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 

1 June 2014

Well, the storm we were expecting arrived the weekend. I lost power for a day, internet and phone for 5 days, and we got our first real snowfall for the year.

We had some great thunder and lightning Saturday, Tuffy spent most of the time sitting on my feet, or entangling himself around my  legs whenever the thunder boomed. Naturally, every power pole and transformer in the valley got hit by lightning, I was in Takaka Saturday morning, came home and found the power was off, then that came back about 5pm, but no phone or internet.

That took till Wednesday before Chorus could get out here to check the cable boxes, a few wires got replaced, burnt out, then found my modem  was burnt out as well, second time this year due to lightning. I must admit, they were quick at replacing, although I have an old model that works in a desperate situation.

I've spent most of the week splitting firewood on the farm,  I have enough for a month or so stacked on the verandah now, and more to split over the next few weeks. It comes in handy lately with the mornings around -5*C, and a southerly wind blowing up the valley. Filled the trailer on Thursday, spent this morning stacking it on the verandah. About a months worth of firewood, Stef should be warm while she's here.

I have a lot of garden to clear out over the next month, both polytunnels need a good clean up, the outside gardens, one I have cleared and started mulching, the other summer garden needs to be cleared out, I still have spuds to dig out, and the silverbeet is still producing. It has been a bad season this year, compared to last year. My courgettes all got frosted late November, and the replacement plants never had a chance to establish before the weather turned, so there wasn't the abundance I had last year. Beetroot is still struggling, my dill and coriander kicked off really well, which came in handy when the gherkins I had in the polytunnel started. For once I had it timed right, and ended up with 40 jars of dill pickles, 8 litres of tomato sauce, 4 x 2litre containers of dried tomatoes. Dried apples and pears, I burnt my dehydrator out finally, Sunbeam, ok, it is 5 years old, it has had a hard life, I used it a lot in the Solomons for pawpaw, pineapple and bananas. Then having to cope with 10 trays of tomatoes/apples/pears etc here. plus the herbs, and fruit leathers.  Anyone got a spare $98 so I can replace it? I considered getting a more upmarket one, about $400, but when I read the reviews, they don't last any longer than the Sunbeam.

I'll have to build a big solar dehydrator outside, I have enough window frames and stuff laying around.

I heard back from Terri and Dennis, the Americans that summer here. They are back in NY, and have decided that my bagels are way better than what they can buy in New York. Well, ok, they buy from Price Choppers, so the bagels will be mass produced, not batch made, but still, flattery gets them more bagels when they come back in November. I'll have to get down and clean the tree branches and rubbish off their section this week, and get the lawn mowed as well before it gets overgrown.

Heard from a lady that was at school with me, oh lord that is so long ago, 1965. I vaguely remember her, school and I didn't have a very good relationship and I wasn't there a lot from about 1964 onwards. It was nice to hear from her though, I've heard from several people the last year or so I was at school with, through OldFriends.com NZ. Some I remember better than others, a well as other people who know me but not from school, but workplaces. It's a great site for finding people that you sometimes wonder "Where the hell are they now?" type of thoughts.

Lemon Meringue pie, just to close on a sweet note :)

Thursday 22nd May

What was supposed to be a normal quiet day, finishing about 10 this morning, turned very quickly into a 12 hour work day.

We have some wet weather arriving over the weekend, so Hayden decided to not waste time, and we dried off Herd 2 today, about 500 cows, Herd 1 will be tomorrow, to take the benefit of the dry weather and keep the cows out of the wet and mud for a couple of days while drying off.

2 long days, and then I'm unemployed again till calving starts in August.

I've been looking for more photos to post from the past year, here are a few more, on the basis that if I have not a lot to write, at least you can look at the pictures :)

 Katie dehorning calves

 Tuffy pretending to be a farm dog. You will notice the cows are on the other side of the fence. He won't go into the paddock if there are cows in there.

 Zuleika feeding calves

 Paula and Lucas, both now safely back in Argentina after spending several months back packing around South East ASia on their way home from New Zealand

 Tuffy once again.

 Our new tractor, I think Hayden went over to Nelson for another tedder or something, he came home with this

 That is my Mitsubishi beside the tractor.

 Everyday, a different landscape here.

One of the two sunflowers that managed to grow this year. My garden this year was terrible, from what I've heard, everyone had a bad season, although I have a lot of dried apples/tomatoes in the pantry, and 40 jars of dill pickles and 5 litres of tomato sauce

Every now and then we get inundated with motorbike clubs visiting the Bay . These were the Nelson Motorcycle Club 

 Here is Tuffy standing guard.

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.