Stewart Farm

We are at Ian Stewart and Louise Deane's farm on the Coromandel Penn. doing some hay bale housing. We're building the walls of the house with the cob. The cob we get to mix with our feet! Stomping clay, sand, and staw in big troughs with our feet and then mucking it onto the side of the building where there are spaces between the stawbales and the roof. Stomping the mixture with our toes proves to be an excellent exfoliator for our feet, and it feels pretty cool between our toes. We are also helping shape bails to fill corners, and hang lights for the holiday season. The people are great, the area is great, the work is fun, the swimming hole is divine, and the food is wonderful. We toured a farm in Kerikeri that was a commercial thing and we didn't really want that. We wanted a small family thing where we were welcomed in and got see another way of living. We hit the jackpot here. They've already built a garage of staw and are living in that while the house is completed. The lifestyle is pretty rustic, collecting rainwater off the roof, dirt floors and straw everywhere. The house is pretty sweet, 3 hexagons connected, with great views. We are quite happy and will be here past the coming holiday and onto almost the new year. Then we reckon we are headed south a bit to the southern tip of the north island. Cheers.