DIY Fly Trap

The heat has set in and brought the flies out in large numbers, especially around the hen house. My friend John uses a Gordy Fly Trap (left) which is a clean pesticide free way to kill flies by trapping them. He taught me how to make a DIY version to use here which consists of a 3 litre juice bottle with a small fly sized aperture cut halfway up the bottle. You drop meat (lamb mince is the best I've found) into the bottom and then cover with an inch of water. To finish it off you cover with clear plastic and secure with a rubber band so that the flies aim to climb up to the top of the bottle rather than out the hole again. Hanging the trap in a semi sunny situation you watch as the flies first feed on the rancid meat and as more and more meet their end, on each other.

I put a bottle out two weeks ago and already there is a thick black inch of flies dead on the bottom. It sounds a gruesome activity but flies not only carry disease they can cause flystrike within a few hours which is an incredibly painful experience for any animal. I don't like using pesticides which is why I still have the bottle of flyspray I bought eight years ago. These DIY flytraps really do reduce the fly population.

Looking

I've spent two days ringing anyone I know with rural connections asking them to keep their ear to the ground about a cottage. Registered with a couple of land agents, asked my mailman to talk to his clients, Bart the equine vet is asking around and Doug my other vet is allowing me to put a sign up in his office. I've put adverts in trader magazines as well. There is a free country newspaper that comes out monthly so will wait for the next issue and see if they allow classifieds. My cousin Margh spoke to a real estate agent friend of hers whom I rang first thing yesterday. She said she has places come through every so often but it might take her a few weeks to find somewhere for me. After speaking to her I felt so much calmer and able to do a few things round the house rather than just sitting stressing.

I managed to find a home for another of my bantam roosters on Tuesday evening. A gentleman from Middle Road chose the more colourful of the ones I am rehoming (a screamer who made out I was murdering him if I picked him up). He'll be running free with his new women and altogether living a very happy life. I did ask the guy if he knew of any empty houses in his area and he said Mt Erin Station has several cottages but they're all tiny, more for shearers really so wouldn't be suitable. However he did say he and his wife would keep an eye out for me and as a last resort if I'm stuck for grazing for the donkey they would look after her till I am settled somewhere.

I am so fed up with all the work being done here. They're still waterblasting so the hose is tied up all the time so each day I am carrying 25 litres of water from the house to the chickens. They pulled out the pink hollyhock plant in a pot my sister gave me three years ago which was looking so beautiful next to the east wall. It is shriveled up and I can't revive it. I had two seedlings from this by the garage which were in bud but I discovered these weighed down with stones on the ground yesterday. Everything is covered with paint- the plants, my plant surrounds, my pots. They even used my brand new garden trowel to stir paint. By they I mean the back packers as the landlord and his partner haven't been near since delivering the news although I am hopeful they will deliver a reference soon at least.

The Joke's On Me

Yesterday I was coming back from taking letters out to the mailbox when my landlord walked into the backyard saying he had something unpleasant to discuss with me. I immediately thought that after all the work they've been doing lately he was going to increase my rent but instead he told me his partner's father needs to come and live here and I'll have to move on. I have until April to find somewhere else to live as they want the place vacant by winter. However he did say that at least I would have the place looking nice for the summer!

Spent the remainder of the afternoon ringing everyone I know with rural connections, leaving messages to keep their ear to the ground for any properties for rent. This couldn't come at a worse time for me financially either. I never recovered from my last two moves in 1998 and I haven't any savings to fall back on as I have been coping with disaster after disaster since then. I have already been listing auctions on Trademe so will continue doing this throughout the summer to try and raise some cash.

I am devastated to say the least but need to keep going and find a safe place for the animals and myself.

Thyme For Work

It's been pretty busy around here so I haven't had time to update the blog. The garden has had a major shock for a start. My landlord has finished the east garden by chopping down the remaining shelterbelt trees and removing their roots with the tractor before putting up a new eight wire fence to replace the three wire "abstract" edifice that was there before. He also finished chainsawing the wattle tree that fell down last Autumn and chopped back the shelter belt on the south side and dug out the toi toi bushes at the back of the rabbitry with dire consequences for part of the south wall which cracked and fell to bits. I am hoping he will find something to repair this with before long. He also brought in the tractor and dug out a huge flax bush at the front fence.

The cottage has been washed, water blasted and primed and is now being painted. The walls are cream again, the roof fire engine red and the foundations deep green. The backpackers are currently working on the shed doors which are no longer Karitane yellow but the same bottle green as on the cottage. Unfortunately a downside to all this activity was that at some point someone put a hole in my garden hose and cut twelve feet off it so I can no longer get it round to the hen house. This means I carry 25 litres of water out there by hand every day.

Last week when I was feeding the bunnies I noticed that Pip, my old Harlequin angora buck, wasn't interested in his food and kept looking round at his rear end. When I flipped him on his back I noticed one extremely enlarged testicle. Early 2005 he had this problem so was half castrated and we had hoped that the cancer wouldn't move into the other one but unfortunately that was not to be. I booked him in for an operation on Wednesday the 15th and got him to the vet's at 8.25am. I had already informed the vet's receptionist that I would have to change his nickname from One Hung Lo...........

Pip survived the operation and the trip home in 29oC heat. I kept him inside overnight and next morning washed and disinfected his cage before taking him back out to the shed in the afternoon. After being quiet and depressed Pip perked up soon as he saw the other bunnies and began cleaning himself once he was back "home". Since then he's been eating normally and seems quite fine again. Hopefully that will be the end of his adventures.

Although the garden is extremely bare now I still have some plants flowering. There is a lovely deep pink hollyhock growing up beside the east wall of the cottage and three more plants beginning to flower along the garage. My thyme plants are also looking good and I was pleased to discover that the cuttings I took a week ago have taken. As thyme seems to grow fast I should soon be able to transplant these.

More chaos

It's been a hectic week with more work being done round the cottage. On Monday Ken sent one of the backpackers in to sand down all the window frames and sills. Then Tuesday both young men came in with one hacking out the blackberry threading its way through the trees and agapanthus plants by the front fence. He then went on to scrub down the rough cast cottage walls ready for painting. It was a terrible job as in some areas ivy had been growing and when this was pulled away it had left leaves and stems embedded into the paintwork.

I had already gone out at 8.30am in order to do some more gardening but because of all the hard work going on around me felt impelled to stay outside a lot longer than I intended. So although I completely weeded the three gardens along the front of the cottage by the next morning I could barely move. Not quite bent like a human pretzel but getting there.

Tuesday they began waterblasting the cottage while Ken came with a chainsaw and cut down the stumps he had left in the winter along the drive. Pulling down the fence on the east side of the property (Toby goat was shifted to the front paddock so he wouldn't come in) he later came back in the early evening with his big tractor and dug out roots and the troublesome ivy that was smothering everything. There are still three or four stumps needing to come out which will leave big holes needing to be filled with dirt. While he was over here Ken also cut back a few trees on the southern boundary and removed a dead silver birch in the backyard. He also began pulling apart the rotten windowsill on the east side of the cottage. This only had two inch rotten area when I came here eight years ago- now the whole sill is crumbling away. After he finished I could see the wirenetting holding the concrete walls together but fortunately the rot hasn't extended into the window frame.

Wednesday morning one of the backpackers came in and continued waterblasting the walls. What a job! The ground is covered with flakes of cream paint and the cottage looks very shabby chic with its bare patches.

Thursday it dawned cold and grey and soon afterwards it began pouring with rain so no more work was done. The place looks so bare now- no shelter from the east and no privacy either. I guess though that I'm going to have a lot more garden to play around with. Just a shame I'm so broke at the moment and can't afford to buy anything to plant in it!

The Big Clean Up

Once a year my hot water begins to dwindle to a dribble which means that there is a build up of lime or gunk in the ajax valve of the water cylinder. This is an unpleasant job involving much mess and water so I tend to procrastinate for a long time before I ring the landlord. However when it takes half an hour to run an inch of water into the bath you know you have to do something soon.

Thursday I rang Ken to give him the bad news. The next morning he arrived with a drill and also one of his backpackers whom he set to weedeat the three foot high lawn which has been unmown since May. Then another backpacker came over and they began clearing the garage out of all the previous tenant's rubbish that was left here eight years ago. While they were filling up a huge trailer I took out my dead vacuum cleaner, heater, two deceased mops and the base of a rabbit cage that Cheezels my departed house rabbit used to chew through while I was out so she could play with the dog and cats. I can't believe how big the shed actually is now all the boxes of crud are out of there.

After Ken finished with the water he set one of the tourists to mowing the lawn. We had a hell of a job shifting two of the hutches due to the grass growing through them and the mesh floor came off the bottom of one of them. However it was wonderful to see the grass being cut. Ken cut back a fushia in the driveway for me and discussed the next chore of pulling out all the stumps in the driveway garden and filling the holes with dirt so I can put in a new garden. To this end he took his truck and collected dirt which is now in a pile in the paddock next door. He also gave me a bale of hay for the rabbits.

After lunch one of the backpackers came in and washed down the cottage walls and scrubbed the spouting so it's no longer green. By the end of the day the place was looking respectable again- just a shame about its inhabitant who brings the whole tone of the area down. :o) After all this activitiy I have a sneaking suspicion my rent is going to go up soon- either that or else it's an early birthday present!

And if you want to know why so many backpackers stay here you just need to look at this photo of the Tuki Tuki Valley where the farm is situated. We're to the left of the river up in the hills. Unfortunately since I moved here quite a few new houses have been built in the area which not only have taken up good farm land but are blights on the landscape. But when you're a millionaire you can do what the hell you like in Hawkes Bay as long as you grease the right palms. Just goes to show that money doesn't automatically buy you good taste or a conscience.