The rooster

Over at Frugal Kiwi I got reminded about one of the stories that go with our hens.

This was some time back when we were living out on the Otago Peninsular in a very small 1871 cottage in poor repair. It was an idyllic spot with a stream full of crabs and whitebait and the odd eel. We even spotted an octopus or so and various fish. There were canoes we could launch off the front lawn when the tide was in half way and paddle down under the road bridge and into the bay. (Any higher and the boat wouldn't fit under and lower meant you ran aground ).

However, to get back to the main story, we had gained a few chickens from a friend. There were two hens and a rooster all half-bred bantam crosses. The ladies were very prolific and managed to raise 18 chicks in one nest and 12 in the other. Overpopulation ruled!

Fortunately most of these offspring turned out to be hens but as we were severely short of space, we gave one hen and her 12 chicks away and kept the other hen. The extra roosters would be for the pot. Once the hens were grown, we made our choices and gave the rest away along with a couple of the roosters. That left us with five hens and three roosters.

We let the two young roosters free range permanently and caged the hens and the senior rooster each night. This worked well for about a year and then things changed - for the worse. The large white rooster started acting up and beating up the senior rooster. That couldn't continue so we decided he just had to go.

The deed had to be done after dark as he was impossible to catch until he'd roosted for the night so we kept an eye on him until he settled and then planned the assault with the neighbours in tow as backstop and because they owned a large machete to do the chop and for moral support (we had only done this once before).

Tim, the neighbour, was a tall thin person looking rather like he should be in a monastery of the more laid back sort, so he got the job of trying to get the bird first. It was a bit out of reach however and departed rapidly for the hills followed by various bits of profanity.

Tim extracted himself from the tree along with Matt, who had been acting as backstop in the other side of the tree, and we all set out in search of the missing rooster. Tim still had the machete in his hand as we all wandered round the local houses looking for that rooster.

I often wonder what the people in the b&b next door thought when Tim wandered up to their door, in the middle of the night, complete with machete, and asked if they had seen a white rooster go past :) Must have made their stay 'interesting'!!

We did find the rooster a few minutes later in somebodies back yard and dragged it back to face execution. That went without a hitch and the result was a pot of chicken soup. Most useful thing that rooster ever achieved.

viv in nz

Felt

I learned how to make felt last week. It is something I have wanted to know about for some time but have not had the opportunity to try. I created two pieces on my first effort, one of which is rather nice although it is by no means finished yet. Then, over the long weekend workshop, one of our members taught us how to do the really fine felt and I created an orange piece that I hope to turn into an iris and a couple of leaves to o with it.

After that I got sort of keen (understatement) and have spent the last day or so composing a book made from felt with a selection of my samples as content. I mostly used brown wool for the pages but I did the cover in a reddish pattern with flame coloured pieces. The book turned out rather soft and tactile but has stiffened up a little since I added the samples.

I will photo the whole thing when I get the chance as well as getting the Trotters Gorge photos on here. In the meantime I have hunted out a view of the Quarry Gardens. These are a major part of my view from my living room window and are nice to walk through too.

viv in nz

time flies

Time just flies when you are having fun. I just spent four days at a sort of camp for arty fibre types. There are now lots of half finished projects waiting to be done and a few that got finished. It was great to spend all that time just doing stuff and hanging out with others and their stuff. Lots of cross fertilization going on idea wise as well as lots of how to for stuff not yet attempted.

I hope to get up some photos soon but need to finish a few things yet :)

viv in nz

Season open

Well that was a great first day - not! Two mini angels and a scarf for a grand total of $16.

Its been no better since :(

As a consolation, here are a few good photos of this and that. The top one is the front veranda with my wheelbarrow full of petunias. This year I hope to fill it with various lettuces and maybe a few violas.

The bottom photo is taken out at Aramoana which is a stunning place although also notorious for a mass murder some years back - theres a rather good movie of it now.

We mostly go here for picnics as it is only about 20 minutes from home.

The rest of the week just has to get somewhat better!!! I'll write about the other nasties later.

viv in nz

shop content

I thought I might put up a few photos of the shop. These are not very recent but the stock doesn't change all that much. Most of these were taken by the kids just because they could :)

Actually, when I look at this, the stock has changed but is exactly the same if you know what I mean. And we are open again for Christmas although not all the time - just when I'm around to man it. Any locals wanting to find me in - just send an email first so I will be there :) Or a comment as I do check them.

viv in nz

kiwi feet

Two photos of my knitted kiwi which I sell in my shop for $6.50. Which is why I don't use anything too expensive :) Looks a bit rude...

viv in nz

The long drop affair

I was reading a post on another blog today and it reminded me of a certain emergency that happened during our honeymoon camping trip.

At the time of this event, we had been traveling for several days in our old car with a tent in the boot and an assortment of old camping gear mostly from the dim dark age of the fifties. There was a set of old tin plates and mugs, a thermette made by my grandfather, a pup tent from a really cheap box store along with a home made fly constructed out of a cheap tarpaulin and two broom handles and an inflatable bed which had a slow leak.

On our first night we had found a wonderful (free) camping spot with the usual fixtures - a tap on a stand, a long drop dunny (toilet) and a few concrete block barbecues. It was also raining rather hard and had been doing so all day so there was an inch or so of water in the bottom of the barbies and no dry fuel. My husband attempted to light some of this wood with some dryish twigs to no avail but did manage to heat up the thermette with twigs so we dined on cold spagetti and warmish cocoa. The fly turned out to be very useful as it was substantially larger than the tent and gave us a short veranda so not too much mud came inside. Having nothing better to do and not much light we simply went to bed.

The second night went much better as we had collected some dry wood at one of our scenic stops and we were able to have a proper fire. This was good as although the rain has mostly stopped, it was now extremely cold. It was here that the superiority of the long drop had to be overcome. It was a nice concrete block building with a handbasin and a working tap. The toilet was the usual hole with a seat but was enclosed in a concrete surround and was several feet deep.

It was whilst using this amenity, in the middle of the night, that disaster struck and the wallet fell out of my husbands pocket and down this inaccessible hole. We looked at the hole for a while as we could see the wallet at the bottom in the torchlight. It had fallen to the side of the main pile of excrement but was out of reach. I was a woman on a mission at this point as all our necessary stuff was in this wallet so I hatched a plan of rescue.

We first hunted through the woodpile for the longest branch possible that was rigid enough to not bend under pressure and to one end attached a pair of pliers. These happened to be very stiff so they stayed open unless pulled. To the unattached handle I tied a long piece of string and then took a loop around a handy twiglet. We lowered the entire thing down the hole and got the jaws around the edge of the wallet and carefully pulled the string to close the pliers. Once closed they were probably stiff enough to stay shut but I tied the string anyhow just in case. The wallet remained with the pliers and we regained our bits. I might add that juggling a torch, a piece of string and a branch in a toilet with your husband in the middle of the night is something that is hard to forget!

I washed the whole thing in hot water and antiseptic but it really hadn't suffered much. And that is why I will always put a ball of string in any emergency kit I make up.

The trip was wonderful too but I will always remember it for the time we lost the wallet down the long drop :)

viv in nz

The photo is one taken from the top of Mt Cargill last year.

Any old thing

Mother is a bit better. At least she can hold a sort of conversation now and she can stand with help and a big list to starboard :) She has lost so much control that knitting, which she is so fond of, is no longer an option. That is a major downer. I hope she will be able to get home again but have to face the fact that she may not be able to cope without special care.

Life goes on but does become somewhat restricted by age.

I am going to post a few pretty pics just to cheer things up :) These are all taken from our house during what I call sunset season. Around the end of autumn and ditto spring.

viv in nz

Bike in pond

I thought I might have already told this tale but it seems not so here it is.

The whole thing came about some years ago when I was still doing some astronomy with my brother and the local group. Although we were amateurs, we did do some fairly important stuff for professional groups from time to time. Mostly routine stuff that didn't need high powered equipment but just time and inclination and a modicum of equipment. The event involved this time was a reasonably rare occultation and we were sent out to a distant and isolated area to time said event. As a convenience I offered my brother a lift so he came out to my place on his motorbike which at the time was a substantial 1000 model and rather heavy. Due to the soft ground he decided to park the monster on the edging of my small fishpond which was all rock.

We then ate dinner and set off in my car, collecting another bod en route along with a telescope and box of bits. The weather did not look wonderful so we had rather a low expectation of any return but thought there was just a chance of a gap in the cloud. So there was - about 5 minutes after the event! Murphy's law strikes again with that well known line - The thickness of the cloud cover is in inverse proportion to the importance of the event!

We hung around for a bit looking at stars in a sort of desultory fashion as the moon was far too bright for anything really good and then packed up and headed for home. Slowly and in a very conservative manner as petrol was running a bit low (forgot to check) and there wasn't an open garage for eons. We finally made it into town and to the only 24 hour garage, then trekked down home again (I was living about 15 minutes out on the wrong side of town for this trip).

It was now just past one in the morning so I made us a cup of cocoa and offered the use of the spare bed for the night but my brother figured it would only take a short time to get home at that time of night so he geared up and went out to the bike. I didn't actually see the next bit but apparently he flipped up the stand and put his foot on the same rock it had been sitting on all evening. Said rock promptly left for the inner reaches of the pond taking his foot with it...... and the base of the pond was very slippery!

He was lucky in two respects. One - the pond was only about 8 inches deep and two - he had his helmet on which saved his head from damage on the rocks at the far side of the pond. (It really was an insignificant sort of pond - more like a muddy puddle and I filled it in eventually.)

Next thing I knew there was a beeping of the horn and I went out to see the bike plus rider in the pond with the upper side leg waving round in mid-air. I had to get into the pond myself to heave the thing off him and then it took both of us to get it out.

We reparked the bike very carefully and went inside. He was wet from top to toe so I handed him a bath towel and sent him off to the shower whilst I went hunting for some clothes that might possibly fit and a dry set of socks and slippers for myself.

He ended up in a very short t shirt, a pair of old pyjama pants in a fetching paisley pattern complete with paint splatters as I'd been using them as overalls over my normal clothes (I believe they originally came from my grandfather!) and a sloppy type of jersey complete with clowns :) I should explain that I am under 5 foot tall and he is nearer 6 feet and what you might call of generous proportions.

He stayed the night!

Most of his gear was dry enough to wear by the next morning - we had cleaned off the mud etc and hung it to dry- so he was able to make it back in time for work. The bike was unharmed but he decided to dispose of it anyhow as it really was a dog to handle on our sort of roads and replaced it with a rather nice 350cc. I think the fishpond finished off his love affair with large bikes for good!

viv in nz

The photo is Skilly (short for skillsaw) our younger cat. She is now 14 but this photo is a couple of years old - not that she has changed much! I chose this because she was found in a rubbish tin by my brother when she was only a few weeks old and he donated her to our house. I later got him back by donating our then elderly and cranky old cat back to him as she wasn't getting on well with our young cats and toddlers :)

Oddments

Mum is still struggling to be understood but is clearly there and understanding us. She should make a good recovery hopefully.

On the better news front I have now got an amplifier to replace the old one that was one large hummmmmmmmmmm. I have two channels again as well so I can listen to Pink Floyd again :) Along with the rest of my collection of classical etc. It is still an elderly machine about 17 years old but as my cd player is more like 30 years old and so are my speakers - it is still a baby.

It is Williams ballet exam tomorrow - grade 4 and I hope he remembers the theory this time - last year he froze solid even though he knew everything backwards. I think the examiner was a bit of a dragon :) The photo is from 2 years ago. (Note the forgotten feet!) I must not have one from last year. He looks much more dance like this year at 12. He even remembers he has feet mostly now. Sometimes he remembers he has hands too :)

viv in nz

Mother

Just a short post to say that my mother was taken to hospital this morning with a stroke. It has affected her speech but it is too early to say what will eventuate out of this.

viv

Earthquake2

I have heard from the closest cousins in Christchurch via my mum and my Aunt and they are all fine. Their beautiful old villa has moved on its foundations but still seems intact so that is all good news. One of my sisters friends has lost a house and she hadn't heard from others yet. Most seem alright but probably lacking in crockery I'm thinking.

Its a good thing the building codes are so strong round here. They may be a nuisance but they do work even in so called safer places like Christchurch (ha!) That is necessary in a place like this where earthquakes are a regular occurrence. We have always had earthquakes so don't find them frightening round here but, of course, ours are mostly of very little account.

There is a minor fault system which cuts across the seaward end of the city and topples the odd chimney now and then and a deep trench off shore. The volcanic stuff is Miocene I think and all very extinct at present. There is a thought that if the big fault along the coast should change direction and reactivate, that would reactivate The volcanism but I suspect its not something we have to worry about at present.

The kitchen is still awaiting the removal of a door and the addition of a semi outside extension of the main hallway so the floor is still a big mess and so are the two old windows which don't function at all. The door to come out is the one main entry to the kitchen at present and leads right through a bedroom which is annoying to say the least! (It is supposed to be a dining room but we needed the bedroom much more.) The final plan is to have a big conservatory attached to the front of the kitchen but that requires finance that we don't have.

I was pleased to get the laundry out of the kitchen but have to say I think its even worse in the bathroom at present. There is exactly enough floor space in there for the bathmat and nothing else - about a meter squared on a good day! Its a good thing we don't run to large people :)

A new shower is the hoped for next improvement - can hardly wait even if it does mean I have to tile it myself.

The photo is our house before we put a new roof on it and removed the last chimney.

viv in nz

Earthquake

An interesting night. We were woken up at about half past four in the morning by a loudish noise and lots of shaking and rattling. This was followed by a brief period of swaying like we were on a ship. After a moment it dawned - oh yes - an earthquake. It wasn't very bad here but I think Christchurch would have got a pretty good shake up - thats where the earthquake was centered as I discovered when I went on line.

These are quite common around here but are normally just mild to the point of almost undetectable. This was quite a good one :)

I've always found these things to be interesting rather than scary although I have to say I've never been in a really big one - that would be scary!

Wow!!! I just saw the coverage of poor old Christchurch. Its a bit of a mess. Hope the relatives aren't too damaged. Seems like nobody has died at least.

The photos are a sort of before and n0w on my kitchen. Not finished yet but at least it works better now and I don't have to use the laundry tub as a kitchen sink :)

viv in nz

Madness quilt

I have been working too hard today for much but I did find this pic of a quilt I made by hand a couple of years back - that is I finished it a couple of years back. I think I'd been at it on and off for about 8 years before that!

I was a bit deranged when I designed it I think!

Of course I just had to get the obligatory ladder into the one shot that looks ok :)

viv

Chooks

The hen run is still rather emptier than it was with both the old rooster and hen (over 10 years old) dying followed rather surprisingly by the young rooster. That was unexpected so now we have to consider what to have next. I still like the idea of fresh eggs every day even although I can't eat them (allergic). The boys still devour what the elderly girls provide so the need is still there.

I think I'd still prefer bantams just because they are less destructive in the garden when let out and I'm hoping that perhaps one of the old girls (yougest is 6, older three are 8), might oblige by being broody with a new batch of chicks.

The senior hen (named Houdini because of her escape antics when younger), has started to crow. It looks a bit odd but I think she feels that as the dominant hen she should stand in for the deceased males. She sounds quite realistic but quite a lot quieter than the real thing.

The photos were mostly taken by the boys a couple of years back.

viv

Pumpkin soup the easy way

Todays photos are Karitane beach north of Dunedin

Take a pumpkin of any size, shape or type and chop, peel and core it. Small pieces for fast cook or big pieces for slow cook. Add one or two carrots, sliced and one or two onions, sliced. Cover with beef stock and cook on stove top until tender. Blend and serve with salt and pepper to taste and a swirl of sour cream if you happen to have some or some grated cheese if you can be bothered :)

I have been known to add a little fish sauce for extra bite or a splash of worcester sauce. I have also been known to add a leek or two and a clove of garlic if I felt like it.

A large pumpkin might go towards two pots of soup or some roasties. Apart from getting the #$%^%$ skin off the pumpkin, the whole thing can be done in about 30 minutes flat from go to serve. Which is great if you have unexpected guests (I fed 8 peeps with one pot the other day)

Hint - If you are doing the fast method it might pay to fry up the onion and garlic in a little oil first. It cooks down better that way. Or you can just add the onions/garlic to the stock when you prepare that! (if its home made that is).

viv in nz

Sunday - again!

And tomorrow its back to work although not for the usual stuff - there's a meeting instead.

We did a birthday party yesterday in rain and dense fog. This did matter as the boys (and girl) were going to walk the Mt Cargill track top down. Well I got them there ok and the view was....minimal. The fog also made driving rather interesting! Shame in some ways although m did get a few nicely atmospheric photos.

They got to the bottom in about an hour flat. 12 year olds move fast! Then I collected them and fed them pumpkin soup and omlettes with cheese and a caramel slice pretending to be a cake with one beeswax candle on it (because I couldn't find my birthday candle stash). They didn't care as long as there was something to blow out. That was it. There was a little computer time for a couple of later pick ups and they all went home happy - no sweets, no party bag, no junk and most of the presents were hand made by the kids themselves and were a minimal part of the whole deal.

I've come to the conclusion that complicated parties just aren't worth the finance. They just want to do things together - mostly active things!

viv

More moutains

I've been really working at the dyed cloth with lots of free motion embroidery and I have to say I think it looks not too bad. I moved the sewing machine to a better surface and the improvement is much greater than I thought. I also took a class in edges and finally learned how to get to the rest of my fancy stitches :) I could have just read the manual of course but it appeared to be in chinglish. Or maybe japlish :)

For years and years I've only hand sewn things so this rather cheap and nasty machine is the first I've tried to use in my arty stuff. I think I'm getting to like it :)

The piece of cloth was one I did some time back and then put away because I made a real mess of the upper part. It just looked wrong. I finally decided to cut it into two pieces and remove the top bit altogether. Much better. The pieces are not large - just a bit over A4. I haven't decided whether to add beads etc yet. I'm going to hang them where I can see them and contemplate the whichness of the why until it resolves. The one on the left has photographed better than the other for some reason. I seem to have lost too much detail on the other - maybe I do need to embellish this one :)

viv in nz

green mountains

Potato mountains no less. A great way to eat yummy spuds so I thought I'd repost about this.

Apart from that nothing much has happened round here and I don't have anything of burning merit to say :). I was working rather a lot last week (kindy kids are great fun) so there wasn't much time for anything else. However I did spend Sunday at the fibre arts group and achieved quite a lot. I assume a post will go up fairly shortly about that at the site and I know there was an occasional photo taken (not by me :).

We are considering the ways of doing some snow dyeing this winter but the snow has been a bit noticeable by its absence. Chilly bins from inland might have to be resorted to yet.

i learned a heap about beading from an expert instead and that was really good. I have done quite a lot of beading but it is nice to know some of the proper techniques - especially the one for making straight lines - mine always tend to look too organic even if I don't mean them to be.

I think I'll add a Chinese garden photo from last year. This is the Dunedin Chinese Garden and it is rather good.

Green living

These are photos of our local gardens during rhododendron week last year. Can't wait for this year :)



One of the things which really annoys me about trying to be green is the number of sites that suggest you change this and that without a thought about just how this and that can be made affordable. As a person of limited means I find this highly irritating as I have no way to get to the supposed nirvana suggested.

The suggestion that most green livers come from the middle classes has an obvious basis in that only this group can afford to be green. The rest of us just have to be brown I suppose... This is not to say we don't live as green as possible or that there aren't good sites out there for everyone else. It is just an attitude which seems to be on the rise - a snobby sort of thing that says we're trendy and hip because we can afford to be green.

We need to rethink some of the attitudes we put out there and perhaps take a closer look at what we are really aiming for. Possibly before the whole thing becomes a sort of green washed nightmare instead of the planet saving we thought we were booked for.

viv

Mt Cargill with plastic

I keep thinking I should be a little more serious on this site but then there are so many really good sites out there that I think I perhaps should give the really serious stuff away :)

On the other hand, I do try to live by all those lovely green principles and cut my planet space to that which I feel I can live with. Plastic is a bit of an issue at present. Quite a bit of the stuff we use just doesn't come any other way for those of us who are monetarily challenged. It would be easy to live without plastic if we could afford the hand made bread (mine or the farmers market) and the expensive veg instead of the baggies of cheap seconds which only come in plastic but these are out of reach as long as the boys are eating like young horses.

Then there are the battles you just know you will fail at. Like biscuits. They come in plastic and I have no way to make them at home at present because we need an oven first. The small benchtop one I have just doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to baking. Men just don't seem able to resist the biscuit aisle :) The one plus is that the local dairy at least sells their sweets loose in paper bags! (although some are individually wrapped at point of manufacture just to annoy)

Its these little things that get to you when trying to make a difference.

Anyway enough of that. I still have a heap of photos to share so hope you like this one. It is the view from the top of Mt Cargill. There is a really nice walking track down into our valley from here that the kids love to do. We mostly get dropped off at the top and then picnic at the bottom (a whole 5 minutes from home :)

Harbour views

These a photos of the Otago harbour that I took about a week back on a cold and frosty morning when I went to work early. I occasionally aide for the kindergarten and this was a particularly nice sunrise mid winter.

The Dunedin Rudolf Steiner School really has a wonderful position!

viv in Dunedin

Lantern Festival

Every year the local Steiner school has a mid winter lantern festival with shared food and all the lanterns the children have made. They also gave us the odd bit of music this year and a few traditional songs to walk with. We did a nice tour of the soccer grounds in the dark and this year there were no high winds to blow our lanterns out :)

DH took a photo of the tree dwarfs with their little lights set up for the kindy kids. They are a nice bunch of 3 and 4 year olds and I have been aiding occasionally with them which is fun.

The senior class made paper ball lanterns this year, each with a star sign relating to the child. William was very proud of his.

viv in nz

My work space

One of the blogs I read (Down-to-Earth) has a segment on where you work so I thought I would post a few photos of my/our livingroom/workroom/bedroom etc. We have a very small house with four of us trying to live in it. One room is also dedicated to the shop during the season so we don't have a bedroom. Thats why the bed lifts up onto the wall. We hope to enclose the veranda sometime and set up the shop there to free up the extra room but I'm not holding my breath :)

The big side window is a double glazed wonder that I got with the proceeds of the first year of the shop. Income has been a bit erratic since then but is still better than nothing. The patchwork pinned on the curtain is one I woodblock printed last year and is slated to become our new hall curtain.

Hope you enjoy this lot

viv in nz

Jaffa race

Every year for the last 10 years there has been a jaffa race down our street. For those who don't know jaffas are orange coated chocolate balls that are traditionally rolled down the steps in old movie theaters to annoy. 25,000 went down this year. It is a charity race and you buy your number for $2.

There was a cherry picker placed in our driveway so we scored a free bag of goodies and a ride up in it after the event :) Gave us a nice view of our hot water solar system and the new roof and the old veranda roof we can't afford to replace yet!

You can see jaffas in some of the photos if you look hard.

There were about 12000 people in the street which was a bit crowded but fun.

viv in nz

Photo

That was just to prove I could put a photo up :)

I may just do it again..... Nice !

This is one of my friends roses from last year.

photo x2

photo take 2

Dust bunnies

They are still growing along with the socks. I even put a pair in the shop! I have been doing some miniature quilts which are neat fun. (At last - some uses for all that sketching I've been doing ).

The arty farty group has now been relabeled Artfibredunedin as the web site is called this. For anyone wanting to see, it is mostly stuff we do and as we are doing it.

I am off to watch the boys class at ballet next - its parent watching day. They limit parents because the rooms are not large so we get to see about once a term. William is grade 4 this year and starting to really look like a dancer. Will be interesting to see what happens next.

viv in nz