Sylvia departs, Ericka and Kristi arrive, along with chicks and fish!

Sylvia has left for the South Island after 8 wonderful weeks at Earthstead. One of her last jobs was to "mud" around the new timber skirting boards and patch other holes and bangs in the earth walls. Sylvia has been one of our longest serving wwoofers, and her input was invaluable. She bought a wealth of building skill, determination and precision.







Two new wwoofers have joined the team from the US. Kristi hales from Minnesota, and Ericka is from Boston. I can tell it is going to be a fun time with these two!






Our chicken expert and friend George brought 8 newly hatched chicks to add some new blood and varieties to our chicken numbers. These gorgeous fluffy balls stole all our hearts.







The chicks with the little bumps on the top of their heads are definitely females, according to George.














We have been over run with flies of late, especially annoying during our meals on the deck. While travelling in Spain two years ago we had heard about a fly deterrent which involved a plastic bag full of water being hung over the table. We were desperate enough to give anything a go! On Friday night we had friends over for dinner as usual, and decided to add some fish to the water to make a novel table centre piece. We noticed no reduction in the fly numbers, but certainly had a lot of fun watching the fish. I think we will call the fish Ping and Pong, they are obviously identical twins, and deserve a name that truly goes together.






On Sylvia's last night, the wwoofers decided to play table tennis by headlight. Not many balls were hit, but lots of laughs were had.