There was nothing extraordinary to write about this winter, really. It’s not been too wet and not too dry, neither too cold or too warm. We had a few frosty nights and a few pretty rainy days but all in all it was reasonably warm and okay from a mud perspective.
The weather is getting warmer, and the days are stretching out longer, giving us more daylight to enjoy. The rain is slowly becoming less frequent, making way for sunnier skies.
We had flooding and cylones. The ducks have been the only very happy creatures but they turned their area into a slimy, muddy mess.
Guess that sums up the last few months.
Apart from the usual winter farm activities, there has not been much exciting stuff happening. It’s been a typical winter with lots of rain, lots of mud but rather warm in comparison. It looks like nature has decided that it is spring.
Today, we made an attempt of getting the ducks out of the duck run and into the garden for some bug and snail control. They were not too keen to get out and needed convincing, some of them we simply had to literally throw out.
The weather has turned from somewhat wet and warm to rather wet and cold. The horses have been rugged up just like the goats. The rodent infestation has become noticeable, so we started putting up more traps on top of the traps and bait stations we already had.
The little ducklings have grown over the last couple of days and become so docile, or should I rather say they’ve sussed out where the food comes from….
If not doing office work, we fix fences, move animals around, collect, cut and chop firewood, dig trenches, build goat houses ;-) and fix all sorts of things that break over time.
It’s been rather wet, foggy and cold in the last couple of days. The cats spent more time inside and expressing a form of cabin fever when awake but they are mostly asleep.
The horses are asking for more food, the chickens are hiding in their house and the ducks – well, the ducks are in their element.
We created quills out of some duck feathers. They have the big advantage that the quill is actually pretty long already. Still not long enough to actually handle them properly though. Shaved some of the vane off and it was much better.
After being rather busy over the last week before Christmas with a film crew on site and the typical “everything needs to be finished by Christmas” work frantic, we are now all truly in holiday mode.
All at Pukeatua Farmstay wishing you a lovely and relaxed time and a Happy New 2021. May it bring prosperity and happiness.
