On 1/04/2015 1:04 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Once upon a time on usenet Fran Farmer wrote:


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


Yeah, *******!

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
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.

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



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.

On Highway 1!

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

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

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.

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).

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 wheel or not - they're upright aren't they?

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'
wheel. (I learned how to shear, spin, ply and knit a bit so I'd be prepared
for the up-coming apocalypse. g)

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?