Building a Driveway One Stone at a Time

There's lots of mud in the country. The looping gravel driveway in front of the house is mostly lacking in gravel and formed of mud and potholes. It's not great when its been raining.

Jo says I should tell the council but I have a better idea. Every morning I walk the dogs and pick up a pocketful of stones which I put on the driveway. So far in two months I've covered an area the size of a table. By the end of the year I'll have done six tables. There's probably about twenty to do in all. I'm fixing the driveway a stone at a time. It's the best way.

Cheese now below $10 per kilo

The price of petrol seems to have stabilised, much to the relief of all. But, what is happening to the price of cheese?

A year ago, it was edging up to $13 per kilo. It's now settled at around $10 and last week I found some at $8.99. Happy days!

Jake the Escaping Spaniel

I spent four hours on Sunday building a new dog proof fence out of posts and chickenwire. Molly looked defeated by my efforts and the northern boundary is now secure.

However, she has turned her attention to the west boundary and found a way through the large wire mesh fence. She has only done it once. I think she is scared she'll get stuck. Jake on the other hand nips through with impunity.

So now they are both chained up.

Rabbits

The new house has a paddock out the back, which is half full of derelict buildings and also contains my vege patch. Nothing is growing in my vege patch. The paddock is infested with pesky rabbits. They eat the new shoots as soon as they appear.

I have checked out the options and I can either shoot them or gas them. Clearly I'm not going to do either of those things.

CSI:NY

Tonight I have been watching CSI New York. I like CSI. They take you through the story nice and slowly and the clues are all obvious. Then they replay it all in slow motion so you are in no doubt who did the murder and how.

Which is all so much easier than watching British dramas. At the weekend I watched Lewis and had no idea who was doing what and why. I was so confused I didn’t even know what the crime was. Then I watched Dr Who and had no idea what was going on there either. Then I had a dream about a giant blue lightbulb that was taking over the world.

The Age of Imagination

Lily has gone into an imaginative phase. Today we've all been characters from the Wiggles. Lily is Wags the Dog, Jo is Dorothy the Dinosaur and I am Henry the Octopus. Molly and Jake are not exempt either. Molly is Policeman and Jake is Zardo Zap the Alien. Try calling that at the park...

Molly the Escaping Spaniel

A secure dog proof garden is important if you are a dog owner. Especially if you live next to a busy road.

So I have spent hours and hours and hundreds of dollars on fencing and chicken wire. I have built a 20m plastic mesh fence to the south, a trellis fence, also to the south, chicken wired up the gate so no-one get get through and cut the huge dense macracarpa hedge on the northen boundary so I could install 20m of chicken wire. That last one took all day.

And still Molly walks aout the garden whenever she feels like it. How? I can't even guess anymore.

Which is bad for her because for the moment she is spending the day chained up until I can work it out.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

It's been said that this country is ten or more years behind the rest of the world. With that in mind, the time is just right for NZ to get its own version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which hit the screens last night.

Interestingly, it is filmed in Australia, TVNZ being to tight to provide their own set. Contestants are flown out to Melbourne for the day.