Monthly Archives: June 2012

New Fencing Project begins

Cold again but no wind and sunny.

I think I’ve got used to the habit of feeding the cat as well as the dog and geese so will not list these every day. Karola used to feed the cat and I nearly forgot a few times initially.

Bramble had her walk and her groom although rather late in the afternoon. I’m also changing her evening meal to be around 5:00pm instead of after my dinner in the hopes that she’ll be less hyper mid evening.

Henere arrived just before I returned from a quick dash into Hastings to pick up my two gluten-free loaves – I’d forgotten them on the shopping trip yesterday. We started on the new fencing project which is to move the fence between the Front paddock and the One Acre paddock so that it is in line with the back wall of the cottage. That is, to be parallel to the western side of the homestead, as it was always supposed to be.  We got the wires and battens off the posts in about half an hour and in less than an hour had pulled up all the running posts using the tractor and chain. Henere made short work – short but very energetic work – of digging out the two enormous and deep strainers at each end. He re-sited the southern end strainer and stay post before close of play at 4:30pm today.

In the morning Alan Ladbrook came with tractor and small truck and took away the Mandarin Chook House and the old Goat House.

Henere and I moved the ewes off the main lawn and back under the big oak. They’ve made the lawn grass short and tidy; I’m hoping that now most of the leaves have been blown off they’ll do the same under the big oak.

Food: Usual breakfast, Henerte and I had fish and chips for lunch (I had two grilled Tarakihi fillets and a few chips). I had couple of sausages (from the eight I cooked yesterday) with mash followed by pudding of cereal, banana and cream.

Paradise Ducks Visit

Ewes Under The Big Oak Again

The Realigned Fence Project

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—10℃ no rain [80.8]

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Bramble And Her PlayMates

SwimGym – watching the Italy-Germany European Championship soccer game made the time go more quickly.

Then the morning just slipped away. Dog, cat, geese fed and Bramble walked – some time on the computer with Bridget and it was past noon. Intended as a quick morning trip the weekend shopping trip lasted until 3:30pm – and I STILL forgot to get the bread. I did however get the laundry and put in another lot, and I picked up and paid for Francis’ four wheel rims from The Little Tyre Shop on Omahu road.

Henere dropped by and I engaged him to do my next fencing project – he expects to start tomorrow. Karola shouldn’t worry, she’ll not notice the difference, it’s more of a cosmetic thing.

I put up electric fence round the big oak and some of the 121 driveway again to give the ewes another go at it now the wind has blown most of the leaves off the grass.

Bramble got a short groom this evening. Food: breakfast as usual followed by a booster of 3 rashers of bacon and two eggs as an omelette. Lunch was a handful of crackers and cheese and tomato at 4:00pm. Dinner was 4 sausages, mash, sprouts, and baby carrots. Later I will have pudding of cereal, banana and cream.

Bramble And Her PlayMates

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—11℃ no rain [79.9]

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Edging Boards In Place

Cold with periods of very strong winds.

Usual stuff in the morning: fed dog, cat, geese. Got mail including large parcel for Bridget’s husband Chris (skiiing stuff) and some books for me from Amazon.

Took Bramble for her walk, did a bit of e-mail and suddenly it’s lunchtime.

After lunch Mark came and we continued with the edging project. By 5:00pm we’d finished the edging. Still some levelling and in-filling to do around the edging but Mark has put in all the edging boards and their pegs and they’re all nicely straight and level.

Food: breakfast then same breakfast again, to fend off the cold. Lunch of cold roast pork and raw tomato on toast. Dinner of large baked tarakihi fillet, mash and cabbage followed by pudding of cereal, two bananas and cream.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—16℃ 0.8mm rain [79.7]

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More Edgy Activity

SwimGym

Hungry mouths all fed and Bramble taken for usual walk after a bit of training – I hope to have her sit on command reliably before Karola gets home.

Then into Hastings to get Karola’s car assessed as a trade-in and pick up enough food to tide me over till Friday. Oh, and this is really exciting, I bought six pairs of socks at Farmlands to replace the last five pairs that have, after I think three years being used as farm socks and indoor slippers, finally become down at heel.

Just back in time for a hasty lunch and then Mark arrived for the afternoon’s continued work on the edging project. Darkness and drizzle stopped play around 5:15pm.

Food: Usual breakfast. Ham, mash and frozen peas for lunch. Beef schnitzel, onion, mash, and a little cabbage for dinner. Supper will be cereal, bananas and cream.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—13℃ no rain [80.0]

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Source For The Gander

Cold sunny day with occasional quite violent gale gusts.

Don’t know where the morning went after feeding the dog, cat, geese and walking Bramble and a bit of Bramble training and grooming. I did prepare a bit for Mark coming around 1:30pm to continue with the edging project. We worked on that until 5:15pm when it was too dark to continue.

The rice-and-mince I cooked for Bramble as per Karola’s recipe has some unexpected side-effects. I admit when I bought “not the best Angus mince” the only other mince on offer was inexpensive. Anyway, Bramble is eating it but the rice just goes straight through. Could it be a bit too undercooked and not sticking together I wonder?

Weathermaster man came and took blind away – said the fault was easy to fix but best if blind rewound at factory.

Karola called just before 6:00pm and luckily she said she’d call again later so my lamb chops, which were grilling, were saved just short of setting off the smoke detectors, whew.

Food: breakfast as usual, thin tomato soup and toast for lunch, three lamb chops “well done” (see above) with sprouts, carrots, and mash – followed by pudding of cereal, bananas and cream.

The “rarely lethal” whitetail spider pictured below was on a battery I picked off the floor – possibly it was a warm place. I was unamused.

Finally, as per the title, source for the goose (yesterday) is surely …

This behaviour is NOT to be encouraged.

Oh, and the Whitetailed Spider (venomous and Australian) …

Don’t Tell Bridget!

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ no rain [80.1]

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While Her Mistress Is Away, Bramble Will Play

SwimGym – it’s cold and I have a cold but the sun is shining and Bramble is being relatively good so all’s right with this world. Gym exercises punctuated with ferrying messages between Anna in Greece and Karola in Ealing with the two grandsons watching England fail to beat Italy.

Fed: dog, cat, geese. Walked Bramble. Quick shop for food for the next two days. Then I succumbed – watched “Endeavour” (Morse prequel) again, slept, hung the two pictures Karola suggested – that’s about it.

Oh yes, the big blind in the sun porch has come off its roller – I found it on the ground when going into the sun porch for the first time in a week so no idea when it happened. Called “Weathermaster” and they’re sending a man round tomorrow at 2:00pm.

There’s been a strong, bitterly cold westerly wind which is actually much needed to blow away the leaves so the grass can see the sun again – especially on the lawn, in the goose paddock, and under the big oak.

Food: breakfast as usual, lunch was a left-over grouper grilled fillet – re-fried with mash, and lashings of tomato ketchup. Dinner was ham, cabbage and mash followed by pudding of cereal, bananas and cream.

Bramble has recently demonstrated the ability – should she choose to – of jumping into the back of the car or the Landrover which is quite a height for someone with such short legs. She will not do it on command though.

And today she thought she’d try out her mistress’s chair, which will NOT be encouraged.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ no rain [80.0]

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New Life For Mandarin Chook House

Well, Bramble decided she wanted to “go outside” at 02:20am, Hmmm.

Usual breakfast at 7:00am and a big brunch at 10:30am – 4 rashers bacon, 2 eggs, mashed potato all made into a fried pancake and drizzled with gluten-free tomato ketchup. Dinner at 6:30pm of 3 rashers of beef schnitzel with cabbage and mash. Pudding of cereal, banana and cream.

While walking Bramble round the orchard I bumped into Alan and we had a sociable chat for 15 minutes.

Groomed Bramble today and she seemed to enjoy it. I should do it daily really, her winter hair is quite long and she sheds, does she shed. Karola has trained her to enjoy being brushed.

Henere dropped by, partly I’m sure to see if there was any fencing he could do, but I’ve a lot of housekeeping to do and not feeling that bright so I turned him away.

Julie Ladbrook rang asking after Karola and incidentally whether we’d sell the Mandarin Chook House. I’ve already decided that having more free-range bantams would just be feeding the hawk so my next chooks will be full sized. Ther Mandarin Chook House, built by Mary and me several years ago, is deliberately bantam-sized so we have no further use for it. I’ve sold it for $180 which is far less than the cost of the materials but it’ll be used for bantams and I’ll take a photo of it in its new location when Julie has arranged transport. She may also buy the goat house, also surplus to requirements since Karola banned goats from Karamu.

Swept the cottage – which could get tedious if one had to do it every weekend.

I have now read the manuals for the oven, hob, and dishwasher. The hob has a non-obvious booster mode which rally heats stuff up fast. I tried the dishwasher this evening and was disappointed that maybe a fifth of the items were not washed clean; I must be stacking them incorrectly I suppose. I have the manuals for the clothes washer and dryer to look forward to over the next few days, before I run absolutely out of everything.

I made up the next few days of Brambles gourmet mince/liver/rice as per Karola’s recipe. The liver is a nuisance to cut up even with the very sharp knife that Gill bought for me to give to Karola for her birthday present this year.

KAROLA’S RECIPE FOR BRAMBLE’S MEALS

You can buy the ingredients at any supermarket; at beef counter buy about 1 kg of good beef mince; ie not cheapest but not Angus best mince; about $15 a kilo or $11 special is OK. I find 2 lots of 500 gm is easiest to manage

The go along to far end a get about 300-400 gm of liver- lamb liver is OK; this is easiest if you cut it up into small pieces with scissors

I use whole grain rice long, that we usually have, I buy it in large 3 kg bags and put it into plastic containers.

Put three cups of water in large pot(pressure cooker) and add three cups of rice and put on medium heat, bring to boil and then reduce to simmer; it takes about 10 minutes to reduce the water and soften the rice.The rice doesn’t need to be completely cooked and should not be mushy; Ideally the grains are separate but can still absorb fat and moisture from the meat as it is added.

Take the large frypan and add half of a packet of mince. crush with wooden spoon on low heat until it changes colour, gradually add whole packet and then half the liver cut up; ie cook about half of the meat then stir it gradually into the rice that is partially cooked allow this to continue cooking

Do the same with the second packet of mince and remaining liver then blend that into the first lot of rice and mince. Try to make sure that the rice and meat are evenly blended and don’t let the mixture stick on the bottom of the pot; the meat can burn and the rice can form lumps.

If you take trouble over the first three steps not much further cooking is required and you can put the lid on the pressure cooker and let it slowly steam and then cool down without heat. Just make sure there is no meat that is actually raw.

This should make 6-8 green containers full.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—16℃ no rain [80.2]

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Mark Helps With The Lawn Edging Project

Mark came over around 9:30am. I’d fed the dog/cat/geese, collected the mail, and taken Bramble for her morning walk. I hadn’t quite finished the electric fence round the lawn for the ewes. By 10:00am we had the ewes on the lawn and were beginning the edging project – for the Bay trees to go round the inside of the cottage railings.

My cold is developing; Bramble deciding she needed to go outside at 5:00am didn’t help. So, after six hours with Mark on the edging I called it a day – photo of our achievement below. After Mark had gone I rolled up the electric fence round the big oak and down the 121 drive by which time it was dark.

Food: usual breakfast at usual time. For lunch I got Mark fish & chips, adding some cabbage to my grilled fillets to make it my main meal. For supper I had a small piece of beef schnitzel with mash, more cabbage, and green beans. Pudding was cereal, banana and cream.

The first edged planting area.

A surprise highlighted by the frost this morning – is it a Cedar hiding amongst Karola’s Taupata hedge plants?

The electric fence round the lawn and the ginkgo

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ no rain [80.6]

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Preparing For Lawn Edging Work With Mark Tomorrow

SwimGym

Breakfast then fed dog, cat, geese then took Bramble for her morning walk.

Shopped quickly for food for the weekend and picked up laundry.

Went to Goldpine in Omahu road and bought a dozen planks for the edging mentioned yesterday, supplementing those I bought from Tumu as they didn’t have enough. Tumu say they hardly ever sell 4×1 H4 treated rough-sawn planks; Goldpine had just received a new shipment as they couldn’t meet demand. Odd. Got 10% off because the Goldpine chap likes me and the sun was shining (he said). He also sold me 10 1.8 metre (6 foot) garden stakes, also H4 treated, at a bargain price because they were the end of a run and what was left after people had picked out all the good, straight ones. I intend to make 12″ (400mm) pegs for the edging with these so a few imperfections aren’t a problem. They were advertised at $6 each on sale for $5 and I got them for $2.50

Then went to Winstones and got a cubic metre of “grit”. Gravel mixes such as “top course” and “builder mix” are around $46 a cubic meter. “pea metal” was, I thought, the cheapest gravel at $24 / cu m. But “grit” – which is like “pea metal” but with smaller pebbles, costs only $12 / cu m. I shall use that for infilling the edging and for filling the little ditch round the concrete slabs where I’ve removed the boxing – Karola asked for it to be filled with gravel before adding a thin layer of topsoil.

Began putting up electric fence round the lawn so I can move the ewes over tomorrow.

Usual breakfast. Two pieces of toast with roast pork and tomato for lunch. Lamb chops with mash and green beans for dinner followed by two helpings of cereal with banana and cream.

I am getting a cold so am following the old maxim, “stuff a cold and starve a fever”.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [81.0]

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Overcast With a Shower Or Two

A slow day; wrote a few e-mails, talked again to Karola in UK. By the time I’ve fed everyone and taken Bramble for her daily walk it seems to be morning tea time, then next thing you know it’s past lunch time. Usual breakfast. Lunch was crackers, cheese and tomato. Dinner was two sausages, 1/3 tin baked beans, brussels sprouts, and a small amount of mash – followed by cereal and cream.

Aside: Having been accused of not eating enough last time Karola went off to England for a few weeks I feel compelled to record that I’m eating adequate (if dull) amounts of food.

I’m keeping a good lookout for any signs that the ewes are getting restive. It’s a fine balance between having them only just trim the pasture instead of eating it well down, weeds and all, and letting them get so hungry that they turn to tree leaves and bark and stuff just outside the electric fence. I think they’ll be OK for another day but I’ll have to move them by Saturday. I’ve asked Mark to come over for some digging on Saturday too.

Bramble took advantage of her walk this morning to poo three times so it was a big disappointment to find she’d also “gone’ upstairs in the cottage sometime before 8:00pm. She wee’d up there too yesterday, which is very disappointing. I thought she was getting the rhythm of it; walk in the morning; quick trip outside around 10:00pm – but imperfectly it seems.

Bramble remembers that she goes for a walk round the orchard in the morning after her breakfast. She also seems to like going to town in the car – she rushed out into the garage a couple of times this morning in case it was time to go out. She did get a ride in the Landrover late afternoon and I think she enjoyed it – we went to Tumu and bought some planks for the edging for the Bay tree strip in the cottage garden.

Bramble is the “dog who ate my homework”

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.2mm rain [80.3]

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Bramble Jumps

SwimGym

Bramble got an almighty electric shock today when she leapt up onto an electrified wire that was carrying the power to the rest of the electric fence from the pump shed – where the energizer is. Bramble got the wire under her two front paws and couldn’t get out of it for a few seconds – What a noise. She scrambled free and careened round the paddock shrieking her head off for a while. I finally got close to her and comforted her and she calmed down. Then she took off agaion and I had to go searching for her, eventually finding her sitting on a railing on the ground outside the 133 front gate. Heaven knows why she chose that spot. Anyway she’s a bit wary of going outside the cottage garden for now.

Bridget called and we’ve been able to use my “myus.com” account in the USA to buy some skiiing wear in USA and get it sent here even though the actual shop will not ship outside the USA.

The man who installed the cottage gutter guard dropped by and took a look at the guttering – brushed off the needles and inspected it. It was while he was talking to me that Bramble had her electrifying experience – maybe because I didn’t pay her enough after-shock attention that she went away and hid.

I’ve begun moving the windbreak netting over to tack onto the back of the cottage railings, to protect our Bay trees once their planted.

My blood sugar level is 5.3 before dinner – haven’t taken it for ages but that seems healthy enough.

Food: well, usual breakfast, then, as it is Wednesday, I went food shopping including for some fish. Hawkes Bay Fish Supply was open but I didn’t like the look of any of their offerings so instead I bought two grilled tarakihi fillets and half a scoop of chips and had them for a mid-day dinner, with cabbage. In the evening I just had ham and tomato on toast followed by cereal.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—19℃ no rain [80.4]

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Airmail Sent To Karola

A quiet day, warmer but not warm. Dog, cat, geese fed – no sign of the cat though.

Gave the ewes a water trough then shut them in the fenced off area under the big oak and along the 121 driveway.

Went to town and posted Karola’s birth certificate and UK driving license part B – they’ll take a week to get there.

Bramble did some puddle mining – it rained in the night – and got rather muddy. She was most displeased with the hosing down I gave her legs and snout, but soon recovered.

Usual breakfast. For lunch, cold pork with a “one-egg and mash” pattie and tomato for lunch. Cheese and crackers for afternoon tea. Pork schnitzel and cabbage and mash for dinner followed by cereal, peaches, and cream.

Bramble got very excited in the evening, nipping and careening round; she’s quietened down now.

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—13℃ 3mm rain [80.3]

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Ewes To Graze The 121 Driveway

SwimGym

Then breakfast and taking Bramble for a walk as planned.&

It being Monday I went shopping for food and incidentally went to The Cobbler in Havelock North. He’s still there and will be for another couple of years he says – been there for over 20 years to date.

Having seen that Karola had plenty of Roundup I took back the litre I bought from Farmlands recently – buying socks and maize for the geese instead. How interesting.

Put up electric fence around the big oak and 121 driveway and shut the ewes out of the Island, One Acre, and Orchard paddocks so they only have the Middle and Totara paddocks and the driveway.

Spent quite a lot of time looking for documents Karola believes she’s left here, but I can’t find them. All I know is that Karola has immense amounts of stuff from our lives in England and America. Karola rang and we talked for half an hour this evening; things there are going very well.

I seem to be eating quite a lot. Tuna/Mayonnaise on toast for breakfast, cold pork, tomato and toast for lunch, biscuits and cheese for afternoon tea, and 3 lamb chops with mashed potato and cabbage for dinner (I had to read the oven instruction guide first). And I’ll end with cereal and peaches and cream.

Carefully Protecting Karola’s Herb Garden

Photos Showing The Path Taken By The Electric Fence

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—13℃ 3mm rain [80.3]

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Preparing The Bay Tree Planting Strips

The first Sunday that Bramble and I are alone in the cottage. Cold, cold night but sunny day and no wind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There’s getting to be a rhythm to it:

  1. Let dog out
  2. Have breakfast
  3. [if Monday, Wednesday, or Friday: Bramble is put into her den and I go to SwimGym]
  4. Feed Bramble, the cat, and the geese
  5. Take Bramble for a walk allowing me to check the sheep and lambs
  6. Collect mail

… then, at the end of the day ….

  1. Cook dinner
  2. Feed Bramble
  3. Have dinner
  4. Do emails
  5. Enter todays web log entry
  6. Watch TV or similar relaxing activity

On Sundays, recharge the rechargeables, pay the bills, replenish pill dispenser, clean some of the cottage, and put out the rubbish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, today, animals fed and Bramble walked, I did the bills and other stuff until mid afternoon

Late afternoon I raked the intended Bay tree planting strips, spread grass seed on the bare patches of the cottage lawn, and sprayed the planting strips with Roundup.

Then it was time to do a bit of cleaning – Bramble certainly adds to that with torn paper and dismembered fir cones a specialty. And put out the rubbish without allowing Bramble to investigate the 133 gate onto the road.

I was delighted to get an e-mail from Felix with his web log entries for the first two days of grandma’s visit.

Usual breakfast, crackers and cheese for lunch, then dinner of sausages, cabbage, and mash. Pudding was cereal, peaches, and cream.

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—11℃ no rain [80.4]

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Karola Safely In Ealing After Quiet Flight

Cold day with showers. Lit the fire around 10:00am and had it going all day. Ate and watched TV and played with Bramble for most of the day.

In the morning I made some pegs out of old battens and staked out the metre-wide border around the inside of the cottage railings – the area to be planted with the 35 bay trees we have currently sitting inside a hay bale square for shelter and acclimatisation.

I did get my bag of fir cones as fire lighters, from under the Canary Island Pine.

In the evening Karola called and I have an idea where the missing gate keys are (see yesterday), and where the manuals for all the gleeming new white goods are. I prudently restricted myself to the hob or cooktop for food preparation until I’ve had a chance to read the instruction manual for the oven.

Bramble and I did wind up the 300 metre long electric fence going the width of the orchard and now the lambs have all the orchard to explore and graze.

Usual breakfast then a repeat of it for morning tea. Lunch was 2 eggs, 3 rashers of bacon thinly sliced mixed into a mountain of mash and fried as a large potato omlette – oh with some spring onion for colour too. Dinner was just baked beans on toast followed by apple crumble and cream. Is this a starvation diet I wonder?

CHALKLINES MARK OUT THE METRE-WIDE PLANTING AREA FOR THE BAY TREE HEDGE

Eagle Has Landed

This e-mail was received from Anna’s place at 5:09 am New Zealand time today.

“Grandma is having a cup of tea at 2 St Mary’s Road she had a very good trip”

From Felix/Barnaby

Grandma arrives ,15 june – By Guest Author : Felix Florent

today we had maths day, and after we went home to prepare for football when we received the wonderful news Grandma was in england and just preparing to get in a taxi. we told Grandma how to enter the house using the short cut . 30 minutes later we were just about to leave for football when grandma made us jump when she came in the shortcut. we showed her a pav which we had made for her and showed her to her room were a surprise was waiting for her! i After she had looked at her surprise we left for football. the match was exiting and we won 2-0 when we returned we had fish and chips then watched the england match. then we all went to bed and even Grandma had a good nights sleep.

Karola’s First Day In UK

Anna sent this nice photo of her mother at Felix’ “tournament”.

Felix’s football tournament, 16 June – By Guest Author: Felix Florent

Today I had a lie in until 9:00 and grandma woke up at 6:30 and red in bed until 7:30. Barney and grandma went to blacks to prepare for are school trips next week . Later on I went with mummy to blacks to stock up on things needed for my geography trip . At around 12:00 mady and marney arrived by 1:30 we were at greendays fun fare were my tournament was being held Grandma found a charity stall were for £3.50 you can get a pair of knitting needles and two roles of wool , she needed to knit a square 6 inches by 6 inches.we then returned home after the end of my tournament and had a spaghetti carbonara at PoG (pizza on the green). Now we are watching Poland vs chech republic not a good result for Poland the Time is 9:39 .

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—9℃ 0.8mm rain [81.4]

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First Day Home Alone

SwimGym.

Well Karola hasn’t arrived in UK yet – not until 3:00am approx. our time.

Today was a day of lists:

  • Let out dog ✓
  • Go to SwimGym ✓
  • Breakfast – 2 slices toast with tuna/mayonnaise spread ✓
  • Feed dog, cat, geese ✓
  • Collect mail ✓
  • Let ewes into Island paddock, one-acre, and orchard paddocks and shut out of goose paddock ✓
  • Take down electric fence between nearest block peaches and apples ✓
  • Tighten McNabb road gate chains to minimise gap which will stop potential lamb escapees I hope ✓
  • Talked to Alan Ladbrook briefly and received key to other McNabb road gate padlock ✓
  • I cannot find the keys Karola gave me last week – that may open other gate padlocks ✗
  • Monthly blood test at Stortford Lodge ✓
  • FARMLANDS: batten staples, spray raddle, builders string, #8 wire crimps, Roundup, lawn grass seed for shady places ✓
  • WOOLWORTHS: dog sausage, cream, cornflakes, butter,  brussel sprouts, tomatoes, green beans, tinned tuna ✓
  • CORNUCOPIA: weekly bread ✓
  • Collect more fir cones for lighting the fire ✗

Dinner consisted of 8 crackers with cheese starter then steak, mash, sprouts, onion for main. It’s easier/faster to wash up by hand rather than use dish washer. Pudding of cereal, peaches, and cream.

Had fire going all day since 10:00am.

Sunny day but cold. Bramble accompanied me to do the sheep work and take down the electric fence. She then was passenger in car for the shopping. No problems except she has rolled in sheep manure and it’s a bit cold to be giving her a shower so I will put up with it for now.

Games Corgis Play

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—11℃ 1.1mm rain [80.3]

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Karola Flies Off To UK

Apart from a couple of hours spent appraising her 24 ewe lambs and selecting the best 13, Karola spent the day finalising her packing. I got the lambs into the yards, drafted and marked them as requested, and got them all safely back into the orchard. I opened up the block of peaches nearest the big shed to give them a bit more grass, as suggested by Jeff Drinkwater and agreed with Adam Ladbrook – they are currently pruning the peaches for Alan Ladbrook. We’ve decided the three young peach trees are probably safe enough now they have no leaves and while there’s plenty of other greenery for the lambs to nibble.

Rowena and Jenny & Noel Hendery came to see Karola off at the airport. J&H then brought fish&chips round here for dinner.

Yippee! Received DVDs from my friend Geoff in UK today – the new series of “Lewis”, four episodes, almost one for each week Karola is away. And Roger in UK emailed and said there’s another series of “Sherlock” due later this year.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—13℃ no rain [80.7]

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The Day Before Karola Goes To UK

What a difference a good night’s sleep makes.

Bramble did want to go outside at 2:30am (and got her way) but apart from that we were undisturbed until time for SwimGym.

I had an eye check at 9:00am with the specialist, Dr John Beaumont. I did have an appointment six weeks ago but after waiting for over an hour I got fed up and walked out. Today wasn’t much better; he was 45 minutes late for his first surgery patient of the day, me. Quite frustrating especially with Karola lurking around outside as one cannot drive for an hour or so after the eye drops. But Karola did the food shopping and read the paper and I skimmed back issues of Time magazine so no harm done.

Karola continued packing; we also took a look at her lambs one last time in case I need to sell some while she is away. The grass is getting shorter but we still have most of the orchard to graze so should be alright until Karola returns.

Small mishap with the metal stepladder – changing light bulbs in the Homestead – the stepladder catch wasn’t properly caught and it collapsed when I was almost on the top step and I crashed to the ground. Bruises will come later but otherwise no obvious bad effects.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ no rain [80.3]

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Bramble Back From Boarding Kennels

Cold overcast day. Karola got Bramble back from the kennels and it was good to get her back. She seemed none the worse for wear – Karola even thinks maybe she enjoyed it although she was glad to be home.

Karola spent the day organising for her departure to UK for five weeks on Thursday.

Some Family Members At Kaz Funeral

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—11℃ no rain [80.4]

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Kaz’ Funeral

Funeral at 11:00am in William Cotton & Sons Funeral Chapel, 29 Beatie St, Feilding. Civil celebrant: Janeve Green. A full room.

Janeve opened and introduced the ceremony. Karola, then Harry, then I said our pieces (below). After that Amy, Francis and niece Tessa spoke. A communal song, “For Everything There Is A Time”, then a slide show of photos and it was all over. Tea and sandwiches for everyone in the back room of the chapel while Yvonne, Amy, and Francis went to the crematorium. Lots of the Wilson family there and we had chance to chat to many friends and relations we hadn’t seen for ages. Later family members and close friends went back to Ngaio Glen for more refreshments.

We set off back to Karamu around 3:00pm, arriving just after dark in Stortford Lodge. We dined at The Corn Market and then came home. I’m missing Bramble but we’ll pick her up tomorrow morning. Karola goes to UK on Thursday afternoon, NB.

Karola’s script
pdf iconKFB-NKW-eulogy-draft[8Jun12].pdf

Harry’s script
pdf iconJHW-NKW-Eulogy-Script[9Jun12].pdf

Ian’s script
pdf iconIFB-NKW-Eulogy-Script[9Jun12].pdf

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ 0.9mm rain [?]

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Off To Bulls

So Karola thought, wouldn’t it be better all round if Bramble were to have a couple of days in the kennels rather than drag over to Burleigh today then be in her den/cage for most of the next two days, so we contacted them and they called back just minutes before we were leaving to say they’d be happy to have Bramble – so we detoured to the kennels (Pets-2-Us) in Meanee and then Karola took the A50 towards Bulls.

We went via the Manawatu Gorge, opened for one lane today, arrived in good time at 5:30pm.

Chloe and her family put on an enormous dinner for 18 people – Chloe, Harry, Karola and me, Tessa/Pete/Ashleigh and Laura, Yvonne and her sister Jeaneve and Clint, Janeve’s two boys and one of them had a spouse and two toddlers, and Amy and Andy.

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—16℃ no rain [?]

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Freezer and Fridge Into Cottage Garage

Slow start to the day. Odd job man “Keith” arrived as expected and spent a couple of hours cleaning up the homestead sun porch where a feral cat – a younger version of the homestead cat – spent a few hours after being trapped accidentally in the sunporch stealing our cat’s food. The feral cat was not housetrained and did cartwheels around the walls trying to get out. It did get out, presumably via the cat flap when left to its own devices, but what a stinking mess.

Keith then helped us move the freezer and 2nd-best fridge from the homestead into the cottage garage, using a pallet on the forks of the Fergie.He and I then picked up a couple of trailer loads of apple prunings – well they were actually whole trees that had been cut up because they’d snapped in half and were no more use as producing trees. The trunk and main branches were too large for the mulching mower to handle so I think I’m doing the orchardist a favour. We put the wood onto the bonfire-to-be in the Orchard paddock.

Karola mowed the cottage lawn. I rolled the lawn area by the cottage bathroom window with the Landrover – it’d been built up with some topsoil as it used to be a bit of a swampy low spot. I removed the boxing from around the new concrete where it met the lawn. We’ll leave the boxing round the concrete touching the gravel drive as permanent edging.

More eulogy preparations for karola and me throughout the day.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ 0.2mm rain [80.1]

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Preparing for Kaz’ Funeral

SwimGym and later lunch at Taste in Hastings. Cold cold day but brilliant sunshine and warmed up later.

Drafted some words for the eulogy to Kaz – the funeral is on Monday and we’ll go to Burleigh on Sunday returning here after the ceremony on Monday.

Workwise the cottage garage has been swept clean and the workbench put on wheels and taken to the homestead garage leaving the way clear to bring over the freezer and perhaps the 2nd fridge and plug them in in the cottage garage tomorrow.

Karola prepared her eulogy script in the evening and sent e-mails hither and yon, as you’d expect.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ no rain [80.5]

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Car Spends First Night In Cottage Garage

Continued work on moving the clutter in the cottage garage over to the homestead garage. There’s quite a lot of wood left over from the cottage refurbishment, mainly pieces of plywood, verandah planking, and weatherboard.

End result tonight was that the Subaru is in the cottage garage and the Landrover is in the homestead garage.

Meanwhile, finding some small pools of rain left over from last night’s showers, Bramble decided to dig some mud holes, presumably looking for old bones or excavating new bone caches.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—12℃ no rain [?]

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Sad News

SwimGym, albeit a little later than usual. Later in the morning Chloe called to say that Kaz had been taken to hospital seriously ill with a heart attack. Harry called in the afternoon to say Kaz had died. We are all shocked with the suddenness and that Kaz was only 63. Very pleased we saw him yesterday – he seemed a bit subdued but not ill then.

Wheels For The Workbench

The workbench, pictured below, is to be given a set of (lockable) wheels and to that end Karola and I went to the wheels shop in Omahu road and bought four locking castors for $100. I now have to fit them – and before that I have to tidy the messy workbench.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—22℃ 6.2mm rain [?]

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Return To Karamu Via Burleigh and Ngaio Glen

Early lunch at the Red Store in Te Horo then up to see Tessa and Pete’s 1-year old, Ashleigh, at Burleigh. On to Harry’s factory in Bulls where we saw Chloe, Harry, and Laura. Then towards Feilding dropping in at Ngaio Glen where we dropped off a rubber mat that Kaz had leant us and a pair of trees for Yvonne – it was her 60th birthday recently. Back home to Karamu after a fleeting visit to Enid and Laurie McDermott (our minders when we go away for more than 48 hours).

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—14℃ 1.1mm rain [?]

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Alex’s Actual Birthday

… and Queens Birthday public holiday

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

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Alex’s Birthday Party

Karola attended the children’s party for Alex “now we are six” More along with a dozen other children and mothers and Annemarie More, Alex’s other grandmother. A good time was had by all.

Ian took Bramble to the top of Mt KauKau (419 metres) and the photo shows Bramble surveying Wellington from the brass compass in the lookout at the summit. Afterwards he went round to Mary’s and reconnected the TV which he’d dislodged when moving stuff around for her yesterday.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—18℃ no rain [?]

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Felicity and Geoff’s for Dinner

Visited Mary – took her out to lunch again at CouCou. In the evening we had a delightful, peaceful, talkative dinner cooked by Geoff and Felicity – well mainly Felicity. The dinner was one of my favorites, a simple beef casserole with baked potato and green beans.

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

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To Wellington

SwimGym and then Karola had a short doctor’s appointment but we still got away in fairly good time.

We went via the Wairarapa to avoid holiday traffic on State Highway 1 up the west coast.

Grilled fish dinner from Go-Fish in Petone and a lovely woodburner fire at Days Bay to round off the evening.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

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