Christmas Day photos

Christmas Day

With all the leisure time available now that we are on holiday, I could attempt to update the blog more than my customary once per week.

We have experienced our first Kiwi Christmas and had a pleasant day. It was very different to last years. Far less sociable, steak and swimming would sum up the main differences. Church was a lot quieter than usual, which was a surprise as many catholics make a special effort to turn up only on Christmas Day and at Easter in the UK. Perhaps they all went to the midnight mass. Father Pat gave a good sermon on the differences that the birth of Jesus has made in the world.

We had made the boys wait until after church before they opened their presents, much to their dismay. Lots of talk about "delayed gratification" was met with protests, all to no avail. The presents went down well and the surprise trip to Wellington was well received. Chantelle had made booklets giving a detailed itinerary. The boys have been studying times of arrival and departure and discussing them.

After that we went for a swim in the Mangamuka Gorge. We found a flat field with access to a cooling swimming hole and we all had a dip. Even Mum! We were disappointed at the amount of discarded food lying about which made it feel more like England than NZ, but apparently there is an element here that thinks nothing of chucking their bottles and cans out in a pile after their feed.

Back home to lounge out in the garden, eat steak for tea, have a bush bath etc. The TV did not look too promising, but I found 2 good films "Lucky Break" with James Nesbitt and a real cracker called The Stationmaster - American, minimal dialogue, very lttle plot, but very well observed.

Chantelle had spent the day making and receiving phone calls from the UK. I tried making mine on Boxing Day but only made contact with Dominic. Mum and Dad rang up at midnight on Christmas Day. I'll try and catch the rest of you guys at Clare's party.

Pictures

Bush walks and baths

We are all on holiday now and the anticipation for Christmas is steadily rising. The boys are worried that They are not going to get any christmas presents and keep on urging us to go into town to get it "sorted out". As if we wouldn't give them anything!

We spent last Saturday finishing off our bath. Over here many people living with unusual (by European standards) water supplies, do not have a bath in the house. we have missed having a long hot soak. After some days it is just what you need. So we researched the possibilities and the picture shows the result. A cast iron bath surplus to Paula and Grant's requirements has beeen sunk into the lawn in a secluded corner. The drain goes down the hill. It is currently filled from the hose with cold water and by filling with buckets from the hot water tap. Authentic bush baths are raised off the ground and a fire is lit underneath them, wooden slatting along the base prevents a burnt botty!

Talking of which .... suffice it to say for those of you in the know, that the area is healing nicely but sitting down is a bit painful.

Moving swiftly on, Patrick lost his first tooth and the other fron one is leaning over like a pissed gravstone. The NZ Tooth Fairy took 2 nights to pay up, which we tried to explain was due to its small population and geographical isolation.

I took time off from my parental and patriarchal(?) duties to go for a highly enjoyable bush-walk at Diggers Valley on Sunday. Mein host and guide was Stephan who is the fellow wielding the machete looking like Crocodile Dundee. A small select group of us walked from the farm into the hills above. We followed his water supply line first and then carried on to find the source of the stream. The bush was steep in places and there were several waterfalls to negotiate. Our progress was hindered by a tough vine called supple-jack that is like a triffid, very easy to trip over it. Also the aptly named "bush lawyer" which is a creeper with leaves that have sharp hooks, once entangled by the lawyer, it is difficult to get free! Despite all these obstacles we found the point where the stream started and returned aching all over and wet through.

Christmas greetings to all our readers!!

The week before Christmas

I have enjoyed this week, boys at school and plenty of time for sorting things out. I have actually been into school every day along with many other dedicated teachers who carry on working up until Christmas.

Life on the "farm" carries on, the grass grows and we have been experimenting with using the mower as a brushcutter. If you are careful you can cut down 2 foot high grass. The area round the veggie garden has been done, along with a wide strip going down to the chucks. On the poutry front, I rescued one of the youngest shaver chicks from certain death. It was squawking loudly at dusk from the long grass in the middle field. One of the cats was sat over it, either guarding it or having just injured it. There were no superficial injuries but the bird was unable to perch or even walk much. Eric has taken it under his wing so to speak and it is recovering well.

The ducklings should have gone down to the dam by now because the volume of their liquid faeces is becoming more notieceable by the day on the path around the house. We have taken them down twice, but they have made their way back to the house. They did this the second time because the 2 larger pairs of ducks already living there did not take kindly to the newcomers - even though they were all close rellies! The solution to this dilemma will probably involve a combination of an axe and Xmas presents to duckless folk.

On a more civilised note, some of us went to see the latest Harry Potter at The Swamp Palace last weekend. It was the best one yet, actually better than the book which dragged on for far too long (IMHO).

Pictures included this week are of Eric and his rescue chick, a Tui feeding on the flax in front of the house, and the pea seedlings that Patrick sowed that have popped up this week.

Skools out!

At least it is for Dad, the boys have another 10 days. We had senior prizegiving last night and junior prizegiving today. Then a typical Northland feed that went on for several hours, with farewells for colleagues who are leaving. And although there is still work to do over the holiday, I am not tied to the bells that have ruled my life for the last 9 weeks. Looking forward to having the odd lie-in, to getting my evenings back, spending more quality time with the family, animals and garden.

We had a housewarming bbq last weekend, to thank the many people who have made us so welcome here. We cleaned the house up and got a hot plate from the market. It all went very well, no-one got food poisoning and the weather was kind.

Managed to get the veggie garden by the chickens fenced off at the start of the week. That allowed paddy and me to plant out the pumpkins and beans etc that we had grown in the top garden. Paddy enjoyed sowing peas and watering the veggies.

The other picture is of Eric doing his taiaha practice.

Frying time appears to be here!!

Well the summer seems to have kicked in. We really can't remember the last good rainfull to replenish our tank, which considering is 2/3 full. Our poor neighbours have already had to call out the water tanker.
The Weekend started with us ( Mike and Chantelle) going out for a meal and a walk along 90 mile beach to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.
Then on Tuesday Eric departed along with the top 2 years at Pamapuria school to camp. He has just returned today (Friday), and has promised an update when he's not so shattered.
On Wednesday ,Mouse the 6 foot something shearer came along to relieve poor , sweltering Masetse of his fleece. He also managed to do the goat as well . So they both look like little straggley beings plodding around the paddocks. Thanks to Mouse ,there are few shearers who would agree to shear such few sheep.
The attached photo's show Mo and Miss chicken having a chill under the stairs together, Masetse during and after shearing , Mike and chantelle on 90 mile beach. And goat, shania, being lopped.

Life and death down on the block

chantelle and I went down to feed the chickens on Sunday morning and were gobsmacked to see one of bantams had hatched out 18 youngsters. She had been sat tight on a nest in the ditch and this time we had just left her to it. Feeling vindicated by our laissez-faire approach I poo-pooed Eric's suggestions that we move them all up to the garden where we could keep an eye on them.
On Monday Chantelle did the chucks in the morning (for the first time in ages, I had not gone down before work). Poor bantam had only one chick left and the others had either vanished or were lying around the ditch in various stages of dismemeberment.

The stoat trap has been cleaned and baited with chicken fat.As of Friday morning the sole chick still survives. The other 4 chicks are all doing well. We have brought a shaver hen up the top to sit on a clutch. She has been broody for nearly 2 months now and hasnt hatched anything, so the enforced captivity in the broody box will either get her hatching something or will get her back laying again. Patrick managed to get the other shaver laying again, by opening her lid before she had settled on the eggs. She was off and couldn't be coaxed back onto them.

Other livestock news: the sheep remain twitchy but slightly less so than they were when they arrived. We are still trying to get a shearer for Mosetse (the ram). He is the opposite of the ewes, being bottle-raised he is too fearless. It makes him difficult to move around as he will not be driven. He has to be led, preferably by someone carrying something in a bucket! He has taken to harrassing us for his daily traet of sheep nuts and we are a bit worried that he will end up obese. The grass is romping away.

Ducks and ducklings are doing well. The ducks are well grown now and fly up to us for their daily grain. They have been showing signs of mating with each other, so we are looking forward to trying out lots of duckling recipes - I am - the others still find it a bit distasteful.

Stuart's Birthday

It was Stuart's turn for a birthday on Monday. after a number of options for presents had been debated exhaustively (I am not exaggerating here), he decided he would like to get an inflatable boat. This he did and assembled a crew of his mates to join him on the maiden voyage around the pond. Dad was instructed to rush home on Monday to supervise. The staff meeting finished and I raced home.

Then nearly a disaster - I was trying to carry the inflated boat down the hill on my own and it snagged on a piece of wire, puncturing it in 2 places. When Stuart found out all hell broke loose. Puncture repaired the trip was back on and proved a hit with the kids!

I went to Auckland with 8 Year 10 pupils for a bit more than 24 hours. It was weird being in a city again. Big buildings, lots of traffic, confusing road signs, cosmopolitan lifestyles and a more diverse racial mix. The purpose of the visit was to encourage Maori students to study Science and medicine at University. Although Year 10's don't give away too much about whether they are impressed or not, they were exposed to some good role models and an inspirational atmosphere. Even the 6 hour van journey each way wasn't too painful!

Pictures

Bonfires and holy things

Bulletpoint update this week; time is short!
Went shooting with Eric last w/e, he was let loose with a semi-automatic .22 rifle!
Went to a bonfire party on Nov 5th, very rural! Pitch black fireworks being let off on a windy hill-side. Chantelle tried on the latest must-have head-gear.
This week-end Stuart made his first holy communion and confirmation. Bishop Fleamy laid hands on his head, and Father Pat told him to tell the Bishop of Lancaster that he has now been confirmed. Could a reader in Lancaster pass on the message (along with our best wishes!) next time they see him.
That's it!
Been having problems with our connection, so cannot upload the pics. Keep checking and we'll get them up eventually.

Chantelle's Birthday

Today is Chantelle's Birthday. She received gifts and well wishes from all over and can be seen about to enjoy a juicy steak washed down with fizz. She said it was the first birtday in ** years that she had enjoyed the sun and not a dark night, cold and rain! One of the unexpected benefits of emigration to the southern hemisphere.

We have had a busy week. Last weekend the boys were demanding to sleep in my tiny tent on Friday night. As I was unwilling to see them knacker my only valuable possession, I suggested that we build a sleep-out on Saturday. Unbelievably a tee-pee was built in the space of one afternoon. It cost $0 and housed Eric and Patrick comfortably for one night. We had a fire and made toast and baked bananas before leaving them to nature.

Livestock news: 2 more chicks hatched from broody bantam on Wed/Thurs; We have another 8 muscovvy ducklings courtesy of Diggers Valley, Shanya is looking forlorn without her mate, sits about moping, we are going to run her with the sheep tomorrow as she has been on her own the last 2 weeks. Sheep all doing Ok, the ewes are very shy and won't come even when offered sheep nuts.

Other news: Stuart is moving from boats into go-carts. His team of ark builders are on stand-by. There have been a number of sparkler bomb incidents in Kaitaia. The mail box on our old house was blown away this week. Police and school are treating it very seriously.

Oh what a drama King!

Friday 28th October

Happy birthday Dominic! If you don't read this I am intending to send you a letter (along with letters to many other folks in the UK!). You will have to be patient as my emails get sent a lot more quickly than my letters.

Well we have had a rollercoaster of a week. We said good bye to Shazza the goat on Saturday as she had been getting progressively worse and was finding it hard to get up. She started scouring and went blind in one eye. Her mate Shanya was upset and stood a few yards away bleating. Mike came along with a gun and put her down. We buried her after shanya had had a chance to sniff at her friend's corpse. I was amazed at how quickly the blowflies moved in! Her rump was swarming with maggots within an hour of death. The flies over here lay live maggots and not eggs, which obviously speeds up the decay process. Makes me a bit nervous about the idea of going to sleep outside! You might wake up with half your arm eaten off!

It being Labour weekend, which is traditionally the start of the outdoor swimming season, I took the boys to the Takahue water hole on Sunday afternoon. It was a lot colder and deeper than it was last year. Shortly after we got back to the car, the heavens opened and we had a downpour.

Monday dawned cloudy and unpromising, typical UK bank holiday weather! It did get better as the day progressed and we went off to Tokerau beach on the East Coast. The boys all went in the surf on their body boards and I had a fish, trying to get the bait out into the surf as far as I could. It was a different way to fish, being battered by the waves and with gannets and terns flying over. I had a couple of bites, but nothing big was on. Apparently the Kahawi were running up the west coast!

On Wednesday Eric performed in his Drama club plays. It was a good night of talent, lots of variety, ranging from Dr Seuss poems, to Orpheus and including some funny little sketches, like the family eating out at a restaurant. Eric's main part was as the huntsman in Snow white and the seven dwarves. He played his part well, especially when he showed the step-mum a real bleeding sheep's heart as proof that he had killed off snow-white. Thanks To Ruth and Stephan for the offal, we might write a book "101 uses for a sheep's heart". The play was a good twist on the traditional story, as Snow-white steals the magic mirror and the dwarves use it to get rich at the horse races.

Until next week then.

Pictures

Friday 21st October

Kia ora readers, whoever you are!

We are at the end of the second week of term 4, with about 7 to go until the end of the year. The pictures below are from the holiday. I tried to post them several times last week but could not get them to load up.

We have had a typically busy week. Exchanged our 6 rams for 4 ewes and a ram last week-end. They are now officially ours, to look after and ultimately to eat! The plan is that they will mate in November and lamb in April. Pete assures us that they have all produced healthy offspring up until now. The ewes are quite different to the rams. They are more flighty and my initial impression is that they are not eating as much grass as the rams did. As a consequence the grass seems to be getting longer all over. The ram is a bottle reared one called Mosetse (apologies to Irene if the spelling is not right). He is hanging around his women after taking a few days to connect with them.

Before we went shopping for sheep, we went to the Diggers Valley rally. It was one stage out of several. I have to admit that it was quite exciting to see and hear a load of cars come tearing down the normally pretty much deserted metalled road. We tried various vantage points around Ruth and Stephan's farm eventually realising that the front gate probably gave the best vantage point!

We followed that with our first swim of the year in the water hole, neatly before the traditional start of the swimming season which is this weekend (Labour Weekend).

Other news: chicks are doing well, at least the 2 of them that survived their hopeless mother's pathetic attempts to keep them alive. We now have them in the spare room with a lamp on them and mother back down the bottom with the flock. We have another bantam up the top sat on 5 eggs, due to hatch in about 10 days. Meanwhile down the bottom, there are 2 shaver hens trying to hatch imaginary eggs in the nest box. It must be broody time.

The ducks are growing daily and stray further away from the pond now than they did. We ate the smallest one for Sunday dinner. Yes I know .... it wasn't the easiest thing to chop its head off, but this is not a zoo. It is concentrating my mind on the amount of meat that we eat and at how easy it is to divorce eating meat from killing animals. I am also realising first hand something that I have been teaching for years, namely that animals eat 10x the amount of food for every unit of mass that their bodies actually grow. I take down grain and buckets of food to the ducks and chickens every morning and most of the energy just goes on keeping them warm. When one actually prepares a bird for eating, by removing feathers and feet and inedible parts, it hits me how little of that grain we are getting on the table! The vegetarians have always used this as an argument, but I have never appreciated what they are on about as much as I do now. Not that I am about to go veggie, far from it when there is so much meat and potential meat walking round the paddocks. But my ideal diet would involve eating far less meat and far more vegetable protein. The top veggy bed was finished last week-end and planting will start soon.

Other news: Labour managed to pull together a government that involved some interesting compromises. New Zealand First were in the limelight( as usual) and their main man Winston Peters got himself a key post - minister for Foreign Affairs. He insists he is not part of the government and even wants to continue sitting on the oppostion benches. He likes it both ways. Sadly for my political persuasions, the greens were left out in the cold as none of the other minor parties would serve if the greens were part of the mix.

Eric went on a clean-up of the Mangamuka Gorge with his school.He is also busy rehearsing for his performance on Wednesday. Paddy is into planets and produces fantastic posters about them and their charcteristics. He acted as an advisor on a worksheet for my Year 10's. Stuart is busy trying to build a boat that will be able to carry 14 people. He is scrounging wood from off cut bins at various businesses in town. Chantelle is the official shepherd as she is better with the stock than I am.

Until next time then, with pictures due of sheep, chicks, rally cars. If there are any pictures you would like to see on here, just email or leave a comment.

Pictures

Friday 14th October

Kia ora koutou!
One week into school and time to resurrect the Friday night update. Listening to dance music on George FM because there is nothing on TV worthy of watching, even by my low Friday night standards. I am slowly moving towards a view that many have reached before me; namely that TV is a monumental waste of time. We have started an experiment in having one TV (and computer) free day a week. We are trying out Thursdays, so don't expect the usual speedy response if you email on a Thursday.

That is not to say that all the tv here is rubbish. One thing I am slowly getting used to is the ads on all channels. Even on the news shows. It slows down the flow and makes a half hour programme into a 1 hour programme. Some of the good programmes imho are:
- Brotown a cartoon about the doings of some Morningside youngsters. Not universally liked (some think it vulgar!), but we find it amusing. There is a lot of stuff that goes over the heads of the boys.
- Facelift - another comic puupet satirical - a bit like Spitting Image.
There have been other dramas on and short comedies that have been good.
The rest seems to be 80% imported from UK/US/Oz.

Back to reality, we are all excited by the new chicks and are finding hard to resist checking them every five minutes. It is very smelly out there as some eggs have blown up, the ones that were not fertilised and have basically been kept stewing under mum's butt for 3 weeks. SMELLLLYYY! She does not smell too sweet either; having rather let herself go! Her character has changed, she is all dopey, but delivers a mean peck if you go near her chicks.

We went to the Waiere Boulders last week when we were on holiday. Patrick and Mum had been there before so Patrick was keen to show everyone around. We walked quite a way and for the first (but probably not the last) time, Chantelle and I were left trailing as all six younger legs ran off in front to see this or that. Very photogenic place. The boulders are volcanic basalt and have fluting marks on them that had me wondering as my basic knowledge of geology tells me that igneous rock is very hard and resistant to weathering. Apparently, the grooves on the boulders are caused by kauri leaf chemicals that corrode the rock by constantly dripping onto the same place. Feel free to comment on this if you have a better explanation!

So it was back to school this week. It was a bit like being bulldozed on Monday as the easygoing attitude of the holiday was displaced by the faster pace of school. Probably made harder for me because I spent Friday and Saturday night at Te Tii Marae with the te reo course. Te Tii is a beautiful place not far from Kerikeri. The course was very good as well and I consolidated a lot of my language. It was a boost for my confidence to be able to explain a few things to some people who had just started the course.

Until next week then, if the volcanoes, earthquake or bird flu don't get us in the mean-time.

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Well our very first chick. Isn't it cute!
Here the little chook is peeking out from between it's mums wing. BB (broody bantum) was sat on 21 eggs. We moved chook and bub from the bush they were in ,into a special hutch/ run, which had sucessfully drought up the ducks. Another egg was in the process of cracking.
We wait to see how many eggs finally produce chooks.

pics

More pictures

Been having problems posting all the pictures in one go, so doing them one at a time.

Pictures

The workers

It is still the holiday and we are working on a range of projects. The water system is more or less fixed. Thanks to everyone who has helped with design advice and troubleshooting.
We made an exciting find today - well it was exciting for us simple country folk! We lost a bantam nearly 3 weeks ago, just before the strong winds. At first I assumed that it had either been blown away, or had been eaten by a hawk or a feral cat. Eric claimed to have seen a hawk fly off with a bantam, so we assumed the worst. In the last few days we started to consider another possibility - that our bantam was sat on eggs. If that was so we might expect it to appear with some fluffy bundles in the next few days - as hens take 21 days to incubate. Eric and I found the little luv this morning tucked away in a thicket and sitting hard. We did not want to disturb her, but are keeping our fingers crossed and eyes open. Eric and I fixed up a coop for any chicks that are led out. We think their chances will be better up close to the house rather than in the field with the hawks flying over all the time.
The picture of Stuart is a rare photo of him engaged in a work-related activity. One has to take these pics while one can. He took a strop about 30 seconds after the pic was taken and the mowing was left to me!
The lack of any pictures of the old man working does not necessarily mean that I am sat on my backside watching everyone else working ..... at least that's my story.

Ralph

This is Ralph.
Ralph was snatched from the jaws of Mo on Wednesday morning. At first we thought Ralph was a mouse, but on further inspection we found him to be a very small, baby rat. He was so small , his eye's were not yet open.
The vet gave us some suggestion, so we instead of dispatching him, we decided to make him tame.
AS you can see he is dead cute, and tiny.
Mo ,managed to get him a couple of times again, even though he was snuggled up on a hot water bottle in a box.
He brought great joy to us ,even though he was a rat.
Unfortunaly Ralph became unwell on Saturday morning, and died whilst being cared for on my lap.

Plumbing

This is a bit of a panic post!
I have disconnected our rainwater collection system with the aim of improving it. We have purchased a 500L tank to store run off from the roof. Under the old system it was pumped up from 2 small tanks housed above the electric pump. The main water tank is on top of the hill above the house - let's say 5m in vertical height. The house water is gravity fed from the main tank.

My problem is that the pump is not working when I tested it. The electric motor is on, but no water is being pumped. The model is called Riva Flo TF30. It is possible that it needs priming (how?) or thet I have damaged it by running it with no water in the system.

Any suggestions on how to remedy this would be gratefully received.

End of Term

Well that's it for 2 weeks! We have got ourselves to the end of term 3. Been getting my head round NCEA marking of the senior mock exams. As well as getting my head around becoming "Associate Junior Dean", my head is ready for a break from school work.

Other pressing matters are piling up demanding attention. There are the goats feet which need another pruning. The veggy garden needs starting if we are to get much in the way of veg this year. I want to make a salad and herb bed on the back lawn and a larger plot down on the chicken field. That is the bigger job as there needs to be a fence to keep out all the animals that are partial to veggies.

We reckon that one of the bantams went this week. We ate the wyandotte cock last sunday. He was a bit tough, not surprising as he spent most of the last few months chasing hens and mating with them brutally. The hens seem a lot calmer without him around. It would be nice to get some chicks to start growing into future Sunday dinners. Not too sure what happened to the bantam. It went about the time of a big storm last w/e. We had 100km winds, with trees down in town and the roof of the timber mill blown onto Pukepoto Road. Plus a lot of damage at Ahipara. Eric reports seeing a harrier flying off with the bantam in its talons.

On a happier note, the ducks have taken to the pond enthusiastically. They have a stoat proofed house and have been out in the open with no protection for a night already. They are not always keen on going into their lovingly made house every night. So far so good and we still have 5 of them.

Election wise, I am not sure who is going to run the country yet. And I am not the only one. Labour have a slight majority on the main lot of votes, but a load more "special" votes have to be counted. Then all the smaller parties start horsetrading over who they will support in government and what their terms will be for that support. We shall see what the outcome is .... obviously.

Election Eve

The big day tomorrow!
Although we cannot vote, we are still taking a keen interest, as we live here now and it is our country! We have had some interesting tea time conversations with the boys. Eric would vote National if he could "because he looks like a man I could trust", Stuart would vote Clark, but I cannot understand (or explain) his reasoning. Patrick is letting it pass over him, and why not, he is only 6 after all.

Meanwhile the politicians are fighting dirty and the smaller parties are trying to get themselves as much media exposure as possible. Winston Peters comes across as a media tart, he strung them out for a whole week over which side he would support in a coalition, to finally announce it would be neither, unless he changes his mind.
Amusement of the week has been the mudslinging he has tried on with his main constituency opponent, National's Clarkson. Peters has dragged up some incident from years ago when Clarkson allegedly harrassed one of his female employees. It all sounded a bit pathetic until Clarkson himself told a female interviewer this week that he would have to stand up "because my crotch is so sore".

Seriously though, I do fear for our futures here in Northland if National get in. They will increase racial tension between Pakeha and Maori for one thing. Plus they are going to bring back bulk funding to schools which will probably lead to job cuts and strike action.

Enough politics ... at least until tomorrow when the result comes in.

Family news: boys all ok, no sports on this weekend. Stuart played in a soccer day this week. The big event of the week has been the saga of the broken glasses. Namely Stuart's, broken beyond repair and with new ones costing over $200, we needed to know who did it. That has cast a shadow over the week and we have only just resolved the problem. I won't say how because the offender/ chief suspect has been granted name suppression to protect his character.

We are basically hanging in there until the end of term one week today.

Included are some pics of animals. Miss Clucky was insisting on laying an egg each afternoon under the stairs; only in this household could this sort of situation happen. I am alternately amused and not amused - though my amusement or lack of counts for little. Meanwhile, the ducks spend most of their day sat on the concrete right outside the back door, liberally spraying it and the window with their faeces. Luvverley! They are going to be taken down to the pond tomorrow, the basic idea being that they will eventually waddle up and down by themselves. Chucks are Ok. Wyandotte cock earned himself an extra week of life by refusing to go in the pen on Saturday night and then staying out on Sunday morning, even when the food arrived. Just how did he know I was after him? Was it my chicken killing gloves or could he tell by my body language? The hatchet was way out of sight. Other livestock are fine. Rams are back to head butting each other intermittently.

Award winner!!!!

Well, hasn't he done well !!!
In his first season of playing "soccer" - Football is rugby?!?!?, Paddy has been awarded player of the season for Pirates . He was awarded on stage infront of about 300 people. He was cheered by many.Well done son !! We are proud.

September Happenings

A few pictures from the last week. Ducklings get bigger and are now in with mrs clucky outside the back door. No sign of the wild ducklings; I fear that the stoat got itself another supper. No success with the trap.
No more rats. The bio students enjoyed dissecting them.
We had a quiet w/e with 2 lie ins. Father's Day on Sunday was nice for me, breakfast in bed and someone else fed the chucks. We went down later on and saw to the goats feet; they are better than last week. My attempts to find them a retirement home have not been successful, so we shall have to keep them here.

The election draws nearer and the polls show that it maight be a close run thing. National are in the lead by 8 points at the moment. If they get in things might warm up here as they are into bulk funding for schools, stopping race-based funding etc.

new life in the pond

The first day of Spring a new lives were discovered by the pond.From the two ducks that have made a home of the pond , 8 duckling appeared. by Eric.

Down on the farm

End of another week and we are watching the All Blacks take on the Springboks in the tri-nations series. Eric is impressed by the new haka.
Today Paddy played in the Kaitaia AFC tournament at Taipa. He was back on form, scoring all the goals for his team winning 2/3 games. Lost the first 1 -0, second was a 5-0 drubbing of Eastern 2 and the third a tight game of 1-0 against Kaigaroa. Paddy was playing more up front in the 2nd 2 games. Plus he was on a cash incentive (mum's idea! 10c per goal for his team - he took the iniative and did all the scoring). Perhaps next time, we will reward him for each goal he sets up for someone else to score.
As if that wasn't exciting enough we got a puncture on the way. First time I have ever changed a wheel and it went OK. Thanks to Steve L for teaching me how to do it !
The unsealed roads are pretty tough on tires and punctures are apparently common.
Back at the ranch, it was good to see Eric and Stuart walking (Yes WALKING) back from town. They had got fed up waiting for our return and went to the warehouse on foot.
We spent the afternoon clearing scrub and having a fire to get rid of the gorse and pampas that we had cut down. Just another 20 fires like that and we will be able to see a difference!
Trapping wise, the stoat trap hasn't caught anything yet but something has been taking the bait. I tried setting it with a pilchard rubber banded onto the plate tonight.
We have had more success with the rats, catching a huge male on Wednesday and a smaller one on Thursday. They have gone in the freezer at school and will be used in a dissection class by the senior biologists.
Talking of school, it was science fair this week. Very impressive once all the exhibits were up in the hall.
Other news: Stuart made his first reconciliation on Friday after school. A very quiet affair followed by a KFC.
Eric is learning lines for his play.
Paddy is obsessed by dinosaurs.
Chantelle seems to have recovered from the shingles. She has been planning our Summer holiday to Wellington this week.
There is an election here mid-September. I feel pretty detached from it as we cannot vote until we have been here for a year. The Greens do well here because of the electoral system. They have about 9 MPs at the moment and may be able to exert more influence as a coalition partner with Labour. The Maori party is new on the scene this year in response to an unpopular piece of legislation that Labour has passed that has got the backs up of both Pakeha and Maori. National is the Conservative party equivalent and they are as bumbling and inept as their British counterparts. The leader Don Brash was head to head against the Labour leader -Helen Clark - on TV this week. The consensus was that he was out-performed; he explained his lack of shine by saying that he is too gentlemanly to lay into a woman MMMM.

Off they go!

Margaret and Ian left this morning after spending 2 weeks with us. It has been pleasant for me, the house did not feel too crowded and the boys have enjoyed being spoiled. They have all been off on trips and have taken a few days off school each.
The weather has been good which has obviously helped.
Now we are returning to normal. We had a great meal at Orana Motel last night. Fantastic food, friendly service, everyone was happy. We did not take either camera but Patrick's face was a picture when his ice-cream sundae turned up.
Back on the farm, we have been busy trying to trap the suspected stoat that killed the ducklings. We also got a rat trap from Wrightsons to deal with the cheeky rats that are burrowing into the chicken coop.
Stuart and I did some stream management this afternoon, removing some of the weeds that are choking the stream. The bottom field has a high water table and as it is where I want to grow veggies, it needs some sort of drainage solution or they will not grow very well.
Best wishes to my sister Alex who is about to marry Mark in Manchester today. Sorry we couldn't make the wedding, but we are thinking of you both.

It is with great sadness......

It is with great sadness that we have lost 5 ducklings overnight.
It seems that a rat / stoat has managed to burrow into thier home and swipe 4 clean away , whilst leaving 1 dead . There was no sign what so ever, no blood nor feathers ,just 5 ducklings and 1 dead one in the morning. Even though you try and remind yourself that the animals are not pets ,it's hard not to get some sort of an attachment to the balls of fluff ,who cheep enthusiatically when you appear!
So it's off to the northland regional council for trap tomorrow.

Duck palace completed and declared a success!

Our first 2 WWOOFERS (willing workers on organic farms - though they didn't know they were going to be wwoofers so should be more accurately called UWOOFERS - unsuspecting workers on organic farms) have made a new residence for the rapidly growing ducklets. There are some aching muscles this morning, I went up and down the hill about 10 times yesterday.

The end result looks good. It cost about $40 to make so is a more economical design than the chuck coop. It gets the thumbs up from the rams, and the ducklings survived their first night without any casualties.