Just a boat (but it makes a good photo)

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”
― Rachel Carson

Nothing beats a solitary walk on the beach, the sound of the water and the smell of the sea - enjoy.

You've gotta have a tractor!

I love old tractors. They remind me of when I was growing up next door to a dairy farm. And I spotted a couple of old timers being used in the 150th Maungaturoto Through the Ages Parade last Saturday. There's this one and then there was ......

 This beautifully restored and working Massey Ferguson tractor and it goes as well. Okay some would ask why the heck would you want to blog about some old tractors for? Because they helped to shape agriculture towards the way we know it now. And just for good measure every rural community has to include in a parade.......

A darned good tractor! And it's got a trailer on it for good measure. Yes I like tractors because our farmers couldn't do without them.

Peace, Love and a Mad Bush Farmer

The Mad Bush farmer is having a really bad day. It seems the management (cough) invited some Flower Power people over. As usual all the Mad Bush Farmer could do was have a lousy bad attitude gleam, say BAH!!! and stick signs out all over the place telling everyone to keep out. Cartoons aside.......

This is created by me for our wonderful Christian school my two girls attend. And thanks to some wonderful kind friends the impossible became possible. That's the thing about a rural community, there's always a kind caring heart out there to lend a hand. We had our town's 150th anniversary celebrations over the weekend, and what else would a town have but a parade. We got allocated the 1970s for our decade so we came up with the Flower Power generation. I double checked my history of course to make certain we had it right. So with a lot of prayer, support and my sanity saved by Marg and Deane we had the hippies invade Maungaturoto. And......

look at all those hippies!!! All friends, their kids and my kids who showed up early on Saturday morning and we got the float put together in record time. We all did so well we were finished an hour early!!! Aren't they GROOVY???

Uncle Len drove the truck which was loaned to us by Betty and her husband who own the Paparoa Motor Camp. So nice of them. Len made some frames up for the boards on the side of the truck. We had Marg, Vanessa, Leah, Alan and all of our kids helping blow up balloons, tie string and arrange the flowers. And I had stolen Amy's daughter Renee to help out and also be a hippie on the float.

I had free handed all of the lettering. My daugher Michelle added her own creative additions onto this side after she insisted that she should help. It's definitely groovy!!!! 

The Mad Bush Farmer will just have to put up with the hippies for a while. Heck they might even convince said old grump with the bad attitude gleam and the sticking out hair to maybe, just maybe try some of those mung beans. Peace, love and mung beans baby!