ISN"T HE BEAUTIFUL!!! :)

Just took this picture about 10 minutes ago. This is Vince obviously, starting to get the sleepout ready to plaster. We are doing it up for when Levi comes as this will be his living area. I'm happy to report Levi that's its very warm out there. I walked into the sleepout on a windy cool day and it was quite warm and nice. I will be supplying some kind of heating device as it gets damn cold in the winter but you can't run it all day and night as it will cost a bundle!

A man who fixes things!!!! :) I'm going to help with what I can....(that should be interesting :) )

Mim's Gourmet Dog Dinner

I decided to make Katie and Horse a home-made meal tonight for their tea instead of just dumping kibble out a bag into their bowls. This was the result, it lasted about 2. 5 minutes. For those of you who have dogs here is the recipe:

(will feed two large dogs)

Katie and Horse's Saturday night tea

5 cups boiling water

2.5 cups of brown rice

2/3 cup of cubed dog roll (or if you don't have dog roll, mince, chicken or left over meat will do)

2 tblspoons chicken stock powder (or beef or bacon if you like)

1tbls Marmite or Vegimite

1/2 cup of peas

Place all ingredients into the boiling water, turn down until all water absorbed into rice, cool to 'warm' place in clean dog bowls. I decorated their dog bowls with a little chopped up dog roll and dog biscuits but that was more for my benefit. :) The good thing about brown rice is its a 'binder' so you can feed this to your doggie with no fear of it causing the runs. My dogs are prostrate on their bed in the kitchen with very full bellies. It was Katie's fifth birthday yesterday and she had to have surgery on her foot!! :( We were upset for her, she had a thorn stuck in her paw that had to be dug out while she was under general, she had to be knocked out. She has a cup around her neck to stop her chewing the bandage and was not overly thrilled at first but is much better. I covered the bandage with duct tape so she can walk on the foot.

I just took these photos about 10 minutes ago. The balloon festival is on in the Wairarapa, it started early this morning with balloons from all over NZ, North America, Australia, you name it. It is very calm weather wise in the Wairarapa, unlike Wellington which is always windy so its ideal for the festival. We will have to see though, its cooled down considerably here and we had some wild weather the last day or so. I have the heat on in my kitchen, I brought my gas heater in from the garage to warm the front of the house.

Rising moon in the Wairarapa with Stonehenge Aotearoa to the left...such an amazing place to live...

Vince and I went to the Bic and Boh Runga concert on March 3rd at the Alana Hills Winery. It was EXCELLENT! Sitting outside in the hot sun, drinking the wineries sauv blanc and listening to some amazing music with everyone very relaxed and chilled out is one of the best things to do on a Saturday afternoon!

Boh Runga going for a stroll after her set. It was the last concert in the winery tour for Bic and Boh and it was very relaxed and casual. They are extremely talented and very popular in the States. Bic had a song featured in the first American Pie movie which was extremely popular. Bic and Boh perform solo and as part of a their band Stella. Highly recommended.

Given that the concert was in a winery wine was definitely on the menu. These women were winery employees going around with bottles in amoungst the concert goers...it was great...you didn't even have to move :)

Me at the Bic and Boh Runga concert, very hot...3 glasses of sauv blanc later... :)

Ben and the babies :)

Tuesday night, the dogs snuggled on their bed, under their wool blanket...spoilt or WHAT! :)

I cooked flounder for the first time on Sunday for tea. Very hot pan, onion, olive oil and butter. It was DIVINE!

The rest of the Chief's headstone and marker...

A little ways from the swimming hole is a teeny cemetary which is a Maori burial area, consisting of mostly one nation. This was the oldest grave in the cemetary, he died in 1890 at the age of 90. He was a great chief and his grave it very imposing looking.

The view down river from the swimming hole, you can see the underside of the bridge at the top of the photo

It was very hot the day of Ben's party so once all the rugrats left we went and threw ourselves in the swimming hole of the Wahinie River...it was GREAT. Cool and clean and refreshing...we were swimming under the bridge that is at the edge of Carterton

More birthday children...waiting to go on the train, well the bus because they were doing work on our train station so they had to take the bus to Featherstone

Psychelic cupcakes, black icing and multi-coloured hundreds and thousands :) They didn't last very long!

Ben's birthday party, 5 twelve year olds. Actually they were very good, they enjoyed themselves immensely, Vince took them swimming they played soccer in the huge park across from the house, drank 7 litres of soda in one day, watched movies, played Xbox etc.

Horse with his bone I just baked for him. We buy cannon bones from the butcher and I bake them on 200 for about an hour. They love them and the only time Horse will growl is if you try and take his bone away...its a no go area :)