Monday, August 18, 2008

And then it was gone

Boo hoo. The snow has melted away and left us with soggy ground. It did start snowing again this afternoon but not enough to cover the ground. It was quite heavy at times as well. Maybe tomorrow morning there will be a fresh dump of it. This time the boys will be rugged up to the nines.

In between snowfalls more work has been done on the chicken coop and now all that is left is to put the roof on and black out the door with something so the girls will be snuggly warm when they turn in at night. And providing all goes to plan we could have chickens as soon as tomorrow. A couple of riflemen came to watch over the work which was nice. You don't see many of them around here although there have been more than usual in the past couple of weeks. They are so tiny it's unbelievable.

The tuis and bellbirds are EVERYWHERE but I think the wood pigeons have flown to warmer climes for the timebeing. I don't blame them really. Although it's sunny it's still bloody cold. Numb extremities and ice cream headaches are becoming a bit of the norm now. Hopefully next month will prove to be slightly warmer.

As beautiful as the snow was, I don't think it's done our garden a whole lot of good. The onions I planted not that long ago don't seem too pleased about the situation. The garlic is as big and strong as ever though, thank god. And the rest... we'll just have to wait and see.

The boys (Pete and Marty, not the horses) have taken off to Dannevirke to collect various bits and pieces hopefully including the quince and almond trees that we bought last weekend but couldn't fit in the car and a selection of jars so we can start seriously on our "Un po' di" jam and preserve making ideas. Of course we'll have to do a few trial runs first!

Last weekend we also bought a Loganberry plant, another Tahitian Lime, a chestnut tree and more lettuce. I also ordered a ridiculous amount of seeds over the internet that should arrive today or tomorrow. I am so excited. I will put a list of them up if anyone is interested (surely not!).

We also had another horse incident, this time involving Marty, on Monday. BUt we have figured out that it is not Brother just being flighty or mean - he has a sore shoulder. So if pressure is put on it through the saddle when you lean forward, he gets a fright and takes off. So he has been turned out for a few weeks and we will be massaging Arnica cream into it regularly to try and help the recovery process. Poor boy. He tripped in the arena at the weekend and we think that is what caused it. He may have just pulled a muscle. Hopefully nothing more sinister.

Anyway, here is the list of seeds that have been ordered. I am particularly excited about the Great White Tomatoes, the Luffa (going to make my own loofahs) and the artichokes. I think they forgot to add a Thai Hot Chilli onto the list as well. The chillis grow upwards. Who would have thought I'd get this excited about seeds! Half of them probably won't grow but we'll try it anyway.

Ok, bye.

1x Carrot Berlicum
1x Pepper Marconi Red
1x Pepper Californian Wonder
1x Tomato Great White
1x Artichoke Green Globe Imp
1x Zucchini Black Beauty
1x Radish Cherrybelle
1x Chamomile Roman
2x Tomato Ace
1x Pumpkin Queensland Blue
1x Basil Dark Opal
1x Basil Sweet Genovese
1x Rocket
1x Luffa
1x Cucumber Homemade Pickles
1x Lettuce Lollo Rossa
1x Lettuce Summer Queen
1x Leek Carentan Giant

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