Saturday 24 June 2017

Big Southern Escape

Hello! Long time, no posts - sorry!

A fair few things are happening here lately, so hold on tight - there's lots to mention!

Firstly, life is going good, a tad on the tiring side but it's ticking along as it should be. Nick is no longer leaving us, he's sticking around due to the accommodation on the farm he was moving to was pretty slack and not safe or healthy in the slightest. So that's great! It has eliminated so much stress now that he is staying. Dad will no longer have to do the bulk of the fencing work on his own with Nick still here. Another awesome thing is that we've got a person doing ground work fencing for us too. His name is Bob, and he'll work for us full time. The great thing is that he's done a couple weeks of work with us in May and Mum and Dad were really impressed with him. So he's coming on full time now, starting in July - awesome!

Speaking of my parents', they're away at present. They've been in Queenstown for a Rural Contractor's conference. It's a five day conference that started on Monday, however as they've never really been to the South Island before they decided to make a road trip out of it and they've taken a two week holiday. They left Tuesday 13th, driving the 10 or 11 hours straight from here to Wellington in time to catch the ferry at around midnight. They then got to Picton at around 6am and headed to Hokitika where they stayed for a day. They got to see the Glow Worms there and they did the Treetop Walk too (much to my surprise as Mum hates heights!)
From there they worried the crap out of me and went to Haast. A place in the country that has absolutely no cell phone reception so I of course had absolutely no clue where they were - they may as well have dropped off the face of the earth. It's amazing how much we've come to rely on technology!
Thankfully they left early the next morning and finally came into coverage so they could let me know that they were still alive, lol. From Haast they made their way to Queenstown on Friday morning, in time to get to the airport to pick up my Aunty and Uncle Karen and Wayne (Dad's sister and BIL), as they were staying with them for the weekend.
I wouldn't even know what they did all weekend apart from seeing the sights such as Coronet Peak, going to the casino and buying me some real lollies from a lolly shop in Arrowtown (yay!).
Their conference started on Monday, an event where lots of rural contractors get together for all sorts of different things, with going out to dinner every night included in it. A while back Mum and Dad managed to get free tickets to the conference ($800 worth) so they were pretty stoked.
One night there was some form of charity auction, where they won a kids ride-on toy tractor - unfortunately it's a Claas so not the best make! Oh well, a good toy for the grandkids Mum said. On Thursday night there must've been some awards dinner, where Dad won a silver plate for his imput into the conference. Dad likes asking heaps of questions at those sorts of things, so it seems to have put him in good steed to win something!

Friday morning they started their way back up the country, where they made it to Hanmer Springs last night. From there, up to the top of the South Island in time to catch their ferry across the Cook Straight on Sunday morning. After that they're driving to Palmerston North to stay the night and Karen and Wayne's place, then they'll be arriving home sometime Monday afternoon. It'll be great to have them home!

It's so odd being here without them for so long, their dogs, especially Jackson, were rather pitiful for the first five or six days. They're still not happy to be left home with me, even though I'm trying to give them as much love and attention as I can - it's kinda difficult when I'm working every day, and I'm tired so get easily frustrated with their antics.
I bought them three new toys for when Mum and Dad were away, sanctioned to be inside only toys, however they were all dragged outside within a day. They've destroyed the squeaky toy, that was some form of bear or something. They ripped off it's nose and started pulling out the stuffing. Last night I decided to perform surgery on the poor toy, and removed the rope arms and legs as new chew toys for the younger two puppies - but those ropes are currently being mutilated and won't last the end of the day I'd imagine.
I also got a little vibrating mouse with the pull cord that eventually stopped pulling back in, and a plastic ball with bells in it that everyone but Rose is scared of. Honestly.

My time here mostly on my own has been spent working (milking) and keeping the house running smoothly as possible. Keeping myself fed, (without takeaways I might add) and sometimes Nick and Taylor too. I've started back using the weight machine that we keep in our spare room, as calving will start in about four weeks and I'd like to be a little bit stronger than I am now - to somewhat prepare myself for all the bucket lifting again.

Speaking of Taylor, he kept me company most nights this last week, hanging around here as I don't much like staying here on my own, and there have been a couple nights that Nick has been away too, so it's good to have somebody else around. But he's gone now, he's on a two week holiday and he is spending the entire time in the south island too...He left on Thursday morning and will be back on the 5th July. Two weeks is the longest I've ever been away from him (no, I'm not clingy!) but we usually live in each others' pockets, whether it's working together on his farm or seeing the other every couple days, so it's a little bit odd.
He stopped in Thursday morning on his way to pick up his friend Nate, you sorta don't always realise how important someone is until they're going away for a little while and you have to say cya...can't wait til he's back haha

At the moment he is in Ashburton with Nate his mate, staying with his brother Jordan and gf Leah. They've got Taylor's nephew Dylan who's recently turned one, from the video's Tay is sending me he's absolutely besotted with him - it's pretty sweet. But they're down there to go hunting Tahr, deer and wallabies on Mt. Cook. Tay and Nate's other friend Luke (who used to live up here but moved home to Nelson a month ago) and a couple of his mates are joining them, I think they're going up on Monday once this supposed weather bomb has cleared away. They'll be up there about a week, and staying in one of the DOC huts up there. That's going to the be the hard part, there is no cell phone service up there so having no contact for a week, while I know they're out with guns is going to be difficult. Tay's been talking about this trip for months, he couldn't wipe the smile off his face when he left so hopefully they all have a good time. They're a sensible bunch of hunters at least.
The part I'm most looking forward to is Taylor coming back and fulfilling his promise of the beard removal! He's been growing it for "extra warmth" while on Mt. Cook...so when he comes back he won't need it....lol

Oh, Sam is back! She's been back from America for about a month or so now and Chantelle and I caught up with her for dinner a couple weeks ago, it was so good to see her again after nine or 10 months. Lucky for her but unfortunately for us, she's leaving again for a second year and will leave in September, so we won't have much time to see her but hopefully we get some in before she leaves again. It's a busy time of year...

Work is going ok, same old, nothing to write home about. Truth is, I'm sick of it. Really fully over milking cows and I really can't wait until the end of the year when my farms dry off and don't need me anymore, I won't be milking again after that. I'm not too sure on the logistics of it, I'm on a really good wage at the moment and if I want to be able to pay my bills - car, board, insurance, general life costs then I need a good paying job. But I'm over farming, and I'm over the smell. You know, I get home and put my dirty, cow poo covered overalls in the wash and Mum will cough and splutter at the smell - she hates it now. I'll get a hug from Tay and he'll cringe because my hair is infused with the delicious perfume of cow poo - even though I washed it the day before. It's made even worse because my two farms are high input feeding, so palm kernal and all of those feeds make everything smell a lot worse than just a grass diet. So yeah. That, and the early mornings are getting a bit boring too. I'm not sure about what I'll do yet, still trying to figure that one out.
Mum said I could just fence full time with Dad but I don't like the idea of that as a full time job, it's not what I want to do. I don't mind doing it a couple days a week maybe, not every day. So even if I found myself a job working in a cafe in one of the close towns (as later down the track I want to have my own cafe sorta business, so previous knowledge of working in a cafe might be helpful), depending on how many days a week I get I could fill in fencing on the other days and maybe if I'm desperate for work I'll still milk with Cam and Hamish every weekend, because milking there isn't too bad, compared to the other farm that I'm on...but yeah, it's a few months away and I've got a little bit of time to come up with a plan that doesn't involve cows. Sorry moo's, I love you really. Just not as much anymore.

OH That's what I keep forgetting to mention! How, I don't know?! My sister and brother in law Chris are expecting a baby girl in early October, something that I've known about since about February and just never got around to mentioning it on here. Mum and I get to go to her place on my next weekend off in July to do her baby shower, so that should be interesting :) I'm going to be an aunty to a very spoiled niece. She will be the first grandchild of mum and dad's, and first Great grandchild of my Nana as well as the obvious first child for my sister and BIL. So she's a first for everything and is going to be a spoiled little brat of a girl I'm sure but that's ok because I'll be able to spoil her and then return her to her parents!! haha Mum and Alesha look very similar (apparently, however I'm not too good and seeing it) so I said to Mum it'll be cool if the baby took similar traits to them too...

Also one of my best friends' Jess is engaged, so that'll be a wedding to look forward to, and another friend is expecting a baby in early January! So many things are happening this year, and so many things have turned out differently from what I would've expected. This time a few years back I was only just visiting Massey university, thinking that that was the direction my life was headed. But here I am, still living at home with my amazing family, cat, puppy and of course Taylor who I've been with almost 10 months now - I'm really glad to have him :)