killer rooster

A while back a friend and I swapped roosters , she had 3 hens and a rooster that were brother and siters. I had three hens and rooster that were also brother and sister. All gold lace wyndotte. Made sense to swap so we could still hatch 'purebreed' chicks. I use the term purebreed fairly loosely as our gwd were hatched from eggs we purchased on trademe and our friends gwd's were given to her by a kind chap who works at sheepworld. All went well she hatched out 9 chicks , we never hatched any as Nev decided he doesn't like gwds and wants to breed barnavalders instead. The friend had told me my rooster , the one living at her house had been attacking people and would I like to swap back, no reason not to, she had finished breeding and we were not going to breed anyway. Sunday we swapped roosters. Monday morning the boys and I decided to back some chocolate brownies for kindy, we needed two eggs of to the chicken house we went. We all went through the gate together as we always do 1 min later Charlie runs towards me with a rooster flying onto his back scratching him I give the rooster a good kick and he backs of, we retrive our eggs and head for the gate, at which point rooster flys at Finley to attack him. Needless to say we will not be keeping rooster at our farm and Nev has strict instuctions to bop him on the head when he gets home. The boys were not doing anything to provoke the rooster he is just horrible. The rooster managed to draw blood on both Finley and Charlie.
So thats it bye bye rooster no second chance after that.

The ducks are very happy , just trying to figure out who's a boy and who's a girl at the moment. I'm thinking we have three boys and one girls. The boys quack and the girls squeak and there seems to be a whole lot of quaking going on out there.

Another big change this week  came about after a small accidental purchase on my part. I found an auction on Trademe for 50 fejioa trees for $50, the trees were all around one mtr tall so it was a pretty good deal. The only down side to the auction was the fact that the trees needed to be dug up from the property within two days. Young Nev arrived from his relaxing boys fishing weekend to the news that he had a small job to do. We hired the trailer wednesday night and drove around to my mums place where two of her houseguests had volunteered to help out. The men set of to dig up the trees and the boys and I had a nice relaxing meal at nannas place. We have hedged two sides of our yard with the trees and it looks great. We need to keep them well watered and hopefully they all live. We will finish the hedge with some other trees along the front of the yard, because we really don't need more fejioa trees then we all ready have.

Last update is that we have a green house . My Nanna and grand dad have decided to get rid of their green house so we picked that up on saturday. Very exciting but I imagine we won't get the time to put that up for a while as the project that needs to happen before that is sheep yards so we can shear our sheep again before the get dirty bottoms. The last time they were sheared involved moving them all to another property and was a bit of a nightmare so it will be great to be able to do that at home.

Another eventful week on the farm . I'm sure it will slow down soon, certainly after a few more years we won't have this many things to do all the time , surely. Eventually this farm will start paying us back a bit more .....

back to it

Right new year better start blogging again.

Farm update. Toby the cat is great he still lives outside but will happily smooch around with anybody on the deck, and he is catching mice. Billy the goat has gone as he started escaping and eating gardens. Jean the goat is currently having a holiday at her boyfriends house for the month. Sheep are still sheeping about in the paddock. Chickens are good loads of eggs all healthy and happy. The newest addition the the farm are 4 young runner ducks who are living in the farm around our pond. Vegie beds are all up and running and planter boxes around the deck are going great too.

Family update, Finley is attending kindy mon, tues, wed half days. Charlie is still doing one day a week with his childminder but will change to kindy when her boy starts school in april. Boys are getting along pretty well these days still a bit of fighting but they seem to play together as well so that balances things out a bit.
Neville is still working the two jobs, he is on a health kick at the moment and has just purchased himself a new pair of running shoes good stuff.
Me I am childminding one girl two days a week at the moment. With the boys due to start three days a week at the end of the month. My study is all set for this year either starting sememter one or two due to fee issues.  I'm finishing up the home help as soon as the agency I'm working for can find another carer to help my one and only client.

These blogs are unfortunatley going to be photoless for a little while as I misplaced my camera at the end of the year and haven't replaced it yet, I might just sneak in some recycled photo's until I get myself organised to get a new one.

Current projects on the farm front are a: sheep yards and b: dirt and rocks to finish lawn and drive way.

 Finley looking happy on a tractor

Charlie having a dip

Not a Cat person or a dog person ??

Yep it's true, Izzy the border Collie I loved but she was frankly a pain and didn't listen to a word i said, see untrained no matter how much jolly dog whisperer i watched on the telly . Toby the cat well .... He definatley pee'd in our room at some stage as it smells like cat wee's only I don't know where so I will have to just clean all of the carpet I guess, and now that I have finally booted him outside after a week of hiding under a spare bed he has now spent a week outside hiding under the deck. How is it possible that neither cats nor dogs like me I thought you just automatically got one or the other. In young Tobys defence his previous owner did say he was a pretty independent cat who liked to spend much of his time outdoors and I did find half a mouse on the driveway this morning. Hurrah the farmers got a cat !! look out little mice. Perhaps I'm just a Goat person....

Looking foward to starting work I have my very own name badge and have met the lovely women I will be working for. Fins enjoying kindergarten but we are still having trouble with the whole me leaving part so hopefully he gets over the tears part soon becasue that is certainly not very nice.

Charlie has been sent packing from Fins room, as soon as I wrote he was doing well be promptly started waking up at 3 am to cry or grizzle for a couple of hours a night. Sunday night I was desperate for a good night sleep as I had some training the next day so I took Charlie back to bed with me when he woke. Big mistake for me in the fact that I did not get any sleep at all with Charlie the acrobat in bed but a good thing in the fact that I realised just how much he moves about at night and popped him in the bed in his old room the next night and he promptly slept through again after a week of interrupted nights. So who knows if it was the brother or the cotsides waking him up and frankly who cares I'm just happy to be getting some sleep again.

Young Nev is much the same working hard and very tired.

The house is much the same, did some grubbing this morning which needed doing those horrible thistles just keep coming back even though it's winter and I don't really want to stomp around in paddocks looking for them, Fin and I did the front paddock today and we will do the back paddock tommorrow.

I have made some changes to our diet in that I now only make the 50/50 white flour wholemeal flour bread,  the whole family seems to be used to it, so hopefully that will be healthier for us all and keep little tummies fuller for longer.... although we still eat white rice and ordinary pasta not sure if I'll be ready to trade either of those for the wholemeal versions any time soon. I have also decided to only buy the greek yoghurt yoghurt mix packets as all the flavoured home yoghurt sachets are way to sweet and awful tasting, I'm not sure if the greek yoghurt mix will be that much better for us but at least it doesn't taste as awful.

my 'baby Charlie' where has the time gone how is he old enough to be in a bed now I can i feel like i've barely blinked since taking this picture.

Jobs and stuff

Good week scored a job, only a couple of hours a week for now but that is just perfect to have my finger in a pie at least, it is with a homehelp, cargiving agency. Fin has scored a place in kindy for monday afternoon and wednesday afternoon, might change him to full day wednesday if he loves it. Charlie has a day homeday care with a local mum on the monday so yes that means I get mondays all to myself , apart from the couple of hours work but still I kind of look at cleaning without two kids as 'me time' anyway.  The other great thing about Fins kindy is that it takes children from 2yrs so Charlie will be able to join him next year which leaves me with two days .......to start preparing myself to re enter the work force when the boys start school. I need to be sure what is I want to do next.

Toby the cat has moved in however he hasn't started catching mice yet as he spends all his time hiding under a bed in the rumpus room hopefully he gets a bit more confident and starts exploring soon. He is happy with Fin and I, however still a little weary of young Charlie.

Home progress has kind of stalled at the moment to be honest I think I've been busy with things away from home and I guess with the stink weather I hardly feel motivated to get outside.

Boy roomsharing is going well , still no guests in the other room so that's another thing I need to organise/follow up on.

Fin is good we are still struggling with the 'whinge' if any one knows the answer of how to get a 3 year old to use his words and stop screaming and whinging the instant something doesn't go his way I would love to hear it. For now I will just try to carry on not letting it get under my skin and sending him to his room when I really need to breathe , the advice is always to pick your battle and I dont think I am being unreasonable with choosiong the two battle of not hurting and using your words eg not screaming. Also perhaps these issues will magically resolve when he starts kindy and we have a couple of breaks from each other a week.
Charlie is good however I have noticed he sets Fin of and Fin sets him off so it's either lovely and calm or a dual whingathon in our house .

Wet week

I have found the perfect Cat he is a four year old Tom fixed and vacinated,  who loves hunting mice and sleeping outside at night, he is free to a good home. Perfect he will catch the mice he wont try and sleep inside and upset Nev my dog loving cat hating hubby. 

I had some intrest from a job application this week, unfortunatley the hours were casual which doesn't really suit me as I need to know when I would be needed in order to arrange daycare. It was however a nice confidence boost to attend an interveiw and know that I still appeal to prospective employers. I really do think weekend or evening work is still best for our family as once I am earning our household income comes very close to the childcare subsidy cut off in which case it won't benifit us to have me working for a low wage if we are paying full daycare fee's. I am also in the process of getting our name down with a couple of language schools as the student I had interested a few weeks ago never came through.

The weather has been a bit grim hence no progress has been made with the moving of rocks in the driveway. Also it's a really really boring hard job. I am thinking about placing an advertisement for a helper some one who lives with you and works four hours a day in exchange for board, although I don't know how much intrest I'd have given it is such a stink job. I think it would only take about a week but I guess they couldn't do anything on the days when the weather was bad either ...

Finley has a new trick which no one in the house is to impressed with which involves moving furniture and scaling a bench and climbing down draw handles in order to gain access to the kitchen at 6 am. Where he helps himself to golden syrup, Jam, sugar etc Dad sat him down for a serious talk last night about how this is not acceptable and is punishable by 'time out' and it hasn't happened again today so fingers crossed a stern word will be the end of this new trick. We are also now using a timer for time out to ensure he stays there for the three minutes and this has made life much easier and time out more effective as it makes me follow through.

Charlie is still impressing us all with his speech and impress's me even more with how much he understands. The other day he ran off with a pair of pyjama pants and I asked him to put the pyjama pants in the washing basket which he did. He understands simple instructions now so this is great most of the time. Not so great this morning at playcenter when I asked "Charlie would you like to come inside for morning tea" and he responed with "no".

I finally have some pictures of our sheep . No close ups becasue as I mentioned they are still pretty skitty. Here they are playing sheep games in the evening they get a bit crazy at dusk and start running and jumping our 'pond' in the paddock. Ok that's a sheep photo about 2 minutes after they stopped playing sheepy games because I came outside to take a photo and interupted their sheepy games. Here is a photo through the window of sheepy games

Eggs !!

Very exciting as I sat in my office I peered out the window and spotted a chicken bottom in the goat paddock it wasn't moving , I called Nev to tell him I thought one of the poor old Bantums had accidently gone to bed in a paddock last night and died. He and Finley promptly went outside to investigate and came back with 8 eggs ! That's right she wasn't dead she was laying an egg. The eggs are about a size five at a guess.

Last weeks plan to kick the roosters out didn't quite go to plan, we got the old house out for them aka the playhouse/goat house/chicken house . Grabbed all the roosters and popped them over the fence within about five minutes a few of them had figured out how to walk around the main farm and were just running around in the front yard, by evening 5 of them were back in with the ladies and the other 4 were just sitting in the grass. So this week we need to come up with another plan , one is going to a neighbours as she wants to breed his breed, Gold Laced Wyndotte, They are a lovely looking bird with nice sized eggs. The rest we need to either build a high fenced enclosure to keep them in or get rid of them. Currently they are all back in the main chook pen bar the naughty rooster that was causing all the trouble in the first place, he is free ranging with his girlfriend the old bantum that is laying.

In other exciting news we wont be having any showers for a wee while as Nev mowed a cap of the end of the septic system causing a medium sized water feature to appear in the yard when the shower was used this morning. I haven't experimented with flushing the toilet to see if the same water feature appears ..... 

Charlie is almost well again a bit of a runny nose but no more sick tummy so that's a relief. He is a word machine at the moment with new things popping out all the time dog,cat, chook, goat, truck, boots, all sorts.

Finley has had a really happy weekend as he has caught up with both of his best friends, which means I'd be suprised if he spoke ten words to me all weekend as he was too busy with his mates.Mixing things in the sand pit, puddling around in some clay you name it he's been doing it.

Sick boy

Highly unexciting week in the household. Today started magically with Charlie walking in a circle around the front room whilst vomiting banana and milk. No playgroups for us today.
Charlie bean was a little cuddly yesterday so I should have suspected something was amiss. A day at home is a long day for a young Fin but he is doing OK, admittedly he has had the help of about one million DVDs. Fin does do pretty well at amusing himself but he does hanker for more company than I can provide, when Nev arrives home this evening he will be swamped with a bored wife and a bored three year old.

We are moving the boys out tomorrow , no not our boys the rooster boys. They will just be out in the main farm helping the sheep to keep the grass down and apparently not fighting, I'm under the impression they only fight when they have hens around to fight over so watch this space and see if the theory proves true for us. So that's the major project for tomorrow construct somewhere for the boys to sleep at night and kick them out. Sheep are just sheeping around their not very friendly so haven't really had much of an impact on Fin or Charlie. Charlie who refers to them as goats.

So that's us home projects with dad tomorrow and all going well and no more sick Charlie a catch up with a very special Aunty on Sunday. Weeks seem to fly by, our four year Anniversary was Wednesday we will go out for a coffee or a wine together next weekend while nanny has the boys for a couple of hours. 

Cockadoodle do

That's right our babies are all grown up we had our first cockadoodle do this morning, at precisely 5.22am. At which time it was still pitch black but Nev had just left so perhaps he woke him and he won't be so early tomorrow morning ?? The sheep arrived yesterday . They aren't used to people as they have come from 170acres so it's probably a good thing stop us from getting to friendly with them.

I have found anther great reason not to eat Billy yet, although he has no balls he still trys to jump Jean when she is on heat. So we need to keep him around so that he will let us know when Jean is ready to have the 'Billy' goat to come and stay for a few days. Nothing to do with the fact that he's my mate.......

I have found a lovely family that are keen for me to be their home daycare mum however they won't need me until January. So Yippee a Job great hours, great people, perfect fit just a little while away.
I've also had a response to a room for offer so if that comes through that might be perfect, supplement the income with the rent until I can start my work.

Finley and Charlie are pretty fun at the moment with Charlie following in his brothers footsteps and being a truck nut. He runs around the house saying trucks as he drives anything with wheels anywhere he possibly can and will actively seek out his favourite truck book and thrust it at you and plonk himself on your lap, plenty of new words coming out all over the show now. Finley is good, happiest when there's something going on,  he had had three timeouts before we even left the house this morning for brother bashing but once we were at playcentre he was too busy running around having fun with his mates to bash anyone.

Pizza Night

Nev's first week of new job has gone well. To be honest it hasn't really made any difference to the amount of time he has with the family as he is just getting up even earlier to go in to work in the mornings, he has always left before we are up. He is going to bed a bit earlier, but all in all says he is coping well so that's great news it will make life a bit more comfortable. The house seems to be running smoothly too so I must have found myself a nice routine.

I have started a family tradition of having Pizza night on Friday. A bit dorky to have a set meal but it's nice to have a tradition and Fin enjoys making it with me, we make the dough in the bread maker and just add what ever we have to the top.

Saturday will see us completing some chores, I'm going to build a little table to put the goat food on. I read somewhere it's not good for them to have to lean all the way to the ground to eat, and it should stop them from stomping in each others bowls. We have an old side table frame which I will just put some wood on top of . If the weather is better hopefully we can move some rocks out the front we have decided to try and tidy the driveway up a bit. Nev has drawn an awesome Birdseye view picture of the outdoors layout.

very cool he spent a while doing it , showing house, deck, planter boxes, gardens, water tanks sheds, driveways. I think it's still a work in progress but it's nice to have a bit of a plan in mind and it's easier to chat about it and move things around this way than building it and then deciding it's stink. Btw Russ, Ruth, Tilly and Fins veggie garden still stands but I think it's going to have a bit of an extension from young Nev. The line between my triangle garden and the deck is where we are planning on having the driveway finish, also going around the front corner of the house is just going to remain driveway metal for now but one day will become something a bit prettier and be called a path. The garden in front of the front window is already in just needs me to get around to barrowing a bit more dirt up to it and taking a picture. Again framed in wood pile wood and looking not to shabby.

Oh yeah the boys, Poor Charlie looks like a beaten child. He fell of the deck the other day and ended up with a great big graze on his noggin. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why on earth he would just go and head dive of the deck as he's really good at stopping before edges and going backwards when he does want to hop down. My answer was to come later that day when he climbed onto his trike. Great stuff that he has figured out how to ride his bike not so great that he hasn't mastered the art of going fowards, poor little lad must have done a backwards motorbike sumersault of the edge of the deck. Yes this is the deck with the rocks and clay around the outside, hence the grazed head.
Fin is great so happy to be back at playcentre , his confidence is really impressive and he is building great little relationships with the other children and mothers. Very proud of my little boy.

Worms

Just to add some more excitement to my previous gloomy rainy day post. The boys have worms !! Yep that's right it was previously suspected even joked about in our family. But I can confirm the family has worms,  I won't get any more specific than that otherwise someone will grow up and disown me but I have seen it with my own eyes.

Rainy days

Yep it's pretty grim at the farm. We haven't been outside in many days as it is too windy and rainy for the young men. The gas bottles ran out on friday which is pretty good, they do all of our hot water and the hob on the oven they have lasted well at almost 8 months. The power has been pretty good during the storm, there were multiple cuts on sunday but none of them lasted more than five minutes so I was happy. I did however pop a torch in my pocket just incase after it got dark.

We have all been sick over the last week as well with yet another tummy bug doing the family. That would be our third or fourth stomach bug this year. I am happy to report everyone is better now so we will be able to get back into our routine now that those pesky school holidays have finished.

Neville has taken on a cleaning contract so will now be doing 12hr days, 8 hours work, 2 hours cleaning and about 45mins each way on the commute. Poor boy I think winter will be tough for him as he certainly won't be seeing much daylight.

 

goldfish brain

I have a terrible memory I have just been outside and realized I've missed a few proceeds of the garden.

Daikon Radish's grew great I ate them no one else did and I haven't planted anymore. Beans, Nev is an amazing bean grower unforgivably the stink bugs agreed and ate them all, and then the trampoline flew through them and knocked over there bamboo sticks holding them up, at which point Nev pulled them all out, I'm hoping he grows some more next year as they were very yummy. Note the trampoline is also know tied down so we shouldn't have that problem again. Nev has chillies, Vietnamese mint, thyme, and rosemary in his herb garden. I have planted the mint in between the two water tanks and it is just settling in there too. I also have a round parsley plant in my garden which is yummy. The Garlic chives in my garden are very happy too they taste good in most things eggs and rice especially. I think that's everything we eat or have eaten from our gardens ....

this could work ??

OK I have just found this recipe online however I don't buy milk we only use powdered milk at home so I'm assuming I will just make four cups of powdered milk as per instructions on milk powder packet and then add the required amount of extra milk powder.  Also I don't own a cooking thermometer just a family thermometer for when we are sick I don't think I want to use this and I think it might not be suitable for use at those temperatures anyway, Do I really need a thermometer has anyone made yogurt without one ?? Off course next year I would like to be making our yogurt using goat milk but that is a wee way away so I think I need to figure this out for now and worry about that later . 

Homemade Yogurt Recipe

4 cups of fresh, organic 2% milk
1/3 cup of powdered milk
1/2 cup organic yogurt (this will be your starter)

Making yogurt begins with milk. Readers of 101 Cookbooks will not be surprised with the advice to buy organic milk that is fresh as possible. Slowly heat the milk on the stove over low-medium heat.

At this point you can choose to add powdered milk. Powdered milk creates thicker yogurt that takes less time to ferment. It's optional if you are using whole milk or two percent. Some skim and one percent milk include added milk proteins which make the product taste less watery and will behave the same way as if you added powdered milk.

For your first batch we are going to go with two-percent milk plus 1/3 cup of powdered milk. This combination of milk with the powder will produce a delicious, basic yogurt.

The most tedious thing about making yogurt is watching the milk get hot. You need it to hit 170 degrees, but not have it boil. So you want to pay attention to the pot and have a thermometer at hand. Once you've hit the target temperature, remove from heat and then wait for the milk to cool. Unless you put the pot in the refrigerator it will take some time to cool to 108-112 degrees.

If you are using existing yogurt as a starter, have it handy in a cup. When the milk is cooled to the proper temperature, mix a small amount it in with the yogurt. This will break up the yogurt and makes blending it with the rest of the milk easier. Once you add the starter, the milk can be placed in the pre-heated yogurt maker for four to eight hours. Refrigerate before serving. Makes one quart.

 A little mini update on food from home while I'm here. Still no chickens laying. We haven't eaten any roosters yet. We haven't eaten Billy(Goat) yet. My silverbeet is still awesome and we eat that regulary. One carrot grew but it took months and tasted horrible. I pulled out all the broccoli as it was covered in greeen catterpillars. The accidental Tomatoes are still growing under the pohutakawa tree , we have eaten one and it was a bit soft not quite the right texture. We still have four or five pumpkins to eat from my vine and they are lovely. Tree's we have planted are Tamarilo, Fejoia, Lime, Lemon, Orange, No fruit yet obviously. Although playcentre has a lovely hedge of fejoa tree's and we always take a bag home and the boys eat them whole .
Home made bread is the staple carbohydrate in our house along with home popped popcorn. I am going to buy one sack of wholemeal and one sack of white when our flour runs out and start making 50/50 bread with the idea of maybe moving to full wholemeal bread once we are used to that.
As you know homemade yoghurt is a work in progress and homemade cheese will start when we have a nanny goat.
The sheep should be here soon and we can start eating them next year. Need to keep talking to neighbors about who is killing what when with the hope of getting some home-kill meat in the freezer, just need to get the cash behind us to be able to spend a few hundred on meat in one hit rather than drizzling it away at the supermarket every week. 
So still buying groceries every week but the bill has decreased and the amount of packaging is getting lower.

I had a little case of feeling sorry for myself yesterday when visiting friends in Mairangi bay because they are able to walk to the park or the beach. Yes I miss footpaths , but we are able to do more at home so I guess Either way you can't have it all. There are positives and negatives to living rural or living in suburbia. Yes Fin is not so great as his suburban friends on his scooter but he is probably much better at feeding chickens and wearing bare feet on rocks or running in long grass. But ahhh how I longed to have the freedom to leave the house without jumping in the car.

 I am also considering a little project called an AFM,  auckland free month. Off course Nev will still go there everyday for work but I would not be going there for any visits that would force us to do more around the house on weekends and enjoy more of the local area. Save petrol money and reduce my big fat carbon footprint in the car.

Still hunting for part time work , Trying to remain positive I won't keep count of how many jobs I don't get because I only really need to get one .

Yoghurt

Wee hee I've made my first batch of yoghurt yum! Definatley the way foward I think packets to make yoghurt from are about $2 cheaper than yoghurt. Although I really need to learn how to make it properly from old yoghurt plus milk I think , will do some research and hopefully not food poison myself in the process.

My next food stuff to takle is going to be hummus the boys love it so if I can figure out how to make tasty stuff myself that's an easy quick snack for everyone.

This will be our first winter in the new house so it should be interesting to see how we go as we haven't installed a heat pump or fire place, we have a couple of those horrible column heaters,  hopefully we won't need to use them. Last winter Fin was suffering from asthma like attacks at night time so it will be interesting to see if he suffers again this year. He was never officially diagnosed as an asthmatic but he was prescribed an inhaler and did wake during the night unable to breath properly. We were however living in a damp cold home so it will be interesting to see how his health goes this year. 

Goats and Chickens are fine. Nev finds the occasional chicken on the wrong side of the fence and clips it's wing and then sends it back over the fence.  The sheep are not here yet but I'm looking foward to their arrival, the paddoks look a mess with long long grass everywhere. My dirt pile is probably about one third left after building my second garden under the front window frame, I won't photograph it until Nev and I have moved some logs up to frame it it looks a bit scruffy at the moment. I think the projects might slow down a bit over the winter as it really is quite windy and freezing in our little valley.

anyone need a kayak ??? Nev is popping it on trade-me this week

Compact year.......

Right looks like we are officially trendy and there is a word for us ! and a whole group of Americans did the same thing so it must be cool. I think they called it 'the compact year'. The basic idea being that you go a year without buying anything new, aside from food and toiletries.

I made my decision that I don't need to buy anything new for a year at my second consecutive weekend attending school galas. So much stuff that is still perfectly fine that people don't need/want any more. I filled two bags of kitchen bits and two bags of books for $4.00 , there were also a couple of rooms full of clothing and being a pretty average sized women I'm pretty sure I would have easily been able to fill a couple of bags in there too.

It's not going to be a true family year compacting because I'm guessing Nev is still going to buy his clothes new, but he's very tall and there tend not to be so many second hand clothes for men as there are for women. Men are more likely to avoid shopping at all costs and wear favorites until they die. Women however see shopping for new clothes as a hobbies so it's pretty easy to pick up near new items for me. I think the kids pretty much already live on hand me downs anyway, they are already so cool and living the compact life.

Speaking of Nev he has made the decision to sell his kayak , and spend the cash on wood for planter boxes, and a telly. Sad day for the kayak but as he pointed out he doesn't have time to use it anymore and it will just sit around and get sun damage anyway so might as well sell it while it's still worth a little bit. It will be really nice to get the planter boxes built around the deck as that will be the last of the clay gone before winter , hooray ! I'm also pretty excited about a telly too as apparently you can buy a little box for fairly cheap so that you can plug your external hard drive straight into your telly. So I can sit in the lounge and watch the telly all evening and Nev can sit in his office and play on his computer undisturbed all evening, ahhh married life.  

Nev and Charlie have just come out the other side of a cold and are both doing much better. I'm just starting to feel a bit run down so hope I can avoid it and Fins seems to be a bit whingey but one can never be sure if he's actually any worse than normal because he's sick or if I'm just less tolerant of his three year old whingeyness than usual as I'm feeling less than 100% .

Charlie wanting to help Fin and Soph's in the kitchen baking biscuits, I should have taken a photo from behind the bench too, he is standing on this little hippo footstool awww.

May I please be excused I am going for a poo

No that isn't why i've missed a week of blogging just Fins coolest saying at the moment that I wanted to share.
We missed last week because I was slack at the start of the week and than Nev took the computer away to a party with him over the weekend. 


Still busy applying for jobs no luck yet but will keep trying, rejection is stink. I don't think I have ever really had this much trouble looking for work before but that was before I moved to the middle of nowhere and had two dependent children. I'm probably not as attractive a perspective employee as I used to be. Will keep pursuing homebased child care and also look into taking on a lodger . These options are still limited by locality but I feel I might have some luck eventually . Currently doing a bit of a sell on trademe, It's great to know we are not having any more kids so as soon as Charlie grows out of anything I can get rid of it I guess selling things isn't the greatest answer to raising cash because eventually I might run out of stuff..... I will think about that when it happens.


The house is going well Chickens and goats are all behaving and staying where they should be. Nev took Fin to milk a neighbours goat the other night and they bought home 1 ltr of Goat milk both the boys drank it happily so that was good to know they do like it before we go and kid Jean and turn her into a milking goat. Chickens are still lovely .. no eggs yet ... I suspect we may not get eggs until spring or summer because they are just about to reach the age of lay about 5mnths but the days are also getting colder and darker and I think they need 16hrs of daylight to lay. The little black bantam is the tamest of all and apparently she flew onto Nev's shoulder the other night.

I am part way though my garden under the window I just need my lovely husbands help to move up the big logs from the log pile to use as frames and than I can plant some lovely little plants I picked up at the local kindergarten gala on the weekend. Small town gala's and fairs are fantastic, I had the lovely nanny with me and the lovely young Soph. Everyone had a great time purchasing toys and clothes for around 10c a piece and the highlight of the day was the fire Engine ride for $1 !!  Great economic way to take small children out for the day.

I also made my first batch of Laurie bread the other day yum ! Butter instead of oil is certainly the way foward. Made a couple of batches of fejoia Jam too, not sure if I'm a big fan or not but I don't love fejoia's either , will just carry on making Jam's out of whatever fruits happen to be in season and being given away or sold ridiculously cheap.

work ??

Neville is just completing his fourth chicken house building ! Goodness me he will be able to start his own business soon. We have just put the teenage chickens in with the first lot of chickens and it is going really well. Mum the old Bantam is beating anyone who comes anywhere near any of her babies so they should all be fine. We wont be purchasing any more fertilised Eggs from the Internet now just breeding our own. Although in saying that I'm not sure how old a rooster needs to be before he can fertilise an egg .. maybe I will double check that before I make any commitments. The first bunch of chicks we will try and hatch will be bantams because they are such good little mums and go broody every five minutes, some for us and some for the folk further north.
Even though none of our chooks are laying at the moment I am really enjoying having chickens. Even if I ever have to move back to the burbs I will make sure to have a couple of chickens in the back yard they make lovely pets and are the best little waste disposal units for kitchen scraps.

I'm currently on the search for part time work and did some CV dropping last week just shop work a couple of nights a week and a day of the weekend. I hope I hear back from somebody . I'm really looking forward to having somewhere to be a few days a week and bringing in a little bit of cash of my own even if it's only a little it will be nice to be bringing home some bacon of my own. I am really enjoying spending the little bacon I do on locally grown produce at the moment at a honesty box type arrangement up the road. My silver beet is on the table most nights and pumpkin is making a fairly regular appearance on the menu too.

Finley is well, the brother bashing has all but ended and the whinging is on the decrease. The new sneaky trick is to squash the brother or hold onto an arm or a leg so we will need to get tough on these too.

Charlie has reached an age of trying to be fussy. I'm doing my best to ignore this in the hope that he gets over it when he figures out he is still hungry and he's not going to get anything else just because he is silly enough to spit the food offered back out. Fin is the opposite at the moment eating a ridiculous amount of food , he started his day with four weetbix this morning just to give you an idea of the portions this small man is consuming.

I've also got to say I'm really enjoying not having a dog at the moment. Dogs are kind of messy , and they require quite a bit of time .....  but ....... wasn't she lovely

Gardens gardens gardens

As the title suggests it's gardening time. My beautiful triangle is beautiful but I have decided I want a nice little garden under the front window and to start shelter belting. My under window garden progress so far has involved digging up some rocks (metal) what ever you want to call it. I now need to get Nev to help me move up some logs from the wood pile to use as framing and then start filling it in from the ready compost that has accumulated in the same pile (that must be why we haven't done anything about that pile of logs for the last three years). My shelter belt preparation so far has involved instructing Nev to leave his grass clipping piles next to the fence line. Granddad will be bringing the plum tree cuttings some time in the autumn perfect time to plant. I will then need to source some bark to scatter underneath to avoid needing to weed or needing to keep bother Nev about where to put his grass clippings. I also really really need to start killing the grass on the wrong side of my triangle garden as this really should be driveway and looks very scruffy.

Big money projects coming up in order are sheep, planter boxes. The sheep will arrive next month wowee 10 sheep. Four to fatten and 6 to start a heard from. Luckily we have a good neighbour who is pointing us in the right direction along the lines of what our acerage can support etc etc.

Planter boxes will be a biggie in smartening the place up as the will cover up the final clay spaces !! and we will trellis the back of the one on the side of the house to block out the veiw  of our working area, septic system, water tanks, chicken housing, compost bin, incenerator. All the ugly stuff that you need. Will photograph ugly area's for you next week but I assure you the whole lot just looks a bit scruffy.

On the note of spending all this money, I am still searching for part time work here is my advertisement on a local website . I also need to get my bottom down to this puhoi playgroup I keep blabbing on about and put up a little add there too. I am still looking through trademe and seek from time to time but there really doesn't seem to be much that interests me. I'm looking to either start doing more home based childcare or maybe a part time job say one evening and one weekend day. I guess I'm being quite fussy but I really have no interest in paying someone else my intire wage to look after my children so that I can go and work in a dead end job.

Quick family update. Fin is good our current big battle is the whinge , we have decided to adopt a no tolerance policy either stop that noise or go to your room because nobody wants to hear it. Hopefully it works better than the previous approach which was todays pc parenting advice of ignore the negative behaivour, (translation ignore it for as long as you possibly can before your head finally explodes due to listening to someone whinge and whine and generally make much unpleasant noise for 99.9% of their waking hours and then you shout at them and have a little tantrum all of your own to add to the atmosphere of the household.)

Charlie is still mainly crawling with the occasional few steps when he's certain he has an audience. He also applauds himself and says wow over and over every time he does this.

Nev is well a little stressed about money or rather lack of money.

missing marble

We're back. After the madness that was Fins big day we decided it might be nice to escape for the rest of the week. We ventured even further north . To visit family and friends. At the start of ninety mile beach is a fantastic spot we might as well have been in Rarotonga the humid air the banana trees and the quiet quiet streets, yes we were lucky enough to miss all the Christmas new year holiday crowds. Finley had his first driving lesson. Yes with dad not me steering an ATV on the sand. Not something I would even think to show Fin to do but he understood what was going on and did a great job, ah the joys of boys. Charlie was his usual self at the beach and crawled as fast as he could in which ever direction took his fancy not one to be deterred by a little something called a surf beach.

opse looks like I didn't get a shot of Fin driving exciting that he fell asleep he found it so exciting that he fell asleep


Then our surprise visit to the family farm where progress has been great the gardens put my garden to shame and make me want to get digging and planting,  when I see the vast nirvana's that have been created in such a short time by my industrious relatives. My fathers orchids which could feed the local school over summer, the happy chickens the bonny pigs. Ahhh the good life in the real north our queen street farmer eyes were green with envy. Upon questioning on our return Fin revealed his favourite part of his holiday was 'grandma glens house' upon further questioning 'what did you do there' the response was 'eating coco puffs' hmmmmmm I'm sure that wasn't really his highlight of the holiday but there you are apparently it was memorable . He was most impressed by young Dash a dog whom actually returns the ball when you throw it, he was also very interested feeding the fish in the pond oh boy I think we need a pond. Young Charlie decided to show us all his first steps on the last evening of the visit. Charlie also snuck home a little souvenir from grandads house revealed on our first evening home a blue marble in the nappy.

Project for this week include weeding my garden and putting down a band of something around the inside of fence in preparation for shelter belt planting probably just some cardboard and tarpaulin just to kill all the grass and weeds it will have to be a rather wide band as I don't want to plant to close to the fence as otherwise sheep or cows or horses or whoever happens to be munching the grass in the paddocks might help themselves to a little of what ever I plant.

Nevs projects are still fly screen construction and chicken house building. How ever the lack of funds will mean he will have to be very creative and use what ever we have around the home, more fun that way I say.

My brain is a little tired this morning after the late night arrival home on Saturday and the preformance that was Fin's sleep last night. I think he quite enjoyed sharing a bed with dad on holiday as last night he woke from 2 till 4 just lying on the floor whinging I'm not one to do night service to children unless it's life or death so needless to say I was not happy . Only to wake this morning and find all the coffee drank. Luckily for me I like to take home all the coffee teas and soaps from hotels. I had one packet of instant coffee left and have since had three decafs. I love my sleep and I love my coffee so feeling hopeful about an afternoon nap today and my dariling husband bringing home some more coffee for me.

Hare ra Izzy

OK so not sure about my Maori spelling but there you have it she's gone !! We phoned her old family to let them know we were thinking about getting rid of her and her old father phoned back to say how happy he was and that he will have her back. He is no longer working away and has joined the fire service so has plenty of time to devote to her. The reunion was great Izzy jumped into his arms and licked his face. Going by email dates we had had her since October so we gave it a good shot. He also told us he'd been up all night because he had been so excited to see her again.

Also must note the last straw with Izzy was the two chickens she ate on Friday ! luckily for her they were both roosters that needed to go. I have found another method for ridding ourselves of excess roosters, a partner of a play centre mum works at reptile park and they will happily take roosters of your hands for you. I think in the future we might have to only breed chickens that are easy to sex because roosters really are just a waste of chick food.  Current chicken statistics just for interest 2 old bantams, 14 teenage chickens (born in December so should start laying soon then we will really know who to get rid of) 9 chicks(born midfeb) 12 eggs in the oven (due 15th march). Will have to start getting into breeding and selling I think as chickens are quite fun and you can get a little bit for a pure breed chicken.

Teenage chickens in their run they do free range completely during the day and just run around the yard. 

Young Fin really enjoyed his party on Saturday. I'm very impressed by just how much fun he had and how cool and confident he was with all his little mates at his house. All presents were opened virtually on arrival so he's defiantly got the idea on that one. He giggled madly while everyone sung him happy birthday which is fantastic because I think even a few months ago he would have more inclined to hide behind me and cry at the prospect of singing and being the centre of attention. All of the kids just played really well together with no tears or tantrums. I didn't organise any games but all the kids seemed pretty happy checking out chickens, feeding goats, bouncing on the trampoline and off course eating. BBQ food was great as all the salads were prepared earlier and the men took care of the meat. Fin also especially enjoyed the fire twirling and pyrotechnics. No he didn't have a turn :) and all the other children had gone home to bed by that time but Fin stayed up late to watch Thanks uncle Grant. I don't think I know of any other 3year old parties that included pyrotechnics and fire twirling, I'm sure there is a much cooler word than fire twirling.

Beautiful Wenderholm where I am thinking about having Fins party next year.

Lastly my final life goal for the moment is to fly proof my home ! that was the only downside to the party was the decision to just leave the doors open so that all of our guests didn't roast. The flies decided to join the party too. I purchased a little glade plug in that did nothing, it kills a few when all the doors are closed but I'd say our living area is too large for it to have much effect. Yesterday we popped out to mitre ten and purchase some insect screen and wood and Neville is currently building some screens for me. He also purchased me a little zapper which I am having fun electrocuting flies with today. Much better than an old fashioned swat which leaves a horrible mess. Off course the ultimate goal is to stop them getting in at all. Ahh the joys of country living.