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Monthly Archives: May 2008
First Day in Wellington
We spent most of the day with Bridget and family – Natalie’s “jimbaroo” nursery school in the morning – I went to see Mary and do a couple of small jobs for her while Karola attended nursery school. Karola cooked dinner in the evening then back to Pitoitoi.
Mary’s planned, booked, and eagerly anticipated cruise round the South Island fjords with her friend Jean is off – apparently they use an old ship converted clumsily for tourism with very steep tween-deck ladders and bathrooms up a deck and at the far end of the ship – hardly the best arrangement for the older ones amongst us. As Mary asked specifically about those arrangements and was assured all facilities were adjacent she is rightly getting her money back. I hate to think how I’d feel if I’d come from overseas only to find out the configuration after beginning the cruise. Not very smart behaviour from the tour operators or their agents.
A call from Armourguard – alarm in dining room at Karamu went off – they checked and no trouble found – a mouse again I suppose.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 0°C—15°C; 0.2mm rain [?]
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Karamu to Pitoitoi
Romneys and wethers moved back into the Front paddock; checked with Alan Ladbrooke and he is not expecting to spray in Karola’s orchard for another 8 – 10 days so we can leave the main mob where they are.
We drove with Bicka and the two visitors down to Wellington ion the Landrover. Bicka nestled between the girls on the back seat and loved every minute. With rucsacks and all it was a full Landrover. Stopping first at Pitoitoi we tested the new water cylinder ($1537-66) and all worked as expected. We were delighted to find that work on the rebuilding of the carport had begun.
We took the girls into the city and they checked in at their “backpackers’ hotel, “Base Wellington” in Courtney Place before we headed out to Lyal Bay for a rather good evening meal with Gill and Ben at the Elements Cafe.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—16°C; 0.1mm rain [79.8]
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Well Ram, Well Ewe Programme
Sarah Greasley and school friend Ellen Lavender have been staying with us for couple of days. Sarah is my godmother Petra Badham’s granddaughter. Karola gave them hearty meals and a good look round Napier and they got something a bit out of the ordinary with some sheep drenching practice. They are travelling together round the world for 6 months of a “gap year” between school and university – Sarah is to study engineering, Ellen, veterinary science.
With their help we got all the sheep drenched and protected against lice with a pour-on noxious chemical. The revamped yards work very well.
Karola took the girls to a symphony at the Napier Town Hall in the evening.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—15°C; 0.1mm rain [80.1]
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Fenced
Eighteen spans complete – fence complete. Mostly sunny day, warm in sheltered spots. Copper sulphate spray on the peaches – which meant some mucking about with the electric fence to get the tractor in and out. Sarah Greasley and school friend Ellen Lavender are out in NZ on holiday – gap year world trip before starting University in UK. They arrived by bus today from Wellington and we’ll take them back to Wellington when we go down in 2 days time to see Bridget and family. Sarah’s mother’s mother was Petra Badham – nee Amsden so we are related.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—15°C; 0.1mm rain [79.3]
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Marina’s New Online Order Form Installed
This unsettled winter weather continues. Ewes and Nelson now in the orchard – well the 1/3rd nearest the homestead. Romneys and wethers in the West paddock. Everyone delighted with the change.
Karola went to see one of her elderly relations. I did a dozen spans of fence battens leaving us 18 spans to go. Late afternoon worked online using Internet telephony and video with Simon Burt, Marina Wilson’s web designer, to install the upgraded version of the order form I made for Marina’s pearl business web site. All seems to be working OK now.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—13°C; 2.3mm rain [79.7]
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Orchard Temporary Fence Erected
Another six spans battened down (up?). Also several kilometres walked as I put up the electric fence in the orchard for the sheep; they will probably be introduced to it tomorrow though I’m thinking that the ewes and Nelson might fare better in the orchard and the Romneys and wethers perhaps in the West paddock – because the former enjoy eating weeds as well as grass and the latter really thrive only on grass.
We went to Hastings in the afternoon, me, Karola and Bicka.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—13°C; 0.7mm rain [79.4]
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An Inside Sort of Day
Only 36 more spans of fence to batten; it’s taking about 15 minutes per span but rain showers interfered today so we didn’t get many done.
Ewes and Nelson let into the rest of the Triangle aka West paddock today.
Mary’s raingauge showed 70mm since I last emptied it on 9th May.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—14°C; 7.3mm rain [79.9]
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A Few Battens More
Intermittent but heavy showers made outside work mostly time spent putting on or taking off wet clothes; still we did put up another 6 spans of battens. Bicka got very muddy and wet, dried off and cleaned then muddy and wet again. Good day for inside computer work so most of it spent doing just that.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—14°C; 20mm rain [79.6]
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Showers
Soggy day but good progress on the fence. Last 100 fence post clips made and inserted, and all 376 clips cut to length and hammered over neatly. The concrete posts come with eight pairs of holes front-to-back big enough to poke #8 (4mm) wire through. You cut a piece of wire about 150mm long and bend one end in a U so that the short leg is about 30mm long. Hammering gently on the top of the U you catch the wire to be clipped inside the U and the long leg of the U pokes out the back of the post. Then you cut the bit at the back to about 50mm and smartly hammer it over into the groove running down the back of the post, so it doesn’t catch on people or animals or otherwise come undone.
As darkness fell I stapled up 4 spans with 5 battens per span; it was so dark that I was searching for the newest staples, they still being bright and shiny, I couldn’t see the older oxidized staples at all. So, we can put up electric fence and get the Romneys and wether lambs into the orchard now that short section of the boundary fence is complete – I wasn’t going to risk a breakout through the electric fence allowing a raid on Craig’s lettuces next door, hence the wait till the boundary was once again secure.
Highlight of the day was when a bit of grit got caught in the Landrover front offside disk brake – it makes a terrible screeching sound. Worried that it was a piece of wire wrapping itself round expensive under-vehicle parts I stopped and slid under to take a look. Nothing there of course, and as I began to slide back out a large almost liquid slab of fresh wet mud slid off the mudguard onto my neck. Pity there was no-one to share the merriment.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—17°C; 12.0mm rain [79.8]
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Karola Returns
Another day of intermittent showers but real progress on the fence nevertheless. All 8 wires up and strained and crimped. In several places roots of the Lombardy poplars impeded the line of the bottom wire so some axe work was necessary – that too is complete. All wire knots and joins tidied up. There’s still 100 of the 330 post ties to do and all 245 fence battens.
Karola drove up from Wellington in time to eat my stir-fry gruel. Bicka was highly excited to see her; perhaps now interesting things will happen, she thinks.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—16°C; 3.5mm rain [79.7]
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Tree Ordering Day
Heavy showers irregularly all day and quite cold. Very little progress on the fence but: Karamu and Rimu trees ordered from Taupo Native Tree Nursery and they’ll arrive in about a week; ordered the bulk of the trees from Titoke Nursery in Riverbend Rd near Napier – they’ll put them aside until we’re ready to pick them up; and ordered 24 Holly trees, ordinary holly trees from Greenleaf Nurseries over near Clive. Greenleaf has most of the non-natives that Karola wants too so she can perhaps order them when she returns from Bridget and Wellington. No luck with Ngaios and the expert advice is to wait until the worst frosts are over in the spring and plant then. So, that’s the new plan for the 20 Ngaios.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—15°C; 2.9mm rain [80.3]
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Wintery Day – Worse Than Wellington
I woke late to find that there was a heavy mist and it was raining. So, no more outside activity until this clears up. Bicka and I went out in the warm Landrover; first over to Riverbend Road in Napier to Titoke Nurseries. They have most of the native trees we expect to put in this year, except for Ngaio and Rimu. Then we went shopping to New World. It being Tuesday around mid-day and cold and cloudy there was hardly anyone about – marvellous. I phoned round to find out the best price for fence battens; GoldPine regular prices beat Tumu even when they say theirs are on a special price for the month.
After lunch Bicka and I went back to the fence; at 4:00pm we went to GoldPine and purchased 245 1.14m 50x50mm fresh fence battens. It just fills the trailer to the top of the sides. More on the fence wiring until dark.
Karola is still with Bridget in Wellington; she’s asked the plumber to install a new hot water cylinder for us at Pitoitoi so when we both go down for Alexandra’s birthday next month we have hot showers and baths again. As we only go there for a few weeks a year there doesn’t seem much benefit in installing solar heating, thought we did discuss it.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—13°C; 4.9mm rain [79.8]
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Wired, But Not For Sound
Another glorious winter’s day – cold night and a frost followed by clear blue sky and sunshine all day. Did about half what’s needed to get the orchard drive boundary fence wires on the posts; another fine day should see me ready to buy the 250 battens.
Mid afternoon I gave Bicka a shower, while there was best of the day’s sun to get her dry again. Of course she got muddy legs pretty quickly but did like being clean – romped around at high speed after her wash. Apart from general mud there was the problem that while trying to soak an old piece of bread in some old milk for her – to soften it and add protein – I spilt some milk on her and the thought of damp dog and sour milk smell did not appeal.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—15°C; 2.9mm rain [80.1]
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Concrete Posts Are In
Bridget has the flu as do her daughters Natalie and Alexandra; Karola has gone down to Wellington to help. meanwhile I completed the final 10 concrete posts.
So, there are 49 spans of about 5 metres each which means 50 posts. There’s the existing huge concrete strainer either end and the big wooden strainer for the inner heavy gate across the orchard drive, leaving 47 ordinary 2-metre concrete fence posts. Six of these were in the right place at the right height and not unduly cracked, bent, or broken. Karola and I have dug holes and planted or replanted 41 posts in the last few days. Good exercise, the ground was perfect for digging and we were lucky in that the expected interference from old poplar tree roots didn’t really get in the way. Next is to put up the wires and then buy about 250 pine 50mm x 50mm battens, five per span – oh and 2000 staples.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—15°C; 0.1mm rain [80.4]
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Cold and Mainly Sunny
Gave the ewes another slice of the West paddock – that meant taking down and putting up 200m f 3-wire electric fence. Also took ewes to their new swathe of grass through the improved yards and it is amazing how quick and easy penning them up has become – touch wool – and we gave #218 and #725 another dose of Vigest “pick me up”.
Then Karola and I cut down three small Oleander trees under the big oak – because the sheep have been known to eat Oleander and it poisons them. These large shrubs have been scheduled for demolition for years but now the sheep have access it had to be done.
Finally we got on with the concrete posts for the orchard boundary fence; 10 done today; 10 more to do tomorrow if the weather holds.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—16°C; 0.1mm rain [79.9]
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Concrete Evidence
Of the 46 posts along the orchard drive boundary we’ve now replanted or passed as acceptable 26 leaving 20 more to do. Today’s contribution was 11 posts.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—17°C; no rain [79.1]
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Best Weather For Fencing
Bantam census: 14 chickens and one cockerel. 12 hens and 2 chickens from different broods this year – potentially cockerels too.
Karola and I worked on the boundary fence – about 8 concrete posts dug in and rammed – out of 30 or so to do; my estimate of 22 was optimistic and only counted the ones I actually extracted because they were broken; many are too high or too low or on a lean and need replanting; only about a dozen of the original posts are OK. Soil is ideal for digging but the posts are really too heavy for me, let alone Karola, to lift.
We’ve also started on our tree list for this winter’s plantings before we leave for Europe in late July, refining the first thoughts we had last night..
Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—17°C; no rain [79.4]
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Three Concrete Posts In, Only 22 To Go
Got some gate fittings from GoldPine, yet more 10amp fuses for the Landrover, and made a start on the orchard drive boundary fence. Put a concrete stay and anchor block on one end and three concrete posts installed. Later I put a small strainer post in the sheep yards ready to hang yet another gate and maybe create a couple more holding pens. As we do have two separate flocks from time to time it wastes time if you can’t pen them both up safely for shearing or crutching.
Karola’s birthday and we had a firelit dinner at a local restaurant, The Corn Market, and discussed our 2008 tree planting plans.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—19°C; no rain [80.1]
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More Sheep Yard Work
An absolutely beautiful Hawkes bay winter’s day. More sheep yard work. Mike Croucher finished the lawns in semi-darkness. One chick of the three has expired. Oh and Karola wanted to give a couple of the sheep, #218 and #725 ewes, some pick-me-up Vigest – black oily mixture. This instead of regular high-tech sheep drench which is the conventional remedy for too many internal parasites. We’ll see if they are indeed up-picked. I got the sheep from the Triangle paddock via the Island paddock and into the pen in about 5 minutes – it seems to work well.
Karola went into town and took Bicka to the vets – for a “health check and vaccination”. She is not considered fat, is in good health and her eye is stable; she had her nails clipped. (palceholder until I find out what the vaccination was for/against)
Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—15°C; no rain [79.4]
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Leafy Autumn Lawn
Nice day in the sun but cold. Some progress on the temporary sheep yards. Roger Walker (insurance broker) called round for afternoon tea and a look at our insurance needs. Mike Croucher came and began mowing the lawn but there is so much autumn leaf debris that it’s taking twice as long as usual so he’ll be back tomorrow to finish it.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—14°C; no rain [80.3]
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40 Years On
Rained on and off today but anyway we went to Jenny and Noel Hendery’s 40th wedding anniversary bash at Puketapu and that consumed most of the daylight hours. Bicka had a relaxed day at home in the dry.
Yesterday I thought that I was down to 2 of the 3 recent chicks but this morning I was delighted to see that we were back to two yellow and one black chick again.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—17°C; no rain [79.9]
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Casement Closed
Kaz came over to attend an Australian hardwood auction much advertised in the papers; apparently it was a fairly dull affair though he’s bought some logs or planks he doesn’t need and intends to park them here for the forseeable future.
Major activity was the draught-proofing of a strange serving hatch under the kitchen sink – a door about 800mm square, ill-fitting and encouraging blasts of icy outside air into the kitchen. Anyway an extra rim of wood round the inside of the casement has made a difference – something that we’ve been meaning to do for the last 4 – 5 years.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—_18°C; 7.3mm rain [79.9]
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Drafting Gates – Luxury
Not so cold and some sunshine despite promised showers. Am well into the making of the drafting gates for the temporary sheep yards. Karola off around town in the morning, gardening in the afternoon. Down to one of the ten chicks now. Karola is pretty sure it’s a hawk taking its almost daily toll; well there’s only one more morsel to have. The three new chicks are safe inside a coup for the time being.
Since I last checked on 18th April there’s been 60mm of rain in Mary’s rain gauge out by the pump shed.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—18°C; 8.3mm rain [79.4]
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Nelson and Ladies in Deep Green Bliss
Morning in Hastings shopping etc. In the afternoon Karola went on a weeding/mowing binge and I moved electric fence and let the ewes and Nelson have half the Triangle paddock – which they enthusiastically relished – grass being just the right length for them, about 150mm (6 inches) and mature so full of nourishment.
Karola suggested some improvements for the temporary sheep yards and I did some tinkering with them late afternoon but I fear more serious reconstruction is needed. Still, the main yard with its curved fence and small gateways for drafting are OK.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—17°C; no rain [79.7]
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A Crutch in Time …
Up reasonably early today to prepare for the shearer to come and crutch our 52 sheep. Quickly put up some railings and tied various gates across gaps, then we were ready to get the sheep in. It was very cold, a fair frost, and the sheep were a bit boisterous. Anyway, once in the new temporary yards they were much easier to handle, they just balked a bit at going in.
It all took rather longer than it should, not least because we had several attempts at getting the main flock into the yards and then managed to get the main and small flocks muddled with much running around and under-breath cursing. Luckily some escapees stopped short of running off down the Avenue to Hastings but they did career around the garden and jump down the ha-ha and otherwise desport themselves. I actually was running so hard at one point that I fell over my own feet into the mud. It’s said that humans keep upright by a sort of controlled falling; well this was somewhat uncontrolled. Karola sensibly didn’t laugh too openly though the sheep were clearly deeply derisive.
The upshot was that a Romney ewe and one of her twins escaped being crutched and later in the day Karola did a very good job herself with the kitchen scissors. Not sure I like my vegetables being cut up with “the dagging scissors” but there you are. We eventually got all 52 into the yards and sorted them into Nelson plus his ladies and their daughters in one flock and the wethers and rams and Romney ewes in another.
And tonight I think I finished the demonstration web page for Marina Wilson’s web site – I’d said I’d show how her pearl necklace online ordering page could be made much friendlier and easier to use – it was all pretty obvious stuff, just took me a week of evenings to mock it up.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—14°C; 0.1mm rain [79.7]
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Bright but Cold – And 3 Chicks
A sunny day though cold. Delighted to spot and get into a coup a hen with three new chicks – one black and two white. And there’s still 3 of the 10 left as well.
Bruce Richardson rang this evening and he wants to come and do the crutching tomorrow at 8:00 am. Luckily I had put up the netting gate forming part of the yards and I can put up the railings across the final 3 metre gap quickly – then it’ll be #8 wire for gate fasteners and a couple of little netting gates to plug gaps and it probably will be OK.
Did a check of some of the tree planting areas. We need another 20 ngaio for the top third of the orchard drive where we had poor success last winter. And 23 lemonwood and karamu for the planting area alongside the ngaios. Most of the planting along the orchard drive or jst over the fence from the drive is doing very well, it’s just last winter’s planting that suffered.
Planting along the Avenue is quite good. Karola’s original natives corner is flourishing; the Australian strip under the eucalypts is mixed but mainly thriving; and there are 4 dead and 3 sickly out of 70 yew trees. Not a bad strike.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -2°C—14°C; 0.1mm rain [79.8]
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Damp and Cold
Let the Romneys and Nelson into the Front paddock – to spell the North paddock where they’ve been for many weeks. Grass is growing well everywhere despite the drop in temperature.
More rain today so inside computer tasks broken by lunch at Pernel Fruit World.
I could only count 2 of the 10 chicks left today. Also noted that a hen nesting in the roots of the big oak had hatched some chicks while we were in Wellington – no sign of the hen or chicks.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—11°C; 6.4mm rain [80.4]
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Day 4 in Wellington
ArmourGuard rang from their call centre in Christchurch to say our alarm had gone off in the dining room at Karamu – but when they sent a patrol round they found no signs of forced entry so it was probably a mouse (or, as some sceptics say, perhaps a ‘virtual mouse’, as it costs $60 per call-out).
Hot water downstairs at Pitoitoi still not right – we’d best get a new cylinder.
In the morning I at last got rid of a sizeable branch from a Wattle overhanging from the reserve uphill behind us. I cut the branch a few months ago but it got caught in our Kowhai by the back door. Now it’s down and cut into firewood. I also cleaned out the critical open ditch along the edge of the reserve above us and the open drains round the back door; essential to stop a repeat of the undermining we had a few years ago.
A family brunch at the cafe down on the beach front: Anna-Marie (the other grandparent) and Bridget’s tribe. Bicka was banished to the car. By 2:00 pm we were on our way home to Hastings. Snow on the Tararua and Ruahine mountains.
Cold and dark and wet when we got home. Another 3 chickens have disappeared – presumed eaten – but otherwise Laurie McDermott said all was well.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—13°C; 27.3mm rain [?]
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Day 3 in Wellington
The Pitoitoi waste disposal unit has seized up – I finally got it un-seized and re-assembled, but Karola found a final end-of-line new one on big discount at the local PlaceMakers so we now have a spare should the current one really give up.
Mary’s for lunch and then to Bridget’s where we were able to pick up a couple of old computer printers and a defunct dishwasher and drop these off at the Seaview transfer station on the way home – open till 5:00pm on Saturdays and only $10 per carload of rubbish.
Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—15°C; no rain [?]
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Day 2 in Wellington
Marina Wilson’s for lunch and discussion about her PayPal-order web page.
Back to Pitoitoi to meet up with plumber Erol Chittenden who does a few checks but really has no idea why things are not working as they should. Could be the thermostat, the element, etc. Our confusion was compounded by some work on the water main some roads away which meant the water went off for a few hours. It looked like the whole water system at Pitoitoi was disintegrating – first no hot water, then the water all slowing to a trickle – but a chance glance in the mailbox unearthed (under the slugs and old newspapers) a page saying that due to the water main work the water would be turned off this morning. Erol turned up the thermostat but had no other concrete suggestion, just an observation that the cylinder was possibly 2nd hand when installed when the house was built in the early 1960s.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—19°C; 0.8mm rain [?]
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Day 1 in Wellington
The main hot water cylinder seems to be playing up. The shower, usually a luxury of lots of hot water, is down to a tepid trickle or a freezing flood.
Most of day spent at Bridget’s and babysitting duty in the evening.
The PlayStation 3 that Chris and I share is in the way at Station Rd so I packed it up and will take it back with me to Karamu.
Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—18°C; no rain [?]
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