This year we had our first “Farm Fiesta” over Waitangi weekend – a small event where a bunch of our beloved city friends come down for some country flavour. We could have taken more photos, but were too busy having fun.

Welcome to Stonybrook!

Summer finally decided to arrive, late but just in time for our bash. We set up a picnic table under our plum trees for some shelter from the scorching sun. For a touch of festivity we hung some lanterns and wrapped fairy lights around a couple of the trees (which were visible at night).

Ain’t that quaint as fuck?

The hammock added a bit of charm, too.

It got a lot of love, and I got a lot of love in it…

We fired up our new barbecue and grilled some snarlers for lunch.

They were from a homekill that our neighbours had done recently. As thanks for letting their horses winter on our pastures they stocked our chest freezer with half a beast! Lots of people commented on how delicious the meat was. I’m pretty particular about sausages, but these, well… this picture speaks for itself:

That’s the expression of a sausage-epiphany, FYI.

Everyone brought a plate of something, like corn, salad, skewers, biscuits, etc., and a bunch of beverages.

One of the main events we had prepared was a slip’n’slide!

I picked up a fifty metre roll of polythene (the stuff that provides a moisture barrier under houses), and unravelled it down a smooth slope in one of our paddocks. Hay bales prevented it from being blown around by the wind.

The day before the fiesta me and Dingus had taken the tractor down to the stream that runs through the farm, having attached a large barrel to the tractor’s bucket. We used a hand pump to fill it with water from the brook and then added fistfuls of washing powder, to make the water super slimy.

The hand pump that we were using to shoot water down the slide broke half way through, so Dingus eagerly wrapped his mouth around a garden hose.

He siphoned it real good. A little too good…

After we made a few adjustments (team effort), the slip’n’slide was a hit.

We had a blast with a few other activities over the two-day fiesta, like driving the quad around (a little too fast):

Playing games of Kubb (“viking chess”):

Exploring rock pools in the bordering forest:

And having an epic waterbomb fight, of which there are sadly no photos. As a consolation, here’s a photo of the waterbomb “cannon” I built:

It packs a mean punch and left a welt on poor Dingus’s back. It also fires rotten eggs and soggy plums pretty far, too…

Then we sizzled up some burgers for dinner, with succulent home-kill patties. Mmmooyeaah.

As night began to fall on the first day, those sleeping outside set up their tents around about the place.

One brave fellow set his up all the way at the back of the farm, near our little waterfall, which he used as a refreshing morning shower.

That night we all sat around a campfire and roasted marshmallows and played some word games, as you do. Scary stories were not permitted, because we’re all wimps, especially me.

This photo encapsulates the group, a group whose company was so enjoyed by us insane country folk.

Thanks for coming down Dingus, Lauren, Sean, James, Grace, Derek, Meng, Sam, Rhys, Daniel, Cushla & co. We loved having you! Looking forward to seeing you back here for Stonybrook Fiesta 2018!