Update 6

Hi family - Easter has come and gone - for us that meant holidays from
school, hot hot weather on Friday (I got burnt doing some fencing) and
Saturday then grey skies on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday - back at school today
and back to hot hot hot. It also meant Samantha travelled north up the
island from Wellington and Adam came south from Hamilton to spend time
with us. The pastoral lifestyle is clearly a lot different from their
harum scarum city lives - not a lot to do but help with the fencing, ride
the tractor, enjoy the serenity, listen to the magpies and feed the
chickens.

I've planned out the sheep race - ie measured up the various components
ready for posts etc (a sheep race is not a race between sheep, it's a
series of yards to draught sheep, drench them and crutch them - ie it has
a long narrow section to separate out the sheep if you wish). Will keep
you posted on developments (won't start actually building this until the
term break holiday) - I know you can't wait!

Our viewing schedule has reached the point where we need to revisit the
video store or buy some new box sets. We've finished our 24-a-thon (all
five series watched in a row - six DVDs per set!!) and Seinfeld-a-thon has
reached series 7. So we got out a new box set from the video store -
called Over There (US soldiers in Iraq - by Steven Bochco of Hill St Blues
and NYPD fame) - not bad - a tad too graphic in spots but worthwhile story
lines and interesting characters (although of the stock and token variety
- it's American TV after all).

We're (Jacky and I) off to Nelson This weekend for a Principal's
conference - back next Wednesday. That's about it for now - except some
more snaps - the last picture of the house was mainly trees huh - sorry
bout tha but it's tricky to get a good all encompassing view - have some
chickens , Basil in a paddock with our hay barn and house which is amongst
those trees and a view of a paddock behind the house. This is the last of
my recent snaps - I'll get some of the team at Keegan's graduation next
month.

Love and peace - currently grooving to Marillion's song 'Easter' and album
"Season's End" - seemed appropriate - W