March - July 2010

March 2010

At some stage we had a leak in the pond. The water got out very slowly, so we weren't entirely sure if it was a mix of evaporation and animals drinking from it, or if it was indeed a leak. But since it stopped at the same level after we re-filled it we knew that there must have been a leak. And since it went so painstakingly slow we also knew it must be VERY small, and thus very hard to find. The inspection of the inside didn't yield anything, so we started digging out. Where the stones are wet must be the leak! We started at the non-planted side and about 3/4 through we found it! A tiny, pin-head sized leak, but the water came through surprisingly fast. I didn't have any real material to fix it, so I took the freedom to just put a bicycle repair patch on it, and then some good old duct tape on top of it. And it worked, hehe!

it always settled at this level...

my bicycle repair patch, enforced with duct tape on both sides...

there are plenty of these tiny very thin spots, which were at high risk of leaking (yellow circle)

So we refilled the pond, and next day it was down again - bugger! We then inspected it even closer and realised that there is a whole bunch of tiny little spots where the wall is incredibly thin, and some might even be holes. It could be an endless game of finding them, fixing them, and filling again... So we decided to go the safe route and just buy some pond liner, empty the whole pond, put the liner in, re-establish everything, put Huey, Dewy and Louie back in, and voilá, the pond is fixed!

One day we arrived late at night and it was raining. We quickly unloaded our car and dropped the stuff under the roof, when suddenly Neil said: "Look here!" There was a possum hanging at the corner of our bach at eye-level, and we had walked 50 cm past it a few times and didn't even notice! We hear them all the time rummaging around at night, and walking over the tin roof. After we took the photos I touched it at the tail, but it didn't move. Only when I gave it a little slap on the bum it jumped off - and man did it jump! It was about 5 meters!!! They do look cute, don't you think? What a shame they are such a pest...

Next morning...

We bought a picknick table on TradeMe - just had to pick it up and assemble it! At the same time we bought a second shed, and the Ezemble guy was up to put it up. I thought it would be nice to have a little platform in between to connect the two sheds...

The new table and the shed being assembled in the background...

The new shed on the right. It is now for dry storage and our camping toilet,
while the left shed is for tools and garden stuff...

It didn't take me long to build two more planter boxes and put them in front of the new shed. We planted a nice Bougainvilla, which is flowering like mad (even all winter!). We can't wait for spring to come and see it grow rapidly. There are also two vines in it (one white and one red grape), as well as blackberries and red currant. All bought cheaply, so we hope they will survive and grow nicely in spring...

Here is our first harvest of cucumbers...

...and the pickles I made of them. There are also the small onions in there we got from the land. All this has just been trials, but since it went well, I will grow much more coming season :)

Still beautiful, warm late summer days...

June 2010

One day I drove up by myself to spend a couple of days at the bach, and when I came to the driveway I already knew something was wrong - the chain to the driveway had been broken. And when I got up to the land I saw what happened: The bl**dy f***ing neighbour cows (he has two bulls) escaped their paddock AGAIN (so many time did we see them outside and sent him a text message to get them back in!), but this was the first time they went to our land. They went straight through the chain and started chewing through a number of our plants. They developed a particularly fondness for our wonderful agaves! Each and every one (spread all over the land) were chewed down to the roots. Especially the delicate cores/hearts seem to be of good taste! I counted them - they were 30!!! They also "mowed" some of our grasses down, while not touching others (especially the carex/tussock seemed to be of poor taste), ate and uprooted the bamboo, a large succulent, uprooted a bromeliad, and a few other things. They left turds and damaged lights, went straight through a chain of fairy lights, drank from the pond and knocked over the water pump/fountain, broke off one arm of our big yucca, knocked over the shower tent frame etc etc... Can you imagine HOW upset I was? I couldn't believe it! Some of the agaves got really big, and just this weekend I was to get them out of the planter boxes and plant them along the edge of the "big box"....GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

uprooted grass and ripped fairy lights


uprooted succulent


uprooted bromeliad


agaves (what is left...)




knocked over and broken solar light


fairy lights, agaves, grasses


our wonderful yucca - this was the very first plant we got, and it grew fantastically!


the shower tent frame


the didn't get the aloe - it was too spikey. In protest they left a turd on them...

Oh well, what can you do? I saved as much as I could and in order to compensate for being so upset I drove to Dargaville and got some nice new plants, and again a lot of soil and compost...

two new dwarf flaxes, and the bird bath I got for my birthday from Neil

the new heath and some nice grasses - looks very Mediterranean to me...:)

rainbow

double rainbow

July 2010

July is my last outstanding Sabbatical month, so in the first week I thought I'd go up to the bach, wind down a bit, and start reading as preparation for the book I am co-writing. And when I got to bach I couldn't believe it: The f***ing cows were back! And ate the last bits of the agaves that were left, went through the same planter boxes, uprooted the same plants again, ripped out the beautiful heath (after having eaten half of it), ripped out a grass (but didn't like it), knocked over the bird bath and broke a part inside it, etc. Can you believe it? I was FUMING, and sent the neighbour a very angry text message!!!!!!! He said he is on the South Island for the Cat Stevens concert and will deal with it when he gets back. Well, the damage is done!

A week later I bought a bunch of new plants again. It is great to stop by Mitre 10 Mega and go through the section with plants that are on special. Often, they have a few dry leaves, or didn't grow very well, but most of them recover nicely, and with those horrendous prices for plants here in NZ we save a lot of $$ that way... The neighbour came up as well, and profoundly apologised. He will get us a load of top soil as compensation, and a bunch of new agaves and yuccas. He said he'll leave it there this weekend, so I will see next time we'll go up!

the tulips and daffodils are already out - in the middle of winter!
I guess NZ is not the same as Europe or North America, haha!

the lemon tree we got from Fiona and Mick. In the middle of the night I caught a possum biting into one, so I quickly harvested them (all 7 of them, haha!). They are currently in our water jug and taste delicious!