hay making

Well the grass got away from us so asked the local dairy farmer for his input and he took a cut of hay off both paddocks









Just checking they're good bales

Playing with a fish eye

Here's a wee tour back to front as still not mastered this uploading marlarky.

Starting in the en suite






The master bedroom


Sam's room, eek he's back on Sunday with Kerry :-)


Sky dog visiting guest bedroom


Bathroom, you'd never of guessed eh!!


Hallway


Sky dog


Jean hard at it


Ooh Jenga down


Harvey on the move


Lounging around

Now that's load of firewood

Couple of Sky

Sky has arrived :-)

Our expected arrived

Bird's eye views

Our very good friend Simon took these for us last Sunday

New arrival

We are expecting......................

Flagpole walk

Last Saturday Clare and I did this with our good friends Gaz and Ruth.

http://www.avalanchepeak.co.nz/default.asp?PageID=7107

If you click on the link you can look and see if you can spot us but if not here's a few pictures.


Nice and fresh at the start



On top of the world



Gaz sprinting past us




We had to cross the river Selwyn 12 times, so it's just wade in and go for it




Thankfully it was a warm day so nott so cold once you came out of the water. You soon got used to the squelching in your boots



Nearly there






Made it but very tired. 20.3 km's and yes we were next to last :-) Even the sign was tired

Hee Hee got to play with a tractor

Borrowed a tractor from Paul our local farmer to sort out the 2 heaps of soil spoil from the build

Just after we got back we had a wee cold snap and we ended up with a fresh dump of snow on the hills.


So it was a good job the guys from Heatsmart came and finished off the central heating system so we could light the new woodburner. It was lovely and cosy when Pete got here on the Friday night, cos the woodburner is very easy to light and throws outs lots of heat.pete was with us for the weekend finishing off the home theatre stuff, although we seem to have mislaid one of the speakers.he also set up all our internet access to 3 bedroom and the loungue and also wireless.On the monday i dropped him off at the airport for his diving trip in Jakarta.
Last Sunday he gave me hand to put the top rail on this fence and yesterday I started putting the rest up. This is for the pigs , when we can afford some..........

We've 125 sheep grazing our paddocks at the moment to help the grass tiller out, when they've gone I'll fertilse them.

Caught up with most of my customers last week and it's good to be back into the fortnightly visits, will definetly help with the finances :-)

Clare is off this weekend some we'll do some more house sorting, althouigh we are still waiting on mike to finish the tiling and there's some painting still to be done.

Spot ya

Ben

Back from the long haul....

Well can hardly believe that we have been away for three weeks on our jolly to the UK. We had a great time catching up with the folks and friends and for those who we missed this time we hope to see you next time :-) It was a bit tiring as our little feet hardly seemed to be still zooming about the country and certainly we have done enough miles what with the flights as well!

We have moved in to our house and it is almost complete - just a few jobs left. It feels great to be in our own place at last and quite exciting to unpack boxes with stuff we haven't seen for quite a while. It will be good to get the pictures on the walls and get the furniture in the right places - but that takes time (and I am not very good at being patient - Clare )

We will add some pics asap when we are not quite so busy !!!

TTFN

Musings whilst feeding Lazza

It was down to me this evening to give Lazza his "bedtime" feed and whilst leaning on the gate in the moonlight gazing up at the stars and the planes on their final approach to Christchurch airport I thought to myself "Yup it doesn't get much better than this"

Why?

Well.
For me, Ben, farming has always been in my blood and I have lived in the countryside all but 3 years of my life.
To be able to lean on the gate I hung earlier that week feeding what will be our Easter lunch next year whilst contemplating the fencing to be done tomorrow for me is my piece of heaven.
To have your own land, to rear your own meat and grow your own vegetables is a dream come true for Clare and I and to do it in such a fantastic place as Canterbury is icing on the cake.

Happy as a pig in muck? You bet ya

Oh yes pigs, they'll be here in late Oct

Nearly there

Hopefully with a fair wind we can start moving our stuff in on the weekend as all the carpets will be down and we'll have working bathrooms.wee hope to be able to move in fully by end of the weekend and "slum " it whilst the finishing touches happen.

View to the office from Sam's bedroom with the hall and bathroom visible


Kitchen nearly done, appliances in on Sept 3rd.

Finish line in site

This is the hearth for our multifuel burner.Stones from the nearby Ashley river. Will be grouted tomorrow and then sealed

Kitchen going in

Chaps started fitting the kitchen yesterday






























And some water trough action











Lazza growing and nibbling on grass now