Despite the very unsettled spring weather (or more likely because of it) we’ve had our best year ever for brassicas. It seems that a cold, long winter killed off most of the white butterflies and the last few months of weird weather has disrupted the life cycles of those that survived. We’ve seen perhaps only [...]

With Niall staying for a week after New Year it seemed like a good opportunity to knock off another item on Karen’s to do list - new yards. Much like the stables, I think once these are done we’ll find a lot more uses for them than just putting horses in them now and then.To [...]

I don’t usually get so excited about a bit of fencing but this one has been on my to-do list since we arrived. No more will helpers (or us) need to climb the electric fence to get to the back garden.

Here’s the before pic of the fence line we used to traverse regularly.

Like most projects, [...]

Our weaner pigs have been growing pretty quickly so it was time for them to have some more permanent accommodation. Their first house was this hastily built hay bale house. It worked out really well with great insulation and it was very easy to build and expand. All we needed was some old bales of [...]

With Autumn well and truly upon us it’s time to get more winter veg in the ground. Aiko and Fizz the helpful gardening cat are filling planter pots for all the seedlings to come.

Some of the seedlings waiting to go out in the garden.

Aiko planting brassicas in the beds where the potatoes were. This is [...]

Our garlic harvest was pretty modest this year. Considering the neglect it had to put up with I’m surprised we got any at all, let alone harvesting more than we planted.

Next planting we’ll definitely do better but here are a few lessons we’ve gleaned:

Prepare the bed well. Don’t just turn over some sod and shove [...]

Our rural road is about 5km long and has many “wild” apple trees growing along the roadsides. Presumably over the decades, children waiting for the school bus have dropped their apple cores and some have resulted in apple trees. While it’s unclear who actually owns the resulting apples, they do seem to go to waste [...]

It’s been a long time coming but our wood range is finally installed and working. More details soon, but here’s our first fire in preparation for our first wood-fired cup of tea.

We’ve wanted a proper worm farm for ages but it wasn’t until we spotted an old bath pretending to be a water trough at Nic and Lou’s place that I put in the effort to make one. I had some left over 40mm thick pine from the stables fit out and scrounged a few left [...]

This table started life as a herb table a couple of years ago but I’ve recycled it with a bit of modification into a potting table. There’s room for potting mix, trays, pots and all the bits and pieces so there’ll be no more seed planting on the dining room table! Made from 75mm Macrocarpa [...]