Thanks for your patience I bought a new Toshiba with Windows 7.

Life is moving along at a rather brisk pace these days, we are busy getting the boat ready to be hauled out of the water, Paige and Roger went to camp, Halloween came and went, but most importantly summer has arrived in New Zealand.

Let’s start with Halloween, not as big an event as at home but we decorated anyway and Paige went trick or treating with her friends.  Grace had never been Halloweening before so she was in for a treat.  Paige, Grace, Tayla and Rumer (Tayla’s sister) dressed alike and didn’t they look like 20^th century witches.  They managed to procure a good sized bag of lollies (candies) so their teeth were chattering for some time.

November  5^th – 9^th , Paige and Roger went to school camp at Totaranui which is in the Abel Tasman National Park, located a 2 hour drive north of Nelson along the coast.  They had great weather and a great time. Roger was a hit with all the boys in Paige’s class because of his stories on racing cars and fire starting.  Part of his duties as a volunteer parent was to teach the kids bush survival.  He had taken his fire starter (flint) with him and everyone (even the girls) tried lighting a fire which is not as easy as it looks.   I on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed the week by myself.  Because of school regulations I cannot download any pictures of the kids as I do not have permission from their parents, too bad.

Our friends Scott and Mary (Egret) stayed with us for a few days while their boat was out of the water (on the hard in boat talk) and enjoyed themselves so much Scott fell asleep watching a movie.  Most boats/yachts are lifted out of the water on a sling device such as the picture that shows Egret.  Having a clean bottom makes all the difference in how much fuel your boat will burn.

Here in New Zealand the local fairs are called A&P’s and the Nelson A&P was on November 21^st and 22^nd.  We thoroughly enjoyed the day as it was like going to the fair in Lethbridge years ago.  Paige’s friend Grace had never ridden a horse before so she gathered her courage and jumped on. There are a lot of honey bees in the Nelson area and I got a chance to go inside a small tent with a bee hive.  That was cool!!! There were even some new breeds of cows at the show. The picture of the two tone cow is a Belted Galloway and Mr. Big Horns is a Scottish Highland.  There is also lots of llama’s and alpacas in NZ.   The sheep shearing competition is the main focus of the fair and after asking lots of questions from the locals I figured out how the points system etc worked.  Man, their backs take a sh__-kicking.  Let me try and explain the picture.  The man in the blue shirt and jeans on the left is one of the judges and he/she has a counter in one hand which they use to count penalties against the shearer.  Penalties are incurred when they cut the sheep or leave wool behind.  The judge rotates from shearer to shearer during the competition about every 30 seconds and that is so the judges do not show any favoritism toward one competitor.  The fellow behind the gate is the sheep grabber and his job is to be ready with a sheep when the shearer is ready for a new sheep.  The counter hanging on the fence is the number of sheep that have been sheared, in this case the competitor was shearing his first sheep.  They sheared 8 sheep in this competition and the shearer who did it the quickest and had the least number of penalties, won.  I did not stick around to find out who won.

Our friend Dick has a 1930 Nash which he restored from the frame up and what a beautiful car.  We had gone out to Dick’s for supper and he took us for a drive, wow!!  The pedals are really different from our standard cars and you have to be on your toes to drive it.

As it is December 12^th when I am writing this, Roger and I are still waiting for summer.  We think maybe it arrived this past week but up until then it has been cold, wet and raining.  Sorry Canada but cold here right now is 15 C not -15 C.

Until the next update…  from my new computer!

Cheers

Joan