18 Jan: A Day of Rest???

This is our “day off.”  We WWOOFers were allowed to decide how to pace out our 2 days off per week, and we chose, for the first week, to work three days, and take off today.  Then we will work Thurs Fri Saturday, and take off Sunday.  Sunday will be an outing day with Rex and Jo to a Tree farmers expo of some sort.  I’m sure I have misunderstood that in some way, but I will learn more as the day approaches.

I woke up about 6:30, to the grunting of the pigs.  Rex and Jo were already up watering. I pet the pigs and did my morning routine…made coffee and ate my muesli.  By that time, the Tree Feller was here, and I took some pictures and videos of that process.  As it turned out, the largest of the three trees to be felled was not yet rotted out, so there was some additional grief about downing a tree that was still good.

this is a video of Rex and Peter moving the first section of the trunk of the first of three trees.

Peter the Tree Guy cuts a limb on the first felled tree

Felled tree blocks driveway...did we remember to move the cars?

Just to show the mammoth size.  Over the next days of WWOOFing we will be organizing and dealing with all of this biomass

Rex on Harold the tractor. Peter is giving advice...which Rex always takes good-naturedly

 

These three trees were the remaining trees from a windbreak on the property that had turned out to be rotten trees. Several had been felled in the first round. There were these three left to go.

Jo and Rex are planting native trees as a mix to replace the windbreaks all along the property.

After enjoying the morning "entertainment" we WWOOFers went about our tasks.  Only one tree could be taken down today because of the way it fell. We will have to work on clearing it before the other two can be taken down.  For a while in the morning we WWOOFers were sitting in the living room, busy at reading, writing, listening, meditating.  This particular WWOOFer was finalizing a few blogs in process…

In the afternoon, Jacques and I went to the town of Katikati and walked around. Then we split up.  I walked back on my own.

Teri with kiwi gentleman

The cutest police station in the world...actually we never see police on the streets

rebuilt replica of a Kauri Dam

Katikati is known as the Mural Town. Here is one

Public toilet at the visitor centre. It is absolutely typical of every flush toilet we have seen, with 2 options

Teri, true to form, stops in a cafe for a treat and some "mindfood"  LOL

another mural

they SAID it was a Haiku Pathway, along a lovely stream...

...but none of the haiku has 17 syllables, with any accent...

a view of homes from the haiku path

more "haiku"

boys jumping of a bridge

walking the 3.19 km back up to 310 Busby Rd....the numbers are NOT a coincidence

At 2:30 was a 3 hour Reiki lesson for Molly and me.  Then we cooked dinner--quinoa curry salad, maybe, and the sauerkraut appetizer, and another dish--what was it?  

the sunset..

the night sky at a out 1:30 am...can you see anything on the photo?  I can't tell because my screen is so dirty, but I could see THOUSANDS of stars...