The days are starting to get longer and lambs are becoming
more common in the fields, so it would seem that Spring is on the way. Some
days in the last 2 weeks have certainly felt like spring. It feels like we
haven’t had a full winter yet, so there could be a sting before spring!
We have had a fatality in the llama herd. The mum of Rafa,
took herself away from the herd. Rafa stayed with her for a bit and then left
her alone. She stayed on her own for 2 days and then Lisa found her dead at the
edge of the pond. The owner said she was quite old and they tend to die in
winter. We then had to get her out of the pond and get her up to the yard. Lisa
and I were helped by Margaret, with her tractor. About 4 hours later (including
a long tea-break) we had managed to get her wrapped up in tarpaulin and tied
onto the grass cutter behind the tractor. We now know how to move a 150kg
animal with long legs and a long neck. Let’s hope we don’t have to do it again
for quite a while. The owner came and took her away to be buried, so at least
we didn’t have to do that.
We continue to do a lot of gardening. We also have a guy
coming to cut down a couple of trees, so that should be all the firewood sorted
for next winter. Once the trees are cut we will then hire a log splitter and
get the wood to fire size pieces. We also want to plant out some areas with
coloured grasses. This needs to be done before mid- spring.
The extended daylight (to approx. 6 o’clock) means that we
can get out on our bikes after work. We have been enjoying some good cycling weather,
we just need to find the time to do it. I plan to cycle to and from work more
often this term. I am now going to work at school until the end of the school
year (mid-december). We are now teaching geography in the social studies classes
this term. We are studying natural disasters, which is very appropriate as we
have had a series of some earthquakes not far from here. A couple of weeks ago,
a 6.5 earthquake occurred east of here. Wellington had a little bit of damage.
We were at home when it happened. We heard the rumble coming across the land
and we knew that we would feel it. The house made a few noises and we went
outside, where we watched the silk trees shake and the large windows wobbled.
As we stood there you could feel a wave pass underneath your feet. Lots of
aftershocks have happened, but they are too small to feel here. Wellington has
felt quite a few.
Hopefully the shaking has settled down as
we are planning to go to Wellington for a mini break. We went into Abel Tasman
national park last week. We are only a 30 min drive to it. We walked to one of the many
beaches, had our picnic and walked back again. We will try to use some Fridays when
we are both off work to explore some other places we can go to in a day.BIG NEWS; this blog has now been read more than 2000 times, in fact as I post this it has been read 2058 times. I guess I will keep posting for a bit longer
