Pictures? Maybe!

I have tried about 5 times to upload these pictures. Here's hoping...

Pictures

It's Raining Again

Quiet times here in Kaitaia, with a week of work and rain. There was a brief lull in the generally dull winter weather last Saturday when we had a beautiful sunny morning. I like to get up later on a Saturday and meander down to have a look round the place without the weekday urgency to get animals fed before I speed off to work. Most days during the week, it is going dark by the time I get home so Eric has a cntract to do the afternoon round, in exchange for me doing his washing ups.

So last Saturday I was getting stuck into the gorse down by the pond, cutting back into it where the duck had her nest. I had the cunning idea of piling all the cuttings up into a fence that will direct the sheep towards their race. Eric and Stuart joined me and helped for a bit as their Saturday job.

Chantelle and I attended the NZ debut of a locally made film called "Swan Song". It has done well at some german festivals but I didn't reckon much to it I have to say. A bit awkward as the screening was put on by the director and the 2 main characters were present. Fortunately it was followed by "Woodenhead" a 90 minute film by Florian Habicht, the same guy who made "Kaikohe Demolition" , which has to be one of my favourite NZ films. I was a little dubious about Woodenhead as the trailers I had seen for it were not that enticing. It was a jewel of a piece, surreal without being unintelligible, witty in places, edgy, visually brilliant using Northland scenery.
Altogether a good night out and hopefully there will be other screenings at the Little Theatre.

Family news: Stuart is learning lines for his play, he is Evilus Ploticus in and adaptation of Julius Caesar. Patrick has been making fungus plates with his Horrible Science kit. Eric went to see Mike despatch Elvis their pig and was full of the details for days afterwards.

Local news: New Zealand soldiers have been sent to peace keep in East Timor; The street repairs continue on Commerce Street.

Farm news: Still no sign of any lambs, probably a good thing as the weather is so wet. We ate Mrs Rocky for Sunday lunch and very tasty she was too. The goat has bad feet again - but that is normal really.

Guest posting by Posy the kitten

Miaoow folks. Posy here. Just got to go and run and catch this bit of paper .....

....where was I, prrrr prrr it's ok here, lots of stuff happening, theres a big furry thing outside thats got big teeth, but he's pretty cool and lets me jump on him. He gave me a ride like mum used to the other day, bit scary but a good larf. Need a kip .... prrrr prrrrr





back again ..... hey I caught a mouse the other night, it was nearly as big as me and all the small 2 legs got excited and chased me around. The big grumpy 2 legs grabbed me and took it out of my mouth, then he dropped it and it ran around on the floor. The nice big 2 legs (who always feeds me and lets me in the bedroom) started shrieking and it was madness, great!!!!



..... just been for a run round, gotta watch out for the aunty here, she is soooo boring, just sits around moaning all day about how crap it is here and how herlegs hurt never wants to play, .... sometimes I really miss my bros and sisters. i don't know where they are. I used to live in this big house with lots of really nice 2 legs and mum ...... sob ... sob.....

the medium sized 2 legs is nice to me and its warm here and i've got plenty of food. Uncle says I could have it a lot worse, when he was a boy times were hard and the 2 legs didn't want him and threw him and aunty away. He's got some good stories, not got time now, i'm off huting mice in the woodshed. I'll eat it outside this time.

Miaaaoowww

Rain, rain and more rain

It seems like it has done nothing but rain this week and the concensus is that winter has arrived. Mum and dad got the indian summer. So we have been make ourselves snug, getting hot water bottles and duvets and blankets. The boys get a special saturday job to do each week. This week their job was to chop up kindling for the fire. It is amazing what a difference it makes to come in from the wet to a warm house with a fire in the burner.

We have replaced our old digi-camera with a new one, thanks to a gift from the recently departed grandparents. This camera takes pictures in lots of clever ways and even does videos with sound. It has a 1Gb memeory card. It is pretty amazing how quickly things like cameras move on in a short space of time. There must be lots of boffins in back rooms working out how to make our cameras and computers faster and cheaper and smaller.

We are all bumbling along as per usual. Fighting off winter colds and infections with more or less success. Chantelle succumbed to a nasty bout of flu(?) a week after she had the flu vaccination. Not unusual apparently. Schools and hospitals offer staff the vaccination, presumably so that those same staff do not catch flu and then have to take time off. It seems to defeat the object of the exercise when they catch the flu from the vaccination itself!

Eric has posted news of his new livestock. The menagerie has also seen the arrival of Posy the little black kitten. Very cute especially when she plays with Zephyr, biting his paws. She would make a very small mouthful for him, but he has so far been very gentle with her.

We are still waiting for the sheep to produce. They look a bit wet what with all the rain.

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Ducklings

Thursday the 4th of May our farm hosted the birth of ten ducklings.One of these ducklings hactched out in the house.Eric is taking care of them and will hopefully
be given away before the end of the happy ten weeks then mike will put them in the pot.However the duckling that hatched out in the house will not be sold or killed it will be kept by Eric for a pet. Written by Eric