Welcome 2010

Happy new year, dear readers.  I hope that this year, 2010, will be better than the last, but honestly, do you think it will? I suspect more of the same bullshit. Ok, that's totally pessimistic of me, I know. For the record, my new year resolution is to "be a better person" and this probably includes having a more positive attitude. Really, what do I have to complain about that is so bad? I have a job that I like, a husband who loves me, 2 dogs and 2 cats who need me and are nice and cuddly, and I live in an absolutely gorgeous country that's not overpopulated (yet), New Zealand.  I also lucky to have good friends here, many of whom I saw over the xmas/new-year holiday.

We certainly have enjoyed gorgeous weather lately, and it coincided neatly with my holiday time off.  Darin and I headed up to our land in Maungaturoto on Boxing Day and camped for 4 nights. The first day we went scuba diving with Poor Knights Divers.  We have dived with them before, and they are really great. They took us to Tye Dye Arch and Blue Mao Mao Arch, both places we hadn't been before and are infrequently dived due to conditions.

We were lucky to hit a calm day.  There were tons of fish, stingrays, eels, and nudibranchs.

The colors on the rocks were amazing. It was an excellent way to spend a day off work. When we returned to our garage on our land, we filled up a plastic tub with fresh water, from our tank that collects rainwater from the roof, to rinse our dive gear. Then we hung our gear on our trailer to dry. We had a hot shower using our propane water heater, which is hung in a private location in the trees behind the

garage.  The dogs obviously couldn't come, so we left them in the orchard. They seemed to handle this just fine, so we did it again the next day when we visited Bayley's Beach and Kai Iwi lakes.  Both places are so beautiful, just look at these photos.

Trout are stocked in the sand dune lakes of Kai Iwi, and I waded out into the soft sandy warm water to cast into the deep part of the lake. We didn't get any nibbles, but it was still a great afternoon.  Afterwards we drove to the west coast beach, Bayley's, which remided us a lot of the Torrey Pines beach reserve in San Diego, only bigger, and you can drive on Bayley's (and no Torrey Pines).

We spent the remainder of our time up north on our land getting work done, playing with the dogs, and reading. 

I recently read Night Watch, a Russian novel about "others", made into two movies which are really fun, Night Watch and Day Watch.  Thus I followed up with the Swedish vampire novel, Let Me In, made into a movie also, Let the Right One In. The book was excellent, better than the movie!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with friends and MEAT. Here's Darin, Master of the Grill:

 

I got some great specials at the butcher shop on the 31st, because they were to be closed for the following two days.  I used the leftover beef rib meat (yummy!) in a home-made chili with whole, dried New Mexico and chipotle chilis, which I've brought from the US and keep in either the freezer or

refridgerator, ground up in a coffee grinder. 

We've borrowed my sister's wood chipper (visions of Fargo, the movie!) to do some yard work. Our yard has been seriously neglected, and the previous owners planted a lot of plants, so this quickly grew into a huge job.  It's great to have all the wood chips to put into the compost, under the plants, and on the path around the garden. 

The garden is looking pretty sad, unfortunately.  I had one good cucumber, but the ones on the vines now are turning yellow and the leaves have the powdery mildew. The zucchini has the blossom end rot and is getting the mildew as well. The cabbage (my first) looks pretty good, despite all the green catepillars eating the leaves.  The lettuce I pulled out and fed to the chickens because it was stunted and started to bolt before really growing at all.  The silverbeet (aka chard) looks really good though, and the tomatoes are setting fruit.  I have two tiny jalapeno peppers.  I guess I'm a lazy gardener; I don't weed, feed, or water as often as needed. 

One more day of vacation, then back to work.  I'll be opening two trials for recruitment in January that I helped set up: One is a radiotherapy trial for prostate cancer, the other is a medical oncology trial for Wyeth's HER-2 + breast cancer drug, neratinib.  Should be exciting! 

Fiordland is gorgeous

In November, I took a week off work to fly to the South Island of New Zealand. We flew to Queenstown and did a driving tour around the Fiordlands. Darin and I rented a camper-van from Jucy rentals, and drove to Manapouri, to Te Anau, to Milford Sound, and back to Queenstown.  We camped every night except in Queenstown, where we enjoyed a hot shower and soft bed. 

The campgrounds were great, all have shared toilet and kitchen facilities, for no extra fee.  November was early in the spring season, so the cost  was reasonable for the camper rental. The camper had a stove, sink, water, small refridgerator, and bed (assembly required), with sheets supplied.  There were curtains on the windows and storage space beneath the benches. Nothing bad happened with the rental, but next time I will pay a bit more for a bigger camper. The one we had, called a "campa", had an uncomfortably sloping passenger seat and  a crap stereo that wouldn't play the CDs we'd brought.

We splurged on an overnight boat trip on Doubtful Sound with Real Journeys, and were not disappointed.  It was just great; the staff was talented, the food was delcious and plentiful, and the scenery was stunning-  we'd do it again and recommend it to others. It was cold, but we were dressed warmly. I had my down

jacket along but didn't need it after Doubtful Sound.

The next stop was Milford Sound, where we camped 3 nights. This was also worthwhile, because we got to see a lot of the attractions of the area.  This included the Kea, the NZ mountain parrot, which is very cool. We had great weather, but when it rained on the day we departed, this was beautiful too, because all the mountainsides were covered in waterfalls.

We enjoyed kayaking on Milford Sound, and the hikes were also grand.  Here's Darin pointing at the Darren Mountains (misspelled, obviously).

Happy new year 2009

We spent Xmas morning at Cornwallis Park (above) with my sister and bro-in-law. The beautiful red flowering trees are the Pohutakawa, AKA New Zealand Christmas tree. Darin brought our camping stove, fresh eggs from our hens, chopped veggies, and free range bacon, and made omelettes for breakfast. We were glad we got there early, because this remote beach became fairly busy as the morning progressed. We played a couple games of Bocce ball, then headed further down the road, through Huia and on to Whatipu, where I knew of some sea caves within an easy walking distance. Sadly we didn't bring any flashlights or sunscreen with us, so the cave tour was cut short.
There are about 5 caves of different sizes, and one can be camped in. I love caves! There are lots here in NZ, and sometimes people get trapped in them.
The picture below shows how far away from the ocean the caves are. The location is at the mouth of the Manukau Harbor, where sand has been deposited over the years. You can get to the beach from here, but it is a bit of a walk and there are many swampy areas.
For Xmas dinner I made a lamb stew recipe using a lamb shoulder (bone in) from my sister's Julia Childs cookbook, and it was the best! Pretty easy, too.

The weekend after Xmas, Darin and I went up to camp in our orchard, on our land outside Maungaturoto. We had a satisfying time walking around with a beer in one hand, machete in the other, smashing the thistle bushes to death. I did get a few scratches, but that's the price you pay when you do battle with the REAL evil weed.

Fargo and Ruby had fun playing in the recently filled pond next to our driveway. Ruby improved her swimming skills immensely, and she enjoys launching herself from the shore into the water. She and Fargo are master stick-fetchers.
We knew there was a rabbit living in the ravine just uphill from the pond, and Darin found him hopping about early in the morning. He hadn't even had any coffee yet, but his aim was perfect, right in the head! The dogs had fresh rabbit for breakfast (post-butchering).

After making ourselves breakfast, we drove 10 minutes to Whakapirau, where we tried out our new surf-casting rods and reels. The tide was out, and the shore was hella-muddy. Note to self, wear your gumboots next time. After 1.5 hrs without a nibble, we gave up. It was a lovely morning for standing around the beach, watching the birds and the tide come in.

Though I meant to paint my bedroom during the break, it just didn't happen. We did have some fun with friends, and ate lots of good food. I took the time to experiment with the goat meat, and found it to be really quite good. I made 2/3 goat, 1/3 beef sausages with pork fat, seasoned with rosemary, mustard, garlic, and salt of course. I also made a goat meat chili, cooking the goat legs in beer and broth with carrots, onion, shallot, leek, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, etc. The cooked meat was removed from the broth, cut off the bones, and the broth drained. Then I made the typical chili sauce using some of the broth, and just added the meat back to it. I have never fully appreciated the awesomeness of braising meat before this break, and I feel enlightened by the time and effort I put into learning it.

I finished reading Steve Martin's autobiography, Born Standing Up, and also Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler. They were both ok, quick reads.

Finally, my new favorite blog is CakeWrecks. I frequently laugh out loud when I see it- check it out here. I will add it to my liks also.

New Zealand farm and wild life

We have 5 chicks, hatched from eggs by our Araucana hen. She's a really good mom, but didn't lay any of the eggs she hatched. The chicks are a Barred Rock cross. One of them has 5 toes, and another has blue/grey eyes, different from the others with golden eyes. They hatched just after we returned from our Labour Day holiday in October, so they are about 4 weeks old now. They've joined the rest of the girls in the yard, but are still snuggling with Araucana at night.

This photo is the new trailer we bought in association with my sister and BIL. It has a cage around it, that is removable, for transporting small stock. Lots of work has been going on at our land in Maungaturoto:
The building pad for our KiwiSpan garage:

The fence around the orchard is finished: We have a large gate for access from the driveway, and there's a personal/walk thru gate on the opposite side. The small gate gets us down to the stream to fetch buckets of water to water the trees. The dogs love to play in the stream, playing tug and fetch with old branches or logs from trees. Sadly for Fargo, he bit his tongue trying to run through the personal gate (3 feet wide) while carrying a 4 foot long log in his mouth. I was worried he'd broken a tooth, it bled so much. The wound healed really fast, to my delight. As we watered the trees recently, we noticed small freshwater shrimps in the buckets. We rescued them and re-homed them in the newly-created and still filling pond at the ravine crossing of our driveway. We heard a splash while there, and suspect a toad has moved in. Good! We've also noticed rabbits in that ravine. Also in Recent Wildlife News, we saw a turkey hen with an adorable, fluffy turkey chick. Yes only one, and we suspect the hawks we see flying around have taken a few. Finally, do you know that song, Thank God I'm a Country Boy by John Denver (watch here on YouTube, funny!) Well, there is a bird that sounds like it's singing the tune to this part of the song (lyrics):

Well I got me a fine wife I got me a fiddle

When the suns comin up I got cakes on the griddle

It is incredibly annoying, being reminded of this song and having it go through my head as I walk up and down that hill hauling water. In all honesty though, I must agree with him that being out there on the farm is incredibly gratifying (despite the lack of pancakes).

Two weeks ago, Darin and I took our new trailer up to our farm and camped overnight for the first time. We went possum hunting along the ravine after nightfall, but didn't see any. We have seen them as roadkill up there, and we worry for our tender young fruit trees. We worked so hard planting them, and the cost of them and all the gas/petrol going to and from the farm to water them almost every weekend is large. So, when Darin spotted a possum as we walked past an area near the road this weekend, he killed it. We knew something was wrong with it- possum are nocturnal, and live in trees. This one was on the ground, in the middle of the afternoon. When it was dead, we noticed that it had a road rash on it's back. It had been hit by a car, but survived, and crawled down the embankment onto our property. We brought it home as food for our pets. I've blogged before about possum, that it's a pest in NZ, and good to eat (for people and pets). The major benefit in my eyes is that it is a wild food, so no factory farming, no dis-assebly- line slaughter, and it's free (except for the butchering time). Darin found when he butchered it, that it's back was broken. It probably had happened earlier that day, because it still had food in it's guts. So he actually stopped the possum from suffering an agonizing death by killing it right away. Awww, poor fellow...er, I mean, wait, not this evil nasty beast?!Well that is the before photo, and here's the after: A VERY happy kitty, who was eating an animal about his own size:Here's a photo of the dogs' dinners. You can see that they also got some homemade vegetable soup (chard, potatoes, carrots, squash, tomato paste, Emeril's seasoning, ginger, olive oil, and oatmeal) and fresh apple.

The reason this was all very exciting is that possum is very healty, for both the environment and the eater. I think more people would feed it if they knew where to get it. I did find this canned dog food, a New Zealand product, called Possyum. I haven't fed it to the dogs yet, but it looks quite good. It also has venison in it. I think it cost about $4 or 5. I can also buy raw possum quarters for pet food from K9 Raw Food Barn for about 7 or 8 dollars a kg (2.2lbs). For the readers among you who want more information about raw feeding your dog or cat, look here.