Todays new calf

Today our 'teenage mum' Daisy had her calf. We were quite concerned as she should not have got pregnant being only about 4 months old when she was deflowered by the murray grey on loan to impregnate Freckles and Carol. But she has produced this sweetie without any problems. She is quite small but feeding fine. As Carol has named her half sister Bronte we thought that Charlotte (Charlie, Lottie?) might be a good name for this one.

With Mom Daisy and Bronte...

This years 3 calves, Daisy and Al (I think)...

Getting to know you....

Some quiet time with Mom....




And just to remind you what Bronte looked like 6 weeks ago....

Spring? definitely - I think!

Sunday morning and this will be a short entry, the sun is shining at 7.15am and I am keen to get outside. I have made tea and returned to bed. This is the first morning I have been able to open all the doors and let the sun in so early. It is very spring-like here and I just hope it stays that way.

This is the first weekend that we have not had people over or needed to go somewhere and with good weather I have been able to concentrate on the garden/outdoor jobs. I have made a list as long as my arm and spent all of yesterday in the veg plot. Tilled almost all of it. It now looks very bare but has lots of seedlings and seeds in. Planted potatoes, carrots, onions, spring onions and broccoli. The chooks are eating the weeds but have not learnt yet to scratch. Freckles likes watching me in the veg plot when she is in that paddock as the weeds are usually big and I feed them to her but she is missing out now as there are hardly any weeds and I am in planting mode now. She looks most disgruntled! She and Carol are separated from the other cows at the moment as Nelson is still ‘intact’ and it’s that time of year, and of course they are still feeding. It is great working with them around, the calves are so curious and of course they play around and keep me amused. Eric was testing my tiller yesterday (I thought the tines were on the wrong way round) and found the electric 3-phase cables that have been eluding us since we moved in. Ian and Claire told us where they were, roughly, but we have never been able to find them. In theory this means we can now get electricity supplied to the barn. The only problem is the cable is right in the middle of the veg!!! A job for the winter I think.

The best thing about the variety how…. was when it finished!!! However, although it was not very good I have nothing but admiration for the kids getting up there and performing in front of hundreds of parents in a packed hall and would go again and again to support them. The funniest bit was a child doing the hamster dance (some country and western sort of thing) with her mother. Well I say funny, it was incredibly embarrassing. They had to do a series of vigorous jumps from the back to the front of the stage. I will just say that this lady could have done with a better supporting bra, and leave the rest to your imagination!! Alice’s groups performance was quite good and she seemed to stand out because she moved a little (many of the child stood like scared rabbits), was near the middle, smiled and had bright clothes on. There were some displays of superb talent, a piano rendition if Beethovens 5th etc. At the end I saw Di who came and spoke to me very briefly as she was whisked away. I didn’t get much of an update on Rob but I don’t think there is any improvement.

Well the tea is finished and my garden is calling!!

Spring - well almost!

I feel that I am making a bit of headway in the veg plot. After the sheep got in and decimated it when I was in Auckland I have taken the opportunity to rethink and plan. I have consulted my companion planting bible and planned the whole thing. I am moving away from sowing seeds into the bed and towards buying seedlings or growing in seed trays first. I have real problems getting seeds to germinate. So far I have planted; lettuce, cauliflower, pak choy, cabbage, spinach, silverbeet and coriander.

Last night we went up to Ian and Shirleys and bought down the chook house they said we could have. I was going to put it in the orchard and leave them free range but decided to use the chooks to eat away the last of the weeds in the veg plot first. I do not feel guilty at leaving them confined to a chook house as they have come from a battery hen house so what they have now is a thousand times better than were they were 3 days ago. Until now our chooks have been in wendy house sized accommodation close to the house with an ajoining run. Demolishing this is now on the, very long, 'to do' list. I am focused on the veg plot and Eric on fencing at the moment so it may have to wait a wee while.

Whilst our life is plodding along, no better than that, our life if very good at the moment, that of a local familys has been devestasted by an accident. Rob, a local vet was kicked in the head/face by a sedated horse while it was being AI'd. He has been in am induced coma for several days and transferred to Auckland. I am not sure why he was transferred as Waikato Hospital has recently opened it's long called for neurosurgical unit. Anyway, years of working in ICU means I fully appreciate what Di and the rest of the family must be going through. The thought of this is stuck in my head, dominating my quiet moments and makes me feel quite tearful talking or writing about it. I have written to Di and just pray he recovers well. although I've never seen anyone come out of induced coma totally unchanged.

Richard and Robyn have been in hiding for about 6 weeks aka calving. I've missed them and haven't seen them for 2-3 weeks. They came for supper last night and we had a good catch up, well as much as you can with one overgrown teenage daughter hanging around! Why can't she hang about with the other girls. It was nice earlier in the evening when, on going into her room to see the seriously gross, new duvet cover Robyn and I found Sarah and Harri laying on their tummies on the bed pouring over magazines listening to loud music. Soooo teenage-ish!! It's just a shame that Harriette finds the company of adults so appealing and hangs around so much when we are trying to talk. Even at her age some conversation is not for her ears.

Spring keeps putting it's toe through the door... then retreating!! Some lovely days have been followed by somw very chilly ones. Everybodies grass eems to be growing except ours! (I can here Richard says 'put some fert on it'!) The problem has been fencing, another job that has been neglected this last year or 2. That's not getting at Eric either, he just hasn't had the time. Consequently, the stock cannot be confined to paddcks and so we cannot manage the pasture as we should. It also means we have not been able to break feed throguh the winter. We are hoping that the grass comes on soon as we are almost out of silage and don't want to be buying in at this stage.

We are just off to Intermediate Schools Variety Show. Alice and 3 of her friends are performing a song along to the actual record playing. She singing is not perfect and I am intrigued to see how this goes!! 2 of her friends have come home with her and are currently dressing up, straightenoing hair etc.

Just a general catch up

Very run of the mill Tuesday evening, except I have managed to find time to blog. Eric's 3rd week in the job but only the first one when I have been at home every night. Quite organised at the moment, preparing supper (sorry tea as they call it here) in the morning so it's not a big rush in the evening. I was so organised today I even managed to get the orchard sprayed and do a little bit in the veg plot after work and before it got dark (around 6.30pm). The veg plot - what a disaster. While I was away last week the sheep got in, during the day when no-one was home! They ate everything, except the broad beans and leeks. Sounds disaterous but actually there wasn't a lot in there. The 3 celeriac plants I have been nurturing so carefully where eaten but luckily they could dig up the root so I dug them up and we had them yesterday. I have saved some for Robyn and must take it up to her tomorrow as she has never had any. Celeriac is sooo rare here. I could get some but it would cost about $7/kg which is outrageously expensive. I have never just come across any in the shops. Back to the veg plot. I dug up all my carrots today and examined the rhubarb, which I think will survive. Beetroot, cabbages and broccolli all gone though. Still I have now had a re-think and have planned what I am going to do now for the whole year. We will be putting permanent fencing up very soon! In fact we sat down last night and planned all the fencing and prioritised it. Some fencing has come down in various paddocks and now we can hardly keep stock confined to any one. Yet another job that has not got done due to lack of time and money. Still with spring on the way we are now getting some time in the evenings, and we have decided not to plan anything for the next few weekends so that we can get on top of a few things.

IMAC had their biennial vaccne symposium last Friday/Saturday and as usual we had a national training day the day before so I was in Auckland from Wednesday to Saturday. I really don't like being away for so long and was shattered when I got back. Sunday was horrible weather so not much got done then. t the symposium I met a lady from America. She was one of our guest speakers. We hit it off and I have invited her and her family to stay with us when they come to NZ (she was very keen to bring them back for a holiday. She has travelled extensively with her work and we shared a love for Africa.

At work we have an ongoing battle over our accommodation. Penny and I refused to stay at the motel they keep booking us into but were not much impressed with the alternative. It did have a gym though which we managed to use. I was most impressed when I went in there on Thursday and Penny asked me to listen to her account of the functioning of the immune system to see if she had got it right. I would NEVER be thinking of such a thing whilst on a walking machine. maybe that's where I am going wrong. I find such activilties sooo boring.

I have been trying to get back into walking in the mornings now that the days are getting longer. My efforts have not really got off the ground though as I have not been here for many mornings and now I am full of cold and feeling yuk. It is certainly harder than when I was walking before so it must have been doing me some good, even if I didn't loose any weight.

The weekend before last was Father's Day, well the Sunday was. I was chatting to Ian in the morning while loading the wheelbarrow up with silage (Eric wasn't doing it as it was Father's Day you understand) and on asking they had nothing planned for the day (Ian and Shirley's children are in New Plymouth) so I asked them to join us for lunch. Mom and Daddy were coming over and we were having a huge bacon joint that Eric had recently cured. Well we had such a nice afternoon, and drank far too much wine!!

You know we have an intelligent child (well 2 but I am refering specifically to the bigger one). Well. Harriette was looking at an article on 9/11 in the Waikato Times. There was a picture of the World Trade Centre with a direction arrow pointing north just below the South Tower ie pointing at the South Tower. Harriette asks "If that's north why do they call it the South Tower" (Think about it!)

All well here. Geese still sitting on the nests. Can't get anywhere near them to see how many eggs are there. Ducks took up residence on the pond in the front paddock again this week, which had again appeared due to even more rain. We have had a pond there for more days this winter than in all the time we have been here. Calves and lambs are thriving. Hoping for some good weather this weekend so we can get the sheep in to dag, drench and ring them. Jobs that desparately need doing.

Well I think that catches us up. Taking my poor cold to bed now. Night night.

Some news from the other 'arf

An update after my first week (must be a record - two blogs from me in one week)

I have now been working for my Company for a whole week. Haven’t got the sack which is a good start. It would seem that I still have the reverse Midas touch however. I have had a property deal collapse around my ears, another sale complicated by the presence of a tenant of whom we had no knowledge and now the statutory time limits for a notice to quit are going to mean that the completion date is going to be too early. I had to draft Wills for a young couple and I’m expecting them to die before they sign them. A nice couple so I really don’t want that to happen! Trusts are very big here in New Zealand and I have not really got to grips with them yet. I was handed a couple of trust documents and a text book on the matter. I have just finished deciphering the forms, now I have to get the people in and explain what they mean in human terms before asking them to sign them and then witness them. The office manager is sorting me out my own official stamp which is highly exciting. Well it is for me anyway! It seems strange to be witnessing the documents as a solicitor. I’m too young for that! The compulsory grey hair is being added slowly to give me just the right air of authority.

Apart from work, it is officially the first day of spring tomorrow. Hurray!!! Do you think that the grass knows? I don’t think so. We are still feeding out each day and waiting for the grass to come up. The goosers are sitting on two nests now. I just hope that the eggs are fertile this year. Last year they weren’t and we didn’t have gosling. In turn that meant no Christmas goose. Cx, guess what I’m hoping to do for Christmas dinner? Any ideas? You haven’t worked it out yet? The goslings when they are all growded up become nice fat goosers and I like eating gooser. Ideas on a postcard. The hams are curing on the deck as I type this and I think they will be good for the whole Christmas period, they are that big. Nelson is to be spared the bullet you will be glad to hear. It was touch and go for a while but I think that ‘Rowan’ is the new ‘47’. Atkinson is a little worse on the finish side so I don’t mind ‘Rowan’ being a bully and getting more than his fair share of the feed. What goes around comes around or something like that.

Harriette has just got back in from Band at 9pm. That means it is time for bed! Take care all and sleep well. I know I will.

Oh So Much To Tell

And all because I haven't blogged for so long. Just a few notes and photo's today and I'll flesh it up a bit next weekend.

Today Eric started as a solicitor.

One of the 2 partners went into hospital with chest pains and had some minor cardiac surgery so is not going to be there as much as Eric expected. He came back for his first day today. I think it has shaken them all up a bit. It seems that Eric has made a good first impression. He was given some files to review and came up with lots of comments and was immediately given something more "meaty". I was teaching in Hamilton and out the house from 7am until 5.30pm. We probably were like any other normal family but it was very strange for us. The girls have been advised that they are going to have to pull there weight and we are all going to have to be more organised. Quite a big adjustment for us all I think. Still just ubntil I retire!!!!

Eric has spent the entire weekend in pain having had another episode of gout. He found it almost impossible to walk on Friday/Sat and spent the entire weekend sitting, butchering our last pig and making 80lbs of sausages! He has given chorizo a go and they are very nice. He squeezed his poorly swollen foot into his brogue this morning and was glad to be sitting most of the day at work.

Some bits of news from Cedar Lodge from this last few weeks...

Freckles produced this beautiful bull calf.

One of twins but the heifer calf died. And Carol produced this absolutely gorgeous heifer calf:

Carol do you want to name her?

We have had so much rain that we had a lake in the front paddock again:

It lasted so long that these moved in:

Eric was forbidden to shoot them!

That's all I have the energy for at the moment.

Resting between jobs?

Well, I’m back in the land of the unemployed!

It has been a long time, but my four weeks notice is up! That means I have the whole weekend off in order to complete my transformation from Animal Control Officer (Kennel hand!), into a fully-fledged Lawyer. It is a time not without it’s setbacks. I am currently afflicted with the usual painful episode of gout. It started last night as a painful little toe. During the night, it became steadily more painful until I couldn’t bear the duvet weight resting on it. Easy to cure, shove the offending foot out of the bed and let it get cold. Let me tell you that it has been very cold here the last few nights. All in, I didn’t have a good nights kip. Secondly, the partner who was to have been my mentor was taken ill (in a serious way). It did however feel very strange to be phoned on Wednesday by the office manager and be told that my office is being prepared and the new office furniture is being put together ready for Monday. The good news is that I start at 0830, not 0800.

I can’t wait for the grass to come back. Now I will have to consider the condition of my hands. Now, I don’t know how many of you have ever served up cold silage by hand in the morning? Not many I’d guess. It leaves your hands smelling of what else but silage. It is hard to get rid of the smell. Also, the silage I am using is clover silage that is a bit wet. That means it smells a bit of rotting vegetation/fishy. It is quite a strange smell that I find hard to describe well. When are scratch and sniff screens going to be developed. In an attempt to avoid these strange stains and smells, didn’t I mention the staining? Every nick and crack in your hands becomes a highlighted black line, which doesn’t look very attractive. I have taken to using latex gloves. It looks really poncy and I am certain that I will be caught by a neighbour every time that I slip them on to handle the stuff.

Michelle nearly severed her finger the other day and since having the wound stitched up, it has of course, gone septic. The body is a strange thing. You would think that the puss that would come out along the line of the cut when squeezed. It doesn’t. I don’t know why not, just that for some unexplainable reason, it is determined to stay trapped in her body for good. With M’s luck, she will come down with septicaemia and be hospitalised. Never one to do things by half my dear wife. My gout has had me laid up for the weekend. Well, not quite laid up but certainly not as active as I would like to be. I have a lot to do in the fencing line and what with my tennis elbow and this foot, I can’t get on with it yet. Michelle has been a brick as ever. She has done the feeding out in the morning and evening. It is quite heavy as the silage was wet when put down. With all of the rain we have had, the paddocks are quite muddy in the gateways and pushing a wheelbarrow full of goodies through the beasts is not easy without them upsetting the silage cart.

I have just completed playing with 69lbs of sausages. I made a Spanish style Chorizo, my salami, plain pork and pork and leek. The Chorizo is supposed to be hung to dry but I made some patties out of the left overs and fried them up. It tastes so good, I put some down for straight sausages. Even the girls liked them, despite the spices. When I strung them up to dry, several of the lengths didn’t want to play and gravity took hold of them. I have to remove them next weekend as Mandy’s boys are staying over in the flat. They have a sailing event on Lake Karipiro, so rather than drive back to Tauranga on Saturday night, we are going to enjoy their company. I have to go and iron shirts and clean my shoes now so I’ll leave it here and maybe update you tomorrow evening.

A late addition of blog (typed in Aug posted in Oct!!)

Moving on. Typing this in a music room in a college in Hamilton while about 20 teenagers practice. I have bought Harriette and Sarah in to suss out the Waikato Band. Harri was a bit reluctant to come as she is planning to change to oboe next year and thought it wouldn’t be worth it and I was worried they (well Harriette) wouldn’t be good enough but the conductor is sooo enthusiastic, they are now joining in. We’ll see how it goes. Alice has started additional private clarinet lessons to complement her itinerant lessons at school. She is thoroughly enjoying it.

Had a meeting with Alice’s teacher last week as we get the impression that Alice is struggling. The teacher agreed and we talked about Alice not being in the accelerate class next year. Had a tearful discussion with Alice over this and she seems to be accepting of the idea now. Then today she got her Australian English results back and got a distinction (one of only 4 in her class of 38)!

Had a busy weekend. Both girls won their netball on Saturday and the girls got to watch their film. I caught up and had a coffee with Mandy and her new man (not sure if I liked him). Sunday Mom and Daddy came down. The plan was, that Daddy would help Eric take the diesel pump out the Safari and us girls (including R+R’s daughter Sarah) would go to Putaruru to watch a Russian concert pianist who was performing in the Timber Mill Museum!! As it was they couldn’t remove the pump (didn’t have a particular tool they needed) so Daddy came with us and Eric split wood (he had borrowed (a neighbour) Basil’s tractor while he was away selling a horse on the South Island). The concert was so interesting. The pianist was unbelievably talented and played some incredibly difficult pieces. I was just wishing he would play something I was familiar with when he did. The setting was just like a village hall and it was strange to think here was this pianist more used to playing in the Albert Hall playing here!! So kiwi! Afterwards we took Sarah home and Mom and Daddy came with us to see the calves. They are in the second half of calving and I think have about 200 calvings. Sarah and Katherine couldn’t understand why Mom and Daddy would want to go up to their farm to look at cows! They see them everyday, year in year out and cannot understand that most of the world has never been on a dairy farm during calving and it is therefore a novelty to them. I was planning to do dinner at about 5pm but we ended up eating at 8pm and Mom and Daddy didn’t leave until 10pm. I was very glad to see my bed that night.

All else is well here. Eric is busy working his notice, well trying not to be busy. The girls have 1 week of netball left and I am plodding on. I have several trips up to Auckland over the next few weeks, I have a conference and a symposium to attend and I have been asked to do some orientation with a new facilitator up there. So looks like I’ll be keeping busy.

All Gone!

Hurray! Finally finished all the food left over from the weekend!