This time last year was a nightmare for many people in Hawke’s Bay, including our own Kiwi Country Kids. Twelve months on, Sally shares with us some of the turmoil of the moment, the ongoing work still to be done and the good things that have come out of such a rough period.
Last year was a rollercoaster ride that we never asked to get on in the first place. It feels like we are still on the ride, but we are over the upside down nauseating fast section and are heading towards the twisty, slower paced stretch that is likely to continue for a long time to come, whether we like it or not. So many people were badly affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and are still in the very early and frustrating stages of recovery.
We had a boost to morale on the farm when the ‘Commence the Re-Fence’ team, with funding from Federated Farmers, sent Gavin and Jake out to help us with the rebuild. We were gifted three days of free fencing and they even brought their own tractor and post rammer. Cyclone Gabrielle caused significant damage in our rural district of Patoka, and on our farm the main challenges have been the loss of tracks and fences destroyed by slips.
We lost approximately three kilometres of fencing and all our main tracks were initially inaccessible, covered by metres of deep sludge or simply washed away entirely, leaving cliff faces where tracks once were. Gavin and Jake worked tirelessly for three days, always cheerful and ready for a chat. It was refreshing to have new faces on the farm and when they left it felt like we had made significant progress, with our main laneway now re-fenced and stock-proof, so we can once again move bulls around the farm without losing them into various paddocks and bogs.
We have been fortunate to have had a warm, wet spring and summer, which has been great for grass growth. When we lost our bridge at Rissington for seven weeks post cyclone, it meant that we couldn’t offload stock. We headed into winter with low grass covers and had to feed out all our silage and hay supplies.
We nervously listened to predictions of another drought, which would have been really challenging for us in this situation. However, the regular rain and heat has meant that we have been able to fill our silage bunkers, which was a big relief and lowered stress levels considerably. Now we just need to find a window of consistent sunshine to make hay!
Leading up to Christmas I made a lifelong goal come to fruition by publishing my first book The Chicken Caravan. The story follows our rescue chickens’ journey, from caged life to free-range paradise! It features photos from our farm and a bit of detail on how we care for our chickens, so it’s educational as well as being a nice bedtime read for primary school-aged kids. A huge shout-out to the incredibly talented and ever patient Kristin Baylis of Snapfire Design for putting the book together for us.
Oscar and I attended a few Christmas markets with the book and unlocked the inner wheeler-dealer that I always suspected was inside him! I ended up leaving Oscar to it most of the time, as he had his customer chat perfected and was charming all the mature ladies of Hawke’s Bay!
I was so proud of him and how the experience highlighted his fantastic communication skills. He also had a bit of fun handling the cash and working on his maths! Our book is available to purchase on our website www.kiwicountrykids.nz and a portion of each sale goes to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
I am always looking for new ways to improve our sustainability on-farm and I love producing our own food, from rearing pigs to growing tomatoes and preserving fruit. For a long time I have wanted to milk my own house cow and make our own butter, cheese and clotted cream, for those English cream teas with scones and jam! So when I came across Lucy and Stormy on social media it seemed too good to be true.
These two beautiful American Jersey cows are six years old and have lived their whole life as pets on a lifestyle block close to town. During Cyclone Gabrielle, the property where they lived was severely flooded. Their owners had to escape and leave behind their beloved animals. They didn’t know if the cows had survived and, amazingly, found out that they were alive, by seeing a photo of them in the local paper, wading through neck-deep floodwater.
A rescue story ensued, whereby several people battled through deep water every day to carry food to the cows, until the flood retreated enough to get a horse float in and take them to dry ground. They spent the next six months recovering at a friend’s property but unfortunately their home has gone for good, having been ‘red zoned’.
So they have come to live with us, and Billy the bull is trying his hardest to seduce them!
Hopefully he will succeed and later this year we will be able to share our journey of milking our very first cows on the farm.
