Connor Photos

Hm, Pork crackling...Yummy

Not always smiles

Connor meets Shrek

Weekend

Yep, as you can see I got my final revenge on the goat, as we're heading for a very dry summer (already the paddocks are looking like mid Jan) we figured we should shed some stock, so bitchy goat was first on the list. I tried to butcher it myself, and it is a lot harder than I first thought. I have since found a video on how to do it, and I made so many mistakes (well, I went wrong from the first step!) Oh well, I know for next time.

Other than that, on Saturday, I took Connor into Masterton and around so Steph could have a break (and ride the horse), and then in the afternoon I weighed the pigs, and they came in at between 70 and 80Kgs, so this Sunday they are off the get "fabricated" (an interesting euphemism I found on http://www.freshcanadianlamb.ca/video_guide.html, where there are lots of video clips on how to butcher a lamb carcass).

Anyway, we also booked our replacement pigs, and I collect them on Sunday too, we're getting two wild type pigs, so as to compare conversion ratios etc.

On Saturday evening, Andy and I went into Nigels farm for a hunt and came home with 5 hares, and 1 rabbit. The rabbit was quite funny. We were driving along the race side by side on the quads, and I told Andy that I would spotlight, and he would shoot. After a few minutes I spot a bunny, and quickly stop, inform Andy of it's where-abouts and off we go. Unfortunately Andy mis-understood where I said it was, and we ended up quite close, and he missed! Whilst we were keeping the spot light on the rabbit, it started hopping even closer to us (It wanted to follow the light). Eventually it was about 1m in front of the bikes, and it was only a young one (a few months, best eating), and Andy suggested letting it get away, but since it was mesmerized by the light, I passed the spotlight over to Andy, and told him to keep it on it. Meanwhile I walked around behind it and pounced on it, and dispatched it. Unfortunately it bounced out of the bin I have on the front of the bike, so we missed out on bunny in the end. But we got home around 12:30, and all in all it was a good hunt, esp with the mad 10 minutes where we say three hares one after another.
The cats were glad we did so well, they now have cat food for the next few weeks.

On Sunday we did things like mowing lawns etc, and basically had a quiet day.

Phew, up to date. Now for some Connor shots.

Ouch! I get my final revenge

 

A weekend hunting

All in all, it was a good weekend. The plan was that a friend from Wellington was coming up to visit, and we would have a weekend hunting. It started off around 9pm on Friday with a rabbit/hare hunt in the 505ha farm behind us. After stalking a few hares and rabbits and them giving us the slip, as we entered the last paddock, we spied a rabbit at around 70m. After some very quiet walking we got within 50m, and Matt took the shot. Straight through the back of the neck, and we had bagged our first bunny. After a few more minutes driving around the paddock we came across two hares sitting together. We stalked up on them (until they vanished), and then after a few minutes looking around, we got back on to them, and Matt took another shot. Unfortunately, he gut shot the hare, and it ran off, but we found it a short while later, and Matt dispatched it with a shot through the middle of the head!

After that (since it was around midnight), we started heading home, we did run into a few more bunnies and a hare on the way back, but we only came back with 1 extra.

The next morning, we left for the Mukamuka around 9am, first stopping off in Carterton just incase we needed anything.

It was around 11am when we finally got to the split in the river on the muka muka, and we decided where we were going to camp, and then turned the truck around, in doing so, I managed to put a stick right through the side of the rear tyre. The tyre was totally poked (no pun intended), and set to changing the tyre right away. Thankfully the truck had a jack, and a spare tyre that was in good order (maybe it shouldn't have been luck!). Because of the substrate of the river, and the position of the truck, we had to raise the jack using a huge boulder, and then dig out underneath the wheel. Finally after 45 minutes, we got the spare on, and we started on our hunting trip!
About 100 paces later we were at camp!

After a few minutes setting up the tent, and carrying up the gas bottle and 2 burner stove (yes we were roughing it), we sat down and enjoyed a nice brew of tea, whilst we came up with a plan of attack.

Our first reccy was up the river, and after an hour or so of walking, we decided to turn back as the sides were just getting steeper and steeper, and it wasn't good hunting territory. Once we got back to camp Matt thought he heard a bleet of a sheep or goat, and a short while later we had come to the consensus that it was infact a kid goat and it's mother, plus maybe 1 other. Because we had just walked right down the middle of the river bed, we figured we would give them about 20 minutes to settle back down, and then we would go and find them, so we brewed up another tea. Wouldn't you know it, they buggered off (and it wasn't the smell of the tea etc as the wind was in our favor). Oh well

Whilst we were out looking for the goats, we found fresh (that morning) deer sign beside the river, and it was pretty obvious where it was coming and going to, so we sat down and waited, and waited, but just before dark we decided that a cooking in the light might be better than not, so we headed back to camp.
For tea that evening we had vension (not fresh), rice, onion and carrots. Actually quite tasty, and washed it down with on Glenfiddich.
After dishes etc, it was time for dessert, roasted marsh mellows with more whisky, so we sat on the bank of the river, and made a nice fire, and proceeded to roast the marshmallows. The strangest thing happened though, around 11pm, I heard some rustling of stones just below us, and as I reached for the torch, two people and a dog appeared! They were just walking out..

Anyway, around midnight we headed back to the tent, and tried to get some sleep (the tent is a few inches short for me!).

Sunday morning I got up around 6am, and was out hunting by 6:30, meanwhile Matt was still asleep. Didn't see anything, but I thought I did hear some rustling in the bushes.

After breakfast, Matt and I headed up the hill to see what we could see. On the way up we found some very fresh deer sign (poo), and hoof prints and goat poo. We carried on going up until the bush got too dense to continue. Half way up we stopped to catch our breath, and just as we were, a NZ falcon (endangered species, classified as "Nationally vulnerable") flew below us up the valley. It was very cool to see the falcon, made the trip all worthwhile.
Anyway, since this is long overdue, I'll wrap it up with we didn't catch anything, but we had a good time.

MukaMuka hunt

Until I get some time, here's some photos from the hunt on the weekend.

More photos of Connor playing

Hm, this Paua is tastes funny.

And I'm spent!

Munching carrots

 

Yikes, it's been ages since I last blogged

Well since that success hunt, much has happened, I've had many more hunts along the same sort of success rates, week before last I was out most evening's because I was trialling out new quad bikes (our trike broke, and isn't worth fixing, so we were looking at a quad, and to try them out I was taking them out for hunts and typically covering them with bunny blood!
Also I've attended a bush craft course for the last few weekends, finishing with a goat hunt last weekend, I took my .308 and didn't hit anything (well, we didn't actually see any goats in a position that they could be shot.


Since it's been so long, I won't try and cover things in any chronological way, but here's what's happened recently.


We've finally got the goats and the sheep shorn, and actually broke even on the sheep which is most unusual for a small flock at the moment. All in all the shear went well, and for 4 flocks (our two, and the two neighbors flocks) it was all done in a few hours. It allowed us to evaluate the two angora does who were quite light in the frame much better 'cause there is no fleece to hide it all (or lack there of). Thy are now on good lush paddock and doing much better (spring has finally hit with vengeance, the temp's are soaring, and grass is growing like no tomorrow. We're hoping for a bit more rain because at the moment we've had no where near enough, but that ain't anything we can do about it now!


Also, all the ewe lambs we got in, have finally been moved on, which further reduces our grass burden, and we're left with 1 ewe and lamb, and one really scraggly one (which I'll probably donk on the head in a few weeks time)


Something I have forgot to mention is that we now have 4 pigs, the three wessex saddlebacks, and now we've got a little pink piglet which we're raising for Christmas dinner, Andy's going to to build a spit roast and then on Christmas eve, we'll "prepare" "Spit roast" (it's name) for the next day, and it should be a bloody good BBQ!
Little "Spit Roast" kept getting out and walking around the garden looking for Steph to feed it, so we've now electrified the pig pen, but I'm thinking that I won't have 4 pigs again, that many do smell, and it's quite close to the house. I might do a bit of fencing, and reduce their paddock in half and that way they will be further away from the house even more.
Anyway, I'll wait till these pigs are moved on, and then we'll get 2 pigs for our selves again.


For the last few days Steph and I have been out at Tora staying in a bach with some friends. The weekend was spent resting (well trying to anyway), and went for a nice walk along the coast with Connor (whilst Steph slept), had an explore in the coastal farm behind the bach on the bike, shot a hare (which I'm turning into hare jerky as I type). Also did a spot of snorkelling, and saw an octopus, some fish, and harvested some Paua which I cooked up for tea last night, very yummy!


Well, that's about us all up to date (oh we've had another litter of bunnies born, and they are growing well, and they are out for ginger bunny and her dad, and we have some ginger babies too!


Now to put up some more photos etc.

More photos of Connor

Daddy asked me to smile for the camera

One day I'll replace this ball with a bar!

I wonder if I can get Mum and Dad with this splash.

Goats get revenge

There is some words coming soon (probably on Monday, I've started writing a catch up, but here's a photo of a wound a goat gave me last weekend.

A Successfull hunt.

Bush Baby

Here are some photos fomr our walk into the bush today.


I'll write a blurb tomorrow evening summerising the whole long weekend.

---

Catch up.. finally.

I figured that after, what three weeks, I think, I should finally post a catch up, and give the story of the deer, and the other assorted photos.

Since the last textual post, Steph and I had a several day trip to Auckland to see her side of the family. We drove all the way up on the Thursday, and for the most of it, Connor was well behaved, he only started getting grizzly around Mata-Mata, and then from around the Bombay's onwards he was crying for most of the way!.
Anyway, Auckland was good apart from Steph and I suffering some form of upset stomach on the last day, and then having to drive to Rotorua. On the way to Rotorua, we dropped by Barry's place (Steph's Grandad) for a visit.
By the time we got into Rotorua, I was feeling like, well, I guess you can fill in the blanks, and was in desperate need of a snooze, so Steph and Connor went out for tea (a pack of biscuits, as neither of us felt like eating).
That evening, Steph was fine, whereas I suffered a massive case of the vomits from about midnight onwards, but still at 7ish, we left Rotorua and headed for Mum and Dad's place in Waipawa. Unfortunatly, due to the car seat, and the limited leg room in the Safari, I have to drive everywhere now, and man, was I wasted when I got to Hawkes Bay. Not only that, my stomach was still very sensitive (and it remained that way for about a week).
Anyway, we finally got home, and I took the rest of the week off to recover.
That Friday, Steph had organised for me to go on a guided hunt out on Glenburn station for deer. We headed out around lunch time on Friday, and after spending the afternoon sighting in the rifles and drinking tea, we headed out around 4pm. Around 8pm the deer put in an appearance, and after about 30 minutes of stalking, I had my first deer! We went pig hunting the next morning but that was less successfull, say lots of deer though!

That's really about all the good news. So here's a new video of Connor, and I'll try to keep the blog up to date a bit more (I've just been fed up with technology recently so blogging is down on the list of things I want to do!).

Anyway, enjoy.

More photos of Auckland

Yep, there are two teeth

More photos

My First Deer

My First Deer, a young male yearling (spiker) taken from around 100 metres with my .308 Remington 700.
Yes, Mum, that is my old pinkish top!

Some random Connor photos

Another weekend over and done with, not really feeling like writing a complete blog entry tonight, so I'll quickly summerise what we did on the weekend.

Friday evening went for a deer hunt, didn't see anything (except for hares).
Saturday: Got a hair cut, had roast wild turkey (very very nice), and I looked after Connor for the afternoon whilst Steph played horsey.
Sunday:Dagged and Tagged the sheep, and then in the afternoon went for a rabbit hunt at a new farm, quite successfull, a few rabbits etc.

Connor's training as a carnivore starts early

Hmm, I wonder what goat tastes like!

Connor's first exam of goat bits!

The pair of new arrivals.

Parent Pacifiers.

Farms, Early hunting trips, fire and turkeys!

Well, this is really a entry for the weekend and today (or lunch time anyway!)

Early last week I got another response from the advert in the local newletter requesting hunting access, so on Saturday morning, Andy and I headed out to Stronvar to look at this block, a whopping 2100 acres, needless to say, it's huge. We spent an hour going around it on a bike, and only covered about 2/3 of it. Because the block borders on some forest, there is a chance of some pig too, which would be pretty neat. We got permission to take rabbits, hares, pigs, possum, turkeys, paradise duck and geese. We're hoping to get out this weekend for an afternoon hunt and hopefully bag a few hares for some hare sausage.

Going around that farm took up most of the morning, and then in the afternoon Jules and Andy had a bonfire, so I helped them clean up an area of their paddock with the tractor, not much but the tractor made light work of destroying a wasp nest!.

Later in the afternoon (close to dark), we brought the sheep in and weighed them once more (I had spent some time that morning calibrating the scales and making a flat section beside the race for the scales to sit on). Now they are all up to weight, they are off to the yards tomorrow hopefully.

On Sunday morning, I got up around 4:19am and headed down towards Ngawi for a hunt, upon getting there I discovered the river I was going to walk up, was private property, so I gave Steph and ring and then headed up another stream bed, unfortunatly I discovered that the area had recently been 1080'ed, so I could take any deer I saw. A little bit in, I discovered some stag sign, some really wide spread hoof prints, and some thrashing on the trees, so they are there!

A bit more walking and I discovered a nice little side gully, and had a hunt up there, and found a really nice spot, but also found a dead deer!

After that the weather started downwards, so I hiked out along a track I found. I ended up getting back to Littlebush around 11am feeling slightly tired.

That afternoon we weighed the pigs, and they are improving nicely, and the around 3pm we decided that we would finally cleanup the fallen gum branches in John's paddock, so we heaved them on the back of the trailer and took them over to the still burning bonfire.

And now for the photo..this lunch time I decided to check mail, and whilst I was at the end of the driveway, I saw a group of wild turkeys jump into our neighbours property, so I headed home, got the .22 and knocked over the cock turkey, I figure take the lead male so that the females and continue producing for next year, he'll be a bit tough, but cook him slowly with lots of bacon to keep him moist, might make a meal yet...there is certainly enough of him!

Kidding is finished

Just got a message from Steph, kidding has finished, we had a buck born last night, unfortunately he didn't survive the night.

Assisted lambing

Oh, I forgot, yesterday morning, in the frost I had to help one of Julia's ewes lamb. It was the biggest ram lamb I had seen, no wonder it got stuck!

The head was out, and unfortunately it was already dead, the ewe though seems fine.


Only 1 ewe to go and 1 doe, then it's all over till Christmas (Monkey is due then we think).

Fencing and Sore legs

And another weekend passes, and still life on the farm chugs on with the never ending list of jobs, at least this weekend I managed to knock one off.

Saturday saw the goats (and Gloria) moved up one paddock into what was supposed to be the kidding paddock (but she beat us to it), along with all the houses for them too. Once they were moved out, the ewes and new lambs were moved across from the mound paddock into the paddock the goats were (the goats only browse the grass, hence there is still a lot of fodder for the sheep to clean up), and then the ram and the ewes who have still yet to "pop" moved into the mound paddock; not much grass left there but, nice and sheltered. Also during the morning I finally finished the fencing in the mound paddock, the netting fence between that paddock and the arena was very loose, and more than once the goats had escaped (along with the sheep after them) into the arena and the flaxes around it.

After all that, I was pretty wiped out, and wanted to spend the afternoon doing something fun, so I did the ice test (video below), that was quite amusing for 30 minutes, and then I came in and veg'ed for the night (along with getting prepped for Sunday's hunt).

Sunday morning, I got up nice and early (but still a good lie in for the weekend, 7am) and after a good breakfast of porridge, I headed down to Ocean beach for a hunt on Corner Creek. Following the advice of some other hunters, I gained some altitude into the bush and left the stream bed, this worked quite well, as within the first 30 minutes of my walk, I had already spooked a small deer, wasn't quite quick enough to get a shot of, but at least I saw something. 3 hours later when I stopped for lunch (after walking 2 Kms, but the terrain was straight up!), I decided that I should head for home as I was noticing the start of fatigue, more walking required I think.

And finally today, we went out to a farm to collect some meat goats, we were going to get 5ish, but ended up coming home with the entire flock, oh well, we got them for a really good price,around $9/head now I think about it. So we'll keep them for a few days, sort out who has kidded, who belongs to who etc, and then cull or sell on the ones we don't want, I'm thinking of putting them in the freezer myself, we don't have much goat in there at the moment, only a roast, a shoulder and 3 or 4 meals of chops, so a bit more won't go amiss.

Oh, the other day I said to Steph "Honey, I think we need to cull some more sheep, we're running low on meat, we only have:

• 1 tray (30cm x 60cm) of pork chops
• 1 maybe 2 pork roasts
• a couple of lamb roasts
• 1/2 cubic metre of beef mince or sausages
• about 6 or so rabbits
• 1 hare forequarter
• 20 or so faggots (homemade)
• 15kgs of sausages (lamb or pork)
• bacon
• 5kg of pork burgers"
  

at this point I decided that we weren't really low on meat, just the freezer needed filling more.

As you can imagine, we never buy meat at the supermarket! And now we have goat.

Anyway, it's getting on towards bed time, so till later.

Oh, breaking news, just got another farm for shooting, and from the sounds of it, it's another big one with lots of hares, so that will be cool; we had hare stew this evening, and it's very yummy.

Still trying to find a private block for deer or goats, fingers crossed.