October 18th 2019: Rain

No, this is not the famous Red Light district in Te Horo Beach. It's an infrared lamp keeping our young chickens warm. When we arrived back in NZ there were only 3 chickens left. After a motivational talk by Nienke one of the three decided to restart production again after a year long break (who gets time of that long?). Another threw in the towel and did not move at all anymore. I showed some compassion and it's now filling a rabbit hole. Come on!! It's covered with sand and there is a little stone on it.....

That is why we had to get a few new chickens. We did not want to buy rescue chickens as they have already been laying for a year. These Hyliners usually lay for 2-3 years, and with the rescue chickens from the chicken farms you never know how old they are. So, we bought chicks. 4 weeks old. Kept them warm in our garage until the infrared light broke. We could only get a new one with a much higher wattage. We nearly started a new KFC branch. Had to abandon that idea. After a few days the garage started to smell horribly and we blamed the fluffy creepers. Wrongly it turned out. We butchered a cow when we came back and had to make room in the fridge and freezer. Nienke rearranged a few things in the fridge in the garage and forgot to put one plastic bag back. The one with fish heads, which was waiting there for a good fishing afternoon two weeks later... She still has to apologise to the chicks!

But instead, we moved ourselves to Jane's place for a few G & T's in the sun and with a view! Not a bad place to be.

We've been quite busy on our property. Replaced 20 fence posts, restored the path to the veggie garden so we could get a load of compost in for our new crop. Did quite a lot of weeding. Cut over 10 trees down to make next years firewood. Removed a few big branches of our Macrocarpa trees that were dangerously hanging over the fence of the neighbours and over their cattle. More firewood. Got some new beams to repair the platform where the pig house was standing on as they rotted away. Even though they were impregnated I gave them 2 extra layers of fence finish to protect them even more. Built 2 compost heaps. Planted some new trees and shrubbery. We're ready for summer.

Gareth and Jules missed our empanada evening, so we organised a private session. Good to catch up. Lovely people.

Not so sure about all the attention for the dog at breakfast, is this still an animal?
Nienke makes empanadas so fast now, she could start her own shop. Not necessary though as she got a new job!!!!! It's a completely new manager role for a new team at the Council, Sustainability and Resilience manager. I won't tell you the details as she most likely will explain it herself in the next blog. She starts this Monday.
I have done a few days in Otaki, same old, same old.

As if they knew we were coming back. A South American film festival in Otaki! We just had to go and managed to see quite a few good movies. Brought back fresh memories.
To celebrate we're back in NZ we already bought tickets for the coming WOMAD session, still far away, but really looking forward to it.

Meanwhile the chicks were getting bigger and more active. Time to throw them outside on a sunny day.

Our rhythm is still not completely normal. We wake up early often. That gave me the chance to watch the Dutch football team play the Germans (a 2-4 win in Germany) and later a game against Belarus. Atmospheric disturbances caused quite some disruptions making me wonder why I got up so early. Well, the game wasn't the best either.
In NZ everyone is just busy with the world cup rugby in Japan. Saturday night is the quarterfinal against Ireland. We can see it with an hour delay as commercial TV has been introduced here as well. All this rubbish about competition being better, never really seen the results of it.

Since we're back I shot about 100 rabbits on our property and that of one of my neighbours. It did not seem to make any difference. They pop up everywhere (it only takes 6 weeks for a whole new generation). Heaps of damage to the paddocks (dangerous holes for us and the cows). They even ate our newly planted beans. Our house sitters had used to weed wacker a bit to close to the fence and made several holes in it. The rabbits were happy to use these illegal entrances and started a family home amidst the lettuces. Time for some more stringent action. With all the neighbours of Sims road we discussed a plan of action. Most people did not want to use poison, so it would be shooting. We contacted our friend Dick and he has since joined the ranks of mass murderers. More than 200 in 3 days. And our black pipe! He now knows black pipes do not have pointed ears and fluffy white tails. Haven't seen any hawks in days, they're to heavy now to get airborne at the moment.

It's lupin time again. Lupins are not my best friends as they spread quickly in the paddocks too. If you don't pull them out right away the roots will be so thick you have to use the saw. They do colour nicely against the ocean and Kapiti island though.

And then it was time for wood splitting. A joint exercise by Nienke and me. Nienke came up with the term 'no double handling'. So instead of throwing the splitted wood on a big pile (like men would do) I had to stack it in a wheelbarrow. Nienke then took the wheelbarrow into the woodshed while I filled the next one.

Great little machine, love the power of it. Still don't understand how people manage to get their fingers split in there. All the chain sawing and lifting does cause some lower back pains (can't blame too much enthousiasm on the tennis court for that of course).

But we have a perfect solution for that. A nice movie in the hot tub. Done that several nights in a row now. Very therapeutic.

Look at the nice stacking in here. A perfect job by Nienke. Old firewood to the sides, new ones in the back. This was halfway. The shed is fully loaded now. Ready for the coming 2 years.

And then, rain, heaps of it. You know that it's a lot when ducks start wandering through the garden. We  don't have ponds you know in sand dune country. It will continue to Sunday, so I've finally got some time for our holiday pictures!