Anniversary

Well now, all of a sudden this blog’s one year anniversary has cantered up.

It’s been a very eventful twelve months. First I dragged enticed my very forbearing husband out of the big city to live on 14 acres of Northland, two hours drive from the nearest BurgerFuel outlet. We both gave up our reliable sources of income. I panicked a bit. We sold our old house and one rainy day I will get around to unpacking the rest of those boxes in the living room.

I still do a bit of back and forth to Auckland, but once a certain short term contract comes to an end in November there will be a little less travel. Just now though this is my favorite view because it means I’m driving home.

Whangarei Heads from the Brynderwyns (it’s ok, someone else was driving when I took this).

The Forbearing Husband has adapted admirably. He took to a life with a chainsaw like a guinea fowl duck to water, and has spent many happy hours masterfully striding around Seven Acre Wood cutting up fallen trees to fill the woodsheds.

Man and chainsaw

As for how I am coping with the move… Well, I used to weed a veggie patch on a 1/4 acre and water arrived at our taps with no visible effort from anyone. Recently I’ve been weeding whole paddocks*, and I know far more about the operation and maintenance of a rural water pump than I ever thought I would want to.

Buying this place has been (almost) the scariest thing I have ever done. Last year, while I was still working three days a week in Auckland, I would drive up here listening to Alanis Morissette recommend ‘biting off more than you can chew’ and think ‘Yup, just did that!’.**

My list of projects is endless. In the space of a walk from the house to the barn I can easily spot another five things to add to my To-Do-Urgently list. Right now we have a pile of about 100 flax bushes ready to go into the ground of which about 20 or so have been planted*, there’s a second round of JC weeding in the orange grove which I started and need to finish, I really should do something about those hairline cracks in our concrete water tank (…first find out what it is exactly I am supposed to do), then there’s the leaking roof on the tack shed that needs repairing before I can move my saddles out of our bedroom (did I mention that the husband is very forbearing?), oh and that’s not to mention a huge pile of weeds due for incineration.

So, the property is large, the work seems unrelenting, and the weeding is like a game of whack a mole. Does Chrissy B want to go back to town now?

Ha, not a chance! I get to wake up to cows mooing on the dairy farm across the stream and ponies snorting in our paddocks; I go strolling in the woods as the dogs sniff around in the undergrowth and Kitty-Pop trots along behind (she does like to take a walk with the family), I take Young Explorers rock hopping to the island and think about Swallows and Amazons, and yes, I even enjoy weeding paddocks — they look so beautiful and grassy afterwards. Best place I’ve ever lived. Ever.

Getting comfortable in our new perch.

Well that’s me, what about you? We started with five or so in The Readership, and I hope most of you are hanging on. Big thanks to everyone who has ever left a comment. The Forbearing Husband is well used to my exclamations ‘Look, someone read my blog!’ (I even get excited when my own just-posted posts pop up in my blog feed which I am aware is a bit sad).

Anyway, if you feel like giving a lonely blogger a bit of a thrill leave me a comment (even if it’s just a smiley face) and we’ll do a bit of a headcount. Promise to reply.

* Big thanks to the Williams family for help with weeding in the Bottom Paddock, and to the Irish Lads Eamon and Michael who planted flax.

** And I never could have done it without the Forbearing Husband. It’s amazing how much braver you can be when you know for sure someone you love will always have your back. Thank you <heart emoji>.