It all begins...

Heya ☺️

So, we are settling in nicely in our new home out in the wopwops, Parakao to be precise, around 30 minutes west of Whangarei. It's beautiful here, so relaxing and peaceful, apart from the odd possum... yes I had an encounter with one on our second night... popped outside and he was foraging in a tree for monkey apples, I obviously startled him as he let out such a shriek that I nearly pooped myself... I went back out with a torch to actually see the offending opera singer, he (now I am assuming it's a boy) grumbled at me having disturbed his forage and slinked back into the tree more. Speaking of local wildlife... so many birds!!! A full chorus of nesting birds herald the days end from the conifer shelter belt... this will be good when I am out working in the fields as it tells me I have around half and hour of good daylight left... we also have a lot of wild bunnies running around that tease Dakota (our beautiful dog... when she is behaving... although we can't really blame her or the cats for being a little stir crazy as they are inside all the time, apart from walks to go toilet or to let out some energy... for Dakota anyway... the cats seem happy enough lapping up the sun all day).

Moving was fun, but hard work, and we were lucky that we had no rain in Auckland while packing the truck, it pissed down on our way up, but when we arrived the rain stopped for us to unload, and low and behold the rain started again just as the boys were closing up the truck. A few trips back and forth to pick up plants, a visit from dear friends to drop a trailer load off to us and take us back to pick up the other car, then one more trip to get the last plants and of course he puppy!!!

The house itself is coming along nicely, kitchen, dining room (less the chairs), bedroom, lounge, bathroom and my altar room are all pretty much unpacked... a couple of boxes to go. We found that we have no linen cupboard so have had to improvise in the spare room (still a work in progress) so the wardrobe will be used for that (sorry in advance to people who come to stay... we can't have you for the long haul 😜). We are also figuring out the fire place... we started with some odds and ends from the farm, then bought some fire logs that were painful until we chopped them up a bit, then they burn too fast grrrrr so we bit the bullet and bought two cubic metres of hot mix (pine and eucalyptus) which should keep us going for a while until we get a chainsaw to deal with the large logs we have on the property.

This week my focus is on sorting out the last parts of the house that need unpacking... including sorting out the books for the bookcase; tidying up the sleepout so that renovations can commence; getting the chicken coop sorted; getting back into my cheesmaking; beginning the pruning and tidy up of the garden and orchard; starting to figure out the market garden and large orchard plans for the property now that I can actually see where everything is... so I will be busy busy busy!!!!!!

We really do feel like we are home and thanks to the cafe across the road we are feeling like a part of the community... Friday nights are our dine out night and with the cafe being straight across the road it's super convenient 😊 We have met a few locals and they are all so nice and friendly... real New Zealand hospitality!!

I hope to do weekly blog updates so please do check back... this will be updates, observations and occurances as we learn and grow in our new rural life 😍

So until next time (and hopefully will figure out how to attach photos in the next post)... love, light and brightest blessings to you all xo