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The whole master plan was to designate the area as native wetland, and covenant it to the council in order to get another title, in order to subdivide the farm and allow more of Bronwyn's brothers and sisters to share the land. However, after Mr Snooty from the council came to visit, it seems that only the margins with rushes and sedges actually count as wetland, and the rest doesn't apply. Well, not for a long time, when we can then count it as native forest! And we need to demolish the dam, because it's dividing the watercourse and preventing the free flow of fish. Which would make farming a little tricky!
We're under siege. We've had at least ten requests from people who want to stay with us, in just the last two days. Two English, one spanish, one italian, two "positive" swedes (we missed out on the "fearless" finns some weeks ago) and dozens of Hong Kong and Chinese. But instead, this weekend we had Rachael's friend and her family to stay. Plus the dog. We're all pretty tired; Bronwyn is currently trying to herd the girls into bed...
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( 3 / 2520 )We were planning to have Rachael's friend and her family over for the night, but they couldn't make it. We were supposed to have three more come to stay today, but apparently Paihia is just too nice and they're going to stay a bit longer. So looks like we've got another quiet week.
Had a big dinner over at Bronwyn's parents', followed by some fireworks. Bronwyn brought sparklers, Stephen brought fireworks, and Allan produced two boxes of them. They set off a wirlygig on the barbecue, but it fell off. So they grabbed the metal dog dish, and tried them in there. They didn't stay in that either. So now the grass is a little scorched and the dog dish is well smoked. And you know those fireworks that "Fire flaming balls and reports"? I don't think you're supposed to hold them while they go off, even if you are trying to hit the possums...
Allan got hold of some sweetcorn seed. He's ploughed up part of the paddock near us, and the tennis court at Mum and Dad's is now well and truly ploughed. That's one advantage of living on a farm. "Dad, can I borrow the tractor...?" Meanwhile, Bronwyn bought some netting for my vegetable plot. She was worried she'd bought too much but it looks like we'll need twice as much. I've dug a bit more because Bronwyn's mum threatened me with some surplus seedlings...
They were rounding up the calves today in order to ship a couple off to market. One calf jumped the fence. So Bronwyn's dad went into the next paddock and opened the gate to get it back in. But it then jumped into another paddock. Apparently it managed to clear 5 fences and gates before they finally got it back.
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( 3 / 2510 )A long week in the sun. It's gone half nine and I'm still in shorts. Summer at last! Well, for this week, anyway.
Sowed carrots, onions, broccoli, spring onions, lettuce, kale, silverbeet, spinach, a few beans left over from last year, and watermelons. Nothing growing as yet. It's part of a plan brought on by the long illness which I've now thankfully recovered from. There's a guy in the office who's vegan, and keeps harping on about it, and so we've got this plan to go on a fruit and vegetable fast for a month. If it works, it might change my life. If it doesn't, I can finally say I tried it, watched the video, bought the T shirt, didn't work...
Rachael has been going through her first set of exams. Seems to have survived well so far. She's been going round the neighbour's for some maths lessons. Just had a last minute panic because she didn't have a protractor for the exam tomorrow. Bronwyn dug out my old one from school. I think I must have been not far past Rachael's age when I last used it.
Getting towards the silly season. Fireworks, halloween (the church is doing a non-halloween party instead), then umpteen different Santa parades, Christmas lunches and carolling gigs. Fun fun fun...
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( 2.9 / 1938 )It was the agricultural day at Sarah's school, so Bronwyn sorted out the usual flowers, sand, shells, pebbles, seaweed and various other bits for the flower arrangement competition (everybody does at least two every year!). This year we also had the chickens, so Bronwyn repaired and furnished the box for them to spent the day in. Meanwhile it was also Greats And Grands day at Rachael's school, so Bronwyn's parents dropped in for a visit, as well as Sarah's school. Don't ever remember anything so complicated at our school!
Think I might give Rachael my mums old rucksack. On Friday she had PE and clarinet lessons, as well as maths and English. She's complaining of back pains from carrying too much!
One of our hand fed cows got injured in the strong winds last week. Broke her hamstring. It doesn't look fixable, so we're hand feeding her again to keep her alive until her calf is weaned. Poor thing isn't able to walk, so she's lost a lot of weight.
Pip, Erica and Angelica are growing fast. Don't think we'll need to feed them much longer. But they still make a racket when they get hungry!
Dug the garden yesterday. All of it. Raining and windy today, but it's a bank holiday tomorrow so I've got a day off before I finish the job.
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( 3.1 / 2475 )Queenstown was action packed, although we didn't spot the Queen anywhere. Wandered round the gardens, went up the gondola, visited the minus five ice bar, spent all day on the trip to Milford Sound, drove up to Wanaka and the Puzzling World (we all got seasick in the tilted house), did some gold panning, and even found time to meet up with Celia and Nanna for a very spicy curry.
The weather was dry all through apart from Milford Sound. Well, I suppose it is Fiordland. It gets the continual westerlies from the antarctic gyre; basically any rain front in the southern hemisphere has probablhy spent time hanging out there. Fiordland without the rain would be like the lake district without lakes; sort of ... nude, somehow. Lots of waterfalls! And we got a few small avalanches right on cue as we drove past (they don't let you stop on that section for obvious reasons...)
Hundreds of photos. One of us will post a few shortly!
Glad we left when we did. We missed out on real live snow yesterday, but at least we actually made it home. The rain started just as we were dropping off the hire car, and got steadily worse. There was a major landslide on the Milford road just after we took off. Looks like the road will have a few dents in it - some of the boulders were 200 tons. Back in Auckland we had gusts not far short of a hundred miles an hour, and one tree narrowly missed the tractor. Allan had just decided to move it out of the way, and a tree fell on the same spot shortly afterwards.
Had a quiet weekend. School starts tomorrow. I think Bronwyn is looking forward to some peace and quiet...
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