Dijya miss me?

[cirianz]

lol, you found out our evil plan muahaha

Thanks Taffy but I'm too paranoid for that. I won't even have repair men/women come around when there's no one home
couldn't have a total stranger living in our house, no matter how many refferences they had.
I know what you mean about catteries. I had to leave my cat in one once & it was just a box with a cage area that the cat was allowed out into twice a day for about an hour. I swore I'd never do it again.
Mind you, John has found a cattery for his cat that's so cat friendly & cosy I wouldn't mind staying there myself! It even has a 'cat TV' (a goldfish tank set into the wall). The whole thing was quite amazing. whoever designed it not only loved cats, they knew cats as well. I don't think I'd've minded leaving my cats there, but I have four of them now, & this place wasn't cheap so I've got the nextdoor girl comming over to feed them twice a day. They know her & will be quite happy for 2-3 weeks without us at that time of year. They'll spend most of their time sprawling around in their favourite sunbathe or shady spots & probably not even notice we're gone

In the continuing saga, John & I spent the last couple of days moving dirt. We are stealing a chunk of the paddock to make a flat area for socialising wedding guests & a general 'summer picnics' type spot. However, in order to make this flat area we have had to spend much time digging up a hill & moving it to a drop. It won't be a huge area, but it will be flat... eventually. We'll have to get some more dirt than the hill could provide to fill that drop & we have to get it done in time to grow grassy stuff all over it before the wedding
Plus we are building a fence up past the flat area so John made a farm gate night before last (he says it's in the style of english train gates... although not quite that long obviously) & last night we planted the fence poles & hung the gate. The gate itself is perfectly level, unfortunately, however, the paddock is not so that, while at the hinge end it is only a couple of inches off the ground, at the other end it is high enough for my son to climb under it. So our earth moving efforts have had to expand to include changing the shape of the planet to fit our gate

I am hoping that we will get to take tonight off, as I have a ton of paperwork to get sorted before the ERO guy comes & I seem to spend most of the daytime goose sitting. I almost wish this guy would come now so that it was over & done with. Tomo is already having nightmares about it. There are a whole ton of questions I have to answer during the interview. About twice as many as with the last guy. & some of them are so ridiculous.
"Do you think your child is better off being homeschooled?" Um... no... I'm really sure they'd be better off in a state school, I just gave up my career to homeschool them because i had an overwhelming desire to sabotage their education so that they were as ill prepared as possible for their own futures
I mean, is this guy retarded? Does he really think anyone would be homeschooling their children if they didn't think their kids were better off being homeschooled? & this is just one example. & the scary thing is that this guy gets to decide if we keep our homeschool licence.
Oh well. I'll just have to make sure that I totally supress any indication that I might have a sense of humor for the duration of the interview & try and answer his questions with a straight face. Both of my kids are afraid that this guy will take away the licence. The annoying thing is that, although if I genuinely believed that my kids could get as good an education at school as they can at home then of course they'd be at school, nevertheless it is us who must prove to them that we do a good enough job. They are not required to prove to us at all that they are competent enough to educate our children & if they are not competent & they do not give us a homeschool licence, then we have no choice but to entrust our children's education to them. Go figure

Rant over, sorry

 

[cirianz]

Back again
& just thought I'd pop on in to say hi & reassure you I was still in the land of the living (ie online), although, actually I wasn't for a while there
My internet went down last thursday & they didn't didn't get me back online until yesturday. had me in a right panic, with the review people coming one week today & about 90% of Tomo's schoolwork is stored (or active) online. I could just see them believing that But all is good & the universe is saved

Pringle is continuing to expand at a tremendous rate & requires much company but is much more self sufficient now & as of this weekend I have been able to leave him alone for periods during the day without shutting him up in his cage. He just wanders around the paddock mowing the grass & pops in his cage whenever he fancies a drink or a bit of 'goosefood'.
This is a huge relief & a giant step forward as shutting him in that small cage area whenever we had to pop out for the groceries or whatever was not ideal. I still shut him in at night though. For the most part he has the cats under control now, but i wouldn't put it past one of them to be tempted by a spot of sleeping goose, also, it seems like a good routine type habit to get into at this stage. Will have to see how it goes before I decide if I want to maintain it.

As for the wedding preparations, they continue. The bridge platform is complete now, although it is still awaiting steps & a handrail. Unfortunately the wierd weather has hampered a lot of our activitiy there. I suppose it is all of those icebergs floating on past (apparently there will have been about 100 or so by the time the migration is finished) But we have been prone to cold winds & soggy weather lately. Even had hail a couple of times
But this weather has also been to aour advantage in the earth-moving department as clay is definitely easier to dig when wet than when dry.

This last weekend John was out with the neighbour trimming back a few branches in the trees along the neighbours driveway side of the house that were blocking the light to the kids bedroom. They did an excellent job. Sunlight now can actually shine right into their room, & yet the trees still retain their aesthetic appeal
However.... some males should definitely not be allowed to roam freely with a chainsaw!!!
Along the garden side of the bridge there were a few trees that I had said I would prune back, after the bridge was finished, to make sure that they were well shaped to fit in with the bridge & maintain that whole 'cottagey' type look we are aiming for.
I'm sure that you all picked up the past tense in that sentance.
Now the bridge is lined with a bunch of bare sticks & empty branches. One tree he took back almost to a stump. & it was a native too, which is a bummer because it doesn't have the accelerated growth rates that exotic trees have in the NZ soil (most exotic trees grow at about four times the rate here than they do up your way. Gives us a great timber industry... which is stripping the soil of all the old 'rainforest' nutrients that cause the growth rate in the first place... it's hilarious really... the forestry industry push the whole 'renewable resource' thing & people buy it without question people astound me sometimes )
Anyhow, hopefully the remaining sticks will have managed to grow a few leaves by the time of the wedding. But. like I said... people do astound me sometimes

One scary note
On sunday John & I went down & picked up the wedding rings.
That was very strange.
A real 'wow... this is really happening!' Type moment.

We then went & picked out & bought our tent for the honeymoon.
We got it from the best outdoorsy/camping type shop in town as we didn't want to find out that it leaked like crazy, like our last piece of cheap cr*p, the hard way. & luckily they were having a 50% off sale on the day we were there so we were able to get a much better tent than we had hoped for much the same price we had budgeted

Anyhow, that is the latest installment in the continuing saga
Sorry I'm not able to pop in here more often & keep up with what's going on here properly
love & hugs

 

[muckshifter]

... another cirianz blog installment.







* fascinating *

 

[Taffycat]

I am another fan of your up-dates Ciri, they are always so interesting. It sounds as if Pringle is becoming more confident, now that he has grown so big; that's good, and hopefully by the time you are ready to go on honeymoon, he will be even more settled, so that your mind will be at rest regarding his welfare during your absense

Good luck with the review people, I'm sure they'll see that you are doing a great job of home educating - glad you were able to get your PC sorted, it must have been a worry that you could have done without. These things always happen at the worst times, don't they?

Sounds like you are having a busy and exciting time right now, with all the wedding preparations ....hope you will have time to fit Christmas in too Glad to hear that you were able to bag a bargain with the tent, it sounds like a very good one where do you plan to pitch it? (If it's not a secret, of course.) There must be some wonderfully scenic areas to camp in your part of the world Ciri

 

[cirianz]

Sorry mucks I didn't mean to Blog Was just trying to stay intouch when I was so busy not to be able to keep track properly. sorry .

3 Minutes 'till the ERO guys arrive

Arrrrrrrgh!!!!!

So... Absolutely sh*t scared & terrified!!!!

 

[Ian]

"I almost wish this guy would come now so that it was over & done with" - you got your wish now You'll be fine Ciri, I am sure

You've probably already read it, but I did a google for what happens on a visit with the ERO and found this.

Let us know how it goes

 

[muckshifter]

"blog" all you like gal ... I like listening ...

 

[cirianz]

Phew... survived! ERO guys even smiled & laughed occasionally
Have to wait until after xmas for the report though, although I believe(hope) We passed (cross fingerscrossfingerscrossfingers).
Thought of tons of things to say after they left of course. & things I forgot to show them.
But don't reckon we did too bad.
Was appalling timing to have a review though. 2 weeks before xmas, Tomo's end of year dance performance on sunday. My boy's end of year cub bbq on monday, review on tuesday & Tomo's end of year scout bbq on thursday (last night) Tomo's friend over from Malaysia for a visit for the first time in 2 years staying with us 4 nights last week. Talk about chaos Spent the night before the review doing 'last minute cramming' & only got 3 hours sleep.
But now at last we will be able to put the xmas Tree up (the only place it fits is right in front of the bookcase with most of the educational books & DVD's in it, in the lounge anyway ) & get to work on the xmas panic/chaos. I've done almos none of the xmas shopping yet, so guess what I'll be doing this weekend Be battling through all the rest of the last minute shoppers too Tooth & claw survival stuff

Pringle is doing very well, got a chance to check out the goose 'gaggle' when i was at Tomo's bbq last night. Quite shocking just how BIG they grow Did you get a chance to read the Konrad Lorenz books Taffy? I loved them, spent most of the books lmao. loved the image of his wife chasing the geese out of the house with the umbrella
Pringle is starting to show 'gaurd goose' tendencies & 'honks' (his voice is still breaking so his 'honks' are a little erratic) when people come in the gate. Is quite funny. Hear the goat baaaaahing & the goose 'onking before even the dogs start barking when someone comes now

& I am painting again. I tried to do a 'quickie' painting for a friend while her daughter was staying with us & it went all to b*ggery so I'm highly annoyed at it & determined to beat the thing... Also helps that my main current painting... the one on My DA site is f*ckd & any excuse to avoid it is welcome at the moment
Not that I'm procrastinating or anything...

I had better get back to work. Want to get this one finished before xmas if possible. It's personal now
Oh... wanna know something funny... I mixed the exact right colour for the orange flowers by... painting the flowers themselves until I couldn't see the paint anymore

 

[Taffycat]

Well done Ciri, you must be so glad to get that visit out of the way, I'll keep some fingers crossed for you, but sure you won't need them, because it sounds as if you made a good impression with those ERO guys

Yes, I have started the Konrad Lorenz book , although sadly haven't had a chance to read more than a chapter yet, as there hasn't been too much time between Christmas preparations and the odd domestic crisis involving the freezer throwing a wobbly - although nothing to compare with your own recent chaotic time, of course I know that I am going to enjoy it though, and hopefully will have more time for reading over the holiday. Thank you again for recommending him

Pringle sounds as if he is growing into a fine specimen of goose I love your description of his voice breaking - and of the goat-goose-dog "choir" that you now have that must be really tuneful!!

Did you manage to get your tree up yet? Good luck "doing battle" at the shops, crowds are not fun, are they

 

[cirianz]

lol, no I just got back from doing all of my xmas shopping (did some last night & the rest today) & I'm exhausted. Have to say though that, although the shop was packed with 'last minute shoppers' like myself everyone was being very coureous to each other Lots of 'excuse me's' & 'I'm sorry' & 'pleases & Thank yous' exchanged in amoungst all of the inevitible bumps & squeezes you get when you cram that many people into a small space. So, although it was exhausting, it was not nearly as stressfull as I was expecting. Not even as bad as weekly grocery shopping! That really has to be a first for xmas shopping!

whoops, gotta go.