Paddy's Birthday

 

 

It was Paddy's 11th birthday last weekend and he had 3 friends round for a sleep over. Lots of fun was had as one of them brough a Wii with him. Guess what he wants to buy with his birthday money? The blurry photo represents the speed of movement as they chased around. I think that some of them got some sleep between 1am and 6 when they woke up looking for birthday presents and more sugar.

The other pic shows the 3rd round of the Northland Secondary School Chess Tournament. This was organised by moi and held in Kaitaia College library on Wed June 16th. We managed to lur 4 other schools to come and play, no mean feat as some of them travelled over 2 hours to get here. Normally Kaitaia has to travel south to play in tournaments as the schools in Whangarei are not keen to travel. The chess teams did. We drew with the closest competition, the prestigious Whangarei Boys High School and won the tournament by 1 match point. Quite a relief. Now we qualify for the Nationals in Christchurch in september. Fundraising is in full swing.

I suspect that the schools will train harder for next year's event and we might have a harder fight on our hands.

Back at home plus the rabbit

 

 

 

Lake Ngatu Fun

 

 

 

 

Queens Birthday fishing trip

 

 

 

Last w/e was a long one and were we ready for it!
The forecast was shocking with high winds and heavy rain due in on saturday afternoon. So Chantelle and I decided to get up early and go fishing. My sources told me that the fishing kicks off just before the storm hits as the fish sense the impending weather and feed up. It certainly kicked off for us. We got to our place just as the sky was lightening - before 7am. On my first cast I caught an octopus. Chantelle caught big kahawai with every cast. They were about 2kg each. She also caught a good size rock snapper. I got a few but it was definitely Chantelle's day. We stopped fishing after a couple of hours because we had caught enough!
The rest of the day was spent gutting, scaling, filleting and distributing the catch amongst friends and neighbours. The weather also turned as bad as predicted but we had gotten ourselves out and did not mind to much. We had battered snapper and kahawai for tea with roastie potatoes and kumura.

On Sunday the fun continued. Took the boys up to Lake Ngatu. Paddy even went for a swim but the others were not so brave (or crazy). They found a bit of pipe and made a skipping pipe with it. Tricky to get a shot of them in the air. I went looking for Kuta grass - it is a reed that is harvested and woven into waterproof blankets and other garments. We carried on down to the beach to see how much the surf was pumping. It was good to see some pingao growing in the dunes. It is becoming rarer in these parts. We are growing some in the horticulture class at College and when it is much older I would like to plant it back on the dunes.

On the Bank Holiday Monday, the poor weather continued. The boys were happy to potter around. We had a toasty fire going. Stuart stayed at Nathan's house and together thay ran down a wild turkey in a swamp. That is not something I saw him doing 5 years ago! He cooked it for tea tonight and has carved the meat off to take on another hunt tomorrow.

I got some peace by going for a walk around the block. I went through the Matthews Mission Bush up the valley and then came back through neigbour Geoff's place. I got some great new perspectives on our place as his fields are over the stream from ours. Took a few pics of the wilderness that we call home.

The tree planting continues. Our place will change rapidly as they get bigger and shade out the grass.

The forest is started

 

 

 

 

Too the camera for a walk round last weekend. saturday was squally showers, but Sunday was a stonker. Calm and sunny.
We harvested kumura on Saturday, Se the pic below. The largest individual tuber had a mass of 1200g! Monsters. We have been enjoying lots of kumura soup.
The interesting structure is Stuarts "shed". He is laerning hands on about building on hills, the cost of materials and how to complete work. Dad can talk .. I spent a good bit of time working on our new outside toilet. Not quite finished.

The fields have grown a good crop of hay this year. It rots into good soil, or can be cut and thrown into the chickens where it makes awesome black compost.

At the front of the house we are growing some trees up to soften the view of our neighbours who have constructed a huge mound on their front lawn. We call it Mount Taranaki! I wonder what they nick-name our overgrown garden?

We have been busy as this week. Seniors on exam leave and we are all fighting off autumn bugs with varying degrees of success. Mists in the morning and cold starts give way to clear warm days. It ended up being 18C here today, after a chilly start.

I shall endeavour to take some human pictures this week in case you think I have done away with the family.

Shocking to hear all about the Cumbrian shotgun murders. I went walking in that area many moons ago. Just goes to show that beneath the surface lurks all sorts of angst. I was moved to see the Guardian pictures of bodies all over covered with blankets. The police have a horrible job to do.