Pirate, Pinocchio and Pinky

Pirate

In a previous post I outlined a very dramatic episode with one of our young heifers, newly arrived on the farm. NO 43 had contracted pink eye and it was so bad, she had to have her eye removed. Since then she has recovered completely, is one of the healthier looking animals in our small herd and has had a name change to Pirate. It has become a tradition to give any animals that stand out for whatever reason a special name, some always retain their ear tag number and some get named " You know, the one with horns" (although horns are not allowed these days as they tend to damage other animals, especially in transit on the back of a cattle truck and you get docked $50.)

Pinocchio

I have to apologise in advance if some of the names are not obviously Female Friesian cross names, Pinocchio has a very long nose, Pirate has one eye (no patch or parrot) Pinky had a pinkeye condition that took months to fade and Goggles has two black eyes on a white face. In the past we have had a Red (she ran like a racehorse and jumped fences) a Friendly (she was obviously a calf club animal and loved being patted) Tiny (she was an IHC donated calf who was very small) a 

 Blondie (VERY white face) Big Tiny (who was small even after being with us for two seasons). Many have been called "Hamburger" after some misbehaviour, and others have been called all sorts of names, not able to be mentioned here. I used to smile when my Grandchildren Samantha and Kyle were visiting from the city as they would talk about names they had given to various animals. I tried to explain that these names would only last for as long as their visit, but they didn't seem to mind and I continued using the names we had given them. One year we had a herd of "Murray Grey" animals who all looked like Bambi and that's where it stayed. Pirate may need some personal feeding as the rest of the heard are starting to barge her around, which is typical of some animals. They seem to pick on the weakest in a herd and give them a hard time and I have noticed that Pirate tends to hang back from the rest.

Wet Autumn

The weather up to last week has been very kind to us and Autumn had arrived quite gently. The Heifers were  barely coping with all the long grass and we won't need to feed out hay until Winter really arrives. Some of the heifers have started to develop their Winter coats and the evenings are starting to get darker earlier, well until daylight saving ends on the 1st April. One Liquid Amber has started to gain it's lovely colours, but all the Oaks, Willows and Maples are still endowed with leaves. That was until Monday! We have just endured three days of torrential rain and high winds and the paddocks are flooded and everything outside is absolutely sodden. We also had a temporary lack of power when a transformer developed problems, but we were planning on having a cold dinner, so it wasn't too dramatic. Of course we needed hard boiled eggs and cooked potatoes with our salad, so I decided to experiment with our portable gas cooker, given as a present some years ago, but never used. What a little beauty! It was a cinch to put assemble and we had cooked eggs and potatoes in no time at all. It was my intention to take this handy gadget with us on a "day off trip" when we were supposed to drive to a small beach on the Whangarei Heads, lay out our portable chairs and picnic basket and cook up some bacon & eggs on our cooker. WE JUST HAVEN'T HAD TIME! Now that I have observed how easy it is to use I can't wait to try it out on the beach and when the weather settles down again we will "grab the moment" and go for a picnic.

Sunflower Seed containers

Another victim of the recent rainfall has been the flower plants, many of which have lost their petals or in some cases fallen over completely, such as the sunflowers. I managed to gather two very large heads and remove them for drying so that we could save the seed for next year, but I might have acted too quickly as I have read that they need to go dark brown on the reverse of the heads. I will have to cover some of the heads that are left, or our dear friendly birds will eat the lot! Our Macadamia trees have dropped quite a large number of nuts and of course these were covered in water as well, although once they have dried out, they should be ok. Fortunately we were able to collect our meager crop of pumpkins and squash and  most of the late crop of spuds are in the pack house. Our pumpkin crop is much smaller than previous years and I blame the wet Summer. Living in a rural lifestyle has many rewards and it doesn't take long to realise that "Mother Nature Rules OK"! But when the rain has stopped and the sun returns and everything has that fresh washed look, it isn't so bad after all.

Pumpkins & Squash

Now I just might have time to pick some fresh grapes and passion fruit before it gets dark, grab a lemon to have with the fish and cut some parsley and spring onions for the side dishes.
Tomorrow (weather permitting) we are back to chopping firewood, trimming bamboo, pruning roses, mowing lawns (battery permitting) and maybe a bit of a read in the afternoon or a test drive in the Lazy Boy Chair!

Munted & Yomping … a Tusitala Reminiscence

Last year we all got used to hearing the word "Munted" which was used to describe what had happened in Christchurch after the earthquake. 30 years ago the most unusual word was "Yomping" which was a slang term used by British Royal Marines heading towards Port Stanley during the Falklands War in 1982. I was reading an article this week that brought back a mixture of sad and happy memories of incidents that occurred during my work with the Royal New Zealand Navy around this time. As I was a Drum Sergeant in a Regimental Pipe Band it was natural that I should have a special affinity with NCOs in the Navy and during a 25 year association I had experienced many special moments, especially with the Senior Rates Mess at HMNZS Philomel where most of my friends were stationed when they weren't at sea. I had a weekly visit to the Fleet Mess as well as other visits to all the Ships that were in port and including the Officers Wardroom and the Junior Rates Mess both at HMNZS Philomel and HMNZS Tamaki. In fact my claim to fame with the company was the fact that I was the only employee who had successfully secured business from every Military establishment in the Auckland area, this included Navy, Army and Air Force. But I digress.

HMS Sheffield

In May 1982 I was visiting the Senior Rates Mess at Philomel around lunchtime, when an announcement came over the Base Tannoy, "HMS Sheffield has been sunk!" There was instant silence in the Mess and not one person spoke for a moment as the news sank in. (no pun intended) The Sheffield had been hit earlier in the week by an Exocet missile fired by the Argentinean Air Force during the Falklands War and had sustained a lot of damage and casualties even though the missile apparently didn't actually explode. It was an awful moment and I could see the look of despair on the men who were in the Mess that day. I guess many of the men were imagining themselves being on board during this dangerous period and were thinking of their Royal Navy comrades and the 20 dead on board the ship. It was a very sombre afternoon and I can remember everyone asking one another "Did you hear about the Sheffield?" The ship was actually being towed from the Falklands after being abandoned, but she started taking on too much water and had to be sunk. There were other terrible moments of devastation to other ships in this war, but the Sheffield sinking was one of the most dramatic. I hope to be on holiday in Queensland on the 4th of May 2012, but I will be thinking of this Anniversary with some sadness.

HMS Invincible.

Following the end of the Falklands War a Squadron of Royal Navy ships visited New Zealand and I had the pleasure of being invited onboard the HMS Invincible, which was an aircraft carrier. As I climbed the gangway I marveled at the size of the ship, which seemed more compact than HMAS Melbourne, which I had visited previously. I was ushered into the Warrant Officers Mess, which was a huge area that looked like one of our Queen Street pubs, with a fully stocked bar and all the other accoutrements that go with a pub. They served a special brew of Courage beer on tap, whereas the other ships in the fleet had cans of Courage to complement their draught beer which was served in huge pint glasses. The beer was extra strength and mostly served warm, in fact I imagined I was drinking soup at one stage (No, I hadn't over indulged). It certainly was a fabulous experience and I was disappointed to read that the Invincible had been scrapped shortly after a very expensive refit, supposed to extend the ships life by 10 years. The Royal Navy do not now have any aircraft carriers that can handle jets and I believe some RAF pilots are being taught French, so that they can use French carriers if they need to! The Government have ordered two new carriers, but they won't be ready until 2020, so I hope the Falklands situation doesn't get any worse than it is. Nelson would turn in his grave and many commentators suggest the UK government is out of touch with it's military, because none of the Senior politicians have ever served in the military.

The Three "Sheet Houses"

When the Royal Navy ships came to Auckland, my mate John and Friend "Biggy" and I were invited to participate in a "Sods Opera" in the Mess, whereby small groups from different ships, put on a show, on stage in the Mess. Our wives were invited to attend, so we thought that the content would not be too rough and three of us put together a little stage routine albeit with little practice. We had to dress ourselves in something that would be found on board a ship and any songs had to be in English. Talk about hilarious! We made cardboard hats that looked like house roofs and draped our bodies with bed-sheets. We hung signs around our necks that said "I am a Sheet House" and underneath we wore kilts and t shirts. Our dance routine included the singing of the Fred Dagg version of We Three Kings ….
"We Three kings of Orient are,
One on a scooter,
Two in a car and One on a scooter,
Tooting his hooter, following yonder star.


Oh, oh Star of wonder
Star of light
Star of bewdy, she'll be right
Star of glory, that's the story
Following yonder star . .. "

We 3 Kings of Orient Are

What a Hoot! Some of the British sailors were very good and had obviously had plenty of practice and one CPO recited 34 verses of a very bawdy song that had everyone in stitches, but I think the navy rum might have started to alter the content of the singing, so John and I took our ladies home at that stage!

Just before the ships left Auckland I was invited onboard one of the Frigates (can't remember the name) and managed to secure a small order of New Zealand wine for the Officers Wardroom but as they were accompanied by an RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) they had enough supplies of other wines and spirits to get back to England, so they didn't require any more duty free goods. This of course meant a visit to the Chief Stewards Mess for a "complimentary" Courage draught. I couldn't help notice how rough everything looked compared to our ships messes, but then these men had been in a war zone and I guess housekeeping was a low priority. The other thing that I noticed was the huge variety of dialects, just in one mess, from Geordies, to Cockneys, to Men of Kent and even Kentish Men (I learned the difference on that visit) and a few Londoners as well

HMS Sheffield- Hit by Exocet

I guess there won't be many Kiwis this April 2012 thinking about Yomping, Goose Green, San Carlos waters, Port Stanley, The Malvinas, The Belgrano , HMS Ardent, Antelope & Coventry (all sunk) MV Atlantic Conveyor, RFA Sir Tristram, RFA Sir Galahad (attacked and badly damaged ... Simon Weston of the Welsh Guards was badly burnt on Sir Galahad and became famous in later years for his fundraising efforts) Colonel H Jones VC, who led the famous charge of 2 Para Regiment at Goose Green and was killed there. It all seems so long ago.

This was only one of many "happenings" that I enjoyed with my Navy friends and it sure made my working life "different" to many of my associates and I look back with nostalgia and delight that I was fortunate enough to have been there when it happened! Wouldn't have missed it for quids!

How a Feeding Frenzy became a Traffic Nightmare

Kingsgate Parnell

Last week we had to visit Auckland on a business trip and decided to stay overnight as there was a very good special at one of our Kingsgate Hotels. (You know the ones that have $99 accommodation with free full buffet breakfast and sometimes a free evening meal as well.) I love the breakfast option and we call it my "trip away feeding frenzy" because you can visit the buffet as many times as you like. On offer are fruit juice, bacon, breakfast sausages, baked beans, eggs (scrambled or poached) tomatoes, mushrooms and in Southland they usually have hash browns. A range of bread for toasting on their fascinating "rolling toaster thingy" or fresh rolls. The coffee is very good too. We booked in to their "Jimmy Cooks" restaurant and had a nice dinner at a very reasonable rate. Their seafood chowder entrée was delicious and the rare steak was very edible. Lyn had prawns, but they can be very messy to eat. We had booked the hotel in Parnell rather than stay with relatives as we didn't want to intrude on their working week and I had other plans for an early start, mainly in the Parnell area.

Feeding frenzy!

After arriving in Auckland after a quiet trip down Highway 16, we went straight to Penrose for morning tea followed by a very demanding 3 1/2 hour session with our printer salesman Praveen. We were able to see the new model printers in action and printed off samples of our own editions in the new format and in full colour! Most impressive and we will now have to make a command decision on which one to purchase.

Praveen very graciously offered to treat us to lunch we decided to accept his offer to dine at an Indian restaurant. This was quite a memorable experience as Lyn and I don't eat out very often, certainly not featuring Indian cuisine. Our host suggested we choose a variety of dishes from the Menu and gave us a rundown on what he thought we might enjoy, bearing in mind that some Indian dishes were quite hot for our Kiwi taste buds. Lyn chose a milder chicken curry, I chose a Tikka Masala (med hot) and Praveen chose a Vindaloo Chicken dish, Naan bread was ordered for our table. Lyn struggled with the so called "mild" version, but I enjoyed the Tikka Massala even though it was quite hot, but we both were gasping after sampling his Vindaloo chicken! Even Praveen was sweating half way through the meal and we decided to call it quits without trying the mango dessert on offer. After farewelling Praveen we drove to Manurewa to visit my Aunt Ngaire leaving her around 4pm. At this stage trip turned into a veritable Traffic nightmare!

Auckland has become notorious for it's traffic problems and although I was born and raised in Auckland, I have lived in Waipu for 21 years. I was delighted to leave the daily terror trip by car behind and I now get agitated if there are more than 10 cars in a queue in Whangarei. The monster that is Auckland traffic, especially in the rain, is something else. We had planned to leave Manurewa via the back roads so that we could drive along the Eastern Tamaki drive approach to the city and not have to go anywhere near the Southern Motorway. Admittedly the Auckland car map was old and there have been many changes to streets in the area, but trying to follow the signage at the numerous intersections was not only difficult for the Navigator, but impossible for the driver and somehow we found ourselves in a stagnant queue, heading to the Motorway ramp. Impossible to turn left or right we just had to crawl along this so-called highway until I quickly manouvered into an exit lane at Penrose. We then tried to get back to the Eastern route via back streets, but these were so clogged with traffic it became a nightmare of driving. Steady rain, gloomy overcast skies and intersections with no traffic lights didn't help our journey. At intersections we just had to rely on the generosity of other drivers to let us into their queue heading in an Easterly direction. We never made Tamaki Drive as I remembered a short cut through Remuera that took us directly to Parnell. We were very glad to reach the sanctuary of the hotel!

Terrace Stairs challenge

Although it was raining quite heavily in the morning we finished our "feeding frenzy breakfast" and headed for the first call at my old Primary Parnell school. I had intended visiting the Office to see if there were any indications of a celebration in 2013 for the schools 170th anniversary as I had been maintaining a database of ex pupils who were keen to attend. When I got to where the office used to be I realised that wandering around in the rain was getting me nowhere as I couldn't find the Office. It had disappeared along with other building frontages and there were contractors fences erected to keep visitors out. No directions to the office could be seen so we got back in the car and went to my next port of call. (There is a full outline of the Parnell School upgrade on their website and a virtual tour http://www.parnell.school.nz/virtual-tour.html or http://www.parnell.school.nz/plans.html 

Pedestrian Underpass

As a child I lived in Falcon Street, Parnell and the Auckland Domain was our playground where my brothers and sister spent many hours. There is a small terrace running down from Gibralter Crescent that gave us access to our favourite haunts and I had read that this area was to be developed as a possible railway station for Parnell I wanted to visit this area before it was altered forever. Lyn and I had to negotiate a very steep set of stairs and a very steep tar pathway covered in acorns, which reminded me of a skateboard/ball bearing alley. My arthritic knees were put to the test, but we finally reached the railway crossing which has recently been upgraded with a tunnel and a carpeted metal stairway. It was extremely satisfying to see the number of trains that passed while we were there and as we come from a railway family, I was delighted to see the progress made with suburban rail traffic.

Carpeted stairs Domain

The old Diesel maintenance sheds were still standing and the various outbuildings were full of Mainline Steam Inc. Railway engines and rolling stock. I pointed out to Lyn where our childhood paths and haunts were located and where we had erected fabulous rope swings, (using my sister Carna as the volunteer guinea pig to see if they worked,) but steady rain forced us to negotiate the steep terrace and get back to the car. We drove to Tamaki Drive for a cup of tea, before heading out West and then home to Waipu. As we drove past the crowd of striking waterfront workers on Tamaki Drive I couldn't believe the number of single trucks leaving the wharf each laden with a container heading for the inland port at Wiri. As they slowly headed out to the Southern Motorway I wondered how easy it would be to rail these containers to Wiri and save some of the traffic hassles or even transfer some of the shipping to our deep water port at Marsden Point and relieve even more heavy traffic in Auckland, but that's another story.

I would absolutely hate having to live in any city now and I am reminded of a quote that was my mantra when I first left Auckland. INTENTIONAL POVERTY ON A HOMESTEAD IS VASTLY DIFFERENT FROM UNAVOIDABLE POVERTY IN THE CITY!

A Weather Bomb to Remember

OOPS! The driveway is blocked

 Last weekend saw the official end of Summer, the definite arrival of Autumn and for most of New Zealand the arrival out of the Tasman Sea of a so called weather Bomb. We were fortunate in Northland that we only had minor damage compared to the middle districts, but the wind was very strong here and the rain that did fall, came down in heavy sheets of water that made everyone duck for cover. Lyn and I were invited to a local 60th birthday party and we had to drive through the branches of a large liquid amber that had fallen across the drive. Fortunately it was caught up in the willows opposite and high enough for us to pass. Not so when we returned as the wind had blown it down onto the driveway, so I had to park the car and walk to the house. We spent some time this morning clearing the debris. Funnily enough the Sunflowers weathered the storm quite nicely and not one single stem was broken.

A Summer Bounty

Although Summer has finished (and it was a dreary Summer too) we are still enjoying the bounteous crop of fresh vegetables from our garden. Herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, corn (yum!)

Beetroot, courgettes, peas, beans, grapes etc. The damp Summer weather was beneficial for the beans in particular and all the freezers are overflowing with frozen bags. The very windy weather was very strong on Wednesday and one bean rack snapped, so I guess that crop won't progress any further. Tomatoes have been processed into soup stock, pizza base, sauce and ice blocks , so we should get through until next season ok and the onions, garlic and shallots are tied up to the shed rafters. Later this week we hope to pick our Pumpkins, Agria potatoes and butternut squash. We have had some baked squash this week and I am pleased to report it is nice and dry, with plenty of flavour. Just a knob of butter and fresh ground pepper is all that is required and the meal was complete!

We are freezing large quantities of passion fruit pulp and we now have three large freezers full of produce, meat (managed to get some bulk lamb) and bottles and freeflow packs of all sorts of fruit. Peaches and pears are also ready although the codlin moth has been very bad this year. I have set pheremone taps nice and early in the hope I can stop them Wintering over. Our grape vines are about 25 years old and this year have produced a huge crop and in fact the birds haven't made too much of an impression yet either. I spotted another bunch of bananas forming and I need to get them in a blue bag pronto.

A sunny sunflower & bee

Firewood will loom large on the "To Do List" this week and the chainsaw will get plenty of use in the coming weeks as the shed is quite empty. Makes me feel tired just thinking about it!

Going up in Smoke

News reports this week in the daily paper http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10787873 suggest that the best way to give up smoking is to go "Cold Turkey" instead of trying all those nicotine patches, gum and hypnotism. An article about a Fireman who gave up a year ago was very interesting and I was able to relate to his experiences when I gave up smoking 27 odd years ago. (27 years,4 days 3 hours and 25 seconds…. Nah, just kidding, it was the best health choice I had ever made till that time)

Lighter Collection

The Catalyst for me was the impending arrival of our "Miracle baby" Heather and the continual insistence by my older daughter Kelly, that I should give up smoking so that I wouldn't pollute the house and anyway it would be better for my health and the rest of the family. My elderly, bearded pipe smoking Doctor (who was a REAL character) made it clear that I should stop smoking and he said that for every cigarette I didn't smoke, I would gain 2 more minutes of life! I suddenly realized  what a wonderful opportunity I had to improve my personal standing in the world, so I decided to give up.

At the time I was a Branch Sales Representative for a major NZ Wines and Spirits company and I had built up a wide range of personal clients over a 25 year period including Army, Navy, Police and every Navy base and ship in the Auckland region. This included ships stores for visiting Navies, Returned Services Clubs and other liquor outlets. I was able to purchase cigarettes at duty free prices and therefore access to cheap cigarettes and cigars was no problem. I also owned an extensive range of Zippo & Ronson lighters, many fancy ash trays and other smoking accoutrements and until then smoking had always been accepted in our society as a leisure activity. I loved American cigarettes with their toasted flavour, but absolutely hated the French "Galois" and I was particular about what loose tobacco I bought. I was introduced to "chawing baccy" by a US Navy Chief Petty Officer from Texas, but the idea of spitting out the chewed bits (just like John Wayne as a cowboy) didn't really appeal, but I did enjoy the odd cigarillo.

Grants Whisky Lighter

One night I decided to stop smoking completely instead of trying to wean myself off over time and I put the half smoked pack into a kitchen cupboard. I thought that if I knew the cigarettes were there, I wouldn't consciously start looking or wondering where they might be, thereby triggering a desire to have a smoke and this seemed to work. I also decided not to eat sweets as they would only hasten tooth decay and I tried not to talk about giving up to friends and neighbors. The first couple of weeks were quite demanding, but with heaps of encouragement from the family, combined with a determination that I would succeed, I found that I coped very well. Another incentive was the monetary saving and I decided to treat myself to the odd fancy food item such as camembert and brie which were deemed to be luxury items in our household. After a month or so I realized I was regaining a superior sense of smell and my throat seemed clearer and I wasn't coughing as much. Taste was another plus and I enjoyed the taste of fruit and vegetables once again, while bacon and coffee smells were fantastic. I can vividly remember the time I smelt a steak cooking in a restaurant, that was at least 50 metres away! I did gain a little weight, but this wasn't a lasting problem back then and I soon returned to my normal weight. I became aware that people who do smoke smell awful when close by, their clothing smells and stale cigarette smoke is not a pleasant experience.

An old Navy Favourite

It took about five years or so to change smoking habits and I still patted my pockets when entering any club to check if I had cigarettes and lighter!. In my opinion smoking is a drug, but it is mainly a habit and cold turkey is the best way of stopping permanently. You also have to have a desire to quit and an extra two seconds of life for every cigarette not smoked is surely incentive enough! Fortunately none of my Children or Grandchildren smoke and I am grateful for that. My Father In Law was a smoker and although he quit some years ago, he died 12 months ago of Emphysema and I wouldn't wish that on any family as it is a painful way to end your life.

All children should be taught at an early age the mantra "If you don't smoke, Don't start!"