This morning was a morning of planting seedlings that will hopefully show themselves for spring, which is hopefully on the way. Since last I spoke I've learned how to construct a mighty chickenwire fence that not even chickens can get through!

It's amazing because somewhere between getting here and now, Maggie and I have really started to have an actual life here! It is really more of mini-life beacuse it sort-of exists in a small little globe of a few people, a routine, and a setting that are all way different from my regular-life, but still really neat. Take yesterday, for example. We woke up early so that we'd have time to buy car insurance before heading to the restaurant that Gilly works at to talk with the manager there. We are going to work a few nights here and there at the restaurant while we are still in the area, and then hopefully we can work there down the road if we settle somewhere in this area for a while. Then we drove into Auckland and picked up camping gear we'd left there, then to a shopping center to pick up essentials like a gas can since our gas gauge doesn't work, and now that we're "adults" we have to be prepared for anything. Then we stopped by Ron's bus for a hello that turned into a cup of coffee and a tour of the bus that didn't take long because it's a bus. Then cooking dinner with Gilly and the others because one of her daughters came over for dinner. It all just feels so normal, in a really nice way. I'm excited about moving around though because there is an endless amount to see and do.

The other day I worked on a fence with Ron for a long time and we got interrupted by Gilly running outside and yelling that we had to go for a drive because there'd been another island earthquake and the tsunami was expected to hit west auckland (where we are) at 3:33pm. By "go for a drive," she meant go watch it hit, not drive away. I told Ron where I had to go and that I was pretty sure the world is ending. We said our goodbyes (like goodbye forever goodbyes, just in case) and then we piled in the car to go to the beach. We ran up the cliffs to get a good view and then struggled with hoping one came for the cool factor and praying one didn't because we could see people on the beach. The people lived on, enough said. After a while we thanked god while wishing better luck next time. The only one of us who had to ride home in the trunk was Tansy because she was the only one who couldn't resist climbing through mud pits.

I've learned about worm tea (water you can get out of a tap from the bottom of worm composts) and cow jaws versus sheep jaws and why that sometimes means you've got to sell a cow. I've learned about herb gardens and lemon tart and eye fillet. I've learned that my nails will never be clean again, so I should stop wasting precious rain water trying. I've also learned that I can be wholly happy, miss home, miss college, miss andrew et al., all at the same time.

Hooray for life, eh?

REF