Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays

from losmills

One other cool thing about living in NZ, is that we can be amongst the first in the world to experience the actual pandemonium that is Xmas morning.  (And then be able to blog all the details.)   Being one of the first stops on Santa's itinerary has a certain prestige, ya' know.  Just ask Burgess.

Just wanted to report that we were able to have a relatively "normal" Xmas day, especially when you take into account our recent nomadic lifestyle.  Even though we are housesitting at the moment, we were able to find our crappy old plastic tree and the box with all of OUR ornaments, on the most recent container dig (see future post.  Maybe.)  

Pretty cruizy holiday fare, really...

Opening pressies...

A walk on the beach...

(Oh yeah, we're dog-sitting too!)

and turkey with mashed potatoes...

Pretty normal, huh?  

Especially when you consider what lies ahead...

duhn - duhn... Daahhhh! 

(That's foreshadowing, folks)

Livin' the Life of a Modern Day Hippie

Sort of.

We have been housesitting in Tasman for December, but will need to move on after the first week of January. Unfortunately, with summer well and truly here, there are NO rentals available in the area. The cottage that we were living in becomes a summer holiday rental at prices far to high for us to afford.

We really want to get out on Provecho. There are so many little jobs that just aren't getting done out there. If we were living on site we would be able to work in little half hour blocks... whereas right now, we would have to drive out there and back – leaving only 15 minutes for work out of that half hour. So, we've decided to go a bit rough. We will be living in a bus.

It's a very nice bus, though.

It's kitted out with a kitchen and bathroom (with shower). There is a bedroom for Greg and I and a seating area that can be converted into beds. Burgess will probably sleep in the sleepout or a tent. It even has solar panels for electricity! We'll get electricity to the house site soon, but won't be rushed this way. Since we have the time, Greg can hire a digger and make the trench for the power and phone lines himself.

It will be a bit tight on space, but will definitely be do-able for the summer. I'm not so sure about late fall or winter, though. We'll see.

The sound of the other shoe falling...

Apparently it sounds like an email alert...

We received the tenders from the builders for their quote on the working drawings on the house. They were double our budget.

Yes. Just over two times (!!) what we had planned. We have been designed a lovely house that we can not afford to build.

We received the tenders early in the month. It has taken about this long for me to come to grips with it enough to be able to write about it. You can imagine the frustration... anger... fear... STRESS... that we have been experiencing. It feels as though we have passed through most of the recognized stages of mourning. (Although one of us has had a hard time getting away from "Anger")

We made our budget very clear from the beginning. It was our initial question for whoever we met with. We didn't want to waste anyone's time going through an architectural process if our budget was too small for them to work with.

We were assured that it wasn't.

The reason that we wanted to go with an architect in the first place was with the hope that they would be able to stretch our budget in ways that we hadn't envisioned. We thought we were hiring a trained professional that would be able to make the best use of space and materials for us. Guess we were wrong. So much for professional training.

It is SO disappointing.

I think what might have happened was that our architect didn't adequately research the cost of materials. Frankly, it's difficult to come up with any explanations as to how he could have missed the mark so badly. It's a pretty basic mistake, but one that has HUGE repercussions for us.

Not only are we out a large amount of "professional" fees, but we've also wasted quite a bit of time.

So, what do we do now?

We have been spending the past couple of weeks doing a bit of research of our own. We've talked with; a couple of building companies, friends who are in the building industry, another friend who happens to be an architect in Wellington, and the head carpentry tutor at NMIT (the guy who trains most of the local builders out there). Irritatingly, we seem to get a different idea of where to go next from each person that we talk to. However, a surprisingly consistent response is that this situation happens all to often. Nelson architects seem to have this nasty tendency to ignore budgets. (Although, our $170K over budget is rather extreme.)

Many people just swallow the extra and carry on. We just can't do that.

We are planning on going back to the architectural firm and meeting with our architect and the other partners. We will point out our budget (meager though it may be) which was clearly printed in our initial agreement. We also have a consistent history throughout our emails that show how we were concerned with budget. At no point have we given any indication that our budget was larger than initially stated. (Thank goodness I kept all those emails!) We will then (firmly) request that they redesign the house within our budget at their own cost – even if that means starting over. Hopefully, they will agree and things will carry on. If not, I'm sure that there will be angry, raised voices and much waving of hands... to say the least.

I'd love to sue, but don't want the added stress.

More than one person has suggested we contact a NZ consumer affairs show called "Fair Go".

If we can't continue with the architects, we will start looking into the building companies. We feel wary about them, but what other choice do we have? We've had friends suggest that we relocate a house. Unfortunately, those houses aren't as readily available as people seem to think. They also generally require so much work that you may as well build from scratch. We'll get a house up. It just may take a bit longer than we had initially planned.

Hope still springs eternal.

President Obama

We are so very excited that Obama has been elected as the next president. I kept track of the results online and then came home just in time to watch McCain’s consolatory speech… at least until it was cut short to switch to Wheel of Fortune!! We then switched to Al Jezeera tv (an Arab station – How ironic is that?) to watch the crowds in Grant Park and listen to Obama’s acceptance speech. We tried to keep an eye out for friends and family in the crowd. Was anyone there? (I can’t believe Jake or John would pass up a party like that!)

I know that some of you aren’t sure about Obama, but have an open mind. I hope that he will gain your trust over the coming months and years. I’m not sure if he will be able to accomplish all that we hope for him, but I it seems that he is ready and willing to try his best. He strikes me as such an amazing man – honourable, intelligent, and inspiring. I can’t imagine a better presidential candidate. Hopefully, he will be an equally accomplished president.

More than the fact that Obama is an amazing man, however, is the fact that we have just elected our fist black president. It is such a powerful step. Growing up, I always heard talk of equality with an undertone of bigotry. I could never understand it. (You can give credit to my parents for raising me without bias.) I hope that by choosing a black man for our highest office, maybe we as a nation have gotten by all that. I know that there are still some serious wack-jobs out there who probably feel strongly that Obama is a threat due to his skin colour, but they have been proven to be the minority.

I am so proud to be an American right now.

Taking bathroom fixtures a bit too seriously…

One of the decisions that we had to make recently had to do with bathroom fixtures. We were flipping through some catalogs when we came across this…

"Water has seen a lot on its journey to us.  

Let us experience that journey through our bathroom fittings."

Oh. My.

Someone in the Hansa advertising department needs to get out a bit more.

...Though, they do have some seriously amazing bathroom "fittings."

Checking in...

A great deal has been happening, but there has been little time to write about it.

House: The architect is now completing the working drawings for the half of the house that we will be building. These drawings will go to the council for building permits and various builders for quotes. Hopefully, assuming everything goes smoothly, we will be able to get the pad poured before Christmas! Yay!!

I have to say, the whole process for this half of the house has been pretty easy… or maybe it is just that we have so many things going on at the moment we don’t have the spare time to stress about it. The design came together effortlessly. There was a little finessing about room sizes and windows, but our architect really did a brilliant job working up rooms that will be used as a (semi) temporary kitchen or possible office/possible linen closet, etc. What we are building now will be perfect as a finished bedroom “wing”, but also really nice as a complete house until we can build the rest. It will certainly be a lot nicer than what I ever thought we would be living in for the first few years into this venture.

Job: I (finally) found myself a full-time job! Yay! I started working about 3 weeks ago as a curriculum developer for the local polytech. Basically, my role is to aid the various schools as they create new or changes in courses and programs that they are offering. I make sure that all the needed information is gathered and national standards are being met.

Everyone seems very nice. It has been great so far. However, it has been a long time since I have worked full-time. I’m surprised at how tired I am at the end of the day… hence, the lack of updates on this blog. I’m getting used to it, though.

So, along with me going back to work, Greg has picked up the majority of the house duties – managing Burgess, taking care of half the dinners, and keeping the house relatively tidy. He is doing really well, but also having a bit of a learning curve. I’m finally getting all the empathy and respect for the past eight years. Managing the house and Burgess on top of everything else is surprisingly complicated. If he were able to pick it up without missing a beat, I would feel more than a little hurt. Still, like I said, he is doing a brilliant job.

Burgess also has to take on a few more responsibilities, which can only be a good thing. (Not that he thinks so!)

How Greg Spent his Birthday

We finally got rid of all the olive trees. (I think that there are now olive trees spread throughout the Nelson valley because of us.) Unfortunately, we were left with huge stakes… hundreds… over a thousand… huge stakes. The stakes are buried a meter in the hard, clay – which is why most people didn’t take them when they dug up their olive trees.

So, Greg got his hands on a digger this weekend and started pulling the remaining trees and stakes out. This meant that he worked all day Sunday, on his birthday… but he worked (played) with heavy machinery in a huge field. There are definitely worse ways to spend your birthday, honestly!

Yee-ha!

House Design

We've started working with an architect to design a house.  It is going really well.  

After looking on the internet and talking with people whose houses we liked, we met up with 4 different architects and designers.  One guy started showing us a bridge that he designed...  uh, yeah.  It was a very cool bridge, but not what I'm looking for in a house design.  Another guy was very enthusiastic and passionate, but was more focused on a modern-industrial sort of look (lots of concrete and cinderblock).  His buildings were interesting, but not what I would want to live in.  

The third guy we had really high hopes for.  He is known for sustainable building - creating homes that make use of local, eco-friendly materials.  We know that we want to incorporate ideas such as passive solar heating (positioning a house to take advantage of the winter sun) and like the idea of building sustainably, if we can.  We also liked the fact that this guy is an architectural designer, not a true architect.  Their fees are often lower than architect fees. Anyway, he ended up being so focused on the the sustainability part... well, it just seemed like some of his ideas weren't always that well thought out.  He had his own agenda that he was going to push hard for.  We admired his passion, but feel like we have enough on our plate without having environmentally moral battles over house design and materials. 

In the end, we decided to go with Richard Carver at Redbox.  We liked the styles of the buildings that they have designed, but also felt like Richard had a really good understanding of where we were coming from and what we wanted.  We have been so happy with our decision! The whole process has been great so far.  We only have to say a few words and Richard totally understands what we mean.  We were hoping for some kind of synergistic relationship with an architect, where ideas would bounce off one another to create something even better.  We also wanted someone who make the most of our limited budget.  Richard has achieved all these things.  Yay, Richard!

The above picture is one of the first concept drawings of the house.  Our current budget only allows us to build about half the house.  However, we wanted to design the whole thing so that the finished building wouldn't look odd.   Initially, we will build the bedroom "wing" (the golden-orange area), along with the hallway, bathroom and linen closet (blue areas).  We'll end up using the master bedroom as the living area and the en-suite as a temporary kitchen.  Later, when we are getting money from the grapes, we will build the living areas (in the tannish color).  This drawing was an early design.

This later design is closer to what we are working with now.  It is very similar to the first drawing, but cuts down on some wasted space.  We're really happy with it.  (Sorry I couldn't get the pictures any larger.) 

Once we are through fiddling with the overall design of the house, Redbox will draw up working drawings for the part that we will build.  These get submitted to council for permits and builders for bids.  If all goes well, we'll be able to start building in November... with a February finish.  That leaves us a couple months outside of when we need to leave the cottage that we are currently renting, but we'll cross that bridge as it gets closer to December. 

Biggest Hurdle - The Bank

We met with the bank last week to talk about... well, how much money we can possibly get from them, honestly.  This was probably the biggest hurdle to our whole Provecho vineyards adventure.  It was an absolute emotional roller-coaster.  (Have I made this analogy before?  Seems like a re-occurring experience with this project.)

Here was Mr. Banker-dude, verbally tossing about hundreds of thousands of dollars like it was nothing. This is our life you are so glibly talking about, man!!  I think I blacked out for a while when we started discussing how deeply in debt we would be... came to briefly when he casually mentioned how that debt would increase exponentially in the years before we got a harvestable crop... and then turned white as a sheet when he calculated our surprisingly miniscule surplus/deficit in 2012!  I remember thinking, "That was NOT anywhere near the return that Greg was telling me I should expect!  What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?!"  Swallowing my panic and keeping my voice calm, I graciously asked Mr. Banker-dude to explain things a bit more... uh... slowly.  He looked up, took note of the cold-sweat I had broken into, and explained that the bank takes the absolute gloomiest view possible.  These were worst-case scenario numbers.  They also were the amount after debt servicing and didn't take into account the tax saving benefits of being a company.  New Zealand has a rather large income tax.

OOOOOH!

That changed everything.  These numbers were... good.  Yes.  We can actually do this.  The clouds have broken back and the sun has re-appeared!  Life is good.  We are clever, successful people!  My heart soared, the angels sang!

Wait.  It only got better.  Then we started talking about housing.  We had been planning on putting up some tractor sheds and what would eventually be an office.  We figured we would make-do and live in the office section until we started getting some money back from the grapes.  Mr. Banker-dude looked at us for a moment and then pulled out the calculator and did some wicked-fast number crunching before telling us to just borrow more money and build a house... or at least part of a house.  

YES!  I love Mr. Banker-dude.

OK.  I was all ready to build this little shoe-box and live in it for an un-godly length of time.  I figured that we had a lot of open space for the boy to run around on.  Heck, I could always lock myself in the car if I needed some quiet.  (You think I'm joking?)  To know that we can build something that will go toward a finished house... that is warm and comfortable and large enough for us all to have some space...  Oh, it's just heaven!  

Mr. Banker-dude explained (in a very Banker-dude way) how many people try to do the shoe-box living route, but find that it just doesn't work.  They end up going into the same amount of debt anyway and wondering why they put themselves through the hell.  He went on to say that it was in the bank's best interest to protect their investment - namely, us... and more specifically, our marriage.  Giving us a bit more room so that we don't end up killing each other is a good financial investment protection... in their opinion.  Whatever.  Works for me!  

It was a really good day.

Two steps forward, One step back

Things are moving along with the land.  Gradually.  We'll think we have everything figured out and then find out some new information that causes us to re-evaluate everything.  We are still making definite progress, it just isn't what we would consider fast progress.  

We want to make sure that everything is done absolutely right at this stage - before the plants go in.  Now is when we set up the basis of everything.  Specifically, we have been looking at re-contouring the land and draining.  How much we can do and what is practical.  We are definitely

 keeping the dam.  (I'm so pleased!  It's just so pretty.)  However, there are some other little ponds and wet areas on the property that we would like to drain away.  We also would like to reshape the hills a bit to make them more tractor friendly/safe.  You really do NOT want to be in a tractor driving down anything like an 15 degree slope.  Sketchy!  

These sort of changes that we make now will determine how much we can plant, what we plant, and even how well the plants will do.  Get the drainage wrong and you could find that your vineyard isn't producing as well 5 years down the line.  It's money well spent... but, as we are finding, it is also a lot of money.  It's hard not to hyper-ventilate when I start looking at how much these various quotes are.

Greg has been spending a lot of time talking with contractors about these various jobs.  What we are finding, though, is that there isn't the level of specificity and expertise here that you find in larger grape growing areas.  In many cases, we have found that we probably know as much as the contractor that we are talking to... so then we start looking into renting the equipment and doing all or at least part of the job ourselves.   It seems I have gotten a job working for a local wastewater engineer that way.  I'm going to start doing soil testing and report writing for him - starting with our property.  

I knew those Geology classes would come in handy some day!

Winter wonderland

We had a serious cold snap the other night which brought with it a heap of snow.  We even got snow down to 500m!  It looks absolutely magical!  

You could be forgiven for thinking that we lived in a ski village.  We don't.  In fact, we are at sea level... with mountains close by.  Theoretically, you could climb a mountain and then hit the beach all in the same day... although, you might be a bit pressed for time. 

Burg is currently on school holidays for the next two weeks.  We are planning on going up to the mountains for some sledding with friends later this week.  I don't think Burg has ever played in the snow.  He certainly doesn't remember it.  Ironic, considering how Greg and I grew up playing in the snow every winter.

Kiwi winters

With winter well established, a number of businesses have sent out flyers with helpful hints at how to best manage the chilly temperatures of a typical kiwi winter.  Here is one that we received this morning from our insurance agency.

Uh... I have another idea.  Maybe you could just turn up the heat?!  And what about that anti-freeze tip?  Sure, you might end up poisoning some wildlife, but at least your toilet won't freeze.  WTF?

Sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh. (And then pick up the phone to call the Department of Conservation!)

Those of you who are familiar with our displeasure of the New Zealand winter, know how we can go on about the deplorable energy efficiency of Kiwi houses.  Our version of Mark Twain's famous quip goes..."The coldest winter we ever spent was Winter in a Kiwi house." or

 "First there was San Fran... but then...after the winter in a Kiwi house, well...."

Keep in mind that both of us grew up in the midwest, where there can be snow on the ground for 4-5 months out of the year!  Anyway, big news story last week, as follows...

NZ catches death of cold - study

By KIM THOMAS - The Press | Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Sixteen hundred more New Zealanders die every winter than during other seasons, with researchers pinning part of the blame on cold, damp and poorly maintained homes.

Scary part is when they mention that "excess winter mortality" (catchy term, eh?) accounts for 4 times as many deaths as auto accidents in NZ each year. Yikes! The whole story, as well as some entertaining comments, can be found here for you real masochists.

Provecho vineyards

Starting a vineyard - 

Step 1 - Buy the land (check)

Step 2 - Set yourself up as a company (check)

We are now officially Provecho vineyard, Ltd.  Very exciting!  It's just Greg and I - 50 shares each, but it is that first step that really makes things official.  

We've set ourselves up as an LAQC or Loss Attributing Qualified Company.  The "Loss" bit is the important word here.  Essentially, as I understand it anyway, it takes advantage of the fact that we will be running at a loss for the first few years.  The vineyard tax losses will be offset from our other income (from the jobs that I/we will need to do in addition to the vineyard... to service the debt that we are getting ourselves into), reducing overall the tax we need to pay.  Meaning that we will be able to keep more of what we earn (less tax taken out of our paychecks).  That's a great help - particularly considering that New Zealand income tax on wages is 33%.  I'm not complaining.  Public health care rocks, in my opinion.  But we can use any extra that we can get right now.

So, we're a company.  Now we need to start earning that status.  Here is where everything starts to get a bit amorphous.  We want to start taking steps toward getting grapes in the ground, but we also want to get something sorted so we can actually live on the land.  Which do we do first?  Can we do both?  Do we just develop half the vineyard so we can build a house at the same time?  This is where a business plan comes in.

To be honest, it is something that Greg and I have been putting off a bit.  What we need to do is research, research, research and to the best of our ability price out every last post, wire, and vine.  We need to price out developing half the land and developing all the land.  Then we price out building some sort of house.  (What we would like, what we could tolerate.)  Once we have all these numbers, then it should all be a lot clearer.  There is nothing like having all your options made clear to you in black and white.

Don't get me wrong.  We have done this to some degree, but now we need to do it as accurately as possible.  It's easy enough to say that we have 36 plantable acres - which will convert to a certain number of Pinot Gris, Riesling, and/or Gewurtstraminer vines... but it's quite another thing when you are geting ready to actually order those vines.  You definitely don't want to order to few vines when it comes planting time. 

Now is where the work begins.

Container living

We have landed.

All moved in?

Yep.  Pretty much what you are looking at here is all our material possessions compressed into a twenty-foot cube.  

Movin' on!

We sold!!!!  Yay!

This was not a fun process.  Buying/selling a house just doesn't bring out the best in anybody. The buyers had us over a barrel and they knew it... but it's over.  The house is sold and we can move on.  We didn't lose any money... but we didn't really make any either.  C'est la vie.

Fortunately, all of this coincided with Greg's trip up.  He had originally intended to come up for 5 days, but then the sale happened.  He had nothing pressing going on in Nelson, so we changed his return flight and started packing.  We have a shipping container coming for the furniture on Monday, Tuesday is for cleaning, and we all take off on Wednesday.  Greg will fly with our neurotic cat. Burgess and I will drive down to Wellington and then take the ferry to the South Island, getting to Nelson sometime on Thursday.

So, right now I am surrounded in boxes and bubble wrap.  Literally.  Here's a picture taken by the computer...

(Don't mind me.  It's 8:00 in the morning and I haven't even had breakfast yet.)

It seems like the more we get packed, the messier things become.  We have all these loose bits and bobs waiting for the perfect box spot.  Fortunately, we don't have that much stuff.  I'm not one for owning lots of anything, so it could be worse.  I'm also clearing out a bit.  I finally jettisoned the 5 boxes of baby things that we were carting around "just in case".  (Don't worry.  I kept one box of the really precious bits... like Burgess's copy of "Goodnight Gorilla" and certain tiny, tiny clothes.)  I've donated books to the school library and toys to a local kindy (preschool).  It's nice to pass on these things to places where they will get a lot of use.  

Life's a roller coaster

It has been a stressful week.  I have been faxing documents, taking conference calls, and getting woken up at 4 am by nervous financial advisors from half-way around the world.  It all sounds very whirl-wind exciting, but is actually just incredibly exhausting.  We take possession of our property on Monday and have been getting everything set up for that.  There is just so much... to do, to pay for, to set up.  It all becomes a bit much sometimes.

They have these television shows here where couples (usually English) decide to move to another country and set up a business.  Most of the time, the people are completely unprepared for what they are getting into.  There will be an accountant couple who decide to move to the south of France and set up an organic farm/bed and breakfast in order to spend more time with their family.  As you watch the couples go hopelessly through the many, many trials and tribulations of figuring out what they are doing, a narrator comments (in a snide tone) on how they have forgotten all about key issues.  We used to snort at their ineptitude...  

Yeah.  My life has become one of those episodes. 

Well, ok.  It's not actually that bad.  I mean, we know what we are doing as far as a vineyard goes, but all this business/legal stuff... not to mention the huge (to me) amounts of money that we are dealing with at the moment... and the amount of debt that we are taking on... it's enough to make you want to curl up in the fetal position with a nice bottle of... well, anything!  There is just so much for us to learn and we feel so stupid when we make mistakes or forget something.  For example, I had totally forgotten that we had already payed a deposit on the property (Yay!  Extra money!!!), then was reminded two days later that we have to pay GST (Crap!  You mean we need to pay more?!).  Fortunately, the GST is only slightly more than the deposit was, so we have everything we need... but I was really pleased that we had some extra money for those few days.

That example actually says so much about how things went this week.  Highs and lows.  Something great would happen, followed by something really crap... or visa versa.  So, I guess things are balancing out, but I'm just really worn thin by it all.  

However... I feel so very grateful that we have such great people working with us.  The solicitors that we are using in both Napier and Nelson seem so on top of everything and really looking out for our best interests.  I know that is what lawyers are supposed to do, but you don't always feel that way.  We feel it.  We also have this amazing bank manager who seems to be moving heaven and earth for us.  And these guys really believe in us.  We need that right now.   

Greg is coming up on Wednesday for a week!  I am SO looking forward to seeing him.  It seems like every time we talk on the phone, there is some other issue that needs dealing with.  He's great as a partner in crime (You and me against the world, baby!), but I really just want him here as my husband for a bit... for a nice cuddle.

Sporadic posting

Sorry for not posting much over the past month.  That's probably how things will be going for a while with this blog.  Just rest assured, if we're not posting there probably isn't much going on.

So, what is going on?  Greg has now moved down to Nelson while Burg and I remain with the house.  The housing market has really slowed here.  There is no telling how long it will take to sell the place.  Still, we are hopeful.  We had three viewings this week, after a month of no one looking at all!  Of course, one of the people set to view the house drove by and canceled the appointment after seeing our driveway.  (It is rather steep, but not that bad.  Wimp!)  But one of the other families seem interested... we'll see.

Greg is busy meeting with lawyers and accountants as we get closer to our possession date for the land.  He feels very much like a fish out of water.  I usually handle these sort of things, but this is all new territory for both of us.  Fortunately, we have some very knowledgeable and helpful friends at EIT who teach just this subject (Agribusiness) and they have given us some excellent advice/background information.  I'm planning on baking up a storm over the next week to shower them with thanks and scones.

Other than that, Burgess is currently on school holiday for two weeks.  He has many sleep-overs and play-dates planned - which is fine with me.  I can always send the boys outside if they get too load.  They'll play in the park across the street for hours - making forts, spying on people walking the trails, shooting down imaginary bad-guys.  It's the way school holidays should be spent.

nelson update

Greg spent most of last week in Nelson meeting with accountants and employers, looking at housing options and walking around our 40 acres.  He came home brimming with information and excitement.  

One of the first things that he did was head off to Blenheim to meet up with the faculty of Onsite Viticulture.  All three of them.  They are an independent learning provider based in Blenheim, but moving into the Nelson area.  It sounds like things should work out well.  They want Greg to develop and teach their vit. program for Nelson.  They try to work their classes around the students' work and harvest schedules... meaning night classes.  Their catch phrase seems to be "work while you learn."  It should work well for Greg.  They are basically offering him as many hours as he wants.  Nice.

I am also looking for work in Nelson, but not having as much luck.  I'm hoping that things will happen once I get down there.  I would like to do something semi-related to my field, but may have to simply take what is available.  Such is life!

Greg also looked at numerous rentals around Upper Moutere.  We would love to move straight onto our property, but things aren't quite set up for that just yet.  Greg looked at a number of houses - some cute, some rather scary.  Then came across a furnished place, right in the heart of Mapua, a sweet little port village just 5 minutes drive from Upper Moutere.  Mapua is quite the tourist haven in the summer, but dead in the off season.  What we will be staying in is one of the cabins that is rent out for $200+ a night in the summer.  Although it is the nicest place (by far) that Greg looked at, it is also the least expensive and closest to where we want to be.   We have it until mid-December.  We hope to be living on the land by then - even if we need to do it in a tent.  (Remember, December is summer here, so that isn't such an extreme idea.)

And speaking of the land...  it's lovely!  

Greg spent something like 3 hours walking all over the property.  He came back with heaps of pictures - and it took us at least an hour to go through all of those!  The property is HUGE.  There are a few areas that need draining put in if we want to increase planting area.  He found 5 ponds - 1 that can be drained away, 3 small ones full of tadpoles, 

(TADPOLES!!)

and one large, man-made dam (we knew about this one).  I have to admit, the dam looks lovely.  I can just picture picnics on the bank, Burg paddling around on a raft...  

I don't know how realistic it would be to keep it, though.  With the various sprays that are used on an orchard, I'm not sure how healthy the water would look after a few years (think algae muck and lots of insects).  Yet another thing to look into.  It is just sooooo pretty, though!

And then there are the olives...

... so many olives

We are starting to think that maybe we should consider keeping some, if not all.  About half the property is planted in these young olive trees, the other half awaiting grapevines.  Right now, the olives are small enough that we could just mow them down if we had to.  (We'd prefer to sell them if we can.)  But, it's a shame to just get rid of them.  Someone put a great deal of effort into putting them in.  So, we are going to investigate the New Zealand olive industry a bit - see what the market is like and if it might be worth our while to keep them.  Time will tell.  Our heart is in a vineyard, but an olive grove might be nice to.

Only in... New Zealand?

Anyone who has lived overseas for awhile can tell you about the frequency with which the phrase "Only in America" is uttered; usually accompanied by an ethnocentrically disapproving headshake.

Well here's some recent evidence that speaks otherwise.

First up - we have a clip from last night's Boy's Night Out attended by Greg, Burgess, and his best friend Braeden.  (This clip is technically from the previous year's carnage; but the location, unique concept, and unusual aromatic mixture of high-test fuel and testosterone were the same.)

Extra credit points if you can figure out the driver's costume when they zoom in at the end.

Really, this went on for a good 15 mins, by the end you could barely see the track from all the smoke and dust. However, my favorite part came at the end when they announced that there would be a free barbecue the next day for those who want to come help clean up the devastation. Ahhh, what you can't accomplish in this country with a free sausie.

.. this went on for a good 15 mins. Afterwards they announced that there would be a free barbecue the next morning for volunteers that wanted to come and help clean up the devastation.

Next up is my favorite story from this week's papers...

Hate the snoring, but PS I love you

1:37PM Friday March 07, 2008

A Christchurch man was less than enthralled by the movie 'PS I Love You' (pictured). He fell asleep and his annoyed wife left him in the theatre. Photo / Supplied

A "chick flick" movie proved so boring for a Christchurch man he went to sleep in a Hoyts cinema last night - and his wife was so annoyed she left him there.

But when he hadn't arrived home by 3am, she panicked, returned to the cinema in Northlands Mall, and called him on his cellphone.

When the man woke up and tried to find an exit, he triggered a motion alarm in the cinema and police were needed to unite the highly embarrassed couple.

Northlands Mall manager Brian Bell told NZPA this morning he was short on detail and seeking an explanation. It was a Hoyts operational matter, he said.

Hoyts management didn't return calls.

And the movie? - PS I Love You.

Gone walkabout... in the house!!!

Thursday, Greg was working in the yard and found this HUGE walking stick insect!  It is so cool!  We brought it in the house so that Burgess could take it to school on Monday morning for class news.  I put some manuka and pahutukawa (NZ trees) branches in a vase for it to munch and live on until we let it go, but found the guy walking across the top of our living room window shade the last couple of mornings.  

Anyway, this morning we get up to get ready for school and the walking stick isn't on his branch.  He isn't up by the window.  In fact, we couldn't find him anywhere.   And still can't!   Greg's convinced the cat got fed up with all the attention the bug was getting and went all Fear-Factor on it.  Burg was able to print off a couple of the pictures that we took for his class, so he wasn't fussed.  We're kind of used to this sort of thing - bugs walking around the house.  We also seem to keep praying mantises on our house plants.  They look neat and I like to think that they help keep the annoying fly population from overthrowing us.  However, this walking stick is really big.  I just know we are going to plop down on the couch one of these days and hear an almighty crunch.  Or I'll flip out a blanket to cover myself with only to have this guy land on my head.

Shocked house shopper:  "Aaaah... What the hell is THAT?"

Nervous real estate agent: "Uhhhh..."

Name that vineyard!

Nothing much to talk about as far as the property goes.  Although... we are trying to come up with a name.  Want to play along?  

We want something witty, but not egotistical.  We love the idea of something Spanish, but no one will ever be able to pronounce it correctly here.  Something playful without being cheesy.

So far we've thought of:

• Tin Shed vineyards  (Good, but probably more fitting to a winery.  Also the name of a winery in Africa, I think.)
  
• Titan Hill (This is Burg's suggestion.)
• Provecho vineyards (Spanish, but relatively easy to pronounce.  Good meaning - advantage, benefit, profitable. It's what you say before digging into a meal in Mexico.)
  
• Pywacket vineyards  (No real meaning behind it, but playful... and we just like the sound of  it.  Greg had a cat with that name at one time.  Props Nan.)
  

Currently, we are favoring the last two. 

We need to come up with a name before we register as a business; we need to register as a business before we do anything with the property.  So, this is an important step.  We'd love any new ideas and/or comments!

The author of the winning name will receive:

1. Our undying appreciation.
2. Worldwide fame and recognition.
3. A case of our wine.*
4. Loads of self-satisfaction.

* The fine print - Winners must pick up their prize in person, preferably sometime around 2011.

Things just couldn't be THAT easy...

Sorry I haven't posted any updates in a while. Not much has been happening. We've mostly been focusing on our house in Napier - finishing up all those jobs that you always said you wanted to do... but never get around to doing (You should see our amazing red door!) until you actually sell the house. Nothing much to talk about, really. The house does look fantastic, though. 

In addition to finishing off house projects, it was Art Deco weekend in Napier.  In 1931, Napier was completely devastated by a 7.8 earthquake.  Hundreds of people died, many (if not most) of the buildings collapsed, and even the geography of the area changed.  The town had to be completely rebuilt and Art Deco was all the rage of the time.  The end result was that Napier became the Art Deco capital of the world.  Each year the town celebrates this by having parades, music, air shows - all sorts of fun and frivolity to celebrate that which is art deco. We walked in to watch the parade of historical cars. 

There were other things going on, but the crowds were a bit much this year.  A huge cruise ship, the maiden voyage of the Queen Victoria, pulled into the port and added an extra 2000 people to the milling crowds. So, instead of fighting our way through the streets, we walked over to the port to check out the ship.  It was amazingly huge!  

Here is a picture of the ship as it pulled out of port that evening (taken from Burg's treehouse).

As far as the property goes... we had been talking with the previous owners about some equipment that they contacted us about. They had a tractor, mower, ATV, etc. - all in really great shape - that they contacted us about possibly buying. The equipment all sounded like it was in great condition. We told them that we were definitely interested and asked them to email us some pictures. Since we wouldn't normally be getting these things this early in the process (we don't even have a garage to keep anything in at this moment), we weren't on top of pricing and wanted to check that out also. Anyway, they emailed us the pictures on Thursday, we got back to the guys on Monday and then were told, "Oops!" Too late. They had already made an agreement to sell the equipment to another guy in the area. They apparently hadn't heard back (those 4 interminably long weekend days) and thought we weren't interested. Reality - these guys are complete spazzes! I mean what the heck?!

Greg fired off this scathing email. (Don't email angry, kids!) Nothing rude or mean - just very to the point and rather... terse. The sort of thing that pointed out in no uncertain terms how disappointed (disapproving) in the whole situation we are. It really made me cringe to read it.  ("I understand that it is difficult to pass up cash in hand, but it would seem as though a simple phone call would not have been asking too much..." etc., etc.)  It was just spot on. The guy ended up calling that night and apologizing. He explained that he was anxious to get rid of the equipment before they left for an overseas trip next week. They wrote it off as an unfortunate misunderstanding/miscommunication, but I still think that the guy is just a complete spazz! (For more insight on their spazziness, stay tuned for a future post in which we recount the process by which we ended up buying this bit of land.  A veritable study in capriciousness.)  I appreciate that he did the right thing by apologizing. Now we can carry on with whatever relationship we will have as neighbors. However, I can guarantee that we will be wary in dealing with them in the future.

In the end, it is a disappointment that we will miss out on getting some very nice, slightly used equipment, but we aren't going to dwell on it. The timing probably wasn't the best and something else will come along. All of this will be much easier to arrange when we can do it in person - not over emails and telephone conversations.

Building and bores

We talked with the TDC (Tasman District Council - those in charge of consents) about our property, hence the title of this post. Sounds like putting in a residential bore should be no problem - 5 cu meters a day. That's heaps of water! Plus, we are thinking that we would want to get a storage tank to fill up and use as a water bank. Running out of water absolutely sucks. I've been there (when a certain little someone left a behind-the-shed hose running... for days!) and would prefer to never do it again. Unfortunately, a bore for irrigation use might be more of a problem, but we'll get ourselves on the waiting list and hope for the best.

You don't need to irrigate grapes, but they would produce more quickly if we did. The expense of a bore would certainly pay for itself if we were able to get a decent harvest a year earlier. The other concern is water for filling the spray tank... and rinsing off equipment. Lots of water is good. Very good.

Now, for the building part... Because our site is zoned as Rural 1, we are allowed one residential unit and one sleepout. A sleepout is defined as 36m2 or less with no cooking facilities. The guy I talked to suggested that whatever we build initially, we add on to create the final house. this doesn't really appeal to us. We just don't want to be rushed into building our final house. We'll look into things with an architect (when we find one), but are trying to think up other solutions. In the end, we would love to have our proper house with an unattached office/sleepout/"man cave". Maybe we could build the sleepout, along with a lockable garage (for the extra furniture) and set up a separate kitchen unit that could be dismantled later on. Any ideas?

Getting to know the neighbors

The previous owners of the olive property (and our future neighbors) called yesterday morning. I guess they are getting out of farming completely. (Although, I don't know how much into farming they were. We heard that they are both doctors.) At any rate, they are going to be selling off some equipment (tractors, etc.) and wanted to know if we were at all interested. Uh... yes!

It sounds like they have taken very good care of their equipment - and I would believe it to look at how they babied their olive trees. So, it could turn out to be a great deal for us. Everything is suited more for olives, which would have larger spacing than vine rows. However, Greg said that traditionally, vine row spacing was determined by the tractor width. Since we are developing the vineyard, we could make the vine spacing fit our purposes... even though narrow-spaced vines are all the rage at the moment. It is something Greg will certainly look into at any rate.

They also offered to let us look at the house plans that they had designed for the site. They were planning on something like 6 bedrooms, 6 baths. (!!) A bit more than what we would want, but there is an off chance that it might turn out to be something we could modify. Again, definitely something to look into.

It sounds like they are planning to put in rentals on their land across the street. One of these units could be perfect for us until we get something to live in on our property. On top of that, they offered Greg a spare room in case he comes down early to get the ball rolling on our site. There is so much to do. We've been thinking that it might make sense for Greg to go down and get some things sorted before the big move. All of this is just so helpful. These guys seem so very nice - they will make lovely neighbors.

(Fortunately, someone seems to have told them that we are planning to put in grapes. We were feeling a bit sheepish about them finding out how we plan to pull out all the olives that they put in.)

40 lovely acres

Here's a few pictures of the property as promised.


This first is an aerial photo with the location and direction of the following pics noted. We're all of Lot 2, the house site is where following pics 2 & 3 (blue circles) were taken from.



This is taken from the lower NE corner of the property looking back up to the house site (the mound to the right of the lone tree). From there, there's a bit of a ridge running to the NW corner which divides the property into W & E slopes.




Taken from house site looking NNE at the E slope. The house on the far left shows the NW corner of the property. The ocean's just on the other side of the far range of hills



Also from the house site, the W slope looking along the ridge. (That's the same house from above, now on the right.) George Harvey Rd. runs through the bottom of the wee valley. Our land is the green bits. Anyone wanna' buy some baby olive trees?



We'll save the best shot, looking to the mountain ranges to the West, for when we get a shot on a nice clear day.