Afternoon in the Hollow

Having some time right now, so I figured I would blog a bit, not sure where this will go, I suspect all over the place. Petra, the host, is off to town to deliver salads. Some will go directly to businesses, others to couriers to be delivered to business far out of town. Even after only a few days, it has been fun to see how Petra's little business is run. She and her pal work daily in the mornings to grow and package. The WWOOFers help out where ever they are needed. Petra also acts as accountant which made for a enthralling conversation for some yesterday and an enthrallingly boring one for others. It seems some sales tax returns have been a bit of a nuisance lately. Her tax software has apparently not been performing up to expectations. She asked what I would do about it, I told her not to trust the software, she said she paid big money for it, I said have other people take a look at the returns, she said she is the only one around, I said, okay then, enough about that.

I have always wanted to live in a "holler." No, I do not mean that I would like to live inside a perpetual loud noise produced by human vocal chords. I mean that I would like to live in a small valley between two steep hills or mountains, which describes this place quite well. At its mouth near the main road, the valley is quite wide, but as one drives down the windy dirt road leading towards the action, things get hollerer and hollerer. First one hears sheep, then maybe some cows, then maybe a horse winnying, oh, and, of course, the birds are everywhere. The Doves tend to steal the show with their two calls of choice. One is what I associate with the quintessential noise that a dove makes, the other is what I associate with the laughter of a lunatic. There is one Dove in particular, known as "The Stalker" who has a hard time taking no for an answer. The only thing he seems to understand are physical barriers, and if they are not present, it should not be surprising to feel a sudden weight on your shoulder followed by the sound of laughter from someone with a very quirky sense of humor.

The Palmers' house is nestled near the center of the flat valley plain. It is surrounded by foliage that appears to be quite haphazard in many spots, but most of it actually seems to be deliberate. I say this because even the trees seem to all either be for fruit, nuts, or fire wood. Down a trail through the garden sit two camper buses where the WWOOFers reside. One is a 1952, the other probably early 1980s. The '52 no longer has the motivation to tour, the '80 is the supposed replacement. Heading the opposite direction from the house are the greenhouses. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the these were severely damaged by some high winds a few days ago. We did some work to patch them up, but it was not a permanent fix. The roofs will have many leaks until the insurance company issues a settlement and the final repairs can happen. Because of the recent earthquakes in the area (there was one early this morning that I did not even notice when I was sleeping) insurance companies have not had time to service all claims promptly, and so the claim for the green house will likely take longer than is desired. Unfortunately, also due to the high rate of claims insurance companies have tightened up their payouts, adding scrutiny to all claims and attempting to payout as little as possible. Hopefully things go well for the green house despite the challenges ahead.

The Dutch couple who were also WWOOFing here left this morning, bound for Nelson and then a hike through Milford Sound. Hopefully I will run into them another time. After a morning of work, I made some lunch and then started blogging. It was relaxing to sit on the couch with the dog and watch the horses stroll around in the garden outside. The days seem longer here, I think partly because they are, but also because the schedule isn't as tight. I'd probably get bored eventually, but for the present, it is top notch!