9th December, 2024

A series of windy days with alternating sun and cloud. Rain threatens every day, or perhaps I should say humidity rises every day. But the wind is keeping things dry. I have even been able to get through the washing despite only being able to do one load a day unless I want to provoke a leak.

Jason ended up cutting the second hay paddock on Saturday. It's going to be slow drying because of the humidity, but at least it's not getting any closer to aging out.

This is Jason cutting my paddock

The pale areas are Jason's hay paddocks on the ridge and
hillside opposite me

I opened a feed break for the cattle. We left a week's feed standing so that by the time the bales were done and put away I would let the cattle onto the hayed area to clean up the leftovers then close it off again to regrow like the first paddock. You can see the lighter green of that on the right of the photo above. The far end has grown back nicely so they can graze that for a couple of weeks. With any luck I will have feed to rotate onto through summer, unlike last year.

I'll need to set up a laneway again. I have the posts in to do a proper wire laneway fence but have not had the time or energy to do it. I will buy the bits and pieces and ask Cliff to do it and offside for him. That will be probably ten times faster than doing it by myself as even having someone to hold the other end of the wire speeds it up and he will be good at the actual knots. I can do an approximation of them, but it's a bit of a slog with small hands and large tools.

May Shaw didn't call today, the email did say "next week", but I guess I expected Monday to be the day for a call. I don't even know if the manager works on Mondays. I am just a bit impatient to start on this next adventure.

The zero turn mower is arriving tomorrow, and the NILS loan was approved today. Still no word on the mortgage addition. It's a pity I can't get machinery in to hay the main drive, I reckon there's a good two bales in it. At least with a good mower here it will become respectable again. And I can use the zero turn to slash around the buildings for fire protection. If I can learn how to drive it, they say it's easy once you get the hang of it, but it looks like dodgem cars to me !

6th December, 2024

A couple of warm days that were humid, a selection of rainy and cloudy days, and one cold day. The plants are loving the wet and warm combination.

Jason was going to try and cut my second paddock of hay this afternoon, but as I come home in the dark I won't know if he got to it until daylight tomorrow. We are supposed to get more rain tomorrow, but not enough to damage the down hay. Fingers crossed it got done because the grasses are going to flower now and will start to head soon.

The zero turn mower should arrive on Monday or Tuesday, I will have to remind Geoff to get a jerry can of fuel for it. He is very excited :-)

We seem to have a wave of technological failures striking the house. The washing machine is still alternately overflowing or working fine, the randomness making it hard to isolate and fix the cause. The dish washer is still struggling with the dropping water pressure, Geoff can't make any of the old laptops or computers play his old game disks, and now the electric squeegee that I use to suck up condensation on cold mornings has stopped dead. Oh, and the septic needs pumping out before Christmas.

Jason spoke to Phil Chappel, the tractor repair guy who specialises in Fergie tractors and confirmed that Bessie should have no trouble lifting 5 ft bales if she is working right. So I will ring him on Monday and book a home visit to check her over.

On the jobs front, I had the interview with the hospital for the relief admin on Wednesday. As it's a government job it could take until after Christmas for anything to come back. It's also short notice relief, in that they could ring at 6am and say they need me, with no guarantee of hours in any given week. The pay rate is $40 an hour, but it's probably not going to work as I still need a reliable income.

The lady who interviewed me for the Ochre Health job has apparently departed without notice and cleared her desk, taking all her interview notes with her. No-one at the surgery reception has any idea what is happening with the position in the short term as the management try to figure out what they can salvage.

And I was offered the May Shaw job today !! As I was already at work when they tried to ring me, they left a message with the offer and said they'd catch up with me next week to talk in detail. This job is one day a week before new year with another day or two a week likely in the new year as someone is retiring. 

I am happy with three 8 hour days a week, that will be as many hours as I work at woolies over in three days. Leaving me 4 days off. I would probably still do one or two shifts a week at woolies until we pay off the mower. Here's hoping they're offering a good pay rate, as they were a bit uncertain about the pay as it would be dependent on the skills of the successful applicant. Hopefully I am very skilled !

Here is a little personal philosophy for the day.