Categories: From the Farm This Week
      Date: Apr 17, 2013
     Title: 17 April 2013
so Maggie the dog is proving a very good working dog so good she just wont stop working and wont stop and wont listen.
We had a break out of all the trouble maker sheep onto the railway line and Maggie did a great job of bringing them back and then going over next door and mustering that farm totally (I'm glad the farmer was out sheeee... ) and after Ila and I just about managed to get hold of her she looked at us and I thought she said sorry I thought you wanted those sheep sorry I will get the geese for you so around ore 60 odd geese she went totally oblivious to Ila yelling GET IN BEHIND MAGGIE ...SIT DOWN ...I'll Bloo...Shoot you  GET in Behind,HERE MAGGIE so with half the valley mustered the geese, penned I managed to catch her.I was very nice as we need her to come to Ila at least .A wee bit.... more training needed but hell she was free and what's six hours lost ARRR .But we will get her sorted .

We had are Organic peer review that went well it was good to catch up with Dee and sue and it was extra good because Ruth has taken over the organic book work that I was doing .

We have had two frosts the last one taking out the pumpkin plants along with other things like tomatoes so that time is getting close.Our Feijoas are still not ready but as usual we are 3 or more weeks behind the Rest of Taranaki.But you know Good things take time.

I did a run down the line to meet at Sanson with supplies .Meeting up and parking on the road to the back of the second hand book shop to unload .Thinking once unloaded the book shop would be open (as I am a avid collector of livestock /organic and environment books )Any way we just started unloading and a red Nissan car came flying in parking behind us,I was thinking it was some sort of a bust or a sting or something
glad we are all legal here was my second thought and then the guy jumped out and started being really abusive .You bast....ds and nothing but dog sh...Fuc,,,pri,,,who the hell do you think you are I will squash you like a maggot and then started to take photos of our vehicles .It was like something out of Monty Python and we just looked at each other and laughed .He was getting more and more agitated and I said nicely with my hands in the air .Look who are you what is the problem ...... he said "Look you lump of cra...p that's it I'm calling the police you made a threat..hello Police there are two vehicles registration numbers ... here blocking a car park (helll its 1st thing in the morning and there are 20 empty parks and can see no one uses this one And I was waiting for the shop to open ) ..Yes and they are dealing in stolen meat and one has dread locks so its a drug deal going down .Not sure if the wagon has a WOF, and they are going to attack and kill me ".......Look mate if this keep going you are going to kill yourself with a heart attack ...O well loaded see ya next time and we shook hands and then he said to the police ..Now they are holding hands blood..y Homosexuals .Now I may be a lot of things but not that .....so with that we made two roads of it and drove off .I'm still waiting for the police to call .Man I can pick em unbelievable .I will have to call back to make sure his doctor gives him the right pills next time ..

On the way back I stopped at Terakina between Bulls and Whanganui for a cup of coffee and every shop except the service station was shut.closed.finished ...Hard to believe on the main road I have been stopping there for 36 years as it was half way between the house in Wellington and the valley I'm in now ..exactly half way .But now all finished like all the small settlements over the country closing down ..This is not good at all we need to keep the local places going at all costs or it will keep going with Auckland at one end and Wellington at the other and that's it,don't run short of petrol or food in between .

we have been with out phone and Internet on and off for 4 days as they are putting a new line in lets hope it gives is broadband .One of the problems the workmen got some wires crossed and I got all the calls for a Neighbor and he got all ours (he would have got 50 times more calls tan we did ) and we could not access our phone messages .

I was around the stock yesterday and I looked down and Beatrice Beate's Kuni pig was on the road .So I went a different way to put her back and found TIM, Ila's pony in the drain .Cold and stiff but still alive .The drain was 4 foot of black silt due to the dry weather and he was well stuck after flipping him over and getting him moving I tried pulling him out but I had to go and get help, Beate and Ruth helped and luckily a vet
and a stock agent stopped and helped as well after a half hour of moving, pulling he was out real dirty but in one piece and standing .

It did cost me an hour or more so I was late for a meeting in New Plymouth It was Lord Christopher Monckton talking on Climate change And we were to have a meal with him before the speech .Well we did but it was a shame we were late as I wanted to put some questions forward .I have to say he was a very good speaker and I think many of his points are very valid but I am still left wondering about the many other missing points of the  jigsaw .Apart form the subject matter I was very interested on the speech presentation words and lines used .That alone was worth learning from .