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First day on the farm
We went in to do a bit of shopping in the afternoon, ended up at Bayfair mall to get several things done at once. It poured outside, and this double rainbow greeted us on the way home.We travelled from Ohope near Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty, to Te Puke which is a half hour from my cousin's daughter and her family in Tauranga. The wwoof hosts were a bit older than us, and had been living on their plot of land for about 17 years. They have a large flower garden outside their house which is perched on a flat area surrounded by hills sloping down away from them. They have about a hundred sheep and 32 head of cattle (calves), chooks and ducks.
We discovered that there were not that many organic practices that were used on this farm. The plant material that I cut and pulled from the flower garden was put in a bin, driven away by tractor and burned in a distant paddock! The kitchen compost pile was given to the chooks every day. Not that there is anything wrong with that! But it would have been good material to add to a compost pile. But there was no compost pile. The owner did mention that the neighbours complain when he burns the garbage. But, as he said, he didn't care.
Similarly, the household garbage was burned, and tin cans
were buried instead of being recycled. The sheep were dipped for treatment of flystrike, and when I was looking for an environmentally safe way to rid the Hostas of snails and slugs, the owner handed me some slug bait. Some sort of chemical with warnings about keeping pets away on the side prevented me from using it - that and the long chemical name of the product. We minded the farm over the weekend while they were away for a couple of days, and I managed to find some bone and blood meal to use as a fertilizer for transplanting some plants. But that was the ONLY organic practice or equipment I found. It didn't really feel like we were contributing to Saving the Planet with healthy farm routines. After a while we didn't feel that we had very much in the way of common interests with the couple. They were nice enough, but we didn't feel that connection with folks who share our values, especially with regard to ecology. So weren't we lucky to have had good experiences before that?
Erin flew in from Wellington to Hamilton, the only location to which we could find airline tickets. We
Where we spent several evenings
It was a nice way to warm up on a cold evening. picked her up and she stayed one night with us at the farm, the next night in Te Puke with the June, mother of Steve Peddle (married to my cousin's daughter Natasha) and the last night with Steve and Natasha. Pat and Steve had planned to spend Sunday fishing, but it was raining and the chartered trip was cancelled. After wandering around Mt Manganui looking in shops and galleries, Erin, Pat and I went to see that movie with Judy Dench in it - about starting a nude show in wartime London. What a disappointment -don't bother going!
Pat and I finished wwoofing a bit earler than planned, on the Tuesday, as it was still raining and we weren't enjoying it as much as the week before. We took Erin to see Rotorua. With only a week to Pat's departure, we wanted to pack in more fun with our first-born.
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