To hot to work! I'm off fishing!

I started back at work today. Got bored, looked at the lack of wind and decided to head out fishing. I called Graeme Evans (mate of my dads) and took off with him to Lake Coleridge for the day. It was about 30 degrees and the water was like glass. Plenty of fish in the lake but they weren't very obliging! However, he caught this nice Salmon...



Oh! and this little one below. He went back though as he was too small.



This is the general condition of the lake...



Glas, glass, and more glass! We had a great day!

Christmas at the Stones!

We were woken up this morning at 6:30am by a Christmas call from Sarah's sister Jess. It was great to hear from her. Seeing as we were up, we went and woke up Jackson. He was excited when we gave him a Christmas bag filled with pressies!
All of us sat on the bed and opened them! I think he was overwhelmed!


Here's the tree with a big pile of pressies under it. Christmas is fun when you have a kid!


Jack checking out the boat Dad built him in the workshop. The trailer attaches to his trike so he can tow it around.


Mum and son hanging out. Jack's sitting on mum's new sunlounger. Hopefully we'll get some sun so she can relax!


Jackson's backside... :-)


Another bath toy - yup! it's the famous BP inflatable boat!


Sarah has been saying that she wants to try some Dressage to music, so I built her a 4WD paddock stereo. This is super rugged, but will be able to blast so loud that both her and the horse will hear it down the paddock. I think Sarah wants to get the horse dancing to trendy modern music ;-)

Mum turned on some cool music whilst at the house and Jackson decided to have a groove!




Want a pressie anyone?


Even a horse (Luke) got in on the act!


After feeding horses their 'Reindeer Nuts' this is Jack wandering back to the house with Pooh under his arm for a Gingerbread boat (Yes, I built a boat shaped biscuit cutter!)

Groovy Jack!

Just Mum and Jackson having a groove to the music on the stereo I built them last week, I think he's starting to get the hang of dancing!

Ferg and Nathan's maiden adventure on their boat.

Ferg and Nathan took their boat down to Lake Hood for their maiden ride after restoring it to lovely condition. It went well!

Jacksons Birthday Party!

The crew came over today to celebrate Jackson's second birthday! Plenty of sugar for all the kids meant that they all had a good time! Jack had a few meltdowns but he got through it! The people that visited were: Liz & Ferg, Jess & Pete (with Tim and Sam), Ben & Rose (with Ella and Grace) and Lesley...

My Silly son ;-)

I took these photos the other day of Jack being silly at the Daycare's Christmas play. I love him - even when he's a twit ;-)

Jacksons Birthday cake!

This is the awesome cake Sarah (Mum) made for jack's 2n'd birthday. She did a great job! Can't wait to see what the kids are like on the sugar!

Jackson's End of year play

We had the daycare's end of year Christmas play last weekend. Unfortunately Jackson didn't go in the play and got stage fright. All his mates did a great job though!

Now this is dedication!

Jack is so keen he wanted to pull the boat out of the shed himself. Must love the boating heaps eh!!

Jackson - My famous son!

Jack and some other Selwyn Toddlers went to the Royal NZ Show. They had a great time, and managed to get snapped for the Selwyn Times. Check it out!

Mums Memorial Day

We had mum's memorial today for all the Christchurch friends and family. Was a great event and good to catch up...

Family Fishing Trip to Coleridge

We woke up today and the weather looked just perfect for a wee backcountry jaunt. So I told the family "We're going!", we packed the boat and took off to Lake Coleridge.

It was the first time that only Sarah, Jackson and I had put the boat in with just us. The wind was fairly non-existant, and it was a great morning. We got the boat in ok and took off around the lake. After a bit of sightseeing, I showed Sarah how to troll for trout.

We saw fish and they weren't biting, so scooted back to the South side of Ryton Bay and Sarah took over as Skipper. She drove the boat and kept us over the fish. We hooked up! I landed a small (but very eatable) salmon.

It was great to be with Sarah and Jackson when I caught the fish - and even better because Jackson now knows what fishing is! A great day was had by all!

Jack's Bed Boat is finished! Awesome!

Finally, the bed is done, however we're nervous about putting him in it - he'll never sleep!! But whatdaya reckon? 10/10 for effort? What a great dad!

Grandad came to visit!

Grandad popped down for a few days recently. He decided to take the kids for a ride on the Rideon Mower...

Progress on the boat bed!

Did a bit more on the boat bed for Jackson this weekend. Nearly ready for a sand and a paint!

Jackson's Birthday Boat Bed!

Jackson's birthday is on the 16th Dec... He'll be 2yo and because I'm such a great dad, I'm going to make him a super cool boat bed. I started today in my workshop and after about 4hrs, this is the progress. I'll upload more photos as I get further along.

The Front section of the boat will come to a point and will be an area to store toys. On the headboard I'll make a Yamaha Motor (and bookcase/light)



It's all braced and square/level. Just need the glue to dry now. The next fiddly bit is to create the front part as a removable section.


This is the bed tray that the foam mattress sits on. This drops in the top of it...

Jacks new wetsuit. Now he's ready for the summer fun at the lakes.

Jackson is really proud of his new Spongebob wetsuit. He wore it all day today around the farm and even had his midday sleep in it. Looking forward to getting him to the lake for a swim!

The new auxillary!

Finally sorted the auxiliary on the boat. It's a little 4hp Yamaha 4 stroke. Now we can start going a little further out and catch some real fish... We'll also use this for some trout trolling on the back country lakes...

Dad's old farm truck

We just purchased this old 1985 Nissan Safari off Trademe the other day for only $4750. Awesome truck... It's old, but mint! and was owned by an old Grandad that hardly used it.

The truck was always garaged over 20 years, serviced every 6 months and has only 125km genuine miles!!!

Also has near new Wrangler tyres, winch, bullbars and nearly everything under the hood is new, or like new! Just have to suss out getting 12v out the rear instead of 24v, then it'll be great!
Should make a great second tow vehicle!

Chilling in the Hood!

I took the family (Sarah, Jack, Simon and Zach) to Lake Hood today for a play on the boat today. It was a nice calm day, but the water was freezing! 12.3 degrees!

Didn't stop us tough louts though! Simon and I got in and did some wakeboarding and even though we froze out bits off, we had a great time

Sarah drove the boat as well - she did really good!

Double trouble at the Stones!

The guys spent the day playing in the garden, fighting over tractors, splashing in the pool and just being cool kids. Simon was building a garden...




Above is wee Zach, just hanging!