Alex the sheep herder was fun to watch, especially when you used your firm voice. Lanka licking the salty sweat from your arm so lovingly was so sweet. I love walking the property with you guys and getting your chill vibe. Once a week is not enough!
I love this episode, as well as I love each and every one that you put out. I'm so happy to see waddles AKA Duckie To be adopted! I love how longer loves you in the video by licking you constantly I love that dog and your homestead animals... and I love your meaning behind each video including this one.. planting trees is very important to life for harvesting and nature..❤🌳🐑🐏🐕🦢🦆
My Saturdays always start with yours and Carrie's videos. Best way to start the weekend and a reminder to be positive and mindful. Thank you both so much
My wife and I live in Alaska but are renovating a house in Missouri. The house is 100 years old and we have been removing all of the lathe and plaster. After this process, we discovered that that all of the wood used for framing is rough cut walnut and the flooring also. It is really beautiful and we almost hate to cover it back up.
You are a many facetted person. Your sheep herding was pure Fred Dagg so you need to watch "Country Calender" on a Sunday night and you will see farmers controlling sheep with a stick with a plastic bag on the end. All good fun!
Love the part you said about doing things that are painful and that you don’t look forward to, but that will help you grow as a person. In a brief phase right now where I’m wanting to make changes, but they’re going to be really hard, and I’m not looking forward to it. Hearing this feels like a message from the universe reminding me to keep on, and that I’m on the right path.
I’m so glad the message resonates -I’ve found the hard things, the things we don’t want to do, are always the things we have to in order to continue to grow
Hello friend, I just wanted to say I really enjoy the pace and content of your videos. I am writing this from Calgary, Canada, largely bedridden with quite severe chronic illness, and it brings me so much peace and comfort to see you flow through your beautiful and flourishing life. I also have dreams of living on a small rural homestead with an organic garden in a peaceful pocket of nature with lots of trees. I also related to you talking about your previously very busy life, as I was once an avid traveller and passionate language-learner. New Zealand was a place that I felt immediately at home. I hope one day I can live in a healing and nourishing place similar to yours, and grow a deeper sense of happiness and connection with the world I live in. Thank you for sharing your life and flooding my heart with a sense of ease and parting comforting and authentic insights that bring me a sense of optimism. Much love to you, Carrie, Woolson, and all your other animal friends 🌿🐑🌳🦆🌤🐕🪴🌸
Hey Alex great vid. Just wanted to add a little bit of insight to your comment about the ozone layer. The hole in the ozone was created by Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which are produced in industry and were in a number of household products. There was a global effort to reduce using CFCs which has helped slow down the depletion of the ozone. The hole is largely over Antarctica but over NZ and Aussie the ozone is weaker compared to what you would be used to in the northern hemisphere. That’s why our sun is so brutal!
3 reasons why the sun is harsher in NZ: • Ozone depletion adds 10% UV. The actual hole is over Antarctica, but it still affects NZ. • Clean air adds 20% UV (compared with corresponding latitudes in the northern hemisphere). Smog can act as a sunscreen. • The sun being closer during summer due to Earth's elliptical orbit adds 7% UV.
I’m running behind! Been packing and moving my life into a shipping container to place in storage until I’ve renovated my new country cottage in the northern Wairarapa.. heading down today :)
Regarding the avocado trees. They will be fine over summer but will for the next 2-3 years will need to have frost covers in winter. I have one in Hamilton and it's survived meany frosts
Yes agreed my friend, homesteading/farming is a spiritual journey/ part of being fully human. I have a small homestead on the big island of Hawaii. Thankyou for sharing your homesteading adventures 😊
You tube is a place where everything goes so quick. Zap zap zap. Here comes you and just bring me down to earth so relaxed and complementing. Thank you for that Alex. As a gardner I must say I wish I was gardening in NZ. The climate! A question. Why did you not settle up north on the island. I sure is favorable. I know prices especially around Auckland is crazy just like everywhere else it must be places that are not. You are so ringt about the planting of trees. It is extremely imporrtant and is something everyone should do. I wish you and your a wonder ful day. :)
A couple of Kunekune pigs would help keep the grass down and would provide good fertiliser. They're the only pigs that graze so they won't tear up the land, also incredibly friendly and easy to raise.
(July 31, 2022) I smiled when you said that you need a sheepdog to herd those five "rebels." Perhaps Lanka could do with a buddy like a Border Collie? Excellent job you did with your garden. Those veggies are already producing salad greens (and red) for your table. Should you decide to acquire some sheep later on, I think one ram and two ewes are okay in the meantime. Would an energetic border collie be a good exercise partner for Lanka? Just putting across my thoughts . . . 😄❤
Nice one,Yea your on to it thinking about the future when it comes to trees we may not be around but the trees will we need to look after the land for future generations,when it comes to your paddock i had a friend in Wellington who was able to grow peaches because his property was covered in natives which gave them protection from the Frost 👍
you can also grow avocado from the stone of the fruit. For the trees you want to protect from the sheep you can also use wooden stakes with the chicken wire.
Just a thought, perhaps if you were able to pick up an old cheap wooden dinghy, and plonk it in the pond, then if you ever found yourself with a bit of spare time it might be relaxing to just float around in the sun with a book, or just have a snooze while the world goes by.
When you were planting the tomatoes it brought back memories of my uncles farm in Whangarei as a child. The noise of the birds. In all of my travels I have never heard anything like the sound of birds in New Zealand. When I hear it I get nostalgic memories. I did read that the early European explorers to New Zealand wrote that you could hear the birds not long after you could see it.
With planting the tomatoes... if you gently squeeze the plastic around the tomato plant and tip the tray to the side while gently pulling the around the base of the tomato plant, they come out much easier!!! :)
Man I feel for you!!! My father-in-law has 10 acres to maintain there in New Zealand. A lot of work. He has two cows that help with that “ mowing” of the grass… no weed whack lol
Good morning (or evening) Alex. My wife and I stumbled upon your vagabrother you tube videos of you and Marko in Michigan 4 years ago. Great videos. We have always enjoyed watching you and your brother on your travel adventures. And now, we get to enjoy you and Carrie's epic adventures in New Zealand. Best to you both.
Great video Alex, the land is beautiful seeing all the animals makes me so happy. I’m considering moving back to NZ over the next few years. Over living in a big city. During the pandemic taking up gardening, learning canning and preserving I’m keen for a fresh start back in Nz when I was born. The vids from you and Carrie are giving me lots of inspiration.. keep them coming 🙃 it’s great seeing the changes in you both, I used to watch Carries vids back in the day when she was talk about makeup and skincare
I laughed out loud watching Lanka eat grass with his friends the horses. I'm about to move house in 3 months... 5 beds with land been here 26 years, down to 2 bed apartment and you've spurred me on to start some packing. A little a day... keep chipping at it and the rewards will be great. Thanks for the videos.
Thank you, this was a delightful vid. I appreciate that even in your busy work day, you still make an effort to capture pics of the little animals going about their little lives too. It's so enjoyable and adds to the peaceful flavour of the life we see, thanks for that. Your vege gardens are looking great, well worth all the effort you both put into them👍🏻. Enjoy all the flowers of spring while you can. It's a long time to the next Spring. 🤔 I wonder what the gang, Wool-son, Waddles and Lanka will be up to then. Waddles probably have waddles of his/her own, Wool-son, well hmmm???, and Lanka will be a little older and wiser. 🦆🐕🐑🤴👸🌻🌺🌹🌼
I get so excited for your and carries videos. I always talk about yous wen people ask who I watch on RU-vid. It's so awsome to see how far yous have come and settled in here in our beautiful country. Awsome videos can't wait til next weeks video have a awsome week 😊
I'm on my day off, so it's time for my catch up on my favorite vlogger, it's painfully hard work but you done it, shepherding sheep is a patience thing, they have a stubborn streak, when one don't want to go they all follow that one and then they all run "everywhere" but. 🤦🏽♀️ I help my Sis who has around 80 odd and no dog "great exercise though running the rolling hill, thank you Alex another fantastic video 👍🏽
Looking less and less like a city slicker every day Alex lol, The property is looking spring lovely. The scene at 27.32 just wow, so lush, fresh and homely. Lanka surveying his land. Thanks for the vlog.
Hey Alex you and Carrie have inspired me to plant.. today I am proud mother of 2 tomato plants and one basil plant.. though I am renting I thought I could plant at least this much 😇 thank you for your thoughts and making us part of your homestead journey. It almost feels like we living with you the homestead life ❤️
@@AlexanderAyling I am just starting so don’t want to do a lot. I am still learning about gardening so eventually will grow more but have got a good start 😇 thanks to you and Carrie for the inspiration
I have just started building a garden bed and a great gardener friend gave me a few tips that you might find useful. Think of crop rotation, companion planting and pest control. Rotation is not to plant crops in the same location for more than 2 years altho each season is great. It reduces damage from insect pests, to limit development of disease and to manage soil fertility. Companion planting is to group plants that is beneficial to themselves as well as other plants around them. Eg potatoes are great with beans, cabbage, peas, sweet corn but do not grow well with cucumber pumpkin, sunflower, tomatoes, or near apple cherry and raspberry.eg apple tree are happier when grass is kept away as grass roots can shriver the root tips of the apple tree. Apple scab is a pain - plant chives under it, or make tea from chives or horse tail Fox gloves could be grown around or beneath fruit trees resist disease to other plants growing nearby. Keep carrots and potatoes away from apple. Carrots will turn bitter and potatoes become tasteless and start to rot Natural pests control for vegetables plant dill basil and marigolds around it
Loved the sheep herding! 😆 I laughed out loud quite a few times, you were great! I must add, I have enjoyed seeing you grow & get stuck in. All that natural Kiwi ingenuity & DIY “she’ll be right” attitude is so awesome to see :) thanks for the inspiring & uplifting videos. They resonate with me x
I know Carrie mentioned something about canning, but are you guys able to invest in like a large chest freezer to store frozen items made from the garden to be used in the winter? I did that for my garden this year and being able to eat “fresh” pesto, zucchini, and tomatillo salsa from the garden in the middle of the winter was life changing 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
I recommend an upright freezer - like a fridge but all the compartments are freezer drawers. We find it much better than a chest freezer - we have ours in the shed.
I love this beautiful property but what real strikes me that you guys have this very unusual birds sounds. Wow, I just can’t get enough. Thank you for every video you make!
Watching you harvest salad green from your garden reminds me I need to get out and grab a bunch. Something I'm absolutely loving that you should try: I ordered a 1kg bag of pea seed from Kings Seeds, I threw a handful on the dirt and 2 weeks later I had delicious pea shoots like you get as a fancy garnish when you go to a cafe, you can keep harvesting off the baby plants for about 3 weeks before they get a bit stringy, but that's why you get a 1kg bag, throw a handful down every couple of weeks and have a constant supply.
I loved seeing you working the land and herding the sheep’s. You seem so content just being in the land and taking care of it. Waddle is so lucky to have a new family and Lanky looks amazing. Love and be safe. 😘🤗🌼🇻🇪
My family always just put electric tape on stakes around the trees. Then you can move them and take them up and down easy. Also very handy if you only want the to graze half a paddock at a time, or for moving them.
Thanks for sharing your ew life. I love the sense of growth, the pride and enjoyment you gain from this country life. For me my days of striving and living with nature are past. Love to you and the animals.
Hi Alex, firstly I want to say thanks for your weekly vids, they really put a smile on my face and are a great way to start my weekend as I sip on my first coffee each Saturday morning. And I really enjoy Carrie's vid's too, you're both such warm, lovely and motivating people, so thank you! Just a thought for your orchid and other paddocks too, have you considered keeping geese? Apparently they make great grazers for orchids, plus their poop is good for the trees. All the best :-D
Thank you Kirsten!! The previous owners had some geese but they’ve moved up the valley and don’t come through here often. They are in some previous videos in this series though
another great video and you dont realise how fast a the grass grows till you have a lot of land .I been watching our landscapers/ builders building our deck and pool pad and have so much respect for them working in all this weather conditions cranking it out they have achieved so much in a week and a bit and it mean we are one step closer to getting our property to what we want to enjoy it to the fullest and looking back on what we have accomplished admist lockdowns and flooding an delays in contractors due to lockdown its crazy how much we still have managed to do
I love seeing your place move into summer. The past few months have really flown by! It always amazes how much of the English ecosystem the European immigrants seem to have transported there. All those trees and buttercups and clover to boot! And meanwhile, I live in Europe, surrounded by American oak trees and serviceberries. Crazy stuff! It would be great if you could plant some native trees too. (And teach us outsiders about them!)
Hey man loved this video your thoughts on trees is very True,there is a question people ask,when is the best time to plant a tree the answer is 20 years ago 😂👍👌 enjoy your content man you've got a really nice place 👌 plant more trees 🤠
Yeah man could make that happen over the summer period I don't have I.G only FaceBook and I hardly go there either, RU-vid and Patreon are about the only social platforms I use ✌️we will connect up one way or another 👍
We have been really enjoying your. Content. My family and I visited NZ in 2019 and have been trying to find work to get a visa ever since. We would like to live on a small homstead, lifestyle property such as yourself. I'm really interested in knowing more about how your internet works. You mentioned putting in a satellite internet system. Were Educators and work from home online. We're also from California. Thanks
So in sync with that tree message at the end. Just got ~100 natives in; going for a mini Tiritiri Matangi. Lots more to go. Each time I get another into the ground, I cheer it on to grow and gobble carbon ❤️ Can’t wait for your floors project 🥳
Everything's starting to fall in to place and take shape bro. Congratulations it wouldn't have been easy. You and the Mrs deserve a break somewhere this summer bro
I loved the drone footage of Castlepoint! I was there on Thursday for the first time and I think it might have been a slightly better day for surf. I've really enjoyed following along with your journey so far. We moved from Portland, OR to Dunedin almost 3 years ago so a lot of the issues you've experienced have felt really familiar.
The main cause of ozone depletion and the ozone hole is manufactured chemicals, especially manufactured halocarbon refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam- blowing agents (chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), HCFCs, halons), referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). Not NZs fault! just global usage up until the 90s were a big thing and the gases concentrate nearer the poles.
Really enjoying your thoughts on life, seeing your connection to nature and listening to the birdsong; mother nature’s reminder to be in the moment……maybe Lanka could learn how to help moving the rams, you’ll need a shepherds whistle 😉 ✌️
The metal stakes are called waratahs here in NZ. Not sure why. Cattle? Nah unless you want to constantly round them up as they are masters of escaping and eating trees and bushes you want to keep. Plus they shit a lot and it really does waft a fair distance. But they are gentle animals mostly. Sheep are easier by far but they too wanna eat juicy saplings…agreed about effort has its own rewards. Break down big jobs into smaller by bit by bit and over time you’ll find as you seem to have that things come together and get under control. Good onya mate, awesome work there!
Love it all! Great inspiration for planting trees and such wisdom there. I hope your avocado trees grow and produce like crazy. You definitely need a sheep dog. :) We had a border collie when we had sheep growing up and it was like he could read your mind. He'd just round up the sheep for you and put you where you wanted 'em. Sheep can be tremendously frustrating to herd. You did a great job! I kept thinking about goats for your weed and pasture management since they can be used so effectively for weed control in the U.S. but I think they might do some damage to your trees. You'd have to intensively manage them to make it work. Loving all the progress and the plant growth. Thanks for the video!
A couple of thoughts re lifestyling - from my experience with my parents 5 acre block: Cattle/cows actually aren't as hard as you might imagine. It is just their size that can be a bit intimidating. Although, there are a couple of management things to keep in mind with them, lol. They are a lot like naughty children - curious, into everything, and love eating trees. So, there quite a few options for protecting the trees (even from sheep) depending on how much weight the animals are likely to lean onto your tree protection :-) Electric fencing might be the answer in some instances
Some tall metal warmth stakes, a sledge hammer, chicken wire and a few wire stakes and you will protect all those saplings and fruit trees. You can do posts but harder to smash them into the ground. Good luck. Can't wait to see what you decide to do.
Sheep should be ok in orchard when trees are a bit more mature. The other option is to make hay from one of the paddocks...winter feed for Woodson, bedding for chooks etc, grass fires aren't common here so not a worry while spring growth is on.
@@AlexanderAyling You might be surprised, it may be worth asking around. Making the small hay bales doesn't necessarily use large equipment. If it's feasible for their equipment, contractors will pay you to cut and bale your standing grass - they get the hay to on sell, you get your grass cut and a little bit of cash (or a few hay bales for yourself).
It's like you were talking to me directly about putting off a job namely clearing some weeds out. As always a fab video, a relaxing thought provoking half hour. I'm off to pull weeds 🥴
Sometimes it is easier to get seeding out of trays with the blunt end of an old knife like knife and fork knife. It's a bit smaller than the little garden trowel and will do less damage over time when removing seedlings from trays
I've been watching an American horticulturalist who uses geese to keep the grass in the orchard down. (Plus their waste takes care of nutrients for the trees.)
