Homesteading…

Our front gate sign is up, Rich did a wonderful job as usual, it is the perfect welcome to the property!

It is a year this month since we moved into the house extension, and 5 years since we moved onto the property. Having other rooms has changed things so much, sometimes we don’t know how we survived 4 years all living in 1 room, and then there are other times we miss it terribly. If I am honest Rich and I feel this loss more, Luca pretty ecstatic to have his own space these days 🙂 Up until he was 14 he was totally onboard with one room, then it was like a switch and he was not, it was well timed it seems ,which was very fortunate as in reality we had little control over the timing!

This is the property we brought in September 2019…

There has been so much change since then !!

Our new additions are well settled in, happy and thriving.

The wash house is the latest build to be completed, such a great space!!!!.

We used the tent for so long, then the room was used for storage and even a bedroom at one point, now it is being used as it was intended. So happy with it, makes life so much easier for us, I don’t get wet at all now doing the washing – it really is the little things that bring joy 🙂 ! The photos on the wall are the same product I used in our bathroom, really recommend. I smile every time I go in there with the memories the wall invokes.

Last weekend it looked like this, so warm and sunny, we dragged the kids out of bed to have breakfast out on the deck .

Then the rain came and it has not stopped! Things are incredibly soggy!!!!

However it is helping things grow, my carrots, asparagus and potatoes are all poking their wee heads through earlier than I expected!. The pigs are now in a large 100 metre round enclosure next to the vege garden and boy do they love it there, getting everything thrown over and being able to go into the bush. They still go into the barn at night but their days are spent in there.

My aim this summer is for Rich not to have to do any lawn mowing with the ponies and sheep taking care of it, will see how that goes. Rich and I spent the morning sowing seed over the front paddock. All going to plan we will have actually grass in there come summer. It has been many years I think since there was any decent grass in that area. It currently looks dreadful but give it a few weeks….

Before the weather turned Rich and I hiked around Back Beach. It had been ages, we used to do it weekly when we lived in the Port Chalmers rental, and we were reminded that we need to do it more often, so pretty and we can walk there from our place, there is no excuse! Pica spent the entire walk in the water,came home exhausted and happy.

The chooks had taken a hiatus over the last couple of months from laying, but are now back in full force. The basket is replenished daily which is wonderful as we go through a lot of eggs, especially with a house full of teenagers most weekends. I am also getting requests for eggs, another month and I should be back to supplying others.

Luca goes into exams for the next two weeks and then it will be school holidays again, they come around so fast, even faster this year it seems. Rich and I very aware that that change is looming and there will be some big choices to make as Luca nears the end of his high schooling for all of us. Finding our path through it will be an interesting time…

Right now life is pretty ordinary, mundane and routine and it reminds me of a quote from L R Knost. I appreciated her gentle parenting advice when Luca was younger and still follow her for advice as we go through the teenage years.

“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.”
― L.R. Knost