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...

New Zealand...

First up, here is a photo of the land! Doesn't it look great?! I don't like to sound like I'm bragging too much but we have been working and waiting years for this so part of me feels I'm allowed to brag a little bit :) Pretty much this is the view from where the deck of the house is going to be. This tiny photo does not do it justice.



On a clear day you can see the white sand on the beach. And in the middle of this image is a kind of yellowy bush area that is full of evil GORSE (boooo). Its a prickly weed that we need to get rid of. Luckily our brilliant neighbour, farmer Bruce, is going to arrange for his cow herd to get in there and eat around all the gorse so it is easier to destroy. We just have to put up an electric fence to keep them out of our tent... Which reminds me, this is where we are living at the moment! And that is the new car/van on the left. Bruce's house is the one behind on the far left of the photo.



The tent is great. We have a large double bedroom (hidden from view behind the car), a kitchen (complete with shelves and work surfaces), 2 old armchairs and a gas fire in the living area, and a front room which stores things like shoes and water etc. Its great! Mind you I'd say the novelty of living in a tent will wear off pretty soon, but hopefully shortly after that we will have our new barn up! Electricity and phone should follow that. I'm going to say out loud on my blog that we will have the barn up in 4 weeks complete with electricity and broadband internet. Hopefully that hasn't jinxed anything, it just means I can either come back and read this in 4 weeks and laugh at my naievity... or not even read it at all because I'm too busy lazing around our lovely new barn.

Here are some shots of the neighbouring farm animals who have discovered that we aren't farmers, and as a result have rubbish fences that they can crawl under. It seems we have the best grass in the valley because everyone wants in!



This was sooo cute. The tiny lamb had its eyes closed and was dreaming about suckling, and doing the actions in its sleep. I can't think of anything cuter!!! Thats our power pole by the way.



Tasty junior, Bruce's goat. He likes wholemeal bread.



One of the calves in the paddock next door.



They LOVE a good rub under the chin. Steven is making friends with this one so that when it is a massive bull, it will be big and scary but still want a tickle under the chin from him. That really is his plan. The only problem I can see is that when we are busy building the house there will be a bull getting in the way because it wants a chin rub.





A little bbq outside the tent one evening:



And here are just a few images from our trip down from Auckland with the new car (we didn't bother stopping in the end becuase it was raining). If it was up to me, we would have stopped every half a mile to take photos. Good job we didn't though because it took 2 full days to drive back down!








Coming next: a New Zealand Wedding Special Offer! Also some very cute photographs of the Barrett family (see below) and more photographs of our travels.