Monthly Archives: August 2006

Bought primer and Karaka Green paint for painting metal gates. In the evening started the Karaka Green top coat on the newly erected gate off the orchard drive.

More mulching – 13 tractor bucket loads from behind the bamboo. It looks like it’ll need 90 buckets to finish the mulching of the orchard drive planting area.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—20°C; no rain. [?]

I did a census of the Lemonwood and Karamu trees along the orchard drive planting area today.

Lemonwoods:

• 72 OK
• 12 Fair
• 1 Dead
• Total 85

Karamus:

• 31 OK
• 42 Fair
• 22 Dead
• Total 95

Campbell left after breakfast.

I picked up the two old tractor tyres and tubes from Stortford Machinery; Mike Smith offered to mend for free the chain of one of the fence strainers that Campbell accidentally broke yesterday. I also bought 20 litres more diesel. On the way back I picked up a price list from Grocom on Omahu Rd – they sell soil and mulch and bark chippings. A trailer-load of mulch (2/3 cubic metre) costs $45.

In the afternoon I watered the un-mulched half of the Lemonowood and Karamu planting – 2 hours solid on each of the 3 sections that could be covered by one arrangement of the 4 watering tapes.

I put a coat of primer on the newly erected metal gate, in preparation for painting it Karaka green so that it melds into the background, will hardly be visible from the house.

In the evening I called Roger Kennedy (Barking Mad) and left a message, then I called Graeme Cameron (Tricky Trees) and we discussed my need for about 8 cubic metres more mulch. Graeme said he’d give us mulch for free if it was from a job nearby and the customer didn’t want it; otherwise he knows someone who sells mulch for $60 a truckload – about 4 cubic metres in a truckload. We’ll talk again when Graeme has talked to his contact.

Kevin Watkins came and I gave him some bamboo he wanted to go with Camelias on his Blossom Festival float.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—18°C; no rain. [81.1]

Not only are the peaches next door in full pink bloom, but our own old plum has just flowered – a cloud of white blossom.

Mike Croucher came and mowed the lawns; the grass was quite long; it’s much improved by the cut.

Campbell and I completed mulching of the 1st half of the orchard drive planting area; we then hung a 4.88m long metal gate across the orchard drive entrance towards the Homestead – we were very pleased that it swung straight and true at the first attempt. We then put up a temporary netting fence along the mulched area. Finally, as dusk fell, we had another shot at straightening an angle post on the roadside planting area- this time I think we cracked it – in part because the Fergie with new boots and a 44 gallon drum of water on the back forks was able to push the post gently but firmly into position.

I found a bantam nest with 11 eggs in the green shed; fed 1 to Bicka. I also found an egg in one of the piles of mulch – a Bicka store for times of famine.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—16°C; no rain. [80.8]

A day of mulching. Campbell and I finished spreading mulch on the yew trees and then put a trailer-load (4 Fergie bucket loads) on the 7 Karo and 5 Banksia integrifolia. This mulch was from a pile under the eucalypts. We watered the rest of the roadside planting strip so that the entire length from the original Homestead drive entrance to the orchard drive entrance has been watered thoroughly.

Next we began mulching the 4m wide planting strip up the side of the orchard drive. Using mulch from the Island paddock we mulched about 50 trees, using up all the mulch in the Island. Next we’ll begin by using mulch from the 3 piles under or near the big oak tree, and after that the mulch heap behind the bamboos. Campbell is only here for another day and a bit but we may get the mulching finished if we don’t run out of mulch.

We’ve used up 20kg of “blood and bone” and I got another 32kg from Palmers Garden Centre at lunchtime.

Campbell cooked another major production – lasagne (he who has a pasta machine . . .) with mushrooms and ham – delicious.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—13°C; no rain. [80.9]

Campbell and I spent the day on tree matters;

• We laid an alkathene pipe from the tap in the ha-ha across to the orchard drive planting area and, using 4 perforated plastic green watering strips, gave all the trees in the 170m long planting area a two hour soak.
• We fed an alkathene pipe from behind the garage, across to the roadside fence, through the old drive road culvert, and along the roadside fence right up to the orchard entrance. We needed to join pipes about half-way along the yew tree planting so I installed a tap there, screwed to a fence post.
• We hand watered the yew trees, gave each tree a good dusting of “blood and bone”, and then applied a thick layer of mulch – we still have about half the yews to mulch.
• Karola’s flax bushes, 2 Akeake, and weeping willow, just beyond the yews, also were given a thorough watering, as were the 120 ngaios sitting in their PB2 bags under the Camelias.

Campbell has really made a huge difference in getting the newly planted trees heeled in, watered, and mulched; if lots of the trees survive it’ll be because of his enthusiasm for giving them the best start we can.

In the evening, after a spendid lasagne meal cooked by Campbell – who brought his own pasta maker with him – we went with Noel and Jenny Hendery to see the film festival film by Antonioni starring Jack Nicholson called The Passenger – visually stunning and irretrievably enigmatic.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—14°C; southerly winds; no rain. [80.3]

Went with Campbell to Mitre-10:

• 20kg blood and bone
• 2 pairs of $5 red secateurs – for Karola

Left 1/2 the 60 yew trees soaking in a water trough. When we returned we planted out 30 and put the others to soak. After lunch we planted the final 30 – turned out to be 31.

TV arial man, Alex Treffers, arrived late afternoon. I wanted a terrestrial broadcast TV arial mounted under the roof in the attic – but, unlike in England where we had a slate and tile roof, the iron roof makes that impractical. Alex suggested and I agreed that he’d wire up ready for the New Zealand digital “free to air” TV expected in about 6 months. Then, for the price of a decoder, we could have what I wanted and it’d share the existing Sky satellite dish. So, when that service is available we’ll be able to have the same choice on all 4 TVs, including Karola’s TV in the kitchen: a sky channel, a DVD or VHS tape, or one of the “free-to-air” channels.

Dave Morgan, Tree Doctor, turned up – wanted to know how the big oak tree was getting on.

Campbell and I trod in the 180 or so Karamu and Lemonwood trees – they look the worse for wear probably due to the wind, there will be some casualties.

In the evening we went to the Al Gore film, “An inconvenient truth” (impressive, professional, and to the point), then had dinner at the Fish Restaurant on West Shore.

Hawkes Bay Weather:9°C—18°C; north-westerly winds; no rain. [?]

New screen for Karola’s computer arrived today. Campbell arrived this evening.

I did a bit of fencing – putting in ground plates on each of the gateposts of Karola’s North entrance off the orchard drive – so that when the inner fences protecting the tree plantings are put up the gateposts can take the strain. There’s still water just a metre down so I haven’t finished putting in the strainer post for that inner fence yet.

Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—12°C; no rain. [80.6]

Took in the Fergie this morning to have its new tyres fitted. Mike Smith ran me back and we chatted – he mentioned that Luke Curry’s grandfather, a Williams, had an orchard in Nelson (Motueka) called Braeburn – and he grew the first Braeburn apple there. Same person invented the big apple bins everyone uses these days – at the time the 40lb wooden apple boxes were used for storing and carting apples, the boxes that were my ‘lego’ or ‘meccano’ when I was young – a couple of apple boxes and plenty of flat-headed 2″ nails plus a bit of wire netting were all I needed for endless budgie cages, lizard, hedeghog, white mice etc cages.

So, the tractor has new rear tyres – I took the Fergie the couple of km to and from the workshops, dodging the cars and trucks, quite fun in the sunshine. Also Julie Ladbrooke rang up as she’d got herself stranded without a car in Hastings and forgotten her cellphone so couldn’t raise any of her family to rescue her – so I obliged – and picked up her two boys from schools.

Campbell arrives tomorrow and I carried out his detailed requirements for the ingredients for the two meals he’s going to cook us – but 800gm button mushrooms, that seems a lot!

Hawkes Bay Weather:-3°C—12°C; no rain. [80.4]

Frost – but the windmills, which started up at 1:30am, didn’t keep me awake this time.
Relaxed morning in glorious sunshine – reading on the verandah, posted Karola’s wool parcel to Mary, bought a $40 piece of plastic – a sleeve to cap off the irrigation main at the edge of the Braeburn deforested area (A J Holder, next to Captain Salty shop in Omahu Rd). Also had another talk to Kerry (HB Tractor Dismantlers) – new tyres from him are about the same price as from Mike Smith (Stortford Machinery) – so I’ve told Mike to go ahead and get and fit the new tyres. As I said to Kerry, if I’m ever going to get new tyres then the sooner the better because the tractor and its new tyres will outlast me; I might as well get the most use out of the new tyres that I can – they’ll give the tractor much more traction – so that the front-end loader and the rear-mounted blade will be much more effective.

In the afternoon spent happy hours digging holes like a demented gopher, trying to establish with certainty where the underground irrigation main went and how many side-branches were still going to need patching once the main pipe was capped off. The difficulty is that, as shown roughly on the irrigation plan, a pipe comes East from the well down into the ex-Braeburn area and it divides in two about 20 metres into the cleared area. There is a smaller pipe going straight ahead East, for the Braeburns. The main pipe veers North across the cleared area for about 30 metres and then loops back West to feed the irrigation lines for the Royal Galas. Having capped off the smaller pipe going East most of the ex-Braeburn irrigation pipes are silenced. However, and this is why it took so much digging to determine exactly where the looping main went, some of the ex-Braeburn rows nearest the Royal Galas tapped into the loop. Several of the places that needed exploratory digging were underneath piles of stumps and branches so the Fergie pushed these heaps away.

After all this, the small irrigation main is capped – I hacksawed out a section of pipe about a metre long just past the fork and cemented on a short piece of pipe ending in a screw cap. The cement is actually a nasty solvent which melts the plastic so that the two surfaces of the join actually disappear and the two pieces become one – this is not a glue. Four small pipes tap into the remaining loop pipe and these have been excavated so they can be sealed off.

I’m suspicious of two areas near this mess of pipes that are still waterlogged – all the other surface water has long gone – maybe they point to breaks in the irrigation main. I’ll run the irrigation for a while to see if any leaks appear and to make sure that the Royal Galas do indeed still get water.

Karola’s 60 yew trees arrived. 60 x $8 including GST with cartage extra from Cedar Lodge (1974) Ltd in New Plymouth.

There was another car accident in the Avenue this afternoon, roughly opposite the Ladbrookes place – couple of ambulances and police cars – but there were no sirens. I wouldn’t have known except that I was trundling the Fergie from the old Homestead drive, along the Avenue, and up the orchard drive, holding Bicka on my lap, when an ambulance zoomed past me.
Janet Scott didn’t know what had happened when I called her this evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather:0°C—11°C; no rain. [79.8]

Spoke to Karola in Ealing this evening (NZ time). She had a good trip including being upgraded on the night-time Hong-Kong to London leg. Karola is away for forty days and forty nights, beginning today.

No sign of the Yew trees yet.

Went to town in the morning – bought the $50 cordless power drill KMart had put aside for me. Talked to Mike Smith at Stortford Machinery – the cheapest new rear tyres for the Fergie would cost about $900 including fitting. Am thinking about it. Carried on up Omahu Rd and bought 4 metal gates and associated hardware from GoldPine.

Using the Fergie, pulled up 5 x 2.4m strainer posts no longer needed in the Island paddock.

In the afternoon spent a few hours digging trenches where the Braeburns used to be, trying to find a place to terminate the underground irrigation main. Found it.

Hawkes Bay Weather:2°C—10°C; southerly wind; 1mm rain. [80.6]

Anna rang from UK.

Truck came for the 7 cull ewes at 8:30am; I went to look at them at the sale yards at lunchtime; they were perky enough but looked accusingly at me. In the evening Craig Girven called and said they fetched $45.50 each. Ewes #201, #205, #207, #208, #210, #214, #220.

Went shopping in the morning, including a visit to GoldPine to compare the prices of metal farm gates and a visit to Kerry at HB Tractor Dismantlers – he doesn’t have any tyres for the Fergie but he’d give it a service for me in a couple of weeks, cost around $200. I’ll need to talk to Mike Smith at Stortford Machinery about new tyres for the Fergie. [12.4 R28 radials]

Cut the grass in Bicka’s pen.

Talked to Karola in Sydney around lunchtime; she’s tired but fairly comfortable despite the long waits.

Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—17°C; no rain. [81.4]

Same weather again today. Apart from feeding the menagerie and moving the sheep so that the truck can come tomorrow and pick up the 7 cull ewes, there wasn’t any outside work done today. Karola caught her evening flight up to Auckland and will be boarding her 5:25am flight to Sydney tomorrow.

Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—17°C; no rain. [81.1]

Karola finished off the native tree planting we started last week. I started the fence to protect the trees from the sheep but was foiled by water only 1 metre down – the post needs to go down 1.3 metres.

Next door (The Stables) came and borrowed the Fergie for its front-end loader – offered I could borrow his fork-lift anytime.

Karola signed the health certificate for the 7 cull ewes leaving on Monday.

M-rated item: While making toast at lunchtime today I heard a bit of scratching and then a plume of acrid smoke came out of the toaster – but it hadn’t been down more than a minute – and then a mouse struggled out of the left-hand slot, apparently not too much the worse for wear though rather singed – the smell was aweful. I havn’t used that toaster again as yet.

Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—17°C; no rain. [81.1]

Another light frost – the windmills started up around 4:00am.

A guy came round asking if he could have some bamboo – to use at EIT to make flutes. Karola said yes.

The yew trees are not coming till next week. In the morning I went to Farmlands: couple of sacks of sheep nuts (on special), 25kg maize, 2 cans of dazzle ground marker, 4l more tractor oil and priced a selection of metal farm gate.

In the afternoon we continued planting trees. Karola dug another 30 holes for the yew trees and planted 5 Banksia. I, on the tractor, dug another 130 holes; Karola planted Karamus and Lemonwoods in the holes, we’ve nearly finished. Partway through I noticed some bolts on the tractor auger had lost their nuts – well the wild vibration was a clue – so I went to LandPower in Omahu Rd (MF agent) and got replacements.

Hawkes Bay Weather:0°C—16°C; no rain. [80.7]

Frost. Windmills started up at 3:08am and stopped sometime slightly before 7:00am.

No sign of the yew trees yet.

In the morning Karola and I tried to find where the irrigation underground main pipe crossed into the Braeburn area that we’ve denuded of trees. Yesterday Adam Ladbrooke turned on the pump to clean one of his tractor implements and we had several little fountains where the irrigation feeds to the now-uprooted Braeburns had been broken or removed. We found the underground pipe in several places but it doesn’t seem to follow the placements on the irrigation plan very closely so we’re still not sure where to make the cut and terminate the main so that no water escapes into the denuded area but the remaining trees still all get water.

In the afternoon Karola and I sprayed the remaining area that’s going to be planted in native trees, along the orchard drive in a 4-metre wide strip on the Homestead side of the fence and a 2.5 metre wide strip on the driveway side of the fence. I’d already sprayed most of the 2.5 metre driveway side and yesterday we did about half of the 4-metre wide strip. I marked out where the netting fence will go, protecting the trees from the sheep, and also marked 40 or so positions for trees.

Karola then dug holes for some of her Yew trees, along the roadside planting area, and I dug some of the orchard driveway holes, on the Homestead side of the fence. Karola did 30 holes by hand; I managed just 40 holes using the Fergie and auger – taking considerably longer when you add in the 90 mins or so to attach and service the auger attachment. That’s progress for you.

Steve from Hawkes Bay Tree Surgeons came to talk to Karola – he took away a copy of Karola’s speech to the council and her draft paper on The Trees at Karamu.

I went to the garage and bought a tank full of premium petrol for the Landrover, filled 2 x 10 litre cans with diesel for the Fergie, and bought 4 litres of 15w 40 engine oil – oh, and a $2 bar of chocolate – Bang went over $200.

Hawkes Bay Weather:0°C—13°C; no rain. [81.5]

Landrover in for warrent and service at 98,000 km

Karola ordered 60 PB2 Yew trees by phone from New Plymouth – we’re expecting delivery tomorrow.

Karola and I sprayed the new drive, the garage hard stand, and the area along the orchard drive where we intend to plant the 100 Karamu and 100 Lemonwood trees later this week. We still have a bit more to spray – it’s deadly stuff this Roundup – looks quite harmless when you’ve sprayed it, often for a week or more, then it all dies, very very dead and stays that way for weeks or months. Still, it does prepare the ground for new trees very well. Peter Ormond (Karola’s relation and a professional gardener/landscaper) recommends a course of 3 sprayings at 3-weekly intervals before any new major planting, to minimise the competition from weeds and weed seeds.

Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—12°C; no rain. [82.0]

Spent the morning shopping, including a trip to Napier to get a replacement Tivoli PAL radio ($350) – apparently the Hi Fi Gallery has sold over 700 in the last year. Karola gave my old blue one to Anna More who is in hospital with leukemia; we bought a yellow replacement one – less likely to be run over or lost if used outside if it’s a bright colour.

Moved the 7 cull ewes out of the Middle paddock into the strip remaining of the Top paddock next to the new peaches. Arranged for them to go to market next Monday. Farmers can transport ph 06-878-4040. Moved Nelson and his 20 ewes into the Island where we penned them up and i looked at #408’s feet. It is limping, but I can’t see anything wrong with any of its feet, although the front right one does feel warm. Then we let them into the Triangle after I’d put up electric fence allowing them the full reign of the Triangle together with access under the big oak tree and down to the Rhododendron gate.

We put the gates we’d used as temporary yards last week back on their respective hinges etc – I used the Fergie with a pallet on the mini-forks at the back to carry the gates.

Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—10°C; southerly wind; no rain. [?]

Came back to Hastings up the West coast and via Manawatu Gorge, detouring to see Karola’s brother Kaz in Sanson on the way. Turned out that Kaz wasn’t home but Yvonne, his wife, gave us lunch and then we went to see their new house, about 5km from the farm they’ve just sold. The new house is on 4 acres, a spacious 4-bedroom ranch-style house with a large living room facing North-East onto a grove of mature Totara and a creek. Their 4 acres includes a large dam; it is well fenced into 3 paddocks and Kaz has already installed a few in-lamb ewes. Although they have to be off the farm in a few days, they don’t need to be out of the old house until October so they’re doing a leisurely move – leisurely doesn’t mean stress-free of course.

Got back to Karamu late afternoon, ferried Gerald back home – he’d not only house-sat for us but he’d cleaned the Landrover and done some washing and tidying so it was very easy to come home to.

Three geese had flown into the Middle paddock and I startled 2 of them into flting back into their enclosure; the other one took me on a goose chase into the neighbour’s orchard and back; finally I cornered it and popped it back where it belonged.

Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—12°C; southerly wind; no rain. [?]

4th Day In Wellington. Evening meal with Gill and Ben in Seatoun.

We dropped in on Bridget for a while and then Karola visited Anna More in Wellington hospital on our way to Gill’s.

Hawkes Bay Weather:6°C—13°C; southerly wind; no rain. [?]

3rd day in Wellington. Found “Bad Jelly The Witch” in Paper-Plus in Johnsonville so bought it and a children’s book about Etiquette and dogs as Natalie’s birthday present. Karola had already given her a very special doll’s house Karola had bought in England and shipped back some months ago. Birthday party was a success; a stream of young families throughout the day.

I spent lunch and most of the afternoon with my mother in Karori; meanwhile Karola was in her element helping with Natalie and baby Alexandra back at Bridget’s place in Khandallah.

Hawkes Bay Weather:2°C—14°C; no rain. [?]

2nd Day In Wellington. Morning tea with the Rashbrookes – Maddy flies to Korea and, a week later, on to UK to take up her new job – leaving on Saturday. Last night’s UK / USA terrorism alert wasn’t the best news for those about to fly to the UK.

Spent some time at Bridget’s with the grand daughters. Learned that Anna More, Bridget’s mother-in-law, has been diagnosed with acute leukemia and been rushed to hospital.

Had evening meal in Karori with friends Jane and Ewan Pierce – at the Cafe Boutique.

Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—13°C; no rain. [?]

1st day in Wellington – beautiful sunny day but cold

Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—11°C; southerly wind; no rain. [?]

Trip Via Rimutuka ranges and Wairarapa – lunch at Abbott’s Tea Rooms – kept just in front of heavy rain all the way, arriving in Wellington as a storm broke.

Hawkes Bay Weather:6°C—10°C; southerly wind; no rain. [?]

Around 1:00am this morning there was a loud crack as a tree branch broke nearby. I looked out of the bedroom window with a torch but couldn’t see anything. There had been no sound of a branch hitting metal, such as the roof of the green shed or the Fergie, though both are under the canopy of the big oak tree. Next morning we saw it – a medium sized branch, very rotten that safely hit the ground well away from things.

Soon after 3:00am Karola woke to the sound of heavy rain. She began to worry about how the truck coming to get the lambs would fare in waterlogged paddocks with surface water. Anyway, by the time we’d worked through the various options it was 4:30am and I had my first breakfast. Around 8:30am I got up again and we made a temporary yard for the lambs on the orchard drive – it being our best all-weather track suitable for heavy trucks. We used 8 metal gates and lots of bindertwine – 2 x 14ft gates from the big shed, 2 x 12ft gates from the usual temporary yards, 2 x 12ft old rusty gates that have been sitting by the back door until Karola gets round to painting them, and 2 x 10ft gates from Karola’s entrance towards the Homestead off the orchard drive. The driver was due at 10:00am – the lambs were sheduled into the works at 10:30am; at 10:05 we still hadn’t got the lambs actually penned up and were dashing about tying things up and trying to make sure that they wouldn’t make a break for it and run onto the road, or into Craig’s orchard next door. We also were a bit concerned that Nelson and his ewes might decide to investigate where we’d borrowed gates from their paddock.

By 10:15 the truck still hadn’t arrived but all the lambs went quietly into the pen and were not panicked nor fussing. Then the truck arrived and within 10 minutes the lambs were loaded; the truck was off by 10:35. The works is only 5 minutes away on a cul-de-sac off Omahu Rd.

The buyer, Paul, dropped in at lunchtime to get some more signatures and to tell us that our 42 lambs were all going as chilled, not frozen, meat to San Francisco to be sold in their equivalent of Waitrose – the Wholefoods chain of supermarkets. Quite prestigious.

What with the somewhat punctuated sleep and the excitement of the rearrangement because of the rain, we postponed our trip to Wellington until tomorrow and had a quiet day in out of the rain just tidying up. I did Karola’s June/July GST return.

There are a couple of grey herons in the area; one sits right up at the top of the Liriodendrum tree and makes a loud croaking cry, usually three cries and the a gap of several minutes. I havn’t seen grey herons here for several years; I think it’s a good sign.

Hawkes Bay Weather:8°C—10°C; southerly light winds; 14mm rain. [?]

Beautiful sunny day until evening when it’s started to rain.

Put up a short netting temporary fence from the ha-ha to the nearest wire fence, including a gate. Now we can leave Nelson and his ewes (who seem to be ignoring him these days) in the new grass paddock. The grass seems to be growing enough to keep them happy.

Truck for the lambs due tomorrow at 10:00am.

Hawkes Bay Weather:9°C—18°C; northerly light winds; 3mm rain. [?]

We went to Taupo and picked up 100 x Karamu (Coprosma robusta) in root trainers @ $0.95, 100 x Lemonwood (Pittosporum eugenoides) PB2s @ $2.50 and 5 x Banksia integrifolia @ $3.50.

Just as we were leaving home Karola saw a car on fire at the junction of Ormond and Evenden roads. Flames were leaping 2-3 feet into the air and a middle-aged man was trying to put it out with damp grass. He accepted my offer to call the fire brigade so I dialled 112 on my mobile and we left them to it. No one in any danger and I’m not that keen on being up close to a car that’s alight even if it is only the engine compartment that’s blazing.

After visiting a couple of people we returned along the notorious Napier-Taupo road, leaving at about 2:00pm. Karola took a detour to look at a plant nursery tucked into the hills 2/3 of the way back. It was closed. Shortly afterwards we came upon a serious accident that must have happened minutes before. 2 police cars, 2 fire engines, 2 ambulances were there and another 4 police cars, 1 fire vehicle and 2 ambulances arrived while we waited briefly to get past. It was a slightly foggy day with constant drizzle, the road was slick and visibility not brilliant. There have been a string of accidents on that road stretching back years. The road isn’t particularly bad; it has passing lanes in several places and it’s reasonably wide most of the way but somehow drivers seem to take risks, mainly on the short straights before a curve. Anyway, it was on the news a short while ago: “Three people are dead following a multiple car crash which police describe as carnage; Napier-Taupo road closed”. Must have closed after we got past as I gather it has been closed for several hours.

Too wet to do much else today.

Hawkes Bay Weather:10°C—12°C; 28mm rain. [81.0]

Two geese flew out of their enclosure into the Middle paddock. With encouragement one flew back; I cornered the other and popped it back. Fantails are proving a real pest. They get in any small gap in the windows and any open door, then get trapped. Droppings on most of the light fittings and mirrors. Today one came in through a small gap at the top of the upstairs passage window, behind the fly screen – so I had to take off the screen to rescue it. 2 days ago one got stuck between the panes of window in the upstairs lavatory and I had to use a ruler to ease it out as I couldn’t get my hand in to catch it. Wonder if it is the same one time and again – there seem to be hordes of them around.

Town in the morning for haircut and food etc – morning tea/coffee at Johns Bakery. I bought a nice filo there to have for lunch but I left it on dining room table – so it became Bicka’s lunch.

Last night I purchased a domain name for Karola’s new website, www.oakavenue.org.nz. Karola plans to put up news and incidents and clippings about Oak Avenue there. Today I got it working, well got it so that a photo and heading displays when you surf to it.

This afternoon I used the Fergie with its blade to scrape a heavy layer of mud off the concrete apron outside the big shed and to push some of the rows of Braeburn branches into heaps so exposing the grass growing there for the lambs to eat.

Karola went to a Mozart opera in the Napier Opera House this evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—13°C; no rain. [80.7]

We took the wool into Wool Direct Ltd in Napier (2 Ridell St, the big red shed) 06-835-5875. 1 bale of ewes wool, 2 bales of lambs wool, 1/3 bale of pieces. Karola got $337.65 inc. GST for it, some of which we immediately spent in Farmlands: 2 pure wool jerseys, 2 pairs gloves for Felix and Barnaby, some more aerosol marker paint and a bag of toxic (to pests only, hopefully) grass seed,

We also spent some time surveying where the next batches of native trees – Karamu and Lemonwood – should be planted.

Hawkes Bay Weather:6°C—15°C; no rain. [80.4]

Alan planted 600+ peach trees today.

At 8:00am Jim Cornes turned up – looking for more grazing for his sheep. He is fattening lambs in other people’s orchards, as well as managing several orchards on the other side of the road; his wife is expecting her first baby in a few weeks. Anyway, we don’t have grazing to spare but he was interested in our plans for selling the lambs and suggested he might be willing to offer us a good price himself – to add to his flock. He had 2400 lambs earlier in the season, is now down to 1800 and has enough business for the meat works that he can bargain for a good price wherever he goes. He said he might come back when we’d yarded the lambs for the Progressive Meats buyer and take a close look.

Late morning we met up with Paul Bowley, lamb purchaser for Progressive Meats which is only a couple of kilometres away on a side road off Omahu Rd. 027-246-3833 or 06-877-4567 (home). It turned out he knew Harry, said “everyone knows Harry, he’s famous”. Paul was farming in Marton many years ago and had dealings with Harry’s farm then.

Before Paul came I just tabulated the weights and gender of our remaining 42 lambs, (see below), in summary we have 19 ewe lambs: 3 large, 12 medium, 4 small, and 23 wether lambs: 14 large and 9 medium. Our ‘small’ are a bit bigger than many people’s average; the ‘large’ are ‘over fat’ – too big to get the best price. Paul suggested we’d get $3.70 per kilo of meat and probably average about 22 kg per lamb. Like ‘lambs to the slaughter’ – oh, they are Lambs To The Slaughter – they’re due at the works at 10:30am next Tuesday8th August.

Jim did come back, with his wife this time, but Karola had already decided to go with the Paul, the Progressive Meats guy. Jim said he was getting $4.20 per kilo and would offer us $82 per lamb as they were however as we’d already agreed with Paul he said not to worry but to get him involved earlier next time.

That still leaves us with the 7 cull ewes to send to the sale but we’ll probably defer that and go down to Wellington a bit earlier next week; send the ewes in whe we get back.

Late afternoon I erected electric fence along the new title boundary from the Scott’s (southern) fence along the side of the new peach plantings, past the big shed and across to the orchard drive, turning down the drive to meet up with the existing fence along the Homestead side of the drive. The lambs will have plenty to eat there until they go, and they wont be tempted to eat the young peach trees.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—17°C; no rain. [80.5]

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#501 E 30kg | #511 w 25kg | #521 w 20kg | #531 w 30kg | #541 w 30kg
#502 w 30kg | #512 E 25kg | #522 E 20kg | #532 E 25kg | #542 E 15kg
#503 w 50kg | #513 E 20kg | #523 w 30kg | #533 E 15kg | #543 w 25kg
#504 w 30kg | #514 E 25kg | #524 E 25kg | #534 E 30kg |
#505 E 20kg | #515 w 30kg | #525 E 25kg | #535 w 25kg |
#506 w 30kg | #516 E 30kg | #526 w 30kg | #536 w 15kg |
#507 w 25kg | #517 w 30kg | #527 E 15kg | #537 w 25kg |
#508 w 30kg | #518 w 20kg | #528 E 20kg | #538 w 30kg |
#509 E 25kg | #519 E 25kg | #529 w 30kg | #539 e was 50kg
#510 w 25kg | #520 E 25kg | #530 E 25kg | #540 w 50kg |

There was a bit of light drizzle last night here, heavier in the surrounding districts, so most sheep were too wet to shear today. However, as we had the lightest of showers our lambs were dry by lunchtime and Bruce (Mobile Shearing) offered to come round a day early. So, 42 lambs now shorn and ready for market. $2.70 per lamb plus $40 for his set-up.

Karola’s wool buyer has gone broke so we’ll need to find another one – pity as he was very close (Omahu Rd) and by repute very generous with his prices.

Bruce was impressed by the looks of our shorn lambs and suggested we see if sending them directly to the meat works would give us better prices – we’ve followed that up with Kaz who knows some of the people in the local meat proceeing business, Progressive Meats, and may contact them tomorrow.

Florence II is doing her best to avoid becoming chops – after she was shorn she followed me back to the house, inside and into the hall, the kitchen, and the cottage – leaving a few ‘blessings’ for good measure – but Karola’s heart is hard when it comes to meat on the hoof.

Karola and I also moved a row of the Braeburn apple cuttings – just making a space along the edge so that I can electric fence it and keep the lambs on the ex-Braeburn patch until they go to market, probably next Wednesday. This is so that they don’t eat the new peach trees Alan and his team expect to plant tomorrow.

Hawkes Bay Weather:10°C—19°C; northerly breeze; no rain. [80.1]

Another sunny day.

We planted 7 Karo, 1 large Weeping Willow and 2 Akeake in the north-eastern roadside planting area and 55 Griselinea in the south-eastern roadside corner.

As we cannot plant the 120 Ngaio we are holding under the Camelias until the frosts are over and the felled poplars are removed from along the orchard drive we’ve pretty much planted all we can for now, so I called Taupo Native Tree Nursery and ordered 100 Karamu in root trainers, 100 PB3 Lemonwood, and 5 Banksia – we expect to go to Taupo and pick them up on Sunday.

Alan Ladbrooke expects to plant the peach trees – all 600+ of them – on Thursday if the weather holds.

Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—14°C; no rain. [80.7]