THANK YOU BIG TIME

Thank you to all our wwoofers, we have fond memories of many of you and we really appreciate the HUGE contribution you have made to the building of our house, and friendships and the memorable quality of our life.

But at this time, I must say a special thankyou to Jeehun, Haji, Damian and Melanie, whose time frames all overlapped and added up to nearly 5 months of wwoofer time...so a BIG TIME thankyou for your contribution to bringing the house near to completion.

Melanie

Melanie's time coincided with Jeehun and Damian. Melanie could turn her hand to anything and is singlehandedly responsible for changing the house from looking like a building site to actually looking like a house. She masked and painted the kitchen, the office, the bathroom ceiling, Shannah's room and a number of doors. Melanie went to Christchurch for a few days to see a show then came back and worked at a local strawberry farm while staying on at our place. It was all just a plot to get her "R" I think.

Either that or she just got too fond of her hottie.

David

David came while Rusty was in Japan so it was great for Wal to have his company. They made significant progress on the last room, which is Wal and Rusty's bedroom. Up till now it has been the storeroom but it was cleaned out and David helped Wal plaster the walls again. Wal has since tiled the floor and put in a doorframe and it now really looks like a room.

Gemma and Andrew

Wwoofers number 73 & 74 were Gemma and Andrew, and wwoofers number 75 & 76 were Gemma and Andrew. They took a little break inbetween visits- so they got code "R" in the logbook for "Returnees"!!

Gemma helped me finish the mosaic in the lounge floor and Andrew helped Wal adjust the solar panels. They also did some painting, weeding and treeplanting and had lots of fun with the girls.

Damian

Damian came for three days as he was stranded and bored at Christchurch airport ...and ended up staying for over a month! He was here with Jeehun and Damian and we all had a fun time. Damian was skilled at carpentry so he made a huge contribution with some made to measure furniture including a wardrobe each for the girls, and some bookshelves for Shannah's birthday desk, a spice rack for Rusty and a kitchen shelf and he spent a lot of time watching paint dry...and playing with Jess...

Jeehun

Jeehun did so much in the two months he was here. The thing we will treasure the longest is the "MADE IN KOREA" toast slicer he crafted for us out of plywood. It is made to fit the bread from our breadmaker and it really helps to cut nice slices when the bread hasn't had time to cool.

Jeehun kept us entertained with a variety of magic tricks, some of the m fluent enough to leave the kids gobsmacked- especially the one where he puts the coin into his arm.

The installation of the solar hot water heater was a highlight while Jeehun was here, but he also contributed so much doing everything from lawnmowing to mudding, gardening and painting ETC, ETC, ETC

HAJI

Haji stayed nearly 2 weeks, but it seemed longer as Jeehun was here the whole of that time and then Melanie came too!

Haji helped out with a variety of jobs including cutting timber, painting, plastering, making compost and digging...I can't quite remember what?

We enjoyed Haji's quiet humour and had him on about his appetite, as you can see from the photo.

Haji also enjoyed a belated birthday party (only cos he didn't tell us on the day) and so got code "B" for "Birthday" in the logbook. It is mandatory to declare if you are having a birthday so we can make a cake and have a party!

REACH FOR THE SKY

Jessica shows off some trampolining skills.

BLOBBING OUT

"Now just how far round the world are we??????????"

LOOK LIKE THIS

Come to our place and you get to look like this...........

or this.............

Melanie volunteered to help out at the school fair face painting, but she had never done it before. So we got out the facepaints and she had a go at Shannah and Ami and then Ami turned Melanie into a witch!!!!!!

GUARD DOG

LOOK OUT! SHE BITES! (TRUE!)

MUDDING

This is the fun term for getting dirty, making cob, slinging mud, building brick walls, stomping in a bath of adobe....and WOW! it is fun

KIWI CAKES

I got a Le Creuset frypan recently-they hold a great even temperature so we have come up with a new twist on Saturday morning pancakes:- made to order. Jason got a Kiwi, Debolina a tuatara and the girls a silver fern and an octopus. So come and place your order....

RECYCLING ON SITE

We sort all waste on site and recycle paper, cardboard, plastic bags & film, rigid plastic, scrap metal, electrical wire, hoses etc ( not much glass generated on site-we don't drink much beer down there!)

Mainly the only thing we can't recycle is treated wood and and sweepings which may contain treated wood sawdust. And a few messy miscellaneous items.

Debolina and Jason

Debolina and Jason were our last summer wwoofers. They enjoyed the Waimate Buskers Festival as well as a trip to Timaru to view the Redruth Eco-center. I do tours through the recycling and composting facility as part of my job. Mainly they helped us to mud a wall in Shannah's room and tidy up the walls in the lounge by painting with mud. They got on really well with the kids (both teachers) and it was a wonderful way to finish the holidays with yet another lovely couple of wwoofers.

Debolina helped me make this jam. It is fun when someone is here to help, but oh boy!! am I ever sick of making jam!!!!! Still this year we have made plum jam, plum sauce ( a hot one and a mild one), apple chutney, preserved pears, bottled apples and stewed apples for the freezer....yet to come is black boy peach jam, green tomato chutney and more apple something!

The Waimate Buskers Festival

The Waimate Buskers Festival follows on from the Christchurch International Buskers Festival. The weather was wonderful on the day and the crowds enjoyed some great entertainment. The photo is Jason's picture of a guy takng a marshmellow off a set mousetrap!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Belated Christmas wishes. We had planned to have Kenji, Akira and Kayo stay for Christmas this year along with my parents. Unfortunately, Akira and Kayo had to go suddenly to meet up with friends. But they got to take their Christmas gifts with them. Among other things we gave our Chrustmas wwoofers a present on behalf of all wwoofers we have ever had. Just prior to Christmas we had had 52 wwoofers stay. Through Childfund, our child sponsor organisation, we purchased $52 worth of "gifts that grow"- $1 per wwoofer. Firstly, this is to recognise that each and every one of you has made a contribution to our house, and we do remember you even if we don't have time to keep in regular touch. And secondly, to give a gift that shares, that makes a contribution to a more equitable world. The gifts were mainly chosen on the basis of adding up to 52 so it turned out to be some fruit trees in one country and some books for a school somewhere else.
So thank you all and I hope you had a happy Christmas.

JESS WITH JESS

Recently we got a Border Collie pup just 5 weeks old. I chose her with similar markings to the dog we had previously, also called Jess. Funnily enough, we got her while Jess and Pat were here. How's that for coincidence!

Poor Pat!

This is what happens if you don't work hard enough!

Are you an ICE CREAM freak?

Jess and Pat were! They took advantage of the cheapest icecream prices in the country and had one just about every single day. Only 5 minutes walk to the dairy from our house.
For $1 you get 1 scoop and a half in a single cone ( this is kiddies size)
For $1.50 you get 2 generous scoops in a single cone.
For $2.50 you get 3 scoops in a double cone and hope it is not too hot a day!
For 50 c extra you can get the icecream chocolate coated.

Tip Top (New Zealand made) is THE best icecream in the world!

The local dairy has 12 flavours to choose from including top of the range only-in-New-Zealand-icecream flavour ...

HOKEY POKEY!!!!!!!