Monthly Archives: July 2011

Early start to this Sunday. Bills paid and two month’s filing done before 9:00 am. I’ve just moved servers on the web hosting service in New Jersey that has my web logs, web pages, parts of the family emails, and several domain names. It went fairly smoothly except for the email and I spent the morning trying to sort that out with technical support in New Jersey (or maybe India) and Bridget in Wellington. By mid afternoon I think it is sorted out.

Karola decided to clear branches and blackberry in a band along the top of the ha-ha so that she could give her ewes a wider strip than usual along there. She also pruned the lower branches of the ? Privet which is probably poisonous to sheep. I mulched up most of the brambles and branches along with several other small piles around the garden.

I noticed #403 limping badly so coaxed her with maize to get close enough to grab her. The first three attempts she threw me off but on the fourth attempt we landed up in the mud and I held on. I checked her feet and trimmed them but there didn’t seem to be too much wrong – some infection which I sprayed with antibiotics. As Karola said, the limping may be mostly due to mild mastitis as she nears lambing.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today except that I finally got round to smashing up the broken lavatory bowl from the cottage and we put it in a maize sack in the rubbish which goes out tonight. So Paul and Matthew won’t have to see it sitting on the ground outside the cottage any more.

Weather:-2°C—12°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.9] 06:30

We did some mulching of branches today – feijoa trimmings and the English Beech branch that fell down some months ago. Karola put up another electric fence across the orchard to let the lambs have some fresh grass before they leave the orchard in August. I put up a similar fence down the top edge of the ha-ha and let the ewes in for some fresh pasture.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:1°C—16°C; 0.5 mm rain [83.4] 06:30

SwimGym then, apart from putting in a couple of short posts to protect karola’s new water metre up at the big shed, I stayed indoors. Karola went to Hastings in the morning for food for the weekend.

Bridget, who dropped in at Burleigh on her way home last night, tells me it’s Ashleigh, not Ashley – Tessa’s baby that is.

The Cottage Refurbishment

I called Kings Fourth Generation Woodworking Ltd in Masterton and got an estimate for roughly how much a kitchen bench of solid Matai would cost – $8000 more or less. Not a whole lot more than stainless steel so very much to be preferred.

Still no sign of the estimates from The English Craftsman so I called. Finally, they emailed us this evening. Six existing windows refurbished, 4 new big sash windows, 9 casement windows, floors cleaned and waxed – $60,000. Rather too expensive.

Weather:8°C—17°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.6] 06:00

Cold sunny day. Lunch with our Bridget and granddaughters at Pernel’s Fruit World then they and Karola went off to Napier and played mini-golf on the waterfront.

They returned mid afternoon and Bridget and Natalie and Alex said their goodbyes and set off home at 4:30 pm, going first to Bulls to see the new niece, Tessa’s baby Ashley.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Bridget Geenty, kitchen designer, came round as planned mid morning and we, with our Bridget, discussed the cottage kitchen design until lunchtime. BG had some good suggestions and I think Karola would like her to work on the cottage kitchen design for us. We plan to go and see the last kitchen BG designed next week, once the painters have finished. BG also wants to show us her bathroom as being something similar to what we’d like.

Weather:6°C—16°C; no rain [83.4] 06:30

SwimGym and then breakfast with Bridget and the girls at Bay Expresso. Later Karola took the girls to “Train World” on Marine Parade in Napier while Bridget and I discussed cottage fittings. We all went to lunch at the Fishing Club in Napier before going to “Kung Fu Panda II” in Havelock North. It’s rather scarier and louder in the cinema than on a DVD at home. After Karola’s fish dinner Bridget and I spent the evening beginning a 3D SketchUp model of the cottage so that we can mark up lighting, power, cabinetry, electrics etc. , starting from the 2D plans imported from the architects computer plans.

We seem to be down to one bantam hen and one rooster after recent depredations of hungry hawkes – at least I think it’s a hawk snacking on the bantams.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing new to report today.

Weather:6°C—15°C; 1.9 mm rain [83.1] 06:00

Bridget, hearing that the weather was pretty nice up here, came up today arriving mid afternoon.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Les came round and we had a chat with him and Paul. We agreed to a couple of steel beams lengthwise above the living room to replace the support role played by the chimney stack and strengthen the floor above which is currently rather springy. We also talked about joiners and joinery.

Later Les suggested that Paul would be delighted to do the refurbishment of the existing windows and we agree it’d suit us very well so we’ll ask him tomorrow. So that leaves us with joinery tasks of: the 13 new windows (4 modelled on the old existing ones and 9 casement for the kitchen, laundry/loo, and garage); the cabinetry in the kitchen, private bathroom, and laundry; and the stairs and kitchen wooden bench top that juts out between the kitchen and dining room.

Weather:0°C—13°C; no rain [83.5] 06:30

SwimGym – cold and dark and light rain. Later we went into Hastings for usual monthly blood test and light shopping.

Meticulous Maids (Edith and helper) came this afternoon and did a rapid and effective clean – although with the amount of mud being tromped in it’s only a very temporary improvement.

I walked round the ewes and then the lambs in the orchard. Numbers seem right and all seem pretty active and alert.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Paul and Matthew were here around 7:30 am despite the cold and wet. They began inside the cottage on repairs to the hole left by removing the chimney.

I gave Paul a more up-to-date copy of the design plans and checked – luckily none of the changes I’d neglected to give him earlier had caused any harm; the extended eaves are added on after the main roof supports are complete.

Weather:0°C—8°C; 0.3 mm rain [84.0] 06:00

I stayed in out of the cold- it got colder as the day progressed. I completed my switch to the new Apple operating system version called Lion.

Karola tended her sheep and trimmed the lower branches of the Casurina hedge.

The Cottage Refurbishment

I did a couple of hours in the cottage, taking out light and power fittings and the electric cables.

Karola and I went through the latest design drawings noting things that were not yet quite right or needed more work before we could decide finally.

Weather:3°C—12°C; 4.1 mm rain [84.0] 06:30

Wet and cold. Karola spent most of the day at meeting and lunch and dinner with her Federation Of Graduate Women group. I installed the latest version of the Apple Mac operating system called Lion.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Apart from deepening the drains to try and get the surface water away from the cottage, nothing much to report today. I printed off three complete sets of the design drawings – seems that for the 10th July set I didn’t include all the latest ones but I don’t think there’s any critical changes missed.

Weather:9°C—15°C; 0.6 mm rain [83.7] 06:30

SwimGym and then rested in the warm for the remainder of the day as the rain came down.

The Cottage Refurbishment

No work on the cottage today – by Paul and Matthew or by us.

Weather:10°C—12°C; 34.4 mm rain [83.7] 06:00

Cold, overcast day with rain setting in late afternoon. Karola went to the dentist to have her new tooth fitted.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Spent a lot of time reviewing kitchen appliance specifications and working on the layout – basically still the one Bridget suggested a while ago.

Weather:4°C—12°C; 14.4 mm rain [83.7] 06:30

SwimGym.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Bridget Geenty, kitchen designer, came at 10:00 am for a couple of hours and we discussed our current plans for the cottage kitchen and how she works with her clients. Bridget is an independent designer, working part time and she’s been doing kitchen design for 14 years. She charges $50/hour on top of the cost of the joinery etc. We plan to visit her last job which is in Hastings. She is on the shortlist.

Later, after lunch at Pernel Fruit World, we went to Classic Kitchens in Onekawa. Larry McKenna was very helpful and we discussed out current plan at length. He pointed out that Microwave ovens only open right-to-left so we need to find another spot for it. We also came to the conclusion that a stainless steel bench the length of the kitchen, with a raised lip to trap spills, with two sinks (welded on from below – very secure), a set of four hobs let into the bench top with an under-bench oven below makes good sense for us. He suggested that rather than “Magic Corner II” the similar technology called Le Mans (Lemans) is more space efficient and substantial.

Came home late afternoon to find the roof trusses for the garage up.

Weather:0°C—12°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.7] 06:00

Sent e-mail to Midas with photo of exploded muffler and their bill, asking for a refund. Will not hold my breath.

Karola planted more of her under-oaks area with Karamus. The 70+ she’s already planted are all doing well.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Ross from Best-Forsyth came round and said that they would like to quote for the job and there were plenty of solutions short of having a new full electric main back to the roadside for the cottage. Good news. I cancelled the planned job by Tony Lucy, electrician for tomorrow.

Rang Paul of TheEnglishCraftsman and gently chivvied him along to give us quotes soon. He said by end of week.

Sent e-mail to Margaret Barker seeking name of the guy on the IDS trip to Queenstown in order to find out the agent who imports Jotul woodburners – so we can order the small classic Jotul 602.

Jotul 602:

• Smallest Cast Iron woodstove on the market with detailed lattice door and decorative side panel motif
• Incorperates Jøtul’s non-catalytic clean burn technology
• One easy air control lever operates the entire stove
• Alcove approved for both the US and Canada
• Standard bottom heat shield
• Rear or top exit flue collar with adaptor
• Fully functional cookplate

I dug a bit more out at the end of the open stormwater drain from the cottage to the ha-ha, clearing the entrance to the plastic pipe underground and through the retaining wall. It still doesn’t flow freely so that part of the proper stormwater drain may need doing too, I don’t think we can rely on the plastic pipe. It’s only an additional 10 metres so not a problem.

Weather:-3°C—12°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.2] 06:30

SwimGym. Very cold. Later, warm in the sun. Lunch (delicious) at Taste Cornucopia in Hastings.

Five sheep from over the road had got out and were milling round our back door when we got home, eating anything that looked remotely like a flower or shrub. Most of them were lame. Shooed them back out onto the Avenue and they ran back home through the open gate as if they knew very well where home was. Saw Jim Cornes (I think) coming over with a sheep dog to take them back to their paddock.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Spent most of the day on kitchens, “the stove shop”, “kitchen Studio”, and Harvey Norman.

The expansion grooves have been cut in the garage concrete slab. I did ask why there were no bolts sticking up all round the edge, to fasten the walls to. Apparently these days they use expansion bolts – drill a hole through the wooden bottom plates into the concrete and then the bolt is dropped in and turned and it locks itself into the hole. Faster than trying to drill holes in the bottom plate to match the bolt sticking up out of the concrete.

Bridget helped with some design ideas for laying out the kitchen and sent us a Sketchup sketch by e-mail.

Weather:-2°C—13°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.4] 06:30

Scrounged a bit of the sand and gravel left over from making the cottage garage slab and used it to make a smoother path from the back door of the homestead out to the drive.

The Cottage Refurbishment

We spent the afternoon, until dark, working on the cottage. I removed light and power fittings downstairs and the pipework in the bathroom and some left over in the old kitchen. We also removed the bathroom basin and cistern and detached the bath from its pipes although it’s too heavy for us to take out of the cottage ourselves. Karola did a lot of cleaning, removing the layers of mud accumulated over the past two weeks. We carted off the old sink that Paul and Matt had already dismantled.

Weather:-2°C—14°C; no rain [83.2] 06:30

Very cold morning. Didn’t really get going till after lunch apart from some inconclusive discussion about kitchens. Karola moved her ewes from the Orchard paddock to next door for the day and then had a chat with Alan the orchardist. He’s planted 8 replacement peach trees, where the original tree had dies of disease. Three of these died season before last but Alan was unable to get any replacements of the correct Tutara Star variety, and a further five needed replacing this season. Apparently our lambs, being curious creatures, had started nibbling the green cylindrical shields placed round the new trees and Alan worried that they might take to nibbling the trees themselves next so Karola offered to move the electric fence so that the lambs were restricted to the back of the orchard, beyond where the peaches are. It took her the rest of the afternoon.

Matt Saunders from The Stables across the road dropped by to see if we had anything to report about the car seen leaving our place at speed early evening yesterday – he’d rung about the close encounter with a speeding car last night. We think it was the hoodied young man who’d been here all day tending the new concrete. Matt and I discussed the electricity mains challenges we have and he thinks we do have three-phase mains up to the garage fuse bos so might be able to exploit that to avoid getting another cable laid back to the road.

Meanwhile I dismantled the old electricity box and some adjacent wiring on the side of the cottage and, using the Fergie, filled in a couple of holes near the cottage not now needed for extra posts for the “walkway” and also put a lot of earth on top of one of the sheep graves which had been excavated by rats.

Later we went to Jenny and Noel’s for dinner, Karola took a beef casserole, Jenny supplied the veg and fruit salad pudding.

The Cottage Refurbishment

A little dismantling work and filling in a couple of holes, as per above.

Weather:2°C—13°C; no rain [83.3] 06:30

SwimGym. Hearty breakfast. Rest of morning spent moving logs; the area near the 133 entrance is now clear for Karola to plant trees among the oaks. Karola gathered several trailer loads of mulchable branches.

The Cottage Refurbishment

To our astonishment, it was just beginning to become light enough to see, we met a concrete truck coming in as we went out to SwimGym at 6:55 am. When we came back the concrete slab for the cottage garage had been poured. One man stayed all day. As he said, his job was to stop eg the geese from mucking up the smooth concrete surface and to apply several smoothing runs as the concrete was in the process of setting.

Karola has agreed to there being a thin flat strip along the high point of the ceiling in the laundry, kitchen, dining room and bathroom – no more than 14″ wide and made of the same materials as the rest of the roof in that area. This makes tying in the new and old pieces of the building much easier and makes the apex of the ceiling two less severe joints rather than one very sharp one, which is hard to finish neatly.

Weather:-3°C—10°C; no rain [82.6] 06:30

Cold, horrid winter’s day. Another hour removing branches from the area near the 133 gate down to the holding area near the 121 gate.

The Cottage Refurbishment

The cottage framing delivered earlier this week is taking shape. The framing for the laundry, kitchen, and passage is up and the underfloor of the laundry and passage is laid. Reinforcing steel mesh over plastic waterproof membrane on sand on compacted hardfill for the garage slab is complete. Council inspectors have approved the subfloor framing for the new extension piece of the cottage and the garage slab preparation.

Weather:0°C—15°C; 0.2 mm rain [82.7] 06:30

SwimGym. Haircut at 9:30am.

I rang Heath Goldfinch at his garage in Taradale and he’d just been going ot ring me – the Landrover is fixed and not too expensive. We went round late afternoon and picked it up. He’s done a very good job – had to replace two mufflers – the front one which had exploded twice, and the back one which was very blocked. Heath said the Wellington Midas people had not only put on an undersized muffler but hadn’t checked the back muffler and hence the 2nd explosion. Heath got a pair of 2nd hand mufflers from Landy Heaven (who recommended Heath to us in 1st place) and to my delight and amazement the bill was #350.

I did another hour of log moving with the Fergie.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Thanks to Karola spotting it today we were able to stop the use of two support posts 2/3rds of the way across the walkway. It means using slightly more expensive laminated beams but otherwise apart from a little lost time by the builders (the holes for the posts and painting them with primer) no harm done. This way we can, if we wish, back a car in under the walkway and decant someone or something onto the kitchen verandah and into the house in the dry – sometimes much easier than trying to do the same thing when the car is in the garage.

Tony Lucy the electrician has not called back – he said he’d call last Monday, “black mark” for Tony. I called him. He says he’ll come and do the mains tidy-up and the reconnection of the pump-shed power via the kitchen fuse box next Wednesday. He also says that there’s no way we can extend our current electrical mains from the homestead garage out to the cottage. “Wrong Answer”. We’ll get several second opinions on that until hopefully we get a better answer. Karola got onto Best-Forsythe who did the homestead rewiring competently if expensively some years ago.

Weather:6°C—18°C; 0.6 mm rain [83.2] 06:30

No news of the Landrover which is a bit ominous.

Late afternoon I spent an hour with the tractor moving fallen and cut-up logs near from near the 133 entrance; Karola intends to plant a few more trees there this winter.

The Cottage Refurbishment

No news from the electrician, Tony Lucy.

Steve Broughham from F L Bone came mid morning to discuss heating – room and water heating for the cottage. We are pretty set on having a heat pump but listened anyway to his advice re using a diesel fired boiler. He’s getting us a bit more info from their main supplier Grant’s in Ireland.

Bridget and Chris advise against Diesel: inflammable near the buildings, has to be topped up regularly as diesel “goes off” after 2-3 months – never mind that it’s unsustainable “fossil fuel”.

I printed out a full set of the latest design drawings for us and for Paul – with the right walls labelled North-South-East-West.

Another cubic metre, this time of sand, for the cottage garage floor. Paul and Matt have compacted the hard fill and topped it with sand and laid out the reinforcing steel so its ready for council inspection and then the concrete. Things are going apace.

Weather:8°C—16°C; 0.3 mm rain [83.3] 06:30

SwimGym.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Paul Winstanley and his wife Katie(The English Craftsman Ltd 021-103-6683 & 0800-494-6369, paul@theenglishcraftsman.co.nz) arrived from Masterton around 11:30 am and we spent the next hour or so discussing the cottage windows, doors, and floors. I suspect he will be very expensive ($575 just to come up here for two hours and they were obviously having a little holiday at the same time). Based on his advice:

• we will not be getting any of the old Kauri doors stripped because it’s apparently impossible to get old tongue & groove completely clean of paint without actually taking it apart plank by plank
• we will not be reusing the old kitchen window because it is just too rotten, especially at the wood joints
• that leaves 6 double-hung sash windows to be refurbished, 4 brand new double hung sash windows, and 9 new smaller casement top-hung windows – this includes the upstairs and the garage.
• the floors in the living, dining, bedroom and upstairs could be given the special clean-and-wax treatment to retain the age patina – it does look good – and it costs about $45 a square metre – roughly the same as sanding and polyurethaning – allegedly

At Paul the Builder’s request I got John Pollock at Elms to bring us ten or so cubic metres of gravel – and some more sand tomorrow. The base of the garage is now built up ready for compacting and then covering with a plastic waterproof membrane and then the reinforcing steel and then it’ll be ready to pour the floor slab. Some of the gravel was used to build up the drive near the cottage; it’s become very muddy.

After lunch a Carters truck arrived and decanted all the prefabricated walls and roof trusses – one does so hope they got the measurements right.

Weather:7°C—19°C; no rain [82.7] 06:30

Fierce gales and some rain early in the day but sun prevailed and the wind calmed. An “inside” day. Karola’s GST done (10 days late).

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:4°C—15°C; 3.2 mm rain [83.0] 06:30

Slow day. Went round the two lots of sheep and they seemed all to be OK. Plenty of grass. Karola also went and inspected her pregnant ewes and gave them some sheep nuts. Karola also went shopping briefly in Hastings.

I dumped a the remained of the rubble from the old fireplace onto the track Karola is developing from the Homestead back door to the drive, across where the cottage used to sit.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:8°C—16°C; 1.3mm rain [83.3] 06:30

SwimGym – a bit milder today but not really very nice outside.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Front varandah sub-floor timbers now in place. Several of the kitchen verandah posts are up too.

Karola and I amended our June 2010 “brief” re the cottage “refurbishment” and gave Paul and Matt copies to read.

I sent Brett an e-mail including the observation that he’d got the north/south directions on the drawings wrong so that his drawings said North where we said East etc and I hoped no-one would be confused by that. Hmmm. Be a pity if trenches were dug in the wrong place or wires put in the wrong walls because of that – very Hubble Hubble.

Weather:5°C—14°C; no rain [82.9] 06:30

Karola went shopping and did some outside work; I stayed inside all day – sunny in patches but cold.

The Cottage Refurbishment

The wood man came this morning and Paul worked with him on the measurements of all the walls, including the garage walls and window and door surrounds.

I chatted to Paul about the (re)use of wood for floors and ceilings. The old bathroom floor is to be reused to fill where the old fireplaces and chimney were. The Matai flooring saved from the rickety old extension is to be reused to make the floor of the new kitchen bare native wood T&G to be same size and almost same look as the Kauri T&G on the dining room floor. The floor of the dining and kitchen areas are bare wood and so need to look very similar; the ceilings of these two areas will be painted so we have more flexibility. The dining room’s existing T&G ceiling (which is probably Rimu rather than Kauri) will remain. We’ll get some pine sawn to match to do the kitchen with the same width, thickness of T&G.

Les came round late afternoon and explained the latest, and final, window/door framing arrangements – which we’d seen on his revised plans yesterday and are in agreement with.

Paul and Matt added some piles for the front verandah so that, instead of using the cottage as the support for one side of the verandah it is completely free standing. This is recommended, and I think desirable – and I’m not sure why the plans didn’t allow for those extra piles. This way water coming down the wall drips straight onto the ground and isn’t blocked by the edge of the verandah. We’re not intending to heat the sun porch other than by direct sunlight so the draught won’t be a problem.

Weather:8°C—18°C; 1.2 mm rain [83.3] 06:30

SwimGym then inside programming with Bridget in the morning; some tractor work in the afternoon.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Exciting to see the timber sub-floor of the new cottage extension in place today. Very solid looking. As the timber firm are visiting Paul tomorrow to measure up for the framing for walls etc we have to decide finally on the size and placement of the windows today. We picked up final design drawings this afternoon and checked that, as far as we can tell, the windows and doors and walls are all in the right places.

Karola and I are smoothing over and filling in a bit of a path from the back door of the homestead across to the drive.

Weather:9°C—16°C; no rain [83.4] 06:30

Wet, miserable day but had some good time working on programs with Bridget. Karola went to town late afternoon after retrieving her sheep from their day-time pasture next door. They were keen to come home in the wet and mud, more interested in some sheep nuts from Karola than foraging in wet, long grass.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Went to see Les in the afternoon, discussing final choices for the position and size of windows. Les came back to Karamu and we finalised the east-facing wall decisions on the spot. Karola observed that some of the windows were too wide being three panes wide, with panes matching the big sash windows downstairs. By reducing that to two wide and having three of them across the kitchen sink-bench we think it’s a big improvement.

Given that the ground is sodden and big puddles everywhere it was absolutely the best idea to get the piles concreted in last night, before the rain came.

Today Paul and Matt began on the inside of the existing cottage, removing cupboards and walls where not needed.

Weather:5°C—12°C; 17.6 mm rain [83.7] 06:30

SwimGym – and it was a heavy frost this morning, followed by a mainly sunny, bright day.

I spent a couple of hours chainsawing the large fallen English Beech limb – got all but the main limb done but it’s too thick (500-600mm) and too precarious for me to tackle so we’ll leave that for Tricky Trees.

Karola is preparing a pathway through the old cottage site so we can get from our temporary new back door steps to the driveway and on to the garage in relative safety.

We took the Landrover to Taradale this evening for fixing tomorrow.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Paul and Matt made final preparations for the concrete for the piles for the cottage extension and the new verandahs; the concrete truck arrived late at around 4:00 pm and Paul and Matt finished this concreting in around 6:00 pm – in the dark lit by Karola’s car headlights.

Les sent an e-mail of the authorised plans for the foundations, authorised so, despite Carl the moving man disputing it, it seems there were enough piles on the plan. Paul still thinks Les/Brett and the council are wrong in that the extra piles Carl added are needed. So now, moving on ….

Weather:-1°C—11°C; 8.0 mm rain [83.4] 06:30

The Cottage Refurbishment

All the old concrete piles removed.

Weather:-2°C—12°C; no rain [83.2] 06:30

Cold day. Gill TXTd progress back, from Heathrow airport, HongKong airport, then Auckland airport – it was good to hear the progress despite threats of strikes (UK) and ash (NZ).

The Cottage Refurbishment

Both in thrall to nasty colds but we made a start on removing the old piles from the previous cottage site and taking them on the tractor down to the fencing dump near the 121 entrance.

Weather:0°C—11°C; no rain [82.7] 06:30

The Cottage Refurbishment

workforce all turned up; sunny day but cold and still very muddy. Cottage lowered onto piles and fastened down except in a couple of places where we hope the joists etc will straighten out and sit flat on the piles in a few days time. Paul and Matt continue with the garage foundations and readying their piles (for the extension and front verandah) for concreting on Monday.

Paul suggested we talk to electrician Colin Lucy, youngish chap, who came round this afternoon and we’ve engaged him to do a small initial job before we decide whether to employ him for the wiring of the cottage. The small job is, now the cottage is moved and the cottage power is no longer needed, to connect the mains electricity from the garage mains/meter board directly to the fuse-board in the kitchen of the homestead, bypassing the old, very damp, and probably dangerous old junction box on the end of the verandah next to the water pump. This will leave the cable out to the pump shed in limbo so at the same time we’ve asked Colin to connect that cable to a new fuse in the kitchen fusebox. We also discussed the radio interference I get and so a new earth rod will be attached and that may help. Somewhat worrying is that the length of mains electricity cable may exceed regulations – from road to homestead garage to: cottage, homestead, pump shed is several hundred yards. Solutions may be expensive. Colin will let us know next week based on distances he measured today.

Weather:7°C—13°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.2] 06:30