Blueberry blather – Page 3 – Blueberry Hill Farm

September 13, 2020September 20, 2020

Pulling in favours to shift mulch on a Sunday

Using only wheel-barrows last Saturday nearly broke us…. time to mechanise.

We had perfect weather and plenty of help to get all the mulch down on the blueberries and the weed matting throughout the orchard. Friends and family came to help, some brought tractors, some brought trailers, some brought wheel-barrows, all brought shovels.

The team cracked on giving us time to get the organic fertilizers down, clear up rubbish around the place, set-up, test and run the irrigation across the bays. A really productive day. A good lunch with a selection of gourmet sausages and caramelised onions went down a treat, Loki was on hand to keep the place tidy too.

September 5, 2020September 8, 2020

Shifting many cubes of mulch keeps us fit

The aim of this mulch is try and reduce the nitrogen content, keep the plants cool and to retain more of the water once we get into the Summer season. Evidence from the States shows this can improve production too but our plants are too young to know yet. I’m sure they’ll be very appreciative of all the work being put in. Loki seems impressed.

August 22, 2020August 17, 2020

Washing machine drum fire-pit

Next time your washing machine gives up…. think about reusing that stainless steel drum hidden within.

They make a great rustproof garden fire-pit.

August 15, 2020August 17, 2020

Four frosty starts in a row

Some beautiful mornings in the Bay these last few days with the crescent moon and Venus showing off in the blue and orange sunrise to the East have been inspiring.

With all the uncertainty going on overseas and at home the slow rhythm of the Moon and the seasons provides a element of continuity that our fast lives can lose sight of.

August 8, 2020August 12, 2020

Another beautiful day in the Bay

The days are getting longer and the sense of optimism is returning as it looks like an early Spring is on the cards. We’ve still got leaves many of plants as the frosts have been mild to non-existent on the farm this year…. so far.

We’ve been working to get the irrigation system ready to start up again. You start off thinking it will be a quick job and slowly becomes days of effort and fault finding to figure out where the problem is. Life’s a journey, more to learn every season!

August 1, 2020August 12, 2020

Raven and Skittish🐎

Raven and skittish are the two horses on our property. Raven the big black one is very tame and brave. Skittish on the other hand is brown and grey and well skittish (nervous and not very brave around humans). Although she’s a scaredy-cat she is still brave enough to eat grass where we are with raven. Raven and skittish are inseparable from each other raven looks after skittish and is always ahead of skitts ( skittish ). I love the sound of them galloping up and down the field they live in. As soon as skittish sees us She gets behind raven, raven will gallop up to us and allow us to pay and stroke her. I really love the horses, I will be sad to see them go if someone buys them.
– lilttle-blue 💙

July 11, 2020July 24, 2020

Fighting with gorse

We’re working hard to clear invasive species from our land. A weekend spent ripping out gorse, roots and all, will let us stay on top of it by hand in the future. We’re aiming to plant Manuka and Kanuka across the cleared bank.
All this gorse is going make a bonfire on Guy Fawkes night…. the kids are already thinking about who their Guy is going to be…. any suggestions?

July 5, 2020July 24, 2020

And still the grass grows…

We’ve been using the slower growing season to get on top of many jobs around the place. Pulling out old structures for long dead vines and digging out old weed matting has left us with a much easier mowing task in the orchards.

That extra time was immediately soaked up by giving our old tractor a service and some TLC to hopefully give us a trouble free busy harvest ahead.

Mowing in the orchard — Mowing near the road

July 4, 2020July 24, 2020

Mountain bike tracks with horse obstacles

On our farm it drops down into the bottom paddock quite steeply and it was scary the first time I did it on my bike. There are some wild horses in our top paddock at the moment so we have to be careful we don’t scare them on our bikes. If they’re by the gate we have use our bikes to push them back while we get through, they’re really good natured and don’t try to hurt us.

Lil’man’s bent wheel — Nothing ventured nothing gained

July 4, 2020August 12, 2020

Loki, my little four-legged brother…

Loki is our family dog and he’s a Black Labrador, just had his second birthday.

He’s cute, loving and happy to play with us all day long. Eating is his speciality, he will do anything for food… Everywhere he goes he leaves a trail of black fur and he’s a big lump, especially when he jumps on my bed at night!