Struan Farm

The Sounds & Ghosts of Summer

John and I have been listening to the humming of the cicadas the past week or so at Struan Farm, particularly in the evenings. Along with our frogs at the pond, these are the sounds of summer at the farm.

We were interested to read that this buzzing/humming/clicking noise is all about mating, and lasts for 2-4 weeks after the cicadas break out of their nymph casings.

The intact, cast off casings look like ghosts to me. They can be found deposited all over the property on trees and shrubs after the nymphs emerge from underground.

 

The live insects aren't nearly as interesting, at least to me! Here's one I managed to photograph below, although it isn't the sharpest image:

 

Getting Ready for Spring

This is really the first installment, since tulip and daffodil bulbs are coming for planting in April, but a big box arrived at Struan Farm this past week. I'd ordered a mix of different irises from Richmond Irises before Christmas, and they were now here for planting:

They look almost like our native fantails (birds), don't they?! I also love how they have the names written on them, although I've decided to let myself be surprised about all that. Some are now planted near the tulips in the Homestead's woodsy garden, while a small cluster is up under the redwoods near the entrance to the new house.

 

 

Getting Ready for Winter

Tongue firmly in cheek with respect to the title of this blog post, particularly since we've had the hottest weather of the summer over the past two weeks at Struan Farm. 

But we know winter is coming, eventually. Rather like death and taxes?

The good news is that we've managed to get a rather cute little wood burning stove named "Sparky" installed in Jim's Hut. (I'm hesitating to use "cute" and "wood burning stove" in the same sentence, but this does seem to describe it best.)

It looks great, now only to remember to cut a stash of "Sparky-sized" firewood!

Mystery Solved

We've been able to identify the trees from which my recent "Gifts from the Universe" dropped.

They are Douglas Fir trees. The full cones are larger, but the rosettes from the tops seem to remain intact longer than the full body.

Thanks to Anna and friend Cath for help with identification. When I mentioned this to John it then triggered his memory that yes, these are indeed Douglas Fir trees....

Retaining Wall Underway

Lots happening around the new house, including the retaining wall up the drive:

 

 

 

Finds in the Tractor Shed

This can only go on for so long: discovering cool, rustic things that have been stashed in sheds over the years at Struan Farm.

In the past week I came across an old painted wooden ladder and what turns out to be "prehistoric" wooden scaffolding in John's tractor shed. This would probably be the only shed that we haven't cleaned out as yet, but that will happen eventually.

 

Hmmm, I feel a wave of repurposing coming on-- these might be great as supports for beans, peas and/or tomatoes in my new veggie garden! John is protesting just a wee bit, says they're Oregon pine (implying that might matter...). But it's not as if he's going to use either an old wooden ladder or ancient wooden scaffolding for any project, is he?

Watch this space....

Gift from the Universe

I guess we all have things we have to do that we hate doing, right?

For me cleaning the bathroom would top the list normally. But recently I've added pulling out barley grass just below the bathroom. Barley grass, considered a noxious weed on a sheep farm, grows in one small corner of Struan Farm below a grove of trees. Pretty much every year. We've tried everything to eradicate it but have mostly just managed to contain it to this particular area.

This year John was getting anxious about it once again, and asked me to spend time pulling it out by the roots and stuffing it into plastic rubbish bags for burning. The theory is that this way the seed heads won't drop and compound the problem next year.

After three huge bags with two more to go I have really come to dislike/dread/hate this job. (I know, so how do you really feel about it Karen?!)

But then the universe intervened. When I was up mumbling to myself about how much I hated what I was doing, I stumbled upon the beautiful objects above. They look almost like a petrified camelia blossom or rose, but are in fact the cones of this tree (which I'm working to identify). Aren't they amazing?

I had to say thank you, and laugh at myself. And I won't be grumbling quite so much about the next/last two bags of barley grass as a result.

Making Bread

This latest development started over the holidays at Struan Farm, when store bought bread went moldy after a few days, several times. I realized that this was one of those adjustments to rural life, with the grocery store now a long drive away. The best course of action was going to be baking our own bread. 

And so I came to own a bread maker. My friend Glen at Doone Cottage uses hers to knead the dough, then she bakes it in tins so it comes out looking like a handmade loaf. Otherwise the baked loaves come out of the machine looking like misshapen blobs. So I'm now doing the same. 

We've had two different groups of visitors thus far, from which I've received resounding thumbs up for my golden wholemeal bread (not including John, who probably doesn't count!). Now I just need to learn how to slice it properly!

 

B is for Borage & Bees

Do you know about Borage? We have it growing in a part of the gardens at Struan Farm. While it self seeds pretty much, I also scatter some seeds in the spring, since the bees love it.

You can see why it is also called Starflower:

 

 

Both the leaves and flowers are edible and used as food and for medicinal purposes. The flowers look lovely in a salad or frozen in ice cubes, are also the traditional garnish for a Pimm's cocktail!

But I have borage in the gardens next to my zinnea and sunflower patch mostly for the bees, and you can see why below:

 

 

 

An Uplifting Experience

And while the digger was on the scene recently at Struan Farm we took the opportunity to have the huge poplar that had crashed in the Mangaotaki River uplifted.

We all journeyed down in a convoy:

 

Problem solved, we now just have a huge heap to burn down there. Two steps forward, one step back....

Infrastructure Happenings

Digger on the scene at Struan Farm to cut the bank up the driveway to the new house before a new retaining wall is built. Once soil is dumped as "backfill" and the area is grassed this will even out the hillside so John will be able to mow the orchard area safely. I will then plant a hedge to camoflage the wall.

 

I'm always amazed how precise these machines are able to be!

Family Work Project: The Tree Hut

Robertsons are keen on huts.

In the past there were huts for John, Julie and Jim around Struan Farm, to name just a few. Jim's Hut was reincarnated last year and moved down to the river for rustic visitor accommodation, while John's Hut has become the garden shed at the Homestead. (Julie's Hut was de-constructed since it had been used by Maurie to store farm chemicals in a later life, but that's another story.)

For awhile now John has wanted to build a Tree Hut for kids. He kept walking around the farm sizing up trees for this purpose, which made me a wee bit nervous. My only somewhat grumpy comment in response to all this was that I didn't want a rickety eyesore stuck up one of our feature trees!

In the past week the project gained momentum, after John realised he could repurpose native timber from our old sheep race at the back gate, which is coming down.

He found several trees in the Homestead shelter belt that he thought would be good, they have the vantage point of both the Cottage and the new house. This worked for me since it's out of the way and could be relatively low to the ground for little kids. And so the foundation and part of the floor was constructed, although major work was deferred until reinforcements arrived to help.

And this past weekend Daniel, Ella, Livvy, Sarah, Matt, Charlie and Freya descended upon the farm for a major working bee.

I was enlisted to photograph proceedings and stencil/paint the sign. We always have names for things with proper signs at Struan Farm!

 

The Little Lemon that Could

Do you remember the children's book The Little Engine that Could? It was originally published in the 1920's by Arnold Munk under his pen name Watty Piper. It is the story of a small engine that pulls a long train over a mountain to get Christmas presents to children, after larger trains failed, and teaches children about optimism and perseverance. The engine keeps puffing "I think I can, I think I can."

Well at Struan Farm we have The Little Lemon that Could. Several years ago I planted a Yenben lemon tree outside the back gate at the Homestead, near our phoetinia hedge. Terrible soil here, and I must admit that citrus generally doesn't do well because of our heavy frosts. This variety is meant to be frost hardy, or so advised NZ cook Jo Seagar when I attended one of her cooking classes at her school in Oxford, outside of Christchurch. I thought I'd give Yenben a try in Piopio. If they grow in Christchurch, where it snows, why not in Piopio?

This poor little tree has taken awhile to acclimate to Piopio, but guess what? We have some real lemons for the first time this year! The tree has been frosted and has had its roots attacked by rabbits. I've sprayed it with Liquid Frost Cloth from Country Trading to protect it from frosts after frost cloth, much poo-pooed by John, blew off in heavy winds. I've fed and watered it regularly. I've put on mulch cloth to try to deter those rabbits, and dumped extra soil when they dug around its roots. I kept saying to myself I think I can, I think I can. We did not accept defeat, this little lemon tree and Karen.

And this has worked, TA DA! The Little Lemon that Could felt the love and fruited. Can't wait to pick that first special lemon, and I see at least three more almost ready.

The Pond's Blue Bench

There's a bit of history between me and this particular blue bench at Struan Farm.

 

A short while after I arrived on the scene, I decided to paint one of the many wooden garden benches around the property a bright blue and plonk it down at the pond. It's a peaceful corner of the property, one where one might sit and contemplate life, listen to the native birds, if one had the time! 

An eyebrow or two might have been raised at the time about Karen's shocking blue bench, but everyone got used to seeing that bench down at the pond. Dare I say it became "iconic?" Shortly thereafter NZ Gardener and NZ House & Garden featured bright blue garden benches, I'm not sure how I'm ahead of these trends, but I just seem to be.

The bench missed being flattened by the huge poplar that landed in the pond during a major weather bomb several years ago (see above), but had seen better days by that time, it needed an overhaul. So we airlifted it up to the Homestead for re-painting.

And then it sat, and sat. I finally opened a tin of blue paint a few months ago, found it was navy, and tested that out:

 

Nope, nah, no way. Didn't like that. This bench cried out to be bright blue, and I finally got around to rectifying the situation. All is now right with the world, it can return to the pond:

Now "one" just needs the time to sit and contemplate....

Metamorphosis

You will remember that we have two black ewes at Struan Farm, Sooty and Oreo. We don't usually name our sheep at the farm, but in this case we have. They were surprises, born from white ewes and a white ram, with white brothers and sisters too. Something in the gene pool somewhere!

This summer we've noticed that while Sooty remains quite black (she still has her tail, and had a lamb this year), Oreo is changing to resemble the cookie after which she is named: white in the middle, black on the ends! It will be interesting to see how much further she changes.

And yes, they still hang out together.

Crash Landings

We've said it before and we'll say it again, things happen at Struan Farm!

We'd been down to the Mangaotaki River on our property a number of times with family and visitors over the holidays, so John was quite surprised when he went down to find that a huge poplar had crashed into the river. We went down for a walk so I could see it:

Oh dear! What is odd is that it snapped rather than coming out by its roots. It's so big that there's no way we can chainsaw it; heavy equipment, i.e., digger is required. Not sure when that is going to happen.

We then walked down past the rapids to see the latest incarnation of the sandy beach. (John's favorite area at the river is the sandy beach, while mine is the rapids.)

And looking down river we discovered another huge tree, this one a willow, had also crashed into the river. Oh dear yet again!   

 

Not sure what would have caused all this. Perhaps the trolls upriver at Piopio's Hairy Feet Waitomo's Hobbit Film Location decided to take a walk down river and stir up trouble? Either way, life isn't dull here at Struan Farm!

Landscaping: The Vision Thing

It's mostly a clean slate up at the new house site at Struan Farm, something that has its own set of issues when trying to decide how to landscape. Yep, it's the "vision thing," to quote former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. (I remembered this was a somewhat infamous Bush phrase, just couldn't remember which one so had to look it up....)

So I've started at the beginning, the entrance. Over the holidays I got stuck into extreme weeding, cleaning up the front roadside and the bank under the redwood grove:

I forgot to take a "before" photo, but that's just as well, it was a complete weed fest!

Right now we're thinking we'll make a shelf in the front for a large limestone rock (or rocks), then plant shrubs or a conifer or two around it. Once the weather is better for planting (autumn), we'll pop in azaleas, rhodos, hostas and hellebores under the redwoods to make this a nice woodsy garden, probably some spring bulbs as well. We will also plant a few additional redwoods, extending the grove up into the paddocks a wee bit to where we'll put the entrance gate. 

Since John wants to mow the orchard area, my next project was to pick up fallen branches before he could do so without completely trashing the mower. We had taken out several large trees to make way for power lines, and a lot of the debris was still on the ground. 

No longer! I didn't count, but there were at least six trailer loads of stuff that went to the burn pile.

Next comes the digger to cut a straight edge along this bank, after which a retaining wall will be built running up the drive. Soil will be dumped to back fill the area, making it flatter so John (or Karen) can mow this safely.  (You'll see a line of grass in the foreground of the photo above that John wasn't able to mow because of the hill that's there right now.) We'll plant a (fast growing?) hedge from the gate up the drive to camoflage the retaining wall entirely.

Are you counting the projects here? Lots on! 

Journey to the Natural Bridge

Daniel and the girls stayed on with us at Struan Farm for a bit after the holidays, so we needed to come up with a few adventures in the local area. One was a trip to the Mangapohue Natural Bridge, out past nearby Waitomo Caves. I went out to see this for the first time last March when my friend Lisa Cruse visited, and it's definitely worth the trip.

It's a short walk along a well developed track into the scenic bush, easily accessible. The site also has picnic tables and toilet. Due to the weather, we ended up eating our picnic lunch out of the tailgate of the car, under umbrellas, however! Once we were in the bush the rain really wasn't an issue. There's a short swing bridge to get across the river, something the kids in particular enjoy, and lots of ferns and interesting limestone rocks.

The 17m limestone arch is a remnant of a cave system in the area. There are glowworms here at night, not something I've experienced as yet, next trip!

 

 

Vocational Training

Confession: I've never used a lawnmower before. At least until now:

Notice I'm clutching the wheel and gritting my teeth. John's giving me lessons, he's decided since we're going to have a lot more lawn area with the new house that I should be "cross trained."

Yea, okay, guess so.

Jamming at Struan Farm

Hard to believe with everything happening that I had time to make jam over the holidays this year, but yep, I did. I actually found it relaxing to escape to the kitchen!

Several batches of both strawberry and blueberry jam put away. Amazing berries this year from Piopio Berry Orchard!