When our neighbors John and Aussie Bronwyn announced that they were selling their property and moving away, CJ and I were mortified. More than anyone, those two have taught us how to live on 20 acres. How could they abandon us?
Category Archives: Neighbors
Boar tusk trimming party
We’d just finished our Thanksgiving meal, and we headed out with some of our guests to the top paddock. Kowhai, our pet kunekune boar, was out there wandering happily through the grass.
I felt bad. The poor pig had no idea what he was in for.
How to make fabulously failed cherry jam
The duck who came to dinner
Carrot cake everyone wants

“Why won’t you share it?” I asked CJ. We were standing in the kitchen, looking at a carrot cake recipe written on the back of a long, white envelope.
“Because it’s too special,” he answered.
“But all the neighbors are asking for it.”
Getting intimate with a cast sheep
Kiwi country Thanksgiving 2009
Old Man Henry and the chook house race wars
Old Man Henry is our geriatric rooster. He is mangy and decrepit. The feathers on his head are just quill stubble. He’s half blind, bow-legged, and he pauses strangely after every step. On certain misty mornings, when the light is right, he looks as though he’s stepped out of some twisted chicken fancier’s version of Dawn of the Dead.






