Spring has hit with full gusto thankfully, we now have 7 chicks born in the last week or so, the lambs are just starting (with the first born last Tuesday), and the kidding is about to start (we think one of the does is in labour now, it's one of the Kiko's).
Watch this space for cute baby animal photos.
In other news, Connor is starting to run around, the vege bed is doing really well, Steph and I are quite chuffed about it, we've got radish, silverbeet, spinach, carrots, capsicum, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, chives, mint, sage and strawberries. We've pulled out the last of the brocolli which went through winter quite nicely. So over the next few months I intend to make the vege garden quite a bit bigger (first adding 2 more 900x2700 beds and a 1/2 size one, then by pushing the fence out into the back lawn to make it about twice as big (and I'm thinking about using the pig paddock as a temporary pumpkin growing area shortly.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Dirty Connor
(with is really really muddy whilst Steph and I did some fencing, this
was just as we got back in the garden, he seemed to enjoy getting dirty!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Today
Well, I've got Steph down in the workshop making a milking stand, she asked if we could build one, so I thought I would teach her how to use all the powertools in the workshop, she's used the dropsaw to cut them to length, the tablesaw to rip them down the middle and the thicknesser toclean them up..I'll put photos up when we've finished.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Fun in the kitchen
Whoo hoo, just had to use the fire extinguisher in the kitchen...I was cooking bacon on the stove, and something inside the stovetop under the element caught fire.
Unfortunatly the dishes were beside the stove, so now we've got to do them again as they are covered in dry powder...luckly I dealt to the fire, as Steph's version of a dry powder fire extinguisher is flour!!!!
So the stove moves up the list of priorities.
Unfortunatly the dishes were beside the stove, so now we've got to do them again as they are covered in dry powder...luckly I dealt to the fire, as Steph's version of a dry powder fire extinguisher is flour!!!!
So the stove moves up the list of priorities.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Tanks
Yesterday afternoon, (in the biting southerly), I decided to redo the fish tank, so I was outside in a T-Shirt washing one of the spare fishtanks to set up in the spare room..It was very cold!
Anyway, all the fish and plants are now down in the spare room, and we're currently trying to decide what to do with the tank in the lounge, it will set back up (or at least a tank in the lounge will be set up), wejust have to decide which one, and how to do it.
Watch this space.
Anyway, all the fish and plants are now down in the spare room, and we're currently trying to decide what to do with the tank in the lounge, it will set back up (or at least a tank in the lounge will be set up), wejust have to decide which one, and how to do it.
Watch this space.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Ah, winter, such fun
Yeah, it's been awhile, that's starting to become almost the start of every blog, might have to try adn do something about that...but it's winter, and not much really happens here during winter, its just wet, muddy and wet!
We've spent this morning cleaning out the barn (we've had the goats in the barn for a few weeks every night, and man do they make a mess!) I've made pallets so they are off the floor but we still have to clean up the wee's and poos, not a pleasant job!
Still no movement on the house, we've decided that if it hasn't sold by Amy's birthday we're going to stay and take it off the market, it's a bit frustrating 'cause now's the busiest time of the year for us, I have more spare time ('cause hunting has finished for 3 months due to lambing), we have lambing and kidding, the fencing season is just around the corner (that's fencing as in farm fencing) and we've got some to do, the vege bed is ramping up...the list just goes on!
Not sure if I blogged ages ago that we planted a paddock of turnips, well they are now ready for harvest, and we've even eaten a few, and have already put aside 60 or so for later. Only a few weeks ago, we had a meal where everything on the plate was either grown or rasied by us, very satisfying. And hopefully soon, we'll even have our own milk and cheese!
With regards to Connor, his signing is going really well, his volcabulary is quite extensive, esp with animals, to list a few, goats, sheep,horse, cow, bird, rooster, pig, dog, cat, elephant (a new one yesterday), and he also knows food,drink,sleep,toilet (only when we are going though!), biscuit to name a few.
Anyway, morning tea time, after which I think I'm trying to get the tractor going (might have to head into town and get more fuel though)
We've spent this morning cleaning out the barn (we've had the goats in the barn for a few weeks every night, and man do they make a mess!) I've made pallets so they are off the floor but we still have to clean up the wee's and poos, not a pleasant job!
Still no movement on the house, we've decided that if it hasn't sold by Amy's birthday we're going to stay and take it off the market, it's a bit frustrating 'cause now's the busiest time of the year for us, I have more spare time ('cause hunting has finished for 3 months due to lambing), we have lambing and kidding, the fencing season is just around the corner (that's fencing as in farm fencing) and we've got some to do, the vege bed is ramping up...the list just goes on!
Not sure if I blogged ages ago that we planted a paddock of turnips, well they are now ready for harvest, and we've even eaten a few, and have already put aside 60 or so for later. Only a few weeks ago, we had a meal where everything on the plate was either grown or rasied by us, very satisfying. And hopefully soon, we'll even have our own milk and cheese!
With regards to Connor, his signing is going really well, his volcabulary is quite extensive, esp with animals, to list a few, goats, sheep,horse, cow, bird, rooster, pig, dog, cat, elephant (a new one yesterday), and he also knows food,drink,sleep,toilet (only when we are going though!), biscuit to name a few.
Anyway, morning tea time, after which I think I'm trying to get the tractor going (might have to head into town and get more fuel though)
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Connor walking video
Here's the first video hot off the camera, enjoy. More video (of equally poor quality) to follow.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Well, Connor still has chicken pox, a few spots are now starting to show up on places other than his legs and bum, he's now got one on his cheek. And at the same time it feels like he's cutting an eye tooth.
On the house front, no movement, for having three couples through in three days, none came back. Oh well, another open home this weekend, and because of that, I've just painted the entrance way, and Steph and I weeded the vegebed lime.
Last weekend, I dug up the muddy area between the house and the washing line, and replaced it with lime, it looks quite good (photos to follow).
Anyway, Connor wants attention (as always!)
On the house front, no movement, for having three couples through in three days, none came back. Oh well, another open home this weekend, and because of that, I've just painted the entrance way, and Steph and I weeded the vegebed lime.
Last weekend, I dug up the muddy area between the house and the washing line, and replaced it with lime, it looks quite good (photos to follow).
Anyway, Connor wants attention (as always!)
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Spotty Baby
Well, Connor has chicken pox...and it looks like he's cutting another tooth.. Restless nights all round!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Connor first steps
well, yesterday we bought Connor his first pair of shoes, and when we got home, he took his first 3 or four steps (not wearing the shoes though). So walking might not be far off.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Bit of a catch up
Well, it's been a while since I last blogged and since I have a spare hour or so on the train this evening, it seemed like a good idea.
Firstly the house, we've confirmed all the conditions we stated on the contract, and all the checks came back fine, there is a bit of work needing doing, but nothing major, so now the only condition we have to fullfill is the sale of the house. On that front, we had a lady through for the second time last weekend, and she wanted to come through for a third look (promising), but she fell off her horse, and is unable to come again for a while, also he partner thinks it might be a bit too far out. Hopefully she'll be able to convince him otherwise, and be up and about soon! As a backup plan, we've got a couple of open homes, 1 this weekend and another the weekend after, and a fair bit of advertising to coincide with the open homes too. Fingers crossed.
On the farm front, it's not all good news, we unfortunatly lost a goat a few weeks ago. Klaus (the Christmas day goat), we healthy and happy one day, and the next morning was scouring (poopy), and then by 5pm he was dead! From the speed of it, we think it was barber pole worm, a particularly nasty worm that feeds off the blood of the host and kills them! We've drenched the rest, and, touch wood, no one else is showing signs.
On the happy side of the farm, Steph and I have been progressing in our NZQA General Farm Skills course, we've now completed the chainsaw, ATV, 2 wheel farm bike, and tractor driving segments. I passed the tractor driving one before I even got the tractor out of the shed...Just by observing me getting her out (the ground was slipping and traction wasn't great), and parking her up I covered everything he wanted to see!
The 2 wheel bike course was fun, and I think that if we get the other farm, I will have to get a bike to supplement the quad as it will be able to go alot of places the quad can't, but as with all these ideas, we have to sell the house first!
On the Connor front, yeah, the bit you've all be waiting for..He's fine......
Nah, I'm sure I can write a bit more, he's good, sleeping through the night. We don't think he is particulary close to walking, he can get around quite fast on all fours at the moment! One neat thing we did observe on Sunday was when Steph and I were reading to him (a pretty boring book with objects and animals of different colors etc), every time the image was a horse he made the horse sign, same for light, gloves, fish, dog,bird and cat. We think he might have attempted sheep/goat too, but might have got confused with horse (at the moment if an animal isn't a fish/dog/cat/bird, it must be a horse!) It's a neat party trick for a 1 year old! Just shows how much faster their brains develop in relation to their verbal skills!
One thing he has taken to is beating himself up, when he gets frustrated he tends to hit himself on the head, we're slowly dealing to it.
He's still going swimming once a week, and is still finding it great fun, if he had his way, it would just be submersions, but he's only allowed 6/day.
Well, it's been a while since I last blogged and since I have a spare hour or so on the train this evening, it seemed like a good idea.
Firstly the house, we've confirmed all the conditions we stated on the contract, and all the checks came back fine, there is a bit of work needing doing, but nothing major, so now the only condition we have to fullfill is the sale of the house. On that front, we had a lady through for the second time last weekend, and she wanted to come through for a third look (promising), but she fell off her horse, and is unable to come again for a while, also he partner thinks it might be a bit too far out. Hopefully she'll be able to convince him otherwise, and be up and about soon! As a backup plan, we've got a couple of open homes, 1 this weekend and another the weekend after, and a fair bit of advertising to coincide with the open homes too. Fingers crossed.
On the farm front, it's not all good news, we unfortunatly lost a goat a few weeks ago. Klaus (the Christmas day goat), we healthy and happy one day, and the next morning was scouring (poopy), and then by 5pm he was dead! From the speed of it, we think it was barber pole worm, a particularly nasty worm that feeds off the blood of the host and kills them! We've drenched the rest, and, touch wood, no one else is showing signs.
On the happy side of the farm, Steph and I have been progressing in our NZQA General Farm Skills course, we've now completed the chainsaw, ATV, 2 wheel farm bike, and tractor driving segments. I passed the tractor driving one before I even got the tractor out of the shed...Just by observing me getting her out (the ground was slipping and traction wasn't great), and parking her up I covered everything he wanted to see!
The 2 wheel bike course was fun, and I think that if we get the other farm, I will have to get a bike to supplement the quad as it will be able to go alot of places the quad can't, but as with all these ideas, we have to sell the house first!
On the Connor front, yeah, the bit you've all be waiting for..He's fine......
Nah, I'm sure I can write a bit more, he's good, sleeping through the night. We don't think he is particulary close to walking, he can get around quite fast on all fours at the moment! One neat thing we did observe on Sunday was when Steph and I were reading to him (a pretty boring book with objects and animals of different colors etc), every time the image was a horse he made the horse sign, same for light, gloves, fish, dog,bird and cat. We think he might have attempted sheep/goat too, but might have got confused with horse (at the moment if an animal isn't a fish/dog/cat/bird, it must be a horse!) It's a neat party trick for a 1 year old! Just shows how much faster their brains develop in relation to their verbal skills!
One thing he has taken to is beating himself up, when he gets frustrated he tends to hit himself on the head, we're slowly dealing to it.
He's still going swimming once a week, and is still finding it great fun, if he had his way, it would just be submersions, but he's only allowed 6/day.
Firstly the house, we've confirmed all the conditions we stated on the contract, and all the checks came back fine, there is a bit of work needing doing, but nothing major, so now the only condition we have to fullfill is the sale of the house. On that front, we had a lady through for the second time last weekend, and she wanted to come through for a third look (promising), but she fell off her horse, and is unable to come again for a while, also he partner thinks it might be a bit too far out. Hopefully she'll be able to convince him otherwise, and be up and about soon! As a backup plan, we've got a couple of open homes, 1 this weekend and another the weekend after, and a fair bit of advertising to coincide with the open homes too. Fingers crossed.
On the farm front, it's not all good news, we unfortunatly lost a goat a few weeks ago. Klaus (the Christmas day goat), we healthy and happy one day, and the next morning was scouring (poopy), and then by 5pm he was dead! From the speed of it, we think it was barber pole worm, a particularly nasty worm that feeds off the blood of the host and kills them! We've drenched the rest, and, touch wood, no one else is showing signs.
On the happy side of the farm, Steph and I have been progressing in our NZQA General Farm Skills course, we've now completed the chainsaw, ATV, 2 wheel farm bike, and tractor driving segments. I passed the tractor driving one before I even got the tractor out of the shed...Just by observing me getting her out (the ground was slipping and traction wasn't great), and parking her up I covered everything he wanted to see!
The 2 wheel bike course was fun, and I think that if we get the other farm, I will have to get a bike to supplement the quad as it will be able to go alot of places the quad can't, but as with all these ideas, we have to sell the house first!
On the Connor front, yeah, the bit you've all be waiting for..He's fine......
Nah, I'm sure I can write a bit more, he's good, sleeping through the night. We don't think he is particulary close to walking, he can get around quite fast on all fours at the moment! One neat thing we did observe on Sunday was when Steph and I were reading to him (a pretty boring book with objects and animals of different colors etc), every time the image was a horse he made the horse sign, same for light, gloves, fish, dog,bird and cat. We think he might have attempted sheep/goat too, but might have got confused with horse (at the moment if an animal isn't a fish/dog/cat/bird, it must be a horse!) It's a neat party trick for a 1 year old! Just shows how much faster their brains develop in relation to their verbal skills!
One thing he has taken to is beating himself up, when he gets frustrated he tends to hit himself on the head, we're slowly dealing to it.
He's still going swimming once a week, and is still finding it great fun, if he had his way, it would just be submersions, but he's only allowed 6/day.
Well, it's been a while since I last blogged and since I have a spare hour or so on the train this evening, it seemed like a good idea.
Firstly the house, we've confirmed all the conditions we stated on the contract, and all the checks came back fine, there is a bit of work needing doing, but nothing major, so now the only condition we have to fullfill is the sale of the house. On that front, we had a lady through for the second time last weekend, and she wanted to come through for a third look (promising), but she fell off her horse, and is unable to come again for a while, also he partner thinks it might be a bit too far out. Hopefully she'll be able to convince him otherwise, and be up and about soon! As a backup plan, we've got a couple of open homes, 1 this weekend and another the weekend after, and a fair bit of advertising to coincide with the open homes too. Fingers crossed.
On the farm front, it's not all good news, we unfortunatly lost a goat a few weeks ago. Klaus (the Christmas day goat), we healthy and happy one day, and the next morning was scouring (poopy), and then by 5pm he was dead! From the speed of it, we think it was barber pole worm, a particularly nasty worm that feeds off the blood of the host and kills them! We've drenched the rest, and, touch wood, no one else is showing signs.
On the happy side of the farm, Steph and I have been progressing in our NZQA General Farm Skills course, we've now completed the chainsaw, ATV, 2 wheel farm bike, and tractor driving segments. I passed the tractor driving one before I even got the tractor out of the shed...Just by observing me getting her out (the ground was slipping and traction wasn't great), and parking her up I covered everything he wanted to see!
The 2 wheel bike course was fun, and I think that if we get the other farm, I will have to get a bike to supplement the quad as it will be able to go alot of places the quad can't, but as with all these ideas, we have to sell the house first!
On the Connor front, yeah, the bit you've all be waiting for..He's fine......
Nah, I'm sure I can write a bit more, he's good, sleeping through the night. We don't think he is particulary close to walking, he can get around quite fast on all fours at the moment! One neat thing we did observe on Sunday was when Steph and I were reading to him (a pretty boring book with objects and animals of different colors etc), every time the image was a horse he made the horse sign, same for light, gloves, fish, dog,bird and cat. We think he might have attempted sheep/goat too, but might have got confused with horse (at the moment if an animal isn't a fish/dog/cat/bird, it must be a horse!) It's a neat party trick for a 1 year old! Just shows how much faster their brains develop in relation to their verbal skills!
One thing he has taken to is beating himself up, when he gets frustrated he tends to hit himself on the head, we're slowly dealing to it.
He's still going swimming once a week, and is still finding it great fun, if he had his way, it would just be submersions, but he's only allowed 6/day.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Property
Just a quicky to say that our offer has finally been accepted, so now we have to sell this place...fingers crossed.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Connor's Birthday, finding a new "Littlebush"
Well, seems blogging is becoming more erratic, that is partly due to being very busy trying to find a new farmlett.. Hopefully the search is over, we went to look at a place on Thursday, and by Saturday we had an offer on it. The property is about 23 minutes north of Masterton, in the middle of a forest! There is an 1900's house, various outbuildings, including a sleep-out. The house is a 4 bedroom two storey one. On the land is a wool shed, 2 bay implement shed, cattle yards, 2 sets of sheep yards, a few dams, and there is 55 acres of land. Huge is the best description when compared to Littlebush. We looked around about 2/3rds of it as the last 1/3 was covered in native bush. If you want to have a peek, it's here . If they accept our offer, we'll have to start making moves on getting this place sold, we've already got 1 offer, but it was shy by 5K.
On the other things front, Connor is now 1, his birthday was last Monday, we didn't do anything as we are going to celebrate it on Saturday 31st as Amy will be back from Japan, and celebrate we are..we're putting a hogget on a spit for the occasion, we figured with my family, Steph's family, friends, and antenatal people, there would be a few to feed, and the easiest way to feed the masses is a spit roast, we've already got the hogget lined up.
Oh, Connor's still not walking, and we're in no hurry for it either!
This week I had off due to being over stressed, so on Friday, I decided to go for a hunt down in the ranges, only a day hike, but I went 5.2kms up a stream bed, and when I finally sat down for lunch, I instantly saw a herd of goats!, I took a shot at the buck as he had good horns and a fantastic hide, missed, tried again, and again, at which point the rifle during the recoil hit my head with the scope..nice little cut above my eye. The forth shot was aimed at a young kid, and he promptly dropped as it went through liver, lungs and spine. I did take another shot at the billy when he was 100m or so up a scree slope, hoping that if the shot connected, he would come tumbling down, he dropped, but didn't come down the slope. I tried getting up there, but it wasn't too safe so I chickened out.
Speaking of chicken, we've got chicken for tea. Now this is a rariety, we don't eat chicken because of the crap that is feed to chooks for the supermarket, but the hens we bought a few months ago, 3 of the 4 have turned into roosters, which means they turn into chicken roasts...and I culled one this afternoon, so we've got him for tea.
Anyway, thats enough for now..
I'll update this as soon as I know more about the other place.
On the other things front, Connor is now 1, his birthday was last Monday, we didn't do anything as we are going to celebrate it on Saturday 31st as Amy will be back from Japan, and celebrate we are..we're putting a hogget on a spit for the occasion, we figured with my family, Steph's family, friends, and antenatal people, there would be a few to feed, and the easiest way to feed the masses is a spit roast, we've already got the hogget lined up.
Oh, Connor's still not walking, and we're in no hurry for it either!
This week I had off due to being over stressed, so on Friday, I decided to go for a hunt down in the ranges, only a day hike, but I went 5.2kms up a stream bed, and when I finally sat down for lunch, I instantly saw a herd of goats!, I took a shot at the buck as he had good horns and a fantastic hide, missed, tried again, and again, at which point the rifle during the recoil hit my head with the scope..nice little cut above my eye. The forth shot was aimed at a young kid, and he promptly dropped as it went through liver, lungs and spine. I did take another shot at the billy when he was 100m or so up a scree slope, hoping that if the shot connected, he would come tumbling down, he dropped, but didn't come down the slope. I tried getting up there, but it wasn't too safe so I chickened out.
Speaking of chicken, we've got chicken for tea. Now this is a rariety, we don't eat chicken because of the crap that is feed to chooks for the supermarket, but the hens we bought a few months ago, 3 of the 4 have turned into roosters, which means they turn into chicken roasts...and I culled one this afternoon, so we've got him for tea.
Anyway, thats enough for now..
I'll update this as soon as I know more about the other place.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Sutff
Well, yesterday we got rid of the two pigs, they had become escape artists, jumping gates, lifting gates off hinges, barging through backs of sheds etc....and they were rooting up the lawn. Not a good look when trying to sell the house.
The house is now on the net ready for selling .
We've gone and seen a builder company regarding building a house, and hopefully next Friday we get our first ballpark figure before we start getting down to the nitty gritty design. It's quite exciting, but still, this place needs to sell, and there are many other things to consider.
The house is now on the net ready for selling .
We've gone and seen a builder company regarding building a house, and hopefully next Friday we get our first ballpark figure before we start getting down to the nitty gritty design. It's quite exciting, but still, this place needs to sell, and there are many other things to consider.
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