Pigs!

Ok, well just a few photos of Pybus and Porcellus. They were both loving having a tummy scratch today... they almost fell asleep they were so content. Cute!

Goodbye 2009

Hi,

This may well be my last post for this year. Between work, Un po di, the animals, wwoofers, organising pre-christmas drinks and a New Year's Eve party I can't see me getting onto the blog much. We'll see.

Speaking of Un po' di, our new business for those who haven't heard, things are going well. Martha's Pantry in Wellington have ordered a few to sell and also want to serve it (once we get the DHB's approval). And we had a woman come up to the market last week and ask what Un po' di means (A little bit of...) because she had been writing about it on her blog. So, we have our first review and it's a damn fine one, I must say! Check it out at www.penneylaneonline.com, scroll down a bit and you should see it. We were pretty impressed :)

There have also been a few changes to the zoo. The goats have gone to a new home in Masterton and I hope they're doing ok. I do miss Sid a bit but they jumped into the vege garden a few too many times so they had to go. At least they aren't being eaten. One guy called up from Auckland wondering how far away we were. Apparently 7 hours is too far for a feed. But the people who took them seemed nice. They needed some land cleared.

In place of the goats we have 2 new kune kune piglets. 2 little 3 month old boys. Both ginger and oh so cute. But they are sneaky cheekies as well. They took off the first day we got them (I was in Napier so Marty had to search on his own). One was found by Graeme and Barbara's and Rosie saw the other one in her garden but couldn't catch it. So one was missing for a few days. Yesterday Colin turned up and asked if the zoo had, by any chance, lost one of its members. Yes, in fact, we had. So little piggy was returned to his brother (there was a lot of squealing between the truck and the pen they are in) and both sat down to a feast of scraps. Little lost piggy was starving! Their names are Pybus and Porcellus although we're not quite sure which is which yet. They are very similar.

Brother has been sent to Napier to learn a few things. I saw an ad on Trademe for a beginners horse that said she may swap for a young or troubled horse so I called her up and she is a dream come true! We organised to take Brother up on a Tuesday morning so we borrowed Hamish and Vicki's float and had a practice run on Monday. We've never floated Brother, only trucked and it's quite a different experience for them so we thought we should be on the safe side. So on Monday Brother lead me up the ramp of the float, no worries. Sweet! I mentioned that having a horse that didn't go on floats is one of the most frustrating things in the world... I jinxed it again. So Tuesday morning rolled around and we decided to leave a bit early so we could spend some time with this girl and have a chat. Off we tottered into the paddock, put Brother's leg bandages on and lead him towards the float. Brother planted his little feet firmly in the ground and wouldn't move. It started raining but was still about 100 degrees and it took Marty, Hamish, Vicki and I 2 and a half hours to get him on the bloody float. Grrr... By that time I was an hour and a half late for work so I had to leave Marty to take him up there on his own. Apparently when they arrived Marty assumed Brother would bolt out of the float backwards as soon as he opened the back door so he set up a little contraption so that he would have hold of a rope so Brother wouldn't take off. But Brother had other ideas. He now didn't want to get out of the float. At least he didn't want to back out of it. So he kept trying to turn around. It took a while to unload him as well! Ridiculous horse! But this girl has done wonders with him. There's a possibility that he still has a sore shoulder but we'll wait and see. But she's also give me the courage to jump on him and really push both myself and Brother. We cantered and jumped a little jump the other day (I don't think he'd ever been jumped before then) so it's a big step!

Anyway, we are off now to build a pig pen in the paddock until little piggies get a bit more used to their surroundings. And amazingly the sun has come out! Haven't seen the sun much recently.

Ok, I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas and wonderful New Year. See you in 2010.

Kerry x

I jinxed it...

So much for Spring. Today we have been engulfed by a massive snow storm. At least a few inches fell (the heaviest dump in quite some time, it seems) and it has blanketed everything. Very beautiful but bloody freezing! Obviously my last post jinxed spring. The weather has been immaculate for the last few weeks and then BAM, snow. The dog loved every minute of it and did his stupid run around the garden many times. We have a little miniture horse of Vicki and Hamish's at the moment. Her name is Lilly. She was shivering from the cold this afternoon so I hope she's ok tonight. She doesn't have a cover but she and Tigger are now in the shed paddock so they should have plenty of shelter and we have been feeding them hay all day. Marley and Spencer couldn't care less about the snow. Spence was bounding around in it.

Tigger and Lilly

Staking the kaka beak that had toppled from the weight of the snow

Our little lambies, Rambo (in front) and Moose

Marty skiing in the paddock

The driveway blocked by snow-laden trees

And... The View

We decided to go for a ski/toboggan in the paddock behind the sheds which was cool. Could hardly feel my fingers but it was worth it. A few trees have come dowm as well just from the sheer weight of the snow so we'll have to deal to them next week.

Marty and I are off to Waipatiki tomorrow for the weekend while mum hosts her Bollywood party. I'm quite glad to be escaping really! We're going to a beach farm park and hopefully the weather will hold out enough for us to get some fishing in. And if it's nice we might one day take the horses as well. Will wait and see about that one.

I've had a few riding lessons recently on both Brother and Dino. It's almost killed me but I'm happy to be getting Brother going again. He's been really grumpy recently for some reason. I think the spring grass affects him quite badly. Dino also has been very nervy for the same reason I think.

Our little lambies are growing rapidly although Moose (who I'm trying not to get too attached to and therefore is just being called Newbie for the time being) has had a few issues from day one. She was quite weak when she first arrived apparently (I was in Wellington at the time) and since then has been really up and down. She now has difficulty getting up on her own (although she did it all by herself this evening! Yay!) and can't really walk. She can take a few tiny little shuffled steps but then she just faceplants into the ground. Poor thing. But she is improving slowly and I'm not giving up on her yet.

Rambo, on the other hand, is exactly like Marley was at her age. She's a little rascal and is into everything. They're both outside most of the time but because the weather has been so cold and Moose is so weak they have been coming inside at night (much to the dog's delight as that means he gets to sleep in our bed!).

Rambo and Mono

Anyway, we need to start dinner... it's already 8pm and we haven't even started.

Ciao!

K :)

Spring!

Well, almost! It certainly feels like it is just around the corner - little lambo rambos are bounding through paddocks, the daffodils have popped their heads out to greet the sun and our garden is slowly coming back to life after a long period of hibernation. The early rhodos and camellias are out and I've just noticed the big magnolia has put its first 2 flowers on show. Sson we'll have our own little lambies and the birds will start breeding (hint, hint, pheasants!).

Speaking of pheasants, Marty almost ran over our old Ringnecks that ran away. They have made a new home down by the marae. Rex I is looking beautiful and even has Asterix wing things on his head. It's good to know they are still alive, athough apparently their road sense is not so good so they may not be alive for long...

Anyway, we went to the beach a while ago which was fun. The dog got over excited and started frothing around his nose from sniffing too many things...

Marty went for a surf while I took photos of rocks and pieces of wood....

We are thinking of going back to collect that piece of wood to use as some sort of sculpture on the farm. It was pretty spectacular but it is huge and probably water-logged making it impossible to move. We'll see.

I also spent a weekend in Wellington while Rosie was over. I did get some photos but they are on my old film SLR and I haven't got around to scanning them so diddums. You'll just have to wait. The ones of that weekend aren't actually that good because it was too dark but there was a nice one of Dogman and also some old ones of Berni and Graeme in Rotorua and on the Desert Road. They must have been from years ago. It's so exciting getting films back!

While I was away Marty went on a music bus from Waipuk to Napier to play music at the Cabana Bar. He met some old musos and had a great time. I was sad to have missed it but it was good to see Rosie. And I was able to give Jen a hand moving into her new flat.

And a while ago we were invited to Sherwood School's play, Amazon Antics, which had Joe and Rata performing in it. It was pretty cute and they even had a sloth in it! Joe was a philodendron and Rata, a ladybird. Both did a great job but I think they were a bit stunned by it all... Rata was surprisingly quiet afterwards...

I have a busy few weeks ahead of me and will be in Wellington most of the time. It seems all the interpreters down there have taken off overseas at the same time. Oh well. Good for the money.

I have made some progress with Tigger recently and yesterday I finally got a halter on her and led her a few steps. Then this morning we moved her and Heidi in the the paddock behind the sheds (leading her all the way) and the runway so we can give the golf course a bit of a rest. And we're going to shift Dice and Flicker around soon so we can get some paddocks in good shape for spring. Very pleased to have finally got a a halter on her. Most of the time we need food though to get her to do anything. But we're trying to break that habit. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey.

Ok, I'm tired now. Think I will go and give the boys a bit of a groom seeing as it is a nice day and they have thier covers off.

Right, ciao!

K :)

The week in photos

It's been a blustery couple of weeks as you can see from that video. The chickens don't stand much chance in wind like that! Thankfully we haven't lost many trees - nothing like last year's 13 that came down within a couple of days - and the greenhouse has remained intact (well, as intact as it has been for the past year!).

Over the past few days things have been looking up. 2 days of sunshine have dried some of the lakes that have been forming in the paddocks and has meant that the horses have had some cover-free time. They were so content today they had a lie down.

Nicki and Jordan came to visit just before the wind started so they got to play with the animals and get their hands dirty in the garden!

Poor McMunkles was highly peturbed when the sofas were dismantled for re-covering. They temporarily became a pile of cushions and he wasn't sure what to do...

He did find that Marty made for quite a comfortable seat though....

One night Marty decide all of a sudden to make creme brulee for dessert and ended up with a few egg whites left over so we made the cutest little treats ever - meringue ghosts! Oh so cute...

Anyway, Marty's terrible movie, Iron Man, has finally finished so I am going to go but I will leave you with some of Dino's many facial expressions. Well, actually, he's just yawning :)

K :)

Sorry, sorry.... I'm back

Uh oh... 4 months since my last post! That is terrible. I am deeply apologetic. So much has happened so I might just have to put up a few choice photos with captions as a summary. It's a pity that I can only upload 5 photos at a time as this will take forever.

Anyway, we went to the Horse of the Year and loaded up on some horsey goodies (well, rider goodies mainly!) and fenced judged at the top x-country event. We were way out of our league but there were no disasters on our fences so no dire consequences. The jumps were ENORMOUS though at both the x-country and the showjumping. Unbelievable!

We also went to Awaroa for Easter which was fantastic. I haven't been down there for so long... 5 years or so... but nothing has changed. It's still as beautiful as ever - and just as chaotic! But the bloody marys were great and a lot of fun was had

Our little Monito is not so -ito anymore. He has grown into a lovely big, leggy black dog with a super shiny coat due to a healthy diet of Eukanuba biscuits and various dead things. He's a very happy dog and is still getting himself into some odd positions.

Marley and Spencer are big and woolly again and still as demanding as ever. I think Marley has a bit of an identity crisis this time thinking she is a goat. She has started having head-butting wars with the Eidel and Fungus and even taking on Jed and Sid who are now the same size as their mums.

Winter has certainly arrived and we've had a couple of days of snow. But in the beginning it was just a bit frosty. Heidi and Flicker, 2 horses that are grazing with us, have definitely got their full winter coats. Here's Heidi in her frosty paddock....

And a frosty thistle :)

The boys have been keeping themselves warm by stuffing hay into their mouths. Brother is expanding his tastes and has recently tried cider and coffee both of which he quite enjoyed!

We went to a french party a while ago and dressed up in berets and lots of stripes. Mono became Monet for the day and donned a stripy bandana... he did look the part.

Brother has started to accept being ridden again so that's a huge breakthrough! Note the protective clothing though. I haven't been able to ride him in the past few weeks due to uni and work commitments but soon... hopefully. I took Dino for his first ride in ages yesterday as well and he played up a bit due to the lack of attention.

Mono has had his first experience with snow. He didn't really know what to make of it... trying to bite the snowflakes out of the air. It was quite funny!

And, some hugely exciting things that have happened are that we rescued some battery hens that were set to be slaughtered and I dropped a whole lot off to other people as well. I ended up with 20 chickens in banana boxes shoved in the back of the familia and drove for an hour only to wander round in high heels in a paddock in the pitch black unloading them at the other end. But they are all happy (minus one of Tish's who was overly enthusiastic about a bowl of water... poor thing).

AND.... we have a new foal named Tigger. She is so gorgeous! 6 months old and becoming friendlier by the day. She hadn't been handled at all until she came here so she's a blank slate. So cute!

Anyway, I have to go. Nicki and Jordan are coming to visit and our sofas have been competely dismantled in order to carry on with the re-covering that was started a year ago.

Just a few extra photos to end the post :)

I will try and keep on top of this blog more... can't promise anything though!

K :)

Return of the Slack

So tired... this will just be a quick post.

Thought seeing as it has been over a month since I posted that I should at least put up some photos. I can't even remember what has happened since I last wrote. I know that I have been travelling a lot (for work and social arrangements). Hamilton, Wellington twice, Auckland, Napier a lot and I think Wellington a few more times. A lot of it has been overland which makes it all the longer. Whine, whine.

This week is Horse of the Year up in Hastings which I was hoping to get to (will go this weekend but I wanted to see more of it) but seeing as my study has been neglected quite severely in the past few weeks I have had to tie myself to a chair and knuckle down. I think I am getting my head around it slowly but monosaccharides, stereoisomerisms and the electronegitivity of molecules is really not my forte. I will struggle onwards.

Ok, photos have uploaded and it's time for me to go to bed. More study, a ride and a trip to Waipuk are on the to do list tomorrow.

Marty did a gig at the open mic night at the Paper Mulberry and it went down really well. There were people asking for an encore. Unfortunately his guitar strap broke in the last line of the first song so he had to wing it a bit but he pulled it off well :)

Graeme has, and still is gracing us with his presence before he gallavants back off to South America at the end of the month. Here he is depicted with a giant mushroom that he and Marty found at the top of Maire Hill.

The pheasants (Rex in picture) have now been released and even ate out of Marty's hand today. It is nice that they have stayed around and are becoming friendlier. They were in the aviary fro quite a while where they consumed all our chillis and most of the cabbages. Now they can just eat grass and Pro-Lay pellets.

Dog has become a complete contortionist and is found regularly in positions such as the one above. He also enjoys lying across your shoulders on the sofa and sleeping inside our Pollock table. He is quite amusing.

Ok, bed is calling

Night :)