Categories: From the Farm This Week
      Date: Jan 23, 2013
     Title: 23 January 2013
Not too happy with all these earthquakes, every day it seems and its only a fraction of what Christchurch has had.

Looks like summer is at last here. The whole valley is full of the smell of cut hay and the sound of hay making. Ours is still standing, as it was shut up later.

Looks like Samuel has bought his house in Stratford, with a takeover date 1st March. I will keep you posted on that.
Ila has been up north with Jess, and now is spending a week on the farm, showing Jess around.
Nerida has been feeding the chickens and pig farm pigs, which has left Ruth free to do gardening and some farm work, as she is chickened out.

Nerida and I went to help Wally clean up his farm, and he gave us a truck load of farm timber, gates, etc, he was not taking with him. I took the yellow Daihatsu farm truck, and it had a back wheel  that would not hold air, but it has dual wheels, so should have been fine. But in typical john fashion, the truck was very overloaded, and just past Toko, the other dual gave out, (well it was old) so I finished the trip with two flats, with Ned dodging the flying rubber + shredded tyres in the Ute behind. Oh well, glad I got some spares on the farm.
The following day Ruth and Beate came as well, to clean out the house, while Nerida and I sorted the sheds. Wally said have got all I want out of the house and sheds if you don't take it back to the farm, I will leave it for the new owner. So on we loaded anything we could use out here, along with scrap metal. With Wally's chooks on the top, we all drove home very overloaded. It was very late by the time the unloading got done. We now have heaps of sorting to do, and the workshop to sort, as I have heaps to do in there. You know I don't know when I will see Wally again we have been friends for over 35 years with never a dollar between us. We have always just swapped stock and anything with neither counting.

A funny thing from Wallys, I got some old stuff for the herb garden. went to put it in place and there is some large collectable items missing that had been there for years. The main thing a cast iron herd testing centrifuge that came from the original cowshed on the farm gone, just gone, someone called maybe while we were out. Won't do em any good,

Two of the Dorset horn rams got to fighting and the smaller one came off second best no skin broken but the flies still struck him so I had to get the whole mob in to shear him and I also took the wool off another two so that's three more shorn. While I was at it I took the wool off a few skins as I have to get the shed in order so we can start sorting the main mob.

Ned and I met Ross, Michelle, Janine and Rod at the karaoke in Stratford. I got up and had a go quite a bit only second time I had ever done it but I think we will be back.

My old Mate Peter Holbrook and his wife came down, another friend I have known for many decades. I sold him his first Euro wild boar in 1978 I think and now he wants to get back into them.

Ben dropped off two fallow deer to cut up later in the week.

Seems to be visitor time lots of callers. I'm getting behind with work but all good.