It was -

a harder frost than I thought this morning.  The little creek I ford to put the hoggets on their break was frozen over - brrrrr!  But what a lovely, sunny day now.
  And the digger has finally arrived to put new culverts in, so the lawn won't flood anymore, and 'the Boss' will be able to feed out in the calf block with more safety.

Delicious dessert

That we can't call trifle as "the Boss" doesn't like trifle!

 1 Chocolate sponge
4 eggs separated
250gm creme fraiche
250ml cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon muscavado sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

selection of berries - I used 1 large bottle of home preserved blackberries, and about 400gms frozen mixed berries
  thaw the frozen berries, and drain the blackberries, and keep all  the juices

300ml cream

Beat the egg yolks, creme fraiche, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy.  I just used a wooden spoon.
Whip egg whites till they form soft peaks, and fold into egg yolk mixture.

Rip up sponge and place some in the bottom of the bowl.  Glass is good as you can see the layers.  Spoon most of the berries on, then spread the egg mixture on.  Top with the remaining berries, then remaining sponge.

Just before serving whip the cream and cover the cake, sprinkle with whatever topping you want, chocolate curls, sifted cocoa, extra fresh berries . . .

Make sure you use really fresh eggs as they are not cooked.  And make ahead of time to allow the berries to soften the bottom layer, but it is nice if the top layer of cake is not soggy, so if you can,  leave creaming until the last minute.

Serve with unsweetened thickened berry juice, just adds a bit of tartness thats nice, but up to incividual taste.

"The Boss" loved it!!!

Typical NZ weather

Well thankfully the snow has basically disappeared, and as sometimes happens over here, we've gone from single digit temperatures to about 16 degC, with an 18 predicted for today.  Always good when the North Westerly wind blows after a snow, as that means it thaws quickly and doesn't lie for weeks as it can if it turns frosty. 

Our animals are outside all through the winter, but they actually cope with it really well, and it does keep them hardy and healthy.  The only time I wish we could put them inside is lambing and calving time when a horrible storm hits.  So long as they have enough to eat they are fine, as they have been bred for generations to cope.  Problem is even with shelter the ewes tend to lamb out in the middle of the paddocks as they still have plenty of wool on.  We did try to put a little East Friesian through the sheep at one stage a few years after we shifted to this farm, but it wasn't successful.  The lambs born were only 1/4 EF, but they died in the storms we had, whereas the more traditional breed we had, that had been bred many generations in NZ survived better.  We were farming Romneys then, and when we did shift to the hardy Perendale we added an instant 10% to the lambing survival rate.

The local skifield had an interesting 24 hours when the wind came up from the Nor'West though!   The weather forecast was for NW, but severe frosts, which would have meant the wind would've died down!  Hah!!  - did they get that wrong!
The snow was very dry and blew everywhere, so the access road was blocked and the avalanche risk became extreme.  And the wind kept blowing.  This happened during the afternoon, soooo for the first time in 23 years on that skifield they had people staying overnight in their day lodge.  250 PEOPLE.  So pleased it wasn't me, as the Lodge is not that big, and they weren't sure how long they'd be trapped, (as the gale kept coming) so they turned the generator off at 11pm until 5pm - would've been freezing (and it was apparently) even with all those bodies.  However, they were lucky and got them down middle of the next afternoon.  The cafe did have plenty of food for the night, and snow groomers did manage to get enough up the next morning for the following day. 
Everyone seemed happy and just grateful they didn't have an avalanche fall on top of them.

An Interesting Little Snippet

And horrifying!   This little article appeared in one of our farming magazines mid July. 

"Feed rules ease
MEPs have backed plans to allow pig and poultry protein back into EU animal feed.

The European Parliament voted in favour of the Roth-Behrendt report, which recommends allowing pigs and poultry proteins back into the system while retaining the ban on protein from cattle and sheep.  The proposal is part of the road map intended to ease BSE restrictions and reflects the declining risk posed by the disease.

Liberal Democrat George Lyon said allowing animal protein from pigs and chickens back into the system will reduce Europe's reliance on imported soya.  - UK Farmers Guardian"

Can't believe they would forget so soon, and dismiss the possibility of other viral diseases.  No animals in NZ are allowed to be feed any animal protein from any source.  Sheep and Beef are not allowed antibiotics, and very few hormones are used (not sure if any now) and only in Beef.  Beef that has received hormones (if it's still allowed) have to be specially tagged and identified and only go to markets that request it in the US.  We have traceability on our animals and they are regularly tested, so if they have been given anything they shouldn't, which is extremely rare, they can be traced back to the farm of origin.
Poultry does receive antibiotics in the feed, but no hormones.  I'm not sure about Pigs.  But no way do they get fed any animal protein.  This will be the thin end of the wedge.

Snow

Last week on the frosty days



Today

 But it could be so much worse, in fact it is for the poor people of Christchurch.  Not only earthquakes, but now the worst snow for about 13 years, and some of them have no heating (including No 3 daughter as the flat heatpump broke) as they have lost their chimneys and fireplaces, and these haven't yet been replaced by alternate heating, and also power cuts yet again for some suburbs - what a nightmare!
Most airports in the South Island are closed, No 3 was due to fly to Auckland today, and it would've been warm up there, but no such luck as they are having problems keeping the Chch runway clear, and they are predicting heavy frosts when it clears, so don't know when she'll get.  Many roads closed in both Islands as the storm works it's way up.  It has been more coastal, so we have been a bit lucky and only had about 10-15cm, some areas of Chch have had 30cm, and it is down to sea level.  Some people have been on the radio saying it's quite nice as all the liquifaction is covered up, but I don't think they have realised how bad it will be once the snow thaws.  Snow seems to seep into the soil in a different way to straight rain, so won't be anything pleasant.

Chilly few mornings

Monday -4 degC, Tuesday -9 degC, Wednesday -9 degC  : but at least we have sunshine and it goes up to about 12 during the middle of the day, so that's positively tropical.  In the meantime it's hoggets on, hoggets off, and feeding calves, 18 month heifers, bulls, ewes and horses.

The Fiat and bale-feeder.  You can fit (well the Boss can) 3 of our small round bales on the feeder at once, by having one on the forks at the back.  I can't do it, as I can't load 3 bales onto the feeder in the first place - you see it involves backing, and backing with no vision!  That I cannot do.  I do manage to load 2, but takes me ages.  Anyway this feeds out the bales once you have cut the strings holding them together.  Not the prettiest piece of machinery, but works when it snows, which is a must around here.

Well that was a mistake!

Really three.  Number 1 - not getting  The Boss to put the hoggets on.  Number 2 - putting the washing on before I left the house ( a few valuable dry minutes there).  Number 3 - Not putting the waterproof leggings on, and thinking of course I'll be home before that big black cloud to the South comes to anything.  WRONG!!

Winter Storms

Horrible storms hitting NZ at the moment.  We are just a bit lucky as they are coming from the North West, which means all the snow is being dumped on the west and south of the South Island.  Up here we are just experiencing the gales - gusts to about 140km/h, and sometimes those gusts are lasting quite a while.  So far everything hanging together, although there will be a lot more trees coming down in the shelter belts.
But as I say very lucky as no snow as yet, except on the mountain, and not the thunder and lightnening the west coast of the North Island are getting.  Just bracing a bit for the change to South West on Thursday night, hopefully we won't wake to a white landscape on Friday.

Same old, same old -

Not a lot to report at the moment.  Just put the hoggets on, feed out (The Bosses job), and run the dogs.  The Boss is doing some fencing maintenance too, which is pretty hard digging at times as we've had some good frosts.

Feeding the horses everyday, until yesterday when the older two were let out into the better paddock with more grass (the Tutu has finally frosted off)  and they haven't even been interested in any hay since, although I bet if I took out the good feed - McMillan's Rapid Gain - they'd still think it  a good idea.  Rory (the 2 1/2 year old) is still getting his. 
 I went to bring his feed bucket in the other day and I couldn't work out what on earth he was doing.  There was this bashing from the other side of the cottage.  Being a young horse you never know what mischief he'll be getting up too, so went around to have a look, and he was using his front hoof to try and break the ice on his trough.  It was at least 5cm thick so he wasn't having any luck.  I got him a bucket from the house, and it wasn't till next day that he could drink from the trough again.

Now we're just having 130km/h gales, so I thoughtfully let The Boss put the hoggets on this morning!