The Reynoldz

Well, the nice weather is still holding here, so last weekend Anna and I got around to doing some yard work. There was much to do. The previous owners put in a lot of nice native vegetation, but that was, like, many years ago. And as we are finding out, there is no such thing as a low maintenance yard here. Anna has been working with a local gardener to figure out which stuff is weeds and which stuff isn't. We have lots of flax and agapathus. Both are "not" weeds, but they act like it. There was a lot of pruning/thinning done. Here are some pics of some of the stuff we removed. Anna and the gardener had already removed this amount much earlier. And we are still not done.











































When dealing with flax and agapathus, here are the gardening tools you need: a large axe.

I bought a 10$ shovel ("don't buy a 10$ shovel", Anna said), and broke it in about 4 minutes. Then I went and grabbed our garden fork and broke it too. (it had completely rusted at the base) - ahh life on the ocean.


Anna found a rat hole under the agapantha. Another reason we are thinning it out. I only found small cockroaches. The NZ nice kind. No weta's.


Most of this stuff can be hauled off to compost sites instead of landfill. But not flax. It biodegrades kinda like plastic biodegrades. So we had to make separate bundles of it to take to the landfill.











All in all, it was a good weekend. I only had to go into work once for 2 hours. I think the rest of the weekends should be free and clear. Here are a couple pics of the girls.

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My friend Sharon from High School sent me a pre-mothers day card.


http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=437972551&m=6312&rr=y&source=ag999

It is getting cold down here in NZ so we are trying to get ready for winter.
We have spent 2 winters freezing in this cold town so this year we wanted to be prepared.
I may sound like a wimp to you folks that suffer really cold winters in Minnesota BC and Montana. But you have one thing that hardly anyone has in this town.. HEAT in your house.

When I first arrived I thought it was strange to find out that hardly anyone has a source of heat in their house. Most people just use oil portable heaters, wood burning stoves, electric blankets or an "Extra Cardigan" to keep warm.

The house we bought only had a wood burner to keep it warm until the Reynolds moved in..
We are practically one of the first people on the block to install Central Heat.


we even have new ducts in our floors.....


These ducts have become a favorite cozy spot for the girls to hang out. (It is soooo nice to be warm.. notice Athea is even wearing short sleeves.. we are spoiled =)


We also have REALLY drafty windows. You might remember from an earlier post how super happy I was to get the 3M magic plastic for the windows from Gail (and Dan) when she came out.
I also had to get window curtains to help keep a little more of the cold air out and also to get a little privacy.

Well of course our windows are not a standard size so just going out to buy curtains did not work for us...

I then went to get some custom ordered but the price was pretty darn high..

I decided that I could make the curtains myself..

Eric had little faith that I could pull this thing off at first...

But, for a fraction of the cost of purchasing curtains.. I was able to make 3 window coverings.. (the fraction of the cost even has the sunk cost of a NEW Pink sewing machine added to the total.. cuz you can't sew curtains without a machine)

Voila~

3 sets of "Thermal Lined" curtains.. (Roman Blind kind) not too shabby.. :)




I used a Duvet cover that Robin from Eric's work gave the girls for their curtains.. Robin won it from the TV network.. he does not have kids.. and my girls love the "Little Einsteins" so he was kind enough to pass the gift along..
Well we were going to have trouble because there was only one duvet and 2 girls..

PROBLEM now solved.. :)
The duvet matched the walls that Lloyd painted perfectly! (and it save $$ for material..)

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Now Eric pointed out to me that I only have 4 more to go... (I guess his faith returned.. and he was happy with them =)

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The downside however.. is since I have been busy... the house is now waiting for me to clean.. (but that always seems to be the case =)

My dear Athea seemed to love the mommy neglect..
she got extra TV time on the couch... and the freedom to pull out all the toys.



PLAN B****

If all these winterizing tactics fail.. (which is possible living this close to Antarctica)
I just booked our flights to the States to enjoy a month of summer in LA, Montana and MN.

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Arrive LA at 2:40pm on June 21
Visit Kevin and Kate in LA for a couple days..
>>
Depart to Bozeman - Sat, Jun 23, 2007 (Choteau for the 4th of July and our 10 year wedding anniversary anyone??)
>>
Depart to Minneapolis - Sat, Jul 07, 2007
>>
Anna and the Girls Depart back to LAX - Sun, Jul 22, 2007
Eric Departs back to LA Sat, Jul 14, 2007
>>
Anna and the Girls - Stay overnight with Kevin and Kate :)
(Eric is going straight home to get to work by Monday Morning)
>>
Anna and the Girls Depart to New Zealand
Depart - 10:30pm on July 23rd
Eric Departs to New Zealand
Depart - 9:30 pm on July 14

We need to brush off the tumble weeds from this blog to say.....


Happy Birthday to My Little Brother..

A.K.A the Cruncher, the Crunch, Big D, Uncle David, David or Dave)



and of course a May 1 .... RABBITS.. :)