions were made, prizes awarded. The gnomes were then transported by tractor and trailer up to the grove of tawa trees near the new house site, where they will hide out.

Here's Ella & "Stuffy:"

Here's Livvy and "Tico:"

And last but not least, here's Charlie and "Ringo." Note: Charlie is the taller one hugging Ringo for dear life. And yes, they do seem to be wearing similar shirts!

The prizes were Seedling's "Colour Me Gnome kits." Everyone got to take home a kit to colour smaller gnomes in the colors of their gnomes at Struan Farm. Pretty cool. I'd read about Seedling's gnome kits in the NZ Herald. They provided them to the Chelsea Flower Show, where a number of gnomes were decorated by various English celebrities and auctioned off to benefit charity. Read more about that here.

Stuffy, Tico and Ringo seem pretty happy in the tawas. They're hoping that Ella, Livvy and Charlie come back soon to play.

Announcing The Crafty Pigeon

Very exciting to see The Crafty Pigeon open its doors in Piopio recently. The shop is stocking crafts produced by local artisans as well as high end housewares and gifts. Something much needed in our little country village!

We wish them well. Think the challenge will be keeping enough stock given a very successful opening week!

Hellebores, In Detail

The hellebores are still blooming, but it seems winter is starting to fade here in New Zealand, with signs of an early spring. I love these delicate blooms; they are shy, drooping down to hide their beauty. Here are some in close up:

Ready for Chooks

Not quite yet. But when I tackled the clean up of the derelict chicken coops in the Old Orchard Paddock at Struan Farm recently I came across this old blue enamel bowl. This sort of thing happens all the time at the farm, it's an archeological site in many respects, I've come to accept that.

I had tossed it in the heap along with everything else pulled out of the coops. But it was rescued by John, who pointed out that this was the very same bowl that had been used to feed the chickens when he was a child. He remembered it.

So under the circumstances this relic will once again be used to feed chooks when we have them. After the new "Chateau des Chooks" is constructed up near the new house site. I'm sure they won't mind a wee bit of rust in their feed, will they? Tradition is important.

Planting at the Pond

I've made progress planting natives at the pond at Struan Farm the past two weekends. Still have a ways to go, but I'm mixing up different types of large flaxes, toi toi (native ornamental grass that looks like pampas grass), cabbage trees, and different colors/types of corokia and other shrubs. I'm wanting to get a variety of color and texture down and around the side bank and end of the pond, inside the fence just built.

 

I've been running back to the nursery to restock as I finish each section, since it's hard to estimate the total quantity needed for the area involved. My next run will include some manuka (tea tree) for flowers and the bees. I need to make sure there's enough room for growth so that the pond isn't closed in entirely in several year's time.

John has planted a swamp cypress at the end near the waterfall near several clusters of young cabbage trees. I'll also get a Nyssa Sylvatica for red autumn color. Both don't mind wet feet, so are perfect for the pond banks.

Yes, work-in-progress.

Let Sleeping Gnomes Lie

The gnomes have decided to take a snooze at Struan Farm under the red camelia. At least until Ella and Livvy show up next weekend to play and help decide upon their names, and John decides upon their secret hiding places in the woods.

First Lambs

Good news, the lambs are starting to arrive at Struan Farm. Not a tsunami, but a trickle, these are the early ones.

 

They also are quite shy, so didn't really cooperate with the photographer. More images to come as numbers increase and I'm able to get better shots of them.

Discovering a New Native Tree

It's always fun for John and me to discover something new at Struan Farm, something we haven't noticed or known about previously. 

We stumbled upon a native tree with these interesting burgundy clusters down at the pond recently when installing the wooden bird sculptures. It's Pseudopanax, or Five Fingers. The clusters (I'm sure they have a more technical name) will flower and eventually grow into berries enjoyed by the tuis. The "Five Fingers" refers to the serrated leaves (oops only three in the photo below). 

I'm now going to watch these clusters as they change to see what happens. And no comments about watching the grass grow, paint dry, etc. etc. This could be interesting, really!

Skeletons in the King Country Winter Landscape

I get a bit captured by tree skeletons that feature in the landscape this time of year, both at Struan Farm and on our drive to and from in the surrounding area. Winter exposes their "bones," they appear so intricate and delicate, quite textural and interesting, at least to me. 

I expect I'll show you more of these before spring arrives.

Non-Natives at the Pond

John came home from the Mangawhai Saturday market recently with these wonderful macrocarpa birds crafted by local artisan Rodney Brice.

Where else did these garden sculptures belong really but at the pond at Struan Farm?

They both seem quite happy, installed under the willow tree across from the new wooden fence. Walkers along the track to the river should see them that way.

They will turn grey/silver with age, but guess that happens to all of us!

The Race, Finished

The next installment of our fencing at Struan Farm has been completed, hooray! 

The fencer also built a new race for us near the Wool Shed. A race is used to load sheep onto and off of trucks at the farm.

The old race, which has seen better days, is near the roadside at the back gate. It will be de-constructed and this area completely cleaned up.

Yep, another project!

Naming the Gnomes

John has been at it again! Out and about at the Dargaville Art Exhibition, he came upon these concrete gnomes made by local Kaipara artist Robyn Mitchell. They are based on the vintage garden gnomes now highly collectible (and stolen) these days, although considerably bigger. John remembers his maternal grandmother Mae Mae having some at her Auckland house, thinks he may have been enlisted to paint them from time to time.

Initially he purchased two from Robyn, but when he went to pick them up decided to take three. Why not a trio to hide in the wooded roadside garden at Struan Farm for visiting children to discover and tell their secrets?

Now comes the challenge: what to name them?

Gnome #1, green eyes, ax poised for action:

 

Gnome #2, blue eyes, lumberjack plaid shirt, ax also poised for action:

Gnome #3, hand in pocket, leaning on his spade, looks to be a bit of a slacker, perhaps:

Ella and Livvy are coming down to Struan Farm in two weekends with Daniel; we will have a contest to name the gnomes, with Charlie casting an absentee ballot from afar. Once John figures out where to place them in the woods they will be concreted in so they don't tip over onto anyone or wander off.

Scenes from Middle Earth

I've been out with my camera recently wandering around Struan Farm, struck by how much the scenery does look like Middle Earth:

Perhaps that's because Middle Earth has become New Zealand?

Kereru Out & About

At the moment we are seeing more than the usual number of native wood pigeons out and about at Struan Farm, called Kereru in Te Reo Maori.

Must be the time of year, seems that they are nibbling the buds on the trees. But I'm seeing them when I least expect them, they make a lovely whirring sound flying overhead.

Apparently they are critical for our native bush in New Zealand, being the only seed dispersers we have. So we're glad they call Struan Farm home!

A Legacy of Recycling

The black plastic stuff encasing the flowering cherry tree at Struan Farm above has a bit of a history. It started life down the road over ten years ago, when it was used by the NZ roading department to shore up a major landslide/slip that closed State Highway 3 for quite some time. When it came time to remove it from the hillside, Maurie, my enterprising father-in-law, asked if he could have some for use on the farm. For what, he wasn't sure. But he thought it might come in handy.

Maurie survived the fighting in WW2, was a farmer of Scottish heritage, need I say more? And yes, this stuff has come in handy, we're using it to encircle quite a number of our young trees. Recycling runs in the family, and there's no question about that!

Currant Crusade

We're starting to take out the last remaining bits of Maurie's old berry patch at Struan Farm. The old wooden and chicken wire structure came down several years ago, basically before it fell down. While we'll plant a new patch up at the new house site in due course (definitely want black currants for jam!), it was not without some considerable guilt that we left the old raspberry and currant bushes to the sheep.

The raspberries are long gone, but I decided to dig out what was left of the currants as part of the clean up of the Old Orchard Paddock.

However, as I got into it I realized it would be easy to take parts of the bushes, basically cuttings with a bit of root, and re-plant them.

So that's what I did. I've got about twelve in three different spots, we'll see how they go. Not sure if these are red or black, we could certainly say they are a Struan Farm "heirloom" variety.

If they survive and thrive I will know I've done the right thing.

Visitors from Japan

We were pleased to welcome Kayomi and her son Shunsake to Struan Farm for a brief visit this past weekend. Shunsake is going to study English in Auckland for the next month, Kayomi was here to help him get settled in and then will head back home to Nagoya.

After finding out about Struan Farm via our blog, and having a friend who had studied at Piopio College, Kayomi contacted me and decided to travel to Piopio to spend the weekend at Struan Farm to see the countryside. They were able to avoid renting a car to get here, took the InterCity Bus, which picks up and drops off at our local petrol station.

They told us that they enjoyed seeing the sheep, riding down to the river with John on the tractor to see the rolling hills dotted with limestone rocks, and meeting Clifford our silly dog (they actually called him cute, but we won't tell Clifford that or it will go to his head!). They also said they will come back to see us again, we hope so!

It was a good test for me to see that it's relatively easy for international visitors to get to Struan Farm.