March 2020

The month that the world changed.
New Zealand, like many other countries, announced our lockdown on Wednesday 25th March.  Level 4 on the Covid-19 Alert scale was commenced.  We had had advance warning - from China, South Korea and Italy, and more recently Spain, the UK and the USA, all horrifyingly highlighting the potential devastation that could also lie ahead for this tiny country.  Our case numbers have dramatically increased since Covid arrived here.  The local hospital has been in lockdown and is rapidly putting plans and structures into place.  Any patient who tests or screens positive and needs care will follow the 'red' pathway', and those who are negative follow 'green'.  We have yet to have a maternity 'red' case, but I'm anticipating that this is only a matter of a short time.  Personal Protective Equipment training has been rolled out, and no hospital visiting is allowed.  

Many aspects of care that we hold dear as midwives will be abandoned.  There will be no touching of course.  Women will only be able to remain in hospital after birthing if they require medical care.  'Red' women will be denied a support person in labour (more than one person with a viral load in any of our birthing rooms will overcome the PPE and put attending staff at risk).  'Red' women will also be encouraged to have epidurals to protect the health of theatre staff, particularly anaesthetists because if they require surgical interventions this can be done more safely under epidural than risky intubation and GA.  'Green' women are unlikely to get epidurals if they want them because the anaesthetic staff will have other priorities.  The use of donor breastmilk has been stopped and breastfeeding support will be hands-off.  Antenatal and postnatal appointments will be prioritised and reduced and must be limited to 15 minutes of contact time plus phone support.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, not so much by the prospect of contracting Covid-19, but by the volume of work that will ensue as more staff are either sick or required to self-isolate.  We were already chronically understaffed.  I'm reading all those Facebook posts about the boredom and frustrations of home isolation with some amusement, and maybe a little jealousy.  But at least I won't be out of work.  Once our German self-isolating guests have completed their 14 days and move out, I will turn the sleepout into my de-contamination zone.  Somewhere I can change, shower and immediately wash my work clothing before coming into the house.  If things do spiral, then maybe I'll have to move in there altogether for a while.



On the other hand, I'm even more grateful that we have our little bubble of relative self-sufficiency and plenty of places to go and jobs to do that provide a distraction, and in the case of gardening - therapy.  I'd managed to get a load of pea straw bales before lockdown.  Once I've cleared the flower garden, these will be used as mulch.  I also managed to source plenty of green manure seeds.  Hopefully not too late for that.  Some colder nights are starting to kick in and those seeds will require warmth to germinate.  Today I finished clearing all but one of the vege beds and planted the green manure.  I'd mixed the seeds with some garden compost and lots of blood and bone - that should repel the rabbits for a while.  And happily it's now raining.  Only light rain but it's perfect timing for the seeds and very welcome for everything else.


The woodlot is next up for a bit of attention.  There are 6 mini oaks and 4 peachcot seedlings that can go out and put down their roots over autumn.  Some weeding and preparation of new planting holes are needed, but that should be a relatively pleasant task for this number of trees.  I've also taken redcurrant and tea cuttings (to replace one dead Camellia Sinensis and expand the tea plantation generally).   

The Aztec corn has been taken down and the cobs are drying on the outside table under shelter.  They are quite small cobs and I'm not sure if that's how they're supposed to be or if they suffered from the drought.  The corn itself is a multitude of colours.  I'm looking forward to doing something with them, ideally making some polenta.  

Also cropping now are multicoloured carrots, beetroot and purple sprouting broccoli.  On the fruit front, the peaches are stunning, though low volume.  The figs are just starting to ripen and look to be a pretty impressive crop this year.  In Madame Cholet, the peppers and chillis are amazing, and I'll be digging up the ginger and turmeric sometime soon (need to look up when that should happen).  Peter's chilli plant, the Carolina Reaper, is producing several fruits, that are just starting to colour up.

Molly left for Christchurch straight after the level 4 announcement.  She moved into their army house on the Burnham campus.  She had to quit work to do this, but only really a few weeks before she'd planned to anyway.  Peter and I had already seen the house when we were in Christchurch for the Dramfest - a very enjoyable experience that we'll definitely repeat.  So Sam and Molly are setting up home together at a very bizarre moment in time.  We've temporarily inherited her strawberry planter to take care of until she can be reunited with it.

Karyn's garden will need some work now that she can't come here to do it herself.  I may drop off a few of her carrots from time to time, but only if she's very nice to me from a distance.  It's an irony that she's actually grown some carrots that look like real carrots, and she'll have to rely on me to get them to her.  Moo haha...



The resounding garden success of the month has to be the gourds, that I accidentally grew.  They weren't staked and instead spread all over the gravel path, hiding their precious and magnificent treasure.  They mingled with the pumpkin (big yellow and butternut) and cucumber foliage, until a gentle frost zapped them a bit.  ī'll hang them inside to dry this time, and am awaiting a plan to form in my mind about just exactly what I'll do with them, other than admire their voluptuousness.  

The oak trees on our dog walk route are all fruiting and we've started to gather the beautiful acorns to feed to our grateful pigs.  They are, of course, eating us out of house and home, and any extra rations are consumed immediately.  We won't be able to turn them into bacon for a while as the home kill service is not deemed essential, so will have to continue to be creative about their food.  We can still buy pig nuts and peas, but that's expensive.  It's good to find alternatives.




I've now done the first 2 hypnotherapy modules, but may not be able to do any more for a while.  It's a shame because it's ridiculously interesting stuff, though I can do plenty of reading around.  Just a case of finding time to do that, and also finding the headspace to focus.  My mental well being is definitely improved by working in the garden, and probably I need to resign myself to that being a priority beyond work.  For now at least.  Our current good health, as well as life circumstances and opportunities, is definitely something to be grateful for.  We have many blessings to count.

February 2020

The drought has continued, and is now affecting much of New Zealand.  Northland has been hit very badly, and water supplies are being tanked in.  We've had a couple of showery days since December, but nothing heavy.  The plants that have been showing signs of heat stress are still hanging in there.  I've taken to leaving the outdoor hose very slightly running, and leaving it overnight at the bases of those that need it.  The escallonia hedge in the photo has had very little watering, but seems to be thriving.  It's about as tall as me already, and attracting millions of bees. The slow growing ginkgo to the left of the picture is also doing well.

It's been yet another month of relatively little work in any of the gardens (too hot, too busy, too knackered etc etc), and I'm struck by what has enjoyed the lack of attention.  I've lost crops, both in the early stages and when they've gone un-noticed to seed or been devoured by the birds.  But I've also managed to grow things I've either never successfully grown before, or nothing like as well.  I had an 'Oh my gourd' moment of pure joy when I spotted huge bottle gourds lying under impressive gourd foliage on the gravel path.  The original gourd seed plantings had got mixed with other pumpkin seedlings (no, of course I didn't label them Karyn) and planted out long after they'd outgrown their small seed pots.  They weren't staked and had been totally left to their own devices.  The pumpkins that also had the same fate are doing equally well in the same plot.

Other notable surprising vegetable successes include aubergines, peppers and chillies that Madame Cholet has protected.  The undercover cherry tomatoes have also been rampant, whereas those outside have fared pretty badly.  Outside, the rootcrops have loved that neglect, even the carrots are coming away despite the weeds (hard to tell which is which in the photo below right).  There were no Jersey Benney seed potatoes when I was looking, so I went for Cliff Kidneys instead.  I'll definitely grow them again as they've cropped in abundance.  The wheel barrow is full of most of the crop from only 6kg of seed potatoes.  Beetroot and greens have been reliable as always, and this year the swedes are phenomenal.  We've had plenty of surplus to eat, freeze and feed the pigs.  I'd have grown much fewer if I'd guessed how well they were to grow.  
The sweetcorn is cropping now, and the Aztec corn needs checking to find out if it's ready.  The cobs are much smaller than sweetcorn and it'd be a shame to let them go past their prime through ignorance.  Neglect has finished off the onions (I should have been onto that) and I can't remember if I even planted leeks.   Quite a number of lettuces went to seed, as have several brassicas.  The zucchini haven't been as prolific as previous years, and beans (all kinds) have been an almost total flop.

It's good to reflect that ongoing loving attention and dedication isn't universally required for all vegetables.  Maybe it was the attention to the soil quality that meant I've got away with this level of abandonment.  I've been clearing the brassica bed this morning, and am amazed how it's held onto moisture.  The surface soil is dry, but below it's not, and the soil texture is good - slightly moist, friable and wormy.  I'll rake it over in a few days and then plant out the green manure.  

Fruit success has also been mixed this year.  The plums and pears are nowhere near as prolific as last year, but they've still cropped well enough, and to be honest, a smaller crop is easier to manage (though I'm not sure the pigs would agree).  With Sam and Molly's help, the last of the greengages were rescued from the birds right in the nick of time, enabling the even wider spread of greengage-fever this season.  My Westport buddy, Helen, described them as 'stupendous'.  The peaches are starting to colour up and they are much the same in terms of limited volume.  All varieties of apples, including cider apples, are abundant, and the fig and feijoa crops are looking amazing. 

The strawberries have been a disaster.  The biodegradable weedmat simply smothered them.  All of the horse arena beds will need a significant re-think for next year.  None of them have been watered this season, and though some of the herbs are still thriving (peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, and some of the culinary herbs), others have succumbed to the weedmat experiment - for which I take some responsibility.  Happily in the tunnel house, the ginger and turmeric have bucked this trend and are looking very healthy and vigorous in their half wine barrels.

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The citrus too are all doing great.  They have been regularly watered and are either beginning to fruit or already prolific.  The lime tree in the half barrel by the house has also grown vigorously, though won't fruit until (hopefully) next year.  The wind protection fencing around the citrus by the sleepout is not needed any more, but is proving tricky to take down. I'm torn between this being a right old pain in the arse and a sense of pride that something I erected is actually robust. 

The flowers have continued to be an utter delight.  I've managed to weed about half of the main flower bed, and really it wasn't a difficult task.  It is full enough of plants that weeds don't get much of a look in.  The abutilon is flowering away and always a deep joy to behold on my way to the vegetable garden.  The flowers are a deep orange and the foliage quite majestic.  It can stay right where it is for as long as it wants.  Dahlias are happily popping up everywhere, and hopefully the bright yellow rudbeckia in the photo will return every year.  The sweetpeas have been utterly delightful, a real success story.  They grew from expired seeds that I just scattered around the base of the koru sculpture.  Hopefully they'll self-seed next year and beyond.







The pigs are getting piggier and huge, and the cows are moo-ier - at least Hera is.  She's taken to mooing loudly and repetitively when anyone appears.  She does respond to an equally loud 'SHUT UP' but it's quite an annoying habit.  We're worried that she may not endear either herself or the farm to any of our Airbnb guests, though so far no-one has complained.

The bees are buzzing around and I'll make one last 'steal' of honey sometime soon, before they are left to winter themselves down.  I've been selling my honey for the first time this year.  My preference is to trade or give it away, but while this works for me, it doesn't suit everyone.  I managed to source some brand new glass jars (a bargain via Trademe), so the honey looks fantastic and much more of a gift than in plastic or re-used pots.  I'm charging $5 a jar to anyone who prefers to pay, and this means I'm recouping over and above the cost of the jars.  I'm continuing to solar-filter and then stock-pile the beeswax and hope to create some of my own candles in the fullness of time (aka when I get round to it). 

Our sons remain busy with their lives wherever they are in the world, and our home is back to being a place of solace and peace.  I've begun my course (hypnotherapy training) and will definitely need to put aside time for studies over the next few months.  Paid work has been a bit overwhelming, but extra is required to fund the study so it's a necessary evil.  Finances will also be needed for the next priority of tidying up the front of the property around the driveway, and making it more easy-care.  I have a few ideas up my sleeve for some changes that would look good and be functional.  
Meanwhile the days are shortening and autumn is beckoning.  The current food abundance from the property is still profoundly satisfying, as is a sense of feeling connected to the land.  The occasional chilly start to the day is very refreshing, and outdoor work can be increased when the temperatures are tolerable.  Thank you beautiful February, and rock on March!

January 2020

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rat, and also Happy Korean Lunar New Year (Seollal)!! 
The last few weeks have been characterised by nearly no lifestlye block work.  Hmmm, thinking I said something very similar last month and the one before... Happily that has meant that we've done lots of enjoying family, relaxing and too much drinking.  And though the vege garden has been shockingly neglected, it's mostly the aesthetics that have been affected.  Production isn't bad at all, though the neglect has also meant that a fair number of crops have passed their prime and gone to seed.  It is pretty gutting to have lavished care and attention (and time) on growing them in the first place, only to end up with pig food.   Not that the pigs are complaining too much, though they have yet to develop a taste for marrows.  Talk about picky. 

The flower gardens have had some sporadic attention, the original peastraw having done a great job of keeping the weeds down.  We've had no rain since before Christmas, so watering has to be done.  The new Ash, the Forest Pansy and the most exposed Horopito tree are showing some signs of heat stress, so I've upped the watering frequency. Everything else is flowering away big time.  The new dahlias are particularly spectacular, extending my relatively new appreciation of all plants flowery.  The Scabious (one pink and one limey yellow) are also favourites, and I'm waiting patiently for the Abutilon to bloom up from the buds it's finally created.  It had just been sitting there for the last couple of years, and I can't even remember its colour. 

Vegetables for eating include new potatoes (stunning Cliff Kidneys that I'll defintely grow again), greens, beetroot, garlic, beans, courgettes and carrots.  Madame Cholet is tending the best crop of aubergines I've ever grown - OK, the only crop of aubergines I've ever grown.  But also rock melons that look like real rock melons!  The chillis are looking promising, as are the peppers.  The ginger and turmeric in the half barrels might well be impressively edible too. 

Fruit is coming on tap.  Delicious mulberries are nearly done now, and though the birds have enjoyed the lion's share of them, I've had enough to keep me happy.  A gazillion black, red and white currants were picked one happy evening when Sam and Molly were around, making much lighter work of the task than just little ole me.  Plums are pinking up, and a few are ready to eat.  That includes the purple-blushing greengages, that are not in total abundance like last year, but plenty nonetheless.  Apples, pears, peaches and peachcots are also likely to be medium volume this season.  Grapes are filling out but the plants are more than a bit diseased.  It doesn't bother me, but wine-maker Molly is quite shocked at the state of them!

Hay cutting and baling finally happened a few days ago.  That meant that Lucas, Laura and Sally all managed to avoid the unpopular stacking task.  Unluckily for Sam and Molly, they were here, and we'd have struggled to do the job without them.  Having the new ute meant a lot less trips to the hay barn with the 100 bales, but neither me nor Molly could lift the bales high, and Peter has bursitis in his shoulder so he couldn't either.  Not sure what we owe Sam for his herculean efforts, but guessing it might be best acknowledged in the form of whisky.

The pigs haven't yet staged a coup and have managed to stay in their run.  Everyone is most fond of George, the saddle-backed one who is charmingly smaller than the others.  Babe, the only female, manages to keep up with Percy and Peppa on the food front.  Their appetites are increasing proportionally with their size.  Karyn has been bringing buckets of nibbled fruit from the Stadium school holiday programme, but that's just come to an end, at least until the Easter holidays.  Luckily that orchard fruit is providing treaty supplements, mostly plums and under-ripe apples.

My lovely auntie Sally headed back to Hong Kong in time for Chinese New Year.  We holidayed for a few days in Golden Bay, staying at a great little motel in Motueka.  Highlights included a very pleasant day out in Takaka and a very beautiful boat cruise from Kaiteriteri along the Abel Tasman National Park coastline.  We also had a day trip to Karaka Point in the Marlborough Sounds, so I could show her where some of Dad's ashes were scattered many moons ago. 

Lucas and Laura headed off to Bali and look to be having an amazing time. They've found some great accommodation and plan to head off to Phuket next month.  Lucas is working for a UK company as a 'digital nomad', and is hoping to save money by living cheaply.  Laura plans to study online.  Before they left they managed to get to Lochmara Lodge - we gave them tickets for a day trip as a birthday present.  We also headed out to Lake Rotoiti and had a memorable (for all the wrong reasons) meal in a St Arnaud restaurant.

Sam has just returned to Burnham, leaving me and Peter home alone again.  We have enjoyed many an alcoholic evening with them these last weeks, including a particularly memorable cocktail night.  Poor Molly had to work as usual, and Sam wanted more casual work than he ended up getting.  We'll see them again in early March in Christchurch for the Dramfest - they got us tickets as a Christmas present.  Maggie is missing her frequent walks and treats!


I've been thinking (mostly at 3am) about the busy-ness of the last few weeks, and associated lack of life-style block tasks.  Though my working hours will reduce by March, I'm planning to do a course in 2020, so need to find ways of making the vege garden more manageable.  So far I've come up with the idea of keeping some of the beds fallow next year.  Green manure could be planted, chopped down when it flowers and then covered with thick straw for a year or more. That should improve the soil fertility in the long run, and cut down some of my workload from autumn.  Salt could be spread on the paths between the beds as a weed-killer.  The ideas are a start, but I'll have to have a lightbulb moment or two to seriously make an impact. 


I could finish this blog entry with a few wise words or maybe a profound quote, but I managed to get a sneaky shot of Karyn's fine arse that will work much more satisfactorily as an end-piece.  No doubt there'll be revenge of some kind...

December 2019

Maggie 14 years old

Which orifice did December just disappear into?  My level of garden task denial may have reached new heights.  I'm watering the Madame Cholet residents, and eating the fruits and vegetables of my labour when I have time to gather them.  But otherwise the vege garden has had no attention.  On-going intermittent rain has provided adequate moisture for everything to thrive.  This includes weeds in beds and paths, and also pasture thistles that must be on steroids. On the plus side, the flower gardens are looking fab - expanding plants and flowers everywhere.   

Christmas has been and gone, and this year it was definitely unusual.  Firstly, no Billy!  The first year that we haven't been altogether at Christmas.  Secondly, Lucas' girlfriend Laura (they arrived mid-December) had been feeling unwell on Christmas Eve, and this culminated in hideous stomach pain, a trip to ED, admission to hospital and finally an appendicectomy on Boxing Day!  Happily she seems to be recovering now, enough to celebrate her birthday today (28th) a little.  We ended up eating Christmas dinner and opening most presents without her, which was a real shame.  Her gifts for us all had been beautifully wrapped - as modelled by Sam and Molly in the photo.

A call from our next door neighbour about what to do with a bee swarm on their property meant that the top bar hive got itself occupied.  It was a decent swarm and seems to be very busy settling into the new home.  We opened the hive up 6 days after transferring the bees and they'd already built large combs from about 6 of the top bars.  I've been reading up about how to manage top bar hives and it sounds like one of the main issues is when the bees build cross-combs.  There are a number of strategies to avoid or correct this, but happily, none of those was needed as these bees seem to know what they're doing.  They had built the combs markedly over to the left side of the hive, and we had to break off some small attachments to the side of the barrel.  When we checked with a spirit level, the hive was not straight, and we think those clever bees were accounting for the imbalance.  I'm going back in sometime soon to double-check.  In the meantime, I put an escape board in the hive that was last season's swarm.  The very heavy honey box that was taken off the hive the next day contained nearly 10 litres of the best honey in the world.  The other (original) hive swarmed a few days ago, and the bees took off towards the river so were lost to me.  I'm hoping they swarmed because the hive was full of honey, and really must get in there very soon to confirm (and harvest).

Building a solar beeswax filter has been on the to-do list for a few years, and has been more on my mind since dreaming up the top bar hive.  There are a few YouTube videos showing a dark and knobbly pile of dirty wax transforming magically into gorgeous and immaculate yellow wax - using only an elastic band, a piece of paper towel, a sandwich box part-filled with water and warmth from the channelled sun.  Surely not?!  Solly, the solar dehydrator, didn't get hot enough.  But using the Sunflair solar oven to channel those hot rays came as divine inspiration in the middle of the night, and by the end of the next day, I had 2 gleaming stacks of golden wax.  Absolute alchemy.  Substituting tights for paper towels also works, and maybe reusable if cleaning them isn't too arduous.

The piglets next door came of age and we went to collect them.  Three boys (Percy, Pepa and George) and a girl (Babe) seemed to be settling in OK, but by the time we got home from work the next day, they were gone.  We sent out a search party, and eventually, Peter located them in the paddock with the cows.  What a nightmare to attempt to round them up.  Finally, Peter managed to grab Percy and put him in the trailer.  He squealed all the way back to the pig run, but it did the trick and the others followed on.  After lots of chasing around, we eventually got them all back into the run and then attempted to secure it.  We assumed that they'd escaped under the fencing somewhere, as previous pigs had done.  Then we went indoors for dinner, but when we checked on them a little later, they were gone again.  Aaaarrgghh.  This time they were easier to find and return to the run, and this time we hung around to see how they were getting out.  Turns out they are jumping pigs, whoever would have thought that? Some serious improvements using wire fencing and baling twine did the trick to keep our porcine friends secure, and there have been no repeat attempts since. 

Our annual (and completely non-competitive) Christmas cake decorating came around soon after Sam, Molly, Lucas and Laura arrived.  The theme this year was 'our place', so pretty much anything went.  It was a new experience for Laura and she got stuck in with some creations of a higher-than-usual standard.  Lucas and Laura decorated the tree when the infamous Marlborough wind eventually died down and also helped Peter to erect a gazebo on the deck over the table.  We've since added some solar lights to it, so it's all very twinkly out there.

Despite being grazed by the sheep, the orchard was getting overgrown. There was nothing else for it but to get the mower out.  Not a pleasant task, but quite satisfying, and much more manageable when taking turns with Laura.  There are nowhere near as many pears as last year, and peaches look a bit sparse (but then they always do at this time of year).  Apples are abundant, as are plums, and happily also greengages.  Mulberries are also a-plenty, but have yet to turn black.  The birds will be very happy to pick them as soon as they do, so I'll be keeping tabs on them. 

The first batch of this season's redcurrants are in the freezer, and lots more to go.  Blackcurrants are ready for picking too, they're next on the list.  Raspberries have also been grazed, and some of them are absolutely huge.  Strawberries are a disappointment this year, totally the fault of my neglect.  They were re-planted through weed mat and more attention should have been given to them.  Weeds in the bed pushed up the weed mat, starved the strawberries of light, and then penetrated the cut-outs themselves.  Hopefully the hundreds I gave away have fared better.  The thyme and sage have suffered the same fate - they may be salvageable if only I had enough time to get out there and stage a rescue.

We're still eating a range of veges from the garden, although increasingly they're disappearing amid a mass of weeds.  Though it looks really untidy, it 's definitely not necessarily a bad thing of course.  What is truly gutting is when perfectly perfect veges go to seed because I missed their key triumphant moment.  Maybe one year I'll actually manage to keep my working hours manageable at critical garden moments.  Only a little dehydrating has happened.  Chamomile flowers have been picked and dried in Solly, as have a few other herbs like mint and thyme.  Many others are about to flower so I've missed that boat, at least for a while.  It's a good feeling to at least be doing some preserving.

One of my Christmas presents from Sam and Molly was an oyster mushroom kit.  I got it started straight away, on a tray in the upstairs shower.  Within days they had sprouted and must be about ready to eat already.  Totally amazing, hope they're as delicious as they look!  I've just harvested more shiitake mushrooms - incredible that they are still fruiting after all this time.

8 demi-johns of wine, some pear, some feijoa, have been racked (also long overdue).  None had quite finished fermenting, but some pear wine was bottled to release demi-john space.  It's quite sweet and very drinkable.  It was originally fermented in the huge demi-john where it bubbled furiously for ages, so despite its desert-wine sweetness it could pack quite an alcoholic punch.  In contrast, the feijoa wine isn't a patch on previous incarnations.
Feijoas are very late fruiting, and by the time I started the wine using frozen feijoas, the environment temperature was already quite cold.  Fermentation was slow, so that the wine isn't great is no surprise.   

The go-kart has been charged up and driven through numerous cowpats.  Both Molly and Laura shrieked their way through go-kart joints and returned duly splatted, though smiling.  The cows and sheep were unsure if it was friend or foe.  It may be a useful bribe when it comes to hay bale collecting, though there is not yet a date for that.  Our neighbour Ross will let us know when we get to the top of his list.




Molly celebrated her birthday on 20th December.  She had to work that day, but celebrated with a strawberry cake when she got back.  Sam has his usual 6 weeks off over Christmas and summer, and he and Molly picked up some extra work at a local vineyard/winery so they moved back home for a while.


 

The bathroom is done and totally perfect.  The bath looks great and is ideally curved to support your head at neck level - just right for headache relief.  The rainfall showerhead is more luxurious than I'd imagined.  Overall, far too up-market for us, but we'll cope somehow.

Lucas has been doing some web work while he's here.  He also got into DIY mode and constructed a weights bar out of some leftover branches and firewood.  Very creative eh?  He and Laura will be travelling to Bali in January where he'll be able to work as a digital nomad.  I'm not sure he has a career in gym equipment construction ahead...

Another year in paradise is passing, and still no yearning to return to the bright lights of the city.  We can even travel vicariously through our off-spring.  We have so many blessings to be grateful for.  I guess that has to include Peter's baubles...