Thursday, January 19, 2012

So, what have we been up to?

Well, we've been quite busy. We've been diving a couple of times. I dived on the Rainbow Warrior which was interesting, but I am much more of a reef diver - I love looking at corals and fish and underwater landscapes rather than a hulking piece of metal!! The following day I went out for some  reef dives and caught a few cray while I was at it.

I want to reiterate that there are quotas and size restrictions of what you can take. We always take less than our quota and make sure they are larger than the smallest size allowed. I like to think that we are very responsible about the whole thing. We're lucky to live where we do so certainly don't want to trash the place.



Yesterday we went to the sale yards to see if there was a wee steer we could buy. Lloyd and Danny are keen to raise one and then have it homekilled. I am not naive enough to think that I will manage one mouthful of cow I've seen grow for 2 years.  Ho hum! However, there wasn't anything that was suitable, which is probably not a bad thing as last night we pretty much came to the decision that we're going to move into alpacas and sell the cows. If we do this we'll keep just one of the ones we have and sell the 10. Just need to pick up the phone and call the stock agent.....

The sales are quite fun though. There were some really gorgeous looking cows there. I never feel so bad going to a sale cos I think these animals are all for sale to go to new homes. I assume if they are going to the meatworks they go straight there. That's what I think - so please don't tell me if I'm wrong - I'd rather go with  'ignorance is bliss' on this one!



 I've been a couple of times before and this sale had a lot more animals in it - way more in fact. And the whole bidding thing is completely crazy - I think we'd need to go a few more times to totally get what's going on.



Moving on - chooks! We had some yoghurt that was a bit out of date so I gave it to the chickens - oh my! They loved it. By the time they'd finished it was all over their faces and their heads, they were so funny.

 Now for a bit of fun!! Our potatoes have done amazingly this year - Silje planted them all beautifully and the weather, though not perfect for us, seems to have been rather perfect for potatoes as they are huge! This one is huge AND funny ( and a little rude)! We ate it - it was gorgeous!

9 comments:

  1. You guys have been busy!

    You're going the opposite of us. We used to have alpacas and then the parents send the a packin' ... The lady momma got them from said they were tame. NOT! They were unruly and liked to karate chop the humans as they walked by. Not to mention, their pee and poo could be smelled for miles and miles!! ACK! But hey, other than that the parents thought they were pretty cute. Now we have some Texas Longhorns (pets only), momma is like you. She couldn't eat anything she watched grow on the ranch.

    Loving your blog!
    The Smushies

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  2. Oh my.. .that potato!! :) I love to watch my chickens eat yogurt too. In fact, I confess to buying the cheaper plain kind in a big carton just for my own personal entertainment of watching the flock devour it. There, I've said it :) Love your blog.. and I don't visit nearly often enough. Will try to do better! -Tammy

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  3. Those Cray look sumptuous,and the potato is certainly very funny. I laughed my head off.
    hugs
    Kay

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  4. Hi Laura. I've struggled with the whole home kill thing too. What really tipped me over the edge was when a builder pulled the plug on a freezer with an entire beast and by the time we found out, all the meat had defrosted. I spent two days cooking meat, meat and more meat. So did Mum and so did my sister. We haven't done one since! On the other hand, I would have struggled eating that potato - the giggles would have been too much. Alison

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  5. Certainly an interesting potato. Delightful looking chooks!

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  6. Funny looking potatoe but funnier hens.

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  7. Oh you seem to have so much fun! I love it! Good for you.

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  8. Ha---that potato is hilarious! It's always wonderful when nature sends us an extra smile. ;) Love the idea of the alpacas and will be interested to continue to follow your journey with them. The diving sounds absolutely amazing---something I'd like to be able to learn how to do in my life. Do you take any underwater photos ever?

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  9. SA if you look down the right side of my blog for tags - see rarotonga near the bottom, there are a few underwater pics there...

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I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x