Cheese is a kind of meat

This weekend is my birthday present from Marty - a cheese-making course. Super exciting. Now all we need is a cow.

Last night was the first introduction to making cheese. Simon Domper, our teacher, is a character. As well as making cheese, he makes musical instruments out or stuff he finds. Eg he has a double bass made out of a 40 gallon drum and a piece of clothes line and a few different horns made out of pipe and bungs. Anyway, last night we made a yoghurt culture with raw milk and Easiyo which is used in each of the cheeses we are making.

This morning we were back at 9am and began by scraping the sour cream off the top of our culture and storing it for use in the stroganoff tonight.

We then added some of the culture to a big pot of milk each and a bit of rennet in order to make 'junket'. Once it had all set we cut it up with a cheese knife which was a lot of fun. Hugely satisfying the way it splits...

Once it was nicely chopped into pieces we got stuck in with our hands and filled up a few little containers with holes in them to start the feta...

We left that to drain and tottered off for a lovely lunch inside. The homemade instruments came in handy when calling us all back to the cheese workshop....

Once we were all assembled inside again we got started on the baby gouda. We placed more curd into moulds and set them up in the cheese press with the 'gravity-powered silicon chips' as Simon called them to add some weight. Really they were just rocks...

We also flipped the feta over to let it compact in the other direction.

Once that was all done we combined our leftover curd and drained off the whey to make mozzarella. We added salt and squeezed out some of the excess liquid through a cheesecloth and then left it to hang for a while...

Then it was back to the gouda to flip it and place it back in the cheese press so that it was even...

Now all we needed to do was wait so there was a musical interlude....

Last ont he agenda for today was ricotta. We got more milk and heated it up to 80 degrees. We added vinegar to make it curdle....

And then took the gouda (pictured below) out of the press and everything is being left over night. Tomorrow we will put the gouda and feta in brine and the gouda will have to sit for a few weeks. The feta and mozzarella will be ready tomorrow as will the ricotta.

The equipment for cheese making is great. I love all the presses and cheese cloth and moulds. I think Marty is going to make a press. He has a diagram to go from so I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, feeding time at the zoo.

Ciao

K :)

Flight of Piwakawaka - part 2

I've just returned from hanging out with the Kais again. They are more settled but we're still a long way off actually catching them. We've started giving them some hard feed but they don't seem particularly interested in it at the moment. It may be because of the buckets although they have had a good sniff of them and still aren't impressed. Maybe we just need Brother in there to show them how it is done.

The plans for getting Piwaka home have changed a bit again. Originally it was going to be on a float but I think we're planning on getting her friendly enough to catch and then lead her down the road. Easier said than done. First we need to get the other 2 into a different area of the yards and introduce Piwaka to Brother. it is then Brother's responsibility to keep her company and to teach her to trust us.

Anyway, Piwaka is the woolliest horse I have ever seen. You could almost plait her fur it is so long. I guess it's a good thing as she is quite skinny and it has been raining and cold for the last few days. When I saw them yesterday they were all huddled together, shivering. Poor horsies. The sooner Piwaka is back here, the better

Because of the weather recently their yard has turned into a quagmire of crap. They have very muddy feet and tails and it looks like the sogginess is getting to the big mare. She's very sensitive on her feet. It also may be because there are a few stones now concealed under the mud.

Piwaka is still the shiest of them all and prefers to use the other 2 as equine shields. So most of the time we can only see her like this....

The big mare is very pretty. She's heading to a new home in Eketahuna....

The fate of the colt and his banished friend is undecided at this stage. We're waiting to hear back from the guy who was supposed to pick them up months ago....

I saw this little dude getting quite excited about Piwaka which only makes me think that she could be pregnant. That will be the next hurdle. I hope she's not but if she is we'll have to just deal with it.

Ok, everyone else needs to be fed now and I'll take some hay down to these guys as well. I don't want Piwaka to lose anymore weight at this stage.

Ciao

K :)

Flight of Piwakawaka - part 1

A few photos of the 2010 Kaimanawa muster.

A heavily pregnant mare with a foal from last year.

A few pics of the helicopter round up.

So, 3 months after our little Piwaka arrived in Takapau we finally have her in the yards down the road. It has been quite an adventure already and our nerves and strategies have been stretched and tested. When she first landed she and 5 other Kaimanawas were released into a rather large open paddock with questionable fencing. Over the period of about 5 days they had settled enough to wander close to the road side of the paddock and munch on the grass. They had no interest in the hay we gave them and continued in their wild herd mentality.

The day came when we were to try and round them up into the yards in the corner of the paddock. Things were looking promising until they approached the yards and 2 young kids raised their heads (and arms) above the yard railings. The horses turned on their heels to see a group of people walking towards them and decided that the only place left to go was over a barbed wire fence. Three went 'over' - each getting caught in the wires one after the other. Luckily they managed to free themselves and galloped off in the direction of a herd of cows. With a bit of persuasion we got Piwaka back into the big paddock and the other two took off in another large paddock.

We tried to get the 2 strays in with the others but they had a different idea and went through another fence and in to the house paddock with some of the domesticated horses. We focussed our attention back on the 4 in the big paddock. Piwaka was eyeing up the fences again thinking she'd give it another go at an escape. Luckily she decided against it.

Six hours later we (and the horses) were exhausted and we managed to get them in to the holding pens by the sheep yards and decided to let them calm down for a few days. At least it was a smaller area to limit their grass intake and hopefully eat hay that we provided for them - one way to get a bit of trust.

Our neighbour then went over to Sweden for a month and the horses were let back into the big paddock. They stayed there for another month and were not handled and no there were no attempts to get them into the yard the entire time. One of the colts was banished to a distant corner and Piwaka, a colt and a big mare became a clan.

In the past few weeks we set up an electric temporary fence cutting off half the paddock and every few days we moved the fence line in so encourage the horses towards the yards. We gave them water and sat in the paddock. The colt thought about coming over - either out of curiosity or in an attempt to be threatening and keep us away from his girls. We put hay in the yards and water fairly close to the yards and from that saw that they were venturing in there at least to eat.

Anyway, on Friday Marty and I went over to reduce the size of the paddock and all three went into the yards. We moved closer and closer but obviously not fast enough and Piwaka bolted out soon after, before we had a chance to lock them in there. We didn't want to push them in case they went back through the fence so we left them for another day.

On Saturday, Marty, Graeme and I went back to drastically cat their grazing area and managed to get them all into the yards again and this time we managed to get them locked in there. Piwaka was terrified, the other two were scared but not as much as our little girl.

Piwaka has obviously found this whole process (her mother died in the main muster yards the night they were brought in off the Kaimanawa Ranges) quite hard. She has lost a lot of weight and is very skittish. For a while I thought that she was the ring leader of the 3 but I think she is looking for guidance from the older horses and is actually just very scared. She's incredibly woolly - so much so that her fur actually wafts in the wind.

I'm hoping that her skinniness is due to the abrupt departure from her mother and that once the weather warms up a bit and the grass comes through she will put on a bit of weight again.

We've been topping up their water in the yards each day and giving them plenty of hay but Piwaka is at the bottom of the pecking order so it's a bit of a battle. The others are heading off to new homes this week - the mare on Sunday and the colt hopefully on Thursday.

The colt is such a typical looking Kaimanawa. He is super stocky with a big heart-shaped bum and a neck so solid and thick he looks like he's about to founder.

The mare looks like she has been domesticated her whole life. She is in amazing condition and nicely proportioned. She's very big. Probably about 15.2-15.3hh and is lovely.

This Friday we have Tigger's trainer coming over and we'll get some advice on the next step with Piwaka. We need to get her back here as soon as possible and try to get her settled in her new home. We'll put her in with Brother because he's calm and not too impressionable. Hopefully he'll teach her some good habits but also keep her in her place.

It is hugely relieving to have her in the yards finally. Stage one is complete. It's been a long time in the making. I should have just put her straight into yards but unfortunately that didn't happen and I can only blame myself for that. Next time will be different.

I'm planning on documenting her progress on this blog. It will be an entirely different situation from Tigger methinks. But it will be a good learning experience and I'm looking forward to sussing out her little idiosyncrasies.

It is absolutely pouring with rain and cold outside which makes me worry about her being so thin. I have to keep reminding myself that she is from the Desert Rd and has probably experienced much worse in her short life.

Anyway, I will keep this updated.

Ciao,

K :)

Two posts in two days! It has to be some sort of record!

Well, we're slowly getting back into the muesli making. There is a new shop in Dannevegas opening soon which will be for locally made goodies. We're going to sell muesli, cordials and jams among other things. I'm also hoping to start making a few hampers like the one we made for Weazle and Joe's wedding earlier in the year.

This morning we went into town and on the way home, driving down Snee Rd, we passed a huge stock truck which flicked a big stone up from it's wheel and completely smashed the driver's side window. Glass shattered all over Marty and all through the car. Luckily the window was shut at the time or Marty may have been killed!

I really should be out in the garden doing something but I have had such a lazy weekend that it's hard to find the motivation. We've finally got a whole lot of seeds sown in the greenhouse and most of them have germinated. The bloody mice dug up the first lot do we've had to encapsulate them in frost cloth until they are big enough to fend for themselves. We may have jumped the gun on things like zucchinis and cucumbers but we'll wait and see.

This winter has been so mild it's a bit scary. I'm worried that it will be like last year when winter was REALLY late and it snowed in October and we had a frost on Christmas Eve. That was not cool. Fingers crossed that winter is almost over.

Anyway, need food.

Ciao,

K x

Pictures of Piwaka - finally!

For some reason the website won't let me delete this image from this position so it will have to stay here. It is of us getting rid of the pool. Thank god it is gone. It looks so much better now!

A few photos of Piwaka from earlier today...

Piwaka in the middle

Peek-a-boo.

Piwaka on the left.

Well, we still haven't got Piwaka back to our house. There was a bit of a mishap the first day we tried. Our aim was to get them into the yards in the corner of the paddock and then get her onto a float and back to our place that way. But just as we were about to get them in, the kids stood up on the yards and the horses took off (two of them, including Piwaka, went straight through a barb-wire fence). After that it was a bit of a lost cause. The horses decided that the yards were the scariest place on earth and wouldn't go anywhere near them.

6 hours later we were still chasing them around but it was just getting worse and worse. So we decided to leave it for that day. 3 months later and we're trying a new method.... we've made their paddock much smaller and every few days we go and move the fence line towards them even more in the hope that they will eventually not be scared of the yards and will happily go in their themselves. We're slowly moving their water further into the yards and they've finally started to eat hay which we've also put in the yards. They weren't interested in the hay at all in the past because there was so much grass in the paddock and they don't trust us at all!

I went and sat with them in the paddock this morning. They weren't very happy at first but the colt thought he might get a closer look at this strange being on his turf. Piwaka and the other mare reluctantly followed. They were nowhere near me but at least they thought about it. It's a start!

Spring feels like it has sprung early this year (touch wood!). Little dorper lambs with black heads and bums have arrived in the paddock across the road and daffodils are almost in bloom.

Ages ago we dug out a pond where the old, awful "swimming pool" was and it looks so much better. We moved all the daffodils from the middle of the lawn to the pond area and have replanted them all along the fence line so once they are flowering it should look great.

The pigs are growing slowly. I thought they would be bigger than they are by now but it's probably a good thing as they're pretty strong and demanding around food time.

Tigger is learning a lot at the moment. We have a guy, Mike, helping us out with her training. She's doing really well but if she get pushed too far she holds her breath which is a bit odd. Hopefully she'll grow out of that habit.

I took Dino for a ride yesterday, albeit a very short one. He was pretty good but Brother wasn't happy being without him so galloped around the paddock being a nuisance.

Token shot of the dog

The pond

Marty playing with the torch in the fog.

Little Piwakawaka

Hello!

My dream of getting a Kaimanawa straight off the muster has finally happened! It's been over 10 years in the making but at last we have our own little girl who we have called Piwaka. Such a cutie!

We had to pick up our lot from Saddle Rd between Ashhurst and Woodville, up above the foggyness. We got 3 mares, 2 colts and our little one who is about 2 years old. She's pretty big for a young one - much bigger than Tigs. The road into the yards was pretty terrifying though and the truck almost went off the side of a bridge... without the horses in it but it was still nerve-racking!

From there we had to get to Pahiatua to pick up some other young ones who had been collected by the other organisation but who were heading this way as well. 2 went to Ormondville and 2 just up the road from our house. A beautiful chestnut with flaxen mane and tail and almost Appaloosa-like white spots was dropped off up the road.

Last, but certainly not least, Vickie's lot and Piwaka were dropped off in a paddock at Vickie's. We were all exhausted (horses and people) and it's been nice coming home to rest. I'm actually so tired I can't think straight. I need to have a good night's sleep tonight and a bit of a sleep in with the dog-man.

For some reason I can't upload photos at the moment but you can see some on Facebook... if you're my friend! :) I will try and upload later.

Kerry x

Roadie

Good morning,

Autumn has now officially arrived. Obviously summer missed the boat and decided to stay elsewhere this year. I shouldn't complain, we've had some really nice days recently.

Anyway, Marty and I took off to Auckland a few weeks ago for a well deserved break. Our initial reason for the trip was to pick up a bar top that we bought off Trademe a while back. It was a spur of the moment buy but hopefully our kitsch 70s basement (garage) bar will be awesome. We've been picking up a few things for it recently including an old American pay phone which has been modified to work without coins. Very exciting. Picking that up this weekend. We missed out on a 1950s globe last night but we'll keep searching. Here's the bar progress so far...

So, after the market on Sunday we headed off on our trip. We stayed a night at Lake Waikaremoana which was absolutely beautiful even if we did get ambushed by mozzies. The next morning it rained but we walked up a little river to a waterfall that we'd seen on the drive in. Amazing waterfall - HUGE! I took 1,000 photos with my new Nikon D3000 DSLR so I'll have to add a few when I get home. The Urewera National Park is quite amazing. The road goes on unpaved forever, winding through the hills and native bush. We came across a few of the wild horses (who weren't that wild) grazing on the side of the road. There's not a lot along the way in terms of civilisation. Ruatahuna is the only town between Wairoa and Murupara it seems and that only consists of a petrol station (minimally stocked) and some unfenced livestock. There were a few barns and a church I think but all look disused.

We eventually got to Murupara where we thought we'd stop for a coffee... why? Hmmm... Murupara didn't survive the recession. The only places that haven't been boarded up are the WINZ office, Credit Union, 4 Square and the post office. Even the 'Wines and Videos' and The Clobbershop were out of action. The one cafe that we came across, Kokomo's Cafe - Fine Foods and Catering, was inhabited by a group of acquaintances chatting away. We entered, witnessed the menu (chop meal etc), ordered a coffee ("would you like one from the machine, or instant?" - the machine was a Nestle Cuppamatic or something equally uninspiring) and took a wobbly seat outside. The girl behind the counter gestured to the Cuppamatic as though she were starting a magic trick... she seemed pretty impressed by the machine. We got instant. The instant turned out to just be dirty water, Marty added foam to his.

Hard to see but that sign says, "Murupara Wines and Videos"

Our rego had expired on the ute so Marty went off to the Post office to get a new one just as they were closing. He asked if he could get a rego. The woman barring up the shop said, "oh, nah, we don't do those. Only big places like Rotorua do those". We left, rego-less and still in need of a coffee.

We drove on with no idea of our next stop. We headed toward that big place, Rotorua. We were both quite tired and I was grumpy due to lack of sleep (thanks mozzies) so we pulled off the motorway to Wai-O-Tapu. We went to some hotpools which had been blocked off due to construction. There were several tourists on the other side of the fence, disinterested in the possibly danger, gazing over the bubbling mud. We did the same. We took off again, still no closer to finding a place to stay the night. We drive aimlessly down a road toward Waikite Valley and came across a really lovely, fairly new hot pool place. We camped again and, in typical camping style, Marty decided the only thing we should cook that night was venison with a plum and red wine jus. Of course. So we spent ages in the kitchen as tourist after tourist came in with their 2-minute noodles and other sensible camping food. The meal was amazing though and well worth the slightly odd looks.

The next day we finally got to Auckland. We met up with Graeme at his cafe, Twin Peaks, and made ourselves at home in his little flat. The boys went surfing a lot and I caught up with a few people. I had forgotten how horrible Auckland is to try and get anywhere. Traffic was horrific, I had forgotten how to get anywhere and ended up almost crashing several times and running REALLY late due to all the dead end roads and no turning signs. Terrifying. After that I just used the trains which work surprisingly well.

We caught up with Ed the Engaged at his work briefly and then went to get some food at the lovely little restaurant, Wine Loft, before Graeme joined us. We were trying not to drink for about 4 days but everytime something happened and we ended up having at least a glass of wine.

The highlight, of course, was Faith No More. It was great that our trip coincided with the gig. They were spectacular! Mike Patton put on a great show. I really have no words to explain it. It was just amazing!

Anyway, Marty, Graeme and Charles had decided that the day after the gig they were going on an early (5am) morning surf. So Charles sensibly went home to get some sleep and we headed back to the flat where we continued chatting until about 3am. I fell asleep and Marty and Graeme had a total of 1 hour sleep before heading out to Pakiri. Marty took some amazing photos of Graeme.

When they arrived back Graeme decided to stay home and catch up on some sleep but Marty and I had made arrangements to meet up with Chrissy and then later on some drinks with Amy, Dario, Gareth and Lorraine and then later still, Courtz and Tim. So Marty had to struggle through the sleepiness tugging at his bones. It was a really lovely day though and it was great to catch up with people.

The next day we started our journey home. We got in touch with Mark and Tracy who were staying in Papamoa so we went and stayed with them for a night. Marty continued on his goal of surfing as much as he possibly could on our holiday and took off across the road early the next morning.

We had booked at my regular work motel, Colonial Lodge, in Napier so we started making our way back towards the bay. We stopped in a fantastic little place called Okere Falls just north of Rotorua. It has a nice little boutique food shop and a beautiful little garden and a river across the road. We had a coffee, took some photos and went on a brief walk. I will definitely be going there next time I'm passing through Rotovegas.

We got back to Napier and checked in to our room. Marty finally met the owner (and regular muesli buyer) Mark - albeit in a slightly intoxicated state after a one of the winery concerts. It was quite amusing. We went out to dinner at a really flash-looking place that turned out not to be quite the top-notch place we expected due to really simple things that weren't done well. It was a little bit of a let down. I basically had to climb into my bowl in order to get at the food inside because the bowl was so massive. And a really late and uninspiring mojito for Marty... so uninspiring he sent it back and waited some more.

The next day we headed back to the farm via a last minute job. It was nice to get home but it was a fantastic trip. We'll have to do it again sometime soon :)