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 :)
Showing posts with label Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taylor. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 June 2017
Friday, 21 April 2017
Chilling Out
It was only 7 degrees this morning when I arrived at work just prior to 6am; it was freezing! Okay maybe it wasn't freezing, but it was blimmen cold! I had goosebumps on my arms all milking, by the time I left at 8am it was sitting around 14 degrees. Mum and I are home with the heat pump going, and I'm wearing socks and sweatshirt - a very uncommon sight.
This morning I've made hot chocolate muffins, so although it is cold life is still good!
A week or so ago I toddled off to the dentist with serious toothache that I'd put up with for a week before it was getting to be too much. It was odd and seemed to happen overnight, with pain you'd expect if a filling simply fell out. I know there is a filling up there somewhere in the same area, so I didn't rule it out. Typical for me, the dentist couldn't find anything wrong, he couldn't even tell which tooth it was until they used the tool that blows air along my teeth...until I basically jumped through the roof.
He decided to polish down the tip of that tooth (with no numbing!) and then put some filler on top, saying that it should help. Well it hasn't. I can't eat or drink on that side. If anything cold hits it I'm almost doubled over in pain, and I've resorted to no hot drinks either which is rather unfortunate in this chilly weather.
We got to try on our uniforms for netball on Wednesday, they're all green - quite a nice green if I must say. They consist of a dress, that is quite on the short side. As was the discussion, it's netball, where you stretch upwards and jump. What happens to a short dress in that situation?! So I know I'm off to find some shorts of some sort to wear too. Then we also have a t-shirt to wear overtop during warmup, and we've also got a jacket. They say we're not allowed to wear the hoodie's we've bought as extras on game nights because it doesn't have the uniform sponsorship on it. We could wear them, so long as the jacket is over it, however the hoodies are quite thick and the jackets are small, there's no chance you could wear the hoodie underneath!
It's hard to believe the games start in two weeks, May 5th. With only two training nights before then, we still don't have all of the team members showing up and there are only nine people in my team. Our club has two teams and we're never able to practice a full game with 14 players because there are always people missing! The training last week we used two bystanders to fill the court, they both know how to play, one I think is possibly going to be a coach or an umpire. Oh yeah, we have no coach - brilliant, huh?
However the other lady fell and rolled her ankle, so we had to drop the wing defenses on both teams. I had been WD on my actual team prior to the lady getting hurt. Then I swapped to wing attack on the other team.
WD is probably not the best position to play as I hardly get a chance to touch the ball, I'm simply running around trying to stop the opposing WA from getting it. However she is tall and very good at the game so I may as well not be on the court at all! Once I moved over to WA there was no WD trying to stop me, so although I was able to play and catch the ball, it wasn't experiencing the position properly which is quite frustrating.
Also because players aren't always showing up to training we aren't able to train as a proper team so we can't get to know each other properly. How can you work in a team situation if you've never played as a team? It's ridiculous, I know I can't really talk because I've missed two training nights - once I was too sick to leave the house and the other excuse was a flooded road during the cyclone...
I still don't know what position I'm most likely to play, our main Centre player has come back now and I see what they were talking about - she's good, very good. I don't see me ever getting to try C again unless she has to sub out, which is unlikely. Thankfully they don't put me in the goal circle anymore - I'm too short to defend the goal and I'm no good at getting the ball in the net either, so I'll always be WA or WD, unless I'm a permanent sub so I could get any position really.
Wednesday morning I had an argument with a can lid and ended up with a slashed thumb, so during netball I had a big thick plaster on it to prevent any further damage - but it made catching the ball difficult - I feel so small when they throw the ball, anticipating me to catch it. And I drop it. Plasters provide no grip apparently, so the entire game or warmup routine has to stop until I manage to get the ball in the air again...I think I'm doing pretty good, sticking around and staying in the team, even though I'll probably be the one they rely on to pass the ball in a major game. I'll be the one who almost literally hands it to the other team in time for them to win. It takes a lot of trying to stay on the team and keep learning as best I can, without holding my team back too much with my being there either.
Work is going OK, nothing has really changed. Working with Cam and Hamish is taking less time now as I no longer need to help with any calves - calving is almost finished there. However, my other farm is taking longer and longer. Yesterday morning almost took four hours to milk! We're only milking about 430 cows there (12 rows), but there's still another 120 or so left to calve, calving has slowed right down and they'll still be plodding along well into May! Milking 550 cows is going to take a fair while through June when they're all milking at peak production...
We've had a heck of a lot of rain, my boss Cam who's a few minutes down the road recorded 570mm from the 9th March - 16 April. That's almost half a year's worth of rain in 6 weeks...
This morning I've made hot chocolate muffins, so although it is cold life is still good!
A week or so ago I toddled off to the dentist with serious toothache that I'd put up with for a week before it was getting to be too much. It was odd and seemed to happen overnight, with pain you'd expect if a filling simply fell out. I know there is a filling up there somewhere in the same area, so I didn't rule it out. Typical for me, the dentist couldn't find anything wrong, he couldn't even tell which tooth it was until they used the tool that blows air along my teeth...until I basically jumped through the roof.
He decided to polish down the tip of that tooth (with no numbing!) and then put some filler on top, saying that it should help. Well it hasn't. I can't eat or drink on that side. If anything cold hits it I'm almost doubled over in pain, and I've resorted to no hot drinks either which is rather unfortunate in this chilly weather.
We got to try on our uniforms for netball on Wednesday, they're all green - quite a nice green if I must say. They consist of a dress, that is quite on the short side. As was the discussion, it's netball, where you stretch upwards and jump. What happens to a short dress in that situation?! So I know I'm off to find some shorts of some sort to wear too. Then we also have a t-shirt to wear overtop during warmup, and we've also got a jacket. They say we're not allowed to wear the hoodie's we've bought as extras on game nights because it doesn't have the uniform sponsorship on it. We could wear them, so long as the jacket is over it, however the hoodies are quite thick and the jackets are small, there's no chance you could wear the hoodie underneath!
It's hard to believe the games start in two weeks, May 5th. With only two training nights before then, we still don't have all of the team members showing up and there are only nine people in my team. Our club has two teams and we're never able to practice a full game with 14 players because there are always people missing! The training last week we used two bystanders to fill the court, they both know how to play, one I think is possibly going to be a coach or an umpire. Oh yeah, we have no coach - brilliant, huh?
However the other lady fell and rolled her ankle, so we had to drop the wing defenses on both teams. I had been WD on my actual team prior to the lady getting hurt. Then I swapped to wing attack on the other team.
WD is probably not the best position to play as I hardly get a chance to touch the ball, I'm simply running around trying to stop the opposing WA from getting it. However she is tall and very good at the game so I may as well not be on the court at all! Once I moved over to WA there was no WD trying to stop me, so although I was able to play and catch the ball, it wasn't experiencing the position properly which is quite frustrating.
Also because players aren't always showing up to training we aren't able to train as a proper team so we can't get to know each other properly. How can you work in a team situation if you've never played as a team? It's ridiculous, I know I can't really talk because I've missed two training nights - once I was too sick to leave the house and the other excuse was a flooded road during the cyclone...
I still don't know what position I'm most likely to play, our main Centre player has come back now and I see what they were talking about - she's good, very good. I don't see me ever getting to try C again unless she has to sub out, which is unlikely. Thankfully they don't put me in the goal circle anymore - I'm too short to defend the goal and I'm no good at getting the ball in the net either, so I'll always be WA or WD, unless I'm a permanent sub so I could get any position really.
Wednesday morning I had an argument with a can lid and ended up with a slashed thumb, so during netball I had a big thick plaster on it to prevent any further damage - but it made catching the ball difficult - I feel so small when they throw the ball, anticipating me to catch it. And I drop it. Plasters provide no grip apparently, so the entire game or warmup routine has to stop until I manage to get the ball in the air again...I think I'm doing pretty good, sticking around and staying in the team, even though I'll probably be the one they rely on to pass the ball in a major game. I'll be the one who almost literally hands it to the other team in time for them to win. It takes a lot of trying to stay on the team and keep learning as best I can, without holding my team back too much with my being there either.
Work is going OK, nothing has really changed. Working with Cam and Hamish is taking less time now as I no longer need to help with any calves - calving is almost finished there. However, my other farm is taking longer and longer. Yesterday morning almost took four hours to milk! We're only milking about 430 cows there (12 rows), but there's still another 120 or so left to calve, calving has slowed right down and they'll still be plodding along well into May! Milking 550 cows is going to take a fair while through June when they're all milking at peak production...
We've had a heck of a lot of rain, my boss Cam who's a few minutes down the road recorded 570mm from the 9th March - 16 April. That's almost half a year's worth of rain in 6 weeks...
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| Maggie's new jersey :) |
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| Puppy snuggles :D |
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| A friendly Monarch butterfly :) |
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| Maggie and Rose, collage as they got older |
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| I got flowers for Easter! |
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| Tay's kitten, Charlie - grease kitty (not monkey lol) |
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| More of Rosie because when she's clean she's so gorgeous! |
Wednesday, 1 March 2017
Welcoming Autumn
Monday last week I had my first netball trial, the second one is this Thursday night and after then I should have a better idea of what's going to be happening. We started off with a warm up, after which I almost could have died. I'm fit, but I'm not that fit! They had us doing all sorts of maneuvers across the length of the court; jogging, sprinting, fast walk, lunges, squats, running with knees high, running with feet high, and she was constantly changing the movement.
We'd just get used to jogging then suddenly we're sprinting, or fast walking or something! It was mental, I think we spent about ten minutes doing a warm up, I was surprised that they didn't get us to do the typical stretches and whatnot before the warm up (I've always thought you were meant to) but we did them afterwards. I'm glad I wasn't the slowest in the group, I thought if I could almost keep up with Chantelle, I'd be doing well - and I did, most of the time!
Unfortunately I'm one of those people who's face goes nice and red when I get hot from silly exercise...it doesn't matter if I'm quite fit, which I usually am, when heat can't escape through my feet, it goes to my face instead, rather annoying if I'm honest!!
After the warm up we got into corners and moved onto another warm up/game thing where we were catching, throwing, running, catching then throwing the ball to different people from different corners as we ran through to the opposite corner. It was, straight out, confusing. It didn't help that the first time the ball was thrown to me it hit me square on the face, quite hard. Everyone seemed to get the idea rather quickly (most of the women there had been playing in the team for quite a few years...) but typically I didn't. It's rather awkward being the one who had to be guided through each pass, meaning it had to be slowed down a tad when I went through. I'm rather nervous about the trial on Thursday because they'll likely do it again and I really can't quite remember exactly how it goes...
Once that was finished they put people into places and teams, four of us including myself were stood out for the first game. At first I was thinking, aw man I must be bad! But I've actually never seen a game of netball played before - so I got to watch it and got a bit of an idea instead of being thrown into the deep end!
The second game I was called in for Wing attack (Wing Defense and Attack I had put myself down for), and once my opponent Wing Defense knew I didn't know how to play she was helping me out, as well as one of the umpires. They were telling me where I should be and what I could do which was helpful.
The third game I went into wing defense, which I found not as good as my previous attack role. The girl I was paired with was a really good player, who was flying around the court at high speeds. I had to be blocking her but I just couldn't keep up and kept losing sight of her. So if I get one of those places I really hope to get Attack, it's much easier!
It was good once Chantelle and I left, because one of the coaches came up to us and thanked us for coming and giving it a good go, and asked us to definitely come back for the next trial. We'll get places, for sure. They don't have enough players to turn people away. Last week they only had enough for two teams and two subs each. Where I've read online that in most netball games, players are only allowed on for no more than half the game, so surely that should mean they need 14 players to a team to account for that common rule? It was fun, nonetheless and I'm looking forward to trying it again tomorrow night - if only for a slight physical hiccup that I have at the moment! Will come to this soon...
I had the weekend off, which was great. Tay also had the weekend off so I got to spend it with him - even better. I went out there Friday night after work, then basically stayed til last night when I came home again. We didn't do too much Saturday, apart from stopping in at home for me to grab a few things and going into town for him to get his hair cut - it was weird being in a proper "barber" rather than the usual hairdressing salon that I'm used to being in!
He was going to get his beard trimmed down but didn't. He's said to me, "I'll keep it cut down over summer but I'll be growing it back for winter" - especially for the hunting trip he's going on in June to the South Island. However he hasn't particularly stuck to his word and hasn't really cut it since Christmas! Argh, now it's turning a bit red, obviously he's stoked and is determined to keep growing it to see what happens. Argh, males! lol
That afternoon Nate His Mate came over and we went out to one of the paddocks to test out Taylor's new rifle on some cans and clay birds. He had bought a new one on Friday for when he goes Tahr hunting in June and it needed the scope setting up - what better excuse to go do some shooting? Not really my cup of tea, but I don't mind watching. I was going to have a go, we were lining up the sights for me (he has a bipod, so got to just lay on the ground and aim it). But when I realised the kickback it had I decided to flag the idea. Having a gun kick back into my bad shoulder would leave me somewhat crippled for a few days with that arm. Even Tay and Nate His Mate were saying it was quite sore - and they're quite used to it, it needs a rubber padding on the butt to fix it.
Nate stayed for dinner and then came back the next morning with another friend of his and our friend Luke, did I mention this weekend was Paradise Duck Shooting weekend?! Yeah, it was. I was going to tag along but I was super tired and managed to get out of it! That and I didn't have any dark, camo clothing which was apparently necessary for the job. So the four guys went out shooting that morning and I got to sleep in til - wait for it - 9am. Them arriving back woke me up, then they did the dishes and made breakfast while I just cruised, it made a nice change!
Taylor and I went out after that as we had an appointment - for a professional thai massage. Yeah, crazy right?! Tay's Dad is a trained massage therapist so he's always wanted to try a Thai massage to see what it's like.
Hmm. They were Thai women, it was difficult figuring what they were saying and the room was heavily perfumed with a very peaceful music playing. They cleaned our feet first (ever had someone else clean your feet!?!?) then got to work. Just as a heads up, if anyone reading this wants to try it. When you book in a full body massage, it is pretty much exactly that...I thought it'd be like, back, shoulders and feet lol
I've got a bad habit of laughing in situations where I probably shouldn't. I was giggling away about the whole thing before she started, laying face down on a table with my face sticking through the hole in the table, staring at a flower of some sorts in a bowl. I do believe it was fake, so it got me wondering if they could possibly have a camera in there watching the expression on my face. From times when her pushing muscles around on my back hurt quite a bit, to when my feet were feeling a bit ticklish! At some stage Tay started snoring! Really!?
Taylors' boss was happy to have Monday off work, so he paid me to stick around and milk for him Monday morning and help Taylor do things during the day, I was already booked in to work there Tuesday anyway so it wasn't a big deal hanging around for an extra day. Working with Tay is pretty cool, doing proper farm work and that makes a nice change in my routine. :)
Today though I got back to normal work, fencing for our neighbour, getting soaked when the rain suddenly arrived. Autumn has definitely arrived - I thought since our summer started late that it would last a fair bit longer but apparently not. It's still hot, don't get me wrong. But a couple weeks ago we had about 50+mm of rain and ever since then we get random bursts of rain whenever the weather man feels to deliver. It's incredible how things have greened up!
One thing that's on our minds at the moment is the new motorway that is being built - connecting Auckland to Northland. Our house isn't effected by the developments, however a big interchange is going to be about 200-250 metres up the road from us, and it means that we'll get all of the through-traffic going past us again. As we're right next to the road - it's not good. The motorway is set to be up and go by 2025, but all the years prior we're going to have to deal with the noise disturbance from the developing. And then the traffic noise from the road itself - I can't imagine long weekends! So what to do? Sound proof the property, planting thick trees to grow around the entire boundary. Installing double glazing etc. And just deal with it. Or set up the place to sell? It'll be worth a fair bit to the right buyer, being right next to the motorway. I dunno it's a scary thought to consider what will happen as this is home to us, what to do? At least we don't have the issue of the house needing to be removed because it sits on the developing land - like many a house around here. Then our decision would be made for us - but the council will only buy for a cheap price. We'll see, we have few years up our sleeves here.
Oh that's right - my slight physical quandary I have....so on Monday my legs basically collapsed from underneath me. I ran to open a gate for Taylor so he could get through with the tractor before the herd blocked the gateway, I was walking up the hill ok and thought I'd better get up there quick smart so started running. Next thing I knew I was bent over in pain, all the muscles in the front of both thighs were on fire! They were hurting so much I could barely move. I did manage to get up there in the end but it was slow going, for the rest of the day I was somewhat stumbling along trying to get everywhere I needed to go. They haven't done it again thank goodness, but silly movements hurt, like today I went to run to grab some tools when it was raining and I still felt it. I think it was simply severe cramp, it just seemed odd that both legs did it but all we could think was that the massage must've pulled some muscles, which makes me a little dubious to go back again. It's never happened before, hopefully doesn't happen again and all I can think is I hope like heck they cope with netball tomorrow! It's going to be a tad difficult, but at least I know what to expect.
We'd just get used to jogging then suddenly we're sprinting, or fast walking or something! It was mental, I think we spent about ten minutes doing a warm up, I was surprised that they didn't get us to do the typical stretches and whatnot before the warm up (I've always thought you were meant to) but we did them afterwards. I'm glad I wasn't the slowest in the group, I thought if I could almost keep up with Chantelle, I'd be doing well - and I did, most of the time!
Unfortunately I'm one of those people who's face goes nice and red when I get hot from silly exercise...it doesn't matter if I'm quite fit, which I usually am, when heat can't escape through my feet, it goes to my face instead, rather annoying if I'm honest!!
After the warm up we got into corners and moved onto another warm up/game thing where we were catching, throwing, running, catching then throwing the ball to different people from different corners as we ran through to the opposite corner. It was, straight out, confusing. It didn't help that the first time the ball was thrown to me it hit me square on the face, quite hard. Everyone seemed to get the idea rather quickly (most of the women there had been playing in the team for quite a few years...) but typically I didn't. It's rather awkward being the one who had to be guided through each pass, meaning it had to be slowed down a tad when I went through. I'm rather nervous about the trial on Thursday because they'll likely do it again and I really can't quite remember exactly how it goes...
Once that was finished they put people into places and teams, four of us including myself were stood out for the first game. At first I was thinking, aw man I must be bad! But I've actually never seen a game of netball played before - so I got to watch it and got a bit of an idea instead of being thrown into the deep end!
The second game I was called in for Wing attack (Wing Defense and Attack I had put myself down for), and once my opponent Wing Defense knew I didn't know how to play she was helping me out, as well as one of the umpires. They were telling me where I should be and what I could do which was helpful.
The third game I went into wing defense, which I found not as good as my previous attack role. The girl I was paired with was a really good player, who was flying around the court at high speeds. I had to be blocking her but I just couldn't keep up and kept losing sight of her. So if I get one of those places I really hope to get Attack, it's much easier!
It was good once Chantelle and I left, because one of the coaches came up to us and thanked us for coming and giving it a good go, and asked us to definitely come back for the next trial. We'll get places, for sure. They don't have enough players to turn people away. Last week they only had enough for two teams and two subs each. Where I've read online that in most netball games, players are only allowed on for no more than half the game, so surely that should mean they need 14 players to a team to account for that common rule? It was fun, nonetheless and I'm looking forward to trying it again tomorrow night - if only for a slight physical hiccup that I have at the moment! Will come to this soon...
I had the weekend off, which was great. Tay also had the weekend off so I got to spend it with him - even better. I went out there Friday night after work, then basically stayed til last night when I came home again. We didn't do too much Saturday, apart from stopping in at home for me to grab a few things and going into town for him to get his hair cut - it was weird being in a proper "barber" rather than the usual hairdressing salon that I'm used to being in!
He was going to get his beard trimmed down but didn't. He's said to me, "I'll keep it cut down over summer but I'll be growing it back for winter" - especially for the hunting trip he's going on in June to the South Island. However he hasn't particularly stuck to his word and hasn't really cut it since Christmas! Argh, now it's turning a bit red, obviously he's stoked and is determined to keep growing it to see what happens. Argh, males! lol
That afternoon Nate His Mate came over and we went out to one of the paddocks to test out Taylor's new rifle on some cans and clay birds. He had bought a new one on Friday for when he goes Tahr hunting in June and it needed the scope setting up - what better excuse to go do some shooting? Not really my cup of tea, but I don't mind watching. I was going to have a go, we were lining up the sights for me (he has a bipod, so got to just lay on the ground and aim it). But when I realised the kickback it had I decided to flag the idea. Having a gun kick back into my bad shoulder would leave me somewhat crippled for a few days with that arm. Even Tay and Nate His Mate were saying it was quite sore - and they're quite used to it, it needs a rubber padding on the butt to fix it.
Nate stayed for dinner and then came back the next morning with another friend of his and our friend Luke, did I mention this weekend was Paradise Duck Shooting weekend?! Yeah, it was. I was going to tag along but I was super tired and managed to get out of it! That and I didn't have any dark, camo clothing which was apparently necessary for the job. So the four guys went out shooting that morning and I got to sleep in til - wait for it - 9am. Them arriving back woke me up, then they did the dishes and made breakfast while I just cruised, it made a nice change!
Taylor and I went out after that as we had an appointment - for a professional thai massage. Yeah, crazy right?! Tay's Dad is a trained massage therapist so he's always wanted to try a Thai massage to see what it's like.
Hmm. They were Thai women, it was difficult figuring what they were saying and the room was heavily perfumed with a very peaceful music playing. They cleaned our feet first (ever had someone else clean your feet!?!?) then got to work. Just as a heads up, if anyone reading this wants to try it. When you book in a full body massage, it is pretty much exactly that...I thought it'd be like, back, shoulders and feet lol
I've got a bad habit of laughing in situations where I probably shouldn't. I was giggling away about the whole thing before she started, laying face down on a table with my face sticking through the hole in the table, staring at a flower of some sorts in a bowl. I do believe it was fake, so it got me wondering if they could possibly have a camera in there watching the expression on my face. From times when her pushing muscles around on my back hurt quite a bit, to when my feet were feeling a bit ticklish! At some stage Tay started snoring! Really!?
Taylors' boss was happy to have Monday off work, so he paid me to stick around and milk for him Monday morning and help Taylor do things during the day, I was already booked in to work there Tuesday anyway so it wasn't a big deal hanging around for an extra day. Working with Tay is pretty cool, doing proper farm work and that makes a nice change in my routine. :)
Today though I got back to normal work, fencing for our neighbour, getting soaked when the rain suddenly arrived. Autumn has definitely arrived - I thought since our summer started late that it would last a fair bit longer but apparently not. It's still hot, don't get me wrong. But a couple weeks ago we had about 50+mm of rain and ever since then we get random bursts of rain whenever the weather man feels to deliver. It's incredible how things have greened up!
One thing that's on our minds at the moment is the new motorway that is being built - connecting Auckland to Northland. Our house isn't effected by the developments, however a big interchange is going to be about 200-250 metres up the road from us, and it means that we'll get all of the through-traffic going past us again. As we're right next to the road - it's not good. The motorway is set to be up and go by 2025, but all the years prior we're going to have to deal with the noise disturbance from the developing. And then the traffic noise from the road itself - I can't imagine long weekends! So what to do? Sound proof the property, planting thick trees to grow around the entire boundary. Installing double glazing etc. And just deal with it. Or set up the place to sell? It'll be worth a fair bit to the right buyer, being right next to the motorway. I dunno it's a scary thought to consider what will happen as this is home to us, what to do? At least we don't have the issue of the house needing to be removed because it sits on the developing land - like many a house around here. Then our decision would be made for us - but the council will only buy for a cheap price. We'll see, we have few years up our sleeves here.
Oh that's right - my slight physical quandary I have....so on Monday my legs basically collapsed from underneath me. I ran to open a gate for Taylor so he could get through with the tractor before the herd blocked the gateway, I was walking up the hill ok and thought I'd better get up there quick smart so started running. Next thing I knew I was bent over in pain, all the muscles in the front of both thighs were on fire! They were hurting so much I could barely move. I did manage to get up there in the end but it was slow going, for the rest of the day I was somewhat stumbling along trying to get everywhere I needed to go. They haven't done it again thank goodness, but silly movements hurt, like today I went to run to grab some tools when it was raining and I still felt it. I think it was simply severe cramp, it just seemed odd that both legs did it but all we could think was that the massage must've pulled some muscles, which makes me a little dubious to go back again. It's never happened before, hopefully doesn't happen again and all I can think is I hope like heck they cope with netball tomorrow! It's going to be a tad difficult, but at least I know what to expect.
Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Valentine's Day
Yesterday I had my first ever "Valentine's Day", and in all honesty I've not a clue what all the hype is about. It was just another day really. I went out for dinner with Taylor at one of the local pub/restaurant places as they were holding a proper valentine's night. Which perhaps wasn't the best plan.
They had suggested to book ahead, so I had done that a week or so ago. And they showed us to this table out in a separate room set up for the whole valentine's theme, complete with fairy lights and an acoustic singer. It was so loud I could hardly think. However when we went back to the bar to order the food, we realised somebody else took our table while we were ordering! Although there was a much more comfortable seating arrangement in the bar and it was further from this guy who was singing, so at least it wasn't as loud. I think it was just because the speakers were echoing, so you couldn't think a word in your head, let alone string a sentence together to have a conversation in there. So that worked in our favour a bit. But it still wasn't great. Because they were so booked up, it took an hour before one starter came out for us - salt and pepper squid, it was really delicious. But that might've been because we were so hungry. Finally 10 minutes after that, the main meals showed up but the meat was overdone so again, just yeah.
They're a really good place to eat at, but I guess because they were so busy, things went a little slack in the kitchen. I'd imagine they were working hard out, food was constantly flowing out, it was just a shame it took an hour to batter some squid and then deep-fry it. I was so tired, I was just like, "wake me up when it arrives..."
Overall it was a rather mediocre night, it would've been more pleasant staying home and watching a movie. Valentine's is certainly more of an American holiday, isn't it? Very commercialised.
I took Annie in for her first service yesterday, she's done over 1500 k's now, so definitely well run in. I still like her and I'm still definitely getting used to her, it is taking a little while this time. Although she does need a repair already, just some plastic paneling on the back passenger door has come apart - we suspect in the heat, and it can't clip back in for some odd reason. But because the cars are so new, it'll take a bit to order the part. The frustrating thing is that she doesn't have an"over speed alarm", I can be cruising along at 105 and not even realise it, at least if a bell were to sound then I'd know sooner rather than later. It's not that I don't keep an eye on the speedo, I do, but she just likes speeding. It would be handy in those areas where I'm not sure on the speed limit too, but alas she doesn't have the alarm. Which is rather odd for new cars these days.
Oh so I'm joining a community netball club! I saw it advertised on facebook and suggested it to Chantelle. Last Wednesday was just an info session and tonight are the trials. I'm not too sure what it exactly entails, but at 6 o'clock tonight I guess I'll find out. I've never played netball a day in my life, but I've often wanted to, so they suggested I sign up for a Wing Attack or Wing Defense roll and just go from there.
Trials are tonight and then every Wednesday onwards are training nights - two hour sessions, that should be in the school gym so at least the weather won't bother us. In May the actual games start, so every Friday night I'll be there, although that is outside in another local town so it'll be inconvenient if it's raining! The sport plays until around September-ish, so that'll keep me as a busy little beaver until then. I just figured that I'd rather not have the life where I simply eat, sleep and work and see Taylor. Chantelle and I have been struggling to organise a movie night with Bianca, because it seems every suggested night somebody is busy! So this way Chantelle and I will have compulsory catch ups at least once a week!
Another girl, Maddie, might also be coming. I know her through Taylor as she lives and works with his best friend Luke on one of the farms around here. She's 18 and seems really nice so it'll be good to get to know her a bit more. I just hope that we all get onto the same team after tonight's session.
Playing sport meant buying some decent shoes, so while we were in town yesterday I hunted through Rebel Sport to find a pair.
Did you know the average pair of sneakers start at a whopping $120?
Yes, ok so they're decent shoes from decent brands like New Balance. I bought a pair of them when I was 15 for about $100 and I still use them every day to drive to and from work. Sure, the framing is poking through the material now but they're still very usable, just perhaps not as sports shoes anymore! So at least they last the distance, but sheesh! I went through glancing at all the prices, proper "netball" shoes were sitting about about $240, so we strolled down to the specials/end of lines deals. I finally found a great pair, size 8.5 (perfect fit for me) for $60 - down from $120. So of course I walked out of there with them (in a bag though!) and I've been wearing them around the house to try and wear them in a tad before tonight.
I'm feeling somewhat nervous because I'm not too sure how tonight will go, I know I won't be "perfect" at the game and I've got a heck of a lot to learn, I just hope I'm not too obviously useless at it! Catch the ball Kayger, please don't have butter fingers!! hahaha Please don't run with the ball Kayger, this isn't rugby. Might I also suggest not bouncing the ball either? Yeah, that'd look bad.
Now, to organise myself to go do some stapling on a few new fences on the job we've started up the road, and to encourage myself that I'm being rather well behaved by still having NOT opened the chocolate Tay got me for valentine's day...Dunno how long that will last though...
The weather here is atrocious lately. We've been getting soaring temperatures of over 30 degrees almost daily, and at night the humidity is often unbearable, it's been sitting anywhere between 60-70%. I'm so tired at the moment because I just haven't been able to sleep! Then there's the rain, it'll rain when you least expect it to, and when it does rain it does so in an amount that is more annoying than anything. It just makes everything slippery and then the wind dries it up again. A week or so ago we got 15mm overnight, which was a great dumping. We're lucky though as we don't have any fires like other parts of the country and Aussie do...there was one a bit further up north on Waitangi Day, but that burnt through about 3-4 hectares of scrub, not 300-400 hectares like everywhere else...
They had suggested to book ahead, so I had done that a week or so ago. And they showed us to this table out in a separate room set up for the whole valentine's theme, complete with fairy lights and an acoustic singer. It was so loud I could hardly think. However when we went back to the bar to order the food, we realised somebody else took our table while we were ordering! Although there was a much more comfortable seating arrangement in the bar and it was further from this guy who was singing, so at least it wasn't as loud. I think it was just because the speakers were echoing, so you couldn't think a word in your head, let alone string a sentence together to have a conversation in there. So that worked in our favour a bit. But it still wasn't great. Because they were so booked up, it took an hour before one starter came out for us - salt and pepper squid, it was really delicious. But that might've been because we were so hungry. Finally 10 minutes after that, the main meals showed up but the meat was overdone so again, just yeah.
They're a really good place to eat at, but I guess because they were so busy, things went a little slack in the kitchen. I'd imagine they were working hard out, food was constantly flowing out, it was just a shame it took an hour to batter some squid and then deep-fry it. I was so tired, I was just like, "wake me up when it arrives..."
Overall it was a rather mediocre night, it would've been more pleasant staying home and watching a movie. Valentine's is certainly more of an American holiday, isn't it? Very commercialised.
I took Annie in for her first service yesterday, she's done over 1500 k's now, so definitely well run in. I still like her and I'm still definitely getting used to her, it is taking a little while this time. Although she does need a repair already, just some plastic paneling on the back passenger door has come apart - we suspect in the heat, and it can't clip back in for some odd reason. But because the cars are so new, it'll take a bit to order the part. The frustrating thing is that she doesn't have an"over speed alarm", I can be cruising along at 105 and not even realise it, at least if a bell were to sound then I'd know sooner rather than later. It's not that I don't keep an eye on the speedo, I do, but she just likes speeding. It would be handy in those areas where I'm not sure on the speed limit too, but alas she doesn't have the alarm. Which is rather odd for new cars these days.
Oh so I'm joining a community netball club! I saw it advertised on facebook and suggested it to Chantelle. Last Wednesday was just an info session and tonight are the trials. I'm not too sure what it exactly entails, but at 6 o'clock tonight I guess I'll find out. I've never played netball a day in my life, but I've often wanted to, so they suggested I sign up for a Wing Attack or Wing Defense roll and just go from there.
Trials are tonight and then every Wednesday onwards are training nights - two hour sessions, that should be in the school gym so at least the weather won't bother us. In May the actual games start, so every Friday night I'll be there, although that is outside in another local town so it'll be inconvenient if it's raining! The sport plays until around September-ish, so that'll keep me as a busy little beaver until then. I just figured that I'd rather not have the life where I simply eat, sleep and work and see Taylor. Chantelle and I have been struggling to organise a movie night with Bianca, because it seems every suggested night somebody is busy! So this way Chantelle and I will have compulsory catch ups at least once a week!
Another girl, Maddie, might also be coming. I know her through Taylor as she lives and works with his best friend Luke on one of the farms around here. She's 18 and seems really nice so it'll be good to get to know her a bit more. I just hope that we all get onto the same team after tonight's session.
Playing sport meant buying some decent shoes, so while we were in town yesterday I hunted through Rebel Sport to find a pair.
Did you know the average pair of sneakers start at a whopping $120?
Yes, ok so they're decent shoes from decent brands like New Balance. I bought a pair of them when I was 15 for about $100 and I still use them every day to drive to and from work. Sure, the framing is poking through the material now but they're still very usable, just perhaps not as sports shoes anymore! So at least they last the distance, but sheesh! I went through glancing at all the prices, proper "netball" shoes were sitting about about $240, so we strolled down to the specials/end of lines deals. I finally found a great pair, size 8.5 (perfect fit for me) for $60 - down from $120. So of course I walked out of there with them (in a bag though!) and I've been wearing them around the house to try and wear them in a tad before tonight.
I'm feeling somewhat nervous because I'm not too sure how tonight will go, I know I won't be "perfect" at the game and I've got a heck of a lot to learn, I just hope I'm not too obviously useless at it! Catch the ball Kayger, please don't have butter fingers!! hahaha Please don't run with the ball Kayger, this isn't rugby. Might I also suggest not bouncing the ball either? Yeah, that'd look bad.
Now, to organise myself to go do some stapling on a few new fences on the job we've started up the road, and to encourage myself that I'm being rather well behaved by still having NOT opened the chocolate Tay got me for valentine's day...Dunno how long that will last though...
The weather here is atrocious lately. We've been getting soaring temperatures of over 30 degrees almost daily, and at night the humidity is often unbearable, it's been sitting anywhere between 60-70%. I'm so tired at the moment because I just haven't been able to sleep! Then there's the rain, it'll rain when you least expect it to, and when it does rain it does so in an amount that is more annoying than anything. It just makes everything slippery and then the wind dries it up again. A week or so ago we got 15mm overnight, which was a great dumping. We're lucky though as we don't have any fires like other parts of the country and Aussie do...there was one a bit further up north on Waitangi Day, but that burnt through about 3-4 hectares of scrub, not 300-400 hectares like everywhere else...
Thursday, 5 January 2017
New Year
Hello and welcome to 2017! I'm glad you made it here :)
Unfortunately just prior to the new year, my boss' Mum passed away. I'd only met her once, but she was so nice. It's kinda scary really, back in late November/early December during either docking or crutching, she felt a little off colour. After visiting the doctors they said she had pancreatic cancer, and from what I've heard, it had spread through her entire body giving her only weeks to live. How is that, like I don't know all the details - I've only heard snippets here and there, but how can you go from seemingly healthy, to looking at living only a few more weeks?
Sadly, she went downhill very quickly after the diagnosis and spent Christmas time in hospitals having emergency surgeries and the like and passed away on the 30th December. This was why I milked Christmas Day morning, because Cam couldn't be there.
She wasn't old either, the sad thing is that Cam's wife Jo had to go through losing both of her parents to cancer over many long years. Out of either option I don't know what I'd prefer - something short and quick like Cam's Mum, or false hope drawn out over quite a few years like Jo's parents.
It's awful, around here in my neighbourhood so many people (especially farmers) seem to get to a certain age and suddenly find they're filled with cancer and die shortly thereafter. It sort of makes you curious as to what happened around here once that have caused all the people in that generation to all have the same sentencing?
The funeral is today, it'll be huge. I considered going but at the same time I wasn't too sure, so I didn't go.
On New Years Day Mum, Dad and I drove down to Hamilton rather early in the morning. We've bought a shed off some friends down there, and finally made time to start taking it down. It's an American Barn style shed, not massive but big enough for what we need it for. It's green, white and red - so needs a decent paint job done when we put it back up, but it's in good condition which is the main thing.
So Dad and I got started on the two sides, thankfully the iron has small screws/bolts instead of nails, so I was running along having a blast with the drill, pulling them all out. Once the two sides were off, we jumped up onto the roof. Bad move. We have a mental note to put all of the walls up before re-installing the roof because it was swaying from side to side, rather violently. Not particularly pleasant, that. Shoulda pulled the roof off first...
Anyhow, amidst the swaying shed we managed to chug along slowly and carefully with the roof iron, managing to pull off about a quarter of the roof area - as it took ages. We're writing on the back of each sheet in numerical order, which way is up and where about it came from - which takes a little while. So at least when we eventually come to rebuild the shed here, we should get the sheets in the right places!
Unfortunately it got pretty windy and drizzly after a while, so it was too dangerous to be up there, I know I certainly didn't feel like falling off a shed roof to celebrate my new year! So we packed up and left - apparently the sun came back and the wind died down about half an hour after we left...seriously?
Mum, Dad and Nick are heading back down sometime this weekend to finish it off, they've still to the roof to pull down, the entire back wall (which will be pretty easy, really), what's left of the front wall. The three roller doors - somehow, and hopefully all of the steel framing. The steel is quite light, and with Nick there they should be able to chew through it rather quickly. I've done my dash with it, that's for sure. We'll probably rebuild it next summer, these things take time lol
I spent a couple days with Taylor earlier in the week as he has been on holidays, his friend Mike was also staying at his house so we basically just hung out together for most of the time. Monday was scorching, so that night we went to the beach so they could swim. I'm currently without anything suitable to swim in, so I got to just sorta stand there and watch, about knee deep in the water.
There's a nice little part off the beach where we were, between some massive rocks where the water comes in like a little lake, oddly it's filled with shells there - not sand like the rest of the beach. But it's a lot calmer and nice to have a little swim around in. Quite a lot of people jump off the rocks into it during high tide, although I wouldn't be that keen considering there are rocks in the water in some places. You can fish off the rocks there too, but from Nick's experience you only ever catch rock cod, or you lose your line!
My mission on Monday is to go to Kmart or somewhere and find myself some togs, so at least I can swim with them, rather than standing there looking silly on a scorching hot day. Tay and his friends are all getting into spear fishing, with the actual guns. Although I wouldn't do that exactly, I want to try out snorkeling with them at least. Considering how close I live to so many beaches, the amount of times I actually go to the beach is ridiculous - I need to get out more.
We stopped in to see another friend of Tay's - Luke, before we went to the beach. He works on another local farm and there are wild cats there. They were chatting when I saw an adorable grey tabby kitten with a white bib, watching us. I tried getting close to it, but he ran away. Not five minutes later he was sitting on the wheel of the side-by-side. If you know me, obviously I was like "omgosh! Look!!" They tried to catch it, but it went into the bike. Eventually it came out and ran into one of the cowshed drains, after lifting up a steel lid Taylor managed to catch it. Yes, we took it home - me driving his car, while he held it (he loves his cats, I've never seen anything like it!) and it just sat there purring!
I guess the kitten must be at the right sort of age, not too wild but slightly trusting, he was still a little dubious at Taylors house, but he's getting more and more friendly. So, so cute. Pawpaws, the other cat was livid about the new arrival, hopefully she'll get over herself in time.
I'll do a post in a little while with some pictures - once I've transferred them from my phone. I've got no work at the moment so at least I've got time.
Oh, still on the car hunt, but I've found some really nice ones and I'm looking at a few make/style options. I really like Mazda Axela's, but I've seen some Toyota Corolla's as well, some are signature class with really low k's and they get some great warranties with the purchase, only a couple years old, slightly above my price range but I would say it would be worth the slightly higher price. I'll keep you posted :)
Unfortunately just prior to the new year, my boss' Mum passed away. I'd only met her once, but she was so nice. It's kinda scary really, back in late November/early December during either docking or crutching, she felt a little off colour. After visiting the doctors they said she had pancreatic cancer, and from what I've heard, it had spread through her entire body giving her only weeks to live. How is that, like I don't know all the details - I've only heard snippets here and there, but how can you go from seemingly healthy, to looking at living only a few more weeks?
Sadly, she went downhill very quickly after the diagnosis and spent Christmas time in hospitals having emergency surgeries and the like and passed away on the 30th December. This was why I milked Christmas Day morning, because Cam couldn't be there.
She wasn't old either, the sad thing is that Cam's wife Jo had to go through losing both of her parents to cancer over many long years. Out of either option I don't know what I'd prefer - something short and quick like Cam's Mum, or false hope drawn out over quite a few years like Jo's parents.
It's awful, around here in my neighbourhood so many people (especially farmers) seem to get to a certain age and suddenly find they're filled with cancer and die shortly thereafter. It sort of makes you curious as to what happened around here once that have caused all the people in that generation to all have the same sentencing?
The funeral is today, it'll be huge. I considered going but at the same time I wasn't too sure, so I didn't go.
On New Years Day Mum, Dad and I drove down to Hamilton rather early in the morning. We've bought a shed off some friends down there, and finally made time to start taking it down. It's an American Barn style shed, not massive but big enough for what we need it for. It's green, white and red - so needs a decent paint job done when we put it back up, but it's in good condition which is the main thing.
So Dad and I got started on the two sides, thankfully the iron has small screws/bolts instead of nails, so I was running along having a blast with the drill, pulling them all out. Once the two sides were off, we jumped up onto the roof. Bad move. We have a mental note to put all of the walls up before re-installing the roof because it was swaying from side to side, rather violently. Not particularly pleasant, that. Shoulda pulled the roof off first...
Anyhow, amidst the swaying shed we managed to chug along slowly and carefully with the roof iron, managing to pull off about a quarter of the roof area - as it took ages. We're writing on the back of each sheet in numerical order, which way is up and where about it came from - which takes a little while. So at least when we eventually come to rebuild the shed here, we should get the sheets in the right places!
Unfortunately it got pretty windy and drizzly after a while, so it was too dangerous to be up there, I know I certainly didn't feel like falling off a shed roof to celebrate my new year! So we packed up and left - apparently the sun came back and the wind died down about half an hour after we left...seriously?
Mum, Dad and Nick are heading back down sometime this weekend to finish it off, they've still to the roof to pull down, the entire back wall (which will be pretty easy, really), what's left of the front wall. The three roller doors - somehow, and hopefully all of the steel framing. The steel is quite light, and with Nick there they should be able to chew through it rather quickly. I've done my dash with it, that's for sure. We'll probably rebuild it next summer, these things take time lol
I spent a couple days with Taylor earlier in the week as he has been on holidays, his friend Mike was also staying at his house so we basically just hung out together for most of the time. Monday was scorching, so that night we went to the beach so they could swim. I'm currently without anything suitable to swim in, so I got to just sorta stand there and watch, about knee deep in the water.
There's a nice little part off the beach where we were, between some massive rocks where the water comes in like a little lake, oddly it's filled with shells there - not sand like the rest of the beach. But it's a lot calmer and nice to have a little swim around in. Quite a lot of people jump off the rocks into it during high tide, although I wouldn't be that keen considering there are rocks in the water in some places. You can fish off the rocks there too, but from Nick's experience you only ever catch rock cod, or you lose your line!
My mission on Monday is to go to Kmart or somewhere and find myself some togs, so at least I can swim with them, rather than standing there looking silly on a scorching hot day. Tay and his friends are all getting into spear fishing, with the actual guns. Although I wouldn't do that exactly, I want to try out snorkeling with them at least. Considering how close I live to so many beaches, the amount of times I actually go to the beach is ridiculous - I need to get out more.
We stopped in to see another friend of Tay's - Luke, before we went to the beach. He works on another local farm and there are wild cats there. They were chatting when I saw an adorable grey tabby kitten with a white bib, watching us. I tried getting close to it, but he ran away. Not five minutes later he was sitting on the wheel of the side-by-side. If you know me, obviously I was like "omgosh! Look!!" They tried to catch it, but it went into the bike. Eventually it came out and ran into one of the cowshed drains, after lifting up a steel lid Taylor managed to catch it. Yes, we took it home - me driving his car, while he held it (he loves his cats, I've never seen anything like it!) and it just sat there purring!
I guess the kitten must be at the right sort of age, not too wild but slightly trusting, he was still a little dubious at Taylors house, but he's getting more and more friendly. So, so cute. Pawpaws, the other cat was livid about the new arrival, hopefully she'll get over herself in time.
I'll do a post in a little while with some pictures - once I've transferred them from my phone. I've got no work at the moment so at least I've got time.
Oh, still on the car hunt, but I've found some really nice ones and I'm looking at a few make/style options. I really like Mazda Axela's, but I've seen some Toyota Corolla's as well, some are signature class with really low k's and they get some great warranties with the purchase, only a couple years old, slightly above my price range but I would say it would be worth the slightly higher price. I'll keep you posted :)
Wednesday, 9 November 2016
Kayaking in Puhoi
Hello, and welcome to November; the second to last month of the year
that only seems to last a few days in honest reality and yet again,
Christmas will soon be upon us. It's a scary thought and I say it every
year - although this time it'll prove to be a little more chaotic due to
the fact that we're expecting a fair few people during the
Christmas/New Year week. A joy to behold, I assure you.
I'm not writing too much at present which makes me feel a little on the guilty side. I always thought to myself that I wouldn't become one of those people who suddenly became too 'busy' to write and update my blog. However, at the same time I don't particularly want to update too often due to potentially saying the same things, over and over. For example, my life is busy - very busy. But for the most of it, I do the same things most weeks. Milk, fence, eat, sleep, see Taylor, you know?
Taylor
and I finally had a joint day off on Labour Day, so we actually went
out for it. We went out for a brunch sort of meal at a really cute local
restaurant, where they have some very interesting food options; a twist
of French and Kiwi cuisine. For example, when you order hot drinks they
arrive with funny little cake-like things. I've not a clue what they
are, and it's exceptionally difficult to describe the taste. They're a
little oily, somewhat hard on the outside and sort of doughy on the
inside. They're not hot or cold, sweet or savoury. They're rather
strange, but so yum.
I guess they may be deep-fried, I just can't imagine how they'd create that sort of shape either. I guess that's why they're chefs, and uh, I'm not...!
A
few weeks earlier we'd been discussing some ideas of things to do, and
discovered that we both wanted to go kayaking at a particular place. So
we planned to go on Monday afternoon. There's a small village called
Puhoi, a little off the main drag when you're heading south, in that
ghastly direction of Auckland. There's a river that snakes its way back
up towards State Highway 1, and eventually seems to flow somewhat
parallel to the road. For years we've been driving that road on our way
south and we've noticed the kayakers, however we've just never been and
done it. It's a tourist trap, but something that us more local people
try out too. Anyhow, we drove down there and hired a kayak each, taking
off at a leisurely pace down the river. It was about an 8 kilometre
stretch, that would take about two hours. They say you end up at this
place called Wenderholm Regional Park, where they meet us with a van and
trailer to drive us back to Puhoi.
It was a rather new experience for both of us, as we'd never been kayaking before. After 10 minutes of paddling around a short section of the river - to be sure we were all good to go before leaving Puhoi and the hire centre, I quickly realised how difficult it actually was. I had a new appreciation for rowers, kayakers and the like who sit at Olympian level, as it took a fair amount of time learning how to steer the silly thing! You've also got to be careful not to put the paddle too deep into the water, as we were told - when you lift it up and put the other side down, you will more than likely scoop up and pour water into your lap. I learned that pretty quickly! We were also warned how easy it was to flip a kayak. I assume that the person who had used my kayak previously had either flipped it, or poured heaps of water into it as my little seat thing was soaked. It made for a rather uncomfortable journey! haha
We eventually made it to Wenderholm in just under two hours, were rather sore by the end of it and a little wet. The bonus was that neither of us fell out! Some people were riding horses in the river at one section, and we were almost taken out by a speed-boat at another. The latter annoyed us a fair bit, as by the sound of it the guy operating that is causing a bit of trouble around kayakers - he's not particularly careful, and the thing I find when you're on water is that sounds mean nothing. We thought we heard something but then guessed it may have been a truck on the road. However, suddenly a boat was racing up behind and swerved around us, leaving massive waves in its wake. Honestly, not cool. Otherwise the trip was uneventful.
When we're sent off, we sort of leave in groups, I guess the hire place send you out at specific times so then everyone can be picked up and dropped off at each end at the correct times too. A few Asians left just before us and they came across a "decoy" duck trapped among the branches of a fallen tree in the river. They were pointing excitedly at it, as if they haven't seen anything like it before! What is the bet that they picked it up and took it home as a souvenir? Anyhow, we passed them and later came across some real Paradise ducks on the edge of the water, the Asian women quickly made their way to them, pulling out their cameras. It really made me laugh, I can imagine what they were thinking, - Kiwi's shoot all their ducks so that all there is left are plastic ones...
This Saturday was Guy Fawkes night, so a few of us went out to one of the local, rural displays. I go to it every few years but this year was the best by far. It was odd though, as usually if I went with Mum and Dad, we'd head down there in time for the fireworks and then we'd leave again with the masses of people exiting the paddock.
A fair few hundred people go to it, so it's rather packed. This time we took some dinner down and ate it an hour or so earlier - nice, apart from all the bugs who had also turned up for the event. I finally got to see Chantelle again, it's been a month or so since I last saw her. We're trying to plan on catching up more often...and there's some ladies night at her church this weekend, so finally we might actually be getting somewhere!
I should also mention - from hanging out with Taylor, I've created myself the role of "stepmum". Thankfully I am no longer "evil stepmum", which I do believe I was at the beginning lol. This is the beautiful fleabag - Pawpaws. She's a rugrat, a crazy little critter and with a Dad like Taylor I'm not surprised, he stirs her up like nobody's business. Therefore I do believe she will be terrifying once she's bigger. When I first met her she would take a running leap and scale my legs to get up onto my shoulders, like no kidding, she's crazy. But she's so sweet too, her purr machine is permanently on 'max' volume!
He rescued her as a wild kitten off the farm his friend works at and she's ridiculously spoiled...I'm no help with that though, I've bought her some toys and treats to make her like me a bit more!
Tay has also been made guardian of Tilly, another foxy. She belonged the people who own the farm, however four years ago when we started rearing the calves there, Tilly decided that Mike, the new guy working there at the time, was a much better option to live with. And he spoiled her like crazy, he always told us how he cooked her eggs for breakfast - sunny side down...
Anyhow, Mike is a very good friend of Taylor's and has since moved onto a new career path with his fiancee, moving to a new town etc. His fiancee doesn't much like Tilly, so poor Tilly had to stay behind - much to Tay's dismay. I would guess that Mike is still providing all of her food and vet requirements, but the roof that she lives under is Taylor's house which is rather amusing to be quite honest! Until she walks herself inside with green feet, after being on the farm...
Oh yeah, and at some stage in October we finished feeding the calves there as they were getting weaned! This is me and number 5. The coolest calf on the farm - I do hope they keep her and don't sell her to China- although she's more of a cross than a full Friesian.
I'm not writing too much at present which makes me feel a little on the guilty side. I always thought to myself that I wouldn't become one of those people who suddenly became too 'busy' to write and update my blog. However, at the same time I don't particularly want to update too often due to potentially saying the same things, over and over. For example, my life is busy - very busy. But for the most of it, I do the same things most weeks. Milk, fence, eat, sleep, see Taylor, you know?
I guess they may be deep-fried, I just can't imagine how they'd create that sort of shape either. I guess that's why they're chefs, and uh, I'm not...!
A
few weeks earlier we'd been discussing some ideas of things to do, and
discovered that we both wanted to go kayaking at a particular place. So
we planned to go on Monday afternoon. There's a small village called
Puhoi, a little off the main drag when you're heading south, in that
ghastly direction of Auckland. There's a river that snakes its way back
up towards State Highway 1, and eventually seems to flow somewhat
parallel to the road. For years we've been driving that road on our way
south and we've noticed the kayakers, however we've just never been and
done it. It's a tourist trap, but something that us more local people
try out too. Anyhow, we drove down there and hired a kayak each, taking
off at a leisurely pace down the river. It was about an 8 kilometre
stretch, that would take about two hours. They say you end up at this
place called Wenderholm Regional Park, where they meet us with a van and
trailer to drive us back to Puhoi.It was a rather new experience for both of us, as we'd never been kayaking before. After 10 minutes of paddling around a short section of the river - to be sure we were all good to go before leaving Puhoi and the hire centre, I quickly realised how difficult it actually was. I had a new appreciation for rowers, kayakers and the like who sit at Olympian level, as it took a fair amount of time learning how to steer the silly thing! You've also got to be careful not to put the paddle too deep into the water, as we were told - when you lift it up and put the other side down, you will more than likely scoop up and pour water into your lap. I learned that pretty quickly! We were also warned how easy it was to flip a kayak. I assume that the person who had used my kayak previously had either flipped it, or poured heaps of water into it as my little seat thing was soaked. It made for a rather uncomfortable journey! haha
We eventually made it to Wenderholm in just under two hours, were rather sore by the end of it and a little wet. The bonus was that neither of us fell out! Some people were riding horses in the river at one section, and we were almost taken out by a speed-boat at another. The latter annoyed us a fair bit, as by the sound of it the guy operating that is causing a bit of trouble around kayakers - he's not particularly careful, and the thing I find when you're on water is that sounds mean nothing. We thought we heard something but then guessed it may have been a truck on the road. However, suddenly a boat was racing up behind and swerved around us, leaving massive waves in its wake. Honestly, not cool. Otherwise the trip was uneventful.
When we're sent off, we sort of leave in groups, I guess the hire place send you out at specific times so then everyone can be picked up and dropped off at each end at the correct times too. A few Asians left just before us and they came across a "decoy" duck trapped among the branches of a fallen tree in the river. They were pointing excitedly at it, as if they haven't seen anything like it before! What is the bet that they picked it up and took it home as a souvenir? Anyhow, we passed them and later came across some real Paradise ducks on the edge of the water, the Asian women quickly made their way to them, pulling out their cameras. It really made me laugh, I can imagine what they were thinking, - Kiwi's shoot all their ducks so that all there is left are plastic ones...
This Saturday was Guy Fawkes night, so a few of us went out to one of the local, rural displays. I go to it every few years but this year was the best by far. It was odd though, as usually if I went with Mum and Dad, we'd head down there in time for the fireworks and then we'd leave again with the masses of people exiting the paddock.
A fair few hundred people go to it, so it's rather packed. This time we took some dinner down and ate it an hour or so earlier - nice, apart from all the bugs who had also turned up for the event. I finally got to see Chantelle again, it's been a month or so since I last saw her. We're trying to plan on catching up more often...and there's some ladies night at her church this weekend, so finally we might actually be getting somewhere!
I should also mention - from hanging out with Taylor, I've created myself the role of "stepmum". Thankfully I am no longer "evil stepmum", which I do believe I was at the beginning lol. This is the beautiful fleabag - Pawpaws. She's a rugrat, a crazy little critter and with a Dad like Taylor I'm not surprised, he stirs her up like nobody's business. Therefore I do believe she will be terrifying once she's bigger. When I first met her she would take a running leap and scale my legs to get up onto my shoulders, like no kidding, she's crazy. But she's so sweet too, her purr machine is permanently on 'max' volume!
He rescued her as a wild kitten off the farm his friend works at and she's ridiculously spoiled...I'm no help with that though, I've bought her some toys and treats to make her like me a bit more!
Tay has also been made guardian of Tilly, another foxy. She belonged the people who own the farm, however four years ago when we started rearing the calves there, Tilly decided that Mike, the new guy working there at the time, was a much better option to live with. And he spoiled her like crazy, he always told us how he cooked her eggs for breakfast - sunny side down...
Anyhow, Mike is a very good friend of Taylor's and has since moved onto a new career path with his fiancee, moving to a new town etc. His fiancee doesn't much like Tilly, so poor Tilly had to stay behind - much to Tay's dismay. I would guess that Mike is still providing all of her food and vet requirements, but the roof that she lives under is Taylor's house which is rather amusing to be quite honest! Until she walks herself inside with green feet, after being on the farm...
Oh yeah, and at some stage in October we finished feeding the calves there as they were getting weaned! This is me and number 5. The coolest calf on the farm - I do hope they keep her and don't sell her to China- although she's more of a cross than a full Friesian.
Friday, 30 September 2016
Wake Me Up When September Ends
That's a really old song, Green Day I believe. It was that song that was on the radio all the time when I was about...10? Yeah I'll repeat. That's a really old song. Although it is convenient as a title, so I'm not complaining!
So yet again we're at the end of the month and I duly apologise for my lack of communication during the past month - it's been crazy! But not in a bad way, except perhaps for this past week where I've been brutalised by some hideous form of stomach bug that is putting up a very good fight. It's been hanging around since Monday where it was just a really sharp pain in my side every so often, then on Tuesday the nausea and sinus headaches made their grand entrance and here I am on Friday still not 100%.
I spent most of Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday asleep on the couch, keeping myself dosed up on the Nurofen. This, perhaps wasn't the most smartest moves I've ever made as I haven't eaten much at all since Tuesday morning - and that pain relief possibly shouldn't be taken on an empty stomach...hence why I'm still not 100% now. Oops. Although I'm kinda hungry, and I've got a headache because I'm hungry, but I've gotta be careful not to eat too much too fast. See, this is why I don't get sick very often, because I know full well that I simply can't put up with it. It's so frustrating! Not only that, but I haven't really worked since Monday - as you can imagine, I am driving myself insane! I'm milking this afternoon, so I think it's going to be hard to get the energy level back up to normal...
So yes, my apologies for the late update. I was planning on writing this earlier in the week! But don't stop reading, because I've got a bucketful of things to say.
First things first: The boyfriend. Lol. Please don't laugh at me, over the past four to six weeks I have not somehow morphed into an easily swayed, soft and squishy sort of person! I am still very much my normal seriously sarcastic, and somewhat cynical self. Believe you me.
Anyway for those of you who don't know too much information yet. His name's Taylor, is 20 and works and lives on one of the local farms - about a 10 minute drive from my place. It's the farm where Mum and I do the calf rearing so, conveniently, I see him almost every day. Honestly, he's lovely, seems to get on with my family really well and Dad approves of him too (yay!). He's cooked for me a few times at his place, he's been here a couple times and I met his Mum on Sunday night when we went to her place for tea. It's good fun, for sure. Oh yeah, and he's bought me flowers....twice :D
Now don't panic, because he was also one of the crazy homeschooled kids like us (was sort of part of my homeschooling group as a kid). He is quite normal, to say the least. If there is such a thing. And if you're into hunting or 4WDing then you guys will be good buddies if you were to meet at any stage.
A few weeks back Mum and I caught a plane and flew down to Rotorua (flying was so much easier than driving all that way) for my Nana's 65th birthday. We stayed there from the Friday morning and left again on Sunday morning. It's good having a Nana who is so young still, well in comparison to a lot of my friends' grandparents. We get to have so much time with her and she can do absolutely anything really, if she wanted to. But she definitely deserves her retirement years now, and is now spending more time doing her voluntary work running an op shop. Doing what she does best :)
Last Thursday I did something that was rather impulsive...I bought myself a puppy. A Foxy I might add. I hope she's a full foxy, as her nose is a little shorter than you'd expect, however the lady I got her off (who had rescued the pups off the mother who wasn't feeding them) seemed to think that both parents were foxy's. It was a case of one neighbours' dog went wandering over to the other neighbour, definitely not a planned thing, that's for sure. And so this lady took them on and reared them. She's a nippy little thing, about 7 weeks old and absolute trouble. She gets on amazingly with Tessa and Jackson though, thank goodness. To the point where Tessa seems to think it's her own puppy - she runs to her every beckon and call!
I've called her Maggie, which I instantly changed to Maggles and Dad refers to her as Magpie. So. She's a little diva and is so small that she can squeeze through the extension on the baby gate that is meant to keep them confined in the kitchen area. No particularly helpful, that.
However, the other day Mum and Dad bought home another Shih Tzu puppy, a little girl this time. As Mum wants to have a pair for breeding, they've finally found a cute little girl. Do you know how much chaos it is, having two less than a year old dogs and two barely weaned puppies running around in our kitchen? Yeah, I need not say more. It is mental! Although Rose (Rosie) is kinda cute, and it's funny having a big Foxy and a baby Foxy and a big Shih Tzu and a baby Shih Tzu - especially when they look so similar! The good thing is that Maggie and Rosie can grow up and be little friends together, and we only go through the "puppy stage" once, this time round. They all seem to get along, although Jack and Tess are a little confused about Rose...I might also add, Mum didn't intentionally set out to have puppies called Jack (Jackson) and Rose, like on the Titanic. I had to mention it to her afterwards, hehe
Our calves are almost finished now. There are only three left to calve, I'm sure in the next week or so they (the farmers) might think about weaning some and then will send Mum and I on our way. Some pictures from a few weeks ago...
So yet again we're at the end of the month and I duly apologise for my lack of communication during the past month - it's been crazy! But not in a bad way, except perhaps for this past week where I've been brutalised by some hideous form of stomach bug that is putting up a very good fight. It's been hanging around since Monday where it was just a really sharp pain in my side every so often, then on Tuesday the nausea and sinus headaches made their grand entrance and here I am on Friday still not 100%.
I spent most of Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday asleep on the couch, keeping myself dosed up on the Nurofen. This, perhaps wasn't the most smartest moves I've ever made as I haven't eaten much at all since Tuesday morning - and that pain relief possibly shouldn't be taken on an empty stomach...hence why I'm still not 100% now. Oops. Although I'm kinda hungry, and I've got a headache because I'm hungry, but I've gotta be careful not to eat too much too fast. See, this is why I don't get sick very often, because I know full well that I simply can't put up with it. It's so frustrating! Not only that, but I haven't really worked since Monday - as you can imagine, I am driving myself insane! I'm milking this afternoon, so I think it's going to be hard to get the energy level back up to normal...
So yes, my apologies for the late update. I was planning on writing this earlier in the week! But don't stop reading, because I've got a bucketful of things to say.
First things first: The boyfriend. Lol. Please don't laugh at me, over the past four to six weeks I have not somehow morphed into an easily swayed, soft and squishy sort of person! I am still very much my normal seriously sarcastic, and somewhat cynical self. Believe you me.
Anyway for those of you who don't know too much information yet. His name's Taylor, is 20 and works and lives on one of the local farms - about a 10 minute drive from my place. It's the farm where Mum and I do the calf rearing so, conveniently, I see him almost every day. Honestly, he's lovely, seems to get on with my family really well and Dad approves of him too (yay!). He's cooked for me a few times at his place, he's been here a couple times and I met his Mum on Sunday night when we went to her place for tea. It's good fun, for sure. Oh yeah, and he's bought me flowers....twice :D
Now don't panic, because he was also one of the crazy homeschooled kids like us (was sort of part of my homeschooling group as a kid). He is quite normal, to say the least. If there is such a thing. And if you're into hunting or 4WDing then you guys will be good buddies if you were to meet at any stage.
A few weeks back Mum and I caught a plane and flew down to Rotorua (flying was so much easier than driving all that way) for my Nana's 65th birthday. We stayed there from the Friday morning and left again on Sunday morning. It's good having a Nana who is so young still, well in comparison to a lot of my friends' grandparents. We get to have so much time with her and she can do absolutely anything really, if she wanted to. But she definitely deserves her retirement years now, and is now spending more time doing her voluntary work running an op shop. Doing what she does best :)
Last Thursday I did something that was rather impulsive...I bought myself a puppy. A Foxy I might add. I hope she's a full foxy, as her nose is a little shorter than you'd expect, however the lady I got her off (who had rescued the pups off the mother who wasn't feeding them) seemed to think that both parents were foxy's. It was a case of one neighbours' dog went wandering over to the other neighbour, definitely not a planned thing, that's for sure. And so this lady took them on and reared them. She's a nippy little thing, about 7 weeks old and absolute trouble. She gets on amazingly with Tessa and Jackson though, thank goodness. To the point where Tessa seems to think it's her own puppy - she runs to her every beckon and call!I've called her Maggie, which I instantly changed to Maggles and Dad refers to her as Magpie. So. She's a little diva and is so small that she can squeeze through the extension on the baby gate that is meant to keep them confined in the kitchen area. No particularly helpful, that.
However, the other day Mum and Dad bought home another Shih Tzu puppy, a little girl this time. As Mum wants to have a pair for breeding, they've finally found a cute little girl. Do you know how much chaos it is, having two less than a year old dogs and two barely weaned puppies running around in our kitchen? Yeah, I need not say more. It is mental! Although Rose (Rosie) is kinda cute, and it's funny having a big Foxy and a baby Foxy and a big Shih Tzu and a baby Shih Tzu - especially when they look so similar! The good thing is that Maggie and Rosie can grow up and be little friends together, and we only go through the "puppy stage" once, this time round. They all seem to get along, although Jack and Tess are a little confused about Rose...I might also add, Mum didn't intentionally set out to have puppies called Jack (Jackson) and Rose, like on the Titanic. I had to mention it to her afterwards, hehe
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