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| The annual district bike ride; fundraiser event for the local primary school. (Yes you can tell this section is through our place, with the burnt bush and the new fence!) About 280 riders, about 30 kms long, through about 6 properties, takes them about an hour to get around the course. Spot the sharp bend, they really had to slow down for that one! |
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| The aftermath of our Mystery Christmas Project night at work. Lots of fun :-) |
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| Happy herd in a fresh paddock after the afternoon's milking. |
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| My girls will be so happy to see we have a good amount of blossom on the Feijoa trees :-) Oh so Yummy! |
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| More exploring through the scrub at the back of the farm. Going places we haven't been able to before. |
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| Our 1 sheep and the neighbour's 7 sheep going off to be shorn. |
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| Remember last week when the bee man made a start on a track up through the bush? Today a bulldozer came out to do more work on it. As you can see, he didn't get very far... oh dear. I think a bigger digger is needed to pull him out! |
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| I don't normally post photos of things I don't like (read detest) but have decided to make an exception and put this photo up. In NZ we don't have many big pests (no foxes, cougars or other varmints!) but the Possom is a real menace in our forests eating native birds' eggs and browsing and destroying the trees. This young marsupial must have left Mum and has found a home in an old barn. Of course the dog was very interested. In spite of all the bush around us we don't have as many possoms as we could have but to me, one possom is one possom too many! |
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| I always think these Heron are out of place on farmland but they are pretty common! |
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| Attended YD's end of year exhibition (Year 3 Graphic design). A bit of a tongue in cheek brand of tea! |
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| It was a bit of a dull and chilly day today but the sun came out just when I was looking for a photo op.! I adore the colour of this rose; it just flowers once a year though but is well worth waiting for :-) |
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| At the back of the main farm, up into the hills of the Maori land, where a mulcher made a track for the Bee Man to place more hives. The skyline in the distance should be level so it shows the angle the 'new track' actually is! (And why I was walking!)(And why we couldn't ride all the way up) He may need to bring up a bulldozer to work the track so that a truck laden with hives can actually get up there. |
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| You can just see some crop paddocks (brown) and the house and sheds, then the road. Sitting on top of the world :-) |
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| I love how the blossom and the fruit are on the Orange tree at the same time. And Orange blossom smells gorgeous! |
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| A nice start to a weekend away, a lovely day and a bit of coastal company. |
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| The Beeehives arrived during the night. This morning the bees were buzzing around getting orientated. The Manuka, which makes great honey, is just starting to flower. |
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| DH was happy to have some Tuatua for lunch today, thanks to a kind neighbour who'd been to the ocean. I'm happy for him to have them all - too much sand for me! |
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| More of those ducks. Not sure where the protective parents were this time! |
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| Joanne, you asked me once about the flowers on a Banana plant. Our plants got frosted this winter so the fruit hasn't really developed but this seems to be the flower... I've never quite worked it out but the fruit appears with this flower contraption under it. The red leathery 'things' open out to expose the yellow flowers. A little strange! |
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| Shifting the yearlings... hard to believe that this time last year we were weaning these. This time next year we will be milking them! |
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| I took this photo by accident, but am pretty pleased with how it turned out! I've been busy watching the ducks; a family of them who are pretty upset with the paddocks being worked up. They've been flying around honking and giving us a good telling off for disrupting their life! |
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| The six youngsters were out for a walk on the track just below the house. A minute later there was a very loud honk from Mother Duck warning them that I was running around with my camera and they all flew off! |
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| Still cant quite get used to the landscape even though the fire was 9 months ago! These calves are having their final milk feed before we take them 'out the back' for weaning. |
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| The ripping begins. After spraying out the crop paddocks, the rippers are put through. Tomorrow we can plough it all up. We'll be planting Turnips for summer feed. These paddocks were affected by the floods in July and August so will benefit from fresh pasture. |
