Categories: From the Farm This Week
      Date: Jul 18, 2013
     Title: 18 July 2013
Went to the breakfast Toastmasters and someone said, John are you getting the flu? ... That was great as I was losing it and I knew I'm on the mend. The weather has been more than depressing, everything damp and lots of mud. No sun but ahead of that the Camellias are starting to flower. The camellias were planted on Avonstour about 100 years ago and are big.
With all the cold nights I asked the Wwoofers if they wanted hot water bottles a week or so back, both the Canadian and Quebec Wwoofers had not seen a hot water bottle before, seems they don't have em in that neck of the woods and now are going to introduce to their homeland..

We have two Wwoofers on site, still real good ones, a Canadian guy and Anne an American girl. Anne is in charge of the baby lamb and goat bottle feeding and is a great cook. Augie the Canadian is helping fencing, building and unloading truck loads of metal ( Road Gravel) I am carting for the Track to Ruth's Studio as the track has got so dangerous even with the Gipsy and the ute in low 4WD. It was a very close one with the ute carting framing timber up with the ute in 4WD low got 3/4 up and the wheels started to turn and spin so I pushed reverse so I could creep backward and the engine stalled and put it in second thinking it was reverse. And it flew backward like a Canadian toboggan with me trying to steer. If it went over the edge I would have rolled a few and drooped onto the road below. But I'm still here and I'm getting the metal on NOW. I get two truck loads a day and we are using the ute to ferry it up the track. When the weather is too wet or the ground too soft we are fencing around the house truck and I had near a whole day putting new handles on spades and shovel, turning a few on my lathe.

Augie is staying in the wagon and Anne in the house truck. Anne rides the push bike down every morning and back each night but we have got most of the fence finished around the truck and she will be driving hero in the cart when we get the wires done.
Hero is an over grown miniature pony in fact he thinks he is a Clydesdale....... but a Clydesdale on speed ..He is the best animal I have ever broken in, very bright and thinks. I just love to drive him but he is always unfit so Ann is getting him fit so I can use him now and again.

The Damaras are lambing now and we have some interesting lambs, spotty brown and white red and white solid white.

Not sure if I told you Ila has a turtle, a male red ear And she won't stop talking about it.

Anyway when I was up in Kerikeri Rick said to me WE HAD A FIRST WORLD PROBLEM YESTERDAY .....The power went out and I could not grind coffee all day. Well I've got one better than that. Last Sunday when we had a storm and half of Taranaki power was out we went to the Decanta Bar to a Folk House concert. The music was Fantastic .. harp music ..Irish bag pipes ..other pipe music. We got there early as with New Plymouth in black out and no one able to cook tea what better place to go. BUT the place was only half full. It seems many people phoned...." Sorry we can't make it WE CAN'T GET THE CAR OUT OF THE GARAGE ....THE ELECTRIC DOORS WON'T WORK on the garage. Man lets hope those people don't need to get to a hospital or something in a black out. I will be Right I will have Hero and the cart.

So see you Locals SUNDAY.
Speaking of that Thanks for all those that came last week and made it a far better market and take. Had lots of comments from my USE IT OR LOSE IT CALL last week. The most said thing was I DID NOT REALIZE how important the farmers market is to stall holders.
For me it is a large part of my life and our income comes from it and the facts are without the income stallholders just can't come.
SO THANKS EVERYONE.