Monday, August 28, 2006

holy bat-update, not-batman!

first, thank you for all the kind comments regarding my photo... wasn't exactly expecting to get picked, but surprisingly they threw me a frickin' bone. now i have to see if i can take a photo to win next year's competition... which brings us to more adventuring, etc...

farming life is good fun, if a little quiet. so far most of the work has been tree planting, but there's been some cow, pig, and chicken feeding a-happenin' too. some farmland photos are below...

this past weekend was spent with anton, ezra, and their friend candice skiing at the turoa area on mt. ruapehu. saturday was a white out with gale force winds at the top, so the slopes were closed. sunday was a good day, but the slopes hadn't been groomed due to the bad weather, so the snow was a bit uneven--powdery in some places and icy in others. that in combination with skiing on courses a little too challenging for my rusty skills (the last time i skied may have been eight years ago) led to a number of tumbles. an early accidental somersault led to a lost contact lens. a later double (or possibly triple?) somersault was a complete wipeout--lost both my skis and my poles (held on to the other contact lense though). one of my skis was stuck so far into the snow that ezra almost couldn't pull it out... some old guy gave me a 10 out of 10 for the fall, but didn't offer any help. needless to say, i have some sore spots (legs, torso, neck... pretty much everything). anton gave me a couple quick lessons and by the end of the day i was more-or-less back to where i was the last time i skied, just a little more cautious. today i got a couple of hours in and managed to fall on my ass only twice.

tomorrow it's back to the farm, where we'll probably stay until the end of the week, i think.

the latest batch of photos (click on them for larger versions):

anton (left) and ezra

brendan and the otamatea river

brendan and the moo cows

brendan and ruffy to action!

trees and farmland and sky


the view of the otamatea river from the house at the farm

two more trees

mt. ruapehu

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