Monthly Archives: January 2010

Rained all day – no wind and not cold but pretty persistent rain so indoors pursuits today.

Weather:19°C—20°C; 54.2 mm rain [79.8]

The day began with a 30 minute computer-to-computer video call with Anna and her boys in Ealing. Bicka participated too.

Karola spent most of the morning visiting and shopping, including visiting Laurie and Enid and thanking them for looking after the livestock while we were away. Meanwhile I disassembled the railings at the north west corner of the orchard paddock and marked out where I thought they should go so that the orchard trucks had a more generous turning radius, a couple of metres more than before.

I then continued with my reorganising of the computers here, including getting the printer now in the office to act as a fax machine as well as printing, scanning, and copying. Sending was straightforward; receiving on the second phone number reserved for the fax was not so easy. “Faxability” in New Zealand requires that the special ring pattern be set to Single Ring according to the New Zealand specific insert in the HP PSC 2510 User Guide. Using Bridget and then Kaz as test faxers I couldn’t get this to work but when I chose the Double Ring setting all worked as desired.Hawkes Bay

Weather:18°C—24°C; 9.4 mm rain [79.9]

Recovery day; Karola went round the sheep and all seemed to be present and correct. Lots of bantam eggs; another five today. I spent most of the day moving and configuring computers and printers.

Before we left for Wellington we found that the downstairs hot water was warm rather than hot. When we returned and turned it back on and waited a few hours for it to heat up we again found it not hot enough. Today I called John Burnard, our electrician, and he came round before lunch to investigate. It was just that the thermostat had been bumped and had been turned down to 40 degrees or so. Easily fixed.

Slight disagreement with Alan Ladbrook our orchardist because the set of railings I built while Karola was away make too sharp a corner for some huge trucks he’s considering contracting to move his fruit this season. I’ve already moved the roadside gate in 15 metres to accommodate his wishes and make it easier for large trucks to turn in and now there’s more change even though he agreed it should be OK before I put the posts in. This afternoon he, in his medium-sized truck, accidentally pushed against one end post and broke most of the rails, as he said would happen, so I am pretty fed up. I’d offered to take out a few trees so that the turning circle could be wider but he was dead set on me moving my railings.

Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—23°C; 0.6 mm rain [79.9]

We loaded up the trailer with some stuff, mainly rubbish, to take back to Karamu, and packed the Landrover. Roger and Anne arrived around 11:00 am and I took them for a coffee while Karola finished up at the flat. We returned and tested that Roger’s computer worked on the home LAN at Pitoitoi and it did, over wireless, and even the wireless printer worked.

Karola and I set off, first to Bridget’s to pick up the chainsaw and some boxes of books, then on to Mary’s to try new print cartridges in her annoying printer – that finally did the trick I think.

AT Woodville we again had fresh grilled fish and chips and let Bicka have some time in the park to stretch her legs. We went via Route 50, windier and much more picturesque than the main Route 2 road, and arrived home as daylight faded. All was well back at the farmlet.

Weather:13°C—24°C; no rain [?]

Charles came round in the morning to discuss the garden path design he’s doing for us and whether it would be possible to do a path without steps. We concluded that some steps were essential to avoid impossibly steep paths ona zig-zag from the right-of-way below us up to the front door. Charles also had a passion for strimming and sawing so he spent the rest of the day flattening much of the garden area, putatively so that he could better see what he was designing for. He strimmed Karola’s four-year-old Puka among other attractive native shrubs and small trees, but it is indeed clearer now.

Greenacres Cleaners came in the afternoon; Karola has asked them to clean for us on an occasional basis and this was an initial visit to see what would be involved. Karola otherwise spent the entire day cleaning and vacuuming ready for Anne and Roger the next day. Meanwhile Bicka and I who were known for making rather than cleaning dust were banished and we went in to Bridget’s. A friend of hers kindly babysat while Bicka, Bridget, and I walked up Mount Kaukau together – rather faster this time. I intended to rush back to Pitoitoi because we were eating out with the Rashbrookes – Karola had prepared a casserole – at 6:00 pm. As it happened there was a delay on the expressway out to the Hutt valley and a 20 minute journey took me 90 minutes. The Rashbrookes were also coming home from Wellington for the meal and they too were delayed for over an hour – but the meal was delicious.

Weather:15°C—23°C; no rain [?]

It being dry and occasionally sunny I cleared the backdoor drain at the foot of the stone retaining walll and also cleared the front path of the considerable load of weeds that’d taken root since last we came down. Karola spent any spare time she had on this trip making Pitoitoi as clean and tidy as possible for our guests Anne and Roger Hughes arriving on Thursday.

We went in to Bridget’s late afternoon so that Bridget and Chris could go to a film; Karola cooked for us all.

Reports from Mary that her printer was still playing up.

Weather:16°C—23°C; 5.4 mm rain [?]

More with Mary’s printer and this time it seemed to be working properly.

In the afternoon Bicka and I walked up Mount Kaukau which took about two hours door-to-door from Bridget’s place in Khandallah.

Weather:16°C—20°C; 6.2 mm rain [?]

In the morning I took the trailer-load of apple wood round to Gill’s in Seatoun where Gill, and Bridget and Chris, unloaded it onto the wide path at the top of their section. I also offloaded the small, inexpensive bench saw that Gill kindly took off our hands.

Bridget and Chris then zoomed off with the trailer towed by their car and I went to see Mary in Karori. I spent much of the afternoon trying to get Mary’s computer printer to work; it had been playing up for a couple of weeks. I also tidied up her computer in the hope that this would improve things and downloaded the latest software for her model of printer. I left the computer doing a huge 100 megabyte download that was expected to take an hour or so just to download over Mary’s telephone line.
A rather good game I thought.

Weather:16°C—27°C; no rain [?]

Mary’s rain gauge had collected 84 mm of rain since last I looked on 4th December last year.

The ewes and most lambs are now out of the Totara paddock, having the Front, One Acre and Orchard paddocks as their current domain.

Karola added several sacks of pine cones destined for Pitoit to the trailer. The two apple boxes of apple firewood are for Gill as is the small bench saw stowed in the back of the Landrover.

I also loaded five cardboard boxes of books for Bridget and Chris to pick over before I throw them out. The Landrover was so full that Bicka had to ride down under the legs of the front passenger. A pleasantly uneventful trip with grilled blue cod and chips in Woodville proving unexpectedly well cooked. We went via Manawatu Gorge and the west coast Route 1 to avoid the Rimutaka hill climb in this windy, stormy and mostly rainy weather.

We had dinner at Bridget’s and after giving Bicka a run on the Days Bay beach installed ourselves in the Pitoitoi flat.

Hawkes Bay Weather:14°C—26°C; 2.1 mm rain [78.6]

I nipped down to Mitre-10 and got another five of the combination padlocks on sale – the combination for them all is now 255. I also got a replacement for the back light on Karola’s bike which had given up the ghost.

Karola amalgamated the ewes and the smaller lambs plus the ewe lambs and we penned them up so that I could look at the feet of #623E and #679E, both of whom have been limping. Signs of old foot-rot but nothing major that looked fresh so we pared back the horn and applied some anti-footrot spray and gave them a dash of green raddle on the nose. The ewes and the small and ewe lambs had the Totara paddock, the Orchard, One-Acre, and Front paddocks to roam over today. Tomorrow they get shut out of the Totara paddock until we return on Thursday so that all our sheep are behind physical fences and all the gates are padlocked.

Karola and I reinforced a bit of netting fence at the end of the goose enclosure with staples and a couple of standards. Karola had her friend Rowena to lunch. Meanwhile I filled the trailer with two apple boxes of our old apple firewood to take down to Gill in Wellington. She is also to get the inexpensive bench saw that I bought for $300 some years ago and have hardly used.

Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—26°C; 56.3 mm rain [78.6]

A busy day despite the rain as we are going to Wellington in a couple of days.

At Mitre-10 I bought four 6″ screw-in hooks and in the afternoon we put them up in a rafter in the garage and hung the four bicycles from them by their rear wheel rim – as advocated by The Hub bike shop. I also bought five combination lock padlocks and cables for securing the gates before we leave; they happened to be on special down to $20 from $65 each. I think I’ll get another five tomorrow and that’ll enable us to fasten up all the gates enclosing both mobs of sheep – in the Middle paddock and in the Front/One-Acre and Orchard paddocks.

Bought a pair of black slipon work shoes – a large size so that I can slip them on to go into town when I’ve got heavy work socks on. This was interesting mainly because the Warehouse pair cost $12; the cheapest pair we could find in Taradale earlier was $70 and regular men’s shoes seem to cost around $200.

Nipped into Farmlands and bought 4 litres of Magnum pour-on anti-flystrike liquid as we’ve almost finished the Zenith.

Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—23°C; 9.5 mm rain [?]

We mustered the ewes lambs and younger wether lambs to check them. Karola saw one she thought badly needed a drench and she was given a hearty dose of Cydectin (withholding for meat of 10 days) by pipette. All these lambs were sprayed with Zenith (withholding for meat of 7 days) to counter fly strike. Wether lambs #909R, #921R and #932R were drafted out to join the 1st division in the Middle paddock – there are now 18 lambs in the Middle paddock and we expect maybe 15 of these to be suitable to send to the works in the next few weeks.

The wether lambs remaining with the ewe lambs are: #916R, #927R, #929R, #930R, #940R, #941R, and #945R – which with the 18 in the Middle paddock makes 25 wether lambs this year.

The ewe lambs comprise: #904E, #906E, #911E, #912E, #915E, #917E, #919E, #922E, #923E, #928E, #933E, #934E, #935E, #936E, #937E, #938E, #939E, #942E, #946E, #947E, and #948E. A total of 21 ewe lambs this year.

Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—24°C; no rain [79.0]

Fine day. In the morning we yarded up all the sheep in the Middle paddock and drafted out one small wether lamb,. #929R, who was not supposed to be there then gave the rest a dose of Zenith anti-flystrike along their backs and round their backsides. Withholding for Zenith is 7 days for meat. Sheep dosed were: #104, #630, #901R, #902R, #903R, #905R, #908R, #910R, #913R, #914R, #918R, #924R, #925R, #926R, #931R, #943R and #944R. We also gave a drench of Cydectin (withholding of 10 days for meat) to two of the lambs.

Several of the wether lambs could do with dagging and so we agreed to ask Bruce Richardson (Mobile Shearing) to come and dag all the lambs early in February.

Karola’s idea of running the troughs off the underground water valves with their better pressure control and running the irrigation lines off the garden taps is proving effective. We switched the connections for the trough near the sheep yards today. I also mended a break in the leaky pipe in the mountain flax planting area.

Mike Croucher (Garden Groom) came and mowed the lawns today.

Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—24°C; no rain [79.5]

A bit more activity today; the sun is shining again.

Bought a bike holder that allows the transport of two bicycles on a stem attached at its base to the towbar. $148 from The Hub in Stortford Lodge. Bought a replacement pair of safety glasses from Hector Jones in Hastings and then went to Taradale and bought a new pair of sandals in the January sales – some comments about sandals with, and without, socks (with = UK, without = NZ). Then we went on to Napier and I and Bicka had our 30 minute foreshore walk while Karola had a swim in the heated pools at Ocean Spa.

Hawkes Bay Weather:14°C—22°C; no rain [79.7]

Nothing outside today; breakfast on the verandah during a brief spell without rain. Occasional glimpses of sun in the afternoon. Karola is cleaning and organising for a potential visit of old friends from universty in February and we expect to go down to Wellington next Saturday for a few days to babysit and tidy up the flat after Anna’s visit.

Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—22°C; 2.3 mm rain [79.1]

Indoor activities today; constant gentle rain all day.

Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—17°C; 17.4 mm rain [79.5]

Landrover needed new distributor cap and leads; $350. It’s the short trips that cause problems so I think we’ll take it down to Wellington with us on our trip later this month.

Trip to Napier for walk long the foreshore and some shopping – huge breakers and cool overcast skies.

Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—19°C; no rain [78.5]

Breakfast out on the verandah; cool and sunny; heaven.

Landrover still not ready.

Karola has done a clear, big picture of which sheep are where on the large whiteboard in the office. GST for Oct/Nov is now done, due in tomorrow.

We will not mention the phone ringing at 2:58am from NatWest in the UK wondering if we’d like help with our current account.

Hawkes Bay Weather:14°C—22°C; no rain [79.1]

Quiet morning after we took the Landrover in to Newport Auto Electrical to get the mis-firing fixed. We also dropped in on Laurie and Enid for a blow-by-blow account of the “great escape”.

In the afternoon we went to Janine Williams, dietician, for advice on having a gluten-free diet. No new news.

Late afternoon we tidied up the daggy bottoms of 5 lambs and distributed the 15 lambs in the Island between the Middle and Totara paddocks. Our “1st 15” of lambs are now all in the Middle paddock with the ram and his consort.

Hawkes Bay Weather:8°C—22°C; no rain [79.3]

Blood test and then breakfast in the Stortford Lodge coffee shop, Coffee Club, next to the Swim Gym – hearty traditional breakfast without the toast of course, and a latte.

Karola did much mowing of barley grass finishing off the circle round the Canary Island pine that Anna began last week.

I disassembled the electric fence across the top of the lawn and re-erected it to include more of the Totara paddock and the area where the bamboo used to be and where the cottage will eventually be.

we then together weaned the lambs – drafting out the larger males and the daggy ones. We will process the daggy (mainly dry now) ones tomorrow and put the larger males with the other “1st draft for the works” in the Middle paddock. The ewes are now in the Front paddock with not much to eat. The smaller and ewe lambs are in the Totara paddock.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—21°C; 0.1 mm rain [78.2]

Sunny day with a few heavy showers.

Anna texted at 3:15 am to say she’d landed in Heathrow; I replied at 3:20 am. Anna called and we had a long chat woth her and felix about the cold and work/school tomorrow if the weather permitted. Anna said the 2nd leg from Hong Kong was fine; the leg to Hong Kong was a bit bumpy.

Hawkes Bay Weather:8°C—22°C; 14.9 mm rain [77.9]

Karola flew back from Auckland at lunchtime. Otherwise all quiet. Anna e-mailed from HongKong airport to say she’d arrived there, very frazzled, but the boys were fine.

Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—29°C; no rain [78.2]

The families up in Rotorua saw a geyser and went for a swim before departing on their several ways after lunch. Bridget was particularly helpful as she kept calm and ensured nothing was forgotten or left behind at the motel – she and Chris have been a real boon for the whole Rotorua trip. Karola, Anna and the two grandsons went off to Auckland; Bridget, Chris and the two grand daughters went off for a holiday at Chris’ uncle’s place in Katikati.

I had booked a cheap motel near the Auckland airport for Karola – it turned out for next weekend by mistake – but they got a small dingy room anyway at an even cheaper rate.

Bicka and I took a morning constitutional around the sheep, refreshing the sheep water troughs and without finding any corpses or even near corpses. There are three wether lambs in the Middle paddock which could do with a bit of dagging and three wether lambs and a ewe lamb that really need attention in the Front paddock.

The mail box was broken on Thursday when Postie pushed in two Amazon packages that only just fitted; I mended it today.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—20°C; no rain [78.1]

The families up in Rotorua spent the morning sampling the Luge, the Shweeb, and the Gondola; the afternoon was spent swimming and sun bathing and shopping.

Meanwhile Bicka and I took up the electric fence in the Orchard paddock and let the sheep into the whole paddock in addition to the One Acre and Front paddocks. We also set up a fence across the top of the Totara paddock to make it easy to drive them across to the yards when Karola gets back.

There being no suitable food or drink Bicka and I went to the garage for milk and petrol before breakfast and then shopping at New World in the afternoon, enough till Karola gets back.

Hawkes Bay Weather:5°C—25°C; no rain [?]

We all left Wellington in the morning; Anna and Felix and Bicka and I went first in Karola’s car; Karola, who had to divert to pick up Barnie after his third and final sleep-over at Bridget’s , was about 20 minutes behind in the hire car. Bridget and family were about an hour behind Karola but we all arrived in time for the sumptuous meal prepared by Chloe at Burleigh, Bulls.

After lunch Harry and Laura took Anna and the boys on buggies down to see Laura’s goats on the cliffs.

Later Bridget and Karola drove off towards Rotorua while Bicka and I set off back to Karamu in Hastings – we covered the 200 km in bang on 2 hrs 30 mins, taking route 50 instead of route 2 and there were no more than a dozen vehicles on route 50 the whole way.

I rang Laurie as soon as I got back and found that we’d just missed an incident with the Karamu sheep. Apparently, in addition to a light being left on upstairs and one window being slightly ajar, a gate frpom the One Acre onto the lawn had been left unlatched. The main flock had explored this and by Wednesday were mostly out on the road or in the next door (Scott’s) orchard. Laurie (80+) and Enid got almost all of them back except for 3 still in the Scott’s orchard. The orchard manager threaqtened to shoot them if they were still there in the morning even though there was so much clover in that orchard that the sheep showed no sign of eating any very green, very unripe apples. Laurie spoke to the owner, our friendly neighbour Janet Scott and she reassured Laurie that there’d be no shooting of our sheep. Karola needs to go round and thank her when she returns.

I went out and looked around and ensured all the gates were now fastened; I met Hamish driving round the orchard and he had already driven the three remaining sheep out of the Scott’s orchard into our orchard through the gate at the back of the property – needed to allow the drainage board digger through to clean the big orchard drain that runs along the back of the properties. Together we chased after these three sheep, I brought 5 other sheep over, sheep that Karola had trained to follow her for sheep nuts, and tried to combine them with the truant 3 but no go. Just as dusk was falling Hamish managed to get the 3 through off the orchard drive into the Front paddock as they made a fruitless dash for what they thought was accesss out onto the road. I led the 5 back again using the sheep nuts.

Hawkes Bay Weather:11°C—30°C; no rain [?]

Barnie stayed and spent a third night at Natalie’s place. Karola and I slept at the Rashbrooke’s again.

Felix and I walked Bicka up the spur and across to the Duck Pond again before breakfast.

We all met again for lunch, this time at Chocolate Days cafe in Days Bay: Mary and Gill and Ben and Bridget, Natalie, Alex and Anna, Felix, Barnie, and Karola and me and Bicka. Bridget’s Chris had to go to work today – as did Ben but he took a long lunch break to be with us. Kaz and Yvonne and their children Francis and Amy joined us for late morning tea at Chocolate Days, before Bridget and Mary et al turned up.

After lunch the Anna and Bridget families and Karola went back into Wellington and had a swim. I went across on the ferry at 6:00 pm and joined them on Queen’s Wharf for dinner – Chris joined us and we ate outside at one of the many restaurants clustered on the wharf a little way along from the national museum Te Papa. It was cold and windy and the food took a long time to come but the children ran around keeping warm so overall it was a success.

Hawkes Bay Weather:10°C—26°C; no rain [?]

Barnie spent another night at Natalie’s place. Karola and I slept at the Rashbrooke’s again.

A quiet day for me. The families went to Te Papa museum in the morning and went swimming and to various playgrounds in the afternoon. Mid afternoon they visited Anna’s godmother Jane Pearce in Karori returning to Pitoitoi around 3:30 pm.

At 4:00 pm Anna went off with Geoff to tramp around York Bay and Days Bay for a couple of hours, repeating an experience Anna had last time she visited New Zealand. Then, as planned, Anna, Felix, Karola and I hosted a meal at Pitoitoi with Geoff andf Felicity – fish and chips with a salad provided by Felicity; strawberry desert also provided by Felicity.

Hawkes Bay Weather:7°C—21°C; no rain [?]

Karola and I slept at the Rashbrooke’s again. Barnie had his first sleep-over at Bridget’s.

Felix and I took Bicka up over the hill behind us and down past the Duck pond after breakfast. Anna’s family, Bridget’s family, Mary, Gill, and Ben all met at Chocolate Fish in Shelley Bay for lunch; it was a great success.

I took Mary home to Karori after lunch and we detoured past Gill and Ben’s place in Seatoun so that I and Mary could admire the new wooden garden wall – it is indeed a strong and well placed wall that enhances the garden area built on a very steep slope below their house.

Bridget went back to Khandallah, taking Barnie for a sleep-over, and Anna, Felix and Karola went back to Pitoitoi.

Hawkes Bay Weather:9°C—27°C; no rain [?]

We set off for Wellington, Anna and Felix and me and Bicka in Karola’s Subaru, Karola and Barnie in the hire car. We stopped at the end of the road for petrol and again in Masterton to pick up a coffee and let Bicka stretch her legs. We went on route 2 to Woodville and then down through the Wairarapa and over the Rimutaka hills; this part of the journey was slow, windy and very blustery but Anna drove quietly and calmly the whole trip.

We met at Bridget’s for dinner of suasages and potato. Then We went to the flat in Pitoitoi road in Days Bay and settled Anna and Barnie and Bicka in for the night before Karola and I went off to the Rashbrookes in York Bay for a chat, a cup of tea, and a bed for the night.

Hawkes Bay Weather:17°C—32°C; no rain [?]

Last day at Karamu. Anna organised us to demolish the old dog pen on the west side of the house – Bicka only used it for a few months when very small, until Karola relented and Bicka became our constant companion. Karola was very pleased to get this done as it was almost the only thing we’ve done since Anna arrived that made progress with Karola’s extensive to-do list. Felix helped on the tractor in pulling out the dog pen posts.

Felix and Barnaby finally found good places to build a den, in the apple trunk log enclosures I’d made for sheep shelters over near the eucalypts.

Hawkes Bay Weather:15°C—25°C; no rain [78.8]

We got to Clifton by 10:00 am and the five of us were on one side of the rear trailer on the second tractor train setting off along the beach the 5 km to Cape Kidnappers. There were 5 tractor trains in all; each tractor pulled a big trailer and a half trailer behind that. We estimate there were about 200 people on the trip; it costs about NZ$30 per person.

Unique sight in New Zealand, and maybe the world, was that of boat trailers moored out in the surf. Apparently the beach sand is so soft that the usual method of backing the boat trailer out until it’s deep enough to float the boat and then returning the trailer to dry land doesn’t work – the trailers and tractors pulling them just get stuck. So, instead, the trailers are made to float with the boat and they, propelled by the boat’s propeller, sail out to a mooring where it’s deep enough that the boat can be floated above the trailer and off for its days fishing. The area of maybe 20 or so railed platforms in the shape of a boat (the reinforced, floatable trailers) looked most unusual.

Looks as if the gannet colonies are growing in size and number; we didn’t go up to the main colony but saw two other smaller colonies as we trundled along the beach. Compared with last time there were many trail bikes and quad bikes, most with trailers, also coming along the beach to the cape; it was quite crowded. Oddest of all was the number of young boys, maybe only 10 or so, riding small trail bikes.

Hawkes Bay Weather:13°C—27°C; no rain [78.3]