February 2019

February has flashed by and not much has really happened up here in Wainui. We had some guests, the weather turned bad, then it got better, and now we've finally started on making a patio for our entryway. We did so much in January that this month I have largely failed in my goal to do more interesting things. But I have plenty of March plans so I think one quiet month is OK.

We have been making the most of nice weather. We've been to the pool to play on the hydroslide and been to the beach - not just to walk Cher but to go swimming. Cher doesn't much like it when we swim, she stays on the beach and barks at us. So we tempted her in with a tennis ball and then played piggy-in-the-middle to keep her in the water with us.

Then last weekend we spent the whole two days moving paving bricks. We bought them via trademe from a guy in Wellington city, and then we hired a trailer and went in to get them. We estimated the weight of the bricks and basically just filled the trailer. Then got a bit worried at how low the tyres were squished down so we went and put some air in them, and more oil in the car - it seemed to be completely empty. And then we carefully drove home, managing a high speed of about 30k over the Wainui hill. We called some friends to help unload, then went back to the city and did it all over again. When we got home the second time we weighed a brick and did some math - we reckon we were towing at least 2.5 times more weight than we should have been! We are very lucky we didn't ruin our car, or the trailer, or both. Cher seemed quite interested in the wall of pavers we built. By the time of my next post, we'll have pictures of the completed patio for you!

So after that weekend of hard manual labour, I could hardly move. But that eased up after a day. I felt very silly at work though because every time I sat down or stood up my muscles were so stiff and sore that an involuntary pathetic moan would come out.

A couple of days after that, I got a flat tyre. Luckily I had driven all the way to the bigger station that day in Petone, because I had shops to visit. When I realised that noise was coming from my car and must be a flat tyre, I was just around the corner from the tyre place. I could have stopped to change the tyre but I don't think I would have been very successful on my own ad it probably would have taken all night. So I drove to the tyre place but in doing so ruined the tyre. While checking it over they also looked at the other tyres and told me that they all need replaced within the next 6 months. So that was great. I got a new tyre to replace the one I ruined and before our next warrant, we'll get all the rest. Paying for the patio comes first, then new tyres. Yay. They lasted 2 years - the tyre guy was very impressed they lasted so long with going over Wainui hill every day. Apparently it's really that rough on your tyres.

March 2019

*Just went to publish this and found that February was never published - for the record, I did write it on time*

March has been a very busy month, which is why it has taken me so long to say anything about it. We started March by buying a whole heap of paving stones. We learnt some lessons about towing and luckily did not destroy our car or the trailer. We did have two back-breaking weekends though, first with moving the pavers to our place and then the next weekend, laying them. We definitely did the maths wrong because we have loads left over. We haven't finished yet though, we still need to hire a paver-cutter to do the edging. But first we are re-doing some of the centre because there's a bit of a noticeable hump. Only we have had guests and bad weather so finishing the job has been put off for the last few weekends. Actually last weekend was really unseasonable hot - too hot to work. So that is where we are at - we nearly have a patio. Summer is over and the weather has turned bad but still, we finally did something about it.

March has also been spent making preserves. Several weekends were spent making jam and relish. Our peach tree started dropping peaches by the bucket-full, but they were mostly unripe and not great for eating. I think I'll rename it the Jam tree because that's mostly what it's good for. I have so much jam, and the freezer is full of peach puree. There was a good crop of wild blackberries this year and I seem to have done OK with relishes this year too. None are excessively vinegary.

This month has also included dealing with a sick dog and a sick car. The car had stopped a couple of times just in the middle of driving. The car turned out to need a new cam-sensor. It wasn't so pricey to fix as I was worried about and the engine light is off after being on constantly for about two years. The mechanic didn't even say anything about my ignoring it for all that time. As for my poor dog - we noticed a new lump under one of her forelegs. She has a couple of fat lumps already but this had appeared so suddenly that I thought it must be an allergic reaction or something. So I took her to the vet but she freaks out at the vet - it's like she has a complete personality shift. Which means the vet can hardly look at her. They thought it was probably another fat lump but to be sure they needed to be able to put a needle in it, which they couldn't do with her going crazy and crying and struggling. So the next morning I took her in and they sedated her. I collected her after lunch - and it was just another fatty lump. I'm glad I got her early because she's not used to being in a cage or crate, so she started really acting up as she woke. I took her home, where I was torn between laughing at her (she couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth and could hardly walk, let alone go in a straight line), and feeling so sorry for her because every time she woke up she started crying again, so she must have felt quite ill. It didn't wear off till about 3am so next time I do this (and there will be a next time because I'm saving up to get her lumps removed) I will be taking two days off work, so that if she keeps me awake all night crying, I won't have to work the next day!

You'd think that would be enough for March but all of the above was within the first two weeks of March! We also had a visit from a friend from Germany. We did some tourist stuff in the city, we went to Weta Workshop (the tour is not as good as it was a few years ago) and we went horse-riding. My butt was so sore after, and my horse was quite lazy. Her name was charm but she wasn't that charming - she kept farting! There was also a pop-up second hand clothing sale and I got a great dress and a string of real pearls! I was pretty pleased with my shopping. Finally, for the last weekend in March, we went out on the motorbike to a beers and bbq festival in Upper Hutt. I have just got proper riding boots so we had to test them out. Half an hour is quite a long ride on the back of the bike though. The festival was good, but they weren't expecting it to be so popular - the bbq food trucks ran out of food!

So that was March, and now it's April. Don't have any exciting plans yet so I'll have to work on that. Already have lots of plans for May though so maybe we'll just keep things quiet for the next couple of weeks.