And now we’re back from outer space……

Well not space, but back from the Naki.  We have been back a few days, but not only am I a slacker, I have been busy trying to get a whole bunch of jobs done.  I made sure that we were home on Sunday afternoon, as I had realised that I had forgotten to do the PAYE payment to IRD for the payroll job I have, and I was feeling really guilty.  Turns out it wasn’t a big deal anyway.  But I did need to return to do the current fortnights pay.  It only took me nearly fours hours.  The *#@$ kids keep interrupting me all the time, and I forgot that last Monday was a public holiday (after I had done all the pays but one), so I had to redo three quarters of them.  Finally got them right in the end!

Here are a few choice pics from the holiday, there were loads more, but it would take ages to load them, so here are the best.

The big kids.

Cam trying to ride the quad on his own

Cam and one of the cows checking each other out.

Cam savoring the milk straight from the cow, hand milked by Uncle Paul.  Yum !

I am happy to say I am making progress on the huge pile of sewing that awaits me in the sewing room.  In the last two days I have made 5 small nappies for Kaiyah, 1 for Sophie (to try for size, but I let her take it home ), fixed a rescued nappy for a TNN member, snapped Cam’s totsbots cover (he could undo the velcro) with lovely star shaped snaps, added elastic to a pair of Cam’s shorts that were too big in the waist, taken up a pair of jeans for me, and started sewing the two nappies I need to make for Iris.

Still lots to go, but I’m getting there.

On the home front, the bore is pretty much dry and I have ordered in a load of water for the house tanks.  No rain in sight for weeks, and we always use more over Xmas hols, as we are all home.  The garden is going great though, as we have managed to keep it watered, and I will have to be good and collect the grey water from the sewing machine from now on if we want it to survive.  The tomatoes are not far away from being ripe, the butter beans are going crazy, and we have harvested 2 of our apple cucumber so far.

Well I think that brings me up to date. 

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We’re all going on a summer holiday…..

Well that’s not strictly true, as some of us are working, and some of us are already here on holiday.  Nathan, Lilly, Cam and I are visiting my sis and her family up in the Naki, of course Ian is still hard at work, and Matt is at home, as he doesn’t like cow poo.

 We came up on Wednesday, so have been here for a couple of days now.  I took some pics on the way up, but forgot to bring my camera connection, so I can’t unload it till I get home.

 The kids are all having a good time.  Lilly and Olivia have been practically living in the pool, Nathan has been helping Amanda and Paul with the milking and herd testing, and Cam is loving riding the quad and checking out the tractors.

Yesterday Amanda and I took the girls and cam down to Kaupokonui beach for a play.  They had a pretty good time.  We are hoping the weather will be good enough for a trip to Opunake beach before we go home in a few days.

And up on the dunes….

Cam loves the quad so much that he has a huge tantrum every time he has to get off

 No crafty stuff to report.  I am missing the sewing machine a bit, but I’m sure I will catch up when I’m home.

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Re-stocking

Today we went into town to do a couple of jobs.  We ended up checking out the gypsy fair, which was pretty much a waste of time, we have seen much better ones.  Cam was very excited to see the ride-on train again.  He could stand and watch it for hours.  We took him and Nathan and Lilly for a ride on it, but I think he likes to watch more than ride

We stopped at the big red shed and got the school books, a bit more expensive than I had anticipated, but at least it’s done.  Then the best part of the day, we went to the garden shop to re-stock with new seedlings.  Our lovely friends J and D gave us a garden voucher for checking on their stock while they were away (which isn’t any hardship at all).  Here is a pic of the new plants before putting them in….

We ended up with a swan plant (our first ever), brussels sprouts, beetroot, perpetual spinach, red chard, gherkins, mizuna lettuce, leeks (we’re going to try again despite the last failure), pak choy, chocolate coloured peppers, sweet wonder capsicums, a couple of chillis and i think a banana pepper. Oh and a couple more courgettes (yellow this time).  I think that is the lot.  Most were on special, so it was pretty cheap.  So big thanks J and D for the voucher, it was put to good use, and will still buy us another 2 or 3 fruit trees in the autumn, or some plants for the new poly tunnel when we get it

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Still no rain………..

For days now the weather forecast has shown showers for our area, but it seems to always be just on the hills, not down here on the flat.  I’m hoping that the cyclone due up north will bring some rain this way.  The water tanks are holding out at the moment, but it looks like the bore is drying up.

The critters have been a bit spoilt lately.  They were just getting hay (no grass left), but last week we managed to get some bale-age from our friends J and D, and last night when they came to dinner they bought a sack of flax for the cows, all cut up ready to go.  If you add that to the cabbages that were not doing well in the garden, they had a bit of a treat today

I was quite productive today and weeded two of the 7 vege gardens, now there is more space to plant again.  More beetroot and potatoes I think, maybe more lettuces too.  We had our first couple of cherry tomatoes, and it looks like we will have a good crop.

I made Cam a couple of minky nappies, retro with velour inside, bubbles with seaspray outer, and the blue double minky is for my SIL to give as a pressie.

And yesterday when Cam was having a huge tantie the only way to get him to stop was a big piece of watermelon, which he loves

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Hot, hot , hot

We went down to the river tonight for a swim before dinner.  It is so nice, the water is clear, its deep enough to swim properly too.  Here are some more pics…

Lilly

Even the teenager – who can walk on water

The happy dog.

Its pretty quiet at home as Nathan has gone to Riversdale with his mate Tig.  Lilly got to see Zappo the magician  at the library, and Matt took her for a trip up to town in the morning, which was good as I got plenty of sewing done.

I stopped at one of the local shops I haven’t looked in before – it’s called Kingswood.  As you would imagine it sells all sorts of lovely handmade wood items.   I bought a pressie for some lovely friends of ours who keep giving us things.  I will post more about it after it’s been given.

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What a difference a day makes :-)

And a new reel of cotton.  Although I nearly had a heart attack at the craft shop when I saw the price on the cotton.  Jeez I thought it was expensive last time, but it must have gone up again. It was $9.70 for 500m That will only last me a couple of weeks too.

But i managed to get all the nappies finished before lunch, and then took the kids into town for a swim.  Not much fun as the pool was really packed, but still a nice change to get out of the house.

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A bad sewing day :-(

Sometimes there are days that you should just leave the sewing alone.  Days when the stupid machine just won’t play nicely. Grrrr. Cheap nasty cotton ruining my sewing.  I’m just thankful that all of the sewing I was doing was just mine.  I would have been really pissed off had it been other sewing I was doing.  So I have given up for the night, and I’m off to the shop tomorrow to buy some decent cotton. And don’t even let me get started on the cost of that!

Talking of the cost of things………What’s it coming to when a pair of shoes cost less than a 2 litre of milk?  I got Lilly a pair of those horrible frog shoes (croc’s ripoffs) last week for $3.40.  Mad eh?

Hopefully I will have pics tomorrow of all the really cute nappies I’ve been making.

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Harvest

Its great when you can do a harvest on shopping day and avoid paying for things you can grow yourself.  This is our second crop of potatoes, they are a variety called Lisetta.  They are very nice, sort of creamy textured.  And also our butter beans, we had no luck at all with scarlett runners this year (I think the seeds were expired), and more courgettes.  I think the potatoes turned out well considering the soil they were planted in (the vacant pig pen), which is basically stones with a small covering of dirt, and pig poo of course.

Here is Cam in some cute new PJ’s that Auntie Sharyn got him, they look so cute!  I tried to get a pic of Cam in his new nappy cover, but he discovered that its only a velcro closure, which makes a lovely ripping sound when you undo it.  Also it’s too big (so will be in the cupboard for a while), and its only a medium

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You can’t beet a root….

Yum, yum, I love home grown beetroot.  I meant to update the blog last night, but I was out in the sewing room finally doing some work.  We had some of this lovely beetroot for tea last night.  It tastes so much better than the canned stuff!

Lots of lovely things in the post today.  I swapped some of Cams outgrown nappies for a Huggies pop-up car tent.  Cam loves it (I will take a pic later), and an awesome nappy cover that I won from Snazzipants.  It is so cute (and the only nappy in Cam’s stash that I haven’t made myself).

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Sewing, sewing and more sewing

Check out these awesome cotton reel holders that Ma and Pa made me for Xmas.  Actually only the big one was for Xmas, but I needed another one, so they whipped it up for me yesterday.  Its great to be able to see what thread I have without having to hunt for it.

I got a call from Fastways couriers a couple of days ago and was told they had a parcel for me.  I couldn’t remember ordering anything, so I was hoping it might be a late pressie, but   it was a box of fabric for doing some sewing outwork.  Sad.

So now I have about 20 jobs in the sewing list.  I did write them all down, it was a bit depressing really.  Makes it feel more like work than fun.

On the food front I made a very nice Rhubarb and Apple crumble for dessert on Tuesday (my rhubarb), and yesterday we had Courgette and Corn fritters for lunch, as we have quite a few courgettes coming on.  I think tonight we will have something with snow peas in it.

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