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The Light Party was absolutely cranking. Bronwyn made up 265 bags of sweets to give out to the children. We gave out the lot. Last year we estimated we had 200 children. This year at least 260! My legs hurt for two days afterwards, from picking up a tennis ball several hundred times. We had the police and fire brigade and St Johns Youth. Rach and Sarah spent the whole time painting children's faces. Next year we're going to have to register it as an official event with the police!
Rach has finished exams. She seems to have survived better than six months ago, so we're hoping she's got the maths sorted and can move on with Physics again. Otherwise, she's become a bit of an expert in Japanese Culture.
Might come in handy next year. We're on the list to have a Japanese student to stay for 10 days. Bronwyn has been slowly clearing out the end bedroom.
Sarah is now officially Back To Normal with her concussion, and is thus doing PE again, minus any contact sports. They're doing some training for a hike up Tongariro in the summer. Sarah isn't used to the exercise!
And Rach has paid for Sarah to do some ice skating lessons. Sarah wanted to learn, but never quite let go of the wall in the past. I took them out for the lesson yesterday. Sarah can now skate on her own! Hardly a smooth style, but she knows how to stay upright.
Thistle season seems to be calming down. Blackberry is still in full swing. The shears have seized up, but a pruning saw works quite well at digging under the roots!
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( 3 / 1393 )It's been rather busy at work; it seems like everything has gone full speed ahead. So I've been working six days a week trying to make progress. But today is Sunday...
Ross has let Sarah have a go at a .22 rifle. Turns out she's a pretty good shot. We put some cardboard at about 23 metres, and she was consistently within a couple of inches. She shot so many in one spot that the holes have joined up into one big one. This Sunday, Ross presented her with a tea towel. It has three pukekos on it.
For the uninitiated, a pukeko is a purple swamp hen. Take a coot, make it twice as big and add long legs. Plus a liking for pulling up plants and pecking lambs and other baby birds. It's quite popular with the tourists, but not the farmers.
So Sarah spent some time firing at a tea towel. I'm pretty sure she got all three. Meanwhile, I've been practising on Rachael's compound bow, which hasn't seen an arrow for several years. The first time taught me that I'd have issues shooting a moose at 23 metres if it stood sideways. But I'm getting better. Not as accurate as Sarah, but mostly within a couple of feet. One arrow went straight through Sarah's big hole on the cardboard!
I'm slowly working my way around the farm. I'm learning the different species of thistle. Scotch thistles are huge, but easy to spot and don't usually grow back. It's the little ones that keep popping up. I'm keeping note of their locations so I can pass that way when I'm nearby. I've also learnt all the locations of gorse and blackberry within half a kilometre. It's getting a bit warm to be hacking weeds, so I'm doing it in the late evening, armed with spade and shears, plus a pruning saw strapped from my belt...
It's out Light Party at the end of the month; our Halloween alternative. Bronwyn has been trying to get the church organised. I've been given the task of doing Splat The Rat. Last year, I had a drainpipe and a ball. This year, I decided to make a mouse hole in some MDF, with a frame behind it. The party theme is spots and stripes, so if I get a moment, I'll add some skirting board, striped wallpaper and a little "Home Sweet Home" sign above the hole.
Bronwyn's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and last week we took up the offer of another weekend at a friend's holiday house up near Leigh. It was a bit cold for getting wet, but we had fish and chips by the beach, and a very relaxing weekend. Sarah got up at lunchtime, and was bouncing off the ceiling when we were heading to bed.
Took a peculiar route home. The GPS told me to go north, presumably since we were already some way along that road for lunch. Except that it was a rather long and winding road on gravel through the hills. But we made it, and only reached home four minutes later than Bronwyn, who took the motorway!
Sarah is back at school tomorrow after the holidays. She's been working on a couple of speeches, one for school and one for St Johns Youth. She's been researching the history of the St Johns organisation. I didn't realise it goes back to the dark ages!
Rach is at uni, but catching up on Maths and leaving Physics for next year. Instead, she's doing Linguistics and Japanese Culture. It's been easier lately - she's hardly asked me anything at all this term. Not that I'd be able to help with Japanese Culture...
Haven't played trombone for a few weeks. Last weekend was my spot to play at church, but I was away. Our conductor Mark has also recently retired, and we haven't yet met the new one. Had a great farewell barbecue for Mark, and our last regional contest with him went well. We didn't win, but it sounded great on the video. I knew I wouldn't have much time to breathe during my solo, so I took several deep breaths before. Unfortunately that left me rather light headed. I remember floating away while my arm swung the slide. Fortunately I had it memorised, and it was meant to be jazz, so it apparently turned out rather well!
The weather is warm. The grass is long. The lambs have been shut out in the paddock. Although they have been a lot easier to deal with than last year - they've kept the weeds down nicely and haven't learnt how to break into the front garden. Yet.
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( 3 / 1390 )Every Sunday, we hand out chocolate marshmallow fish. It started as a thing for the children on their birthday. It kind of mutated into adult birthdays about 10 years ago, and then took in wedding anniversaries, graduations, driving licenses, anything remotely worth celebrating. This year, Pastor Sam had a push for the memory verse. I managed to memorise three at once and got three fish. But we still have room for more. Lots more. They've bought three boxes of the things, and they expire at the end of the month. So all the fathers got one last week. Plus any remaining male over the age of 16. Bronwyn has been organising the children to do Random Acts Of Kindness, which involves handing out chocolate fish to random strangers. This week, I had to wait while she chased a road sweeping truck in order to feed the driver...
I've found a new therapy. It started with blackberry. I never get to see the blackberries; the birds eat them first. There was a huge patch, and I managed to trample down a path through it. Months later, the path was still there. So I thought it might be worth trampling the rest. Great way to deal with frustrations. I then moved on to thistles. No idea why the Scots like them so much and brought them here, but armed with a spade, I've cleared half the farm. Keeps you fit too. I haven't had to touch the bicycle for a while.
Three lambs and a sheep in the back garden. Nibble is doing well, and enjoys bursting into the house and ... nibbling. Bronwyn found the others in the paddock yesterday, and decided to bring them in to keep an eye on them. Just as well; it's a very wet night tonight. We've lost a couple and given one away, but it looks like we got off relatively lightly from the toxoplasmosis.
Hopefully the roof holds. We had a team round to repair the roof today; they were going to replace a few bits and rust proof some areas. Don't think they finished; we've had rain on and off today. They moved the drainpipes to avoid getting paint in the tank. One pipe fell off. Bronwyn decided to put it back on, and got rather soaked!
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( 3 / 1395 )Lots of rain, high winds, tornados in places. Paddocks are covered in mud. Time for the sheep to give birth! Bronwyn has been out around the paddock several times a day, and delivered several lambs. We've lost a lot this year; the vet thinks it's toxoplasmosis; we've had a stray cat around the house a few times. The lambs are often born premature or weak, and you have to get to them fast in order to revive them. If they survive though, they'll have immunity to it.
Two lambs in the back yard for bottle feeding. One has been named Nibble. The other one doesn't have a name yet. Rachael calls it "No Name".
There used to be a wasp nest on the side of the paddock. I think I mentioned it after getting attacked while going for a jog. There's no nest now. There's a big hole where the ground caved in from all the rain. It's about 2 feet deep and wide, and appears to have several further branches underground, at least from what we could see before it collapsed further. No sign of wasps now. Not after several inches of rain on the hole!
We haven't had a frost since June. I appear to have a crop of potatoes growing that I didn't plant. Won't complain.
Another flood in the kitchen. This time it was the water pipe to the dishwasher, which had a patch eaten away. Hence it was easier to isolate and fix, but we had a good look underneath for any other damage! Bronwyn has bought some stainless steel scouring pads, which appear to be very effective at blocking rodents. I've stuffed a few in the various points of entry.
I'm getting better on the saxaphone. I've printed off the pieces that I'd always wanted to play, if I could play a saxaphone. So far that comprises the Benny Hill theme (Yakety Sax), Pink Panther and that solo from Careless Whispers. Can't quite do it justice yet, but I'm working on it. At least I've worked out how to play C# (no fingers ... at all) without the instrument flopping wildly! I keep finding extra buttons I hadn't spotted before...
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( 3 / 1356 )Google maps has issues working out where I am. I don't have GPS on the laptop, and I generally leave it switched off on the phone unless I need it. Hence it tends to follow other people's phones at random. Apparently last summer I spent a week in the wilds of Northland, and I'm often down in South Auckland. Last week it wasn't really sure, but made a wild guess:
Many thanks to our friends for opening their house for the week. We had time to catch up, and also got to see quite a bit of Sydney. I've seen the harbour bridge from about 10 different angles. We also went west to the Blue Mountains (OK, somewhat greyish in the right light), north east for a bush walk and some Aboriginal hand prints and rock carvings, and a day at the zoo.
Didn't need the zoo for some of the wildlife. No kangaroos, but every day we were greeted by the ravens. They're like crows, only with sore throats. Plus wild turkeys, white ibis and sulphur crested cockatoos. All big birds and all very interested in your lunch.
The day before we left to go to Sydney, Bronwyn noticed a little water on the floor. It hadn't been there half an hour earlier. So we pulled off the boards under the cupboard, and one of the pipes at the back had tiny teeth marks and was spraying a fine mist of water. Problem was, the cupboard was all glued together and we couldn't work out how to get to the pipe.
The plumber came out and fixed it. Didn't bother taking the kitchen apart. Went outside, pulled off the boards and fixed it from the outside instead in under an hour. Now that takes years of experience...
Finally have the fireplace going. Had the chimney swept a few weeks ago, but the top plate was very warped, and effectively all the heat was going up the chimney. So the chimney sweep ordered a new one. Unfortunately they sent the wrong one. We only got the correct one a day before we left. Not long after the plumber left! But now we've got a warm house and a dry kitchen, although we still need to fix the boards...
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