A Lucky Find

I recently won an auction on Trademe for these two cute wooden toys-an ironing board and a clothes horse.

Dad made this little iron for me when I was about 4. Sofia always gets it out when I'm ironing and has been hankering for a board to go with it so I was so pleased to spot these. I only had to pay $16.

  Perfect for hanging the doll's clothes to dry.

And they fold up beautifully as well. Little treasures.

Na'uli's New Baby

Mum made Na'uli this new baby doll for her 3rd birthday.

 She has a sweet little flanelette nightie and wee button up nappy.

Na fell in love straight away

 Here she is having a cuddle with Great Nanny in the background

And a snuggle in bed with New Doll and Toby too.

Na'uli's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated simply this year for Na'uli's birthday. Lunch with 2 Aunties and a cousin, a visit from some 3rd cousins, presents and some of her favourite food for tea.

 Opening her presents from big cousin Vincent

 Checking out the new doll's highchair

 Feeding Toby some rice bubbles

Birthday badge from Great Nan

 Cuddles with little 3rd cuzzie Ofa

The cake/s

Eating one of her favourite foods...prawns.

We'll celebrate again on Sunday with Mama and Pa and some friends.

Marinated Mushrooms

Marinated Mushrooms

300g tightly closed small mushrooms

1/4 c. wine vinegar

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp oreganum

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 c. olive oil

1 T tomato paste

Clean mushroom and trim stems. Measure all ingredients into a pot, bring to the boil. Add mushrooms, stir until they soften and are covered with hot liquid. Simmer about 3 minutes and leave to cool. Serve warm, hot or at room temperature within 3 days, refrigerating in the meantime

Playcentre

Today we had our first visit to the local Playcentre.

 I thought it might be a good way for us to meet some people in the community and make some new friends.

We all really enjoyed it.

A highlight was making pinwheel scones with blackberries and apples picked by the children right out of the playcentre's own garden.

The children sat outside and ate the warm scones while listening to a story.

We will definitely go back next week.

Cows/Pulu

Our first cows arrived yesterday, kindly arranged, picked up and delivered by my big sister/our small farm advisor Carmen.

They're about six months old, quite friendly and very cute.

Chooks/Moa

The chooks are my department. I love chooks and hope to build up a small flock of interesting characters.
Our first chooks came from Jen and John. This brown shaver is named Charlotte.

The girls love her because she will eat out of their hand.

This lady who, we've named Rose, and her four babies.

Unfortunately our little dog Coco killed one chick and the rest have turned out to be roosters:(

When Jen was offering me the mother hen with babies she said a rooster would be a compulsory accessory as he was 'in love' with the mother hen! This is him...

We bought two pullets from Little River at 10 weeks old. They're now nearly 20 weeks so fingers crossed that they will start laying soon. Sofia named them Flower-flower and Leaf-leaf.

Yesterday we added to our flock again.

This is Topaz and her four chicks

Next up, cows.

Sheep/Sipi

 We bought 6 sheep from my sister and her partner.

And another 4 from a local farmer.

Two have since been enjoyed on the spit.

Next up, chooks.

Goats/Kosi

These are our two goats. Paula originally wanted a goat to keep the grass down along the driveway and around the yard. He was talked into buying two so they had company. We soon realised that they were not going to be happy being tethered. So they now live in a paddock beside the driveway, eat the grass in there, run when we approach or a car goes by and really don't do anything useful at all...a learning curve as we now realise it would have been better to have a hand-reared kid.

 Sofia has called this goat Lili-Fox, after a student I taught last year!

 And Na has named this goat Shabalah.

Next up, sheep.

Pigs/Puaka

These were our first animals on our little farm. Three has now become two (one was cooked on the spit) and they have grown to this...

 Next we got 2 females. This little girl...

and this sow

who soon gave birth to nine piglets

on Paula's birthday.

What more could one pig eating Tongan boy want than enought pigs for a monthly spit roast for nearly a year!

Look how big they've grown now...

Next up, goats.