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.

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.