21st May 2014

 I work on a dairy farm, every once in a while, we get an animal that goes lame, or gets injured, and can't be healed. This bull went lame, his ankle went, and the Vet advised us to put him down. There were two options, either shoot him and dump into the offal pit, or if anyone wanted him, get Geoff from Motupipi Home Kill in. No one else wanted to go shares with me, so $500 later, I have 318kg of prime beef packed, labelled in the freezer, and 38kg of corned beef.

 All in all, it took Geoff about 15 minutes from shooting to breaking the carcass down.  I picked the meat up a week later, after it had hung for 5 days at Geoffs shop.

I had to buy a freezer, it's about 12cu ft size, it is absolutely full, I couldn't just tip the packages in, it all had to be placed to get it all in, plus the 2 drawers in the upright fridge freezer, and the smaller freezer I have. 

To clear it all in a year, I'm looking at eating 6kg of meat a week, and I'm about 3 months behind in that target already. Geoff cut the T-bones and steaks 2" think, as I requested, they do take a while to cook, but the flavour is terrific.

Back to the farm
We're nearing the end of the milking season, some of the herd are already dried off, we're drying off Herd 2 this Friday, about 500 cows, leaving Herd 1, about 600 cows to be dried off on the 30th or 31st, after which I'm unemployed for a couple of months once more.

I may have a few days here and there welding and general repair work, Stef is staying for 2 weeks in the middle of June, I'd better get some firewood in before then.

I've been here long enough now to not notice the cold, well, I do notice it, but I'll just throw a swandri or extra socks on, and carry on without needing a fire. Coming down from Auckland, I think she will notice it more than I do .

A month or so ago, Mike found out I do divining g for water etc.  I've been helping Pete the Plumber find pipes etc for a while, word got out. Mike arrived on my doorstep  just after milking, asked if I did divining, and could I have a look on the paddocks beside the house for a spring. Told him no worry, I'll get out after lunch. He said well, now actually, the digger will be here in about 30 minute.

Took my wire and copper handles, walked the paddock for about 15 minutes, found this one for him, about 6 metres down, 30 litres a second, it's not quite as much flow as we need, but for the interim, it will do.

I went back out the next week when I had more time, there is a huge spring about 2 paddocks over, probably 3 times the flow of this one, so we'll keep that in reserve for next year.

Tuffy thinks it is his personal swimming hole now though.

An update at last

May 17th 2014

For the past 2 1/2 years I have been helping a lady get out of, and over an abusive violent relationship. To say it has been an emotional strain on me, and also at times hazardous is close. I have had the wheelnuts removed from my vehicle, had a wheel come off on a gravel road that put me into the ditch on the side of a rather steep hill, been assaulted, threatened.

I have helped her overcome a severe alcohol addiction, because as she said, it didn't hurt as much if she was drunk when she was hit.

Emotionally, once she sobered up, got focused, had a forward plan for herself and her sons, I fell in love with her.

Unfortunately, as in all things, she wanted to keep me as her friend and mentor, while she returned to drinking and picking up men in the local hotel. That was never going to work, so I have made the decision that I can only help people as far as they want to go.

I've spent the last 2 months re-evaluating my life, what I want to do, why did I move here, where I want to be.

I'm clearing my house out of all the things that yes, I could do, but in reality I don't physically have the time to do everything. Mums' industrial sewing machine I am giving on permanent loan to an artist in Takaka, Moana Lee, http://www.moana-lee.co.nz/diary , she is brilliant, talented, and going to make better use of it than I ever will. despite the intentions I had, I know it will just be another dust gatherer while what I really want to do also sits on the wayside.

I started to convert the spare kitchen into a darkroom when I moved here, then got distracted, I have all the equipment, but my involvement with the lady mentioned above took my time, resources away.

That is now my main focus, I have a lady who was, and always will be, my favourite model coming to stay for 2 weeks in June, the locations available here in Golden bay have been in my mind since I moved here.

The scenery, mountains, beaches, rivers have always bought me back here, I haven't posted many pics in here of Golden Bay, until I got the firefox/blogger situation resolved, it has caused me more frustration then anything.

I intend to get back into printng and exhibiting,  yes, I know everything is digital today. But a really good print, on museum quality paper, still sells. Wish me luck :)

These pics are from Labyrinth Rocks Park in Takaka

I'll start posting and writing more now that my life has returned to normal. Well, as normal as my life ever is.

Crap with Blogger

I've given up with blogger, I can't psot pics from firefox, and I doubt that this will format as well. It's turned into a major pita, I'll keep trying sporadically, but I'm too frustrated with it at rpesent, it's been a year now, and I haven't been able to post since last November

November 11th

It's taken me a while, no apologies, just a lot of frustration with connections, browsers and in general too much work.

Updates by the month

June, spent 2 weeks in bed with a really bad cold, fever etc, then started back at work doing repairs to the Hickmott Road milking shed, mainly welding the gates in the yard, a few minor alterations in the shed.

July. Started on more renovations in the house. What I thought was going to be a simple strip wallpaper, sand and a bit of plaster then paint has turned into a major rebuild. Firstly, the roof has been leaking through the ridge cap, the ceiling (fiberboard) has sagged, one wall has rotted plasterboard, and mice and rats had made a home in the wall cavity. I think I'm going to be a while on this place. Add in the upstairs room that is in much the same condition until I can hire some scaffolding and replace the window and exterior panels, plus the inside.

August. Calving started early, I was meant to be back at work on the 16th August, Hayden called and I went back on the 10th, 300 cows already calved, and after that it settled to about 80 a day calving for August and going well into September. Having learnt from last year, all I've had so far is a sprained wrist from a kick, and a few sore fingers and forearm from some of the more feisty heifers. We still have a couple of cows in calf, but the rest (1,380) are all settled down and milking.

September was much the same as October, work, work and work. 12 day roster, we're starting at 4am, finishing the morning milk about 8.30/9.00, then back at 1pm till about 4.30 for the afternoon milk. By the end of my shift, I'm getting a bit tired at day 10, feeling a tad grumpy on day 11, then so over it all on day 12. Then I spend my weekend off running around trying to catch up with all the things that need long work times to finish, rather than have too many half finished jobs around the house.

Bridget at Collingwood beach

Bagels, I finally have a good recipe

October has been the same, and in fact November is going to be exactly the same but with the difference that we have mating season started, so the cows have had the first round of AI, then we check in a couple of weeks for any that didn't take, a second round of AI, plus we let the bulls run with them till December.

The weather has improved, no snow, and longer warm days, the rain persists in coming down though. Last month was 385mm for the farm, which couple with the warmer weather ahs meant phenomenal grass growth. The cows are getting 18kg of dry matter a day, no supplementary feed required yet, and we are getting 30,000 litres of milk a day from them.

Tuffy has finished growing, all we are waiting for is the brains I am sure I had ordered to arrive.

June 12th

The last few months have been hectic, or something approaching that. We started drafting the cows into smaller groups just after Easter, not that I remember Easter, I worked through from the start of April to May 31st and dry-off. We had 4 herds in the end, the 2 main milking herds, one small group of barren cows, about 40 or so, that we milked out then culled out off the farm and away to become MacD burgers, and the usual group of red herd cows with mastitis or lame, or injured, that rotate back into the main herd. Still ended up milking 1350 cows twice a day till the end of the season on May 31st. Bridget and Steve at work. It’s been a good season, our somatic cell count never went over 200 till the last week when we were drying off, so the farm got a good payout for the season, John Deere Finance offered Hayden 0.8% financing on 3 new JD tractors, 2 small ones, 6430’s, and one bigger one 6830 I think, and took the exisiting tractors as trade. Plus the associated buckets/forks attachments. All the herd, plus the runoff farm herd have been DNA tested, which will help next season with calving, it gets confusing with a large herd and you are trying to reconcile calves and cows and having 80 or so cows calving each day over August and into September, at night, or wandering off from the paddock and dropping calves in the shelter belts or anywhere. I had 3 calves on my place last season, and found a few dropped in the ditches along the roadside during August. On the home front, I have started doing all the winter chores around the garden, digging over last seasons garden, planting broad beans and asparagus in the new patches, and cleaning out the polytunnel. I obtained nearly 100 asparagus crowns from a lady in Takaka for $20, all 4 – 5 year old crowns, I’m going to be able to get a small crop from them this year, but will have to wait till next year for a main crop from them once they settle into the bed. Polly that does the hydroponic peppers in Rockville offered to sell my surplus through her stall and shops next spring and summer, so that will raise a bit of cash, I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel finally here. She isn’t interested in growing outdoor crops on her block, the hydroponics take up most of her time now, so I’m going to be able to sell off the zucchini/rhubarb/chillies/cucumbers and whatever else I supply. I put in 100 broad bean seeds a fortnight ago, which have all come through, I’ll start more towards the end of this month, and cabbage and brocolli plants as well. We haven’t had any snow yet, just a few mornings with white caps on the mountains that have melted off by lunchtime, and only one good rainburst last week, about 75mm overnight that had the valley looking like a lake for the day till it drained away. I had Hayden over from Wellington, he was impressed with how quickly the water drains away. We took a few trips around the valley, out to Wharariki Beach, impressive as always, into Takaka and up the road to the Heaphy Track. Hayden at Heaphy Track and Wharariki Beach We start back milking on August 10th, which seemed like a long time to wait 2 weeks ago, now I find myself wanting more time free to catch up on everything I haven’t had a chance to do the last couple of months since Easter. I’ve got all the chicken mesh to put up along the back fence line, a hen house to build, another room to strip and plaster, then paint, roof to repair, well, replace 3 sheets of iron and the ridge cap, and still haven’t worked out how to strip the window frame out from upstairs and replace with a ranchslider. I’ll be needing some scaffolding outside, so that is going to be a summer job, when I can afford it. Tuffy has finished growing upwards, now he is filling out. He is looking like his parentage, Labrador front half, broad head, shoulders and front feet, and border collie skinny hips and back legs. He keeps trying to herd Bridgets hens up when we go around there, I’d love to get him trained up for sheep, he has got the border collie herding instinct, and a good eye on him for trying to outstare everyone. It's also end of season crop dusting time as well, dropping fertiliser onto the paddocks for next springs growth. Here are a few from around the house the last month or so. The weather changed so quickly this year, from a long autumn, or it felt like a long one, into winter in the course of a few days. We went from 8*C in the mornings to -5*C over a weekend, our hands were so cold in the mornings milking we had a bucket of 80*C water by us, and we were dipping our hands in every few cows.