Pet Day Activities

Our school Pet day was held at the end of last term on 29th September, where all of our 31 children take part in a number of activities.  The activities are broken down into Indoor and Outdoor Activities.

Leading up to Pet Day the children work towards preparing their art work to be displayed and judged.  The day before Pet Day, they bring flowers and vegetables to make the last of the activities.  All Indoor Activities are judged that afternoon after school.

The next day, Saturday, the children bring their pets to school.  We have four categories, which are all broken down into Junior and Senior:
* Lambs
* Calves
* Dogs
* Indoor Pets

For Lambs, Calves and Dogs, the get judged on calling,  rearing and leading/agility.  For the Indoor Pet they get judged on presentation and care. 

Our day starts at 9.45am with the judging of the pets.  This where the children get to show off the pets that they have cared for and reared over the last 4 - 8 weeks.

Range of Unusual Vases from the Junior Classroom

Junior Unusual Vases - Alice's was the big watering can

Junior Class Vegetable Animals.  Alice won first for her Rabbit (3rd from bottom on right side)

 In addition, the Junior Class did a sand saucer, aboriginal bark art, puppy art and 1 other piece of art.

Senior Dogs

Senior lambs

Junior lambs

 Alice got third for calling and third for leading.

Junior Calves

Grand Parade

As part of our Pet Day, there is a selection of Fathers Cakes.  These are judged on presentation and taste and at the end of the Outdoor Activities these are auctioned off.  The whole day is finished off with a BBQ.  The day was a huge success, being supported by the local community in the form of judges, stewards, family supports and observers.

If interested, children can then take there pet lamb, goat or calf onto Group Day.  This year Alice did this with her lamb - Plum.  This was held at Te Kauwhata Domain on 24th October.  Alice competed in the Pre-Junior Section (5 & 6 year olds).  She was judged on the following:

• Calling:

Calling

4th = Calling

•  Leading

Leading

2nd Leading

•  Rearing

Rearing

3rd Rearing

Plum and Alice with their ribbons at Group Day 2013

 There were 12 competitors in her group and to come away with a ribbon in each section for the first time Alice had competed was well done.

Plum is now out in the paddock with some Ewe Hoggets for company.  She is down to 1 feed of 500 mls a day, and from tomorrow will get a bottle of water every 2nd day for a week, then nothing. 

We always look forward to pet day and Alice has already named next years lamb, although we have no idea what it will be.  Look out for postings on 'Lemon' next year!

Sharing some NZ farmlife with others

As you may have gathered reading some of our historic blogs, we have a tendancy to have a number of foreigners coming to stay.  This year we have had 4.  Although it is great to have foreigners here and share in our story and life, and hear about theirs, we would also welcome NZers to take part!

In February we had Priscillia from Montreal.  Main tasks while she was here was to do a bit of spring cleaning in the house which was well overdue and to do some child care, entertaining Alice after school, but I am not sure whether it was the other way around, and some farm stuff.  The things we did included:



Priscillia and her helper Alice feeding Mal Time Capsules
 (Zinc Bullets for Facial Eczema protection)

Blackberry picking ... we all managed to fill our containers up but
 Alice ate most of hers!

Priscillia had a go at crutching some lambs.



















Then we spent a day at Raglan beach enjoying the sand and surf.

Then some pre-tup ewe drenching ...












And putting them away, note we were in February, and yes
it was dry!

 

Then we had Thomas from France.  We did a bit of sheep work (first time for Thomas) and lots of feeding out as we were in the throws of the drought and we put lime on a chunk of the farm, using the neighbours strip

Weighing lambs - Thomas got the hang of it
reasonably well.

Thomas having a go at drenching ... bit of hard
work!





Did lots of feeding out, with Thomas loading the trailers most
mornings.  Near the end he was left to feed out to one or two
mobs.  This is the R2 mobs of heifers being fed.







The fertiliser plane being loaded with lime

Dumping its load.

Just recently we had Chris-Ann and Shaun from Toronto.  We had the local cluster schools Arts Festival.  Te Akau did a Pacific Theme where they sung, danced and played the ukelale and doing really well at it.  Links to their performance are http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLaZv35jsUoEsUYvwJuco9g?feature=mhee.  Here you can see the dances and also go through Room 1s Gobble Gobble Moo Tractor Book that the kids have narrated. 

 

Room 1 doing the Gobble Gobble Moo Tractor Book at Te Akau School

 We then travelled into Hamilton to take Alice to her dance lesson at Dance Effects (http://www.danceeffects.co.nz/), where she is doing Jazz Intro 1.  They are currently learning their exam moves, with exams in August.

Jazz Intro 1 class at Dance Effects

Shaun testing his drenching skills on the rams

Chris-Ann getting up close and personal with one of the rams

Then we caught a possum - so far at a rate of 1 per week

And then we plucked it ...

Mustering in the 2-tooths for their 5 in 1 vaccination before set stocking for lambing

 Our main project for the week was to start planting up the garden with natives.  Below are the before and after shots and there is still more plants to go.  Their help was greatly appreciated.

 

 

Before

Before





After



After

And the chook lady ...

 

 So, if keen to help out check out Help Exchange (http://www.helpx.net/) or contact us directly.  We will be seeking some extra help for docking in September.

 



Catching up on the pet lambs

Kleiner and Deigo at the beginning ...

The pet lambs - Blueberry, Deigo and Kleiner are enjoying relative freedom in the woolshed paddock.  They are now weaned but still like to come for a chat and a cuddle.

Blueberry use to walk with Alice to the bush every morning and was there to meet her off the bus every night

Alice showing off her 'Student of the Week' certificate to Blueberry and the heifers

 





The heifers checking out Blueberry





 

Alice took Blueberry to the school pet day at the end of September. She rode in style in the back of the car.  The children are broken up into 'pre-school', junior and senior.  They had to walk into the ring and the judges asked them a few questions about their lamb and how they look after it.  They then have to walk around the ring, through some poly-rods, and at the other end, their lamb was held whilst they walked away and then had to call it.  They were then awared on - Rearing, Leading and Calling, with an overall winner in each section.

Katja, Blueberry and Alice on the way to Pet Day

Alice in leading Blueberry around the ring

Junior kids all getting excited about ribbon time!

Alice and Blueberry got 2nd prize in the calling

  Alice competed in the Junior group, and as she won a ribbon, could have gone onto the Group Day at Te Kauwhata, but we decided against this year, but Alice is keen to give it a go next year. 

 

Also as part of Pet Day, they do a number of indoor activities such as 'Sand Saucer', 'Wildflower Display', 'Buttonhole' and some art work.  Alice got second with her poem.  All in all she was pretty excited about her results ... and so were we.

Alice got 3rd in teh New Entrant Sand Saucer

Alice got first in the New Entrant Wildflower display - native clematis in a calf feeder with flax leaves

And now ...

The three lambs not so long ago ...

The lambs will stay in the holding paddock until weaning, and then might find themselves with lots of other lambs.  Blueberry will get shorn and go with all the other girls down the road.