It seems I recall winter once being ‘down time’ on the farm, but these days we’re nearly as busy as other times of year. The goats kidded early this year and we’ve had surprise piglets and chicks as well. There are another dozen chicks tucked under this hen on a chilly morning.

The piglets were born on a cold and rainy day. Unfortunately we lost three of the five, but these two are absolutely thriving.

But by far the most time is spent on the goats. We bring them fresh browse everyday, and have had to bottle feed a few during their first days. We primarily feed out tagasaste (tree lucerne) this time of year, but also pruning from olives and various native trees from our bush restoration. They also will eat pine, redwood and macrocarpa.

We’re also in the midst of planting 600+ native trees on some very steep terrain as part of our biodiversity project, bringing us close to 5,000 trees, shrubs and flakes planted in a decade. I’m not one for selfies, but I could not resist this week on a particularly beautiful day.

We’ve also got an abundance of fruits even though it’s the middle of winter. Guavas, oranges, grapefruit, mandarins, lemonades, avocados, chokos, etc.

The loquats flowered in autumn with the fruits forming now.

We’re slowly working our way through the mountain of apples – turning them into applesauce for the freezers…but the freezers are already full of plums, peaches, feijoas, halloumi, and pork!

And when there is a spare moment or a rainy day, we’re putting the finishing touches on our new passive solar eco-classroom building. It is performing very well – heating itself with sunshine only on some very chilly days.

It’s constant work and sometime challenging, but wouldn’t trade it for anything!

Peace, Estwing