Today I've prepared some chickpeas (garbanzo beans) that I bought dried and soaked overnight. They boiled for about 1.5 hr, and now I think I'm going to make hummus. Most of the recipes call for tahini, which I don't have, but it seems simple to make. I just need to find my sesame seeds. My spices cabinet is a bit chaotic, despite a recent cleaning. I have a tendency to stockpile spices. They have enormous value to cooking.
My niece arrived on Friday from Rochester, Minnesota. I went to the top of Sky Tower with her yesterday, where we had pretty decent views, despite the rain showers moving through. Steph nearly fell out the window but caught herself on the railing.
Fortunately she didn't fall, but we got to see someone jump, and that was a good thrill. 
There are glass blocks in the floor, so you can see below you, and walking over them gives you a very odd sensation. 
Here again, our Entertainment Book saved us money with a 2 for 1 admission to Sky Tower, which is $25 per adult. They just expired June 1 (happy June!) so we need to get the new one. They are sold as a fund-raising scheme for various groups and clubs. We bought ours from a mental health group last year, and this year I think the SPCA will be our charity of choice. They do critically important work and yet get no monetary support from the NZ gov't. Check out this horrifying story of how the SPCA euthanized a cow whose leg literally fell off from neglect.
Also last weekend, Darin banged together the old fence from the front yard into two compost bins. I went over to my sister's house and scooped up cow poo into a bag and brought it back for the compost. Darin cleaned out the chicken coop too, and that got added to the grass clippings and other bits in the bin. Here's Ruby above the full bin before I covered it with black plastic. I didn't check the temperature, so I don't know if it ever got hot enough to be a "hot compost". 
Isn't she a cutie? We are continuing to find teeth around the floor (she is teething). Fargo is facilitating this process by playing tug with her and various toys lying all over the house. He's very tolerant of her jumping on him. She likes to grab and carry his leash in her mouth on walks, which is very cute. Here she is being the darling princess she is:
FINALLY our chickens have started to lay eggs!! They are Araucana and Barred Rock crosses, and are laying brown and green eggs. Our black Leghorn is supposed to lay white eggs, and she's still not laying. We're not sure if our pure Araucana is laying or not.
