Monthly Archives: March 2012

Have You Heard?

See photo of Bramble, the focus of intense interest earlier today.

A Fairly Frantic Day. I woke at around 4:00 am, had breakfast and went back to bed until 9:00am, having taken Bramble out for her constitutional and taken Karola a cup of tea at 4:45am, which got mixed reception :-).

Graham and Tracey came at 10:00am as planned and were introduced to Bramble – in fact Bramble, fresh from her puppy classes, welcomed them effusively. We showed them over the cottage and they politely listened and commented although, like me, they’re not that into other people’s house renovations. Having hear that their computer had broken down I gave them one of Karola’s old PCs after spending a couple of hours copying stuff and then deleting it from the PC, and getting rid of passwords etc that would otherwise get in the way. I still have one Windows PC in case I ever have need of a physical PC machine even though I have a Windows 7 virtual machine running under Mac OS X for the odd occasion when I need to run a Windows-only application. G & T returned briefly mid afternoon to pick up the PC.

Mark came again and helped us move the double bed from the homestead “top of the stairs” into the cottage. Initially for Bridget and Chris at Easter; later for us. He also helped us both move quite a bit of my stuff including some more filing cabinets to the cottage upstairs. After that we had afternoon tea and then Mark and I (Karola was entertaining her friend Rowena and looking after Bramble) measured out where the cottage fence is to go and Mark began digging post holes.

Cool but sunny day; the early heavy humidity gave way to a really nice afternoon. We are airing the cottage as much as possible before Bridget and family arrive next Saturday.

Gallery photos below include more of Bramble’s close encounter with some inquisitive ewes and ewe lambs, a couple of shots of the portable yards skillfully put up by Karola, helped by Rowena, and some cottage shots shwing the dining room table and bedroom.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

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Assassin, Sadly

SwimGym

Then I had to dispose of a wether lamb – one that has been pretty wretched for a while and one that Karola expected would die. I dug the grave and went out to fetch the corpse only to find it was very sick but still alive. So I cut its throat – hence the “Assassin” of the title. And buried it. No tag, Karola suspects it was Edward Longshanks who she fed from a newborn lamb. Sad, but goes with the territory.

Karola summoned Mark and he came and dug a big hole in anticipation of more deaths – but I hope not too soon. Mark also helped with moving some stuff downstairs in the homestead, and some across to the cottage. This is helping me get established in the cottage for working – I’m typing from upstairs in the cottage now – and for Bridget’s family due at Easter.

We went into Hastings expecting lunch but were too late – the kitchen had closed.

I’ve hired a nail gun for the weekend to see if it really is much less severe on my wrists than banging in big nails with a hammer. The railings for the cottage will need many hundreds of nails.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 9.0mm rain [81.9]

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Sky Now In The Cottage

Two wall-mounted 40″ LCD Sony TVs can be individually switched between: mySky HDi, Dish Freeview PVR, Oppo DVD player or AppleTV. Pictured in the living room as a stack of electronics boxes are: DVD player, Sky set-top box, HDMI 4×4 Matrix switch, Freeview set-top-box, Airport Express Wireless Access Point for the in-cottage LAN, and AppleTV.

Meanwhile, in the homestead I almost have working a Dish Freeview set-top box playing to the kitchen, living room, and dining room TVs – that were all connected to the Sky box until I moved it. The living room 32″ Sony TV also has an elderly DVD player. So Karola will not be deprived of her news even before she moves to the cottage.

Karola is setting up her portable yards in the One Acre paddock, in the short enclosed area that leads to the Orchard paddock.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—17℃ 6.1mm rain [82.3]

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At Last The Landrover Key Doesn’t Jam

SwimGym then Karola off for a haircut. I mowed the Orchard Paddock which took me till lunch time. The first lot of timber for the cottage railings was delivered today.

Landrover didn’t start again today so Karola arranged for the steering lock to be mended so we wouldn’t have to leave the key in and therefore wouldn’t accidentally flatten the battery. We took the Landrover to Goddards in Hastings after lunch and they fixed it before 5:00pm for $230. Needless to say I had jump-started the Landrover from the Subaru as usual to get it to go.

Returning from dropping off the Landrover at Goddards we took the two bent tractor sway bars and Kerry of HB Tractor Dismantlers straightened them for free.

After dark I put petrol on the big wasps nest in the old rabbit burrow under the oaks; we’ll see tomorrow if that did any good.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ 0.9mm rain [81.7]

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Ten Flax Planted

Cold start to a beautiful day.

Karola weeded the planting triangle in the north-west corner of the orchard and planted her 10 big flax brought from Wellington. A lot of work. I took Bramble around the orchard and then we did inside work for a while – well Bramble slept and I did online banking and e-mails. Bramble snacked on an apple (see below).

I found that the Landrover battery was almost flat again, just turning the engine a couple of times before giving up. I started to attach our battery charger but noticed that the charging wires are actually bare where they enter the charger, the insulation has become brittle and flaked off. Later Karola decided to call the AA and get the Landrover started. As you expect, the Landrover started first time when the AA man arrived. However, it was not a wasted trip because in talking to him about the problems we have with the key and consequently with accidentally flattening the battery, Karola was told that an ordinary locksmith could probably adjust the lock so that the key didn’t jam.

Later, Karola went shopping.


Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [81.6]

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Not Quite Final Final Cottage Inspection

SwimGym

Then Bramble had her third and final vaccination for various dog ailments, freeing her to be loose in areas infested with diseased dogs – not that we intend to let her free in such places.

Then I returned to town without Bramble to pick up a couple of salt licks for the sheep, my gluten-free bread order from last Friday, and registering Bramble with the council.

Paul the builder arrived and waited for the council building inspector who came late morning (Mike Dymond 027-495-5157). We failed the inspection with 11 minor problems, mainly involving the plumbers Copas. Copas’ Ricky McGhie came round within the hour and fixed their problems except for a “producer statement” needed for the Septic Tank that should arrive in a couple of days. We also need a producer statement for the Radiators from Grayson Allen and a couple of small leaks sealed round one of the showers (HomePlus). Paul Libby had to block the upstairs sash windows from opening more than 120mm to meet health-and-safety regulations and he did this before returning to the beach to work on his batch for the next week. Daryl of Arrow Alarms has promised to send a producer statement for the smoke alarms this week. So, we really are nearly finished with the building work on the cottage.

Later we took Bramble to her last session of the Puppy School. After that, even though it was getting dark, we drenched all 26 remaining wethers with Cydectin (meat withholding ten days). We checked off the numbers even though seven (7) have managed to lose their button eartags:
#103, #112, #122, #125, #132, #134, #135, #137, #138, #140, #142, #147, #151, #154, #156, #158.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—21℃ no rain [82.7]

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Home To Hastings – Three Dead Lambs

Nice relaxed trip back to Karamu after a quick morning tea with the Rashbrookes.

The news back home is mixed. The cat was well pleased with the food and attention from Enid McDurmott, without that pesky Bramble hogging the limelight. On the sheep front we had another three deaths: #110, #118, and #153 – all wether lambs and the cause of death uncertain. In case it’s worms we’ll drench all the wether lambs ASAP. We looked over the ewes and ewe lambs quickly and they seemed in quite good condition still with plenty of grass.

Good to be back.

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—24℃ no rain [?]

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Bramble On Downhill Walk Through Bush

Bramble got two walks up and over the hill today, one mid morning and one again late afternoon. She’s not easy to photograph but these photos give a glimpse of her activities as we amble down the hill through wet bush on muddy path.

We had lunch with Mary: me Karola, and Bramble.  Gill and Ben came out to Days Bay for a pleasant dinner.

It was a somewhat accident-prone day. I broke four china bowls by nudging a heavy bowl on top so it fell and clipped four bowls on the way down. Write-offs. When on our way to Mary’s, I was dropped off to get some lunch at the Karori New World. Karola went to put petrol in the car at petrol station. Unfortunately there are two petrol stations in Karori and I went to the wrong one. When I realised I went to the right one but meanwhile Karola had decamped to the wrong one. Many cell phone call attempts later we were reunited.

Big wasps nest under the Days Bay flat seems to be almost completely dead – just one or two wasps left and they don’t look very lively.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ 2.9mm rain [?]

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Flax Planting at Days Bay Flat

Another relaxed start. Karola spent most of the day planting her many flax. I took Bramble over the hill and then went to Karori for lunch with Mary. I returned about 3:15pm. Charles Bagnall came round and discussed some repairs to be made to the flat: a leak in the side wall of the bedroom downstairs; and repairs to the basement and foundations. He is finishing his current project in a couple of weeks and will get an engineering report for the foundation work. Later Karola went in to Khandallah to babysit for Bridget.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—29℃ no rain [?]

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Bramble More Training and Long Walks

Karola took Bramble over the hill again this morning – come rain, come shine. Bramble has been meeting a variety of dogs on her walks which is good for her. Bramble also had two training sessions to help her “heel” and “sit”.

Karola and I went over to Leacroft in Pahatanui on the Paekakariki Hill road and bought 50 flax plants, PB5 and PB6 sized, for about $9 each which compares favourably with other Wellington nurseries charging $16 or more for PB3 sized plants. Karola began planting in the Days Bay flat garden; she intends to plant 40 here and take 10 back to Hawkes Bay to plant in the orchard north-west corner.

Later we went in for a meal with Bridget and I took Bramble up to the stile just below the summit of Mt KauKau. Heavy mist and light drizzle made visibility further up very poor and anyway Bramble was pretty puffed by then. She has such short little legs. Bramble was very very muddy by the time we got back to Khandallah pool so I took her through long wet grass and then had her paddle back and forth through the small creek there which did get some layers off. However when I got back to Bridget’s I washed Brambles sides and tummy with the garden hose – to much protesting – and got most of it off. Karola dried her with a towel and she seemed tired but no worse for wear, Bramble that is.

This shows Bramble at the stile into the paddock at the top of Mount KauKau.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—25℃ no rain [?]

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First Whole Day In Wellington

Stormy night and rainy day. Up late and in for lunch with Mary taking Bramble with me. Bramble? The little critter gazing out of the window below.

Karola spent the time with Bridget, mainly shopping.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—21℃ 11.3mm rain [?]

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Final Inspection Due Next Week

We packed for Wellington and took off around 12:30pm, arriving after a trip of incessant rain and mostly gale force winds around 6:00pm.

I went to Pirana, the fast food shop in Eastbourne and the Korean lady made us three teraki fillets battered in rice batter – I provided the rice flour. A treat.

We stopped in Dannevirke for petrol, coffee and an icecream. We stopped again a couple of times for Bramble’s “bio breaks” but the first time it was close to a swollen river on the A50 – which Bramble could sense but we only saw as we crossed the bridge – another meter and the area we were in would be flooded. The second time it was in a woolshed driveway along a fence line lined with old pine trees. Bramble and I scuttled for the car when small branches came falling down onto the verge and across the road due to sudden huge gusts of wind. Neither were conducive to bio-breaking.  We did finally find somewhere suitable in Masterton’s public park where we frequently stopped with Bicka.

As you can see, we’re beginning to move in.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—18℃ 27.3mm rain [?]

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Puppy School Episode Three of Four

SwimGym, a little later than usual.

Later Karola continued with her mowing and weeding around the big oak, getting in before the promised couple of days of rain. Later she went shopping for more top quality mince for Bramble and a few other groceries.

John Burnard came and completed the electrical connection of the HWC and radiator heating in the cottage. As dusk fell builder Paul and his son Matthew came and fixed the door handles on the cottage garage door.

We took Bramble to “puppy school” for her third session out of four, in Havelock North comprising Bramble, two much bigger puppies Brindle and Benson, and one small Chihuahua. Puppy socialising – learning how to get on with other dogs – and owner training – how to look after your dog, best practices when training, etc.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—16℃ 47.5mm rain [82.7]

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Ram Dead Plus A Wether Lamb Dead

Sunny with cool breeze – another gorgeous day.

I “wasted” most of the day trying fruitlessly to find a way to display web pages on our new TVs in the cottage. The AppleTV software is too new to be “jailbroken” and a web browser added. However the best solution by far is to use the iPad as the web browser and just mirror the iPad screen onto the TV. But you need an iPad 2 or later for that. And the hack to change an iPad 1 (which is what I have) to be able to mirror won’t yet work with the iPad’s most recent software upgrade, which is what I have.

The ram died today. Gary & Frances came round with a cousin child and Gary opened up the ram and Karola took pictures. The ram was very ill indeed. Huge bruising down one side as if he’d been hit or had run into something very solid some time ago. Ram’s liver was in very bad shape as were his lungs. Nothing special that we could see that triggered his impending death. Darn, we’ll have to get a new ram for the ewes next month. Wether #117, one of the two given a pick-me-up yesterday, died this afternoon. So much for the pick-me-up. No obvious cause of death but suspected neurological problem. Mark Hendery, whom we’d asked to come and help at same time as we asked Gary, came and helped bury the dead sheep and dug a large hole nearby for the next fatalities. Mark got to take home some choice cuts of #117 for his dog.

I did some more mowing in the goose paddock; about 2/3 mown now.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ no rain [81.5]

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Ennui Despite The Good Weather

Slow start and despite being a beautiful day we just didn’t seem to get anything done.

Karola and I gave a couple of her less thriving wether lambs some pick-me-up. I did a few minutes chainsawing of the smaller branches off a branch that fell from the Wellingtonian by the homestead garage a week ago. Karola has spent days clearing and mowing and weeding around under the big oak, trying to make the cottage surroundings less messy. I mowed about a third of the Goose paddock in an attempt to let the grass grow and keep the iris down.

I also spent several hours trying to mend the cottage garage door handles – they proved to be quite tricky to disassemble – several YouTube videos were viewed to find out where to push and what to pull. It began with me wanting to stop a slight tendency to jamb and has ended up with the door not closing at all, so builder Paul will hopefully come to the rescue.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—20℃ no rain [80.9]

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Thistles and Lunch

SwimGym then lunch at Taste in Hastings. In between I spent an hour with Bramble chopping thistles in the Front paddock and we cut back some branches behind the homestead garage that were hanging low over the tracks into the oaks. Rain in the middle of the day put paid to more outside activity.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—19℃ 2.9mm rain [81.4]

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Both TVs Up And Working In The Cottage

Cool cloudy day that by mid afternoon was very warm and muggy. Sleepy day.

Karola went shopping in the morning. I stayed with Bramble and we mucked about some more with the TVs. John Burnard and Grayson Allen came and discussed the electrical installation for the HWC and radiators. Grayson promised a “PS” form that’ll be needed by the inspectors.

John brought round another electrician, Peter, who’d been at school with Russell Harris and had been to Karamu in those days. Peter had experience of installing the control panel for the heating system and was teaching John.

John expects to come next week and finish the installation and: replace the current TV power sockets with recessed power sockets so the TV’s can lie flat against the wall. Karola also wants the single plug behind the fridge to be converted to a double one so that the microwave can plug in there too.

Someone has “borrowed” one of the pair of gates between Karola’s orchard and Craig’s orchard, now Brian & Louise Cope’s orchard. As it was “locked” with a hefty piece of wire through the bottom gudgeon pin I’m guessing it’s Adam or Alan who needed a gate in a hurry. Be nice if they told us.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—26℃ no rain [81.1]

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Stressless reclining chair

SwimGym

Bought a rather expensive Stressless chair for the cottage. Karola says she’ll see how we like it for a while before she splashes out on one for herself. Several friends and colleagues have one and say that they’re very very comfortable.

Also we received, signed, and returned our 2010/2011 tax returns to the accountant in Hastings.

Karola made an extra-larger tree guard for a Swamp Cyprus which is bursting its standard sized guard seams.

It took me a couple of hours to get the first wall-hung TV working in the cottage living room. When this was all up and running we took it down and installed it where the second TV is to go, in the dining room, rather than open the second TV box prematurely, giving us a chance to take it back unopened if it wasn’t suitable for the dining room.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ no rain [82.1]

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TV Installers We Do Not Make

Quiet day, cloudy with occasional rain. Tony Page came with Shane and talked to Karola about the balustrades – to be made of eucalypt saligna. I went into town and looked at recliner (Stressless) chairs, in case any were on sale – fat chance. I also bought a piece of plastic and tin to recess the electricity plug for one of the new TVs in the cottage – at a scandalous price of $70. Picked up the two chainsaw chains, sharpened for $13 each, and a couple of TV coax connectors. A fairly unexciting morning.

In the afternoon Karola and I set about a fresh go at putting up the first of the 40″ TVs in the cottage. It at least works when connected directly to the FreeView set top box and will look better once the electric plug socket has been recessed into the wall (see above). We’ll ask John to do that when he comes on Thursday to do the HWC and radiator pump connections.

Meticulous Maids came to clean today. Three of them instead of the usual two.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—19℃ 0.2mm rain [81.5]

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Rain Squalls And Cloudy But Warm

SwimGym

Builder Paul dropped by to see how the radiator installation was going. We said that all we needed was John Burnard to connect the 2nd element and the pump for the rads and we were done. I planned to call John soon and then to make a booking for the code compliance inspection, preferably next Monday morning.

Ricky McGhie came and fixed the problem with the vent for the laundry loo.

I have been having huge misgivings about the two 40″ flat panel TVs I bought for the cottage. To my surprise Karola seemed less troubled by them than I am and so we decided to put one up and see how it looked. Part way through installing the first one I found I needed some strips of wood to bring the TV further away from the wall. We have deliberately placed the power socket and HDMI cable behind the TV, out of sight, but the mounting bracket doesn’t allow enough room for them, expecting only to need room for the cable out to a socket elsewhere. To make the strips of wood, at Karola’s suggestion, I cut up a piece of surplus skirting. This meant using the table saw I bought a few weeks ago and so I had some fun getting it to work; it cuts beautifully.

Puppy class at 5:30pm for an hour. After that Karola helped me try to set up the TV on the cottage living room wall but after several futile attempts to get it straight and positioned where Karola wanted we postponed further work on it until tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—20℃ 1.0mm rain [82.0]

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Back To Karamu and Bramble

Slept in. Went round to Mary’s for another picnic lunch, ingredients courtesy of New World. Afternoon kip before an early supper and then Bridget ferried me out to the airport and I caught the 7:00pm back to Napier.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—22℃ 9.2mm rain [?]

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More Sorting Out The IBM Ide

Up Mt KauKau after breakfast. Saw Mary for lunch, taking my own picnic ingredients. Mary’s flowers on the balcony and by the back door are very cheerful.

Dropped in on Tony Fletcher and had a glass of cranberry juice. Tony is selling up and going to live in an apartment in Thorndon, not far from his youngest daughter Helen’s apartment.

From Tony in Friend Street, Karori, out to Petone and the IBM building again where Trish Jackson (04-576-5909, 021-056-1125) helped me get an ide to log in temporarily, until I can get my IBM Raleigh, North Carolina colleagues to issue me with a new one.Trish has two large white Pyrenees Mountain dogs which accompany her most everywhere and I was introduced.

Then back to Bridget’s for a nap and out to Roger and Anne in our Days Bay flat for a nice dinner and chat.

That’s a lot for me for one day.

Kaukau Morning Panoramic

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—20℃ no rain [?]

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To Wellington To See Mary

SwimGym then got a late morning flight down to Wellington. Bridget very kindly picked me up from the airport – looking very well turned out and modern.

Saw Mary for a late lunch – takeaway soup for Mary and an omelette for me.

Bridget got the family pizzas; I asked for grilled Terakhi and chips from the shop next door. When I got back to Bridget’s I found that they’d given me crumbed fish instead of grilled, obviously not gluten-free. Bridget, above and beyond the call of duty, took them back to the shop and insisted they give me grilled fish instead, which, reluctantly, they did.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 1.3mm rain [?]

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Hydronic Radiators Hung, Only Needs Pump

Karola’s lime arrived at breakfast time and John Pollack carefully spread about an inch (25mm) of it over the gravelled area in front of the Homestead garage. Karola is pleased.

To Hastings to order another FreeView set top box to leave in the Homestead when the Sky box has moved to the cottage. Only $99 in the Hastings Noel Leeming shop; must be a special as the online price comparisons gave it costing between $130 and $190 dollars. Also picked up my two TVs for the cottage that arrived a week early.

Got some Karaka paint and a special primer for hard-surfaced plastic surfaces so we can paint the flashing and the pipe of the cottage loo vent once it’s been put on correctly.

Peak Plumbing’s Sven and mate put up the radiators very neatly. I was able to get builder Paul to come over briefly from another job nearby just to be sure the radiators were going onto the right places and weren’t accidentally drilling into a pocket (sliding) door or impeding the stairs. They expect to finish the installation tomorrow.

I got a little puffer from the pharmacy in Stortford Lodge; I’m going to try this as a way of reinforcing “no” when Bramble needs to be dissuaded from some bad activity – like nibbling my toes. I saw it in a farming magazine way back; dogs dislike a little puff of air in the face.

With much more luck than good judgement I managed to join two wires to the telephone wiring in the Homestead garage and thereby plug together the Cottage phone wires and the existing, working Homestead phone system. I took a phone up to the Cottage, plugged it in, and to my surprise I got dial tone.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—15℃ 1.0mm rain [?]

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Karola Mulching – It Must Be Autumn

SwimGym

Quiet morning doing e-mails etc while Karola prepared for an afternoon of mulching branches.

In the afternoon I set up the mulcher and Karola, unaided, mulched up a large pile – well in fact several piles – of branches she’d gathered because they’d fallen down or were being pruned. It included the smaller branches of the elm limb that fell in the recent storm. Later I chainsawed the larger pieces into Karola-sized chunks. I also cut down some large Rhododendron branches, all but one being dead as expected, and a large dead Camelia branch that has been annoying Karola for many months. These were all in the rainwater tanks triangle.

Peak Plumbing team came briefly to unload the radiators for the cottage; they said they’d be back in the morning to do the installation.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—22℃ 1.5mm rain [81.5]

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Alarms, Alarms, All Is Alarms

Late start but forced to get going by the arrival of Daryl of Arrow Alarms (027-275-1660) to put up the smoke detectors and motion sensors in the cottage.

Karola swept up acorns from the gravel apron in front of the homestead garage – every year this gets a thick sprinkling of acorns from the three nearby majestic oaks. Karola also moved the sheep so that the male sheep were in the Orchard paddock and the ewes and ewe lambs in the One Acre.

I tackled a thicket of tall, dry thistles just waiting to send their thistle down all over the place. Again the rubbish bin is half full of flowering Scotch thistles.

By late afternoon the alarms were all set up, including the connection to the monitoring company, ArmourGuard. Just as Daryl was about to leave I asked him where the remote buttons werte – the fobs that set and unset the alarms remotely – such as from inside the car. Oh, bother. Somewhere along the line we’d mis-communicated and he’d installed a cheaper system without remotes. He had to go back to his office and get the remote-supporting system – he’d actually brought it with him in the morning but gone back mid morning to swap it for the cheaper system he thought I’d requested. It took more than two hours to swap to the right system but it was all done by 6:00pm.

The mis-communication arose when Daryl asked if I wanted a remote system that could be tied in with the garage remote to unset the alarms and open the garage door at the same time. I said no, we already had remotes for the garage. Anyway, no real harm done, just the need to be ever vigilant that what is said is what is heard and what is heard is what is meant.

I called John Pollack (Elms and Sons) and ordered a few cubic metres of lime to be spread thinly over the homestead garage driveway, an experiment by Karola to see if it makes a more compact surface traipsing less material into the house on one’s shoes. The area is about ten metres by eight metres. John thought a thickness of at least an inch of lime would be necessary. He’ll contact us with details later this week.

Late afternoon I did the GST – over a week overdue, tsk, tsk.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—21℃ no rain [80.7]

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Bramble’s First Puppy School Lesson

SwimGym

I finished spreading the metal on the pads adjoining the cottage verandah steps and trimmed the Silky Oak growing near the cottage windows up to a height of about 3 metres.

Karola went off to get a prescription mid morning; Les Clapcott the architect arrived around noon for a planned review of the cottage. Les thought the final result very pleasing.

Karola did various farm chores in the afternoon, accompanied by Bramble, tidying up electric fence, moving sheep, and cleaning water troughs.

We took Bramble to her first Puppy School which began at 5:30 pm in Havelock North – useful and no surprises. There are only four dogs in the class, two larger, very lively ones and one smaller, quieter one, so Bramble is in the middle.

I called Ricky McGhie (Copas Plumbing) and said that from the north upstairs window of the cottage you could see that the air vent he’d put up for the laundry loo was buckled and possibly not quite straight. I asked him to replace it and also, if we got a small pot of paint and brush, to paint the flashing and pipe Karaka Green like the roof, to avoid it standing out quite so much. He said he’ll look into it. (Karola first spotted it; architect Les said it should be fixed and painted to match the roof colour).

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—21℃ no rain [81.2]

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Happiness Is A Warm Puppy

I went out early and cut thistles for an hour putting the flowering heads in the bin; still plenty to do.

Karola continued her cleaning off spots of paint and plaster from the stairs and waxing them. She finished and the effect is even better than when we first got them, magnificent.

I changed the catches on the three gates between the Front paddock, One Acre, and Totara paddock. They have a habit of being mysteriously opened and maybe it’s that the simple chain-in-slot catches are too easy to mis-set or are easily rubbed off by the sheep. Anyway, a longstanding minor adjustment is now done and they all have the same sort of gooseneck catches on the rest of the farm gates.

Ewes and ewe lambs are on the lawn for the day. Thye broke through the shade netting and got into the Taupata hedge along the edge of the lawn so I quickly put up a short electric fence to keep them off. It turns out that the twine used to bind the shade netting to top and bottom wires has rotted away, either from sun or maybe from rain.

Karola sanded a few spots near the floor on door frames in the cottage where The English Craftsman had splashed his paint removing concoction and I painted them over; Karola says it makes big difference. We still have wall splashes to do, but this needs the water-based matt half pearl lustre not the semi-gloss iol-based paint used on the frames and facings. I also took off the sun porch door catch and painted the cavity chiselled out by builder Paul to try and disguise its rather rough execution.

After lunch Karola and I discussed and pegged out where the concrete aprons should go so that we have good dry paths from car to cottage. Later I spread most of the 4 cubic metres of “top course” metal (ie gravel) over these areas – between the kitchen verandah steps and the garage side door, under the walkway, and between the front verandah steps and the steps down from the kitchen french windows.

Karola made a quick dinner and we went out to Havelock North’s Cinema Gold and saw “Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy” – very atmospheric and well cast and enjoyable – though what anyone unfamiliar with the book and the TV series would make of it, heaven knows.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—18℃ no rain [81.8]

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Watching For Foul Weather

Weather bomb didn’t arrive overnight as forecast but we did get some spectacular wind gusts and rain later in the day.

Apart from buying a vacuum cleaner for the garage/workshop today it seemed the time went I know not where, just odd jobs I think. I did talk to Roger down in Days Bay. He has some computing network problems and we tried unsuccessfully to fix them for an hour or so.

Karola began cleaning up our new cottage stairs where our workers had spilt plaster and paint. Once Karola has sanded off the unnecessary spillages and waxed the surface each step looks quite grand again. Karola completed the top four stairs today.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ 7.2mm rain [81.7]

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Good News From The Hospital

SwimGym

The very very good news is that Mary’s chest infection, while serious, is not cancer. Tests continue into what exactly it is.

Bridget has set up Mary’s new cell phone and bought Mary a new power strip, one with wider gaps between the plugs so that plugging in multiple little power warts (as they are affectionately known) isn’t the usual hassle. Mary rang me on the new cell phone so it is working as hoped.

John Pollack (Elm & Sons) arrived with 4 cu metres of top course gravel as requested and piled it up in the cottage walkway. W’ll spread it a bit to ensure the verandah steps and the side entrance to the garage don’t have too big a step down. I mowed the cottage lawn area and continued my quest to fence the area with Bramble-proof netting.

We went to Hastings for lunch and I also bought a multimeter for Harrys Arduino project.

I took Bramble on a walk to the top of the orchard today, collecting a couple of apples from each of the Pacific Queen, Pacific Rose, and Granny Smith varieties – the Granny Smith is an unintended remnant of an incomplete grafting from Granny Smith to Pacific Queen found on only two trees.

Karola continues what she prefers to call landscaping and has made a big difference near the rainwater tanks, uncovering plants she’d planted years ago that are still thriving despite a veritable jungle of weeds.

Karola extended her electric fence on the lawn and let her ewes and ewe lambs in for another feast.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—19℃ 4.5mm rain [82.0]

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Cold Morning, Hot Afternoon, Sad Day

Sad day today because Gill’s long time feline companion, Poppy, had to be put to sleep.

Paul and Matthew did the bird-proofing of the verandahs and walkway today so only very small birds will be able to nest up under the roof now. John Burnard came and made the change to the homestead mains supply, removing the old junction box.

I’ve ordered some metal from John Pollack of Elms Ltd in Hastings to raise the level of the walkway. Otherwise the inspectors may think the bottom step is too far off the ground for safety. Paul is going to put a silicon seal along the back of the twin basins; another potential obstacle to “code compliance”. John Burnard gave us the self-certified compliance note today and I’ve put a copy with the “red folder” that is the council inspectors checklist and copy of plans.

I continued assembling and testing out the computer network and audio-visual stuff for the cottage. Not only is the wireless network going in the cottage but the new FreeView set top box and the 4×4 matrix switch are working too. I have one TV borrowed from Homestead running via the matrix switch and I have tested and succeeded in getting a picture from the FreeView satellite, our Oppo DVD player, and AppleTV. AppleTV streams stuff from the Internet or my computer in the homestead.

Bramble and I are booked on a Puppy School for an hour at 5:30pm each Monday for four weeks at Havelock North “Animal Care” vet clinic; $85 for the course; coach is Alistair Needes (06-876-5655)

We’re getting Mary a replacement cell phone as hers has developed annoying intermittent faults. The new phone arrived today at Bridget’s place. Bridget is going to put in the quick dialing numbers and swap over the SIM cards. Bridget detected that the phone might have been a reconditioned one so we called the retailer and Bridget very kindly went out to their Lower Hutt
store and swapped it for a new one.

Daryl rang from Actrix Alarms (027-275-1660) to set up a time to come and complete the monitor installation.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—22℃ no rain [?]

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