Monthly Archives: December 2009

New Year’s Eve

Karola and the grandsons dagged a couple of very dirty wether lambs today, numbers #910R and #916R. We drenched them with Cydectin that has a withholding period of 10 days before they can be slaughtered for meat. Unlike the London petting zoos with sheep and rabbits and so on, the boys had to get up close and personal with these lambs, holding them so that Karola could wash their bottoms with a hose.

Later I took Anna and Bicka and the boys to Rush Munro (again) and on up Te Mata peak. In the dark we were able to see most of Hastings and Napier spread out far below but we went home well before the firework displays at midnight.

Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—21°C; no rain [77.9]

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Biking? No, Kayaking

Today’s adventure was intended to be a bike ride along the Napier foreshore. We pumped up tyres and found helmets and so on and put my bike and Karola’s bike in the small trailer and trundled off to Napier to the Pandora Kayak hire shop on the edge of the lagoon. Unfortunately the shop did not have bikes suitable for Felix and Barnaby even though we’d rung ahead and they assured us they did. In the end it turned out very well because while karola, Bicka, and I had our picnic in the shade on the edge of the lagoon, Anna and the boys went out for an hour kayacking together and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—28°C; 1.3 mm rain [78.3]

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Bridget Returns to Wellington

Bridget and Chris, Chris’ mother Anna-Marie, and the two grand daughters Natalie and Alex drove off back to Wellington today. Anna, Felix and Bicka and I went to Napier where Bicka and I walked and the others used the Ocean Spa pools.

Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—30°C; 0.2 mm rain [78.1]

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Our Posh Restaurant Lunch

Long relaxed lunch at Clear View, a posh restaurant/winery on the coast near Haumoana. Afterwards there was swimming at Ocean Spa heated pools in Napier.

Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—20°C; no rain [78.4]

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Splash Planet

The main event today for the children was a trip to Hastings “Splash Planet” with all manner of water rides and splashing machines. Rush Munro icecream (gluten-free) was eaten again today; this was a recurring feature of Anna and Bridget’s stay at Karamu.

Hawkes Bay Weather:16°C—26°C; 0.1 mm rain [78.3]

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Boxing Day 2009

Another nice day and so we set off for a picnic at Waimaramara with its 5 km of golden sand. Relaxing drive through typical Hawkes bay countryside and we parked on the beach domain mostly in the shade and Bridget brought a beach canopy they’d just bought for their holiday up at Katikati in January and that was set up on the beach while the children swam and made sand castles and got slightly sun burned.

Hawkes Bay Weather:12°C—27°C; no rain [78.3]

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Christmas Day In New Zealand

We had a big breakfast; the weather was excellent. Chris helped the children erect a couple of tents on the lawn; Karola spent several hours helping them make a bivouac from bamboo poles and tarpaulins; Bridget and Chris finished the swing and test it. This was the background to a morning session of present opening – a pair of remote controlled toy helicopters from Bridget were a great hit with the boys; Anna brought a DVD of episodes of the BBC series “Outnumbered” which was also a serious hit with the boys over several evenings.

Felix began his responsibility for feeding the hens and geese and collecting the eggs which he did all the time we were at Karamu.

Anna-Marie More, Chris’ mum, had arrived a day early with Chris and helped with the meals and the children.

To Karola’s annoyance, Anna, Bridget, Bicka and I went off to Napier after a light lunch and had a refreshing walk along the foreshore path, leaving her and Chris to look after the children. We did come back mid afternoon and helped set up for the Christmas dinner of turkey and many vegetables followed by an assortment of pavlova, cheesecake, cheese board, and fruit.

Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—24°C; no rain [77.7]

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Anna Arrives in New Zealand

Karola and I flew up to Auckland, leaving Bicka and Bridget’s family behind to look after the house. Anna’s flight was 20 minutes early and we didn’t have long to wait until we met her and the boys in International Arrivals. The boys rushed off for drinks and snacks while Anna got her brteath – she really hates flying and was so relieved to be off the plane; she said the boys were very very good on the flight to HongKong and on to Auckland.

We picked up the hire car and all got in, just, driving off towards Matamata aiming for Taupo and then Hastings. We stopped for a bite to eat in Titau and had another bio and snack break in Taupo – glorious weather all the way, and then on to Hastings and Karamu. We followed routes: 2, 27, 1, 5, 2, 2B, 50, and 50A to arrive in Twyford, Hastings and Ormond Road.

Hawkes Bay Weather:8°C—25°C; no rain [78.5]

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Anna Arrives Tomorrow

Bridget, granddaughters and I went into Hastings this morning to pick up a “booster seat” for Barnaby while he’s here and to buy the parts for a garden swing. Late afternoon Bridget and I began the construction – well we got two holes drilled through a thick plum tree branch after much hurrumphing – the drill bits were all too short and got stuck by the sap. Smoke came out of the drill, powered by the little petrol generator. We used the Fergie bucket to get us up high enough to drill the holes.

Karola arranged for the cars to be valeted – cleaned inside – for Christmas which means they now pong but it’ll wear off soon I hope.

Anne-Marie and Chris arrived just before dinner.

Hawkes Bay Weather:8°C—24°C; no rain [78.0]

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Two Days Till Anna Arrives

Well at last the waiting is over – the official diagnosis is that I have the Coeliac condition; it’s not known when it started but one has to have an hereditary disposition for it and then something such as a particularly virulent virus infection has to trigger it. So no more gluten for me, ever. In many ways a weight of my and Karola’s minds as the alternatives were mainly much worse. It may take up to a year to heal but even then no gluten must be taken ever, forever.

So I can relax and look forward to Thursday when Anna and Felix and Barnaby join Bridget and Natalie and Alex, and Bridget’s Chris and Chris’ mother Ann-Marie all here for Christmas.

Meanwhile Karola and Bridget toiled in the balmy afternoon sun and cleared masses of weeds from around the cottage back door.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—19°C; no rain [78.9]

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Bridget And Granddaughters Arrive

Before breakfast Karola spent a couple of hours moving electric fence in the orchard paddock but at least she thinks that’ll be all the moving needed until after Christmas.

Several holes in weepy/leaky pipe irrigation fixed by cutting the pipe and rejoining with a dollar plastic push-on connector. Huge thistle blossoming in the planting area at top of orchard drive was cut down just before blooming.

Karola and I went out shopping briefly and arrived home just after Bridget arrived from Wellington. Early nights all round.

Hawkes Bay Weather:3°C—20°C; no rain [79.2]

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Four Days Until Anna Arrives

We went to the Farmers Market in Hastings to pick up our Christmas ham and other food for Christmas. Otherwise the day spent preparing for the Christmas guests.

Hawkes Bay Weather:9°C—26°C; 0.8 mm rain [79.3]

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Five Days Till Anna Arrives

Karola spent the entire day with more cleaning and organising. meanwhile the sheep just ate and ate.

Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—26°C; no rain [79.3]

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Six Days Till Anna Arrives

Slow day but we did together change the two water filters that sieve out the detritus from the rain water – they were so clogged up that the pump was straining to push any water through them and we don’t want a water supply failure when Anna and Bridget are staying here over Christmas. These filters, a 20 micron filter followed by a 5 micron filter, are the devil themselves to unscrew but eventually we did it and this time we didn’t break any of the seals and got the thing all back together quite quickly, touch wood.

Karola has been furiously tidying and cleaning and reorganising but still found time for a trip to Napier to see an old friend, Hilary Jeffries, in a nursing home. Meanwhile I read and computed.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 7°C—25°C; no rain [79.0]

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Promenade Then Latte

Nothing outside today bar feeding the usual suspects. Napier in the morning – walk for Bicka and me, shopping for Karola. Therapeutic neck massage for me in the afternoon. Strangely cold but mostly sunny.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—21°C; no rain [78.3]

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All Mown Out

Another earlier start. I filled the several holes in the lawn dug while tracking down the leak under the plum tree by the green shed using some of the topsoil dumped here by Baywide Dingo last week. I also at last filled in a gap under the fence up at the north-west corner of the One Acre paddock.

Before beginning today’s mowing I tidied up the fence wire that I wrapped round the mower last time I did the Goose Enclosure; most of the wire will be reuseable, to my surprise.

I mowed the eastern 1/3rd of the Middle paddock – the main part being a nice crop of seeding plantain and not in need of a mow – and the goose enclosure (aka the ram paddock) and a swathe along the back of the Totara paddock and along the 121 drive. When taking the tractor into the Middle paddock from the Totara paddock I was a bit slow in noticing that several sheep wanted to get in as well. Even though the tracotr and mower took up most of the gateway they charged through and I had to turn off the mower for fear they’d accidentally touch the blades. Karola and I tried to return the 10 or so sheep that got through but to no avail, we ended up chasing them in circles, they liked the plantain seed heads so much. Finally we let all the sheep and lambs into the Middle paddock and then drove them into the Island paddock which also looked new and interesting to them.

I did a bit of Wysteria clipping on the verandah, especially where it was forcing its way up through the verandah floor.

Meanwhile Karola has scavenged some old fence posts from around the place and edged her Taupata hedge with these; she plans to put up shade netting along each side while the trees are small, weighing the netting down with these posts. Despite hares, mowers, and general abuse all the Taupata trees seem to be coming away strongly.

Karola also finished sewing the wind break cloth on her willow tree guards. In the evening Karola had a major cleaning project in washing the windows, walls, and floor of the sun porch in preparation for the Anna invasion next week.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 6°C—20°C; 0.6 mm rain [79.1]

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Mowing For Anna

Up a little earlier today and so after feeding the chooks, geese, and myself I went to Greenleaf Nurseries in Clive and collected our Christmas tree (living). Took it home and then went to the Transfer Station (rubbish collection point) with a small trailerload of earthenware rubble ($18) and collected a couple of lattes on the way back.

It was cool but partly sunny with a mild wind so I completed my thistle spraying programme by spraying the Middle paddock.

Late afternoon I mowed the Front and One Acre paddocks. As if on cue, a heavy shower of rain began just as I was finishing mowing.

I trimmed the Wysteria on the balcony – at this time of year it grows very quickly and tends to obstruct and interfere with essential activities such as sleeping in the hammock.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 4°C—19°C; 2.5 mm rain [78.5]

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Temporary Fencing

Mark and Karola put up temporary standards & netting fences at either end of the Orchard paddock so that we can leave sheep with access to it without relying on electric fence. The fencing is temporary because when cultivating the Orchard paddock we want to be able to use the orchard road and space around the big shed as headlands – where tractors can turn to plough or sow in the other direction.

I sprayed thistles in the Totara and Island paddocks; only the Middle paddock to do.

We went into Napier late afternoon and I took Bicka for a walk along the waterfront while Karola shopped.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—25°C; 0.9 mm rain [78.4]

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Hay There

Karola arranged to buy some hay she’d seen advertyised and so off we went mid-morning to Waimaramara where we loaded up 20 bales of not-so-wonderful hay at $5 per small bale. But it will serve as our emergency supply should the grass give out and the sheep become really hungry during the summer drought.

After we returned Karola spent several hours moving the electric fence in the orchard paddock – including cutting the grass from beneath the fence so that it didn’t short out. While Karola did the fence I sprayed thistles in the Front paddock, Goose Enclosure, and part of the Totara paddock. Later we unloaded the hay bales, spreading them out on the floor of the big shed to air.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 12°C—27°C; no rain [78.5]

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Not Town Again

Another morning blown by a trip into town – this time Napier then Hastings. Karola is still searching garden shops for a large living fir tree to be her Christmas tree and then planted out afterwards. I took Bicka for a walk along the Napier foreshore again, she does like that walk, and then Karola and I had a Latte at “Soak”, the cafe attached to the heated swimming pools on the foreshore.

After lunch Karola, with a little help from me, finished strengthening the office book shelf; in fact we also added two shelves in each of the three 700mm wide units, tall enough to take paperbacks.

Karola continued creating her tree guards, they’re all crimped into netting circles but need the windshield fabric sewn around – this keeps out enquiring sheep noses, and hares, and rabbits.

I tended the Fergie – oil, water, diesel. I then continued with our leak-finding gopher-like hole digging. We solved the mystery we think. It seems that there is already a valve to close off the ancient and very rusted steel irrigation pipe but as this pipe and its many spurs extends for several 100 metres there was enough water in the pipe that turning it off didn’t seem to do anything. Overnight we let that water drain away and it appears that the valve is working and does close off the leaking pipe.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 13°C—27°C; no rain [78.6]

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Two Weeks Till Anna Arrives

Yet another shopping expedition into Hastings. In my case this was to get wood from Mitre-10 to bolster up the sagging shelves of the ticky-tacky bookcase I bought a couple of years ago from K-Mart. I assembled it and it held several tonnes of books in the store room until requisitioned by Karola for the office – then the sagging shelves became starkly apparent.

After lunch we cut the three sheets of MDF into shelf-sized planks – using pre-cut pine planks would have cost $450 whereas the three MDF sheets cost $60 – and doubled up the sagging shelves with the MDF on the bottom.

As evening broke I did some exploratory holes in the lawn near the plum tree, to try and find a persistent leak making a large muddy area under said plum tree. Three holes later we’d located the offending pipe near the plum tree and either I’d located the leak or, more likely, caused another one.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 20°C—30°C; no rain [78.3]

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Penultimate Lawn Mow Before Christmas

Garden Groom came in the afternoon and mowed the lawns.

Again Karola and I (and Bicka) went into Hastings, shopping.

I spent half an hour spraying thistles in the One Acre paddock in the cool of the evening. We’ve gradually realised that spraying is more effective and less physical than chopping the thistles out. Chopping often doesn’t kill the thistle (certainly not Californian Thistles, it just aggravates them and makes them sprout more relatives) and does disturb the earth allowing more weeds in. We’ve also realised that finding all the thistles is difficult; one is never quite sure whether one has sprayed it or not, so now we mark each sprayed thistle with red paint as we go, significantly reducing the accidental repeat sprayings, we think.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 12°C—26°C; no rain [79.8]

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Lamb Mop-Up

A productive day; glorious weather too of course. Sharpened 3 spades, 1 favorite grubber, 2 shovels. Bought 28 cardboard boxes for the store room, and at Karola’s request a duct tape dispenser. Bought diesel for the tractor and petrol for the lawn mowers.

Mark Hendery came this morning and helped us with moving beds and stuff in preparation for the grandsons visit. Mark and Karola also spent an hour spraying bamboo now trying to make a comeback out in the Totara paddock. They also banged in standards for several tree guards needed to protect Karola’s willow trees.

Rounded up the sheep into the yards. Replaced lost tags for ewe #675 amd lambs #912 and #926. Drenched youngest ewe lambs that missed out two days ago with Cydectin, withholding for meat of 10 days: #922, #923, #936, #939, #946, #947, and #948. Lamb #938 escaped prematurely back to her mother and has not been drenched. We also rechecked the gender of a few lambs and believe our records now do match the lambs.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—25°C; no rain [79.9]

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Prep For Grandsons

Both had haircuts in Hastings then spent most of the day reorganising rooms in preparation for the arrival of the UK daughter and two grandsons. This will play out over the next fortnight I’m sure. I also spent an hour or so reconciling the data taken from the sheep activities yesterday and the records already taken during lambing. We’re getting close, the amazing thing is how often we get the sex of a ewe or wether lamb wrong.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—24°C; no rain [79.3]

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Sheep Management Day

Sheep affairs in the morning; lunch at Pernel Fruit World; Karola went shopping in the afternoon while Bicka and I had a lazy time reading and soaking up the sun.

Ewes, wether, and ram drenched with Cydectin – withholding for meat of 10 days. All sheep treated with pour-on Zenith, with a withholding for meat of 7 days. Some of the lambs from the Middle paddock mob, #937E, #921R, #940R, #941R, #943R, #944R, #945R, were given Combi-Tape drench, withholding for meat of 10 days. Lambs #922E, #923E, #936E, #938E, #939E, #946E, #947E, #948E were given the pour on like the rest, but no drench.

We weighed representative large, medium, and small lambs and they were roughly I guess: L=25kg, M=15kg, S=10kg

Karola called Gary and he came round and dispatched and removed #677 who wouldn’t feed her lambs and has not recovered from chronic mastitis.

We trimmed the feet of #675 and sprayed them with anti-footrot stuff – there were signs of old footrot in all feet and some signs of active disease in the back left foot.

Lamb Notes

  • #901R – large
  • #902R – large
  • #903R – large
  • #904E – large (keeper)
  • #905R – large
  • #906E – large
  • #908R – large
  • #909R – medium
  • #910R – medium
  • #911E – medium
  • #912E – small (no-tag, keeper?)
  • #913R – large
  • #914R – medium
  • #915E – medium (keeper)
  • #916R – small
  • #917E – medium (keeper)
  • #918R – medium
  • #919E – medium
  • #921R – medium
  • #922E – small
  • #923E – small
  • #924R – medium
  • #925R – medium
  • #926R – medium (no tag)
  • #927R – small
  • #928E – medium
  • #929R – small
  • #930R – small
  • #931R – medium
  • #932R – medium
  • #933E – medium
  • #934E – medium
  • #935E – large
  • #936E – medium (“Dora”)
  • #937E – small (“Dot”)
  • #938E – small
  • #939E – small
  • #940R – small
  • #941R – small
  • #942E – small
  • #943R – medium
  • #944R – medium
  • #945R – small
  • #946E – small (keeper)
  • #947E – small
  • #948E – small

Ewe Lambs

  • Large: 3, Medium: 8, Small: 10, Total: 21

Ram Lambs

  • Large: 6, Medium: 12, Small: 7, Total: 25

Total Lambs

  • Large: 9, Medium: 20, Small: 17, Total: 46

Adult Sheep

  • Ram #104 and wether #630
  • #203, #218, and #219
  • #401, #402 (bad leg), #403, #406
  • #604, #613, #616, #623, #629, #632
  • #671, #672, #673, #674, #675 (no tag, back left foot problem), #676, #679
  • #704, #705, #714, #717, #719, #725 (skinny), #726

So that means we have: 3 * 7-year old ewes, 4 * 5-year old ewes, 13 * 3-year old ewes, and 7 * 2-year old ewes that lambed this year; 27 breeding ewes plus #104 (piglet) and his bodyguard the wether #630.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 8°C—25°C; no rain [79.0]

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Charlotte and Simon Depart

Charlotte and Simon left at lunch time for their next stop, Taupo and then on to walk the Tongariro track beginning tomorrow, weather permitting.

Karola gave Rowena lunch and then they both went to a Pophuri for Rowena and other Maori patients on dialysis at Hastings hospital.

Late afternoon we prepared for tomorrow’s sheep work, weather permitting, drenching and applying anti-fly-strike liquid.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—22°C; no rain [79.1]

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Lunch At Vidals

Leisurely breakfast and then Karola went wine tasting with Simon while Bicka, Charlotte and I went for a walk on the Napier foreshore. We had lunch at Vidal’s in Hastings and then Simon and Charlotte did more wine tasting, sight-seeing, and shopping.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—18°C; no rain [79.4]

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Galvanised Lamb

This morning Mary’s rain gauge showed 60.5 mm of rainfall out by the pump shed since last I emptied it on 28th November.

To my surprise I got a dental appointment right away to repair an old filling that had fallen out at the weekend.

Then Charlotte and I walked most of the Homestead boundary. On the way we fixed an irrigation pipe connection that had come adrift by the yew hedge – explaining why the well pump had been going continuously for several hours until I turned it off late last night. Charlotte noticed a ram lamb tangled in electric fence wire in the Totara paddock, one of the triplets and we untangled him, I don’t think he’d been there very long.

After that Karola and Bicka came with me into Hastings for my tooth repair. We also did some shopping before returning for a leisurely lunch.

Simon and Charlotte went out sight seeing a couple of times and I took Bicka for a walk on the Napier foreshore and bought some lawn seed which I mixed with lime from under the chook house and spread over the newly levelled area along the top of the ha-ha. Otherwise a quiet day, overcast with low temperatures and occasional rain. Karola took recyclable bottles and cardboard to the recycling centre.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—14°C; 11.1 mm rain [78.9]

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Testing, Testing

Quiet day; Simon and Charlotte went off to sample the delights of Napier; Karola and I went into Hastings for the morning; rained quite hard most of the night and drizzled all day.

Good, normal results: 125/75 (151/90) 67 bpm, 97% oxygen in blood, 36 degrees.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 10°C—13°C; 5.3 mm rain [78.8]

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Good Rain For Trees

Constant drizzle became constant heavy rain by evening. Gill, Ben and Mary went off towards Wellington around 2:00 pm. Simon and Charlotte Nash arrived cheerfully around 4:30 pm.

In the morning Karola planted her 10 Coprosma Lucida trees down near the 121 entrance and we set irrigation going although by 8:00 pm it was so obviously a decent soaking rain that we switched it off again. Ideal for the Lucida and Monday’s planting of Ngaios.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 11°C—24°C; 57.6 mm rain [78.8]

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Mary, Gill & Ben’s Last Full Day

More eating and conversation with Mary, Gill, and Ben. Lunch at Pernel Fruit World just down the road. Initially cloudy and patches of drizzle but ending up with blue skies and warm breezes. Guided tours for Gill and Ben yesterday and Mary this evening.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 14°C—23°C; 0.6 mm rain [79.5]

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