Cowboy Boots & Broken Fingers

A Tiny Tale: Part One — The Purchase

August 17, 2019chrissyb 6 Comments

As promised, this is the story of how I sort of accidentally bought a tiny house on Trade Me, and how the Forbearing Husband and I moved from it Waipu to the farmlet. What, you’ve never accidentally bought a $23,000 item on Trade Me? Well, where on earth is your sense of adventure?!

Ok, full disclosure, the purchase wasn’t unplanned, just unexpected. The story goes like this.

Way back before we moved to The Land I had decided that it would be fun and functional to have a shepherd’s hut on the property. A cute and comfortable little retreat for accommodating all the many visitors I hoped we’d have. And which we have had. A big cheer for all who visit — we love you!

I was imagining something like this Plankbridge hut. Mill Gully Huts make similar ones in Wellsford, NZ.

Research on NZ shepherd’s huts turned up Shepherd’s Huts NZ in Titirangi, not far from where we were living back then. I rang Steve, the owner, and discovered he had a bit of a waiting list for huts which I duly added myself to. About a year later, having heard nothing from him, and in the meantime having moved to Northland, I rang again. I was told he’d become completely swamped with orders after appearing in a Grand Designs NZ episode, and had lost his wait list in the confusion of it all. Oh, and also his prices had increased significantly. I was very happy for him in his success, but, funds being limited, I took myself off the waiting list.

Investigating other options led me to Mill Gully Huts near Wellsford. They charged bit more than the original price of the Titirangi huts, but were not as expensive as the revised pricing. Also Wellsford was much closer to our Northland abode, which would cut down on moving costs for the new hut. I rang Dave and discovered it took around six months for a build, so I started saving to bridge the price gap.

It took a while (what with juggling other major expenses on the farmlet), but eventually I accumulated the required amount of dosh. I was on the verge of pulling the trigger on a Mill Gully shepherds hut when I found something interesting on Trade Me. A Love Shack cabin showed up for sale. In my research on shepherd huts and cabins I had called the people at Love Shack. They do the absolute prettiest tiny abodes, but after calling them and hearing their prices I had whimpered quietly and crossed them off my list.

This Love Shack was listed in Waipu and had a reserve set a couple of thousand dollars cheaper than the shepherd’s hut I had just saved up for. There were 44 people watching the auction, and a bunch of questions already, so I knew that bidding on it was going to go crazy. Nevertheless, I thought for fun I’d place one bid at the start price using BidBud (a fantastic TradeMe helper, for those who don’t already know). I set my bid up five days before the end of the auction, and then just forgot all about it.

Until this happened!

Yikes!

Well colour me surprised! And the Forbearing Husband too. Bless him, as usual he made encouraging noises and promised to help me pick it up. He has since made me promise faithfully never to ask him to move a tiny house ever again…

…to be continued. I’ll tell you the other half of this story and show you photos of Tiny next Saturday in ‘A Tiny Tale: Part Two — The Move’. Tune on in again folks.

In the meantime, tell me, what’s the scariest thing you’ve accidentally bought?

What Comes Around

August 10, 2019chrissyb 10 Comments

Looking for fashion advice? Take a seat, you’ve come to the right place.

I was re-reading some old blog posts today and I happened on this one from February 2017. in which I suggested (in a spirit of irony) that I keep my ugg boots for a bit longer in case they came back into fashion. And what was I wearing today, at the very moment of reading my own sage advice? Why, my ugg boots. That’s what!

They narrowly escaped a one way trip to the op shop soon after that post was written. They got all the way to the box by the front door before I relented and put them back at the bottom of the wardrobe. And boy am I glad I did. The next time I came across them was earlier this winter while rummaging for an outfit to wear to a masquerade ball. No, I didn’t wear them to the ball (can’t believe you asked), but I did decide I quite liked them again. So snuggly warm, and just the thing to visually balance out skinny jeans, or in my case jodhpurs.

Vita Sackville West in jodhpurs and what are surely an early version of ugg boots.

Well, no sooner had I started wearing them than I’m seeing ugg boots pop up everywhere. Clearly my fashion sense is inspiring a trend. Look at this. A whole article on rich and famous people homing in on my ugg boot vibe.

In 2019 even Katie Holmes is sporting ugg boots.

Hers are a little more chic than mine, but I bet she paid more than $20 for them.

Mine were bought from The Red Shed for $19.99, somewhere back in the 2000’s, and as you can see, are brought right up to the minute here by being paired with my ‘bunny-wabbit’ pyjama pants (Hospice Shop, 2019, $1). Awesome no?!

P.S. I think, given my fashion forward track record, you can expect to be seeing many of the rich and famous in ‘bunny-wabbit’ pyjama pants by 2020.

What’s your favorite snuggly warm winter attire? Do you own anything you almost gave to the op shop that you’re glad you didn’t? The comment box is open.

Green Ambition

August 3, 2019chrissyb 8 Comments

It all started with Deborah and I talking about what fun it would be to have a greenhouse. Imagine being able to grow basil all year round! How about early tomatoes? Frangipani? And, since my cunning plan to use the thermal mass of the rocks in the Mediterranean Garden to grow fabulous eggplants has so far yielded only one chicken-egg-sized orb, lets think about eggplants too. Excited yet?!

Needless to say, we were. So when Deborah spotted this charmingly decrepit structure on Trade Me we placed a bid.

It’s missing some glass, and the whole thing is held in place by kikuyu…

… but never mind the work, think of the potential?

And won it for $152!

That was the easy bit. Before bidding Deborah had asked the seller about breaking the structure down to move it, and been assured this would be a piece of cake. In fact, as it turned out, our greenhouse was more like a very large and very stale French baguette; extremely hard to pull apart, and quite difficult to manoeuvre in one piece.

Firstly, as we soon discovered, the seller had clean forgotten he’d glued all of the glass to the frame. Apparently a couple of panes had once blown out during a storm, leading him to slap a good bead of silicon around each of the remaining 60 or so. Removing them became an art involving stanley knives, careful leverage, and quite a lot of broken glass.

We negotiated a $50 refund and carried on.

The second problem became evident when Deborah and I tried to undo one of the hundred or so sets of nuts and bolts holding the structure together. Our seller had completely underestimated the amount of corrosion in the fastenings. Short of grinding off each individual bolt, this greenhouse was going to be staying stubbornly in one piece. Our plan to dismantle, transport and then reassemble our purchase at home was clearly not going to fly. We returned to the farmlet somewhat disheartened.

After a nice cup of tea and bit of discussion, optimism prevailed, and we concocted a new plan. We would return the following weekend with a large trailer, lift the whole frame onto it, and drive our stale french baguette home in one piece. Easy… Except for the problem of actually getting the thing up onto the trailer. That galvanised steel greenhouse frame was pretty solid, and, with the Forbearing Husband having been called away to Wellington, we were one man down. Time to ring a friend…

Or two. Stunt Girl and Nova Scotia Steve were enlisted. I enticed them away from their little piece of Kaiwaka paradise with promises of chocolate and farmlet oranges, and off we all went.

The greenhouse frame with a Stephen at each end.

The Two Stephens had never met before, but they went to work as if they’d been moving greenhouses together for years. After a few trial lifts at each end, and a careful backing of the trailer into position they flexed their powerful muscles, and that frame was hoisted up and onto the trailer. Deborah, Stunt Girl and I lifted our hardest too, and we tried our best to believe we were contributing, but really, on the day it all came down to the heaves of the Steves (sorry).

On the trailer ready to go. Those supporting crossbeams underneath made one lane bridges a bit scary.

The final job was to triumphantly drive the trailer home, thankful for the hauling capacity of a new-to-us farm vehicle the Forbearing Husband likes to refer to as ‘The Beast’.

The Beast. Pictured with a cargo of old concrete laundry tubs. It can carry anything!

At 3m wide, our greenhouse on its crossbeam supports made for a few hairy moments on one-lane bridges. The two Stephens hung out of windows, one each side of the truck, and we played a game of warmer / colder as they indicated how close I was to wedging the entire load on a concrete parapet. Fun times.

Nerve-wracking as it was, I drove concentrating on the fact that the last structure the Forbearing Husband and I moved with the truck was a one tonne, 4.5m high tiny house*. By comparison this part of the greenhouse acquisition process really did feel like that piece of cake we’d been promised.

So, the good news is that we now have a greenhouse. The not such good news is, we have a lot less glass for it than we thought we would have. Deborah and I remain undeterred though, and have been researching options for making it all lovely. I’m very keen to include a little table and a comfy chair for relaxing over a cup of tea and a book on sunny winter days. With the smell of frangipani and basil in the air I think it will be a delightful retreat. Anyone care to join me?

Tell me, what would you do with a greenhouse? The comment box is open.

* I’m in the process of writing a post about our little cabin ‘Tiny’ and her journey from Waipu to the farmlet. If you want a sneak peak, have a look at the photos I put up on Instagram back in January. You can use the Instagram widget in the sidebar to get there.

Baby Steps

July 28, 2019chrissyb 4 Comments

That’s what we’re taking around here with the kitchen. Today we went from this:

Our kitchen universe, held together with force tape.

To this:

Voila!

It’s not much of an upgrade in the scheme of things, but it feels like progress. I never thought I’d be trying to take a glamour shot of a power point, and yet here we are.

A PDL 600 series 4-gang, horizontal mount, switched socket outlet, looking sexy. This one is for you SB!

We’ll just have to accept that everything will look way more glam once some splash-back tiles are applied. In the meantime I’m grateful for power and running water, and especially for the Forbearing Husband, who right at this very instant is using those amenities to make me poached eggs on toast. Beautiful!

Force Tape

July 16, 2019chrissyb 4 Comments

“If your background is in media you call it ‘gaffer tape’. If your background is in building or DIY you call it duct tape’. Motor racing crews and fans call it ‘speed tape’ or ‘panel tape’.

Binding the universe together, one kitchen at a time.

If you came through the Jedi temple you call it ‘force tape’. Why? Because it has a light side and a dark side, and it binds the universe together”.

Thank you to Darling Daughter for sharing this quote with me. She is a prolific ‘force tape’ user.

Hubble Bubble, Kitchen Trouble

June 3, 2019chrissyb 6 Comments

Well everyone, I finally decided on the material for our kitchen benches. I nearly managed to get them installed as well, except that when they arrived last week the sink bench was the wrong size. Consequently it has gone back to the manufacturer to be altered.

So now we are frozen in that wonderful part of renovation hell where nothing is where it usually is, and every available surface is covered with a random selection of homeless items.

Chaos. Even more so than usual.

Making eggs on toast and a cup of tea has become an adventure all its own; the closest running water is in the laundry, a makeshift kitchen bench is comprised almost entirely of chopping boards precariously balanced, and all the saucepans now reside under the dining room table.

Ah well, eggs, omelettes… Wish us luck!

Death of a Time Lord

May 17, 2019chrissyb 12 Comments

Today our very own familial Time Lord slid out of this timeline. He was either 91, 92 or 93 years old (if you find that confusing the link above may help to explain), and he had just published his book about the founding of the Samoan Methodist Church in New Zealand.

Papa was something of a man of mystery, even to his own family. He shared information on a ‘need to know basis’. And, for the most part, so it seemed, people didn’t need to know. Even, on occasion, an exasperated Mama.

Papa’s passport photo circa 1976. An international man of mystery.

Every so often though I could get him on a roll and he’d tell me stories about his life. You don’t live to 90-something without having a few good stories to share. When those stories start with growing up in a remote Samoan village, one of 10 children, then meeting your dad for the first time at four or five years old because he has been away with the Mau since before you were born; your audience (that’s me) can stay fascinated for hours.

I’ll remember him for those stories, for his affectionate chortles at the antics of his grandchildren — and sometimes his wife — and for his full and fearless commitment to the things he believed in. One thing is for sure, Papa Silipa was a force to be reckoned with. And if some of his ideas were a bit at odds with those around him; well, you get that with a Time Lord.

Silipa Moeimanu Siauini II Le Mamea

? October c1926 — 17 May 2019

_________________________________

Bearing Fruit

February 27, 2019chrissyb 8 Comments

Stephen of House Kragbol is our resident possum sniper. Many’s the evening he’s ventured out with his headlamp and rifle, while the rest of us tender-hearted snowflakes lurk inside, grateful that someone else is doing what needs to be done.

This summer, after two years and over 100 confirmed kills, Stephen’s extermination efforts are bearing fruit. And not just metaphorically.

An abundance of nashi pears

Apples — possibly Granny Smiths. On bare branches due to the sheep having hoovered up all the leaves.

Pears aplenty.

Literally hundreds of figs.

And this dubious looking article is a Lady Finger Banana.

The inside looks familiar. More starchy and sweeter than supermarket bananas, they are delicious.

Yes, we have bananas! A tree full of pears, where previously we had only a handful, also apples, nashi pears, and more figs than I’ve ever seen before. I knew the possums must be eating some of our fruit, but I had never realised just how much went down those furry little gullets.

With that in mind, we all pitched in to buy Stephen a possum control assistant. A humane and self-resetting Goodnature A12 trap, which we’ve installed near the bridge into the Seven Acre Wood. So now, although I’m still a spineless townie when it comes to offing possums up close and personal, at least I feel like I’m contributing. Let’s not judge.

A Woolly Tale, by Nurse Jenny

October 6, 2018chrissyb 8 Comments

This is a guest post from my lovely friend Nurse Jenny. No-one is more qualified to write about wool than she. Rumor has it that the many skeins of wool she has collected, laid end to end, would stretch from her office all the way to Crave Café.

It’s a slightly boring story of how I’ve ended up doing a Guest Blog so we’ll leave that out. The important thing is that Chrissy and I share a passion for things crafty and woolly, although only Chrissy has attained the heights of actually producing her own sheep. So when I spotted a notice for the Creative Fibre Northland Expo featuring pictures of both a Spinning Wheel (for Chrissy) and Sock Knitting Yarn (for Me) we considered for 20 seconds and knew we had to go.

The show was back in July but Time is only relative after all

Leaving our bemused (and forbearing) families behind we set off on A Mission to discover the delights of Northland Fibre all in one place. We were not disappointed. I was quite overcome by a stall of Sock Knitting Yarn, having only ever seen such a thing before on The Internet (very surprisingly it’s only recently that NZ has either produced or supplied good quality sock knitting yarn). Chrissy herself remained calmer and picked up lots of handy Spinning Tips from the locals.

Very pretty sock knitting yarn

As well as the delights of Spinning and Socks there were various yarny stalls to browse through and some stunning works of art by local crafters. Quite a bit of time was spent ooh-ing and ahh-ing and feeling inspired. We did ponder giving up our Day Jobs to make more time for yarny pursuits, but Chrissy has ponies to keep in hay and I have teenagers. I might however have slightly supported the local economy by coming away with a lovely haul of woolly goodies, always a Good Thing …

Just amazing and the pictures don’t do it justice

Nurse Jenny’s Haul, including Annie the Alpaca

Feeling tired but happily woolly we returned to The Farmlet for a cup of tea. We shall return, next year.

Lambing

September 16, 2018chrissyb 8 Comments

I’m feeling like a real farmer today after Deborah, Stephen and I watched one of our ewes deliver a lamb. I suppose I might have felt even more like a farmer had we needed to intervene, but thankfully mama sheep managed just fine on her own.

The other pregnant ewe produced twin boys on Friday. We completely missed that birth. The first we knew was when Stephen’s possum hunting headlamp illuminated an extra two pairs of sheep eyes late on Friday night. I snuck this photo on Saturday morning.

Cute baby animal photo alert.

Spring is off to a great start in our little corner of the world with these three babies boosting our sheep population by 100%. What are the spring happenings in your neighbourhood?