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At the beginning of lockdown, Bronwyn and Sarah painted some bits of wood and pinned them to the bank to make KIA KAHA (Be strong) and a smiley face. Palm Sunday, Ross put some palm branches on our gate, and Good Friday we had three crosses with Christmas lights on top of the bank. Several times, there have been calls for people to simultaneously stand at their gate and sing. I walked up the hill and played Pokarekare Ana on trombone one Saturday. It was very windy, and tricky to play with the music stand braced against the fence. I opted out of the 6am dawn playing of the Last Post. Dawn wasn't actually until 6:55am, and I'm British. I can wait for November!
Potatoes doing well. Lettuce and spinach might just make it. Plenty of guava jelly left, and apples and feijoas as well. Sarah has been baking as part of her Hospitality lessons. The cheesecake was excellent. As were the Afghans, brownies, chocolate cake, decorated fairy cakes and today, Madeleines. Haven't been hungry lately!
We've finally had some decent rain, and the tank is comfortably over half full. Auckland is running out, and water restrictions have just started. The ground is still sucking up all the rain that falls on it, so the dams are still empty, and will still be for a while yet.
So the water has run out, the economy has tanked, but everyone seems to think we've done remarkably well here. I'm afraid Jacinda Ardern can't run for president, and although we've got a spare room, we can't accept any Covid refugees because the only planes are emergency evacuations. No idea what's going to happen here without overseas tourism, but at least we've got plenty to eat, and the hairdressers are happy!
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( 3 / 952 )...where the chickens and lambs roam. Bones has recovered, and is back in the paddock with his friend Runty. We briefly had another lamb in that had been attacked by a dog, but it escaped through the fence and bounded off to join the others. Bronwyn checked on it; it seems to have escaped serious injury. Bronwyn's brother Allan camped out on the paddock that night, but didn't spot the dog, and it's been quiet since.
The chickens no longer roam on the compost heap. Or the potatoes. I used some spare wire mesh, and it seems to have foiled them for now. We've got the first row of potatoes growing well, and the next two rows are starting to come up too. No sign of any carrot seedlings, but the lettuce and other vegetables that Bronwyn planted are doing fine.
Bronwyn's mother handed me a kilo and a half of guavas. "You can make guava jelly!" she said. I've never made any sort of jam or jelly. But I looked up the recipe, and gave it a try. Neither of the recipes I looked at had a temperature, but just had vague references to different stages of gloopiness. So I took it up to about 113C when it started getting sticky. It set solid. Spoonable, but not spreadable. So I dissolved it (with two more kilos of guavas) and took it to 108C. This time it hardly set at all. OK. I tried 110C. That seems to have worked!
Church online has been an experience. The first Sunday attempted to mirror the normal service with four Youtube songs, three audio clips, the sermon on Youtube, various readings and the group Zoom chat as well. Last Sunday was a bit simpler, and we seem to be adjusting to a different routine. Friday nights, we have a general get-together, which seems to devolve into discussions about chocolate consumption and how desperate we are for a hair cut.
Sarah is back at school, on the dinner table. Rachael is doing assignments on the sofa. Bronwyn is getting up very early to watch lectures because they've made the internet free before 9am. I've been working five or six days a week trying to finish a project that seems to get longer as we go along. Nobody is bored, which is probably a good thing. And Sarah's laptop got repaired, and we got a new TV delivered. It's been busy!
And the rain has finally arrived properly. This is good, because we can't pop down the road to borrow someone else's shower!
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( 3.1 / 1215 )From midnight Wednesday we have been on level 4. All non-essential travel is banned. The police are running checkpoints - not sure where - I haven't been to the end of the driveway yet.
The TV stopped working at 8pm Wednesday. Last night we rigged up a monitor to watch Doctor Who from a laptop. Not quite the manner to which we have are accustomed, but it worked. Just so long as the internet holds up. I asked to reduce our cap from 200 to 120GB. I suspect they forgot. Probably just as well; we're going to need it now!
In a previous universe, Mimoko came from Japan to stay with us near the end of February. She had just turned 15, and barely spoke a word. But she slowly opened up over the two weeks, and the smiles began to appear. We took her to the zoo, the aquarium, two beaches and several other places. I also tried to give her a different way to school each day. She particularly loved the road through the forest. She brought us a pile of presents, including a paintbrush for painting Chinese characters which she demonstrated to us with great care and skill. She left us a wonderful card with drawings of a crane and a lovely message. I don't think she wanted to go home.
The day after, we had the house sprayed for spiders. The guy told me I was fine; it would just smell of paint for half an hour. Unfortunately it irritated my nose and throat, and I came down with some sort of infection. Not a good time to be coughing in public. I'm not sure what the infection is, but I've hardly left the house just in case! I'm not too bad now; I decided to crack open some antibiotics, and now I'm just a bit tired and croaky. Rach has now got laryngitis. None of us have dared to go down the road to the doctor yet!
Money has been an issue; I've had hardly anything coming in for two months. Fortunately we've got enough now to keep us going, and we still have savings. I planted all our old potatoes after Bronwyn managed to get a fresh bag, and she also found lettuce and brocolli, and several packets of seed. We've had a bit of rain this week, so the water tank is up to half full. Just as well; we're not able to go down to the church office to have a shower any more!
Sarah is in the lounge doing her schoolwork online. Rach is in bed recovering, but she'll be doing lectures remotely next week, as will Bronwyn. Bronwyn is making endless phone calls to keep in touch with our group from church, and they're trying to think of ways to look after everyone. Not easy when you can't just drive over!
We'll survive. I was reminded of an old photo that my grandmother showed me once. She was sitting on the steps at the seafront, with a four year old boy and a seven year old girl. My uncle and mother. That was the day that war was declared with Germany. I can't imagine what that family had to go through; it was never really spoken. But they responded, and that love of growing your own vegetables is still in the family.
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( 3 / 1154 )Haven't had more than a brief sprinkle since, um, mid December. There's a five week wait for our local water supplier, and many of them have stopped taking bookings. Several towns have stopped allowing tankers to fill up from their supply, so it's getting harder to find water, let alone buy it. Up north, Kaikohe has just three days of water left. Actually, that was three days ago!
Auckland is OK for now; they've got massive reservoirs in the hills, although the high temperatures have increased demand for power showers and designer swimming pools, so they've been urged to stop watering their agave plants and clandestine avocado operations.
We're in the queue for a truckload of water. We did this last year, and by the time it was our turn, it had rained substantially. We've joined the queue again just in case, but we're not likely to get anything until March. We're OK for now. Bronwyn took a big bag of washing to the laundry in town this week, and we've been using the showers in the church office. At our current rate of water usage, we could last six months. Might get a bit smelly though!
Looks like Australia has had some rain for now. We had a lot of smoke from all the forest fires, on several days in different areas of the country. There was a day in early January when the sky turned yellow. Dark yellow. I was putting in a couple of beams for the base of a treehouse, and dropped the drill key on the ground. Had to get the hunting torch out to find it. It was darker at 2pm than it was at 8pm. It was also really eerie. Apocalyptic, as Rach put it. Made you realise just how bad it was over there, well over 1000 miles away.
But now the farm is sunny and crunchy. Most of the grass is dead. Apart from the paspalum and kikuyu grass. They both do well in very dry conditions. Kikuyu comes from Kenya - I spotted some when I was over there. Kenya has had the opposite end of the Indian Ocean dipole and has had lots of rain. The April rains have come rather early. Or perhaps the November rains haven't gone yet!
The farm is OK for now. The dam is only 15 cm below full, and it's probably got enough water to last several years. Ross's dad built it, and made it a bit bigger than really necessary. The ducks are not complaining. We had a bit of a crisis recently though when the pump broke. A thick ring of cast iron had worn so much from the constant thumping that it had a big chunk taken out of it and eventually broke. Bronwyn filled up the troughs with all the containers she could find, which she filled up, put in the back of the car and drove around the farm with them. Next day, Ross brought the tank on the tractor instead.
Had to round up the sheep yesterday because some had signs of fly maggots. Me and Sarah chased them out of one paddock, and Rach guided them over to the sheds. In the car. Amazing what you can do with a rather small shopping car.
Hopefully we'll have enough water for the end of the month, when we'll have a Japanese student staying with us for a couple of weeks. She's 15, and we haven't got a lot of details, but she looks reasonably harmless!
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( 3 / 1237 )Happy New Year! As usual, we missed the Christmas posting date, but it means we’ve got a chance to review all the photos and remember what happened last year.
The previous year involved a tour of New Zealand and Kenya. Last year saw us make it to Sydney and slightly beyond, but otherwise it’s been quieter! We went to visit Tim’s friends in Sydney, who had been begging him to visit for years. We managed to squeeze in several trips around the area (saw the harbour bridge and opera house from about 12 different angles), the zoo, the local koala sanctuary, some aboriginal paintings and carvings and a day out in the Blue Mountains. None of us have ever been to Australia (outside an airport), not even Bronwyn. At the end of the trip, we visited the Chinese gardens in the heart of Sydney, and a very nice place to unwind.
We also spent another weekend in another friend’s house up north, for Bronwyn’s birthday. A little cold to go swimming and kayaking, but we had a number of family meals down on the beach, followed by a rather interesting trip home when Tim’s GPS sent him on a particularly unusual road.
Bronwyn is still in her role as the Children’s Ministry leader and as part of that, she and the girls went to e-Camp (held over Easter weekend), with the some of the intermediate youth group as well as a few children from a local school. It’s always a crazy fun time there with plenty of activities (most involving getting wet) and plenty more in the evenings. Next year, Sarah will be in the Big Youth Group. Sarah is already taller than Tim, but still enjoys being with the younger kids. This means that next year, she’d be in the full Easter Camp, which tends to be more social than crazy. Rachael has the excuse of going to eCamp as a leader – this year she was nanny for 3 children of one of the committee. She never quite joined the older youth group! Bronwyn had a problem finding drivers this year, and after hiring a minibus, they just had enough room. So she has been studying to get a class 2P license so she can drive a larger bus. (Class 2 is a truck up to 18,000kg and the P is passenger endorsed so that means she is allowed to carry passengers.) She passed the check and test to get the learner license; now she needs to get some practise in before doing a course next year. Hopefully in time for next e-Camp! Meanwhile, Bronwyn has also spent the year finishing her studies for the Diploma in Christian Studies and came out with very good marks. Graduation ceremony in April! She is going to carry on studying for her Bachelor of Applied Theology.
Things have been happening at church, or at least the spot of land where we intend it to be. After meeting in the community hall for a year or two, we’ve started digging, and hoping to see something useable by the end of next year. The land was bought about 18 years ago, before we arrived. It took a long time, but things have slotted into place over the last couple of years, and it’ll be great one we can have a permanent place again, that isn’t falling apart. The old building got mostly demolished and is almost ready as a childcare centre.
Had a very successful Light Party (Halloween alternative) this year. Last year they counted 200 children. This year we had at least 260. It was heaving; next year we’ll have to officially register with the police. Although they were there of course. Complete with siren. And the fire brigade. Tim made a Splat The Rat game, with a specially made mouse hole complete with skirting board and “Home Sweet Home” sign.
There have been a few other events this year. Bronwyn took Sarah to see the Chelsea sugar factory, and saw the massive piles of raw sugar getting processed and refined. Apparently there was a shipload waiting in the harbour, but they didn’t have any room for it. Sarah has been trying to help them this year with plenty of baking.
After a bit of rain, we traced a leak to a hole in the roofing iron. Bronwyn’s dad brought round some tape, and Tim went up and patched it up. We then had someone round to fix it properly, as well as paint the iron with weatherproofing. So far it hasn’t leaked, but we now have another pile of scrap iron – New Zealand farms seem to attract the stuff!
But perhaps the most memorable event was probably the visit by Lori. Bronwyn comes home and says “There’s an ostrich in 15C. I’ve got photos!” I then check the photos and decide it’s an emu. It is indeed. Strolling casually across the meadow. Looking very much at home. We put up a post on Facebook and the owner comes round with a bucket of emu food and leads it back along the road. It must have crossed several fences to get to us.
Diamondz our cat has also been introducing us to the local wildlife. He recently came in with a small furry creature, which he then lost behind a cupboard. We managed to move the cupboard and realised that it wasn’t a mouse. Or a rabbit, sparrow or indeed a rat. Or half an eel (still wriggling). It was a stoat. Squealing and snarling, and capable of leaping out of all our cardboard boxes, we eventually trapped it in a plastic dustbin (with lid) and Bronwyn and her Dad took it well away from the house and dealt with it in the morning.
But we kept the hedgehog. It was found rambling across the lawn last week, and mother didn’t seem to want it. It’s spent the last week in a cardboard box in the lounge with some cat food. Rachael is trying to think of a name. Something other than Spike…
Casey, the nutcase lamb mentioned last year went to Hollywood. OK, actually it was an animal trainer round the corner who provides animals for adverts and TV. She could leap through any fence no matter how much baling twine you wove through it, and could work her way around the paddocks no matter which one you put her in. Highly skilled; I hope she does well. This year’s lambs are much more ordinary!
Rachael got accepted to study Physics at Auckland Uni. She had to do a foundation maths course because she had missed year 13 maths, and needed to pass that in order to do the second Physics course. This went quite smoothly up until the exams, which she struggled in and didn’t pass. She retook that course for the second half of the year, and got a B, so she’s now keen to get back into the Physics next year. And more maths. Meanwhile, the uni encourages them to broaden their education with other courses, so she took Philosophy, Anthropology, Linguistics and Japanese Culture! Now that she’s retired for the year, she’s planted a garden and has a list of other projects to do over summer.
Tim’s had a lot of work on this year after taking on several jobs at once. When one job stopped, there was another one ready to take its place, so this year has been pretty full. The main job involves taking surfboard design files, processing and converting them to 3D models with sophisticated control over the design and rendering them as photo realistic images. This has involved a lot of new stuff, and some in-depth understanding of surfboards. As yet, he hasn’t put his foot on one. In another job; his manager encouraged everyone to take up cycling. This involved a fair amount of work disconnecting the bicycle from the surrounding vegetation and getting it roadworthy. But he can now make it over the nearby hill, which has until now presented a major barrier to sustainable transport. Fortunately the job is only just round the corner beyond! He’s also still treasurer for the brass band, and for the youthwork charity that the church started.
He’s found time to try clarinet for a few months, and then bought a saxophone (with the money from the car). Can just about do the Pink Panther, the Benny Hill theme and the instrumental from Careless Whispers. And he’s been on a campaign against every thistle, gorse and blackberry on the farm. It started with clippers and a spade, and worked up to weed spray and the lawnmower. The battle is not quite won yet, but the thistles have started hiding out of sight…
Sarah has a new hobby. Two, actually, plus the first aid work at St Johns Youth. She tried an air rifle at a school camp, and was really pleased with her accuracy. So Poppa let her try his .22, and she managed to shoot consistently within three cm at 23 metres. Poppa was impressed, so he bought her a tea towel with some Pukekos on it. Pukekos are purple swamp hens, and very adept at pulling up plants and eating other birds. So now she has a tea towel with holes in it…
Rachael decided to pay for some ice skating lessons for Sarah. Sarah had never got the hang of ice skating, and was frustrated that everyone else could do it but not her. So she’s had ten lessons so far, and can skate forwards and backwards plus a few other tricks.
That’s about all for now. Happy New Year to you all, from Tim, Bronwyn, Rachael, Sarah, Diamondz, three chickens and an unnamed hedgehog.
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