New Zealand Life

November 2012

Hello, hello! This month has probably been the most exciting month of the year! We, of course, did tons of farm work, but that is certainly not all!!! This month we got more animals, more new experiences, another birthday, visitors, fireworks, adventures, and much much more!!! This month at EVER was certainly not one you’d want to miss!!

So, what did we do? A lot of the time, we sprayed thousands (if not tens of thousands) of liters of herbicide on the thistle. But it doesn’t end there. Definitely not! We got a nice 2215 sign attached to our gate in place of an old piece of wood with our spray-painted address. Mom tractored all the arenas again so that they would look perfect when the visitors took a tour of the estate and Dad weed-whacked under fences. However, nothing got such a nice upgrade as the meadow barn. We installed the black shades, bought dark-brown furniture to set up, put together wooden patio furniture to place inside and outside, painted the hooks and hangers Dad built, put decorations around to make it more colorful, and placed pillows on the couch, giving the barn a cozy ambiance.

Later on in the month, we got an electric transformer installed on the property, which means we now have electricity at the house site. This is great news, as it means we are yet one step closer to getting EVER built. We also sold the 10 steers we bought last December. When we received them, they were very sickly animals with pinkeye, ringworm, stomach worms---the works of diseases. However, when we sold them, we are proud to say they were healthy, 8 of them had lost their baby coats leaving sleek black hair instead, and were truly fat instead of bloated from worms. It wasn’t easy getting them into the stockyard to be transported, though! We had been keeping the steers in the Cross Country Meadow area with three year-old heifers, and 17 of the calves our cows had given birth to. Nobody wanted to be herded and it took us nearly two hours to get them into the stockyard. Then, we thought that two of the steers weren’t there, so we went back and spent ½ hour looking for the steers which, in the end, turned out to have been overlooked because of their small size and baby coats. They just went off today (11/30), to Mom’s great relief.

At 120 Webber Road, Dad weed-whacked the perimeter of the paddocks, and mowed the rounded-up grass in the front. Mom mowed the front lawn, and I weeded the flower-beds and my garden. We sprayed the paddock for weeds and put up our address on our fence. We cleaned the windows with newspaper until they looked brand new, and dusted everything so it was sparkling clean. We put the Christmas tree up and decorated it, and then Mom went into cooking mode and made lemon cake, bagels, ciabatta, pretzels, butter chicken, coconut rice, stuffing, and more.

Not only did the property get cleaned up for visitors, though, so did the animals! This month Mom bought a set of shearers---real sheep shearers. Believe me when I tell you, this is not your normal dog-clipper; this is the real deal. The shearers must weigh something like 5 pounds, and when it’s turned on it sounds like a chainsaw! I felt like I needed ear muffs for a safety precaution! Then, of course, is the actual shearing. This was no easy feat. I held Ebony (who got done first) while Mom shaved off enormous amounts of wool. We were wondering when (and if) we’d ever reach Ebbie’s skin, when the shavers saw red. The clippers were like piranhas and just shredded Ebony’s skin open like a piece of paper, turning the formerly silver blades a dull red. I suddenly wondered if this was a good idea. Mom and I stared at Ebony’s gash, and I said hesitantly, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.” But we had to go on, since we’d already started. A few tears rolled down my cheeks and I dreaded the coming damage of my beloved lambie. Not to long after, Mom cut herself. Ebony’s and Mom’s blood stained the blades as they shredded through everything in their reach. After the first few gashes we were through the learning curve. We did much better on Ivory, who had watched Ebony get groomed and half-eaten alive by the machine (just kidding). Ivory apparently didn’t want to see her death coming and laid like a dead thing in my lap as Mom shaved her dirty white wool off, revealing the pure white wool underneath. She escaped her certain death with only one cut on her leg. Both lambies are healed now, and looking amazing, sporting the season’s new trend!

We also made a bird pen, because (Surprise! Surprise!) we got 5 two-week old ducklings!! One of the five is a Peking cross because their mothers supposedly bred with wild ducks. That duckling (named X), shows a lot of its wild-duck side through its brown-yellow fluff, which will later turn into brown-white feathers. They have already begun to get their feathers in, and live in a bird cage in the paddock with the turkeys.

The turkeys, Autumn and Fall, have grown rather big this month. They got the majority of their feathers, and longed to be free-ranging. So, figuring they were big enough, we opened the cage so they could fly in and out at will (the ducks can’t fly to save their lives). Therefore, it was a big shock when Dad saw a hawk on the ground by the bird pen. I ran out a few minutes later, found Autumn (who’d run up to the house), but couldn’t find Fall. I looked around the paddock and found her feathers on the ground. I cried over Fall’s death, and have named the hawk Voldemort after the 100% evil villain in Harry Potter. Autumn is now restricted to the bird pen until she is much larger.

Continuing on with the birds, the Silkies, who had been residing in the garage, are now officially outside birds. Dad made them a very nice nesting box and they stay in their pen no matter the weather! They don’t seem to mind the rain, and are a perky as ever with their 24/7 access to fresh grass! They are growing out their feathers and they now look like three white puffballs!

The other GemStones (Pearl, Amethyst, and Citron) have decided to give out Christmas presents early!! They are now laying eggs!!! They have only started, so the eggs are about the side of quail eggs (1/3 or ½ the side of regular eggs), however after about three weeks of laying, we should be getting normal size eggs from each chicken each day!

Peanut, Butter, and Jelly aren’t doing nearly as well with their egg-production. I haven’t seen a single egg from my duckettes in nearly three weeks, and am wondering if they are laying somewhere else, are giving their eggs away to some creature, or just decided that producing eggs was just to labor-some and to ditch the whole thing. They have gotten into even worse graces due to their adventures into new territory. For weeks, they traveled onto the Meadow Barn patio and apparently just hung out and have a party messing all over the patio deck. Luckily, we have broken that habit, but they still travel over to the barn area—especially when we are there. They must think that since no one is giving them food immediately, that they need to go find it. Whatever the reason, it is very funny to see them rocking from side to side as fast as they can when they run over to us.

Less than two weeks after getting the duckette juniors, we got two more family members: Cassie and Carely! These two little Tonkinese kitties and were 7 weeks old when we got them. The breed, Tonkinese, is a mixture of Burmese and Siamese. Cassie has a pretty “dark pointed”* Siamese face and Carely is a beautiful mink colored Tonkinese with more of a Burmese face. They were tiny little things when we got them, and the breeder almost didn’t let us take Cassie because she was so tiny. We got her in the end, and she is often referred to as the “Little Tiger” or “Little Pistol” as she run around, tail high at top speed! Unfortunately, Callie was not too happy about the new comers and had a three-day fit about them. She finally settled down, and now plays with the kitties at times. Callie also celebrated her 1 birthday this year, on the 14. Now, she usually is around when the kitties are playing and just sits and watched with a dignified expression. Just recently, these kitties have graduated to Mom’s bedroom and the family office. They love being free and run around after each other nearly the whole time.

The four calves (Jasmine, Violet, Dahlia, and Rose) are also doing well. They are finally off of calf pellets, however they come racing from wherever they are grazing in order to get corn and hay each night. They are very friendly, and still enjoy getting groomed, hugged, and pet. Violet remains the friendliest, Rosie the fastest, Jazz the feistiest, and Dahlia the sweetest. They are continuing to grow, and have begun to loose their baby coats. I cannot wait until they have their new, sleek, black coats.

This month we also looked at horses for Mom! We drove to a horse ranch named Starlight Farm. There, we met Tina, the breeder who Mom had been corresponding with via e-mail and phone about two horses: Diva and Damadra (Duh-ma-da; New Zealanders don’t pronounce the r’s). Mom found she liked Damadra, the two-year-old filly best, and is thinking about buying her. We also looked at Damadra’s sire, and Tina sent a video of him in a show. He was pretty amazing and well behaved for a breeding stallion.

So, onto the visitors! Jeannine, John, and Allie arrive on the 19 and left on the 23. One full week of absolute fun. We had fireworks two days in a row, went on a walk down the road and a walk through the pines to the 45 mile long uninhabited beach. Allie and I worked on building a tree house on the 2215 property, and (best of all!!!) we went on this awesome tree top adventure! The tree adventure comprised of all sorts of cool things like zip lines, rope-swinging, tight wires, rope-steps and much more! I’ve written details on each of the four courses we did at the bottom of this newsletter, if you’d like to read more about our monkey-fun! J The day after our tree adventures, it was Thanksgiving! We all sat at the dining table and had a delicious meal of turkey, stuffing, fresh pretzel bread, beats from my garden, other vegetables and roasted chicken! It was delicious and we finished off with chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream (for Allie and me) and rum cake (for the adults). Jeannine, John, and Allie left the next day to go to Treasure Island (part of Fiji) and went back to the US on Thursday the 29.

Next month is December! Time for cheer, summer (opposite seasons in N.Z!), and best of all: Christmas! I’m getting a piano for Christmas (yay!) and will hopefully be able to “tune” myself up so I can play Christmas songs for the holidays! Jess will be celebrating her third birthday this year, and the thistle weeds are supposed to be going into a slumber for the summer. December should bring a month of fun, cheer, and New Year resolutions for 2013!

‘Till next month !!!

~ Juli@ ~

*Dark pointed Face: light colored face with darker fur on the nose and ear tips.


The Tree Adventure:

Today was really exciting. Allie and I played with the little kitties (Carley and Cassy), played something like 100 card games, and had a great time filled with anticipation for the big event of the day: the tree adventures! We left the house at 12:30pm. When we got to the adventure park, the anticipation kicked up a couple more notches. The courses looked awesome! There were swinging ropes, tunnels, teetering logs attacked to hanging ropes, zip lines, and more! The minimum age for the highest-level was 14, so we did the High Flyer level (one step down from the highest level). While we were waiting to get our gear, we went and looked at the courses we were going to do: numbers 5-8.

We finished touring our courses and then went back to the reception area to get into our gear. We all put on a waist/leg harness and a white helmet. A female instructor quickly went through simple instructions of how to hook ourselves on to red/blue life lines with a carabineer/pulley respectively. She demonstrated what to do in certain activities on a practice course, and then let us try. We went up a ladder, down a zip line, and across a “flying fox,” which consisted of a rope attacked to a wood seat for us to sit on and swing across on. We all felt confident that we understood how to handle our equipment and ready to start our real courses!

Course Five:
Our first course probably seemed like the hardest and longest, because we were getting used to our gear, and had to get into the monkey spirit! Dad went first, and turned around to take pictures now and then. Jeannine, Allie, and John came after Dad; I went after John and Mom was last. I went up a rock-climbing wall, and then had to go across small logs hanging from ropes so that they swung back and forth when I walked on them. It was pretty hard and scary because you had to wait for the log to swing back toward you, catch it with your foot and then step on it. Since you couldn’t just balance on the swinging logs, you had to grab the ropes along side of it as well. After the swinging logs, we had to go on a big flying fox, which flung us into a rope net, crawl through big, swing tunnels, walk across a huge tightrope (I did it backwards!). There was one activity were there were four tightropes (two above our heads, and two for us to walk on). Wood poles were attached to the tightropes diagonally so that we had to crawl over one pole, then jump onto the other tightrope, then crawl over the wood pole on the other side. John and I had switched positions, so I rocked the activity while he crossed it. Soon after, we got to zip line down to the bottom! Allie and I looked like starfish as we threw our arms and legs out in excitement.

Course Six:
After course five, we all moved onto course six. John and Allie had already begun the course and Jeannine was starting when Mom, Dad, and I got to the beginning. After five or six activities, I finally caught up to the trio. We started by climbing up a ladder this time, and then went across a wood swinging bridge, a tightrope, teeter-tottering wood steps, zip lines from one tree to the next, and the swinging logs. My favorite however, was the activity that had log stepping stones, with huge spaces in between each log. Ropes hung down so we could swing ourselves like real monkeys onto the next step! We reached the zip line to the bottom, and Allie pretended to be superman/woman!

Course Seven:
Course number 7 was only a little bit away from the bottom of course 6. It, too, started with a ladder. On this round, however, Allie went first, I went second, John third, then Jeannine, Mom, and Dad. We climbed through the big swinging wood tunnels again, and across longer tightropes much higher up. Definitely didn’t want to look down!! We also went on the swinging logs, something like four zip lines from one tree to the next, and a big long swinging log bridge made up of half a log about 2yds long, with only three ropes holding it at each 1/3-way point! On one of the zip lines, I got thrown into the padding on the tree, and got flung back four or five feet from the platform! I didn’t weigh enough for the pulley to roll me back the platform, so I reached up, grabbed the lifeline and climbed back that way. It hurt my hands sorely, but I didn’t get any blisters! We zip lined down to the bottom of the course, and Allie and I called dibs on first and second place (respectively) on our finally course.

Course Eight:
Our last course of the day! As we waited for everyone to finish course 7, Allie and I stared at what we were going to be doing on course 8. We were saying “wow!” and “look at that!” to each other as we looked at all the different activities! We had a few new activities that were really fun. There were three long logs connected by strings (and held up by ropes), that we had to walk on, but they swung into each other when we walked on them. I rocked the activity when John got on (he was behind me), and he nearly lost his balance. Then, later on, there were many choices on which way to go. Did we want to do the flying fox or the tightrope? I chose the flying fox (into the rope net); Allie chose the tightrope. We climbed through a hammock-like net activity, and then came up to another sign… Long way or short way? Definitely long way! We climbed up a huge ladder and came up to an activity with a trapeze-like handle to hold onto in order to swing to the next platform. Then, was one of the best activities in all the courses: The skateboard/surfboard! It was a wood board on wheels that rolled across a track and brought you to the next platform. It was awesome, and so so much fun! The last activity before the final course-end zip line, was a tightrope. The life line was far above our heads, so a long rope hung above us to help us across the tightrope. It was really hard to cross, because the rope wasn’t very secure, and didn’t help as much as would be thought. The zip line to the bottom of the course was really long, ending our tree adventure wonderfully.