s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

Well, we’re having a proper winter now. Pouring icy rain mixed occasionally with sleet, and absolutely *howling* winds. Like, “Gee, I hope the roof is nailed on tight” winds. When I got home, Stephen and I brought the ‘paca from the sheltered Glen paddock, to the even more sheltered sideyard. The good thing is that it’s in the lee of the house when the southerly is blowing (which it is, boy howdy). The slightly less-than-good thing is that it fankly hadn’t occured to us to get the ‘paca used to the more closed-in space. The house is weird; the woodshed is weird; the narrow deck under the bedrooms is weird; the low overhanging tree is weird. So instead of tucking themselves into the sheltered little nook back there (because, you know, there might be puma in there, for heaven’s sake), they are, poor dears, kushed up in the most exposed out-in-the-open part of the little yard that they can find. Fortunately, that bit is still quite sheltered, as it is in the lee of my car. Another blessing to be counted: unlike a lot of people who are getting this weather, or the more snowy edition, we are not halfway through lambing.

This is largely feeling like a reprise of the February storms, except a heck of a lot colder. I wonder if I’ll be able to make it out of the valley tomorrow ?

Camping (if you can call it that) this weekend was, in fact, a lot of fun. And if Tawhiri hadn’t officially joined the ranks of our Household Gods after my Mom’s visit (for not pouring on us during our Sounds cruise), he would have after this weekend. It was supposed to be gales and pouring rain — instead, the cloud cover kept the frost away, and what breeze there was was almost warm. It *did* bucket down for a couple hours Sunday morning, but not when anyone was actually trying to do anything outside. How amenable !

I missed the archery for an educational textiles class, and Maggie gave another one on the Greenland textiles, from a fabulous book they haven’t published in English yet. Spent a good bit of time going over assorted Heraldic Things, tried dancing in the Mongol Gumboots (oy !). The food was, in fact, pretty good, and I’ve discovered over the years that I don’t really much care for feast food on the whole. Everyone seemed to agree that the almond tarts with strawberry goop were Very Very Good, and Maggie’s fresh-baked rolls at most meals were a treat.

The horrible weather we were supposed to get over the weekend is here now — roads are closed by snow and ice all over the place, but not here close to the coast. We just get cold rain and gale force winds. Don’t reckon we’ll be burning gorse any time soon. We *are* discovering new and interesting things about our water system, though, and that — along with trip planning — is keeping Stephen busy.

Azami’s been keeping busy terrorizing the local starling population — she caught three in as many days a week or two ago. Although to be fair, it’s possible the second two were actually the same bird, which apparently spent a Very Bad Night under Stephen’s desk, guarded by a one-eye-open Azami snoozing on the rocking chair. Stephen chucked it out & we think she caught it and brought it in again the next day (Stephen released it a bit further away & it seems to have gotten away clean this time).

Shortly before leaving for our weekend outing, we got a call from the vet. The results came back on Chris, and the liver damage was “consistent with toxicity”. We may never figure out what caused the damage, but as a precautionary check we will do blood tests on the other two to check their liver function. This means I get to do IV blood draws from their jugular veins! I watched the vet do it last weekend on Chris, and as they say in the medical profession “watch one, do one, teach one”. I guess after this teaching Tam will be the next step. It will be a good skill to have, should we ever need to administer IV drugs.

With this perplexing news stuck in our heads (what could be toxic? It’s the wrong season for FE.) we packed up for Darton Anniversary. This yearly event was being held over the hill in Wainuiomata, about a 30 minute drive. A nice Boys Brigade camp, with excellent cabins– more like small houses than cabins considering they had pumbing and hot showers! All the local SCAdians were there, plus people from Auckland and Christchurch. There were also people from the other local recreation groups present, including the Midaeval Guild, The Company of the Dragon, the The Order of the Boar (the jousting folks). It was a fine little event with fighting, archery, singing, dancing, A&S classes (I gave one on Mongol Strategy and Tactics) and an yummy feast to cap it all off. There was also a large contingent of children present, all under the age of 4. This could get rather noisy at times.

I won the archery competition, which I attribute to the high winds and my more powerful bow. My heavy arrows, flung at speed, could ignore the gusting wind much more effectively! We joked that when submitting the results to the Kingdom we should include a “WWF” or Wellington Wind Factor, adding to our scores to account the the more challenging shooting conditions! I also won the “most improved Darton Fighter” for the year, but as I was the new one in the group, that was no surprise. For the year I get to have this nifty dirk/dagger thing as my prize. Helen from the Order of Boar came over to check, and it is one of the early ones her husband made. You may have seen his other work– like Aragorn’s sword! :) He could not make it to this event because he is working flat out making the blades for Narnia, which begins shooting soon. The whole small country/small town aspect of this place means that everyone knows someone who does something interesting!

This week we are looking at lots of really crappy weather. A big low has stalled east of the country, and it is bringing cold southerly winds across. Dunedin was shut down by snow yesterday. Today we have gale-force winds. Wednesday and Thursday we are looking at cold pouring rain. I moved the alpaca to the new Glen paddock, so they can have a bit more shelter, and some better grass. Grass supplies are starting to run low, but that is not that bad. The horses are all fat, and could do to lose a few kilos before the spring riding season gets going. And there is enough grass left in the paddocks I have been reserving to get the alpaca though untill the flush of spring growth kicks in, probably in September.