Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Ah, an early easter and a nice long weekend.
What a pleasant weekend, what with Friday and Monday, 4 days off work...yee-hah. So what did Steph, Connor and I get up to in our four days off. Well, on Friday, Amy and Nigel came up from Wellington for the day, and the original plan was to head out to a beach, but due to the train being delayed, we didn't really have time, so instead we took the dogs and Connor down to the river to play, and then in the afternoon, whilst Connor was asleep (as was Steph), Amy, Nigel and I just sat around chatting and drinking coffee/tea. In the evening, Steph and I had our first night out since just before he was born, this time we went to Tulloch lodge in Masterton, good food, good service, and reasonable price. In all we had a very nice relaxing evening, and it just so happened that Connor was falling asleep as we pulled into the driveway. The car prompted a chorus of Gandalf and Strider barking, which promptly woke Connor up! Oh well.
Saturday morning we were up early so as to get Amy and Nigel back to the train in time, and then Steph and I fixed a fence that the strainer post had rotated on. That was really tiring, and after that, we decided that cleaning up the back lawn seemed like a good idea...anyway, that's all now tidier.
As for Sunday, the first mission of the day was to find 10kg of salt, basically impossible on Easter Sunday, in the end we bought it from a bakers, they were a bit surprised by the request, but thankfully managed to fullfill it. The reason we needed so much salt was that I wanted to do the next stage of the tanning of the deer hide (it needs to sit in a brine acid pickle for at least 3 days.
Apart from that, can't really remember what else we did!
On Monday, Andy and I went for a goat hunt at Tora (a beach about 1 hours drive away), it was a lovely day, lots of walking, and for our troubles we scored two goats (with two shots).
We did hear a stag roaring which was pretty cool, but after the .308 roared at the goats, not much else was heard in the basin.
Saturday morning we were up early so as to get Amy and Nigel back to the train in time, and then Steph and I fixed a fence that the strainer post had rotated on. That was really tiring, and after that, we decided that cleaning up the back lawn seemed like a good idea...anyway, that's all now tidier.
As for Sunday, the first mission of the day was to find 10kg of salt, basically impossible on Easter Sunday, in the end we bought it from a bakers, they were a bit surprised by the request, but thankfully managed to fullfill it. The reason we needed so much salt was that I wanted to do the next stage of the tanning of the deer hide (it needs to sit in a brine acid pickle for at least 3 days.
Apart from that, can't really remember what else we did!
On Monday, Andy and I went for a goat hunt at Tora (a beach about 1 hours drive away), it was a lovely day, lots of walking, and for our troubles we scored two goats (with two shots).
We did hear a stag roaring which was pretty cool, but after the .308 roared at the goats, not much else was heard in the basin.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Some photos and a few words
Another weekend, and this time, there's actually a blog entry to go with. On Saturday morning I cleaned up a rose bush that was creeping into the driveway, and then after that, I sprayed out a paddock (only 150L of weedspray!). In the afternoon (after getting back from town), we planted out the vege garden. Also on Saturday evening, I made some venison pate, very yummy!
On Sunday we had a lazy day (Steph played with Markissa, whilst I looked after Connor and did the housework), and in the afternoon we went round to a neighbors place.
As you can see, not much, but this post is more about the photos, so here goes.
On Sunday we had a lazy day (Steph played with Markissa, whilst I looked after Connor and did the housework), and in the afternoon we went round to a neighbors place.
As you can see, not much, but this post is more about the photos, so here goes.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
My First Solo deer
Went out looking for deer this evening, and finally got one, a young (this year's fawn) spiker. The wind was totally against me, and I had almost given up, and decided to shelter in a rocky outcrop for a few minutes, at which point I saw the deer, and it was frolicking around in the dip below me, after waiting for a good shot (side on), I aimed, took a breath and let the rifle do it's job. The shot went straight across the top of the heart, causing the deer to run about 50m, and then drop. I quickly went over and administered the coup de grace (which hurt my ears!). Here's some photos.
Photo of heart
Photo of heart
Friday, March 07, 2008
Deer
On Tuesday evening I headed back up to the bush to try and claim that stag, whilst up there I did not see 1 deer, but 4, 3 hinds and the stag, I took the shot and missed. So last night I went up with the video camera instead..here's the result.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sleep, what's that
Well for a few days now, Connor hasn't been sleeping very well (infact for about 3 weeks), he's been waking around midnight for his feed, and then not going back down, as you can imagine, both Steph and I are a bit like zombies at the moment! He's got a cold still, and his teeth are still cutting, once he gets over all this he's being weened from his midnight feed so we might start to get some full night's sleep (fingers crossed).
This weekend was a bit hectic, Saturday morning I managed to cull 2 does and a mutton, and then in the afternoon I started cleaning up the driveway 'cause it was a mess.
On Sunday morning, I went for a bunny hunt, didn't see anything, but I decided to go for a walk through a small block of bush on the farm, and whilst stalking through, I heard a strange noise so I stopped, and about 20m in front of me walked a stag, probably a few years old, still in velvet. What an awesome sight, the sun was playing on his coat, making it a bright red, head held high. Didn't shoot it as I didn't have permission, just watched it for a while. When I got back home I phoned the farmer and told him about it, and he then gave me permission to shoot it! So that evening I was back up, didn't find it though, just some poo!
On Sunday afternoon we went to a BBQ with the antenatal group, it was planned that we would do some water skiing but the river was in flood, so we just played on the jet boat until the intake got choked with leaves etc from the river. Bloody good fun all the same!
Hopefully this weekend I'll get back up to the bush and have another look for that stag! But the list of jobs around this place is starting to increase again, we've got shearing coming up soon for the goats, some fences need repairing, the lawns (esp the back one) needs a lot of work done on it, and the vege bed isn't finished yet either. Nor is the dog deck fixed from when we emptied the septic tank. We'll get there..just slowly, problem at the moment is any free time, we're both soo knackered we don't really want to do anything.
Oh well, that's life..at least I've only got 1 mutton, and 2 kids left to cull (and maybe 1 hogget).
Till later.
This weekend was a bit hectic, Saturday morning I managed to cull 2 does and a mutton, and then in the afternoon I started cleaning up the driveway 'cause it was a mess.
On Sunday morning, I went for a bunny hunt, didn't see anything, but I decided to go for a walk through a small block of bush on the farm, and whilst stalking through, I heard a strange noise so I stopped, and about 20m in front of me walked a stag, probably a few years old, still in velvet. What an awesome sight, the sun was playing on his coat, making it a bright red, head held high. Didn't shoot it as I didn't have permission, just watched it for a while. When I got back home I phoned the farmer and told him about it, and he then gave me permission to shoot it! So that evening I was back up, didn't find it though, just some poo!
On Sunday afternoon we went to a BBQ with the antenatal group, it was planned that we would do some water skiing but the river was in flood, so we just played on the jet boat until the intake got choked with leaves etc from the river. Bloody good fun all the same!
Hopefully this weekend I'll get back up to the bush and have another look for that stag! But the list of jobs around this place is starting to increase again, we've got shearing coming up soon for the goats, some fences need repairing, the lawns (esp the back one) needs a lot of work done on it, and the vege bed isn't finished yet either. Nor is the dog deck fixed from when we emptied the septic tank. We'll get there..just slowly, problem at the moment is any free time, we're both soo knackered we don't really want to do anything.
Oh well, that's life..at least I've only got 1 mutton, and 2 kids left to cull (and maybe 1 hogget).
Till later.
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