We built our new home last year and we love it. We love every little thing about it - except that we had to take on a mortgage to finish it off. It's the first time that we've eer had to have a mortgage and I hate it! Especially now with the world economy in the shape it's in - why oh why did we ever do it! But we love the house and the garden.
However, as I was driving into our little local town yesterday I passed this house. It's one that I've always admired from the road, because it has such well established grounds and beautiful big trees. And as I drove past I noticed a For Sale sign outside it so when I got home I checked it out online. It's a 50 year old house but it's lovely inside (with a bit of upgrading), and the grounds are wonderful and it has a swimming pool - something that is on our wish list but probably won't be attainable in the next 20 years. When we built we got quoted for a pool and it was going to cost around $80,000 (NZD) which is approx. $45,000 (USD). Swimming pool laws are quite strict here in NZ and have to be fenced, and the fencing is just as expensive as the pool.
The good thing about this house is that it's just around the corner from where we live now, so we could still keep our lovely neighbours. And the price is right too and we'd hopefully have some left over. The only downside is that there is only just under 5 acres and we prefer at least 10 acres. We probably won't go for it, but it's tempting - just to clear the mortgage and still stay in this area and have the lovely established garden. That's one thing about buying a bare block is that you have to wait for the trees to grow and you have to break the ground in yourself - but that is part of the fun too.
Here are some pictures of the house around the corner followed by the real estate blurb. It has 5 bedrooms (which is what we have here), 3 toilets (we have 4, but I don't mind doing without a toilet to clean), and it has a large functional kitchen.
I love this little creek at the bottom of the garden.
And lots of room for the children to run around, and look at those big trees.
Doesn't this living room look so cosy and Englishy and it has a wood fire.
And this would make a great homeschooling room.
"It is just oozes home sweet home - cosy fires, family gatherings, children running around squealing with delight, splashing in the pool, playing in the meandering creek & majestic mature garden setting, this 2 storey family home is an entertainer for all seasons & any reason. Sited on 1.8 ha currently grazing horses with plenty of outbuildings (tack room, 2 bay barn, hen house, stables & stock yards). An additional games room studio all add to this affordable family package."
Oh what to do.... what to do? We've been praying these last few weeks that God would help us to decide what is the best thing to do - we still haven't got that answer yet.
We woke to news that roads were closed all around us and the rain is still coming down. I'm glad that we are high up enough here - they are evacuating a town nearby to us, but it is a low-lying town and much further down the river than we are, and also a little country village about 15 minutes away had to be evacuated in the middle of the night. One resident said they woke and thought the roof was leaking and got out of bed to check and found they were standing in a pool of water.
Our land has turned into one great big mud bath. There is nothing like dressing up in a coat and gumboots (my husband's, because the dog ate mine) and going for a walk in the rain around your property, which I did this morning - very carefully, I might add. 1 - because I'm pregnant and 2, because one of my husband's gumboot had a hole in it and I could feel mud squelching in between my toes. Here are some pictures from around our house. This first one shows my sprouting garlic under a pool of water.
This one is my newly made strawberry bed surrounded by the river we are currently cultivating (I joke)next to the vege garden.
And here is a struggling survivor from summer now having to cope with being over-watered.
And here is my backyard.
The children had their art class today clear across the other side of town and it is our day to do our grocery shopping, so I (reluctantly on my part - I'd much rather they had stayed home), sent my husband into town with the camera, so I hope he remembers to take some pictures. And I hope the big river between us and city doesn't rise suddenly and cut them off! I'll be nervous until they get home.
Our neighbourly bonfire for tomorrow night has had to be postponed until next week. And it is still raining and predicted to continue for at least another 17 hours. One neighbour rang to say they're worried about their water-race which runs under their driveway and quite close to the house. We will be ok here - the water race is a wee ways away from us and not on our land. They can always come and sleep here if it gets too close for comfort.
I had a delightful time last week. I thoroughly recommend doing this if you want to get to know who you are living next to.
Our little neighbourhood is brand spanking new - it's an old sheep farm divided up into lots of 10 acre blocks with all new houses, new families and new gardens and new roads. Nobody has been here for longer than a year. We have been here for 6 months, and I want to get to know the neighbours I haven't met yet. I already have some good friends from our new neighbours....
* the family down the end of the street in the eco-efficient house who moved here from England. Our kids love to play together.
* The kiwi girl and her Irish husband in the beautiful two storied house who invites me to card parties and calls up to check I'm ok and if I need anything from town.
* The young married couple next door who I just love. She and I have each other's phone numbers on our speed dial in case we get scared at night when we're alone.
* The English family across the road who have baby boy twins and who are such hard workers they even are out there on their land planting trees and putting up fences in the rain.
* And the school teachers down the road who come and play Settlers of Catan with us, and who our kids adore and who we see at least once a week, and he is going to teach me how to shoot a gun.
One Corner of the Neighbourhood
But there are so many others that I haven't met yet and want to - so I dreamed up the idea of having a mid-winter bonfire at our place for all the neighbours to get together and meet each other. So last week, being school holidays here, I took the kids and a couple of their friends who happened to be playing at our house, and we walked around the entire neighbourhood to invite them to our bonfire on August 1. One of the other neighbours is going to bring his BBQ down so we can do sausages on bread, and everyone gets to bring marshmallows and fireworks (if they have them), and we're going to have a nice social time around around a bonfire.
I had a blast.
* I met the man in the big ugly house up the back. He was so friendly and has lots of fireworks to contribute. A blended family of 7 on their second-time-round.
* I met the teachers up in the corner block and their girls and their very friendly dog.
* In the gray house is a young married couple expecting their first baby the same time as our baby is due - and is having a terrible time with the morning sickness too, so we were able to commiserate with each other.
* The retired couple who breed beautiful race horses. I met the horse family. Incidentally, I love the smell of horses.
* Then I called in on another English immigrant family down the back and heard about their trials with chickens. He offered me a beer (ahem), and I told him I couldn't have it, patting my stomach as I did - and he said, "oh that doesn't matter - you can still have one" !!!!!!!!
I grew up in a teetotal home, and where it was considered unladylike for a woman to have a beer, especially when it is straight from the bottle. But I politely declined and settled for water, which he thought was hillarious! I tell you - people are interesting!
* And on the way back I met a gorgeous couple who have just moved here from Sweden and are renting the vacant house next door. I love their accent - and they told my horse-loving-prays-every-night-for-a-horse-daughter their horses love carrots and she can come up any time.
In between times I called in for a cup of tea and a chat at some old familiars.
I have two more houses to get to and hope to visit today after I go into town to see my obstetrician for a check up.
I just love my neighbourhood and I love the people in it. They are all different but all so interesting, and I'm so glad we're going to be getting together soon. Everyone is really enthusiastic about it and so glad that someone took the initiative to do something.
When we had the snow last week I had lost the cord to download my pictures from the camera onto the computer, so I am late getting these up, but here is one of my favourite pictures taken from my son's bedroom and looking west just as the snow started falling. I love the way it sticks to the window.
And here are some pictures from our larger dumping a few weeks previous, taken the day after. This first one looks west towards the southern alps over my neighbour's land.
And this last one is looking over the south end of my vegetable garden (buried way in there) towards the Port Hills in the distance. Between our land and those hills is the city of Christchurch and we are half an hour's drive out from the city limits, so those hills look a whole lot closer than they really are.
I am not an American, but want to say Happy 4th of July to all of you who are. As I read over your blog entries and see how proud you are to be Americans, you all have got me feeling patriotic today, but towards my own country of New Zealand. I live in a free land too - we are still part of Great Britain, but in name and heritage only these days.
I have spent two 4th of July's in America, and I love America. There was a time in my life when I wanted to become a citizen of the USA . I did not miss my country at all - I never got homesick. I learned the words to your national anthem. I recited the Pledge of Allegiance until I knew it by memory. I know all the States and most of the State capitals. I can tell by your accents which part of the USA you're from, and I'm following your elections closely with interest. In my heart I adopted America as my homeland. I love Americans and there is something about your culture that just suits me, but it all changed dramatically for me one June day in 1993, and I had to return back to New Zealand.
It was hard for me at first to accept that I was back in New Zealand, and may in fact never return to America (especially now as I hate to fly). But I have had a change of heart - I think New Zealand is the best place to be on earth! We are so blessed to live in these beautiful south sea islands. We're way out in the middle of nowhere - at the bottom of the earth, you might say, surrounded by the ocean. We're old-fashioned compared to the rest of the world, and slightly unsophisticated. If you turn your clocks back about 20 years, that's where you'd probably find us.
We're surrounded by the sea, no way out except by air or boat. We have four definite seasons, so we can be self-sufficient. We have mountains, lakes, rivers, valleys, volcanoes, golden beaches, no snakes, no poisonous spiders, no wild animals that will kill you and we only have about 4 million people, so we're not crowded. I love it here. As much as I love America still and miss some of things over there that make America unique, I am in love with my country - with my heritage - with my people. I am a true daughter of New Zealand. Some of my ancestors were Maori (native New Zealanders), and some were English and some were Scottish. Some people in the world don't even know where New Zealand is. We're not a super power, we're not influential, we're not famous for anything except our beautiful scenery and Sir Edmund Hilary. And in these days of uncertainty it's nice to be unknown.
We have a beautiful national anthem. Here is a youtube link to a more upbeat version of our anthem that was popular in the 1980's. It has wonderful pictures of some of our scenery.
1. The only country in the history of the world where christian missionaries preceeded the settlers.
2. The last great land mass discovered, therefore we are the youngest country on earth.
3. One of the few countries in the world where the indigenous people and the new immigrants have lived in relative harmony without racial wars. (We did have a war between England and the Maori in the 1800's, but it was over land, not race), and I think that's something to be proud of.
4. We were settled mainly by hardworking, God-fearing, honest English immigrants looking for a better life, and who have passed this heritage on.
5. We're even mentioned in the Bible! Yes we are! Did you know that New Zealand is the furtherest point on the globe from Israel, therefore we are officially 'the ends of the earth'.
I am proud to be a Kiwi - I am proud to call these islands my home, and I'm proud to bring my children up in this beautiful free land down under.
"....... God defend our free land.
From dissension, envy, hate,
And corruption guard our state,
Make our country good and great,
God defend New Zealand. ."
(From the second verse of our national anthem)
It is my earnest prayer that God will defend my free land and yours in the days to come.
It's a white world out there tonight, and it's still snowing which means that hopefully tomorrow we'll have more!
We're all so excited. This is not a common occurance for us, and Meredith has been praying for this for years and we have a friend, Jessie, staying from the North Island and it is her first time in a snowfall. The children are having fun outside, except Theodore is not too sure about it. Cricket is having a great time and I love the way the snow shows up on his black coat. As Jessie said, he looks like a Dalmation backwards! This is Poppy's first snow.
I love the way that the snow is sticking to my apple trees and lying in heaps on some of the things we have outside like the chairs and the garden spade. I hope to get a photo of that tomorrow - it's getting too dark now. I wish I had a better camera so I could take a picture of the lights on in the neighbour's house. It looks so pretty across the fields of white snow. I love the way the snow sticks to the evergreen Pines up the back of our place - it's so pretty, but it's too dark now to take a picture. I love the way the white snow makes everything look so good. I remember that quote from the Father of the Bride movie - 'at least snow is white... it goes with everything."
Jessie and I were talking about how we'd like to make molasses taffy on the snow, so we looked it up on the internet and found some simple instructions, so we'll try it tomorrow. The snow is deep enough now in some places. But as we were looking I found this page and it's a delightful read about the old days. Here's the link: http://www.mtnlaurel.com/Recipes/taffy.htm
Here are some pictures from around our place today.
1. Jessie and Hugh
2. The Front Door
3. My Strawberry planter
4. Our Dalmation backwards Labrador dog, Cricket
5. The Loft above the garage - love this shot.
6. The Crabapple Tree - which hasn't been planted yet.
7. The Garden Chair
8. The trike
9. Theodore (3) is not too sure about it.
10. Snowball fight out by the disappearing vege garden. You can see it's getting dark now.
Yesterday, I was having a little conversation with some other women at our French class.
We normally don't get time to 'chat' socially, as our teacher keeps a tight schedule, but she had to step out for awhile and so we 'chatted'. One of the mothers had taken her family to Australia for the school holidays - to Queensland, to be precise, to go to the theme parks there. She was asked how she enjoyed it and she replied,
"warm."
Just that.
Australia was warm.
This prompted one of the other mums to say how she would love to live in Australia (Queensland) because it's always warm.
The other mum said yes, she would too. It would be nice to plan outings and events without having to worry about whether it might be cancelled because of the weather.
The other mum said, "we should have moved there years ago - too late to do that now".
The other one said, "yes, we are thinking about it - my parents who are in their 70's are going over there to live because they're tired of having to turn on the heaters and light the fire in winter."
Huh???
At this point, I enter the conversation with,
"But I love winter. I love getting the extremes of seasons here in New Zealand. I would hate to be always hot. Just at the end of winter, I'm always looking forward to summer, and just at the end of summer I'm always looking forward to winter. What is life without a fire to curl up in front of?"
They all looked at me as though I was very, very odd.
"You do? Really?" asked one of them, obviously with extreme doubt.
"Yes, I do. If I had to immigrate, it would not be to Australia" (Sorry, Australian friends - I love you dearly and I love your country - I lived there once long ago remember - but I would much rather go and live in Alaska or Canada or even the midwest of America or England, than live where it was always warm.
Now, I realize that not all of Australia is like this - I'm just talking about Queensland, which is where it seems most New Zealanders go to live when they immigrate over there.
Anyway, am I so unusual and different, just because I like winter-time?
I took this picture today. We're supposed to get a storm overnight and tomorrow, although the weatherman said Canterbury will probably not get the full force of it.
I love storms, so I hope we get something. I think the North Island will bear the brunt of the storm. I love these clouds - they're in the North sky.
We woke up to an icy cold wind today. It blows in from the South - straight up from Antarctica. We call it a Southerly. It's the kind of wind that even on a beautiful sunny day like we had today, still blows right through you and chills the marrow of your bones. It got me thinking about the other kinds of wind that we get here and how different they all are with their own characteristics and personalities and if I were to liken them to character from favourite classic literature, who would they match. It's only a bit of fancy on my part, but it is fun to think about.
Our province of Canterbury is a little like a miniature prairie. It's flat as a pancake for miles and miles. From the air it looks like a patchwork quilt - it's very beautiful, but we do get some savage and interesting winds.
On the West, further inland, we have the Southern Alps - a range of mountains that stretch from almost the top of the South Island to the bottom. It's the great divide from the wet, damp rainforest climate of the West Coast and the dry flat farming land of the East. To the North we have little hills that gradually spread out from the Alps heading north up to Kaikoura. And on the east we have the great Pacific Ocean.
The Southerly wind is the icy cold, wintery wind. The one we hate in winter, but love in summer. It rages through here like a fury usually in short sharp blasts that keeps us all indoors or wrapping up with coats if venturing outdoors. If I compared it to a character in literature it would have to be St. John Rivers out of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Beautiful, grand, single-minded, 'but with a brow like marble, and a cold and icy heart.'
But the worst wind is the 'nor wester. It's a hot, tiring wind. The sort that makes you irritable and tired. The one that we dread in summer. Like Mrs. John Palmer from Jane Austen's Sense and Senibility. Foolish, giggly, gossipy, 'never stopping to draw breath.' The northerly is a gentle warm wind - the best kind, like Agnes Wickfield from Charles Dicken's David Copperfield. Loved, steadfast, faithful and rare. We don't get this wind often.
The Easterly wind or the 'nor easter is a soft salty wind that blows in from the sea, often bringing a misty or soft rain. It can often have a bite in it though, so it is not always a softly, softly wind. I think of Cathy from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Mysterious, wild, melencholic but with a deep, unfathomnable soul.
I love how our area can be so windswept - it adds beauty and interest to our lives.
I took this picture out the bathroom window this morning. I just love living out in the countryside and being able to look long distances out the window. There was a beautiful light this morning and I couldn't resist taking a photo. This is the west side of our house looking over towards our neighbours who are still building, and in the distance the Southern Alps (although you can't see them in this picture, because of the cloud cover). Aren't the clouds amazing. So moody and brooding, although it came to nothing. It's a lovely warm autumn day now.
We are having a beautiful storm tonight. The wind is howling round our house and the great Southerly is bringing the beautiful rain to our dry, drought-ridden land. We turned out the lights and opened the curtains and watched it and saw some spectacular lightening. It's mostly sheet lightening, but I did see a bolt at one stage (what a treat ). Incredibly the planes are still flying... one thing I'm grateful for is that I'm not up there in one of them! But oh - I am worried for our trees, and my ripe, ready-to-pick pumpkins and the little seedlings I put out for our winter harvest. Can't do much about it now though, so I'll have to wait for morning. I love the sound of the rain on the roof. Here in NZ it is very common to have a tin roof (or corregated iron), and I love it because you get to hear the rain. Some of our English immigrant friends tell us they were horrified to see lots of tin rooves when they arrived, but they really are nice - no maintenance, cheap, and they sound great in a storm! There's nothing nicer than drifting off to sleep with the sound of the rain on the roof and you're all nice and cosy and safe and warm.
Here in New Zealand we are the first nation in the world to see the sun of the new day. Today we gathered with our church before dawn on the beach looking out over the Pacific Ocean to watch the sun rise. We all look forward to this all year - it's such a special time and this morning was glorious - beautiful sky - perfect sunrise. We sang hymns "Up from the grave He arose" and others, and read the Scriptures and prayed - it was beautiful.
It is a true Autumn day today. I've just been outside to check on my garden, and we have the first dumping of snow on the Southern Alps. If you can see in this picture, the Alps are in the background with a light covering. The air is so crisp outside - and I love the smell of the heavy dew that is on the grass, and the little cool breeze blowing all those fresh country smells around.
We are back from our holiday. I hated to come back because we were having such a wonderful time. It's almost as if time stopped for us. We were so isolated - our only way out was by water or sea plane. We could see the planes flying over the top of us as they went from one city to another - our only sign of civilisation for the entire week.
It was the first time we'd been to this house in this particular bay and what a blessing it was. We arrived around lunchtime and when we reached the house we saw lovely posters on the walls with Scripture on them, and a book shelf full of Christian books. Then we found a family-made history book of the Bay and discovered a true Godly heritage in this family. What a blessing! That evening another boat arrived in the bay, and a couple arrived in the house next door. At first I was not very happy about it - I wanted the bay all to ourselves, but we discovered that they were a missionary couple, and the man is the director and founder of the missions organization, Bright HopeInternational! What a privilege to meet them, and such a blessing for us. Here is a picture of the bay: (I haven't reduced the size, so you get a good idea of what it was like). So beautiful! We were in the house on the far left.
The children had such a lovely time messing about in boats. Meredith (5yrs) learned how to row the dinghy, and the next day learned how to row the kayak. She was so proud of herself. Here she is with big brother Hugh (8yrs) to watch out for her.
One morning I got up early to see if I could see dolphins - they are known to frequent this Bay. I didn't find any, but it was the most glorious sunrise I've ever seen. I don't have a very modern digital camera, but it still managed to capture some of its glory. I have others too, but I might post them in a slide show on my side bar later on. This picture looks like the windows of Heaven opened out. It was taken a few minutes after sunrise.
My Aunt and Uncle took us out fishing on their boat a couple of times. And one day as we were heading home, we spotted about 4 or 5 Hector Dolphins swimming around us. I think these dolphins are native to New Zealand waters - they're quite small, but they're sooo beautiful. We were thrilled to see them, and it made up for not having caught any fish that we could keep (the ones we did get were too small and had to be thrown back).
We had a stingray come into our beach every morning and evening. He left during the day (thank goodness), but we nicknamed him Goliath. Here is one of the other stingrays that we saw off the jetty.
Here are a couple of pictures of just playing on the boats and the beach. We had a mini athletics competition one evening which the children loved. Here is one of Hugh and Meredith fishing off the boat with Uncle Garry.
We had a little drama with Meredith - an almost emergency which I will write about later. I have to run out the door right now to take the children to their art lesson. To finish up with though, here is a beautiful picture that typifies the waters of the Marlborough Sounds. I took this picture in about 3 feet of water. just off our beach.
Today we watched the State funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary. New Zealand's most famous man.
He was the first man to reach the top of Mt. Everest in 1953, and used his fame to help the people of Nepal. He died last week in Auckland at the age of 88. I never knew him, but it is amazing how almost everyone in NZ has some kind of link to him. My grandparents knew him, especially my grandmother who passed away in 2004. She knew his first wife, Louise, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1975. Sir Ed sent my grandparents a huge bouquet of flowers on their 60th wedding anniversary. And my husband just told me that his father used to go to school on the train with him back in the early 1900's.
I was listening to some of the stories that people told of their encounters with him, and how one schoolboy just rang him up on the phone when he was working on a school assignment about him. He always had his address and phone number listed in the phone book, which seems to embody the type of person he was - very down-to-earth and friendly and humble.
I was thinking how sad it is that so many of these great and courageous men and women from a wonderful era in our country are now no longer here with us - the character, courage, virtue and integrity, and the classic hard-working, honest, do-it-yourself type of person that our country is so proud to claim, the attributes so many from that old generation had, and the wonderful place New Zealand was then before the world went crazy, seems like something that is gone forever. My own Grandfather, a man who was awarded by the Queen used to tell me how different NZ is now from when he was young and how he worried about us going into the future, even though I know that we are very blessed to be New Zealanders, and living in such a wonderful part of the world and still have our freedom. I worry about the future too, and everyday I have to trust God for myself and my family in a world that is on a path of destruction; and when people like Sir Ed pass away, it makes you feel a little bit more vulnerable and insecure, knowing that someone like him, with such strong values and beliefs and influence is now no longer here.
It was a very moving ceremony, and a privilege to see it (it was televised nationwide).
Last night we made arrangements to go and have lunch with some dear family friends of ours. They come from further up the island and have recently just bought a holiday house in Diamond Harbour which is over the hills from Christchurch on the coast.
As it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to leave the car at Lyttelton and take the ferry over. It's barely a 10 minute trip and we thought it would make it exciting for the children.
They love going through the tunnel to Lyttelton (not me though - don't like being under all that mountain), and then we raced down to the harbour to catch the 11am ferry. I love Lyttelton for its history. My great grandmother Martha sailed up that harbour with her family in the 1850's as a 3 year old on an immigrant ship from England and walked over the Bridle path onto the Canterbury plains. One side of the harbour is very rugged, and I imagine it hasn't changed much in the 150 odd years since then.
As the ferry pulled out, we saw hector dolphins swimming in the harbour near the port - there were about 3 of them I think. They are so beautiful. I managed to catch the tail of one of them on my camera as he dived under the water. You're going to have to trust me on this, but that black spot in the water is a dolphin's tail!! Lyttelton in the background.
It was actually quite choppy out on the channel as we crossed over to Diamond Harbour. Glenn was waiting at the jetty to pick us up. Incidentally, there is something very thrilling about arriving somewhere by boat. We drove to their house where Linda met us and gave us the grand tour. Such beautiful views from their living room. The children loved looking out through the binoculars. There were no great ships going out today, but we enjoyed watching the yachts and the windsurfers.
Here is a view from our walk around the coast, looking down into Diamond Harbour.
After lunch we went for a little walk and took the kids to the playground, but it was very gusty, so we didn't stay out long, and went in for a cup of tea and some Christmas cake.
The day went so quick, and before we knew it we had to be catching the ferry again. The jetty was absolutely piled with people, and they cut off the number getting on just as we reached the boat.
We didn't have to wait long though, but I was kind of glad we didn't go on the first trip, as there was a huge crowd on board the first journey, and most of them were drunk, and it was very choppy going back! Dh Robin loves a rough boat. The rougher the better for him, but I don't like it - not because I get seasick (I come from a family born with sea legs), but because I don't always trust the driver. If I was driving I'd be ok. (I think that makes me a control-freak)! The kids love it rough too, although I had Teddy on my knee and at one stage I had to grip the handle to steady myself as a wave rocked us a little too hard, and he pulled my hand back to put around him where my other arm was. I guess he liked the secure feeling it gave him.
While walking back to the car, we had to pass nearby the old railway station. Look at this gorgeous building. I love it. It has character!! They don't build em like this anymore.
We drove back around the coast for a change, and that was nice too. It was a lovely way to spend the first day of the year.
I have been on here every day just about, reading my favourite blogs, and it's amazing how fast time goes by and I realise that it's nearly a month since I posted!
It is New Year's Eve here in New Zealand, but we like to have a quiet New Years Eve, especially since Christmas was so busy for us this year. We did save some fireworks over from Guy Fawkes, but we think there's a fire ban in place at the moment, so we're saving them up for another time.
There are so many plans and new years resolutions that I have in mind. My husband and I like to sit down on New Years Day and think about our goals for the year. My own personal goals are to become as self-sufficient as possible - taking small steps at a time, stop wasting money on junk, and get the house running in an orderly fashion. I had hoped to spend most of January getting the house in order, but we are waiting on tradesmen to come and finish their jobs such as installing wardrobes and bookcases and finishing off the kitchen and pantry. Until these are done, I can't really start putting it all together.
I have started to sell alot of my old things that I don't use anymore but bought in impulsive moments on trademe (like ebay). I'm hoping to raise enough money to start a short term correspondence course on small farming. My husband and I are starting a new retail business this year in our local town, but I'd also like to put this land that God has given us to good purpose and even make a little extra money from it. I don't have a clue about how to do any of this. I can plant seed and water things, but I don't know how to go about selling the produce, and farmers markets are not an option for us just now with the children having saturday morning activities.
My garden is looking soooo good. We ate our own new potatoes for Christmas dinner, along with a locally grown, organic turkey. My peas are just about reading to pick, and we'll be able to harvest our first courgettes (zucchini) in a few days. I've recently added brocolli, corn and peppers as well.
Have you ever seen a dog try to eat raspberries from a bush? We were amused the other day by watching our dog, Cricket, try to eat my ripening raspberries straight from the bush. It did look funny - he was having a grand time too. On the dog front, we are getting a little Jack Russel terrier late February. Our builder's dog, Briar had puppies just before Christmas, and he has promised us one - which we are so excited about. We don't know yet whether we'll be getting a male or female, but we're already thinking of names. I like Jumble - but no one else does.
We spent most of today outside. I think I got a little sunburned. I am so enjoying the garden, and I love weeding out the horrible grass that is everywhere. It gives me such a nice satisfied feeling when I pull it up and find all the roots attached.
Robin (my dh) tells me that I need to start thinking about my winter garden and the plans for the next 'allotment' which is going next to this year's vegetable plot. I'm also needing to think about hens and shelter for them. I want to get them before winter.
There was a big sale at Briscoes (a homestore), and my dear, good, kind husband went and bought me a food processor. I had one on my wedding gift list ten years ago, and was given a mini one which has served well, but now that our family is growing I am having to get a larger, more efficient one. I've always wanted one and now after waiting 10 years I have it. I'm almost too scared to use it. It looks so lovely and new and shiny. I hate to dirty it!!
A very happy New Year to you all. I am watching the sun go down on 2007 right now. New Zealand is the first major country in the world to see the sun, so I guess that means we're the first to see the old year out and the new year in.
Not a very good photo - I waited too late, but it was a beautiful pink sky. When I was a child we used to say the rhyme, "red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky in morning, shepherd's warning." It's usually right too. Sorry about the photo - but you get the idea!
I love storms and we don't get enough of them here in New Zealand. I remember when I lived in the USA I would rush out onto the porch to watch, or get out of my warm bed in the middle of the night to pull back the curtains and watch the incredible bolt lightening, while everyone else dived under the blankets or rushed back inside. I missed a tornado by one night once because I was delayed flying back into Chicago from Hawaii. I was so annoyed! I was young then and had only a romantic notion of tornadoes. I know better now. Actually, I was even the teeniest wee bit worried last night that we might get one here. Canterbury is like the American prairies in miniature, and we have had freak tornadoes before that usually sweep in off the ocean, and we don't build shelters here!
Anyway, the storm last night was fantastic. It started out with high winds and had been a really warm day. The rain started coming around dinner time, and just after the children were in bed we heard the loud grumble of the thunder and the lightening. The wind was so fierce. I can't remember the last time I felt wind like that. My husband helped me rush outside and pull in the table of my little seedlings. Things were flying all over the back yard area, and a few of the trees and shrubs look a little the worse for wear this morning.
Theodore (my 2 year old) slept right through it, but Hugh (7) and Meredith (5) who had just gone to bed, were scared, so I went in and sat with them on the bed. I threw up the blind so we could watch it, (I could see they thought I was crazy), and I taught them how to count between the thunder and lightening to figure out how far the storm was getting away from us. They enjoyed doing that, and it kept their minds busy so they weren't scared. Meredith said to me right at the heart of the storm, that if she died she'd keep her eyes shut tight and wait for Jesus and the angels to come and get her.
I am worried about my young trees out at the land. Robin (my husband) is going out there today, so I'll have to get a report from him on their condition.
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 3 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
And it is still raining and predicted to continue for at least another 17 hours. One neighbour rang to say they're worried about their water-race which runs under their driveway and quite close to the house. We will be ok here - the water race is a wee ways away from us and not on our land. They can always come and sleep here if it gets too close for comfort.
especially when it is straight from the bottle. But I politely declined and settled for water, which he thought was hillarious! I tell you - people are interesting!
