Monthly Archives: January 2011

DIY Trailer Plug Wiring

SwimGym as usual.

Rewired the trailer electric plug that somehow had got unwired by undoing the trailer and its safety chain but forgetting to unplug the electrics before driving off. I suspect Bicka. I got a diagram of which wire goes where from Mrs Google.

Not sure where the rest of the day went.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Spent hour or so updating the cottage site plan to include the attached garage. Sent it off to Les Clapcott.

Weather: 13°C—26°C; no rain [80.3] 06:30

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Sunday Odds And Ends

Last day for the ewes to go next door; picking peaches begins next week.

I talked to Harry as usual on a Sunday in the afternoon, and later to Kaz about the visit of their Polish nephew – the son of their half-sister Hanka – Witek and his wife Eva.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 18°C—26°C; no rain [79.7] 06:30

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Green Shed Dismantling Complete

Lots of rain last night but by mid morning things were drying out and later it became quite windy too. Late morning we went into Hastings for a quick shop including some replacement shoes from the dreaded Warehouse. I get very cheap shoes that last about a year for driving and going into town in my work clothes; farm boots are not appreciated everywhere. Cheap means $20 compared to cheapest in real shoe shops of around $70 a pair.

Did I say, I thought we were down to eight bantams but we seem still to have nine – two of them being cockerels. Most days there are no eggs so I think a possum or large rat is carrying them off.

Late afternoon I completed the destruction of the green shed – all timber and sheet iron dismantled. Still plenty of cleaning up to do and we need to find a home for the contents, some of it up in the big shed but some we need closer to hand. The concrete base of the shed will have to be done professionally I think.

The Cottage Refurbishment

We studied Brett Phillips’ plans based on Les Clapcott’s design for a garage attached to the cottage by a short covered walkway. Replied to Les’ e-mail that we approve of his garage addition to the cottage and want to go ahead asap.

Weather: 10°C—25°C; no rain [79.6] 06:30

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Tricky Trees Again – So Soon

A single strong jolt of an earthquake woke us a few minutes after 4:00 am.

SwimGym and breakfast but before we could begin Tricky Trees (Jeremy & Dan) arrived to complete the mulching from last time and to repeat their mulching and chainsawing for the newly fallen branches. I shooed the lambs out of the area and removed the electric fence. Between them the ewes and then the lambs had done a good job of eating most of the oak leaves. Tricky Trees finished soon after 1:00 pm.

Lazarus Phone: To my very great surprise Karola’s cell phone seemed to survive a few minutes in the washing machine yesterday and it still works.

Karola went out to find plums at nearby roadside stores. Janet Scott called in for a while, then Rowena came.

Ewes went next door in the morning and returned early evening.

I did a little more demolition of the demolished green shed.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 18°C—23°C; 33.4 mm rain [79.3] 06:30

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Finished The First Oak Branch Cleanup

The day began with an hour of chainsawing the more recent large oak limb after which the chainsaw rebelled – fuel blockage suspected. The rest of the morning was spent in moving the remaining large saw-up pieces of oak down to the depot next to the 121 entrance; eight trips with the tractor. Then, it being quite warm, inside computer work until late afternoon, broken by a quick trip to drop off the chainsaw for servicing in Hastings. In the evening I started on the dismantling of the remains of the green shed and got about a third of the way through before a late dinner.

Karola had a frustrating day, troubles with the water trough for her ewes while next door, her mobile phone made a knocking sound from inside the washing machine – it is now very clean but rather dead. And so it went on.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Brett sent through a revised plan including the garage and covered walkway Les talked about on Wednesday.

Weather: 13°C—30°C; no rain [79.4] 06:30

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Les Clapcott Comes To Karamu

SwimGym and breakfast then, apart from a frenzied 20 minutes with a hand saw cutting off the leafy smaller branches from the fallen limbs, it was a restful day with a little light computing. The lambs were put in to eat oak leaves and between them and their mums they’ve pretty much cleaned up the oak foliage before it dried out.

The chainsaw decided to start OK this morning – I was checking to see whether I needed to take it in for repair – but I didn’t use it today so the real test will likely be tomorrow.

The Cottage Refurbishment

As planned, Les Clapcott came this afternoon for a couple of hours, mainly to advise us on the cottage site and on incorporating the replacement for the green shed. We also went through some of the topics we’d discussed with Brett yesterday, but quite quickly.

The dining room and kitchen and laundry will have GIB ceiling, the rest of the rooms will have the original T&G ceilings. We’d asked whether we could have another window facing south-east in the laundry – and if so we’d remove the idea of skylights in the laundry and at the bottom of the stairs. As recent, well fairly recent weather reminded us, staying cool is as much of an issue for us as keeping warm and skylights in the roof would tend to increase the heat in summer. Les convinced us that the skylights were good value and has agreed to add the extra window as well at Karola’s request.

Les is going to do a sketch for us of a garage and covered way to the north-east of the cottage combined with shuffling the cottage south-east several metres. The garage is to include space for the existing well pump and include a loo.

Weather: 13°C—25°C; no rain [80.0] 06:30

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We See Brett About The Cottage

Haircuts and shopping in the morning; a little light chainsawing (until the chainsaw stopped – probable petrol blockage) for me and more sheep work for Karola.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Karola and I went into Mahora and discussed the cottage plans with Brett Phillips for 90 minutes this afternoon. Biggest surprise was that in order to meet current insulation regulations, notwithstanding the existing 15mm of Kauri match lining and the 10 mm of GIB board planned for the walls, and even if we were to double-glaze all the windows, we’d still need internal wall linings with the largest size Batts – which means getting behind the match lining – which makes us wonder whether we wouldn’t be best just to take off the match lining. The match lining is too rough and there are gaps between the boards so the GIB really is needed for that but then the skirting, window surrounds and door surrounds would not stand out properly as they’d be almost level with the GIB on top of the match lining. Take off the lining and the proportions will look right.

We also discussed the types of doors , the height of the chimney, the north-west facing window in the laundry, the flooring in the kitchen/laundry, the ceilings (no GIB overlay on upstairs nor on the bathroom/bedroom/living room downstairs- the original ceilings will remain exposed). The dining room and kitchen and laundry will have GIB ceiling. These were not major changes just clarifications. The biggest change is to see whether we could have another window facing south-east in the laundry – and if so we’d remove the idea of skylights in the laundry and at the bottom of the stairs. As recent, well fairly recent weather reminded us, staying cool is as much of an issue for us as keeping warm and skylights in the roof would tend to increase the heat in summer.

Weather: 14°C—22°C; no rain [80.0] 06:30

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Anna’s Birthday – So Soon Again

SwimGym, breakfast and then an indoors day while the rain gently fell. Karola did get out for a couple of hours relaying electric fence next door. Meanwhile I fenced off the fallen oak branches and we let the ewes feast on them overnight.

It’s Anna’s birthday today. Three cheers for the busy woman, hip hip hooray.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Ricky McGhie from Copas came and filled in the forms for the cottage waste management system required as part of the submission for building consent. Also Karola and I made notes on the few things we’d still like to change on the plans – for discussion with Les/Brett later this week. Nothing major.

Weather: 15°C—19°C; 1.3 mm rain [80.0] 06:30

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CRASH Went The Oak Branch – Again

Beautiful rain all night and most of the day, ideal for the pasture and garden. An unfortunate consequence was that at about 10:30 am there was a very loud crash and another couple of large branches wrenched themselves off the big oak tree and lung themselves to the ground. It’s still raining and we haven’t really had a good look but the branches were from the other side of the tree and may in fact have evened it up considerably.

My only exercise today was letting the lambs and sheep out and walking round their electric fence perimeters to straighten up posts that were leaning over in the wet.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—17°C; 73.7 mm rain [80.1] 06:30

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A Nodule In Time

Gentle rain most of the night and the day; very welcome. Sheep still had their current daily routine. Apart from an hour spreading nitrogen nodules on the Front paddock I was indoors all day. Karola did go shopping in Hastings and she also shepherded her ewes and her lambs.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—18°C; 62.9 mm rain [80.9] 06:30

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A Little Light Rain

Gentle rain was welcome, though not enough of it yet. SwimGym and so on. In the afternoon I took a few more of the sawn-up logs to the place by the 121 entrance where we store fencing gear and wood to be chopped up for firewood, and some old stumps. I estimate there are about ten more trips with the tractor before the big logs are stored.

The ewes went over next door for the day again. And the lambs came and frolicked on the lawn. As they did yesterday, they bounced on the pipe bringing fresh well water to the homestead and it came undone. Naughty, naughty lambs. They career around at top speed raising dust and with the thundering of tiny hooves, obviously having a whale of a time.

The Cottage Refurbishment

I’ve tee’d up the heating expert and the waste management expert to help next week with specifications for submission with the architects plans for building consent. Also talked with Les and asked him to come over and advise re the siting of the replacement green shed (which will also be the cottage garage).

Weather: 15°C—20°C; 18.8 mm rain [80.9] 06:30

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Tricky Trees Do Their Thing

In the morning Karola and I finished picking up branches in the West, Island, and Front paddocks, including quite a lot of the stuff blown down in the Front paddock at the same time as the big oak branch came down.

One of the bantam hens had to be dispatched this morning, taking us to 6 hens and two cockerels. I think some of the hens are just old.

After lunch Jeremy (Tricky Trees) Cameron and his brother Dan brought their big chipper and chainsaws and made short work of cutting up the fallen branch. I’d already taken off all the small branches except for a few too high to safely get with my chainsaw. They sliced off some large branches and then, using a winch on the front of their truck, rolled it over, narrowly missing the wash house, its tank stand, and various other valuable items. That way they could cut up the remaining large limbs without climbing. They then mulched up two of my four piles of branches. They hope to return to do the rest next week. I began moving the pieces of heavy branch with the tractor.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Brett, the architectural technician doing the computer work on our plans sent an e-mail today saying he needed full details of the waste management (septic tank) and the heating arrangements.

Weather: 13°C—21°C; 2.3mm rain [80.9] 06:30

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Lazy Summer Morning

SwimGym – very warm this morning – then breakfast and while Karola was busy in the house I actually dozed in the hammock for much of the morning.

Karola tended her sheep and also put up more electric fence before going into Napier for various things including picking up some preserving jar clips, very old preserving jar clips, she’d tracked down by advertising in the HB Today “classifieds”.

Late afternoon I spent another hour or so with clearing branches. The Tricky Trees team are expected tomorrow afternoon to do the big stuff and mulch.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 10°C—32°C; no rain [81.0] 06:30

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Muggy Tueggy (Weggy…)

Warm with high humidity and mid afternoon a light shower.

A couple of hours in the morning chainsawing on the oak that crashed down into the green shed; another hour or so late afternoon dragging branches into a pile for mulching when the professionals come to cut the larger branches and the high-up ones.

Karola put electric fence round an acre of the neighbour’s fallow land, where apples were pulled up a few months ago, and sent her ewes off for some healthy grazing of weeds, grass, and clover.

There was a noticeable earthquake here around 9:30pm this evening.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 22°C—31°C; no rain [80.5] 06:30

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GST Returns Slightly Overdue

After SwimGym and a hearty breakfast most of the day was spent in doing our GST – or VAT as they call it in the UK. An extra complication was that the new GST rates came into force this time so I had to update our GST spreadsheet to 15%. In addition the accountants had found three items where I’d been over-optimistic in my GST claims last year and these had to be repaid at the old rate of 12,5%.

Karola went to the doctors for her toe which she damaged over a week ago by falling over the old rusty iron range in the cottage in the dead of night. The doctor believes it’s infected and gave Karola some penicillin.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 18°C—25°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

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Laura Visits, Kirsty Visits

Did an hour of sawing of broken branches today – with a hand saw because these branches were high up and dangerous for my chainsaw.

Laura Wier came for lunch and to pick up the old, rusty, heavy, hand roller to use on the tennis court at Burleigh. She’d come over to Hawkes Bay to pick up a trade-me purchase of a tallboy. Laura also took back the family bassinet for Tessa’s baby due mid year.

Later Kirsty Faulkner arrived for the night on her way from Gisbourne back to Wellington.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—33°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

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Cutting To The Chase

I began and ended the daylight hours with chainsawing some of the oak debris from the branch that demolished the green shed. The middle of the day was quite warm and so we stayed inside and I continued with my iPhone project. Rowena came around 4:00 pm and she and Karola went out shopping for a while. And amongst all this Karola had her sheep commuting next door and the lambs on the lawn.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—32°C; no rain [80.7] 06:30

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Balmy Friday

SwimGym and breakfast. Later, lunch at Cornucopia plus a little January Sales shopping. I got couple of shirts and pairs of socks; Karola got a teapot and some other small kitchen items.

Karola spent many hours on moving sheep and their fences; I stayed inside working on my next iPhone project.

The Cottage Refurbishment

In response to query from Brett I sent info on the waste management system we have chosen for the cottage.

Weather: 6°C—23°C; no rain [81.1] 06:30

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Richard Matthews Calls In

With good intentions to do lots of picking up branches we began well but as usual got diverted. First we cleared a lot of Robinia saplings and some fallen branches from around the chook house.

Mid morning I did some mowing with the tractor and the new-ish mower. The last row of apple trees in the orchard, in the north-west corner, are so close to the big ditch that the very wide orchard mowers used by the orchardists cannot mow the grass between ther trees and the fence, so I mowed it with my (relatively) narrow mower. I then mowed the sides of the 121 driveway and some of the area under the big oak.

After lunch we picked up branches under the Canary Island Pine and Karola also picked up sacks of pine cones and hand-mowed a large circle round the Canary Island Pine.

Mid afternoon Richard Matthews called in – we hardly know him but he went to school locally at Lindisvarne College with Karola’s brothers, Harry and Kaz. He stayed at the homestead for a while back in 1970s. He is travelling round with a couple of friends, doing a tour of notable New Zealand places. Richard has Parkinson’s but is still able to drive etc due to some recent advanced treatment.

Later on I spent a couple of hours with chainsaw continuing to make inroads on the tangle of branches around the green shed.

Karola also shepherded her sheep to the neighbours in the morning and back again in the evening. She let the lambs graze in the One Acre paddock while their mothers were next door, for a treat.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 5°C—22°C; no rain [79.9] 06:30

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BickaPhone Project Begins

SwimGym of course and then a high-protein breakfast. I was expecting to go to a reduced Prednisone dose today but the surgery rang and said to stay on 15mg for another 4 weeks.

Most of the day I spent mucking about with computer and iPhone, involving Bridget to help me test accessing the iPhone from a computer – so I can show people my iPhone creations even if they don’t have an iPhone themselves.

Karola shepherded the sheep to the neighbours and back. She also did quite a bit of weed spraying as there was almost no wind and it wasn’t too hot. Late afternoon I picked up fallen branches for an hour.

The Cottage Refurbishment

I called Brett and discusse the steel post on a concret pad mentioned in Les’ memo. It’s to take the weight of the roof currently held up by wooden full-height walls on both floors. Even if we hadn’t asked for the upstairs walls to be replaced by a pair of wooden posts Brett said it’s likely that civil engineering assessment would require the steel post anyway.

Weather: 12°C—26°C; no rain [81.6] 06:30

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Gluten-Be-Gone

My Coeliac checkup 9 months after the diagnosis went well this morning. Apparently as long as I keep strictly clear of gluten I’ll be fine.

Karola and I completed erecting the perimeter and walkway for the sheep so that they could graze for a few hours for a few days next door. We let the sheep in.

Later we went shopping and afterwards I marched the sheep back and did 3/4 hour chopping thistles in liu of a constitutional walk.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Les Clapcott, the architect, wrote back to say the draughtsman would be back at work tomorrow and he’d nearly finished.

Weather: 8°C—24°C; no rain [81.6] 06:30

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Kirsty et al Leave For Gisbourne

SwimGym then breakfast with Kirsty, Rodney and Sarah. They left for Gisbourne mid morning and Karola, Bicka and I had a relaxed day working on our computers – well Bicka did more sleeping than computing. Karola went out and started erecting her electric fence for the neighbour’s paddock most of the afternoon.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—22°C; no rain [81.2] 06:30

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Kirsty et al Visit

Working inside today; overcast and a bit cooler. Bicka and I waited until late afternoon before we had our constitutional walk round the block.

Kirsty Faulkner and her brother Rodney and his wife Sarah arrived for the night and we had pleasant dinner and conversation until bed time.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 14°C—18°C; 0.4 mm rain [81.3] 06:30

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Electric Sticks Rescued

Started off by trying to improve the pipeline from the well to the homestead. The new connector stopped the leak but then the water just didn’t reach the header tank. Finally got the idea to start it off using the rainwater from the tanks because it is at quite a lot higher pressure than the flow from the well. We had to have a couple of goes, blasting out the bubbles or whatever was blocking it and then switching back to the well water pipe. The current situation which has worked for 24 hours now includes bypassing the filters and removing a section of larger dimension pipe in case that was impeding the flow.

Then I attacked the oak that’s fallen onto the green shed and carved a way inside and extracted the electric fence posts so that Karola could begin her project to again graze the sheep on next door’s vacant pasture. After that it was indoors out of the heat for the rest of the day.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—25°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

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Warm As Toast

SwimGym then a day indoors out of the heat. Coolest place was in the Homestead so after our usual Friday lunch at Cornucopia and picking up the bread we kept indoors and I spent the afternoon finishing up the configuration of Mary’s new old computer.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 15°C—32°C; no rain [80.9] 06:30

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Karola Goes To The Mahia Peninsula

Karola took Jenny Hendery up to the Mahia today to visit elderly friends and relations. She returned late afternoon bearing gifts of vegetables and wild pork.

Meanwhile I spent much of the day trying to get well water to replace the stinking rainwater tank water. I laid a new 1″ (25mm) alkathene pipe on the lawn from the pump shed to the south-eastern end of the homestead verandah. At the pump shed end I had an outlet already set up. At the homestead end, 70 metres away, I had to cut the existing 3/4″ (20mm) pipe and stopper it and then attach the larger 25 mm pipe. This did not seem to work. I drained lots of hot water and cold, and flushed the loos but when I checked the header tank up in the roof space and nothing was flowing even though the pump under the verandah was going flat out. After some thought I bypassed the water filters which usually come straight after the pump and gradually it started to work. There are a few leaks and the new pipe is really in the way strewn over the lawn and across pathways, but if Karola approves we can address that next.

I also used the tractor to take the old green orchard mower up to the big shed where Adam will be reminded to take a look at repairing it.

I cleaned up the soot from the cottage kitchen floor and hearth. I let Karola’s ewes into the orchard paddock for 6 hours as requested.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 17°C—27°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

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Pick Up Sticks

After SwimGym and breakfast we began the task of sawing up and picking up all the branches that had come down over the last season and particularly in the gales last week. That is, except for the big oak branch which awaits more expert removal financed by the insurers.

I also tried switching the water supply from the rainwater tanks, which have become smelly and cloudy again despite the new filters. However, the 3/4 inch (20mm) alkathene pipe from the well to the verandah where the homestead pump is is too narrow. This was installed some time last century by person or persons unknown. Anyway I made the switch but the pump wouldn’t pump even though I’d checked that water was flowing from the well. Harry (Wier)’s view is that the friction over the 70 metres of the pipe combined with the low pressure – only a couple of meters natural head above ground level – meant that the pump just couldn’t get enough water. So we’re back to smelly water for now.

Karola replanted the four flax bushes that the sheep uprooted two days ago – just to see if they were growing I suppose. I tried to fix two slightly leaking troughs.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 14°C—25°C; no rain [81.0] 06:30

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Mini Mow Before Morning Tea

Began the day with mowing, about 1/4 acre of the West paddock, near the pump shed. We’ll be able to monitor this and see if topping the grass does allow more vigorous clover growth in the summer.

Jenny and her son Simon and his three children and partner Claire came over for lunch and a go on the flying fox. Meanwhile the ewes got out into the next door’s property and Jenny, Karola and I spent a slightly worried 30 mins rounding them up – they ran off into the orchard and across vegetable patches and very luckily didn’t seem to inflict discernable damage.

Late afternoon Bicka and I did our constitutional round the block.

Karola, when navigating the cottage after dark, fell into the ex-fireplace in the cottage this evening – it was a very dark night – and dislodged the coal range chimney stub. Soot everywhere and a shaken (but not stirred) Karola.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 17°C—28°C; no rain [81.1] 06:30

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Bin Done Bin Gone

No SwimGym today because these two days are public holidays following New Years day on a weekend. Instead I went out and cut flowering Scotch thistles in the planting area between the One Acre and Orchard paddocks. Then I separated the lambs and ewes for our official weaning – hullabaloo alll afternoon and probably off and on for a couple of days.

The rest of the morning was spent in continuation of fixing Mary’s e-mail via the telephone – together we finally got round the problem and Mary is able to send e-mails again.

Sometime between 12:00 noon and 2:00 pm someone took our rubbish bin from the roadside. Karola had seen it at lunchtime and went out to collect it in the afternoon and it had gone..

Later Bicka and I went for our constitutional, when it was a bit cooler.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 14°C—28°C; no rain [80.9] 06:30

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Bridget et al Leave For KatiKati

Late breakfast and then Bridget and Chris packed for leaving. Chris then mowed the one-acre paddock using the new second-hand mower. Bridget also did several strips. Meanwhile the grand-daughters had some final goes on the flying fox. Then we all went off to Pernel Fruit World for lunch. Bridget’s family left from there for KatiKati via Taupo and Rotorua. Karola and I went home to relax. Bicka and I went for our constitutional in the early evening, and so the day ended.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—27°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

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Bridget’s Fifth Day – At The Beach

Bridget, Chris and the girls went to Napier for lunch then to Waimaramara beach for the afternoon and dinner.

Karola and I had a quiet day, she having vetoed mowing and chain sawing because it was so quiet that it’d be a shame to disturb the neighbours. Karola let the sheep have half a day in the Orchard paddock before returning them to the Main paddock. Mid afternoon Bicka and I went for our constitutional round the block. Later we picked up a load of fallen branches off the Cedar in the north east corner – the ones that had fallen outside our boundary fence. Actually Bicka did very little of the heavy lifting. Karola sepnt a couple of hours cutting and poisoning thistles in the Front paddock and One Acre paddock.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—24°C; 1 mm rain [80.7] 06:30

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