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Allan decided he was going to do our driveway last week. So he brought a large digger in and scraped off all the mud (plus some of the flower bed). He then piled on several loads of mixed gravel. So now we have a nice wide driveway, but it'll take some time for all the gravel to bed in.
Lambs in the paddock. Quite a few this year already - Allen reckons they're all twins. We were planning for them to arrive once Janet and Ross return home in a couple of weeks, but I think the bad weather made them come early. Sheep seem to like lambing in bas weather. Not sure what advantage that gives them!
Four loads of washing this weekend, and two hours tidying the lounge. Sarah is doing her best to untidy it again, but hopefully I can keep ahead somehow. They're back to school next week, so they'll have less energy to use back at home.
Two funding applications (for the school youth worker) sent off last week. If they both come through I can probably go back to sleep for six months. Gavin, our youth pastor, keeps sending me more things to look at!
Nice weather today. I've got more trees to plant. And hundreds of seedlings in the back room. I think I'll sleep well tonight!
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( 2.9 / 551 )Allan came round with a digger to do our driveway. He's scraped all the topsoil off that has built up over the years. I didn't realise we had such a wide driveway - we've had a paddock on top of it for all the time I've been here. He's also been digging out all the drains. So now we have 100 metres of building site between the house and the road. Hopefully I can get off to work tomorrow!
Got my car stuck trying to negotiate the mud. Bronwyn had to tow it out. Then I managed to lock my keys in the car yesterday. Ah yes, and our mail server died on Thursday, and locked me out of thousands of emails. Hopefully the guys can restore that one!
And Sigrid has decided to leave us to stay with another family. It was all rather sudden, and I won't say too much here. We all miss her.
This weekend was also the national brass band contest. I got to see most of the street march (while waiting for Bronwyn to deliver my car keys). There was one Australian band who got to the final corner and began doing what looked like a square dance. They went round and round for a minute or two with the next band getting closer and closer. Not sure what they were doing! We had the contest in the afternoon, and there were some very good bands, and it was only the D grade. We came a rather close fourth.
I just hope next week goes more smoothly!
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( 3 / 2256 )Sigrid and Venla went to the school ball on Friday night. I haven't seen them since - Sigrid's been staying at Venla's house for a couple of nights. But I understand they're still alive, so that's something. Sigrid had ordered a dress from China. She's also designed her own shoes using a cheap black pair and some metal chains and studs. And a glue gun. Venla on the other hand just about managed to find a dress a week ago, and the shoes as well. It's been a long expected event, so I hope they enjoyed it.
Sigrid's laptop has also been long expected. Don't think I've mentioned it. It arrived a few weeks ago. She had spent about two months hunting through websites, trying to decide between hundreds of options. Then we had several weeks attempting to buy one from eBay. I joked that she'd been trying for a laptop so long, and I understood the pain of her loss as she lost each auction, and that I wanted to be there for the delivery when she finally got one. Don't think she's given it a name yet. I'm pretty sure it's a girl though.
Bronwyn and Rachael have been off on Girl Guide camp for the weekend. We've had some huge thunderstorms, so I hope they're alright. I've been looking after Sarah for the weekend. Bronwyn got turned down for Guide leadership, but there wasn't a reason given, and she was rather upset. She's got in touch with head office to try and sort it out.
It's still really wet - possibly the wettest I've ever seen it. One of the sheep got stuck in the mud. Bronwyn went out and tried to pull it out, but ended up getting stuck herself. At the time, she had a sore throat, amd couldn't shout very much. So she phoned me up with her mobile and said she was stuck. I offered to bring out the tractor, but apparently it was just her, stuck nearly to the top of her gumboots. I managed to pull her out, and then we dragged the sheep to higher ground. Poor sheep didn't make it though, and got stuck again later in the week and died. I managed to wheelbarrow it to a quiet corner out of sight. There was also another sheep down last night, but this one looked like it was about to go into labour. Allan got it over to the sheds. Hopefully it'll do better than the other one!
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( 3 / 2254 )It's been about three weeks since my last post! Plenty going on. I've been in Rangiora this week, which is about 20 minutes north of Christchurch. This was for the national conference of the youth work organisation that I'm involved in. It was a really full on week.
We set off just after 5am, and took the plane down. Due to the ash from the volcano in Chile (which has been round the earth twice and popped in to say Hi) all flights on JetStar had been cancelled. Air New Zealand was still flying, so we were fine.
Plenty going on at the conference. In particular, we heard about the events that had happened after the February earthquake. The ministry of education had been so impressed by the ability of the youth workers and churches to support the local schools that they had offered funding for three of the four remaining schools without a youth worker. All three schools accepted within a week. We gathered round the Christchurch youth workers and prayed for them; they're pretty tired.
We were supposed to go home on Wednesday night, but we were booked of JetStar this time, and all flights were still cancelled. Fortunately we were staying in someone's house, and they were off on holiday all week. We had with us another girl who had made it down from Auckland by bus, ferry and train (she got a certificate for it), and was now trying to work out how to get back. Plus another guy who joined us on Wednesday because he'd been stranded too. Hope they made it. Meanwhile, we rebooked on Air New Zealand on a flight to Hamilton (about two hours south of home) and made it back on Thursday night.
Many thanks to Rob who took us to the airport, and gave us a tour of Christchurch on the way. It was curious at first; the roads were still littered with sand and silt from the June earthquake. Things slowly began to dawn on us as we continued into the city. The roads became increasingly buckled, and the houses began leaning at odd angles. Chimneys and walls were down. By the river I saw one building that had one corner over a metre lower than the others. It looked like it was falling into a hole. The houses were almost all deserted. In the central city, many buildings had been left exactly as they fell, particularly in the inner red zone. We stopped and looked at one particularly demolished street, and prayed for a few minutes.
Yet there were plenty of signs of hope. I'm not sure how people will cope if there's another earthquake, but there were cars driving by, and businesses opening up (I understand the parking wardens are back in force next week) and people generally just getting on with life. About 5000 people are thought to have left though.
Meanwhile, it's been wet. Really wet. Bronwyn's parents have been off on holiday in England for a few weeks, so we've been all helping out on the farm. Bronwyn managed to jam the gearbox on one of the tractors while trying to round up the cows. Allan retrieved it, and left it in our garden. So we're now the proud gardians of a tractor.
The bull wasn't well, and we called out the vet. She pulled out a load of mushed up grass from his mouth and gave him penicillin. However, he dropped down dead this week, so the vet has been out again for an autopsy. Apparently he was insured! We've also had the dog down at the vet, after Bronwyn noticed a red lump protruding from her rear. Turned out to be a huge hormonal growth, so she's had an operation and a complete hysterectomy. She's fine, but we're not allowed to make her run for a couple of weeks.
Rachael is looking forward to going to the Girl Guide Jamboree next year, which happens to be in New Zealand. She's been saving up (and blackmailing us for money). They did a fundraising event recently - we all went to a rock climbing place for the evening. Sarah managed to get about six metres up, which is not bad for her age. Rachael managed to get to the top on the children's section. I managed the beginner adults' section, but struggled on the "Easy" adult routes! The harder routes were all graded, with some looking practically impossible...
Think that's about enough for now. Better put another log on the fire.
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( 3 / 2368 )Sigrid has been on her mid-stay camp, and is looking very tired. I've been in rehearsals with the brass band most of the weekend. I've had a very full week at work too.
It's not really half way for Sigrid yet. But it already feels like she's been here a very long time. She's very much at home, and there's been no complaints whatsoever.
Brought home a cornet from the band for Rachael to try out. She's managed to make some sort of noise, which is a good start. Once she can play a scale, she's good enough to join the junior band.
The band is sounding a lot better. The national contest is coming up next month. I'm practising in the car, doing tonguing exercises and buzzing tunes. Just not while waiting at the lights...
Sigrid's been through mock exams at school, and is still breathing. She doesn't actually have to come away with any qualifications, but she wants to do well in English.
It's wet. Really wet. I cleared out the leaves from the gutter so at least most of it went down the right way. The farm is pretty waterlogged. At the band hall, someone's dug a little trench to take the water out to the ditch at the road. It was so deep it was threatening to overwhelm the septic tank.
Dataview has now officially merged with Watchdog, who specialise in internet filtering for schools. We had a little celebration last week. They work on the ground floor, and we're upstairs. It's going to make some things easier, because we'll have enough staff for us to be able to specialise, rather than running around trying to fix all sorts of things and not really doing anything well. It's going to be interesting.
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