The digger returns to Waterford Estate

The digger has returned to Waterford Estate. Chris has been waiting for the chance to go and get it from Dad's place and the week had finally arrived when it wasn't being used. He went and picked it up early Saturday morning and made a start on the long list of "to-do's" right away.

Here she comes!

Complete with a sporty new roll-cage

Oscar checking out the new arrival

First on the list was creating a ramp into the shed so we can get implements in and out. The excess sand was taken from around the cottage from when the verandas were put in.

Excess sand from veranda

Building ramp for better access in and out of shed

Next on the list was spreading out the large dirt piles in the paddock left over from the drainage field and shed pad.

Dirt pile gone!

Ready to sow with grass seed

Once the shed pad was done, it was on to moving concrete water troughs around. We had two old round concrete tanks sitting in odd places from when we took the old fences down. I decided it would be quite handy to have them put in the currently trough-less fencelines  so that I could strip graze the paddocks more effectively.

Moving trough into position

Getting it perfectly in line

Trough installed

Making hole for trough

Second trough installed

Finally, it was on to digging the stormwater trenches around the shed so Chris could finish the drainage. The water will be collected off the shed roof into our water tank for use at the cottage and on the farm. The engineer has to come out on Tuesday and inspect the drainage field before Chris can fill it in (read: more money!). Once that is done we can finally get the shed signed off as being completed.

Tank with drainage metal in background

Trench leading to soakage field

Trench for stormwater pipes

Trench and the machine responsible

Leo Foxfire

Today we welcomed Leo Foxfire (Foxy) to our family.

Foxy is a 19yo 15.3hh Chestnut mare that was bred by Julia Fraser. Julia trained Foxy up to advanced level dressage and during their partnership amassed a large number of points in all the grades up to Open Medium (Level 5). Foxy is here as she's not quite ready to retire, and hopefully she can teach me the finer points of dressage.

Foxy has been at Bobbie's place in Kumeu for the last 9 months or so, and was ridden over the winter by a Swedish girl called Maddie who by all accounts had a blast on her. Bobbie kindly offered to bring her down this morning in her truck. Bobbie and Foxy arrived around 9.30am. Foxy stepped off the truck, took one look around and thought, yip I like this place! She wasted no time in making friends with Mack who is absolutely smitten with her.

After a quick coffee, Bobbie hit the road to get back to her mare who is due to foal any day now. I couldn't resist a quick ride and managed to get in before the rain started. We are both very rusty, but I know we are going to have heaps of fun. Foxy was very settled and just cruised around like she'd been here all her life. Even Kevin's racehorses next door having a yahoo didn't phase her.

Foxy arrives at Waterford Estate

Exploring the paddock

Checking out The Oaks Stud horses

Making friends

First ride at home

Good girl Foxy!

The smile says it all

Fencing and Topping

This week was a big week, with several major purchases. We ordered the drapes and blinds for the cottage - hope we got the measurements right! We've also bought all the curtain rods and rails. Who knew curtains would be so expensive? We also ordered all the plywood for the inside of the shed and the stables. Yay!

With the weather on the improve, we've finally been able to start doing more around the farm. Chris spend the day 'pottering' as he puts it, but actually got quite a bit done.

Chris carried on with the fencing down the race as the ground has dry out enough to dig post holes. He got the top two lines of electrobraid up, but we've run out of copper split bolts so we've had to order some more.

Chris borrowed the next door neighbour's tractor and topper as we still haven't found one to buy. It did a super job of dealing to the weeds which means we've put our own tractor search to the top of the priority list. Here are some pics of today's efforts.

Before

After

Weed patch

Weed patch gone

Job well done

Sunshine at last

What a glorious weekend! We had two lovely days of wall to wall sunshine which was just what we all needed to lift our spirits after the horrible wet winter we have had.

It was a great opportunity to get stuck into working on the property and get a few odd jobs finished. Chris finished putting up the lights in the shed, ready for the electrician to wire them up. He also did a heap of spraying and some more fencing that had been put on hold due to the weather. Kevin, the neighbour who we bought the property off has just bought a new ride-on mower and he came round on Saturday all excited and said we could borrow it whenever we wanted. Not one to let these opportunities go to waste, Chris popped over on Sunday and borrowed it to do a spot of mowing.

 
While Chris was busy mowing, I wandered through the hay paddock (aka our front lawn) and cut out the dock seed heads. It was a bigger job than I anticipated and I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow! We had a guy come round to have a look at a couple of paddocks we've had shut up for most of the winter. He will come back in a month or so and cut some haylage, and then with the second cut make some hay which should see us right for winter feed. It's great that things are starting to happen around the place again as we've been on a bit of a go slow with moving and the weather.

Marking out the soakhole for the shed stormwater drainage

Soakhole behind shed

Handle on roller door so I can reach it

Driveway trees looking pretty in leaf

Driveway trees (the grass has got away on us a bit!)

We also had a few visitors drop in this weekend. Kevin's wife Jo popped round to see us as she hadn't seen the cottage since we shifted in. Then we had Graham & Esther, the neighbours from across the road wander over for a cuppa. It's so awesome so live in such a friendly neighbourhood at last.