Friday, June 14, 2013

Mainly March and May







The months have flown by!

 
My Book.
 
The major March event was the launch of my book, Dam Disaster. This was held at Nautilus Restaurant with some other authors, all Oceanbooks (www.oceanbooks.co.nz)  shareholders. More news about my book can be found on my Facebook Roadsendwriter page.


 
 
Our Farm
The ongoing event through February, March, April and May was the drought that affected every farmer in NZ. In order to keep animals growing to reach the weights expected by the farmers whose animals we were grazing, we had to buy supplementary feed all of which needed to be fed out. Hans spent most of his days on the tractor doing just that! Little else was achieved through that time. 

Normally, the autumn is a chance to catch up on jobs which have been defered from busier times of the year, but this year that didn't happen!

From June 1st we have leased the deer farm to a dairy farmer. Hans is now a 'retired' farmer - if there is such a person. Maintenance on our Mangatoi block is still necessary and contracting himself and tractor to Gavin for fencing and feeding out is to keep happening.

We still have our goats here at Seales Road. Shaering is next on their timetable with kidding due to start in early August.

Our Family.
The student graduation  from Janna Daycare, attended by the mums and dads, was held with much ceremony.
Our two five-year-olds, Stefan and Isabel, started school at the beginning of Term Two and are enjoying it. We now have six of our ten grandchildren at Oropi School, (www.oropi.school.nz) many of whom feature regularly in various areas, mostly sport.




Our adult offspring continue to work hard and make progress in their chosen vocations, while transporting their children to various activities: soccer, hockey, music, choir, Tai Qwon Do to name a few.

My Employment  
My career as the Oropi School Librarian continues. More areas of interest have been added. I occasionally help my daughter-in-law, Demelza, with her GATE children's enquiry learning projects, and assisting the little kids with their library time is fun as well.

I have introduced a training programme, complete with awards, for the new librarians which I hold on a Monday lunchtime. Sixteen trainees still attend regularly, despite all the competing clubs which have started up this term.

A serious upgrade of the library is planned, so already I have heaps of new books to process and cover before they can be shelved. I've enjoyed being more involved with the book purchases and library decisions.

A first for the kids this year was the Kids Lit Quiz, an international children's literary quiz which was begun in NZ in 2006 and now is in 22 countries. My role was coach, so I found myself reading classics, poetry and about authors of note so I could quiz the teams. We had only two months to coach our two teams, but we had a lot of fun. On the night one team came middle of the field while the other was at the end, mainly because their leader and key member fell ill!
 
 
 

 Another crazy thing one does as a staff member at Oropi School is to join the kids in dressing up as a book character for the last event of  school bookweek! Almost every child (the roll is 160-ish) dresses up for the occasion. I will bravely upload my effort at Heidi!
I had to chuckle. When asking for advice on whether I should wear my glasses or not, the children all said to wear them, but when I mentioned to a staff member that my glasses made me look like a Heidi granny, she said I looked like one with or without my glasses!!!
Oh, well... 


Birds


 


Now the winter is on us I am feeding my  white-eyes and sparrows again. They go through a cup of home made bird pudding in less than two days!






 
Another treat which has begun recently is the kokako song I hear throughout the day in the bush just out from our house, near Mt Otanewainuku. What a privilege to be able to enjoy such a rare sound on a regular basis. To hear the song, one I say 'you can see through', google kokako song. Another description  is, 'if you throw a sheet over it, it would be a ghost' .
The dialect of  'our' ones is a little different from the Mt Bruce or Tiritiri Matangi dialect. Ours have been introduced from Kaharoa and Rotoehu over the last three years. See www.kiwitrust.org

Pets


My dog, Charm, has four gorgeous, time-wasting puppies at present; two boys and two girls. They will be wonderful pets, and if trained well, will be valuable farm dogs. All going to plan the funds from their sale will help cover the expensive operation Charm had on her knee at the beginning of the year.





Until next time remember, "Do something for the kid in you every day".

















Friday, February 22, 2013

February Five

Our family. New Year 1013


2013 is well underway. It took me a while to 'drop into' this new year, but I was forced into it when school returned and various groups started again.

1.
The grandchildren are back at school and have settled into their new classrooms and classes, all enjoying their teachers and activities. The school year means my Janna Daycare on Wednesdays is operating again with 'the three'.
This will be my last term with the older two as they'll be off to school next term. I'm trying to introduce a little more structure to the day; an effort to encourage Stefan and Isabel to sit down for an organised length of time to learn something. They're still getting used to the idea. We've only had two days so far, so there's plenty of room for improvement.

The original three: Breahn, Lyndon and Tyler
 I've had three grandies every Wednesday for almost six years, so dropping down to one will take some adjusting on  my part.



Stefan and Isabel - three months old cousins






Seven months old
Three years old

Three years old

 
These two have been an absolute delight for almost five years, so I'm going to miss their Wednesday visits.




Four and a half years old




Four years old

Johnathon - the youngest


However, move on I must! Johnathon and I will have some great adventures.







2.
I have my lovely new enclosed vege garden producing a copious amount of produce, without having  it destroyed by birds, rabbits, cats, dogs, white butterflies or possums.

I did become a little worried about whether bumble bees could get through the mesh when my scarlet runner beans began dropping their flowers with no sign of beans. I tried hand pollinating (what a task) then, when Hans found a bumble bee nest and brought home a queen and two workers, I thought my problems were solved - but no! Those bees just disappeared!

One day some time later I heard a buzzing while I was working near the beans. Bumble bees had reappeared - yes!

My hanging basket project grew to six baskets with various plants brightening the deck and blocking Hans's view from his office.
My first basket, spectacular as it was, passed its best, but others have grown well; the success story being the tumbling tomatoes which just keep on producing little tomatoes, enough for a few each day.
The Aladin cucumbers I tried in a basket were another success. The strawberries didn't work at all well, so now have petunias flowering profusely amongst them.

I'm delighted with my Blueberries (in big pots) this season, too. After having two years with no fruit, I planted lobelia around the stems to attract the bees - and it worked. I'm harvesting blueberries every day. The grandies just love to help pick and eat them.

My daughter-in-law, Cherise, gave me some acid-free tomato plants, for my birthday last September, which I planted in pots on the deck - frost free. They took ages to get going in our cool temperatures, but in this present heat they are ripening beautifully.

The deck plants and baskets demand a lot of water so it's a daily task to keep them moist.

3.
I'm back at Oropi School doing a few hours as Librarian; training student librarians, running quizzes, processing new books, learning more about the library computer programme, helping kids and keeping the library tidy. I love it.

We start CRE (Christian Religious Education) in school on 26th February. I'm looking forward to that as I enjoy sharing Jesus and his values with the children. The CRE curriculum closely follows, and sometimes supplements, the values programme run by the school.
I am still involved on the regional CEC (Churches Education Commission) team as treasurer, a role I really enjoy.

4.
My writing is still happening, and involvement in writing groups continues.
The NZ Christian Writers Guild is planning a 30th Anniversary celebration on March 23rd at Cornerstone north of Auckland. It promises to be a great day.
Our Tauranga Christian Writers group met for the first time this year on 21st February; a great turn-out.
The Tauranga Children's Writers has begun as well. During the holidays we joined Art in the Park at Mount Maunganui to sell our books, a moderately successful exercise.
Jean, Lois and I at Art in Park.

I joined a writers' co-operative, Oceanbooks, in Tauranga last year and have been down the publishing path with them, resulting in the pending launch of my children's Easy Read book, Dam Disaster, on 22nd March.




5.
On the farm. Hans is flat out 'polishing' the water supply, fences, gates etc readying the deer farm for lease to a dairy farmer for grazing from June.
He will no longer be a deer or cattle farmer, although we will still have a few sheep and goats.
It seems he will be no less busy as he plans to do contract fencing and maintenance, and feed out winter silage for Gavin.


Looking over the Little Gully

Besides the farm work, Hans has been busy planning land development on our Changepoint church's property. The progress over the last five years has been spectacular, with a small core team of dedicated gardeners and workers.









Well, that's five points for February - enough I think!

Jan