Monthly Archives: December 2010

SwimGym and then breakfast as usual on a Friday. I noticed the homestead water pump was on for a long time so suggested the old filters we put back to replace the gunged up ones are not working. This coincided with several of us complaining over the last day or so that the water in the homestead smelled strange, not dead animal strange exactly, but distinctly off.

Karola and I changed the filters, replacing them with brand new 20 micron and 5 micron filters. Yesterday Karola asked me to top up the rainwater tanks from the well but instead I found that the 15,000 gallon capacity of the three tanks (66,000 litres) was 2/3 full there seemed little that adding well water would do except perhaps stir up sediment. Today Karola investigated whether there was something off actually in the header tank in the homestead attic. It was mighty hot up there but no, the header tank seemed its usual grubby self, no extra dead anythings. We then sampled the water directly from the rainwater tanks and it had the smell so that’s the source. Later today Bridget remarked that with the new filters in the water looked cleaner and smelled less, horray.

Just before lunch David Smith from Stortford Machinery brought round the second hand mower he had for sale. I tried it out and it seemed OK, it’s seven years old and a simpler design than the Giltrap one we tried recently, and doesn’t seem to have the protection against mowing up wood or wire or iron that is too big. The Giltrap mower would stall without harming anything; this one will probably break so I’ll have to be more careful. $1700 plus GST. And he will give us a bolt for the three-point linkage; our bolt for the top link isn’t long enough.

We all went out to lunch at Cornucopia. Delicious. Then Bridget, Chris and the girls went shopping; Karola and I had some peaceful time back home. Well, actually, Karola first let the main flock into the Orchard paddock and then dagged the five worst lambs held back yesterday, including the two which had flystrike: #003, #015, #022, #023, and #032. I collected up electric fence posts and wire and then rounded up Piglet (#104) and The Wether (#630) and Karola, carefully, put Magnum on them both, including their undercarriages. They are heavy and anxious creatures so could do one serious damage if they decided to lash out or accidentally smashed into you, hence the caution. Later the sheep were retrieved back into the West paddock (Totara and Middle, as was).

When Bridget et al returned from their afternoon shopping the girls played on the Flying Fox. Chris and I took digital camera movies, the granddaughters were so happy.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 12°C—24°C; no rain [80.5] 06:30

Karola and I began the day with several hours of dagging the daggy lambs. Then we “dipped” them with Magnum pour-on against flystrike and lice (meat withholding – zero days) and drenched them all with Cydectin (meat withholding, 10 days). Of the total of 44 lambs, 16 were daggy but their digestions had improved so the dags were dry, two are currently squitty and have flystrike – maggots (erk!). Three more are just squitty. Ewe #676 is still poorly so she got a drench of Cydectin too.

So, 39 ewes have been given Magnum (ewe #676 today, the others were done yesterday) and 44 lambs have been dosed with Magnum. That leaves #630 (The Wether) and #104 (Piglet) to be done to avoid flystrike as summer progresses. Magnum pour-on, meat withholding, zero days.

Today 21 lambs were also drenched with Cydectin, as was ewe #676.

• #676 – poorly Texel ewe
• #003 – had active flystrike and currently squitty
• #004
• #005
• #007
• #010
• #011
• #012
• #015 – had active flystrike and currently squitty
• #018
• #020
• #022 – currently squitty
• #023 – currently squitty
• #024
• #025
• #027
• #028
• #031
• #032 – currently squitty
• #041
• #042
• #043

The granddaughters played on the new flying fox with obvious enjoyment; we anticipate it’ll be a hit with the grandsons too if they do come out next Christmas.

Late afternoon I chainsawed past the Lawsoniana blocking the front drive so we can at least walk to pick up the mail. There’s a 6 metre (400mm diameter) ash that’s snapped at it’s base and several sizeable branches down as well as the big oak branch. Oak Avenue was reopened today after the council cleared a large elm tree that had fallen across the avenue in the same storm.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—23°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

Bridget got rather sunburned yesterday; Karola also a bit and even Chris a little – but the girls were safely covered in sun-block. It was cloudy so they were not as careful, the adults, as they should have been.

For the last few warm, fine days the cicadas have been deafening. Also Karola has sighted quail with their chicks several times and I have seen a host of bumble-bee sized chicks careening over the drive too. Today while returning from SwimGym up the 121 drive, the other one still being blocked by branches off the lawsoniana, we saw one mother quail with about eight chicks and another with at least half a dozen. I think this omens a long, dry summer.

I called our insurance broker this morning and the assessor called in mid afternoon. They will get quotes for replacement of the old green shed plus for clearing the tree branches off the shed so it can be assessed properly plus for removing the destroyed remains of the shed. We can choose to take the monetary value of replacement and use it to build something to our own specification where and when we like. This afternoon I chainsawed a way in to get the chooks food and the tools. The mulcher is damaged, but repairable I think. Most of the garden tools are unharmed.

Half the day was spent with Karola and I penning all the sheep and separating them into daggy lambs, who will be processed further tomorrow, and the rest who were given a good dose of anti-flystrike and anti-lice pour-on. I lost the plot as we’d nearly finished and let a lamb escape. We recaptured it but then I left a gate open and all the un-processed sheep escaped so we had lunch and tried again; it all went smoothly from then on but had taken twice as long as it should.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today – unless you count the unplanned early demolition of the old green shed..

Weather: 14°C—22°C; no rain [80.9] 06:30

It was a very windy night with times of severe gusts that woke us up. After breakfast Bridget and Bicka and I went for our constitutional; Bridget took off at a run half way round. Everyone except Bicka and me then went off to Splash Planet water amusement park in Hastings for the day.

Meanwhile I took the Landrover and trailer from where they were parked under the big oak and went to cut up a small but heavy branch of Lombardy poplar that had fallen across from Crag Vernon’s place onto the orchard drive. I returned to find that a huge branch of the big oak had come crashing down. Somehow it missed the tractor parked directly underneath and hit the green shed, effectively demolishing it. Some water pipes were dislodged and water gushed into the air. The plum tree seems mostly OK but the walls of the green shed were flattened trapping the big red mulching machine, most of our garden tools, the food for the chooks and geese, and other stuff.

An hour or so later another sizeable branch partially torn off by the first fall crashed down onto the tractor, well the heavy end was leaning against the oak tree trunk. Late afternoon we got the escaping water turned off and I chainsawed off some of the branches imprisoning the tractor. With a loud crash the 2nd big branch propped between the tractor and the trunk of the oak fell to the ground, away from me as I’d hoped. Removing the debris from the tractor I was surprised and delighted that it started first time and I drove it off to safety. It is needed tomorrow for the trial of a 2nd-hand mower.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today – unless you count the unplanned early demolition of the old green shed..

Weather: 9°C—29°C; 1.9 mm rain [81.0] 06:30

Bicka and I went for a constitutional round the block and spent the rest of the day on our end-of-year e-mails. Bridget, Chris, Natalie and Alex came up from Wellington arriving early evening.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 19°C—31°C; no rain [81.1] 06:30

A day of list-making for our end-of-year e-mail.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 9°C—25°C; no rain [81.6] 06:30

Ormond Chapel at 9:00 am with Karola. Then I completed the photo montage for our end-of-year e-mail to friends and relations. Phone calls wishing us well. otherwise another rather languid day. Karola chopped lots of thistles as the sun went down.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 9°C—24°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

SwimGym and then a very lethargic rest of the day. We did pop into town for the bread and a few other things but skipped lunch as Karola had promised to pick up Rowena after her dialysis and have lunch with her. I sorted out a few candidate photos for our end-of-year e-mail which I hope to send tomorrow.

Mike Croucher came and mowed the lawns which will be nice for when Bridget comes after Christmas.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 14°C—27°C; no rain [80.2] 06:30

Mark came and helped Karola this morning by planting 23 small flax plants along the netting fence between the goose enclosure (aka Back paddock) and the homestead. They also planted two larger trees, liriodendrons, in the Front paddock by the grass bridge and the old wooden gate.

Late afternoon Karola laid a leaky pipe for the newly planted flax.

Meanwhile I spent the morning inside but late afternoon I did some maintenance on what Karola calls the ‘prayer flags’, the frost protection cloth suspended over the youngest ngaios on part of the orchard drive, I raised these up so that they didn’t touch the growing foliage. I also carted a couple of small trailer loads of mulch and thickly mulched the edge of the orchard drive next to Karola’s north-western corner planting area between the one acre paddock and the orchard paddock. It’s not inside a paddock so doesn’t get grazed and it’s too awkward to mow. I also carted off a dozen old railway sleepers piled up under the oak trees in the Back paddock and put them down with the rest of the fencing posts and stumps.

Hogget ewe #919 didn’t seem to be having problems with her ear today though she’s still coughing a bit and is pretty thin.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—25°C; no rain [80.1] 06:30

SwimGym – a bit of a struggle today as it was a hot and restless night and very high humidity today.

Mid morning we collected and paid for the second-hand Acer laptop I bought on TradeMe last night. The seller was Justin Ireland, (021-263-9801) 1010 Frederick St, Hastings. The price was $345.

I then spent the next few hours trying to download a new BBC series, Dirk Gently – a character in some of Douglas Adams’ novels (but not in HHGTTG). This fruitless activity was curtailed by the arrival of Chris Day from the Guardian Trust – a semi-social call to give me two bottles of wine and a calendar. Apart from not drinking alcohol I do feel MOST AMBIVALENT about gifts from a company that is supposed to be looking after some of your money for a fee – after all, it’s the client fees that must be paying for the gifts. The sooner I get out of the clutches of the Guardian Trust the better.

Later I did a bit more mowing, tidying up areas of the Back paddock that used to be outside the goose enclosure before the latest netting fence rearrangements. I’d almost finished when the second (of two) belts in the mower slipped its pulleys and so I had no blades to cut with. I called it a day. This old “multi-mow” mower, which I bought a couple of years ago from Alan Ladbrooke 2nd (or more) hand for $2000, has three blades run off two belts attached via pulleys to a gearbox that is driven by the tractor PTO. Stortford Machinery will not trade-in this mower, it is so prone to damage and warn out, but David Smith is offering me a 2nd hand mower built to the same design as the new one he offered last week and he’s to bring it out here for a trial Wednesday 29th. It will cost $1700+GST if we buy it and we still have to dispose of the current monster. The current monster is 2.7 metres wide and has exposed revolving shafts; the likely replacement has properly shielded shafts and is only 1.5 metres wide so much easier for me to use without hitting anything or anyone.

After that Karola rounded up the sheep and put them in the yards. #919 has been shaking her ear vigorously so it may be another case of mites-in-the-ear. Piglet had it, #904 had it, and #911 had it. We cured these sheep by putting flystrike powder in their ears so we dosed #919 the same way today and will see if that’s helped tomorrow.

Progressive Meats tally came through today and the seven elderly lambs came in with good weights and very good prices averaging well over $100 each.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—32°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

Last night the homestead water pump wouldn’t turn off, it just went on pumping for hours. This is usually a sign that the filters are clogged and so last noght we turned the pump off and this morning we swapped the two current, clogged filters for the old ones that Karola had washed. All went well after that.

We also got an appointment for Bicka with the vet – just to monitor her condition and get some more pills. In the afternoon we went into Hastings for a little food shopping, for Bicka’s vet visit, and to buy a pair of spare water filters. They are standard 10″ filters, one 20 micron to sieve out the larger particles and one 5 micron for the really fine specs. Bicka was pronounced stable but she has put on weight, she’s now 16 kg. Bicka used to be 13.5 kg for a long time and went up to 15kg on our last vet visit; I must feed her less.

Late afternoon I re-mowed some of the Island paddock to keep the iris down and then mowed most of the goose enclosure aka the Back paddock – not that it was very overgrown but I want it to look park-like for when Bridget et al come up at the weekend.

I have been following an auction for a laptop to replace Mary’s 10 year old IBM Thinkpad; it’a an Acer Aspire 3050, one of the few to have the same size of screen as Mary’s current computer. I followed the bidding procedure described in the book about TradeMe lent by Graham Harvey and it worked well. I researched the article, I looked at the track record of the seller, I read the questions and answers, and then I didn’t bid until 10 minutes before the end of the auction. My bid used the TradeMe ‘autobid’ service whereby I just gave a maximum I was prepared to pay and let the system keep on bidding for me so that I was in front until or unless someone else bid more than my maximum. I just then walked away and came back ten minutes later to find I was the winner. The price had doubled in the last few minutes of the auction but it was still about half what I’d been prepared to pay.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 21°C—29°C; no rain [81.0] 06:30

Back in the SwimGym of things again, then straight away we had to load up the seven #900s chosen for the works and get them there by 9:00 am – which we did. Instead of having to hump each lamb up a foot from the trailer onto the loading ramp we noticed a big maori chap gesticulating through a window at us and I finally, finally, figured out he was suggesting extending the ramp out a bit. There are controls for left-right, up-down, forward and back; we had it at the lowest setting for ‘down’ and – as in past deliveries – it stopped about 12 – 18 inches above the trailer. That’s why Mark was invaluable to lift each lamb up across the gap. This time, by extending the ramp forwards it naturally got closer to the ground and unloading the unfortunates was relatively easy even though we hadn’t managed to get Mark at short notice. The (un)fortunate ones were: #935, #936, #938, #939, #942, #947, #948.

Karola went to see Laurie and Enid in the afternoon, also dropping in at Greta’s Raupare Gardens fruit & vege shop on the way back.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 20°C—26°C; no rain [?] 06:30

Off back to Karamu leaving around 11:30 am, stopping at Moore-Wilson’s (I had a nice Latte, Karola bough food) and then again for lunch (Fritata, gluten-free, delicious) with Cecilia Johnson at Pukera Bay. It rained and rained most of the way and even Hastings got some rain at last.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 17°C—23°C; 4.1 mm rain [?] 06:30

It is Felix’ birthday in the UK (ie ‘yesterday’ date-wise) and as planned Karola and I went in to Bridget’s for 11:00 am Skype video session with Felix and Anna – reciting poems by heart as we’d promised. Bridget and her daughters joined us for the last few minutes too. Karola went shopping and to see Natalie swim while I went to see Mary again and discuss the vexed subject of heat-exchanger filter maintenance – from there I went back to Days Bay for a relaxed afternoon. Later, Bridget, Chris and the girls came out to Days Bay bringing Karola with them and Karola took the granddaughters to the beach, joined later by Chris.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 19°C—24°C; no rain [?] 06:30

Took Mary out to a delicious lunch at CouCou restaurant near the Karori fire brigade building. Later met Kirsty and Bruce in Petone and had a splendid dinner at Sporano’s restaurant. When asked they denied having anyone called Tony on the staff. I think theyd been asked before.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—23°C; 10.2 mm rain [?] 06:30

Babysitting for Bridget and Chris who went out to a Meridian office do, returning around midnight.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 14°C—20°C; 8.8 mm rain [?] 06:30

SwimGym (I was given a new schedule of exercises) and then Robert Russell came and appraised the seven sheep for the works; he agreed to take all seven.

Then Frank Haywood drove up bearing two punnets brimming with delicious shining cherries.

We finished packing, forgetting several things in the process, and got off at just after 11:00 am. We drove down the Wairarapa and stopped in Upper Hutt to deliver presents to Anne-Marie More – Bridget’s MIL – who is going to Australia tomorrow to have Christmas with her other son and family.

Eastbourne fish & chip shop was closed for a couple of weeks so I didn’t get my much anticipated rice-flour battered fish but instead had some so-so chicken masala indian takeaway, lukewarm by the time we got to it.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—23°C; no rain [?] 06:30

Haircuts in Hastings, then … Sheep work today began with yarding up the flock – all except “piglet” and his friend who were undisturbed by today’s activities. Then we drafted the lambs – this years lambs – into ones that were very daggy or quite daggy and those that were pretty clean. There were 21 clean and 23 that we decided to drench with Cydectin 5ml (withholding for meat of ten days). After that we drafted out the 20 #900s, our one-year-old ewes, and mulled over which ones were candidates for going to the works. We chose 7 as candidates but it does depend on how many of these still only have baby teeth, as soon as they get their first two adult teeth they’re officially no longer a lamb. About half of them have some adult teeth and are therefore two-tooths and won’t fetch lamb prices. Finally all the ewes and lambs were reunited except for the seven candidates for the works. Robert Russell was supposed to come and look at them this afternoon but ran late and plans to come tomorrow at 9:00 am.

Later Karola went shopping and after that Rowena called round, as planned, with a gift of a large chunk of wild pork.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—27°C; 5.6 mm rain [80.9] 06:30

SwimGym and today I was shown a new routine, similar pattern of cardio-vascular exercises interleaved with muscle exercises. Karola did her usual one kilometre swim.

For much of the rest of the day Karola was clearing up stuff from the cottage upper bedrooms while I mucked about on computer trying to fix my broken access to IBM – the program to get me in behind the IBM firewall stopped working last week.

Later I adjusted the heavy crush gate in the sheep yards, being tired of dragging it along the ground to close it.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 18°C—26°C; no rain [81.6] 06:30

Anna TXTed me around 5:00 am this morning, it being about 6:00 pm her time. The morning stated early but progressed slowly and it wasn’t until mid afternoon that I got outside. First I spent almost an hour mucking about with the old orchard mower. One belt had come off and I put this back on and tried to find out why the corresponding pulley driving one of the three blades was so loose and wobbly. To no avail, and when I started the mower the belt quickly came off again so I had to make do with two of the three blades only. Conveniently these two were adjacent so it wasn’t too hard.

I cleared thick clumped iris from next to the sheep yards making way for an additional pen to hold drafted sheep. This took many passes with the mower which stalled frequently on the fleshy leaves and dense understory of dead leaves. Karola then rammed in eight standards to create the pen and that was it for the day.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—27°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

Warm, muggy, overcast day. We got a TXT message from Anna asking if we’d seen her recent TXT with suggestions for Christmas presents for her boys – Felix’ father Marc having rejected Karola’s idea of giving Felix an iPad for his birthday and Christmas combined. Luckily Karola had already sent off a couple of small possum things for Felix and Barney for Christmas and we hastily went into Napier and got some more substantial possum stuff for Felix for his birthday and posted it pronto. Then, seeing as we were there, a walk on the foreshore with Bicka, much appreciated, and brunch at Cafe Divine followed by a littl light shopping – and that’s the morning gone.

Enid and Laurie came, as expected, for tea in the afternoon – they’ll be looking after the animals while we’re in Wellington next week.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 11°C—25°C; no rain [80.0] 06:30

SwimGym and then another crack at the sheep – checking the #900s for adult teeth and checking the lambs to draft out those which are very daggy for additional treatment. Unfortunately escapes were again a feature of the morning, the drafting gates springing open allowing mass escapes. However we did segregate enough of the daggy lambs to allow Karola to come back later and try to clean them up a bit – a most “Unsuitable Job For A Woman” as P D James might say. Between times I fixed the gates by changing the gudgeons on one to make it a tighter fit with the gateway, by enlarging the hole for the bolt on another, and by oiling the bolts on both. Hogget ewe #911 had a wounded ear, perhaps because she cuaght her tag in a fence or perhaps because she has ear mites that irritate her so much that she tore her ear tag. Anyway, to help her recover we cut off the tag and applied spray-on antibiotic liberally over her ear and my hands.

We had a delicious gluten-free lunch at Cornucopia/Taste in Hastings and did some of the weekly shopping.

Mid afternoon David Smith of Stortford Machinery brought round the Giltrap topper/mower for me to try and to assess the trade-in value of the old green orchard mower I bought from Alan Ladbrook. He didn’t think the old mower was worth much. I found the Giltrap mower, which is very simple, very rugged, and only 1.5 metres wide instead of 2.7 metres, most suitable. Unfortunately we couldn’t agree on the overall price – David did point out a lot of things wrong with the old orchard mower – and so we parted without a deal.

At some point in the morning I got Bridget on the phone and she talked me through the procedure to get films stored on the iPad to play on a high-definition TV via the AppleTV she gave me for my birthday. It worked.

The Cottage Refurbishment

I called Brett Phillips of Clapcott Consultancy and he assured me he’d done some work on our plans and would report more fully before we went to Wellington next week.

Weather: 15°C—21°C; no rain [79.9] 06:30

One last little piece of the netting fence providing a perimeter for the combined Middle and Totara paddocks; a couple of posts and some temporary railings; and now the perimeter is secure, ready for when Enid and Laurie McDermott look after the smallholding while we are in Wellington next week. We prefer to have more than just an electric fence keeping the sheep in while we are away.

Frank Haywood came round with a gift of his own cherries and an invitation to afternoon tea on 19th. His daughter and her husband are down from Auckland and are, pending some final agreement on leaseback and water consents, buying Craig Vernon’s place next door.

Karola is buying some lucern hay; she saw it advertised yesterday and it was cut today and is due to be baled next Tuesday. It is $8.50 / bale ex paddock, that is, if we collect it ourselves from the paddock.

David Smith from Stortford Machinery is trying to sell us a new Giltrap topper-mower, 1.5 metres wide, for about $2400. We are interested if we can trade in the 2.5 metre wide old orchard mower we bought from Alan Ladbrook. I am less likely to mow things unintentionally if the mower is narrower and the Giltrap is said to be ultra-reliable too. David will ring tomorrow to arrange an on-site trial and to appraise the old mower as a trade-in.

Karola and I rounded up the sheep and put them in the yards. Karola then checked out the #900s to see if they had got the first of their adult teeth yet – that is officially when they stop being lambs. At least half are now two-tooths and not lambs and hence are worth half as much at the works. The drafting gates let us down more than once, springin open when not shut properly or just through pressure of sheep on the surrounding posts so we lost count a couple of times and will have to do it again tomorrow.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 6°C—22°C; no rain [80.1] 06:30

SwimGym then a day of indoors activities – mostly reading a book about using TradeMe – except for a couple of hours with Karola hanging a new gate and re-hanging the gate from the 121 entrance into the Back paddock aka the geese enclosure aka the ram paddock. Before that I took one of Karola’s mowers up to the orchard and mowed the long grass between the farthest row of Pacific Queens and the drainage ditch – where Mark and I replaced the fence earlier this year. Even though the new fence leaves just as much room as before, Willie Thow’s mowers are too wide to do this particular strip and they mowed the rest of the apples a few days ago. Garden Groom came and mowed our lawns in the afternoon.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 11°C—20°C; no rain [80.1] 06:30

Good progress today with the fencing. We’ve almost completed another 50 metres of netting fence, Karola banged in 7 standards and I put in 2 2.1 metre strainer posts and a smaller 1.8 metre post off which I hung a gate, temporarily. This fence will be removed when the cottage is moved.

Karola also went into Hastings, shopping, and spent several hours on Christmas cards consisting of a very recent photo of Bicka and the cat framed in the dining room french doors, waiting for breakfast.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 12°C—22°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

After breakfast I went into Stortford Lodge to ask Saw Doctors to sharpen my long 20mm auger that I accidentally ground into a staple and wire yesterday. I also got some more gudgeons from GoldPine and checked out the prices of a smaller mower for the tractor and a replacement tractor with automatic gears, both just as benchmarks in case we decide to change. A new narrower and simpler mower costs $3800 new; a barely used small John Deer tractor costs $15,000.

An indoors day today despite the wonderful weather. Mid afternoon karola did go out and weed the yew hedge along the road boundary at the front.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—25°C; no rain [80.5] 06:30

Beautiful day if not a little too hot. Karola and I put up two gates for the extended goose enclosure, probably the best we’ve done, very level. Rest of the time spent gently tidying up and enjoying the sunshine.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 9°C—25°C; no rain [80.2] 06:30

Karola and I put up 50 metres of netting fence, the final piece completing the geese enclosure. Karola banged in half the 12 standards. Karola also sorted through our pile of old wire and wood, separating out the high tensile wire (worthless) from the rest. She also raked around near the fence we put up, an area where we’d heaped the branches of the big piece of the big oak that fell off several months ago. Kartola bagged up the small bits of wood for kindling and put the sawdust and other detritus in hollows made in the mud by tractors last winter.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 8°C—21°C; no rain [80.0] 06:30

SwimGym as usual on a Friday. After breakfast we took our trailer-load of old scrap metal – a real hotchpotch of twisted standards, roofing iron, and a fabulous collection of rusted-to-bits old tools found deep in the bamboo thicket when we felled it.

First we tried the scrap metal merchant at 609 Orchard Road. They would give 18 cents / kg for almost anything metal then 23 cents and 28 cents per kg for solid iron stuff such as an old engine block – the best price being for small pieces and 23 cents / kg for “outsized” pieces. The trailer would need to be unloaded and the types separated in order to know how much of each type we had.

Then we went to Stevens Place in Flaxmere and were offered 19 cents / kg for the ordinary mixed stuff and 30 cents / kg for the solid iron. Even better, he had a bit of a poke around and said he’d assume it was 50:50 the ordinary and good stuff so we said “yes please”. This outfit had a weighbridge so it was easy, we backed the landrover and trailer onto the weighbridge and it read as 3340 kg. Then a huge crane with grappling hook unloaded everything in a couple of minutes and we were re-weighed as being 2710 kg. Proceeds of $156. We have a couple more loads to bring here as well, all of the ordinary mixed scrap variety.

The merchant trades as Hawkes Bay Scrap Metal Ltd at 4 Stevens Place, Flaxmere, Hastings (06-879-7724 info@hawkesbayscrap.co.nz).

Delicious lunch at Cornucopia, picked up the bread and other food then back home for a quiet afternoon indoors.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—19°C; 0.8 mm rain [80.6] 06:30

A busy day. overcast but warm and almost no wind.

Most of the day spent moving stuff around, cleaning up the area now inside the enlarged goose enclosure and storing stuff such as the old Karamu homestead roofing iron down by the 121 entrance. Four strainers and at least six ordinary posts pulled up using the tractor. Stumps saved by Karola moved down near the 121 entrance. Trailer loaded with old, rusty scrap iron; Karola intends to try and sell it tomorrow.

Karola locked the sheep up in the Island paddock and laid out extra fencing for tomorrow’s fresh swathe of grazing in the Middle paddock.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 14°C—21°C; 4.2 mm rain [80.4] 06:30

SwimGym and then the rest of the day both of us deliberately doing inside things except for a short trip to dentist for annual checkup at lunchtime. Alan Ladbrook came round to return our measuring wheel and ask for an invoice for the outstanding rent from last year, there’s about $2000 due now.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—20°C; 0.8 mm rain [79.9] 06:30