It’s our last day on the farm and it’s filled with motorbikes and mayhem. Over the weekend we celebrated our Family Reunion after 40 years, Aunty Carol’s 80th birthday and Uncle James’ 70th for good measure. So this morning is a little more low key for the adults. The kids, however, won’t stop at that.
With a wif of potential motorbike action in the air, Harley hasn’t let up for the past couple of weeks. Today is the last harrah and I warn him again “everyone is busy and it might not happen”. He has tears in his eyes as he responds with a “yes Mum”.
We were up early to farewell my sister, Michelle, and the cousins – Kit & Dash. Since then we have made & eaten breakfast, picked figs and been down Nana’s Hill to feed the chooks. They all seem like simple tasks but on a farm with countless visitors (including us!), kids everywhere and just general mayhem abounding, it seems like a feat. Plus, I need to pack!
Mayhem
Feeding the chooks, for example, involves rounding up kids, finding footwear, rounding up adults, ensuring the buckets of leftovers are in the ute, finding the ute keys and then finding the kids again when they’ve all disappeared in the meantime. This can be an hour or more exercise from the time the first “let’s feed the chooks” is murmured. This is an observation, and not a complaint. I’m sure the daily schedule in the ordinary household of four, doesn’t usually operate like this. Eventually we’re ready and headed down the hill, loaded, along with the appropriate chicken feed, adults, children and footwear into the back of the ute, for which the key has been found.
The chickens come running from all sorts of places as we pull up. They know the drill, despite being blissfully unaware of the preamble.
They’re fed a healthy diet of household scraps plus anything that’s not suitable for humans. Rotten tomatoes, leftover kumera, bruised cucumber, overripe avocado, bird pecked figs, days too old corn and their favourite, watermelon (that’s not suitable to sell or eat). They love it!
While the hens are busy eating and being chased by the kids, the eggs are collected. We have to leave one in each nest. Who knew! Blake has done this before and is adept at caching them for a pat.
Aiden has also done this before and knows how to mix the grain with the leftovers for optimal health. My two are still learning but Harley still manage to catch and pat a few before they flap their way out of his arms. Jasper figures out the eggs pretty quickly.
All in all it takes less time to do than it did to get here, but that’s not the point. The kids love it, and I admit, I do too. There’s something pretty wholesome about the daily routine and it’s amazing that we can be a part of it, if only for a few days.
Cheese & Figs
When we return by ute back up Nana’s Hill, Roseanna is making good use of the figs. She & her husband, Jeremy, brought along some excellent cheese and today being our last day, they’ve broken it out to graze on. It’s delicious.
There’s the usual blue, a very nice gouda and the green one at the back is pesto. New Zealanders certainly know how to do cheese (just don’t tell the French!).
I set to packing and it’s a mission with our stuff strewn through not only different rooms but different houses and a couple of tents. Somehow I manage to pull the majority of it together and get the suitcases closed before I’m confronted with the excitement. The motorbike is on!
Motorbike(s)
My cousin Reuben’s son, Jonathan, has a motorbike. It’s been coveted by Harley since we got here but it hadn’t come out. I wasn’t even certain it was working. Nevertheless, it is and Jonathan has kindly agreed to let some of the other kids have a turn to create some motorbikes & mayhem.
Reuben rounds them all up again for another trip down Nana’s Hill. This time it’s just the older ones and I let them go ahead while I finish up some packing.
Eventually I walk down and can hear the motorbike in the bottom paddock from the farmhouse, right at the top of the hill. Apart from the sound the first thing I notice, even from this distance, is no helmet 😱. I hope Reuben has it in hand.
By the time I get closer, it’s clear that he does. The motorbike is a child’s size and while it’s buzzing fast enough around the field, it’s not exactly Formula 1. The ground isn’t exactly soft but it’s not like they’re going to get a serious road rash injury from a fall. I decide to suppress my inner mum worries and go with the moment. In the spirit of motorbikes & mayhem, of course. They’re having so much fun!
They buzz around. Harley seems to have a handle on the semi automatic gears. He cruises around with the biggest grin on his face that I’ve seen in the whole time we’ve been here.
Jasper has a bit more trouble with the gears but is also perhaps on the tall side for the bike. Either way, neither of them could be happier. Elizabeth has a turn as well, and then Blake. Jonathan all the while, waits patiently on the perimeter, watching.
Farewell
After a few swaps and some more rounds, the kids sequester the Kioti as well and take it for a spin around the paddock. By now I’ve seen enough and make my way back to the house to finish packing and begin our goodbyes.
Later that day, after a trip to Auckland, a movie and a few hours work on the plane, facing work again tomorrow (or is it today?), I wonder whether we’d be better off with more motorcycles & mayhem in our life.
Good To Know
We were warned early on our arrival that the farm has a policy of safety first for all. Although the farm house and surrounds was okay to run and play in, this is a working farm. Anything down the driveway and away from the house requires adult supervision and someone to know where you’re going. Fair enough too. Thankfully there were plenty of adults around (that knew what they were doing!).
Would I Return?
Yes.
