5th June

I've taken longer than normal to get over the milking season. Nearly 2 weeks later I still feel washed out, exhausted, and continually tired. But certainly better than I did the first week after we finished.

Tuffy has a girlfriend, Jolene, a Lab x mastiff. She is smaller than Tuffy, despite the parentage. Cute dog, they get on really well, or even better than really well I should say. Dan is hoping to breed her, then have her neutered, she's 3, and slightly plump.

I dropped Tuffy off at 8am Tuesday morning, picked him up at 1pm, he was asleep in the truck, sitting up with his head against the door frame, fast asleep. He had a bowl of food when we got home, then crawled onto his couch and slept again, food, sleep, for the rest of the day till about 6pm when we went for a walk.

It was much the same today, he was asleep within 1/2 km of picking him up, then back to the food bowl, sleep, food sleep

Golden Bay Firewood have been running a secondhand shop as well as the firewood business, but it has proved to be more of a nuisance than making money. So they are clearing out everything at up to 50% off.  I picked up a fairly good bedroom vanity unit, mirror, 5 drawers for $30, I may buy another one, 4 drawer though for one of the other bedrooms. Lord knows what I'll do with everything when I move, or die, or whatever I do next, but they will come in handy if anyone stays here. Rather than live out of suitcases or piles on the floor

Plus having the mirror will help.

I'm trying to make some sort of plan for the rest of the year going into next year. What I want to do, what I want to make happen etc. So far, all I have down is get the darkroom finished, and start back into B&W photography. As well as the ongoing repairs to the house. Hopefully having my pension start in October as well as working may help financially, the extra income will certainly help anyway. Then it becomes a matter of time, I may cut down on hours at work, but that cuts the income down as well, it is a hard choice.

Moana is doing well with the sewing machine, she's able to just work at home now, and has dropped out of the shop side of the business, to concentrate on building up her stock and designs.  http://www.moana-lee.co.nz/

3rd June 2014

I've been a member of www.scamwarners.com and www.419eater.com for about 7 years. I'm not as active in either as I was, still keep the contact up, but not actively participating as much. I joined Senior Net Golden Bay when I moved here, it is a group set up to advise/help/tutor  people over 50 that haven't had much experience with computers etc. Including bloody Windows 8.

Scamwarners is a website set up as a sister site to 419eater, more a help and advice website. I've used material from Scamwarners extensively over the last few years in showing Senior net members how scams work, what to watch for.

At the Senior Net meeting today, one of the ladies told me she had just found out her husband (83) has been involved in a Spanish Lottery scam for the past few months. She's managed to get the bank accounts, property title, and farm ownership signed over to her, plus all the bank accounts, but not before he has sent between $180,000 and $250,000 to the scammers. He has cashed in his life assurance policies, tried to obtain a mortgage on their farm, used the overdraft facility to max it out.

Sad all around, he had a stroke a few years ago, has recovered, but there is something missing  ever since then. He is a soft touch, every telephone marketeer that calls gets him to agree to $30 a month, $50 a month payments for orphanages/red cross/whatever. At one point, he had agreed to over $2,000 of payments each month to various charities and organisations.

He really needs to be watched 24/7, their family are aware, and the bank is aware also, and have cancelled all his access to any account. The money is gone, luckily it wasn't everything, and while it has made a hole in their life, they have enough in the farm to recover.

We had our first real frost this week, the snow has gone, so it is just the valley floor that had the frosting.

 

Tuffy has a girlfriend. I dropped him off this morning about 7.45 on my way to Takaka. She is a Lab x staffie, white and black spots. She's on heat, and her owner wanted to breed her this year. From what Dan said, they got on really really well. I picked Tuffy up about 2pm, he slept all the way home, had something to eat when we got home, crawled up on his couch and went to sleep again. 

He woke about 5, took him out for a walk, he's back asleep again, but he's eaten 4 bowls of food so far since this afternoon. Normally that is about 2 - 3 days worth of food.

He's going back for another day on Thursday :)

Slowly getting the house sorted out and tidy, 10 months of 12 on 2 off  roster with 4am starts, and all I do is clear a path between where I'm going, then I sleep the rest of the time. Finding jars of jam/preserves that I've done this year, and forgotten about stored in the pantry, cupboards. 

I've got nearly all the slides filed, a few more boxes to go then I'll be able to write a index or description for each page of pictures. Some go back to the late 60's, 70's when  I was wandeing around Northland, weddings, funerals, trips. 

A few pics of Takaka