Monthly Archives: February 2012

SwimGym

Karola put her ewes and ewe lambs on the lawn for the day. Poor little Bramble, but she had to learn sometime. She put her nose squarely on the bottom wire of the electric fence and got the shock of her short life – much squealing and running round at greeat spped until she found one of us and then she seemed to calm down in a few minutes. This is her first introduction to electric fence and she experimented accidentally twice today, luckily on a bit of the fence that was only weakly electrified at the time, the wire being in contact with tall grass and shorting out.

Karola also continued sanding and waxing the remaining skirting boards for several hours.

Mary Wilson and her mother visited for morning tea.

I checked with Pam Morrison of Barns-Mossman that our 2010/2011 tax returns were being prepared. They are.

I took the new plane Karola bought back to Mitre-10 and in return bought some sanding disks for one of my 1970s Black & Decker electric drills and a white yardstick for Karola. The yardstick has inches and centimetres on it.

Later I, with advice from Karola, put up two shelves in the cottage garage ready for the Airnet broadband and telephone service.

After dinner I reconfigured the home LAN wiring so that the broadband line went directly from the homestead garage to the cottage to an Access Point and router there. That router then connected back to the homestead garage and to the ethernet switch that distributes to the office and homestead. It seems all to work this evening and the Airnet change to a new transceiver on the back of the cottage garage should only mean changing a couple of wires on the back of the cottage Access Point.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ 2.0mm rain [81.7]

All the sheep have been dosed by pouring on a few milligrams of Magnum to prevent fly-strike and kill any lice. There are still 48 ewes and ewe lambs, 30 wether lambs, and one ram. Ewes and ewe lambs are in the Front paddock; wethers and ram are in the Island paddock for now.

Paul and Matthew came again today and completed the bulk of the skirting. We had enough of the high skirting with mouldings to do the dining room and kitchen but not enough of the simpler “6×1” (150mmx25mm) bevelled-edge skirting for the living room, bedroom, and upstairs. Paul found some more of the Kauri planks taken off the roof when it was replaced and has created the needed extra skirting from those.

We’re getting close to the time when inspections take place for code compliance completion – the official handover from builder to owner. We hope to get that underway by mid March. Electrics and Plumbing are complete and the radiators go in next week. There is some question about whether tiles are needed along the wall edge of the twin basins in the bathroom. We may add some gravel around the kitchen steps into the walkway just to ensure the levels look right for the bottom step. Matthew may build us a kwila step into the cottage garage side door for the same reason. Insurance for the building works was extended today until 31st of March.

Bramble’s cheek lump turned weepy this morning so we took her into the Vets again mid afternoon. Stewart Badger shaved the area and had a good look. He gave us a weeks course of antibiotics and said that it should clear up in a few days. He’s more inclined now to a cat having caused the injury, which subsequently got a bit infected, rather than a bumble bee sting now.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—20℃ no rain [82.2]

SwimGym

Then, Bramble went to the Vet, half an hour late due to senior moment memory lapses, for first of two booster shots of dog vaccine. Next is in four weeks. While she was there we agreed she should have her microchip implanted. Although only the size of a grain of wheat this is still a tad daunting for the poor dog, and uncomfortable until in place.

Back at Karamu, Paul and Matthew began putting up the skirting and the heated mirror. They were joined later by John who put up the heat pad and vertical lights for the mirror. John plans to come back to do the mains electricity change for the homestead, removing the need for the old, rusty, and possibly dangerous, damp junction box on the south end of the east verandah.

Later I went into town and got prices for two TVs for the cottage and a FreeView PVR set-top box from four merchants. Prices varied by hundreds of dollars so I have now bought these items only to find that the TVs are out of stock – not even available from Sony New Zealand – for another week or more. The TVs are Sony KDL40CX520s, not the latest and without the latest technology and low on features such as 3D – but a fraction of the price of more feature-laden and up to date models and in fact just what I want. The FreeView set top box with personal video recorder is a DishTV S7090PVR with a loop connector allowing one to daisy-chain the sky decoder on the same satellite cable, allegedly. The PVR has two TV tuners so one can record a FreeView programme and watch another at the same time.

Karola noticed a swelling on Bramble’s jaw after lunch and by late afternoon it seemed to be increasing so we took her into the Vets for the second time that day. Bramble got a shot of antihistamine and of antibiotic as the most likely cause of the swelling was a bee sting. Bramble is fascinated by bumble bees but they are not well pleased with her interest so it is a likely scenario and would explain the rapid swelling in a couple of hours. Poor Bramble didn’t have a very good day, but she’s looking on the bright side and expects tomorrow will be much much better.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ no rain [82.9]

SwimGym

Bruce Richardson (Mobile Shearing) came at 10:15am and managed to shear most of the sheep before rain set in. Karola helped and afterwards put the shorn ewes and ewe lambs in the Goose paddock, the unshorn ones in the Island paddock, and the male sheep back in the front paddock.

Menwhile Roger and I were sent on a mission to get more Magnum anti-flystrike pour-on. Hastings Farmlands didn’t have any small quantities but the Napier one did. We also got some electronics parts for my Arduino work from Jaycar in Stortford Lodge.

After collecting the Magnum we had quite a good lunch in the cafe associated with the Napier Mitre-10 – which happens to be next to the Napier Farmlands. It turned out that Karola and Anne hadn’t had lunch so when we got home we took them out to The Coffee Club in Stortford Lodge – it being one of the few cafes still serving at 3:00 pm. Roger and I contented ourselves with desserts and coffee.

Later Roger and I picked up some food, including dog food, from Countdown in Hastings. We also bought a cat’s collar for Bramble – she’s not showing any great anxiety in wearing it at all, to my surprise.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [81.7]

Sultry day. humid and hot after a cool, misty start. Late rising as I forgot to set my alarm. An hour cutting thistles. Later Roger and I marked out the proposed boundary of the new cottage garden. Then we all went to Taste in Hastings for lunch. On way home I ordered the handrail brackets from Mitre-10 – they should be here this week. Later Roger and I discussed the water meter reading application for the Arduino. I may be able to use one of the switchable DC transformers lying about the place. Harry’s birthday today. Sent Paul the builder a list of near-term tasks we hope he can do soon.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—27℃ no rain [81.5]

SwimGym

John Burnard came and did the non-electrical wiring in the cottage. In addition he put up the dining room pendant light fitting and together we put up the kitchen beam fluorescent.

The dining room pendant light shade is a bit too heavy; the up-and-down mechanism won’t go above half-down. The kitchen fluorescent went up OK, level and centred on the middle window. However, IMHO, the fluorescent tube needs to be buried more deeply into the beam and the beam needs to have a rebate in the front edge. This all to make the light invisible from below and behind and reflect all its powerful light onto the sink work surface.

I went shopping in the morning (oh, not again!) and bought some more tennis balls and an elastic car tie-down to make a toy for Bramble. I also bought a couple of 50 meter measuring tapes to replace the two 30 meter ones Bramble had chewed until they snapped. And some food of course for the visitors.

Karola spent the day between preparing for the guests and more sanding of skirting boards. In the afternoon I took down the netting fence between the cottage and the Middle paddock, ready to measure up the new cottage fence and put up a temporary Bramble-proof docking netting fence just beyond where the real post and railing fence will go.

Hughes’ arrived late afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—21℃ 1.4mm rain [81.1]

Sheep were allowed onto the back drive again this morning. Shooed them back into the Middle paddock and deconstructed the electric fence after lunch. Late afternoon I put up some very temporary bits of fence and let them into the cottage lawn for a feast. Late evening I shut them out until tomorrow.

Karola did heroics with sanding and waxing skirting boards most of the day, accompanied by Bramble.

I moved half the heap of soil just outside the cottage netting fence so that the new fenceline had a clear line of sight. This took a couple of hours with the Fergie.

I seem to have lost my special “Java” Leatherman all-purpose pocket knife after keeping it safe for almost twenty years. Shame; it was the perfect pocket tool for me with knife, sissors, tiny screw driver, tweezers, etc. I was given it by Sun Microsystems so many years ago.

Bramble now routinely runs alongside us from the homestead to the cottage and back; she’s growing up.

We replaced the towel holder in the Big Shed loo with a towel rail and a towel loop. The towel rail came from the homestead downstairs bathroom.

< Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—25℃ 0.1mm rain [81.3]

Beautiful day – cool start and brilliant sunshine most of the day. Paul Winstanley (The English Craftsman) finished the floors this morning with a final wax and buff. The bedroom and front half of the living room floors are beautiful; the rest have many blemishes but are still quite serviceable.

I seemed to spend much of the day shopping in Hastings; two trips; one for sandpaper for Karola and some other trinkets (including a magnifying LED light to help with the fiddly electronics assemblies), the other for food. Karola was working hard oiling and sandpapering the skirting so that it can be put up next week by Paul the builder. Late afternoon I put the ewes and ewe lambs on the back (121) drive so they could have the acorns that are falling aplenty. The day just vanished.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—25℃ no rain [81.2]

SwimGym then I went for quarterly diabetes checkup – all good.

To my delight the Arduino kitset equipment arrived today; ordered on the Internet early yesterday. I spent the active part of the afternoon and evening getting set up and working through the first few examples.

Paul and James have almost finished the cottage floors; just some final waxing and buffing to do tomorrow.

Karola weeded and entertained Bramble.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—22℃ 0.1mm rain [81.4]

Patricia et al left for Bay of Plenty today. I continued my initial research into Arduino electronics kits and ways to use them to drive our water meter and a wireless link back to the homestead.

Paul, “The English Craftsman” and son James (who starts university next week) arrived early, around 9:00 am, and began their floor refurbishment. Today they prepared the living room, bedroom, and dining room. Tomorrow they put the rejuvenating polish on all the floors after preparing the upstairs. It’s harder work and the floors are more damaged with wood borer and linoleum glue than they’d expected but with lavish application of a wire toothbrush they’ve made a pretty good job of it.

After lunch I went into town to drop off a cheque with the insurance broker, get a bit more food, and pick up three round elm rosettes from Tony Page’s Cedarville joinery, sloped so that they fit on the ceiling of the bathroom, dining room, and laundry.

Bramble is starting to calm down after the excitement of having three children here for the last few days.

Brambling

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—20℃ no rain [81.6]

SwimGym. Karola went into Hastings for a hair cut soon after SwimGym and got supplies for tomorrow’s invasion of the craftsmen from Masterton.

Another day of unseasonal weather. Another day of feeding the geese, feeding the sheep. Alfie also had a short tractor ride, sitting in front of me and steering, round the Camelias. Later Karola showed the Woodworth-Hughes’ round the cottage. In the afternoon the visitors took themselves off to Hastings, Havelock North, and up to TeMata Peak.

In the afternoon Karola took large load of washing in to Hastings and got it dried. I did some Brambling and computer work.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—20℃ 6.7mm rain [82.00]

Rained on and off all day so a slow start. Children fed geese, then fed sheep in the morning.

Pernel’s for lunch and then they went off to play clock golf in Napier while Karola and I mulled what was left to do in the cottage.

Karola also almost completed planing down the four blocks of kauri to floor level. These blocks have been glued into holes in the floor along the line of an original wall, the notches for wall studs. Meanwhile I carefully drilled out four slots in the corners of the special totara block (we initially thought it was kauri too) so that the fluorescent light fitting could slide in as we want.

Meticulous Maids, the cleaners, came mid afternoon. Edith, our usual lead lady cleaner, wasn’t with the team today.

After a pizza dinner (for the others; I had left over from the previous night) we, all but little Sasha, played Sequence.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—21℃ 5.2mm rain [?]

SwimGym

Playing with Bramble and soon the morning was gone. Did manage to fit in a trip to town to get my eyes tested – well I really intended only to get a prescription check – with a very nice young woman called Andrea. Karola has had her test her eyes too in the past. Anyway I now await two new pairs of spectacles next week with a slightly improved prescription and without the current spectacle lenses scratches and wear. I don’t think I’ve had new glasses for a decade; Andrea says they usually expect glasses to show serious wear after only a couple of years.

While in town I got some tennis balls for Bramble and new pair of cheap slip-on shoes from Warehouse – for wearing over my farm socks when I have to drive into town – my farm boots are not best suited to driving a car.

Nick, Patricia, Alfie, Nancy, and Sasha arrived just before six o’clock. Karola gave them a filling meal of sausages, potatoes, and vegetables and lots of salad, Afterwards, finding that Rush Munroe’s was closed, we went to the “Hot Chick Icecream Parlour” in Napier. Very down to earth.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—18℃ 9.6mm rain [80.9]

We drenched all 79 sheep today, Scanda (meat withholding 10 days) and in addition put fly-strike preventative pour-on Magnum on the 48 ewes and ewe lambs (meat withholding zero days). Karola also recaptured a little ewe lamb #141 that was behaving erratically, suspecting she had fly strike, but a clean-up and inspection found no strike. She was sprayed with Zenith (meat withholding 7 days).

Henere dropped by with a bushel of sugar pears. He and I then picked a couple of bushels of the plums off our tree at the back, using the tractor and bucket to get high up; 2/3 for Henere and 1/3 for us.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—22℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

Not sure where the morning went but the afternoon spent making the Bramble playpen pictured in the fuzzy iPhone photo below. The pen we bought is light and portable and suitable for inside or outside use but still too much trouble to reassemble each time you want Bramble to be enclosed safely somewhere else. Hence the pen for our study so we can work at computer without fear that she’s chewing power cords etc. Rods are very ancient glass fibre rods, part of the bundle of 50 we bought when in England more than twenty years ago as part of Harry’s early investigations.

Wet day so indoor work such as Karola tidying some of the accumulated clutter since Christmas in the downstairs Homestead rooms. A great improvement.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—18℃ 1.7mm rain [?]

SwimGym then Karola implemented her plan to get rid of the old, rotten Wysteria and the pieces distorting the Homestead woodwork, We cut the Wysteria off the balcony railings and it fell almost to the ground with a rush. Then we chopped the thick pieces up into manageable chunks and Karola did the rest. She sawed the smaller pieces up so that they’d fit in the mulcher and then did all the mulching. I just set up the mulcher and started the tractor.

Meanwhile, after chain sawing up the old and heavy pieces of Wysteria, I tackled the large old cherry tree branch that had snapped many months ago, held aloft by entanglement in surrounding trees and a hinge of wood at the snap point. It is now on the ground and sawn into manageable chunks.

We went into Hastings for lunch at Taste, picking up the gliuten-free bread order and a few vegetables from the next-door shop, Cornucopia.  On the way home we stopped at Lighting Depot and picked up the two short fluorescent light fittings that arrived today. They are for placing vertically each side of the heated mirror in the private bathroom.

Interspersed with a lot of puppy-watching, and so the day disappeared. Bramble is eating large amounts now three times a day, her appetite has really picked up and she is rollicking round the place with enthusiasm. Bramble is getting used to the occasional hour spent in her “den” (the cat-sized crate) and her “Pen”, the hexagonal pen now under the Ginkgo tree on the front lawn.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—25℃ 5.4mm rain [80.8]

Usual blood tests in Stortford Lodge. Also got Karola a new electric fence tester as her old one has been mislaid. Bought eight plastic screw-top round jars for Bramble’s food. Karola cooks up rice and beef mince and chicken livers, adding puppy cold sausage when serving. I feed Bramble in her pen, the moveable light wire enclosure not unlike a baby’s play-pen, so she thinks of it as a good place. To my delight she soon settles down in the pen or in her den = cage and stops fussing. House training continues; it’s a bit hit and miss still.

We moved my old wood workbench from the homestead garage to the cottage garage, temporarily, using the tractor forks, I then attached the mulcher intending we use it tomorrow for the Wysteria prunings. After dinner Karola and I took down most of the Wysteria that was a mass of old rotten trunks entwined with new growth and was damaging the homestead balcony. It will re-grow.

Patricia Hughes and family are not coming tomorrow; two of their number have the flu and they’ve kindly decided not to bring infection here but we do hope to see them later in February.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ no rain [81.5]

SwimGym.

Intermittent drizzle all day. I had dental checkup – have been almost no problems since the Diabetes forced almost total sugar reduction. Karola got new batteries for her wrist watches.

Karola asked for some improvements to the temporary back steps into the Homestead so we did that between showers. Much time taken in supervising and playing and cleaning up after Bramble. Karola cleaned and tidied in the Homestead preparing for our week end visitors. I cleaned and tidied a little in the cottage.

Later I assembled a couple of wooden saw horses primarily so that Karola can hold pieces of Kauri skirting board on them and apply turpentine oil or wax or whatever coating she and Paul Winstanley (The English Craftsman) decide. Did you know that turpentine oil (or the rags used to wipe it on) can combust spontaneously? Joiner Tony and his mate Shane both warned Karola about that so she’s keeping the cloths cleaned regularly and the oil itself safely well away from the houses in a cool place.

Bramble today decided to climb the Homestead stairs unaided; she can also come down again. Bramble has manic hyperactive periods when she runs around and nips everything and leaps into the air to catch clothing or fingers. I thought her hind quarters were a little weak as she seems to have trouble getting up and often throws herself down with the back end just sort of collapsing, but sight of her hurling herself 6 inches or more off the ground, vertically, in one of her manic spells, and seeing how fast she can run when she puts her mind to it, I can’t imagine there’s really a problem.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—21℃ 2.1mm rain [81.9]

Occasional drizzle but warm all day. We both felt we’d not accomplished a great deal come sundown.

Ricky McGhie (Copas) came and completed the plumbing fit-out today, he finished mid morning. There’s just one waste connection not yet done which is from the clothes dryer. It was only when unpacking and moving the dryer from the cottage garage to the laundry that I found a package containing pipes and clamps and instructions for draining the condensate (it’s a condensing dryer, no pipe to the outside). Also, Ricky wondered where the alarm for the septic tank was and so I called John the electrician and he told us it was in the dining room cupboard next to the power for the security monitoring unit.

I went into town and bought a short length of coiled steel pipe to connect the Homwestead upstairs loo cistern to its water supply – well to connect the supply to the new ballcock without dripping. After a couple of failed attempts I have managed to get the connection without drips and Karola is very pleased it’ll be dry in there when our guests arrive on Friday.

Anna sent us a couple of iPhone 4S photos from Ealing showing just how wintery it is.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—20℃ 3.5mm rain [?]

SwimGym

Laurie came mid morning to bring the mail and keys, and the washing we’d left on the line to pretend to be at home, and some of his home grown runner beans (delicious). Laurie said that he’d seen a red van at the cottage on Saturday, that’ll be John the electrician.

Bramble and I spent a quiet morning reading and snoozing – you guess who did which.

Karola got her ewes onto the 121 driveway to clean up the weeds and thin the grass a bit. She also, as Bramble permitted, weeded some of her 100 Taupata/Karamu bushes under the oaks.

Late afternoon I went to the cottage and turned on all the lights – they all work and the dimmers work and the two-way switches work. The electric transom window openers open and shut the transom windows, the electric garage door opener works. John has put an extra external double-socket power point in the pump shed.

I cleaned up the dining room floor which has been used as dumping place for all the packaging and fasteners etc, and swept the downstairs living/dining and all the new section. All the windows open and close. Taps work, loos flush, showers shower, albeit coldly for now. Karola checked out the lighting early evening.

Washing machine isn’t completely connected yet, and the laundry tub waste seems blocked but otherwise the only plumbing fit-up left is to cap the sewer line inspection pipe on the south east corner of the cottage.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—21℃ 2.2mm rain [81.5]

As planned the Hughes arrived mid morning at the Days Bay flat and we “handed over the keys” for the next six weeks. I took delivery of the DVDs for the first two series of the BBC drama The Killing, recommended by Anna and said to be compelling viewing by Roger and Anne.

Fleeting visit to Bridget and Bramble was introduced to Natalie and Alex.

Another quick visit to Mary to pick up some out of date computer stuff and for Bramble to say Hello again.

Pleasantly uneventful drive back to Hastings where preliminary check found all the sheep alive and houses in pretty much same condition we remember leaving them.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

Bramble had another good night with only two interruptions. The tiny rascal skitters around the place chewing everything. ope her playpen arrives before she does herself a mischief by gnawing through a power cord. Bramble and I spend much of the afternoon and early evening dozing and/or watching pre-recorded episodes of Midsomer Murders and the like – there was even one scripted by Alan Plater which wasn’t too bad.

In the morning we, including Bramble in her den on the back seat, went to Mitre-10 looking for a bathroom mirror. Unfortunately it turned out to have concealed brackets for hanging and these were so close together that they interfered with the 550mm x 500mm heating pad that goes between mirror and wall. However a second trip after lunch and my good luck I was helped by a very knowledgeable young lady who knew about the heating pad requirement (previous helper having said they didn’t have any mirrors without concealed brackets) and went straight to one of the right size, with holes for fastening into wood or, if we don’t match up with a dwang (noggin), into GIB board directly, made in New Zealand and with a five year guarantee. Size 750mm x 600mm.

John the electrician is making good progress. He finished the lights and power points in the cottage garage, and almost finished the fittings for the LAN and telephone cables that will connect the receiving wireless dish to the cottage and on down to the homestead via the homestead garage. All lights are up now except for: the ceiling light in the dining room, the special hanging fluorescent light in the kitchen, and the fluorescents either side of the bathroom mirror.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [81.5]

SwimGym – with Bramble left in her den for 90 minutes. Some whining but when we got back it was soon forgotten.

In the night Bramble woke me at 1:30am and again at 5:45am with good results each time. Bramble doesn’t eat very much, compared with what the breeder Jane Taylor provided for her two meals after the hand-over. Bramble weighs about the same as she has for the last two weeks, we think. Karola has cooked up a week’s supply of beef mince, chicken livers and rice, the same mixture Bramble was getting at the kennels. You can see the result in Bramble’s bowl below.

Karola spent hours in the Orchard paddock, finishing collecting in the electric fence and chopping the thistles, many of these being in flower. Henere and son Scott Ormond dropped by and chatted with Karola for a while and then came and helped me with some of the winding up of the tangled electric wires in the Orchard paddock. It turned out that Henare wanted to borrow some wire strainers and take up my offer of a few Permanent Strainers for a fence he’s reconstructing for an old lady – presumably one of the tribe. Bramble got to help with the work in the Orchard paddock both times, bounding over the grass which is mostly clumps that must seem very tall to her. With such little legs she must be exhausted.

John the electrician spent the day at the cottage. I nipped into Mitre-10 in Hastings and got a replacement for one of the exterior light fittings which was faulty. Took the tax return information to the accountant on the way from Mitre-10. The cork tile layer put one more coat on the cottage floor and decamped, so we’re ready now for the final plumbing fit-out and I rang Ian Croskery of Copas Ltd to let them know. The painters also decamped today after we went round and checked the work with boss Brett Newton.

“Click” – But Just Too Late

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ 2.6mm rain [82.0]