95th day

I'm sitting on our deck in the spring weather...its WINDY!!! and we've had some sun and rain back and forward.
We're just coming through some bug which has hammered Dave, myself and master 9. Every time we have school holidays and are all looking forward to a break. Kids have said that we'll go into quarantine a week before next holidays lol.

I'm loving it here. I was soooo worried that this would not work but it is. The space is cramped when we all need a break but other than that we're doing well. I still can't find anything but am waiting until wellness and dry weather to pull everything apart and then put it all back together again but knowing where it all is.

 Our little house is working really well. Kids would like more room but its hard going from 200 squares.

 Some amazing finds on our walk one morning...I hope to clear away some of the weeds so I can see this on my morning walk everyday.

 We've got a lot of old willow which are dying so we have some cool Fun Guy as the kids say.

 Miss 12 has been wanting to have chicks ever since we had chickens. Now she finally has some. We're not sure what they all are yet but they are going well. Hannah has so far managed to keep all of them.

 This here I think is Happy...it got kicked out of the nest when freshly hatched. We found it cold and in the grass alone so I picked it up and it moved so I popped it back under Hannah thinking it would be nicer for it to die with its mum than alone...and its still alive today.

 My fur boy Mr Griffin. I was sooooo worried about the move with this little guy. He's 13/14 and has only ever known one home. I was a mummy on hot bricks for 2 weeks and he hated every minute of it...he did make a jail break once straight down the hill heading for the river but we managed to catch up with him...Now he's hanging out with me on the couch.

Quentin the rooster is Master 9's and what a lovely roo he is. He's the luck one out of 4. We had 3 hungry boys one we named roast but did not get to eat. Our neighbours did though.

 Miss 12 was super keen to start her garden. Its a bit bony here and I'm not sure if anything will live but she's made a start.

 Pine cones have been great for Smokey. Our firewood has not really lasted all that well. But I don't really think we were thinking we'd have such an amazing fire...more on Smokey later

Orion fire

Little by little we are getting things done. Just before Nana died she gave me some money that buy a fireplace. I think she was rolling her eyes wondering why I'd want something she probably had as a kid but it's just awesome.

I found this on trade me and my wonderful uncle fixed it for me. I can't wait to get it running. It's going to be in a very small space but we'll figure it out.

Science Day

Thanks to our amazing friends who decided to kick off their homeschooling life with SCIENCE!

Only way to go

My kids love science so this full day of fun with an amazing teacher and lots of experiments to do was just the best ever!!!

We had two cats

For a little while there we had two cats
Miss Grey was beautiful and even our cat thought that too as he shared his food and his bed and his children with her.
It took a little while for her to convince us she needed love as she didn't seem to need anything but she became more desperate over the days and shooing her away didn't work.
But once we started to get serious about moving soon I became worried we couldn't take some ones pet away so we traped her and took her to the vet and Yahoo she had a chip in her neck...so back home she went.

Little house getting built

Its a big task trying to keep up with the family, build, work, educate, feed and please. It was a damp weekend when we tried having a working bee.

Food always seems to be at the top of the list...kids are soooo hungry all the time

Miss 11 and Master 8 love having fires and cooking over it. Their friends are pretty savvy too.

My dear Nana

Its been a long time coming and its been heart breaking. Each year little by little my Nana has slowly slipped away from us. Each winter she would get sicker and older and slower.

My Nana was an amazing woman...and she lived through such amazing times and lived so quietly. She lived for her family...she lived for the kids.

Once she busted up her car (as our next door neighbor said laughing it was not Nana's fault some how that farm gate just got in the way) and she no longer drove up to our place everyday and the loss of her very fat cat...she became quieter and more withdrawn. 

As a child I could not wait to go to Nana's place...a place of unconditional love, peace, food, rest and support.

When they lived in Thames we would walk everywhere together. Some days she would say "when I'm in my wheelchair you wont let go of me on the drive will you?" my grandparents had a REALLY steep long driveway.

Nana never made it into a wheelchair...so she should be pleased with that...though her little green walking frame got carted everywhere.

I have been struggling with Nana's passing as there has not really been much time for me to be alone and just be allowed to grieve....it's not really a kiwi thing - emotions.

I know that life goes on and my memories of her are strong....our tickle fests were epic!

Moving birds