Blog
Weekly tales from The Outpost.
My mother’s mother’s mothers
How the women who came before me have shaped my life at The Outpost today. The story of my matrilineal line.
Harvesting the kūmara
After ignoring our māra kūmara for several months, we dug it up!
Preparing for a cyclone
A look into what we do to prepare when the warning comes.
Albert (‘Snowie’) Charles Schaeffer (WW1 23/903)
Albert “Snowie” Charles Schaeffer served in World War 1, and returned home, broken.
Ponga paths
The next stage in the evolution of my wee garden.
Summer garden plans
The plans I’ve got for my garden over the summer of 2025-26.
Gnome makeover
Time to give my gnomes a glow-up!
Pest management
The pest-control is getting an upgrade around here.
Growing peanuts in New Zealand
What I’ve learned about growing peanuts over the last three seasons.
Home-grown peanut butter
After 3 years and many, many hours of work, I finally get to sit down to my own home-grown, home-made peanut butter.
Weekly diary
A look at a random winter’s week in my life.
The garden in winter 2025
A wander around the garden highlights in winter 2025.
Upgrading the garden paths
There’s a secret under your feet when you walk through my garden.
Tidying up the catnip
A peek behind-the-scenes at how I grow wickedly-strong catnip.
Going back to growing garlic
And so it begins again.
Things I’ve been liking
As the world gets a bit dark and awful, here are some of the things that have brought me joy.
May in the garden
As the weather turns cooler, there’s still a few jobs to keep you busy in the garden.
65 Hours Without Power
Cyclone Tam roared through the country last week, and the fallout took a while to settle.
Boiled peanuts
Our third peanut harvest is our biggest so far; so I had the chance to try boiled peanuts for the first time. I am a fan.
April in the garden
Now autumn is in full swing, it’s time to start preparing your winter gardens and putting some care into your fruit trees.
The Vespex sting
Vespula wasp numbers have exploded at our place this year, so it was time to run a poison operation with Vespex.
Growing paprika
Paprika is made from specific varieties of capsicum, and this summer, I grew and processed my own.