The First Plant.

Many people thought we were crazy when our first load of baby Macadamia trees arrived in early February in the middle of a heat wave but they are heat loving trees and as long as we keep their roots wet we hope they will survive. In fact it was a bit drizzly when they arrived - bought down the coast by Rod in the Torere Macadamia truck. You can see the grafts covered in  blue wax - we have to be a bit careful with those still. We had two different varieties, identified by either red or white tape

Our first and only nut.

Fortunately we got a bit of light rain, but still had to fill the holes with water before planting. The plants were all huddled under the silver birch trees. The first day of planting was very experimental and we didn't get many of them in the ground but since then we can operate like a well oiled machine especially when we had a few friends to help.

1. Fill up the holes with water and allow to soak in.

2. Put the trees in the back of my car (we did try it in a wheelbarrow to start with)

3. Cut the plastic wrapping.

4. Lay the tree  with the root ball near the hole

This was what I mainly did.

5.Duncan put the plant in the hole and filled it up with soil and  firmed it into the ground

6. Use some of our lovely hay as a mulch

7. Put in a stake and tie above and below the graft - we used a special tie that we use on the grapevines so that it doesn't cut in.

8. Stand Back and admire a lovely row!

9. After that keep a watering program going. We reckon we give them about 4-5 litres each time

Well I couldn't play golf because I had trees to plant so my lovely golfing friend Judy came and helped. We really had a good session that morning.

And what do you offer the planters at Morning Tea time?? Macadamias of course.

The leaves of the A4 variety are quite sharp and as I did the ties I got quite scratched. Hence this is why most pictures of us show us wearing long sleeves.

Here we are in full swing. I am the youngest at 65, Sandy and Judy in their 70's and Duncan and Graeme are much the same age.

Sandy MacHugh

Graeme Black - we might have to help plant avocado trees on his block next year

Close to finishing - just spreading the mulch around with the water tank  in the background.

Doing the Groundwork

Some people have been surprised at us receiving our first batch of macadamia trees in February, and we weren't expecting them until March either. However another person who had ordered some for a November plant just was not ready for them and so we were asked to take these early. Just as well well were able to prepare our land in time. Last year when Leaderbrand had finished cropping they cultivated the land and sowed grass seed which we paid for, for this hectare. We had quite a lush spring and Duncan was mowing with his fancy zero turn mower all the time and the decision was made to let the paddock go to hay which we would then use as mulch. After our holiday at Christmas time in Ohiwa the hay was cut and turned and then baled.

Then we had to stack and cover it. With my hernia I couldn't do much of this but I could drive the car and trailer

Our next project was to measure where the holes went. I suggested we use twine and the Theorem of Pythagorous, but we hadn't counted on the string stretching in the sun and we ended up with  some wrong positioning! You may be able to see where the peg is and the pink spray painted hole where it ought to be.

Back to the drawing board. And board was the correct word. Duncan brought a piece of wood, precariously poking out the window of the car. Brought is correct because we didn't may anything for it. Which may have been a mistake as it had two knot holes which became week points.

Then Duncan went and dug a little square out where we wanted the hole to be bored, but even when this was done to help get the handheld post hole borer get started it was too hard for it to drill.

Back to the drawing board. We hired a man and this nifty little machine to put in the holes. It took him 12 sec to drill a hole, and a little longer to move to the next position. It worked out at about $1 a hole and we can't help but think we had a lucky escape from trying to do this ourselves

The holes were quite deep and some of the loose material feel back into the holes. Duncan went and cleared this out. We found when we were planting that sometimes you had to chuck some back in.

We got our watering system sorted. To start with we had to small a hose and the pressure was not sufficient to push the water out at a reasonable rate so we got a very wide one and it works very well - but you are prone getting wet between holes when the tank is very full.
Some days we would sit down together and work out a plan, and within 10 minutes of being in the field we would change the way we operated! More on Planting days next time.

More Ohiwa Activities

As usual there was the "Family Outing", this year to the Tautarangi walkway at Opape. The sign had been completely twisted around it's post and pointed back out again. However we had taken the precaution of reading the guide and knew to walk down the beach and over a small stream. Fortunately this was just a hop and a jump to get over - unlike the thigh deep river crossing at Tauranga bridge of a few years ago. 

The track was very well graded and an easy uphill stroll with magnificent views up the coast framed by native bush. It took us less than half an hour to get to the turn-a-round spot where we stopped for a short break.

Heather, Duncan and Alex 

Millie and Lyn 

Jill and Rua with the lone carving at the end.

We also played a game that I had planned for Xmas but was just too tired to organise on the day. It involves writing a short paragraph using three phrases. The ones I had chosen were "Merry Christmas my friend" "small and bright" and "big and black". Lyn began reading her's out by saying it was X rated. then.... The Jazz singer was big and black. She was dressed in sequins and her immense body swayed to the beat.   It was hard to top this story and Lyn took out first place!
 As things quietened down in the new year I started the jigsaw - the title was Teacher. It was not too difficult except for the children's hair. Oh dear I cant turn it around.

New Year was a quiet affair with just 3 of us left. In  fact the whole camping ground was quiet, thankfully.

We had a few visitors as well - April and Greg from Brisbane (also Isabel and Ross Boreham) and Caroline Stewart from Whakatane And apart from all the swims, walks and one try at fishing the other activity of note was my 65th birthday. It looks like I qualified for the pink card as well as the gold card! Duncan, Heather and Lyn and I enjoyed a champagne breakfast of french toast, berries and mascapone and later went to Opotiki for an Indian meal - the choices in Opotiki being a bit limited

Ready for dinner.

Family Christmas 2016

 What a great pleasure it was to have all our children, grandchildren and my two sisters together in the same place. It was for 4 short days and unfortunately I was plagued by hernia popouts due to the rather steep step into the caravan, and the determination to just enjoy every minute despite the pain. I hope you will enjoy these photos just as much as I have looking back at them.

Two grandaughters Millie (15) and Claudia (1)

Millie and her Dad, Rua Millie looked gorgeous on Christmas day. OK Rua looks quite sharp here also.

Claudia and her Dad, Simon

Theo 5, and great auntie Lyn have a wack at the swing ball

Claudia sits up all by herself

Jackie checks the table decorations

 Jackie had organised a gratitude tree on which we all had to write something we were grateful for this year.

Simon and Claudia

Entree on Christmas day - Christmas wreaths by Millie

Moist turkey on the Weber

Fruit salad and pavlova by Alex

Brother, Sister.

Dense Pohutukawa blossom

Claudia crashes out.

Simon (Claudia) Jackie and Heather ponder over the beer tasting on Christmas Eve.

Simon won the mystery questions on the beer tasting night with his full and comprehensive answers such as "I would like to share this beer with Al Brown at one of his restaurants with a blue cheese and mushroom burger" However Duncan won the one for the slogan for Pale face ale: " Pale face, My place, I've got a case."

More beer tasting

Alex, Theo and Millie wait for the present opening.

We all bought silver decorations for the tree and Alex helped some of us make things with his 3D pen - although this was more difficult than I thought!!

Making hay while the Sun Shines

The hectare where we are going to plant the macadamias was taking quite a bit of mowing so we decided to allow it to grow long and make hay. By the time we got back from Ohiwa the hay was cut and it just remained for us to stack it once it was baled.

First the tedderer when in and fluffed up the hay and raked it into long lines in a sort of spiral pattern

Then the baler when through and out its back end came the small bales - all 257 of them. Now our job was to start. Fortunately Duncan had some experience on this when his parents lived in Ruawai and he was a strong young man. But he had learned some useful tips like how to use his knee to hoist the bales up.

We gathered them up on the trailer and began to make our stack. It was 30 degrees and we were glad that the beers were cooling in the fridge. We managed about 60 bales in a session. The hay will be used as mulch when the trees go in. We think we have more than we need, but we will see.

We have put some up in the shed as reserve. Duncan was concerned that he would not be able to lift the bales  but he has been coping very well. With my hernia I have been staying away from lifting but I have been doing the driving and using a dolly trolley to move bales which are stuck in our way.

 Probably will need to have a break tomorrow so that Duncan isn't too stuffed to play golf, and then do the last session on Friday.