Friday feeling like Saturday

I woke up early and it was a lovely day (no curtains yet) and I didn't get up but couldn't go back to sleep - normally I can - should have seen it as a sign because just as I got up the power went off.

I fed the pussycats and looked out to see this.... cute!

So - back to the no power - Well in the country that means no water, no loo, no power. So neither of us could have a shower. Shelley arrived at work and said the whole power station at Otahuhu (pr. O-ta-who for those non maori speakers lol) had blown, and the whole of Auckland to Whangarei (Wong-ah-ray) was out. So I sent her home, the cleaner arrived and we sent her home too.

Well then we thought we would look up the news story on George's iPhone and it said that the line from Otahuhu to Henderson and should be fixed by 9.30am! Slightly different version of events!

We had some muesli I cooked last night for breakfast - yum.

So we decided to fill up the rest of the veggie garden with soil - I had already half filled it will compost - well not quite half.

Then in the afternoon I got;

• A Robinia Frisia tree
• another garden bed
• some expandable trellis
• loads of veggies (see below)

all for $156! Mitre 10 had a no GST sale on. Cool.

So I planted (all organic);

• chilli
• beetroot
• spinach
• silverbeet
• broccolli
• pumpkin
• sage
• basil
• russian red tomatoes
• sugar snap peas
• cleome (flower to catch the dreaded shield bugs off the tomatoes)
• nasturtium
• and spring onions

The white things are broken up eggshells for the snails.

The boys were watching me plant them - making sure I was doing it right.

Then I made pizza with caramelized onions, veggie sausage, sundried tomatoes, olives and fresh oregano and thyme form the garden pots.

new stools

The new stools... found one in Manly and one in Kumeu

Sleepy time

Dante on George's desk...

George in his lazy boy

Dante deciding my yoga mat (during yoga) was a good bed...

Cino thinks George's chair is pretty good...

The boys asleep in the sun.

The start

The BIG clay bank needs some ground cover and I have been avoiding making a start as it's such a big job, but today I went to the nursery early and was there by 10 before the crowds and got 11 Metros and 6 coprosmas. It was really hard digging uphill, and in the clay, I had one casualty - the plant broke off it's root ball as I was planting it, but other than that - it should look good in a few months.

Just another 40 odd metres to go!

Dante's new bed

Check this out - Dante loves this tray - it's lined with felt or faux velvet and he just sleeps in it all day.

Yesterday we had the barn gutters cleaned out and also bird proofing installed in all of the gutters, barn and house.

Catch up day

It was a miserable start to October with triple the amount of rain (37.5mm) so far to what we got for the whole month last year, still - we needed it, the grass stopped growing pretty early last year.

So on Sunday it was gorgeous I got outside early and managed to do heaps throughout the day;

• planted the four pittosporums in the gaps along the western boundary fence
• planted the Lemon tree (Meyer) in the orchard
• set up the veggie garden bed (kitset)
• planted the three Karakas
• wheel barrowed about 4 loads of post peelings along the front of the yards as it was getting a bit wet again
• topped up the yards with new post peelings
• spread some mulch around the new trees
• sprayed 15L or organic weeds spray around the place - the orchard, the paddocks (dock) and the veggie patch (grass).

Got a bit of a tan too - all good.

As you can see the boys have been enjoying the sunny warm days...

The horses wait at the fence when they see me weeding - they love the Puha (poohah)...

Found this pretty weed next to some ragwort (grr)... not sure what it is...looks like it could be related to rosemary. What do you think???

Mac

Well you may or may not have heard that I have a Mac now and also soon to get one for work as well. It's so nice not having Windows or Microsoft anymore!

It's really easy to use and looks cool too - this is what you see when you open a new tab in your internet browser (Safari in this case).... it shows all your favourites.

All I need now is an iPhone and we'll almost be an Apple house.

Rain stopped finally

It was supposed to snow again today further down the island but there was no wind and most of the showers had gone by lunch time today. BOUT BLOODY TIME. My god it's been so windy and squally - very August like!

So maybe I shall get to plant those trees tomorrow finally!

The horses have no covers on tonight as a treat.

And sunshine due tomorrow.

yay

Look closely

If you click on the photo to make it appear in it's own window you will see if you look hard, Maraschino and Coco lying down having a snooze in Garbo's yard and Garbo in the far yard (Coco's). Funny which ones they end up in when given the choice. The yards are open all the time for them when they are out so they have free access to cover as required. They have spent alot of time in there over the last couple of days.

Everything looks pretty green though hey.

Snow

We are just under the blue bit!

It's been snowing on the Napier-Taupo highway - crazy!!

We have been inside and cosy warm - we had to step outside this morning to say goodbye to Sue and Dad and it was bloody freezin outside - like winter!

It rained most of the day and the horses mostly stood under cover in the yards like good sensible horses, part from just after dinner when they stood in the downpour...

Garbo put up with t for about another 10 minutes after this and then went back to the yards...

Poor guys they are most likely very sick of it.

Lets hope the weather starts acting it's month sometimes soon!

Cover drama

So I haven't planted those trees yet (too windy) - one of the horses ate the tops off both karakas!!! I couldn't believe it....their necks are long when they want them to be! Hoping this weekend will be a bit nicer - the paddocks are a bit wet again. The weather has been like August - not cold but windy and squally! It'll be fine again and hot and then I'll be moaning it's too hot to plant trees. May have to move them away from the yard a bit more - or put some more electric braid up!

Poor Maraschino - Had a wee bit of a drama this morning - it rained a bit just before midnight last night and I was thinking oh dear they only have their light Summer covers on - they are shower proof but it was a bit more than a shower (5.6mm). Maraschino's was Blues old cover so it must be about 5 years old and had a couple of bite holes/rips I was keeping my eye on near the back. Anyway....

here you can see the neck cover

Woke up to snorting and jumped out of bed and put my joddies and gumboots on - Maraschino only had his neck cover on - nothing else!!! And Garbo was acting very dominant and seperating Coco and Maraschino each time they tried to get together.... He was doing 12ft cirlces at trot around Maraschino - travelling circles! The paddock was a mess so this had obviously been going on for a while.

As I turned the fence off and headed under the fence to get in there, I saw the 'dead' cover - completely shredded (picture will be on blog later) on the clay pile, muddy and wet...so I can only imagine what he must have been through to get it off. The Neck cover still had one clip attached (from the rug) and the other end of that used to be joined to the cover by a D ring - well that whole strip was trailing along beside Maraschino as he cantered away from Garbo.

Garbo was sweating - he stopped briefly to say hi and then he was off again seperating them....

I managed to get to Maraschino and undid the two buckles on the neck cover (funny thing is as soon as he put his head down to eat it would have come off) just in time before he was off again to get away from Garbo. Maraschino didn't seem too stressed although he obviously had not eaten since it happened.

He didn't stand still for very long. The paddock was all dug up - looks a mess!

I started filling in the divets and after about 3-4 minutes they settled and I went to get them some hay (wondering if they were hungry since all last nights hay had gone)... and they started eating hay... they have been happy and calm as a herd all day since... bizarre!

I went out and got Maraschino a new cover today (a strong one) and he didn't seem too phased about having a cover on again so it was not obviously too traumatic for him. Thanks goodness.

Dad and Sue are coming to stay this weekend and then we are going up to Matakana with them on Sunday and staying the night there.