Christophers Comment

Posted by on 5 May 2013 | 2 Comments

CHRISTOPHERS COMMENT APRIL 2013

Today I buried a mate. The last of a line of good mates, four legged, faithful and true, all of them: Lace, Gay, Sue, Tang, Sam, Moss ( John Dewhirsts' dog originally ), Jos, Missy, Rag, Jess ( shared ownership with Amy ) and now Mac; all gone where there is plenty of work to do with a pat, a bone and a warm bed at the end of the day. Mercifully, the end came quickly. He had been off-colour for only a couple of days and yesterday he came with me to do the stock work. He was his usual self, barking his head off when not necessary, running around like a headless chicken and generally pissing me right off. And despite the fact that he was probably one of the most infuriating dogs I've ever had I shall miss him. Rest easy Mac; you were one of a kind especially after your annual haircut when we muzzled you, held you down, and shore you like a sheep to keep you cool. Luckily, you never knew just how ridiculous you looked after we had done it.

In my last newsletter I made the comment that we had just had some rain and a lot more had been predicted. That was on February 4^th. We had 11mm and the next lot of rain fell on the 18^th March. The previous rain was on the 18^th January. In between time we had very hot days often in excess of 32 degress. This culminated in the worst drought for more than 70 years and forced the Govt to declare most of the country drought areas triggering special Govt assistance.

We got our 400 Feb lamb pick away before the bite had really started at an average weight of 17 kgs. But from then on its been all down hill. And we still have 90 lambs left which is breaking our policy of all lambs gone by the end of Feb. However its very hard to sell lambs when no one has any grass. Hopefully they will go in the very near future.

We made the decision early that we would not mate the ewe lambs this year but instead just maintenance feed them and prioritise the grass to the ewes and cattle. This was fine but within 10 days of the rain in mid March some ewe lambs were not doing well. A quick vet test later revealed Barbers Pole Worm so they all had to be drenched for that. I had told Hugh we never get BPW here but more likely to be viral pnemonia! I now wonder if I have misdiagnosed it other years.

The ewes went to the ram on 19^th March in quite good condition all things considered. However their condition also started to slide and although their tests also showed up BPW they were also carrying a high worm count and had to be drenched as well.

Cattle have had to be fed hay from March onwards and have already consumed all our hay ( 1000 bales ) and our now eating their way through the next 200 we have had to buy in. More hay will need to be purchased but it is hard to find and people with hay are charging plenty for it.

April has been the month when things finally turned around. 16mm of rain early in the month was followed by another 87mm spread over a week or so in the middle of the month. Since then the grass response has been amazing helped by the fact that it has stayed very mild. Fertiliser was flown on around this time as well. Good timing

Our heifers were changed over around the first of May. The new ones arriving ( 362 ) were all weighed and drenched and now have grass ahead of them. As per usual, the letter box was totalled by one of the trucks and trailers manoeuvring in through the road gate. No one, of course, has owned up!

Weather experts are predicting that we need to be aware that these extremes of drought etc are here to stay. Our water system coped reasonably well with the high demands the stock put on it but there is always areas that it can be improved on and these we will look at before next summer. Also our ability to feed out a lot of supplementary feed needs to be addressed and it may be time to say good-bye to our faithful little Massey Fergusson 135 ( which I purchased new in 1973! ) and buy a bigger tractor capable of feeding out big bales or wrapped silage. Oh dear. The dog and the tractor all in a week or so.

Our retirement project ( The Villa in Cambridge ) is still all go. New pictures on progress have been placed on this website. Janet and |I have taken on the task of keeping the whole building site tidy so most weekends we are seen carting out loads of offcuts and generally tidying up. It is a slow job tidying up as everyone who walks past feels they have to make a comment on progress, the design, colours etc etc. Not that we mind. Its all very positive, especially as we chose to retain the character of the heritage street on which we will live. We have deliberately not talked about a completion date as all good things take time and this is no exception! Needless to say we are very pleased with how it is going and how it is looking. We are seeing our completed Matai floor boards in Kumeu this week. Milled in the Pureora Forest, Central North Island, drawn out of the forest by draught horses ( how cool is that? ) and cut and dried in Kumeu. They are to be delivered to the site next week to season before being laid.

We had a lovely Easter at the beach this year. Our two daughters Ellen and Amy and their respective families all stayed with us at Whangamata. The Easter Bunny drew a large heart in the sand above high tide mark and decorated it with shells under which the Easter Eggs were found. It was all good family fun. Weather was still good and we all swam, water was beautiful. So easy to entertain the little boys at the beach, they play in the sand for hours and you just have to stop them going out too far in the surf and drowning themselves. Easy.

Now, the most auspicious event that occurred this month was that one of us turned into a pensioner. Not that she was happy about this but, as she discovered, it does have advantages. Birthday week included a trip to the NZ Opera production of Madame Butterfly, dinner out with friends and lots of messages, phone calls, hugs and kisses from little boys. Thank you all for making her birthday such a happy one. It is obviously not all bad being a pensioner; Gold Card and all. Not that I would know about being a pensioner. Yes, well.....?

:CMG

05 May, 2013