Forever foraging - Oct 2022

Feeding the (tame) wild deer

It had been a couple of years since we had headed into our favourite mountain station to go for an easy hunt.  By easy, we mean that we can usually get an animal or two for the freezer.  But first of all we were required to beat the feet over the hills for a few days laying rat bait.

With the work part of our trip complete we were able to gather a few future feeds under our belts.

We are always awed by the flora and fauna in the NZ bush.

Wild clematis

A very pretty moth, nature has 
the best designs

Our next stop was back to Whakatane where we have access to a shared freezer.  Our great mates Ollie and Snow are also hunter gatherers so we all add to the freezer stock whenever we can and take from it what we need.  A perfect solution for a couple of nomads.

It always occurs to us during the processing of our 'catches' just how much work it is to hunt and gather so much of our own food.  To do it really well and use every inch of each animal we gather takes lots of time and effort.  We wouldn't have it any other way.  We still believe this is the most sustainable meat to eat.  The vac pac machine has also revolutionised this process for us.  We have now learnt to wet age the venison when we are living in our van.

Ollie and Snow then headed off on a family holiday of their own and we stayed to care for the furbies.

Max enjoying some grooming

And, of course, a spot of surfcasting which allowed us to also stash some smoked fish cakes in the freezer!

Next we headed out of town to a repeat sit with the crew from Edgecumbe.  Always lot of fun with this lot!

Tux's parents tell us that he was never
a lap cat until we came into his life.
Hard to believe by this evidence!

Joey, the retired sheep dog.  So much 
for being the tough guy, either of them :-)

Another cute pup - Tauranga, Oct 2022

 

Digby, 4mth Parsons Russell Terrier

We seem to have had a string of puppies in a row, which we don't mind at all, so it was a pleasure to be left in charge of this wee cutie.  Digby came full of character, as terriers often do and kept us entertained and exercised for the full we we were with him.

This was the usual state of play .....

And this was after a hard day beating the feet around the streets, on the beach and on the golf course.

Cats, Spice and Honey were also in residence, although they were always keen to give you-know-who a wide berth and the house had been set up to allow for this.

We had fun taking Digby to the beach fishing and metal detecting.  He was especially good at digging for treasure!

Digby had some really awesome training strategies in place.  He had been trained to go toilet on command which was very cool, and made life so much easier.  He also had this really cool toy which kept his mischievous mind engaged.

He could be very sweet and loving ....

And then bite the hand (ear of the person) that feeds him mwahahahaha

We did enjoy our time with this wee munchkin.

New Zealand Return - Sep 2022

Motuhora

Arriving back in NZ we were relieved to check into an airport hotel at midnight.  After a great night's sleep we got on a train to head to the Waikato to pick up our van.  Straight through to Whakatane where we were able to catch a few nights R&R/jetlag recovery before getting started on our first housesit just out of town.

We were to be looking after Huntaway, Joey; liver and white English Pointer, Bella; and baby brother, five month old English Pointer, Glitch.

Plus there feline brother and boss, Tux.

Joey is a retired farm dog and they live just down the road from the farm he and his Dad used to work on so we were lucky enough to have access to the farm for running the pups.  Glitch, in particular, gets to thrash out all his energy around the paddocks.

Glitch has to go on his lead past the cows, who
are very, very nosy!

Glitch, being the young boy that he is, sometimes had trouble containing himself, even after the a couple of walks a day, leaving now and again with some mending to do!!!

Who knew that hand sewing was a
special skill required by pet sitters!!

A lifeguard rescue mission was required for these wee munchkins from the swimming pool to reunite them with mother duck.

We were able to dodge the raindrops now and again to enjoy some time soaking up the few bits of vitamin D floating around the place.

Even Tux enjoyed the early spring sunshine when he could find it!

James had some jobs to do on the van, ably assisted by his apprentices ......

And Tux was all good for helping out in the kitchen.

And with the knitting1

Very sadly during this time, Clare's darling Dad passed away in his 90th year.  Whilst he died unexpectedly, he had lived a wonderfully happy life.  It was a sad occasion for the family to gather, but a special time non-the-less.