Once again the police have posted on Facebook claiming roadside drug testing is helping road safety, and 800+ comments later have turned off commenting under a barrage of public sentiment against what they are doing. 300 tests for 7 infringements - no indication of how many were for non-compliance.

Today I weighed all my lambs, wrote down the weights, carefully folded up the notes and put them in my pants pocket, and then literally 2 minutes later put the pants in the washing machine. Because I'm special like that.

After making a big deal out of the roadside drug testing rollout, government, police, and media have all gone strangely quiet. I wonder if it's not going as well as they envisioned? I've become part of the organised resistance to it, which you can check out here: rrc.org.nz

Jeez it annoys me when my phone autocorrects to US spelling. There is a whole world out here that is not the US, stop trying to make us be like you!

Watching the police run and hide from public commentary about the rollout of roadside drug testing is interesting. I wish I were more surprised - not that people oppose it (I mean it's trash so.. ) but that the police are willing to shut down public voices on it.

In case you needed a pretty flower today, here's one of our dahlias having a moment in the sun.

Makes me wonder how a US jury would deal with Egg Boy and Dildo Lady www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

The fact that this post sunk like a stone while the one about my lambs that I named after drugs got heaps of attention tells me a lot about the mentality in this place tbh.

I swear the boys are trying to get themselves on an album cover. The ewes spent Friday evening in this paddock and now the rams are back in there going "Smells like ladies but no ladies, woe is me." They are probably writing emo haiku as we speak.

Opponents of drug checking say "It sends the wrong message." I guess that's true, but only if if the message you actually want to send is "We don't care if you die." www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clini...

Or we could just tax the rich properly? I'm starting to think Treasury's been taken over by the lizard people tbh www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Going through the local body election candidates crossing off anyone who mentions property investment in their blurb.

Only 2 hours old and already giving a credible version of White Person Linemouth

Experimenting with acid dye on 18pi handspun Finn yarn I spun last month. The clear water in this dye bath shows that it's exhausted completely and all the dye has gone into the yarn. I'm stoked!

These two have been named Coke and Ket because they look like they've been at the white powder

This is my pet Speckle with her new baby who's been named Marbles. He's her first and she loves him a lot but would ditch him in a second for some pellets.

I've been making felt for about a year on and off and I'm finally getting proficient at laying it out so that it comes out even. Felt is a commitment - basically you have to get the first step right or you'll go through the whole process and end up with an uneven result and there's no going back.

I haven't posted on here for ages so here is a picture of one of my sheep. She's learning to walk on a lead so she can be a public relations ambassador at our local show.

Lol I get quoted in the media calling people dropkicks: I'm referring to drug dealers who misrepresent drugs and risk people's lives. Seymour gets quoted in the media calling people dropkicks: He's referring to people who are late enrolling to vote. Ladies and gentlemen, your deputy pm.

Barn down the road looks way spookier at night with the full moon behind it

"How's it going?" "Bit wet"

Aaaand, here is the result. I was looking for an ochre type colour and I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I've also got 10L of dye in the freezer for next time I have a rush of blood to the head and decide to get creative.

Getting ready to mordant my home woven linen, in preparation for dyeing it. It's this brown because I gave it a tannin bath yesterday to get better mordanting. I've never made linen before, never mind dyed it, so this is a new adventure for me. I have nerd excitement!

Been a while. Have a picture of the latest skein - 400m of dark brown corriedale with golden tips adding warmth. This will be woven for a competition piece. Only another 400m to spin!

New spin - this single is from a corriedale ram who had managed to grow a 18cm staple. It's a fun spin and that's a good thing as I have 6kg of this stuff. For those wondering, the ram smell washed out completely, which it will if you don't shear them right on tupping.

I really love the online tax return filing setup we have here in NZ. It gets easier every year - this year mine took less than half an hour and required zero paper shuffling. We don't do everything brilliantly, but I reckon we have tax returns sussed.

In other news, while our government acts like their only thought is "Everyone's bigger than us, why bother?" China is quietly reducing its emissions and moving away from fossil fuel. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

This morning I had cause to pull out all my random 50g skeins and photograph them. They are very pretty, but I'm also going "What to do with a 50g skein?" Most of these are samples and there isn't any more wool to turn it into a useful amount, so I'm a bit "Um...what now?"

This is Panda. She likes people, and has the most boopable nose of all my flock. Her wool is like a wire brush but she gets to stay anyway because I like her.

Was hoping to catch the Wairarapa 4:25 home today. Apparently they have lost the locomotive so our train has nothing to pull it. Currently sitting on the platform with about 600 disgruntled commuters and one poor station dude who's trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

I love this little spindle. Now watch me obsessively spin with it every spare moment until I do myself some kind of repetitive strain injury! Currently spinning - the last 100g of corriedale sample from the spinning course I did last year. Will make a nice soft hat, maybe cabled.

Turkish spindle arrived today, with a little bit of roving. It spun up like this. Does anyone recognise the fibre? It has no crimp and the sheen reminds me of linen but it smells like animal protein when burnt. Feels coarse but a little bit silky.

Standing on the platform in the rain waiting to get on the train. "Train is broken, don't know when it'll be fixed" "Can't let you on the train till it's fixed, health and safety" "Discount for lateness? Good luck" Welcome folks to the enshittification of NZ public transport.

Today I sat on my flick comb. This is a flick comb. You wish you were special like me.

Rams have come out of the ewe flock today. The ewes are now brightening up the mushroom paddock with their gaily-decorated bums

I just read a fantastic rant from someone who works with industrial lasers about how "laser focused" is not only a cringe cliche but also actually wrong. It made my day.

Gosh - all my sheepskins sold before I got a chance to list them. So I listed the excess show fleeces instead, and they're selling already! I think everyone must be gearing up for the winter crafting season or something

Here is a picture of my stripey ewe lamb whose name is Coffee. I have a few with these stripes but she's the stripiest. I bought her with no idea these were lurking under her wool, and I'm super happy that she seems to be keeping them as she grows.

Listening to the second reading of the grubby little bill, feeling proud of the 90% of submitters who spoke out against it. Thank you, 90%, for restoring some of my faith in our decency as a people.

After 10 days of following the girls around singing "Lonely, I'm Mr Lonely" and wondering why they don't love him, Handsome is now very happy that they appear to have simultaneously experienced a change of heart.

This fleece came 3rd in the National competition and was immediately sold. The ewe it came from, Bandit, is one of my quiet achievers who doesn't go to shows but just gets on with being a top quality sheep at home and making nice fleeces. She's a keeper.

I know sheepskins aren't everyone's cup of tea but I'm pretty stoked to have just got 6 back from the tanner. Trimmed and floofed them today - this one's going aside for next year's national competition and the rest will be listed for sale.

Looks like Shy Boy is first off the block this year. He was last year too, and boy does he look smug about it!

Lately it feels like I'm being bombarded with articles about GenZ, saying all the same things they used to say about milennials: - transforming cultures - destroying industries *insert further attempts to create generation wars* As Gen X, I'm like *yawn* I'm immune to this shit - I was born angry

Quite enjoyed the Worldle April Fool joke today. worldle.teuteuf.fr

Spent the morning pressing apples for cider. Now waiting for the massive stainless pot of juice to boil - there's about 15L of it so it's taking a while. This is the main batch after doing a smaller (8L) batch of pears a couple of weeks ago. Very much looking forward to tasting time!

Wow I thought I disliked Slack but I despise Sharepoint with the fire of a thousand suns. (brought to you by autosave not autosaving when I needed it to, then autosaving over the top of my attempts to rescue the situation) May the fleas of all the world's camels nestle forever in its armpits.

These three ewes and two rams were just accepted into the stud book - so I guess I have a little registered flock now! I've been working towards this for 6 years so it feels like a milestone. For the sheep, it's just another day then back in with the others. They don't know they're illustrious! 😊

Today in Opinions Nobody Asked For - Richard Prebble thinks that canning the school lunch programme would fix the so-called obesity epidemic. He also thought corporatising NZPost would make it better so um

Here's what I did with the sari silk. This is about 10wpi spun long draw but I'd describe it as semi-woolen since drafting the slippery silk into it required a bit of encouragement. This is the sort of yarn I produce when I'm just relaxing and going with the flow. A fun spin, would do again.