Wow where has the time gone!!
It's been a whirlwind since the end of Covid right? Anyway things have been great here on the farm in recent months, we certainly haven't been in a drought like we normally would be this time of the year. However we have had enough rain now thank you.
The cottage has been busy with lots of overseas tourists enjoying being able to get away from their respective countries and visiting little ole NZ, and of course all of the domestic travellers too.
We also managed a trip away in November 22 to watch Mick ride in the Melbourne Cup carnival, where he rode the Derby winner and two weeks prior, the Caulfield Cup winner. He's been on winning form of late.
Last time I wrote here, we were to be grandparents. Luke and Amy had a gorgeous wee girl, Freya, who is now 16mths old and just an absolute delight. GG & Papah just love having her around.
On another note, Richard and I have purchased a bach at Hatepe, Lake Taupo. We have spent a little bit of time there and hope to make lots of new family memories in the future.
Watch this space as Paratu Farm - Lake Bach may just become available for guests to enjoy every now and then too.
In the meantime the donkeys, goats, pheasants and farm dogs look forward to welcoming many more guests to the cottage and farm.
See you soon
Jo x

Who would've thought that since our 2020 Covid lockdown that life has flown by, farming has carried on as per normal, but we have also been in the midst of another drought here in Central Hawkes Bay.
We have had a wee bit of rain and the grass is looking a little greener but still not a lot of growth though. Our dams, drinking water for the stock, certainly haven't recovered fully either.

There has been a couple of changes here at Paratu with the lease of another farm, very handy, just next door and Richard now a full time farmer. Of course, more land means more work, but for our cottage guests, it means a little bit more walking country. A newly formed track has gone in, for stock shifting purposes, but this does make for a good mountain bike track for the keener cyclists.

Some exciting family news to tell, Richard and I are very excited to become grandparents. Luke and Amy are expecting a baby girl in October.
Jamie, our daughter, graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing at the end of last year and is currently working at Gisborne Hospital.
Mick is still doing his thing in Melbourne and riding lots of winners, unfortunately we had to cancel our trip to Oz, blimmin Covid in Melbourne reared its head again. Luckily Mick got the chance to come home when the Trans Tasman bubble opened, so it was really nice to see him then.

The cottage has been fairly steady the last few months with lots of NZ'ers tripping around the countryside and spending a night or two with us.
There is always plenty of firewood to keep the fire burning and to keep you all warm.

See you soon
Jo x

​The last few months have been busy here at Paratu Farm. COVID Level 4 had us cooped up on the farm but we are very lucky to live where we do as farm life carried on as normal with lots of extra jobs getting done around the place. I now have extra lawn to play with, new fencing and hopefully a new vege patch coming soon.
 
It has been such a mild winter here that we had a very good lambing outcome and having just completed docking means that our lambing season is over for another year. I do have two pet lambs that I acquired, just to keep the other pets in friends haha. Their names are Cindy and Judy. They are so cute, can never have too many pets!
 
Downside of the mild winter has meant that we haven’t had enough rain as yet to fill the dams for the coming summer. Fingers crossed for more rain. We certainly don’t want another drought.
 
Paratu Farm Cottage was kept busy through July. Perhaps with school holidays, New Zealanders tripping around and good weather made it all the more better.
 
No doubt with Spring here I will be kept very busy over the coming months with lots of lawn mowing, tree planting, vege planting, combatting weeds on the farm and hopefully lots of cleaning of the cottage in between lots of guests. We do have our COVID code in place at the cottage for you all to scan into if you have the app and note that the cottage is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after each guest checks out.
 
Look forward to having you stay with us at Paratu Farm soon.
 
Best wishes
Jo x

Cooped up on farm during Covid lockdown has meant that we have got a few jobs ticked off the list. Our dry dams have been dug out and ready for more rain to fill them. There was a also a great deal of fencing that went on especially around the house to keep the naughty jumping goats out of my lawn and garden J
 
The ewes also got tended to when the hairdresser visited, shearing done, ready for lambing. Shortly after shearing, scanning was done to make sure the Ewes are in lamb, luckily only a few were ‘dry’ (meaning not in lamb).
 
As I write this, we have had approx. 17mls of rain with some nice warm weather in the afternoon. Here’s hoping for some great grass growth to help us through winter and to slowly break the drought.
 
Certainly looking forward to having more and more domestic visitors come and stay a while here with us at Paratu Farm Cottage throughout winter and spring, we are open for business and ready to welcome you to experience all that we have to offer.
 
Best wishes
Jo x