May 25, 2007 Kaitaia, New Zealand

Lunchtime

Morning - let's get to work.

A nice rainbow over house.

Doug, Salvation Army minister cooking us lunch.

Date:  Friday, May 25, 2007

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Kaitaia, New Zealand

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Today the door hanging was finished, the weather taping around the window frames continued plus a lot of other work pertaining to drying out the inside of the house so that the floors can be sanded and sealed.  I worked with another crew with Dave Reyburn’s guidance to start installing the soffits and fascia.  The crew working on the storage shed were having a lot of frustrations with that installation.  It is a kit building made of sheet metal but apparently with lousy instructions.  I decided that it was best to stay away from that area.

 

Malcolm’s dog Hoover was adopted as our mascot at the beginning of the project but a kitten has now adopted us and has been hanging out in the house as if it owns it and also hangs out in the one or two motorhomes that we normally bring to the site.  We don’t have a place on site to wash dishes after our morning and afternoon teas and lunch so we do that in the motorhome.  The cat by the way has been named Habicat.  I think more than one couple would like to bring the kitten along home with them.

 

At the campground there have been two fishermen staying there and fishing on the 90 Mile Beach.  They have been fishing for snapper and having a certain amount of luck.  However, they couldn’t eat all the fish that they catch and by law can’t sell it.  They packed up today to leave and gave us a nice amount of fish so a fish fry was held tonight.  One of the couples had some steak that went on the campground grill and someone else had some chicken so it turned into a nice group buffet meal.  The snapper was excellent by the way.

 

An interesting thing happened as we were sitting on the patio in the kitchen area of the campground after eating.  Esther noticed that there was smoke coming up from the area of the grill but John assured us that the grill was off and he had turned the gas off at the tank.  A few minutes later we all noticed the smoke was getting a bit worse and started investigating the situation.  Here the wood countertop had caught fire under the grill unit and was smoldering.  After squirting the area with a water bottle and a few cups of water from the kitchen the fire was mostly extinguished.  John notified the manager of the campground and she came by and was quite concerned.  They removed the grill so that no one would use it until the problem with the installation can be resolved.

 

Well, the days are always interesting here.