Rhedding Farm

Category: Life and other stuff

  • Migration

    Very quick post, and apology to any readers. We have moved web hosts. This took a little time to achieve because of a great many other projects going on. More soon, now that the migration is finished.

  • Snippets and Highlights

    Greetings, readers! As usual, the best laid plans of mice and men, when not backed up by good habits, gang aft agley. So to get back on track, I thought I would post some highlights of homesteading thing-a-ma-jigs we have accomplished over the last couple of years. Chicken infrastructure: For small numbers of chickens. I…

  • Kittens!

    Right, time to do something about this blog. I’m going to try for Saturday morning posts, to at least get into a routine. Anyway. It so happens that in the autumn of last year, we had holes cropping up left and right across our land. Rats. This is a farm, not a golf course. Besides,…

  • Getting Back to the Land

    Even before we left New Zealand, the Kiwi Homesteaders had chosen to join forces with Starfish’s parents. This worthy couple, having moved from Auckland to a small town in North Canterbury in order to be closer to us, were realising that living as an ageing couple in a small town with attenuated support networks was…

  • “Are we there yet?” Part 2

    Or, how we escaped from New Zealand. This post was written in August 2022, but backdated to mid-February 2022. It was in October 2021 that we got the news. Starfish was pregnant – which we knew – and would not get obstetric care at a New Zealand hospital. Starfish’s father, being medically contraindicated to receive…

  • “Are we there yet?” Part 1

    Or, why we escaped from New Zealand. This post was written in August 2022, but backdated to mid-February 2022. What happened to New Zealand is enough to fill the heart of a faithful citizen with grief. The land that was once called, “God’s own country,” (and so acquired the nickname, “Godzone”) has turned its back…

  • Happy New Year!

    …and a much belated Merry Christmas. The Kiwi Homesteaders hope all of you had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas season, and could remember those things and people that are most important. New Zealand is on summer holidays, after the insanity that is the month of December. The country virtually shuts down by degrees, and most…

  • Cresting Heartbreak Hill

    Since I was about 18, I’ve been a keen runner for training and exercise, though seldom for any competitive purposes. But at times I’ve trained with other people, and in particular on a visit to a friend and fellow runner, T., who was doing a postdoc in Boston, Massachusetts, he introduced me to the concept…

  • It’s a beautiful world

    The equinox has just passed us by, and in true Canterbury style the nor’wester is back, like an old friend. The birds are happy with the warmth, though, and laying in earnest, and the house continues to make rapid progress. It’s said that the windows and doors were supposed to go in today. Last night,…

  • Still alive.

    Winter is not an easy time of year for the Kiwi Homesteaders. The coughs and colds come out in force, with three kids in kindergarten. We’ve also been house-sitting for Starfish’s parents, and that has at times felt like a mission, with maintenance items coming out of the woodwork and a lot of floor space…