At the bottom of the valley there is Tunnel Gully Recreational area. It’s about an hours walk along the Rimutaka Trail to get there and a welcoming picnic area to rest before starting the hike back up the hill.

Bob and Sheila did this walk a week or so ago and took a picture that shows a completely new view – our house with Mike and Andrea’s. Admittedly you need a good telephoto lense or bionic eyesight to see it but thought it was interested neighbourly views.

Today I closed down my companion site – Kaitoke Grand Design. A blog designed to chronicle the build of the house. You can check it out.

Despite the hot weather the garden is starting to thrive with the plants in the beds around the house really setting down roots. It is starting to look like a real garden should. The bees are loving the plants close to the front veranda which makes it difficult for maintenance during the day. Best to wait for the bees to go to bed.

Only another 20 plants to put in this week and then that’s it for this growing season as the remaining plants we need are simply not available at the nurseries at the moment. Still, there are plenty of thistles to be dug up so that will make a change from putting plants in the ground!

Click for more garden blogging

I’ve never been hugely lucky with neighbours apart from a lovely older couple in Ouston, Chester-le-Street, who had the downstairs flat. Although they fought all the time and I could listen to what they watched on TV they were really friendly and always concerned for me. I like to think that I reciprocated this neighbourly friendship (well not the arguing and loud TV).

Here in New Zealand I think we may be luckier with our neighbours. Last night we held a neighbourly get together with 10 of the neighbours around for drinks and a nosey in the house.

Here’s the roll call so you know for future:

• Jim and Kathleen – the people who sold us the land, a wonderful Irish couple . Jim is a self confessed nosey neighbour when it comes to house building and kept a close eye on development during the build. Kathleen is a very useful person to know, she works at the local council!
• Ross and Janet – the people who own the first section off the road, parents to our immediate neighbour Doug. They keep sheep that keep escaping and the beef cattle that lived in Doug’s paddock for a while.
• Mike and Andrea – he’s from Essex and Andrea’s a kiwi. Their house build is underway on the middle section of the sub division.
• Doug and Shilo – Doug’s a real country boy and spends hours hunting wild boar in the Rimutaka hillsides. He’s currently living in a bach (looks more like a garden shed) until he starts building his house at the end of this year. Shilo is is long suffering girlfriend who puts up with his wild hunting ways.
• Lee and Keith – the neighbours whose trees set on fire a few weeks ago. Keith’s parents are British, from Redcar and London.

Jim and Kathleen took some pictures of our house from their section and brought them with them to the neighbourly soiree. I thought this was a deeply thoughtful thing to do as it would be rare that we would otherwise be able to see this view.

I know I am biased but I do think the house looks really cool – nestled amongst the landscape in a sympathetic way. Good to know that they can’t see into our bedroom windows!

This week I declared warfare on the weeds on our land. I know that I’ll be fighting a losing battle for years to come but you have to start somewhere.

This decision followed a rather painful lesson in weeding – make sure that your teeshirt meets your shorts at the back. After spending several hours digging up thistles and dandelions that were establishing themselves on my lawn (Ok, the place where the lawn should be) and in my new flower beds I found to my pain that my teeshirt didn’t quite. Still I’ve a lovely patch of tan which looks faintly ridiculous but gives me renewed determination to get rid of the weeds.

After clearing the flower beds it was time to use blanket amoury in the form of bark mulch. After a big truck deliver 5 cubic metres of the stuff it became a family affair to get the beds covered. I have to say that credit goes to my father-in-law for the most mulch shifted from the pile although the rest of the Treanor family got in at the end of a long day to finish up the last bits.

Long may this mulch keep down the weeds. However, I suspect that they will be back soon in another part of the garden!

The master learning the finer points of mulch shifting

Now doesn’t that look nicer!

Part of the idea of moving to the country was to be able to source our food and produce from local suppliers or ideally from our home grown land and stock. We started with the honey and have now moved to getting our firewood from a local source. Our neighbour.

Or rather I should say our neighbour’s friend. The deal was he would cut the trees and then could sell the wood. Seems that the initial thoughts of reaping about $30,000 through the sale has ended up closer to about $3,000 after the outlay on the equipment to cut it and the trailer to sell it, not to mention the time to cut the darn stuff up.

We were proud to be his first customer although half way through stacking it in the barn it didn’t feel like such a good idea. They always say you get warm twice from firewood and this was no exception. It did seem very strange to be working up a sweat in 25+ degrees shifting wood for the winter. There was method in our madness. There was a huge rain cloud heading our way.

We managed to shift the lot in about 90 minutes which was pretty good going. We’re now stocked ready for next winter and there’s plenty of time for the wood to be drying out. We’ve got a “wet-back” on our wood burner so we’ll heat our water as well as heat the house. Pretty neat eh. Local supplier of sustainable product to add to our energy efficient house!

Tadaaaaa (I’d just like to point out that this pile is three layers deep – the picture is very deceiving!)

On the subject of wood and fires, this was the view out the back window the other day. I got quite a shock to see that the forestry block over the back was actually on fire. I called 111 (our emergency number) and was relieved to know that they were already on their way to put it out. We had helicopters too to check that there were no other outbreaks.

It makes you realise how quickly forest fires spread. I was digging out my insurance policies, passports and other precious things to pack in case it got much closer to our very dry grass and bush. Luckily the wind was blowing the other way and the rural fire folks did a fantastic job and put it out very quickly.

If you want to protect your hard work, and your house and garden, much needs to be done to basset proof it. Of course it’s also important for their own health and safety.

After putting so much effort into planting the new flower beds around the house it was important to break the puppies habit of using the flower beds for (a) the quickest route back to the house and (b) a nice soft place in which to do your personal business.

Despite the suggestions at the local DIY store, I knew that granules of chemical solutions was not going to keep my boys off their favourite place. More drastic measures were required. Fortunately having my Dad on hand meant we could install basset fencing.

So, how high can a basset jump we wondered?

Let me tell you they can’t jump very high (unless they are trying to get their dinner of the kitchen bench) but they can trample small fences intended to keep them out which are not entirely secured in place!

It’s so comical to see them bounding towards the flower beds after running up and down the veranda by the front door thinking that they are going to nip across the direct route and beat me to the step. Let’s just say that the fencing doesn’t leave a lasting indentation on their faces but momentarily they are squished as they bash into the offending barrier. It seems also unfair too when they are in their post snooze stagger off the veranda to relieve themselves only to find that their is no access to that lovely soft stuff.

Although I know that they think it’s a hard life being a basset in want and need of the flower bed. But my need is greater than theirs so they are going to have to get used to it!

PS – please no comments on my desert like lawn which makes an appearance in the following pictures.

It is starting to feel like the house is really putting down roots now and becoming part of the landscape. We don’t quite stick out like the sore thumb we did when the build was under way and with the surrounding landscape in the bloom of early summer it looks and feels good.

There is some way to go with the immediate landscaping around the house though. Our lawn is having problem putting down roots because the weather is so dry but we’ve been watering it like mad in an effort to get it to grow. There are a few lush patches (and I mean a few) but with the rain in the last few days it might give it the boost it needs to get growing. When it’s finally got it’s roots down it’s going to be a real lush green oasis amongst the brown of the remaining groundworks.

We’ve planted around a hundred plants too around the house with more being delivered this week. This is starting to soften the lines of the house and give it more of a garden feel. It’s a problem keeping Fortnum and Mason off the beds but since they are the first soft things that they come to in the morning you can’t blame them for feeling it’s their duty to give the beds their daily watering!

The familiar view of the house complete with flower beds and early signs of a lawn.

Regular blog readers will know that there are all sorts of exciting things we experience living in a rural area. One of which is having a rural water supply.

What this means is we collect the rain from the roof, fill the tank and then pump it back into the house via a fancy filtering system. Very ecco you may say and yes it is. However the success of this system relies on two key things – rain and a working pump.

Yes you’ve guessed it. We’ve had neither recently!

First it didn’t rain for weeks and weeks so that the water supply dropped to worrying levels. How embarressing would that be to have visitors and no water? So what do you do when the ritual rain dance of Kaitoke failed?

You get a man to deliver silly……yes, the lovely Colin and his shiny truck brought 10,000 litres of water to save the day in time for Christmas.

Great got the water. Now the issue is that the pump decided to give up the ghost on a Sunday morning!

My parents project since they’ve arrived is to help turn the landscape planting plan into a reality. We’ve been cruising to nurseries and the internet to find the array of plants specified in the plan.

Having tracked down about 100 plants then the challenge of placing them in the right spot started. After lots of tweaking we finally got them where we think they should be. Next step is to dig the holes and put them in to create the first bit of our new garden!

Yes there is a lawn there – or at least lawn seed!