Rabbits

We went out to Ruth and Stephan's for a camp this week. Granddad shot a rabbit, so we had a stew for tea. Thanks, Ian. After that I went for a stalk myself. Last time i went rabbit shooting, I missed at 10 yards range. This time I amazed myself by shooting 3 in the space of 5 minutes using only 4 shots! That is the diffrence between a gun that is sighted in properly and one that is not. These rabbits ended up as bait for Stephan and his stoat traps.

We camped on the site of the ATC bivvy. I was not too keen on the nearby swamp, but assumed that all would be well because the cadets had camped there previously. As it turned out all was not well. The ground was sloping down hill at quite an angle so we all slipped downwards and needed to keep on returning to our start points several times throughout the night. Then there were the mozzies. Not just a few but whole squdarons of them whining around our bare flesh. No worries with the old spray liberally applied you might think. Wrong! These were no wussy town mozzies that could go and find another warm meal elsewhere. These were kickass Herekino mozzies that hadn't smelt fresh blood of this tenderness in many generations. they ignore the spray and sucked on any bit of flesh they could see. So we had to cover our heads with sleeping bags. It was very hot so I was soon drowning in sweat and aspyxiating at the same time. Further impediments to sleep were the moreporks that sat in the trees above our bivvy gossiping with the neighbours,followed by the persistent rain that started to fall at about 1AM. Stuart and I both agreed in the morning that it had been our worst night's sleep in years.

The bottom picture shows a moth on Ruth's arm. We called it the "snout moth" for obvious reasons. If anyone knows its real name let us know.

The top picture shows a red berry that looked a bit like a strawberry, but had leaves like a raspberry complete with prickly thorns. Again a name for this plant would be appreciated.

 

 

 

Smoker

Week one of the holiday got off to a good start.
Stuart was invited out to Merv's boat to learn how to change oil and the filter.
A few days later he was invited out to fish on the boat and came home with a couple of feeds of snapper. We had fillets grilled for tea. It seemed wasteful to throw away the frames and heads so the next day I built a smoker in the back garden. Up until now we had been making do with a biscuit tin and a piece of chicken wire. Effective but slow as you can only do a couple of fillets at a time.

The newly built smoker will take a dozen fish at a time. At the moment it is powered by a gas ring with a hot plate covered with sawdust on it. It took about 2 hours to smoke the heads but they were worth waiting for.

The other picture shows our field after the mulcher had removed the chest high carrotweed. Our local tractor man, Bob, told me it would be easier if I did not leave it for 2 years between mulches. Now we can see where are going and can plan the next lot of tree planting.

 

 

 

School's out

That is it for another year! Patrick had his prizegiving today, held during continuous rain. It was a jolly affair with the DP Ms Quinn keeping up an amusing commentary about proceedings. The kids whooped their mates when they won prizes. Paddy won a special teacher award for his work. He seems to have had a good year.

So now we have 6 weeks of lie-ins and messing about. Margaret and Ian fly in from Oz tomorrow and will be with us on Saturday. They have broken the drought which is good for us and hopefully not too disastrous for them. It had been pretty dry for about 2 months and on inspecting our rainwater tank, I found that we were down to the last 1/3. We had got in touch with the water carrier to arrange delivery of 10,000 litres to keep us going when the forecast changed. It started rainingg at about 4am this morning, and it did not stop for about 8 hours. I reckon we got about 30-40mm of rain. Our roof has a catchment area of about 400 square metres which equates to about 4,000 litres of water by my reckoning.

I have not been very good with updates recently so there is lots of stuff that has gone unreported.

One major for me has been the saga of my eye. Back in September I was scything down a very tall gorse plant. It whipped back and a spike got behind my glasses and poked me in the right eye. I thought at the time "I should not have done that!", like you do. I experienced some blurred vision for a few hours and it gradually went back to normal. Some 5 weeks later after having had no further ill effects, my sight started going blurry again. It looked like the lens of my glasses needed cleaning. It quickly became very painful and inflamed and a visit to the doctors and then casualty was needed. For quite a long time, I thought that it was the symptom of some horrific degenerative disease. The internet was full of possibilities and I was pretty worried. Numerous visits to the opthalmologist and about a gallon of eye-drops later, he decided that he could see a site of damage in the lens that suggested that the gorse had caused all the damage. A cataract op (lens removal and replacement) was required. The inflammation had to be brought under control first. That did not happen and my eye ended up with a pool of pus in it. I thought you might enjoy a picture so it is shown in the post below.

When Mr Watt saw how bad it had gotten he told me that he would remove the lens anyway and then continue to treat the infection. That is the situation now. I am on eye drops containing aantibiotic, another that has steroids to keep the inflammation down and a third to keep the pupil open. I will go back in January to see if it is clear enough to havve a new lens inserted. In the mean-time I have verry blurry vision in my right eye, have problems with depth perception and bright lights. I have to wear dark glasses or an eye patch hen I am out. This causes witty people to ask me where I left the parrot etc. Hahaha. And I am not supposed to go swimming ... in the hot Northland summer, when I had decided to really get into snorkelling!

On the other hand ... it is pretty amazing that I am not permanently blind in one eye. My disability should be temporary and if all goes as expected,by this time next year, I will probably take my full vision asmuch for granted as I have done for the last 43 years of my life. Not for the first time, I am really grateful that I have access to very, very good (and free) health care. That along with my vision should not just be taken for granted.

Dodgy eye

ATC final parade 2010

New chicks, fruit and Eric

After the match

Eden park Four Nations

Kiwis vs Kangaroos 2010 Final- makes up for Eden park!!

November

Boys exams over and some results are in.
They are enjoying being able to kick back.
We have been pretty the last few weeks, with Chantelle's and the Stuart's birthdays to celebrate.
For Chantelle, all of us apart from Eric went down to Auckland to watch the rugby at Eden Park. We sat in the new South Stand which has been finished ready for the world cup next year. It was a league match - actually 2 matches in the 4 nations series. England made short work of Papua New Guinea beating them by a lot to a little. We were sat pretty close to the pitch and it was fun to see all the action without an editor. I cannot say I am a big rugby/ sports fan, but it was quite a spectacle. The crowd were having a great time, knocking back the beers and cheering every time PNG got the ball. We were in a bit of a minority cheering for the motherland, but the people around us were pretty good natured.
The second match was NZ vs OZ and was the real crowd puller. There was a lot of support for the Kiwis as they ran on the field and for their national anthem and haka. The ozzies are not much liked in NZ, in fact that is a pretty mild way of putting the hatred that most kiwis feel towards their bigger, richer neighbours. The papers are full of soul searching comparing life in Oz to life in NZ. On the sports field the ozzies are seen as cheats, brash and they must be beaten. The girls beat the ozzy netball team in the Commonwealth games and there was widespread celebration. If Oz beats us at any sport, it tends to be glossed over or if it cannot be ignored eg when the Wallabies beat the All Blacks there follows a period of nationl mourning.

Anyway back to the game ... the Ozzies were booed during and after their national anthem. The game started and the ozzies took the kiwis apart. Lots of mistakes by the kiwis were seized by the opposition and the score got higher. After half time, it carried on and the crowd suddenly seemed to give up on their team. A Mexican wave started in the stand next to ours and it gradually spread round the whole stadium. A few bright sparks took the opportunity of standing up to get rid of their bottles and chips. This slowly took off as well and by the time of the third circuit, we were covering our heads because so much stuff was flying! A fair amount was landing on the pitch and apparently, the ozzy team were getting a bit of a barrage. Add to that there were a few scuffles in the crowd. Quite a few people were drinking pretty heavily including a few people around us. It certainly gave Stuart a new perspective on what was a lot to drink as he thinks my few bottles on a Friday night is over the top!

We left before the end to get the free bus back to town before the crowds all left. Later on it was interesting to see the media reporting the "drunken chaos" that bodes ill for the World cup.

Exams

Boys in middle of doing them.
I am in the middle of marking them.
More when we have finished with them.

Erics Gliding Experience

These are just two pictures of a gliding day I attended on labour weekend with ATC. The two gliders in the picture is the two ones that we were using that day. The one furthermost to the camera was the one i flew in, it was a tight fight as you can see in the photo showing the seat just before i climbed in, and bumpy landing finished my first gliding experience which i really enjoyed. The picture you see of me is when i won a free trip in a two seat er powered plane, i took the picture myself just before i took over the controls until we were on final for the airstrip. All over i really enjoyed it and hope ATC plans to do it again. We are hoping to post some clips on YouTube of the plane and we will publish the links when we have done so.

By Eric Bryan

Christchurch Part 2

These pics were taken on our day off after the chess comp in Christchurch.
We made the decision that we would do some extra fundraising so that we could take a day to explore the city. Last year we were in a hurry and had no spare money, so we finished the chess and were straight back in the van for a 13 hour drive. Not fun.

This time we had time to go exploring the city at night, take in a movie and have a meal and then had a whole day with a hire car to get out of town. We headed south to the Port Hills. These are the site of a huge volcanic eruption some considerable time ago. I am quite pleased with the picture of the lamb surveying the city. Over to the west we had uninterrupted views of the entire range of the Southern Alps all covered in snow.

After a bit of a walk we headed off to the port town of Akaroa. This was originally settled by the French and it cultivates a french atmosphere that certainly does it no harm as a tourist attraction. Lots of brightly coloured wooden houses and other buildings. Tres beau n'est pas? I was showing off my rusty French to the Chess Team and pretending that I was French, when one of them pointed out that I was wearing my England T-shirt!

We flew back home on the Tuesdy morning and had a leisurely drive back north.

Eric was on the B-team this year and he has become quite obsessed about chess. He is very keen to make the A-team and to go on a similar jaunt next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pics were taken in Christchurch.
The group photo on the steps shows the three Northland school teams that competed in the Interschools Finals. Kaitaia College at the back, Taipa Area School in the middle and Whau Valley School at the front. Whau Valley did best out of the three, coming about halfway in their field. The Taipa School team had the best team strip - check out the berets! It was their first year and they found it tough. Taipa and Kaitaia supported each other during the comp and will hopefully have some joint training sessions in future.

We went to an Indian restaurant in Riccarton on the Sunday night and had a very pleasant meal.

The top picture shows a building that was flattened by the quake. It was weird to see a single shop knocked down whilst its neighbours were intact. The whole earthquake is hugely expensive with something like 30,000 homes suffering damage. They had a 5.0 magnitude aftershock today that got everyone back out on the streets and all worried again.

Spring, Chess, Earthquakes and flu

Last Friday of the break and a post has not been made for quite some time now. Some bloggers post several times a day... how do they find time to have a life?

Term 3 finished in a whirl of strong winds and stormy weather. Eric went up to Spirits Bay to help with a major stranding of whales. This was the second one on thelast few months. He worked through the night to keep the beasts wet and alive. The wind was very strong. It sounds like an exhausting experience but also pretty special to get close to such normally elusive animals. The whales had beached on one of the most remote beaches in Northland. We are 4 hours drive from Auckland and the whales were 2 hours North of here. There are some pics here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10676472&gallery_id=114106#7106088

While he was up there, I took off on the last day of term for Christchurch with the College Chess Team. We had spent the whole term preparing, both for the games and for the costs. We raised $3000 to pay for the trip - half of it came from a charitable trust and the rest came $1 at a time from selling frankfurters at about 10 different events. So it was great to have all the prep done and to start driving down to Auckland.

We had a flight from Auckland to Christchurch and for two of the team it was their first flight. Not the easiest initiation to flying as we hit some pretty serious turbulence coming over the Southern Alps. There was a team of girls going to some other event in Christchurch on the same plane and they were laughing and screaming at the same time. Everyone else on the plane was gripping their seats and hoping the swooping and shuddering would stop!

Rain, wind and illness

Hi there folks.
The winter - or Spring is going about its business with much wind and rain and the odd lovely warm day.
As a consequence, colds and viruses are doing the rounds. Lots of kids at school are sick and we are not escaping our share. As I write this, the wind is howling as a huge storm crosses over us from Ozzy. We are on the edge of it and will hopefully escape too much serious damage. They are expecting a pounding down the line in Auckland though.

As a consequence of the weather and the ilness we are having quiet times. Last weekend we did very little and it was just what was needed. Stuart is hobbling around on his platered foot. He had the back slab taken off and a more permanent plaster stuck on, so he does not need the crutches any more.

We went to "Aunty" Fayes funeral at the Salvation Army. It was a lovely service really, considering that she had died. Her husband of 16 years was very at peace with her going and was ready for the next chapter in his life.

Eric is spending a lot of time trying to play people at chess. He has been challenging all and sundry. On account of beating me twice in a row he has declared himself the house champion. There is a quote that says that when your kid can beat you at chess, it is time for them to move out .....

We spent some time on Sunday cutting down scrub regrowth on the hillside above the pond. I got to have a big fire and then planted a load of native trees.

We are waiting for our first chicks of the year - we have a broody chicken who is on day 22 of sitting. When she got off the eggs yesterday at least one of them had a little bit of shell broken that looked like a chick trying to get out. So we are keeping away from her so she can get on with it.

Teachers were on strike on Wednesday and being a member of the Secondary Teacher's Union I went on strike - for the first time in my life. There are 2 aspects to our claim that brought this about. We are asking for 4% and have been offered 1% with another 1.5% next year. The second part is more complex and concerns a whole raft of conditions that the union and government do not agree on. Ultimately, I am not too fussed about the money. Not that 4% is partcularly extravagant - try getting a bank loan at that rate! More important to me is the steady erosion of working conditions. New Zealand is a low wage economy with relatively weak unions. Our current government are tories who have no great interest in lower paid workers. So whilst it is a bit scary sticking one's head above the parapet and making a stand, it also seems like a more principled thing to do than to take it lying down.

Eric the champion chess player

 

Eric has succeeded in becoming the family champion after beating me on Friday night and beating Patrick, Stuart and Chantelle in the previous days. Eric is always keen for a game but is mostly declined (by Chantelle, Patrick and Stuart). The competition rests between me and Eric. The rankings is; 1st- Eric, 2nd- Me, 3rd- Patrick, 4th- Stuart and 5th is Chantelle.

Broken ankle

 

 

 

 

We have had an interesting week.
I took Eric for a walk last week. Or rather, he took me for a walk because he had been to Kaitaia Reservoir with ATC and I had not.
It is set up in the Herekino hills a few Km from town. We had a pleasant walk through the bush to the little dam, ideal for a Sunday afternoon.
In the bush we went past a large tree with a hole in the trunk. I put the camera in and the flash illuminated a whole host of wetas hiding inside. They are a peculiar NZ insect that is similar to a grasshopper, with ridiculously long antennae.
We were also entertained by a pair of tourists who were doing the same walk, but who were very nervous of the herd of small cows that were enthusiastically welcoming their visitors. It must get pretty dull eating grass all week, so you cannot blame them getting a bit rarked up when some humans show up at the weekend.

School continues at breakneck speed with half the term gone already.
Stuart was messing around with some friends in the wet on Wednesday and he ended up breaking his ankle as he tried flying down some concrete stairs. It was a pretty painful experience requiring assistance the ambulance and sterling reassurance from Lisa, one of our school's first aid team. He has a backslab on for now and is hobbling around on crutches.

Winter hits

I was thinking that we had got off lightly this year as it had been very dry and the days were lightening up and there was that lovely spring warmth in the air.
I thought too soon. The rains arrived about 2 weeks ago and it has been very wet.
We do need a lot of rain to restore the water levels in the soil after the long drought so I am not complaining.
We still get the odd day when it is really nice and warm. Last Sunday was great and I had a good 3 hours of scrub bashing by the pond. Even managed to put some more trees in and have a few little fires before the rains came back. We even had heavy hail storms on Wednesday.

last weekend Chantelle and I had a real treat. It felt like a new chapter of life had opened. We left Eric in charge of the house with Stuart to keep him on the straight and narrow and went off to Taipa for a couple of nights. We were hostedby Eric and Rita and the Te Aupouri trust for a Whare Taonga weekend. It was a type of Marriage Encounter without the writing. We listened to a number of talks on relationships and parenting. Kinda like lectures, but there were some nuggets in there. A lot of stuff that we have worked out over our time together, but some other stuff as well that was a bit more pertinent. The couples were mostly all younger than us - when did wegrow this old?

What was really nice was being put up and having plenty of time just to chill out. They gave us 3 hours for lunch enough time to eat, to go for a walk along the beach and to have a siesta. Saturday night we were treated to a 3 course candlelit dinner in our own appartment.

Loads of food, so mauch that we took a couple of bags home and our poor starved kids thought that it was an early christmas.

So tahnks te Aupouri and Eric and Rita and keep up the good work.

We are all wellish, paddy was off with a stomach bug today. We are all pretty kanackered. it has beena hellish week - way too busy. But things are happening and life is unfolding in interesting ways.

No pics at the mo as I write this from a skinny notebook that has none on it. If I get near the desktop this weekend I might load some up. Mud, rain and washed out pastures. Just so you don't get the impression that it is always sunny here.

Congratulations to my Mum and Dad who recently celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Happenings

 

 

 

 

Life continues after Term 3 starts.
A few varied pictures here to keep you up to date with what we have been doing.
There is a lot of building going on in Kaitaia at the moment after years of planning 2 major projects have finally got the go-ahead.
Our College has knocked down its old technology block and the news walls have been going in this week. The photo above shows another even bigger project. The Te Ahu centre is a controversial project that aims to upgrade the Community Centre by adding to it room for a library, a museum, improved cinema and other stuff. It has been controversial because lots of places that have been separately getting on with their business will now be together sharing roof space. There has been much discussion about how much floor space each part of the entity is getting. I do not know what the end result will be like. It is ambitious and hard work for the people trying to make it happen. Not a lot happens in Kaitaia, so the paper has been talking about Te Ahu for at least 2 years. Hence it was great to see the bulldozers coming in and piling work start for the new buildings. More pics to follow. Anzac Day and the A&P show and lots of other functions will be different from now on.

Our cats have been catching lots of goldfinches recently. Pity because they are such pretty birds.

Eric had his birthday a week later than the day because he was away on leadership camp. he was quite happy to tuck into a pavlova when he got home.

Last weekend we slipped off to check out a potential new hunting ground in the Herekino area. We went down to the Grbch orchard afterwards and enjoyed grazing on tree fresh oranges and guavas. Going to little edens like this are very inspiring for me as I envision our place looking like this in maybe 20 years.

When is the best time to plant fruit trees?
20 years ago.
Pat Downer July 30th 2010.