The ram pump had stopped working so I went to investigate. With all the torrential rain we had through Winter, the reservoir had completely filled up with debris washed down from the surrounding paddocks.

A bit of spadework soon sorted that out. Luckily, the filter on the end of the intake pipe (inside the reservoir) had stopped the 30 metres of drive pipe filling up with soil and grit – that would have been a much less fun job to correct.

After a couple of years of (mostly) trouble free operation, the pump is starting to get a fine coating of lime from the spring water splashes. In another few decades it might need a clean.

With the odd summer weather, we ended up doing a lot of gardening later than planned this year. These (very) late potatoes, planted by Karen’s Uncle David are doing well, and if the current mild autumn continues we may yet get some decent spuds off them. They’re just about to get more soil mounded on them too.

Our random pumpkin patch has taken over half the garden but we’ll be harvesting some good pumpkins and squash pretty soon.

We had a great run through most of summer free of white butterflies (and their broccoli-eating caterpillars) but that run ended. This is our attempt to keep the butterflies off our tender brassica seedlings and I have to say it worked out pretty well for an impromptu solution.

We used some old bird netting, some spare fence posts and the wire hoops that came wrapped around bundles of posts. Straw bales hold the ends down, making it (so far) butterfly-proof. We might have to track down some more netting to do this to more beds next year.

Updated: We’ve now found homes for them all – thanks for all the emails and comments.

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We got a few broody bantam hens to incubate some eggs for us (the shavers we have are great layers but not so good at mothering). Unfortunately the bantams started sneaking off to have clutches of their own so now we have a bit of a surplus.

If you’re anywhere near Masterton and would like some free bantams (hens, roosters or chicks) then drop us a line – farmgeek@gmail.com

Here’s the finished result of Karen’s hard work – garlic plaited and ready to dry. We ended up with eight big plaits and a whole lot of heads with no stalks attached. We’ll eat the singles first while the plaits can dry in the cool shed.

The cleaning was quite laborious this year as the ground was so wet when we harvested – lots of dirt stuck to the heads.

We’ve been asked a few times to recommend reading lists to people so I thought it was about time we listed a few of our favourite books. We read a lot and this list are the ones we think are the most informative, inspiring or plain useful. I’ll add more books to the shelf as I think of them and get the time.

You can visit the Lifeboat Bookshelf here.

About six months ago on the shortest day (or not long after as I recall) we planted 200-odd garlic cloves. It looks like almost all of them have grown well and now it’s time to harvest. The tops are just starting to die back which is as good a sign as any they are ready.

Here’s the garlic haul – we ended up with two of these baskets full!

They’ll dry out for a few days before we can plait them into strings to dry them properly. This is half the garlic laid out. The rest is on the other side of the lounge (because you just never know which direction the vampires will attack from).

Look out for future posts on roasting, smoking and cooking with our garlic.

The unsettled weather has given us a surprise batch of field mushrooms. Not to look a gift mushroom in the mouth, we promptly made a delicious mushroom risotto with our find.

We finally have our new batch of piglets. Having just arrived we’ve put them in the stables for a few days until they get used to us and learn where their food comes from. This will make them much easier to move around once they are out and about.

After a couple of escapes from the stables we think we have finally perfected the pig-proof stall and will release them into their new forest home soon. They’ll have about 2 acres of mature woodlot to fossick about in with fresh water and a house to shelter from the weather. The entire perimeter has a snout-height electric wire to keep them safely in the woodlot (and our adjacent gardens safe from them).

New grass day for the cows is their favourite day I’m guessing. Our girls are still putting on good weight being just on pasture this time of year. We could probably get them fatter faster if we gave them grain or palm kernel but why would you when they are perfectly evolved to eat pasture, and nothing but.