Fishing

We seem to have lots of digital photo files called "fish" or "fishing". Got another one last weekend when Eric, Stuart and I headed north on Saturday for a fish at Paua wharf on the Parengarenga Harbour. There was a(nother) big low due in and the conditions were auspicious for a good fish. That was the forecast ... we awoke to a steady drizzle and wondered if the low had arrived early. We went anyway, stocking up on a range of baits, burley and fuel before gunning up to the North Country. I like heading north because it is quiet and elemental up at Paua. It is often blowing strong wind as well and there is little in the way of shelter.

We arrived to glass like water and an empty wharf. Not many fish to start with but the berley attracted small fish like pipers and parrot fish. To cut a long story short, we caught a kahawai and a parrot fish and lots of pipers. One of the pictures shows Eric modelling the parrot fish. The piper have ridiculously long beaks that must have some purpose thoug I am not sure what. The snapper in the fish bin was donated to us by a boat fisherman who stopped at the wharf to get some pipers. It turned out that he lives just up the road from us in Kaitaia!

The lamb arrived with the low on Sunday morning - we don't call its mother Dippy for no reason. Not only was her timing dodgy, she also decided to have it on Stuart Island before it was cut off by a flooding stream. That gave me a bit of a worry as it would have been tricky to rescue her. Fortunately, the rain stopped and out came the sun and dried up (some) of the rain and the little new born. It is called 81 as it will be eaten. Boo-hoo!

Dippy's daughter Nippy had her lamb on Thursday morning. A little ram lamb "called" 82. He is quite a bit smaller than 81 despite Nippy looking like she was carrying twins. Pregnant sheep look quite deceptive. No sign of a lamb from our last ewe Hilary and in light of my last comment, I am not prepared to speculate on her state.

We had a lovely spring day today after weeks and weeks of rain. The ground dried up a bit and I actually got to do some soil preparation in the veggy garden.

Family news: not a lot really, all tootling along nicely ta.

National news: Winston Peters who is the Foreingn Minister has been stood down by the PM for allegedly cooking the books. An election draws near.

Local news: a fishing boat came in too close at Waipapakauri and was wrecked. It had to be cut up and taken away for scrap. Kaitaia Chess club had an almost double figures turn out last week when the youngest member Paddy Bryan had a shock win over the oldest member George Johnson. Order was restored this week when George beat Paddy!

Til next time.

Noah's Ark

Feeling a bit like Noah on account of the incessant rain and the number of animals that we are accumulating.

The latest acuisition is Donna a Giant Flemish Rabbit that Stuart bought from Kaitaia Market last Saturday. He had been complaining on and off that he was the only child who did not have their own pet. Now he has a rabbit. She will grow into a massive thing. I have tjo keep reminding myself that she is not a meat animal, though crosses of Flemish Giants with other rabbit breeds are apparently good for meat. While she is being doted upon in the first glow of ownership, she spends the days outside in a large coop on the lawn. She is brought inside at night to be cuddled and to run around the front room looking for cables to chew and things to amuse her. She is quite cute. Zephyr the dog and Camo the cat were trying to work out why the rabbit was allowed inside when they were banished into the wet and cold.

You may have noticed in the previous pictures that there was a photo of 2 pigs. We have gone porcine. They are interesting compared to sheep. Very noisy when we go to feed them - squeal their heads off. I will try and remember to take a pic of their pen after a couple of weeks. It has been trashed. As one bloke round here said there is one month's difference between pigs being good for the ground and ruining it. The plan is that they will root up a whole area of grass, crap all over it and then we will be able to grow spuds and pumpkins on it before we get new stock next year. We bought them at 2 months old for $50 each. We will kill them early December and turn them into hams bacon and sausages in time for Christmas.

Other news: no more lambs though I think that Dippy is pretty close. Chickens are coming back into lay with 3 eggs most days off 9 females. The ground is sodden from all the rain so it is hard to get much work done on the place. That's my excuse anyway. Eric and I did make an extension for the pigs last weekend. I have been clearing long grass down our Eastern boundary, partly to increase grazing for the sheep, partly to make way for their race, and also to give to the pigs so that they churn it up and make even better soil.

Family (human) news: Chantelle has been hit by an illness this week. It is sweeping round the country, a sicky, throat coughing bug that has also hit Paddy and Eric for a day each. Paddy moves into his new class room on Monday and wanted that mentioning in here. Eric has started at the gym and is doing some punchbag work. I let him punch some cushions the other night and he nearly knocked me over. He will be a force to be reckoned with if he converts a bit of marge into muscle.

Stuart has been selected for a school chess team playing against Kaikohe Intermediate. He has had a few games with me of an evening and is accepting advice on how to improve his game. Paddy had a game last night and he shows promise as well.

We have the wood stove burning here to fend off the gales, it is Friday night and I have cold home brew in the fridge. Have a good week folks.

New Lamb

We survived the weather, though it carries on being wet and windy. The only casualty
was the pump shed which got blown over. In the middle of all the wind, Survivor, our oldest ewe showed signs of impending delivery. She did not come running over for food as she usually does, but stayed away from the others in a secluded spot. That evening I went out at 8pm to check on her and she had popped out a little lamb and was delivering the afterbirth. I went back at 10pm and the lamb was bleating, but on its back in a pampas clump. Mum was staying close and protecting it. The rain was not as bad, but I was not 100% hopeful that such a small creature would survive through the night. It did! We have named her Ivette because this is the year of the letter "I" and she was as bouncy as the Ivette that we know.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and the bonus of the storm was that scallops got washed up in large numbers on the exposed beaches. A friend of Chantelle's went out and collected some. They were delicious raw.