As I lay in bed this morning and listened to the rain falling on the roof I started wondering about the day ahead.

As seems to always be the case, there is so much to do and so little time!

With all my planning to be more organised for 2012 it seems that I am busier than ever, but at least this year seems to be more like controlled chaos!

Thinking about the mortgage application I'm waiting on an answer on and the insurance proposal waiting on my desk to be finished...

But let’s not dwell on work at this early hour... instead we dwell on the weather.

We were told before Christmas that we should prepare for a hot dry summer. Looking back at the summer so far, this warning seems a little unfounded.

Last night was a beautiful evening and we sat on the deck with a wine in hand and relished in the summer weather. I thought to myself “finally summer is here...”

So this morning to wake up to rain (quite heavy rain too) was a bit of a surprise.

But as a farmer (yeah right I hear you say!!!) we need the rain to make the grass grow, and this year we have had perfect conditions for growth.

We also need rain to feed our water tank. This year we have not really had to worry too much about our water use as we seem to have always had rain just as we are starting to run a little low.

So while I listened to the rain drop this morning, unlike most people in Auckland I was not unhappy about it... I was thinking about our water tank filling up.

Strange I know!

These wet winter days are a little miserable – to adults anyway.

As for our young farmers (Harrison & Mackenzie) winter means mud, and mud means fun. They are both ‘normally’ happy to get their gumboots on and get outside.

Harrison is happy to spend hours on his pushbike charging through the puddles and trying to perfect a wheel stand but he prefers getting on his motorbike and creating a muddy track in the paddock that he can race around.

The chicken run is a bit muddy too, but the chickens don’t mind. They still love to see their keepers and probably they actually love to see the full bucket of scraps and they don’t mind scraping through the mud to get their tucker.

But for the adults the rain and more rain can get a bit much - stuck inside in front of the fire with only food and wine to keep us warm while our young farmers slave away outside in the rain and keep the ‘farm’ going!

The real benefit to many Auckland ‘farmers ‘ (housewives) however will be they are able to get those 4-wheel drives really working as they pop through the odd puddle and get a little muddy water splashed up on the vehicle – oh how great that must be!!!

I guess the hard working children will keep at it all through winter - maybe with just a little help from Mum & Dad.

The latest Christchurch earthquake has been a catastrophic event and looks like it is going to be the worst disaster recorded in New Zealand both in the loss of lives and also in economic terms. For those of us not in Christchurch it is hard to imagine what it is like for those that are there. We are only seeing and hearing what TV, radio and/or the internet shows us; however I did hear 2^nd hand that Paula Bennett said it is far more devastating to see it in person… due to communications etc I have heard most of our friends are safe but have not tried making any direct contact yet.

I know it is often said that it is the weeks and months that follow a disaster are the hardest times – the times when they can feel forgotten and frustrated. I hope for the sake of the Christchurch people that all Kiwi’s continue to support them so that this is not the case.

As a family living outside of the area we have had discussions about “what would we do” if a similar situation occurred here in Auckland and it is difficult to get a 6-year old and 4-year old (nearly 5!) to comprehend this – especially when I’m sure the adults of the house don’t really comprehend this either.

Harrison our 6-year old wants to know all about earthquakes – not the shaking, nor really the aftermath, but more the scientific causes, about the plates and all the stuff that I know very little about and as it appears is still a mystery to those “experts” who have spent their life’s trying to understand how to predict earthquakes. The Earth holds many mysteries and it still amazes me how we can know so much but know so little – or at least we think we know so much…

On the other hand Mackenzie our 4-year old is not too interested in earthquakes – or at least that is the impression that she gives.

It was interesting when we saw the Cathedral on TV – and explained that we had all climbed the spire which is now no longer there… This was probably the one thing that had the most dramatic effect and they thought about this for a while.

As a child I was raised on a Hawkes Bay farm which was the centre of the Napier earthquake of 1931 and while this had all happened many years before I was born, the huge gorges that were left were a constant reminder of how large that had been. I also had the benefit of a Poppa who was in Napier at the time and had some stories which he shared with us kids – and probably a lot which he didn’t share.

The major difference (I am guessing) with the Napier earthquake was the relatively low population and minimal multi-level buildings which helped to reduce the loss of lives; however the Napier earthquake was followed by fires which I believe caused huge devastation.

On a more positive note – when you visit Napier today you see a vibrant city full, of positive people and of course surrounded by beaches, rivers, vineyards and all the things Kiwi’s love. They have never forgotten the earthquake that hit in February 1931 with the loss of 256 lives and they never will; however they have rebuilt and prospered since.

Let’s hope that the people of Christchurch can take some heart from this and with the support of the Nation they too can rebuild and restore the city to what is was.

So where does this relate to “farming” I hear you ask.

Well it doesn’t really, but the kids (and parents) will be digging into our pockets to provide some support – yes, some of the kid’s egg money (our farming income) will be sent to Christchurch.

Nothing to do with "farming" but as we all know – man cannot survive on only bread and water – he needs beer and coffee too… plus a few other things…

As a “special treat” a few years ago I was given the permission to purchase a coffee machine for our kitchen. All was well for the 1^st year or so and then it had its first malfunction … followed by another and another and another… to the extent where the service people were sick of seeing us and we were sick of seeing them – in the nicest possible way. To be fair the service people were great; however they could not seem to get to the bottom of what was causing the continuous faults.

The saga came to a head the other week. We picked up the machine from service and it immediately faulted again so we took it straight back with the mandate “take as long as you need to fix it but we don’t want it back until it is fixed”. To their credit, they put us in touch with the Miele distributor who had it sent back to them and they fixed it – or so they thought.

Picking up the machine with the comment to the service people “we hope we don’t see you again” we brought it home and plugged it in with the hope of a great coffee … well it was not to be. This time we did not even get one coffee out of the machine!

And this is where the saga improves – within 2-days we had a brand new machine supplied to us at no charge. Congratulations and thanks to the teams at Commercial Electrix in Albany and also to Steelfort and Miele.

So some stories still do have a happy ending.

Coffee time…

As we all know – we are more likely to succeed if we have a robust plan, so with this in mind we decided to research which products were more popular to the end user. We decided against plodding around a supermarket and instead located an event that was more directly aligned with our target market – the Auckland Seafood Festival.

I know that many of you will be thinking that we are constantly working and I’m pretty sure the kids were wanting to do something fun instead of more research; however we decided that this needed to be done and to be honest this days research wasn’t quite as dull as you would expect.

Yes – we had to endure tasting various dishes from mussels, calamari, whitebait, prawns, and various types of fish etc. The kids both had crepes with berries – very good for our research task!

And while we were working hard at this we had to ensure we were not dehydrating – good thing there was a Macs beer tent nearby.

But luckily it was not too boring as there was live music and they also combined it with the Auckland International Buskers Festival which was pretty cool – we saw a couple of really good acts; Space Cowboy and USA Break Dancers - which had Mackenzie and Harrison up on stage.

So after another weekend interrupted by “tedious research work” we decided to spend the next afternoon at a local vineyard to listen to some jazz while rewarding ourselves with a bottle or two of their finest and reviewing what we had learnt – kids prefer crepes and berries.

Now there’s an idea – maybe we should investigate the berry market…

While many Kiwi’s took a summer holiday, we instead packed up the family for a couple of weeks “hard work” on our latest research project – Aquaculture.

I know – poor kids…

Now some of those who have been to our “farm” may think that Aquaculture is a strange new venture to be researching as we are not located on the coast; however similar to the successful prawn farm in Taupo we also have a pond – slightly smaller, but it still can hold water which is very useful for Aquaculture.

As the man about the place it was my role (very important too…) to check out the lay of the land (no water) before exposing my family to the designated research area. We chose to conduct our research in the Bay of Islands as like our “farm” it too has water – therefore similar but different.

My first day’s work was extremely tiresome – I had to venture out to source samples for our research (comprised of fishing for Snapper and diving for Scallops) before returning to prepare these for the family and sampling with malt flavored drinks and then some other drinks made from grapes.

During the following days the family conducted similar research which all in all was successful with the exception of the day Mackenzie decided to catch a bigger Snapper than her father’s “monster fish”. Once she turns five she may understand that this is not the “done thing”…

Now with the research trip over we were able to relax and review our findings – unfortunately they were "INCONCLUSIVE" and therefore research will need to be redone next year.

In the meantime we will keep the “farm” operating at the same intensity and I will also need to keep my second job as a mortgage and insurance adviser.

Maybe one year I will get to take the family on a real Kiwi holiday and enjoy some relaxation at a beach where I could enjoy some fresh seafood, a few cold beers and some not so fresh wine!

Typically most city people would be dreading rain at this time of year; however when you are reliant on tank water it was great to wake up this morning to rain. I mean, given we advise on Life Insurance etc just waking up each morning is something we appreciate!

Now luckily we are not totally reliant on tank water – we do have a few other strategies that we felt we should share as some “real farmers” may need to also look at what strategies they can adopt;

• Taking our laundry to the mother in laws – and yesterday they were not only washed there, they were folded and ironed too. I think we need to work on a long-term strategy here…
• Showering together – not quite as I had imagined as it seems to be me and the kids together.
• Reducing the water we drink – beer and wine make ideal substitutes but not so appealing in the mornings.

We all know that life is about balance and therefore while excited about the rain now, if it lasts too long we might start moaning about it.

Yes, we can be hard to please!

After a long and wet winter I really start looking forward to Labour Weekend – a time I remember for dusting off the boat and heading off to a hydro lake for a weekend of water skiing and beer.

But how things have changed!

Erica seems to think that Labour Weekend is just a slightly longer weekend than normal but still one where she can put me to “hard labour” … she gets an extra days work out of me.

I needed to clarify the actual meaning for myself and also to ensure that I know more than the kids (which is getting harder to do) so that I can remain a dad who knows stuff for a few more years.

According to my extensive research the origins of Labour Day can be traced back to 1840 when a carpenter in Wellington (Samuel Parnell) refused to work more than an 8-hour day. Instead of getting the sack, a workers meeting was held and a resolution passed supporting the idea and the 8-hour working day was born.

To commemorate the 50^th anniversary, on 28^th October 1890 a parade was held and since then the day has been celebrated annually throughout New Zealand with legislation introduced in 1899 to ensure that the fourth Monday each October be a public holiday.

Following this research I thought it prudent to check the definition of “holiday” as I could see some debate around this. The most appropriate definition I found was “time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure”.

So now I know that next year will be totally relaxing …. yeah right!

Like back in the 80’s when farmers diversified into goats and deer, with the economic downturn we also thought it was time to look at other “hair brained” concepts to provide us with the riches that we would like to become used to.

After “minutes of serious research” we decided the next big thing would be CHICKENS!

 In theory, instead of being actively involved in the day to day management of this new enterprise, we sought to contract out the work to our highly skilled children - Harrison 6-yrs old, Mackenzie 4-yrs old. The concept being that the children do the work and we receive free of charge as many free range eggs as we need.

Like all new business ventures there needs to be some start-up capital which we provided – purchasing ten chickens, a chook house, fencing an area and the other bits and pieces that are “needed”. Furthermore like all businesses there are some ongoing costs – mainly the pellets they eat.

Marketing the eggs has been the easy part – they are in high demand from relatives (mainly the children’s Nana), neighbours, workmates, teachers and various other people.

So you may ask how this venture has been going;

·         For Erica and myself – it is an ongoing cost and some work with absolutely no outlook of us ever making any money from it. The eggs are better than expected though.

·         For the children – it is a job they need to do, but they are banking money each week plus able to purchase their own fish & chips every now and then.

Until next time ... cluck, cluck,cluck

Oh yes … we are getting into this modern technology.

“Farmer Stu” was a concept driven from a paper based client newsletter produced for clients of the editor (Stuart Wills) as a “fun” way of bringing some non-financial information to an otherwise financial based newsletter - over time it grew into a regular feature of the newsletter.

As things do – we got busier and within our businesses (Mortgage Link and Triplejump) we decided to adopt and use the newsletters produced by the respective head offices. While these newsletters are both more professionally put together than anything we did locally, we did lose the personal touch – there was no “Farmer Stu”.

As you do – we forgot about “Farmer Stu” and thought that probably no one cared anyway; however last week we were reminded not once but twice!

At a function;               “yep I know Farmer Stu”

In an email;                 “Hey Farmer Stu – are you still on your lifestyle block?”

So what do you do?

We have been working on our marketing and talking to professional people etc and have started blogs for each business to deal with business stuff.

I then thought – why not bring back Farmer Stu on a blog.

So here it is…

I will try to post something every now and then and/or when something has happened on the “big farm” – yes we are only talking about a 3-arce block … the “farm” thing is not too serious.

Let me know what you think – but I don’t want too many farming tips!