New beginnings

Winter is not the only thing ending shortly; today heralds the end of my 'service ranger' job and a start on Monday as an 'administration officer'. Major restructures on this scale are stressful but I hope the dust settles soon and strong leadership makes it all worthwhile.

I've decided that cloning myself would solve a lot of problems and help me work through my 'to do' list at lightning speed. Fine weather means firewood time and it's been satisfying to work my way through the woodpiles.

Two woodpiles sorted out - now to get the chainsaw out!!!

There's a thousand other fine weather jobs waiting for me: Darwin's barberry is starting to flower so that needs to be searched out and destroyed, along with gorse, blackberry and lupin. I need to get seeds and seed potatoes planted and my poor blackcurrants still haven't been pruned and transplanted from two years ago. I did manage to install my 3 vertical KaMate rat traps though...

The new KaMate trap on the left along with 2 Victor traps on the right

Lifting the lid on the KaMate trap - the trap's not set yet and putting
some baits around will hopefully get the right 'smells'

Signs of Spring are increasing daily and the birds are getting frisky. The native fuchsia, Fuchsia excorticata, or kotukutuku, is bursting into leaf and flower and I spent 30 minutes trying to get a good photo of the birds feeding on it before giving up and swapping to a flowering brush wattle.

A camera-shy tui who kept hiding in the branches

This waxeye (silvereye) was more co-operative

Despite not getting a good 'bird on the fuchsia' pic, I had fun photographing the new leaves and flowers - the New Zealand fuchsias are apparently the only fuchsias in the world with blue pollen and early NZ pollen fossils have been dated as being over 30 million years old.

How's this for a weird visitor - it was on my jacket after a morning sorting wood.

Is it a bird, is it a plane???

Nah, it's a Bag Moth caterpillar

The end of a Bic biro for scale

T-shirt and shorts weather

What a gorgeous hot sunny day today! And not just a bit of sunshine between showers, or a glimpse of blue sky through the clouds either - the day dawned bright and clear and it stayed that way all day. Just perfect!! Wet weather does have its compensations though - how about this for a stunning rainbow on 8 August?

 

Yesterday I transplanted some vege seedlings that were sown at Easter. Getting tipped off the greenhouse shelves and landing upside down didn't help their growth and some of them didn't have much of a root system so not sure how they'll go. A tv gardening programme said that in the olden days the farmer dropped his britches and sat on the ground; if the soil felt cold then it was too early to plant seeds! I didn't need to drop my britches as the soil was cold and clammy on my hands; hopefully this plastic enclosure will help them get established and grow into big strong vegetables. 



The finished shade house Mark II

 I made another trip to Bragg Bay today to clear more gum tree branches - there's just the big stuff now that needs a chainsaw. I have a number of woodpiles around the house - there's at least three lots of kindling, a couple for branches that can be cut with a bow-saw, and a larger pile that will need chainsawing. It would be easier to have two woodsheds but that's a bit over the top for a one-person household.

Gum-leaf pyramid by my woodshed

I've had a wee rest from beer bread making this week. Last weekend I experimented with ginger beer and although it was edible, it wasn't half as nice as beer bread and it stuck to the non-stick loaf tins. My favourite so far is adding Moroccan spice, half a teaspoon of mixed spice and 8-10 chopped olives.

Ginger beer bread - a coarser texture and pretty bland

Olive, mixed spice and Moroccan spice loaves

Gummy Sunday

An offer of firewood in exchange for a hard day's labour clearing an area where a large gum tree had blown down was too good to pass up. The large stuff had been chainsawed through but the wood needed stacking and all the tops moved out of the way. Most people dump the tops but I find the leaves and twigs perfect for lighting the fire and small branches burn with a lot of heat - plus the smell is lovely! The morning started out wet but the adage 'raining at 7, fine by 11' held true (though 50 minutes early) and blue skies appeared as I walked the 3km to the site.

It's a lovely walk down to Bragg Bay from my house (A), along Back Road, down Hicks Road on to Horseshoe Bay Road as it runs along Butterfield Beach, then a right turn into Bragg Bay Road and along to my destination (B).

 

At the red cross on the map, there's this lovely view on one side of the road...

Mill Creek (on the right) where it meets Bathing Beach (middle)

...and in the opposite direction a view of the road down to Butterfield Beach.

Butterfield Beach looking back towards Halfmoon Bay

A nice walk along the beach, then up a sharp hill and turn right into Bragg Bay Road. Halfway along there is a fairly recent slip - I'm glad I wasn't walking past when it came down! The road is only single lane and there's a sharp drop off the other side.

Round the corner and down the hill, then along the picturesque Bragg Bay.

Bragg Bay

I got to the site at 10.45am and set to stacking all the large bits of wood over in the corner, then slowly but surely worked my way through all the top branches piled up beyond. Loppers and a bow saw are a lot less stressful to work with than a chainsaw and don't make anywhere near as much noise!

Before Pic at 10.45am

 

and After Pic - with the trailer all stacked up at 3.45pm

I unloaded the trailer this afternoon and went back with it to fill it up a second time. I've got enough kindling to last a few years I reckon but if it works well as a fuel as well as kindling then I should be able to get away without buying in wood. The house heats up so quickly since I got double-glazing so worth experimenting - I wonder if I could make bricks out of compacted gum leaves?

 

Today dawned cool and clear after a starry, starry night so I'll leave you with this pic from my deck just before the sun rose...

 

 

Beer bread and sunrises

The wet weather we've had lately means that I've seen more of the inside of my wee whare than usual. Although I haven't been very productive, I've read a couple of books, done plenty of online research for tablets and smartphones and also made more beer bread. I'm still in the experimental phase and working out what works and what doesn't.



Beer bread made with salsa and Cajun seasoning and cooked
in mini-loaf tins

My last effort involved putting half the dough in the mini-loaf tin, spreading salsa and chopped salami over, then adding the rest of the dough with a thin smear of salsa with grated cheese on top. Into my mini-oven for 35 minutes (will do for a bit longer next time) and although they looked and tasted good, the loaf came apart where the filling was. Putting the dough in patty tins was another success but I didn't get to try those as they were for a pot luck lunch.

Once I started reading the 'Owner Series', by Neal Asher, all other jobs took a back seat. It's just as well the third book, Jupiter War, isn't being released for a few more weeks otherwise I'd have an even bigger backlog of jobs!

Books 1 and 2 of the 'Owner Series' - book 3 coming soon

If you want to get a glimpse into what the future could hold for a burgeoning population with diminishing resources then these books are well worth a read. Set around 2150 there are enough parallels with what's happening today to see that global government, widening the gap between rich (elite) and poor (zero assets), and political control of media and scientific research are dangerous roads to go down. At the beginning of each chapter the author writes a short essay which I found thought-provoking and a good structure to develop his story around. The story pulls no punches; maybe it should be essential reading for us to avoid irrevocable harm to our planet and our humanity.

 

On to something a bit lighter! We've had a few spectacular sunrises lately, here's one from 20 July from home...

 

...and this one yesterday as I walked to work. It's getting much lighter in the mornings now and the korimako (bellbirds) start their dawn chorus as I'm walking; a wonderful accompaniment and so much nicer than traffic noise!

 

I spent a day track trimming at Dancing Star a couple of weeks ago and came across a kaka having a fine old time in a macrocarpa tree, yanking the bark off and judging by the number of fresh scars up and down the trunk, he must have been doing it for a while.

 

 

No robins to entertain me this time but probably just as well as the track was overgrown and took a while to trim back. Here's a section where it was hard to see where the track went - look for the pink tape in the middle of the photo!

 

Pink triangles to mark the bait stations (this one was Line 2, bait station 13)
and pink fluoro tape to mark the track

My technology upgrade went well and great to report a big increase in internet signal strength after swapping my Sierra 306 T-Stick for a Huawei E587 mobile hotspot. I have the Huawei plugged in to my yagi aerial and now run my notebook wirelessly from anywhere inside the house. I can have up to 5 wireless devices so should work a treat when I make up my mind on which tablet to buy. The Google Nexus 7-2 has just been released in the US and comes with impressive specs but probably not available in NZ for a few weeks - and I guess there could be some bargains lurking for the earlier model. Any suggestions most welcome!!

 

Take one bottle of beer...

My focaccia bread recipe is great but a week ago my sis sent me a bread recipe that is the 'King of Quick and Easy'. I still can't believe how flour and beer transform into something so yummy - give it a go and tell me how you find it. There are a lot of variations on the internet - just search for beer bread. This version is from Jo Seagar's website at http://joseagar.com/recipes/category:baking-and-treats/beer-bread/

Beer Bread

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Ingredients

• 3 cups flour (sifted)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder (sifted)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 can of beer (made up to 400 mls with water)
• 1 handful of grated cheese

---

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C. Quickly mix all ingredients together and spoon into a greased or non-stick loaf tin and top with grated cheese. A large loaf 20 x 10cm tin will take 1 hour but smaller tins 8 x 15cm take 35 - 40 minutes. 

A wonderful 'quick bread' that has the texture and taste of a farmhouse loaf - gorgeous yeasty smell and made in a jiff without all that planning for hours, bowls of dough rising in the hot water cupboard, kneading and fiddling about. You don't even have to take off your rings to make this one.

This bread can be made with a variety of flours, wholemeal, mixed grain etc. Allow 1 teaspoon baking powder per cup of flour - and of course it can be topped with other things besides cheese, e.g. sesame seeds, rosemary, flaked salt, paprika and poppy seeds etc.

A great idea is to make a stuffed bread using this basic recipe. Place 1/2 the mixture in the loaf tin. Spoon in a layer of onion marmalade (see recipe) and say a layer of chargrilled peppers, spinach leaves, pitted olives etc. Spoon in the remainder of the dough and bake as per directions.

My first beer bread loaf

Slices nicely, toasts great - fantastic!

My first loaf followed the recipe above and was cooked in the main oven which is fanbake only so I dropped the temperature to about 180°C and cooked it for 50 minutes. I cut back on the salt and added 2tsp mixed herb and cooked in my mini-oven at 200°C for about the same time. The bread looked and smelt yummy but the texture was different and next time I'd cut the mixed herbs back to 1tsp as it was a bit overpowering. I've bought 2 dozen beer on special this week and will experiment further with olives, salsa and some caramelised onions!

My second loaf - mixed herbs and cheese

We've had some lovely winter weather - cool nights with frosty mornings and sunny days. This was the scene last Saturday at the bottom of Back Road...

9.45am on Saturday 13 July

Saturday's sunshine gave way to sleety showers on Sunday but I certainly wasn't cold as I trimmed tracks at Dancing Star. I ran into Red/Blue/Red (one of the toutouwai, Stewart Island Robins, released at the preserve earlier this year and, as I had some mealworms with me, I could feed him/her and enjoy watching this wee robin at close quarters.

Horseshoe Bay at low tide with sleety showers breezing through

It was great to have this young one's company but at times he/she came so close I had to be careful where I was stepping. Click on the picture below to hear the robin trilling to me...

 

 

Island weather

What a difference an hour makes! Two hours ago the sun was shining brightly without a cloud in the sky; an hour ago the sun was still shining although with a distant rumble of thunder as I checked my rat traps and rebaited them - and now it's pelting down with water running down the flue and hissing loudly as it drips on to the wood burner! The temperature dropped from 13.2°C at 11am to 6.7°C in 45 minutes. I wonder if the sun will be shining again by lunchtime!!

Our township of Oban seems to have escaped the worst of the winds that must increase in intensity as they spread away from the centre. Our highest gust over the last week was 85km/h (47 knots) and the shade house survived (yay!); I added more weight to the frame and tightened ropes but can see that a stronger gust could still lift it up without too much trouble.

Shortest day has been and gone but it's actually darker in the mornings at present as the moon wanes. I try to walk to work without using a torch in the hope that I come across kiwi heading home for their daytime sleep but no luck yet!

Shortest day at Oban, Stewart Island

I'm toying with the idea of getting a lower-priced Android tablet - maybe a HP Slate 7 or a Google Nexus 7; I used to be an early adopter of new technology but now feel that the technology world passes me by. Not having a landline or reliable mobile broadband signal is frustrating but I'm convinced that mobile technology will improve on the island so understanding what tablets/smartphones do will keep me in the loop. Any advice or suggestions are warmly welcome - or should I just stick my head in the sand and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist!! In addition to the tablet, I'll also need a mobile broadband hotspot (Huawei E587) that connects to the yagi aerial.

Still a number of rats about although had a clear run at Deep Bay last Tuesday. I took the telemetry gear out with me to see if I could get any signals from kiwi with transmitters on that were released at Ackers Point over the summer. I'd seen a lot of kiwi sign the week before but didn't get a peep from the 4 transmitters I was listening for. Each transmitter is on a different frequency so at regular intervals I'd turn the receiver on, unfold the blue aerial 'arms' and point it around the vegetation, then repeat with the next frequency. Unfortunately there were no 'beeps' to be heard this time but maybe the kiwi were all snug in deep burrows so will check again another time.

Check out a Taranaki kiwi hunt here http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/8857864/Arduous-hunt-for-elusive-kiwi

Gotta go, it's 12.30pm and the sun is back out!!

Beginner's luck

The March issue of New Zealand Lifestyle Block had a focaccia bread recipe which sounded easy enough for me. I've made bread in a breadmaker before but am a newbie with making it from scratch. I was enthused enough to buy some yeast and put it in the pantry. With a memory like mine it was a surprise to discover the yeast again last week (best by date already expired) and thought I'd better try the recipe!

I didn't have a lot of 'High Grade' flour so decided to halve the quantities but those calculations must have used up all my brain cells as I was busy kneading the dough before I realised that I hadn't added the oil. No wonder it was hard adding all the flour. I drizzled the oil over the dough as I kneaded and kept my fingers crossed that it would work. The dough seemed to rise fine over the next 1½ hours, then got punched down and split into 5 rolls. Another wee rising time, then into the oven - mine only has fanbake so I dropped the temperature to about 180°C and baked them for 20 minutes.

Here's the results...

Fresh out of the oven

Looks like bread!!

I was thrilled with the results and keen to make it again. Fancy bread is one of the things I miss here so if I can perfect making these then I have a good party trick. The full recipe (1 large loaf or 10 rolls) is below...

FOCACCIA BREAD

1 tsp honey or sugar

2 cups lukewarm water
4 tsp dried yeast
5 cups of flour (wholemeal, white or mixed) - I used Pams high grade flour
1 tsp salt (can be left out or reduced if you want)
¼ cup olive oil (I used extra light but may try ordinary next time)

1.       Combine honey/sugar with the warm water and sprinkle the yeast on top

2.       Leave 5-10 minutes until the yeast froths

3.       Mix 3 cups of flour (sifted) with the salt in a large bowl

4.       Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and beat well for about 3 minutes, then gradually add the remaining sifted flour

5.       Knead the dough on a floured board for about 10 minutes until it is silky, springy and elastic

6.       Lightly oil the bowl and leave the dough in it, covered with a cloth dampened with warm water, in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about 1½ hours)

7.       Knock it back using your fist and roughly shape it into rounds, loaves or rolls

8.       You can use the tips of your fingers to dimple the top of the focaccia (make identations). Drizzle with olive oil, turning the pan carefully to allow the olive oil to soak into the identations

9.       Sprinkle sea salt and the herbs and toppings of your choice, eg chopped rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, sun-dried tomatoes, olives

10.   Place it on an oiled oven tray or round cake pan, cover with the re-dampened cloth, and leave for 30 minutes in your warm place to rise again

11.   Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of the loaf) until crisp and lightly brown

12.   Remove from the oven and serve warm

 
I cooked mine on fanbake at 180°C for 20 minutes

Tips for making great focaccia

·         Use a round cake pan

·         Allow dough to rise in the tin it will be baked in (which keeps air in the dough) – prob doesn’t apply if making rolls

·         Pour a 3-6mm layer of olive oil in the base of the pan (this gives flavour, moistness and crunch) – I drizzled a bit of oil in the tray but nothing like 3mm

·         Topping ideas: Mozzarella cheese, garlic, tomato and fresh basil

·         Finely chopped thyme, sage, rosemary and oregano can be brushed on top or included in the loaf – or you could add seeds: cardamom, sesame, caraway

 

Garlic and parsley focaccia bread – a great way to freshen up a day-old focaccia loaf

I focaccia loaf
100g butter, at room temperature
4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
4 Tbsp of either curled or Italian flat parsley, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper

1.       Preheat oven to 180°C

2.       Cut the focaccia bread into 2cm thick slices and place on an oven tray

3.       Beat together the other ingredients in a bowl until well combined

4.       Liberally coat one side of the bread with the butter mixture

5.       Bake for about 10-15 minutes until golden

6.       Devour as soon as cool enough to handle!

Recipe courtesy of New Zealand Lifestyle Block magazine, March 2013