rivettingKateTaylor

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | August 10, 2009

low to high….

Friday morning was not successful for my lambing percentage, which took a dramatic dive with the death (in my nursing arms) of two of a set of triplets.

They were born in the middle of a very hard frost. No amount of coaxing and warm colostrum (that is a story in itself – sheep tipping is not my forte) would entice them to give life another try. Dammit.

The good news though, hence the title low to high, was winning a raffle on Friday night that included a pork roast and a spring lamb (processed, not bouncing in the paddock).

We took off on Friday afternoon up to our old haunt, Puketapu, to attend the quiz evening hosted by the Puketapu Preschool. And we came third!!!!! I have never looked likely to place in one of these quizes so it was awesome to get there – we all played our part (gutted through that our joker round for double points landed on the science round and not the sport round!)

And then we won the raffle, which also included an electric wok, kids books and costumes and an amazing beauty hamper.

So it ended up being a lucky day after all. Forgot about the plight of my lambs pretty quickly didn’t I.

At least most of the lambs around the region have been blessed with decent weather over the first few weeks of their lives. And boy do we need them. Sheep numbers have plummeted with the drought on the East Coast (although the rising kiwi dollar isn’t going to help the prices despite some resemblance of spring grass growth out there).

And the chooks are laying again! Bring on a big fat cheesy omelette. Or not. I’m supposed to be behaving myself. Time for a coffee instead. Out on the deck in the warm Central Hawke’s Bay spring sunshine.

2 Comments

Posted in Family, Rural | Tags: beauty hamper, Central Hawke's Bay, chooks, colostrum, eggs, frost, highs and lows, lambing, lambs, life, lucky, Puketapu, raffle, spring, sunshine, winning

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | August 5, 2009

in the words of Peter Jones….

In the immortal words of All Black no8 Peter Jones… “I’m buggered.”

Today marked my first day back at golf for almost three months after hurting my finger at netball. And I tell you, it takes a hell of a lot of walking when you’re zigzagging the course!

Then it was my daughter’s netball practice after school (I’m the coach – they’re all 7 and 8), home in time to bring in the washing (two loads hung out before golf) and light the fire and off to my netball practice. Our coach attended a workshop at the weekend so we were the guinea pigs for some new drills tonight.

Who says I never do anything. Well, no work as such was done today but deadlines were met on Monday and next week’s are well in hand.

Spring is starting to poke its shoots through… the kids were delighted driving down SH2 the other day to see the Taniwha daffodils are sprouting. Mrs Mabin has been planting all sorts of beautiful daffies for more than 30 years and they now cover a few hectares. You pay a $2.50 donation to Plunket for a bucket of blooms. Divine. I love daffodils.

We also have a few lambs in the paddock, two sets of twins no less – that’s a 200% lambing so far!

2 Comments

Posted in Rural, sport

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | July 30, 2009

my backpacking days are over

All those nights spent in dodgy backpackers with one eye open or awesome ones with great people from all over the world have faded into the back of my memory in the wake of a wake up call last night… I need comfort.

It’s only 1hr20 drive home from a conference I am writing up in Napier (Pipfruit NZ for the Orchardist mag) but I decided it was worth my while to stay up there and do some work in the evening.

So I did some googling for cheap accommodation (gotta do my bit to keep the budget in line). All I needed, I thought, was a bed, shower and toilet (I knew an ensuite was a must, no share there!) So I booked into a backpackers with a single room plus ensuite.

The supermarket visit supplied a Watties hotpot, cuppa soup, and some crackers and lemon, lime and bitters for the five minutes of cooking and cooling time.

One look at the sparse and old fashioned look of the room was the first notch on my “uncomfortableness” meter. Peeling paint, one blanket (heater supplied), threadbare towel for the shower with the gorgeous fluro orange curtain and one power point (cellphone charger, laptop plug, hairdryer….)

One look at the inside of the first microwave I opened was the second, third and fourth notch.

The lack of clean mug, spoon… fifth notch.

Approving glances from the five Spanish-speaking blokes in the dining room – sixth notch.

Passing half a dozen “young people in weird clothing” on the stairs heading down from the same floor as me – seventh notch.

Rattling cold from the sash window beside the bed – bags packed and I’m off. I told the lady I had to go home again.

First stop – real motel.

Jug – coffee supplied. Air conditioned heat. Electric blanket. TV. Alarm clock. Internet access. Off street, undercover parking.

Thank you Thomas for spoiling me over the past 15 years in the way to which I have become accustomed.

Roll on five star.

3 Comments

Posted in Family | Tags: air conditioning, backpacking, cheap, comfort, conference, hotel, motel, Napier

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | July 26, 2009

What a ride!

The best of Central Hawke’s Bay was on show to a few hundred people at the annual Norsewood to Takapau Fun Challenge today.

A slight frost followed by a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze welcomed cyclists, runners and walkers of all ages to the Lions Club-organised event, with thanks to Patrice from Sport Hawke’s Bay.

Our school PTA was doing the sausage sizzle (250 sold!) but my first aim was to make it from Norsewood to Takapau myself – a road driven many times but only attempted under my own steam once a year!

The first two years we lived in CHB we joined the walkers at our front gate for the last 4km into town.

Last year I rode with my son, then six, on his little sixteen-inch with no gears. What a lovely ride it was – bribing with chocolates at the most opportune moments (halfway up both the hills!)

This year it was Sarah’s turn. She is nine and has a gear bike. I discovered today that she doesn’t use them properly and is not very fit. I also discovered (well, I already knew) that I am one of those pushy parents always making their kids go harder or faster.

She could have done so much better today – she could have creamed it home (like last year when she was riding with her father). But it was a fun challenge after all?

It’s weird that Thomas and I are very competitive in the sports we watch and the sports we play and our children are laid back and into participation over success, while a friend of mine is more into participation and her children are very competitive!

Have we made them into the opposite of what we portray?

Or is that far too deep for a Sunday night, when one is supposed to be finishing a 3000-word feature before the two-hour final of Grey’s Anatomy starts?

Perhaps it is because I haven’t had glass of wine for a job well done today.

The vege garden even got weeded when we got back. It was too nice a day not to get a job like that done.

Photos were almost posted of the six or seven baby carrots harvested from the garden, but considering they were supposed to be amongst 30 or 40 full-size carrots it might have been a tad embarrassing.

kick up the backside

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | July 22, 2009

oh wot a bootiful mawning

Okay, taking the mickey with my spelling, before you think I’m a shocking writer and should be kicked off the bloggersphere.

But it is a beautiful morning – no wind, no frost, no rain… just a gorgeous warm sun shining into my living room. And my new master bedroom!

We have had builders, plumbers and electricians coming out of our ears for the past three months and this morning I am blissfully alone.

Nothing could deter me from my run this morning – shoes on, trackies at the ready when the kids got on the bus and off down the road I went. Sweatshirt off in the first five minutes (wish I could do the same with my calf muscles – one of the problems with having Rivett genes is that my legs are a tad shorter than ideal).

We had a huge netball practice last night – after having the school holidays off the coach decided we needed to reinstate our fitness circuit work. And boy, did we. But I still managed to get out there this morning. Phew.

If you look back through my posts, you will find one on procrastination. Surprisingly for me, it was almost a year ago and on a day exactly like today when I was struggling to get my brain into gear for a feature.

Well the same applies today. I waxed lyrical on Jamie Mackay’s Farming Show on the radio yesterday about all these cool interviews I was doing with the friends and contacts of Tim O’Sullivan, the new National Bank Young Farmer of the Year. I have some awesome quotes and great content to work with.

Now I have to play with it all. And I’m putting it off. He sounds like such an awesome guy while at the same time being your true blue, rugby-playing, farming type of kiwi bloke – I want to do him justice. So you will have to buy the next issue of Young Country magazine and read it!

https://rivettingkatetaylor.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/procrastination-and-pet-lambs/

www.youngcountry.co.nz

vrooom…

If you don’t slow down when passing a school bus, you’re a bloody idiot.

The legal speed limit when passing a stationary school bus is 20km an hour …. whether or not it has stopped on your side of the road.

The author of a book I read as a teenager described the sound made by turkeys (or kangaroos or wallabies or some form of wildlife) hitting the bullbars on the front of his ute. I thought of this quote yesterday when putting my children on the school bus at the front gate.

Why? Because people are speeding past our school bus when my children are getting on and off. And the thought of them getting walloped by a vehicle is scary as hell.

They have been taught all the right things about looking both ways, walking straight across the road with no dawdling, standing up straight looking at a vehicle when it passes so the driver knows you have seen them… even as far as knowing they have to let the cat get run over if it is stupid enough to follow us across the road when there’s a car coming.

We’re not on a state highway but we are on a busy rural road. And traffic goes all of the 100kmh limit (plus some).

My kids have seen enough squashed possums on the road (not to mention have buried two kittens, which they didn’t see) to know what would happen to their own bodies if they were hit by a car.

But they are children. Children can’t judge speed. They may not see another vehicle following the first one. And we all know they are easily distracted. “Look mummy, a rainbow..” (Kitten, fluffy cloud, hawk, lamb, dandelion… insert appropriate word!)

Do you really want the death or maiming of a child on your conscience?

And yet still, people insist on not slowing down for school buses. Some dork even passed me (while still going about 100km) on SH2 the other afternoon while I was slowing down for a school bus stopped on the other side of the road. Now it was obvious to me from local knowledge that the children getting off the bus were going to walk straight down their driveway after they got off the bus. But you never know do you? Gust of wind blows a letter or certificate out of their hand and they follow it?

Some people might just be rude all the time. The driver of one of the vehicles that doesn’t slow down when my kids are getting on the bus (and she has small children in her car) made no effort to slow down when passing me jogging on the side of the road this morning either (and I got a stone flicked on my leg). Cow.

Anyway – the message.

Since 1987, 23 children have been killed, 47 seriously injured and 92 received minor injuries when crossing a road to or from a school bus.

Apparently a check done in Matamata showed the average speed of motorists when passing a stopped school bus was 85kmh on the side of the bus and 93kmh on the opposite side of the road. I reiterate – the speed limit is 20kmh.

Thank you to a recent email from Rural Women NZ for those stats. It has launched a campaign to help solve this issue – its recommendations include re-arranging school bus runs, improving bus stopping places, changing the rules to enable effective enforcement of the Road Code, installation of flashing lights and signs on buses, and a driver awareness campaign.

For now though, as I said at the start: if you don’t slow down when passing a school bus, you’re a bloody idiot.

4 Comments

Posted in Family, Rural, Social themes | Tags: children, crashes, driving, injuries, road safety, roads, Rural Women NZ, school bus, speed, speed limit, stationary school bus

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | July 15, 2009

little trooper

Did you see the item about the two-year-old girl who watched her favourite TV show talking about how to call emergency services… then within a couple of days she was calling 999 for her Mum! (It was in UK – obviously ours is 111.) Awesome.

She’s my hero of the day.

I taught my kids from an early age about calling 111 if there was ever a situation that Thomas and I weren’t in a position to talk to them or respond to them (crikey wait til they’re teenagers).

One day I was chopping firewood and piling it up in the shed and Sarah and I (she was about 6 then I guess) were having a discussion about me hurting myself with the axe (a distinct possibility!)

We went through the numbers, what to say to the operator and the address – how to say it nice and slow etc. Then a pile of wood fell down and whacked me in the shins and I couldn’t say a word (I was thinking a few in between trying not to throw up).

Sarah ran inside and started to phone 111!

Good girl.

We can only hope they learn the lessons as they go so they can use them when they need them.

It has reminded me of something Celia Lashlie said to a gathering in Waipukurau a few years ago (about her He’ll Be Right book).

Let your children make decisions about their life from an early stage – starting with what to have in their sandwiches through to deciding between making their own lunch or going without! (very basic example but hopefully you know what I mean).

This would help them in later years when all of a sudden they were faced with a red light or a flashing police light and had to make the decision between putting their foot on the accelerator or pulling over.

They shouldn’t be making their first real decisions when the outcome is important.

Well that’s my thought for the day.. I’m off to Gisborne to pick up the kids (I haven’t seen them for eight days – I love my mother-in-law!)

Thoughts go to to the shaking members of my family in Southland – rock n roll!

1 Comment

Posted in Family | Tags: 111, 999, Celia Lashlie, children, decisions, earthquake, emergency. operator, shaking

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | July 14, 2009

what a great job

Months and months of preparation – district and regional finals, sponsor negotiations, contestant preparation (from profiles to suit measurements), ticket printing and some hard-on marketing – all boiled down to four fantastic days in Palmerston North last week.

I’m still recovering. And my percentage of the work was tiny (not for me personally – but over the whole scheme of things!)

And they weren’t without their hassles – including the technical convenor coming down with Norovirus at the start of last week meant not only did she have to hand over months of work to someone else at the critical moment, but all the paperwork had to be destroyed and reprinted in case of lingering infection risk.

And good on the practical convenors who didn’t blink an eye (in public) about the growing volume of mud underfoot at the railway land (and good on the council for turning a blind eye). Thank goodness for the extra contingencies in the budget that allowed for about 300 cubic metres of mulch and bark to be delivered (and an extra well done to the poor buggers who had to spread it).

Convenor Gary Massicks deserves the “I-stayed-calm-in-the-midst-of-near-catastrophe” award and hence, there was no catastrophe. A seating plan hiccup for the Regent on Broadway, not discovered until the doors were actually opened at show time, resulted in some non-existent seats including the one which would host the bottom of the boss of the principal sponsor. Shuffle shuffle. Gary appeared to go into survival mode (actually I stole that comment from him – he said it had to be fixed. Then and there.) She’ll be right. And it was. Good on you Charlie. Must have been those Irish rugby shorts from the green-themed Speeches Dinner.

Seeing the sponsors and Young Farmers dressed up for the speeches dinner was fantastic. We had ninja turtles and army personnel. We had a pea pod (go Roz!) and other miscellaneous plants and vegetables. Irish rugby players, Aussie Rules players, a couple of Turbos (who got beaten by the Magpies last week but that’s another story) and some truly hideous green ensembles from a bygone era (including mine – thanks Mum). The theme was “Keep It Green” so we also had a few rastas and hemp-lookalikes too.

Another bonus for me for the week was seeing a great old friend of mine who had travelled up with her son for AgriKids (the Heriot Hillbillies won the team event – and also included my cousin’s boy!)

And then you can’t forget the effort of the contestants. Phew.

I have to interview the winner, Tim in the next week or so for the Young Country magazine. What a winner. All the guys who get to that level are great but he is such a true blue, rugby-playing kiwi farmer bloke.

Right. Better go and unpack my suitcase from the Grand Final. We have been home for three days after all.

At least my boots have surfaced – at the front door of the Palmerston North Travelodge where I left them.

and the winner is….

Tonight Pleasant Point’s Tim O’Sullivan earnt the right to call himself the 2009 Young Farmer of the Year.

Actually, over the past few days, half a dozen young farmers have earnt the right to be very proud of themselves – but only one gets to take home the trophy and $90,000 worth of prizes!

Second placegetter Richard Copland from Gore would be very proud of himself for runner-up (and so he should be) but wouldn’t you always wonder where you could have picked up just four more points.

Tim is a humble man of few words. A rugby-playing, farming good old kiwi bloke. A Colin Meads. Yep.

And a bloody good bloke too. Good on ya mate.

We’re just home from the ball. The carriage is once again a pumpkin.

The skinny 18-somethings in their fabulous new frocks are all still dancing, with RTD in hand, to a band playing a mix of songs from “Your sex is on fire” to Cold Chisel. Gotta love it even though anyone out of Young Farmers age feels absolutely ancient (or is it just us?!)

and what’s with the mullets? Not only were three of the six AgriKids finalists on the stage tonight sporting very 80s-like mullets – so were many of the 20-somethings on the dance floor later.

No way.