Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- 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: December 2007
An Ovine Reckoning – New Year’s Eve
Last day of 2007. In December Mary’s rain gauge showed 122mm (5 inches) of rain. I think we lose quite a lot due to evaporation in the summer as the last time I looked the gauge had actually gone down, so the actual rainfall might be a bit higher. It was well timed to give the grass a drink before the summer really sets in next month.
I rehung the old wooden gate yet again; it seems to be a lot easier when I use the power drill and new 20mm auger driven off the Honda generator – easier to get the critical holes at the right height, in the right direction through the post, and fairly level.
Karola presented her “Sheep Strategy for Karamu” which, with minor improvements, we adopted.
- We currently have, excluding the dog tucker ewe which Karola calls “Mrs Strange”, 1 ram (Nelson), 4 Romney ram lambs, 11 wether lambs (including Ben), 1 #600 wether hogget, 1 Romney ewe lamb and 9 other ewe lambs. We have 4 #200 ewes, 8 #400 ewes, 6 #600 ewe hoggets, and 6 Romney ewes. That is, 24 breeding ewes, 10 ewe lambs, 5 rams, and 12 wethers.
- Tomorrow we’ll split the sheep into two flocks without separating lambs from mothers: 18 breeding ewes and their lambs in one and Nelson, Ben, #630 wether, the 6 Romney ewes and their lambs, and Mrs Strange (for now) in the other.
- The Romney ewes (and ewe lamb, but that’s unlikely) have until mid May with Nelson and his 4 Romney sons to get in-lamb. That’s when the rest of the ewes first see Nelson and sons in 2008.
- In mid-May Nelson and sons join the rest of the ewes switching with the 6 wether lambs who are are therefore weaned from their mothers; that’ll be a noisy few days.
- The Romney ewes and wethers will go into the orchard for the winter, the rest will have all of the Homestead block for their winter range.
- It is possible that some of the Romney ewes will lamb between June and August, including while we’re away for the UK school summer holidays, but the rest of the ewes shouldn’t begin lambing until October.
- For planning purposes we assume that we have 100% lambing and at least a third of these are ewe lambs, potentially taking our breeding stock for 2009 up to 45 ewes. Assume that we sell the #200s and the Romney ewes and 1 of the others dies, that’d leave us with 34 ewes and ewe hoggets for the 2009 season.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—21°C; 1.7mm rain [81.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on An Ovine Reckoning – New Year’s Eve
Mite Be Gone
We got up very late, not sure why, to another sunny, cool day with gentle breeze.
I did 2nd half of the undercoat on the stock crate and 2 Karaka green top coats on the new gate.
I sprayed all the bantams with the insecticide; lets hope that this knocks back the Northern Fowl Mite for the specified 3 months or more. The white bantam with 2 chicks has been living by night in the old plastic Bicka carrying cage and roaming the garden by day. Tonight I transferred them to the Mandarin Chook House and I hope to train tem to go there at night rather than spending 10 minutes trying to get them back in the plastic box. Yesterday I heard a louder than usual squawk from the white bantam mother and, looking where she was advancing, wings outstretched, I actually saw a large rat scuttle off into the undergrowth. She certainly does her best but the realt defense will be for the chicks to grow up fast.
Karola sprayed a lot of thistles in the Middle paddock today.
Graham Harvey called to say he’d begun the installation of a 200m long ethernet link from his house to the Touchwood Books office. They have the trench dug, the alkathene and cable laid out but so far no signal. Perhaps 200m is too far.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—24°C; no rain [81.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Mite Be Gone
Gate Painting Again
The long (4.88 metre) gate closing the entrance off the orchard drive towards the Homestead from the north is to be changed. It, and another long (4.55 metre) gate will be hung off the back of the railings which form a V onto the orchard drive. The opening is about 5 metres wide nearest the Homestead and 10 metres wide at the edge of the orchard drive. Karola wants this change so that we can graze the inside of the V – it otherwise gets rank and has to be mown when we mow the edges of the orchard drive.
We bought the extra gate yesterday and today I painted it with grey undercoat. I also put undercoat on most of the stock crate; it and the gate will be painted Karaka green.
Karola let the sheep have 3 hours in the North (wilderness or new grass) paddock late this afternoon.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—24°C; no rain [81.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Gate Painting Again
A Little More Rain
In the morning we dropped in on Laurie and Enid in Flaxmere and thanked them for looking after the stock. Apparently they were here on Christmas day just after 7:00 am when the cottage alarm went off and ArmourGuard sent a patrol round. They were not here when it went off again around 1:30 am on Boxing Day and the patrol visited again. Nothing found either time so it was probably a big rat or something falling down; apparently there were violent winds over that period and some things did fall off the walls. We continued on to Goldpine and bought a 4.55 metre farm gate and a couple of fat 1.8 metre posts.
Late morning we went into Napier and at Mitre-10 Karola bought: some white plastic chain link for the verandah for the Wysteria to climb along, a wooden (rimu) loo seat, some insect/spider spray, and a new invention for tethering the edges of tarpaulins that have lost their guy ropes, as most of ours have. We had a sandwich at the cafe there and then went back via Taradale for food and post office. The insect/spider spray is meant for gardens and garden furniture and sheds but it has the same active ingredient as Mrs Google says is necessary to combat the Northern Fowl Mites which are afflicting our bantams so I’ll try it on them and the Mandarin Chook House. Ingredient is Permathrin, concentration is 5gm / litre.
In the afternoon it rained.
Hawkes Bay Weather:14°C—24°C; 6mm rain [81.3]
Posted in General
Comments Off on A Little More Rain
Back To Normal-ish
Beautiful sunny cool day. Harry called and Karola and I exchanged family news with him. He and his family are still overworked awaiting the new farm worker; she is expected to start at the end of January; the last worker ceased abruptly with a days notice just because he got what he thought was a better offer, leaving Harry et al in the lurch over the summer with dozens of cows and many more calves to manage.
Karola trimmed the Wysteria on the verandah and the balcony, neatly disposing of the clippings in a large plastic sack. I groomed Bicka with a metal comb and a lot of winter hair came out; Karola usually does the grooming and Bicka loves it.
I moved the sheep into the north half of the Front paddock in the evening. The dog tucker ewe has not been collected yet, she is still in the Island paddock with plenty to eat, plenty of water, and plenty of shade.
Mike Croucher came and mowed the lawns. I chopped a few large thistles from around the big oak tree.
I began digging a hole for a strainer post at the far end of a new fence at right angles to the totara batten fence separating the Front and North (wilderness) paddocks. I’m a bit out of practice.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—22°C; no rain [81.1]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Back To Normal-ish
Return To Karamu On Boxing Day
Karola did much cleaning up and cleaning while I went into Wellington, taking surplus food and returning the Leopard software DVD to Gill and Ben in Seatoun then returning the barbeque to Bridget in Khandallah.
Just before we left we remembered to measure the boundary at Pitoitoi in preparation for a repeat visit and perhaps putting up a fence between ourselves and the public bush reserve behind and alongside our house.
- From end of low concrete wall up to the old wooden fence post on the corner: 6.7 metres
- From end of low concrete wall down to the road below: 14.3 metres
- From old wooden fence post on the corner along past kitchen window to end of the current old fence : 10.8 metres
- From end of the current old fence by kitchen window to far side of garage door: 7.2 metres
So: the top boundary is about 18 metres long, along the hillside and the side boundary is about 21 metres long, down the hillside.
The return trip was quick and uneventful; most places were shut and it poured with rain around Dannevirke but was pretty dry once we reached Hastings. All Karamu livestock seemed OK and Bicka was glad to be home.
Hawkes Bay Weather:6°C—21°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Return To Karamu On Boxing Day
Day 4 In Wellington – Christmas Day
In the morning we went in to Bridget’s and joined in their “opening of presents”: Bridget, Chris, Natalie, Alexandra and Chris’ mother Anna-Marie More. Late mornign we returned to Days Bay where Karola continued her meal preparations and I reassembled the barbeque and got it going. I also cleaned the concrete and asphelt area outside the back door and emptied the drains of the heavy load of wattle and kowhai beans and twigs; I’d been hoping to get the drains cleaned out before we left and before any more significant rain. Without the trailer the waste just went “over the bank” where hopefully some more Kowhai will take root.
Bridget and Chris and the grand daughters arrived around 3:00 pm and Anna-Maie came soon afterwards bearing puddings. Chris cooked the meat and we had a leisurely meal; everyone left before 6:00 pm at which point Karola and I went round to York Bay to join Feleicity & Geoff Rashbrooke, daughter Gwen and Felicity’s cousin Chris Thompson for a light dinner.
Hawkes Bay Weather:10°C—25°C; 0.7mm rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Day 4 In Wellington – Christmas Day
Day 3 In Wellington
In the morning we cleared the little lawn area and a lot of small broom plants just setting seed. I also cut down the rampant Banana Passionfruit in flower, another noxious weed. We took our final trailer load to the transfer station and returned the trailer to the garage on the Petone waterfront just a few minutes after 12:00 pm. Karola prepared for her Christmas barbeque until we left late afternoon to go and see Mary in Karori.
Early evening we drove out to Pukera Bay to have dinner with Cecilia Johnson and relations: Miranda and Lucien; Arty and Aiden Kebbell; Alice and Jonathan Milne and an interesting French couple – he works in telecommunications and she is an information scientist expert in educational theory; Frank and Marina Wilson and their three sons.
Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—25°C; 0.2mm rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Day 3 In Wellington
Day 2 in Wellington
Today’s weed clearing included the overgrown pathway along the front of the house and a lot more weeding up near the back door; we took another trailer load to the transfer station. We carried on from there into Wellington and out to Seatoun Heights to borrow Gill’s copy of the new Leopard operating system for my MacBook Pro computer in the hope that by installing the new system my computer would start behaving properly again. It had become very erratic over the last week, just freezing up repeatedly. From Seatoun we went back through the city and out to Khandallah to drop off some presents for Christmas day and pick up their gas barbeque. After that we went round to Kirsty Faulkner’s joining Bruce Utting and Navina & Peter Clemerson for afternoon tea.
Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—20°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Day 2 in Wellington
Day 1 In Wellington
In the morning we went in to Khandallah and saw the granddaughters and showed off the bantam hen and her 2 chicks. On the return trip we hired a small tip trailer for three days.
We began our clearing of some of the weeds at Pitoitoi in preparation for the barbeque on Christmas day; Karola tacklng weeds along the bank near the back door while I cleared the front path. We took one trailer load of honeysuckle, tradescantia and other weeds to the refuse transfer station at nearby Seaview.
Hawkes Bay Weather:9°C—21°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Day 1 In Wellington
To Wellington via Wairarapa
Spent the morning getting ready to leave and cramming an unusually large amount of food and tools and animals (Bicka and white bantam plus her 2 chicks in an old plastic dog box). Stopped in Woodville for petrol and picked up a paper. To our surprise we found that yesterday’s earthquake was force 7 or more in Gisborne. I called Kaz and Yvonne (btw Kaz has a cellphone now +64-27-737-059) and they were OK except for one broken vase, unlike the Gisborne CBD.
We picked up a large venison pie and a small wild pork pie at the Main St Cafe in Greytown then continued on to Days Bay. Dinner was venison pie and Bicka had her constitutional along the beach. During the period of daylight saving she can be on the beach only between 8:00 pm and 9:00 am.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—20°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on To Wellington via Wairarapa
Skies Clearing
Ian Maxwell turned up after breakfast with John Richie, Margie Maxwell’s brother. Karola went to school with Margie and we’ve known them for a long time. Later Alan Ladbrooke came over for a scheduled discussion about the dire condition of apple orcharding and his three years of bad prices and bad luck. Suitably depressed we then went out to Pernel World for lunch with Kaz and Yvone Wier on their way to Gisborne for a couple of days. Karola did some weeding and I cut a bunch of bamboo stakes to take to Wellington for Mary, Gill, and Bridget.
Around 7:00 pm there was a long, rolling earthquake. Nothing fell over but it was long enough that we went outside to wait for it to stop. I rang Bridget but they hadn’t even felt it in Wellington, it was not “the big one” that Wellington is overdue for.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—20°C; 2.7mm rain [81.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Skies Clearing
Welcome Rain
Deluge of rain, very welcome. No work outside today.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—19°C; 29.1mm rain [81.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Welcome Rain
A Well Hung Gate Is A Joy and Pleasure
The two gate posts in the gateway from the orchard drive into the Front paddock acquired an annoying lean as the moist soil of spring dried out so today I wrapped a couple of turns of #8 (4mm) fencing wire round them and strained them towards each other. The wire broke a couple of times under the strain, I was using a bit of old pipe to make the strainer handles longer and get more leverage – but eventually I learned to stop one notch away from ‘ping’. Then I fashioned a couple of large wooden wedges out of short lengths of old fence post and belted them with my $20 sledge hammer in between the base of the stay post and its anchor block. This straightened the gateposts up quite a bit, they had post-to-side-of-hole gaps at ground level of 20-30 mm on the outside. I checked as I went and this time I didn’t pull the strainer posts out of the ground at the other end of the fence on either side. However, when I released the wires the gatepost carrying the gate retaliated by popping an inch or so, maybe 40 mm, up out of the ground. So, I’ve gone from having a gate with the latch end maybe 50 mm higher than the hinge end so close to the ground by the hinges but a bit of a large gap under the gate at the latch end to having a gate which is level but has a big gap along its entire length. Ho hum.
From there we went on to hang a gate between the Front paddock and the new grass (North paddock) at the northern end of the dividing fence, next to the orchard driveway. I brought out the Honda petrol generator and, using a Black and Decker power drill circa 1978, drilling the gudgeon holes was a breeze. Karola meanwhile laboured nearby, ‘releasing’ trees (weeding in the immediate vicinity of each tree) along the orchard drive. Later we hung another gate between the Front and North paddocks, this time over by the ha-ha. The sheep, who had been imprisoned in half the Front paddock for 4 days and had eaten all the tasty bits, were let out through one of the newly hung gates into the North paddock and then hounded back into the other half of the Front paddock through the other newly hung gate.
All very satisfactory. And Karola did some more sheep proofing of her lone lemon tree so that even though the sheep are now in the same half of the Front paddock, the lemon tree will be safe.
I rang Luke Curry (home 873-3448, work 879-7926 x705) and a mate of his will collect the decrepit Romney ewe for dog tucker later this week. We caught her and put her in the Island paddock for now.
Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—29°C; 30.7mm rain [81.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on A Well Hung Gate Is A Joy and Pleasure
Hot Day
Hot day. Sheep let into the new grass for half a day. I helped Karola put up some old iron railings round the lone old lemon tree in the Front paddock so that the sheep find it harder to clamber up it and chew the bark. Ben the lamb has been on too rich a diet of late, or maybe it’s “worms” so we gave him a drench. Christmas cards all sent. A ewe is still getting onto the lawn from the Front paddock.
Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—29°C; no rain [80.1]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Hot Day
Farmers Market
Farmers Market in the morning. I enjoy the little samples you get at the meat stalls. On the way home we bought a new Spears & Jackson hedge shears, preparing for our garden onslaught planned for next weekend at Pitoitoi, so that Karola can have her “barbie” in a clear space on Christmas day.
Added more electrification along the top of a stretch of low netting in the Front paddock; will that stop the jumping ewes I wonder.
Karola spent much of the warm afternoon weeding Titoki trees along the new drive.
I spent much of the day computing with long telephone-assisted working sessions with Bridget.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—25°C; no rain [80.9]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Farmers Market
Ha-Ha Electrification
Christmas cards.
I electrified the top of the ha-ha using short 200mm outrigger posts banged into holes drilled in the top of every 2nd batten. Perhaps that’ll curb the jumping ewe’s enthusiasm. The new mains energiser installed in the homestead pump shed packs a real punch.
White bantam still has 2 chicks, one black, one yellow, and I keep them imprisoned, fed, and watered in the Mandarin Chook House for now, mindful of the stoat. That does mean letting the other bantams out in the morning and in again at night, and egg-laying in odd places.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—23°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Ha-Ha Electrification
Overcast But Pleasant Friday
More Christmas cards and more computing for Bridget.
Murray Wilson and Gay came around again this afternoon; Patrick Cooney dropped in fora few minutes at the same time.
Despite my initial attempt to stop sheep jumping up the ha-ha, #616 (ringleader with long legs and no lamb) led #613 (also no lamb – maybe she and #616 were the ewes who aborted) and #604 (without her lamb #720) up the ha-ha and onto the lawn, later being found by Karola in the cottage kitchen looking for mischief. I will try to sheep-proof the ha-ha again tomorrow.
Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—20°C; 0.5mm rain [80.9]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Overcast But Pleasant Friday
Energised And Carded Out
As it is getting near to Christmas we decided to have a blitz on Christmas cards this year though I plan to use e-mail only in future.
Late afternoon I installed the new mains energiser in the homestead pump shed, set up the earthing stakes, and ran out a line to connect to electric fence down the length of the Front paddock and also along the lip of the ha-ha.
Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—27°C; no rain [80.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Energised And Carded Out
Meetings
Quiet day after yesterday’s bustle. Murray Wilson (Hilary Haylock’s 80+ year old brother) and his fiance dropped in mid afternoon and I showed them round the estate while Karola had a meeting with our financial advisor, Brien Mahoney.
I saw a stoat catch a rat in the geese enclosure today, in broad daylight on a clear path under the trees.
Hawkes Bay Weather:14°C—26°C; no rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Meetings
Sheep Sprayed For Flies And Lice
Late morning we took Karola’s Subaru in for a service; I stopped at Farmlands on the way and bought another mains electricity electric fence energiser. We have several battery energisers but they are pretty feeble and keep needing new batteries. We have one mains energiser up in the orchard pumpshed – that’s the one whch electrified the wire round the peaches while we were in England last winter; this one is for the Homestead pumpshed and for electric fences in the paddocks around the Homestead. I thought that having a nice strong energiser and well constructed electric fence now, when the sheep have just been shorn, is the best time to reinforce the idea that electric fence should be respected. #616 and #406 currently have scant regard and I don’t want them teaching this year’s lambs any bad electric fence habits.
We then took the bale of wool and 1/2 bale of lamb’s wool saved since last time (the year-old lambs were shorn, the ewes merely crutched last time) in to Napier to the wool buyer. We got more than it cost to shear them, if you ignore taxes.
Then we took Bicka and some of “Snapper Jacks” terikihi & chips down to the West Shore waterfront for lunch. Warm and sunny but with a stiff breeze. Later, on the way home, Karola nipped into the Wool Shop and came back with bags of woolly items.
Late afternoon we penned up the poor sheep again and:
- Made a note of which Romney now sported which Numbered ear tag.
- — #291 – yellow and red tags
- — #292 – purple tag
- — #293 – yellow tag
- — #294 – no tag, scabby sides from old fly strike
- — #295 – blue tag (no numbered tag) – facial excema scars and blind in 1 eye
- — #296 – lemon/yellow disk
- — #297 – blue disk
- Gave #297 an injection of penicillin; she has quite a big gash in her shoulder
- Sprayed them all, lambs and ewes, with Magnum against flies and lice which should protect them for 12 weeks, or so it says on the container
Afterwards I hooked up the new 2nd hand orchard mower to the Fergie and mowed a single strip down the middle of the Front paddock and across it from the water trough to the gateway into the orchard drive. This mown strip is where electric fence will go tomorrow; at first letting the sheep graze the ha-ha half of the Front paddock. Later they’ll also have access to the quadrant bounded by the Avenue and the orchard drive; finally they’ll have it all. We hope to eek out the grazing through anticipated drought until autumn and this should take us into the new year using only the Front paddock.
In the early evening I mowed the new grass; keeping it to 50mm – 100mm height knocks many weeds back and encourages the grass to increase their root systems rather than making seed heads.
White bantam is sitting on 2 chicks in the Mandarin Chook House. A brown bantam is also sitting in a nesting box on a couple of eggs and there’s another broody brown bantam in the green shed up on a hay bale on 5 eggs. Must be the time of year.
Mike Croucher came and mowed the lawns mid afternoon.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—24°C; no rain [80.2]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Sheep Sprayed For Flies And Lice
Shorn Of All Responsibility
More computer stuff with and for Bridget in the morning; picked up Karola at lunchtime from Napier airport; she was returning from Bridget’s in Wellington. Bruce Richardson came at 3:00pm and did shear the sheep, at the same time I put ear tags in a couple of lambs (who’d lost them), in #404, and in 6 of the 7 Romney ewes. The 7th Romney ewe is doing so badly that Karola has offered it to Bruce’s father – who runs a sheep and woolshed museum at Clifton – for “dog tucker”. Due to a misunderstanding Bicka left the back door open all night, I was sure I’d reminded her to close it, and the cat got in. She left a small present on the cottage kitchen floor, one short tail from a large rat, it’s nose and entrails. Way to go, cat!
Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—23°C; no rain [80.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Shorn Of All Responsibility
Quiet Sunday with computer.
Much of the day spent working with Bridget over the phone and network on her soon-to-go-live project management web service.
Hawkes Bay Weather:17°C—22°C; 0.5mm rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Quiet Sunday with computer.
Welcome Rain
Animals checked; sheep just start to dry out and they get rained on again.
Ten bantams, three geese, one cat, one dog, 27 sheep, 25 lambs + Ben.
According to Mary’s rain gauge, by the end of today we’d had 40mm rain in December.
Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—22°C; 13.8mm rain [80.9]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Welcome Rain
Karola To Wellington
Rained on and off all day.
Ewes and lambs allowed into the Triangle as well as the Middle paddock; they’ve been frolicking about all day, especially the lambs on the logs under the Canary Island Pine. Electric temporary fence across the top of the lawn to keep them in and #616, the renowned ha-ha jumper and ignorer of electric fences is in with the rest of the ‘dry ewes’ and these are not in the Triangle but with Nelson and the wether they have above the Island and, as of this morning, the Island paddock. Shearing is scheduled for 9:30am on Monday 10th so it’s helpful to graze the Island beforehand to stop the sheep gorging themselves while waiting to be sheared with the inevitable messy consequences. We let the purple tag Romney ewe and her twin lambs back in with the rest after a night in the dry and out of the wind.
Karola, at Bridget’s request, flew down to Wellngton at lunchtime for the weekend to help with the grand daughters – Bridget thought she was going down with the virus her daughters and husband have had.
Karola’s Subaru is ‘missing’ occasionally under load so it’s now booked in for a service on Tuesday.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—17°C; 6.9mm rain [80.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Karola To Wellington
Welcome Rain
It’s raining, it’s raining, gentle and wet. Long discussions with Karola about future of Karamu etc and no work outside today. Late afternoon Karola decided to bring in “purple tag” Romney and her 2 ram lambs into the green shed out of the rain as the lambs looked a bit unhappy and cold outside. I turned off the irrigation to the Griselinia planting.
Bicka looked a treat running about outside in the rain with her oilskin coat on.
Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—19°C; 16.4mm rain [80.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Welcome Rain
Financial Fairy Tales
Karola went to Havelock North this morning, following a lead to a Cyclone trailer that is for sale. Apparently the little trailer she bought last month isn’t as good as Jenny and Noel’s Cyclone trailer that we borrowed for a few weeks earlier in the year. So, Karola wants to buy one just like it. Thye’re a bit lighter and closer to the ground than her current little trailer. Competition was keen and a man from Waipukarau beat Karola to it. Next time . . .
This afternoon we went to Napier and met with our financial advisors at the Guardian Trust. Gave them somewhat of a hard time but they were good humoured about it.
(Heather Hawkes 09 375 9447 – heather_hawkes@nzgt.co.nz and Brien Mahoney)
I finished weeding the Griselinia area at last. Karola let the ewes and lambs into the goose enclosure for an extra bit of extra green grass.
Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—24°C; 1.4mm rain [80.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Financial Fairy Tales
Docking – Not A Boat To Be Scene
Karola, recovered from our Wellington trip after a decent night’s sleep – perhaps we haven’t contracted the 10-day virus that upset Alex and Natalie while we were down last week and has now jumped to Bridget’s Chris, apparently it’s going the rounds in Wellington – got us going on finishing the docking. The 25 lambs are all old enough that they know their mothers well and won’t be forsaken or lost by being penned up. At Karolas’ suggestion we took the stock crate up to the Island paddock and set it on the ground as a small pen for holding the lambs – the ewes are very rough when cornered in our makeshift yards and could easily crush a lamb in the fray. So, we put a few of the sheep in the yards at a time and decanted their lambs into the stock crate until we had all 25 safely enclosed. Then we docked all their tails, except of course for the 4 we’d done already. And we castrated the ram lambs except for the purebred Romney ram lambs, part of our attempt to move towards having a pure Romney flock with sheep whose favorite past time is *not* ring barking apple trees. Also put button tags on #726 and replaced a missing tag on #707. I noted that #712 (Duane) and #7xx also have missing button tags.
Much of day, and evening, spent happily programming for and with Bridget by phone; making some progress on security for her website applications.
More Griselinia weeding, one more day should do it, and we planted the Libocentrus bidwilli (southern cedar) that Gill and Ben gave me for my 61st.
It was a special request from Karola that I do something useful with her elm, so I decided to do the front old entrance to the Homestead with post and rails of untreated elm. It won’t last as long as treated pine (the dreaded CCA where it’s “the 2nd C that kills you”) but will I think look a bit less ordinary fence and maybe will weather nicely and won’t have any stock pressure anyway. So, it’s posts either side of the existing green wooden gate and my f-t-f-t-f odd-number of rails with 6″ (f=fat) alternating with 3″ (t=thin). I think it looks much better than 4 same-width rails as is usual round here. I tried 5 fat and it was too heavy a look – too close together. 3 fat doesn’t work as the sheep can get through or over or under. So that’s the pattern I now have on the new entrance and the orchard drive road entrance and the orchard drive orchard entrance (drive is fenced off cos of poisonous ngaios) and the orchard drive gate into the Front paddock and the railings in the far south-western corner near the peaches between the gate and the boundary fence. More to come as the internal fences will have a V of rails where they meet the boundary so I …. I …./I [XXX]|==|
ie so some wire fence with battens |… …/|
then a gate [XXX]
then the V of rails to the boundary |==|
and a tree will be planted in the V.
Hawkes Bay Weather:14°C—24°C; no rain [80.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Docking – Not A Boat To Be Scene
Soft Bugs?, Mite Be.
In the morning Karola, Bicka and I went over to Flaxmere to see the McDermotts. It transpired that only the white bantam’s 5 eggs that she’s sitting on had some mites on them, other eggs were clean as a whistle. Also they seem to enjoy coming over to mind the livestock and are happy to do it again when we go to England and France next year. (For the record, it is about 5km from here to their place.)
From there we went on to pick up Karola’s sawn elm from Smith’s Timber in Omahu Rd, now in rail-size pieces and with enough clear runs that it’s looking good for doing the front entrance as planned; the rails are less brittle and we got better lengths, mainly just under 3 metres, than we expected. The weight on the trailer was severe but we got home without mishap and stacked the rails by size and suitability. Under $200 to have the 27 baulks sawn into rails; cheaper than we expected too.
Early evening I did another couple of hours weeding the Griselinia planting. Karola spent the afternoon weeding in various places with her car and the little trailer.
Bridget rang and we were able to track down a couple of annoying bugs in the web application program which pleased me greatly.
Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—25°C; no rain [81.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Soft Bugs?, Mite Be.
Warm And Dry
Lazy day for me except for a couple of hours weeding of Griselinia and dusting the bantams with mite powder after dark. I did find 20 eggs laid since I left last Monday, laid in a nestbox and 3 other places. In addition one white bantam is sitting on 5 eggs in one of the 4 nest boxes; another brown hen is sitting on no eggs at all in another box, so perhaps the laying hens found things getting a bit crowded.
Karola did several hours of weeding and bund construction and moved a set of very old, very rusty iron railing hurdles from behind the green shed, creating an enclosure round the remaining old lemon tree in the Front paddock. She hope to keep the sheep off the lemon tree and plant some other things around its base.
Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—22°C; no rain [81.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Warm And Dry
Return To Karamu
I had accidentally left my computer at Bridget’s last night so we went back to Khandallah before setting off for Karamu. It turned out that Bridget and Chris wanted to do some painting work at one of their rental properties so instead of setting off we, that is Karola, babysat and we didn’t set off till mid afternoon. We admired the new lawn that Chris had just mown; only a few weeks ago it was a clay yard with fancy concrete and wood edgings; now it is a luxuriant dark green lawn.
It was getting dark as we got home about 8:00 pm and it was clear that none of the rain forecast for Hawkes Bay had fallen here. Lambs and mothers all OK. Little black chick had drowned itself in one of the geese water bowls, probably earlier today. Rest of poultry accounted for. McDermott’s report all was OK except that the bantams have lice.
Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—20°C; no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Return To Karamu