Some things about Dad

Here are Some Things About Dad I put together for Ian Bradshaw’s 80th birthday on 21 June 2021. 

Dad took on the farm at 21, which was very young to have so much responsibility but it worked out well for him. I always remember Dad saying he spent 10 years of figuring things out, 10 years of absolutely loving it, 10 years of maintaining the gains, and then he was done.

He says he has been lucky all the way through with the timing of financial decisions, including leaving the farm, but it has been much more than luck. Dad’s life as a farmer involved a lot of physical work – Dad always seems to be able to build and fix things (like the new cow shed and the water supply system) without any written instructions. With these things coming so easily to him, he wasn’t in a position to teach someone like me to learn to drive, as I always need step by step instructions, rather than just starting and figuring it out as I go. It was a bit the same with driving the tractor during hay baling … I was always a bit surprised when I actually got it to go!

Dad is good with spatial things, unlike me and Mum! I can remember Dad helping with Mum’s sewing projects – figuring out how the different pieces together.

Dad also signed up for committee meetings, such as the East School and Waihi College Board of Trustees, and ended up as the chairperson both times. Dad has also been willing to go around the Golden Valley roads collecting for the Blind Foundation, and to be part of Lions working bees.

He was also active in the Dairy Company when we were young, and was on the phone for hours while Susan and I were going to sleep in the room beside the phone.

Farming is hard work, so at the end of a meal Mum used to put any leftover food on Dad’s plate, like a waste disposal unit – and Mum has always had a knack of taking photos of Dad just as he lifts food to his mouth!

One job Dad didn’t like was going to collect the rent from people living in the second house on the farm.

The most remarkable transformation would happen when helping with milking. I’d get to see Dad shouting at the cows in the cow shed (to get them to go from the yard into the milking rows) and then as soon as he took off his gumboots to go inside the house, he never shouted.

In addition to clear demarcations outside and inside the house, there have always been divisions of responsibility inside the house. (Dad’s inside jobs include sorting the finances, getting rid of mice, and making sure all the machines work and don’t leak.)  Dad has always outsourced the organising of social occasions and related aspects to Mum. Christmas and birthday presents for us have been as much of a surprise to him as they are to us!

It has been a real blessing to grow up on a farm, allowing a close connection to the land and the animals. Memories that come to mind are being outside, even in the rain during spring, visiting the calves, and sitting on hay bales on the back of the trailer for feeding out in winter. I also loved walking over the farm, having Jimmy come with me, and having Chutney lean against me when we visited her paddock, even when she was a huge cow.

Dad and I share a fascination and appreciation of nature, and I can still picture Dad watching nature programmes like Our World, with his legs crossed, and the upper leg lifting as he says ‘Good Lord’ in response to the intricacies and strategies of different animals.

Our dog Jimmy behaved like a pet when we first got him. His favourite game was to run around with a tennis ball in his mouth while we chased after him. He didn’t see it as his job to round up the cows … but when Dad said “I’m going to have to send him up to Murray Otway for training” he magically became a working dog!

The one and only time I tried out calf club wasn’t a great success – I wasn’t particularly good at getting Chutney to walk obediently on a lead – she pretty much did what she wanted … and her attitude extended beyond that day to her whole life on the farm. She took her own sweet time, not afraid of Jimmy, unwilling to be rushed, always at the back of the herd going into milking.

Mike Keat and Dad got a good laugh when they asked me how I could tell which calves were boys and girls – and I said the girls are the ones with the tags in their ears (which was true …)

–oo0oo–

During this time it was important for Dad to know that Shalako was moored in Whangamata Harbour, representing a freedom from all the responsibility of running the farm.

On our 10 day boat holidays each summer I never felt totally great about the lean on the boat when we were sailing, to the point of sea water lapping over the side, and us having to brace our feet against the other seat, but I always (mostly!) felt safe with Dad in control of things.

I was always much happier once we reached a bay and swam or rowed ashore. If Dad hadn’t been interested in sailing we wouldn’t have had those amazing holidays. Some of my memories of these holidays are:

• The pleasure of arriving at beautiful Boat Harbour, the next safe place to drop anchor after Slipper Island – snorkelling in the crystal clear water, swimming to shore, and having a freshwater wash upstream.
• The toilet with the complicated requirements for flushing – it always seemed to be touch and go that the water filling the bowl wouldn’t spill over the rim before the strenuous efforts at hand pumping took effect!
• Filling the log book at the end of each day, in great detail, alongside Dad’s brief notes on the wind direction, and where we travelled to.
• Sheltering in Te Kouma with lots of other boats, all straining on their anchors, and something continuously banging against the mast. It felt like at any moment boats were going to crash together.
• Solar hot water showers consisting of a bag of sun-warmed water, held above us on the deck.
• Washing our hair with Barbados saltwater shampoo, then diving into the sea.
• The shark at Slipper Island, and somehow getting up the rope ladder with flippers on.
• Seeing the massive eel caught in a swimming hole soon after we had been swimming there.
• Walking over to another bay from Te Kouma, with white sand and pohutukawa trees, for a dinner cooked over a fire, after catching waves using logs.
• A pilot whale coming into a bay at Mercury Island and Dad helping it to head back out to sea. Before it left I was able to touch it. I can still remember the feel of the skin – it was much softer than I was expecting.
• Dad freeing a seagull that got tangled up with a fishing line and hook – and getting pecked for his troubles!

We all became comfortable in the water due to all the time we spent in our swimming pool, on boat holidays and at Waihi Beach, Staying at the beach cottage at Waihi Beach was another great part of summer holidays – all three of us kids, and Dad loved to catch a wave and to bodysurf into shore.

Shalako wasn’t just about family trips. Dad also went out with groups of blokes, and enjoyed a full array of characters coming together for these trips.

–oo0oo–

Since selling Shalako Dad has more often gone out in motor boats. He was on a fishing trip with some other men a few years back, and I remember him coming back shocked and uncomfortable about the casual racism of one of the men on the boat. This has never been Dad’s way of thinking.

Dad’s interested in economics, politics and financial affairs – and doesn’t miss a newspaper. Dean remembers waiting outside the loos in Ngatea with Dad, and Dad saying ‘it’s always interesting to think about what makes a town tick’ … which Dean had never thought about! However, I share some of those interests too, to the point of wanting to know where the water supply comes from and the wastewater goes …

It would be fair to say Dad has very definite ideas about what’s interesting and what isn’t. The interesting category includes ‘real things’ like plants, boats and the sharemarket – and not computers, mysticism and Shakespeare plays. (Dad was dismayed in the sixth form when his teacher expected him to read Hamlet once, let alone twice.)

–oo0oo–

Mum and Dad are very good at making swift decisions, including to leave the farm when the mining company wanted to put tailings on the neighbouring property. After deciding to stop farming, Dad started a new phase in his life, and threw all the energy he’d put into farming into huge cycling missions, including cycling around Lake Taupo.

Quite soon after they moved to the block, Latin tree names started rolling off Dad’s tongue. The fenced off area for the native plantings progressively expanded, and the fence around the plant nursery moved out a few times too. There is now a substantial, permanent, QEII covenanted area in place.

After starting on his own property, planting activities extended out with the Waihi Forest and Bird group and at Waihi College. He is still part of a group of people who pot on plants each week, including the three Brians – Brian Atger, Brian Harrison and Brian Heppelworth, as well as Warwick and Krishna.

Dad is very glad that Warwick Buckman is happy to take on the role of applying for funding and managing the administrative side of the organisation. I have often heard Dad say thank goodness Warwick is doing all that side of things…  Dad’s genius is in the doing.

Dad has also chaired the local Forest and Bird branch, and his involvement with the wider Forest and Bird organisation led to connections with people he continues to see many years later, as well as trips to Mokau to visit special limestone vegetation in this area.

–oo0oo–

Over all these years of growing native plants Dad has not been afraid to break the rules if they don’t seem justified, such as collecting native plants from DoC land. Dean remembers us going to Nelson Lakes for a walk, and we got quite some way then realised Dad was only about three trees in, in collection mode. On another trip, he came down Mt Arthur with pockets full of plants.

Dad likes seeing things germinate, and so do I. Once Dad was growing more plants than he had room for himself, he needed to find other places for them. While many were contributed to community planting projects, others have been given or sold to individuals. He would definitely not describe himself as a ‘marketer’ but somehow word gets around and people turn up for plants, always coming away with more than they pay for.

His interest in all things boats and vegetation came together on atrip to the Subantarctic Islands. Many people were focused on the birdlife but Dad’s keenest interest was in the vegetation. He got his fill of penguins for a lifetime on that trip …

–oo0oo–

Farming is a pretty solitary activity but Mum and Dad are surrounded by people now that they live at the beach. Dad enjoys going for a walk and just coming across strangers (and their dogs) and striking up a conversation about something of mutual interest (often tree-related). He also pops in on people he has known since school days – including Mike Bjerring, John Morgan and Alan Rogers.

He continues to make new friends through mutual interests, including Brian Heppleman and an ecology student who is keen to go fossicking for rare plants.

Dad’s impromptu approach to socialising complements Mum’s more planned approach of ringing people to arrange catch ups, ensuring a steady flow of visitors. (However, he does allow himself to just walk off when he feels he has nothing more to say, leaving Mum to carry on the conversation!)

Just as at Trig Road and the lifestyle block, there are very clear differentiations of Dad’s area of the garden and Mum’s. Dad now has a vege garden, and is growing things that are different from what Mum used to plant, including radishes and beetroot.

He enjoys the birds in the garden, which are attracted to the regularly topped up bird feeder and the bird bath, but his greatest interest is in everything beyond the boundary of the garden. The easement is his primary reason to get up in the morning, as it has allowed Dad to take his passion for native plants to the next level. This sheltered, curated environment is an opportunity to grow delicate varieties of ferns and other frost tender species. It is like walking through a gallery – there is so much beauty and variety growing there, being looked after by Dad.

Last time I was up, Dad was eyeing up a bit of his neighbours’ unused land … having a sense of what would be good planted there …. and biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to get the all clear to go ahead with that plan. He wasn’t going to force the issue, or approach it cold … but I heard recently that this plan has come to fruition.

–oo0oo–

Dad’s interested in getting things done, not just talking about them – or perhaps not talking at all, just doing it … so a few things happen that take others by surprise … like a more substantial pruning than expected, or the end of someone’s drainage pipe being repurposed as a pest trap!

Dad is a great example of the value of knowing what you’re interested in and jumping in with both feet – a bit like the joy of catching a wave, that we learnt from him.

To sum up, Dad is resourceful, enthusiastic and generous. He has lived a life of nurturing and celebrating growth of all kinds – including that of his family, friendships, and all those thousands of plants which began life in his nursery. I know I speak for the whole family in thanking him for all he has done for us, and for providing the circumstances in which to thrive.