Holiday pictures

Its raining here on Friday night and all is quiet. Mostly because Stuart is doing a 40 hour famine and he has committed to not talk for 40 hours. You may not be surprised to hear that sponsorship has been brisk!

I have posted up a few pics from the last holiday. Eric is busy getting the smoker ready to do some eels and you can also see the finished result. Shame you can't taste them as they were delish.

There is another pic of Paddy half way up a climbing wall at ActionWorld.

We have had another action packed week, busy at work. Eric is studying the second world war and is the class expert apparently. Stuart went to the school disco and wowed the audience by doing the robot dance on stage. Paddy has been selling Lego on Trademe to pay for his new bike.

bak 2 skool

Holidays are over and we have been back at school all week.
Illness has been the keyword - we have all been laid low with various ailments, involving headaches, sore shoulders and noise sensitivity.
So the holiday was a quiet affair, with lots of sleeping and reading and recovering. Eric did his ATC parade on Anzac day and we (C and I) went to the town service at 11am rather than the dawn parade. It was a sobering event.

Calamity put a spoke in the wheels of our family day out as well. Eric managed to drop a large log on his foot when we were out being lumberjacks. He and Chan spent the day getting it sorted at hospital - he had an Xray and then had to wait until Friday (from Monday) for the result! Good job it was only a sprain.

So Paddy, Stuart and I went down to Paihia without them. We had lunch at a cafe they had been to with Gma and Gdad Cambridge called Freddy's. Then we went to a circus activity themepark called Action world. You could have a go at tight rope walking, trapeze and there was a massive water slide. They loved it and used up lots of energy.

We had a couple of shooting nights, did some gardening and then started getting ready for school.

Pictures will follow at some point.

Lest We Forget - by Cadet Eric Bryan

25th of April 1915 thousands of Anzacs (Australia new Zealand army core) landed at Gallipolli. That day on the very beach they landed on, they were ambushed by the Turks. Many thousands were killed in action, many died of wounds and some died of diseases in the hot sun. Some men were just over 15 years old. I am in the air-training corps and every 25th of April we do a dawn service and one in the late morning. This is my account of what happened.



We went to HQ the day before at 1 o’clock.We cleaned the hall and set up the beds. At 4 o’clock we went in groups around town for a navigation exercise. That lasted 2 hours and when we returned we were tired and were ready for some easy shoe polishing before a kfc. My shoes were so clean I didn’t need to, so I ironed my shirt. After dinner the president of the RSA (returned services association). She read us a story about the Anzacs. After watching Epic Movie it was finally time for bed at ten past eleven. We woke up at half four in the morning. We had shower and Milos then got into our uniforms. At half five on the 25th of April we marched to the Remembrance Park and paid our respects to those who gave their lives for our freedom.

We were there for an hour, not moving our eyes or body only when commanded to. We stopped for the bugle call "The Last Post” and then went to the RSA for an invited breakfast. We were supposed to go after the RSA members but they were in the bar - as you may have guessed - having whisky at 7 in the morning! So we got to have breakfast first.

After the big breakfast we went back to HQ. Soon it was time for the second service in the Community Centre. There was a clip of all the brave soldiers who died at Gallipolli. After the final service it was time to go home.

And that’s my story of how I, cadet Bryan in Squadron 64, remembered the brave Anzacs 93 years after they fell for their country.

Dunedin

It was the Sally's 125 anniversery of arriving in NZ,So off to Dunedin for the celebration. I was a 125 years since 2 young men ( a 19 and 20 year old), were sent by William Booth to "Open fire" on NZ.
New Zealand territory covers Fiji and Tonga, as you can see by the uniform worn by a pacific brother.
Also pictures of Dunedins answer to the UK's red telephone boxes, although, the kiwi's will probably claim to have had them first!
We also marched down to the octagon in the centre of the city.
It was a very enjoyable and uplifting weekend- even if Dunedin is cold and windy!

Made it!

We have made it to the safety of the Term 1 holidays with a big sigh of relief. It has been a struggle to get up this last week, the only consolation being that it is now light in the morning at 6.45am which helps motivate us to get up.

Been doing the usual stuff that weeks and w/ends are made of. We are into Autumn now I guess with swallows heading north, a slight morning chill in the air and mists over the reserve. It is still warm enough to walk around in a T_shirt on the block.

Eric has been trying out his new toy the last few weekends. He saved up all his Xmas money for a .22 rifle. I had to get a firearms license in order to legally own a gun. Shooting is big over here. A very different scene to the UK where most people do not have anything to do with guns unless they are farmers, rich or in a criminal gang. Here lots of people have connections to land and shooting. Possum control is almost a patriotic duty and lots of folk go out blasting ducks when the season starts. There is a big thing about pig hunting round here as well as they run wild in the bush, getting to be big and by all accounts pretty fierce. There are several magazines dedicated solely to pig hunters generally featuring some grinning hunter with the carcase of a big pig draped on his back.

It is this world that Eric wants to enter, and I have to admit that it appeals to some basic instincts in me, so I am happy to go along with his enthusiasm. Probably following on in the way that my dad used to take Dominic and me fishing when we were kids, until we were old enough to go ourselves. We had a go at possum shooting a couple of weeks back in the local reserve, but scored a blank on account of the thickness of the foliage. The next night we were out chasing rabbits in Diggers valley. Again no luck. The following Saturday saw us scooting round the hills up the road after possums. Finally we chanced upon a few hapless possums and Eric shot his first. Stuart got another one and all were happy.

Last weekend we went back to Diggers on Saturday to collect wood that we had hauled in from the hillside. We also cut down some more trees that will sit out in the pasture for a year, then be hauled in and stored for a year in our shed before being burnt. We chopped trees down without a chainsaw and it was hard but pleasant work, just the sound of our saws and axe and the birds. We fixed that by having afun target shoot afterwards shooting about 50 rounds off into the hill. Eric is a better shot than me!

The rest of the weeks have been pretty much work work work, every night and through the weekend. I am pretty satisfied with the results though. The school year is front end loaded work wise, with most of the hard yards going in at the start. Once the juggernaut is moving at a good pace it should be an easy enough matter to keep it going. He says! I organised a trip for the new Year 12 Science course to a local vineyard to see how they make wine. Then we have had a policeman in to do lessons on Forensics to the Year Nines this week.

Chantelle has pictures from her trip to Dunedin to post, so I will hand over to her.
Ciao for now.

More pics

A load of pis this week because i haven't loaded any up for a while.
In this section you can see Sidney strutting his stuff with his girls. He looks nice but we have only got one of his offs pring this whole season. For some reason the girls have only hatched one of his fertilised eggs. We have tried incubating them ourselves and the first lot all went bad. The second lot had 2 good ones at 3 days old last time I looked. I suspect he might have a low sperm count! I wonder how one goes about getting a sample? And what would be a normal count?
The swimming pool was in Stephan and Ruth's swimming pool, dug out in front of their house. Paddy was keen for a swim so a few of us jumped in as well. It was surprisingly warm and deep.

Then we have Bob the Tractor man mulching our fields.
Stuart follows the tractor of firewood making sure that none of it falls off.
Finally this little fella was crawling down my leg inside my trousers after the wood collecting. I had an anxious few moments when I realized that there was something large in there! I was so relieved when I established that it was benign that I took lots of pics. It is a weta - cave apparently. These are a group of giant insects that evolved to take the place that mice take in other continents.

Til next week then. A big shout out to my northern hemisphere rellies who are looking after Mum and Dad as he gets his blood condition sorted out.

Pictures

A smorgasbord of pics from the last few weeks.
In this section we have Stuart and the first Granny Smith from the tree he planted 2 years ago. Also the 2 butchers skin and prepare to gut our Easter lamb. I was impressed, they told me sit down and watch while they got on with it. Which they did.
Also pics of the boys heading out into the woods on Stephan's trailer last w/e when we went out to haul in firewood.
The last picture shows a randy ram Skippy sniffing Survivor's backside to see if she is on heat. Sheep are not very subtle about courting. From what I have seen coitus is not much better lasting a matter of seconds!
Apologies to anyone who is offended by the content on this site. We laugh at the English food programmes that are so coy about showing animal death. What hypocrisy! Ok if the whole country was vegetarian. The people round here are much more exposed to the realities of meat rearing, with its continual cycle of birth and death. I find it refreshing and think it is healthy for the boys to know what is on their plates. Whether they continue with their omnivorous diet or if they become veggy it will be an informed choice.

Long W/e

it is tuesday night and we haven't gone back to school yet.
This has to be the definition of stress free - a long enough w/e to have a whole day for farm jobs, a day for rest, a day to go out for a trip and a day to get ready for school!
So Friday we lay in and did very little. Some of us had a go at a 24 hour fast, just to remind ourselves what it is like not to eat. I found it hard at times but cannot say I really felt hungry even after 23 hours without food.
Then we killed a fat lamb to be ready in tme for Easter.
We broke our fast with fresh liver and kidneys and belly flap mince burgers. Scrummy!
Up early on saturday to carve up the carcase that had been hanging overnight. Stuart and Eric had done the skinning and gutting, but only surfaced in time to see the meat go in the freezer.
I am getting more sophisticated at butchery and used a saw to cut the ribs and back bone this time.
We did farm things and were going to go to Diggers, but their fert truck ahd arrived so we satyed at home. good job as our neighbour Bob turned up with his tractor and mulched the fields. The grass was getting long, but was nowhere near as bad as last year when it was over my head.

Easter sunday was another day of changing plans and I ended up doing very little apart from cooking for friends. We made them work for their tea as one of the Pitt Island ewes had flystrike for the second time and we had to catch and treat her before we ate.

Monday was lie in time and I actually went into school to get some work ready. eric and I had an epic fishing trip to our favourite place. I caught a large kahawai on the first cast and we had another 2, a couple of snapper and eric even hooked a huge stingray. I had to take over his rod as it was heading for China, stripping line off the reel at a fair rate. I managed to get it back to the rocks, but the line snapped as I lifted it in. Probably a good thing as we werent sure what we should do with it.

The weather broke today which was an ideal way of making me get stuck into my pile of marking and prep. Chan was back at work, so we had a boys day at home. Snapper and kahawi for tea.

Back to school tomorrow. Pictures will follow. The rain has stopped so off to check on sodden sheep. Stop press: Skippy was very "interested" in Nippy the ewe. Did you know that a ram's penis is about 18" long?

Mostly Farm Pictures

Mike's Birthday

It was my birthday on Wednesday and I am now 42. The wags have been telling me that I now know the meaning of life and maybe they are right! I reckon I have got more idea of what it is about than I did half my life ago when I was 21. I remember going on a holiday hitching round Ireland with the purpose of working out what life was about - and singularly failing to do so.

We have had an up and down week. Eric and I went fishing on Sunday at our favourite spot. It was calm with the threat of rain but still pretty sunny. We were surprised to find 2 other cars parked up and our fave spot already taken. We had a go a bit further round the rocks. It was too weedy and we had no bites. Fortunately the other people went so we got ourselves a feed of mussels and moved. The water was very clear and I couldnt see any fish. We fished for an hour with no bites and I was resigned to going home empty handed. I told Eric I would reel in and then we would go. As I reeled in slowly, the bait wa staken with a whack and I was into a massive kahawai. It was all over the place trying to lose the hook. I was afraid the rod would snap as I pulled it out of the water but it was safely brought in. Measured about 24 inches. We ate fried fillets for tea and it was lovely.

The next night we had snapper courtesy of Aaron who had been out on his kayak. One of the benefits of living in the Far North.

Stuart is enjoying his new bike and went down with me to the museum on Saturday afternoon. We had not been for at least a year and I had forgotten how good it was. There is a good mix of natural history, geology and human stuff. Always something new to see and ponder about. This time I was struck by the number of moa skeletons that had been found near our fishing spot.

We have had a few losses on the farm this week. The worst was Picton the cat getting run over this morning. Eric was pretty upset especially as his last cat got run over as well. We lost our only sussex pullet to a hawk on Wednesday and then lost a barred rock hen today. At this rate we will have no chickens left by next w/e when I had planned to move them to more secure quarters. We will have to make it a priority tomorrow.

I was at school on Wednesday for my big day and so it was a pretty normal. The boys had made cards which was nice. Chantelle got up early and made me breakfast which was nice. We had an Indian curry for tea from Redan Road dairy. We had butter chicken, chicken Korma and a lamb rogan Josh(?). The korma was best, but not a patch on a Lancaster Nice and Spicy. I reckon we will have to get the spices and have a go at doing it ourselves.

Patrick has been growing in front of our eyes these last weeks and he was off on Thursday from the effort, plus a tummy bug. We knew something was wrong when he didn't go out for an hour on his bike after tea. I took the day off because Chantelle's stuff was less rearrangeable than mine.

Thanks to everyone for their birthday cards and wishes. The celebrations continue ... I like to string my b'days out for at least a month. Had cake with my housegroup at school today, then drank the english beer I had been saving for a special occasion at Social club tonight. Tomorrow C and I are off to The Beachcomber for a meal.

Pics to follow .... after I have taken some!

More rain

Saturday morning and the rain is back. Heavy persistent rain that is forecast to be here all weekend. We shall be working indoors by the look of it.

We have had a fast quiet week, settling into our routine. The karate is going well and they have gone twice a week for 2 weeks. Stuart went on a school trip to sketch rock pools yesterday. They go out more here than in the UK.

Last weekend we went for a family walk on Sunday afternoon, carrying on a long Bryan tradition. Much resistance was encountered from the boys, but it evaporated when we got there. We went to look at the scout camp up near the quarry. It was abandoned and overgrown. The expected track that would take us up the hill for a view, had either not existed, or was overgrown. The bush here is so rampant that tracks soon grow over if they are not regularly cleared. So we made do with the familiar track. Patrick was on his bike. Chris and Clinton went past on their mtb's and that was enough to get Stuart to want to get a new bike! That is today's job, along with making his video for Lets get inventing.

Eric was off school this week with a stomach bug, but he was back by Thursday. He reluctantly missed his cadets on Wednesday as he had been off school.

Chantelle was off one day as well with a bug. She is keeping busy with her work. As am I ....

Farm news: I am keeping an eye on Skippy the ram to watch for him mating the ewes. The white ones all seem good and they have plenty of food. I am checking them twice daily for flystrike. We have 2 little ewe lambs that will end up as roasts at Easter weekend. That will leave us with 2 rams and 4 ewes to breed from over the winter. Our land cannot cope with any more than that.
We have had a do with broody chickens this week. Finally found out where the red chicken has been hiding for the last few months - under a sheet of roofing iron with 11 eggs. She has not been near a cock in ages so they were all infertile. I took 11 eggs from the bottom coop and put her on them in the wire coop on the lawn. She was unimpressed and refused to sit on them. We let her go and put the eggs under a desk lamp in Eric's room. We will see if our home made incubator does the job.

Show Pictures

Here are a couple of pics.
Eric took out second prize at the A&P show with his scones, beaten only by the infamous Alice Yuretich who took out many cookery first prizes. As predicted the outdoor show was cancelled because of the weather.
The other photo shows Patrick on his bike ride last w/e.

Rain in Northland

Kia Ora Whanau
The rain has set in Northland and we are forecast to be getting 150mm (6 inches in old money) by tomorrow night. Good for the dried out soil, grass and sheep etc that eat it. Good for the veggy garden and for filling up our water tank. Not so good for the adolescent population of Kaitaia who have been denied their annual end of summer party venue at the annual A&P show. On the one hand it is a pity that it is raining as it will be a wash-out even if it is not cancelled. On the other hand there is often trouble at the A&P showground on a Friday night, with old scores settled. There has even been a suggestion/ rumour that a virulent youth gang is going to have a presence. So from a teaching/ concerned adult point of view, maybe the rain will keep the town a bit cleaner.

We have had another manic week, perhaps not as much of a trial as last week as we all adjust ourselves to the routine and get used to getting up early. We had some good developments this week too. Patrick and I went mountain biking with the big boys last sunday. Cool!! We went up Larmers round onto a track that runs through the bush to diggers Valley. If i was really dedicated I might show our route on Google Earth! I have pictures and even a bit of video that might end up on Youtube. After our little escapade in the paddock when I took a rather painful tumble that might have had consequences on family size 10 years ago, I was a bit shy about going any where near full pelt up a track on my bike. Paddy had no such qualms and we could well have discovered an outlet for his interest in risk-taking that C and I had been looking for. He was off in front of me, going through streams and over roots and getting off where it got too steep. he put me to shame with my 18 gears against his single back cog! Time to get him a better bike methinks. He often spends an hour cycling round the yard in the evenings. Meanwhile my fitter colleagues went off much further and were clearing the track so that it could be ridden from end to end. By the end of our run I had picked up speed and dropped the saddle right down. I started to get up to speeds where you get an adrenaline rush from going fast and having to make split second decisions where a slip can send you over the bars.

Stuart came home upset on Monday because of some nasty kid who was playing mind-games with him at his new school. Another kid had been giving him physical grief. We went down to the karate school which runs 2 nights a week, by coincidence in his own school, and Patrick and he enrolled. From my observations on Monday, it is run by a number of men who have a good grip on what is going on, without making it too serious. There are lots of kids lives that are blighted by bullying and there are some answers and a lot of hand-wringing. We shall see if karate helps Stuart.

Thats all for now.
Ka kite ano.

Pictures

Pics to go with last post.
No people this time!
Survivor is the white sheep that Chantelle and I shore last night. This will hopefully stop her from getting flystrike.
The horned beast is Skippy, patriarch of the herd.
Beans speak for themselves.
The citrus has grown well this year but has a deficiency that I have trouble correcting. Older leaves are yellow between the veins. Magnesium I thought, but generous applications of epsom salts have not changed the look of the leaves. Any advice welcome.
Finally, we discovered that Patrick's banana has fruited.

First week back

It was our first week back with no days off. By Wednesday the boys were finding it tricky getting out of bed and we were all relieved when Friday night arrived.

Not much to say really, just get up, go to work, home, eat, work, sleep then do it all over again. You are familiar with the routine.

Not strictly true though, there have been highlights to brighten up the tough situation.

I went to a village called Pangaru on Tuesday afternoon to meet my new senior science class. They are a 120km round trip from Kaitaia so I will mostly be teaching them by videoconference. It was great to meet them face-to-face first rather than through a tv screen. Pangaru is situated close to the West coast near the Kokianga Harbour. The school nestles below mountains coated in dense bush. The road there has about a million bends and on the way I met a horse, some cows and going home a single sheep. All in the road! It was good to get out of Kaitaia and be reminded of the amazing part of the world that we live in.

On top of that we have been enjoying the lovely evenings and the light until gone 8pm. I like to go and play in the veggy garden. Patrick joins me every few days so he can have first pick of the strawberries. It has not been very successful this year, but we get little crops of veggies every few days. A few tomatoes, a courgette, french beans, beetroot. I picked all the french beans that had gone to seed when we were on holiday, shelled them and we had chilli with them.

Most nights the boys have been out playing ball games. They like French cricket, piggy in the middle, catch. Eric calls it their quality time with me and I suppose it is; it is difficult to stop doing all the jobs and make time to just play with the kids.

We all went to the staff college picnic out by the river last night. I should have taken the camera as there were some great images. The kids had a swim, we all had a bbq, a huge fire was built and the kids played with burning brands! We were serenaded by the 3 tenors on their guitars. Most of the staff were pretty knackered, but it was chilled out and the kids were all happy, so we went home content.

Stuart applied to be on a NZTV show called "Lets Get Inventin". It features kids who have a wacky idea being teamed up with people who can build their invention. He had a letter yesterday saying he was in the shortlist for the show and requesting a video of his idea. He would be a natural as inventing is his long-time obsession.

Chan has been at work all week as well. Most of what she does is so top secret that I can't talk about it on this blog or she would have to kill us all!

So that's all folks - til next week.

No limo's

I would like to clarify that there will be no limo's appearing in Kaitaia,or anywhere else for that matter. ( As it would be a total waste of tax payers money!).

But a 4x4 would be approprite consisdering the area concerned.I look forward to starting/ continuing a challanging job, full of colourful people- and that's just the boss!

Party over - back to school

Well that is it for another year and we all went back to school last week, apart from Chan who has been back at work for ages.
Patrick started on Monday and was keen to return. He has an interactive whiteboard in his classroom and is one of 4 boys in a class of 31. For Patrick this is not the good thing it would be for an older boy. Girls are currently described as "gross" and "sick" in his 8 year old world-view.

Stuart started at Intermediate with old-hand Eric on Thursday. He had the usual fears that go with going to a new school, but he met is teacher the day before and seems to have made a good start. Eric is glad to be back and as a Year 8 can lord it over the new ones, so he is happy.

We had a gentle start to the new term, doing at most 2 days and then Wednesday was a public holiday - Waitangi Day, so we were off again. I went to do some prep in the morning and then Chan, Eric and I all went for a fish at Aurere. It was exhilarating as the swell was high on account of a tropical cyclone that was releasing its energy into the seas to the north. We had to be careful with the waves coming onto the rocks. We had some good fish on and lost some good sized ones. We landed undersized kahawai, trevally and snapper and took home one snapper for eating. This is the first one we have caught in a long time and very tasty it was too.

School for me semi kicked off on Friday when the Year 9's all started, but the big start is this Monday when everyone is back and I will meet all my classes at last.

The pictures have slowed right up now that school is going. Posting up some of the end of our holiday. An innocent eric at Gatwick, a possum up our cabbage tree and its ultimate fate. The final one is a strangely named refuelling machine at Melbourne Airport.

Chantelle is keeping busy with her job and went to a big meeting in the city (Whangarei) to talk about a new pilot project that has been set up between the Sallies and the Ministry of Social Development. I am waiting for the ministerial limo to turn up for her in the mornings.

Until next time then. I notice we have had a reader from the African continent! Wecome to the blog! Welcome to all our readers! Do not be afraid to comment, question or argue.

Bk2Skl Party

Last night we held the second annual Back to School Party or "Bk2skl" in Txtspk.
Our summer is nearly over with 2 of us back at school tomorrow and the rest on Thursday. I am not complaining as it has been an epic holiday. We have seen lots of new places and met old friends and rellies in the UK. In the last 3 weeks at home, we have done loads of stuff, diy, huntin possums in the garden, fishin' with a kite at Puwheke, killing a couple of lambs, making sausages, tidying up, cooling down with swims. The fun just has to stop ...
I had a job whittling down the photos from the several hundred on the camera to the 4 shown here. Eric and stuart have whiled away many a happy hour with just the camera and their own bizarre imaginations. The result is a memory stick full of blurred faces or lego animations, not to mention the Gbs of flight simulation landings "It only lasts for 15 minutes!"
So there is a picture of me getting to grips with a 20" chainsaw. Stuart making sausages from our own lamb meat. Chantelle and Patrick on the beach at Puwheke where we went kite fishing with some friends recently. And finally some of the folk who came to the party last night. Thanks for coming, the food was awesome as was the company.

Stonehenge pictures

More pictures, this time from the last few days of our holiday which, as is always the case, seems very distant now that we are back home.
There are 2 pictures of the rocks at Stonehenge. No explanation needed for these.
The frying pan contains that great British delicacy: black pudding. I am informed that this can be purchased from Kaitaia's infamous Saturday market.
The picturesque village green was at Crawley just north of Winchester, near to our campsite.
Finally, we have Ian and Paddy. I cannot remember what the joke was....

Meanwhile fast forward to Kaitaia and we are enjoying a spell of good weather. Atropical cyclone went over on Tuesday but we were not badly affected, just a bit of overnight rain. We all went for a fish last night at Aurere beach. The low tide was at 4.30pm which was perfect as it was cooler. We had suggested going overnight and camping on the beach, but this got a big thumbs down from the boys, so we compromised with an evening fish. We certainly had some fish, taking home 3 kahawai, but more significantly caught several snapper. I had assumed that snapper are not caught off accessible rocks any more. Chantelle caught the first but it was a bit small, so after some discussion we put it back. We reckon now that it was well over the legal limit. We caught some more undersize ones. I had a large one on but it dropped off as we tried to land it - rats!

The rest of the days have passed by in a whirl of cleaning, washing, lawn mowing, floor painting, cooking etc etc. I personally looking forward to going back to school - too much multitasking going on at home!
Til next week.

More Southampton Pictures

Here we have Granddad Ronald at lunch in a Romsey pub. Chantelle is making an interesting hand gesture!
Eric worked out how to use the timer on the camera and took the shot of evryone gathered around Grandma Anna.
Uncle Richard was a hit with the boys and he gamely took two of them off for the night. He still seems to be smiling in this picture, so has not suffered major psychological damage.