Photos today

Day 26 of my August blogpost a day challenge

Another busy day today so I'm just going to fill the post with some photos that I've collected over the last few days 😊

The yard is starting to filling up now as we have 130 cows calved - about 70 to go.

The youngest two calves happily fed and snuggling up - 

The oldest calves at the start of another nice day - 

After their feed, watching me drive away -

And from same paddock, looking down on the MOML shifting the 'very close to calving cows' and drafting out the new calvers - 

Yesterday, to the excitement of two cats, a wee Silvereye turned up inside. While I was busy trying to open more windows, etc, he found a friend to sit with!

til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

A chilled day —

Day 20 of my August blogpost a day challenge

It was a fairly relaxed sort of a day today.

We started with another frost!!! That's our third heavy one in the last few weeks; it's a bit of a record for us here in Northland!

But it morphed into a lovely day - I enjoyed my lunch in the sun —

These 30 oldest calves moved into the ranks of Big Calves today as I put them on once-a-day milk feeding. 

They're eating lots of grass now and I get the problem that if I'm feeding them twice a day, that some are full of grass,etc, that some don't drink, so the others drink too much and then they get poo-ey tails and it's a bit of a messy cycle. Easiest to put them on once a day which also encourages the grass eating. They get a more concentrated milk feed so don't lose out that way.

Anyway, that's 30 less to feed in the afternoons now - yaay!!

Our calving has really slowed down in the last week, 3 calves in 5 days I think BUT last night 8 new calvers came in so I had 8 babies to teach to feed this morning! That took a while and all of a sudden the calf shed seemed overflowing. (When it gets to 40 it starts to feel a little crowded.)

These are the new ones —

I had some lovely sewing time this afternoon. I continued on with the Summertime Quilt I chatted about yesterday; I laid out another new block and sewed yesterday's unfinished one in conjunction with the new one and got them both finished. 

The family so far —

I need 2 more of these blocks.

And I had time to tidy up a few more leader-ender HST for my as yet undisclosed quilt! Very scrappy and nice easy sewing —

Funniest tail of the season award goes to this calf —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

The Winterless North

(Day 8 of  my August blogpost a day challenge)

Northland, the top part of New Zealand, where we live, is often called the Winterless North. Many laugh at that description as winters can sometimes be a bit soggy and it still feels very much like winter. But we have what's called a 'subtropical' climate with 'warm humid summers and 'mild wet' winters.

That all changed this week when a Polar Blast hit the country. Snow in all sorts of places, and heavy (ish) frosts here in Northland. It's been a few years since we've had a decent frost.

So I had ice in my feeders (they hang on the gate/fence outside the pens) and a lovely white landscape for a few hours.

What was rather funny was taking Odie to school on the first frosty day....quite possibly a lot of these Northland kids had never really seen a decent frost before and the buzz was unimaginable. Such a lot of excited chatting and stories. One little girl showed me her bowl of snow she'd brought from home (!) and another wee chap told an extraordinary story about his dad covering his hair with orange juice, then rubbing his head on the ground and ending up with frozen orange ice blocks on his head!!!

Friends of mine in cooler climes would have rolled their eyes at the excitement!

Nothing like what was happening down south but it's all relative isn't it?!

This morning while feeding calves, my phone flipped out of my pocket (I thought I'd closed the snap but obviously not!). 

After a fair bit of hunting -it was on silent so I couldn't ring it- I finally found it —

It must have tipped out when I leant over to move these calves around the feeder- and then nicely trampled by them while feeding! —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn 

Children and sewing

(Day 6 of a post a day during August!)

Back before we got too busy with calving, Lily and George had a sleepover so their parents could go away to watch a rugby test match.

It's a bonus when there is a calf or two to cuddle—

Helping to fetch the freshly calved cows—

Yaay, he's feeding!

There's all sorts of things that are compulsory when you stay at Ganma and Gandad's. Hunting for fruit, feeding the chooks, farmwork AND sewing.

We'll be busy doing something completely different, when all of a sudden one of them pipes up, "Ganma can we sew something?".

No point me having pre-planned ideas; their ideas are their own and I just need to go with the flow.

'Concept sketches' —

Lily wanted to make a Flower cushion. No, not a cushion with a flower on it, but a flower shaped cushion!

Her sketch involved a skinny stem with leaves and multiple petals. And it had to be turned inside out as she learnt about hidden seams last time she sewed here.

She finally realised that appliqueing her flower to a rectangular background might work best - whew - so that is what we ended up with.

They're getting old enough that they can use tools, etc, and do a lot more by themselves. I possibly did about an inch of sewing on each project to get them started and that was all they needed —

Learning about vliesofix and applique mats—

George initially wanted just a flat picture and half way through decided that he would make a cushion as well.

He wanted me to google a shark for him but I made him draw his own (aren't I mean?!). He was really proud of what he came up with.

The applique shapes were sewn around with straight stitch. I think they will last well enough —

We used every last bit of stuffing so I guess I'll be stocking up on that in case sewing is on the agenda next time they stay :-)

So much fun ♥

'til next time 

happy stitches

Raewyn

The calfsheds are full

I knew this would happen - just as I planned a post about calving and all the farm goings-on, and explaining that we were right in the thick of it all ------ 

--------we had an ultra-busy day and it's just going to be a few words and a few photos----

Otherwise my month long commitment of a blogpost a day would fail on the fifth day!

Tonight I fed 8 mobs of calves (about 75 calves) in four different locations, which took me a while (that's a lot of milk to carry around!) —

(The calf with his mum, and with the bottle in the first couple of photos is the one second from the left in the above photos - 3 weeks later - he has GROWN!!!)

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn

Things I couldn't fit in my last post —

I cut some photos and so on out of my previous Aloha post as it was getting too long and wordy.

There were a few crafty things I wanted to include so I have pasted them in a new blogpost and here they are.

Baby Olive's quilt didn't get finished before I went over but I did make this 'Sheep Ragdoll' for her. A pattern I saw and quite liked which I thought would be fun to try out.....

And delivered —

I initially bought the yarn and pattern when spending time with Mum last year. I thought it would be a good project for my itchy fingers at the time but I didn't even get it started then.

The pattern can be found *here*.

Back in 2015 I made a quilt out of my late Dad's old flannel farm shirts. I intended it to be used by his great-grandbabies (none of which he ever got to meet). Here is the post about it *here*. Olive will be the 10th grandie to use it and I was delighted to deliver it to her when I went over.

My intention was that every great grandchild would spend some time with it.

Olive with Pop's quilt —

They don't have a huge need of quilts (particularly flannel ones!) so I encouraged its use as a floor/tummy time (etc) quilt.

Sadly the pen I took with me to add her name was on its way out and I didn't get much further than drawing the heart!

And another historical make is also being used by baby Olive.

Back when I was 16, I spent some time practicing different crochet techniques as the 'hobby' part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.

One of the techniques was hairpin crochet, a technique I really enjoyed but haven't done since.

I made a wee blanket which mostly has been stored away and seldom used ever since.

However I came across it recently and thought it might be a nice weight for a baby in Hawaii to use.

It's now officially Olive's car blanket, a nice light layer over those podgy legs —

You make long strips of the 'lace' on a hairpin shaped 'loom'/gadget which are joined together by hooking the loops at the edge of each strip together. I finished it with a standard crochet edging.

Another crafty Hawaiian-related thing I came across in a tourist market/shop was this lovely Hawaiian style quilt. I really loved it - especially how it had the additional turtles on it. I left it there but half of me has non-buyer's regret. There will be other opportunities I know!

Back home, I've been trying hard to get back into my early morning hill-climbs. After 24 hours of very wet weather, Saturday morning dawned very foggy, which meant I delayed leaving the house until a bit later. I left just in time though, beating the cows as they went up the hill to their new paddock!

The MOML (bike lights) crossing them over the road —

Following me up the hill. I was pleased I was in front of them, not behind them, that would have really slowed me down —

Walking as far as the tape across the race and an open gate —

On my way back, these girls are happy grazing at the top end of the paddock —

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn