Christmas 2010

I could totally get used to having a summertime Christmas! Here is what we got each other for Christmas this year:

Veggie garden & other things growing in our yard

I can't remember the last time I had the time or ambition to plant a garden in Michigan, so you'll have to excuse my excitement over a few measly vegetables growing in our tiny garden! The first cucumber grew really fast and it's almost ready to pick! I think the butter beans must have grown last night because I don't remember seeing them yesterday. I've never grown broccoli or cauliflower before, so I'm not sure what to expect with those. So far they've gotten very leafy, but nothing much seems to be happening with them. And the green peppers, which I am most anxious for, do not seem to be growing yet. The plants look good, but no sign of any peppers. Our friends gave us 6 strawberry plants last week, but I don't think we can expect any berries this year.

Here are some of the other things growing in our yard.

Karangahake Gorge

We visited the Karangahake Gorge yesterday. It's an old gold mining area that is now open to trekkers. We took a 3.5 km trek that followed the Ohinemuri River. The trail led us through lush vegetation including Fernwood trees which look like palm trees with fern leaves. Then we walked through a long tunnel through a mountain. The tunnel had been used as a railway tunnel during the mining operation. We visited a local craft market and had lunch at a nearby cafe. The Spring weather has been more Summer-like with temps in the upper 70s to low 80s and we usually have a nice breeze. The sun is amazingly hot here, even on a cool day. Luckily we had some cloud cover yesterday which made it a very pleasant day for hiking.

Life in NZ

It's hard to believe we've been in NZ for 5 months! We made it through our first calving season. Pictured here is a group of 40 calves being fed milk from a "Calf-a-teria" no kidding that's really what it's called. Jennifer worked in the calf barn from mid-July to mid-September feeding the calves twice per day. We had about 800 calves born during that two month period! The farm selected about 200 calves to keep and they are all out of the barn and on grass pastures. Kevin is now taking care of the new calves as well as a herd of 120 heifers that were born last year and a group of about 60 dairy cows.


Now that Jennifer is finished working with the calves, she helps with milking on the weekends while the guys take time off. We are milking about 1000 cows twice a day on a 50-stall rotary parlor. The standard milking times in NZ are 5 am and 3 pm. It takes about 4 hours to milk the entire herd.

We were given a farm dog named Duke. He is about a year old. He goes to work with Kevin every morning on the back of the quad. Duke helps to get the cows out of the pastures when it's time to milk. He is a very friendly, lovable dog and he's really pretty smart!

We are both used to driving on the left side of the road now, and getting in the right side of the car in order to drive! It's hard to keep the months straight in our heads sometimes since it is Spring in October. It feels like May in Michigan. We even have some dark purple lilacs blooming in our front yard! A Summertime Christmas and New Year will be strange. Good, but strange!

We are able to purchase most of the foods we like to eat from the local grocery store. There are just a few things that don't quite taste the same as they do at home, and a few things that are just not available. There is a store in Auckland called Martha's Backyard that imports food from the US and sells it to people like us. Sure, it was more than a 2-hour drive just to get there, but well worth it! Food is generally more expensive here than it is at home, due in part to a 15% goods & services tax on everything. The fact that many things are imported also adds to the expense. Some things however, like meat and dairy products are expensive even though they produce plenty of these products right here. Gas is also expensive, about $5 US per gallon.

Hope all of you are doing well!

Our New Zealand Arrival

Hi All,

We arrived in Auckland on May 17th. We drove down to Hamilton the same day and started shopping for everything we need to get started. Within a week we were sucessful in finding a car, furnishing a house and getting a 4 wheeler for the farm! It was a very busy week getting settled and kicking the jet lag!

We are now moved into our house on the edge of the farm near the town of Tirau. We don't officially start work until June 1st, but are spending time on the farm the next few days to get a feel for things. We are going to the Bay of Plenty this weekend to celebrate Jennifer's birthday.

The dairy has seasonal calving that will start on July 14th. We will have 1000 calves in about 10 weeks!

It is autumn here and we are having A LOT of rain with temps in the 60's during the day and 50's at night. They tell us that it will be very wet through the winter into August.

Everybody here is incredibly friendly and very welcoming.