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

I am, as the title suggests, falling behind on the blog posts. During the last few weeks I have fallen behind in all computer-related matters, as the weather has been fine and I have been spending all my time working outside. But this morning we are getting some blessed rain, and that has me indoors for the moment. (I just checked again and the rain has stopped- drat! We really need rain, as we have not had any significant rain for 2 months, and everything is really dry. If we don’t get rain in the next few weeks then we will miss the opportunity for autumn grass-growth, and winter will become a bit more of a challenge for feeding the stock.)

Anyway…. last Wednesday we had SCA A&S at our place for monthly dance-practice. Friday Tam took the day off, and we drove up to Fielding for the central districts Field Days. I think in the past we have described the difference between A&P shows (showing animals) and Field Days (selling farm-related equipment). The one in Fielding is the second largest in the country, and has about 400 or 500 vendors spread across 100 acres of race-track. Tam bought me some nice birthday presents, including a new pair of safety boots for brushcutting and chainsawing (ironically my other pair had broken the day before), and a pair of gortex overpants so that I can go and do farmwork in the pouring rain without getting wet (it goes with the gortex jacket my parents got me last year). We also got a chance to catch up with the people manning the 3 (!) different alpaca stands at the show.

Friday evening Geoff, Beth and Mikhail came over for the regular anime session. We watched the first two episodes of The Slayers (mindless entertainment), then watched the first four episodes of Last Exile, which is a really visually stunning piece with a cool and weird universe. We are looking forward to getting the remaining 3 disks of Last Exile from the video store and giving them a gander.

Saturday I went off to the Wellington Warlords for a full day of wargaming. I have not done that for years and years- and boy was it fun! We are playing a Full Thrust campaign, which is generic fighting-spaceships minitaures game. While I was gone Tam took the ‘paca on a little walk down to the little stream paddock for some fresh grass- with unintended consequences.

Sunday there was fog and drizzle in the morning, which canceled fight practice. This left us an empty day, in need of plans and excitement. First we checked on the ‘paca, and found the Pointer was staggering! Seems that new lush grass was mainly Ryegrass, and he had the atggers again. We moved him and the boys into Triangle so he could recover. That done, we decided to go to Eketahuna. All of our Kiwi friends would immediately ask WHY? Well, the answer is quite simple. Nobody ever goes TO Eketahuna, though many pass through it on their way to Hawke’s Bay. It is a town that even Kiwi’s ironically refer to as “the massive metropolis of”. We had to see it. And its web site talked about the giant metal kiwi, and the plethora of tea rooms. Not to be missed! We picked up Phil and Dayna and away we went. It was about a 2 hour drive up over the Rimutakas into the Wairarapa. Along the way we stopped at Schoc Chocolate, a little chocolate shop in Greytown we would have never noticed if Dayna had not told us about it. It is now going to be a regular stopping point whenever we go to the Wairarapa, as the variety is great and the quality superb. We alo visited the Mount Bruce conservation center, which was really cool. They are doing lots of captive breeding programs there for all sorts of endangered brds, so it is achance to see and hear birds that otherwise only exist on remote offshore islands. All in all a fun day, finsihed off at Cha, a chinese restaurant in town, where Tam had some yummy fried Tofu.

The week since has not been that remarkable. Work, and junk. But now a 4-day weekend is upon us, and that should be fun. Usually in this situation we would be planning day or overnght trips to fun places in the region, but not this weekend. Galadriel is due in only 11 days, which means we are now on birth-watch. This involves going back to the paddock every few hours during the day (alpaca tend to give birth between 10AM and 3 PM) and checking to make sure nobody is in labor. Once all the girls have “unpacked” we will be free to roam again.