House News...

Well its been an eventful old week here on the land. You'll have to imagine I'm typing outside the tent though because I'm actually in an internet cafe in Dunedin surrounded by fellow nerds on a really beautiful sunny day.

Last week our friends Conrad and Sue gave us our first farm animals - a rooster and 2 hens. This was especially generous of them since these are prime chickens apparently, from good stock. Which panicked us slightly when we left them in their temporary cage for a few hours and got home to find they had all escaped. All three. It was late and there was a storm brewing. So we spent the evening chasing chickens from our land to Bruce the neighbour's land, and back to ours, and back to his. It may have appeared funny to the casual observer but we weren't impressed. One hen got herself into a large thorny bush and stayed there. The other we caught, and the rooster obviously thought it was hilarious and just kept running. We got them all back in the end, thankfully, and now they go to bed quite happily in a lovely chicken coop that we built all by ourselves. During the day all three chickens follow Steven about pecking happily. Whenever he turns around they all look up expentantly.

Oh, and we named them. The rooster is called Hussein, after Hussein Bolt the star athlete. The ladies are Mavis and Donna. Mavis seems to be in charge, which is funny because she is the most stupid. Often the way though with leaders ey? I'm trying to get them to have baby chickens, so we need to get Hussein in the mood. I played him some Barry White on the ipod and he seemed to like that, so we'll see how it goes.

Our barn has been delivered! And this week Wayne the digger man showed up to dig the platform for the barn and push a gigantic cork screw into the platform to make big holes for the barn posts (you'll notice I'm learning the technical jargon as I go along here). The cork screw thing was great so I took a video of it which I will post on here. We've also had gravel delivered for the foundations. It won't be long before we have a barn to stay in! With 4 solid walls that don't threaten to collapse in the wind! And electricity!!!! Phew, its all a bit much. Steven 'phoned the man at Delta electricity to find out why it's taking so long. They're a relaxed bunch at Delta. "As long as you have it before Christmas ey?" said the cheery (and very relaxed) man on the phone. CHRISTMAS??!!! I tell you what, if we don't have electricity pretty soon I am putting Steven, Hussein, Mavis, Donna and probably Tasty and Tasty Junior the goats in the car and heading over to the Delta man's house to enjoy his electricity for a bit.

I jest though, its a pain sometimes not having power but also kind of cool. (We will have alternative power up at some point in the future but we decided we needed to hook up to the grid for the meantime.) We have the gas lamp on in the evenings and it feels great to be on the land - our own land! I like to imagine myself as a hardened early New Zealand pioneer, eeking out my existence on the unforgiving land....only with nicer clothes... and decent moisturiser... and access to a supermarket - but you get the idea.

Weather-wise its been pretty turbulant. Going from hot and sunny to... snowing.



Bruce and Rhys (I'll spell it the welsh way until I'm told otherwise!) our neighbours helping with marking out the barn poles:



Wayne moves a bit of grass for us (thats the trench for the phone):



The Morganty boys help us with the new chickens:




Making the chicken coop in a blizzard (fun). Thats our toilet and showering facilities on the right there:




Hussein:




Donna:




Mavis:




The coop! They know its home now and pop up to bed when it gets dark.




Freedom!




Tasty and Junior sharing a moment:




We now have cows down the edge of the land to eat away the broom and gorse. Here is Steven attempting to feed a very uninterested Horny the bull (not our name for him).



So, things are moving on - I can't believe it's the middle of November already! I have a fence for my vegetable garden but no vegetable seeds, so I must go and order some...