I lifted my head off the pillow. Marty and the girls had their beaks to the door. The dogs sat behind them eagerly wagging their tails. Marty crowed again.
“What time is it?” Aaron mumbled
I looked at the clock. “6:30 on the dot. Marty, go away!”.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!” he crowed impatiently. The boys tails wagged faster.There was no point fighting it, I got up and got dressed.
A Busy Day On The Block
Marty and the girls got breakfast, the boys came with me to feed the eagerly grunting pigs. I walked the dogs up next door’s driveway in search of bunnies and then it was home for their breakfast. Once porridge and coffee were on the table I got Aaron out of bed. It was 7:30.
By 10:30 we’d finished our set chores and came inside for morning tea. Erica was up. She hadn’t quite had the sleep in she’d wanted. We’d fired the chipper up at 9:30, but Marty and the girls had already taken up residence below the guest bedroom window in their favourite sunny spot and had spent some time just chatting, as they do.
Aaron and I had a lot to do. There was fencing to be finished, more scrubcutting to do and flaxes to plant. We talked Erica into walking the dogs with us. In the end we toured our property, the DoC land and Gary’s property. It was midday by the time we got back to the house and then Jeff turned up. We had lunch and then Aaron and Jeff started fencing, I started scrubcutting and Erica made herself comfortable in front of the tv. It was an exhausting day and we worked our butts off until 3:30 feeding time.
I felt bad that Erica’s day had been so boring but it couldn’t be helped.
Erica departed just after 5:00 and the 3 of us blobbed out on the couch, too tired to do anything else.
Beware The Nasty Chemicals!
It’s now a week since Aaron and I have changed our washing habits, added oily fish to our diet and started moisturising. My hands look and feel a hell of a lot better. And although there’s still more work to be done I haven’t yet resorted to the antibiotics. I’ve also started using an anti dermatitis cream on other parts of my body that have dry patches and the itchiness has almost gone. Stupidly I had put the dry, itchy patches down to hard work and not bothering with body moisturiser.
Not only that but I had also discovered that the bottle of alco-gel that I keep on my desk at work to help ward off all those nasty bugs is probably the prime cause of the dermatitis on my hands.
Aaron’s eczema patches have also faded considerably and the intense itching is gone.
In just one week I have learnt a lot about the damage all these modern cleaning products do to our skin. It would seem that anything that states it’s got anti-bacterial qualities actually does more harm than good. I didn’t think I had been sucked into the whole anti-bacterial propaganda thing but then I stopped to think about how paranoid I have become at work in the last few months. The staff on my floor seem to have all become very ill with colds, flus and gastric problems and I have become quite obsessed about staying well. And so I’ve sailed through winter and into spring with no illnesses but my hands have suffered dreadfully.
Sunday was another great day. Despite it being my sleep in day the chooks and dogs decided 6am would be a good time for us to get up. Aaron dutifully got up and dressed and fed out while I lay in bed for the next 90 minutes trying to get back to sleep. It didn’t work of course but at least I felt rested when I did actually get up.
Aaron and Jeff continued fencing until they ran out of wire and I scrubcut some more. After a break for morning tea Aaron and Jeff worked on the duck dam and I started planting flaxes at the bottom of the drive.
Aaron suggested I put a stick in the ground where I plant each flax, due to the fact that every time we cut the grass we invariably lose flaxes because we don’t see them until too late. We’ve planted up around the gate before but escaped cattle ate everything they could find. What was left we let the grass grow up and cover but then our neighbour kindly scrubcut our entrance last summer and we lost the remaining plants.
So the area by the gate is now planted with small flax plants and tall sticks. We’re determined not to lose our plants this time round.
Jeff left at midday and after lunch I continued to plant and Aaron caught some zzz’s on the couch
Couchsurfing
Sunday afternoon Aaron decided we must join the couch surfing phenomenon. I agreed and so we started to create our profile. While it’s going to be difficult for us to travel anytime soon we have decided to open our home to travelling strangers. Who knows what friends we might make and what things we might learn?
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