White Horse Walk

On New Year's Eve the family and Yoshi went by car to the top of the White Horse Monument and had a picnic in the car. A few wwoofers have done this local walk from the township up through a small stand of native bush then into forestry near the ridge. A good view of Waimate and our NEW HOUSE!!!! can be seen from the top.

See picture "EarthWood from WhiteHorse" when I get it on!

French doors

The doors were in by Christmas. What used to be an expansive view now looks quite different - rather segmented. We had hoped to picnic in the house for Christmas kunch but the north-easterly was a bit cool as the windows and doors don't have glazing!

home schoolers get muddy!

About 22 children and parents from the local homeschooling group came to have a go at making mudbricks. According to our graph of progress this is the last load of bricks we need to finish all outside walls-both house and battery room.

The end is in sight............

An historic moment

Yoko, Kevin, Rusty and Wal finished laying bricks on the last piece of outside house wall.

YEEHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

an historic moment indeed!

Wo-men in black

Nikki and Yoko, with the invaluable assistance of mighty Kevin from next door and Wal, finished off the south wall to stud height. You can see the wet mortar in the south wall in the background of the picture.

honeymoon destination

Yep! It's right here at "Earthwood" Waimate.

Tara and Alex joined us for 2 nights of their short honeymoon in New Zealand and it was awesome to share such a special time with them.

They arrived on the same mad weekend as Sabrina,Timo, Steffi and Ruth. Coincidentally, Tara's grandmother was German and she spoke German also. So lots of "sprechen auf Deutsch" all around.

TOFU

Occasionally I make my own tofu from organic soya beans. I enjoy making it when I have time in the evenings as it reminds me of the time I spent in Japan working voluntarily at a traditional tofu shop. It is really cool when you add the salt or curdling agent and the milk separates from the whey. It is one of those special moments of making something by hand that has its own magic!

Tara helped me out and we had fun chatting.

finishing the west wall

Sabrina, with Timo, Steffi and Wal, finished the office walls and all the west walls of Ami and Shannah's rooms. It is absolutely amazing to see some walls reach the stud height.

A huge thank you to the team, particularly to Sabrina.

AUS DEUTSCHLAND

Ruth, Sabrina's mother, came and visited with Sabrina and Timo and Steffi. It was totally mad with 6 extra adults in the house but we had a ball speaking German, cooking, tree planting, church and a visit to an historic cob cottage and picnic.