August 30, 2013


The last few days have been cold with rain off and on.  Heather has not been feeling well so we have stayed in most of the time. She is better now, and we made it to the grocery store today, but didn't see anything of interest to photograph.

But we do have a beautiful Orpington rooster, and I know Cathy will appreciate the photos of him below.

Heather names most of her chickens and turkeys, and all of the Orpingtons are named for weather events.  This one is Thunder.


I'm posting a picture of the garden plot as it stands now - pretty bleak!  And I'll post more pictures as we clean up the area and get everything planted.

The structure in the front is the nursery for the baby chickens and turkeys, and right now there aren't any.  We're planning on fixing or replacing the fencing around the garden and hopefully adding another raised bed.

8/28/13  Return to New Zealand


We arrived in Auckland. Monday morning, right on time, but with the airport almost completely fogged in.  Below is what it looked like from the airplane, waiting for the short flight on to Christchurch.

Many flights were being cancelled but ours was only delayed 10 minutes.  Once we flew away from the North Island, the fog cleared. Here are some pictures from the air as we approached Christchurch.

Mike and Heather picked me up and we went back to their place.  Heather was excited to show me their new bee hive!

The rest of the day was quiet and by 8:00 pm I just collapsed into bed!

Up early on Tuesday and Mike refused to give me my "list" of things to do!!  He said I could have one more day of rest : )

I did venture outside to snap a picture of a beautiful sunset.

And on my way back to the house I found this turkey and chicken snuggling together on top of the dirt pile.

I showed them to Heather and she explained that the chicken, Golden, was hatched and raised by a turkey, so she is quite comfortable snuggling the turkey through the cold night!

So Wednesday approaches and we are planning to go shopping.  I will take my camera and get some pictures of the wildlife we see on the way.  Hopefully there will be some newborn lambs!