Christmas is coming

This year I have bought a wreath of silk roses. It is my only Christmas decoration. I'm not sure that I like the straw tie at the top.

 Now I have decorated it with some gold balls and a gold star. Look out for a caravan with this in its rear window!

 I've bought all my presents and will start packing the caravan tomorrow. This year I have put together a basket for Women's Refuge which I can drop off at the Gisborne Herald. I am hoping to do this anonymously. No thanks required. Its just woman things - toiletries and chocolate.  I hope it helps. Merry Christmas!

Leaderbrand Land Feud

Saturday was the annual Leaderbrand  Landowners do. They are really well-done events. We met at the racecourse at 3pm and then went off to  see the new Salad House. Thank goodness we were wrapped up warm as the Salad House is very cold. There are two 9 hour shifts and one 6 hour cleaning shift each day. Talking to one employee, she said yes, they are all wearing thermals under their factory gear.

We all had to put hair nets on, wash our hands and those with open shoes needed little booties as well.

This is the cabbage line of the coleslaw. They are taking the core out and cleaning up the outer leaves.

Here is the red cabbage shredder. (Notice the blue booties in the background)

..and the carrot shredder...

They get through 20tonne of carrots every two days

...and the cabbage shredder.

Now onto the fancy lettuce line. Cores out and heading for the water bath.

This part of the production line sort of tosses it in the air so that the water falls off

After two washes they head on up to the packaging unit

Just a close up

Once it is dried it drops down a shute into a bag - but only when the correct weight of salad is ready to drop

Then we went out to the nursery which is a very long hothouse and the trays are planted with 250plants and gradually move along rollers until by the time the plants have grown sufficiently they are at the delivery bay. These are plants that get planted out. The next stop was the baby leaf paddocks and tractor housing and workshop (many many tractors and other machinery)

Baby Spinach

This is basically mown with a special sort of mower which doesn't cut the leaves. Just enough for the days order is taken off, the yellow bins taken to the Salad House and packed for delivery the next day.

Then it was off to the dinner. Much to my disgust we were at the Kale table. AND it wasn't Dai Henwood, but Ben Hurley who was the MC. Thank goodness we knew a bit about what Family Feud was as it comes on just before news on 3  - and of course Alex had the game last Christmas.

Duncan was our Team Leader - and unlike these two contestants, knew to ring the buzzer as soon as possible and then think of an answer

This is Gordon McPhail who we deal with calling up the two finalist teams. We were WAY ahead of any other.

In the last round we were up against a lady who was very quick on the buzzer but then came up with a silly answer, so we were winners again! Then they split us up into 3 couples (Nic and Nicki had to drop out as they were Leaderbrand employees.) We were asked three questions.  Name a famous Gisbornite (winning answer was Kirkpatrick which we got) The second question was Other than the All Blacks name a famous NZ team. We said All whites as they had just had their chance at the World Cup, but the most favoured answer was Silver ferns. the last one was what's another word for naked. We said nude which was the top answer, edging out Laurel and Chris who said Bare. But Amanda and Stu got all three - Stu is a manager on a block which crops for Leaderbrand , Amanda milks cows for the Waimata Cheese factory. They had got married last month, but hadn't taken a honeymoon. We were all thrilled that they won the trip to Melbourne. They dont have passports yet, so quite an adventure for them!!

The winning team

Stu, Nic, Amanda, me, Duncan, Laurel and Chris (Nicki is in a chook mask at the back????)

Ben Hurley gives us our prize.

We get flights to Auckland, Accomodation at Sky City, tickets to Family Feud TV recording, and a night at the Comedy Festival. This is something we would never have organised for ourselves, so we are really looking forward to it - next April or May. Chris and Laurel got a voucher for dinner for eight at one of Gisborne's nicest restaurants.

A great night! I don't mind kale so much now.

What we have been doing on the BushNut Farm in Sept and Oct 2017

WE are spending at least a day a week on the farm now that spring is here. The plants are starting to push new growth. We have done two prunes - one a high prune, taking out the leader if the tree has not branched and it is now above shoulder height. We have done a low prune, decluttering the leaves around the graft and below knee height

Good branching with new growth

This was one of our poor doers, but it is picking up now. The water shoots are generally reddish in colour, but all the same I usually remove the shoot that is coming out by the graft when it is low.

Going really well

Can you see the flower raceme next to the bamboo pole?

We've labelled all of the poles now and I have created a spreadsheet on Xcel so that we can give a bit of tender loving care to those that are struggling. This may be a spade or two of compost ( we bought this), an extra tie or  restaking.

 The next exciting venture was to use our own worm wee and seaweed tea to create a fertilizer. We had stored this in a myriad of empty milk bottles. Thank goodness the painter left us with lots of 10L pails with lids that we will use next year.

 The large white container is where we brewed the seaweed tea from kelp harvested from Kaiti Beach after a storm. It has to be thoroughly rinsed off to reduce the salt. We were three rows short and the bought product smelt awful, and was very expensive.
And today's activity was to close off the old compost pit and prepare a new one. Duncan has done quite a bit of shredding so the consistency looks quite good.

The new pit

The old pit now covered, the bins we use for storing branches etc until Duncan has a chipping session, and the new pit

Our hay stack here is just about gone.

Look, ma, one hand. Making good use of our dolly.

Of course there has also been mowing every seven to ten days.

Trick Art - Monday 9th October 2017

The weather was still a bit dicey and on the recommendation of Nathan, grandson of Kaye and Bruce, we went to Trick Art. The pictures are drawn in 2D but the results are often stunningly 3D

I haven't taken this from quite the correct angle - despite instructions and spots on the floor!

Theo makes a charming baby.

What a wicked thing to do!!

Anything with an animal - a baby dinosaur has hatched.

Duncan feeds the giraffe

A little train - Lyn provided the $1 to make it rock.

One of my favourites

A mermaid in the aquarium makes contact with Jackie...

But the octopus strangles Duncan

The kids find Nemo

Space photos weren't quite so good as the fluro effects

Well I know what this is like for real

"Rescue Mummy from off the tracks!!"

"I'll stop the train"

You blend right in there Theo!

A quiet moment in a French Cafe

Landing in space

Back to the Dinosaurs nest

I love this baby dinosaur

Walking in space

Pterodacdyl Kidnap!

T- Rex and T- Heo

Rescue me sister!!!!

Stuck on the ice shelf

Riding Opo.
"Oh I've got water splashed up my dress!"

Such style!

High in the Andes where the Llamas live...

Again I didn't take this snow globe from quite the correct angle.

Hello Puppy

And Simon Bush scores the try.....

...not to be outdone, so does his Dad!!

Duncan does very well on his first attempt at abseiling 

Lyn Penny takes out the Champion Shearing Award.

SAVE ME!!!!

Would anyone like an Ace???