You're Not A Lifestyle Blocker Unless You Have Chickens!

We Have Chickens! 

Three Beautiful Gold Lace Wyandotte Pullets!

I choose the Gold Lace Wyandotte not just based on how pretty they are, a little thought went into my decision.  Online articles mentioned that they are a good hardy breed, good natured hens which can lay up to 200 eggs per year per hen and people also commented that they are a good chicken for a first timers, perfect for the back yard. The pretty feathers are just a bonus!

But firstly... we needed a new home for our brood of hens. I think that is what you call it when you have a group of hens? I'm sure the 3 young ladies just qualifies for that.

Using left over timber from the various projects, fence, house and the garden shed we've built a nice little dwelling for our hens.  

Also I fitted some wheels so we can move the cage about to new patches of grass. The wheels are from an old lawnmower which I had saved thinking they might useful someday. So I didn't need to purchase too much in the way of materials which is good, as these 3 hens where not cheap.

I purchased the hens from a couple different breeders, and I won't say what I paid for them (to avoid getting into trouble)... but let's just say there is great demand for the Gold Lace Wyandotte.  Here's hoping they start to lay some Golden Eggs to recover my investment, although I think I need a goose for that.

I digress... the chook house pictures are below, basically I just worked from ground up, with no real set plans.

My only concern is getting the hens to walk up the steps into the house, some training might be required for that. Any tips would be much appreciated.

One Happy Hen... I hope she is happy... there are two more little ones, I will upload some pictures when I have them, at the moment I'm just letting them to get to know each other, so have them in separate cages before putting them together. 

Ohh... and it seems the Turkey's have been busy too... showing off 5 little ones this spring.

 

 

Gate

For the last couple weekends we have been replacing the old fence at the top of the driveway. Taking out the old fence... which wasn't two difficult as there wasn't much holding it together, and replacing it with our two rail/post fence, and finally today, I've attached the gate. Job completed!

Before:

 After:

How far we have come over the last year... it gave me a great feeling of satisfaction attaching the gate, which I must say is rather cool!

Even Max is adjusting to the country life... 

Mr Cow meet Max... Max meet Mr Cow

 

Living The Lifestyle Dream

Labour weekend has arrived and the 3 day long weekend has given us the first opportunity to get out and explore the region we now live in. It has been so busy with the build, moving house, starting a new job we've not had a chance to really get out and explore the area, and start actually living the lifestyle dream.

Being such a beautiful day today, we thought we would head out to explore Waipu, about a 20 minute drive from Kaiwaka.

After a well deserved and much needed sleep in, we headed firstly to the Piroa Waterfalls. About 7kms off SH1 on the northern side of Brynderwyn Hills. It was an easy 10 minute walk to the waterfalls, and on such a stunning day, the falls were at their best... although the water was perhaps still a bit too cold for a dip, but in the heart of summer we will return for that dip in the pools.

After the visit to Piroa Waterfalls we headed onto Waipu Caves, about another 10 minutes drive down winding country roads both sealed and unsealed and well signposted from SH1. 

Just beautiful on a day like today, a beautiful sunny spring day. "Flush, Lush Green Grass". On the way we had a conversation about the word "Flush"... I can't recall how that came about but I digress.

Waipu Caves would be a perfect place to have a picnic on such a great day. We should have been a little more prepared and brought along our lunch. The caves are about a 5 minute walk from the car park. You can't miss the sign, it is rather large.

The caves are large, and you just need a good torch and footwear that you don't mind getting wet. It is a little slippery inside as there is a small creek that runs through the cave. There wasn't a lot of the stalagmites or stalactites, but the glow worms are very impressive! Well worth the visit.

Also located at Waipu Caves there is a walk that you can do... up a hill... for about 1.5 hours (the return trip). We weren't too sure where the track was heading, but well why not... it was such a awesome day, it would be silly not to see where the track leads too, we're always up for a little adventure.

Well the track went up... and up... and up some more.. such a big hill through bush and farm land. But reaching the top the views where impressive, I'm sure you could see Whangarei from the top.
 

But as they say, what goes up.. must come down. This wasn't a loop type of track, you had to return back down to the Waipu Caves the same way you went up.

By the time we reached the carpark, it was time for a well deserved lunch, so we headed into Waipu township for a bite to eat. A quaint little village with a hardware store, a couple dairies, museum and some cafes & bakeries. 

We decided that we would take our lunch to the beach to eat.  Instead of returning back home they way we came on SH1, there was a back road that loops around to Mangawhai and onto Kaiwaka. Just a few km's down the road from Waipu you come across Langs Beach a beautiful beach on a beautiful day, the perfect final stop before heading back home!

 

Letter Box - RD 2

When building a house there are many things that you don't initially think of, until it comes to the time when you need it, and then it takes time to organise it. For example, what is our postal address and how do we get mail... so we can redirect our bills to our new home.

To start with we purchased "Lot 7 Wattle Lane", but we had to pay a small fee of $25 to the Kaipara Council to apply for our "Road Number" I think they call it a RAPID Number.  Which is kind of interesting... the number allocated is calculated from the distance from the main road down to our plot. So we are 560 metres from the main road, so we are 56 Wattle Lane.

There are a couple of options for mail delivery, organising a PO Box rental in Kaiwaka or installing a letter box.  I did pop into the Kaiwaka Post Office to ask about a PO Box rental, but they didn't have any available, and they don't seem to ever become available as people hold onto them (which is surely a good sign as to what a great place Kaiwaka is to live),  but learning that the cost was around $150 a year for the rental... installing a letter box seemed the better value option long term.

We then filled out a form at the NZ post office so we can receive the Rural Delivery Mail, and it was just a matter of installing a letter box down on the main road at the entrance to Wattle Lane. Obviously installing a letter box to the NZ Post specifications (height/size etc), although I think we stretched those rules a little... hopefully they are more guidelines rather than strict rules.

The mailman does not actually come down Wattle Lane, he only delivers mail to mail boxes located at the entrance of the lane. My neighbour mentioned something to me once, that when all the sections have houses built, the mailman might service the lane, but that might take some time, but that's no issue as it's a nice walk down the lane to the letter box, to which I'm yet to complete.

I found this nice letter box on Trademe... an American import for about $60, but what I liked mostly was the lack of the envelope hole in the front. The main road is a dirt road and I can only imagine the mess the mail would end up in with all the dust blown up into the letter box with the traffic travelling past.

I purchased a pole for it to sit on from Bunnings, although perhaps it was a little too short... but hopefully it is still an easy reach for the mail man.

The letter box was level and forward facing when I installed it... but when compared to the other letter boxes, the photos below would suggest otherwise... but I'm happy with the overall result. I hope the mail man is happy too.

Ours is the "All Black" letter box.. so kiwi :) I can't wait to get our first bill! :)

Pond Update

I had mentioned previously we have had to put in a pond for fire fighting water and it was installed in the wrong location.  Well to get the final sign off

the council wants us to fence the pond.  We'll I've been working hard to get this finished... below are some pic's showing the progress of the pond.

 

There is still a lot more to do, we have more of the fence to finish, more planting, and we have a water feature to install, so the water is circulating.

The idea of the plants is for it to get big and bushy, so it kinda looks more natural... so we've planted a variety of flax's and grasses.

At the end of the jetty, I've suspended from chain in a basket two water lilies. But we will likely need more water plants... the pond is so large.

Then we need to look at fish or something... to eat the mosquito larvae.

Update 05 February 2015: 
Just an updated picture, some of the plants are coming along really well, in the background you can see the passion fruit vines starting to climb the fence. We will have passion fruit on one side of the pond and grapes on the other.

New Toy...

The build has come to an end, bills have been paid and with the very little money remaining, I've splurged on a new toy.  Well, it's not technically new, but more of an antique, but this 20 year old ride on lawn mower goes really well. 

I've had it serviced, replaced the battery and belts and it works brilliantly! Best of all I can get round the paddock in less than half the time it was taking me to do it with the push mower. I still use the push mower for the tight spots and around the edges, but the ride on takes care of the big opens spaces. Such Fun!

I think it is only appropriate to show our mower a little respect given the years of service it has provided it's previous owners, and we should name our mower... it has "White" written on the side of the mower, so perhaps Mr White, Senior White... Grand White, I'm not sure... looking for ideas, Gary and I have not come to an agreement on this yet.

Such Fun!

Old Post.... New Post

Just a quick update, this weekend was all about fixing the fences.... we can't plant any more plants until the fences are fixed, otherwise the sheep eat everything that we plant... so we only end up with very expensive sheep poo everywhere. 

The difficult part was untangling the fence, wire netting had been used in the past with the standard post and wire fence, so it was a mess, parts fallen over, and over grown with grass etc.

To be honest I didn't really know what I was doing, and trying to put a knot in the fence wire is really difficult... but the end result was OK... the posts are standing and the wire is tight so hopefully that works. I quiet like the inline wire strainers, made the job rather easy.

It's Raining Outside...

We've been waiting for a little rain to fill the pond to ease the liner comfortably into place before we fix it into place for good. Well we didn't get a little rain, we got all the rain we needed and some more!  

Yesterday there was 23mm of rain, and then today 72mm rain, and tomorrow another 60-80mm of rain is predicted! It looks like we going to get a months rain in 3-4 days!

Yesterday I received a phone call from my neighbour to say the wind had been blowing the pond liner into the pond and that it had been bucketing down. He kindly put some timber around the pond to hold the pond liner in place. 

I began to worry a little, as I hadn't yet put an overflow in place, so I took the afternoon off work to go up to the block to check it all out and to make sure the water overflowing wasn't eroding away the pond wall. 

The weather was awful, I think worse than cyclone Lusi that came through earlier in the year. The drive up to the block was a little challenging with a lot of surface flooding... and every time a big rig went past I had to nearly come to a stop due a wall of water being sprayed across to my side of the road, I couldn't see a thing! Also another interesting sight was water going horizontally across the windscreen with the rain!  Even driving at open road speeds normally the rain would travel up the windscreen over the car roof, but as I came up and over some ridges, the wind gusts would blow the car and the rain horizontally across the car windscreen!

On my arrival at the block I was greeted with water everywhere! Which was good in that I have a better idea of where the water runs and flows, so I can make plans to divert it away from the house, but I got soaked running from the car to the house, which is a mere 10 meters!  I didn't think to take a raincoat with me!

I put on my gumboots... and quickly ran around putting more timber on the side of the pond to hold the pond liner in place, protecting it from the howling wind.  I then checked the overflow point, and luckily there was enough pond liner that was covering the outer pond wall, so that was keep the pond wall dry from the water flowing over the top of the pond wall and down the other side of the pond.  

However, another job to add to our "to do" list, when the weather clears up, we will need to make a little creek or stone bed or something to carry the water away from the pond & garden shed, out into the paddock, to try to keep the area dry.  

Fencing... A New Feather In My Hat!

As a boy I remember spending time with Dad, fencing on the sheep & cattle farm that we lived on in the mid 80's in Taranaki. I remember at the time I found it was rather boring and I used to just hang out in the Holden Rodeo ute while Dad was working.  But from that experience I do remember some small details about how Dad built the farm fence. I remember watching Dad using a post hole borer to dig the holes, putting the fence post in and ramming in the dirt to make the post stand tall and strong. I remember helping Dad with that, and dad said all the dirt has to go back into the hole so ram it in good and hard, then running the wires down the fence line.

It's these little things that I remember from my childhood on the farm, and then with the help of Google, I guess this is what gives me the confidence and drives the DIY in me. Dad wasn't educated, and I guess he learned what he knew from his Dad, and working on farms at a young age himself... and he always had that good ole "can do attitude". So if Dad could do it, then I surely can do it, especially with all the information that can be found online today.

But in saying that I wish Dad was still with us today to help and give me some guidance and advice on how to build a fence and other things. 

The previous weekend we had all the timber delivered for the building the fence around the Septic runoff area.  It was quiet a lot of timber, and I was expecting a truck with a crane type setup to deliver the timber, but no, it came in two loads on the back of a trailer, so we had to unload it all by hand. We lost half a day with that.

So this weekend, we've got stuck in and started building our fence. 

So my fence design is based on a post and 2 rail, and then an outrigger type hot wire near the top, and a standard wire along the bottom.   

The hot wire is more to stop the cattle & sheep rubbing on the fence, so they don't damage it.

The posts are 1500mm tall and 100x100mm. We dug the hole about 55cm deep so 1/3rd of the post was in the ground. The posts are set at about 2 meters apart and we used a post hole auger/borer to dig the holes and a post rammer to ram in the dirt.

The two horizontal rails are timber that is 150mm x 50mm and are spaced 30cm apart, and then the hot wire will run between the two of them.  I'm going to invest in solar powered battery pack for the electric fence... I just need to do a little more research on that though.

Then half way from the ground to the bottom of the first rail, we will just run a normal fence wire along the bottom of the fence and use the wire strainers to tighten that wire.

 

Slow progress....

 

By the end of the day, the fence was completed. We just need to run the two wires along the fence, but that should be a quick job for next weekend, then we can start planting and mulching the area inside the fence, the final bit for council compliance.

 

Compliance & The Crater!

Part of the Kaipara Council requirements for the final code of compliance sign off is to have 45,000 litres of water reserve for fire fighting purposes.

This was something that was introduced last year by the Kaipara Council. Previously it was just 10,000 litres, so you could have got away with 2 water tanks. But the increased water reserve would require us to have 3 water tanks... two of which I wouldn't be allowed to use, so they would just be sitting there, which would be an eye sore.  Part of the new requirements does allow for an alternative water source, swimming pools and ponds. So we decided to go with a pond, due to the cost mainly, and it will look cool once it is all planted out.

So I brought a heavy duty pond liner on trade me, and arranged for the guy who did the driveway to come in to dig a rather large hole for us. I had marked out where the pond was to go, and pointed out to the location, and I thought all was made very well clear, but the digger guy got it wrong. Instead of the pond being about 30m away from the house, it is now 6m away from the house! The hole... crater is a bit bigger than what we were expecting.

I had planned for 6m x 6m x 1.5m deep, but we are more like 10m x 10m x 2m deep. I did expect it to be a little larger with the slopping sides... but when you actually see the crater for the first time it was a bit of a shock.

 

Initially we were very disappointed with the location... but it has come to grow on us a little. It would be a big job to fill it in, and start again.  If we landscape/plant it out really well, it could become a very nice feature from the deck. We will put in water lilies and a water feature of some sort. It could become really nice once done. I'm trying to stay positive... it is a bloody big hole!

To fill the pond, the excess water from the water tank will be piped into the pond, along with the water that run's off the driveway.

 

The Crater!

I think I pulled every muscle in my body pulling the pond liner into place. I've been sore for days! Especially by left elbow and lower back! The pond liner was 16m x 16m so plenty big enough, but we will also use it as weed mat around the sides of the pond. But we will wait until the pond is nearly full of water and the liner is set in before we start planting around the sides.

 

I will post some updated photos as we progress with the pond but next weekend, we have to start putting up the fence around the septic field. Just waiting for the timber to arrive then we can get stuck into it.

UPDATE:

We've made a overflow for the pond...so the water is now being deverted away from the garden shed, and out into the paddock. I guess we will have to do something about that to... water in the paddock.