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It was a crowded campsite and each group had a different style. One man arrived on a bicycle with the smallest tent I had ever seen. It was little bigger than a body bag. Another group set up a huge marquee, under which they fitted two cars, a sun bed, a table and four huge garden chairs. Another group comprised 17 Koreans. They didn't appear to know a lot about camping, and tried bashing tent pegs in with a pole.
There was a river next door, and one spot was deep enough to dive into, with a rope hanging from a tree. So there was always someone down there swinging off the rope. Seems to be the thing in New Zealand, along with juping off wharves.
Unfortunately Bronwyn had to go to a dentist, so we spent a day back in South Auckland. It took an hour to remove the tooth, and she had to go back to our dentists here to get it checked and cleaned. Thus Bronwyn spent a lot of time resting in the tent, while I took the girls out to various beaches. But I also got the chance to wander down the river and sit and think, which is something I don't get a lot of time for otherwise.
This week is getting full already. Parachute is in two weeks, so I'm doing a coffeemaking refresher course tomorrow, and there's a general meeting on Sunday. The band has the national contest in April, so we started rehearsing this week as well. Plus the dental visit and a hair cut. And Rachael is getting swimming lessons every day for two weeks. So it's been busy.
Rachael is terrified of putting her head under water. I remember my first time. I had no choice - some other boy pushed me under! After that, I realised it wasn't so bad after all...
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( 3 / 2074 )I was at work for three days this week, and all was quiet. We did a lot of planning and discussing. Meanwhile, Bronwyn got paid rather late. We suspect it's because the YMCA is in financial difficulties. Bronwyn was making quite a few phone calls yesterday!
Spent about 4 hours changing a shirt from orange to brown. I first used a dye bleacher which converted the orange to a girly pink. I then was about to dye it brown, but accidentally got a few spots of dye on the shirt before it was properly dissolved. So I had to leave the dye, dash out and find more bleach, and start again. Fortunately this might have done it good, because the second bleach turned the girly pink to a pale baby pink. I then made sure the dye was dissolved before changing the shirt to brown.
This is part of my plan to create a 1947 Parachute Festival shirt. I go there every year, and people seem to enjoy wearing the old T-shirts. I found an old shirt that looked close to a World War Two style. It's probably 1950s, but it's close enough. I've now made a "Parachute 1947" patch for it. I'm planning to do some more, but it's highly tedious doing the lettering!
Cleaned Bronwyn's car. It took a couple of hours, and two bags of rubbish, but at least we can make use of the extra space next week.
Bronwyn reciprocated by mowing the lawn. She also mowed a paint tin that happened to be hiding in the grass. Part of the driveway is now speckled white.
Off camping next week. The weather looks good so far...
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( 3 / 2011 )Had a shock last Sunday. Our dog had grabbed one of the kittens and was swinging it around. Bronwyn separated them, but it didn't survive long. The vet gave us a box for her, and we buried her in the garden. I made a little cross with a proper cross lap joint, and Rachael wrote 'Saphire' on it. Diamond is a little lost, but coping better now.
We had a lot of rain this week, well over an inch. I've been firming down the soil around all the trees, and it seems to be working. I've been putting soil in a bucket of water overnight to make it soft for working into the holes. Seems to defeat the pukekos, but not sure how the trees will cope! Regardless, I'm growing quite a few from seed, so I'll concentrate on putting lots of trees in, and not worry too much about the ones already out there.
We've received a bumper crop of presents this year. Must have done something right. We had 19 for dinner at Bronwyn's mum's - all five children, all 5 spouses/partners and all 6 grandchildren. Plus our old friend Mirko, who never married, and Janet and Ross themselves. They had to borrow one of our tables and bring in two wooden benches from outside. Plus quite an assortment of chairs. Don't think I'll eat much for dinner. Lunch was big enough.
I'm anticipating a quiet few weeks, as is the custom over here. I won't be idle. It'll take a day to clear and tidy the house.
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( 3.1 / 1231 )I'm pretty certain it's pukekos that are pulling up the trees. I found a rabbit hole, and saw a rabbit, but after stopping up the hole, there was no attempt to open it. I also put a trap out for the cat, but all I got was a hedgehog. Earlier this year we had a black cat that ran away, and we had seen a black cat up there by the barn. But I think it was a different cat, since we caught another earlier that was female, not male. However, that still leaves the pukekos.
Pukekos are swamp hens, and apparently common around the world. They dig around in swamps, and pull up plants looking for roots and other food. I worked out that if I cut up plastic bottles, and put them round the trees, they didn't get uprooted. I also found that replanting the trees with lots of wet mud pushed down well also seems to stop them. So hopefully I can rest easy, once I've secured the rest of the trees!
The brass band has the final parade on Friday, and several sessions carolling. It's been a busy few weeks, but at least I didn't get ill like I did last year. Next year the national contest is in April, so I guess we'll be right back into it when we start up again next year...
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( 2.9 / 2062 )I've had another busy weekend, hence the lack of entries last week. I took the Friday off and managed to plant most of the trees. On Saturday I went up to visit the youth camp, and stayed until midnight.
The morning was easy enough; everyone was messing about on the sea or up the hillside doing target shooting. It's a very shallow beach; it's more or less possible to walk right across the harbour at low tide. In the afternoon we went up into the hills for the main activity. This was a five mile course, involving blindfolds, tyres, sliding down hillsides and trudging through swamps. One girl had an asthma attack, so I ended up walking her back. "Just go along that track, and round the beach" they said. The track was fine, but when we tried to cross the beach, we ended up in deep mud. It took a little cooperation to get unstuck. We continued to trudge on as the teams passed us one by one.
After a big meal, and an evening sermon, we gathered for the evening activity. This was located in a long narrow valley above the campsite. The game followed the usual pattern of catching your opponent's flag, but had numerous additional rules that left us rather confused. As predicted, it descended into chaos for an hour or so until someone announced that we'd won. Not sure how - we couldn't see a thing!
Finally, we managed to light the camp fire (which by now was in danger of getting flooded by the tide) and sat down exhausted. Except for a short interlude when someone produced a sackful of sawdust and started throwing it into the fire. It made quite an impressive flash when thrown right!
On Sunday, I set off early because I was running the computer at church. I had to leave early, since I was due to play in the central parade in Auckland. Got home at 3pm, and slept the rest of the afternoon!
We've now got a lamb, which was abandoned by his mother. I'm not surprised - he appears to be rather slow, and we nearly lost him from dehydration a couple of times because he didn't know how to feed. But he's managed to learn, and was feeding quite well today. Bronwyn has named him Ralph, and has taken him into work twice. She's been doing a lot of 'nature' programmes recently. Today, she went to work with several tree branches in the back.
Managed to plant the last of the trees. Something has been pulling up the trees - probably one of the larger birds near the lake. I've been going round checking them and watering. So far we've lost two, but they look as if they were dead to start with. It's been very hot and humid today, and we're all finding it hard to get anything done. I'm hoping for some rain next week; it'll make my job a lot easier!
Late news: the lamb died yesterday, probably of pneumonia. We buried it at the back of the garden under some wild flowers. (Parts of our garden are looking like a hay paddock due to not having the time to mow the lawn.) Rachael was quite OK about it; I think she had accepted that it might not live long.
Still in a battle to stop the trees getting uprooted. I suspect it's a rabbit...
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