Mutterings

I’ve just added this for Heather.

Hopefully there will be a few posts on hints around the home.

There is someone coming to take the wool off the sheep tomorrow and I’ve spent the last few days building a pen to keep them together. The theory is that you put them into a yard/pen twentyfour hours before they are due to be shorn and they remain fairly docile. Great in theory!

Do you think we could get them anywhere near the pen?  Not on your live!

Heather and I both spent several hours in the afternoon heat chasing them all over the property and still they run free!

I’ll have another go in the morning but I start work at midday som have only got till 10:30 at the latest.

I don’t like my chances!

Have recently joined a photo sharing site with other members of the family so that we can see each others pics online instead of e-mailing them all over the place. It’s a fairly basic site but will give it a go.

This post is an attempt at a crosspost from that site.

https://www.album.co.nz/static/full/31881.jpg?0

The pic is Auckland City taken from our deck at home

Heres hoping!

SPAM! How do we get rid of this curse on cyber space?

I’ve had to turn off comments due to the avalanche of spam comments. This isn’t exactly a very active blog at present, why would they bother?

I do intend to start writing a bit more but haven’t got round to it yet. Will leave comments off for a couple of weeks in the hope that the spammers will go away

Heres hoping

There once was a flock of sheep, the sheep were nice but tended to be a little slow. The Farmer who kept the sheep loved his sheep. So the Farmer bought a pup and trained him and raised him to protect his sheep. When the Farmer decided that his dog was ready he sent him out to his sheep and he said, “See here, dog, you must take care of my sheep. You must because I tell you to, I am your master. You must protect them because they are weak but you are strong. But, you must also obey the rules that they give you because you are here to serve them. From this day forward you are not a dog any longer, you are a Sheepdog.”
The sheepdog loved his master so much that he decided to do what he said and protect the sheep. So, the sheepdog lived with the sheep and the sheep got along with him very well, though they thought the sheepdog very quiet.
One day the sheep were in the field and they were doing the sheep dance, which sheep love to do. Then, a wolf came along and stole a sheep and ate him. The sheep saw the wolf and were very afraid but they did not know where to run. The sheep said, “Help us! The wolf has come and he will eat us!” The sheepdog came and scared the wolf away, saying, “Listen, wolf, go back and tell your masters that this is my flock and you shall not have it!” The sheep were very happy.
The sheep cheered, “The sheepdog has saved us! He is our hero!”
The sheepdog said, “I am only doing my job.” And the sheepdog was happy. He went back to his favorite place and kept watch.
After a few days the sheep forgot about their dead brother and they got on with their lives of eating, dancing and walking in circles. One morning a group of young sheep were doing their sheep dance near to a ledge by the river gorge. The sheepdog came and said, “You foolish sheep, you shall all fall in the river and drown! Come away from the ledge.”
The sheep said, “We are only dancing, you should leave us alone and watch for wolves.”
The sheepdog barked, “There is a time and place for dancing and it is not here. Go back to the pasture!”
The sheep were disgruntled, “That sheepdog thinks he is so great. He bothers us even though we are not doing anything wrong.” The sheep began to look for ways to break the rules that the sheepdog would not notice. They began to dance near the ravine whenever he was not around.
The sheepdog knew that the young sheep didn’t like his orders but he was happy because the sheep were safe, and his master would be happy with him. He said to himself, “I am doing my job.”

Meanwhile, across the valley the wolves were having a meeting. One wolf said, “That sheepdog will kill us if we go into his side of the valley. We should find him when he sleeps and kill him!” The wolves all nodded and decided to send scouts and find where the sheepdog slept.
The first little wolf came to the valley and saw a young lamb trying to learn the sheep dance near the gorge. The wolf could not resist an easy meal so he approached the lamb and said, “I can teach you to dance better than any other sheep in the valley!” The little lamb did not know any better so he decided to let the wolf show him how to dance. Soon the lamb was dancing very well and while he wasn’t looking the wolf pushed him into the river. The wolf was pleased with himself and his cleverness and went down to the river to find the lamb and eat him. Suddenly the wolf heard something behind him.
“Grrrrrrrrrrrr,” it was the sheepdog. “I saw what you did and you will pay for it!”
With that, the sheepdog lept upon the wolf who could not run away because the river was behind him. The wolf bit the sheepdog but the wolf was no match for him because the sheepdog was trained and was very big. Soon the wolf lay dead and the sheepdog went back to keep watch.
The next day the sheep heard what had happened to the young lamb and they were sad, but they were also afraid because the sheepdog had killed a wolf and that had never happened before. The sheep all gathered around a saw the wolf’s body and started muttering to themselves.
“You know, I always thought he looked like a wolf, they both use teeth and claws,” said one sheep.
“What’s to keep him from turning his tooth and claw against us one day?” added another. The sheep were very upset about this, the sheep were an easily frightened group.
“Since he is a sheepdog perhaps we should let him do his job, after all we are not sheepdogs. What do we know about it?” said a sheep in the back.
“Don’t be stupid, he should not have to be like the wolves to protect us,” said the first sheep. “I suggest we pass a sheep law that says he may not kill any living thing.” The sheep thought this was a marvelous idea and voted on it right away. The sheep decided to tell the sheepdog though none of them wanted to do it because they didn’t trust the sheepdog. So the whole herd went up and the first sheep timidly said, “We have decided that you cannot kill anything, sir.”
The sheepdog remembered that the farmer told him to obey the sheep rules. So he said, “I am only trying to do my job. I will not kill anything if you say so.” The sheep were happy that it went so smoothly and felt much safer because they knew the sheepdog would obey the law. The sheepdog was a little sad, though.

Meanwhile across the valley, the wolves were sitting down to dinner in their cave and one said, “That sheepdog killed one of our pack and he must die! We must find where he sleeps and kill him!” The wolves agreed to send more scouts to the pasture to find where the sheepdog slept and come back and report to the other wolves.
At night the sheepdog was resting when he heard the sheep in the pasture bleating wildly. The sheepdog leapt from his sleeping place and charged down the hill. He saw there were two wolves chasing his sheep across the pasture. The sheepdog barked, “You wolves are caught! Run away so I don’t have to kill you!” The wolves heard him and turned to fight him, they thought that the two of them could kill the sheepdog. The sheepdog was to big and fast, though. He bit both of the wolves and they limped out of the pasture back to their cave.
The sheep were happy to be out of danger and they danced the sheep dance feeling very safe.
The sheepdog said, “I am only doing my job.”
The next morning the sheep awoke and saw the blood of the wolves and grew afraid again. They said to each other, “He bit those wolves too hard, he could kill us with one chomp if he wanted to. We shouldn’t allow him to use his teeth; he shouldn’t have to use them to protect us.” So the sheep passed a new sheep law and it said the sheepdog could no longer bite or use his teeth against the wolves. The sheep went to the sheepdog and said, “We would like you to not use your teeth against the wolves, you don’t need them to protect us.”
“I am only trying to do my job, but I will not use my teeth if you say so,” said the sheepdog. And he was very sad.
In the hills outside the pasture, the coyote heard that the sheepdog could not bite so he got a clever idea. The coyote is very clever. He went down to the pasture at night and spoke to the sheepdog, “You know if you let me get some of your sheep, I will give you some of the sheep to keep for yourself. You can tell the farmer that I stole the sheep and He will never know.”
“You should go away before I get cross,” said the sheepdog.
“And what are you going to do, you cannot hurt me, you cannot use your teeth! Don’t be a fool these sheep don’t care about you. Let me take some and you can have some for yourself.” After he said this the coyote found himself flying through the air. The sheepdog hit him with his massive paw and knocked him all the way down the hill. The coyote is not a brave animal and so he fled, but first he stopped by the sheep and said, “The sheepdog is dangerous! Look what he did to me! I am injured, I have never hurt the sheep of this valley but now I am broken!” After he said this he left the valley smiling to himself. The coyote is very clever.
The sheep mumbled to themselves that the sheepdog was out of control and must be taken care of. So the sheep passed a new law that said the sheepdog must be kept tied to the biggest tree in the pasture. The sheep went up to speak to the sheepdog. They said, “See here, sheepdog! You cannot just go about hurting animals. You must stay tied up to the tree in the middle of the pasture. We don’t want you to use violence to protect us anymore!”
“I am only doing my job, but I will stay by this tree if you say so,” said the sheepdog. And he was crushed.
All that had happened had been observed by the Lone Wolf who lived in the hills. The lone wolf saw his time had come and he came down to the sheepdog and said, “I will go and eat your sheep and you cannot stop me.” So the lone wolf ate a sheep and the rest of the flock came and hid behind the sheepdog near the tree and cowered. The lone wolf was even cleverer than the coyote and drew a line in the sand that the sheepdog could not cross because of his rope. The lone wolf said, “I will wait here until your sheep get thirsty and then I will eat them when they go to get water from the pond.” After he said that the lone wolf laid down for a nap. The sheepdog quietly snuck to the line and rubbed it out drawing a new line. Soon the lone wolf was awake again and he wanted to taunt the sheep so he came to the new line in the sand and began to do the lone wolf dance. The sheepdog was upon him instantly. The lone wolf was a strong opponent and the sheepdog had to use his teeth and kill the lone wolf.
The sheep were happy the lone wolf was gone but they were angry that the sheepdog had broken the sheep laws. The sheep decide to make the sheepdog live inside a pen and they would let him out only if they needed him, because they didn’t trust him. They built the pen and said simply, “Get in you mongrel!”
The sheepdog said, “I am only doing my job, but I will get in if you say so.”
The sheepdog was heartbroken.
The very next night the wolves across the valley heard what had happened to the sheepdog and said, “This sheepdog needn’t be a concern any longer. Let us go and feast on these stupid sheep!” The wolves sneaked into the pasture and killed all of the sheep in a few minutes time. The sheepdog could only look on in silence.

The next day the Farmer came to shear his sheep and he saw that they were all dead and that the wolves were fat and happy in his pasture. The Farmer found the sheepdog in tears and said to him, “Why didn’t you serve me? I am your master. Why didn’t you protect them? They are weak.”
The sheepdog said, “I was only trying to do my job. I was only trying to serve and protect.”
_________________

Received a phone call yesterday around 11:00am from the family court in Waitakere and the paperwork is all done, Kristy is now officially ours!

The whole adoption process takes aroud a year with interum adoption being approved after we appeared before a family court Judge and then final adoption being approved after reports from CYF’s etc 6 months later.

Theres no going back now, she’s all ours!

You may have noticed that I have added a link to USANA on the right hand colum of this Blog.

USANA is a Health and Nutritional supplements company that both Heather and I are distributors for.

They produce a product that is made to Health standards as opossed to food standards soo their uptake rate is much higher that most multi vitamins on the market. They also produce a range of skin and personal care products.

If you click on the link, it will take you to our USANA site where you can access product information and the background to the company. There is also the facility to buy the products online if you so desire.

The company is one of the fastest growing listed on the US Stock Exchange and listed on the NasDec (sp?).

If you would like to know more please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment here.

T-Bone and Agnes are proud to announce the safe arrival of twins (sex unknown).

I’ve just been down to the farm to feed the pigs and horse, while I was there I went for a wander to check on the sheep and goats. Aggy was pregnant and its around a year ago that her last kids were born (1 still born) so I wanted to check on her to make sure she was ok as I had seen her earlier (from a distance) seperated from the other goats.

Sure enough, she had just delivered two healthy looking kids. I would think that they had only just been born as they were both fairly unsteady on their feet and I then found the afterbirth looking very fresh.

And of course, its pouring with rain! When else would you deliver kids!

I’ve taken some hay down to Aggy, she seems to be fine but got stuck in to it.

I’ll keep an eye on them for the next few days as work allows but mother and kids seem to be coping with the wet weather.

Meet Kristy Rayna McBride, our daughter!

Heather and I adopted Kristy in December last year. She is now 10 and a half months old and is a little cracker! And as you can see from the photo, Abbey is rather fond of her too!

She is Fijian Indian but was born in New Zealand. Kristy is a very easy going little girl that loves people and animals. She is the main reason that the re-vamped website is taking so long to appear.

We both love her to bits.

One change I need to make or get done is for the time of day a post is made rather than just the date. Not so important now but if there gets to be a few contributors, it could be handy