Self indulgence. Now and Then: Memoirs of a Sort.

Summer is a comin' in. The lambs in the paddocks (in NZ - NOT fields or fells) are appearing at a rate only slightly slower than a fast breeder.   It's fortunate that they are appearing in such numbers because Tom, our next-door neighbour farmer friend tells me "from obstetric ultrasound to weaning a farmer will lose about 20% of their lambs".  We started with 2 lambs and now have 4.  I might have to give him some hints.  Mind you, our oldest female, Lamborghini did go through a 3-day period of being pretty lethargic.  Her illness was indicated by a dooped head and while we once thought she lacked the satiation gene, she simply stopped eating her muesli for breakfast and even stopped drinking her milk halfway through.  There is usually something wrong when someone is reluctant with chocolate.  It was like that.  But she's better and accompanied me to play with my big digger. New Zealand having prided itself in having only 27 covid deaths and 4...

 It all seemed such a good idea.  Like most of them.  Following the 'Packers Concept' you always need more space to fit all the stuff that you don't need.  The principle says that the space available is always filled, which is why my uncle came to New Zealand for a month with all his travelling necessities in a Sainsbury's carrier bag (and that is true)! We wanted a shed to put the grass cutter, alpaca food, gardening tools and bikes in.  A lovely concrete floored, 'Napton - on - the -Hillesque' with a coffee machine and velvet lined walls could be built for us for a mere $54000.  A little wooden thing could be sent to us from Timaru or Woodloes for $7000.  It was a deal not to turn down.  The hitch was that we had to have a big tractor with a front fork to get it off the truck and we had to put it together ourselves.  Ali being a dab hand at diagnosing poliomyelitis and my enviable technique of getting a perfect x ray of an oblique mandible ...

 ........ I never felt more like singing the mid winter blues, June the 21st came and went.  We celebrated the fact that from now on the days would be getting longer.  They don't have to get warmer yet, although it would be nice, but a bit more sun is good for charging the batteries. The party was in full swing.  Guy Mitchell was singing the first 2 1/2 line of his song,  Well, I never felt more like singin' the blues 'Cause I never thought that I'd ever lose Your love dear and at precisely that moment we were plunged into pitch tar and coal black.  The usual star lit night was switched off.  On the shortest day the batteries ran out of enough power to even give us a flicker or charge the electric toothbrush. But it didn’t matter.  One of the reasons we’ve decided to live off grid is to, single handedly, put the brakes on climate change and have nothing to do with burning fossil fuels or adding to the tips of nuclear weapons with the by-product of...