Monthly Archives: May 2012

Blinds Up

Cold night. Cold day too but our heating and fire keep us warm. Bit of a slow day after the hectic activities yesterday. We did put up the blinds in the cottage livingroom and, while Karola went into Hastings to find Alex a birthday gift or two, I spent two hours trying to get the lambs out of the orchard and into the temporary yards so that I could take a look at the limping lamb’s leg. It was dark by the time I finally got a small number of the lambs including the limper into the yards. Karola was back from her shopping but was most unsympathetic that I was faced with trying to diagnose and treat the leg of a lamb in pitch dark. A torch helped the diagnosis but left no spare hands for treatment so it was lucky that I could find no sign of footrot – foot wasn’t hot and the hoof looked clean. Maybe it’s arthritus, but ewe lamb #144 is definitely limping on her back left leg.

Just before the lambs led me a dance I, at long last, pruned some large branches off 13 apple trees along the back fence of the orchard. This row was planted too close to the fence and is always most hazardous for car or Landrover so I today cut large branches off the bottom tier of each tree and we shall not be threatened by savage boughs gouging the paintwork and smashing a wing mirror.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—14℃ no rain [79.3]

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Taupata Hedge Fence Aligned with Cottage

SwimGym then I had haircut in Hastings and, as I was on my way out of the drive, Henere drove up willing to continue on moving the fence between the Totara paddock and Karola’s Taupata hedge on the edge of the homestead lawn.

Henere, with occasional help from me, completed the move today. I cleared away the old bits of fence superseded by the moved fence and adjoining railings that go across to the middle of the north-east wall of the cottage garage.

A photo of Henere working on the fence follows. You can see that the old line of the fence was a couple of feet (600mm) closer to the homestead at the cottage end, getting back in line by the time you get to the strainer and little wooden gate at the far end next to the Liriodendron.

Also a photo of some of Karola’s prize ewes. We hope they’re all now “mothers-to-be”; they are certainly well fed and sleek.

Bramble was bouncing around today; a joy to see.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—13℃ no rain [79.2]

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Rails All Up And Nailed

Bramble had a sleepless night, thankfully still pretty drowsy from the sedatives adminsitered by the vet. In the morning Bramble had a small breakfast and began perking up. By lunchtime she was a little subdued but behaving normally and not in any apparent pain or discomfort. She gets her stitches out next week and her tummy will get its fur back eventually.

Henere arrived shortly before 9:00am with Scott who was waiting to be taken somewhere at 11:00am and spent the time inside talking to Karola and looking up badminton things on the Internet.

Henere began moving the totara batten fence along the edge of the lawn to align with the cottage and join the new cottage railings jutting north-east from the cottage garage. I unstapled the posts and Henere dug them all out and then made new holes for them along the altered line.

Meanwhile I was nailing up railings that were ready running north-east from the cottage garage. After that Henere and I cut the remaining railings for that segment of the fence to size and put them up – they included a 45 degree corner and were a snug fit. We followed that by completing the nailing up of that fence segment and Henere for the day left just before 3:00pm. Earlier, ariund 11:00am, he’d taken Scott to his destination and also gone home to Denise and a hearty breakfast, he said. He came back half an hour later with the wire strainers he’d borrowed.

Karola went shopping in the morning, leaving Bramble with us to sleep in the back of the Landrover. After Henere had left Karola and I put up a panel of railings near the cottage bathroom, plugging the remaining gap in the cottage boundary. Now, apart from escapes via tunnelling or squeezing under the bottom rail, the cottage garden will keep Bramble in. I rang builder Paul and let him know I’d finished with his nail gun at last.

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [79.6]

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Buy A Bay (Tree) For Christmas

SwimGym and then we took poor little Bramble for major surgery at the Vets. She’ll have a much less stressful life once she’s spayed, as will we, but it isn’t very nice for her being spayed.

After dropping Bramble off we went to Greenleaf Nurseries and bought a few trees. Their price for smallish two-year-old bay trees was $8 each compared with $4 each from The Garden Depot, the nursery in Pakowhai Road. Karola splashed out on three expensive MetaSequoia and four Eucryphia and as a bonus Greenleaf sold us five bay trees for $5 instead of $8. Later Karola went to The Garden Depot and bought 30 bay trees for $4 each, as we’d negotiated last week. They’re to go round the inside of the cottage railings.

Henere came today around 11:00 am and helped with more of the cottage railings – dug up a couple of big strainer posts no longer needed and put them in at the end of the railing wings out into the paddock at each end of the cottage – north-east and south-east ends. He also dug post holes and put in more railing posts and we sawed up railings to their final sizes. The light finally faded and we stopped around 5:30pm.

Today the loop latch for the gates into the walkway arrived. Today we bought 35 bay trees for the cottage hedge. Today we put up another 12 metres of railings. Today the plumber returned to fix the gushing taps in the bathroom and the revolving faucet in the kitchen sink. Today poor Bramble was speyed. Not a dull moment.

Karola picked up Bramble, fairly heavily sedated, at 4:00pm and she’s been looking at us accusingly ever since she got home.

Builders And The Gates They Built

The gates into the cottage walkway have been built, installed, and undercoat applied. Here builder Paul Libby and his son Matthew, also a master builder, contemplate their work.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—21℃ no rain [80.3]

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Kirsty and Bruce For Lunch

We fixed the water trough for the lambs in the orchard and also located the long netting gate for the third bay of the big shed and put it back on its hinges in case orchardist Alan doesn’t want manure over the floor of his bay and on his machinery – the lambs love to clamber over mowers and the like and play on them.

I went back to nailing railings until Kirsty and Bruce arrived, as planned, for lunch. Pleasant lunch and afternoon with them and then a bit more nailing until it was too dark. We had the fire going most of the afternoon and into the evening.

Looking back from the cottage to the homestead garage

The concrete apron and gates into the walkway

The approach from the south along the side of the cottage

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—20℃ 0.6mm rain [79.6]

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Putting Up Electric Fence In The Orchard

Got up intending to quickly put up the electric fence needed to keep Karola’s lambs in the two blocks of apples between the blocks of peaches. That’s about 500 metres of fence and I find myself walking it at least six times to put in the posts and string the wires. Karola helped by clearing prunings from between the row of peaches and the adjoining row of apples, so that our fence isn’t impeding the mulching of prunings. The apple trees in the area to be grazed have been pruned but they haven’t been mulched yet. Alan Ladbrooke and Adam intend to start pruning the peaches next week. We finished around 3:30 pm with breaks for morning tea and lunch.

While we were doing this Alan Ladbrooke drove through on one of his tractors a couple of times and chatted to Karola.

Afterwards I went into Hastings, shopping. Mitre-10 for a couple of brass hooks to latch back the new gates into the cottage walkway. The Warehouse to see their price for a tilt/swivel TV wall mounting ($199). Noel Leaming to buy the wall mounting. They initially showed me their only model costing $450. I mentioned the Warehouse price and magically they found one that will probably do the trick for $200.

On the way home I dropped in at Hawkes Bay Fish Supplies, grilled tarakihi fillets and chips. Karola had lit the fire and it was very cosy.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—15℃ no rain [80.1]

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Bramble’s First Kennels Visit

SwimGym

2 degrees outside on the way to SwimGym at 7:15am; 20 degrees outside when we went to pick up Bramble from her first experience at a kennels this afternoon. Sunny all day.

Neville and gang continued on the earth works. Driveway is complete. Topsoil to raise ground an inch or two outside the bathroom window complete. Clay mound all along the electric mains cable trench from the cottage to the homestead garage removed to Karola’s “bund” alongside the road fence under the oaks, the area was rolled and layer of topsoil applied. Depression between the old plum tree and homestead drive filled in with topsoil. Surplus from the large pile of topsoil that used to be between the cottage and the big oak was put on the space once occupied by the old green shed. A branch of oak leaning against the tall Sequoia behind homestead garage – a branch that was too big, too long, and too precarious for me to shift, was deftly plucked off the tree and laid to ground. Nasty bits of old pipe on perimeter of the location of the old green shed were dug up and the ground levelled. Some water is leaking and remains for me to trace and plug.

Neville’s business is: NJ’s Contracting, (Neville and Jeanette Tasovac), 172 C Guppy Road, Taradale. (06-845-1177 or 027-449-1782).

I ordered a loop latch in black for the new gates into the walkway; L475B, $50.94 including postage and GST from Heritage Gates & Fences, 370 Heads Road, Gonville, Wanganui,  4501 NZ. (0800-428-379).

After breakfast Karola took Bramble to Pets2Us in Meanee – a kennels and cattery owned by English people and seemingly well run and as hospitable as one can expect when up to 200 dogs are housed together. Dogs are separated into big and small which is great for feisty Bramble. They’re put into compatible play groups and exercised several times a day. We retrieved Bramble at 5:00pm and she seems quite cheerful so omens are good that we could leave her there for longer in the future when we just can’t take her with us. Bramble is almost six months old so she’s booked in to be speyed next Monday – unpleasant for a few days but much to be relieved about over her lifetime.

Looked at a Bay tree hedge in Havelock North and I too think it’ll be fine as a hedge within the railings for the cottage. Went to the nursery in Pakowai road and found quite large Bay trees for $20, slightly smaller ones for $15 and tiny rooted twigs for $3.50. Karola spoke to the man who runs the nursery; she knows him from earlier plant buying expeditions, and he said there were 30 PB3-sized ones we could have for $4 each. Sounds like the best option and 30 is probably just enough.

Saw Doctors are sharpening a couple of panel saws and one chainsaw chain for us.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ no rain [79.9]

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Lambs Begin Their Time In The Orchard

Much activity at the cottage today.

The drive-makers continued, bringing in a “steam roller”, well a vibrating roller machine that is supposed to compact the ground very firmly – to NZ road-building standards. They completed the semi-circle Karola wanted next to the cottage garage, they applied some topsoil and rolled out many of the deep ruts caused when moving the cottage last June, they cleared away various heaps made when installing the septic tank or made subsequently by me. Tomorrow should see their final activity leaving the land between cottage and big oak free of mounds and depressions. To help with the drive making I knocked out the pegs holding the boxing for the concrete.

Painter Brett Newton was summonsed and came himself and put undercoat on the new wooden gates – important to stop them absorbing water and warping. He has also been asked to paint the hot water cylinder cupboard and surrounds, and the “drinks cabinet” door (“drinks cabinet” is a borrow from the dining room side into the kitchen peninsula)

A man came and cut expansion joints in the new concrete to reduce the chance of cracking.

I put up electric fence on the edge of the peach block nearest us. The verge there is quite wide and has lots of grass and mallow and other sheepish weeds. Karola and I then drenched all 49 lambs (Cydectin, meat withholding ten days) and I put them in this verge strip where they’ll stay over the weekend.  I noted that some of the lambs are quite enormous now – they’ve had abundant food for months – and so maybe Karola’s idea of selling some before she goes to England is a good one.

Karola gardened under the oaks, preparing for where the drive-makers (NJ Contracting)are putting some surplus soil on her “bunds” (long narrow compost heaps). Karola’s friend Rowena dropped in briefly in the afternoon.

Photos Of The Refurbished Orchard Back Fence

  • The gate onto McNab road with extra padlock mending the chain.
  • Distinctive railings put in some time back to allow easy climbing of fence when gates are locked.
  • Extra (fifth) batten added between each pair of posts and broken battens replaced.
  • Railings replaced at southern (Scott’s boundary) end.
  • Gate went up-hill; hinge side strainer straightened so gate now parallel with ground.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [80.3]

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New Gates, New Driveway For The Cottage

SwimGym. We took both vehicles and after SwimGym we dropped off Karola’s Subaru for a WOF and then returned home to find Paul and Matt working on Karola’s gates for the walkway entrance and Henere ready for more battening work.

Matthew did most of the work finishing the gates; Paul dropped in occasionally for consultation and to bring the hinges and bolts for the gates. He also arranged for the digger team to come and create a permanent gravel drive along the length of the cottage, joining up with the new concrete. That team arrived soon after lunch and we had the driveway dug and filled with gravel before nightfall. They also moved various heaps of topsoil and clay for Karola; some of this has been used to build up the ground outside the cottage bathroom, a perennial damp low patch. They come back tomorrow to make sure the levels are as specified for them by Paul, leading water away from the cottage and along into the new stormwater sump.

Meanwhile Henere did a splendid job of adding a fifth batten to each set between posts on the back orchard fence as well as replacing all broken battens. Henere is a good fencer.

In the south-west corner of the orchard, bordered at the back by Henere’s battening and a big council stormwater ditch, there’s a gate through into the Scott’s – our southerly neighbour. That gate has, over time, done the opposite of droop. The latch end is now a foot (300mm) or more above the ground while the hinge end is a satisfactory 2 – 3 inches (50mm-75mm). This happens if the strainer post at the hinge end leans away from the gate under pressure from the fence. I pushed that strainer more upright by banging a wooden wedge between the end of the stay post and its wooden foot. Now the gap under the gate is at most about six inches (150mm).

Mid morning we got a call from the garage saying Karola’s car would not pass its WOF until the right rear tyre was replaced. Karola and I set off into town, picked up her car and she then went off to get two new rear tyres while I went to get a couple of keys cut for one of the orchard gate padlocks. The fix for the cut chain on the orchard gate to McNabb road turned out to be very easy. I just moved the padlock, rarely used, from the orchard road entrance to Oak Avenue and reconnected the chain missing one link – luckily it just reached.

By late afternoon the two gates were up.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [80.3]

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“Exposed Aggregate” Concrete

Cold night.

We were slightly dismayed and puzzled to see a cats paw marks and some large Wellington boot prints on the concrete that had been setting overnight. We wondered who the night-time visitor had been and were a little uneasy at prowlers coming so close to the cottage.

Paul and Matt arrived at 8:00am to work on the hot water cupboard doors and the gates for the entrance to the cottage walkway. I took Bramble for a walk round the orchard and noticed that the gates onto McNabb road looked perfectly normal except that the left-hand gate no longer had a twisted wire on the bottom gudgeon intended to stop the gate being taken off its hinges. More on that below.

Soon afterwards the concreting team returned to see how the concrete was curing and possibly to begin washing off the top layer of cement to expose the pebbles and create the “exposed aggregate” finish. The concrete was deemed not yet cured enough and the concrete team leader let drop that he’d actually been to check very early in the morning and they were his boot marks in the concrete. He assuerd us that neither his footprints nor tha cats would remain after the pebbles had been exposed.

The concreters came back a couple of hours later and spent three or four hours hosing off the cement and exposing the pebbles. The finished effect is much more sympathetic to the cottage demeanour than smooth concrete slab.

Henere and son Scott arrived around 9:00 am; Henere went off to mend the battens on the back orchard fence; Karola took Scott into town to the library on her way to take Bramble to the vets for a “Kennel Cough” vaccine at 10:00am. Once Bramble has had this vaccine she’ll be able to visit the kennels Karola wants to try out. Karola and Bramble plan to go to the kennels for a few hours on Friday.

Henere reported that the padlocked chain on the orchard gates onto McNabb road had been broken deliberately with welding gear. Henere wired up the gates so it would take some effort to force entry but to people keen enough to use welding gear to break in there’s no stopping them. I rang our orchardist, Alan Ladbrook, just to let him know and give him the opportunity to take extra precautions with his vehicles in the big shed. He didn’t think there was anything particularly valuable or desirable there and nothing had keys left in. Very odd.

Meanwhile I went on with my nailing of the cottage rails; I’ve done about half the rails that we’ve assembled in the last week using builder Paul’s nail gun.

Ewe lamb and ram lamb flocks were combined today and I hope to get them all into the orchard within a few days. The breeding ewes and ram were let back into the Middle/Totara paddocks after their short stay in the goose enclosure while we had the concrete truck coming into the Totara paddock.

Ephemeral (Thankfully) Footprints

McNabb Road Chain Cut

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—15℃ no rain [79.8]

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Concrete Not So Abstract

SwimGym for me but not Karola – she has a cold and there’s just too much going on this morning.

Concrete final preparation began this morning at 8:00am; truck arrived at 1:00pm; last man left around 5:30pm with the concrete all laid and the retardant spray applied, needed so that the top layer of cement can be washed off tomorrow giving us the “exposed aggregate” finish we want.

No humans, dogs, sheep etc allowed on the concrete for 12 hours – I thought briefly of just upping sticks and going to Wellington for a couple of days but Karola prefers to stay in the cottage and will somehow manage Bramble.

Karola went to Napier in the afternoon, as soon as the concreting began in ernest. just before the concrete truck got stuck. She visited Jenny Hendery and also went to a recommended dog kennels and chatted with the owner – it might be a possible place for Bramble to stay when we’re unable to take her with us for a few days.

Before Karola went to Napier she helped saw up a few more planks for the cottage railings; I was trying to get enough rails put up that it would be animal proof if we did take of for Wellington. I borrowed builder Paul’s nailer and started nailing up the rails we had prepared over the last couple of days and then Henere and his son Scott arrived. Henere has a break from his orchard work and wondered if he could help so I asked him to dig up a big strainer post in the Island paddock that is no longer in the right place for a proposed new fence.

The concrete truck tried to go round the cottage on the North side to feed the concrete directly onto the pad between the front and kitchen verandahs but the grass is so slippery and soft that it got stuck. We tried pulling it out with the Fergie but just made more mess. The concrete was barrowed into place and once the heavy weight of concrete had been unloaded the truck got free under its own steam.

I did manage to nail up one panel of rails but then again was diverted because we needed a second delivery of concrete and the minimum order meant there’d be some left over. So, Paul and Matt and I quickly finished off the hole started by Mark for the strainer at the end of the railings going diagonally across the bend in the cottage drive – a strainer post that will be the end of the goose paddock fence going east-west. We then used the surplus concrete to anchor the strainer and finished it all up. This strainer post will not move easily, that’s for sure.

Somewhere in the afternoon Tony Page (Cedarville Joinery) called in; he was expected in the morning to complete his joinery for the cottage balustrades. He finished them and took away the 8 paving slabs he’d been using to hold down the wooden tops of the balustrades while the glue dried. He’s expecting to come back tomorrow to finish off the bit of boxing-in Karola commissioned for under the stairs in the dining room.

Concrete Pads For The Cottage Now In Place

Photo gallery shows:

  • Concrete truck stuck on the grass
  • Starting to barrow in the concrete for the pad between the front and kitchen verandahs
  • This pad completed
  • Walkway and across drive completed
  • Ramp to garage completed and in fact all concreting completed

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—13℃ no rain [79.8]

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Ploughing On With The Cottage Railings

Cold night and sunny day, warm in sheltered accommodation. Mark arrived again today at 10:00am and all three of us spent most of the day on the cottage railings fence. Much done and plenty to nail up now. Photos in a few days.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [80.5]

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Great Progress On Cottage Railings

We were supposed to go to Yvonne’s (Kaz’ wife) 60th birthday party today but cried off as we’re just getting back on an even keel from visiting and visitors and the move into the cottage – not to mention cracked teeth, food poisoning, and generous winter colds. And to cap it all poor Bramble ate something that didn’t agree with her and was comprehensively sick over the bedroom floor beginning after midnight and continuing for over an hour. Still she seemed quite recovered this morning.

Be that as it may, today turned out to be a cold but sunny one and we actually got quite a lot done. Karola and I put up about 20 metres of railings – that means measuring, cutting to length, etc. The rails are either about 4.5 metres long or 6 metres long, made from 6×2 inch rough-sawn timber, damp, and very heavy. There’s only another 14 metres to go to enclose the cottage garden and another 20 metres connecting the cottage into the farm fences north and south.

Mark Hendery came and he polished off the remaining 6 or so posts on the back fence of the orchard. The fence was sheep proof even without these posts being replaced or realigned but having this done should mean we don’t need to do more on that particular fence for several years – except for the 32 battens that Mark and Karola plan to repair or add just to strengthen the whole fence.

Later Mark began helping on the cottage railings, completing the ramming in of posts initiated by Henere. He expects to come back tomorrow to continue.

Maggie and Colin Nagel dropped by for afternoon tea with Karola and to admire the cottage. That was about the only break from helping with the cottage railings that Karola had all day. The railing planks are so heavy that it really wouldn’t be possible to cut them to size without her help, and she also stops me making most of my mistakes in measurement and technique.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—13℃ no rain [80.3]

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Tony Page, Cedarville Joinery, Came Today

SwimGym.

I spent the morning creating spacers to go between the rails on the cottage tailings posts. Two 75mm spacers for the bottom and two 100mm spacers for the top rails. Karola spent more time in the homestead, sorting things out.

Tony Page rang and came just as we were expecting to leave for lunch in town. He brought the little elm bench seat commissioned by Karola, some lining boards for under the stairs, and the two tops for the balustrades at the top of the cottage stairs. See photos below. The balustrade pieces are of Eucalypt saligna, a very hard wood. Tony has some more pieces to bring to face the bottom of the posts and he’ll remove the weights on the tops on Monday when the glue should have hardened completely.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ 0.7mm rain [80.3]

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No Garden Groom So Karola Goes To Mow

First frost of the year this morning – snow low on the Kaweka mountains and ice on the homestead back door step.

Karola mowed large part of the main lawn at Karamu in order to get the heavy coating of leaves from the Liriodendron and other trees off the grass. She then continued her organising and sorting of the homestead effects. Garden Groom has been ill recently and the weather has been against him so we didn’t have the heart to call him in.

In the morning I finished the ramming in of five cottage railing posts and spent most of the time levelling the ground near the septic tank – it’s a high spot where otherwise the bottom rail would be buried in the ground.

In the afternoon I went to dentist and had a large chunk of upper back molar repaired – it’d cracked and come off and a large filling repairs the hole. Cost, $250.00. On the way home I called in at Newport Autoelectrical. The electric winding mechanism on the back driver window is broken, that is a tiny nylon piece of it has broken – a common breakage in most makes of car apparently. A second-hand replacement for the mechanism – you don’t get to repair just the little nylon piece – is $200.00. But then with the back sunroof mended and that window mended the Landrover will be water tight again.

I am keen to be able to show what’s on my computer screen on a TV so I can sit in comfort, perhaps by the fire, in my Stressless chair and read documents and e-books at leisure.

I first registered to become an Apple Mac OS developer (I’m already an Apple IOS ie iPad/iPhone developer) then downloaded the pre-release of the next Apple Mac OS system which supports “screen mirroring” via AppleTV. I then spent hours trying to upgrade the software in my AppleTV and have finally done that. Tomorrow I’ll see if that actually all works.

By the way, it’s catching, Mary bought a “Hunter Green” Consul Stressless chair today, had it delivered on the spot and was sitting in it earlier tonight – Consul is the same model as chosen by Karola and by Annemarie More, Bridget’s mother-in-law.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—16℃ no rain [79.7]

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Inclement Afternoon

SwimGym then, after breakfast, we took the Landrover in to have rear sunroof and driver back window fixed. Then off to Bayswater where Karola arranged next week for a WOF and for an extended mechanical warranty for her Subaru.

It was a sunny day until lunchtime then heavy showers fell. Karola spent the day in mowing and leaf raking while the weather held and between showers. AT Karola’s request I moved one of the cottage railing posts to make the small gateway into the Totara paddock a few inches wider. Then, just as the rain started, I used the tractor to scrape down the ground near the septic tank so that the railings at that point will be above ground. There’s a high point near the septic tank and then a bit of a dip by the bathroom window. I just avoided making a huge mud puddle, stopping as it began to rain hard.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—16℃ 2.1mm rain [80.0]

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Scattered Showers

A bit of a nothing day. Matthew continued with the boxing and laying of steel mesh for the concrete. Karola planted a couple more Titokes up in the north-west corner of the homestead block and transplanted lots of Ngaios from where they’re growing under the old Ngaios near the orchard road gate into the triangle at the north west tip of the orchard. She also got the sheep off the lawn and rolled up the electric fence.

I just mucked about installing an IBM Windows 7 system as a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro. My “success” as such was that I now do pass all the security tests required by IBM so I won’t be annoying my IBM manager with constant reminders that I’m “out of compliance”.

I took the Landrover in to Newport Autoelectronics and after quick look they booked it in for replacement of the rear skylight motor tomorrow. Their January invoice said they’d replaced the rear skylight motor but in fact the engineer was sure he’d actually worked on the front one. I also tried to glue back the roof fabric that has begun to peel off the roof, especially above the front windscreen. We’ll see how that works in a few days time.

Mesh For Concrete Laid Today By Matt

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ 0.6mm rain [79.8]

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Mary Sadly Leaves After Very Pleasant Weekend here

SwimGym

After leisurely breakfast Gill, Ben, and Mary leave for Wellington.

Builder Paul and his son and the digger man and his crew of three work all day on the area to be concreted raound the walkway and the stormwater sump the other side of the driveway. Paul made a good job of planing the sides of the two gateposts and putting them in the ground either side of the gap between the cottage garage and the cottage itself, so that we can make and hang a couple of gates from them later.

I visited Vodafone in Hastings and got the micro-SIM card for my new iPhone 4S – and it has now officially replaced my old iPhone 3G which Karola inherits together with a prepay SIM and the unmemorable number 021-0277-5603.

What remained of the day I spent installing software; the usual long and boring process.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—19℃ no rain [79.7]

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Second Full Day Of Mary’s Visit

Up at 6:40am, woken by Bramble who wanted to go outside. Quiet day with rather too much eating and drinking. Took Bramble for a walk round the orchard boundary. Mary came over to the cottage for brunch and mid afternoon we went on a tour round the orchard and homestead grounds in the Landrover. We had dinner in the cottage and then watched a film, “Chocolat” on AppleTV. The cottage wood burner fire was lit for the first time.

Mary Takes A Tour In The Landrover

That Crazy Sister Of Mine – Honestly, Flying Foxes At Her Age

Cottage Life

Huge carrots from Jenny Hendery’s garden in Napier on the bluff.

Grandpop Jack Amsden’s bureau fitting in well in the cottage living room

The first lighting of the cottage wood burner

Tucking In To Breakfast At Karamu

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ no rain [80.0]

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Mary’s Autumn Visit to Karamu

Cool day but sunny afternoon.

Karola prepared a splendid mid-day meal of shepherds pie and another delicious supper of mushroom soup.

Mary came over from the homestead in the afternoon and toured the cottage.

After supper we watched one of the best Lewis programmes off a DVD sent to me by my UK friend Geoff Robinson. Even the UK advertisements were interesting.

My iPhone 4S (white, 32GB) arrived in the post today.

Mother and Daughter On Homestead Verandah In The Sun

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—18℃ no rain [79.2]

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Mary, Gill and Ben Arrive For The Weekend

SwimGym and picked up the hired Paslode framing nail gun for the day.

When we got back Henere was already hard at it digging the last four holes for the cottage railings posts. After breakfast Karola and I finished bevelling the post planks. Next Henere nailed up the small spacers between the rails on the existing cottage railings, there’s only the cosmetic capping filler left to do on these. Henere and I cut one plank suitable for where the railings changed direction; we’d done four of these before. After that Henere and I made up the 17 posts from the individual planks; each post initially gets 8 nails and looks like a tuning fork. Henere did the very heavy lifting of taking each finished “tuning fork” post to its hole. I was very satisfying indeed to get this far towards finishing the railings.

After lunch Henere, aided by me, set up each post at the right height and orientation with just enough rammed earth to ensure it would stay put. I expect to complete the backfilling of the post holes later. We did 9 of these in the afternoon, with an hour’s break in the middle when Henere went to pick up his son Scott from school and I returned the hired nail gun and also bought another ten H4 150×50 4.8 metre long planks from Tumu. Three of these planks were replacing the ones I’d allocated for the gate posts for the gateway into the cottage walkway. The other seven are in anticipation of a major repair job coming up soon on the elm railings forming the 133 entrance.

Just before 5:00pm the Wellington contingent arrived, Mary, Gill, and Ben.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—13℃ 19.3mm rain [79.6]

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Henere Digs Lots Of Holes

Stopped raining and started to dry out. I did some more work on the cottage railings posts before going into Hastings for annual diabetes check – all fine there but took ages.

Karola spent most of the day in the homestead, arranging and rearranging for Mary et al when they come tomorrow.

Henere Ormond came just before I went into Hastings and I showed him the locations of most of the post holes for the cottage railings fence. By late afternoon when he had to leave Henere had finished 13 holes. If the weather is OK he’ll finish the remaining 4 holes tomorrow.

I did more on the railings posts late afternoon and after dinner Karola helped as we sawed the mitres into the tops of each plank. We did about half.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—18℃ 0.4mm rain [79.7]

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Rain Stopped Play

SwimGym.

Rained constantly all night so rather damp this morning, and still raining. Concreting operations, especially the digging, postponed until it stops raining.

Bramble got thoroughly muddy snuffling about where the digger had been as it included at least one place she’d buried a bone.

Bramble and I did a few odd jobs outside in the rain in the morning, getting quite soaked. Rain eased in the afternoon. Karola had a haircut in Hastings at 9:30am and then spent most of the day up at the homestead sorting through things. She also moved sheep about a bit.

Searching for a possible tutor for Karola in the basics of woodworking with hand tools I called Ken Thomas – but he is a wood turner, (think table and chair legs, and bowls). I then called 15 schools in the area asking for adult education evening classes and drew a complete blank. Government withdrew all funding three years ago, no classes since then.

Tony Page called by. At last he is going to get started on the elm bench Karola wants and on the ballustrade tops either side of the stairs, made of E. saligna, like the stairs.

In the evening I was contacted by Vodafone attempting to sell me a cell phone plan closer to my observed usage over the last six months. I my surprise I signed up because it included a new iPhone 4S for only $350; they cost around $1500 if you buy them with no strings attached but as I expect to continue with Vodafone and to slightly increase my cell phone use over the next year or so it’s a win-win for me and Vodafone. My iPhone 3G is so “old” that Apple no longer supports it with their latest IOS software.

Bramble Looks For That Lost Bone

After the digger had levelled the area outside the cottage garage and under the walkway it began to rain. Later Bramble remembered she’d buried a bone somewhere in the vicinity.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—16℃ 9.8mm rain [79.8]

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Concreting Around Walkway and Garage

Very misty start to the day; leaving puddles across the full width of the cottage kitchen verandah. We’ll have to have a boot/shoe box to keep them dry.

Builder Paul and son builder Matthew arrived soon after 8:00am and we discussed the next few jobs to be done: the concreting and creation of a driveway rainwater sump; reuse of some old cupboard doors as doors for the hot water cylinder alcove in the cottage, a weatherproof glass outer door for the front door of the cottage, and some minor weatherproofing repairs to the back door area of the homestead.

Mid morning I went into Hastings in the morning to hire a nail gun, pick up a hearth dustpan and brush for Karola, some GIB repair gunk, extra AA and AAA batteries, a couple more blue magnetic round laser lamps with a hook, and a small bench grinder in case Karola gets serious about hand-tool woodworking.

Paul organised a digger and he and Matt began checking levels for the concrete areas – by the front door, throughout the walkway, across the driveway and up into the garage. The digger arrived late afternoon, photos below.

In the afternoon I went into the orchard to complete the nailing up of the new railings in the orchard back fence and the railings in the double-gateway gap between us and the Vernon’s as was. I finished the back fence railings (48 nails) and had started on the others when Henere Ormond arrived and, after installing the last running post in ten minutes, took over the main nailing job, to my relief. Just prior to Henere’s arrival Bramble had decided the nail gun noise was so awful that she ran off home, braving two paddocks of sheep to get there. In all 122 nails put in on the two sets of rails.

Noel and Jenny Hendery came for late afternoon tea – they were test driving a new car, apparently their current one is three years old already.

In the evening I began the bevelling of the tops of the planks that will become posts in the cottage railings; I did the side bevels of 15 planks and called it a day. I’ll ring and extend the hire of the nail gun tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—20℃ 16.5mm rain [80.0]

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Progress On The Cottage Railings Project

SwimGym and today the swimming pool was being disinfected so Karola chose to come and join in the gym activities. She biked, she rowed, she tried the cross-trainer. More of a surprise she also tried some of the weight-based exercise machines, but with obvious lack of enthusiasm.

After breakfast we got stuck into sawing planks for the posts for the rest of the cottage railings. Each 4.8 metre plank was heavy, damp, and rough-sawn and we struggled all morning to cut up the 20 planks into the shorter lengths needed. The Makita mitre saw didn’t like this heavy work either, binding on the wetter and slightly twisted planks and throwing off the plank with a great judder.

After lunch we had only four more planks to saw and then we moved the rest of the railings timber off the driveway, taking care to keep the H4 treated timber separate from the less well preserved H3.

Karola then went into Napier, shopping, and I continued on the double-gate railings between the orchard and what was Vernon’s orchard to the north. I got a couple more of the little half-round posts that will keep the rails straight and well spaced bedded into the ground. It takes a crowbar to break through the top six inches (150mm) because it was a heavily used gateway, seriously compacted gravel and earth.

Karola’s ewes had another day in the goose paddock and on the 121 driveway, mainly for the acorns.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ 0.2mm rain [79.8]

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Loo With A View

A cold, wintery day and, in the evening, the huge perigee moon loomed over the homestead.

Mark came and did a mornings hard work on the orchard back fence. Karola and I put up the rails on the double-sized gateway between the orchard and next door; the main nailing and the intermediate posts still to do.

This is the view from our cottage private bathroom loo; very rural.

As I said to the architect and builder today:

As we luxuriate in the warmth of our cottage this wintery Sunday in May 2012, we’re grateful to you for making this possible.

It was an idea in 2002, the specification brief and design started in in 2009, the cottage was moved in June 2011, building on the new site began in July 2011, and now we’ve moved in.

pdf iconCottageComplianceCert[6May12].pdf

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—15℃ no rain [79.7]

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Wintery Day – Ideal For Fencing Work

Slow start due to our colds but Mark arrived around 10:30am and we got stuck into the orchard back fence project. Before that I went to Goldpine, with Bramble, and bought six railings as part of closing the double-gate access into next door’s orchard, made necessary by Alan Ladbrook removing the gates as he no longer uses that access.

Mark dug more posts and corrected the leans on several more. I tied off the eight wires and, using a sledge hammer, adjusted the batten spacing on the fence so that Karola and Mark could add a middle “fifth” batten – to strengthen the fence. We only did about a third of the fence today.

In between times we started the erection of the railings across the double-gate access to the next door orchard.

Where Do You Want To Be Dropped Off?

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—17℃ no rain [79.5]

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Orchard Back Fence Railings Complete

SwimGym then walk to the back of the orchard to photograph the railings (below). Lunch in town at the Opera House cafe as we were late today.

Letter came today from the council saying we’d officially passed our final compliance for the cottage. Another letter from the insurance brokers – over $5000 a year insurance premium for Karola’s farming enterprise, the homestead, cottage, and Days Bay flat.

Before that the installer came at 11:00am and put up the newly made blinds in the cottage sun porch. It only took him 20 minutes.

I moved the cottage living room TV to the place we first intended to put it, that was until Les the architect suggested we relocate it. After one night I think we both prefer the new position. More work for John Burnard to rewire.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—16℃ no rain [79.3]

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En-Railed

Cold night but we are just fine – cool at night but wake up to warm house.

Annual diabetic tests today; we celebrated with a take-away coffee each. Karola then mowed the north side of under the big oak and then spent many hours continuing her selecting and bringing stuff over to the cottage. Mary’s likely visit on 11th – 13th May is making a good focus for Karola’s decisions.

Meanwhile I continue my error-prone repairs to the back fence in the orchard. The railings for that fence are up and animal-proof, needing only some more nails when next I get the nail gun. We’ve asked Willie Thow if he’s finished apple picking and he said yes we can use the orchard for grazing now.

Noticing that the gateposts in the orchard drive were getting overgrown and invisible, hence liable to being hit by a truck, I painted white markers on them and trimmed back the weeds a little. This was in part triggered by Alan Ladbrook’s recent story about Jeff Drinkwater, who, new to driving a different truck, demolished two gate posts and the gate in the block of peaches across the road.

Rowena came over and talked to Karola for an hour – catching up.

Orchard Drive Posts Made Visible

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ no rain [78.7]

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Cold Southerly Makes Itself Felt

SwimGym, half an hour later than usual. A wintery day. All the apples have been picked and the surplus apple boxes carted away.

I continued with the railings for the orchard back fence, between showers, while Karola sorted out clothes and other items in the Homestead for the cottage.

Unusually accident-prone day with railing measurements not quite working out time and again, and each time Bramble and I went up to the back fence it poured with rain for half an hour. Still we made some progress and it was delicious to get back to the cottage as dusk fell for a powerful and piping hot shower.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—12℃ 0.4mm rain [79.0]

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Karola’s Half-Price Stressless Chair

I have a cold. Probably the season for it. Bright spot – Karola’s “Stressless” reclining chair – pure luxury – arrived in Hastings today and we went and collected it in the afternoon.

The morning was taken up with Dean Sewell from Hurtford Parker, our insurance brokers, discussing the insurance we should have now the cottage is (on the verge of) being handed over from the builder to us.

More time spent in gradually selecting and moving stuff from the homestead to the cottage.

Bramble and I finished connecting up the orchard back fence wires to the new strainer post. We also dug out the spare fence railings planks from earlier farm fences – this is thinner wood than we’re using for the cottage railings, only 40mm thick instead of 50mm thick. We have about 6 metres of railing to replace in the back fence.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—15℃ 1.1mm rain [79.6]

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