Monthly Archives: October 2013

A quiet day. Just a bit of work on the gravel round the ‘waste management system” ready for adding a top layer of smaller round pebbles and sand.

Finished the current version of the current program – KHPostbox for simple uploading of photos from a laptop to server. Still a bit of documentation and cleanup and then it’s on to version 2.

Karola arrived mid-evening from Wellington via Val McKay in Masterton and some shopping in Waipukurau.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ 0.6mm rain [82.5]

SwimGym this morning.

Paul came and put cladding on the new-old tank stand. He also did some maintenance on the shed roof, banged in a few nails, before taking off. He’ll be back as soon as either the tank is on its stand or Cedarville complete the glass surrounds for the front porch.

Mike Rabbitte from Lattey Civil Engineering popped by after I called them – his small crane-truck is in Wairou but he expects to be able to put the tank on its stand early next week.

Henery and Scott dropped in – it turned out that he wanted to borrow an Allen key to fit the scope on Scott’s air rifle as the scope was out of alignment.

Very nice day, I popped out occasionally to enjoy it. And Karola’s roses make a splendid showing.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ 0.2mm rain [82.3]

I did a quick dash into Hastings before Karola took off for Wellington mid morning. Meanwhile Paul completed putting up the gutters on the big shed and started on the tank stand.

As we expected, Paul thought we could reuse the old tank stand so, with the chainsaw, I cut it off about 18″ below the half-way bracing point, The idea is to have a stand that is about half the height of the old one; the extra 18 inches is how far the posts will go into the ground.

My mid-day was quite busy. First cutting the old stand in twain and with Paul putting it on his trailer. Then taking the shattered fibre board sides to the dump (aka “transfer station”) and getting a trailer load of builder’s mix gravel and 40kg of finest portland cement. THe 160kg of waste cost almost double the 40kg of cement. Meanwhile Paul took the half-stand up to the big shed, did the measuring, and began digging the holes for the four feet. I used the tractor and snig chain to pull out a heavy old hardwood beam somewhat in the way. Once the holes were dug we man-handled the stand into place. The rest of the afternoon Paul got it all level and concreted in the feet.

Aside: Karola was persuaded that the “kauri shingles” off the cottage roof were actually cedar but Paul said that they were far too hard for cedar and were surely Kauri.

Bramble is looking sad, waiting for Karola to return.

Half The Old Stand In The New Position

Not My Mother’s Beetroot (200mm x 60mm)

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ no rain [82.7]

SwimGym begins another week – albeit a public holiday today so Hastings was even quieter than usual. Well it was until a well-burned fragment of toast set off the smoke alarm in the cottage – deafening and I could’t get the code right so had to get it from my computer. Strangely the monitoring service didn’t call, no fire engines arrived and in fact there was no sign our neighbours had noticed. The alarm went on for several minutes. The main thing is that there’s absolutely NO CHANCE one would sleep through it.

Karola spent much of the day outside with her sheep and trees; I had a decent crack at my programming project. Bramble alternated between farm dog and house dog.

Henare and son Scott, down from his studies in Hamilton, dropped by and showed us some photos of the Mahia Ormond weekend event with USA Marines – 2nd World War veterans who borrowed some old military transport and equipment from the NZ Waiuru museum and had an enjoyable reunion with their NZ comrades and offspring.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—21℃ 0.8mm rain [82.7]

Not sure why but we got up an hour earlier than expected and the day progressed very well. It being Sunday there was the cottage lawn to mow and bills to pay, and so on, and, in addition, I found time to sweep out the homestead garage – leaves, sawdust, and other rubbish accumulates so quickly. As a break from a bit more programming I took the fibre-board walls off the tank-stand as Paul hopes to reuse the wood in building the new stand. Old fibre-board is brittle so a few whacks with a sledge hammer just left the picking up of the bits.

Well Made Old Tank Stand Exposed

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—23℃ no rain [83.3]

A lovely Saturday in the Labour Day long weekend.

A man came and power-harrowed one of the blocks in the orchard where there were peaches. He also cultivated the two rows of older apple trees they’d pulled out near the back. Huge tractor with push-button operated doors and you need a ladder to get up to the cab.

The driver said he was going to do the ex-peach block and old orchard paddock nearest us too so I quickly disassembled Karola’s electric fence – but in the end he didn’t do those bits today.

The quail and pheasants abound here, have been around for a few weeks now. And Karola has seen a couple of pukeko nests and I’ve noticed a family of two week-old chicks under the trees in the Middle paddock.

Karola is still working hard reorganising beds and rooms in the homestead.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—24℃ no rain [83.4]

SwimGym

I got a TXT while at the gym saying that the homestead alarm had stopped getting electricity – maybe a power cut.

I fossicked around with the alarm manual and couldn’t see anything wrong but Karola later spotted that the upstairs electricity sub-main had tripped its switch – maybe a rat biting wiring – wh knows. Anyway the alarm monitoring people TXTed again to say all was well shortly after Karola reset the switch.

Quick trip into town – but of course it’s a public holiday so no bread from the specialty organic shop but the supermarkets are open, as is the local pharmacy.

Karola has been doing cleaning and organising of beds etc in the homestead anticipating Gwen and Bolke and the two daughters coming up for the long weekend. But Gwen rang to say Sophia had a virus and, very sadly, they cannot come.

I got the TVs in the homestead working – it was to have been for Gwen (nee Rashbrooke) and family but will now wait for the five British Bagenals (3 generations) at the end of November.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—24℃ no rain [82.8]

Paul has put up the 18 metres of guttering along the front of the big she and started on the rear.

Shane Hat mowed the lawns today and they look rather splendid.

Lawns Ready For Our Weekend Visitors

Tank Off Its Stand

Tank Resting Near Its New Location

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—26℃ no rain [82.3]

SwimGym.

No Paul today, well it was pouring with rain early on.

I contacted Lattey’s (civil eng) and they’re sending a crane on a truck tomorrow to move the old water tank up to the big shed in the orchard. Paul’s next task for us is to put plastic guttering on the big shed, build a tank stand for the moved tank, and join it up. Then we have to do a bit of simple plumbing to get a tap on the tank, to make a feed from the tank to the ancient concrete trough just the other side of the fence in the Totara paddock, and create an overflow into our tree planting area.

John Burnard called and came over because he’d found a longer lead that enabled hiim to fit the slimmer fluorescent light in the cottage kitchen as we’d hoped he would. I thought he’d given up on that, having completed all our other jobs, but no, he came back and fixed it. We told him what a big improvement the light n the bedroom wardrobe under the cottage stairs was.

Tony Page (Cedarville Joinery) and the guy he sold the business to – whose name escapes me – came and rechecked their measurements for constructing the large glass panels and window for the cottage verandah extension. Tony seemed in robust health – despite the losing of one eye last year – and he’s been awarded a certificate by some outdoors organisation who ran a “tough guy – tough woman” competition over at Taupo.

With Karola’s help the upstairs in the cottage is back together after the chaos caused by the electrical wiring changes. In fact it’s better organised than it was before.

I went and collected Bramble’s certificae for passing “Domestic 2” at Dog Training class.

Bramble’s Certificate

The Tank To Be Moved

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—16℃ 1.4mm rain [82.3]

Electrician John finished today – including a new light in the bedroom wardrobe, the extra telephone and LAN sockets upstairs, and fixing one of the outside light fittings.

Paul finished the kitchen verandah ceiling and spent a happy afternoon carefully replacing the floor boards in the homestead upstairs “bee room” where I’d removed the concrete hearth. He found some pieces of Kauri of the right thickness and sanded them and made an excellent fit.

Karola planted two Kauri and one Persimmon tree today – also she had a trip to town and helped builder Paul with the decisions about how to fix the floor (mentioned above).

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ 8.4mm rain [82.3]

SwimGym

Then took four sheep in to Stortford Lodge saleyards: wether lambs #211 and #250 (no-tag), and ewes #128 and #915. A very smooth and pleasantly uneventful task.

Paul has almost finished the undersealing (bird-proofing) of the cottage kitchen verandah and we are still waiting for the second quote for the windows and glazing of the sun porch extension.

John Burnard came and fixed up the wiring that goes from the homestead out to the pump shed. It’s connected into the homestead switchboard in the kitchen and means that we have four power points in the pump shed now – two from the cottage and two from the homestead. Then John took the TV HDMI cable that’s been draped around the cottage living room for a year and put it under the floor and across to a socket near the TV. He’s also started on properly wiring up the upstairs so that the telephone and ethernet LAN run neatly along the skirting instead of being in coils and tangles on the floor.

Noel and Jenny came by briefly in the afternoon, as did Henare.

Karola put up electric fence dividing the Middle paddock into four so she can rotationally graze during the grass flush – which is a very good idea.

Stortford Lodge Saleyards – The Small Sheep Lot Queue

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—27℃ no rain [81.7]

Karola spent much of the morning, a calm, sunny morning, spraying thistles. She can see the fruits of her earlier spraying a few weeks ago – lots of very dead thistles – so she’s motivated to get many more before they flower.

Henare popped in briefly at dusk.

Cottage lawn and homestead garage lawn mown/ My goodness the grass grows a lot in a week.

We penned up the sheep and Karola drafted out two old ewes and the two remaining wether lambs for a trip tomorrow to the Stortford Lodge saleyards – that’s the plan. We put the stock crate back on the trailer, in preparation. Karola had her flock out on the orchard drive today, giving it a bit of a trim. They can’t stay too long because if they get bored they may eat the Ngaios which are poisonous.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—22℃ no rain [82.3]

Karola was out for much of the day, first with her Federation of Graduate Women – the best meeting they’ve had in a long while she said. Then on to visit Rowena and to hear about the USA marines “invasion” next weekend at Mahia. Apparently the USA navy did exercises up there during the 2nd World War.

One Of The Raised Beds By The Cottage Garage

Below you see our geese, some pukekos, and sheep peacefully grazing. The view from our front cottage verandah.

Springtime And All’s Well

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ 0.2mm rain [82.4]

SwimGym.

Paul started before we got back. Has begun putting the bird-repelling ceiling in the kitchen verandah – while there are nice places to roost or nest we are plagued with feathered friends making a mess – well many many messes.

Karola continues in tree-guard mode and in addition had Carl the house-mover’s brother round and discussed moving the old wash-house.

Meanwhile I engaged Shane to come and mow the lawns again late next week. I also called electrician John and he assures me he’ll be here on Monday to continue.

I went shopping in the morning and got thoroughly stressed trying the do-it-yourself check-out and getting everything wrong. “place item in the bag” it said. “select item from screen” it said. “something missing from bagged items” it said. I couldn’t even open the next plastic bag – they stick firmly closed until an assistant with a wet finger does some magic to coax them open. I’m sure that with a bit of practice it’ll be quick and easy, but not today.

Karola and Jenny Hendery are out at a Mozart concert in Napier this evening.

Yesterday’s Gravel Placement

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—24℃ no rain [82.1]

Paul is getting on well with the verandah extension. He’s put up the sliding door and associated pane of glass next to it, and put in the ceiling plywood. We have one quote for the new west-facing panes and windows, just waiting for the other quote so we can decide.

Karola had haircut today but spent most of the rest of the day out in the mainly sunny weather, working on her tree guards. After lunch we shovelled the cubic metre of gravel into the depression around the septic tank. We’ll wait a few days for it to settle before we add a top layer of smaller pebbles and grit.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—22℃ no rain [81.7]

SwimGym then into Hastings for the bimonthly haircut. Anticipating our outing this evening to see the flim “Utu edux” in the recently reopened and refurbished Century Cinema in Napier, I stayed indoors all day – enjoying myself on the programming challenge.

The film, the crowning item in this year’s film festival, is a re-edited, remastered and restored version of the film Utu which was made in 1980s in Hawkes Bay. I saw again the picture they borrowed from Karamu as a backdrop in a couple of scenes. The scenery is exhiliarating, the wahine very lovable, the good brother very likeable, the bad brother understandable and Bruno Lawrence very funny. The closing scenes of a kangaroo court in the bush leading to the execution of the bad brother by the good brother as the only one unbiased enough to do it without causing further rounds of ‘utu’, revenge, was very moving.

We were sitting next to a couple from Havelock North, Leighton Clark and Jenny Williams. They were apparently also at the Sir Lloyd Geering talk the other day. Perhaps we;ll bump into them again.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [81.8]

Squally showers, some significant but that didn’t stop builder Paul continuing on with the front verandah. It was really a very good idea of Karola’s and just improves the look and the usefulness a great deal.

I carried on programming most of the day but took a break to get the diesel and petrol cans refilled (tractor and lawn mowers), fill one of Karola’s trailers with mulch for her trees and tree guards, and get a cubic metre of rough gravel to put round the septic tank. The idea there is to fill the depression almost to the top with this cheap rough mix of hand-sized down to sand (called AP40) and then finish off the last inch or so with builder’s mix – small smooth pebbles and sand.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—21℃ 12.5mm rain [82.3]

SwimGym

Gales but very warm.

Builder Paul continues but no sign of electrician John.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—25℃ no rain [81.7]

Pretty decent day again. Got lots done despite a late start. Karola is getting absorbed by tree guard maintenance yet again – if it isn’t sheepish things it’s those darn tree guards or failing that a funeral.

Cottage lawn mown – right now it grows a lot in just a week.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—22℃ no rain [81.9]

Bit of a lie-in this morning. Around lunchtime Henare came as, unbeknownst to me, Karola wants the area around the cottage septic tank to be filled with gravel. So, as shown below, Henare hollowed out the area and I’ll get some gravel next week.

Karoa went to Betty Ladbrook’s funeral in the afternoon – several of the older residents of Oak Avenue were there, Karola, Janet Scott and others. Betty Ladbrook, (nee Epplett) was married to Mick Ladbrook, the father of our previous orchardist. Betty was here in this cottage from 1941 to 1952 when her father was gardener at Karamu.

Late afternoon I finished off the little bit of Casurina clippings mulching, so that’s done for another year – or maybe two.

Round The “Waste Manageement Unit”

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ 0.3mm rain [81.8]

SwimGym – and then it began to rain, gently. Showers on and off all morning, enough to stop us completing the mulching of Casurina clippings/

Builder Paul arrived and continued with the cottage front verandah extension.

Then Henare arrived and I was so pleased because, even though there was quite a heavy shower at the time, he quickly dug the trench between the edge of the homestead foundations and where the 3-phase electricity cables came up out of the ground on their way from the pump shed. After that Karola pursued her plan to edge an area round the cottage septic tank which would be for ground cover, not lawn. And that’s what Henare did for the rest of the day. An edging just like the one protecting the bay tree hedge. Round the septic tank, shown below, and also across the eastern end near the cottage bathroom, where Karola has planted some small trees.

After I’d gathered the materials for Henare’s project I took Bramble into Hastings for the usual Friday shopping, bringing back fish and chips for Henare’s lunch – well lunch for all of us actually.

New Edging Round The Septic Tank – ABout Time Too

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—17℃ 7.6mm rain [82.0]

Margaret Thompson left after breakfast and good conversation.

Paul came and continued with the cottage front verandah extension – the ceiling panels for the kitchen verandah are not going to be here for a few days. Together with the electrician they moved an outside light out of the way and it looks better placed than it was before. Electrician John was out on other stuff today but came just to move the light.

Shane Hay (Garden Groom) came and cut the lawn again, this time picking up the grass and it looks quite smart.

Karola and I did a bit more mulching of Casurina wind break trimmings – we’d dealt with the ones in our paddock but not the ones in the orchard. There’s still probably an hour or more to do there.

More Mulching In The Lengthening Shadows

Up She Rises

Second Cut

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—18℃ 1.3mm rain [81.7]

SwimGym

John Burnard, electrician, arrived soon after 8:30am but immediately disappeared for most of the morning on an errand of mercy – someone without hot water. To Karola’s deligth he got both ceiling lights in and working today.

Paul Libby, builder, came mid morning and did some measuring up so he could order materials for the ceiling of the kitchen verandah and the front verandah extension. We hope fervently that this will mean an end to birds making their roosts in the verandah roof beams and making a horrid mess.

Margaret Thompson came again for dinner – she’ll be up here in Hawkes Bay for one more day, visiting her sick friend in Hastings Hospital.

There’s been a bit of a drop in temperature and so we had heating and the fire going – and relaxed together after dinner in front of a UK TV program.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ 1.1mm rain [81.6]

To our surprise Karola noticed that Brimar Trimmers had their tractor – one of their tractors – trimming the side and top of our tall Casurina hedge – the Scott’s side, not our side. So I was dispatched to see if our side could be done as well. After a bit of mucking about, I couldn’t find the tractor because it was for a while on the Scott’s far boundary and I thought he’d gone home, the pleasant driver agreed and did rim our side as well. So, the day was de-ralied. With rain forecast for the late afternoon and knowing that picking the trimmings up fresh and getting them mulched straight away was the most efficient way to proceed, we stopped everything and cleared up the hedge trimmings for the rest of the day.

Karola had the good idea of enlisting one of Riwa’s youg boys to help. Karola went to Napier and picked him up. In three hours we had all the trimmings picked up and mulched. Then Karola ferried him back to home in Napier.

Meanwhile we got a TXT from Margaret Thompson who is up in Hastings visiting a sick friend in the Hastings hospital. Margaret came rond for dinner – Fish & Chips and asparagus. It had to hang round for a while until everyone was present and correct so the chips were pretty soggy but the Tarakihi was delicious, as was the fresh (relatively) Hawkes Bay asparagus.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—18℃ 2.1mm rain [81.4]

SwimGym

Karola is putting leaky pipe irrigation on the 6 raised beds as she believes the water will be better directed – rather than the spray which we’ve used up till now.

The Sir Lloyd talk was in the Hastings library, organised by the Hastings Library supporters group. We met Peter and Charlotte there, as expected.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—23℃ 0.1mm rain [81.5]

Another excellent day with hardly any breeze.

Karola was busy planting trees in the morning – and stopping Bramble from promptly digging them up again. Allegedly she was actually more helpful than usual today.

Peter Offenberger brought his Dunedin friend Murray Vickers round – Murray is considering relocating to Hawkes Bay in a year or so. Gill knows him from way back.

Henare also turned up so we all had afternoon tea on the verandah. Then, later, Henare helped Karola dig up irises from under the Chinese Hawthorne – all part of clearing the are for Christmas.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—22℃ no rain [81.3]

Absolutely glorious day – decided it was time to start wearing shorts again. Lunch on the verandah in the sun – a dream.It was so calm that Karola took the opportunity to spray lots of thistles – we need to get them before they flower in a few weeks time – they’ve suddenly appeared en masse.Oh, and Karola nipped into town and got tickets for a couple of events next week and bought yet more young trees.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ no rain [81.5]

SwimGym

Karola did mountains of clearing under the Chinese Hawthorne and a spreading Fejoa on the lawn in front of the homestead.

Jenny and Noel came for afternoon tea and gave us some spare raspberry plants.

Late afternoon I did a quick whirl into town with Bramble to pick up the bread and this evenings meal – I did lamb chops yet again.

Azelea In Bloom On The 133 Driveway



Prospects Across The Lawn – North

Prospects Across The Lawn – South

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [81.5]

Beautiful day. Which I spent mainly in-doors chasing bugs in my programming.

I did disconnect the water pipe leading into the old red metal water tank towering over the old wash house – letting it empty as we consider where to put it.

Karola went to a talk about the art works in the newly refurbished and enlarged Napier Museum and Arts Centre. At last we can return to Century Cinema – there may even be tickets for an opening night next week.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ no rain [81.4]

SwimGym

It is now October for sure so, as agreed, we began on our plans for some construction. Paul Libby came round for afternoon tea and has agreed to extend the sun porch so that it encloses the old (and draughty) cottage front door. He’ll be able to start in about a week. John Burnard, electrician, has agreed to start on Karola’s electrical work – the ceiling lights in the homestead living and dining rooms – next week.

Shane Hay came as requested this morning and made one pass over the unruly grass we sometimes call lawn – round the homestead, down the edges of the drives, under the big oak.

Karola and I took the stock crate off the trailer – at long last. I took a couple of barrow loads of gravel and put them in the 133 gateway where we’d reinstituted the elm railing and in so doing left a fair bit of clay on the drive.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [81.9]

Busy day for Karola outside and me inside.

I did mow cottage lawn today, and the little lawn in front of the homestead garage but otherwise it was just the occasional sniffing the air.

Henare dropped by late afternoon for cuppa and chat.

I had tuna paste on GF bread for breakfast, sardines on GF bread for lunch, and fish and chips w/o the batter for dinner – very fishy.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ no rain [82.3]