The Girls Are Getting Their Groove On!

It has taken some time... but finally all 3 chickens are now laying!  

Look... 5 eggs in 2 days! 

Obviously one of the girls has been dropping the ball a little, but hey... I'm happy!

I must say the Golden Laced Wyandotte Chickens are very good layers once they get going. Big Momma is a daily layer, only missed a couple days since she started laying. Hopefully her good work ethic has rubbed off onto the two chicks!

Goodness Gracious Grapes...

The "Forbidden Fruits" or the "Fruits of the Gods", two very different descriptions for the delicious grape. Whatever the case, we've just planted 26 grapevines. So does that make us Sinners or Gods... or Sinful Gods? haha.

I think the "Forbidden Fruit's" might have been the variety of grapes that wine is made from, so I think we are ok, as we've planted Table Grape varieties, although, I'm sure if you tried you could make wine no matter what type of grape it is.

Anyway I digress, I was trying to think of an interesting way to start this entry. Long and short of it... we've planted 26 Grapes! It looks amazing! I'm Very Happy. A good start to our orchard.

After some research we decided on the following varieties:

> Candice Grape - A red seedless grape. (x6)

> Himrod - A green seedless grape. (x6)

> Buffalo - A blackish red grape I guess purple but with green flesh. (x6)

> New York Muscat - Similar to the Buffalo but the best tasting grape! (x8)

So it has been a busy couple of weekends...

Firstly we erected the trellis posts creating 4 rows, facing north. Posts are 4 metres apart and rows 2.2 metres apart, with anchor posts on the end. The setup costs, were a little more than I expected.. timber is so pricey!

Once the posts were all in, we marked where the plants were to be planted, and then scrapped off about 5cm of the top soil/grass, removing about 50cm by 50cm squares. We were trying not to take too much top soil off, but remove all the grass. The reason for this was to create less competition for the young vines.  

We then turned over the ground adding to that a wheel barrow of compost and new topsoil and digging that in well creating the little mounds ready to plant in.

Once the soil was prepared, then it was just a matter of stringing the centre wire, and making sure that was tight with wire strainers and then planting the grapes. Easy Peasy Grapes Are Squeezy!

We are yet to attach a T bar on the top of the fence trellis, which we will run two wires down, to create a greater leaf canopy and hopefully creating more fruit.  I'll update this entry once I've done that, hopefully this weekend if the weather is favourable.

But for now... Grow Babies Grow!!

We really don't know what we are doing, so any tips, advice is always appreciated.

Starting Out On Our Orchard

There are many excellent reasons in deciding to move into the country, but one of those was having the space and land to have our very own Orchard supplying our pantry, filling our bellies with our very own fruiting plants. 

There is nothing better than eating fruit straight off the plant. This takes me back to my teenage years working with Nana & Poppa in Orchards during my summer vacations. Many pleasant memories.

We really want to grow and produce more of our own food, and knowing what goes into that, living that more natural lifestyle and getting back to the basics.. it surely has to be a better way.

We've planted a few fruit trees to start with, to see how they went, but we want to step that up a gear in 2015 as it takes time for things to grow. So this Autumn/Winter/Spring we want to get in as many plants as we can into the ground to get them underway.

As we are working essentially with a blank canvas, I've again been searching the internet for ideas, but the best source of information to date, was having a local landscaper come around to look at the property to discuss various ideas with and to find out what grows well up here in Kaipara. Thank you Sharon I love your service :)

One great tip, was to find out how deep the top soil is. Where I had been planning to plant a variety of larger trees had only 30 cm of top soil before hitting limestone.  So with the post hole borer machine, I set off drilling test holes around the paddock looking for deeper top soil... which I found as I moved down the paddock.

A problem that needed to be seen too before we start planting was creating some drainage. We noticed last year during winter, with a lot of rain, the paddock becomes rather wet, and I think due to the limestone the water doesn't seem to drain through that.

So I contacted Mangawhai hire, who delivered a digger to home for a small fee, and then the chap from Mangawhai hire gave me a half hour lesson on how to operate the digger. After a bit of practice I got the hang of it, and spent a day digging some drains and what a lot of fun that was! I must say, I had excellent service from Mangawhai hire, I was very pleased, and highly recommend them.

I believe the digger was a 2.8 tonne digger.

So the main drain, runs along the fence line, and has a downward run to the other end of the paddock which enters a natural water course down the hill. 

You can see I got a little too close to the fence at times, but it should be ok, I hope. The drain is about 40cm below the the top paddock on the left side of the fence, which where I plan to start planting.

To be honest I wasn't too sure what I was doing, but in my head I was thinking if the water in water sodden soil has an exit, which would have to be at a lower point, then the excess water trapped in soil should hopefully drain out and away freely by having an open drain/culvert.

But I will see how it works this winter, I might have to get the digger back.

A New Garage - DIY Style

Our little 3m x 3m garden shed is bursting at the seams, you have to climb over the ride on mower to get to the fire wood, climb over the bags of compost & quick set cement to get to the hand tools... its a bit of a nightmare situation and not to mention perhaps an ACC claim waiting to happen.

So... it's time to build a garage... a few years earlier than what I had planned.

We've spent hours searching the internet for ideas, obtained a few quotes for complete builds which were coming in around $25K to $30K for a simple double garage.... so in the end we've decided to go down the DIY road again.

Essentially it is just 4 walls, a door and a roof... how hard can that be...? 

We've decided that we will build the biggest double garage that $15K can buy. Granted $15K doesn't buy much to be honest, and we will be stretching that, which is why we decided to give the DIY a go.  

Hopefully it doesn't turn into one of those DIY building nightmares you see on TV, but in reality it should be easy, you get a contractor in to do the foundation work, and then you just put it together like kitset furniture. Easy!

After researching a few kitset options, we decided that Versatile Garages was the best way to go. For $10K we were able to secure a 6m x 8m double garage but we changed the cladding, as we wanted to be able to paint the garage the same colour as the house... so it all matches. Versatile has been easy to deal with, quick on email replies etc and very good to date on the many questions I've sent their way.

So a quick run down on the figures:

Kitset:  $10,000

Paint:   $200 - (we have paint left over from the house, so will be minimal)

Concrete Foundation: $5000-$6000 (contractors estimate)

Council Fees: $1300

Water Tank & Fittings $1000

On paying the deposit to Versatile, you are sent full building plans which you send to the council, with the building consent application, and they have sent out a 45 page instruction manual on how to build the garage. Looks all very simple, but I intend to study that in great depth over the next few weeks. 

It might seem daunting, but submitting the building consent application on Kaipara Council's website was much easier than I thought.  In fact I thought I had missed something as it was so easy, and sent a message saying that to the council.  The very next day I received a call from the Council, just confirming that I had done everything correctly. Pheww! So not just a 20 business day wait to get the consent.

Once the consent is received, I will get the contractors in to start the foundations, and Versatile will start building the kitset.  Once the kitset is completed, I pay the balance payment to Versatile and then it is trucked out from their factory. Easy Peasy! 

Below is what we are planning to build... 

Update.... the contractor has been busy preparing the concrete pad:

Site Preparation

Ready For Council Pre Concrete Pour Inspection

Due to the slope, we've put in another small retaining wall on the lower side of the garage.  We will put in some good stop soil and make a garden bed out of it, which will be handy, and we will not have to bend over to weed this garden bed. Bonus!

I will add posts once we start building... should be interesting. :)