House Sitting In Gordonton

Having moved on from Raetihi and straight on to a new house sit, this is my current residence, which finds me on a dairy farm in Gordonton, and about a ten-minute drive to the shops in the Hamilton suburb of Rototuna. The contract milker is taking care of all the milkings and farm work etc. I’m just here to basically look after the farmowners’ home and pets while they go on a tiki tour holiday around the Bay of Plenty.

It’s a nice area out here, I’ve always liked Gordonton. My abode for the next ten days is a nice comfy farmhouse with all the mod cons for the discerning house sitter. Pet-wise, I have here a couple dogs, one cat, and a handful of chookies.

The doggies are Dart who is a eight-year-old Rottweiler and there is Merlot who’s a two-year-old black Labrador. They’re strictly outside dogs but they have a fairly large back lawn to run around in. They’re pretty energetic and boisterous but overall they’ve been well-behaved so far. They love their farm walks so I give them a big long one during the day (at least hour and a half) and then a thirty to forty-five minute walk before their dinner. They both need to be on leads during their walkies otherwise they’re liable to run after rabbits and get lost on the maize paddocks, which has apparently happened in the past, and it would take the owners up to three hours to find them in the jungle of maize! 🙂 I fill my pocket with some treaties which the dogs can have during their stroll.

The kitty cat is ten-year-old Glen who’s pretty laid-back and just cruises around nonchalant. He spends most of his day relaxing in his favourite armchair in the lounge, but come dusk he’ll toddle off outside to watch the rabbits, and possibly snare himself one.

The vegetable garden is well-stocked with a nice variety of produce (capsicums, cabbage, beans, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers etc), but perhaps more exciting (for me anyway) are the good-sized fruit trees laden with plums and pears, plus there’s a grapevine where a good crop of black grapes are ripening by the day. I love my fruit, especially when it’s homegrown and organic which is what I have here. So much nicer than the supermarket stuff. 🙂

Glen

Dart

Merlot

Chookies