Animal farm!

Here are some photographs detailing the latest happenings at our place. We're going to move into the barn this weekend - woohoo! Conversion into something liveable has taken a while since we're essentially building a flat from scratch. Laying the concrete floor took ages, we could only start work in the evenings when Steven got home from work, and we're not, you know, complete experts... The animals weren't too helpful, I managed to match up these wet concrete footprints to a certain rooster... He's looking more and more tasty by the day (joking!)





A couple more photos of our lovely dogs. Nana always looks like she's done something wrong. When its more likely to be her brother- who spends a lot of time on the naughty chain.



"Nails, have you done something wrong?"
"Me? definitely not..."



laying the concrete floor - SO boring. But hopefully worth it.





Down at the river during a very hot spell.








Collecting our furniture from Christchurch. We hired a big lorry which Steven drove. He thought he was very cool, signalling to the other lorry drivers with all the fancy lights on the front. We packed up the furniture, and I kid you not, there was not an inch of space left in the back. We were so lucky to get it all in! The dogs came with us and rode in the cab. They slept most of the way, although Nana likes to look where she's going through the front window. Nails keeps his head down and looks mildly annoyed if you go through a corner at any speed.





We came home to find that 5 of Donna's eggs had successfully hatched! We have 4 yellow chicks and one black one. I can't wait to see how they'll turn out. She led them all down the ramp to the grass at the back of the coop where she shows them how to peck, and keeps them warm in her feathers.



This one was all sleepy:







Thats all for now. I need to go and stare at the chicks again - my new hobby!

Portrait Special Offer

I've just added a couple of new pages to my website for wedding and portrait offers. I'm going to try and do a new offer every few months. At least until I get properly up and running here in New Zealand. My current portrait offer is for 20% off portrait packages, so that means my $375 print package is now $300! The offer is valid until the end of March.

Here it is:

And here is my special offers page on my website: www.sineadjenkins.com/offers.htm

Baling hay...

Here's a few little shots from our hay baling last month. I am such a city girl, I had no idea how hay is made! For city types like me (or rather those city types who are as ignorant as me) you just let the grass grow until it seeds, then cut it, dry it, and bale it. Which is easy as long as you have a very helpful neighbour with a tractor and a hay baler...

The dogs had a great time running around after us. One person drives the car and all the other helpers throw the hay bales onto the trailer, then you offload them into your barn - oh yes, you need a barn to put them all in :) Its hard work, but so satisfying.

The only trouble is, hay gets everywhere. Like when you holiday on the beach and you keep finding sand for weeks afterwards. I pulled my purse out in the bank the other day and a bit of hay fell out! But I probably shouldn't worry because I expect here in New Zealand that's considered perfectly normal.

*NOTE* -For those who come to my blog to see portrait and wedding images, I have lots of shoots coming up in the next few weeks so stay tuned!

A new me.

You might notice I've just changed the image of myself to the left hand side of my blog, and also on my website. I was getting fed up of the other one - I can't remember the exact day it was taken but I looked slightly hungover, pale, and clad in too much wool. This one I took today in our new barn, infront of the hay bales we cut the other week. I used the self timer on my camera because I am the worst at trying to be patient whilst a family member attempts to take my portrait. My husband will attest to this. What normally happens is, after the 30th attempt I start to look a bit grimacy, tell the photo taker to JUST TRY and focus on my eyes, after which they get fed up, tell me to take my own **** photo and walk off. Yey for the self timer!

Two lovely doggos.

Meet Nails the dog:



And Nana the dog:



4 weeks ago I was saying to my husband " We are DEFINITELY not getting a dog". I didn't want the hassle of looking after one, organising for when we go away etc... I love dogs - I just didn't want the responsibility. Steven didn't either, although he has always wanted a dog. He likes the idea of a dog who follows him around, a clever type who shares jokes with him and fetches him his shoes. Kind of like a better version of me.

So 3 weeks ago we agreed to look after these two random dogs whose owners were going on holiday. Oh and we were told that after that the dogs needed a new home. Hmm.

Nana and Nails arrived, and for two weeks they would sit and look up at us with big doggy eyes that said "We love you. We really love you." So after about 3 hours we gave in and decided to keep them. We're such softies.

Now every morning I take them down to the beach and they run in and out of the sea, I watch the sun come up, and I spend the rest of the day doing chores and working on the computer and they watch me. How romantic! Its so much fun having them about. And there's nothing better when you're a bit down than having a nice dog around to cuddle. And they always want a cuddle.

Sometimes it isn't the right time for something, or you weren't planning for it, but you just have to go with your instincts. Now we have two gorgeous dogs that we love, and we'll just work through all the other stuff.













Nails is a real boy. He loves play fighting, running about, guarding the property, looking after his sister, being beside you all the time, and a good tummy rub. He gets SO excited when you come home that his whole body wags and he does the funniest little smile with his front teeth! He's my favourite.

(I bought them new collars and tags.)



He has lovely soft fur.







Nana is Steven's favourite, she's a real girl, and is much calmer and softer. She likes to nuzzle her head in your arm for cuddles, she loves napping, chasing birds, swimming, burying things and driving in the car with her head out the window. She's a real dreamer and goes off sniffing by herself, getting Nails all worried because the three of us might be SEPARATED!!





And at night they have a lovely bed to sleep in. We made it using wooden pallets, a single (human style) mattress, covered with a layer of fluffy pillows, a soft-feel bed protector (for children who wet the bed), and a duvet cover....what?? ha ha. Nana is pretty much in here all day dozing. When she's not burying things.



And here is a huge rainbow that appeared over the sea one day after a rainstrom. We were sitting in the barn having a nice cold beer from the fridge!





I love a good rainbow. I swear we get about one a week out here.

Right, I'm off to buy some dog roll and more beer. In my gum boots! I feel like such a New Zealander.

Barn buildin'

Two really good things have happened in the last week. The first is that we finished building the exterior of our barn, and the second is that we bought a fridge freezer. That stores ice-cream! If someone had told me before I got here that the highlight of my first 3 months in New Zealand would be eating ice-cream in my tent infront of some trashy TV I may have been a little dismayed. Luckily I got this far and I think its great! It helps that New Zealand produces some really good ice-cream, and that my expectations have been beaten down by hammering THREE THOUSAND nails into unyeilding, reflective tin in the last week. Okay, when I say 'I' I really mean 'Steven' but I have also been hammering nails until my arm has cramped up, just at a much, much slower pace. In a mini heatwave! We've had some amazing weather, but it has meant working in the hot sun with temperatures in the mid 30s.

This week we are going to convert the right hand bay into a little flat to live in whilst we build the house.

Here is the finished product - isn't it a thing of beauty??



My nails, look how straight they are!



The process: poles, roof perlings(sp?), and tin.







Casting a shadow on the land..



Steven drove next door's tractor to finally fill in the trench that has been left open for about 8 weeks when the phone man came to bring us a landline, the internet and civilisation!





Steven on the phone, in a field!



I tend to take more photographs on sunny days just because I'm hanging outside a bit more, but this particular day a couple of weeks ago I wanted to document our water tanks arriving. The man bringing them on a huge trailer got stuck turning into a bridge just half a kilometre down our road. So Steven drove the tractor to collect them and it only took about 2 hours(!!) altogether to dislodge the trailer, deliver the tanks and position them on the land. In the mist... It looks a bit grim doesn't it?



Tank tipping!



I'll finish off with some nice, happy animal photos. Here is Hussein looking sinister:



Spending some man-time roaming about the recently cut hay field without his two ladies:



And this is Brandy the horse from next door having a gallop, woohoo!



Upcoming blog posts will include my first hay-bale collecting (which I've only ever witnessed on TV before!!) and 2 new additions to the farm (very exciting). I'm calling it a farm now because we have 3 chickens. Oh, and Mavis MAY be sitting on 6 eggs! She comes down from the nest now and again to fuss about with the other two so I'm not sure if they'll get cold or not.