A Broken Tractor

We have had another nice day today. Yesterday the wind was cold. I think there must have been snow somewhere on Desert Rd. We haven’t had any rain for 7 days now. Quite exciting in the grand scheme of things after all the rain we had over summer. Quite warm too, although the mornings have an autumnal feel to them. It was only 5 degrees this morning.

I have put some cabbages, caulis and broccoli in the little garden I have here. The white butterflies have been laying eggs like there was no tomorrow, so I go out every day and scrape them off. I haven’t been able to get any derris dust. I remember it was hard to get last year too. I bought a spray and when I got home I read the label and it said not to use it on seedlings. Well for pete’s sake why didn’t I read that before I bought it? I gave them a squirt on Saturday, as they are a bit bigger now. I’m not sure it did any good though. There were a lot of eggs when I went to look today. So far I have managed to get them off before they hatch.

The tractor, that is used here to mow the big overflow paddock died last week. It hasn't had the care and attention that it should have had over the past few years. It got a bug in the diesel that clogged up the fuel filter. We took it into the repair shop on Tuesday. Luckily there was a winch on the trailer, so Eddie was able to winch it up. Much easier than trying to push it up.

The overflow paddock is used in the summer for extra campers, when there is no room in the main camp. There is no power or water, so it only suits people who are prepared to really camp when they are here. A Christian children's programme also uses it to put up their marque .

Earthquakes

There have been  a few earthquakes over the last week or so. The biggest one was 4.6 on the richter scale. I find them rather scary; probably as we are so close to the sea and tsunamis. We move more in a caravan than in a house too, so that doesn't help.

I remember when we lived in Kawerau, many years ago, that we used to call March earthquake season, because we had swarms of them quite often in March, but I don't know why. I wonder if they still call it that.

We have had another nice day today after it rained last night. Quite warm too. Poor Eddie is really struggling to do the lawns as they aren’t drying out very well and getting longer every day.  

We had Eddie’s second cousin, Barbara and her husband, Richard come to visit us over the past 4 days. They live in Wallaroo in South Australia. Eddie’s sister, Janice, came for lunch on Sunday to catch up with them. On Sunday night,  we went out to dinner at Cobb and Co as it seemed to be the only one open. We had a nice meal, except Eddie and Richard’s steak was a bit tough. Eddie had sticky date pudding, so he was happy about that. I had an apple strudel which was yummy.

I did  3 days in the office while the family was in Hamilton for the funeral. I think it went ok. It was the first time I have done whole days unsupervised. 

Eddie went fishing yesterday down at the wharf. When he caste his line the whole rod broke in half, so he was not a happy chappy. We went into Whakatane this morning and bought him a new one. He is down on the beach now trying it out. With luck there will be fresh fish for tea.