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Welcome arrivalsPosted on Wednesday 11 March 2009 at 06:55 - Post CommentWe've had plenty of visitors in the two years plus of our moving here, but for me the bet yet arrived a couple of weeks ago. My best mate J - who was also my best man - took his first ever flight to come to NZ. Not a guy to do things by halves! To keep him out of trouble on the journey, he brought along his latest squeeze Heather.
Not to be one to let an opportunity of free labour go to waste, T and I rapidly put J to work earning his keep. Our new house has a log burner, but we have no logs to burn. A quick search of TradeMe (the nz equivalent of ebay) and T had found a guy selling pre-felled trees 'buy 20, get 20 free'. All for the miserly price of $125. Figuring that the cash we'd save by collecting, cutting and trailering away our own wood would b considerable, T swung the demon plan into action. First off we purchased not 40, but 80 trees - sight unseen. I think this is where we made our first error! As yet undaunted we hired a trailer, a chainsaw and arranged to borrow by bro in law's ute. So, 2 days after he arrives, we leave Heather to rest her jet-lagged head but get the ginger one (for he has that unfortunate afliction) out of his pit and into the ute. 45 minutes later we arrive at the site to meet the guy selling the wood. He shows us where it is, and I nearly have a heart attack. The trees are 12 year old pines, some big some small, but 40 of them look like a shit load. The other 40 just make me realise that we don't have the strength, manpower or time to sort do the whole lot. We bail on the additional 40 and just pay for the first 40. Still, never one to admit defeat, J, T and I get stuck in and after a good hour realise we have sort of made a dent after a lot of hard graft. 1 return trip, and 10 hours later we are all back at home - in one piece, but only just. Suffice to say, chopping up and shifting 40 trees was job enough. We would never have managed 80! The end result is a massive stack of logs at the end of the garden, in the process of air drying. We were led to believe that if chopped, split and stacked it will be dry by winter, but there really ain't a hope.
So, we'll be buying a whole load of pre-dried, pre-split, and deliered to the door firewood shortly. I would do the same thing again, but only with dry wood, and definately with more manpower! This wet stuff is no good at all for straight-off burning unless you have the space to dry and store it and the tools to efficently cut and chop it. Still - it's all a learning curve, eh? And let's face it - I sure do need the excercise! Unfortunatley it seems we broke J, but maybe time and som Heatherly TLC will fix him. To reward them for good behaviour this past week, we took Heather and J up to Kaikoura for the weekend. Despite it's recent fickle nature, the weather was meant to be good on Sat, and so we figured it was worth the risk. It only turned out to be the best weather we have ever had! 2 whole days of solid wall to wall sunshine, with barely a breath of wind. Of course I took J snorkelling, and the conditions were the best I have seen them. I managed a total of 4 trips, and the first one of both Sat & Sun were simply superb. The visibility was 8 metres+, and the sun beaming through the water. On the first one J and I had a great time, and we shot a lovely big butterfish. The second time I went on my own to a great cray spot close to the tunnels, and pulled in 2 great crays as well as another couple of butter fish. On Sunday we went to a spot a couple of guys had told us about and the vis was that good, and the fish that plentiful,that J said 'it's like swimming in a bloody great fish tank!'. The hunters!
Best of the bunch!
We left them on Sunday morning as they started their tour of the South Island - next stop Hanmer Springs! T and I headed home, as we still had loads to do. On the way we stopped of to see our friends who had recently had a beautiful baby boy. Unfortunately he has been very ill, and has a very rare genetic disprder. He is so beautiful, and so physically perfect, that it is hard to believe that he is fighting for life every single day. T and I both had a hold, and loved our visit, Once back home we unloaded, packed up and got ready for the week ahead. I was knackered after a pretty full-on couple of days. This week has been a good one so far, as T has had a few days of supply, as well as getting some interest in her business. The veggie garden has really come on song these past couple of weeks, with spuds, beans, corgettes, carrots and spring onions a-plenty. It's been SO good picking our own veg just before we need it - the veggie patch is definately here to stay.
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