Monthly Archives: March 2011

I picked Mark up from his place in Burlington Road on the Bluff at Napier and we carted off two very heavy loads of broken bricks to Greenways – Landscape merchants opposite Tumu Building Supplies in Maraekakaho Road. The normal rubbish place, the transfer station., charges $130 per tonne for general waste; Greenways charges $55 per twin-axle trailer load – I suspect each load is about a tonne. We also today took 200 bricks to the depot near the 121 entrance. The trailer is 2/3 full of broken bricks and we have finished removing all the broken brick, leaving only some smaller chippings and dust which I can use on one of the tracks in the orchard plus 500 – 600 bricks to clean and stack. I took Mark home around 3:00 pm.

Karola called from Rotorua and again from Bay View on her way home; she arrived late afternoon and proceeded to roast a totally succulent huge hunk of wild pork she’d unfrozen a couple of days ago.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 7°C—21°C; no rain [81.4] 06:30

Kaz returned to Rola just before lunch, and Karola and Eva and Witek departed in Karola’s car shortly afterwards. Before they left I booked the visitors a hire car in Rotorua and accommodation in Auckland, about ten minutes from the airport. I heard from Karola after they got to Rotorua and all is well so far.

I went to SwimGym round 2:00pm; Karola missed her swim today because of the visitors breakfast and departure. I then took the metal pipes etc in the big trailer to the scrap merchant so that I could use it. The pipes etc fetched $42.00.

Later still I filled the trailer with broken bricks and the bigger pieces of rubble; part of the removal of the bricks from demolishing the cottage chimney.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 10°C—21°C; no rain [81.2] 06:30

After a lengthy and mainly continental breakfast I took the visitors and Kaz round the orchard and the grounds.

Karola rang round and was directed to Animal Control to dispose of the stray sheep which they duly did sometime during the afternoon.

We then went off to Napier via Clive and along the waterfront to have a big lunch at The Mission. We ate too much, again but it is a very pleasant spot with tables outside on the patio.

After lunch I drove them up to the top of Te Mata peak and they enjoyed the panoramic views across Hawkes bay, Hastings, Napier and back towards Waipukurau.

Mike Croucher (Garden Groom) came and mowed the lawns so it was all looking very nice when we returned.

Then back for a light (relatively speaking) supper, and again we ate too much. Then Karola and the visitors poured over old photos and related family stories.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Brett sent through updated cottage plans and we made couple of minor comments back.

Weather: 9°C—20°C; no rain [81.9] 06:30

SwimGym after missing Friday’s session.

We tallied the sheep, 39 ewes and piglet and wether #630; 43 lambs. I unlocked the exterior gates, oiled the combination locks, and replaced locks on four gates: 121 entrance into Back paddock; orchard drive entrance into Front paddock; and two of the gates from the orchard paddock into the orchard.

The weather has been suitably damp and mild that there were a few mushrooms which I picked and these were added to the evening casserole.

I saw the stray sheep still in Karola’s orchard and managed to shut them into the orchard driveway while we considered our options.

I began cleaning and stacking bricks – the first 300 from the cottage chimney demolition – stacking them down in the fencing depot by the 121 entrance.

Kaz and Ewa and Witek arrived late afternoon after a whirlwind tour of Taupo and “the mountain”, coming back to us over the Napier-Taupo road.

Conversations ran into the night with Kaz and Karola not stopping until after 3:00 am and the we talked until after 4:00 am – so not much sleep on Monday night.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 5°C—20°C; no rain [81.1] 06:30

Rather uncomfortable night at Burleigh because we’d changed rooms to have a bedroom with a door to the outside for Bicka but somehow the communications were a bit muddled and we found ourselves just as everyone was off to bed with our bed not made up so we slept on the coverlet. Still, it was more comfortable than the floor at Days Bay.

There was a session at the Bulls cemetery looking at the wall plaque for Karola’s Mum and Dad – photos etc. Then it was off to Kaz and Yvonne’s “Ngaio Glen” for lunch. Hilary Haylock and her daughter Justine were there too, and the young Polish woman translator from last night.

Around 4:00 pm Karola and I set off home where we learned that “piglet” and frined had broken out of the Island paddock and joined the ewes. So we shall consider that piglet began his labours on 24th March instead of 1st April – not the end of the world.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 12°C—24°C; 0.2 mm rain [?] 06:30

Witek, Ewa, Bicka and I went up over the hill and round by the duck pond for our 30 minute constitutional. Kaz arrived soon afterwards.

Kaz, Ewa, and Witek set off from Days Bay for Kaz’s place outside Fielding with Witek proudly driving. Kaz had borrowed Yvonne’s “Rav” SUV.

Karola, Bicka and I cleared up a little and then departed for Burleigh in Bulls where we were to spend the night.

Everyone congregated at Burleigh for a family feast cooked by Chloe and that took us late into the night. Chloe, as recommended by Harry, cooked a hunk of lamb which I have to say was not a patch on her normal beef roasts nor on Bridget’s racks of lamb.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 17°C—21°C; 14.5 mm rain [?] 06:30

After I walked Bicka over the hill at Days Bay we all then had breakfast and went in to Wellington to visit the Karori Wildlife Reserve – aka Zealandia. As planned we met Ben Bell and Gill there and had lunch in the KWR cafe first. This was so soon after the big breakfast Karola cooked up for us at Days Bay that E & W were not yet hungry enough to eat.

Bicka seemed more off-colour than usual and so Karola stayed with her while the rest of us went round the reserve. With Ben’s commentary we were able to see a variety of native birds we’d seldom see elsewhere – Kaka, Saddleback, robins and so on – and we saw three tuatara enjoying the sun.

Mid afternoon I took Bicka in the Landrover back to Days Bay while Karola and the others went to Te Papa – the national museum. They returned and Karola cooked a light, delicious fish supper.

Again I slept on the floor upstairs, Karola slept in the tiny room downstairs on the short bed, and this time Bicka slept downstairs too in her basket next to Karola. E & W had our bedroom downstairs.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—21°C; 0.2 mm rain [?] 06:30

I walked Bicka over the hill and we had a leisurely morning. After lunch we visited Mary and dropped off her new 2nd-hand computer then went to Bridget’s until it was time to go to the airport.

We met Ewa and Witek at the airport – we were on time, they were on time. We drove back towards Bridget’s via Mt Victoria. I don’t think I’ve ever been up there but the view was superb – panoramic round the Wellington and Hutt Valley and harbour.

Kaz and his son Francis joined us at Bridget’s for an excellent dinner of roast rack of lamb. E & W used Skype to video-chat with Hanka and Alexander (Karola’s half-sister and her husband, Witek’s parents) in Warsaw.

Afterwards we took E & W back to Days Bay for the night. I had another night of sleeping on the floor, Karola in the short bed in the tiny room downstairs.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 10°C—18°C; no rain [?] 06:30

SwimGym – we will miss the session on Friday but that’s all. Then we had breakfast and packed for Wellington. We went via route 50 and through the Wairarapa – an uneventful drive; I drove as far as Norsewood, Karola the rest.

We got special rice-flour battered fish & chips from the F & C shop, Pirana, in Eastbourne. Instead of chips we got fried rice and vegetable rice – too much but very good takeaways.

This is the first night of sleeping on the floor at Days Bay – for practice and to avoid remaking the main bed, says Karola. Bicka slept on the sofa and I slept on the floor on a thin pallet and with a sleeping bag fully unzipped as blanket. It wasn’t as bad as I’d expected but still not terribly comfortable.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—21°C; no rain [?] 06:30

Pouring with welcome rain. Karola let her ewes back into the Middle paddock, in the rain. I, in the rain, took down the electric fence from around the big oak and then put combination locks on all the gates ready for our departure tomorrow. I also counted and recounted our sheep. 43 lambs, 39 ewes, and two males – all present and correct, so Frank’s mystery sheep of last night are, thankfully, not ours.

Karola took books to the Lions depot for their book fair at the weekend. She visited Janet Scott again.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Les Clapcott came late morning and gave us an update on the cottage planning permissions. We will be OK with floor area of more than 80 square metres, the council generally doesn’t object if one is within 100 square metres despite the “regional plan” stipulating 80. Les will argue that the excessive distance between the new cottage location and the homestead, 49 metres instead of less than 35 metres, is reasonable because of the large area within the dripline of the big oak and the lack of sunshine because of many other tall trees to the south, and the desire to maintain the unobstructed aspect from the homestead to the north and west. The concern about the drive extension going under the big oak dripline is resolved by indicating that the section under the big oak has been there for decades, it is not a new piece of driveway.

The Historic Places Trust are doing some more research and have indicated that they may require an archaeological survey during and after the cottage move. The council will send someone to have a look once the submission is formally lodged. Les is doing all he can to “line up the ducks” and corral all the information the council and Historic Places Trust say they need before submitting the package – hoping to avoid prolonged back-and-forth negotiations after submission.

We are to get “neighbours affected” signoff that they don’t mind – that means Janet Scott and Craig Vernon – assuming he still hasn’t exchanged contracts with Frank Haywood by next week. The most affected “neighbours affected” is of course Karola with her orchard adjoining to the west.

I am to update the site plan with the words “Site Plan” and to mark the existing and new driveways in different colours. Les is to supply a small package of information to give to the affected neighbours to “inform their decision” Tally Ho”.

Weather: 14°C—20°C; 20.1 mm rain [80.2] 06:30

SwimGym. And as we exercised it started to rain. It rained fitfully during the day and then began in ernest overnight.

Karola found out that Janet Scott, our neighbour to the south, had fallen and broken her wrist – so Karola visited.

In the evening Frank Haywood, our soon-to-be neighbour to the north, called to say his daughter Louise had seen some sheep across the drain near the packing shed and he wondered if they were ours. We’ll check it out tomorrow. Frank also said that his offer for the place next door, Craig Vernon’s place, had become unconditional now that Craig had received his resource consent for water – Craig’s consent came through as ours did, last Friday.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—18°C; 42.2 mm rain [80.4] 06:30

Computer work in the morning. The TradeMe “housekeeping” takes a lot of time. Karola inspected her flock(s) – all OK there she reported.

Mary Wilson popped in for a chat with Karola; she’s over here for the Horse of the Year show in Hastings. In the afternoon Karola went to the show-grounds to the last half-day of the HotY show.

I put up some extra “rapid response” numbers (rural equivalent of house numbers) on the 145 Ormond Road and 133 Ormond Road gateways – using reflective numbers I’d bought for the purpose maybe a year ago. One of Karola’s distant relations, Henare Ormond, (06-879-7457) stopped and introduced himself while I was on the road verge putting these up. He has a son, 15yrs, who is in the regional Badminton team. I invited Henare and his son back when Karola was at home. Then I put up a little electric fencing and enticed the ewes under the big oak tree to clean it up before our visitors here next weekend.

My main exercise was a couple more hours on the Fergie, mowing in the Back paddock. Huge amounts of dust in my clothes, on every exposed area and in my ears, nose, and mouth – ugh. But Janet Scott from next door was reported saying she thought it was a big improvement to have it looking so clean and park-like.

The Cottage Refurbishment

After dinner Karola and I made some measurements of the locations of the Hastings District Council’s “protected trees” at Karamu. There are six of these and I put them on the cottage site plan and sent this off to Les Clapcott.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Preamble: Describing the tree locations on a site plan aligned with the Homestead is perhaps more complicated than if it were simple N-S up and down, W-E left to right.
In what follows, up is NW, down is SE, left is SW and right is NE.

There are six trees on the HDC list:

The coordinates of the first four are taken from the west corner of the Homestead:
T63 – the big Oak tree: 26m SW, 20m NW
T64 – Canary Island Pine: 0m SW, 72m NW
T65 – Liriodendron (Tulip Tree): 30m NE, 24m NW
T67 – Hickory: 104m SW, 47m NW

The last two are defined from the east corner of the Homestead
T68 – Himalayan Spruce: 28m NE, 25m SE
T69 – Sitka Spruce: 37m NE, 49m SE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weather: 14°C—26°C; 7.6 mm rain [80.7] 06:30

Beautiful day. And the mail brought Karola’s Resource Consentat last for the water for her orchard – all 6 hectares – approved. It’s taken over a year it seems, and now the orchard must have a water meter and connections allowing it to report to the council on the water used each week.

Karola and I independently came to a possible solution to her dead cellphone. Fix the one she had before. I’d already checked that the little SIM card in the drowned phone still worked; all the previous phone seemed to need was a new battery. So I went into Hastings to Cellacc in Heretaunga Street and for $20 got a working battery for that model of Nokia cellphone, and now it works again.

Mark Hendery popped over to borrow some mite powder for his borrowed bantam which has hatched several chicks but most of them have died, he thinks maybe because of mites.

In the afternoon Karola entertained the organisers of the next Tree Croppers annual meeting which includes a visit to Karamu. They were inspecting the venue.

Late afternoon I spent another couple of hours mowing in the Back paddock. Mowing under the trees is time consuming. The effect is dramatic; like a peaceful park.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today

Weather: 10°C—26°C; no rain [79.9] 06:30

SwimGym then usual stuff: protein breakfast, ie B&E, then Karola went off to her checkup returning in time to watch the special event on the TV from Christchurch – with Prince William, many highly placed clerics, sundry songbirds. Quite a splendid event I thought. Karola went out shopping again after that. I spent the day programming except that late afternoon I mowed about half the Back paddock.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Various e-mails including one from Bart Leslie in HDC sending me photos and descriptions of the Karamu trees on their “protected tree” list.

Weather: 10°C—26°C; no rain [80.9] 06:30

Karola had a routine blood test today – a fasting one so no food or drink from last night – we went in to Hastings for the test early and it was all over in 15 minutes. We then had brunch at Pernels Fruit World and got back late morning. Meanwhile there’d been some cottage developments (see below).

I pushed the ewes out of the Back paddock into the Middle paddock, next to the Island paddock. Piglet, smelling delights, got a bit stroppy and I do wonder if the fence will hold him until the official ceremonies on 1st April.

I spent a couple of very very dusty and noisy hours mowing the 121 driveway on the tractor – that is, mowing up each side and also the track off down into the oaks.

Late afternoon I pushed the ewes back into the Back paddock to continue their tidying up overnight.

In the evening, as he’d said, Nigel West came for the cottage coal range ($35.50). He arrived with his son and the took all the hand removable pieces off, like the doors, and manhandled the rest into the back of their SUV. Another small step forward for the cottage.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Les e-mailed to say that the HDC had some queries about our submission for building permission.

Firstly we had to get Historic Places Trust’s formal endorsement of our plan , because the Homestead is a listed building. And the HDC want to know how far the new cottage site is from the homestead (max, I’m now told, of 35 metres from the homestead or it needs an extra resource consent). Also the area of the cottage, let alone with the extension, exceeds the allowable floorspace for a second dwelling on this site – well I knew that ages ago but until now the architects hadn’t thought it would be a problem. So, another resource consent to waiver the rules.

Oh, and the HDC want to know where all the protected trees are on the property. This is a strange list of several trees here, chosen by the HDC, not entirely at random, it just feels that way, which are protected. Last time we had a conversation with the council on this they had one tree long dead on their list and another was accompanied by a photo of a tree of quite the wrong species. Anyway, I rang and asked the council for their latest list – Bart Leslie I think the chaps name was – in the section of the council that is custodian of “protected trees”.

The resource consent will cost at least $1200. The building permission, now contingent upon the Historic Places Trust and the resource consents for the waivers, will take a minimum of 20 working days.

Karola and Les Clapcott are dealing withe the council and the HPT – Les came round after work to take some photos of the homestead and cottage in support of that – the idea being that both the cottage and the homestead will benefit from a degree of separation.

Weather: 11°C—25°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

SwimGym – a little earlier this morning only slightly marred because in my rush to get out the door Karola forgot her bathing costume and had to come back for it.

Karola is now concentrating on preparing for her Polish relations visit.

Charles Bagnall sent an e-mail and, thank goodness, at last sounds as if he might swing back into action down in Days Bay and continue where he left off many many months ago.

I had a couple of TradeMe auctions to attend to – in theory at least I have now sold all my gate latches and, taking into consideration the $2000 portable sheep pen I bought because I saw it while preparing my auctions on TradeMe, I’m only -$1900 or so down. I rang the guy who bought the coal range and he says he’ll come round tomorrow night and pick it up.

I moved piglet and #630 to the Island paddock, the 39 ewes to the Back paddock, and the lambs to the Front paddock and moved troughs around so they all have water. As planned Karola then let the lambs back into the One Acre and now the Orchard paddock as well as the Front paddock. The ewes will get all of the Middle paddock once they’ve done a final cleanup and acorn-fest in the Back paddock – probably tomorrow.

Mostly I’m programming with Bridget – better than Sudoku by far and beats watching TV too.

The goon-show moment came today when, Karola having taken away the seat bottoms from some of the dining room chairs for a well needed clean, I, on auto-pilot, came in and sat down on one of these bottomless chairs – unsavoury hoots of laughter from the general area of the kitchen. Hmmmph.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 12°C—24°C; no rain [81.1] 06:30

Mostly very enjoyable programming inside today but (in liu of a constitutional walk with Bicka) I did 90 mins of spreading nitrogen and grass seed in the Back paddock.

Karola continues her tidying – taking a lot of stuff to be recycled and also more clearing up under the big oak – a seemingly endless task.

Dead bantam (another oldie dying of old age I think). I seem only to have seven bantams now (including the one borrowed by Mark), and two of them are cockerels.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—28°C; no rain [81.2] 05:30

Another clear day that began with swirling mists around 7:30 am while Karola and I were at the SwimGym.

Karola took some lead sheeting (from the green shed and the ‘go-between’ demolitions) and some old copper piping to the scrap metal merchant and got over $250 – more than for the three trailer loads of rusty iron we took earlier.

Karola has also got rid of (recycled or stored) all the cardboard boxes from upstairs in the cottage. She also found time to buy raspberries and cream for pudding. Mmmm.

Late afternoon we went into Stortford Lodge – for one of my regular blood tests and to pick up more pills and post a couple of gate latches sold via TradeMe and get some post office supplies. Terribly interesting, I know.

Bicka is back on lower dose of Prednisone – 2.5mm a day – and so far no obvious ill effects.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 11°C—28°C; no rain [81.2] 06:30

Quiet Sunday – cool with gentle breezes and intermittent warm sunshine. The ewes seemed to have cleaned up the acorns and some of the weeds along the 121 drive so I put them back in the Middle paddock and took down the electric fence, expecting the buyer of the cottage coal range to come and take it away. He didn’t turn up today.

And today I did the filing for the last six months – filing is unpopular but better than Karola’s GST which is better than our annual tax returns. “Mustn’t grumble” as they say; overall a pleasant day.

And, surprise, surprise, we got almost $10,000 from insurance for the ex-green-shed that the oak branch destroyed. It’ll help towards the next garage to be built as part of the cottage refurbishment.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 10°C—22°C; no rain [81.4] 06:30

Shocking news first thing on the radio about the Japanese earthquake – an unimaginable 8.9 force – unimaginable except as video special effects yet this is real, awful.

Julia and Christopher left soon after breakfast and we spent the day unwinding. I let the ewes into the 121 driveway area for the acorns after we went into Hastings shopping and for lunch at Cornucopia/Taste.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 13°C—23°C; no rain [?] 06:30

SwimGym and then entertaining Julia and Christopher including a midday dinner at The Mission with Phyllida Russell. I begged off the late afternoon visit to Woodford House – where Karola and Julia went to school. Christopher is a military man and diplomat – was – and now is a staunch field operative for the UK Conservative party. He and Julia live in Winchester.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 10°C—24°C; no rain [81.6] 06:30

Mike Croucher came back just before lunch and finished the lawns which made a big difference.

John Vickers, an aquaintance of Karola’s and Hilary Haylocks who does New Zealand guided tours of the grander country houses, came for lunch.

Julia Bruce and Christopher van de Noot, Wykkamist and Julia’s new husband, arrived mid afternoon and we had whitebait fritters and a lamb casserole for dinner.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 6°C—21°C; no rain [81.0] 06:30

SwimGym – we’ve been going for almost seven months now.

Karola’s mobile car valets came and did the inside of both vehicles ready for our visitors. It took two of them most of the morning and cost $250.

Mike Croucher came to mow the lawns; his mower broke half way through but he promised to return tomorrow to finish before Julia and Christopher arrive.

Karola and I screwed down the rubber mat she “liberated” from next door’s rubbish on the floor between the homestead and the cottage – the erstwhile “go-between”.

I cut up some old copper and iron pipes ready to take to the scrap merchant.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 7°C—21°C; no rain [81.4] 06:30

Karola had haircut in Hastings in the morning. My project was to locate the underground water pipe from the well to the cottage and connect it to the pump under the homestead verandah, replacing the long piece of alkathene currently running across the lawn. Using a photo I took last time I went excavating for this pipe I was able to find the right spot without any false starts. I then went to the plumbing supplies place, Holders on Omahu Road and discussed how best to join the existing plastic 40mm pipe to a piece of 25 mm alkathene I’d found just long enough to reach the pump under the verandah. Turns out I was advised that a normal alkathene pipe joiner that reduced from 40mm to 25mm would do the trick – and so that’s what I’ve done. Unfortunately tampering with the existing arrangement reintroduced an air lock and no water was getting up into the header tank in the attic despite the pump going on and on. A quick trip up into the attic verified no water was reaching the header tank. Last time we had this problem we used the water in the rainwater tanks to give an extra oomph to the water going to the pump and that somehow cleared it. Unfortunately we’ve now drained the tanks, all three, onto the pasture to get rid of the smelly water. Oh, dear.

But fortune smiled. I disconnected the pipe on the outbound side of the pump while it was running. There were some large coughs and splutters and then water began flowing smoothly. And it’s been working better than before ever since, touch wood.

I tidied up the previous 100 metres of 25mm alkathene by dragging it up to the Island paddock with the Landrover – it was just a bit too heavy to drag by hand.

Karola swept up bushels of acorns from in front of the garage and gave them to her ewes who were most grateful for the treat. Karola, with a little help from me, also took a trailer-load of bits of wood and old furniture up to the big shed for storage, regaining some space in our garage and the wash house.

I chopped out the larger weeds from the path along the top of the ha-ha and then sprayed it with Roundup. I’m hoping to apply another layer of mulch now that the initial mulch has settled.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 7°C—19°C; no rain [80.6] 06:30

SwimGym but then even less outside today although by late afternoon the weather had cleared – cold but sunny. The big event of the day was the house spring cleaning by Meticulous Maids (boss is Sally Pearce) – two of them all day and, building on the huge amount of tidying and clearing Karola had done over the last week, it made a big difference. All in honour of Julia Bruce’s visit later this week and then Vitek and Eva from Poland in the last week of March.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 7°C—19°C; no rain [81.4] 06:30

Beautiful rain overnight and it drizzled gently all day. Apart from some moving of pipes and gates I did nothing outside today.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 8°C—14°C; 8.1 mm rain [81.9] 06:30

Slow morning then a short walk on the waterfront at napier and a slow afternoon.

Mid afternoon it began to rain in earnest and it is still raining. Hip hip horray.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 12°C—27°C; 19.7 mm rain [81.6] 06:30

SwimGym then Karola continued work on her weeds and vines around the homestead. I chopped a few more thistles and looked over the ram, wether, and the lambs – all seemed OK.

The new portable yards arrived just before 1:00 pm – they look just the ticket. After receiving delivery of them we went off for lunch at Cornucopia via Mahora where Les Clapcott has his consultancy (see below). Afterwards for a (5-yearly) treat we went to the Smith’s “Workplace Warehouse” and bought a replacement pair of metal-capped safety work boots – Jackson Smith (who did odd jobs for us when he was much younger) seems now to be in charge.

Karola finally got her paddock irrigation hoses all worked out and connected, and the rainwater tanks ran out. “Typical”. I finished winding up the miles of electric fence that Karola had been using to strip-graze the sheep.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Brett called and sent stuff and as a result we delivered a signed authority for Clapcott Consultancy to act on our behalf with the council re our building permission. We also, we hope, squashed a suggestion that we needed a resource consent from the HB Regional Council for our new septic tank – after phone consultation with our septic tank man, Ricky McGhie. I also signed the actual building permission forms while we were delivering the other stuff
and we discussed the need for continuous insurance throughout the refurbishment process.

Weather: 19°C—25°C; 1.8 mm rain [81.3] 06:30

Karola continued her fight with the jungle round the house. I wound up miles and miles of electric fence.

Jenny Hendery and her grandson Jack and her son and his wife, Mark and Cas, came for afternoon tea. Jack enjoyed chasing butterflies and playing on the flying fox.

Karen Saunders came over (from The Stables, opposite) and got some chick feed for a very recently orphaned chick – descendent of the bantams we gave them years ago.

Later, after dark, Mark came again to borrow a broody bantam hen and a gift of eggs. I also chopped a few more thistles.

The Cottage Refurbishment

We replied to Brett’s e-mail and should now be ready for submission for building consent.

Weather: 14°C—24°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

Well, Bicka got us up to let her out two or three times in the night then when we got back from SwimGym we found she’d been sick on the stairs, on the bed in the room at the top of the stairs, twice on our bedroom floor and once by the front door downstairs. And more. Not a happy little beagle.

Mark Hendery came again this morning to help Karola with her weeding and clearing and he found that Bicka had quite a large lump under her jaw. I really don’t think we’d have missed it on Monday when I took Bicka to the vet nor again this morning when we were comforting her for her upset tummy, so it was pretty recent. We got her to the vet before lunch and in the afternoon they operated and uncovered a barley grass seed that had burrowed into the floor of her mouth and caused a big poisonous lump. We retrieved Bicka from the vet’s around 5:00 pm and she was a different dog – skipping round and wagging her tail. She’s now on a short course of antibiotics and hopefully that seed explains the coughing, the sicking-up and her unhappy demeanour. We shall see how things go tonight.

Mark and Karola made good progress on the weeding and trimming round the house. Mark again forgot to take his loaner broody bantams and eggs.

After taking Bicka and leaving her with the vet we went to Mitre-10 and I bought a heavy small bag of sand to use to mix with grass seed and nitrogen beads for spreading with a little hand-held spreader.

Late afternoon Meticulous Maids supervisor came round and discussed the cleaning job with Karola -and it’s all set for the mammoth clean next Monday.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Brett sent through the written specification for our review. The cogs grind rather slowly.

Weather: 9°C—28°C; no rain [80.8] 06:30

Bicka stopped coughing on the way to the Vets yesterday and has barely coughed at all since then. Good news.

Finally I tackled Karola’s Dec/Jan GST and we got that sent off – it was due in yesterday.

Mark Hendery came over for the morning and finished off the weeding, watering and mulching of the flax along the netting fence of the Back paddock facing the Homestead. He also planted 5 new flax to replace ones that the sheep had nibbled or pulled out.

Karola had a particularly busy day attacking the weeds and tangle of Wysteria suckers coming out into the lawn on the NE and NW sides of the Homestead.

I took some letters to be posted in Stortford Lodge and picked up the bread from Cornucopia in Hastings.

Late afternoon we yarded the lambs and Karola sprayed #006, #012, and #041 with Zenith as they were a bit daggy and might have been hiding fly strike. No meat withholding period for Zenith.

We then put the lambs in the One Acre paddock and the ewes in the Totara paddock

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather: 16°C—26°C; no rain [80.9] 06:30