Monthly Archives: March 2009

Murray Wilson

Murray Wilson (a relation of Karola’s in his mid 80s) and his new wife Gay dropped in for lunch. Murray and Gay live in Bulls but have bought a section in Taradale and plan to move a small cottage on to it to use for short periods every month.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—16°C; 1.4 mm rain [81.0]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Murray Wilson

Miles and Miles of Electric Fence

Hastings excursion in the morning; putting up kilometres of electric fence – up and down rows of peaches in the orchard – in the afternoon. Meanwhile Karola is making good progress on burning up the remaining bamboo stumps.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—24°C; no rain [81.4]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Miles and Miles of Electric Fence

Peaceful Sunday

Beautiful cool sunny weather. Quiet day; Karola did more tree releasing and burning of bamboo rubbish in a drum.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—23°C; no rain [81.7]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Peaceful Sunday

Roy Natusch’s Funeral

Roy Natusch’s funeral at 10:00 am with wake afterwards at Awatea farm some 30 km out of Hastings on route 50. We got home around 5:00 pm. Karola’s known Roy and his family most of her life; Roy’s son David was at Lindisfarne college in Hastings a year ahead of Kaz; he married Karola’s 1st cousin Nicky Wilson, one of the tribe of Mungatapu Wilson girls. Karola visited Roy every so often in his later years and helped him with his research into the wartime activities of a person much like himself, Harry Jacks. It was due to David, a Rhodes scholar and sometime professor of chemistry at Urbana University in Illinois, and a chain of lucky happenstances that I wound up with a job at IBM in the UK in 1974.

Roy’s brother Guy was there of course, he was a local much respected architect in Napier and he helped with plans for the Karamu homestead several decades ago; we still have his sketches for how the homestead could be brought up to date, and he oversaw the repiling in the mid 1980s.

In talking with Kaz and Yvonne today I found out that Dick Simmons, a friend of Kaz and Yvonne who many years ago with his wife and children stayed with us in Otterbourne in the UK and helped build our patio, died a couple of weeks ago.

On a happier note, Mary went to Nelson for ten days this morning.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—24°C; no rain [81.4]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Roy Natusch’s Funeral

Sheep Contentment

A beautiful autumn day after a cool night. Sheep all contented with more grass than they’ve had all summer.

Karola spent several hours picking up sticks and bits of bamboo from the new grass where the bamboo used to be; the fire ban is over and she is burning this rubbish in an old 44 gallon drum.

Meanwhile I fenced off a bit more of the orchard near the peaches and let the lambs and four ewes in. As evening fell I started assembling 70 more electric fence posts, I bought the bits and pieces and another kilometre of electric fence wire from Harry recently ready for the advent of orchard grazing. Unlike the apples which, once the leaves have dropped, will be fairly impervious to sheep thereabouts, the peach trees are too tender and their bark is too sweet to allow sheep right under the trees so we have to electric fence each side of the lanes between the trees, hence the miles of polywire and dozens of posts.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—25°C; no rain [81.7]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Sheep Contentment

The Long Day of the Sheep

Mary’s rain gauge had another 20 mm of rain in it since last it was measured on 28th February.

First the 15 wether lambs and one ram lamb were separated from “piglet” the Texel ram; they were vaccinated, drenched for worms, and had pour-on applied for lice and a different one against fly strike. Then #806, the ram lamb rejoined “piglet” and the others were put behind an electric fence alongside the peaches in the south-eastern corner of the orchard.

Next the ewes and 12 ewe lambs were penned and the ewe lambs were vaccinated, drenched, and had pour-on applied before joining the wether lambs in the orchard.

After that the ewes, except for the “sudoku” 9 and the 6 x #600s, were vaccinated (different vaccine – the lambs were against various diseases of lambs, this one was to minimise still-born lambs) and had pour-on applied. Ewes #206, #218, #714, #719 were the most careworn and so we put them with the lambs to enjoy a good feed.

Then it was the turn of the sudoku 9 and the 6 #600s, all born in 2006, to be vaccinated and have the pour-on applied. While vaccinating one of the new Texel ewes it jerked at the wrong moment and broke the hypodermic needle off, rendering it useless. I thought the needle might still be in the sheep so there was much searching in the wool and the dust – it wasn’t until much later that Karola hosed down the area and we found the needle, thank goodness. Meanwhile I “repurposed” a clean old syringe that used to hold penicillin and so we were able to complete vaccination of the final 5 ewes.

The sudoku were also given a tonic of iodine in Ketol and warm water – 3 ml of iodine concentrate to 100 ml of Ketol (sugary “pick-me-up” and the sheep like the taste) was enough for ten sheep so we gave it to #632 as well. Like the sudoku 9, she’s not had a lamb ever and the iodine is supposed to help with that, according to brother-in-law Kaz.

And finally the new 9 ewes were given ear tags, #671 – #679; about half of them had a hole ready-made where their previous tag had been removed, in any case there was much less fuss than I’d expected and, touch wood, I got the tags in the left ear every time (left when you’re facing the same way as the ewe that is).

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—23°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.9]

Posted in General | Comments Off on The Long Day of the Sheep

Sheep Stocktaking

Cold night but beautiful balmy day.

John Burnard, our electrician, came early morning and fixed the hot water cylinder by replacing the broken thermostat – what a relief, no new cylnder and no needing a plumber.

Baywide Dingo came and finished the ha-ha wooden wall by completing the back filling of the wall with earth and then bringing the mound of burned bamboo roots and soil over to the ha-ha and in-filling behind the terminating retaining wall. The place where we had the fire is smoothed over ready for re-grassing and the end of the ha-ha, beyond the terminating retaining wall is almost full; it has a surface of topsoil over the ash; we expect to complete filling it with composted vegetation from Karola’s bunds under the oaks.

Mike Croucher came and mowed the lawn.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—22°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.2]

S H E E P   S T O C K T A K I N G

Where: #000=Rams, #100=new Romneys #200, #400, #500, #600 = year
                      #000s    #100s    #200s    #400s    #500s    #600s    Notes
1 Apr 05: .............. -        -       21       35        -        -     Start of 2005/2006 tax year
27 Apr 05: ............. -        -       21       33        -        -     2 lambs returned to Kaz
4 May 05: .............. -        -       20       33        -        -     1 ewe died
9 Aug 05: .............. -        -       20       32        -        -     1 lamb, injured eye, given to Luke
12 Sep 05: ............. -        -       20        9        -        -     23 two-tooths sold
7 Oct 05: .............. -        -       20        9       43        -     2005 crop of lambs
13 Jan 06: ............. -        -       19        9       43        -     1 ewe dies of black mastitis
29 Mar 06: ............. -        -       19        9       42        -     1 lamb died
31 Mar 06: ............. 1        -       19        9       42        -     End of 2005/2006 tax year
26 Apr 06: ............. 1        -       19        9       42        -     Nelson the stud Romney ram arrives
14 Jun 06: ............. 1        -       18        9       42        -     1 ewe died suspected Oleander poisoning
8 Aug 06: .............. 1        -       18        9        0        -     all lambs sold
21 Aug 06: ............. 1        -       11        9        -        -     7 cull ewes sold
8 Oct 06: .............. 1        -       11        9        -       1     First 2006 lamb
24 Oct 06: ............. 1        -       11        9        -       27     1 ewe lamb died
16 Nov 06: ............. 1        -       11        9        -       29     #631 aka Piccolo taken away by Crystal Ladbrook
27 Nov 06: ............. 1        -       11        9        -       30     2006 crop of lambs (30 plus Piccolo)
24 Jan 07: ............. 1       10       11        9        -       30     10 Romney ewes of mixed ages arrives
26 Mar 07: ............. 1       10        4        9        -       30     culled 11 of the #200 ewes   

                      #000s    #100s    #200s    #400s    #600s    #700s    Notes 
31 Mar 07: ............. 1       10        4        9      7+23       -    Stocktaking
 9 May 07: ............. 1        9        4        9      7+23       -    Romney ewe died
22 May 07: ............. 1        9        4        9      6+23       -    #627 ewe died
25 Jun 07: ............. 1        8        4        9      6+23       -    Romney ewe died
 4 Jul 07: ............. 1        8        4        9      6+12       -    "1st eleven" lambs to works
19 Aug 07: ............. 1        8        4        8      6+12       -    #407 ewe died
17 Sep 07: ............. 1        7        4        8      6+12     0+1    Romney ewe died
19 Sep 07: ............. 1        7        4        8      6+1      0+1    "2nd eleven" lambs to the saleyards 
28 Nov 07: ............. 1        7        4        8      6+1      10+16  2007 crop of lambs (including Ben) 
28 Jan 08: ............. 1        6        4        8      6+1      10+16  #295 Romney ewe died 
31 Mar 08: ............. 1        6        4        8      6+1      10+16  stocktaking 
14 Jul 08: ............. 1        6        4        8      6+1       10    16 lambs to works
14 Aug 08: ............. 1        5        4        8      6+1       10    #297 Romney ewe died
20 Oct 08: ............. 1        4        4        8      6+1       10    #294 Romney ewe died
24 Nov 08: ............. 0        0        4        8      6+1       10    culled Romneys 

                      Texels   #200s    #400s    #600s    #700s    $800s   Notes 
25 Nov 08: ............. 0        4        8      6+1       10     12+17   2008 crop of lambs
10 Dec 08: ............. 0        4        7      6+1       10     12+17   #404 ewe died
10 Jan 09: ............. 0        4        6      6+1       10     12+17   #408 ewe died
 8 Feb 09: ............. 0        4        6      6+1       10     12+16   #830 lamb died
24 Feb 09: ............ 9+1       4        6      6+1       10     12+16   Texel sudoku (9) plus Texel ram  
Posted in General | Comments Off on Sheep Stocktaking

Shorn Of All Pretence

Despite the light rain yesterday the lambs are dry enough to be shorn and so they were. The 28 lambs are now visibly plump or thin, large or little.

Lambs #828 and #829 also had a dose of something to dislodge suspected tapeworms; they are the only ones out of 28 with mucky tails.

We’re gearing up to begin grazing the orchard, electric fences all rolled up except for one between the lawn and the Totara paddock.

I went shopping late afternoon wth Bicka – for food and also to get some vaccine for the Sudoku; Kaz has suggested giving them some extra preventive medicines as they’ve failed to have a lamb twice and this is their third strike – well it will be in a month’s time.

Hot water cylinder is on the blink downstairs – the one in the kitchen; we’re so lucky it didn’t happen until the guests had gone, no shower, no hot water anywhere downstairs in the homestead..

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—19°C; no rain [82.0]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Shorn Of All Pretence

Beating The Bounds

Gill and Ben, Karola, Bicka and I walked the homestead boundary and observed the growth in the native tree plantings after which Gill and Ben set off for Wellington.

It’s been a cold day with occasional very light rain; Karola spent most of the afternoon out in the north-west planting area “releasing” trees from the long grass. I’ve been inside doing computer housekeeping. I sent off a request for the LIM report (Land Information Memorandum – information about a property and the various resource / building consents it has). Also a copy my tax return for last year was posted by Ben and Gill on their way home, sent Fastpost to IBM’s local accountants, Ernst and Young. The LIM is one small step in deciding what to do with the cottage currently attached to the homestead.

Ben took a photo of a morepork – native owl – in the shrubbery near our three large concrete rainwater tanks – a brilliant shot which is now up on my Facebook account for “friends ” (mainly family) to see.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—17°C; 3.1 mm rain [81.6]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Beating The Bounds

Altogether Too Many People

Charles did some measuring for his musings about the cottage and where it might be positioned using a measuring wheel I’d forgotten I had but unearthed while looking for old plans of Karamu in the store room. I agreed to get the most up to date LIM report of the homestead and cottage that I can for Charles.

Meanwhile Gill and Ben went to the Farmer’s market. Karola and Radah prepared lunch for the next lot of visitors. Mary Wilson dropped in to leave Steve under his tree for the day.

Our lunch visitors arrived at noon: Jo and Rauf Rangooni from Bulls visiting Napier and on their way home,, and the Rangooni’s Napier hosts, Margaret and Brian Cobbe.

Charles and Radah left for Wellington after lunch leaving Gill and Ben and me to have a relaxed afternoon – Karola went and took in the last afternoon of the Horse of the Year show.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—18°C; no rain [80.9]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Altogether Too Many People

Charles’ and Radha’s Day In The Sun

Long relaxing breakfast followed by chat with Charles about the cottage and options for where it might be put and whether it was sound enough to move; he suggested facing it north just behind the old plum tree on the lawn between the garage and the green shed. The underside of the cottage appears dry and free of rot.

Ben and I rounded up the ram and wethers and penned them up; pushing the big wether #630 and a couple of small lambs for company into the trailer. We took them all round to the Ladbrook’s, four doors down, where #630 joined “Piccolo”, the runt lamb that Crystal raised into a large, very tame and healthy wether, even larger than #630. Ewes and ewe lambs were let into the new grass where the bamboo used to be, as a treat.

More mushrooms which we had for lunch after Karola returned for her morning shopping expedition in Hastings. Charles and Radha went to Napier in the afternoon, when they returned we went into the orchard and they picked up windfall apples and sweet corn cobs, to their delight.

Ben and I installed the new Airport Extreme wireless access point for the homestead wireless LAN – this all went without any unexpected hitches and is back working again now. Every now and then Bridget called on the computer video chat, either for Natalie to talk to Grandma or to discuss the how-tos of some part of her new iMac computer.

In the evening another splendid dinner and Radha played the piano (which was in tune) and guitar for a while, a very pleasant evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—23°C; 5.7 mm rain [81.2]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Charles’ and Radha’s Day In The Sun

The Guests Arrive

Mary stayed the night and went off to the Horse of the Year show again, leaving Steve, her large over-friendly Alsatian with us again. She retrieved him silently some time in the evening.

Landrover went in for WOF and service – needs a back light cover that has broken so it still hasn’t got its WOF. WX228 retrieved at 5:00 pm.

More mushrooms which were added to the evening fish dinner.

Mid afternoon Gill and Ben arrived; Charles and Radha early evening, all as planned. We had a very pleasant dinner.

I finished the computing work planned for this week on the UK colleague’s website by 3:30 pm and will have the entire weekend off.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—23°C; 2.8 mm rain [81.2]

Posted in General | Comments Off on The Guests Arrive

Piglet Out and About

Quite a nice day outside. Baywide Dingo have backfilled the first 80 metres of the ha-ha wall, up to the corner.

Karola went into Hastings for medical check and then on to Napier for lunch with one of her elderly school mistresses, Hilary Jeffries. Meanwhile Mary Wilson dropped in as planned to leave her large boisterous German Shepherd dog, Steve, in the shade to await her return from the Horse of the Year show. Mary is staying tonight, as is Steve. Bicka is not overly impressed.

Just as Mary was leaving I noticed a small sheep crossing my vision where the sudoku ewes are grazing. That’s not right. Then I saw that about half the wether and ram lambs were in with the ewes along wiht a very attentive Piglet. Well, much shrieking and gnashing of teeth – Mary helped round them all up and draft them back into their single sex groups again – likely too late to avoid some lambs in August now, almost two months too early. How did this happen? Piglet (who has the bruised head to prove it) smashed through yet another gate, breaking the chain on the latch and straightening out a 1/4 inch mild steel hook that is welded to the gate and holds the latch chain in place. Must have been one very determined bash. Seeing him this afternoon I suspect he’ll have the fence down by tomorrow morning.

To my surprise there was another crop of mushrooms again today – we had them with dinner.

Bridget called on her new Mac and Karola and Natalie had their first video conference.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—26°C; no rain [81.1]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Piglet Out and About

Bridget Joins The Elite

Marathon night on the computer finishing around 3:30am – trying to reach a certain point by Friday, before Gill and Ben and Charles and Radha arrive.

Haircut and food trip to town. Baywide Dingo came late morning and continued with backfilling the wooden wall of wonder (www). Karola did several hours of cutting the long grass from around trees and feeding it to the sheep.

Graham and Tracey were in town and popped in, joined us for dinner with their fish and chips and our pork chops, spuds, and green beans.

Bridget chatted online and we got video conferencing going between our Mac computers – her gleaming 24″ 3GHz 1000GB beautiful iMac has arrived and is up and working,

Hawkes Bay Weather: 15°C—25°C; no rain [80.8]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Bridget Joins The Elite

Almost Rain, But Not Quite

Apart from a scramble to move 120 or so fence posts from one place to another before dark, there was not much outside activity today.

Karola spent almost the entire day typing stuff on her computer – and it wasn’t email or Internet because, unbeknownst to her, the in-house wireless network is broken and I’m using a long cable to stay connected, her computer has no access at all.

Graham Harvey called and said that at last, this is after nearly two years of thinking about it and mis-shots, he’s got a wireless connection from his house to Touchwood Books shop 300 metres away and from there by satellite onto the Internet. Tracey will be able to download all the pictures of beagles she wants.

As planned Graham and Tracey and Karola met up at the local wine tasting venue this evening, Karola is stocking up for the busy weekend ahead.

Our orchardist Alan Ladbrook agrees we can start grazing the sheep in parts of the orchard. Bruce Richardson, Mobile Shearing, is booked to come next week and shear the lambs; he’s also bringing various drench and vaccine and pour-on products for Karola’s ‘sudoku’, nine new Texel maiden ewes, with an intent to end that condition.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 14°C—21°C; 2.3 mm rain [80.9]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Almost Rain, But Not Quite

Grass Is Growing – Sunny Spells

Quiet day for me. Karola planning for the influx of visitors next weekend. Baywide Dingo came for a while and started the infilling behind the new wooden wall. More tomorrow.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 14°C—21°C; 3.6 mm rain [81.2]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Grass Is Growing – Sunny Spells

Karola Returns

The last black chick has vanished, probably a snack for a hawk, cat, or large rat. Its mother seemed unnaturally relieved, reasserting herself in the pecking order with vigour.

Another black chick has hatched – this from the hen also sitting on pukeko eggs. It’s a bit cold now and the hen seems pretty clueless so I will be very surprised if it lasts long.

Bicka and I had a run, well I cycled, up to the sweet corn acre again and got a couple of cobs for tonight’s entre.

Karola arrived home late afternoon – Bicka and I were very pleased.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—19°C; no rain [80.7]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Karola Returns

Sheep Treats

No new mushrooms today, just a bowl full from earlier in the week. One could get quite slim on a diet of mushroom it seems to me, but for the mountain of butter one gently simmers them in.

Sudoku and #600s had one more day on the strip of grass alongside the new wooden wall where they could see but not touch for the last week, to eat the fresh growth before its flattened by the contractors as they backfill the wall with a strip of gravel along the bottom and earth up to the top next week.

Ewes and ewe lambs let onto the new grass ex-bamboo where they feasted on acorns and the longest grass they’ve had access to for months – just for the day.

Bicka and I had a run, well I cycled, up to the sweet corn acre and got a couple of cobs for lunch.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—19°C; no rain [80.5]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Sheep Treats

Karola Off to Wellington

Karola has gone to Wellington for a couple of days, via Hilary Haylock in Bulls for lunch, to deliver the wooden toy cot we’ve bought Natalie and some bedclothes for it that Karola has sewn up over the past month – pillows and so on.

Despite the cooler weather there was one more crop of mushrooms from the Middle and Totara paddocks.

The offcuts from the wooden wall of the ha-ha have been loaded into the trailer – only two planks and 5 posts left over out of 100 6-metre planks and 70 posts, which is cutting it a bit fine. I let Karola’s “sudoku” of Texel ewes and their six #600 companions into the strip of land alongside the new wooden wall where the grass is quite long.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—21°C; no rain [80.5]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Karola Off to Wellington

Cold Snap, Snap!

From the bedroom window we can see the snow-sprinkled Kaweka mountains, yes it was a touch cold last night.

Bicka and the cat have had their 3-monthly de-worming tablets.

Karola and I moved the end-of-haha retaining wall culvert up by switching round three of the heavy wooden planks – naturally I couldn’t get the last one back in place until Karola made the obvious suggestions – we did shave a bit off and then it went on no problem.

A swarm of bees took up residence in the upstairs wall of the “bee room” bedroom; with the decline in hives due to disease we’re a little sad that the poison put in the wall to discourage the bees has proven seriously effective for ten years or more – so this swarm will probably all die in a day or two.

Karola bought and we applied 12 metres of muslin sock to the 12 metres of black perforated pipe to be buried behind the end-of-haha retaining wall; the sock is said to stop silt getting in and clogging the pipe.

Karola continued her releasing of young trees in the planting area on the north-western corner, feeding the clipping to intrigued and curious sheep.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—21°C; no rain [80.5]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Cold Snap, Snap!

Wintery Blast

Winter has arrived. Last morning of mushroom gathering. The Baywide Dingo team finished nailing up the wooden wall. Then it rained.

Karola spent some hours releasing trees from the long grass up in the north west corner; she uncovered a nest of four eggs about bantam-sized – pheasant or pukeko, we may never know but I put them under a broody bantam to see what happens.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—21°C; 3.7 mm rain [80.8]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Wintery Blast

Bustling Day

Bay Dingo came to begin putting up the wall of wood – they got the first two bottom rows on today. I picked yet another collander full of mushrooms. Moved the sheep so that the rams and wethers are in the One Acre and the ewes and ewe lambs are in the Middle paddock while ‘the sudoku’ and the six #600s remain in the Front paddock.

Meanwhile I finished cleansing the pile of earth and stuff that Bay Dingo dumped as fill for behind the wall that ends the ha-ha – just removing bricks and 20 or so small concrete pavers and a few bits of general rubbish.

It’s good to know that Gill and Ben are coming up for the weekend on 20th as are Charles Bagnall and Radah. We’ve been trying to entice Charles up here for a year to give us his view of the structural state of the cottage.

Karola brought Tommy Ormond (she’s 91) home with her after she’d had her hair done – for lunch. Then mid afternoon Brien Mahoney of the Guardian Trust came for tea.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—23°C; no rain [80.5]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Bustling Day

Even More Mushrooms

Another nice day although I was inside for most of it. Karola and I did an hour of mulching in the goose enclosure just before lunch; Karola then carried on with her energetic programme of weeding and planting. Late afternoon I took a first pass at removing the rubbish from a pile of mixed topsoil and rubbish kindly donated by Baywide Dingo for filling in behind the ha-ha end wall. In fact it’s not really rubbish – a few bricks and small paving stones and a quantity of weed mat.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—22°C; no rain [80.8]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Even More Mushrooms

Mushroom Delight

A beautiful autumn day – sunny and cool with not a cloud in the sky. This is the fourth day we’ve had one meal at least of mushrooms from the Middle and Totara paddocks.

The white hen who had two black chicks seems to be down to one today – but that one is looking healthy enough.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—25°C; no rain [80.5]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Mushroom Delight

Slumdog Millionare – Fast-Paced Romp Plus India

While feeding the wethers some hay, Karola noticed that poor little wether #802 was flystruck again so I cleaned him up and gave him a good dose of pick-me-up Vigest. As part of this I got the wethers and rams into the yards. Piglet was so upset by being cooped up that he rammed a netting gate, making a large dent in it, and broke the latch – so he escaped back into the Island paddock.

Later in the day I replaced the now sharpened blades in the mulcher, after which it promptly bucketed down for 30 minutes. Karola spent the day between showers planting and weeding.

In the evening we went to Cinema Gold to see the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—26°C; 15.3 mm rain [81.4]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Slumdog Millionare – Fast-Paced Romp Plus India

A Hunch Before Lunch

Occasional showers – a trip to town and a day hunched over computer. All’s well. Mary has already had her flue jab for 2009; Karola and I got ours on our trip to town today.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 18°C—22°C; 0,1 mm rain [81.7]

Posted in General | Comments Off on A Hunch Before Lunch

But Not So Fast, Maestro

No sign of the contractors Baywide Dingo today.

Apart from chain-sawing off a post on the edge of the grass bridge that is surplus to requirements and taking a look at the sheep, not much going on outside for me. Mike Croucher came and mowed the lawns so they’re tidier if not particularly shorter. Karola did huge weeding efforts, even so there’s an endless supply of same. I did pick another colander of mushrooms though and we had them as part of dinner.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 13°C—22°C; 6.2 mm rain [81.1]

Posted in General | Comments Off on But Not So Fast, Maestro

Planks Cometh

As planned the wall-of-wood planks have arrived, all 600 metres. As they are freshly sawn they are full of moisture and very heavy, barely got them off the truck because the truck’s crane wouldn’t cope – but it did, just.

I have been experimenting with uploading some Karamu photos to Facebook – using Mac iPhoto it really is incredibly easy.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—21°C; no rain [80.9]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Planks Cometh

Is It Winter So Soon

Quite cold, cloudy, and a southerly breeze – suddenly it feels like winter.

Karola gave the ewes and lambs a new salt lick with added zinc; zinc protects against the dreadful facial excema in sheep. Sheep love a salt lick. Took photos of “piglet” (and I took off his collar) and of the “sudoku” of nine new ewes.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—24°C; 0.7 mm rain [81.2]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Is It Winter So Soon

Magnum Opus

Beautiful autumnal weather – cool and sunny. However inside computing most of the day. Late afternoon Karola and I got the two flocks of sheep into the yards and dosed them with Magnum – sprayed on their backs in a stripe – to discourage flystrike. All except what Karola calls her Sudoku – her nine Texel ewes. Piglet came quietly and I was in the pen with him and his wether gang and he didn’t attack.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—27°C; no rain [81.8]

Posted in General | Comments Off on Magnum Opus

First Day of Autumn

Cloudy and increasingly hot day. The ewes and lambs have made a superb job of cleaning up the drive over night and are just about ready to begin eating things they shouldn’t – they’ve pruned the Pittisporum bushes up to head height but have not started standing on their hind legs for a shorter trim yet. Karola has shooed them back into the Goose enclosure and Middle paddock and taken down the electric fence so fence is down and gates are re-opened for Postie in the morning.

Marieke left for Taupo mid morning. Mona and David Jeffries dropped by briefly with their two children and a cousin on their way from Napier to Wellington.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 13°C—29°C; no rain [81.7]

Posted in General | Comments Off on First Day of Autumn