{"id":1211,"date":"2016-02-08T16:08:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T03:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2016-11-15T19:32:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-15T06:32:39","slug":"farm-projects-2015-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/farm-projects-2015-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm projects 2015\/2016: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crikey, it&#8217;s February\u00a0already, six months now since we <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/here-we-go\/\">started this adventure<\/a>.\u00a0Seems like high time we\u00a0took stock of what&#8217;s been\u00a0accomplished, and figured out a\u00a0job list for this year.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1056\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/untitled-2015-12-28-107.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1056\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1056\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1056\" src=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/untitled-2015-12-28-107-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Something pretty\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/untitled-2015-12-28-107.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/untitled-2015-12-28-107-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/untitled-2015-12-28-107-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heartsease near the vegetable planters.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with what&#8217;s been achieved:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/welcoming-the-horses\/\">All animals have been successfully relocated<\/a> with the exception of the bees who still reside in West Auckland. They are packing.<\/li>\n<li>The woodburner has been rebuilt. This was after the chimney sweep took one look and said it was in dangerously corroded condition. Apparently the chimney hadn&#8217;t been swept\u00a0in several years.\u00a0He took it to his workshop\u00a0for repairs, and for three\u00a0cold weeks in August the farmlet residents huddled around an oil heater and reflected on the meaning of the phrase <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=three+dog+night\" target=\"_blank\">three dog night<\/a>. Unfortunately only <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/cats-and-dogs\/\" target=\"_blank\">two dogs and a cat<\/a>\u00a0were\u00a0available.<\/li>\n<li>Our\u00a0mighty <a href=\"http:\/\/mcquinnpumps.co.nz\/pump\/davies-b1-series-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Davies B1<\/a> house pump was reconditioned after it broke three belts over the course of\u00a0two days. Verdict from the local\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mcquinnpumps.co.nz\/\" target=\"_blank\">pump repair people<\/a>:\u00a0No maintenance for several years.<\/li>\n<li>A new stream pump had to be installed. The old one died a lingering death,\u00a0despite\u00a0Uncle Eddie valiantly spending many hours trying to resuscitate\u00a0it*. Verdict from the local pump repair people (who\u00a0by\u00a0now we know by first names\u00a0and exchange baking with): No maintenance for several years.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/chlorinating-the-gene-pool\/\" target=\"_blank\">The pool<\/a> started losing water, and after lengthy diagnostic Googling I\u00a0deduced that the filter gasket had blown. The man at the pool shop said I should get them out to do the job as it\u00a0was\u00a0unlikely I would be able to install\u00a0it myself and I would likely\u00a0wreck my\u00a0new $50 gasket in the attempt. Well. Red rag to bull.\u00a0I went right on home children, and I replaced that gasket. Pool fixed.<\/li>\n<li>A\u00a0banana palm inherited from my late Uncle Frank&#8217;s garden in Riddell Road was planted. It\u00a0has been popping out new leaves and looks very happy. Chances are high\u00a0that when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/mama-mea\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Samoan Mother-in-Law<\/a> makes a visit we will be told we\u00a0planted it in Quite the Wrong Place. Until then we admire it every day on our way to feed the chickens.<\/li>\n<li>Auntie Jean planted a vegetable container garden\u00a0which is now overflowing with lettuce, silverbeet, strawberries, tomatoes and herbs. A bigger veggie garden has been started to relieve this slum-like overcrowding of our edible\u00a0friends.<\/li>\n<li>Quantities of wire, roofing iron, scraps\u00a0of wood, fence posts, old tarpaulins, rotted canvas horse covers, hundreds of rusty nails, half burned household rubbish and other abandoned\u00a0objects have been\u00a0removed from the paddocks and woodland. A\u00a0truck battery\u00a0was\u00a0pulled out of the\u00a0stream near the pump inlet. Mostly I&#8217;m focusing on my\u00a0cognitive reframe\u00a0&#8212; <em>resource rather than rubbish<\/em>. The truck battery I&#8217;m just angry about.<\/li>\n<li>Many, many <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/my-collection\/\" target=\"_blank\">JC plants<\/a>\u00a0have been pulled up, dug up, grubbed up with our bare hands, sworn at, spat on and burned.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not a bad start, if I say so myself.<\/p>\n<p>In the next update\u00a0we&#8217;ll review the to-do list. Sorry to leave you hanging. This was originally a super-long post, and when The Forbearing Husband cast his writerly eye over it he said, &#8216;I humbly suggest you split it into two parts.&#8217;. Wise words, because boring your audience is never cool.<\/p>\n<p>Part 2 coming soon&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>* Thank you UnklEd &#8212; the one-day-to-be-constructed\u00a0stream pumphouse\u00a0will be named\u00a0the Uncle ShEd.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crikey, it&#8217;s February\u00a0already, six months now since we started this adventure.\u00a0Seems like high time we\u00a0took stock of what&#8217;s been\u00a0accomplished, and figured out a\u00a0job list for this year. Let&#8217;s start with what&#8217;s been achieved: All animals have been successfully relocated with&hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/farm-projects-2015-2016\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,21,19,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bees","category-power-tools","category-vegetable-garden","category-weeds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":68,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3485,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions\/3485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}