Reflecting back to 2014, where we invited my extended families to join with us as a home welcoming/Christmas lunch. We moved on November 26th, 2014, and spent our first Christmas as a joint homeowner here in Eureka, Waikato. This family gathering was the first time, but nothing more, only two to four family members visited here since 2014 apart from the following Christmas Day 2015 to the current year. The most frequent disabled visitor, along with his brother who came up to visit us every January. This disabled person is Jacek, and he comes to visit us for lunch or an afternoon tea during the year.
The ‘quote from Lao Tzu’ block is sitting on my work table where I work from home. This quote helps me daily when I think of doing the work for other people with disAbilities, people in the community, doing Deaf history research, making enquires to the staff of the Government agencies, and keep in touch with family and friends rarely. In our past times, I do the gardening works while my partner Peter do the carpentry, odd gardening jobs such as ride-on mower, repairing odd jobs, etc. We tend to have plenty of time out from our works in the city of Hamilton and greater Waikato where Peter work and I travelled to Cambridge, Huntly and Te Awamutu.
Most of the times when I am out in the gardens and I noticed so much layout of the garden, by an additional garden in another section, flowers and the more I discovered odd flowers or bulbs lying deep in the ground. It gave me joy and relief that I do not need to buy flowers from the nurseries. Well, our property is 0.36ha – fields with plenty of tall trees, wider trees for shade even acted windbreak shelter against vegetable gardens and new fruit trees. Plenty of rooms for cricket, footy games and dog runs by chasing down many rabbits. Plenty of trees provide us with some shade during the long hot summer days. Yes, a lot of gardens has been changing and improving better with less weeding maintenance for me each year. One of my cousins was envious of us because she said we have orchards and large fields with gardens and trees. She visited with her dog rarely when she can in the past.
My favourites are:
- the autumn time where many leaves on the ground
- relaxing when the sunset shows beautiful colour displays through our kitchen window or in the courtyard where we sit in the cool evening.
- fruits and vegetables ready for making chutney, jams or eating plus to give to Jacek and my workplace as a food parcel to some of the Deaf people I visited.
- Spring times what a wonderful sight to see and to smell all the flowers blooming and showing display colours out in the fields.
- fire heating for long cold winter evening before we go to bed.
Yes, we do have our ups and downs such as dogs bought dead possums, hedgehog or rabbits inside the house as presents for us, love to make a mess while we were out working or shopping. In the past, we have had hot water cut by stupid tradesmen who were building extended rooms across the road from us plus the linemen discovered they cut the cable illegal. Peter tried to remove the old rusty thermostat out of the water cylinder. It was a tough job but we got there and still find no hot water. We did not have any hot water for five days and I used my workplace for a shower. The mouse chewed the phone line in the attic while our broadband internet was offline for a week. We lost our two dogs since we moved here. We demolished the old house where there were two houses on our property and we used woods from the old house for fire heating, bbq and of course Peter uses for his woodworks while our neighbour comes and use the good wood for his woodwork as well.
Surely I have one or two projects which I am hoping to complete within a year or a year and a half from this year. The last two years ago I battled my health problem which called radiculopathy degenerative disc disease on my right side. Each day I take easily and rest often when I need away from work in the city of Hamilton and greater Waikato.
Rarely, we do not get plenty of family visits here each year, just two or three visits a year.
We are privileged to found a home for us and to allow us to do something we want to do, have a healthy lifestyle, to grow fruits and vegetables from the garden and enjoy the breaks from works. We are no longer want to live in the city of Hamilton.
Here is a video clip – around 7 minutes. I did not include everything from our home and gardens. NOTE: Video can not be shared without permission.
Life in Eureka 