Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day here. I spent part of the morning finishing my report and set off with Helen (who had already done more than a day’s work milking cows and feeding lots of little animals) to do some farmwork. The latter is like housework, never complete. A tree had fallen on a fence and was causing the electric fence to short. Helen dispatched the limb with her chainsaw and we took the opportunity to fill the trailer with dead branches that were littering paddocks.
After making bread, Helen drove to the grain supply place to get some maize for her chickens and ducks.
I took the opportunity of the beautiful afternoon to walk on the beach.
Today is a blustering, hold-onto-your-hat gale. The really good thing about this is that it is bringing some much-needed rain, even if it is horizontal. It is amazing how much things have greened up over the last couple of days. And we have fresh mushrooms from the paddocks for dinner.
Suzy and Whetu came for a visit this afternoon. Suzy is from Saline, Michigan. She and Helen met when they were both teachers at Dargaville High School. I’ve gotten to know Suzy over the years when visiting here and when she’s visited Michigan. Suzy was the Chemistry teacher and married Marcus, who is the town pharmacist. And now they have Whetu, 2 years. Whetu is not so keen on Helen’s dogs, but he loves her tractor and ATV and he was quite partial to Lambi and her guavas.
A word about Lambi. We’ve bonded. He needs to be fed every 3 hours. Last night I got up to do the honors. He’s a lovely little creature. His coat looks like a tightly knitted sweater and he has the most adorable knobbly, wobbly legs. And, he’s very appreciative of his bottle. Lambi is a Arapawa ram – not a pure bred, but he has the markings. Arapawa are a breed of feral sheep found primarily on Arapawa Island in the Malborough Sounds, where they were probably isolated since introduced in the 1860s. Although there are many theories of how the sheep arrived, it is generally accepted that they are descendants of Merino strains from Australia.
Ewes have horns, and rams have long spiral horns that often measure over 1 metre (3 ft). Helen says that shearing them is a major production because of the horns.
Guava jelly and paneer (from fresh cows milk) were also made today. We are not starving.
