Monthly Archives: April 2009

First it was a trip to Farmlands to talk about pasture re-grassing. I am too late for this autumn, the special mixes Karola and I have found and would like to plant need 5 -6 weeks of warm soil temperatures to get established, otherwise they die. Our best option is to plant some Italian rye grass as soon as possible; it is very fast growing and would give us winter grass. Then, next March, we should recultivate and sow our preferred lucerne-based mix – it includes chicory, plantain, fescue, and brome.

Then it was off to Newport Auto Electrical to leave the car to have its passenger window fixed.

Heather Hawkes, Guardian Trust, arrived as planned around 10:30 am.

Karola and I then spent several hours mending the orchard back fence along the big drainage ditch; in places the ditch wall had eroded and there were gaping holes in the fence. Haywood was passing and stopped to talk; he owns about 60 acres of orchard on McNabb Road and his daughter in Auckland bough Alan Ladbrook’s orchard last year. Karola then decided to clear some eucalypt branches from the drainage ditch – two small trailer loads were carted back to the remains of a fire on the sweet-corn patch. It rained for a while.

We picked up the car with window fixed, $150 or so. Then, some time after 4:00 pm I had lunch. The showers passed and I put another 12 kg grass seed on the gentle slope of the ha-ha and on the site of the bamboo stump fire.

The vehicls pet divider kitset arrived today and is now installed. Bicka isn’t really sure about it yet.

Bicka’s big excitement for the day was just before the rain came down quite heavily. We had lost track of her while getting the car and whistled for her from the back door. She, in an attempt to come home, apparently jumped off the top of the ha-ha onto the gentle slope, only to find that the usual ways off that slope were all barred with electric fence. So she stayed there, shivering and wet and unhappy until I came out to sow the extra grass seed; then we saw her and released her from her ha-ha prison.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—20°C; 3.1 mm rain [83.2]

First off Karola and I picked all the Granny Smith apples off the one tree with unintended branches of that variety and some branches of Pacific Rose. Karola now has maybe twenty shopping bags heavy with apples.

Then I took the Subaru in to get its towbar fitted – $250 for the purchase and fitting of a brand new towbar. After that it was off to Newport Auto Electrical to book the car in because the front passenger window doesn’t open.

Oak Avenue aka Ormond Road has been closed at the Omahu Road end for almost two weeks while a large pipe is laid – possibly replacement of a sewer – in Omahu Road. This has made the Avenue delightfully free of traffic, especially at what passes for rush hour round here.

Karola raked and smoothed the ha-ha slope helping cover the seeds and removing lumps and stones.

I used the 3 rolls of alkathene to connect up a tap in our planting area near the big shed to a trough in the back half of the orchard where the wethers are to spend the next month or so.

Alan Ladbrook lit a small fire of orchard trimmings he’d piled up in the middle of the sweet corn patch and we added a heap of brambles and some old stumps in the hope that these too will be burned up.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—25°C; 2.3 mm rain [83.5]

Suddenly the apples are to be topdressed with urea and we move the wethers and ram lambs back into the Middle paddock and take down most of the electric fence in the orchard. Tomorrow we’ll put it back up, but this time it’ll be in the configuration taking in most of the orchard in two blocks:

• a 30-metre wide strip containing 6 rows of apples across the width of the orchard, about 270 metres
• a 100-metre wide strip beginning at the back fence adjoining McNabb Road and extending the width of the orchard.

The wethers will go in the back strip until plump and sold, probably late in June. The ewe lambs will go in the narrower strip. Half of that has already been grazed over the past week or so. Piglet and all his wives will eek out their courtships in the Middle and Totara paddocks until the wethers are sold, at which time Piglet and wives will occupy the back of the orchard. That’s the current plan.

I went into Hastings mid afternoon while Karola continued her battle with weeds and long grass; picked up one mended transistor radio from Wayne Ridge and left him another to fix; borrowed a copy of the latest Subaru Outback owner’s handbook which has the right layout of gears, instruments and trim to match Karola’s green Outback. Also picked up 3 x 50m rolls of 20 mm alkathene so we can put water troughs up in the orchard for the two flocks.

As I was reading the owner’s manual – the right one this time – I heard a loud crashing of branches and a thud. Not sure but by torchlight it seems that another large piece of oak has fallen; part of what came off when the big bough fell last week, but was left suspended. It’s not windy, not wet, not cold – goodness knows why it chose tonight to fall, but glad it did.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 16°C—25°C; no rain [83.5]

Karola did a large patch of tree releasing. I gave the wether lambs, imprisoned for now in the orchard, some water. Otherwise a quiet day.

I did some investigation into getting a tow bar for the Subaru and a “vehicle pet barrier”. The barrier is now on order.

I also had a long chat with Alan Ladbrook; he has finished picking in our orchard and we can put more sheep in any time. He’s decided against grafting all our remaining Braeburns with Pacific Queens which relieves Karola.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 12°C—25°C; no rain [83.3]

More sheep swapping but otherwise a quiet day. Karola and I put up a large wall mirror, actually the door of a wardrobe from Yeoman’s Drove in Winchester that Karola brought back with her to New Zealand.

I have put some snaps up on Facebook for those who can see them – are what Facebook calls “friends”.

• The fallen oak tree branch by the garage
• Easter at Bridget’s
• Karola’s car

Today saw the return of millions of cluster flies – warm and moist weather and they come out of the walls in their thousands – but we’re used to it.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 13°C—23°C; 0.6 mm rain [83.8]

Usual to-ing and fro-ing with the sheep.

Highlight of the day was a long lunch at the Clifton Cafe – expensive but good food in reasonable quantities, made more expensive by a 15% surcharge for it being Anzac Day and Saturday. Karola had invited her very old and frail but still sharp-minded teacher, Hiliary Jeffries out to lunch. Our first outing in Karola’s replacement car.

It (the car) ha tinted side and rear windows in the back; I toyed briefly with having the two green cars be known as “hiss” and “hearse” but thought better of saying so in Hilary’s presence.

When we got back after lunch we noticed a very large oak branch lying on the ground near the garage. The main branch is as thick as a thin man and three men long; just as well Karola wasn’t pottering around under it nor had she parked the car and trailer under it out of the sun as she was wont to do earlier this year.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 14°C—18°C; no rain [83.2]

Just after Karola had switched the mobs in the morning she noticed that a ram lamb had jumped the fence and was acting very familiar with ewe #707 – she not being at all stand-offish so to speak. It took much running around to separate them and get everyone back where they belonged.

We spent the day travelling around it seems. Karola had an appointment with the KiwiBank rep in her cubicle in the local Post Office in Stortford Lodge. I took Karola’s excellent old Grundig transsitor radio in to Ridge Electronics – it’s not working although a quick test showed it worked fine still with batteries so it has to be the power cable or internal transformer. Right after lunch a chat, at our expense. with our accountant Nick Chrystall in Hastings. Then in to Napier to pick up Karola’s car – the lean green Subaru Outback, and after that to Jenny Hendery’s to drop off some stuff she left behind. Topped off with a meal at the West Shore Fish restaurant.

Coming home after dark, Bicka and the cat fed, we set about swapping the ewes and wethers; they eventually did what was wanted, but both mobs were pretty frisky after several days of abundant food.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—17°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.2]

Netta called – her Maori lady who knows about flax has now agreed to come and see us, probably sometime next week. Netta wanted to be sure we wouldn’t buy our flax plants before hearing from her friend.

Colin and Maggie Nagel called round for morning tea; Colin chatted about his farming days growing potatoes and more recently his work with a colleague helping him rebuild a Lewis motorcycle – lots of searching for spare parts and making special bits of metal with the unique threads and bends. Colin also talked about the need for organic matter to be put on poor pasture – not chemical cocktails but plain old organic matter – blood and bone or dug-in green crops. Colin is remarkable hale for an 80 year old.

Ewe lamb #812 still staggering; Karola continues to medicate it. Karola also doing a lot of leaf sweeping and some more tree releasing from the long grass. I mowed the goos enclosure and the wilder part of the Middle paddock. It checks the Iris and breaks up the larger leaves, which gives hope that some grass will peek through.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—16°C; 0.2 mm rain [82.3]

Ewes and ewe lambs are doing a reasonable job of trampling the seed into the ha-ha slope. Let them back into the orchard for the day, back to the ha-ha in the evening. Ewe lamb #812, the one with suspected rye-grass staggers is still staggering. Karola gave her a dose of Ketol and asperin at lunchtime and we repeated it in the evening. No change.

Evening meal with Gay and Murray at the River End restaurant in Clive.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—16°C; no rain [82.6]

At 9:00 am the car salesman came round, having accepted our offer of $2000 less than his asking price plus Karola’s old car as a trade-in; we accepted his 3-year main parts warrenty too. So it has ended up costing about the same as Karola’s last Subaru.

Later this morning I took the flail mower up to HB Tractor Dismantlers – attached to the back of the Fergie – dodging the trucks and utes on Omahu Road – it sticks out at least a metre to one side which adds to its lethal qualities. Kerry gave me $50 for it, remarking with some surprise that I’d manage to shed almost all the flails, there were only a handful left. I gave him the 4-5 flails I’d collected up from around the paddocks in past months but there must be a lot more out there somewhere. Kerry also kindly adjusted the tractor clutch for me; I then hitched up the orchard mower with its new belts and came back home.

Looked round the sheep and, like Karola, I saw a ewe lamb staggering around in the orchard – not sure if its excess copper from the peach tree sprays or rye grass staggers.

Karola and I went down to White Traders and I bought an old plastic colander foe $2; Why?, to sieve lime left over from grouting the path to the washing line so that it can be used to bulk-up grass seed. I then broadcast the “bush mix” along the gentle slope of the ha-ha. Now that it has rained, and more is forecast, its the right time to sow. After that I electric fenced off the ha-ha slope and put the ewes and ewe lambs in there to tread in the seed. Gives the seed a better chance against birds and for moisture.

Jenny and Noel Hendery, who have been staying for a few days in our Pitoitoi flat in Days Bay, came round after dinner, for pudding and a chat.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—14°C; no rain [83.0]

We went out to Napier and then Hastings. Stopped at HB Tractor Dismantlers to see if Kerry would buy the old yellow flail mower that Karola dislikes so much – as it was raining steadily we agreed I’d bring it up when I came to get the fixed green orchard mower later in the week. Also stopped by Enid and Laurie to thank them again for minding the smallholding while we were away over Easter and give them the petrol money. Enid had also cleaned the chook house and put in fresh hay. I left with chutneey and jam hand-made by Enid.

Then we went to the Bayswater car yard and test drove a dark green Subaru Outback (L L Bean livery, rather unusual to find that in America, let alone in New Zealand). Its 2.5L like Karola’s current car but six years younger (2005) and the slightly more robust “Outback” model instead of a Legacy. It has a very high mileage for its age, 124,000 km, apparently owned by a leisure/sports sales rep in the South Island. It feels like a new car.

Later we went to Hastings Bayswater and test drove a very high-spec metallic blue Subaru Outback – big engine, two sunroofs, all the features, but 2001 so not really enough of a step up from Karola’s current car. Also they tried to talk down the value of her current car by saying that the head gasket replacement could be much worse and it was the worst example of a blown gasket they’d ever seen – there’s a certain moral hazard in getting an estimate of damage from the workshop that’s part of the outfit trying to sell you a car and accept a trade-in.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—15°C; 21.9 mm rain [83.4]

Quiet day apart from the sheep shifting morning and night.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—19°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.8]

The sheep switching continues – ewes and ewe lambs have the orchard grazing by night and the wether and ram lambs by day.

I bumped into John Flynn while going round the troughs; he gave me some sweetcorn cobs and remarked that he’d be interested in leasing the patch again; the sweetcorn and pumpkins have done quite well despite the dry conditions. I said I’d pass it on but that Karola was pretty sure she wanted it put down to grass so we had a bit more grazing.

Karola went out shopping and ended up looking at cars for sale in Hastings Bayswater Subaru dealership and then the Napier one. I can tell Karola has spotted something she likes.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—20°C; no rain [82.9]

Dentist in the afternoon; Karola’s friend Rowena and her Auntie Polly (Netta) came to afternoon tea and to talk about flax. On the flax front the marae people apparently thought we were out to exploit their special knowledge and make a fortune whereas all Karola offered was that if they told us the right varieties to plant for Maori weaving then they could come and harvest it each year. I doubt anything will come of this. Rowena and Netta stayed till almost dark.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—21°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.8]

Karola and I spent the morning cordoning off 7 rows of apples with electric fence and moving the wethers in for a feast. Late afternoon Karola swapped them for the ewes and lambs – my how they do enjoy a bit of variety – weeds of all descriptions and fresh apple tree leaves.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—22°C; no rain [82.5]

Today is the day Piglet met his first tranche of wives – the sudoku 9 Texel ewes and their same-aged six #600s.

It’s also, says Karola, the last day of home-grown mushrooms picked out in the paddock – a very long season if my memory serves, I thought we only got our own mushrooms for about a week usually.

Bridget’s home computer network blew up two days ago and I have offered to send a replacement router box that I have spare at Karamu – from my time in the USA in 1999 actually. Karola took it to the post office and had it couriered (is that a verb? any noun can be verbed) down overnight tonight.

I bumped into Alan Ladbrook while mustering the wethers ready to be put into the orchard once again and he explained they had some sprays to put on the peaches and on the nearby apples but they should be finished by lunchtime. In the afternoon I repaired the electric fence that had been pulled down so that spraying could take place and added a strip to give the wethers a bit more grass.

Just as I finished I bumped into Alan again and he said don’t put the wethers in the peaches again, it was copper spray and that’ll kill them. He’d told me about the copper spray earlier but it hadn’t registered that this was actually lethal for sheep. One lives and learns and I hope this time in time to avoid fatalities.

Karola’s Subaru has oil in the water system and probably has a leaking head gasket; it was first noticed last week and we kept our fingers crossed that we’d get all the way home – which obviously we did. Now the Subaru is off the road awaiting a slot at the garage to establish the cause definitely and to fit a new head gasket. Estimated cost $3000 or so, but at least we seem not to have totally seized up the engine which is good news.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—20°C; 0.2 mm rain [82.6]

Leisurely breakfast, lunch with Anne-Marie More in Silverstream, and we were back at Karamu by nightfall.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—23°C; no rain [?]

Another day with Bridget and family – Bicka and I went to Mary’s in Karori in the early afternoon and attempted to make some improvements to her computer – some successful. Late afternoon Karola joined us and we went to afternoon tea with Gill and Ben in Seatoun; we saw their just-finished reglazing of the living room windows giving them three picture windows, double glazed and free of obstructions, out onto the ever changing and usually rough seas of Wellington’s outer harbour. Returned to Bridget’s for the granddaughter’s high tea and then back to Pitoitoi for a quiet evening in.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—23°C; no rain [?]

Easter Sunday. Mary’s local church were broadcast as the 7:00am Easter Sunday service – pre-recorded of course. We went in to Bridget’s for an Easter Sunday dinner with the family and Anne-Marie More, the other grandmother. Bridget and Chris did some more work on their retaining walls and fence project, concreting in several posts. After a large chicken dinner at 4:00 pm Karola, Bicka and I went back to the Easstern Bays to have another dinner with the Rashbrookes – always a very pleasant evening. A quick walk with Bicka on the Days Bay beach and back to a few hours computing before day’s end.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—21°C; no rain [?]

We took Mary out to a rather nice lunch in lower Karori, near the fire station, and then spent the afternoon with her chatting and fiddling with her computer. On the way back from Mary’s to Bridget’s we stopped in at Kirsty’s and had afternoon tea with Kirsty and Bruce and their kitten and dog. Babysat for Bridget and Chris in the evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—19°C; 0.1 mm rain [?]

We went to Bridget’s late morning to help her and Chris with digging some holes for more retaining walls and planter boxes and fences at their place in Khandallah using a hired and heavy two-person post hole digger. Returned late afternoon and had relaxed evening again with a wood fire.

Almost all shops except garages selling petrol are closed for the day.

Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—18°C; 0.1 mm rain [?]

Smooth departure with sheep all in their appointed paddocks. Karola washed Bicka in preparation for her role as town dog for a week.

We went down through the Wairarapa and over the Rimutuka Hill. The small disused restaurant at the summit was burned down last week. The Pitoitoi flat is warm and welcoming. On the council-owned path down to the beach they’ve felled a row of large straggly Pohutukawa trees – we got a letter last time I was here saying ti was going to be done in order to give some residents better views. Well we’re the main beneficiary of a better view so I hope the neighbourhood doesn’t think we instigated it.

Bridget’s in Khandallah for dinner and a relatively early night after watching the remaining 2 hours of the TV drama “The Last Enemy” on DVD in front of a hot wood fire.

Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—16°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.9]

After a windy night a cool mainly sunny day, hot in sheltered spots of direct sunlight. Rams and wethers into the Front paddock for the duration of our trip to Wellington. They will have the Front and 1-Acre paddocks while the ewes and ewe lambs will have the goose enclosure, Middle paddock, and Island paddock.

Wound up Karola’s electric fence on the lawn now that wethers and rams are in the Front paddock.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—21°C; no rain [81.7]

Most of the morning Karola and I wound up the electric fence and deployed it round two more rows of peaches. The ewes and ewe lambs have got the hang of the long grass now and do a good cleanup job. As lunch approached we put them all in the yards and pulled out #403, #703, #704 and #719 who were a bit daggy and drenched them and Karola cut off the worst of the dags.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 13°C—24°C; no rain [81.8]

Everyone content today, the sheep are making good progress in the orchard. Not much going on apart from a walk round the homestead boundary and beginning to implement Karola’s idea for using an old wooden gate for the end of the ha-ha nearest to Oak Avenue. Karola did a morning’s releasing of trees in the planting area next to the sweet corn. Bicka and I siesta’d in the sun porch while Karola went shopping in the afternoon.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—22°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.9]

Lazy Sunday – clocks ‘fall’ed back last night.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—22°C; no rain [81.8]

First thing I finished putting up the electric fence and Karola let the ewes and ewe lambs into the orchard. Karola continued most of the day raking and so on around the Canary Island Pine.
Beautiful day again. Late afternoon Karola pt up a fence on some of the lawn and let piglet and friends in there for a bit of longer grass.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—20°C; no rain [81.5]

Another perfect autumn/winter day. Rolled up the current orchard electric fence and set up about half of a new pair of peach tree rows by the time it was dark. Karola continues in a frenzy of raking, weeding, and generally tidying up the garden and surrounds.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—19°C; no rain [81.5]

Quiet day, Karola working hard on her pick-up-sticks and burning the twigs.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—19°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.5]

Karola continues with her bonfires. We moved the sheep around a bit, splitting the flock into ewes and ewe lambs in one and all the rest in the other – except for wether lambs #828 and #829 which are the youngest and smallest lambs – they got the Middle paddock to themselves along with a healthy does of Vigest – a multi-vitamin supplement Karola likes.

Heather Hawkes our financial advisor from the Guardian Trust came early afternoon – she makes losing money quite painless, no paperwork at all. Later Laurie McDermott and Enid came and looked at the new ha-ha wall and Laurie discussed the regrassing of the ha-ha slope that Karola and I hope to do this autumn, now the wall is complete. Enid tells us that the possum joey Karola gave to End’s grandchildren is giving hours of pleasure with its antics.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—16°C; no rain [81.4]