Category: Nico – from our point of view

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Day 5 – New Zealand’s in ‘stay at home’ mode

Good morning, my friends. So far this first week of isolation we have had a good start and to celebrate a good week I made a yummy breakfast yesterday morning.

Day one – the septic tank decided to make a very foul (not fowl) smell around the garden and so thinking of the health issue, I called our friendly ‘drainage/septic tank’ person to come and check it for us. All good he says, (thank goodness) we just aren’t filling it fast enough,”it’ll settle down soon” he says.

Day two – had to go down to the local dairy (not the shop but the farm that sells us our raw milk from the cows) as we had run out of milk and it’s something that I need as I am intolerant to the normal milk. That was a weird drive, not many cars – counted about 10 in 30 minutes travel – and they were all work cars, i.e. farmers, tradies; and the streets were empty except when we got to Oxford (where the milk farm is situated) and the local grocery shop was ‘full’.

Day three – four was quietly staying home and getting on with projects like gardening, feeding sheep and of course, playing with the kitten, Nico.

Take care all. Back soon.

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March – autumn is here – 3rd March

Welcome to my website -
Bienvenue sur mon site web
Bienvenida a mi sitio web
Kalós írthate stin istoselída mou
Dobro pozhalovat' na moy sayt
Willkommen auf meiner Website

I am very pleased to be able to welcome visitors to my website. I have been talking about our lifestyle block for nearly 2 years now and I am always amazed at the folk who ‘call in’ to see what we are doing. Thank you all.

March 20, 2020

We are all facing some unpleasant situations with this world-wide virus and my thoughts go out to all who are reading my blog and I hope you and your family are safe.

As far as I can, I am being positive in my approach to a change in lifestyle. I still have sheep to look after, the garden to tend and I am trying to grow fruit and vegetables but this is an ongoing issue as I really don’t know what grows well here yet.

The sheep are doing well, and have a new ‘friend’ in with them – Tuppence is living up to his name and getting on with the job of ‘befriending’ the girls. Hopefully we will have some lambs in the spring.

Nico, our young Manx kitten has now been with us for a month so he’s five months old now and adjusting to our life as well as us adjusting to him.

He continues to learn more about his surroundings and loves to visit the sheep in the morning. He has a bit of a habit of climbing up the trellis and onto the roof of the house when he’s excited and then of course he can’t get down, so we have to climb up the ladder and get him down. And what’s with the toys, who’s gona pick up all the toys when you’ve finished playing? “I’m hiding, not me!”

You may not know the story in New Zealand but a lot of people have been panic buying things like toilet rolls, hand sanitiser and now plants, potting mix and seeds. To lighten the mood a little, my husband decided that we need something other than those items so he went out and bought a new car; a Mercedes Benz, 1999 hardtop convertible (I’ve always secretly wanted one).

Today we decided to take a small road trip to the Bealey, in the middle of the Southern Alps, Canterbury, between the east coast and the west coast. We were away from people, had a picnic by ourselves and enjoyed the great outdoors.

Be safe, be happy and I will write again soon.

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Lazy days of summer

With the days warm but not as hot as they were a few weeks back it’s time to think about working outside again. I’m not a fan of heat and so have not done much work outside since November. The vegetable garden is a real ‘trial’ to me, I can’t seem to get the growing right for any of the vegetables I try although the herbs, potatoes and lavender seem to be thriving. The ground is very cold right up till about October and then the rains come for about a month. The only growing period seems to be from October to March and even then the nights will start to get cooler by mid February. I think if I relied on my garden to survive – food wise- I’d be a very hungry person.

Next year I think I’ll concentrate on herbs and dye plants instead of vegetables, I seem to have more luck with those.

The woad and weld grew well and I have a good supply to try dyeing wool or materials such as cottons and linens.

The lavender will be used in scented bags for clothes and baths, and some will be used to make teas and infuse in oils. When I get a bigger supply of lavender I will take it to a lavender farm nearby so that they can turn the flowers into lavender oil.

Nico is growing up nicely and is now exploring on his own, although still quite close to the house.

The flock are also growing up and soon it will be time for them to start thinking about ‘babies’.

I went to visit a very nice boy yesterday and so he will be arriving in the middle of March. He is young, but I am assured, he will quickly pick up ‘what to do’.

Here are a few photos of him (he doesn’t have a name yet, just a number). He is a very nice ram, beautiful colour and nice temperament.

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Day 7 – first week with Nico

At first I thought this blog was going to be about our sheep, our experience with the farm and about our life that has changed – for the better – I believe. Well that is of course true but what I didn’t know was that life with a kitten that has a unique personality was about to change our knowledge on cats dramatically. It’s a bit like having a ‘baby’ in the house, all cuteness and cuddles, but also teaching and training, the question is who’s teaching who?

I have to tell you all about our wake-up mornings; Nico sleeps under the bed in his own private ‘cave’. He is very quiet and sleeps right through till about 7.00 am. Then it’s all stealth and quietly climbing onto the bed to see if the ‘humans’ are awake.

This morning was quite unusual though. I am asleep, I hear a purring and open my eyes to see him looking at me. He started purring louder as he can see I’m awake. I whisper to him, ‘I’m not awake yet’ and close my eyes again. He pads his paws (without claws thank goodness) over my eyes, very gently ‘ pad pad’ like he’s saying ‘wake up’, I ignore him so he then puts his nose on my nose and carefully pads pads with his paws again on my eyes. Well I gave up sleep at this point and got up; mmm now I wonder if I’m being trained to wake up when he wants me too?

But isn’t this face cuteness in the extreme?

I am impressed though, with the learning going on in this little mind. He knows now that the ‘scratch post’ is the only place to rip into with his claws, not allowed to do that on the sofas, that the benches and table tops are Not the place for kittens to sit, that he is allowed to sit on the sofa cushions and look out the window at the birds and rabbits outside, and that outdoors is a good place to run and climb up trees.

Pretty good learning for a week in the new residence.

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Day 5 at the farm …

Nico’s introduction to sheep and trees

My, what a busy life Nico has. He has now been introduced to the great outdoors and it’s all about ‘oooooh what are those BIG things’ and ‘how high can I climb’!

First it was the introduction to the sheep. He was very curious but decided that his side of the fence was the best option.

Next it was learning to climb trees; ‘ooo love this, tiz fun’, and for the next 20 minutes it was up and down, higher and higher.

A bit about Manx; these cats are very good at climbing even though they do not have a tail. These are not cats that have had their tails removed, they are born with a specific gene. To compensate for no tail they have extremely powerful back legs, long than the front legs which enables jumping, climbing and balance.

And sheep introduced to cows …

The neighbours dairy cows were put onto our paddock to help eat the long grasses. The cows are most interested in the sheep (but as they have 2 sheep in their own paddocks across the road, are not concerned about them).

Our mob on the other hand are …..’ ‘Maa baa, what are those BIG things, wez don’t like them’.

So a lot is happening here at present, watch this space for more antics from sheep and kittens. See you again soon.

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Day 3 with Nico …

We are adjusting to life with our kitten, Nico and he has bonded quite nicely with Leigh and me. His favourite place is either on the computer desk with me or on Leigh’s computer desk.

We took him go outside for the first time on Sunday as it was such a beautiful day, weather wise. He only explored to the extent of where we were standing and would chase leaves, do lots of sniffing and walking through the ‘jungle’ (the garden has lots of tall plants as you know).

After an hour though, it was nap time – ‘tiz very tiring being a kitten’. We will not open the cat door yet but he seems content to go outside when we do and come back inside when we have chores to do.

I am very impressed on how quickly he is learning ‘our routine’. Sleeps all night under our bed and is very quiet, gets up only when the first person rises. Follows either one of us around most of the day and naps nearby whatever we are doing.

The other ‘learning’ is to push the boundaries; “I can walk on the table, I can jump onto the bench” all no-no’s in this house – with a ‘no’ and distraction to something more interesting such as a ‘ball’ to chase, he is learning quickly.

It will be interesting to introduce him to the sheep but that will be much later. Well time for me to return to chores while ‘Nico’ has a nap. See you again soon.