End of the first week of Term 4. We made it and are stranded like beached whales on the beach of Friday night. Listening to http://www.georgefm.co.nz/listen.php?sel=george and writing this while the boys do their thing.
We enjoyed the last week of our holiday, even though the weather turned all 'orrible. Strong winds and lots of rain for several days. We did not do a great deal. Had a few days of gardening. One of my projects has been digging out the stream so that the drainage in our fields improves. The water table is pretty high in the bottom field, just below the surface in the Winter. It isn't helped by the stream level that backs up over the brdge to Stewart Island when we get a dumping. That is because there are about 6 huge pampas clumps in the middle of the stream along its length. So given that it was too wet to work the veggy garden, I set about cutting down the pampas clumps one by one, then hacking out enough root so the water could get round. This was followed by digging out the sediment and weed between each clump. Basically playing with lots of mud, getting filthy and slowly dropping the water level by up to 4 feet.
Now lots of people have seen the stream (or Foveaux Strait as it is sometimes called!) Most of them reccommend that I get some mechanical help and do the job quickly and efficiently. Their solution is to hire a JCB which would drive down from the road leaving massive marks across our beautifully manicured duck and sheep grazed paddocks. The banks would be covered with a great heap of clay and vegetation, that would be useless for grazing. There would be a raw, probably arrow straight scar that would take several months to heal over. I would then be invoiced for maybe $1000 for the work.
Being an awkward sod, I am doing it mostly by myself, taking plenty of time to finish the job. The minimum of bankside vegetation is being cut which is better for the birds and insects. I have deliberately left a large gorse and privet by the boundary because I think at least one blackbird is nesting in it. The vegetation I cut out goes onto the veggy garden to rot down into humus to grow veggies next year. The clay goes onto a different pile. The stream meanders down its course in a very wonky line, making a pleasant noise as it trickles over the higher parts. There is much less noise, pollution and damage to the paddocks. It is cheaper. Perhps most importantly to me is that my own muscles (and a bit of Paddy's) are doing this work at a rate that I can accomplish. There is no rush.
End of sermon!
We also had a trip up to Te Paki and went for a fish at Paua Wharf, boys caught a few small fish, C and I did not get any keepers. We stopped at Te Kao for the customary huge ice cream. Still good value for $2.
The "farm" is going OK. Ducks are laying, pretty much where they happen to crouch. They don't bother with nest boxes, so finding their eggs before the hawk does is a race. Sheeps are all good. Shanya is in hospital (goat pen) having her foot sorted out. She has had problems pretty much all winter, and I am determined to stop the old girl from limping round the paddock.
Local news: voting in the local elections closes tomorrow. It is the first time that Chantelle and I have been able to participate in NZ democracy, so we have taken it seriously. Postal vote for lots of different bodies. One vote for Mayor of the District Council. 3 votes for the local councillors, then some votes for the regional council and finally 7 votes for the District Health Board. The whole process aided by a booklet containing staements from each candidate. It took us quite a while to decide who to vote for. Apparently not many people bother. Up here the incumbent mayoress Yvonne Sharp is facing a serious challenge from a famous NZ businessman called Wayne Browne. The papers have been full of endorsements for each candidate. The pro-Brown people say that he will bring a better business mind to running the council. His critics say he will sack half the workers, saving money and then will go and live somewhere else and leave a damaging legacy. Hard to know who to believe.
I guess the other bit of news .... no not really a "bit", given that it has been headline news every night for a week, is that the beloved All Blacks were knocked out of the rugby World Cup last Sunday by France. We had been warned that such an event would be followed by major depression and it has been almost comical to see how seriously the event has been taken. I have tried to not mention it too much at school, but it has been hard not to smile at the boys who have been bantering with me for the last few months about how the All Blacks were going to thrash England. England surprised everyone including me by beating Australia. A good time to be English!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Monday, October 08, 2007
Monday, October 01, 2007
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