A Farmers Wife and Life

Walk (or run) with me as I share our story.

I’m BACK! March 29, 2012

Filed under: Family,Nanette,Travel — cntryrose @ 9:24 am

Well, sort of. I’m sorry everyone for dropping the ball, so to speak, on this blog. I will be finishing up our New Zealand trip – hopefully this coming week. I’ll also be adding all of the reasons that I’ve not been able to post recently.

Whats been keeping me so busy? Well, it started out with our son’s graduation from Motorcycle Mechanic’s Technical Institute and the delightful weekend we spent with both our boys in Sedona Arizona. Then I’ll talk a bit about the Water Forum at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that my husband Bruce spoke at and the delightful time we had at the Apple Inn. Within a week of that trip I took off for a bit of traveling by myself and went to Maryland to visit with my daughter, her family and our son Shane who had just moved there after graduation. While I was back east I met my sister in Virginia and we spent two delightful days exploring Pennsylvania and the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C.

I returned home last Saturday and my husband and I left (again) on Sunday for Sacramento – and there’s a story there as well, he received a well deserved, but humbly accepted Water Customer of the Year award from the WateReuse Association.

Stay tuned… dairy news, family news and the rest of New Zealand will be coming soon. :)

 

Te Anau March 10, 2012

Filed under: Bruce,New Zealand,Scenery,Travel — cntryrose @ 9:46 pm
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Another of my favorite areas of New Zealand is the town of Te Anau which sits along the eastern shore of Lake Te Anau. Te Anau is internationally known as the “Sightseeing Walking Capital of the World” as it is located near the main southern walking tracks of New Zealand. We stayed here for two nights and enjoyed seeing the sites of this picturesque town. While out exploring the area we came across several “different” modes of transportation. And although we did not partake in these particular three I thought it would be fun to share pictures of them with you.

This first picture is of a motorhome, we did not see many motorhomes in New Zealand, in fact we saw very few of them; and most that we did see were smaller, trimmer models. This is the largest of the ones seen, and we have to wonder also if it were “homemade”.

Homemade? We honestly do not know... but it definitely was unique!

Sea planes are not that unusual… unless you come from the desert area of So. Cali! Yes, we’ve seen them before… on TV or in movies. But for both Bruce & I this seaplane was honestly the first we’d seen “in real life” and it was really rather beautiful as it flew by us.

Yes, it's a plane... but for So. Cali. high desert folks it was unusual to see a "sea plane" and therefore worthy of a picture. :)

And then there was this contraption… as you can see Bruce was fascinated by it, and studied it for quite some time. Both of us agreed that we would not want to be the guy going backwards, trusting our fate to the driver. But we also both agreed that if we’d been able to gather up our other tour participants this would have been fun to try! :) Unfortunately we had all scattered for the day, going different directions in doing exploring on our own.

Now this one... it's odd! A bicycle built for SEVEN!

While in Te Anau we partook of two lake adventures. Our first, a boat trip on Lake Te Anau to the Glow Worm Caves… and then the following day we’re off to see the Milford Sound. Stay tuned… both deserve their own posting and pictures… and those will be forthcoming soon.

 

Age, Experience & Wisdom

Filed under: Bruce,Family,Flowers,Garden,Nanette,Scenery — cntryrose @ 4:56 pm
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With age comes experience and with experience comes wisdom ~ right?

Well one would hope that with age comes experience and then along comes wisdom with that experience. So that’s why I can say… from experience and from wisdom of a job done… that yes, I LOVE my new gazebo, and yes, it was fairly easy to put together, in fact it took us about 3-1/2 hours  from start to finish.

However, if anyone ever asks me to help them put their new gazebo together, because yes, I am experienced… but from that experienced wisdom I will wish them well and promise to them that’s it’s fairly easy and goes pretty quickly. However, I won’t mention to them the aching arms, the oh so sore back and yes, even my leg muscles which are screaming from climbing up and down the ladder many, many times; all of these “fun” experiences from this adventure today. Nor will I mention to them the broken fingernails, nor the sweat that starts running down your face and other body parts… but I will tell them how awesome it is to sit under your gazebo after construction is done, and how much we are looking forward to enjoying “fly/mosquito free” dinners out-of-doors and I will also wish  anyone well on their adventure to come… when they put their own gazebo up… without me! ;-)

 

Clinton, Gore, Cows & Sheep March 8, 2012

Filed under: New Zealand,Scenery,Travel — cntryrose @ 10:17 am
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Now what, you may ask, does Clinton, Gore, Cows & Sheep have to do with anything in the same description? Well, we’re on our way to Te Anau on the western side of New Zealand’s South Island after spending the night in Dunedin (pronounced “Do-NEE-din). As we travel we will pass through Clinton, and then stop for just a bit in Gore; and as we travel along the scenery is now mostly composed of rolling hills with paddocks where we see lots and lots of dairy cows and then as we climb higher into the mountains we begin to see more and more sheep!


We stopped for lunch in Gore… at The Moth, a wonderful restaurant with many delicious choices. Shown below is my selection for lunch and it is not only “pretty” it is incredibly tasty! A red onion, goat’s cheese and fig tart, served alongside a balsamic salad which more than met my expectations. It was Oh. So. Very. YUMMY!

While we did not have time this day to walk about the vintage aircraft museum that “The Moth” is named for and adjacent too, we did enjoy the antique wooden airplane propellers hanging on the walls of the restaurant which were reminiscent of times gone by. And as always, we enjoyed each others company as we discussed what we’d seen this day on our trip.

Leaving The Moth we head ever westward towards the Southern Alps, Fiords and Sounds that we will finish up our trip with. The weather stays warm, although a bit brisk in the shade and we see a decidedly increase of sheep grazing in the paddocks and fewer cattle – evidence that we are climbing higher into the mountains and more into “cold” country where sheep excel.

 

Mother Nature’s Soccer Balls March 6, 2012

Filed under: Bruce,Nanette,New Zealand,Ocean,Scenery,Travel — cntryrose @ 10:09 am
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Mother Nature’s Soccer Balls? Well… they look like they could have been soccer balls!

One of the more unusual sights that we enjoyed on our trip was the Moeraki Boulders. Strewn upon Koekohe Beach south of Oamaru on New Zealand’s Otago Coastline they look as if Mother Nature grew tired of playing soccer. The boulders draw crowds that climb upon them, gaze upon and wonder about just “how” these spherical stones came to be.

These large stone spheres are approximately 60 million years old and were formed in ancient sea sediments by a process known as concretion and are made of mud, fine silt and clay, which is cemented by calcite. In more recent time the stones are now being exposed due to erosion of the shoreline cliffs along the coast. Several of these stones can boast that they weigh up to several tons and have a diameter of 7 feet.

A Maori legend tells that the stones are made from the remains of various baskets washed upon the shore after the canoe Araiteuru became wrecked at nearby Shag Point.

For more information on these fascinating works of Mother Nature please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders

 

Lets Enjoy Some Agricultural Scenery March 4, 2012

Filed under: Animals,Dairy,New Zealand,Scenery,Travel — cntryrose @ 10:10 am
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As we were driving to our next stop, the Moeraki Boulders in Central Otago we drove through some outstanding agricultural scenery… so green, so beautiful and so vast!

 

Relaxing In Oamaru

Filed under: Flowers,New Zealand,Scenery,Travel — cntryrose @ 8:58 am
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After touring Oamaru with Jock Webster we traveled to his home to enjoy a wonderful bar-b-que out-of-doors in he and his wife Helen’s delightful front yard. What a beautiful oasis they have created among the trees, grasses and fields.

I was enchanted with the birds that Helen made and placed in her garden, ,made of wrapped wire they were a graceful addition to their beautiful yard. And yes, I will admit, a twinge of jealousy for her beautiful hot house and the scrumptious tomatoes we enjoyed that she had grown there. No matter where we wandered that day, inside their beautifully restored “old” home or throughout their gardens we were met with pockets and vast expanses of beauty. Truly a home to relax in and we felt as welcomed as longtime friends would be, both Bruce & I will always have fond memories of our hours spent with Jock & Helen.

 

 
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