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.
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".
