Xmas Photos

Another Day Kite Fishing... and a nice snapper...

I've told Steph that we are going fishing every day until she goes into labour :-), today's efforts rewarded us with 2 nice kawhai, and a big snapper.

Yay, we have somewhere to put #2

This morning, I put a coat of paint on the ceiling, and have put numerous coats on the dresser, and finally it is all in place.  Just our books to sort (the baby is going in the spare room, so it hasn't been decorated as a nursery, and since our house is pretty small, it has to house all our books too. Eventually #2 will move in with Connor, but until then, he can have the spare room.

Fishing

The tractor goes again

For the last few weeks things have been pretty hectic, and I haven't got around to trying to work out why the tractor suddenly died a few months back. We Connor and I spent 30 minutes this evening, cleaned the carb, spark plugs and checked all the cables, and she goes again.

Started getting ready for Christmas, the tree is up, the turkey is coming out on Monday to defrost and age (it's a wild one I caught).

As for other things on the block, the goat's days are numbered, we've decided to get rid of all of them (except for Monkey, Jade and Ruby), and replace them with a cow.

Here's a random shot of Connor

After many many months

After just under a year, we've gone from this

to

Only photos

The other day Steph wanted a good snooze, so Connor and I headed down to the workshop to build something, after a few hours, this crane emerged.

A whole days kite fishing

Well, we took Alan (a friends dad) out for a days kite fishing, we had three sets, and the kite performed wonderfully (even recovering from a downed sky hook!), and in the end we had 1 Kawhia, 1 red cod and 5 carpet sharks, we put two sharks back..

Fish and Chips for tea tonight

Impromtu Deer Hunt

Got home on Saturday afternoon from a working bee, Steph mentioned that we had no water, so I took Connor and the bike up to the first water tank. As we were coming home I spotted a few things that looked out of place, and bugger me, 6 deer!

Asked Connor if he could see the deer, and he casually pointed to them, as if he was saying "Dad they've been there all the time"

Raced home, phoned the guy who manages the farm, asked if he wanted some venison, he said yep, so out came the 308 and I raced up, and heres the result, 1 yearly doe, and an older one, both in fawn, but the herd was 8 deer in the end I saw!!!

Hmmm. fresh vension eye fillets!

A Saturday that went surprisingly well

Well, this morning started off with Connor and I in the workshop for a few hours dismantling a rocking horse, and then starting to clean it up, he thought it was great fun using the belt sander, and the mouse sander. He even helped to feed wood into the thicknesser. Unfortunately just before 10, we noticed he had a rash all over his torso, so he and Steph stayed home whilst I went to the local playgroup to help out on a working bee to install some lazerlite. After getting home around 3pm, I was knackered, but the water pressure was really low, so Connor and I headed up to the water tank to check it out. Everything seemed fine, except on the way home I saw something odd in the other paddock, well bugger me, it was a herd of wild deer!  I asked Connor if he could see the deer, and he casually pointed them out. After a short while admiring the deer, and how close to home they were (about 600m), I raced down the hill on the bike, threw Connor at Steph and quickly rang the farm manager to ask if he wanted some venison.  Equipped with the .308 I headed back up, and sneaked in barefoot for about 300m, until I found the herd again. I sat and watched for a little while, then lined up on the youngest, who was standing broadside.  A few seconds later, it was down and the herd headed around the hill.  I watched the fallen deer for a few seconds to make sure it didn't get back up, and then followed the herd.  I caught up with them again and they were milling around, not quite sure what to do, I sniper crawled around the front of a spur until I could see them properly, lined up on another, and made it jump.  The rest ran off, but this one followed, looking a bit unsteady.  It ran into a ditch, and I never saw it come out.  Itching togo over and check it out, but I knew better, you wait. After a minute or so, I headed over and eventually found a deer higher than expected but permanently asleep all the same.  Now for the hard bit.  Dragger them both to the bottom of the hill, then walked up to the bike, and collected them.  I must admit trying to lift about 150kg+ of dead deer on to a bike is DIFFICULT! I ended up sitting one in each foot well with the necks over the seat, and I sat on the necks!

In then end, I saw 8 deer in the herd, now 6, and the two I shot were both in fawn :-( but at least I can safely expect that the other 6 are all in fawn too, and they are a pest species at the end of the day...But I won't be taking any more from that herd for a year or six months.

Just as we got the deer back, the heavens opened and it  was the heaviest rain we've ever had here, the workshop flooded, the garage flooded...Oh well.

Now to butcher her on Monday, oh joy!

And The Mighty Mac Finally Falls...

Profile of my walk yesterday

Well, I might write the rest up later, but whilst I remember, this is the profile of my hunt yesterday, I turned the GPS on at lunchtime, so everything from 400m down should be of the left too as an ascent!!

Something for anyone who would come walking with me, if I suggest "Lets see whats over the top of that ridge", tell me where to get off, guess where the climb was (at least we got to higher than the summit on the rimutaka hill road!