It's been a while

We are so sorry for abandoning our blog for such an amount of time but as usual our fast paced and crazy lives took over.
To update you fully. We finished our sunflower season with a bang and sold out every time we went to market. It wasn't however to be our fortune maker just a little bit of pocket money you might say once the petrol and parking tickets had been paid! We had a blast though and i think will continue with this venture next season. It made people smile and you can't beat that.

Big changes too in the full time employment stakes. I left for a year and am now in the middle of my time off. However, very unlike our normal selves, we made a decision to take a slightly safer option when Mark was offered the perfect local cop job. It seemed too good an opportunity to let go and so I am, much to my dismay on cold days, alone in my fight against the constraints of full time employment and normal life. Mark does fight the cause too but only on his days off!

Our busy season is well and truly over now at the lodge. We have a few guests due to stay each month but certainly not enough to keep the debt collectors away. Fear not though we are, as is the norm, hatching various plans. Sending all the brood to the circus is at the fore front of this list.

We recently returned from a trip to England where, for once, the sun was shining and it wasn't raining. The lodge and animals were looked after by our wonderful neighbour Pam without whom we would be lost sometimes. Upon return there had been various feats of misadventure by all the fur coated creatures.
Jack and Ryan, our pigs, had decided that the goat enclosure was offering so much more than theirs was. So, sensing that the electric fence had finally lost it's charge, they made a run for it. When I say run I suspect it was more about getting their stomachs to roll forward and then allowing momentum to do the rest. Once on the heavenly side of the fence they took over the goats hut and had an amazing holiday in a new and unexplored land.
Reo, our sheep, upon seeing that the pig enclosure was absent of it's snoring and farting occupants decided that she too should check out new territory. Once again helped by the fact that our electric fence was on holiday she lept across the great divide. Sid, our fur ball sheep, was on a leash and unable to follow as I feel sure he would have.
Parsley, upon seeing the new occupants of her enclosure, began to butt everything. She doesn't like change does our Parsley and her answer to everything is to hit it with her head first and then when that doesn't sort it out well she hits it again. Basil was uninterested and bored of eating hay.
I am sure you can imagine the scene as we returned from holiday to see, well, to see no-one where they should be.
Hercules greeted us with loud meows which continued all night. Infact they are still continuing and we've been home a week now. His routine has finally returned though. At the first hint of movement in the house each morning he is at the front door meowing like life itself depends upon him being heard. Once inside he eats biscuits, cries for milk and goes to his cushion in the lounge. This cushion, although already soft and fluffy, is then padded and clawed for 15 minutes to make it softer and fluffier until he finally goes to sleep. Here is where Hercules remains until he is forcibly ejected around 10pm each night.
So, the electric fence is now charged, the animals in their own beds, Hercules on his cushion indoors, the fires glowing with a welcoming warmth, normality is restored once again at Castle Hill Lodge.
Wonder what this next year is going to bring? Whatever it is we can't wait to get on with it.

A new year, a new start?

2011 has begun at the frenetic pace that seems to encompass most of our life and major changes are afoot! we do not wish to cause any undue panic or alarm and assure you that some things remain the same, for instance the goats are still susceptible to awe inspiring bouts of flatulence and Hercules the cat is still capable of enduring amazing amounts of fuss at the hands of any willing volunteer. No, the animals are all safe and well and evidently completely sane. We, however, are arguably completely insane! Once again we have stepped off the employment merry-go-round and turned our backs on security and predictability! Yep, we have once again abandoned our employers for another year! It would be fair to assume that we have a plan for the coming twelve months, unfortunately.... we have not! We do, of course have the B&B and have enjoyed a good season to date, thank you very much, but as we hurtle toward the long cold nights of winter, the coffers are likely to get very lean. We are, however, undeterred and have decided that unpredictability, uncertainty and self sufficiency are actually very good for the soul, hence we have now become farmers of Sunflowers! 
We have about 5000ish of the blooming things and on Saturday 29th January, 2011, Sharon and I went to market.
The night before we gathered the troops, when I say troops, we mustered four of our good friends, plied them all with food and wine and then marched happily into the paddock for the rather chaotic, ill-disciplined and hap hazard harvest! Cut, trimmed and bunched our way through the next couple of hours and, needless to say, a couple more bottles of wine, and before you know it we had our stock.
Simple, yellow and stunning, three large buckets of floral gold and happiness in a pot!
Up at 6am, we squeezed the buckets into the back of the truck and headed to town. Even the boulders that fell overnight and smashed the road to pieces around the Devil's Staircase were unable to stop us as we strode confidently toward Queenstown Farmers Market!
We did not quite make our fortune but people did like the little bunches of sunshine and we sold a few, we also made lots of people smile on what was a very gloomy day and starred in many, many holiday photographs. Sunflowers are the way ahead, at least they better be if we are gonna eat this winter!!!!!

The 'Sneeze-fart' a Goat keeping Phenomenon

I would assume that it is a little known fact to those outside the world of keeping goats, and indeed it was a mystery to us too, but for reasons that will baffle scientist around the world it would appear that goats are susceptible to simultaneous explosions from both ends whenever they enter into anything more than a gentle trot. I have no idea when we first noticed it nor when it started but exist it does, the 'sneezing-farting' goats of Castle Hill Lodge. Whenever moved to their new feeding ground and the excitement builds to an overwhelming crescendo both Basil and Parsley literally burst unashamedly. To describe this phenomenon, first of all there's a small sneeze, similar in all aspects to a human sneeze and similar in depth and tone to a quick, gentle, nose tickling sneeze like that when one may accidentally inhale pepper for instance. Not particularly funny in its self. However, this is immediately followed on every occasion by a short comedy 'raspberry', like noise produced should one poke out their tongue and seal their lips and exhale quickly. The effect is quite hilarious and almost musical in its regularity and only matched by the immediate look of utter surprise upon their faces after every note!!!!

 

The Great escape

Yesterday we put Sid in with the other sheep. They were both on a good section of land with electric fencing surrounding them. We thought this would be enough.

The other sheep, Reo, has no requirement to leave her little plot of heaven and is quite content to sit and eat all day. The same cannot be said for Sid.

He has now made 3 sucessful escape bids albeit he doesn't travel far, just to the other side of the fence.

So I pick him up, return him to his section and walk back up the driveway. Before I get to the house he is out again. Now, if I sit and watch him he doesn't try to leave but the moment my back is turned he escapes.

I can only imagine that his wool, which is randomly thick on his face, is preventing him from being zapped by the fence.

We are hatching a plan to crank up the zap from the fence by attaching it to the tractor. Once he gets a hit from it I am sure he won't push through again! Well thats the plan. Stay tuned.

Bits dropped off

After a couple of months of running around with an elastic band around them Sid's unmentionables have finally dropped off. We found them by the front door this morning. He seems unimpressed by the whole incident.

Our Firsts at Castle Hill Lodge

Clipping the goats feet - Do you know how hard this is when you don't know what you're doing! Our neighbour Hamish came over to show us how to take Basil to the ground. Hamish moved his neck back nice and calmly and Basil obligingly lay down. Once Hamish left though it took Mark and I about 20 minutes to get Basil back down again, both so nervous incase we were hurting him and Basil taking full advantage of the situation.
First paying guests at the Lodge - Couldn't find any matching crockery so the breakfast table looked like a paint pot accident that first morning. Everyone loved the cooked breakfast though so all good. I love it when people write sweet things in the visitors book. Hoping for lots of that.
Earthquake - It happened around 9.15pm and was about 7.8. The front door started banging furiously and us having only recently moved from England were convinced someone was trying to break in! We both jumped out of bed, torches in hand and ready to defend ourselves. It was only when we saw the kitchen light shade swinging from side to side that we realised. Straight on the phone to the neighbours to check it was infact an earthquake. We were very impressed that we survived our first, everyone else in Garston was very un moved by it all!
Ploughing - We got the old Fordson Major tractor for only $500, what a bargain. Mark set about ploughing our paddock out the front. This after we had borrowed pretty much all the attachments from locals. The first plough was kind of a Banana shape rather than a straight line but once Peter and Hamish had set him straight there was no stopping him.
Sowing the Sun Flower seeds - Well why not. With the help of Heather we planted out 12,000 sunflower seeds by hand. Two weeks later we can see tiny little plants about 1 inch in height beginning to grow. We can only count about 2000 so it might not be the wonderful bright Yellow field we were hoping for but its a start. For a couple of English cops who haven't got a clue what we're doing I think we're doing o.k

Meet the Castle Hill Lodge animals

When we arrived we started with a cat.He is called Hercules and is the biggest softest creature ever. He arrived here as a wild kitten and has now been tamed beyond all recognition. His demands for fuss are unrelenting as is his ability to melt the hearts of anyone he meets.

Then came Basil and Parsley. They are the goats, brother and sister. Basil arrived with an elastic band around his unmentionables. The band and everything else has since dropped off! Am still convinced I will come across the small package somewhere in the garden one day. Parsley is just plain silly and believes with all her heart that every time you go near her she will be murdered. I have to confess to coming quite close to such an act when she sent me 10 feet in the air as her chain wrapped round my ankles and she made a run for it!

Jack and Ryan, they are our Kune Kune pigs. What can I say, they eat and they sleep. Jack is the pushy one and sometimes bites Ryan's ear in his daily battle for more food. He also lies down in the food so that Ryan can't get at it.

Reo, John and Sid. These are sheep, white lamb and black lamb. All orphans and either their Mum died or she rejected them so as a soft touch and to prevent the local farmer from killing them we have given them a home.

Chickens too. No names though because I really can't tell thedifference.

Thats all of us here at the Lodge