Tuesday; This week we are ignoring Till as much as possible. Herbie needs some attention and we have grand plans for what we want to do. But the land needs some attention in order to get there. The council berm has a lot of convovulous that is taking over our fences and growing happily nearly everywhere. I want to get it under control before planting. I spray all the areas I have to but I avoid spraying on our actual land as this stuff is designed to stay in the soil for months. Which means if I try to plant a fruit tree where I have sprayed I will most likely kill it. Rowan takes back all the macrocarpa hedging so we can park the camper close and we can build a little side shelter on the container. The rubber seal on the main door of Camele is coming off so we fix that in place and we fix the rear window brake light that has been swinging for quite some time. Jimmy and Sylvia tell me they are going to uncover their water main on the berm we can look at getting water to site. Jim then ends up mowing along the berm and mows our fields for us. Thanks Jim. We end the day with a few beers.

Wednesday; Today there is a list, a list we have been distracted from. This is getting Palmerston moving. Till has taken up so much head space and physical time that we have neglected some important jobs. I am not coping, I can barely string a sentence together, we are taking on too much at once. These are all self imposed deadlines and it is time to take a breath, get back on track but do it in a very achievable manner. Big on the list is seeing the council, we have a few questions about how does changes effect building consent and what causes major changes and delays. While we were there we chatted to the rates team about our rates, we can get quite a rebate as we now have 5 sets of rates in the Waitaki area. We also want to use to occupy and pay rates for a section next door and needed advice on how to do that. We had small errands to do like the pharmacy and picking up tool parts. We got in front of a few window manufacturers and asked them questions about costs and how to keep things to a minimum. Windows are quite an expense when building. After that we got chatting to the bathroom and kitchen team at Mitre10. We also looked at pole shed designs. While I was there I got some pumice and potting mix. Back at Till I planted some Microgreens and lots of herbs. I really have missed having plants and looking after a garden. At the local dump Rowan found a chair and a cupboard he wants for storage at Herbert. We will need to come back for the cupboard with the trailer.

Thursday; I finally tried out our new espresso maker for Camele. This one is different to our large one and Rowan found it in Dunedin on Monday. I have a lot of Demitasse cups in storage which is no good to me, but these sweet Hornsea spice jars work. It took a bit of searching but these are called a Maggiolina Espresso Machine. I love it so much! Off into town, we haven’t had a breakfast at mcds in months and it was about time to just do it. I wanted to come in and get some dessert for this afternoon as we have been invited to Jim and Sylvia’s for a barbie. Sylvia has a few dietary restrictions so I wanted to make sure I got something that she can eat. We picked up our ladders at Till and our washing that is now dry. Then we went to the dump to pick up the cabinet before heading back to Till. Rowan dug three holes and put posts in. I used rust converter then painted the container. It looks much tidier, I can’t wait to do the whole thing. Before we knew it, three o’clock hit. Off to cut some trees for the neighbours and have a bbq. We ended up no doing any cutting and just ate a lot. Haha

Friday; I finally got the motivation by 8.30am to get out and paint. Gee today is cold and cloudy, this will be interesting. I get a third of the way through and a misty rain is upon me. I decide to carry on as it really doesn’t matter if it drips a bit. Delayed by gross weather we decide to do a little explore and head out to Hampden for brunch. We go down some back roads that I have wanted to explore for a while. When we get back to Herbert I have a message from neighbour Jim that the motorbike is here. Rowan wants it, I am dubious about learning on it. It appears to be a great bike but I can only just touch the ground. We take Jim up to Ngapara where he picked the bike up from. He has a new place up there which is a bit of a bolt hole and will be for all his family.

I am a bit worried about going on it in the wet. Rowan takes me for a small ride around the block. Some of it I enjoy the rest I was anxious haha. Jim says use it for the weekend and let him know if we want it. I am sure Rowan is sold. It easily handles both of us, which is great.

Saturday; The weather is better today, I get a quick second coat of paint on and Rowan starts making the shelter. I clear out Camele as there are lots of things we don’t need and plenty of annoying things getting in the way. I help Rowan with attaching the first bit to the container, the rest he does on his own. The convovulous is really dying down which is great, let’s hope I only have to hit it once or twice more. Once Rowan had the iron on the weather threatened more rain. We managed to get the heavy cupboard in and clear up before it really hit. The cupboard was awkward but we got it in okay. Some of the wood Rowan used for the iron to attach to is the bent stuff from Mitre10. It looks like I have taken a bad panorama. I took each of the three bicycles up to the Herbert Hall and washed them. Then I took them back down to the block and oiled them. I took all the stuff off my bike I wanted and put it on Joanne’s bike. Rowan has a school friend who has just moved to NZ so he can have my old bike.

Sunday; I got more fiddle jobs completed on the camper. The back lockers both had stuffed catches so those were replaced and the door one too. This random rubber jiblit that we found on a plane went over one of the old holes. Rowan attached the bike rack and put the bikes back on Camele. I rust converted the trailer base and gave it a coat of paint. I know this won’t hold for 20years but it means it will slow the pace down while we own it. Rowan attached a plywood base. We went into Ōamaru to put a battery on charge, power tools have run out. While that was charging we emptied and filled up Camele, had some lunch and got some more stuff from Mitre10. Of course we went to the dump shop and got some LPG too. My Microgreens are already starting to sprout! I checked on all the plants making sure they have enough water.

Monday; We came into town to get some paperwork done. The day ended up a bit of a miss. Our neighbour Laura came around so we invited her to have lunch with us. We had a lot of running around to do so we just went to the bakery. I washed Rowan’s dungarees as they are falling apart and handed them clean and dry to Laura and she said she will patch them up quick. We didn’t achieve as much as I hoped but that is fine. There is always tomorrow. When we got back to Herbert we went for a ride to chase a fire. One of the neighbours burning off their fields.