Dreams in the making…..

It is a gorgeous autumn early morning here, the sun is still rising, I have just come up from feeding the chooks and letting them out, they eat and head to the orchard for the day. I love this time of the year here in Otago, and when I come up the hill to this scene it reinforces how lucky we are, and that dreams do come true .

NZ is now in the depths of Covid, it is grim, we are seeing around 20 000 new cases a day and regular deaths, inflation, (like a lot of other countries) is climbing rapidly, the war in Ukraine adding to overall uncertainty, people are anxious and looking for someone to blame. The cost of living is hitting unprecedented levels, gas for example is heading towards $4 a litre. As we live through this, we try to focus on what we do have, and this little sanctuary helps to ground us.

The garden continues to do well ….

The orchard has seen the best year yet, Luca spent a few hours picking for me

I have been preserving most weekends, we had so many pears this year that I gave a basket full to the local food bank so nothing went to waste.

With the prices of food rising to outrageous levels I am looking to put in another garden for next year, and have started a bit of a bartering system going with others. I make up packages like this and swap for other things. It is just starting out, and eventually I want a stand at the end of the drive, once I get a handle on demand and ways to meet it, but in the meantime this is working.

The cake baking has really taken off ….

This one got eaten over a wet afternoon of Monopoly,

and the next one was taken to school. It went down well apparently and Rich and Luca are making plans for a double decked one next time 🙂

Speaking of school we get weekly correspondence of how Luca is doing in each subject ,(one of the benefits of everything moving online). His Group teacher touches base regularly and overall the communication is very good. Luca is doing great, we are proud of him, Latin, Art and Social Studies his favorite subjects. There are covid cases in every school now, the kids go to school masked and only if positive or a household positive contact, do they need to stay home and isolate, (along with everyone else in the household ,positive or not, it has just changed from 10 days to 7) . Like everywhere, there is a portion of the population not interested in adhering to public health guidelines and this has aided in the virus getting away on us. The vulnerable are most at risk, which is showing in our climbing death rates. I have elderly and immunocompromised patients cancelling appointments daily now because they are scared.

In his spare time Luca is currently setting up a podcast called “The Planet Podcast” themes covered are media/entertainment, pop culture, movies/TV and video games, he has big plans for it 🙂

A lot more homework now at high school, and I come home to scenes like this, best Dad ever!!!!!

With the days still sunny and warm we made the most of it last weekend and headed to the beach, it was a perfect day for it, the boys dropped everything and ran in as soon as we arrived 🙂

On the home front, it has been quite eventful, the landscaping continues

We are preparing for winter, Rich has been cutting up wood and cleaning the chimney…

They sorted this end and I was at the bottom sorting the other end, messy, but successful business 🙂

Rich and I have also had more meetings with the builder, draftsman and bank. Given times are so uncertain, this is a highly stressful process, we are taking a risk continuing with plans to extend. There have been lots of roadblocks…

1. The banks in NZ have all had to adhere to new government policy which has made lending a difficult process. There are a lot of complaints about it as many feel it is highly intrusive. They look at literally everything your money is spent on and has meant a lot of people are being turned down. For years now I have noted on our calendar all our outgoings so Luca is aware of how to budget and what things cost ,(to prepare him for flatting!). As our banker said, for a lot though, they are shocked when they see where their money is actually going. The aim of the policy is to try and curb the spiraling cost of buying a home in NZ ,(which has become, since the pandemic started, one of 6 most costly countries in the world).
2. The building industry is having huge supply issues, with both materials and labour because of the pandemic, and now with what is happening in Europe. Costs have increased substantially and makes them unable to give firm quotes for things, they have no idea from one month to the next what to expect.
3. Inflation and therefore interest is expected to rise, but nobody knows how much as this point.
4. Lots of council red tape for consents and permits which is ever changing, because of the dire housing need in NZ currently

After much deliberation we have decided to forge ahead . The bank has agreed, and the builder expects to be able to start in October, but will know more come July about supplies, the draftsmen has taken our plans, drawing a formal one and getting the necessary consents. We are excited but anxious, we don’t want to be forced to sell before we actually want to. Watch this space….

Yesterday we moved the front door to where it will be inserted. It has been a couple of years since we unwrapped it and pleased with the effect . I have a Tui Cottage sign arriving next week to go next to it, the aim is to warm the utilitarian look of the corrugated iron.

At work I am taking on more hours and have agreed to go another clinic in Oamaru. Up until now I have been working across 2 clinics, in Mosgiel and Dunedin. It is great that the business is expanding and given our plans, this is timely. Most of my hours will be spent in the Dunedin clinic but I am also excited about another opportunity, I like change and enjoy the challenge of starting something new.

Luca has spent the weekend with his mates here, Rich and I are plodding along on things, the next big project is the deck, we are hoping the washing tent will hold up a bit longer, fingers crossed 🙂 Happy weekend everyone xx