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.

One week in ...

End of another hectic week. Ian amd Margaret have been keeping the boys busy. They took Stuart to Whangarei on Monday where they had a Pizzahut and saw the museum. Paddy went fishing on Tuesday and did Tarzan impressions in the playground at Cooper's Beach. Eric crossed the Hokianga on the car ferry to Rawene. He also had a wash in a sulphurous pool and came out smelling better than usual.

The boys all went to school on Thursday and then took today off to go to Cape Reinga. More fast food was consumed and Ma and Pa were very unpopular when they vetoed the KFC. Mean parents or what?

Ian's comment: "3 cars in 50 km , the rest must have been in Auckland! 90 mile beach was nicer today with only 2 people."

Margaret and Ian sample the delights of Kaitaia

Well they have made it up here and are having an action packed time. Visiting the beaches, Kaitaia market, the Warehouse, museum, Waipapakoura for 90-Mile beach, church and they have only been here 2 days so far.
Margaret says "I'm here, enjoying every minute. Overawed by the beauty of the place. It is great to se the family. Feels like I have been here for ages". Ian was unavailable for comment as blog went to press, but we will interview him later.
Sad news on the soccer front - the Pirates were knocked out of the tournament by Ahipara. 3-1. Tough match, paddy scored in the first 5 minutes and then played defensively for the rest of the game. As Sharon's mum put it " Ahipara players use their ears!"

Fruity fruity

As well as the many things we have been doing, we broughts some fruit plants. Eric chose a lemon tree, called Lemonade- it's a lemon/grapefruit hybrid ,and is suprosed to be good for making summer drinks. Stu stuck to a grany smiths , and Paddy opted for a "Banananananana" tree. There is also a passion fruit, peach and an olive to plant up next week. These are joining our fejoa's, orange? ( we are not sure yet ,it's in bloom,) and a lemon.