Family Time

We have had a most enjoyable, relaxing time with family over the weekend.

We took time out from work on the house to spend time with some of our favourite people on earth!.

On Friday night, Ali's parents and brother and family came for a lovely dinner of roast lamb. The dessert was home made ice cream and fresh seasonal fruit, followed by coffee and liquors. Delicious!
We are planning to make this a weekly tradition.




Just as the meal ended, our son Winston and his fiancée Sarah arrived, completing a wonderful evening. We knew they were making the 6 hour trip up from their home in Waitawere, but we had expected them the following morning. We have been caring for their beloved Staffy, Indy, and the reunion was something to behold!

Win and Sarah have spent Christmas with Sarah's family in Scotland, and had been away for 6 weeks.












They were able to help me with the farm chores. We had a lot of fun milking the cow, checking the chooks and picking plums.

It was great to take a break form the tiling, but today we are back into it!!!

Lights, chooks and yoghurt

Bryce from BTG Electrical came and worked on the lights, and they are looking fantastic! We are very excited to get this part of the build completed.

Sylvia has continued to work on the inlaid tiles, and Ali and I managed to get one of the bays on the north side of the building grouted, so that's progress!










The first batch of eggs has gone under the clucky bantam from George, and we now wait for the results! You can see our first " mum" sitting in the box in the left hand side of the first cage.




Amber's leg continues to be very sore, but there is no infection at present, thank God. We have separated the calves from the adults, (except of course Angie), so that should calm things down, and allow Amber to rest.






Sylvia also made 10 litres of yoghurt using Joy's milk. Yoghurt making is easy, you just need a milk thermometer, some good quality yoghurt as a starter, good quality milk, and you are away! Yoghurt made from raw milk is creamy, and smooth, having a thin layer of cream on top.

Ambers Accident

The builder, Richard and his men came back briefly today to concrete around the outside up-lights so we can finish the tiles in these areas.

Both Ali and I had rather a frustrating day, we had planned to tile and grout for most of the day, but we ended up getting tangled up with our farming and office work, and didn't actually get to do any work on the tiling at all.







First of all, one of our new calves, Amber somehow ended up with a deep gash on her leg, must have been pushed up against some corrugated iron by Joy or Mark. We knew that bullying could be a problem, but I was keen to try running the calves and adults together. anyway, we have found out the hard way, and poor Amber has paid the price. Our farming neighbour has given us some antiseptic spray for the next few days, and then we will apply some 13+ ultra Manuka factor honey, a proven remedy for this kind of open wound.




We have also taken delivery of 2 new cages for our clucky chooks to live in while they sit on the fertilised eggs we have been collecting over the past couple of weeks. Ali picked up the mothers to be from our friend George, and they will begin sitting on the eggs tomorrow.

Grouting

Today Ali once again began the big task of grouting! It is slow and painstaking, and requires great attention to detail. Thankfully his Engineer's nature is just what is required. The grout makes the tiles come and alive and meld together into a beautiful mosaic story. We are so excited with the result, worth the work!






I laid more of the initial pattern on the eastern walkway. The gaps will be inlaid with tile patterns by Sylvia or us over the days to come.

It is so satisifying to see the earthouse almost finished. We are in the process of ordering the beds and linen, the electrician is almost finished, and the builder will be back next week.
As Bryce the electrician would say, Happy Days!

A quiet Sunday, church and tennis in the morning, and laying tiles in the afternoon. We don't have any wwoofers at the moment, (Sylvia has gone a way for a few days) which is so very unusual. We have had wwoofers almost constantly for the past 3 years, and it is strange to eat on our own, and not have the interaction with others. I enjoy cooking of a crowd, even though it is busy with all I do outside. We eat much better when we have wwoofers, so Ali tells me!
(photos. top. Each morning we collect the poo Angie has deposited in the yards during the night, and add it to the compost heap.

bottom. We use the sawdust from the building site and any shreaded newspaper to cover the poo and food scraps. makes great compost, and it is very satisifying to know nothing goes to waste.)

The day started with the usual milking of the Joy our Dexter, such a wonderful way to start the day. The milk she gives us is not too creamy, which we like for drinking, but makes wonderful yoghurt and cheese also. At the end of milking we let Angie, Joys calf suckle on the other two teats while I milk out as much of the creamy hind milk as I can, but this has become increasingly difficult as Angie has gotten older. She wants all the teats to herself, and all the milk! She bites me and pushes me away. I've tried pushing her back, but have ended up spilling all the milk in the process, so have now just let the greedy little guts have the teats, and had to make do with what we can get.


After milking, we brought the new calves into the yards, feeding them some nuts so they learn that coming into the yards is a rewarding experience. We will train these young ladies in the ways of hand milking, and having them super quiet is essential.

(Amber and Acorn play a new kind of hide an seek while exploring the yards for the first time.)




We also started laying the snake mosaic, and it certainly took longer than we had anticipated, but the care and time it took to get the levels right and parts sitting nicely will pay dividends in the long run. Sylvia had spent a lot of time yesterday getting the cuts precise, and that made much easier.

First snakes, then fish

Hey, we are so exited to see the way the snake
mosaic is coming along, Sylvia has ironed out the problems she was having getting everything to fit, and now it is ready to be laid. We just need some fine weather tomorrow. All going well, I will have some pictures up in tomorrows blog!

Other progress on the earth house included cleaning and sealing the tiles on half of the north pergola area. the next step is grouting, and Ali is the man for that job. Wwoofer Fernando from Spain is the cleaning specialist, and his patient attention to detail has made all the difference.
(Ali and Fernando seal the spotlessly clean tiles)




And more exciting news, Sylvia's young friend Whitney, who is a graphic designer has very kindly agreed to work with us on some fish sketches for the bathroom wall. Working with the earth walls is so easy, it is like having a blank canvas, they can easily have mosaics and tiles embedded in them. Our walls are not stabilised with cement, which means they are user friendly. (Whitney and Sylvia share a laugh while inspection the bathroom wall to receive the fish mosaic.

The chooks have settled down, and Saddam has become one of the gang, which is really nice. Trouble is our egg collection numbers are down, which means they are laying in the bushes again! Last time that happened, by the time we found the nest, there were 33 eggs in it!



And lastly, the cows have had a wonderful time getting to know each other today. Mark, our 2 year old steer, has been particularly interested in the new calves, and it is a real hoot watching them play. We have named the calves, the girls are Apricot, Amber, Acorn and our new steer we call Roger. Young Angie, who was an only child until today, has had a busy day, bossing the other calves around. She looks so stocky, being a Dexter, compared to the very graceful Jerseys. Angie is growing horns, which makes her doubly bossy.(Mark, Angie and Joy in the background, Apricot, Acorn, Roger and Amber in the foreground, L to R.)

And yet more new arrivals to Earthstead. Four new calves have been delivered, three Dexter / Jersey crosses, and one miniture Hereford/ Friesian cross. Joy , our Dexter milking cow, Angie her calf, and Mark the Whiteface steer were a bit unsure about the new comers, so we left them to sniff each other through the fence today, tomorrow we will put them all together. We are hoping they will become one big happy family, but time will tell.

Things have settled down with the chickens, although it took a long time for our girls to accept the new rooster - they refused to go into the chicken house at night, and insisted on sleeping rough under the fig tree. We have named the rooster Saddam, because of the terror he struck in them. Lets hope his tour of duty at Earthstead is fruitful with lots of offspring.

Wwoofer Sylvia continues to work on the snake mosaic, cutting most of the pieces today. I hope to start laying them over the weekend, there are a few problems to iron out first, but nothing Sylvia and I can't handle!

We harvested our garlic in the last week, and wwoofer Cait plaited it into this lovely garland to hang and dry. This is the first time in a while we have grown our own garlic, and we are thrilled with the results.

Another day in Paradise

Another day in paradise, and a day closer to getting stage one of our Earthstead dream completed. Wwoofer Sylvia from Germany is a God send, and by her own admition has tile fever. She is an amazingly talented builder, and today has taken on the task of designing a snake mosaic for the recess for the waste water from the roof. A chain "downpipe" will bring the water from the roof into this recess.

The other big arrival at Earthstead has been the Aracarna rooster, on loan from our friend George. Ali let him out of the box George had packed him in, and as soon as the girls laid eyes on him, they went into a kind of panic, clucking and squarking and hiding in the fig tree. They were still unsettled at nightfall, everytime he came near them they cried out so loudly, we could hear them from the house! lets hope things have settled in the barnyard tomorrow!