unionhomestead

Watering by Hand

It’s one of those days my fellow Homesteaders dread; one in which I am without any human contact from early morning until evening. Even with Colin and Shirley, Xanthe and Babette, and the paddock menagerie, on no-contact days, I tend to go a little loopy. Without someone to sit down to lunch with or stop for a cup of coffee and a catch up, I gather momentum throughout the day until, before I know it, both body and brain are going way, way too fast. Cue crazy thoughts and even crazier projects. Not today though; today the final vegetable garden sprinkler fell apart. No amount of bindertwine was going to persuade it to function in any way suitable for a day promising 25°C and a lively breeze so there was only one thing for it

Somehow, the enforced slowdown of watering by hand started the day off on the right footing – with the buzz of potential garden largesse and general day dreaming. Here I am, half an hourish from the return of human Homesteaders, feeling pretty dang good.

They’ll try and tell you it was the squillion messages and phone calls they sent my way but the gardens and I know better..

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Published by unionhomestead

This story began as a family's fumbling attempt to live The Good Life in suburbia; the awesome suburb of New Brighton, Christchurch, New Zealand to be exact. Our wonderful neighbours tolerated our hair brained schemes as yet more lawn was turned into garden and more animals were introduced until there was just no more room left and there was nothing else for it... we moved to the country. So, here we now are: an extended family of humans, cats, ducks, chickens, and goats trying to step as lightly as possible on this gorgeous planet while still enjoying the internet and good television. We've got 5 acres of land to play with, a whole new township to meet, and neighbours who do this sort of thing for a living...what could go wrong? You want a list?! This lifestyle of ours isn't always pretty; There's meteoric highs and the most cataclysmic of lows. Our intent is to share all these - our idiotic mistakes, glorious triumphs, outcomes both lucky and unlucky; and those thigh slapping, tear spurting, belly laughing moments that often follow all of the above - through this blog and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/unionhomestead. We reckon everyday is a school day and, if you're maybe pondering having a go at this lifestyle yourself, you will always be able to call up this blog and say with ultimate conviction, "At least we're not as bad as them."

8 comments

  1. Hand watering is certainly a very contemplative activity if you water everything as much as they really need and not just as much as you can be bothered with before moving on. You sound as though you did a proper job.

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  3. The sprinkler failure was so well timed! I love to water by hand as long as I can still that inner voice telling me of all the other jobs I need to do!

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  4. Here in Victoria, we can use watering systems eg. sprinklers between 6.00pm and 10.00am and a hand held hose at any time to water our gardens. Hand watering does promote a more intimate observation of what is happening with individual plants. A sprinkler allows me to focus on other garden related activities.

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