In our first few months here, the grass in our paddocks grew longer and longer, and then it quickly turned brown. I had no idea those paddocks would soon transform.
Cut hay
We’d been told that untended paddocks were a fire hazard in the driest days of summer, but we didn’t know what to do about our long, dry grass. We had no tractor to cut it and no animals to graze it.
Then our neighbour Duane called.
“Would you like to sell your standing hay?” he asked.
I didn’t really know what that meant.
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Neighbors, New Zealand, Paddocks | Tagged: hay bales, kind neighbors | 
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Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
There are many ways to make your own olive oil. This is my own personal recipe. Feel free to modify it to make it work for you.
8 Comments | Guest posts & media, Neighbors, New Zealand, Olives & olive oil | Tagged: city friends, kind neighbors, olive harvest, olive oil | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Aussie Bronwyn and I stood outside the chicken coop. In one hand she held a long pole with a round net on the end, and in the other hand she held a jar of Vaseline.
Lavendar araucana: Natasha and Francoise
She was limping a little from a recent knee surgery, and I felt bad asking her to walk across the top paddock to our chickens.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she said, throwing back her shoulders. “Now, let’s get those chooks!” She smiled broadly, as though ready for a battle of epic proportions.
Little did I know what an epic battle it would eventually turn out to be.
21 Comments | Chickens, Neighbors, New Zealand | Tagged: blue-green eggs, Chickens, kind neighbors, lavendar araucana, light sussex, scaly leg mites | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Washed olives going into the press
Rick and I drove up to the olive press and looked in through the ornate metal gate.
It was dark out, and the lights were still on inside. Diane of ‘Pressing Engagements’ was still pressing olives. She works furiously throughout May and June, then things go quiet for the olive presses of the Wairarapa valley.
We wanted to pick up our oil and get it home to taste it right away, in order to see if the frosts had damaged the taste. We’d gone to great lengths on harvest day to make sure we’d sorted out as much frost-damaged fruit as possible. But were our efforts enough?
Diane smiled when she saw us. “Your oil is beautiful,” she said immediately, and then waved us in through the gate.
Does she say that to all the boys?
12 Comments | Food, Neighbors, New Zealand, Olives & olive oil | Tagged: frantoio, kind neighbors, leccino, olio nuovo, olive grove, olive harvest, olive oil, olive oil containers, olive press | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Mist on the hills beyond the bottom paddock
The first of the city friends arrived on Friday night, driving over the Rimutaka Hill Road after work in the dark, ready to settle in for a three-day weekend full of food, friends, olives, and a lot of hard work.
There were big hello hugs all around and bags deposited in guest rooms.
We operate a B&B here, so the extra bedrooms come in handy at harvest time — and also throughout the year, when friends and family occupy the rooms between paying guests.
As they arrived, everyone was talking about the horrible weather that had been forecasted for the weekend.
7 Comments | Neighbors, New Zealand, Olives & olive oil | Tagged: city friends, frantoio, gratitude, kind neighbors, leccino, nets, olive grove, olive harvest, olive oil, olive press, satisfying work | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Podcast available.
House and the footbridge to the top paddock
A group of six of our city friends helped us move out to the country. That was back in October 2006. It was a beautiful day, and it felt like a party.
Nobody wanted to drive a rented truck over the treacherous Rimutaka Hill Road, so Rick and I hired movers to move our big things like the bed, sofa, washer and dryer. The rest of our stuff we piled into everyone’s cars and drove over the Hill together, convoy style.
Our city friends were all people we’d met since arriving in New Zealand two years before. They were an odd mix perhaps, but went together well – Kiwis and Brits, straight and gay, Quakers and not religious at all. To them we were the gay Americans from Tokyo, city boys through and through. What were we doing, they wondered, moving out to 20 acres in the country?
12 Comments | Country dinner parties, Neighbors, New Zealand, Paddocks, Podcasts, Sheep & cattle | Tagged: city friends, gratitude, kind neighbors, moon, rimutaka hill road, tractor | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Events in Martinborough
