Wednesday, June 22, 2011

You Want to Jump From a Bridge on a Rubber Band!!??

June 21, 2011
The time really goes by fast!  We've been back home for almost two weeks and it's been a blur.  We can't believe how fast the summer is going by and all those projects in my job jar are still there. Oh well...

From Grandma Ritzman's 1914 diary -
June 14, 1914 - Sunday, went to Sunday school and church, the painters was here for three meals and all night, Frank Farst, Mr. Heller and father and mother was here in afternoon.
June 15, 1914 - Monday, done washing, set out ninety cabbage plants, had the painters for three maeals and all night, had two callers.
June 16, 1914 - Tuesday, ironed, mended, painted, and put up screen door, had the painters for three meals and all night, had two callers.
June 17, 1914 - Wednesday, hoed in garden, set out thirty five sweet potato plants, mended, had the painters for three meals and all night.
June 18, 1914 - Thursday, baked seven loaves of bread and pan of biscuts, three pies, sixty four cookies, hoed in garden, mended, had the painters for three meals and all night, Mr Gougler was here for dinner and supper, had four callers.
June 19, 1914 - Friday, churned butter, baked eighty seven spiced cookies, set out sixteen mango and eighty five cabbage plants, had the painters for three meals and all night.
June 20, 1914 - Saturday, baked eleven pies, done saturdays work, set out one hundred and seventy five cabbage plants, had the painters for three meals and all night, had two callers.
June 21, 1914 - Sunday, went  to Sunday school and church, had painters for three meals and all night, had ten callers.

I've been scratching my head some over the size of the garden that grandma was planting.  I remember that we always put up a couple large crocks of sour kraut in the basement but with more than 200 cabbage plants put out I have to think that a lot of the garden was to supply produce for sale.  Dad used to tell about having a regular route in Akron where they would take produce by horse and wagon for sale.  He would tell how the horse knew the route and grandpa would take items to houses and the horse would pull the wagon ahead and even around corners and then stop and wait until they caught up.  Ahh- the good old days.

There was another story told by dad involving horses and I think that this was while he was still young.  Grandpa and grandma were coming back over Killian Rd. after dark late at night in the buggy and probably from grandma's parents over on Pickle Rd.  They had fallen asleep at the wheel so to speak and all of a sudden they woke up and the horse had stopped at the railroad tracks on Killian and a train was passing by right in front of them.  Good horse!

I am not trying to compete with grandma but before we left the first of May I set out about a dozen tomato plants, a half dozen pepper plants, a couple of eggplants, watermelon, cantalope, and a pumpkin plant.  I had decided that if they survived OK and if not that was OK also.  Well, I think that the groundhog took out or ate a couple of the eggplants and some of the pepper plants, the watermelon and a cantalope.  But - I still have ten tomatoes of various kinds, a couple of pepper, one very weak eggplant, and a pumpkin vine that is doing well.  This past week I added four more cantalope, and some acorn squash.  I've had a row about ten feet long of asparagas that's produced for about 5 years but wanted to add some more so added twenty more roots which gives us two parallel rows about 10 - 15 feet long.  I had planned to rent a rototiller when we got back and make a much larger garden with corn, beans, and some other things but have decided to pass on that.  Just not enough time at the moment.

Back to the New Zealand trip -
Before we head to Queenstown we always tell everyone about the AJ Hackett bungy jumping center just north of town at the Kawauru River location and if anyone wants to try it that's the place to do it.  If no one from our group decides to jump it's fun to watch others do it.  Richard took the bait and decided that he was going to do it.  So on a foggy, misty morning around 9 AM we all gathered at the bungy jump center to watch Richard jump from a platform on the side of the bridge over the river with the big rubber band attached to his ankles. Apparently since it was considered late fall or winter season they no longer allowed jumpers to go into the water so that option was ruled out.

Richard displayed extremely nice form on the jump with a real nice swan dive.  You can share the experience watching the YouTube video of the jump below.



Richard - we admire your spirit and courage to bungy jump and watching you seemed to be the best approach for the rest of us.

I may not have explained before but Richard is from a town close to Montreal, Canada.  He had applied for the trip but is 19 and the minimum age to rent a vehicle in New Zealand is 21 years old.  We kept hoping that another applicantion would come in for someone that he could pair up with to share a motor home but nothing worked out.  Joan and I discussed it and decided that if he wanted to he could ride with us during the day and then stay in a "backpacker" cabin at night.  Most if not all of the RV parks that we stay at in NZ have the backpacker cabins that are just bare bones - no bathroom, no kitchen, just a bare cabin with a heater and a few bunks or beds.

RV parks in NZ are different in that respect from US campgrounds in that they have sites including tent sites, powered sites for a motor homes, backpacker cabins, all the way to a standard motel type room.  The campgrounds have bath houses with showers and also complete kitchen facilities with cooking utensils.  Backpacking and hiking in NZ is popular and the campgrounds cater to everyone from those on foot to those in motor homes.

Back to Richard - Richard was a very nice young man to have with us and we really enjoyed having him with us.  All of us on the team were old enough to be his grandparents but his personality and ability to get along with us oldsters allowed us to enjoy each others company.  We all bonded well and enjoyed traveling and working together.  Hopefully some of our paths will cross again in the future.

Richard got talking with one of the previous partner family homeowners who was volunteering on the worksite and found out that he did tattooing.  Maori men and women have a lot of tattoos as part of their culture and he had quite a few himself. He offered a free tattoo to any of the volunteers who would like one and Richard decided that he would (he was the only one on our team by the way).    Joan asked Richard some motherly type questions: are you sure you want to do this?, what would your mom and dad say?, etc.  The only other word of advice she gave him was make sure that his shirt sleeve would cover the tattoo when he stood in front of the church to get married.  

Below Titia and the two plumbers working on the house came by to watch the action.  Left click on pictures to enlarge them.


Below is the finished art work.  It came out pretty nice with the fern leaf and Maori symbol above.





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