Kiwi Xmas MKIII

Yikes! Its been a while on the posting. Have lots to catch up on with all that went down during the holiday season....which goes on from, um, mid-December to basically February. This time around I tried to approach the holidays with a more Kiwi attitude..just kind of wind it down. Also this year we weren't frantically searching for a new place to live while navigating the RIDICULOUS Auckland housing market.

Pohutukawa. Kiwi Xmas tree! Gorgeous red blooms in december. It pretty much lets all manner of Kiwi know that summer is here. That song "Girl in Stilettos" call this national tree out in the first verse.

Stewart family xmas tree. All Xmas protocol was followed again this year. Which means NO pressies on xmas eve!

May man has gotten big and strong. This year he got it about xmas just a little bit more. I was tasked with stocking stuffing, just like my Dad used to do for us. Li'l Beau is still a bit young to appreciate it.... but next year....

Notice the scrape on his upper-left forehead. He got that by riding his trike off the porch at day-care. Got a lot of looks from concerned do-gooders at the supermarket...."what?! He's a boy. We live on a farm....it'll happen".

Ahhhh. Wheelbarrow from auntie Robin. I had to step aside while Beau put her together. 

 Serious tractor action from paw-paw and nana. He needs some practice yet with the pedals...so give it about 2 weeks. This thing took a degree in "What are Germans Thinking?!" to assemble. (Designed in Germany)

Train em.

This year we were lucky enough to be invited down south to our friends Beccs (Rebecca) and Ryan's place south of Hamilton. They have an incredible lifestyle block with an enviable veggie garden. Plus a handsome young fellow named Maverick!

The boys.

Mavs was nice enough to share his ride-ons with our boy. These guys are only 6 months apart in age.

Right. High likelihood of cerfew breakers here. Awesome.

And no, ladies....we didn't forget about your needs on this one....

Hop on...

"She thinks my Tractors' Sexy!"

Beau is growing like a weed. We have started recording on our back porch door frame.

 32 1/8" and 29 pounds. 

And..uh...32" is "STUD" height. Obviously.

Mommy and Daddy got to have a bit of fun as well. We went to Waiheke island for 1 night and spent 2 days doing what mommy and daddy like to do. First night both of us away from Beau....and I'm not going to lie...that was a little bit unsettling. But it was also awesome!

Not a flattering pic of Dad. On day 2 of Waiheke. 

You are damn right we brought El Jeep-o!

3 beauties in this one.

Not very professional looking today...

The view from Man O' War Vineyard cellar door. Jeep right where I can keep my on it. Many a kiwi stopped and admired it. MOW is the farthest east of all the vineyards, and a must see. 

Time to head home.....can't wait to get arms around our little man. 

Happy Holidays!

Packages of Love ... Love of Packages ... from the States

We are so very lucky to have families in the good ol' US of A who send us packages every now and then full of presents for Beau and little things from the States that we can't always find in Kiwiland...  We got back to back packages this week from Georgia and Florida!

dadddddyyyy... when can we open it???

finally!

mmmmmmmm.... thanks mom!

will you share?  probably not!

new bigger boy sippy cups!

new summer duds!

Ella feeling the love too!

angry birds frisbee (not angry chooks) and halloween tug-o-war!

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of the nice jerky mom & dad sent to Lee...it went in his tummy immediately :)

oh boy!  oberto!

My mom always remembers how much I love licorice... black jelly beans at Easter ... this has to be the most traveled licorice in the world :)

from australia to fayetteville, ga to new zealand to my tummy!

Thank you so much for all the little thoughtful things in the packages... cards... pictures.... deodorant..... we love them all!!!

Stewart Little(er)

Baby (and parents) Survives 1 Year!

Life on the farm rolls on by. My main man turned 1 on June 29. Head full of teeth, head full of ideas on where he wants to WALK everywhere! Beau picked up on the walking game at about 9 months, 1 week. The practice has not let up and it has been a lot of fun. These days when I get up to go to work in the morning the first order of business is to launch a full investigation into where my keys, deodorant, and wallet have "toddled" off to. Usual suspects are under the couch, in the dishwasher, and in any one of the kitchen drawers. As soon as I close that case, its off to work where I am on "vacation" according to Kim. 

Now 2 subjects are to be covered today:

1) Beau's Birthday!

2) Chook-House remodel

I can tell you that Beau was way more interested in #2 than the party thrown in his honor which he won't remember...but it was a good experience. 

Party Time! Not too hard though.......we all know that this...

Easy there Dubya! College is a long way off!

Leads to this!

Life of crime...so young...

We invited a few friends over for the event and decided that doing anything too fancy for food would be ridiculous for a one year old person's birthday. Plus it was my department's yearly dinner the night before (I gloss over this detail), so we presented "little boys" and "sausage rolls". Kiwi staples.

These are little boys. Typically served with ketchup. I will send $10 NZD to the first person that comments on this blog with the reason why these are called what they are...

B-Day eats. Steaming-hot lil-boys.

Our house is currently a disaster-area of baby books, toys, and kitchen items which are deemed not dangerous for baby. So the last thing we wanted was MORE TOYS. But a few exceptions were made as there are really good deals for cheap toys on grabone.co.nz. Kim ordered a few well in advance of B-day and we wrapped them up for lil Beau to tear into on his day.  Our family sent cards and gifts from the states which were much appreciated by the li'l guy.

My man needed to be shown exactly what we wanted him to do..and he nailed it. 

Daddy gets to have some fun too!

Beau's friend, Zara, helped out too. He is distracted by blondes easily....I'm sure he will grow out of it. 

Kim attempted a chocolate fondant cake, which ended up as a chocolate sauce sandwich that we let Beau get stuck into as the climax of the birthday events. It was messy and drove me nuts...but was pretty cute.

Makes daddy crazy.
Beautiful day in Coatesville though.

Meanwhile, one of the more ambitious DIY projects we decided to take on at the farm was replacing our inherited chicken coop with something that is easier to clean and more aesthetically pleasing. We started by tearing out the half-baked solution which was basically just chicken wire wrapped around the telephone pole structure that supports our kiwi and grape vine deal in the back yard.

Early on. Mommy getting ready to get dirty, and Beau with the beginning of his love affair with the chook feeder. 

We wanted to do a concrete pad in place of the bare ground which just accumulates chicken feces and lord knows what else. It stinks, and concrete should be easier to clean. I have never really worked with anything but quickcrete for replacing fence posts, etc. So this was a new challenge. Lets get ready...

Need a hug from baby and some new coveralls. Need a rental cement mixer.

Check.

Now lets get organized...as well as we can. I learned a lot about cement, and how you should use 2x4, rather then 2x6 for the size. I had to do this over 2 weekends because the pad was so thick.

Embarrassing. Had to partition it off half way through.....

Once the pad was done Kim and I sealed it, and had a guy up the road build the chook run. Had to paint it same color as the house..of course. The chook house is forthcoming.

We were hoping to have this project done in time for Beau's birthday...but with baby in house, time gets sponged up in a way that still seems new to us. Currently we have a new flock of 3 "rocks". These are Plymouth Barred Rock chickens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock_(chicken) ). Beautiful animals and they have just come into lay. I will try to make them the subject of the next blog. Beau has taken on the responsibility of:

1) Making sure their feeder is always in the chook house. And;
2) Chasing the poor animals every chance he gets. (more on this later).

Below is some footage of how attached he has become to handling their feeder. Kindness to animals is a priority at this farm and it is heartwarming to see him embrace it.

American Gothic

I can't stop playing that Aerosmith song "The Farm" in my head. Every time I leave work for our new home that thing comes on. 

Yeah we moved! Out of Titters and on to the rural lifestyle of Coatesville.

Coatesville is a little rural borough of Auckland which sits about 30km Northwest of the city center. Lots of equestrian type activity, schools that have "Ag Days" (I think this is where the kids have to raise a chicken, or something). Its lovely. This area was also made famous by the FBI/New Zealand raid of Mr. Kim Dotcom's multi-million dollar mansion. If you dont know who this character is, google him up! I think a lot of Kiwis fancy him a Robin Hood type.

Over the XMas holiday season Kim and I used a lot of the time off to house hunt. Our lease in Titirangi was comming to an end and we had to find new accommodation. If you don't know anything about the Auckland real estate market, then keep it that way. It is absolutely bananas.

Let me introduce you to the spot...

This is an aerial shot of the property. It is a long skinny guy that runs along O'Brien Rd which seperates Coatesville from Lucas Heights. I drew the border of the property in RED (like a 2nd grader) and have identified our 3 paddocks in green. Kim and I had always wanted a "lifestyle block" since visiting NZ and this is it. It is 1.66 acres...so not unmanageable. The house is a simple 3/1 bungalow built in 1955. Then there is a 3 car garage with an apartment above (can rent, or use for our visitors). The previous owners took fantastic care of the place. We are pretty much at the top of Albany hill, so the view out over the Coatesville valley is spectacular.


Lets get to it....

front entrance from parking pad

hard to see, but there is a sandbox and a little play area out in front of the house

yeah buddy. time for a cold one...

this is where Beau stays

shut the gate to keep the crims out, and the doggies in

in the grand yard there is a chook coop

Kiwis growing on the chook coop

i told Kim to get a picture like we were in a rap video. mission accomplished. 

But I have been remiss...Please! Allow me to introduce you to our new additions!

1) Chooks - Harriet and Henrietta (we arent sure which is which)
    we suspect the light cheeky oneis Henrietta :)

2) Ella....yeah you know her

3) Feta - the goat to the left of Kim

4) Mara - the sheep to the right of kim

a 6-shot. 

Feta

Mara

Looooonggg paddock. For some reason I LOVE big wood fences now. And brother, I got one. 

Other new addition.....

mower...its just a mower

Beau is getting to appreciate "Big Boys Toys"

Show of hands....beer? 

So the house is old, but it is really well set up. It has HRV,  2 heat pumps, 3 water tanks (one under the houes, 2 out by the garage, and plenty of storage.

2 water tanks....dont want to run out..

But we did have to make a few modifications to make the place liveable. 

#1....tired of the European sized refridgerators..so lets go!

1) demo the existing cabinets

little piddly fridge...

take it down

2) Make sure new man-sized fridge will fit....it does.

3) get bench top (counter top) modified.

BAM! Beer and baby food compete no more! 

A builder wanted to charge me 4300$ to do this job. Nah. With a little electrical help from our friends, got it all done for 350$ and learned how to demo cabinets, re-cut cabinets, move electrical outlets, plumb the water line for the fridge, and NOT pay some wanker 4 large to do the job that took us a day. (the most pricy bit was paying 260 for the stainless benchtop to be cut and folded to the new size.

Also had to upgrade the dishwasher to beloved Dish-Drawer. Again did it ourselves.

Thats the gist of it. And now my 2 favorite parts...

1) The yard.

2) The view out back

come visit!

this is where mommy and daddy relax after the day

panoramic

yeah mate. during the day

Ella in some deep introspection