Archives
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
Meta
Monthly Archives: June 2007
Off To Wellington
A somewhat more scatter-brained packing and departure than usual but we set off after lunch and the drive down was peacefully uneventful albeit occasionally rather wet. We finished the last couple of tapes of the 84-tape set of “Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition” and listened to Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times” a couple more times too. The Wellington flat, Pitoitoi, was very clean and very empty, it took us a few days to get everything back to its normal state of familiar clutter; having a wood fire in the evenings was very nice, and I enjoyed the wind gusting and the rain drumming on the roof.
Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—12°C; 0.5mm rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Off To Wellington
Raining On Our Parade (of Trees)
Brilliant, solid red sky to the east is reflected in the galvanised end wall of the big shed, visible as day breaks from our bedroom window.
We hurried through breakfast to get out and continue our fence post ramming, the 10 posts are in by noon and the rammer returned to Stortford Machinery after lunch. The rain holds off so we put up some temporary netting so that the Front paddock is stockproof and, as dusk falls, we move the ram lamb 1st eleven into the Front paddock where they can stay until called for next week. It was unlucky to have hit such a cold snap immediately after shearing although most of the ram lambs are recovering.
We went to Napier for dinner with Noel and Jenny Hendery, just back from a working trip to a remote part of Fiji; Noel was posted to Dreketi on Vanua Levu as temporary parish priest and trainer for the priest-to-be.
It has started to rain.
Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—12°C; 10.3mm rain (Mary’s gauge shows a total of 82mm during June for us here) [80.4]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Raining On Our Parade (of Trees)
Bang On Time
My new laptop, a Macbook Pro only announced and shipped a few weeks ago, arrived with the post this morning.
I went down to Stortford Machinery this morning on the Fergie and hired their post rammer yet again. In the afternoon Karola and I rammed in 18 fence posts with another dozen left for tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile Karola has finally got her new tooth installed; its been expensive and taken months, but these titanium implants are not to be hurried, it’s said.
Hawkes Bay Weather:1°C—8°C; no rain [80.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Bang On Time
Put Up A Fence, Move A Fence
No sign of my new Macbook Pro laptop that came out from USA last week and was on its way down from Hamilton last night – maybe the roads closed by snow between Taupo and Napier have delayed things.
Had morning tea with Larry McGudgeon and partner and Jay (now elderly woman who used to housekeep for Chloe Wier at Burleigh and for Hiliary Haylock at lethanty in Bulls) – Larry has agreed to look after our animals while we go to UK to see the grandsons. Bicka of course is not an animal; she’ll be off to ‘winter camp’.
Karola planted another 50 trees after spending half the night imperfectly listening to the Admiral’s Cup 3rd race. She was wearing her red socks, which may have helped Team New Zealand a little.
I’ve put in a couple of posts after marking out a new configuration of fences across the Front paddock and the wilderness paddock (officially the North paddock). The two fences are still at right angles to the ha-ha and the sides of the house but (like Baldrick) I have a ‘cunning plan’ whereby three paddocks come to a point roughly where the north-south part of the ha-ha would intersect the east-west part. The cunning plan is that, using only two gates, you will be able to swing them so that either: no gates are open, the way from Triangle to North is open, the way from Front to North is open, the way from Front to Triangle is open, or the way is open to all three paddocks at once.
Hawkes Bay Weather:-1°C—11°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Put Up A Fence, Move A Fence
Mulch Machinery Madness
Well I thought my goose was cooked today. When chasing the 3 geese back into their enclosure, two of them obliged but the 3rd zoomed under the oak trees by the new drive and, I thought, came down in the blackberry and weeds. After much searching I gave up, imagining that the goose had landed in some prickly thicket and was unable to extricate itself. To lose one goose is forgiveable, to loose 2 geese this winter is to have formed a bad habit.
Late afternoon I noticed the missing goose in the Front paddock, so it must have kept on flying and made a wide circular flight. Further attempts to get it back with the others in the geese enclosure met with another flight through the oaks, across the Avenue, and out into the neighbouring orchards to the east. Half an hour later I noticed it up near the peach trees, well west of where it took off – so another magnificent circular flight I suppose. As dusk fell all three geese were out of their enclosure in the Middle paddock – and there they can stay for now.
Around 7:30am Johnny Simmons called from his truck. He’d offered to knock about $500 off the price of the BIO 190 mulcher if we bought it while he was down in Hastings, citing reduced transport costs if we did that. Unfortunately, as we pointed out, the BIO 190 does the job we’d hoped the much cheaper BIO 150 would do. Anyway, with Karola’s approval I offered him $500 less than his $500 less and we are now the proud owners of a healthily robust, noisy, and effective mulcher. If we use it for only an hour a week for the next ten years it may well be cheraper than hiring a mulcher whenever we want one.
Later this morning Paul from Progressive Meats came and looked at our 22 shorn ram lambs. He’s selected half to go to the works next week but says the other half, or the 2nd eleven as Karola likes to call them, are really not plump enough. We agreed to hang onto the 2nd eleven until we come back from the UK in August, meanwhile they can join Nelson and the ewes. The ewes should all be in lamb by now and anyway Nelson can see any cheeky young rams off, if their aunts don’t bunt them into line anyway.
In the afternoon I made another 100 or so tree planting holes and Karola planted another 40 trees.
Hawkes Bay Weather:2°C—10°C; no rain [80.4]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Mulch Machinery Madness
Balanced Hawk Diet Unbalances Bantams
There’s only 13 bantams left now – I located a corpse under the oak tree this afternoon; the hawk is getting quite bold – thinks our pigeons and bantams are for snacking.
One of the Romney ewes has been looking hunched up and thin for a week or so and today I found her almost dead lying on the ground with an eye popped out – so I borrowed a .22 rifle from Adam and dispatched it – after suitable conversations with Kaz about the likely causes and the correct procedure for quick dispatch of the suffering animal. Adam kindly incinerated the dead ewe which saved me having to dig another hole.
Ram lambs were shorn just after lunch; just finished as it started to rain. I used a dozen old hay bales to make the shelter in the Island paddock more proof against a cold southerly or westerly wind but the shorn lambs all went off to the geese enclosure believing it to be more sheltered in the prevailing icy southerly wind and drizzle.
Adam finished piling stuff on the bonfire; the wilderness paddock is now clear of heaps of branches and stumps although the fire will probably burn for another few days.
We had our mulcher demo late afternoon. The Bio 150 which I’d thought might be right for us turned out to be far too small and fiddly – goodness knows who would want their even cheaper and smaller and lower powered models. Johnny Simmons from Stevens Products also brought a Bio 190 and that was a big improvement and would probably suit us well, but it’s almost twice the price so I am waiting for Karola to see whether she thinks it’s worth buying. I calculate we’d need to use it for 50 days over its lifetime to break even with hiring something similar – but it’d be much more convenient and we’ll always have mulching to do here.
Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—14°C; 1.2mm rain [81.1]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Balanced Hawk Diet Unbalances Bantams
Pick Up Sticks
In the morning Karola and I went out onto the road and picked up several trailer-loads of fallen branches and also roadside rubbish all along our road frontage. The ulterior motive is to have some mulchable branches to use in the demonstration we’re expecting tomorrow afternoon – a man is bringing a couple of demonstration mulchers down from Hamilton.
Bruce Richardson, right on cue, called to say he’s coming to shear the ram lambs tomorrow afternoon. It’s like London buses – none for hours then there’s a squadron of the darn things.
Karola’s “bund” (elongated compost heap) came in for some pushing-together and squeezing-up with the Fergie this afternoon. Some of the lower layers are deliciously dark composted earth. The bund is intended to shield us from traffic noise but it’s not yet high enough for that. “Garden Groom” (aka Mike Croucher) puts the lawn clippings there and we put all our compostable rubbish on it, it’s about 40m long and 5m wide, under the oaks behind the garage, parallel with the road.
Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—15°C; no rain [81.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Pick Up Sticks
Westerly Gales
Blustery winds off and on all day with occasional short rain spells.
Using the Fergie and blade I scraped 20m along the southern side of the old Homestead entrance, anticipating the arrival of 20 or so yew trees in a couple of weeks – to match the 60 yew trees on the northern side.
Firmed up some of the trees we’ve recently planted; the strong wind gusts tend to loosen the trees and, especially for root trainers, they can dry out and die very quickly if not planted firmly.
Rescued the Lemonwood and Karamu trees I’d stashed under some Ngaios; they were getting a severe buffetting and drying out. They’re now packed into an old big apple crate and have been watered.
Hawkes Bay Weather:2°C—13°C; 0.4mm rain (82mm this month so far according to Mary’s gauge) [81.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Westerly Gales
Gale Force Westerly Winds
There were gales and squalls last night, from around 10:00pm until 2:00am or thereabouts. Very windy, nice to be tucked up warm in bed.
Ordered 40 Ngaio from Taupo Native Tree Nursery. Ordered 80 “Mount Peel” Yew trees from Cedar Park Nursery in New Plymouth – but they only had 20 left.
Ordered some of the new, safer possum bait from Farmlands – it’d be nice for more of the trees to keep their leader bud this year. The “NO Possums” bait from KiwiCare is supposed to be dog, bird, and weta friendly.
Went to Haramoana and bought 45 Karamu trees from Genesis Reforestation nursery.
Johnny Simmons from Stevens Machinery in Hamilton rang. He’s bringing a couple of mulchers down to demonstrate for us on Monday. He wanted to know the diameter of the PTO shaft on the Fergie (25mm) and the distance from the locking groove in that shaft to the end of the lower forks of the 3-point linkage (525mm). I let him know (09-275-0443) and included the diameter of the holes for the linkage pins (20mm) – farm implements seem to have either 20mm or 25mm pins; many have both so that they fit all tractors.
Karola cleaned the car, rather muddy after our carting around of trees in plastic bags. The bonfire is still burning and 3/4 of the stumps and branches have now been consumed.
We are switching over gradually to eco-friendly long-life light bulbs. At the same time I am finding I need stronger and stronger lighting in order to read. So I was a little dismayed when Karola produced some 125-watt-equivalent eco-friendy flourescent bulbs, me having had a hissy-fit when she bought 75-watt-equivalent and I thought I could barely see they were so dim, and these too seemed much dimmer than a standard incandescent 75-watt bulb. I moaned to Bridget about it and she said they’d had a similar experience. She suggested I take the advice on the packet and wait for the bulbs to warm up. What a difference; with my 125-watt-equivalent long-life bulbs, after they’ve warmed up for a few minutes, the room is much lighter than before.
Hawkes Bay Weather:8°C—15°C; 1mm rain [80.4]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Gale Force Westerly Winds
A Few Trees More
Bonfire burned away merrily all night, despite the rain, and will continue for several days I’m sure. About half the stumps and branches have been consumed to date.
I returned to Titoki Nurseries and bought another 6 Griselinia, 6 Karo, and 6 Pittosporum tenuifolium (Kohuhu) plus 35 Lemonwoods. Karola planted the Griselinia, Karo, and tenuifolium to complete our plantings along the western boundary. She also planted the 20 Rangiora (turned out to be Brachyglottis greyii instead of Brachyglottis pandora, again, but the nurseries seem not to sell pandora so they palm us off with greyii – not to worry, they are similar.
Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—18°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on A Few Trees More
Oh No, We Ran Out Of Trees
Rain forecast for this evening. We dug 100 holes and planted 84 trees before darkness and rain stopped play – oh, and the fact that we’d run out of trees might have had somethig to do with it as well. So, off tomorrow to get some more trees when the rain stops. It seems like yesterday when the boundary line was just a temporary electric fence and now the new boundary gence, inner netting fence and painted gateways all make sense with the young trees being planted.
Hawkes Bay Weather:0°C—9°C; 5.1mm rain [81.2]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Oh No, We Ran Out Of Trees
We Planted 80 Trees Today
Now 150 trees planted; 100 or so to go; we planted 80 today. Glorious winter weather again.
There seem to be 14 bantams now and I think I know why. A large hawk cruises right in under the oak tree near the house as part of a regular route; it may have got a taste for bantam fresh. Still, it looks like there’s just one rooster so I don’t have to massacre the spare cockerels this year.
Hawkes Bay Weather:-1°C—13°C; no rain [80.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on We Planted 80 Trees Today
Time For Tea – Tree (Manuka)
A glorious winter’s day to begin with, clear blue sky, crisp with a gentle breeze. Later, cloudy in patches but it stayed fine all day.
In the morning we went to Titoki Nurseries and picked up 200 or so young trees using the Subaru and a small trailer that Karola has borrowed from the Henderies and become quite attached to. We dug another 80 holes before lunch and, after lunch, planted 64 Manuka trees before dusk. The ground is becoming softer with the rain so the hole digging with the tractor went well; planting wasn’t quite ideal as the soil was a bit too sticky, but Karola plans on firming up round the newly planted trees tomorrow. Each tree gets a slow-release fertilizer pellet.
Hawkes Bay Weather:-1°C—12°C; ? rain [81.3]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Time For Tea – Tree (Manuka)
Heavy showers intermittently all day
Heavy showers intermittently all day – timed exquisitely to occur each time I ventured forth thinking there was going to be a long clear spell.
I used the slightly bent crowbar (Campbell bent it when levering huge blocks of marble for his sculpture in England many many years ago – it takes quite a bit to bend a real crowbar, 4 feet long and over an inch thick solid steel) hollowed out a dozen of the holes that yesterday resisted the auger. The ground is still quite dry 150mm (6″) below the surface.
Also picked a few granny smith apples for Karola to turn into delicious baked stuffed apple puddings, I hope.
Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—13°C; ? rain [81.1]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Heavy showers intermittently all day
Holier Than Thou
Rained off and on, and cold.
Finished the rails and then Karola and I used the Fergie and its auger to make holes for the Rangiora and the Manuka – about 70 holes today. In some places the ground is still very dry a few inches down, and as hard as rock so the auger won’t penetrate. Mostly the ground is soft and dry and the holes are easy to make.
Hawkes Bay Weather:6°C—10°C; ? rain (Mary’s gauge shows 78mm for June – over 3 inches of rain) [80.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Holier Than Thou
In V Formation
Bitterly cold this evening but hardly any rain, barely a drizzle, today. Late start but I finished the railings up at the gate into the orchard by the Scott’s boundary and almost finished the railings by the new drive entrance. They were all functional before but I’ve added half-round posts every metre or so, not dug in but acting to strengthen the railings and avoid warping. I needed to finish this so that we can plant the Rangiora that arrived earlier this week. There’s a row of nine – give or take a couple that died – behind the railinggs at the new drive entrance. This will add a row of 8 in front of the railings on each side.
We”ve put off collecting the 200 native trees until next week in the hope that I’ll get the holes dug over the weekend.
The geese have been wandering a bit over the last few days – perhaps they feel the need to emigrate. Anyway as I chase them back towards their enclosure they take flight and swoop low over the ground in great arcs. They know where their home is but their preferred glide path is to come in between the Homestead and the big oak tree, even if they been chased from somewhere in the Middle paddock.
Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—11°C; ? rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on In V Formation
Welcome Gentle Rain Continues
Gentle rain almost continuously all day. At Karola’s request I moved the electric fence so that the ram lambs could eat on the lawn; she felt that the 3 fence-breakers were getting an unfair advantage continually jumping through the fence and eating grass, acorns, roses, anything they fancied. They also have a fine line in jumping down the ha-ha into the Front paddock that is supposedly recouperating so that there’s some food for the ewes while we’re away in UK. Nothing more, it was just too wet outside although Karola kitted herself in rainware and did some more pruning and weeding under the Feijoa bushes.
Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—13°C; ? rain [79.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Welcome Gentle Rain Continues
Holly And Ivy
Another mainly sunny day; snow disappearing from the Kaweka Mountains that you can see from our bedroom window and quite chilly.
Bridget’s home PC, well Chris’ PC actually, the Neovo display has started playing up so, until they get a replacement/repair we sent them one of my Neovo 19″ LCD displays, cheaper model than their one but it might do for now.
Meanwhile I spent about 3 hours on Fergie with a blade, sweeping up the needles and twigs from our windbreak topping. Later we used Fergie and bucket to get me up into the Holly tree behind the geese enclosure to do battle with a prolific ivy that’s killing it. We finished the day by using Fergie and blade to dig a couple of 400mm deep trenches on two sides of the ailing Ginkgo tree, also behind the geese enclosure. The idea is to locate feeding roots and cut them then paint them with rooting hormone and encourage new growth. Our expert’s advice is that the Ginkgo is sick from a root fungal infection and the only response against widespread and common fungal diseases is to make the tree fight back; stimulating growth of new uninfected roots would be a good start. We shall see.
A young maori couple from Flaxmere dropped in, having seen our apple tree wood piles they were looking for wood for a hangi for the young lady’s 21st birthday. We said they could have wood from the tree stumps and branches waiting to be burned – they expect to come back tomorrow and cut and remove enough for their hangi. They offered some food from the hangi which would be nice.
My online weather report seems to have a hydrophobic rain gauge as it isn’t registering more than a dribble – we’re getting inches of rain here OK.
Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—15°C; ? rain (Mary’s gauge shows another 25mm so total of 60mm this month already) [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Holly And Ivy
Sunny Cool Winters Day
We finished off dislodging tops of the windbreak caught up in the branches, there was more than I’d expected and some were heavier than we both could lift and dangling by a thread so it was quite exciting. Two more trailer loads to the bonfire site.
Most of the day was cool but beautiful sunshine and clear skys; more rain is forecast though.
Hawkes Bay Weather:__°C—__°C; no rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Sunny Cool Winters Day
Constant Gentle Rain
Almost constant gentle rain since late afternoon yesterday. A day indoors after I’d turned off the irrigation and fed the animals.
Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—14°C; ?mm rain (Mary’s rain gauge held 35mm by 9:00am this morning) [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Constant Gentle Rain
The Rain it Rains At Last Upon the Plains
Another 5 trailer loads and we’ve finished moving the toppings from the windbreak to the bonfire place. Just a few branches to dislodge from their stuck positions high up in the trees, and we’re over half way through that now, stopped by cold drizzle – well we’d been working out in the much wanted gentle rain for a couple of hours before conceding this was at last the end of the drought, not just a passing shower.
A key function of the front-end loader on the Fergie is as a chairlift. Karola works the lever taking the bucket up and down while I perch on the bucket, it’s probably not as dangerous as it looks though at full stretch I am up a couple of meteres above the tractor engine and the bucket is pointing almost straight up.
Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—12°C; ?mm rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on The Rain it Rains At Last Upon the Plains
Irrigation Back On
Turned on the native tree irrigation, it’s still so dry. Forecast is for rain in next day or so for several days …. we wish. We’ve postponed picking up the trees to be planted until this coming week but were having 2nd thoughts about that if it still hasn’t rained. Alan Ladbrooke is irrigating the apple and peach trees to avoid them getting stressed even though as it’s winter they should be almost dormant by now.
More Casurina windbreak toppings to the bonfire, 8 trailer loads today and probably another 8 tomorrow. A lot of the topped pieces are too heavy to lift until chainsawed into smaller pieces.
Hawkes Bay Weather:0°C—16°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Irrigation Back On
And Not A Drop To Drink
Awoke to a calmer day, the violent gusts in the night having somewhat abated – really good for getting the leaves off the lawn and up against the fences. The monthly catalogue came from Taupo Native Tree Nursery yesterday and spying that they had just 20 Brachyglottis repanda PB5 on special Karola quickly called and bought them, they should arrive early next week. They’re to create a double row of Rangiora along the railings of the new drive entrance, the railings we replaced a week ago.
Also awoke to no water in the taps, again. Surely it can’t be the filters again so soon, and surely we haven’t consumed 15000 gallons all by ourselves, even though there’s been no decent rain for 5-6 months and it’s the driest time for 150 years some say.
Well, actually no. After the usual climb into the attic to check the header tank (empty but otherwise in working order) I checked the level of the water in the tanks using my incredibly cunning visual gauge – a length of clear plastic 1″ (25mm) tube attached to a T-junction in the pipe joining tanks #1 and #2 incorporating a tap so that water doesn’t just all run out of the clear plastic pipe. I held the pipe above my head and turned on the tap and, to my surprise, the gauge read ’empty’. Just out of curiosity I tested the valve on the pipe between tanks #1 and #2 and it was turned off! No wonder, I had 2 tanks almost full and #1 tank empty, so I opened the valve and remeasured – all 3 tanks are about 1/2 full.
So that was it. Well, no, actually. Still no water getting to the header tank in the attic despite the pump under the verandah whirring along. So I dismantled the 1st of the 2 filters that filter the water as it leaves the pump on its way to the attic. Somehow, after dropping the filter and it rolling away under the house, and the filter o-ring being too big, and the filter being now dusty and needing cleaning, eventually by experimentally turning on the pump without the filter something came unstuck, water gushed under the verandah and a blockage unblocked. Shortly afterwards, the filter reassembled, all was back to normal. Time for lunch.
In the afternoon Karola and I took 7 trailer loads of Casurina topping from the windbreak to the bonfire. We’ve moved about half of it now.
Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—18°C; no rain [80.9]
Posted in General
Comments Off on And Not A Drop To Drink
Very Strong Wind Gusts
3 more loads of casurina windbreak toppings. I now see a nuisance that several large pieces of the topping are lodged high up in the trees; well, as long as they stay there . . .
Again only 16 bantams; that’s still plenty to be going on with.
Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—20°C; no rain, south-westerly gales all day and night [81.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Very Strong Wind Gusts
Bicka’s Back
Retrieved Bicka from her autumn ‘camp’; she’s a bit subdued but not unhappy and seemd quite at home with the Harveys – apparently she wheedled herself into their bedroom on the 1st night and last night was actually sleeping on their bed – something she’s been wanting to do at Karamu for a long time but we’ve held firm on that (even when Karola was away). Bicka now has a familiar and friendly place to stay while we’re in UK in July/August.
Counted 16 bantams today but maybe some are just hiding. Spent some time transporting the Casurina toppings to the bonfire area – only did 3 loads today, lots more to do and some chainsawing too as some of the tops are quite massive.
Hawkes Bay Weather:10°C—19°C; no rain, south-westerly gales [81.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Bicka’s Back
From Wellington
Morning tea with Mary, popped in to say goodbye to the granddaughters, then off back to Karamu, arriving before 4:00pm rather stiff after non-stop drive. Gerald in good mood and all animals seem to be OK.
In our absence Brimar Trimmers have come back and topped the Casurina windbreak – taken over a metre off the top. One branch fell on the electric fence round the peaches and an enterprising Romney had got in but I soon chased her out and there’s no harm done.
Ram lambs let into the Triangle for a bit more grass.
Next door neighbour Janet Scott’s husband Grant died yesterday, funeral tomorrow.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—19°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on From Wellington
Alexandra’s Birthday
Bridget et al have fearful colds and birthday is a muted affair. I spent late morning in Seatoun with Gill & Ben and Kate Bell and her partner Ross McWhannell; birthday celebrations at lunchtime, grandother Anna More came too, and in the late afternoon Karola and I went to Mary’s in Karori and did lightbulbs and washing machine filters. Very domestic. Karola babysat in the evening while Bridget and Chris had a quick meal out.
Hawkes Bay Weather:2°C—17°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Alexandra’s Birthday
To Wellington
Painted rest of gates – 5 in total. Checked ram lambs, ewes, 3 geese, 18 bantams all present and correct. Left for Wellington via Bulls at about 10:30am. Lunch in Mothers Goose restaurant in Bulls, in the old Bulls BNZ Bank building, with Hiliary Haylock and her brother Murray Wilson. Arrived at Bridget’s around 5:30pm.
Hawkes Bay Weather:-1°C—15°C; no rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on To Wellington
Bicka Off To Boarding School
Top coats completed on 3.5 of the 5 gates.
Irrigation off after a week; the young native trees seem to be coping OK.
Harry and Chloe are staying in Napier for the weekend; Harry rang up late mornign for a long chat.
Took Bicka up to her temporary new home in the afternoon; once we took in her basket and got her to settle down in it she seemed to understand – anyway we slipped away without any fuss. Graham and Tracy certainly love thjeir dogs and Bicka responded well to them. This is the first time Bicka has been away from us for 24 hours since May 2004 -apart from the 3 days with the vet when she lost her eye.
In the evening we went first to Becoming Jane film at the Napier Century Cinema along with Chloe. Then we all had dinner at the Boardwalk restaurant nearby.
Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—22°C; no rain [79.9]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Bicka Off To Boarding School
Tagged and Retagged
With Kaz’ help we rounded up the ewes, put them in the yards and applied the tags to those needing them. Ewe #407 must be seeing better today as she came with the others and responded when I waved my hand near her face. We put the ram lambs in the wilderness paddock in the meantime.
- Nelson is #103
- #407 had lost her big tag and so now has a new big tag
- #604 ewe lamb
- #613 ewe lamb
- #616 ewe lamb
- #623 ewe lamb
- #629 ewe lamb (small tag #629 but large tag #600, don’t ask)
- #630 wether lamb (small and big tags)
- #631 reserved for Picolo, should that wether ever come back from the Ladbrookes.
- #632 ewe lamb (small and big tags)
Kaz said he thought several of the Romney ewes were of very poor quality and he thought that the one with the lacerations could be one that had fly strike some time back, but as it seemed to be healing up there wasn’t anything special to do now.
Kaz and Yvonne left for Gisbourne around 11:30am.
Late morning I primed the final two gates. Later I painted one gate, and most of a second, in the Karamu green livery.
Karola and I stacked up the metre apple wood logs I cut yesterday, making another sheep shelter against the wind and cold.
Hawkes Bay Weather:4°C—20°C; no rain. Mary’s rain gauge recorded no rain in May [80.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Tagged and Retagged