Saturday 16 March 2013

Another week gone

It may occur to some of you that I removed my last post, the reason I did this was simply that much of it concerned Bear and on reflection I thought I was taking advantage of his right to privacy, and its a right he holds to very dearly believe you me.
Anyway I decided to do the right thing before I was growled at yet again.

Now then this week has been hugely frustrating and exciting, with highs and lows all over the place.
The hot weather is now a real concern and the pastures are starting to suffer very badly, we are feeding out already and that does not bode well for our winter stocks of food.
It is very depressing to see the stock scratching for food in pastures that are bare, it is very hard on Jas as he is such a worry wart and I know it depresses him hugely.

On a high note we had Mal turn up with a young lady called Sarah, there is quite a story to her and as you probably know me I love a good tiddle taddle.
Well anyway Sarah who is I guess around 18-19 is extremely gorgeous is the daughter of Mal and Speedi's commanding officer when they were in the US army, he died some two years ago I think. In fact Mal has been bouncing back between New Zealand and the States with regular monotony, we did wonder why and assumed he may have had a woman hiding over there. In fact according to Sarah he has been making sure she completes her college and that she has all she needs. Apparently her father made Mal her "trustee" and he has been keeping an eye on her.

Anyway she is here for a holiday and watching mal is like watching a proud father, on the other hand watching Kyle my hubby's younger brother is like watching a sex mad  manic with his jaw gaping wide all day. However apparently she has Kyle's full measure and the poor man is love sick with no where to go.

Sarah is a remarkable young lady, she is a fully qualified karate instructor and a whizz with a hunting bow to boot.


The boys took her hunting and while they used guns while she used Mals bow and she brought home two fallow deer while Jas brought one fallow home.



I also have had Paula here with her gorgeous baby boy Samuel and Sammy is such a beautiful bundle of joy.
She and Speedi are struggling with their farm up near Oxford as well and as usual these days its because of the weather, the pastures are just as bad up there. It was so nice to have Paula here for the day, we had lots of girl talk. We talked a lot about my own pregnancy which is with all fingers crossed still going well, but I must confess I do get stressed with every new pain and ache, I so do not want to lose this one.

I saw Sandy during the week, she is busy making sauces, jams and bottled fruits for half of Christchurch, I came home with a banana box full of jars, she is such a whiz when it comes to bottling. Dear old Bear has been in and out of hospital again and goes in for a few days again next week, but he is doing well considering.
I took Sarah into the hospital to meet him as she specially asked if she could see him but sadly the day we went in he was busy on the operating table so hopefully she will have another chance before she leaves.

Well thats all the news for this week.

Sunday 3 March 2013

A lovely week

We have had a lovely week here on the farm, it has been busy beyond belief but we have enjoyed ourselves immensely.
We have been working on a new wood lot up on the back range, it is a long high ridge so we have beautiful views while we are working. We have 6,000 seedling trees in that lot and they take a bit of caring for, I have to admit to finding muscles I didn't know I had.

The girls are finally settling down, it was nice having Bear here a week or so ago, he helped settle the girls and oddly he helped me a lot, it was nice to have long talks with him. He also laid the law down on Jason to slow up and spend time with us girls rather than never be home except at night. He is such a workaholic now it was worrying me, but he has slowed a little so I shouldn't growl to much at least now we do see him during the day.
He is so determined to do well on the farm and that is why he puts his heart and soul into every minute of the day. But having him around the house has also settled the girls down.
He even takes time out in the morning to help school the girls, that lets me tidy house  and prepare meals then I take over the schooling mid morning; so we are getting ourselves into a nice routine.

This weekend we had about 20 neighbours here for a BBQ meet and greet evening and I am so happy to find that we have the most awesome neighbours, we all had a beautiful evening which finally finished around 2am on Sunday morning with a number of bodies spread around the house sleeping on chairs, settees, floor and even cars.
Sunday was very quiet in the neighbourhood.

This week Jas and I bringing down the sheep from the back lot for shearing and preparing for stock sales.

We are starting to feel the effects of the big dry up here, not nearly as bad as those poor souls up in the north Island but some of our pastures are starting to look the worse for wear and we are starting to feed out already.

Well Jason has just popped his head in, this morning he is going up to Rangiora to pick up his younger brother Kyle, they will back later today, I am really looking forward to catching up with Kyle.He wants to help on the round up with the sheep so that is awesome.
 He has turned into a very interesting young man, he also seems to have a long train of female followers in Rangiora and Christchurch so Jason thinks a break out into "boondocks"  with us will do them all some good.

Well I best go see to the girls schooling, so please take care all.

Anne