March 18th 2012

It’s been a while I admit. There’s a lot to catch up on, so here goes

December 13th we were hit with a deluge of rain, 400 – 500 mm of water in 24 hours, all of it down on the foothills and coastal areas. Nelson was flooded, Motueka, Riwaka, Takaka, and Pohara. Out here in the Valley it wasn’t so bad, the Aorere rose a bit, but not as much as the January 2011 flooding.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10773343

We were cut off for a few weeks, the road just this side of the Takaka River, by the Waikoropupu Springs road was lost when the hillside collapsed, thankfully I keep the pantry stocked well up all the time. We couldn’t get out past Collingwood for 3 weeks, until Christmas Eve, the Collingwood store managed to hire a fishing boat to bring in more supplies from Nelson about week 2, so we couild have managed for a while longer.

We lost phone/internet for a while, which was a pain, but I managed.

The road is still one lane past the slip, and we have the only set of traffic lights in Golden Bay now at each end of the lane.

My keyboard on the laptop died a slow death, first the “s” key stopped working, then a few others, then the space bar, it wasn’t until late January I managed to get into Takaka and replace it with a plugin keyboard. I’ll have to get the laptop repaired at some point, but it isn’t high on the list yet.

In the meantime, I’ve been working both milkings, on a 12 day on, 2 days off roster, 4am starts, finish the day about 5pm, with a 4 hour gap inbetween. Needless to say, I’m asleep by 8pm most nights. We are milking 1400 cows now, Hayden increased the herd sizes in January, 700 in each herd now, with the rain and warm weather the grass is growing faster than the cows can keep it down.

We are moving the herds 3 times a day at present, just to keep the top of the grass cut back to stop it getting rank and beyond palatable for the cows. Still getting 35,000 litres of milk a day though, depending on the overnight weather it can get to 38,000 just on the first milking. Fronterra decided to only send the tanker on a 2 day pick up, which lasted less than 3 days for us, we had both tanks full by the second day, and were just about to dump an entire milking shift worth when they sent a double tanker to pick up, after some rather pointed phone calls. I think we are the only farm out here still on daily pickup, and a few times the last month, 2 pickups the same day.

It must be paying off, Brigid and I both got pay rises, another $1.50 an hour, which makes life a bit easier.

Alé and Nacho, 2 of the Argentiniaens we had working on the farm left in February, I was down the river with Tuffy when Mike came down with his sluice box to show them how to pan for gold. By the time I left they had a few small flakes, but not a lot to show for the effort, although there is still a lot of gold to be pulled out from the river if you find the right spot. I’m considering getting my own sluice and pan and having a play over winter in a few spots that look promising.

From the James Road bridge to near the Heaphy Track start is open fossicking, no licence required, but also, no mechanical or powered mining equipment is allowed, so it is shovel and hand pans only.

The James Road Bridge was finally opened again, after the last one was washed away in the January 2011 flood, which made the farmers over the river very happy. No more kayaking across to get supplies or paying for a helicopter to drop off farm stuff. It took the contractors 4 months to build, mostly waiting for concrete abutments to set before the actual bridge could be swung into place.

I’ve bought a few new toys to play with, 2 rather old style rotary hoes, (roto-tillers), picked them up for $200, one going, one needed repair, so I’m busy digging over more ground for garden. I’ve been eating well from the polytunnel, tomates, beans, chillies, cucumbers, and more zucchini than I can cope with from the outdoor garden Garlic, potatoes, radishes, silverbeet (Swiss Chard), my oka (yams) are nearly ready, another month or so till the frosts arrive and I’ll be digging them out.

Tuffy is turning into a major worry, he sneaks into the polytunnel if I leave the door open and strips the beans and cucumbers, tomatoes and chillies off the vines and bushes to eat, also the zucchini outdoors, plus the beetroot. I think he has finished growing, well above knee high on me, and he seems to be learning a few things, like “come here” and “stop eating my vegetables you crazy dog” type things. Although I have doubt about the last one.

He met up with the local hedgehog, and had a "discussion" over ownership of one of his bones.

We had our first bit of snow on March 3rd, just a capping on the mountains, it only lasted a day or so, but enough to make a decided chill in the valley.

I’m slowly working my way around the section, clearing out the overgrowth of hedera and tradescantia, I’m getting to the stage where I think a good dose of Agent Orange is called for, or napalm. The rain and warm weather isn’t helping, everything is growing as fast as I can cut it back lately.

I spent Christmas Day with David and Judy down the road, they had their family all together for the first time in a few years, and it turned out to be a really nice summer day, plus it was my one day off as well.

Here is a pic of the Valley, from the hill above the house, looking up towards the Aorere River and the Heaphy.

4th December 2011

Well, the election has been and gone, as usual everyone is saying the wrong party got in, or back, or stole the election. National took 48% of the Party vote, most of the Electorates, and left the Labour Party reeling on the ropes, if not on the canvas. The loopy Greens got nearly 11% of Party Votes, so we’ll have a dozen or so of the left wing eco looney tune Malthusian luddites trying to drive us back to the stone age as well.

I actually voted for the Labour Party Electorate candidate, Damien O’Connor this time, still gave National my Party vote though. The last thing we need is bloody left wing bleeding heart socialists borrowing money to pay for welfare spending when the rest of the worlds economy is heading for the slop bucket.

National is planning on selling 49% of what are classed as assets, like Air New Zealand, energy companies, to free up some cash for other use, while retaining 51% ownership. Quite frankly, as I don’t know of any Government run business that is actually run as a business instead of a retirement home for retired politicians and past their use by date civil servants, it can only be good.

We’ll have to wait and see. We still have the looney left Greens prattling on about Catastrophic Climate Change, and how we all have to stop living how we are now and go back to rubbing sticks together, but wait, that might release CO2, so maybe not, we can all just freeze to death and leave Mother Earth alone. After reading through the latest release of emails from Phil Jones, Michael Mann et al, it all seems like the greatest scam ever perpetrated on the world. Maurice Strong has a lot to answer for. And stupid bloody Gillard in Australia goes along and puts a carbon tax on everything. Still, John Key did the same stupid thing here with the EFT or whatever it is called, but at least it isn’t going to be as severe as the Australian one. Idiots. And when it all turns to custard, will they remove the tax?

It’s getting to the silly season here in the Bay. The loopies, (tourists) are starting to show up in the rental campervans, the house bus people are arriving, and hitch-hikers and back packers are to be seen along the roads looking like giant snails with spindly legs under their oversize backpacks. The Collingwood campground has been reasonably full the last month with whitebaiters trying to catch enough, but from what I’ve seen, most will be going home disappointed this season. I think it is time to have a rotating closed season in each of the 4 main areas, once every 4 years each region is closed to whitebaiting to allow the juvenile fish up river to mature. The catch has been dropping off for a long time, some due to poor quality streams and rivers with farm effluent and stock grazing the banks, which is now being addressed, sometimes voluntarily, other times with court orders, but it is being addressed. We don’t want to see the same restrictions as put on toheroa, supposed to be a limited closed season to allow stock to recover about 40 years ago, but they never addressed the actual problem, which was trawlers taking fish close to the beaches, and the paddle crab population exploding and eating all the juvenile toheroa spat. So it’s been 40 years since we have been allowed to gather toheroa. Well, legally anyway.

I’ve picked up an interesting looking infection from milking, it has all the outward signs of cowpox, which on reading about is not supposed to be in New Zealand, or else a similar virus. It could just be from where my jacket sleeves are rubbing on my wrist, but it is only on one hand, which is the hand I use to put the cups on with, so I’m brushing up against the udders with it. If it doesn’t heal in a week or so, I’ll go get it seen to, if it is cowpox, all you can do is wait out the viral attack, about 1 – 4 weeks from what I’ve read, and try to stop any secondary infection.

Brigid and I are still waiting to hear about the bakery at Collingwood. The last we heard this week was that the wiring had to be replaced due to water damage in the walls, which should be repaired this week, so we’ll have another word with the owners later this week again. It can’t be worse than milking cows in the rain.

Damian goes into hospital tomorrow to have his knee repaired. He ripped the AC ligament a couple of months ago, and it hasn’t knitted, so they are going to operate and basically, staple and stitch it all back together tomorrow, and if it all goes well he’ll be back at work before Christmas.

Monday 21st November

I really like getting up at 3am to go milk cows, especially when I get short paid by $500 and it has taken nearly 4 weeks and I’m still not paid. It started back the last week of October, with Labour Day. I got paid the extra for that but not the previous weekend, so I put a note to the woman who does the pay, and she said to include it with my next time sheet. Which still left me with $5.24 to last another 2 weeks after the power bill and telecom were paid. Thankfully I have the pantry stocked up, although Tuffy was looking a bit sad on having dry dog food and kitchen scraps for most of the time.

Then naturally, I didn’t get paid the next fortnight, I’m still missing the weekend hours, so I put another timesheet in for the week, instead of the fortnight, hoping that it would go though before today, but again it is still missing.

To say I’m getting a bit jaundiced about it is a slight understatement. I didn’t have any petrol for the Pajero, so the gardens are missing out, well, I’m missing out on the extra income from them until I can get some petrol and get around to them. Still, it means I’ve caught up on the gardening at home, all the tomatoes in the polytunnel have set the first truss of fruit, the beans are to the top of the strings, well, some of them anyway, the zucchini are almost at flowering and the chilli plants have started flowering already as well.

It’s been a depressing month, the weather has been typical spring here, sunshine, rain, more sunshine, then rain, and a late blast of snow on the mountains the first couple of weeks in November. Add in the pay hassles and I haven’t been feeling the most convivial person. But the rhododendrons have been flowering around the house.

Tuffy is growing into his feet still, he’s just above knee height on me now, well, more than just above, a couple of inches at least, and he insists on trying to help when I’m in the kitchen by standing up at the kitchen sink looking around. His head is nearly level with my shoulders when he does, which is a bit disconcerting. He is slowly learning basic stuff like “SIT DOWN YOU STUPID BLOODY DOG” and “DON’T CHEW MY RUGS”, although the message seems to take a while to get through.

The Kahawai are running at Collingwood river mouth finally, chasing after the whitebait. I’ve caught one so far, for 2 afternoons spent fishing, which isn’t as bad as it sounds. The Kahawai was 1.8kg, and I got 2 really good sized fillets off it, one for dinner and one for lunch the next day. If the weather improves, although we have storms forecast for this week, I’ll be back down next weekend to try again if the river hasn’t flooded too much.

The lawns still haven’t been mown this month, my replacement mower hasn’t arrived, so the pasture is well above knee height. I’ll be a long while cutting it back to a manageable level once the mower does get here. Just another thing to look at and get depressed over.

On top of all the above, I finally made an attempt to finish off upstairs, it isn’t on my high priority list, there is no way of getting out if there is a fire, I’ll put balconeys and ranchsliders to replace the windows before I’d want to sleep up there. I’ve had trouble with the plaster in a couple of spots all of last summer, since I started on it, and the couple of months I’ve left it has shown what the problem is. The crap fake timber lining hid the problem the plaster has shown it up. I’ve ripped the rotten stuff out from where the aluminium window has been leaking, and I’ll go back to my original plan and strip it all out and plasterboard the whole room once I’ve replaced the rotten timber framing. Just more expense I don’t really need.

The General Store in Collingwood has reopened with the new owners, I’m making enquiries about what they are going to do with the bakehouse part of it. That sounds infinitely better than milking cows, the hours would be much the same, early starts, but without the cows pissing and shitting on me. And warm and doing something I prefer. I’ve been keeping up to scratch with the baking, fruit buns and yeast buns with cream filling was the theme this week. They turned out reasonably well, edible anyway. Brigid likes my Vogels Bread copy, I give her a loaf every week or so to keep her family fed.

Golden Bay is getting busier as the season changes, a lot more back packers coming through to the Heaphy Track, and Takaka is getting crowded with camper vans and house buses. Trying to get in and out before the crowds is getting harder, I’ve found going in straight after morning milking at 8.30 with Tuffy gets us there about 9.15, before the tourists are up and about. From what Brigid said the other morning, anytime after 11am is chaotic with people just shambling along the footpath, and bloody camper vans with young european tourists getting all tangled up with driving on the other side of the road and making turns against the traffic.

Other than the problems I’m still pleased I moved here, it’s peaceful at night, I’m left on my own to do what I like, and the neighbours downt he road are good. We all keep an eye out for each other, but without living on each others doorstep.

Book club is still going, with a bit of a revamp. We’re joining up with the Book Discussion Scheme, so that instead of all of us bringing our own books along, we all get a copy of a book from the BDS every month, read and evaluate, then get together to have a wine or three and have an evening out. Oh, and discuss the book.

I don’t know if I have anyone coming down for Christmas yet, Hayden has been making some noises about coming over from Wellington, but I’ve not heard from him, and Stef mentioned that she might come down as well for a couple of weeks. I think it is going to be potluck over the Christmas New Year period. Damian is planning on coming next May School Holiday with the kids, which works out really well.

Tuesday 1st November

I have a friend in Michigan who gave up watching soap operas on tv once she met me. Her reason was that what happened to me was more over the top than any tv soap opera could ever imagine. I’m starting to believe her.

I finally heard from my daughter, after 8 years or so, having never seen nor heard from her in that time, apart from a brief 5 minutes as I was leaving at Damians wedding. She’s getting married on the 11th November in Queensland, to Matt, who couldn’t even bring himself to say “hello” to me at Damians wedding last May.

I’ve been invited to the wedding, as more of an afterthought to give her the excuse that “oh, we invited him but he never came” and not tell anyone all I got was 2 weeks notice, and I would have to get my passport renewed, and pay out close to $2,500 in airfares, accommodation and travel costs to get there. Like I have $2,500 just laying around in my back pocket as spending money on short notice.

I realise I’m horribly old fashioned, I actually asked Stefs father for permission to marry his daughter, we were both 24 at the time, but it was the way things were done, and while it was more courtesy, it was still something that added to the value of what we were doing.

I guess things have changed, and now you can be as rude, impolite, ignorant and downright rude to your brides parents and think nothing of it.

I wish her well, pity she has lost her father, my Mum disowned Mel long ago, and refused to see or acknowledge her before she died, I’ve had to make the same decision and disown her as well finally, despite spending the last decade writing to her, without a reply, and trying to keep some communication open.

Damian and Mel
Peter the Plumber and I have been putting up election billboards for the coming election, he’s a strong Labour Party man, with Green leanings, after the time I spent in the Green Party, and having worked within the Labour Party before that, and now voting National, we have some interesting discussions while we’re driving around Golden Bay putting up signs. And we’re putting up Labour Party *Damien O’Connor Labour* billboards. I’ll probably vote for Damien as the local electorate representative, and give the party vote to National, both of us agree the Greens are a waste of time now they have gone all Global Warming and trying to stop any industry/development or improvements.

I’m not in favour of a lot of both parties policies, but more against the Labour parties ones, if that makes sense. They want to increase the minimum wage to $15, for unskilled and fresh off the unemployment employees. With the costs involved, payroll tax, holiday pay, ACC levies, PAYE, training, etc, you need that new employee to be producing $1600 of value in the first week to cover your expenses. Like that is going to happen. All that will happen is that unemployment among the unskilled will increase, there will be a bigger pool of totally unemployable people, who live off the benefit, and taxes will rise to cover the cost of paying out for more unemployed

My version is that the minimum wage is set at $20 above the basic benefit, at present it is $201 per week, and PAYE doesn’t start until $221 per week and then only on the $ above that. At present we pay tax from dollar one, no discounts, personal allowances, and both major parties expect people to start saving. This is after increasing GST to 15%, no wage rises for nearly 10 years that I know of, I actually earn less in dollar terms now than I did 15 years ago, my annual income 15 years ago was $15,000 more than it is now, and I have less than I did then.

And ok, I do lead a gypsy lifestyle, and give away a lot of stuff, and travel and work at jobs that don’t pay much. I get $18 per hour, plus overtime at the farm, I charge out between $22 and $25 per hour for gardening depending on distance from here, expenses are petrol at $2.29 a litre, my Council rates at $1200 approx a year, electricity, about $180 a month, telephone and internet $120 per month, repair and maintenace of equipment, I’m just up for $560 to replace a 6 month old lawnmower, and I’m having to replace the defunct grass cutter as well at $890. Then there is the hedge trimmer, another $650, and I spend $220 average a fortnight on food. I don’t count Tuffy the Wonder Dogs expenses, I class that as mental health related expenditure.

We’re having the usual Bainham Spring weather here at present, which means the rain only comes sideways once a week, and falls straight down the other 6 days. The rivers are flowing well, which is both good and bad. It flushes out the river beds, which gives the trout good egg laying stretches, but causes too much flow for the whitebaiters along the river as the whitebait are trying to run upstream. I’ll get photos of them once I take the camera out, I’m wary of it being in the rain, and trying to get batteries for the Nikon F50 film camera is almost painful here, they have to be ordered in at the pharmacy, and I never seem to be in town on the right day.

AI (artificial insemination) has started at the farm, we’re putting about 20/40 cows a day out of the herd as they come into season for treatment, drafting them out of the morning milking, treating, once the AI person arrives about 9am, then putting back into the herd in the afternoon. We’ve started to recognise the cows coming into season, they kick, stamp and are in general a pain in the A*** to deal with. Brigid and I have gone back to spraypainting a large K in blue on the udders for kickers, and I end up persevering with them to get the cups on in the mornings. So far I’ve been lucky and dodged any damage, but it comes close as the unpainted ones go into season and lash out without warning.

For people that aren’t morning persons, you’d hate the milking shed when Brigid and I are working. We have a choice between, we’re milking cows, we get shat on, pissed on, it’s 4.30am, it’s cold, it’s wet, it’s a crap job, or,
We might as well make the most of this, so lets have fun. I’ve mentioned the Indian Herd Manager before, to say neither of us have a high opinion of him is probably an understatement, we do a mean imitation of him, dressed in a gold loin cloth, singing Heartbreak Hotel, or imagining him as Lord Krishna with his Gold Loin Cloth, little round fat belly, calling to his little Poppadom. Plus the off colour one liners, jokes and in general sending up anyone and everything.

The jokes run from fairly average to not fit for work, and beyond, in amongst it all, we do manage to get all the cows cupped up, notice any with problems, from lame to mastitis, keep the shed clean, and still leave smiling in the mornings.

I did tell Brigid the other day that I was going to stop all of this frivolity, because people would start to think I was some redneck bigot, and once she stopped laughing, and rolling on the floor, she said, “But Warren, you ARE!”

So I called her a dumb blonde bitch, and she said it was only blonde out of a bottle and she was really an incredibly intelligent brunette, so I asked why the F*** was she milking cows at 4.30 am on a wet cold spring day if she was so intelligent, and she said it was because fecking bigots like me that expected women to be on their backs and chained to the kitchen sink and to just shut up stopped her from running the country, and I replied that if she was running the country instead of being at home looking after her husband and servicing his needs then she would be the one causing the problems, so she squirted me with the wash down hose, and I tipped the bucket we have of hot water over her.

Then we both stopped laughing, and got back to work, singing Heartbreak Hotel, with added emphasis on the “UGH UGH”

Insanity is contagious, we have attacks of it every morning.

24th October

Good lord, it’s been a month. Things have settled down finally milking, my ribs have healed, the lung infection I picked up from not breathing too deeply because of the broken ribs has gone, I’m almost on top of the garden finally, after feeling like death warmed up for the last few weeks.

I’m still doing the mornings milking, 4am – 8am, we’ve got all the herd going now, 1250 of them in 2 herds, herd 1 has all the small cows, Jersey crosses, half Freisan etc, and herd 2 has the larger more steady milkers, mostly Friesan and freisan X Holstein. We’re the first on the milk pick up run, so we have to be milked out by 7.30, so far it’s been possible, but not by a lot of leeway. I’m usually just starting to hose the yard down as the truck arrives.

We’ve had a few minor snow falls, nothing spectacular anymore, just dusting along the tops, and a few good heavy frosts in the Valley. My tomato plants in the polytunnel are looking healthy, beefsteak, potentate, roma and some old variety that Peter the Plumber passed on. I’ve got a dozen mixed chilli plants going, habanero, serrano, long red, cayenne and thai birdseye, with more started as seedlings. Hopefully the green/red/black and yellow capsicums sprout as well.

Cucumbers are sprouted, and the courgettes (zucchine) are through, I’ll put a few in the polytunnel, the rest I’ll plant out when the weather settles.
Destructo the Insane, otherwise known as Tuffy the Wonder Dog still keeps active, chewing holes in everything, and slowly demolishing anything wooden in the house. My good winter jacket now has a pocket shredded, I left some dog snacks in it after taking him for a walk, so he spent the night chewing his way through the fabric and lining to get to them. I was not impressed.

We’re in the whitebait season now, although the local fishermen aren’t having a lot of luck yet, another week or so they all seem to be saying, or hoping, or wishing. Still, the birdlife is collecting food along the river and estuary banks, spoonbills, herons, cormorants etc.

My pet wekas have successfully bred this year, I now have 2 families of about 4 in each, I say about 4 in each as they tend to mix up a lot, and I’m never sure just how many I’ve counted or missed. Tuffy has finally stopped chasing them, we have had several “discussions”over chasing fowls, and wekas.



Other than all the above it has been a quiet month, and I’ve not actually done a lot lately, other than snap the shaft on the lawnmower hitting another rock coming through the lawn, so the lawnmower is a writeoff, it is going to cost more than a new one same model. I had a word with Kevin at Hammer Hardware, and he can get me a demonstration model, used a few times for 50% discount, so I’ve gone for a larger mower with a bigger motor, cuts, mulches, side throw and collects. Marked down from $1,100 to $550. To repair the other one was going to be $868, and the same model retails for $589 new.

Rose Don and Tuffy at the Bainham Store

Monday 26th September

After the Pajero blowing the headgaskets, getting my hand damaged, I was hoping the run of bad luck was over, but it seems to continue on. I caught a kick to the chest last week, resulting in 2 fractured ribs, which makes life bloody painful at the moment, but ok, I’ve had fractured/broken ribs before and they do heal. Finding painkillers that work for the few weeks it takes is harder, and I can’t be bothered going to the doctors about it, so I’m taking large amounts of ibuprofen at the moment.

We’ve got most of the recalcitrant cows drafted out of the herd now, and sent to Hickmott Road farm. I doubt they’ll settle down there either, but at least we don’t have to deal with them.

I started mowing my lawns today, after getting David and Judys done last week. About halfway through and I hit a boulder that has started to pop up and promptly snapped the driveshaft off the mower. Bad news is that it isn’t covered under warranty, as it is fairly obvious I’ve hit something a lot harder than grass, sheared the keyway, and made a large ding in the cutter bar. It is either replace the motor, or get a demo model that they special off. Kevin at Hammer Hardware reckons he should be able to get me a good deal on a larger mower, for about 50% marked price from the demo models. I’ll find out later this week. Just what I needed, and I didn’t win Lotto either.

Took Tuffy for a walk down to the Aorere last week, well, we’ve been going there for a few days now, initially I went down to see how the James Road bridge replacement is going, photos in here, and then we went down the track to the river.

The swimming hole is a lot bigger now, the few high water flows have shifted a lot of rocks around, and there is now a really good sized pool out of the main river to swim in. It is still snow melt water, and it is cold!

I’m thinking I should have bought a house bus instead of trying to settle down in one place. The expenses keep coming, last Friday I wondered why I had no hot water at 3am, when I tried to have a shower to wake up, so had that in the back of my mind all morning milking. Got home, took the panels off the hot water cylinder, luckily it is outside and easy to access, and found that the worst case and a blown cylinder or thermostat wasn’t the problem. The outlet pipe, copper 20mm, had 2 pinholes that were spraying water like miniature firehoses. Turned the water off, took the pipe off, found Peter the Plumber home at Rockville, he did the original installation a few years back apparently, and made another length up to fit, back home, installed and back to hot water again. My next power bill is going to be horrendous I know, the heating element would have been on continuosly while it was leaking.

We’re feeding out hay to the cows as well now. The fresh spring growth from the grass is great for milk production, but it plays havoc with the cows digestive system, at the other end. We don’t get cowpats anymore, rather a very liquid high pressure jet of liquid fertiliser spray back about 2 metres from the rotary rails. You have to be alert if you don’t want to be covered in a long jet of hot smelly shit.

The native pigeons are all back in the neighbourhood after the spring blossoms on the trees, as well as the Tuis and Rifleman. I’ve got 2 pairs of Tuis nesting in the camellias, and some very fat looking pigeons feeding off the trees the last week or so.

There is still some snow scattered on the tops, but it is fading quickly, but we can still expect some more before the end of October although the Aorere Valley seems to miss on a lot of the really cold weather. We do get rain though, I think it is the highest average in the area when it arrives. But even that is temperamental on where it falls. I’m in the middle of the valley floor and the rain often tracks along the hills to either side, two or three hundred metres away from the house. I can be in brilliant sunshine and watch the rain band hitting the hills at the end of the road.

Tuesday 13th September

I’ve been living on ibuprofen the last few weeks, my hand hasn’t really healed up, still sore to touch the knuckle, added to which another kick from a sweet looking Jersey heifer last week on the side of my wrist, and I’m not a happy camper at all.

We’re starting earlier and earlier lately, to get ready for Daylight Saving, so it is a 3am wake up and starting milking at 4am now. There are still 400 cows in calf, about 900 in the 2 milking herds, and 30 in the colostrum herd, which varies depending on how many cows calve each day.

I had my first day off on Sunday, after 4 weeks of milking, plus managing to get some of the gardens done in between morning and afternoon milking. I’m only doing Mornings now, apart from weekends, but the weather hasn’t been all that co-operative lately.

Tuffy the Destructo Dog is still growing, his feet are starting to look almost in proportion to his size, but still bloody large. He is getting better, but still races around the house like a mad thing every night before he goes to sleep. I always know when he’s done something he shouldn’t when I get back from milking, and he doesn’t come to the door to greet me. Usually it is one of my work boots or the toilet brush that he has taken to chew or play with, and I find him sitting on his bed with a poor sad dog look on his face.

Tuffy meets a hedgehog.

I found a NASA photo of the snowstorm that hit New Zealand a couple of weeks back, the little patch of green in the centre left is Golden Bay, well, more the Aorere Valley than all of Golden bay. We were the only place with sunshine and clear skies the whole time.

We’ve got snow up on the tops again this week, and a cold wind coming up the valley, with sunshine, drizzle and rain in between the sunshine. Crazy place for weather.

I’ve lost out on the Naked Possum venture, Jocelyn had to sell out in the end, so I’m back to trying to get my own nursery going with native plants and ornamentals. If only it was as easy as it sounds on paper. There’s never enough money when I have the time available to get things done, other than the spade work, and I’m working too sporadically to get ahead at the moment. Still, there’s no great rush as the usual comment is here, if not this year, then next. I’d like to get it going yesterday, but I’ll have to settle for doing it in bits and pieces when I can.

Managed to get some of my pictures from Virginia posted on another website www.joepastry.com, of the Aldi water mill in Virginia. Joe had a few posts about stone ground corn, so I sent the pics along to him, and he posted them up. It’s the best website I’ve found for good bread and baking related recipes and hints.

Being out in the Valley where I am, you realise how much you depend on neighbours, well, ok, some of the people that live out here are almost hermits, but the majority of us like the isolation, with some people contact. David and Judy just down the road from me, retired couple, have been really sick the last month with a flu like virus that has knocked both of them over, so I’ve been calling around every other night when I walk Tuffy past their place to make sure they are ok. They’ve missed the Book Club Meetings for a while, so I’ve been letting everyone know how they are till they get back on their feet and can come along. Judy plays piano/piano accordian, David is learning piano accordian, so we are organising a get together at my place soon to drag my accordian out, plus Davids, and start playing again. Which means my hand had better heal up soon.

The café and the General store at Collingwood are both up for sale, the café needs a revamp, I doubt it has been upgraded for 40 years, it still looks the same inside as it did when I first came down here in 1967. I think it is only the leasehold for sale, while the General store is for freehold sale. The Store has its own bake house attached as well, and what used to be a café/snack area as well. The price keeps dropping, anyone with the money and a desire to live in one of the nicest places in NZ is welcome. Ok, over winter there isn’t a lot of traffic, but October to May is busy.

Tuffy at the beach last Friday