#fridays after work spent building and listening to a podcast with a hot coffee

[violettssims]

the morning of the festival 🎆

[kenovele]

Bogs Blog 46

2024 has started with a bang, we have been climbing outdoors, water skiing, doing home improvements and now we are back in the good old comforts of routine and work, although in my case, only for a few weeks before I finish my job at Tilsley Engineering next Friday. The start of the year was blessed with warm weather, close proximity to the lake, a good balance between relaxing and activity, social time and time to recharge our personal batteries. Despite all the family, including my grandparents being together at the lake for a few weeks which could be a recipe for disaster with my family dynamic, the sailing was reasonably smooth, perhaps this was thanks to the holiday atmosphere, the good weather, or a tilting of the earth’s axis – whatever it was we were grateful for the summer holidays and the quality time we were able to all spend together.

This week as been slow getting back into things, I went down to Te Aroha for the penultimate time, and then back in the office in Pukekohe for the rest of the week. Work has been steady, and the weather has been incredibly hot, so it has been a rough way to get into it. Benoit has been on deliveries for the most of this week, and although it sounds relaxing driving around and listening to podcasts, he has also been tasked with teaching two girls to drive a manual truck. Currently Benoit is the only one that can drive a manual and thus the only one that can drive the delivery truck, however the company is future proofing and has asked Benoit to teach two unwilling millennials to drive a manual. If anything, it has been a great test of his patience. A great new year’s resolution for him!

As far as resolutions go, Benoit and I have decided to continue attempting to fast once a month approximately, and so this week we have done our best to fit fasting into our schedule. Due to it being summer and there being multiple social commitments, we have managed only to do two-day fast, however we did it twice; Sunday night till Tuesday Evening, and Wednesday Evening and Friday evening, a pretty solid effort. Perhaps the effects of the fasts were not as impressive as we didn’t manage to push the fast to the three day mark, however we both enjoyed the two day format, as it didn’t seem mentally difficult as after the first evening it is already half over, and we both felt reasonably energised thanks to our morning black coffees, and the break on our digestive systems. Overall a positive fasting week. Which was broken by some lovely family and friends dinners. On Tuesday night, we went climbing and then to Jojo and Nicos for dinner with Jamie, then Wednesday night Benoit and I had Ried (Benoits friend from highschool) and Jamie come for dinner at the Tiny, and then Friday night we went to Cathys for a swim and catch up, then Saturday night Mum and Dad came for dinner at the tiny house, so a social week all round!

Our weekend, although siestas were planned, we did not manage to squeeze them in, instead we spent our weekend working on home improvements, cooking and generally just enjoying our space together. After a weekend full of work, we now have some gorgeous second hand stairs going up to our deck. We have gotten into the habit of covering our deck with the rug we picked up from Leons house in the evenings and creating an additional outdoor area with our beanbags and poofs, it really is relaxing, apart from the onslaught of mosquitos that come out at dusk. The rug makes the space very cosy and the new stairs have made the area feel so much bigger and more inviting, it is a shame we didn’t have them ready for the filming as they do look very smart. It is a testament to the building progress that Benoit has made and retained as the fact that he was able to put the stairs up in a half day with all salvaged materials. Although it is not the best-looking deck as far as some of the decks Jamie and Benoit have worked on previously, they are great stairs and he should be proud of his work and new abilities. On Sunday we decided that we needed even more space to grow our vegetables, so spent the day turning the dirt and creating a new space to grow, we also fenced the area and improved our existing fences to hopefully protect our vegetables from the sheeps hungry mouths. It was a hugely fulfilling day, working on creating this new area, although it was extremely hot work, it was so rewarding to work outdoors on a space that will give us a lot of joy in the future. We are loving our space and our garden and are slowly starting to reap the rewards. This weekend we harvested our first cucumbers and tomatoes which tasted even better knowing that they were our cultivation. Our hearts are full. Even if we are a bit tired this Monday morning!

Love Kate xxx