Life with the land – Two years in and taking the bad with the good.

It’s been just over two years since we moved to our homestead in this rugged valley. Life has changed so much and yet so little, the outer world has become a place of so much uncertainty for many people. Sometimes you wonder where it is all going to end up…

We tend to focus instead on what we need to do here at Fodder Farm as there is still so much to do. It sometimes seems overwhelming, with the need to continue building infrastructure and cleaning up pine slash in our paddocks. A dry spring going into an even drier long hot summer has slowed progress somewhat. With the threat of brush fires the pine clean up came to a stand still before Christmas. Then early this year we had a scary time when the wind blew powerlines into a tree causing arching. We were fortunate to see the smoke from the house and get there in time to slow the spread with the help of some forestry workers. The fire service came out to dampen the whole area down, it took them over an hour to get here… This is the downside of living in remote areas. The next morning David found an area still smouldering and had to cart water to dampen the area again, but fortunately that was the end of it.

In spring we had been encouraged by the pasture seed sprouting and covering the cleared pine paddock areas with a fine flush of green. But with the land still not fenced (as the forestry had chewed up the fence lines so much and the ground needed to be releveled and allowed to settle prior to fencing) it was at risk from wandering livestock and wild deer and goats. Then one rainy day the forestry guys left the neighbours gate open. We didn’t realise until till too late, but the whole herd had grazed across our freshly growing pastures. The young grass was torn from the ground and the earth trodden into a pugged mess. We rounded up the wayward beasts in the pouring rain, absolutely gutted by the mess they left behind. The grass never recovered, as soon after the dry time started, and we were left with a paddock of sparse chicory, plantain and persistent, unbeneficial weeds. Subsequent sowing just didn’t have a chance as every forecast of rain didn’t eventuate. In an area where it usually has too much rain this dry season has been hard on the local farmers. But what it forces you to do, is take stock of your feed systems.

After a very dry summer and autumn this past year we did not have good pasture going into winter. The feed we had stored did not last till the new spring growth and we have had to buy more haylage to keep our stock in good condition. The clearing of the pine slash is very important to increase the pasture area, but also to allow for more fencing and the planting of more tree and shrub fodder and forage. The shortage of pasture also impacted on our kunekune paddock meaning more feed was required for them too. Feed prices have risen considerably over the past year, this has really highlighted the need to focus on getting our feed systems really knuckled down before next winter. We are still learning what works well in this new environment and what doesn’t. But feel we have a good idea of what will produce best here for fodder and forage over next winter. We have also established some areas which can be planted for this purpose and if we can establish more pasture areas this spring, we have another small paddock we would like to plant as a livestock forage and medicinal area. This year will hopefully be a real test for our closed loop systems in feeding our livestock. Part of which is finding the balance between how much stock we need to carry to feed us and how much stock we can actually carry without having to bring in feed supplementation.

David changed focus once the land dried out and began refencing our roadside boundary. To save us money he had removed the fences prior to our forestry harvest happening, the wire and battens were rolled up in sections and the posts dug from the ground. This meant as he worked on each area, he could put the posts back in and roll out the fences, joining wires and straining the fence as he went. Getting these areas secured again dramatically increased our grazing area which was a relief as our small cow was due to calf.

Lucy is our lowline angus/jersey cross, destined to be our milking cow. But on Boxing Day night her birth did not go to plan, the calf was stuck, the vets unreachable. Lucky for us we have a friend who runs a small dairy herd. So, at 2am we all stood in the paddock with the suffering Lucy. I held the torch as Isabel struggled to manoeuvre the calf into a better position, then with David’s help she eased the huge calf from poor Lucy’s birth canal. He slithered to the ground and to our relief was alive, but it took Lucy a bit of time to recover and at first, she seemed highly disinterested in her calf. By morning we were pleased to see the calf (Walle) was clean and feeding, and Lucy was very attentive. However, she did not drop the placenta and a vet visit was needed to clean out the fetid residue.

We hoped this was the end of our dramas with Lucy, but she was such a devoted mum that she resented sharing her milk with us and we had milk letting down issues the whole time she was milked. David persisted with the milking for about six months but as the pasture became scarce and we were more reliant on the hay, we decided it was time to just leave her feeding Walle and let her wean him naturally. Cows eat a lot, especially while producing milk, so it becomes a weighing up of how much we need to supplement her feed versus how much we need the milk versus what’s best for the cow.

During this time, we had also been focused on the garden and preserving the harvests. The second-hand tunnel house we had purchased 4 years ago and lugged into our valley, was finally erected and a shade house built on the south wall of it. This gives us more growing space for winter crops and frost sensitive plants. But the irony here is that with all preserving of fruit and growing of veges, David stopped eating them…

For many years David has struggled with a serious digestive issue, he has tried many things and for a time some of them worked. We have been low carb/keto for many years now and that has helped tremendously. But there were always times when he really struggled again, and this summer was a difficult time. Through his study of his condition, he came across the carnivore diet and decided to give it a try. This has been the best decision for his health, so much so that our youngest teenage daughter decided to try it. She had great results as well, so I was convinced to try it too as I have struggled with a sinus issue for years and have a heart valve issue. So, we are all mostly carnivore with a 200m2 vege garden and about a hundred fruit trees! Not to mention a pantry full of preserves… but we are all in the best health and shape we have been in for ages. We do still occasionally have fruit or veges, but they are all low oxalate, as this has become apparent as a major issue for David. This has changed our homesteading focus slightly, the garden is currently mainly there to add to our stock feed and our primary focus is on developing meat, fats and eggs. With hopefully more homegrown dairy in time.

Eventually the rains did come to ease our parched landscape and with David’s energy back up he started on the pine clean up again. He made good progress across about an acre of paddock, it was still hard going with many logs and branches partially buried in the ground. But with most of the small debris, twigs and pine needles decomposed, a lot of the weight was gone. The soil looked good too with all the added carbon from the breaking down pine needles. We fed out locally sourced hay to the stock on these cleared areas and saw the dropped seeds soon sprout. It was good to see this young growth back on the land.

The road which had been a dust cloud of thundering forestry trucks settled back to a soft sludge of the local pumice. But nature is a fickle mistress, just when you think you are on track the rains really come, bucketing down and then there’s the mud. The road became a slippery mess as the neighbour’s forestry crew struggled to finish the block they were in. Several times we had to slide past trucks in foot deep mud, manoeuvre around massive potholes and avoid the constant slips. A trip out of our valley became an adventure, one where it was often a good idea to have a chainsaw in the boot of the Ute. The postie had long stopped coming to our mailbox, opting instead to take up our suggestion of leaving it in the nearest mailbox 2.5 kms away.

Outside jobs were put on hold as we were forced indoors apart from the braving the elements for feeding out to the stock. There is no progress on the paddocks when the pine slash is sodden, so enforced rest and recouperation becomes the focus. Smaller projects around the house and garden are squeezed in on finer days, the orchard forest was planted with more fruit trees, berries and perennials (the aim is more to feed the pigs now though and we plan to put ducks in here too). The circular drive began to take shape and the new hedgerows were mulched with whatever we could source. The chook coup had a tidy up and a bigger roof over the feed area, a couple of trailer loads of local pumice lifted the ground level to lessen the mud issues.

We plan other areas, the new woodshed closer to the house, the greenhouse annex/sunroom, the meat hanging room, the food storage room and cool storeroom. We collect the resources needed to complete these projects, mostly second hand or free if possible. One of our favourite things to do is visit the two dump shops in our wider area and source second hand items for the house and property. Living in a 100 year old bungalow lends itself to vintage farmhouse style and we are slowly transforming our house into our quirky vintage home (with a few mod cons of course).

Our thrifty lifestyle emerges in the garden too, we have embraced natural farming and gardening. Preferring to create as much as possible from our land, this means most of the garden and farm ‘fertiliser’ inputs are made by us, vermicast, compost, fermented brews of plants and manure. Extracts made from eggshells and burnt bones. It’s not a reality for us to buy bulk fertiliser (eco fertiliser or otherwise) and drag it into our remote valley, so finding alternative ways to feed the land has been a focus of ours. We are still developing and trialling our natural systems but hope to bring more information to our readers soon.

We have learnt a lot on our journey and share much of it here on our Fodder Farm website. But now as life in the outer world gets more and more expensive, we are faced with our own growing costs to establish our infrastructure and systems. We have ideas, plans and projects we are hoping to bring to the website soon and have decided to monetise the website to aide in the progression of these plans. However, as we prefer to avoid the push of advertising and the lack of control as to what ads might be used, we have decided not to put advertising on our website. This means our content will still be available without any annoying ads but if you would like to support what we do here we have enabled a donation button. You choose the amount and if it is a one off or regular contribution and of course we are highly appreciative of any support you may choose to give. We are also looking to add products for sale to this website and possibly subscriber content, but for now that is a work in progress. This website has been a labour for love for many years and it is now time for it to start paying its way.  If you have any feedback, you would like to share with us on our website or ideas on what you might like to see moving forward please let us know. To all our readers we thank you for joining us on this journey and we wish you all the best for your journey wherever that may be.

Check out Rebecca’s blogs on thisnzlife here