Gardening and climate change

[~misfit~]

I'm actually an ex-pat Brit.

My parents bought my younger sister and I to NZ from England in early 1973 when I was 11 y/o. We were "?10 Poms" (something that I was reminded of often at school), some of the last as it turned out. There was a NZ government scheme, 'Asssisted Passage', to bring experienced workers into NZ for its then-burgeoning lamb and wool industry - Australia had a similar scheme. The NZ government paid all but ?10 per person for us to come to NZ via Chandris Lines, a Greek budget shipping company. Nearly six weeks after leaving England we arrived in New Zealand.

(It seems that Wiki thinks it was an Australian-only thing;

)

We originally went to the South island; The scheme required that you have a job ready and waiting for you and that you stay employed in the NZ framing industry for a minimum of 2 years. Unfortunately Dad was the victim of a canny farmer who took advantage of new naive potentail immigrants, getting them to sign contaracts before leaving the UK and paying minimum wage and putting them up in a run-down shack when they arrived.

Anyway, after the two years Dad moved us to the North Island, the northern Waikato area, where he stayed until retirement. My sister got married and had kids (in that order - just!) and she and her husband moved their family to Australia where there was more money to be had. After almost a couple of decades of spending all of their money flying across the Tasman to see their grandkids twice a year my parents also moved to Aus when Dad retired, mostly to be closer to the grandkids.

I now live just south if Auckland, a town called Pukekohe.

Cheers,

[Fran Farmer]

I didn't know the Kiwis also had a 10 quid deal. Ya learn something new everyday, but of course it makes sense since both our countries were crying out for migrants at the time.

I hope karma treated him better than he treated your father - htat's a really rotten act.

On Highway 1! Yup, know where that is. We are just booking accom in NZ right now for an upcoming trip there. Would you believe my first time there with me being in my 60s, a spinner, owning numerous Ashford spinning wheels and cousin who lives in Levin and all those drop dead gorgeous NZ gardens which I have read about for more years than I care to remember. There is no excuse except perhaps you are too close and we tend to do long haul hops much further afield when we go O. S.

[~misfit~]

Yeah, bastard! ;) That wasn't quite the end of the story. Over 10 years later I was working as a cellar hand / lab assistant / general dogsbody at the now-defunct Viticultural Reserach Station at Te Kauwhata. It was government run, jointly by govt. ag dept. and science depts (both since re-named) who ran the Viticulture and Oenological parts of the station jointly.

Well, they used to do three-month courses for both vineyard operators and winemakers, they had a couple of houses on site that were used as dorms. I met a nice girl from very close to where I used to live in Nth Cant who was learning vineyard stuff for a new vineyard / winery which was due to open the following year.

Imagine my surprise when, a few months after she'd left I got a letter from Dads old boss saying he'd heard great things about me from her. She was going to head up his new vineyard and would I like the job of winemaker? I declined. Maybe Karma got him in his private life because I hear the winery is a success.

Actually 7kms to the west of (but close enough ;] ). Pukekohe has rich soil and is NZs biggest market gardening area.

My mother used to spin wool from coloured sheep which she raised and Dad shore. Local farmers would offer her any coloured lambs that their ewes had. She'd spin and knit naturally coloured jumpers and a local shop situated at a bus stop area, aimed at the tourist trade would sell them on commision (mainly to Americans at that time). However I'm not sure if she used an Ashford wheel or not - they're upright aren't they? She used a 'standard' wheel. (I learned how to shear, spin, ply and knit a bit so I'd be prepared for the up-coming apocalypse. )

[Fran Farmer]

LOL. Just the word that popped into my head when I read what you wrote about the farmer the first time round.

That wasn't quite the end of the story. Over 10 years

Maybe, if he'd fallen into a vat of Malmsey.

I think I have a DVD that features your area on it. Must dig it out and rewatch it.

Wow. That is a lot of work. I hope she got good money from them as it took me a year to spin enough fleece to make my SO a greasy wool jumper. I made him one 30 years ago and when it wore out he wanted another just like his old one.

How many coloured sheep did she end up having at any one time?

However I'm not sure if she used an

Ashford have one model that it an upright and I can never get on with that model. Asford's best known and most popular models aren't upright. I have one of those and a newer model of theirs which is made for ease of transport and can be carted aroudn in a zipped up bag. I also have 2 other Kiwi wheels that haven't been made for decades - all of them are brilliant wheels.

She used a 'standard'

Isn't that why we all garden? (Says she with her tongue in her cheek). I really enjoy spinning - such a relaxing activity. Possibly even better than gardening.

Do you still spin at all?

[~misfit~]

Heh!

Why not - although our dollar has climbed up a bit against yours lately.

She'd make about one every three weeks, several hours work every evening in the lounge watching TV (before TV became 95% pollution). The only thing she didn't do herself was the carding, there was a small business in the closest township where they'd do that for you on a machine for just a couple of dollars per fleece. She used to get $125 each for them and that was excellent money back then.

Around a dozen ranging from fawn coloured to black.

Neither could Mum. There was a local spinning club which met once a month, taking it in turns to host. She borrowed one from another member and didn't like it.

Mum's was a good one. She bought it as a 'flat-pack' and Dad put it together. All dovetail and dowel joints - I don't think there was a screw in it.

No. Mum's in Aus and I don't know anyone with a wheel. However I think I'd pick it up again pretty quickly, muscle memory and all that.

Cheers,