March 18th 2012

It’s been a while I admit. There’s a lot to catch up on, so here goes

December 13th we were hit with a deluge of rain, 400 – 500 mm of water in 24 hours, all of it down on the foothills and coastal areas. Nelson was flooded, Motueka, Riwaka, Takaka, and Pohara. Out here in the Valley it wasn’t so bad, the Aorere rose a bit, but not as much as the January 2011 flooding.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10773343

We were cut off for a few weeks, the road just this side of the Takaka River, by the Waikoropupu Springs road was lost when the hillside collapsed, thankfully I keep the pantry stocked well up all the time. We couldn’t get out past Collingwood for 3 weeks, until Christmas Eve, the Collingwood store managed to hire a fishing boat to bring in more supplies from Nelson about week 2, so we couild have managed for a while longer.

We lost phone/internet for a while, which was a pain, but I managed.

The road is still one lane past the slip, and we have the only set of traffic lights in Golden Bay now at each end of the lane.

My keyboard on the laptop died a slow death, first the “s” key stopped working, then a few others, then the space bar, it wasn’t until late January I managed to get into Takaka and replace it with a plugin keyboard. I’ll have to get the laptop repaired at some point, but it isn’t high on the list yet.

In the meantime, I’ve been working both milkings, on a 12 day on, 2 days off roster, 4am starts, finish the day about 5pm, with a 4 hour gap inbetween. Needless to say, I’m asleep by 8pm most nights. We are milking 1400 cows now, Hayden increased the herd sizes in January, 700 in each herd now, with the rain and warm weather the grass is growing faster than the cows can keep it down.

We are moving the herds 3 times a day at present, just to keep the top of the grass cut back to stop it getting rank and beyond palatable for the cows. Still getting 35,000 litres of milk a day though, depending on the overnight weather it can get to 38,000 just on the first milking. Fronterra decided to only send the tanker on a 2 day pick up, which lasted less than 3 days for us, we had both tanks full by the second day, and were just about to dump an entire milking shift worth when they sent a double tanker to pick up, after some rather pointed phone calls. I think we are the only farm out here still on daily pickup, and a few times the last month, 2 pickups the same day.

It must be paying off, Brigid and I both got pay rises, another $1.50 an hour, which makes life a bit easier.

Alé and Nacho, 2 of the Argentiniaens we had working on the farm left in February, I was down the river with Tuffy when Mike came down with his sluice box to show them how to pan for gold. By the time I left they had a few small flakes, but not a lot to show for the effort, although there is still a lot of gold to be pulled out from the river if you find the right spot. I’m considering getting my own sluice and pan and having a play over winter in a few spots that look promising.

From the James Road bridge to near the Heaphy Track start is open fossicking, no licence required, but also, no mechanical or powered mining equipment is allowed, so it is shovel and hand pans only.

The James Road Bridge was finally opened again, after the last one was washed away in the January 2011 flood, which made the farmers over the river very happy. No more kayaking across to get supplies or paying for a helicopter to drop off farm stuff. It took the contractors 4 months to build, mostly waiting for concrete abutments to set before the actual bridge could be swung into place.

I’ve bought a few new toys to play with, 2 rather old style rotary hoes, (roto-tillers), picked them up for $200, one going, one needed repair, so I’m busy digging over more ground for garden. I’ve been eating well from the polytunnel, tomates, beans, chillies, cucumbers, and more zucchini than I can cope with from the outdoor garden Garlic, potatoes, radishes, silverbeet (Swiss Chard), my oka (yams) are nearly ready, another month or so till the frosts arrive and I’ll be digging them out.

Tuffy is turning into a major worry, he sneaks into the polytunnel if I leave the door open and strips the beans and cucumbers, tomatoes and chillies off the vines and bushes to eat, also the zucchini outdoors, plus the beetroot. I think he has finished growing, well above knee high on me, and he seems to be learning a few things, like “come here” and “stop eating my vegetables you crazy dog” type things. Although I have doubt about the last one.

He met up with the local hedgehog, and had a "discussion" over ownership of one of his bones.

We had our first bit of snow on March 3rd, just a capping on the mountains, it only lasted a day or so, but enough to make a decided chill in the valley.

I’m slowly working my way around the section, clearing out the overgrowth of hedera and tradescantia, I’m getting to the stage where I think a good dose of Agent Orange is called for, or napalm. The rain and warm weather isn’t helping, everything is growing as fast as I can cut it back lately.

I spent Christmas Day with David and Judy down the road, they had their family all together for the first time in a few years, and it turned out to be a really nice summer day, plus it was my one day off as well.

Here is a pic of the Valley, from the hill above the house, looking up towards the Aorere River and the Heaphy.