Alice's 4th Birthday

We have started lambing!  Hopefully in the coming weeks the weather will stay nice and lambs will have a good start to life.

We have had a birthday in the family, with Alice turning 4.  We belong to a local Mainly Music group which is held at the local church, so Alice was able to celebrate her birthday there with all her friends.  The kids managed to eat half the cake (rocky road) before I was able to take a photo!

Along with yesterdays birthday, we attended the Waikato District Council meeting where bylaws for stock movement on roads within the district was heard.  There was a reasonable level of dissatisfaction from the farmers.  In our situation we have two blocks and rely on taking stock between them. 

Some outcomes, the following changes to the bylaw were agreed in principle:

• The drainage district of Franklin’s Aka Aka to be exempt from the requirement to underpass. (Note: the proposal to exempt no-exit roads from the requirement to underpass was not addressed yesterday.)
• The date for all regular dairy crossings to be replaced by underpasses has been extended by two years to 2018.
• Dairy crossing permits to be valid for five years. (Previously they were valid for two years.)
• Intermittent movements on gravel roads by drystock to take place without the need for a permit.
• An exemption for existing gateways from the requirement to meet the TSG-E3 specifications in the case of intermittent drystock movements.

We live on a metal road and at this stage we are permitted to take stock as long as we adhere to the bylaw i.e. signage and drivers front and behind stock (which is pretty much what we do now).