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 :) 

Pippa

So, it's been a while since I first got my Pipsqueak, as you all know. But I don't think I've ever really done a post about just her - so here you go!

First day!

Miniature Piglet....

This is a small kid sized couch...

With Uncle Miller :)

Shoe obsession begun at a very early age...

:D

Bumble - her very first teddy...and my(her) beanbag and my (her) blankey

In desperate need of a selfie stick ;)

Loves her Bumble

Obsession with the dryer...

I love it when she sleeps

The day I stole a teddy off Nana,(my mum lol) and took it upstairs

Now I've stolen TWO teddies!

Mum found her fast asleep in a (thankfully) empty fruit basket early one morning, the old saying - if it fits, I sits is appropriate here, I think.

I'm taking my frustration out on Teddy, Just because Teddy is getting ripped to pieces doesn't mean I don't love him...

Apologies for the blurry pictures - I'm no photographer! And it's hard to get good pictures of someone who is either constantly on the move, or fast asleep. I've always wanted to get a video of her scratching, as she can't hold her tongue in at the same time. You see her have a good scratch, and then wonder around with her tongue hanging out - then you tell her, and my gosh she looks so embarrassed, it's super cute! hehe

It's hard to believe she started out as this 3 week old, flea-ridden, 300 gram bundle of bones with a skinny little rats tail thing and ears and eyes that were far too big for her head. She would always be snuggled into my neck, fast asleep.
Now, she's an 8 month old monster who still has the odd flea - as frustratingly, she reacts to every treatment we've tried on her (like, really?!) She's an independent little ratbag who spends most of her days sleeping, or attacking me. Who has destroyed my phone charger cable, and as it happens, the cable that runs from the TV to the speaker which I've now got to somehow replace.

But she's the sweetest little thing, constantly expressing that I am definitely her "person" as I come home from work to find her running high speed down the stairs, squeaking that I'm home, purring and smooching, telling me all about her day even though I've been gone only a couple of hours. Then later on she'll jump on my lap, and just to show how much she cares, she grabs hold of my leg with both paws, claws included, and bites my knee. If that's not love, I don't know what is! (notice the sarcasm?)
But she's great, because she's happy to spend time with everyone, she has cuddles with Mum, spends time with Nick and the "red dot", or shows Nick she cares by attacking his feet during dinner. Then she'll give Dad the most adoring looks, and spends time with him too.

She sits on command, I didn't even need to teach her - she taught herself. She steals her lollies, takes water from the poor, defenseless Cyclamen plants we have on the bench, and will rip their leaves up too if she's bored - extra nutrition and all that. Sleeps anywhere and everywhere, and often attends cooking and baking classes. AKA, she sits on the windowsill section of the bench, that runs in between the kitchen and lounge (see that basket picture). She's not "technically" on the bench, so she's allowed. From there she gets to watch Mum and I sort dinner, or baking, or whatever we're doing - she's a good student, learns heaps, doesn't take any food when you turn away. Next term she'll learn how to wash and dry the dishes, one hopes!