Peel Forest Farmstay

29/12/2024

Hi,
Haven't posted for such a long time. Sitting still and only using one finger of a creative hand doesn't come easy!!!

But, it's raining outside, the garden has been battered by hail, cold, rain and rabbits and my spring imagination of how the garden should be looking by now has been severely tainted.
The tunnel house flourishes though and we eat well but rather boringly from it. The splendour of bumper to bumper vegetables, fruit and flowers is yet to emerge but I'm a happy optimist at heart and the weeding continues..

Had a number of guests who I enjoy sharing the uniqueness of our wonderful house and garden with. I feed them well too.
Most of them get it and the ones who don't, well they can stay in a generically bland, boring expensive motel or hostel and think they've seen New Zealand!!!

Christmas is over but I still have this beautiful wee manger scene sitting on the table reminding us all of what Christmas is really all about and of all the promises Jesus gave to us so we can live happy, fearless lives, provided for and always with more than enough to share with the cold, tired and hungry. Many of those people come through our back door.

The beautiful bunch of flowers were picked and placed on the table this morning by Steve. They come from a Mountain Ribbonwood tree and are just beautiful.

I'll try to post more regularly from now on.

Promise

Kind Regards from

Steve and Jenny

26/03/2021

Another delightful visitor soaking up the goodness of Peel Forest Farmstay.
Titipounamu, Rifleman.

03/12/2019

Hello to anyone out there still interested in our tiny patch of almost paradise after such a long absence. We got through a mild winter well fed and happy and now, as Christmas approaches, I think we'll have fresh spuds, lettuce and maybe some radishes but that's all. This spring has been throwing us days of cold and gloom, temperatures reaching 38 in the school bus, thunder, lightning, golf ball size hail in Timaru and wind, wind and more wind culminating in a real blast last Sunday night that ripped out big trees by their roots, shredded and snapped walnut trees and bowled over several large mature natives. I'm secretly rubbing my hands together as I think of all that wonderful firewood lying about where it fell. Now we need a few strong young skilled helpers give Steve a hand for a week or two to get the process moving.
Garden has been slow, but it usually is right up until a couple of weeks before Christmas when, all of a sudden, everything explodes into growth and life and soon we have so much fresh food it's hard to know what to do with it all.
The elder flowers have been abundant this year and Steve has made syrup for next winter and champagne for Christmas. I prefer the berries when they mature in the early autumn. They make stunning syrup, medicine for winter.
We have had a number of people staying from all over the world which brings the 21st. century into our kitchen in technicolour, three dimensional live conversational interesting evenings. So much better that TV or Netflix!!!
We are still driving the local school bus which keeps us a part of the community and gets us up in the morning. I still love it. Every day is different. Our skies shift, change, roar, produce rainbows, bring rain, snow, hail or just stay open and blue so you feel like you can almost touch heaven. I love watching the season through the countryside as I drive. Right now, all is green, contractors fill the paddocks producing feed for next winter, the stock is in good heart. the kids are great, happy and polite and always doing interesting things.
If anyone out there feels like a holiday in a place where a stand of east coast native podocarp forest is on the boundary, where silence is a blessing and Wi-Fi is not an essential part of our existence, where there's always a brew of tea on the go and the motto is "The hand of the diligent maketh rich" then come and stay a while. You may enjoy the hospitality.
Jenny and Steve.

03/12/2019

An entry in our bunkroom visitor's book.

12/04/2019

25/01/2019

Good evening friends and family throughout the world. As we come to the end of the holidays I thought it time to let you know how we've been doing in our lovely corner of the universe.

School starts back next week and with a fairly full calendar of guests booked in as well as two students staying the term and the harvest season knocking at our door. I don't imagine having much time to sit still long enough to plonk in front of screen writing updates to keep our followers amused!!

It has been a challenging year trying to grow veges. esp. corn, pumpkins,squash and tomatoes and our only hope for harvesting mature vegetables from these plants is that we have a long Indian summer. There weren't many bees about during the apple flowering period so not such a good crop in that department either. Thankfully, the road side apples seem to have an abundance and there are plenty of blackberries slowly fattening down by the pond. We shan't go hungry I'm sure of that. I've enclosed a few photos of round about home that probably look better in that format as the weeds are invisible!

Had plenty of guests since Christmas, most enjoying the experience, others disappearing before dawn and still the odd few complaining about the spiders. Despite doing my best to eradicate them there are always the survivors who sneak about leaving fly carcasses on the window sills of the expensive Queen room not to mention the big ones who creep through the outside toilet window and look terrifying to pasty young travelers. Mostly though they are marvelously interesting folk who enjoy the peaceful,
green and abundantly creative environment we have created here and the people just keep on flooding in. We've had several WWOOFers who have given of them selves totally and gladly to help out in any given job. I always miss them terribly when they leave and can't thank them enough for all they give.

We were supposed to go on our annual horse trek in mid January, up the Orari Gorge, but our horsey friend broke her arm so we put the 'No Vacancy' sign up and had a holiday at home instead. We were joined by some close friends and it was a lovely refreshingly quiet week.

That's it for another season. If any of you want a quiet break away from the noisy cluttered world then this is the place for you. Pass it on.

Lots of love,
Steve and Jenny.

25/12/2018

Christmas Day at Peel Forest Farmstay.

25/12/2018

Christmas Carols at Green Man Peel Forest

02/11/2018

All is well at Peel Forest Homestay with spring well and truly upon us. The vegetables, berries and fruits are beginning put on a growth slowly but surely.
To add to our long list of activities, we have added a new one, "Steve & Jenny Deans Tours".
We are keen to show-case some of the less traveled parts of our beautiful country, either by the day or longer, into local towns, just for a coffee, a drive or an op-shop visit. Personalised prices on application.

19/08/2018

A few late winter shots of our homestay including some of the art works. It's been an easy winter so far, no heavy frosts or severe weather events.

18/08/2018

We operate our business out of a large house built in the 1950’s by well known Canterbury Artist, Austen Deans and his wife Liz to house their seven sons and organically feed them plus dozens of farm animals.
If you are brave enough to look beyond the creative busy-ness of our happy lifestyle you can assured of a warm welcome, home grown food, cosy comfortable beds and fine original art-work on every wall. Our pocket of loveliness borders the eel Forest Scenic reserve with its noisy native birds and tracks for all ages and fitness levels. if yoiu are looking for somewhere peaceful to spend a few days, this is the place.
We have one queen room and a single room inside, both with views of the forest or mountain. These rooms are $65 per person which includes breakfast.
The bunk-room is built into another building nearby. All linen is supplied and there is a small breakfast bar in the room with continental breakfast included. The room looks up to Little Mount Peel. The only drawback to this room is the 10metre outside walk to the bathroom (toilet and shower) which occasionally has been known to have spiders because we are we live in amongst the bush. This room is $45 per person per night.
See you some time.
Steve and Jenny Deans