The earth moved

Labour weekend and it is two years since we bought the farm! And we have done a lot since then, I know as I can feel quite a bit of it in my bones! George and Marianne were with us for the weekend, and bought our dinner with them on the first night. They had dived for these. How amazing it is living in New Zealand. We began with squid, light fried in butter with chilli, corriander, spring onion and fish sauce (from Cuisine), then the beautiful crayfish were served with boiled potatoes, mint and butter and rocket with avocado and our oil of course, simply divine. Next day we headed into Greytown for breakfast, and Marianne and I bought the table for the bathroom in the shearers quarters, it was good to have a look around. Greytown is fantastic for shoppers! Next day dawned sunny after two cold wet and windy days. We moved earth. To do this George and David had to put the front end loader onto the tractor. All new. Two huge piles of earth left over from the road and water being put into the shearers quarters had been gathering heavyduty weeds. So I weed-eated the main weeds, David shifted huge scoups of earth. George was chief scout finding the sites to dump the earth, Marianne raked it out, and I dug more weeds out. Late in the afternoon Marianne took on the tractor and precision work was evident. She moved earth, smoothing over the area where the pile had been with fine and delicate movements of the front end loader. Lunch was mid afternoon and divine. George and Marianne had bought paua with them, so this was fined sliced and cooked with butter garlic and onion. And of course a few pinot gris and the odd beer here and there. It was a great weekend with good friends.

Weekend country retreat:

Attractive one bedroom cottage in Masterton, the heart of the Wairarapa.

A delightful cottage to quietly relax and recharge your batteries; a tranquil retreat to read, and to discover the attractive environs of Masterton, Carterton, Greytown and Martinborough. Simply stunning!!

$165 including gst per night, breakfast included. Sleeps 1-2 people, two nights minimum. To book email dianaj@orgdev.co.nz

Furnished french style with beautiful linen, claw-foot bath, warmed floors, open gas fire, french doors opening to a courtyard and garden planted in box trees, lavenders, red poppies and rosemary.

You can walk to the Ruamahunga river at the back of the property, and discover in nearby Masterton, cafes, Aratoi art gallery, Moore Wilson’s fresh market, Saturday farmers market, Sunday street market, Henley Lake and Queen Elizabeth park. Greytown, Gladstone and Martinborough are the nearby towns.

The restoration

Built in 1924, this cottage has been lovingly restored and now includes a luxurious bathroom and easy to use kitchen. The rimu walls have been rubbed with linseed oil and the wooden floors polished. The living room and bedroom remain original.

The lean-to was demolished and rebuilt on the existing footprint and includes a new bathroom and well-equipped kitchen.

History of the building

The original shearers’ quarters consisted of a kitchen, laundry, dining room, bathroom, and four bedrooms off the porch. In its recent history, the building was cut in half and one half taken to a neighbouring property where it is also used for

accommodation. In the summer evenings, shearers lay in their bunks and wrote their names on the walls. Some worked out their wages, others left messages. In the 1950’s the walls were used to write telephone numbers of local contractors. Many of these notes remain on the walls.

Over the years, family and friends slept in this building. Abandoned in early 2000’s the building became a haven for birds. The current owners bought the property in 2006 and restored the building as inviting accommodation. Bordering a working olive grove and vines, there is a private courtyard and, views of the Tararua ranges, an ideal haven from which to explore the Wairarapa.

Putting in the frost protection system

The race is on. Will we get the frost system in before the spring frost hit? We have a new approach. The fan system, while great in our expriments, was drawing down frozen air, even from 10m up, the neighbours complained, and asked did we have resource consent. They hated the orange tube soaring skyward to draw the air down. So down it came.

Now we have kms of 19mm pipe. We clip this to the lower wire of the vines, at 1m intervals, hard on our fingers. The trickiest part is unravelling the pipes, it is so easy to bend and fold in half and then the pipe is stuffed. We have dug a trench for the 30mm pipe and the 19mm pipes go for 3/4 of the row and then we join 13mm pipes off that. This weekend, Jeanette came over from Raumati and lay out all the flipper pipes at each post, then helped me clip the 19mm pipes to the wire. Backbreaking stuff, bending down every paced step to clip the pipe to the wire, standing, taking a step and then puting the clips on the wire. Close to the ground work, and remembering to bend at the knees is a challenge. We completed five rows, three more than we thought we would.