Dijya miss me?

[cirianz]

Hiya everyone,
Just an "I'm still alive" post really. I haven't been able to get on the computer much/at all, for the last week or so (it's been so chaotic that I don't even know how long )
I'm afraid that most of the blame belongs to Pringle the gossling who is now as big as a duck & as demanding as a newborn baby with colic (he seems to need more attention as he gets older, not less). On top of which we are currently building a bridge over the path to the back paddock, the one that got partially washed away in the floods early this year, as it seems impolite to break wedding guests when they come on the big day The bridge is currently well over budget & we have been having the exciting experience of having parts of the path slipping away out from under us (literally... we had to remove the piece of timber along the edge... the one that was the only thing holding the path together...) as we dug the post holes. this involved, digging through wet clay until we hit an underground stream. digging one hole through ground that was so soft that it wouln't support a toothpick & ended up being ridiculously (&expensively) deep before the ground was solid enough to concrete the pole in. one hole that involved breaking through solid rock (John was digging that one... thank God!) & one hole where, part way down I hit a hole off to the side & a bunch of old bones fell out... which creeped me out no end (I watch too much CSI) even though it was just someone's old garbage site. & then further down I struck a drainage pipe All in all we ended having to buy an extra 5 bags of cement to plant those poles But they are planted now at least. Now all we have to do is build the bridge

All in all it has been a... busy couple of weeks. & then yesturday a plank fell off the side of the house... revealing a whole bunch of rot & a ton of weatherboards that will need replacing

But on the exciting front, yesturday we did have an unusual visitor... a f*ckn great big iceberg (100mx300m apparently) Just floated by just 43K off the coats of Dunedin!!!
Given that the pacific ocean is considered a relatively warm ocean & not really prone to icebergs up this way this was quite an event. Unfortunately, due to low cloud in the evening, we weren't able to see it. But it was quite visible to plenty of ooglers earlier in the day. Bummed out that I didn't get to see it but still... who says that global warming is a myth...

Gotta go... goose is calling
catchya later

 

[floppybootstomp]

Never a dull moment eh?

I was just waiting for the part where you fell down a post hole and needed 6 stitches to your scalp but it didn't happen

Lady luck must be smiling upon you

Key words: Goose; Bridge; Cement; Rot; Posts and Ice.

Ok class, homework for tonight is to write an essay around those six words

 

[Ian]

Glad you're ok Ciri, was just thinking about how you were doing the other day!

I can't imagine anything as exciting as an iceberg floating past here

Most exciting thing this week was some rain!

 

[phicksus]

I was just waiting for the part where you fell down a post hole and needed 6 stitches to your scalp but it didn't happen

You weren't alone in that.

Would be really cool to see an Iceberg but don't think I'll see one floating by the house anytime soon though.

 

[cirianz]

Never a dull moment eh?

I was just waiting for the part where you fell down a post hole and needed 6 stitches to your scalp but it didn't happen

Lady luck must be smiling upon you

Key words: Goose; Bridge; Cement; Rot; Posts and Ice.

Ok class, homework for tonight is to write an essay around those six words

Not that I'm accident prone or anything Well, I didn't fall in, but the goose nearly did once It wasn't impressed & flicked it's tail at the hole quite severely! But later it seemed quite determined to walk through the wet concrete. I ended up having to carry it everywhere until the concrete had set (it was 15min quickset so it was only about half an hour )

Yes Ian & Patty, having an iceberg around here happens with about the same frequency as... IRD declaring a taxfree year & icecreams for everyone for being such good little taxpayers
So when one floated past the bottom of the country a week ago it was big news. But now a second one all the way up here!
John got to see it this morning on his way back to work from a dentist appt. But he didn't have his binoculars with him so it wasn't much more than a dot on the horizon. Apparently it's moving at about 5k's an hour and so won't likely still be in view by the time John's home from work.
Tomo isn't particularly impressed, she says "Why'd you all want to go & look at a giant iceblock anyway"
She's got a point really, but I'd still love to see it. After all, how many icebergs am I likely to get the chance to see.
There's already local helicopter & small plane companies/individuals busy flying tourists out (I hate to think how much $ for!) for a quick walk on the thing. The wonders of local enterprise!

Well, time for me to go & feed the goose again (this involves filling it's water & food bowls, & then standing around in the rain for about an hour while it wanders around eating grass.) It's quite good now... it only needs feeding about 5 times a day at the moment

Oh, by the way... big news... Pringle now has some baby feathers on his back & his voice is starting to break! Last night he got quite distressed when John dropped a jar of nails & kept trying to go help him (not a good idea obviously with all that glass everywhere) & his distress cries occasionally 'broke' into 'almost honks' ( )
He's now easily as big as a duck & yet the cats still keep measuring him for a roasting dish so can't be out without someone around to supervise so I'd better go before he starves to death, a constant danger apparently

 

[itsme]

E----- S------S

Goose; Bridge; Cement; Rot; Posts and Ice.

A -------------Y.

 

[itsme]

Dijya miss me?

Of course we did girl!

 

[Adywebb]

Yep, I've missed ya too

...hows the dress coming on?

 

[Abarbarian]

Was worried that youd been carried of by some orcs .

 

[V_R]

Its been too quiet without you Ciri!

 

[cirianz]

Yep, I've missed ya too

...hows the dress coming on?

Is so cool She's sent me out some fabric samples & I've chosen the outside lace. There was two choices, one was modern & the other quite antique looking so I chose the antique one
& we've scheduled the first week of January for the actual making of the dress

Asides from that the wedding plans are pretty chaotic. The celebrant we had lined up was really rude to John last time we were there. It was really wierd But I think we'll be looking for a new celebrant.
But most of the wedding plans at the moment are revolving around this construction work
When we've finished the bridge we'll have to start on the path which is cracked & falling to pieces with gaps so big we might lose some guests if we're not careful
We had hoped to go to Rarotonga for our honeymoon but money's just too tight so at the moment we're planning a camping trip around the country with some money put aside for some 'activities' & the occasional spiff hotel. In the end all that matters is that we'll be together (well, cliches wouldn't be cliches if they weren't true sometimes would they )

V_R, Abarbarian, Ady, itsme, everyone. Thanks
missing you guys

(Flops & mucks. I've been thinking about you guys & loving you )

 

[Taffycat]

It's great to see you posting again Ciri, glad you were AWOL due to being busy rather than unwell Sounds as if you have a pretty big project going on, there, hope it all goes smoothly for you now, following your adventures with the post-holes (which conjoured some wonderful mind-pictures, much better than TV!!)

Pringle sounds as if he is doing really well, he must be growing into quite a character, you have done awfully well to rear him, and he obviously considers himself to be one of the family now. I expect when he's bigger, he will be showing the cats who's boss; hopefully they will realize that it's not a good idea to get within goosing distance glad to hear they've not managed to turn him into dinner.

Wow! Icebergs! Suddenly life seems very uneventful around here Nice to see you back

 

[cirianz]

Hiya everyone, just a quickie hello to let you know I haven't forgotten you guys
The gossling is still growing at a tremendos rate (you could now make 2 ducks out of him & have a good part of a third left over! & is still eating like a horse!
At least he is now too big for the cats to try for (as long as we're out there to give them a quick glare anyway. Some of our cats are very ambitious)
But even more than eating at the moment he is needing socialising & that means pretty much constant attention & he gets very distressed if at least one of us isn't within sight.
This is very well timed As the ERO (education review office) has informed us that we are to be reviewed on the 12th of december to see if we can continue to keep our homeschool licence so a bit of time to get all our school stuff rather more organised would come in very handy right now
And all this on top of trying to build this... delightful... bridge
& interview a succession of marrige celebrants (quite like the last one... he used to be a truckdriver )
Well, guess I cant say I have a boring life
Better get back to it, Pringle hasn't had his brekkie yet & is in danger of starving to death

 

[Ian]

What sort of stuff do you feed him now? I'm amazed at how much they must eat!

 

[cirianz]

Hi Ian

He has a mixture of ground up dog biscuit, ground 'wild bird seed' & ground (roughly) poultry laying pellets as his food for when he is inside his run. But his main food is grass. Geese are grazers so need to eat pretty constantly (pretty much like sheep & goats do) interspersed with periods of lying down digesting (& sunbathing). These are also the times he generally wants the most attention. Most of the rest of the time he is content so long as he can see one of us. He also likes to follow us around 'observing' intently & at close quaters whatever it is that we may be doing. This is 'occasionally' inconvienient when we're trying to build bridges & engage in general carpentry & building type activities. I reckon he'll be going in his run when we are going to re-concrete the front path in a few weeks time though. I can just imagine him with a pair of goose-foot concrete gumboots Reckon we'll have to keep him up the back paddock untill the concrete dries. No matter what we did he would somehow manage to find it.

 

[Abarbarian]

Geese make excellent if possesive guard animals . They are strong enough to break an arm or even a leg and have a very nasy bite .

 

[cirianz]

Yes I'd heard they were good gaurd animals although I had no idea they could be quite so strong

I am worried about what to do when John & I go away on our honeymoon in february. He'll only be about 5 months old & in geese terms should still be under the care of his parents until he's at least 1yo so technically he will still be a 'child'
We will be gone 2-3 weeks & the girl nextdoor will be coming over to feed him, but she can't give him the family/flock social contact. He will certainly pine/grieve & I'm afraid that he might not be here when we return, but I don't know what else we can do

 

[Abarbarian]

Buy her a suit of armour and make sure her medical insurance is paid up to date

 

[Taffycat]

I am worried about what to do when John & I go away on our honeymoon in february. He'll only be about 5 months old & in geese terms should still be under the care of his parents until he's at least 1yo so technically he will still be a 'child'
We will be gone 2-3 weeks & the girl nextdoor will be coming over to feed him, but she can't give him the family/flock social contact. He will certainly pine/grieve & I'm afraid that he might not be here when we return, but I don't know what else we can do

Just a suggestion Ciri, but would it be any good to contact one of those "House Sitting" services? Not everyone likes the idea of having a stranger living in their home whilst they're away, of course, but might be worth exploring the animal-minding aspect maybe? It's always a worry having to leave pets, so I can understand how you must be feeling about Pringle - we have cats and haven't had a holiday for about 27 years, we tried boarding them at catteries, of course, but hated leaving them, so just call us a pair of softies!!

I found these on Google a moment ago, just in case you want a quick look

http://www.happyhousesitters.co.nz/

http://www.homesit.co.nz/

http://www.housesitters.co.nz/

 

[AbsoluteKevster]

Hiya Cirianz!
Glad Pringle is coming along nicely.... handy having large geese around at this time of year! he he he

All the best
Kev