Through falling leaves I pick my way slowly (Fourmyula)

As you've read, Red Phoenix Farm has become Brown Phoenix Farm over December. The land is parched and so are the animals.

Currently the farm plays host to two horses (Dee and Neo), 21 sheep, two dogs (Dookie and Bazil), Rocky the cat, two lovebirds, four canaries, sundry rabbits and at least one hedgehog.

All except the rabbits and hedgehog have water provided for them.

Sallie informs us that hedgehogs struggle to get water in summer and often die from dehydration.

This poor wee mite was found by SWMBO down by Habibi Stables. She thought it was a pine cone until she noticed two eyes staring back at her.

Looks a tad grumpy doesn't he!

Love and peace - Wozza and the menagerie.

I could read your mind (Alan Parsons' Project)

Welcome to Follyfoot...um...actually - Red Phoenix Farm

I can't be doing with sports that require loads of gear, or take all day, or have to happen at certain times of the day.

I could never get into skiing for instance. It requires so much equipment, you need to travel to a mountain and pay loads for ski passes; you have to wear special clothes and stay there all day because you have put so much effort into it you can't leave after a couple of hours. And all for a pointless activity - going down a slope.

Swimming as a competitive sport is the same - requires a swimming pool of a certain standard, and early morning practices. I don't know why they have to train at dawn, but they do. Silly.

And cricket. I coached cricket once upon a time (and, amazingly, I was master in charge of cricket at Mt. Albert Grammar School briefly). All that gear and all that time - the whole of Saturday was a right off.

From my observations, horse riding is...ahem...another one. 

A horse requires a certain amount of land to live on, tack rooms, stables, a multitude of equipment - saddles and yadda yadda.

A soggy Habibi Stables - outside...and inside (below)

SWMBO spent all of last Saturday getting her horse ready for a show on Sunday. She and Sallie groomed it, plaited it and did a plethora of other activities to it that I could tell you about if I had a clue what they were.

At the end of the day, after all of this preparation, the horse leaped out of a stall in the stable complex at Red Phoenix Farm and injured itself, damaged Sallie's shoulder, and broke one of SWMBO's fingers.

Result? No Sunday show. 

A week later and she and Sallie got Max tarted up for another Sunday show. Except the heavens opened over the North Island of New Zealand during the night and Max is no fun in the rain (does he LOOK like he's having fun?) so...no Sunday show for the second week in a row.

Poor SWMBO. 

Give me a ball and a road or a wall or an empty swimming pool or a paddock of some description and I can have fun. Add a couple of people and we have a game of football (any old rubbish lying around can act as goals). 

Six years of lunch times at M.A.G.S. were taken up by impromptu football games involving any kind of ball we could find (a tennis ball on the tennis courts with or without the nets up was no problem for us - added some spice).

Good fun, but horses? Not on your nelly, or should that be neddy?!

Love and peace - Wozza

Take only what you need and be on your way (Pendragon)

A return to Wafi tales for this post.

You will remember that we left our young hero exploring the inner workings of the clothes dryer just a few short posts ago.

Wafi has since learnt all about the soft furry little field mice that have been unearthed in the paddocks thanks to the short grass (no growth and the munchings of sheep and horses have finally got on top of things) and the cold weather.

Some of the mice have opted for warmer climes. They have tried holiday locations like the three bay shed or Habibi Stables. This is a foolish choice as SWMBO has set lethal bait stations in Habibi so that her saddlery remains untouched by rodents and I've set mousetraps in the three bay.

So they've reluctantly returned to the paddocks where Wafi does the nightly rounds. The daytime shift? Don't be silly - that's the time for sleeping inside the back door hallway where he can keep an eye on comings and goings from the house. A 'going' means that he then tags along.

I'm not kidding. Do we need to move the sheep? Wafi tags along. How about set fire to big bonfires of tree branches and old hay? Wafi's there too. Vet is here to operate on the horse's teeth? Wafi supervises from close quarters. He is more like a puppy dog than a cat.

Wafi doesn't dismember the mouse - more like he plays with it until the little thing gets tired of living. There are never any puncture marks on the little presents Wafi leaves on the back step for us to find in the mornings. 

The reason I'm dribbling on about Wafi and small furry objects is because of this morning's incident.

After breakfast my routine is to get rugged up to go and let Bazil off his leash and then feed him.

I watched this morning's final of Euro 2012 (congratulations Spain - justified winners) and after Iker Casillas lifted the trophy I went outside to do the above chore.

It was raining slightly so I donned a rain jacket and then I went to put my gumboots on. 

I was thinking about a miraculous ball that Iniesta had threaded through the Italian defence with my brain only semi clued into what I was doing vis-a-vis the gumboots. I put the left gumboot on and glanced at my right gumboot, still thinking about Iniesta's talented through ball. A fleeting thought that a large leaf was in the gumboot was abruptly interrupted as my foot nestled onto something round and furry.

My foot shot out as my brain cleared and I gazed at Wafi's present sitting in the bottom of my gumboot - a very dead soft furry field mouse.
Love and peace - Wozza

'Cause here with you is where I belong (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Okay - time flies like an arrow but fruit-flys like an apple. I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote a post in my blogs.

This is the longest gap I've ever had. And the reasons you ask?

• Adjusting to living in Nu Zild (quite a change after the Middle East and our life in Al Ain)
• Unpacking our house that was in storage for nearly two years (boxes and stuff to sort - you know the drill)
• Working every day on farm stuff (see below)
• Painting and working on A.R.T. (see http://googoogarjoob.blogspot.co.nz/ for details). As this is where the office is as well, it meant a week without a computer being handy.



Mrytle in front of our place. A.R.T. is on the left.



I can't believe how much time has been devoted to farm stuff in particular - chopping down trees, trimming hedges, fixing fences, tractor collection (yes Mrytle is fine), mowing lawns (the grass growth has been amazing in the Hawke's Bay this year!!), planting Maple trees, putting up shelves and various horsie stuff in SWMBO's Habibi Stables, collecting horses (we now have three on the property - called Roch-dene by the way) and a thousand other little jobs.

I'd forgotten that farm living is not simple. One job invariably leads to three others.

But it's all been fun (apart from the fencing wire which bit me back on the right hand ring finger. Lotta blood but SWMBO enjoyed acting like nursie and Samantha was very calm too when it happened).

We have also had a few biggie celebrations in the month that has zipped by - Jacky had her 50th birthday on the 14th April with Samantha, Jesse, Jade, Gavin. Michelle, and Sallie all making the trip over to help us celebrate in our new home.

SWMBO with her family team effort cake.

 

Fanfa adds the message after Jade did the icing and I baked the cake.

Jesse, Dookie and Fanfa

SWMBO and I also celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary on 21st April. Pretty cool huh.

I will make a determined effort to do entries as regularly as in the past so stay tuned again for updates. I'll also be including some snaps - the views are breathtaking, particularly of late with the misty mornings (the hills around us look like islands in the mist) and the evening sunsets.

Love and peace - Wozza