Monthly Archives: December 2012

Last Day of Work on the Smallholding in 2012

SwimGym then the rest of the day was really getting ready to leave for Wellington tomorrow. It was hot. I rushed into Hastings and got the bread and a few irrigation bits and bobs – was back inside 40 minutes.

I put combination locks on all the large gates into the paddocks with sheep – all the gates big enough to let a vehicle in.

The sheep had a taste of the treat awaiting them, the orchard paddock for a few hours this evening. They’ll all, except the ram, have access to half of that paddock from tomorrow.

We packed some clothes and other items but really it was too hot to do much until mid evening.

Bramble Takes To The Cooling Waters

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [82.8]

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Bay Tree Hedge Planted in 2012

After a late night last night – we seem to be having dinner at around 10:00pm these days – Bramble woke us alerting us to the arrival of Henare and his son Scott on their way to work at 7:15am. We should have been up around 7:00am anyway but it did take us by surprise and the cottage was somewhat in embarrassing disarray – but I don’t think Henare will hold it against us.

Anyway, it was cool and sunny at first so I got going with the continuing saga of the Bay Tree planting. By 2:30pm I had all the trees in, the mulch spread, and sprinkler watering in full flow. Huzzah, the trees have actually been planted in 2012, a close call because once we go to Wellington at the weekend we’ll not be back in 2012.

Karola went shopping in the morning – Bramble’s liver and mince and a few other essentials. In the afternoon she tended her ill ewes (mastitis) and then, early evening, at my suggestion and with a little help with the mustering, Karola tended to some of the lambs with dirty behinds. She was saddened and somewhat nauseated to find out that two of the lambs she looked at did have fly strike. The Magnum pour-on liquid that she’d put on all the flock, except the ram that is, is a fly deterrent not a fly-strike cure. We have a powder for that and Karola applied it liberally.

Paul Libby, our builder, turned up mid afternoon and we had afternoon tea and chatted about how the cottage was going and his bach at a beach south of Waimaramara on the Mangakuri road.

Around 6:00pm when the heat had gone out of the sun I put “leaky pipe” irrigation on the Bay Trees, Now we just watch them grow.

The Main Section of the Bay Tree Hedge

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—23℃ no rain [?]

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Almost There – Bay Tree Planting

SwimGym

In the morning I finally planted half the 38 bay trees, 19 trees in and watered. Late afternoon when the temperature had come back down to a reasonable 28 from in excess of 31 degrees I planted another four and spread the mulch over the morning plantings.

Karola’s ewe patients are on the mend she says. Karola spent the day in many cleaning up operations, in preparation for going down to Wellington for Christmas. This included the unenviable task of scraping off the large safety labels off the kitchen windows – the labels were meant to ensure workmen noticed there was glass in the frame, but did they have to make them so darn permanent.

Karola got the remaining four old hay bales from the big shed as emergency food supplies for the sheep while we’re away. She also got one of her portable energisers to work and electrified the fence bisecting the orchard paddock. The idea is that the sheep will have half the orchard paddock for the first week we’re away, and get the rest in the second week – supplementing their rather dry and stalky pasture in the Middle, Goose, Totara, and One Acre paddocks.

The Front paddock is in reserve for the traditionally dry months of January and February – though it too has suddenly turned golden brown, as seen at dusk, photo below.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—31℃ no rain [82.0]

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Up The Taihape Road

Little bit too much sun yesterday so a late start. Mainly overcast and a couple of fleeting sun showers.

Meanwhile, Karola’s ill ewe, #111, is looking much better after the vet treatment yesterday BUT another young ewe seems to have the same problem. Karola got her, #160, in the portable yards and I gave her a penicillin injection – penicillin originally bought for the ill-fated #904.

I carted a dozen tractor buckets of mulch from the goose paddock onto the Bay Tree planting area. We laid out the existing trees and found we needed four more – plus six more for the small unprepared strip outside the cottage bathroom window. Karola called Greeleaf Nurseries and they had some in stock os I went round with Bramble and we bought ten more Bay Trees, $12 each – compared to Palmers albeit larger ones at $30 each.

We were then distracted by needing to go up the Taihape road to Touchwood books for a chat and to pick up several books Karola had ordered. Bramble’s first visit there and she was well-behaved. We chatted with Diane and Peter Arthur – proprietors – and Graham Harvey and Tracey, helpers in the book shop, tenants of Peter’s mother’s old house, and several times minders for Bicka.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—27℃ 0.3mm rain [82.2]

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Pea Hay Trial

SwimGym

Karola called the vet and she arrived before lunch and gave ewe #111 (with mastitis) a couple of long-acting injections which should stop her getting any worse and alleviate the pain somewhat, comprising 100ml Excede L A injection and 20mg (50ml) Metacam.

After lunch we – finally, finally – started on laying the weed mat for the bay trees. It was sweltering and the black mat became too hot to hold so we took a break while Karola went off and bought a couple of bales of pea straw – to see if the sheep would eat it.

We didn’t restart till much later but got all the black weed mat down and stapled along one edge before dark.

It’s Felix birthday today so we tried to call him – his morning, our evening – but he’s still asleep after a very late (3:00am) night for a thirteen-year old so we’ll probably talk to him tomorrow morning.

The Weed Mat Is Installed At Last

Oak Avenue Weather:20℃—31℃ no rain [82.0]

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Magnum Opus

Another Hawkes Bay summer Sunday. Karola spent the afternoon tending to her sheep – Magnum on them all except the ram and ewe #911 and her twins (withholding for meat, zero days). Ewe #911 is very lame on her back passenger-side leg and we think she has a bad case of mastitis so she needs some antibiotics soon. Otherwise they’re all looking pretty good on their diet of dry grass and plenty of fresh water.

Spoke to Tony Fletcher today – his oldest daughter, Julia, has just had a baby boy. He’s still working for IBM in Wellington.

Meanwhile I’m still learning more about the computer language Lua. From an exchange of e-mails today I confirmed that Mike Cowlishaw’s “decimal arithmetic for computers” has been added to Lua, which is heartening. Mike’s language Rexx and the other pieces of software he’s designed have all been exceptionally accommodating of the humans wanting to use his tools – trying to avoid them needing to know of arcane things like binary arithmetic.

Karola Likes The Look Of This Prefabricated Raised Bed

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—24℃ no rain [81.6]

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Summer Time, And The Living Is Easy

Hot day. Karola not only grazed her sheep on the orchard drive, reading a book and keeping an eye on them all the while, but she then yarded them up and cleaned up the rear ends of a few daggy lambs. Hard work in the heat.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—26℃ no rain [81.8]

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Hot Summer’s Day

SwimGym

Then we went off to Havelock North for morning coffee at YaBon with Peter and Charlotte. Later Karola put up a new electric fence around a different part of the lawn and let her sheep in. It was so hot that I slept through the afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—29℃ no rain [81.7]

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The Lure of Lua

Karola went off to her mid morning appointment in Hastings; I did a little more on the planting area until it became too hot.

I have been spending my indoors time on learning a new (to me) programming language called Lua – from Brazil – very interesting.

Still no sign of the brace of Arduino Due micro-controller computers I ordered back in October – they’re sold out world wide it seems.

More on the planting area late afternoon while Karola weeded and cleared on the area around the big oak and near her water feature.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ no rain [81.6]

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Midweek SwimGym

SwimGym

Then Karola rushed off to hair dresser and the shops.

I plodded on with a bit of earth levelling for the Bay Trees.

Mark and Wolfgang came and finished clearing away the weeds from the area previously occupied by the cottage.

Karola cooked us bacon and eggs for lunch before setting off to post Christmas letters and cards.

Sheep had another couple of hours along the top of the ha-ha.

Bramble decided to get up at 1:30am and bark at things and prowl round the garden; she finally let me get back to sleep about 40 minutes later.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—19℃ no rain [81.6]

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Mark And WolfGang Clean Up

Did make a little progress on the Bay Tree project.

Before that I put eFence across the middle of the Orchard paddock. Our intent is to let the sheep have half of this when we leave for Wellington and have the other half opened up for them a week later. The grass is a lot greener than in the Middle, Totara, and One Acre paddocks where the ewes and lambs are grazing at present – but there’s still not a lot of “bottom” or body to it. We could do with a decent dollop of rain.

At last I removed the shreds of frost protection cloth from the youngest Ngaios along the orchard drive. I also picked up the shattered remains of a branch that had fallen sometime recently onto the road from the  cyprus. It had been dragged off the actual roadway and was perched on the lip of the roadside ditch.

For the second day running I alarmed the homestead and homestead garage overnight but set the alarm off in the morning because I forgot to unarm it. At least we have confidence that the alarm will go off if there’s an intruder and probably won’t go off otherwise – that’s why we were running the test.

Karola put the ewes and lambs onto the lawn above the ha-ha for a second afternoon.

Mark and his son Wolfgang came and spent about four hours clearing the tall grass and weeds from the homestead back door area – where the cottage used to be. One more day should complete it. Karola commissioned this because the long dry grass was looking to be something of a fire hazard.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ no rain [82.2]

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Scurry Here and Scurry There – In All This Heat

SwimGym

Then Karola went to Napier to pick up some Karamu archaeological papers and artefacts from Elizabeth Pishief’s father – and to do a little Christmas shopping. Meanwhile I did a shopping sprint of my own: to the Stortford Lodge pharmacy for prescriptions – handed those in then off to Farmlands to get Karola another couple of litres of the anti-flystrike liquid, Magnum. Back to the pharmacy but stopped on the way to get a coffee and small carton of milk. Picked up the prescriptions and then off to the Vehicle Testing place to get the big trailer its WOF. Long wait in a queue but eventually it was our turn and we, namely A613F, passed. The back right wheel of the tandem trailer does need some adjustment according to the tester – but not enough to fail the test, yet.

Returning home I reassembled some old “leaky pipe” and threaded it through the flax along the driveway leading to the cottage. This required a multi-way tap on the corner of the goose paddock nearest the homestead garage – a three-way tap: one for the water trough, one for the leaky pipe, and one to fill the geese’s trough and water bowls.

A lamb had got into the tree planting area along the orchard drive – again – and Karola and I spent half an hour chasing him out.

Mid afternoon as temperatures began to drop I put up eFence across the main lawn and down to the little gate into the Front paddock near the road, cutting off a strip paralleling the ha-ha. Then let the sheep in, all of them, and they had a feast. After this I was sufficiently exhausted that we put off the Bay Tree project yet again, until tomorrow morning.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—24℃ no rain [82.1]

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Sunday Chore Boy

A cool morning soon turned into a hot, sunny day.

I started by winding up the (miles of) electric fence Karola had put up winding round the big oak and avoiding the water feature, the flax, etc. No wonder it took her half a day to put it up. I think I’ll call Harry’s electric fence our “eFence”, not to be confused with the far more gracious and elegant totara batten fences I’ll call our “iFence”

Later in the morning I did a little light chainsawing of the branches we cut yesterday and some others Karola had gathered down by the 121 entrance and over by the gate from the goose paddock into the middle paddock, Four bags of firewood and a lightly loaded trailer of trimmings. Karola helped with the carting away.

After lunch I thought I’d quickly check the big trailer’s lights were working as it must be time for its WOF and we might want to take it down to Wellington at Christmas. The right rear indicator wasn’t working but everything else seemed OK so I switched bulbs and tried again, still no luck. I was lucky, it was a broken wire in the plug attaching to the Landrover. That fixed I injudiciously remarked to Karola that fixing it ourselves probably saved $100. We just checked the lights again to make sure all was well and this time the other indicator light wouldn’t flash. So, another 20 minutes of mucking about and then – more by good luck than good management – the left indicator came to life again.

Karola wanted a couple of bales of the old hay we’ve got stored in the big shed for emergency rations so Bramble and I went up and goth them. Karola fed out one bale to the sheep but they’re obviously not so very hungry that they want three year old hay.

Then I decided to fetch a couple of books from the homestead, precursors to the new book I’ve bought for Christmas called “Anti-Fragility” by Nasim Nicholas Taleb. I searched high and low but couldn’t find them in the homestead or the store room or anywhere. Luckily Karola came to my rescue – I was beginning to think I’d given them away when clearing out for the Lion’s book fair a few weeks ago – and found them upstairs, exactly where they were supposed to be.

Too hot for much more outside so I waited till late afternoon and mowed the cottage lawn.

Another Sunday – all chores completed, Bramble walked, I’ve chatted to Harry, and it’s a free evening ahead.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—24℃ no rain [81.9]

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It Was 5.8 at 07:19 – And We Noticed

Earthquake at 07:19:04 made the cottage creak and went on long enough for the sheep to look puzzled, though not frightened. It was 5.8 and less than 100km from here but 150km down. Was felt over much of the North Island.

Sensing some digging coming on I replaced the handles of both my favourite shovels – favourite because they have a squared head not too wide and are ideal for me for digging fence post holes and graves. I keep them sharp enough to cut bread using a trusty old portable electric grinder as recommended long ago by Campbell Ewing. Thank you Campbell – even if you refuse to wear a seatbelt, ever. Turned out the five minute job to put on the new handles was a couple of hours as the old ones did not come off easily. The old ones were splitting in multiple places, threatening to snap and putting splinters in your hands, hence the renewal.

At Karola’s request I asked Mark Hendery to come and dig us a fresh pit for potential sheep deaths while we’re away in Wellington at Christmas. He came over after lunch and the pit is now dug. Karola went out shopping in the morning and to post Christmas letters. Karola’s sheep spent most of the day on the grass under the big oak and behind the homestead garage, She, on the other hand, spent the time starting to tidy up the store room, homestead garage, and her office in the garage.

It rained a little in the night and there was quite a decent shower after lunch; so much so that after digging our pit we decided not to do any more outside stuff with Mark and he went home. Oh, we, Mark and I, did saw off a couple of spruce/cyprus limbs that were hanging low over the track to Karola’s bunds and brushing the lawn mower’s truck when he took clippings there after doing our lawns.

Bramble accompanied me on a thistle chopping walk early evening – we finished the Orchard paddock and got a few I’d missed in the Middle paddock and Totara paddock and along the slope of the Ha-Ha.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—22℃ 3.4mm rain [82.1]

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Cat Curtailed

SwimGym

Karola has decided that the old homestead cat – it was middle aged in 2001 – has earned its rest. It seems unable to catch its own food anymore, walked around as if bemused, and had forgotten any house training it might have had. So, as requested I took it (him or her – we never knew) to the Vets this afternoon, brought the corpse home and buried it under the oaks with the sheep and lambs. Karola is actually quite sad about it.

Chris Day, Karola and my “advisor” from the evil kingdom of the Guardian Trust, was due to visit today but, just before his arrival time and well after Karola had dusted and swept and put away stuff to make the cottage presentable, he called to say he couldn’t make it. If only we’d kept our savings under the mattress – how much better off we’d be compared to the promises and let-downs of the Guardian Trust. Basically I operate a “don’t ask – don’t tell” approach with Chris. We won’t ask you how much you’ve lost us this quarter; please don’t tell us and we’ll try to forget we ever trusted you with anything. Grrrr.

Otherwise, apart from the very strong gales intermittently blowing throughout the day, it was not a bad Friday.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—24℃ 0.8mm rain [82.3]

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Of Tree Guards And Water Rights

Another blustery day so early attempt to start laying the weed mat was abandoned.

Karola found that the sheep had partly demolished the tree guard round a very nice swamp cyprus so she spent several hours repairing that – meanwhile the sheep were all penned into the goose paddock – which the geese didn’t like at all.

Karola’s friend Rowena King dropped by and Karola ferried her to various appointments in the afternoon.

In the evening Karola participated in the local Twyford Water Users meeting where all those dependent on irrigation in the local area try to figure out a way to have enough water for their crops while abiding by new regulation and falling water levels.

A Woman And Her Flock

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—29℃ no rain [81.7]

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Hot Day

SwimGym

I had hoped to lay some weed mat but the wind was gusting furiously most of the morning.

It was too windy and then too hot to do much outside late morning so snoozing and a bit of programming were the order of the day. Meanwhile Karola went into Hastings for a regular medical appointment and while there she shopped. Allegedly it’s nearly Christmas.

In the afternoon Karola made some changes to her electric fence round the homestead lawn then, later,she put her ewes on the lawn for a couple of hours.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—27℃ no rain [81.8]

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The Man Who Knew Too Much

Warm but overcast day. Bramble insisted we get up at 6:45am.

In the evening we watched a DVD Karola bought thinking Felix might like it. Hitchcock’s original “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. It was quite violent but not graphic, and it’s in black and white, quite good fun. And yes I do realise that regional coding may make it hard to play this DVD in England.

In the morning I completed the soil preparation of half the planting area for the Bay trees – what you see below is the area filled and levelled to the top of the edging and soaking up a couple of hours watering so that later this week I can put on the weed mat, dig holes and plant etc

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—22℃ no rain [82.3]

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The Eyes Have It

SwimGym – hard this morning possibly due to the fierce winds and very mild weather being quite enervating.

Regular eye test this morning. Eyes are getting worse even though I have so far always been able to read the smallest print on the chart both for long distance and close up. More damn drops. Karola has different drops but we’re both at stage of eye drops morning and night. This could go on for decades, says the specialist. Very slow, there was a queue of half a dozen people all the time I was there and the actual consultation and tests took about 20 minutes but I was there for over two hours. Specialist doesn’t actually hurry either – if I could I’d be in and out in 15 minutes.

Karola went shopping while I was at the specialist and luckily that included a book which she is now well into.

Enjoyable programming most of the day.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—27℃ no rain [82.2]

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A Hot Wind Blows

Very blustery night and all day too.

Karola sprayed on antibiotic on the little lamb with an infection.

Henare popped in briefly for afternoon tea.

Amazing how tiring it seems to be with high temperatures and strong winds.

Apart from Bramble’s constitutional and my Sunday chores not much to report today. Oh, Karola did think she’d found Dave Mitchell’s rescued kite but it was a false alarm – we’ll keep looking. Karola worked away on Christmas cards and letters and e-mails.

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—26℃ no rain [82.8]

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Stonycroft Opens As Hastings Knowledge Base

In the garden all morning. Karola has almost finished clearing round the big oak. We also moved a pile of clay next to a flax bush on the drive – deposited untidily when we were putting up railings. I also moved many tractor buckets of topsoil from a store pile next to Karola’s water feature to the Bay Tree planting area – so that the planting area can be made level all the way round.

Went to the end of the opening of the new Hastings Knowledge Bank – the repurposed historic homestead Stonycroft on Omahu road. The sign outside for the last week said: Opening December 1st1 – 3pm. So we arrived at 3:00pm – missed all the speeches but did see inside and it was less crowded by then so all in all turned out OK.

Late afternoon after Karola finished assembling her portable yards we got the flock of ewes with triplets and the eight youngest lambs and put Magnum on the eight youngest lambs – they missed out earlier. Karola then doctored one lamb that had an infected tail stump and messy bottom; she wants to give it an antibiotic injection tomorrow. (Magnum withholding for meat, zero days).

Karola’s Water feature

Topsoil For Topping Up

Beautiful Manuka In Full Flower

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—20℃ 0.9mm rain [82.7]

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