THE REGENT THEATER

Many WWOOFers enjoy a night out at the Regent Theater. It is an old style theater with intermission- time for an icecream or popcorn- and as it is run by a Trust the prices are pretty reasonable too. This is a nostalgic experience for many who come from cities where the only movie theaters now are multiplexes.

Jo and Nick

Jo and Nick could only stay a couple of days, but they helped dig out some more squares for the orchard weeding carefully and replacing the dirt in barriers made by Wal out of corrugated iron. The concept behind this labour intensive job is to plant the orchard squares with a herbal ley and to keep the twitch at bay.

Penny and Charlie Brown

Penny and Charlie were a chatty couple and we enjoyed family time with them. They helped dig out some squares to plant the orchard in the spring and planted comfrey root all around the edge of the orchard. They put down lots of carpet squares and tires around the trees planted by Carrie. And they insulated the south wall with batts. This is the only wall using batts- the rest of the house is insulated with TerraLana natural wool insulation.

Returning friends

We were delighted to have Matt and Carrie come back to visit. Matt and Carrie planted the first trees in the Trees for Travellers programme and in 6 months the total was up to 32. They added to that with some belated Christmas shopping for family bringing the count to 45! The garden Matt and Carrie helped to plant to border the new section at the front had grown unbelievably well. Compare the previous post of them to this new picture. Carrie's sunflowers had all sprouted, grown 6 feet tall and died off before she came back again.

Carrie planted 2 hedges, one for a windbreak to screen the future orchard, and one on the boundary between the current house and the new section. Matt and Carrie helped build the first adobe wall of the WWOOFers room. When they returned the walls were all laid up. Some finishing was required so Carrie and I threw cob at all the gaps in the walls and down the sides of the pillars and our pinnacle of artistic achievement was the sculpturing in cob on the two pillars inside at the sides of the French doors. Adrienne also helped with this. Rusty did the leaves and vines and Carrie did the AMAZING piwakawaka (fantails)!

Matt's major contribution was the handmaking of our kitchen table. He inserted rimu butterflies to stop the splitting, planed, sanded and oiled the table with help from Wal. To celebrate the completion of the masterpiece we transported it down to the new house and had a party. Last weekend on Queen's Birthday Wal entered the table into a woodworking expo where it was much admired.

Matt also made the cupboard for the outside basin for the laundry along with shelving on the outside wall.

We are indebted to Matt and Carrie for their huge contribution and will always cherish their friendship.

OUR FRENCH FAMILY

Apparently, we say in the WWOOFer book we don't take families BUT Monika and Geoff and family arrived nonetheless and we had a ball. After a couple of days the children were playing together, Rusty was cuddling the baby and chaos reigned........ha!ha! Monika made jam and paper pulp ( not at the same time!) and the kids picked up fallen fruit from around the trees to help tidy up.

Geoff was very experienced in brick laying so he made the concrete block manhole on top of the grey water tank and helped Wal put deer fencing wire around the pizza garden.

We particularly enjoyed a picnic at the Black Hole, a local swimming spot, with several friends.

Beth & Mac

Mud!!!Hmmmm.........this was a challenge for Mac- a professional plasterer by trade. He spent several days instructing Wal in the finer arts of plastering, which was a great help. We wish he could have stayed longer...

Beth helped Rusty with some jam making and odds and ends.

Funnily enough, Beth (from England) also visited parents of a penfriend in Waimate. The penfriend now lives in London!!

Kathy & John

Kathy & John arrived in their own accommodation- a camper- and parked down the back. When it cam to weeding Kathy turned out to be superwoman and we made great progress in tidying up the gardens. John helped Wal out with some fencing at the front of the new drive.

Kathy and John live in a 3 bay shed converted into a strawbale dwelling, so it was interesting to have some exchange with people of a very similar ilk.

Jerome and Shiho

Jerome and Shiho joined our family for Christmas along with Gran and Poppa. The weather wasn't great so we had a leisurely day inside. The plan had been to lunch in the new house but the inclement weather meant a lunch at home.

Jerome and Shiho helped Yooko and I fill in the drain along the back of the house. A little arduous, but one of those jobs it was good to get tidied up.

We also made several trailer loads of bricks, creeping ever closer to the final trailer.....