A big week in the garden.

Our garden has become completely over run by pumpkin vines, snaking their way into every corner. The pumpkin seedlings were self sown from our heritage varieties from last year, and came up and took over almost without us noticing! My attention was on the tiling, and now I am paying for my neglect! Not that I can complain too much, the pumpkin crop is huge and they are going to feed us right through the winter. yum!







Kristi and Ericka helped me tie up the tomatoes, building a teepee frame for them to climb. Not bad for city girls!












Just can't resist a little brag about my pears and apples. They really do taste as good as they look.





Onion Man!
Our first crop has been a great success.











We have now hung the bell we were given on our recent 1200km biking trip along the Danube from Basel in Switzerland to Budapest in Hungary. While we were in Straubing in Germany we were taken in by a lovely family who had been bell makers since the 15th century. After filling us with good food and wine, they took us on a tour of the bell foundry, and then presented us with this beautiful bell. It is now rung loud and long at meal times, letting everyone know it's time to eat.

Sylvia departs, Ericka and Kristi arrive, along with chicks and fish!

Sylvia has left for the South Island after 8 wonderful weeks at Earthstead. One of her last jobs was to "mud" around the new timber skirting boards and patch other holes and bangs in the earth walls. Sylvia has been one of our longest serving wwoofers, and her input was invaluable. She bought a wealth of building skill, determination and precision.







Two new wwoofers have joined the team from the US. Kristi hales from Minnesota, and Ericka is from Boston. I can tell it is going to be a fun time with these two!






Our chicken expert and friend George brought 8 newly hatched chicks to add some new blood and varieties to our chicken numbers. These gorgeous fluffy balls stole all our hearts.







The chicks with the little bumps on the top of their heads are definitely females, according to George.














We have been over run with flies of late, especially annoying during our meals on the deck. While travelling in Spain two years ago we had heard about a fly deterrent which involved a plastic bag full of water being hung over the table. We were desperate enough to give anything a go! On Friday night we had friends over for dinner as usual, and decided to add some fish to the water to make a novel table centre piece. We noticed no reduction in the fly numbers, but certainly had a lot of fun watching the fish. I think we will call the fish Ping and Pong, they are obviously identical twins, and deserve a name that truly goes together.






On Sylvia's last night, the wwoofers decided to play table tennis by headlight. Not many balls were hit, but lots of laughs were had.

Ambers Progress and Builders Progress.

Amber is doing really well, and as you can see, there is no sign of infection, and gradually the cut is healing over. Great news.











We've had a very busy time with the builders here most of last week, and lots of progress being made. Richard has installed the chain down pipes, and they look stunning.








Richard also complete the window flashing.







Jarred has put the capping board in place over the electrical cabling which circuts each room, and hung all the internal doors.














Harvey has made the shelving for the wardrobes and the outside cupboards.








WWOOFer Johan has been busy oiling all the new pieces of timber the builders have installed.











Just after Richard had installed the chain downpipe, we had a heavy shower of rain, so we were all keen to see how the chains performed. Rather a lot of water was missing the chain altogether, and making a very messy landing all over our beautiful snake. After much discussion Richard and Ali have come up with a cunning plan to get the water flowing as it should. Watch this space to see if they are as smart as they think they are!

The chiminey installation, and trouble with the second ssssssnake.

Well, as you may have guessed by now, we did not meet our deadline to have the initial tiles laid by the 5th of Feb.







Sean, the plumber cutting the hole in the ceiling, and standing on the grass roof installing the chimney.







We all did our best, but the second snake took forever, and required lots of re cutting of tiles, and there are so many other jobs that need our attention.

It has also been so hot, and laying tiles in the hot sun is no fun. While I was wrestling with getting the snake laid, I resorted to building a kind of tee-pee around myself to get a bit of shade and relief.








Anyway, the good news is that the snake ended up looking just fine,


and



we have since finished the initial laying of the tiles, just one week late, and today Sylvia finished cutting all the tiles to infill the gaps. Now we just have to glue them, and another stage is finished! Just the grouting and sealing left!

The best Danish bread ever.

We have been making some wonderful bread lately, all thanks to our good friends Richard and Louise. We holidayed with them and their beautiful children in Waitawere in January and were very impressed with the rich, black sourdough bread they had baked.





We were excited to try Richards recipe, and we are happy to report that we are now Danish bread converts, and find this the easiest bread we have ever made, and by far the most delicious.



So, I am sharing with you the recipe Richard gave me.

“sourdough” starter

200 G rye flour
1 g yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp organic honey
100 g organic yoghurt (I use De Winkles)
200 ml water (MUST be ‘bottled’ - I’ve bought a 10 litre one) as the chlorine kills it!


Mix all together in a non metal bowl using non metal spoon, & cover with a damp towel
Just sits on bench for 24 hours
Next day add a further 200g rye flour
& enough water to make it smooth then it sits for another 24 hours & its ready

This sourdough bug can be kept alive indefinitely, just needs regular feeding. I feed the bug by adding one cup of rye flour, and one cup of water, then mix well. Cover it with a damp tea towel and leave it on the bench. Once it is bubbling up, you are ready to make bread. This feeding - using cycle is what keeps the bug happy and healthy.
If you are not going to make bread for a week or so, or you are going on holiday, store the bug in the fridge. Cover the container loosely.



Then to the bread

300g Sourdough starter
2 cups knibbled rye or knibbled mix - your know the cracked grains
2 cups rye flour
700-800 ml water (bottled again)
2 cups High grade white flour
1 tablesp golden syrup (I use 1– 2 tblspn of Molasses makes it darker & I think better flavour)
1 tablespoon rough salt
3/4 cup linseeds
1 cup ml sun flower seeds

Richard chucks in pumpkin seeds too & sprinkles sesame seeds on the top.

I often add a cup of cooked brown rice for delicious moist, nutty flavour!
You can make a sweet loaf by adding one cup of chopped dates, and one cup of walnuts, and an extra tablespoon of molasses.

Mix all together – its quite a wet mixture

Put into 2 loaf tins (put baking paper in first if metal)
I use the flex red rubber ones so don’t need paper etc.



Leave for 12 hours

Poke holes in the bread to the bottom before putting in oven

Put in oven at 200 deg for 75 min (I often leave in for 100 min)

When you take it out spread a little butter over the top.

Leave to cool for 4 hours (I can NEVER wait that long) but it easier to cut

A new table, and Swedish visitors.

On Friday Russell from Cambridge Custom Cabinets delivered our hand made macrocarpa table. We are so thrilled with it, and love the old world look. The chairs that will surround the table are made from beautiful rich mahogany, and are very comfortable and elegant. We will stain the table to match.






We hosted Johan's parents and brothers for dinner on Friday night. We had a great time together, and Johan got to show his family just what he has been up to during the week. Per and Asa have taken a 12 month work contract in New Zealand and it was a great opportunity for the family to experience some kiwi hospitality.

We went out in the paddock and fed the calves in the half dark. It was a beautiful still evening, and Axel managed to get very close to Apricot and Roger.

Amber update, the milkman calls, and 7 dozen muffins

We have a very nice arrangement with our good friend Stu, he brings us cream, and we give him eggs! Over Christmas he delivered 12 litres of cream, and we had to get really creative in our cooking.








My dear old mum came to the rescue with some tried and true cake and muffin recipes from her days on our dairy farm. These recipes replace butter with cream.
The resulting cake is so so moist and so delicious. Over the past few weeks I have made 7 dozen muffins, 10 chocolate cakes, 5 ginger spice cakes, and 10 banana cakes. Phew!!! Stu has single-handedly ensured that Ali will never again be without cake in the tins.





Amber is doing really well as you can see in the photo. We are so pleased. She is healing quickly, and no sign of infection and she is walking normally.












Other farm news - we've had the vet out and Joy is pregnant, fantastic.


While he was here he de horned Angie. She was not to keen on parting with her horns, but now it seems she is getting used to her new look.

Grouting, spuds and pears

We are working hard on the grouting, and Ali has a new off sider. Wwoofer Johan from Sweden has joined the team. Johan is working some really long hours to keep up with our fearless leader.
Ali is putting on the pace, to meet his self imposed deadline to be finished grouting of the North side of the house by this Friday, 5th of Feb. Will the old boy be able to meet his deadline? Stay tuned until Friday.










We have been harvesting this week from our garden and enjoying our first crop of potatoes, fantastic result!









Johan has also been picking plums and pears. I hope I will be able to start bottling the pears, and freezing the plums once I get the tiles laid. My deadline for the tiles is Friday 5th, same as Ali's so we will see who ends up with egg on their face!