Life After the Christchurch Earthquake

Not long before the Christchurch Earthquake of 22nd February 2011 we had been looking for a house to buy. We had put in an offer on a house, which had been accepted, and had teed up the insurance for the house not long before the Christchurch earthquake of 6.3 magnitude struck.

Because of this we had no trouble with house insurance, as after the Christchurch earthquake no new policies were being written.

At the time of updating my lens 'Living through the Christchurch earthquakes' just prior to 4th March, we were unsure how things were going to go...there was a question mark about whether the lawyer would be able to access all the paperwork for the settlement to go through.

We didn't need to worry, as it went through without a fuss after they located duplicate copies of all the paperwork necessary to push the settlement through.

So we are now the proud owners of a 'new' home built in the 1930's.

Although we had permanent materials on our 'wish-list' for buying a house,
we fell in love with the roominess of the ten foot stud and the general
feel of the place.

There was space around the house ...
green space, which appealed to us enormously!

There was so much that we could see ourselves doing,
both inside and out to make this place our own...

You can see our front door in the photo to the right and in the photo below the
garden/lawn area in front of our house, which we will
turn into a green outdoor 'room.'

The plan is to realign the front concrete fence and then
put in supports so that we can espalier fruit trees to
become a 'living fence.'

Once the fence is established I will upload the new improved front yard showing the 'after' photos to these 'before' photos!

The plans we have for the vegetable garden out back include re-doing the layout and getting our crops established.

With the cost of 'good, healthy' food these days, it will pay us to going back to what our grandparents did, and that is grow our own.

There is something quite therapeutic about working in the garden, and when you see the results of all your hard work, it is immensely satisfying.
Not to mention, tasty!!
(Shown below is the 'before' photo (for the majority) of our vegie garden in front of our back fence ...)

Beside the vegetable garden we have a sleep-out, which is attached to the garage, which has a raised garden bed in front of it, and is partially covered with a wisteria vine.

Also in front of the sleep-out is a wood-chopping block and a lovely old metal watering can planted with succulents.

We will need to set up some kind of fence around the vegie garden to stop the rampaging paws of Lily running amok through the fruit trees and vegetable beds ... and undoing all our hard work!

She gets to chase ball up the our long drive-way, and has great walks in a nearby park with either or both of us, which should give her plenty of exercise.
(see below photo in front of sleep-out)

Amazingly, we made the move from our rented house in McCarthy St with neither Elmo or Lily having any trouble adapting to the new place.

Elmo did his usual two to three days inside so that he could orient himself, which he took in his stride...not bad for a little 'old man' of nearly 14 years.

Lily didn't care where she was as long as she was with us, so no adjustment time for her at all!

They still interact with licks, hisses and scratches - licks and nuzzles on Lily's part, and hisses and scratches on Elmo's part. He just can't seem to get her to understand that he does NOT want to be jumped on by a creature now approximately three times his size!! He is an old gent and not in the mood for being squashed by some 'flibberty-gibbit' of an hairy oaf! ...even if she is a girl!

Photo to the right showing our long driveway with Elmo keeping a suitable distance from Lily.

The odd thing is that he will sometimes get inside her range, and then still 'argue' the point with her when she shows some interest in him, go figure!

So with all this happening, what has been happening with my 'online business?'

Well, sad to say, not much!

While I have been busy packing and unpacking, getting back into some kind of work routine (did I tell you that I was accepted in a six month secondment working in another Government department as our building is still the red 'no-go' zone? No? Well, I have just started my first week training with them after five weeks on special paid leave...)

I have watched as my articles on Ezine continue to get views, sadly no sales for a while with Clickbank, I have been studying how to set up a profitable blog for niches in demand and will soon get back on track with the next phase of my online business.

I am studying some training put out by a New Zealander called Mark Ling and as he has successfully been doing this for several years, I am taking on board what he is teaching and will get going again. His training can be found at his website Affilorama and while the basics are all free, there is much more available with Affilorama Premium - which is where I am at. I must say, that I am quite excited about this.

You have to believe that you can succeed before you actually will, and that is where I am right now! Yaaay!!

Well, that is all from me at this time... I promise not to leave it as long till I catch up with you again... wishing you good health and a sense of adventure for your successful future!