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Allan's sweetcorn is growing reasonably well, and he's planted another bagful. He's bought some irrigation pipes and sprinklers which we've been playing with each evening. It's been really hot and dry this week, so we've been careful to keep eveything watered. Allan bought another sprinkler yesterday. It's absolutely manic - it goes at ten times the speed of the others! Great fun to watch, so long as you're out of range.
Sowed some leeks, and I've been reading up about silverbeet because I'm not sure I've ever seen it before. We're already picking spinach and lettuce, and the rest of the garden isn't far behind. We're also getting eggs. Goldie and Chickaboo appear to have reached puberty earlier than Bronwyn predicted, and are already producing one small egg each per day. I've been date stamping all of them.
Bronwyn's been getting the house ready for the family dinner on Saturday. We need to clear a lot of space in the lounge and kitchen and we'll be expecting about 18 for a full dinner. She's also been cutting the grass and putting the finishing touches to the Christmas Grotto on the front deck.
Hopefully the wind won't blow it all away again this year! The cyclone that trashed Samoa is currently heading for Fiji, and this morning's forecast had it heading straight for Auckland, just before Christmas...
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( 3 / 2305 )Sarah's been really ill this week. Leaking at both ends. We're hoping to send her to school tomorrow - she missed three days last week. She threw up one night. Bronwyn had carefully arranged some towels on the bed to catch anything that she might care to expel. Sarah moved the towels, and then managed to trash both of them, plus the duvet cover, duvet, bottom sheet, two pillowcases, pyjamas, a rug on the floor, several items of clothing nearby and one of her toys. Fortunately we still had a bedwetting sheet underneath. Sarah trashed that too. Did a lot of washing this week!
You might have heard of the tornado; it wasn't too far away from us. The storm went between our house and my office. Nothing damaged on the farm, but we had lots of rain. However, it's been hot and dry for two days now. Allan has been tending his sweetcorn seedlings and arranging
a couple of irrigation sprinklers. Had a fun time watering the cows. Then one of the calves managed to get tangled in the temporary electric ribbon fence that Ross had put up next to the sweetcorn. Looks like the fence wasn't electric. Not sure yet if it's a problem in the electric wire somewhere, or the generator dying.
Bronwyn's been decorating the lounge and the front deck for Christmas. She arrived today with a Christmas tree. Then she spotted her father attempting to round up sheep on the paddock. I was out planting trees. The first I saw was Bronwyn driving across the paddock with a fair sized Christmas tree on top. Not something you see every day. We had to shave the tree down a little in order to fit the stand, but it's now lashed up out on the front deck with lights on it.
Poor tree.
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( 3 / 2211 )Isabel leaves tomorrow! She's planning to head for Rotorua after a short stop in Auckland. She's done the bush tour, the farm tour, the sheep shed, the quick trombone lesson, two Christmas parades and a couple of trips into town. Tonight... fudge. It's been at least, um, two months since the last batch.
Yesterday we water blasted the back yard and the old laundry, which had been converted into a lamb pen and was in desperate need of a deep clean. We're hoping to have a big family Christmas do later in the month. Bronwyn has plans to convert the front deck into a Christmas grotto again...
Henderson parade - really good. Farmers parade - twice as many floats but took about four times longer, and apart from some random angels and another band playing carols, I didn't spot anything remotely Christmassy! Henderson carol concert - started rather late so we had to cut out the break and several carols, but otherwise it went well. Kumeu parade this Friday. We're not officially in it, but since our last rehearsal is just round the corner, we decided to turn up and play more carols. I'm not quite at the stage of being allergic to Jingle Bells, but it won't take long...
Sarah's been referred for new glasses again. It's only four months since the last lot, so Bronwyn's been trying to get her an appointment at the hospital. With any luck, we won't have to pay for another set of glasses!
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( 2.9 / 2285 )It has begun. Well, not quite. We were supposed to play carols at a Christmas parade, but we only found out when we got there that it had been cancelled due to the lack of roads. Building sites everwhere. So it'll be next week for the first parade instead.
Two guides turned up to the tree planting. I got them potting up the smaller trees and then planting out a token ten in the paddock. Not sure where the rest of the troop got to! Meanwhile, my seed beds are mostly growing. Hard to tell for some of them. We have a weed here that looks almost exactly like carrots, and it grows everywhere.
Back in Chinese mode next week. Isabel arrives on Tuesday. Must find more chopsticks.
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( 3 / 2505 )The Girl Guides (and probably the Scouts) are coming round next week to plant some trees. I've spenty half the seekend going through them and potting them up. Run out of compost, and running low on pots as well. But I've got enough to plant next week.
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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