hillside road

that Y-shaped tree isn’t meant to be leaning like that

water tanks & manuka leaf-litter

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It’s been really wet here the past couple of days. Something to rejoice about when relying solely on rainwater as our water supply… But it’s not all good news for us, right now…

Yesterday’s horrifying discovery: after trudging out to check the levels of our tanks (I thought I might have the luxury of a bath), I realise that we are losing valuable water as the filters are full of manuka – good for honey, also good for clogging guttering, downpipes & water tanks. There was more rain in the gutters yesterday than the filters could handle in their current state, so it was pouring out the top of the tank and pooling on the ground. Today, now the rain has abated, I will be hauling the ladder out to the tanks and trying to get the filters out to give them a clean. Feeling rather annoyed with myself for not having figured this out sooner as I neglected to get the tanks inspected as part of the due diligence process, but focused now on the fix rather than the fault.

Despite having a tarpaulin covering our skylight, there’s been water dropping off our ceiling on to the floor in our hallway. It’s going to be another week before the builder comes to try and figure out where the water is getting in. Despite knowing we can’t do much about it right know, I’m grinding my teeth in frustration.

I am a lazy cook when Nic is away and usually end up having a couple of spoons of yoghurt out of a tub whilst standing at the fridge, or buying bread and having toast. This week I made a frittata out of the veges left over from the weekend and have been eating that along with some locally smoked fish. I think I’m on to a winner for his future trips away – it’s healthy and delicious and is an easy way I can practise self care when he’s not around.

I planted some winter greens a wee while back, but didn’t think to put slug & snail deterrent down. Almost all of the little seedlings have been eaten, so I need to plant some more (luckily I have a few still in their punnets). I’ve saved the eggshells from the frittata & will use them as protection for the next lot. Lesson re-learned.

Because our house is so small (we live in a house that has only ever been used as a holiday home – NZ’ers call it a bach) there’s a ton of things still packed away in boxes. Some of it we really don’t need, so I will open an etsy store for some of the nicer vintage items I have collected. The local SPCA charity shop will get the remainder.

At least one tree fell over during the strong winds last night, so I’m off out to cut that down and inspect the rest of the section for damage.