Crash & Burn

18 May 2010

Well, I knew I was tired and stressed but wouldn’t you know it, my body has decided knowing isn’t enough and has decided to make it as plainly obvious as possible.

The dermatitis is going crazy. I’m also having really bad reactions to all metal, which means my nose under my prescriptions glasses , which is usually irritated and flaky is now constantly raw. My engagement / wedding rings caused such a bad reaction that my finger swelled up and it took one of the Charge Nurses at work an hour to get my ring off. Oh the pain and oh relief to get the rings off! But after a month the dermatitis on that finger still won’t go.

I can’t wait for my Vit D, B and E to arrive from the States because I’m desperate for relief from this skin disorder. Please, please, please let it work.

I’ve had an outbreak of acne, which I only ever get when I’m stressed.

I’m having really bad allergic reactions to dairy products. Insomnia’s driving me nuts. And now, to top it all off I’ve got a head cold.

I’m popping Vit C tablets like crazy and I’m in the worst physical condition I’ve been in for at least a 12 month period.

I feel utterly and completely worn out. I’m in desperate need of a holiday and there’s no immediate relief in sight.

Mum came for a visit for a couple of days. It was good to chat and she helped me put things in perspective.

And so today I called in sick. I am sick so therefore no guilt there. I think maybe I’m going to need to do the same tomorrow. If I don’t find some time to just unwind and relax I think my body will just pack up on me altogether.

Muriwai Valley Farm Open Day

Well, the weekend of 15 May rolled around pretty quick. I was supposed to help out a lot more than I did but I just couldn’t find the time. Working fulltime, running the farm and constantly hosting new HelpXers left me with precious little time for anything else. What I hoped to achieve in the evenings didn’t happen because I spent every evening talking to our guests.

Still, despite the lack of time I still managed to find some somewhere to design fliers and signage and attend 3 meetings. Then on Saturday Aaron and I went down for the day to help out.

We arrived and it was glorious sunshine. We helped out with this and that and then Aaron took off to be parking warden and I the admissions lady.

The weather forecast was bad but I was hopeful. And things were fine at 10am when the event started but blue skies had turned to grey by 11am and then at 12:30, when Aaron started his talk on pig-keeping all hell broke loose. Lightning, thunder and torrential rain had me and Marilyn tucked inside a tiny tin bus shelter at the end of the driveway and Aaron in a large tin shed with a sudden loss of power and having to compete with the external din.

It only lasted 20 minutes or so but the drizzly weather continued for and hour or so after that. Then it was blue sky and pleasant weather again.

For a first event that wasn’t organized by an event company it wasn’t bad. There are lots of lessons to be learnt and discussed at the post-event meeting. Hopefully next year it will be a much bigger event.

Aaron had to leave at 2 to be home for the afternoon feed out but I hung around until just after 5. It was good to catch up with ex-HelpXer Clare and to talk to visitors at the event.

Aaron it seems made a good impression. He was accosted post-talk by several attendees wanting more pig-rearing advice and was also invited to speak at another small farming event in the near future.

If this Open Day does become an annual event I hope that Aaron will be invited to talk again. It will certainly be good for us if we start up our own business this year.