Monthly Archives: May 2009

Alternate sunny spells and driving rain and sleet, but bitterly cold southerly wind all day.

In the morning I put up a short, tall wooden gate at the end of the ha-ha nearest the road. Only one unnecessary hole drilled in the wrong place. Better luck with the new gate down by the 121 entrance, one that will lead into the Middle paddock from the new drive. This was hung in 20 minutes and worked first time.

Karola put in prodigious efforts for a roast lunch – with soup and baked apple topping and tailing a rather nice beef roast with many vegetables. This was in honour of a visit by Hilary Jeffries and by Murray and Gay Wilson. Hilary and Murray well over 80.

Night life, who says we haven’t any night life in Hastings. I awoke around 3:00 am to dislodge a cockroach crawling across my cheek. Well at least it didn’t try going into my brain via my ear or nostril as is sometimes the case in science fiction.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—9°C; 4.4 mm rain [82.5]

Mark came bringing with him his son Wolfgang. More fencing. Karola planted the rest of the flax and some Grisolinia. Ewe lambs have the run of the new drive over the weekend. The orchard sheep seem to all be present and correct.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—13°C; 0.7 mm rain [82.8]

Mark and I (mainly Mark) put in more strainers and we’ve now finished putting in the 7 x 2.4 metre posts needed for new fencing on the southern boundary – the new flax planting area in front of the Casurina shelter belt and the Grisolinia “L” in the south-eastern corner. Still lots of the running posts and the rails, wire, netting, and gates to be put up.

Karola accompanied a friend to her dialysis session in the morning but in the afternoon carried on with the tree planting – only 20 more flax to go. Meanwhile, with the tractor, I dug another 82 holes for a Coprosma repens hedge between the lawn and the Totara paddock, from the northern end to the homestead irrigation and trough pump shed.

Mary’s rain gauge showed 16 mm rain since last emptied on 23rd May.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 0°C—16°C; no rain [82.4]

Cool, sunny winter’s day. Tumu Building merchants delivered the railings ordered earlier this week.

Mark rammed in a strainer post in yesterday’s hole and he dug another strainer post hole and then moved onto planting trees with Karola. He planted 20 flax; Karola planted 30 Kanuka, 6 Grisolinia and watered them using 120 metres of garden hose(s).

Meanwhile I took down some of the netting fence along the new drive, the piece that will not be needed once the new fence to protect the Grisolinia in the south-east corner is up. With suggestion from Karola we’ve changed the layout slightly and the extra gate just inside the 121 entrance into the Middle paddock will be flanked by 5 metres of rails either side at the same 45 degree angle to the fences.

Another 11 holes were dug for Grisolinia, extending the south-east corner “L” along the Scott’s boundary by another 10 metres. And 20 or so holes were dug on the inside of the railings at the front gate, ready for a double row of Coprosma repens. Karola has for some time, for years, wanted a Tasmanian Blackwood next to those railings, one with several dead branches, cut down and so today, against my better judgement, a healthy tree about 300 mm (1 foot) thick and 10 metres tall was chainsawed to the ground.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 0°C—13°C; 0.2 mm rain [83.3]

Mark arrived at 9:00 am. I sharpened two shovels and marked out the positions of the 20 holes for the flax netting fence posts. Two hours later Mark and I had finished digging the holes, each 700 mm deep – I thought it’d take us all morning.

Late morning Karola and I discussed the positioning of the gate and railings up near the Scott’s boundary while Mark dug yet another deep strainer post hole. Bicka decided to wander across the road into the neighbouring orchard and when we spotted her I gave Bicka a real telling off; we hope shoe took it to heart and understood why, we’ve no desire for squashed beagle.

After a leisurely lunch – Karola cooked up bacon, sausage, and scrambled eggs – Mark went home and Karola and I went off to pick up the trees. The big trailer now contains 100 mountain flax plants, 100 Coprosma repens, 50 Kanuka and, an afterthought, 20 Grisolinia littoralis.

When we got back home we used the tractor to dig another 37 holes for the Kanuka (some Kanuka will fill gaps in the existing plantings). A productive and exhausting day.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—14°C; no rain [83.2]

Just gentle drizzle all day. Shopping in the afternoon in Hastings – meeting with our latest financial advisor then builder’s merchant to order railings and to Farmlands for more maize for the chooks, more work gloves, and more spray paint to mark out post hole positions and the like. Karola bought a toy picnic set for Alex(andra)’s birthday next month – from the excellent toy shop called Apple Toys.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—12°C; 9 mm rain [83.0]

Mark dug the holes for two more strainer posts. I connected a wire between the first two posts he put in and using that as a marker laid out the 100 flax bush positions; Karola and I then dug the holes, she using a shovel to make a target depression and I with the post-hole auger on the tractor turning that into a hole about 18 inches (500mm) deep. It was raining very gently most of the time.

After dinner Karola and I continued watching the DVD lectures by Dr John McWhorter, “Story of Human Language”. Very well presented and fascinating.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—13°C; 10.5 mm rain [83.0]

Rained on and off most of the day, gently. Nothing done outside.

We ran out of tea bags – well there were only a couple left which I suspected Karola had found in a dark corner somewhere. Anyway I made a pot and it was revolting. Upon asking where the tea bags came from and what sort of tea they contained I found out that the kettle had been quietly soaking with a solution of vinegar to “give it a clean” – so no wonder the tea tasted awful.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—14°C; 8.5 mm rain [82.3]

Turned out that the mulcher had just got jammed up with too much of the Casurina green needles – it happened twice more before we finished. Began this morning at 9:30 am and finished around 1:30 pm, Mark then helped me attach the post hole digger to the tractor, always a long difficult manoeuver if you’re by yourself – Karola went off to Federation of Graduate Women lunch at noon.

Showers this evening. Mary’s rain gauge shows 48 mm of rain since last measured on 26th March; that was before the rain began today.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—12°C; 10.6 mm rain [82.2]

Mark came round at 9:00 am; we had everything arranged and began mulching just before 10:00 am. By 1:15 pm we’d mulched about half the length of the trimmed shelterbelt. Just as we were about to finish for the day the mulcher stopped working – so tomorrow we’ll have to find out what’s gone wrong.

Bicak was seen chasing a real rabbit across the orchard, under the gate by the big shed, and down to the big oak, where the rabbit went to ground. The rabbit was a bit faster than Bicka and had a good start so it was healthy aerobic exercise for both animals, I guess.

I went into Hastings for a haircut, to the bank, and to drop off stuff at the accountants; Hastings was full of cars, a Friday afternoon end-of-school-week rush hour I suppose.

Late afternoon Karola and I went to Titoki Nursery and bought potted small trees for planting out: 100 Taupata (coprosma repens), 100 mountain flax (phormium cookianum), 50 kanuka (Kunzea ericoides), and a box of slow-release fertilizer tablets.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—14°C; no rain [82.2]

Mark Hendery came round soon after 9:00 am and he dug the holes for two 2.4 metre strainer posts for a netting fence along the Casurina shelter belt to the south. I potterted round doing things like attaching the wooden cross-pieces (foot) to the posts and offering invaluable advice. He left after unch at 1:45 pm.

Mid afternoon, Wade of Brimar Hedgetrimmers arrived (06-844-7225 or Wade: 027-249-0511) and he trimmed our side of the shelterbelt so that the soon-to-be-bought-and-planted flax plants don’t get smothered by the clippings.

Electric fence around lawn all rolled up. In the evening we completed yet another Financial Advisor questionnaire, this time for Tobias Taylor (Barnes-Mossman 06-876-7159) – we’ll drop it off tomorrow.

Hawkes Bay Weather: -3°C—11°C; no rain [83.2]

Wintery day. After breakfast we took a trailer load – that is the front 2/3 of the trailer and stock crate – of apple firewood to next door widow Janet Scott.

Karola and I added some planks to the ha-ha end wall near the three gates, using up the remaining tongue and groove cladding and continuing the visual effect of the ha-ha retaining wall across the end. That took all day.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—12°C; no rain [82.9]

Once again storms sweep up through New Zealand. Once again we seem to miss out on the rain, quite a lot of violent wind gusts and cold snaps but very little rain.

Just in case the weather men and women are right we assumed we had maybe just this morning before getting some decent rain. So we moved the sheep around; 16 wether and ram lambs plus the two #600 wethers are now in the strip of apples nearest the homestead; 35 ewes and “piglet” are in the back half of the orchard; 12 ewe lambs are in the Totara paddock. Karola is talking of inviting the Progressive Meats guy round in the first week of June, before the 4th when we plan to go to Wellington for Alex’s birthday.

I did 3 loads of apple wood from the Casurinas to the wooden stockades (sheep shelters) near the Macrocarpa in the Front paddock, the north east corner. Karola finished painting two farm gates and also completed her releasing of the young trees up to her goal of the slight depression containing flax and cabbage trees.

Karola went with Graham and Tracey to Duffie and Finn’s Tuesday wine tasting and then they all came back for dinner.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 2°C—17°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.8]

Carted 7 heavy trailer loads of old apple wood from the Casurina shelter belt to its new home on the Front paddock near the other enclosures of apple wood – sheep shelters against the wind. About 3 more to do.

Meanwhile Karola is painting gates (two) and continuing the long hard task of releasing our young trees from the rank grass and weeds that’s grown up over the summer.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—20°C; no rain [83.8]

Sunday morning – Karola off to the local Farmers Market and then to morning tea with Barbara O’Sullivan. I finished chucking the wood stacked behind the Casurinas out into the open, made tiresome by the Casurina fronds that whipped one’s face in the gale force winds.

I had to ring Bridget today to confirm, I was not dreaming things, dear Karola had talked about going to see Othello when she actually meant Merchant of Venice when we were down in Wellington for Easter. Not that this is at all new, but I am still surprised when it happens.

I don’t know whether Karola has sub-consciously taken to heart my gloomy prediction that, one way or another, we have only two more years to enjoy ourselves, then it’s “curtains”. Swine flu epidemic or social unrest and financial meltdown in New Zealand – probably not Global Warming.Anyway we seem to be going out an aweful lot. This afternoon it was to Cinema Gold in Havelock North to see an excellent production of The Merchant of Venice. It was made much more interesting by having heard Margaret Atwood on “debt”, the 2008 Massey Lectures we heard last month.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—21°C; no rain [83.5]

Karola went out a few times; all I did outside was continue moving logs from behind the Casurina shelter belt in preparation for planting a row of flax.

Mid afternoon Charles and his 1st wife Sylvia who had been visiting their son Aron in Napier dropped in and we had afternoon tea before they set of back to Wellington.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 14°C—23°C; no rain [83.1]

Karola did the rounds of the white good shops in Hastings, looking at washing machines since ours is limping along with worn out bearings, not her favorite pastime.

At Karola’s suggestion I replaced the catch on the far gate into the 1-Acre paddock, the one that “piglet” broke the catch off. And the catch he broke on the gate in the sheep yards, and swapped a catch on the wide gate into the orchard near the sheep yards because several times now after Laurie and Enid have been “minding the shop” we’ve found the catch almost off the hook; a different sort of catch will be easier to close securely.

I added a couple more poles on top of posts round the three gates linking the Totara, 1-Acre, and Front paddocks – to carry electric fence across the gateways above our heads. Then I went to count the wether lambs; I grabbed an apple and sat down and the wethers came up to me, one even pawing me with its hoof as if to say “get up, move along”. All present and fattening up nicely.

Meanwhile Karola did more tree releasing in the north-western planting area alongside where the sweet corn used to be.

The West Shore Fish Restaurant was full so we went to the Sri Thai Restaurant in Ahuriri, out at the marina, beyond the port, in Napier. Delicious but I will regret the celery I’m sure. Then we went on to a film at Napier’s Century Cinema, “In Search of Beethoven”. Karola thorough;y enjoyed it and I stayed awake so it can’t have been that bad.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—22°C; no rain [82.9]

Cynthia Chalmers dropped in at morning tea time to see Karola and pick up some apples and eggs. Late afternoon Karola went in to Napier for tea with her friend Rowena and then on the a lecture on a Dutch artist at the Napier museum.

It seemed a bit wasteful not to let the ewes and “piglet” eat the bit of grass growth on the main lawn so I put up an electric fence and they were delighted for somewhere new to go and for the food.

More on preparing the southern boundary planting area, retrieving logs stacked between the Casurina trees and taking them to the Front paddock to be restacked with the rest.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—18°C; no rain [83.0]

Quiet day; I started preparing for a new planting area alongside the southern boundary Casurina windbreak. Karola did more leaf sweeping and also painted two all standard lamp stands in preparation for me rewiring them. Karola has also started painting the old small metal red gate into the goose enclosure.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—17°C; no rain [83.9]

Went out to lunch with Murray and Gay at “Pernel Fruit World”, just down the road. Before that checked the sheep and troughs. Got four late apples off the trees, they still taste sweet and crisp. Adam rolled and harrowed the area to be grassed. Inside from lunchtime onwards to keep warm.

Karola went to a lecture at the Hastings Library for a couple of hours before dinner, full house apparently, a Maori historian talking about his grandfather.

Hawkes Bay Weather: -2°C—12°C; 1.8 mm rain [83.3]

Yet another Financial Advisor drops by for a couple of hours. This one, Tobias Taylor, went to school with Marcus Ormond and hangs out with Marcus’ set including Mo and of course the Chalmers girls.

Then Karola and I sorted through the ewes and ewe lambs; the ewe lambs have been sent to the Island paddock; the ewes into the Totara paddock in readiness for meeting up with Piglet and his current 19-strong fan club. We looked at teeth and pared toenails of the #200s and #400s.

I picked a couple of dozen small mushrooms – very surprised that they keep on coming.

Adam Ladbrook ploughed the area that was in sweetcorn and is to go down to Italian ryegrass – John Flynn had ripped it all up as planned – to remove any hard pan and ensure it’s all easy-draining – before we arrived back from Wellington yesterday.

Karola spent the afternoon sweeping leaves and generally tidying up outside in anticipation of some rain – we still need lots of rain.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—15°C; 5.1 mm rain [83.3]

Took Bicka for an extended walk as she’d be cooped up in a space barely big enough for her to lie in most of the day. After packing up we left the Pitoitoi flat and met up with Anne-Marie and Bridget and family at a little restaurant, The Sliver Spoon in Silverstream, Upper Hutt – a small celebration for Anne-Marie and Karola (birthdays later this week) and I suppose something to do with it being that commercial fiction, Mother’s Day. Anyway the meal went well and then we travelled on over the Rimutaka mountains and on up through the Wairarapa, stopping in Masterton for Bicka to stretch her legs, and arriving home around 8:00 pm. All seems to be well, but in the dark it’s hard to be sure.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 3°C—17°C; no rain [?]

An exceedingly nice Wellington winter’s day, quite unexpected, especially by the TV weather forecasters. I went in to town and brought Mary back to Pitoito for lunch and the afternoon.
Late afternoon Karola, Mary, Bicka and I went back into town and dropped in at Bridget’s where we saw the granddaughters briefly; Karola stayed at Bridget’s and made the youngsters their tea while Bridget and Chris went out to a film. I took Mary home and returned later to join Karola for the evening’s babysitting. I enjoyed myself using Bridget’s 24″ iMac computer. The screen is so big and bright.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—14°C; no rain [?]

Poured with rain most of the day and night. Karola went in to be with Bridget and the girls and their several Friday activities. I quietly computed – Pitoitoi is so peaceful and warm with the fire going and the storm raging outside, very enjoyable. Karola returned at about 5:00 pm and as we’d agreed, I had invited friends Felicity and Geoff Rashbrooke round for dinner – they live only two bays away from Days Bay. Karola made a fish pie and Felicity and Geoff made an apple tart – a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—16°C; 1.1 mm rain [?]

A bit of shopping in Petone in the morning; Bridget’s in Khandallah in the afternoon. Wet and cold. Dinner with Bridget and the girls.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 1°C—16°C; no rain [?]

Loud clap of thunder at 5:45 am woke us up. That and the following intermittent loud growls and occasional flashes led Bicka to come downstairs and see if we were alright. Inevitably a small warm dog nestled between us for the rest of the night.

We went in to be with Bridget and the granddaughters mid morning; Karola and I had lunch in a little cafe nearby; popular, inexpensive, and quite good. It rained much of the time and the wind was cold so there were no mountain climbing adventures today; Bicka spent some of the time inside at Bridget’s in her basket near where Bridget and I worked on our computers; most of the time she was in her den in the back of the green Outback.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—18°C; 0.7 mm rain [?]

Armourguard rang at breakfast time; apparently the cottage alarm had gone off briefly at 9:30 am and then been reset. I called Laurie and Enid in Hastings, finally getting them mid afternoon and it was as I suspected, we’d left the alarm on but forgotten again to lock the back door. While checking that we’d locked doors and windows they’d found the unlocked door and when checking for signs of burglary set off the alarm.

Lunch with Gill and Ben and Mary, meeting David Rust, a cousin, and his wife Pauline out from the UK on holiday in New Zealand and Australia. Extra excitement when a small car whose driver had momentary lapse of concentration brushed too close to Ben’s new Volvo; the loud cracking of plastic turned out to be a meeting of wing mirrors and the assailant’s mirror was demolished but the Volvo seemed almost unscathed. We went down into Seatoun for the lunch, at a small cafe which we shared with what was probably a regular lunchtime meeting of half a dozen mums and babies. Different.

Late afternoon Bicka and I went for a walk up to the local park and continued on up to the top of mount Kaukau, with brilliant views across Wellington – it’s where the local TV/radio mast is, about a 40 minute climb and lots of steps and mud. Bicka loved it.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 5°C—15°C; no rain [?]

A fairly hectic morning: eye checkup for me while Karola packed and waited for washing machine repairman. Finally departed after 2:30 pm taking the route via the Manawatu Gorge and the west coast “Highway 1”, ducking off at Paremata to take the Haywoods back road over to the Hutt valley and on to Day’s Bay arriving at Pitoitoi by 7:30 pm. On the way we stopped for petrol and Bicka and a sandwich in Shannon and we detoured round to Eastborne’s “Four Square” for some food for dinner. Steak in front of a log fire for a relaxing evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather: -1°C—16°C; no rain [82.8]

Karola sorted out the four largest ewes (#203, #219, #401, and #406) and added them to her sudoku of Texel ewes, the 6 #600s, and Piglet. She de-dagged #725 by herself and then let the main mob of ewes and ewe lambs into their strip of orchard for the day, returning them to the Middle paddock to stay there while we are in Wellington.

I was inside all day – cold and showery – and did Karola’s GST.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—16°C; 2.1 mm rain [83.5]

Final adjustments to the electric fencing in the orchard – electricity on and tested, two troughs working and no leaks, touch wood. The wethers and ram lambs were herded into the back half of the orchard while Karola gave the ewes and ewe lambs 3 hours in the middle strip; they’re now back in the Island paddock.

We went down the road to the Ladbrook’s after lunch and collected our wether #630, sent there recently to help eat down Picollo’s paddock, and Picollo (aka $631) the lamb we lent to Crystal Ladbrook in 2006. Both wethers are now in with the wether lambs and ram lambs in the back of the orchard.

Karola caught a mouse by its tail in a rat trap in the kitchen; I dispatched the poor little thing. Then, after a hearty beef casserole, we went to Last Chance Harvey, a charming film starring Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, Rainman, Wag The Dog etc etc), Emma Thompson, (Balkan Trilogy – TV) and Eileen Atkins (A Fish Called Wanda).

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—14°C; 1.8 mm rain [82.8]

Murray Cranswick (Small Farm Services) arrived just after 9:00 am as planned and chatted to us about our pastures and the change in farming opinions from saturation fertilizer applications to more nuanced spreading of small amounts of precisely what’s needed at the right time. He agreed with Farmlands people that we’ve missed the boat for seeding with our preferred mix this year. Murray surprised us a little as he seemed to be on the same track we’d come to – wanting permanent pastures rather than regrassing every 4-5 years and having sheep that don’t need constant drenching, dagging, etc.

Then Karola and I spent the rest of the daylight hours putting up the kilometre of 3-wire electric fence in the orchard – yesterday we repaired the back fence, today we made the temporary paddocks to keep the sheep away from the peach trees. We’re nearly ready to put the wethers and ram lambs in.

Between times we added logs to the small fire on the ex-sweetcorn patch, and it blazed nicely, and we borrowed five old, broken apple boxes and made a bit of a shelter for the wethers in case of cold southerly blasts while they’re in the back half of the orchard.

Bicka had annual checkup and vaccination today; Karola took her in to the Vets mid-afternoon.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—14°C; 2.3 mm rain [82.5]