Monthly Archives: June 2015

SwimGym at the usual time. I came back and then slept till after noon – odd. Then took Bramble for a walk and had a delicious lunch comprising a large left-over slice of ham and some tomato and lettuce left over from the salad Karola prepared yesterday, on toast. Bramble and I fed pea straw to the sheep as part of our walk round the orchard and we took a photo of the Cope’s house. We assume they’re rushing to get the roof on while the weather holds. Three vehicles cruised quietly through the orchard as we went round – it’s a popular shortcut from Oak Avenue to Raupare Road to the north.

Late afternoon I set the fire and we had a warm evening, both having a good dinner from reheating the lamb shanks Karola left in the fridge. Watched a recent new episode of Vera and, after an hour or so more programming, went to bed.

The Cope’s House

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—17℃ no rain [82.6]

Another quiet day with Bramble. Another walk round the orchard, another bale of pea straw to the sheep.

I ordered 6 more portable yard panels for Karola from Tailor-made Gates in Waipukarau – along with a couple of spare joining rods.

Booked the truck with the box on a beam for Thursday morning – to inspect and where necessary clean the top gutters on the homestead.

A short shopping trip for more food.

Lots more programming.

Meanwhile I emailed Willie Davis to say that Karola was in Wellington and I hoped she’d have time to visit the flat and inspect progress. Willie replied promptly that they’d just finished the work so would be delighted for Karola to inspect.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—16℃ no rain [83.1]

Sunday – chores day, and Karola’s GST due in today too. Still that took the morning and left the afternoon free – at least until it was time to take Karola to the airport and see her safely aboard the little plane taking her to Wellington.

As arranged yesterday, Henare came at about 10:00am and mowed and mowed the parts of the main homestead lawn that the sheep don’t get to nibble. Round the eastern side of the homestead, and under the Ginkgo and around the circle in front of the homestead. Also a track along the original driveway, somewhat overgrown, to the 133 entrance. A lot of fallen leaves so the grass will benefit from being out in the light again.

I fed the sheep half a bale of pea straw to each mob, and a little to the ram and ewe #218, his friend. As the GST returns displayed, we only got the ram a couple of months ago.

Henare had lunch with us – mince on toast, salad, and a cup of coffee.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ no rain [82.1]

Walk with Karola and Bramble round the orchard and chatted to Brian & Louise Cope over the fence about the rapid progress on their new house.

Karola did some re-shuffling between her two mobs of breeding ewes to get a better balance of sheep in the Front & One Acre paddocks versus the Totara & Middle paddocks.

Sue & Godfrey Walker, over in Hawkes bay for an 80th birthday party, dropped in for a chat and they admired the cottage – not having been here since we finished it.

George I Stands His Ground

The Cope’s New House Leaping Out Of The Ground

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—13℃ no rain [82.8]

SwimGym

We woke over an hour later than usual today and rushed off to SwimGym. It was pretty empty until 9:30am when lots of people came and we went home a bit early.

Karola did the Friday dash. I trundled Bramble round the orchard before another day of enjoyable programming.

Henare came round for a chat at afternoon tea time.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—16℃ 0.9mm rain [82.4]

Late morning Karola went into Flamer to take back library books, drop stuff off at the recycling centre, and get a few more bits of food.

While I was ploughing on with programming training and experimentation Karola was out trying to find four gates to put round her grapefruit tree. It has outgrown its tree guard. So after finding that no two spare gates were the same length – all six are of different weights and sizes – Karola used four of her portable yard panels to make a neat and sheep-proof surround.

Karola had phone calls with Annemarie and with Sue Walker. Karola will be seeing Annemarie down in Wellington next week. Sue and Godfrey Walker are coming to Hawkes Bay next weekend and will drop in to see us while they’re here. Karola also rang Kirsty Faulkner to see how they were faring in the hills behind Otaki. There’d been reports of bad flooding all down that coast. Kirsty & Bruce are OK – their place is on a hill so difficult to flood – but Kirsty was delayed by cancelled flights due to bad weather in Wellington yesterday.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—11℃ no rain [82.8]

SwimGym for Karola today – I’ll probably restart on Friday.

Cold start to the day. Karola continued doing stuff and it was so cold she brought in a lot more firewood and lit the fire. Karola has also really made big inroads in organising her office – things onto shelves at last.

I had an appointment for the regular checkup with my ophthalmologist and results were positive, to my relief – it was the first checkup since our trip to Dr Helen Danish-Meyer, the country’s expert on glaucoma, in Auckland in May.

Karola and I took Bramble for a walk round the orchard despite the freezing winds. From the TV news it’s obviously a lot colder and more miserable almost everywhere else in New Zealand at present.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—9℃ no rain [82.7]

Rather a lie-in this morning but the large is on its way out. Karola went out shopping for a couple of hours at lunchtime. She’s been writing emails and letters wile outside the wind blows bitterly and occasional ice squalls slice through the air.

I wound up the electric fence round the big oak and along the 121 driveway and otherwise had an enjoyable and productive day programming.

Karola remarked several times recently that she’d like to be able to use her iPad in her office – the one on the end of the homestead garage block. Today I tried to remedy that. There is ethernet access as the Airnet gateway to the Internet is in that room along with a fast ethernet switch serving the homestead and the cottage.

I remembered that Mary had an ADSL modem / router which I’d brought back here so I found it and attempted to set it up as just a wireless access point. Fell at the first fence. I’d not retrieved its wall wart (power block) and it had an uncommon rating of 22 volts.< Next I thought I’d try one of the ancient WiFi routers from when we were in America 20 years ago. I set it up and tried to connect with my iPad. I firstly observed that once I plugged the old wireless access point in we lost all contact with the Internet. But, in addition, the iPad picked up a WiFi signal from the Airnet Internet gateway/router. Unknown to me the little diskless Mikrotik router includes a wireless chip and all I needed all along was the password. I called Airnet and with the hour Karola had her iPad talking to the Internet from her office. Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—9℃ 2.5mm rain [82.9]

SwimGym for Karola today but not for me. After a brief visit to the doctor’s today I am feeling on the mend although the back muscles are still too raw for a decent night’s sleep. Least said, soonest mended.

Colder day and occasional rain as the afternoon wore on.

Meticulous Maids did the homestead today in anticipation of visitors in ten days time.

Karola and I went to the doctor’s today – and Bramble came in the car too. Back for lunch.

Karola drafted her breeding stock into two groups preparing for lambing in three months time. She aims for a mix of experienced and inexperienced mums and also wants to keep the ewe lambs as far away from George I as possible.

Before being split up Karola’s sheep did have a few hours under the big oak again today, and down the 121 driveway but I think they’ve pretty much done their dash at that for now.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—10℃ 0.1mm rain [83.4]

Mild again this morning. I am still struggling with some stupid sort of lurgi but expect it’ll pass in a few days.

Sheep had another day under the big oak and down the 121 driveway.

Karola & I took Bramble round the orchard – looking very wintery. We spied on the house being built next door – seems to have a big footprint but then I think there’s a 2-car garage incorporated. It’s only single storey.

In the early evening we went to the Napier Planetarium for a short talk and gander at the night sky from the vantage point of Napier. By the way Matariki is apparently all about stars visible in the early morning and at this time of year they appear right close to the horizon and the Milky Way (at that time of the morning) makes a halo atop the horizon.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [83.4]

Mild again but rain came late in the day.

I am a bit groggy from a large that struck on Thursday night, but not too groggy to go out to lunch at Pernels with Tracey and Graham (of Touchwood Books of yore) We hadn’t seen them for ages.

Lots more programming – mainly watching my Stanford University course on programming for the latest Apple stuff. He’s an excellent tutor – makes it seem so obvious – but there’s a huge amount to become familiar with.

Took Bramble for walk round the orchard but otherwise didn’t venture out much – apart from the lunch.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ 12.9mm rain [?]

SwimGym

Much warmer today, as expected.

Cynthia Chalmers came round for morning tea. It’s her birthday party on Sunday.

I did the shopping before lunch.

Sheep enjoyed another few hours on the lawn under the big oak

More programming for me. Emails and other inside jobs for Karola.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—20℃ no rain [83.2]

Very cold night – I could tell from the miserly 11 degrees in the kitchen despite the radiators having been on for an hour. I checked outside as dawn broke and yes there was frost on our cottage lawn even. White blanket across the paddocks with little coils of steam at the head of every ewe.

Karola put up electric fence round the big oak tree, despite feeling a bit under the weather today, and soon the ewes were luxuriating in the longer grass and weeds – they like a change of scene.

I got the fire going and soon the cottage was pleasantly warm. We had the woodburner going all day.

I took Bramble for a walk round the orchard late morning. Karola then took her into town for a bit of shopping.

For me it was bouts of programming interspersed with cups of coffee and quick forays outside.

We started the last of three series of Borgen tonight – there are nine more episodes and nine more nights before Karola goes to Wellington to help with the grand daughters for a week of their school holidays. Also Annemarie is having an operation that week so Karola may be able to help if she’s in hospital for a couple of days. Otherwise the grandmothers try to share the delights of grand daughter minding.

George I With Dry Ewe #218 In Attendence

The Cope’s House Rises From The Earth

And Next Door’s Peach Tree Prunings Are Returned To The Soil (Mulched)

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [82.5]

SwimGym

Then we loaded up the eight lambs – 4 wether runts and 4 quite good ewe lambs (we are keeping 8 for breeding stock replacements): #415R (no-tag), #427R, #435R, #438R,#408E, #409E, #441E, #442E – and took them down to Stortford Lodge to the Wednesday store sheep sales. Very busy down there but we got our little lot off and doed between the 20 or so truck-and-trailers disgorging their fares.

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [83.2]

Quiet, cold morning. I did pick up a small trailer-load of firewood from under an oak tree down near the Scott’s boundary to the south – result of a large fallen branch I cut up and forgot about many weeks ago. Karola kindly unloaded the trailer, adding the wood to her stack along a fence near the cottage.

We put the stock crate on the big trailer and took it up to the yards where we set it up ready for loading the eight lambs for market tomorrow. All eight lambs are now in the big holding paddock.

In the afternoon Karola took off for Napier where, after a couple of hours shopping, she attended the Museum and heard a talk by a local award winning architect Pete Bossley.

Karola Cleaned Up The Little Hayshed – The Roof Still Leaks Though

Note The Snazzy New Gumboots

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—12℃ no rain [83.1]

SwimGym

At lunchtime we all went into town and had lunch (not Bramble) at Mitre-10’s cafe because it does gluten-free fried fish and mash. Not fabulous but worth a try. Karola also took back the surplus brackets from last week. Then the usual run through New World for food.

Breeding stock moved from Front paddock to the Totara and Middle paddocks. Everyone seems contented despite occasional showers.

New radio station in Hawkes bay seems to play the pop music of our university days – lots of us not-so-young-stere seem to like it – Magic 92.7 FM.

After dinner another episode of “Borgen”.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—11℃ 3.6mm rain [83.1]

Karola got up half an hour earlier than usual, had breakfast, and was then ready to get her sheep into the yards ready for Karl & Mrs Karl (Wendy) to come at 7:30am to crutch them all – except for the ram and ewe #218, his current consort who seems unable to have a lamb.

Earmarked to go to market on Wednesday: wether lambs (3 very scrawny, 1 scrawny): #415 (no-tag), #427, #435 and #438, and ewe lambs (less so): #408, #409, #441, #442. Leaving us 8 ewe lambs as replacement breeding stock: #410, #413, #417, #421, #433, #434, #439 and #443.

Later Karola disposed of the pea straw – 8 bales into the old trailer and put in the north-east corner of the Front paddock from where it’ll be easy to feed out. The other 12 bales into the rather inadequate little hay shed in the mMiddle paddock, under the trees. I wound up miles of electric fence as she did this.

Lawns mown – outside the homestead garage, under the washing line, strip between the cottage and the driveway, and the cottage lawn. Mainly picking up leaves.

Henare popped in for a chat and coffee – and a pudding – early evening.

Sun Coming Up – Wendy as Fleece-o for her husband Karl (out of shot)

Karola Sizing Up Her Ewe-Lamb Replacement Breeding Stock – Note Fetching Electric Blue Boiler Suit

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—17℃ no rain [83.8]

I spent a quiet Saturday programming while Karola did mostly inside activities.

Karola has arranged for Bruce Richardson to come early tomorrow to dag/crutch the lambs in preparation for taking a dozen more to market on Wednesday. If he has time he’ll tidy up some of the ewes too.

Karola took Bramble for a couple of good walks so she’s content and spent the evening – as she does almost every winter’s evening – lying by us in front of the woodburner.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—16℃ no rain [83.4]

SwimGym

Good start to the day. I took Bramble for a walk after a large breakfast then we all went into town to pick up my weekly bread, get a bit more food for the weekend, and take another look in Mitre-10 at shelving brackets.

We were in luck, it turned out that Karola found some brackets of just the right size, in black (the ones she bought yesterday were metallic – unpainted) – and they were cheaper even than yesterdays. So Karola may take yesterdays brackets back.

After lunch we put the new brackets up and Karola began sorting stuff onto the shelving.

The ewes and ewe lambs were moved from the Front and One Acre paddocks into the Totara and Middle paddocks.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ 1.1mm rain [83.5]

The ewes had their last day for a while on the big lawn. Karola tidied up electric fence and later mowed round the house and under the Ginkgo tree.

Karola spent quite a lot of time in her office deciding on shelving arrangments. Later she picked up the Cyclone trailer ($160 for one tail light) before going into Hastings.

Karola also made a raid on both the Hastings and Flaxmere libraries – she having relocated her lost library card. Many books borrowed.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ 0.5mm rain [83.3]

SwimGym

Later I took in Karola’s Cyclone trailer for its WOF – which surprised me by failing on the left back lights assembly. I’d checked the right indicator before I went and assumed if it was OK so would the rest.

Karola went out for shopping and she put her ewes on the main lawn again. She came back with food and with some brackets to complement the adjustable shelving on the wall just inside her office, adding support in the corner where it needed another upright of the same sort but Karola only had the two black uprights with fastening points in the same places on each upright. These brackets supplement the shelving system (black metal uprights and black removable metal brackets) for the short shelves just inside the door.

After lunch Karola took the trailer to Newbold Auto-Electricians and they have it overnight to get a new LED light fitting and replace the current one – the old one is full of water.

Next Door’s House – Timber Arrives

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [83.2]

Cool start to a warm day, above 20 degrees. Got a TXT from Gill to say they were safely in Auckland just before 7:00am.

Karola extended the electric fence around the lawn and gave her ewes a bit more grass.

We then attempted to smooth some Liquid Amber sawn timber – from the tree Karola had cut down a year or so ago – using the expensive thicknesses I’ve had for several years. We relearned that it needs a strong vacuum cleaner to suck out the shavings and we have nothing that will adapt the large outflow pipe to our cleaners – even the one I bought at the time for cleaning workshop areas. We relearned that using the planer (top) tool did not cope with the warps in the short planks of Liquid Amber. We had a little more success with the thicknesses which could apply some pressure to smooth out the unevenness. But we quickly gave up because by the time these slightly twisted and bowed planks were shaved flat and even they would be of very uneven thickness. However using the Mitre saw to cut them to the right length was a success.

We sat on the verandah in the sun for a while and then, back inside, had a fire going and I got back to my programs.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ no rain [82.7]

SwimGym

Very cold start to the day – a good frost. Gill & Ben are on their way back home – but it is a very long day for them.

Meticulous Maids came this afternoon after a three week break – and the cottage is much cleaner and a lot less dog hair around.

Sheep on the lawn in the afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [82.9]

Cold night and it took all morning for the sun to start heating us up.

I let the sheep back on the lawn just after 7:00am; hey left mid afternoon of their own accord so I shut them out at that point.

Sunday chores mainly done by lunchtime. In the afternoon I replenished the firewood stack in the cottage garage – with rather inferior wood this time, much of it semi-rotten or more like kindling than logs.

In addition Bramble and I rejoined the broken wire in the boundary fence between Karola’s orchard and the Copes’ – right up near the northern end.

Bridget sent me her iPhone’s special identifier (40-character UDID) and I registered her iPhone as one of the devices allowed to load my apps. Re-processed the two example apps and resent to Bridget. She called later to say they now loaded into her iPhone and worked just fine.

Then it was an early fire and regular reports of Karola’s progress towards Hastings. Pleased to have her safely home by 5:00pm.

A Cold Winter’s Day – Just After Dawn

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [83.1]

Bramble suggested I get up just before 6:30am – and then went back to sleep herself for another couple of hours.

Bramble and I went out about 8:30am, hitched up the big trailer, and headed into Stortford Lodge. I arrived about ten minutes before the post office opened and so it was just after 9:00am that I posted the KiwiTech iPhone to Craig Bennet over with Harry in Bulls. As I feared, the mail won’t actually leave Stortford Lodge until Monday so the rush was somewhat superfluous.

Then we rumbled off to Nimon Baling – Mr & Mrs Nelson’s haymaking emporium on the outskirts of Havelock North – purveyors of fine meadow hay and, in our case, sweet pea straw, to the gentry. We loaded up 20 bales and brought it back to Karamu, covering it with a large blue tarpaulin in case it, as forecast, rained. It didn’t – but it might.

Bramble and I strung a short length of electric fence so that the ewes could get onto the lawn via the three gates – the intersection of the Front paddock, One Acre, and Totara paddocks. Late afternoon we chased them back out again so they don’t spend the night there and maybe dream of escaping into the garden.

Otherwise it was another day of programming including a test session with Bridget which was not a great success – because I’d forgotten to register her iPhone in my developer devices list so my apps wouldn’t load. They gave no indication when we tried, just sat spinning their wheels and making us pretty annoyed.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—14℃ 0.2mm rain [83.2]

SwimGym

Then quick trundle into town to pick up food for the weekend – with Bramble in attendance.

Then a strole round the sheep and the orchard with Bramble before a large brunch – mashed potato with 2 eggs and bacon match-sticks all fried up most healthily with bran oil. Served with Heinz NZ ketchup.

After sleeping that off it was getting cold so I lit the fire around 3:30pm and that kept us warm as the temperature dropped.

Another big evening meal after a few hours wrestling with the admin of preparing my system to allow KiwiTech’s iPhone to download my app. No joy at all, just going round in circles. Later in the evening after I’d deleted everything and reinstalled and deleted again etc I let it go for the night – maybe time will heal.

Karola on the phone and she seems to have had a pleasant day too, despite the weather – which is worse in Wellington.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [83.0]

Karola rose as usual and, because she had packed and got everything ready last night, was actually on her way shortly after 8:00am. Progress report from Dannevirke, from the Rimutaka summit, and again from Lower Hutt reported that the weather was bad and sometimes worse but traffic was light and the journey pleasantly uneventful.

Karola went to Cilla Heymer’s funeral – there were lots of friends, almost all women, and many tributes were read out. Gill’s tribute was read very nicely by oe of the celebrants and it fitted in very well with other acknowledgements of Cilla’s wide network of people she supported.

Meanwhile Bramble and I were left to our own devices.

First I disposed of the remaining Scanda drench (expiry date early 2014) and Cydectin drench (expiry mid 2012). Then I tootled off down to Farmlands and got a new 2litre pack of Cydectin. I’d checked on the Internet what was best to follow Scanda which is a composite of the two main drench families. I remembered Kaz’ comment. repeated frequently, that for us the most dangerous parasite was “barbers pole worm”. I also knew that one or two sheep had terrible coughs and Kaz said that was down to lungworm. Cydectin is recommended for barbers pole worm eradication and for lungworm.

First I drenched the four wether lambs: #427, #435, #438 and no tag (possibly #415). The ram, George I, was not drenched, nor was his maiden companion ewe #218 (dry last year). Then I ran wires across from the One Acre to the yards and brought in the breeding stock. I noted that #409 was one of the lambs with a violent cough – perhaps the Cydectin will help.

I took the sheep through the race a couple of times and noted the ones that were really clean – these I did not drench: #040, #108, #224, #227, #229, #231, #233, #311, #328, #337. Apart from these ten, all the rest, including all the ewe lambs, were drenched. Cydectin, withholding for meat of 10 days)

By now I was feeling so virtuous that I also took a barrow load of earth over to the yards and filled in the empty post hole that’s been a “danger to shipping” in the middle of the holding paddock for months.

Drenching gear all washed and everything back in its place before lunch. Most satisfying. There are 12 ewe lambs and 23 ewes in the One Acre, and the ram, ewe #218, and four wether lambs in the Long Acre. All present and correct.

As the 2nd hand iPhone 4S for Kiwitech arrived today I spent the afternoon and evening setting it up and practicing for the process of downloading versions of my program when the phone is in Bulls and I am here. It’s finikerty.

Bramble is missing her mistress.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃-14℃ 0.3mm rain [83.3]

SwimGym but alone as Karola is saving her hair-do from yesterday for the funeral tomorrow in Wellington – Cilla Heymer.

Mild day, early spots of rain but otherwise cloudy and dry.

I spent the entire day wrestling with a programming problem that would not go away. I finally gave up and solved it with brute force – 10 lines of code so a big fuss about nothing. Such are my programming days.< Karola shopped and later packed for the trip tomorrow. Bramble and I will hold the fort here.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [83.1]

No ill effects (so far) from the quite hot indian meal last night.

Much milder today and a little rain.

More programming – this is becoming a bit monotonous.

Walk in orchard with Bramble to clear my head. Karola went out for a haircut and other bits and bobs. We do not mention the car keys and other things that have temporarily gone missing – there’s good days for not losing things and other days.

Warm tonight with the fire again.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—18℃ 2.6mm rain [83.4]

SwimGym – very quiet on the way in because of the public holiday.

Karola moved the lawn electric fence.

The front gate (133 entrance) has been shut since Saturday – I suppose someone was driving sheep along the avenue as they do in the winter – from orchard to orchard.

I saw the geese under the Canary Island Pine with heads tucked under their wings, out of the brisk wind.

Good progress on the program today. And episode eight of the first series of Borgen after we came back from a pleasant Indian meal out in Havelock North with Charlotte and Peter, $40 a head which I think means that prices have about doubled since we came back from the UK in 2001.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—16℃ 1.0mm rain [82.9]