Last week was pretty eventful. We had an equine therapist up last Tuesday to have a look at the horses and give us some advice about what we should do re their bad behaviour of late. She told us that we need new saddles for both of them (which I knew already) and that they are both quite tense - Dino in his back and Brother all over the place but mostly in his neck and hindquarters. So she showed me some massages to do with them to try and loosen them up. We've been doing that every second day and she is visiting again next Monday. It was going to be today but I have only managed to source 2 saddles so far and have been very busy since we saw her so it probably wouldn't be worth it. I'm hoping we find some saddles that fit. One of the ones I am trialing I think would be good for Dino and we have another but I am yet to try it on Brother. I've just been too busy.
The weather has been on and off. It's still quite cold at night so the vegetable growth rate has slowed. We managed to save the tomatoes and rocket that I tried to suffocate in the greenhouse which was lucky. Dino and Brother have both been quite relaxed. So much so that we have caught them both lying down on a couple of occasions. A true sign of comfort and relaxation.
On Wednesday we had 1000 anorexic worms arrive. Mum had ordered them from a woman in New Plymouth who had explained that they had just moved and Mum, in jest, said she hoped they wouldn't be traumatised. The woman relied that yes, they would be. They would be quite underweight. So, Don, our rural post man and his poodle-like dog, Guiness, turned up and dropped them off. Don chatted for a while and Guiness occupied himself chasing the chickens around the garden. You will all be pleased to know that they worms are starting to fatten up now and we're hoping they will eat 250g of food scraps a day. The rest of the scraps are for the chickens and general compost. We're going to need more scraps. Particularly if we get pigs!
The rest of the week seemed to be occupied by work. I made it into the Manawatu Evening Standard from a job (well, the back of my head did) and got a mention, even though they got my name wrong. It was corrected the next day. I was in Palmy all day on Friday and was incredibly busy trying to fit in 400 chores around my already busy work day. I picked up a saddle and carried it through the square, replaced a hammer for the kick drum for Marty, organised some payment stuff and did all the shopping on the way home. I was exhausted by the time I got back.
Saturday saw the arrival of Mum, Richard, Renata, Brian, Irena and Michael for an early birthday celebration for Brian and Marty. It was lovely to see everyone. That night we had a beautiful meal and present giving and thought about a game of trivia but it just got too late. Sunday morning we had breakfast at 11am and immediately afterwards we pulled all the carpet and lino up from the kitchen floor and began picking away at the tough underneath plaster-like stuff of the lino with various implements inculding a garden trowl, 2 spades and a fish slice. To aid our attempts Mum tried to call Mitre 10 for some advice. I folowed her outside and the conversation went like this:
Mum: Sorry I can't hear you. I'll put you on to my daughter.
Me: Who is it?
Mum: I'm not sure. Mitre 10 I think.
Me (to person on phone): Hello, is this Mitre 10?
Phone person: No, this is 111 emergency. Would you like police, ambulance or fire service?
Me: Hahaa, sorry! No, I don't need any. I'm really sorry!
We were all in fits of laughter (except, of course, the woman on the phone)and I'm surprised the emergency woman didn't send the police out anyway because it sounded like we were all wasted hammering and chiseling away the house. I have no idea how my mother manages to do these things. And now our kitchen floor loks like this...
The aim is to try and have it looking spectacular by Xmas (preferably Labour Weekend which is two weeks away!). It will all be wood. I'll keep you posted.
Dinky, one of our chickens, has become broody and is refusing to get off the nest which all the chickens lay in (none of them like the other 3 nests). So our daily egg count is down to on average 1 a day. I researched how to stop her from doing it seeing as she will never have chicks due to the fact that we have no rooster and one idea I came across was to put ice cubes underneath her! I think I will just lock her out of the coop and hope she gets the idea. Ice cubes! Mean! But because she is broody and protective of her nest, she has become very tame. We can go in and pick her up and carry her off without too much of a protest. In fact, she will just sit on your fingers quite happily.
Oscar and Bella came up on the weekend as well adn gave the chickens a run for their money. Poor Dinky got chased into the wood shed and stuck under and massive pile of wood and nails. We eventually found and extracted her and put her back on her nest. She's a very funny chicken though.
Lambies are fit and healthy and sleeping outside in their pen every night now. Gizmo has bulked up a bit from her frail, fragile lambiness when we got her. Marley is enormous and heavy and still follows us everywhere (with the odd detour towards the tulips/roses/rhodos/deadly nightshade). She loves attention whereas Gizmo is much more independent.
There are little cherries all over one of the cherry trees in the aviary (I may be repeating a lot of this information, sorry) and Renata and Brian brought up 2 buckets of compost and peat with mushroom spores included so they will be producing over the next couple of months and we will have homegrown mushrooms! Thanks Renata and Brian! Every time I go shopping I clean the supermarket out of mushrooms. Dannevirke and Waipuk were not prepared for my arrival into the area in the way of mushrooms. Hopefully we won't need to buy any for a while and eventually have mushrooms growing year round. That is my plan anyway.
Ok, Niki, Jordan and Dad will be arriving soon so I better get going.
Chau!
1 comment:
Great tales - although we could hav e kept the Mitre 10 story to ourselves! I hide my eyes when I look at the kitchen floor - oh dear - it will be worth the pain eventually - I hope.........Trust all goes well today and will call tomorrow.
Hopefully Lois will call today and talk wood with me - if not I'm googling madly for alternatives.
It was a lovely weekend even though I could hardly walk up the stairs to the apt. Still, a bath, fish 'n chips and Midsomer Murders put me right.
I promise I will be calm next time I visit.......Missssssing Love Mum
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