Harvesting and planning

As the school term gets going I've enjoyed catching up and hearing what every one's been doing during the summer holidays. It' seems 3 out of 4 people I talk to have been camping, enjoying the top of the South Island's beautiful sites; Golden Bay, Marlborough Sounds, Nelson/Tasman and the West Coast. I sort of envy the "idea" of camping but actually hate packing up, getting bitten, sunburned, and doing all the Mum stuff away from the conveniences of home. Also 3 years living in a house bus and hand washing nappies, I think has put me off entirely. Admittedly I'm becoming a bit of a Nana in my middle age. It sounds like my friends all enjoyed their adventures even the hiccups. Lucky for L and I we have a "village" to raise our children so they haven't missed out on adventures, they've been away with good friends and family. We must be doing something right cos they get invited to go back again and again.

Back here in the garden, locals and blog readers have asked about the cannelini beans. They have been a super crop here, the first lot I harvested early as I grew them in the glasshouse but it seems there was no need because the outdoor ones which I planted around the fence lines have produced beautifully with no extra water after they got established. The little bit of rain we got a few days ago wasn't even enough to wet the soil underneath the corn and pumpkins. So to answer about the cannelinis; I leave them to dry off on the vine then once picked leave them in their shells for several weeks longer to dry right out. I learnt this is the hard way after harvesting some dryish pea pods and shelling them straight away, popping them into a paper bag only to find some of them went mouldy. Plants going to seed all over the garden make it look pretty messy and disorganised but I reckon it's a sign of a good productive garden. Mine is looking pretty wild but I know where to find the tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce, pumpkins, melons and beans. The kumara are putting on alot of top growth so I'm hoping too that there is something going on beneath the soil. They say when you're planning your garden to check out what's growing well in other local gardens, so I have to share that the Nashi pear is my best productive tree aside from my citrus. It's laden with fruit, grows beautifully organically and is just about ready! Highly recommended.

The glasshouse is producing really well though an aphid infestation will probably get the better of it soon. I'm watering, feeding and using pyrethrum to try and stay on top of it.
I haven't quite kept up with sowing all my own seed, recently I've sowed lettuces, leeks, brassicas, peas, coriander and parsley in my messy little nursery/shady spot. I've also bought extra brassicas from a good little plant stall in town.

The brassica's I've put in where the garlic came out. I've mulched them heavily and hope my little paper wasps can keep up with all the caterpillars. I sprinkled round a bit of blood and bone too as the soil was looking a bit depleted.Finally somewhere in the middle ground of this picture is a patch of horrible seedy paspalum grass overtaking the onions. I weeded it out twice but it got away on me over Christmas so my poor onions look like pickling onions! I must get onto pulling it all out before the seeds spread everywhere. "1 year seeding 7 years weeding" So that is how I'll spend New Zealand's national day "Waitangi Day" before I head over to the airport to see my bro.

Garden notes Jan

The last week of our kids summer holidays has flown by, we all slept in till around 9am this morning so I'm totally dreading getting up early tomorrow and having to be organised to be places! L is still on annual leave as well, so it's still going to feel like holiday mode to everyone especially with my brother and his family arriving from Adelaide this Friday. I can't wait for that, it will be the first time I've met my two nephews.

Since picking up L, skatey and PJ from the airport last Friday I've packed in a bit of desperate last minute holiday activities all of which I forgot to pack the camera for. Hence the good old garden pics. (Busy bumble bee amongst the teasels and corn silk.)
We finally caught up with a friend who's garden I'd been looking forward to seeing since spring, they live by the Motueka river so we took a nice walk along the river while the biggest boys were swimming. The teen enjoyed it so much we went back to the river a few days later with the other kids. While the whole district suffered in the sweltering summer heat we just might have had the best spot to be at, shade for me, cold shallow water for the littlies, a massive rope swing for the teen and only one other small family group there to share it with.
I also made an effort to meet up with some Playcentre friends to collect natural collage materials from the beach, coincidentally discovering possibly the best lot of seaweed washed up since midwinter last year. I filled two sacks for the garden and went back for more the next day with helpers in tow. The garden is so weedy I need it everywhere but of course I never have as much as I need so stuck it round some celery and beans which were yet to be overtaken by weeds and cleared out the glasshouse using the rest as mulch under the tomatoes, which are producing well unlike the outdoor ones which haven't ripened yet and are already getting stinkbug sucked. The Cleome is doing a good job of attracting stinkbugs but they are still attracted to the beans and tomatoes as much as before. I've happily harvested quite a few of the cannelini beans that I planted early spring and we've munched our way through the first block of corn. Corn is the only vege that the red head will eat at present.
The chooks recently took a wee break to sit on eggs while several others made escapes into the garden each day for me to chase on the regular stink bug squashing missions. I still haven't found where the chooks were getting out but have caught the escapees and put them in the small house for a bit. The sitters didn't get the job finished, hopping off their eggs a few days early. I suspect it was mites and heat that drove them off so have cleaned and disinfected the chookhouse and given them fresh bedding. Skatey requested the rotten eggs and lead us down to the neighbourhood stream last night for a bit of eel watching, good old kiwi entertainment bringing back lots of childhood memories for me. With the eggs thrown into the river it took only about 5 minutes for the eels to start showing up attracted by the smell. The kids really enjoyed the eels but weren't happy to see someone else had set a hinaki net in the stream to try and catch them. I recall having smoked eel as a kid but I don't think my lot would be willing to try it, all are keen however to go and throw eggs to the eels again.
They are also all enjoying not having Mum glued to her sewing machine, so as usual at this time of year I'm feeling like I want to spend more time with them and less time trying to make money. We'll see how that goes, for now I'm not going to try busting my gut making and selling things and I'm not going to study full time yet either.

Now I'm off to make some things for the lunch boxes.

Painting update 3

Well first and foremost the painting is mostly finished, a vast improvement on the chipped and mouldy mess I had before, now I can lie in the bath and look at a ceiling not full of mould during my only quiet, unhassled minutes (half hour) of the day. I'm dying to accessorise now but don't want to spend a fortune so will have to be patient as usually exactly what I need turns up at a garage sale or in a box from a "fabulous Aunt". I did splash out on a new shower curtain today and the room is taking on a distinct black and white theme. I need to do something with the floor as well. The black and white checkered lino of my youth is occupying my thoughts at the moment.

I read back on some of my recent posts thinking some of them sound a little vague or random but actually that is quite what I'm like. Sometimes I have something quite interesting to share and other times it's a real waffle. Anyway I'm very unsettled without all the kids and my good friend and fellow mischief maker is also away so I'm all out of whack. I tried to sew tonight too but that felt all unco. (a word my brother's used to describe me as a child, short for unco-ordinated and generally hilarious) as well, I think there are too many things that I need/want to do that I don't know where to start. Procrastinating always works well on these occasions so I made sushi for tea and then later scoffed strawberries and cream, boiled up some bread and butter pickles and a batch of tomato soup in between reading my favorite bloggers most recent posts thinking "my goodness"! if the northerners are ordering seeds for spring I better be preserving more and gathering firewood.



To clarify about the teen and co. "The big bang theory" is an American show on TV about these nerdy guys who kind of talk computers while being very awkward about girls and like star wars and computer games. On Wednesday nights when it comes on we get yelled at "shut up, this is my programme". I think the character most like my teen is called Sheldon. So the teen and co. sound like that when they bike to our place with lap tops on backs, hook them up with their Ethernet cables and then talk "forward slash semi colon?" sentences followed by "Unreal tournament, Halo and Ghost recon" whatever that means. Oh and "did you see Get Smart?" They didn't even know it was a TV show when I was growing up.



Back to me, all dazed and confused,trying to decide what to do to feel like I'm living life to the fullest. For the last 15 years I've had a baby every third or 4th year so as my wee red goes on three and a half I think I'm experiencing a bit of, for want of a better cliche "mid life crisis". I've been asked by a shop in Wellington to supply some kids clothes, tossed around the idea of studying full or part time, flipping from herbal studies, Early childhood to Visual Arts degree, or staying home to be the sacrificial stay at home Mum. I'm not good at decisions and none of my ideas are screaming THIS IS IT so I may be set to be blogging about teens and skateys, thrifting and bags for another year, I don't know. A very laborious decision maker am I! My apologies for my atrocious punctuation maybe I better start with form 2 English before I do anything. As I prepare to post this I wait for "Nightline" to tell me the traits of people born in this the Chinese year of the OX, perhaps it will enlighten me as to why I'm a procrastinating, waffly, flip floppy, sewer, gardener, mother, wifey, sister, daughter, teacher, friend, blogger.





So apparently we're Strong leaders, Hard workers and demanding. Yep that fits me quite well sometimes too.

Seed saving

I ended up with a house full of teenage boys today, I decided to look busy so I could keep an eye on them. Though I don't know what I was worried about, have you seen "the big bang theory"? Well it's like that here except 15 year olds.

It was a flaming hot day so the superhero and I collected some seeds while trying to ignore how many STINK BUGS are ravaging my garden.

The red couldn't keep his fingers out so instead of fight it I embraced it. We counted pea seeds and described what they felt like, discussed bigger and smaller and then put them all into packets.

The rest of the time he drove the big boys nuts. I cannot imagine what life will be like when he is 15, I wonder if I'll still feel like having house fulls of noisy teens!

The other day I found some old video of when the teen was 4, we had a georgous new baby in the house ( Cluck, cluck) and for teen life revolved around a Thomas the tank Engine train set while the only technology in the house was a TV for which we had to pay a licence fee for and an old ATARI game. How quickly times change! And I only looked 21 or so, My God!

Teen

Actually I don't give the teen enough credit, he's brilliant at doing the dishes, even gives his Granny a hard time that she doesn't do them properly. We joke that he'll be the one when he goes flatting that makes the dish washing roster, getting on every body's case when the job isn't done properly. When we ask what he wants for birthday/Christmas he says "dishwasher" seriously!

Kitchen is on the painting list for next year.

Painting update 2

One of the nicest features of our little old house is the lilac windows in the bedrooms and bathroom. They're jolly fiddly to sand around though, you'd think I'd have quite good fine motor skills but they don't seem to work on this sort of thing. I admire people who renovate their houses especially scraping off years of paint to reveal real wood. It takes alot of energy and elbow grease, I think I may have lost weight or toned up some muscles I didn't know I had at least. Thank goodness I'm onto painting now.

The red head has been surprisingly good, the teen is babysitting with alot of complaining, even though all he's done is put DVDs on for Red to watch while Teen plays games, I think they've eaten cheese on toast every day which is all the teen is interested in making. (Note to self, more cooking lessons) Never mind the paintings gotta be easier right? Have to admit it's not my thing at all!

Am so GRATEFUL to at least have my own home though and want to put some effort into maintaining it. Mum reckons it's going to look like a hospital room all white, but I got a cheap deal on paint so white it will be.

Am missing being in my garden.

Bags and skirts

I had to have a break from the bathroom today. L worked hard before he went on holiday to replace the rotten wood and I feel like I've been working hard but not getting far. I don't enjoy sanding but quite like scraping big flakes of paint off. I was one of those irritating children who couldn't resist picking at a bit of peeling paint. Anyway, day off. The red head (3 and a half now) just wouldn't stay out of mischief all day. He did quite alot of pruning to my tomato plants while I was loading some new items in my shop . They are some of my absolute favorites which I've made over the last few months.

How to plait garlic

As promised this is how I plait my garlic. I have photographed the technique without flowers because it's easier to see but if you want flowers just plait them in with the bulbs, or substitute a bulb for a bunch of flowers.
It's like doing hair in a french plait.
Tie three large bulbs together and lay them in front of you as pictured. I find it easier when the stalks are still green but they must have been dried in the sun for at least 3 or 4 days so the plait doesn't rot.Next find a bulb which sort of snugly fits in the middle, lay it's stalk on the middle stalk.Snuggle the next bulb in on the left, you will plait it's stalk and the left stalk over the middle ones. They then become the left stalks and the previous left ones are now in the middle.Snuggle one in on the right and cross the two right stalks over the middle ones as before.Find another one to snuggle in the middle and repeat the process to make the plait as long as you like. I use smaller and smaller bulbs as I move up.
When you have added as many garlic as you want plait the stalks and tie the top. It is now ready to hang and use. Many people plait their garlic, feel free to link to this post. I would hope that any learning or perfecting their technique from me would respect that I sell my original garlic plaits locally (motueka and surrounds) to help provide for my family.

Painting update

Found rotten wood, quite alot.
Sulking, need a handyman.
Off swimming.

Janurary slipping away

I have taken the photos for my garlic plait tutorial, problem is the teenager has gone and decided to get a social life and the technology has gone and done something unexpected so I can't upload my photos. What were we thinking when we bought him a scooter?
It's alright really, he's with his cousins and one of my" fabulous Aunts". She has her granddaughter staying and her own later in life baby is around the (terrible/fabulous) teens age. They play tennis and go off to the beach all day while eating copious amounts of corn chips and junk. Extended families are so awesome, make sure you utilise them if you have them. We've also done our fair share of overnight stays during the holidays, not much family but friends bringing the total of kids on some nights up to 7. Dinner is made in a soup pot or roasting pan on those occasions and I'm getting quite good at massive bacon and egg pies with herbs and zucchini. L is home on annual leave for a month, so at least I'm getting some reprieve.
I'm celebrating a whole year as a part time solo Mum of four and am doing a wicked job if I do say so myself. Goodness knows how four kids survived infancy actually as last year I killed two Kefir bugs, a passion fruit vine, a tree tomato and two old rabbits. Thankfully for me the wonderful wet coast Sandra has sent me some more Kefir which is thriving and I am on the "Gillybean lazy diet" consisting of Kefir/blueberry/raspberry/banana smoothies,no coffee, less red meat and cheese, more sushi and no exercise (yet), diet.

The Pokororo fair was great! A chance to catch up on many of my old valley friends while selling a bit of garlic and sewing, I also came home with some lovely culinary lavender, 6lb of blueberries and some award winning essential oil. The cover has been on my sewing machine since then while I do my annual school holiday declutter and painting which I LOATHE! This year it's the bathroom and it's just going to be WHITE. As long as it gets rid of the peeling paint and mould I'll be happy.
L is off on holiday to his family next week with two of the kids so I hope I can get it finished, a bit of a summer social life in the evenings to top off the painting would be nice too.

I've updated my "Self sufficiency project" list and would like to introduce my good friend Melissa who is joining the awesome list of Kiwi bloggers.

Teen will be home soon to help with computer and babysitting.

Scraping horrible paint tomorrow!!

Come visiting and give me an excuse to stop work and make coffee!!!