Connor's First Bath

Well, thats day two over, and Steph is doing fine. Connor has started feeding properly and Steph almost has got the hang of it.


Not a great deal of excitement or anything today, I changed my first nappy (hmm, not pleasant), and Steph gave Connor his first bath.


We're hoping that tomorrow morning Steph will be discharged from the hospital, she's only there tonight to get a little bit of help on her technique, but other than that, shes all sorted to come home.


Thankyou for all you comments and emails, Steph and I will attempt to reply soon.

Enjoy the video....

Weird Things in hospitals

Steph seriously thought about pressing the third button many times, but like Simon said, the whole thing is a miracle.

I tried pushing it, but nothing happened.

 

Same photos, but a better size.

It's funny how last night I was really careful to try and get all the detail in, yet still this morning, I remembered bits I forgot, not to worry. Moving on with the happerier side, here are some better photographs (actually just a better size), be sure to check the top level albums occasionally as I'll start putting up the really good ones.

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.huck/Connor1Day

and

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.huck

Now for day 2 of Fatherhood.

Just another weekend, Yeah Right

OK, wow what a weekend, the best description I can think of is to quote the Cypher off the Matrix "Jesus, What a mind job".


There is nothing in the world that could have prepared me for Saturday, I will try and put down as much as I can, and unlike most story's I'll start at the end, and then go back to the begining.


Steph, Connor and I are all well, and very happy, despite the following account, the outcome was fantastic, and I would do it all again; the day will still rate as the worst, but also one of my happiest, days in my entire life! Why? I will explain.

Friday:

Both Steph and I were quite anxious about the concept of induction on Tuesday, consequently we tried almost any idea to induce (some more fun than others!). It just so happened that I had a chiropractor's appointment that morning, and she suggested several things to aid things along, namely Steph moving around on all fours, gently pressing on an area above her ankle, and stroking her tummy.


Obviously one of these methods worked, 'cause around 6pm contractions started, and were around 15 minutes apart. After 2 hours, we rung the hospital, and they invited us in, instead we went to a friends place for a coffee and chat for an hour. At 9pm, we rung the hospital, and headed up to be put on the FHM (Fetal Heart Monitor) just to see how things were going. After packing the car etc, we arrived at Masterton Hospital around 11pm, and were taken down to the Lowkey delivery room, where they start monitoring you. They stuck the FHM on Steph, and it was reporting reasonable contractions (Steph could still manage them), and a healthy fetal heartbeat.


After a few contractions, a unusual trend was seen, the fetal heartrate dropped after each contraction (typically it will drop during the contraction (think bear-hug!), and then rise, and drop back down). In our case, it went the other way, consequently we were asked to stay on the machine for longer, and meanwhile, an exam was done to gauge progress, which was 4cm, only 6 to go!

Saturday:

After a few hours (3:45am Saturday morning) the contractions started getting stronger, and Steph was getting tired, and unable to handle the pain, and requested some pain relief. The midwife wanted to start with Pethidine, but after mentioning Steph's allergy with panadol, and her possible sensitivity to pain relief drugs (she gets high on 2 nurofen), we decided that Peth was to high risk, and decided to give gas a go. As you saw from the photo yesterday, gas became her new best friend. Both Steph and I managed to get about a few hours of sleep (admittedly my sleep wasn't broken, unlike Steph's, she was so tired she basically slept between each contraction). Around 8am, Simon (our doctor), came in, and examined Steph, and by this stage we had gained an extra 1/2 to maybe 1 cm! Since things were heading in at least the right direction, things were left to trundle along.


Around 10:30, Steph's contractions (well, duh they wouldn't be mine would they!) actually started to back off, and instead of being 5 to 10 minutes apart move to 15 to 30 minutes. Once more Simon's weekend was disturbed and he came in. At this point he decided (in consultation) that this baby was being delivered today, so he broke the waters.


Now, OK this bit, many people(women) will disagree with me, but it's my blog and my thoughts and perspective on things, so take with a huge pince of salt! I'll continue...Ah the waters breaking, I was dreading this happening, both for Steph's sake as she was on the receiving end, and mine; I'm not particularly good with my own blood being spilt, or even worse, my loved one. Anyway, the actual procedure, was "uncomfortable" for Steph, really I think I'm understating it bit, (and even that is an understatement). From the perspective of my thoughts for Steph, it was dreadful, but in terms of the procedure, it seemed very simple (that doesn't mean I'll do the next one), and was over quite quickly. The amnihook did truly look like something out a grandmothers crochet basket. Once the waters were broken, the contractions came in quick and hard.


At the time, I thought there was nothing worse than the feeling of total and complete uselessness I was feeling then. There was Steph going through excruciating pain, and all I could do to help was hold her hand, and tell her:
"All be over soon", what a complete lie, we had no idea how long it was going to take
"Just breath dear, deep breaths", quite frankly, I think she had more important things to do than listen to her hubby telling her to breath, if I was her, and her,I, I'm pretty sure my reply would be along "I am colorful-expletive breathing", I really don't think I could have done it!
"Just think of your special place", not sure if that one helped, at one point I got the reply "I want to go home now", I can't remember my reply, but it might have been "Sorry dear, but it's a bit late, and it will all be over soon!" Once more empty promises.


After a few hours of these contractions, I was sitting with Steph holding a wheaty-heaty on her back, and the FHM on her tummy (as the straps were a real pain the ass and it wouldn't stay in the right place), and a contraction hit, she started sucking really deep on the gas (which by this stage was cranked right up), and as you would expect with little oxygen, and a greater concentration of N2O2, and an awful amount of pain, things just shut down and she fainted. This for me would have been fine, I knew why, and didn't worry, but she started toppling forward off the bed, and the only thing I could catch her with was my cheek (on her shoulder!). She was out for around 30 seconds, and then came back. I thought nothing more of it. A while later, we had 2 midwifes in with us, and Steph was on the edge of the bed, and I was standing behind her hold once more the wheaty-heaty and the FHM (I think I became the Sound-Technician) and once more another contraction hit, and she took back the gas nice a deeply, and once more visited the land of the unconscious (I expect it was a better place than Masterton Hospital at that stage). And just like last time she toppled forward, and I couldn't catch her so I called to the midwife to catch her. Oh hell, did things go into super panic mode. Panic would be the wrong word for the midwife's behavior, they knew what to do etc, but things moved so fast, I got caught in the moment, and this was where I discovered the next worse thing!
I was told to get her on the bed and on her back, Steph was just coming around, and fighting going onto her back as it hurt too much. O2 masks where coming in from the side lines, and she was fading in and out of conscious , I could see her eyes roll in to the back of her head, even now, it brings tears to my eyes!


Be warned the next bit does not represent rational thought, things just changed from Steph just being in pain to midwifes being "very" busy with Steph, pressing the "alarm" button, requesting Simon to be called etc so fast I did not have time to keep composure.


At that point, the thoughts going through my head; well instead of trying to put them nicely I'll just put them down; I thought that this was it, we tried for 5 years to get pregnant, and I was going to lose her during delivery.


Unfortunately, even that wasn't the worst part of the day! Back to story time (and with all story's this one does have a happy ending)


Once Simon came in, Steph during a lucid period requested him to bring on the drugs! He suggested going straight for an epidural, but once more, things progress so fast, you can't really think, so we hesitated, and he then suggested putting in a small amount of Peth into her drip, and monitoring it from there. Then for a few seconds, everyone was out of the room, and Stpeh had another lucid period and we were able to just exchange enough words for us to decide that we should just go straight to the epidural, bollocks to our plan of having it as natural as possible, hopes and dreams are great, but Steph comes before any dream or hope I have, and she couldn't stand the pain, and quite frankly I couldn't stand watching her in pain. At least I didn't have to lie for the few minutes we were waiting for the anesthetist, I could tell her "All the pain will go soon", that felt good, felt honest, which wasn't a feeling I had had for most of the day!


I had to read the epidural consent form out to Steph, in honesty I skipped a few bits because I felt she didn't need to know them, and a few were reworded, and for the really crazy bit, they expected a lady in immense pain to be able to do a signature, I could not sign it for her, and there goes my honest feeling.


Anyway, a few minutes later (about 10), the anesthetist arrived, nice guy, especially since her took all Steph's pain away .. back to the story, they wheeled the trolley in with all the kit on, and there were several drawers. The trolley was labeled "Epidural trolley", and one of the drawers was labeled "Scalpels/blades". Ok now you know I don't do good on blood or Steph's blood, well I don't do great on just the thought either, my world started spinning, head down and a few breaths and I was back, well until I saw the needle anyway, thankfully I didn't faint, I promised to Steph a few things before we went, and that was one of them!
Just to set the record straight, the epidural took a few minutes to do, and Steph felt hardly anything during the procedure, the anesthetist was fantastic.


From there on, things really picked up, Steph was doing well (oh by the way, it's around 1pm), so well in fact, I let Jenny in to give a hug to Steph. After that I thought Steph was going to try and snooze until 3pm, when we were expecting Simon again, so I quickly headed out to the carpark with Steph's parents for a bite to eat and to try and regain some mental composure.


At 3pm, I headed back in to the delivery room, and I had another surprise, the room was full, and the specialist had been called, Simon quickly described what had happened whilst I had been out, Steph was now fully dilated (A promise I had broken, I had promised to be there for her, for all the exams), but Connor had rotated too early (on the way out they rotate after the head is out, he had done that a bit prematurely, and now was not deliverable). The specialist was coming in to decide the next course of action. He was there in a flash, and we discussed the options, they would attempt a vontouse delivery, and if that did not work, they would do a c-section. He outlined the risks with the vontouse, and at this stage, since for the c-section etc I could sign for Steph, I was seriously considering skipping the vontouse, and just requesting a c-section, I didn't want to attempt anything that would endanger Connor, I just don't want to follow that thought.
Anyway, the specialist explained the risks, and then he stated that they would only attempt once or twice, and the risks are actually quite low, so I consented. The important thing is "I consented", why I reiterated this will be apparent soon.
Forms, checks and more checks were being made, lots of doctory talk, things like "I'm elevating this to a code 2, get theater ready",......still upsetting me......continuing....I asked what do I do, I'm feeling even more like a spare wotnot at a wedding than before, one of the midwife's just turned and said "Go with her, hold her hand, put these on" and handed me a full set of theater gowns. I dashed into the loo and got into them, and then followed Steph, the midwife and Simon down to the theater. Thankfully since I've helped Steph once or twice at her work, I understood the big red lines on the floor, and her and I were discussing the relative merits of a red line over a yellow/black line and how they stop bugs and germs, but one of the midwife's told me to don my overshoes whilst up at the ward, and I questioned her (because of her work, I didn't think it was right), and some chirped up "No, only once your down there"
Once we were in the clean side, one of the theater staff came out and told me that I had to wait outside (and pointed to the far wall) and stay there until I was summoned, she promised me that I would not be forgotton (oh I wasn't by the way)
Now, this is easily the worst feeling of the whole day, standing in that corridor, watching people run around getting the theater ready, people were even still arriving (one of the surgeons hadn't arrived by the time everything was in place, and Simon stepped in to fill that role), it seemed like chaos from my point of view, they all knew what had to be done, and all that was going through my head was thoughts like:

• What am I going to go into, what state will she be etc.
• What happens if it all goes pair shaped
• Who would I chose if only 1 could be saved, sounds bad, but honestly that thought went through, tears followed (hm, they are still here!)
• Could be I strong enough for Steph.
• Will I faint and cause other problems (I've fainted in theater before, OK it was a vet theater but the smell and heat of them I do not like)

Those 10 minutes or so were easily the worst thing I have ever had to endure, the human mind is an amazing thing, and sometimes an active imagination is your biggest enemy, and I have a very active imagination, so many different scenarios were played out in those 10 minutes, I ended up just talking to my self out loud to try and rationalize it all, there was no one else there!


After an eternity the lady with the colorful headdress, that's all I can really remember, called me in and sat me beside Steph, I recognized a few faces, the anesthetist who came in for the epidural was there, Simon was present and so was the specialist, and one of the midwifes. They sat me down at her right arm, and all I could do is hold her hand, once more how pathetic is that, there is my wife, having all sorts done, going through so much pain, and all I could do is hold her hand.


Wow, an earthquake (1:25am Monday), back to the story, almost done.


The specialist started with vontouse do-hickame, and from the comments I heard the rotation was successful, but they could not extract him with the vontouse alone, so they used the forceps (http://www.fmed.uba.ar/museos/risolia/forceps.jpg) and with Steph pushing in time with the contractions and them pulling Connor was delivered at 4:01pm, the lady in the colorful headdress was right with Steph giving her words of encouragement, and instructions.
Simon called me to have a peak just as the head was coming out, now since this was just normal (well normal, but not common) blood etc, I can handle that no worries, and quite frankly the head looked like a giant poo. As they extracted the body they pulled the cord etc out, and I heard several exclamations on the thickness of the cord, apparently it was huge, then they discovered a true knot in it, possibly it was because the cord was so thick this story has a happy ending, no more need to be said!
There was also a loop, but Connor was taken over to the table in the corner, and his APGAR done (scored 9/10), and a quick clean up, and then I was called over to look, and Simon shook my hand, at this point I cut the cord, give me a sheep, and my hand is steady, and I can cut things easily, a simple thing like the cord, my hand was all over the place, and it took two cuts.
Then they wrapped him up and gave him back to Steph and I, Steph was still on the bed being put back together (stitches). Unfortunately Steph had some slight shakes from the stress before the epidural, and the epidural just amplified these so much she had problems concentrating on anything else really.
The epidural was removed whilst in theater, and I was given back Connor and taken into the recovery room where I waited for Steph. A few minutes later, she was wheeled in, and they started monitoring her, which was made more difficult by the shakes, but 10 or so minutes passed, and the midwife had Connor on Steph, flesh to flesh, and a little while later where taken back to the ward to recovery.
Phew, I am so glad reliving that is over, it's nothing like the day, but still I think the main bits are there, and now onto the happy ending (or is it our beginning).


Fastforward till next morning (let Steph get over the epidural wearing off)
This morning I took Steph her first "Mothersday Card", she is very perky, and feeling happy (although a bit sore), Connor is doing well, and Dad is thrilled to bits.
Connor has only had a few feeds, but we're getting there and had a couple of soiled nappies, the joy just begins!


A few stats about the little guy:
7lbs 14oz (3.75 Kg)
18" long (50cm)
Born at 16:01 on Saturday 12th May, after ~22 hours of labor, by a vontouse & forceps delivery with an epidural.


Not sure if any of the staff will ever see this, but if they do, I would like to extend them a great big thankyou. The staff of the Masterton Hospital Maternity ward, and the theater crew of that day did a wonderful job, and Simon was great. I will always remember their efforts.


Now, here's the bits every has been waiting for, the photos, and 'cause I always have problems I've put all the captions here!

• Guess who!
• Connor Luke Huck, 12-05-2007. The first male Huck since me and my cousin Gavin some 30 years ago.
  Also the first Huck to be born in New Zealand.
• One happy Steph.
• A very scruffy, but immensely proud father,very proud of the mammoth effort Steph put in to get here, and just proud to be a dad!

Bed time I think, since it's 2am...but some video before I go...

All done!

Full story etc to come later, but to keep everyone in the loop, the 2 important facts, Steph is healthly and happy, and Connor is healthy too, and of course some pictures.

One happy but tired dad!

Connor 4 hours old

One happy camper, several hours before everything kicked off!

Thunderbirds are go!

Yep, looks like it's all on...we hope! We'll keep you posted.

A Contraction

Nothing to be excited over, but Steph had another contraction like thing this morning at 8am....Fingers crossed

Another weekend

A late post for last weekend, and not because I've been busy with baby. There has been no real movement at all, so we're still just sitting tight and waiting.
As for the weekend, not a lot happened, we did a bit of work on the tractor and tried rotavating some of the paddock that we want to resow, and I did some woodwork but other than that, not a great deal. I suppose I should enjoy these quiet weekends whilst I still can.

So much for having broadband and blogging frequency increasing.

Oh, by sure to check here for photos as I'll put them up as soon as I've got back from hospital.

Till later.

Lets Twist

Well, this weekend was a wet one, and not because Steph's water broke, we're still waiting! It was wet because it rained, whilst the ground was softish, I decided to get the rotavator out and start breaking up the paddock we're going to resow, but after two loops of the paddock I managed to split on side of the shaft, and completely twist the other part about 120 degrees around!

Other than that, the weekend was quite quiet.
Today is our 8th wedding anniversary, so this evening Steph and I are going out for dinner, oh and today I got a big antenna, so hopefully we'll be able to get wifi over to our neighbours place.

Hm, that's all a bit random....

More later maybe.

Catch Up

Well, it's been a while, and there hasn't really been any photos for quite a while, well that's about to change (no not because Connor is born, he's still hanging on), anyway, where was I, ah catching up on the news to date. OK so to start, ah, it's only been a week or so, that's not too bad, anyway, since the desk has been made, I've worked down there for a few days, which is quite good, it's not uncomfortable and quite a good environment to get down and get things done, so that's cool. Other than that, the only other stuff has happened today and yesterday. Yesterday Steph picked up (bought) a new ram for the princely price of $30, got him home, and he made our ram look a bit silly, as he knew exactly what and who to do, so unfortunatly since we're low on lamb, the ram met his maker today, what a little shit he was...first of all, last night I put him in the paddock at the back of the house, and this morning, he wasn't there (he was in with the Alpacas). Not a major I just moved him back. Ok, sounds good, well this afternoon just before I was going to "do" him, he decided to jump the gate, go through the fence into Rex's place, and then jump the next gate into the driveway, barge through a fence into Julia's, head up the dry stream into the next paddock, barge through another fence into Christines (I was thinking at this stage of popping him off from a distance!), and then Alex and I managed to gently push him back down into the paddock of Julias, from which exited in the same manor that he went in, straight through the fence, over the next gate, and then over all then fences in the yards. At this point, we thought we might have had him, but he left just easily as he got in, and then proceed into Rex's big paddock!. I was more than willing to pop him there (I even had Alex get the rifle!), anyway, whilst Ken, Steph,Jules and Alex we trying to stop him going to far up the paddock, I grabbed the "Super Crook" off Rex's bike (I want one!, oh, and a super crook!) and opened the gates into the wool shed, and headed off to join in the fun.
He tried barging through the sheep netting into Jule's big paddock, at which time I went for his legs with the Super Crook (and missed, see I need one so I can get more practice), and then we managed to herd him back into the yards, thankfully he wasn't to worried that none of the gates were open, and he headed straight inside. I ran for the gate and swung it shut, but as it shut a pissed off ram came out at around 4ft off the ground, aiming squarely for me! What could I do, I just turned slightly and caught him like a bloody big rugby ball! Ok so that sounds so well controlled and professional, trust me, it was nothing like it, and really quite bloody stupid! Anyway, I wrestled him to the ground and we put him back into the wool shed to let him calm down.

Oh, in the excitement of writing that little episode I forgot to mention that I had my jeans ripped off me by a horny goat!! OK, a bit of explaination needed there. We brought all the lambs,ewes, rams and goats in for drenching and foot trimming, after drenching the lambs, checking the ewes and rams, I crutched the goats, and trimmed their feet, but whilst I had one on it's back it got her horns into a hole in my jeans, and proceeded to move her head lots (oh by the way, this is right by my crutch, I almost had a "crutching" too!) The side effect of this was a massive hole in my jeans, oh well, everyone now knows that today my underwear was color co-ordinated with my T-shirt (by chance!)

Anyway, back to rammy, after a hour or so of settling down, I did the deed, and now he is chilling out in the meat closet.

Ah, now for some photos

Another few jobs off the list

Well, its been a busy day, but we've managed to cross a few more jobs off the list, which is always a good thing.
First thing this morning, I started investigating what was needed to install the new window catches for the nursery, it turns out that the holes that the old catch used, is the same as the new one, but the screws are not quite the same, so I spent a short while filling the old holes in with plastic wood (only to redrill them tomorrow morning). After that, I assembled a cheapy bookcase from the Warehouse for all our uni books, otherwise the spare room has no space for Jenny!
Once that was done, the next job on the list was putting the top on the drawer unit for the nursery, thankfully that was only 4 screws, and another off the list. Then came the harder stuff. I needed to make a desk, big enough for me to work on (programming work), so I had 2 sheets of MDF, and after measuring up the office (tackshed), I decided on 1m by 1.95m, which is a good size.
It took an hour or so to build the desk and assemble it, then came power and net cabling. Thankfully I had some cat5 that was just long enough, and now after an entire day, the office is all set up (will still need decorating and insulating at some point, but there is no spare cash at the moment for that).
So, still no photos, to tired to plug the camera in, some have been taken, just can't be bothered uploading yet! Maybe tomorrow.

Gees, I'm knackered

Well, that's today done, the handles are on the dresser unit, the top is done for the drawer unit, the door is hung, the sheep, goats and alpacas are all in the paddock I sprayed out on Tuesday morning (oh on Tuesday morning I sprayed the paddock out, found a fantastic way to wake up, I was filling the spray container, and managed to get a splash on my face, so I just turned the hose pipe on my face!

Anyway, dinner is close so I'll post more tomorrow.

Things coming along nicely

Well, 2 days into the holidays, and things are looking good. The nursery has carpet, and even some furniture (photos later this evening), broadband is installed, and I'm even starting to get my workshop back! For the last few weeks it's been overrun with nursery furniture!
I've also started on the office, and hopefully I'll build my new bench tomorrow and move in then.

Steph's doing well, can't wait for Connor to get out! Oh and we bought a stroller today, so that's us almost ready (equipment wise).

Till later.

Another weekend

This weekend went reasonably well, Friday morning was spent at the doctors, vets, bank, hair dresser and at the wool packers. In short the morning was very hectic, especially since I had already done a few hours work first thing. The doctors appointment went well, with Connor growing as expected, this time though Simon was able to hear him hiccupping, so, finally he has had hiccups. Also Possum went to the vets and had another checkup for her eyes, they had slightly improved, but unfortunately after the trip they had regressed again. After shopping, selling the wool etc I spent the afternoon doing the rest of my day’s work.
Friday evening, Steph and I headed out to Carterton to collect Amy and Nigel. Whilst we were in town, we picked up “Ice Age 2”, gees, what an appalling movie.
Amy and Nigel came up for the weekend to help us make some more headway with the decorating in the nursery and lounge. We started nice and early with Amy sanding down the walls, Steph heading into town to pick up some paint rollers and beer (the day looked like it was going to be a scorcher), Nigel and I started measuring and cutting the skirting, scotia and alcatraves. Once all that was measured and cut, we started painting it.
By lunch time, we had the undercoat on the walls, and several coats on the woodwork, and the scotia for the lounge started (it needed sanding and some filling of holes).
Steph very handily had a antenatal social event, so she headed off to that, and left the three of us to paint (which was good, really!). In between coats, Amy decided that bathrooms, and our porch needed cleaning, and Nigel continued with the wood framework, meanwhile I was slaughtering the last three rabbits from Snowwhites previous litter.
Steph got home in the early evening, just as we were putting up the last coat in the nursery, after which we discovered that two of our rams had escaped from their paddock and were in with the neighboring farmers ewe flock! Steph and I rounded the flock up (about 150 ewes and a few big rams), and attempted to draft them through the yards so as to get ours out, that wasn’t going to work as they were being stubborn. It was at this point I discovered that Rex’s crook was still on the front of his bike, and that seemed like it could be easier. What a fantastic tool (not toy!) after a quick investigation of how it works (there is a special clip that catches the back leg and doesn’t let the sheep escape), I proceeded into the holding pen and just slowly moved around the sheep (they were going all ways). After identifying our rams, I put the crook under the stomach of the ram, just as a ewe ran past and got herself caught instead! After flipping the ewe and unhooking her leg, I tried again, and caught me a ram! That one was quickly thrown in a holding pen. The other ram decided to be in the race part, so he was just pushed into the holding pen. That was the easy part, then we had to get the two rams, and the other ram still in it’s paddock into a more secure facility (ie the other paddock with sheep netting, not large holes). I tried carrying the ram but he was too wriggly (bit like Connor at the moment, the only difference is I could drop him at will and get someone else to carry him!) We ended up with me on the front legs, and Jules on the back and just carrying him across the paddock and dropped him over the fence. The other ram, I thought would be easier just to crook his back leg and left him run (in a semi-directed manner), and then Jules and I threw him over the fence (gently-ish).
Sunday, hmm, the morning was spent putting up the skirting and scotia, so that’s now the nursery almost ready (in the room sense anyway, still little furniture, not “little furniture”, but not much furniture). I digress, after doing the room, we headed over to Jules and Andy’s for a coffee, and found out that they were heading to Cape Palliser to look at the seals, so Steph and I headed to Whangamoana to do a spot of kite fishing. The beach was packed, there was a kite out, and a kon-tiki, consequently Steph and I had to walk miles (read:1km) down the beach, but it was worth it. The first set went out, it really needed the sky hook but after 30 minutes traveling and 10 minutes fishing, we brought it in with 1 fish, no idea what is was though, so it went back. The next set was put out with the sky hook, and it went out much better (after we got the weight right, at one point the bottle and hooks all went into the air). After twenty minutes fishing, and after Jules and Andy turned up, we brought the set in. We only had 1 fish, but by golly what a fish, a nice conger eel, it was massive, as big as my entire body, with a mouth that could swallow ships, ok so that’s a slight exaggeration, it was about 8lbs, maybe 10, so we’ll round it to 15 just to be safe!
We put out one more set, and after 10 minutes, we brought in 1 kawhai, not a bad size though. Since it was getting late, we all went to the Lake Ferry Hotel for some fantastic fish and chips!

So, all in all, a good weekend, now I have to work out what to do with conger steaks!

Congor Eel

Just a quick post, here's an congor eel I dragged in on Sunday kite fishing

What a roller coaster of a weekend

Since I missed last weeks blog entry, I'll start there. Last weekend Steph and I drove to Hawkes bay to collect a few more angora goats, a pedigree buck (called 203), and three does ranging from 3 years old to 5 years old. All very cute etc. The buck was really gentle and really stood out from the rest whilst we were picking him because of his temperment. Anyway, we got them home and then put them in the quartine paddock out by the back of the house so we could keep an eye on them. On Thursday morning when we moved them to another paddock, he seemed a little quiet, so that evening I asked Julia to check in on him (as we were up in Hawkes Bay again, as it was horse of the year and field days). Oh, that's right, Thursday was spent at the field days, wasn't too bad, found out some information we needed on tagging, but probably won't go next year as it wasn't top much different to the last 2 years. Back to HOTY and Hawkes Bay, on Friday morning Steph went to leave around 9am, and the truck refused to start, flat battery, and low fluid levels in the battery, I topped up the levels and we managed to jump start her of Mum's car. Our options at that stage were to take it over to YPuk and get it fixed, or for me to drive Steph to HOTY and then go into Hastings and get it fixed, we did the latter. Thankfully on the way to HOTY we passed a battery centre, and after dropping Steph off, I trundled back and got them to check the batteries, low and behold both batteries were dead, one was so dead it couldn't even register on the battery check computer thing he had! Fixing it was a case of putting in two new batteries, unfortunatly not cheap!
Whilst walking around HOTY, I heard my cell phone, and it was Julia, unfortunatly she was ringing to tell use that the buck had died, what a day! Anyway as you can imagine, the rest of the day wasn't that great, but things did pick up. That evening I phoned the goat breeder and he has offered to replace him, phew!
Saturday, Steph went off to HOTY on her lonesome, and I dragged Mum and Dad out to Porongahau for an afternoon's kitefishing. First set didn't get anything, but the second set we brought in 3 dogfish, since there was nothing out for dinner, we kept them! I've heard reports on how yucky they taste, but they weren't that bad, I would rate them along with red cod.
Once Steph got home on Saturday night, we decided that we would drive back to Littlebush that evening, as we knew we had a few things to do back here and an early start would be good, so after tea, we hit the road.
Sunday morning (after the clocks had changed), I got up and started to dig the goat hole, and then by around 7am, the hole was all done, along with a nice blister for my efforts. The morning was spent doing the weekly shop and collecting the dogs from the kennels, and then having a coffee over at Julia's and Andy's. Since the wind was looking promising, Andy and I headed down to Lake Ferry with the kite, but due to the wind shifting a bit, and there was a lot of trees floating out there we didn't put a line out, it would have been like playing frogger (but with a fishing line and a flag instead of a frog) and having to miss the logs, not jump on them, oh, the other difference was we couldn't move side to side, and you can't always see the logs!
Once we got home, the horns were cut off the goat, and then he was cast into his hole and covered up. And another week starts (only 7 to go!)

Kites,Cats and Parties

Wow, what a busy weekend, it all started on Thursday with a very quick change of plans. On Wednesday evening we noticed the Possums eyes had an opaque coating on the cornea, so it was decided that she was to go to the vets on Thursday. Come Thursday morning she was nowhere to be seen (until we were driving out of the driveway), so I quickly put her in the bathroom, and we drove to work. The vet appointment was made for the afternoon, and it turns out that she might have a problem with her eye lids. Anyway, that was Thursday. Friday was Matt's wedding, so Steph and I drove down again, and of course, attended the wedding, which was a nice ceremony, and reception.
Saturday morning we had some shopping to do in town, and on Wednesday we managed to get a puncture in the Safari's back tire so we also got that repaired. Oh and we went to an auction at the hospital, we only bought a fan.
In the afternoon I fixed the bassinet with a biscuit joint, and started cleaning up the workshop, meanwhile Steph was working the horse. In the afternoon, we went to Trish's 60th birthday party and spent a few hours there.
Sunday was equally busy, started off in the morning, once more at Trish's to say happy birthday (as it was her actual birthday), and then we went to the Gladstone Horse Sports. quite interesting to watch, and there were also lots of cute ponies etc.
After that Steph and I headed down to the beach to fly the kite. The first 'cast' was uneventfull, but the second cast reeled in 2 red cod (one fell of in the surf) and a nice kahawai that we got 4 fillets out of and had 2 battered for fish and salad for tea, very yummy!
Unfortunatly I forgot the camera so no photos of fish..

Some random recent photos

An update.

Ah, another weekend. This one wasn't too bad, it started on Friday afternoon with a trip to the doctors for another checkup,and as expected everything is fine. As the 11 weeks till birth isn't getting any further away I decided that this weekend. I should make a start on the nursery and it's furniture. In the morning we got three sheets of gib up, and have another 2 to put up. Once we ran out of gib we went into town to pick colours for the nursery. In the end we decided on a neutral yellow for the walls and then high gloss white for the framing and sides of furniture, and then some bright outragous colours for the shelves and drawers.
The previous evening Steph and I had done some sanding and ther bassinet was ready for painting so on Saturday afternoon I sprayed the bassinet, but ufortunatly the stand it was hanging from fell over and snapped a dowel joint.
In the evening we watched a dvd and I did some more long exsposure photography.
Sunday was shearing day, around 8am,Steph,Andy and I moved our flock of lambs into the yards and I then helped John move his flock too.
Around 11am paul turned up and then by about 4 we had finally finished. At least we now got another 6kg of mohair to sell.
Other than that, not a great deal is happening on the farm at the moment, but coming up soon will be fertalising the paddocks, spraying off weeds (we have a lot of penny royal which I am going to kill this weekend.). I'm not sure if we are resowing a paddock this autumn or not, but the scarey thing is that trees are already starting to lose their leaves.

An update - finally

I know there hasn't been many updates recently, but not a great deal has been happening on the farm. But in an attempt to try and get this back up to date here is another post.

This weekend was quite a good weekend compared to the last one. On friday the kite arrived. I've gone and got a fishing kite, the basic idea is to use the kite to cast out upto 1000 metres of line, with up to 12 hooks. The idea was to go fishing with it on Saturday, but there wasn't even a breeze (well actually there was a slight southerly, but that's an onshore breeze, not quite what I needed. But I did fly the kite for an hour or so in the paddock to get a feel for the kit etc.
Other than that, on Saturday not a great deal was done, we finished the wood part of the tree protectors and fenced one of them off.
Sunday was better, still not enough wind (and going in the wrong direction) for kite flying, but all the same we went fishing, Andy caught a nice Kawahi, but other than that, there wasn't much action.

On the farmy side of things, we've finally sold our goat fleece, and the sheep have been moved back over to Julia's place for a couple of weeks, then they will go in the other virgin paddock.

I'll try and get back in the habit of posting on a Sunday evening...