Time has sure flown since the last installment of the Kiwi Quarterly. With the arrival of spring and its longer and slightly warmer days, outdoor activities have become more enjoyable – and necessary! Indoor activities, mostly house renovations can take most of the credit for making our days pass so quickly. We have seen some nice transformations over the last couple of months and are looking forward to wrapping up the first phase of our house upgrade in the not too distant future. We’ve also re-established our pigeon loft and had a visit from good friends to assist with weeks passing by so quickly.
It started snowing just before bedtime…
We didn’t escape this cool spring without a dusting of snow and, I must say, it did make for a pretty morning. I wasn’t unhappy that it was all gone by midday – a nice scene for a little while without all of the other hassle that snow generally brings is fine with me. It wasn’t a complete surprise to see a little frozen precipitation… just days before it fell our next door neighbor, a wise young man by the name of Felix – ripe age of about 10 – came by and mentioned that it was quite possible that we would get snow before warm weather set in. If it were going to fall around here he said, it would probably be in September. He was right… I think he may have a future in weather forecasting!
…and the fields were still covered by mid-morning.
With the slight increase in temperature, the grass has finally started to grow and for the first time since we moved in, Jim was able to break out his brand new lawn mower last weekend. After moving into this place and seeing just how overgrown the garden is, we have also invested in some other heavy duty equipment – like a gas powered hedge trimmer and a heavy duty weed whacker. The trimmer hasn’t been cranked up yet, but when it does spring to life for the first time I imagine I will get a lesson on using it myself. It may become one of the few power tools in the arsenal that I am allowed to use. This is going to take a tag team effort, otherwise the shrubs may overtake us at the rate they are growing! Of course, if the lawn is growing, so are the fields and our 15 acres are getting quite grassy. So grassy, in fact, that we must be the envy of the neighborhood. We haven’t had any cattle since we moved in four months ago whereas everyone else along the road has been struggling through winter and their fields look like finely trimmed golf courses. We’ve had at least three offers from as many different neighbors to bring over some of their cattle to chew our grass down for us. We currently have a few cows and calves from the farmer next door visiting us, but in a few weeks we should have a few little steers of our own to do the mowing and we’ll be back in the cattle business, ha!
The neighbor’s cattle mowing our grass.
We are also back in the pigeon racing business. A couple of months ago we went back to Hamilton to get our birds from Jim’s friend who had been caring for them during our transition. It’s baby-raising time and we are just getting this year’s breeding program underway. Currently, we have four little ones with more coming. It’s been a bit cold for too many eggs to hatch, but with warmer weather on the way things should be picking up soon. Jim is hard at work building the remainder of his pigeon loft to house the young birds… he’s having to work fast, when the first egg hatched, the clock started ticking!
The new pigeon loft is a work in progress.
While Jim has been working on his loft, he has also been helping our builder, Colin, with the house renovations whenever needed. They have just about completed turning the rumpus room/laundry into our new master bedroom and converting a small bedroom into the new entry hall. Colin has a few things left to do before the plasterers come in; the electrician and gas-fitter have some work left to do; then we just have to pick out paint, carpet and drapes. It’s amazing what changing a couple of rooms can do to the overall appearance of a house. For a look at what we’ve been doing, click on this link.
Jim carefully fitting insulation.
It is starting to feel more like a home here on Kaiwaka Road and I guess the more we tinker with the house, the better it will get. Our friends Mike and Lien came down from Auckland last weekend for a day trip to check out the new place. Surprisingly, it only took them about 4 1/2 hours to get here from Auckland. Since we hadn’t seen them since before moving out of the rent house in Te Awamutu, it was really good to spend the day with them and have a nice visit.
Our friends Mike and Lien stop for a picture in the backyard.
Our newest family member, Cash, seems to have adjusted to life with people here at the Mello Farm just fine. Harmony, our other goat, didn’t think much of him at first but I think she’s glad to have some company now. We often look out and see them rearing back and butting heads with each other, in a playful way. Our biggest problem now occurs during “treat time” when Harmony doesn’t want to share… she’s so much bigger than he is that she hogs all of the gingernut cookies!
Harmony and Cash have becomes good mates.
We still haven’t taken the time to do any sightseeing around Hawkes Bay, but plan to do so in the next few months while we take some time off from the house renovations. However, just the trip to town isn’t bad if you’re looking for pretty views…
A glimpse of the view along the road from our place to Napier.
