1 month in

 Well, today marks 4 weeks since we started this crazy adventure at Redstone golf course, Armageddon Paintball and the One Shot Cafe. To say it's been a life changing experience, would not be incorrect; there's very little carry over from our Auckland lives to now. 

Still, the common themes are: having 3 kids and a son in law who all came to check out mum and dad's purchase for the first week and were an immeasurable help in mowing, unpacking and giving us 100% support in thinking we'd bought a cool spot! (They did all however have concerns about whether we'd really be able to manage the upkeep by ourselves!) It was lovely to have everyone all together under one roof - the first time in a number of years and so my mother heart was VERY full!)

 The week was probably also made a little trickier by the fact that we had no wifi connection, or landline; eftpos wasn't up and going and our possessions were delayed due to, believe it or not, the Suez Canal ship crisis! Still, when one owns a cafe with a commercial kitchen, one can take these things in one's stride...and we practiced the menu on offer, worked out how to use the barista coffee machine and enjoyed the pool table - all before retreating back to the warmth of the house. I would like to say I was relaxed and  enjoyed the week but actually, things not working really overwhelmed me and I wasn't quite the easy going entrepreneur I'd envisage myself to be!

The 1 Shot Cafe is definitely somewhat utilitarian and we all decided that it would need a revamp to make it somewhat more cosy and people friendly! The bride complete with paintball gun was banished by the family to the back storage room on the first day...she was just never quite going to cut it!

Since then we've had lots of stretching moments - this past weekend we had a group of 55 for paintball which sounds great but the preparation of the guns and the cleaning afterwards does keep one busy for a couple of days. We're not sure if its the cold weather affecting the paint balls or the fact that they may be slightly old stock, but we are finding the paint balls are bursting in the gun barrels, resulting in a  LOAD of mess to clean up afterwards or even during the games. Not fun!

I still get a kick out of the fact that people find the City of Purgatory just an awesome place to play paintball and it has been really well set up. A road down the centre, 44 car wrecks, 3 double story buildings, pits, bridges and a host of shop type buildings to take cover in. Norm is becoming more and more confident in managing the games and it's exciting to hear the ping ping ping of paint being splattered as opponents find each other in the city!

 

Still, I too, am fast becoming an expert in the world of paintball as I buy Splatmaster guns, Proshar paint balls, camouflage overalls and now winter-fill Meteor paint. I've met the local gun shop owners - unfortunately they'd been robbed the night before so there were plenty of commiserations to be had.

We're definitely finding lots of old gear that needs fixing or replacing and the wet spell we had a couple of weeks ago provided me with an excellent chance to get out the sewing machine and start repair work...all very satisfying. Even in the City of Purgatory we've started to make a few changes and I've posed the question on the Facebook pages...do we have a survivor from the missile attack; what's creating the changes...a male, female or even a zombie? We've spotted  a hand in the pub - what could it be?

 It's interesting trying to work out how to market this type of adventure - it's not a world we've had much to do with ever before, so connecting now with the world of Paint-ballers and Air Softers is a brand new learning experience. I must say though, there's quite a difference between the paintball community and the air-softers who also use our field a  couple of times a month...one just wants to splat paint while the other has a little more strategy behind the splatting! It sure is an interesting leap into another world for both of us!

The golf course remains a truly beautiful part of our property, despite the copious amount of leaves falling at the moment: we don't have roughs, rather we have leaves! Together with a friend, Caro who was down in Nelson, awaiting the birth of her first grandchild, we started to scrape down and paint the moat which contains Green #4. It's been looking somewhat overgrown with a whole fringe look growing over the top of the embankment wall and while I thought I'd modernise it by keeping the wall in  the red and the top of the moat wall wooden; the local golfers wanted a white strip at the top! I guess they need all the help they can get! 

Judging by the number of golf balls I fish out of the moat each week, it looks like its quite  a tricky hole! Its certainly been satisfying working on a rejuvenation project -it's  not quite finished yet but I hope it will be in the next few days.

Getting my head around the mowers, quad bikes, pole saw, brush cutter, leaf blower and Gator vehicle has also been quite a big learning curve - those things used to be Norm's domain but as he's working online full time, I'm having to upskill. I must confess to a couple of slightly scarred patches, especially around the greens, as I've been learning where I need to lift blades etc  but overall I'm a lot more comfortable with climbing on whatever machine will do the job. I have been mowing in the middle of the day as in the past couple of weeks, the frost only clears about 10ish and once 3pm comes its cold again - so there's a small window of opportunity to buzz round. The fairways do look good once done, for sure! I keep thinking the grass should stop growing soon...I wait in expectation!

 

 So, a couple of things I'm looking forward to doing in the next few weeks:

* planting out the 100 daffodil bulbs that Senta sent me for my birthday - I've decided they're going in at #1 fairway and will look splendid under the big trees come spring

* volunteering on Friday at the local 4 Square for a Heart awareness cause - it gives me a chance meet some local Wakefielders and start building community connections

* finishing the moat and refilling it with water, from the spring and then drinking a cold coke while admiring my handiwork

* placing an order to replace the camouflage overall uniforms we currently have and then, oncd they arrive, burning the current ones as they are threadbare and a little embarrassing to hand out to customers

* enjoying a visit over Queens Birthday by the Zeelies who are the advance guard coming down to check out if its safe for others to visit!

* the weather warming up - even if I have to wait 3 or 4 months for this!

We wonder what events will transpire in the upcoming second month of living in our little bit of paradise?