Monthly Archives: September 2015

SwimGym for us both today.

Another stunningly beautiful day – cool, sunny, almost no breeze at all.

Karola let her ewes and lambs onto the homestead lawn for a few hours. She also spent several hours mowing a strip along the edge of the 121 driveway so that she can put up electric fence along it and up to the old plum tree – the grass verges are a foot high and luxuriant. Just a month ago the grass was only an inch or two long, in just a couple of months it’ll be back to that as we anticipate a long, hot, dry summer. El Nino and all that jazz.

Anna is beating me convincingly at “Words With Friends”; Gill and I are pretty even and it depends more on the luck of the hands we get.

Jenny Price called today wondering whether we’d like to house a homeless Anglican clergyman’s family while he goes back to the UK to start a new job there. His wife and youngest son want to stay in NZ until the son complete’s his secondary school exams. The whole family and Jenny are expected here on Monday afternoon to see if we can, or would want to, help. I am sceptical. The wife doesn’t drive and the boy needs to get to Hastings Boys High on school days. The nearest bus stop is on Omahu Road, over 1.33 kilometres away.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—15℃ no rain [83.9]

Karola let the ewes and lambs under the big oak for an hour and watched them. Only ewe #328 was bad and thrust through the electric fence.

We reviewed the contract to sell 3/14 Pitoitoi Road in Days Bay and sent our comments back to the lawyer.

Karola & I used netting gates to surround the runner bean row in the hope that vermin will be dissuaded. I have more to do before I think it’ll have a chance.

George I was spotted at dusk zooming up and down the Long Acre. Karola thought it must be because the ewes and lambs had all wandered off into the Front paddock and he felt lonely so, as she suggested, I put the 8 hoggets and the 3 dry ewes in the Middle paddock next to him and he seemed to settle.

After going in circles for several days I believe I’ve cracked a small programming problem that was making the user interface defective when used on an iPad. What a relief, now I an get back to my coursework.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—14℃ no rain [84.3]

SwimGym – alone again. Karola will be able to go underwater again by Wednesday.

Grey skies until the afternoon when sunny spells dominated and it was warm out of the breeze.

Apart from a short trip into the pharmacy in Stortford Lodge and to Hawkes bay Fish Supplies further down the street, we stayed in and pottered.

Meticulous Maids came mid afternoon and did their fortnightly cleaning of the cottage.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ 0.4mm rain [83.9]

Intermittent showers today, but it was dry enough to do the docking after lunch. Henare came over and helped as planned and it all went very smoothly. The five untagged lambs were tagged, dry ewe #249 was drafted out and put with the 8 ewe hoggets and the other dry ewes, #218 & #043, in the One Acre paddock.

The only excitement was when ewe #116 decided we were not treating her lambs right and started butting us – well butting Henare anyway.

Still a bit miffed about my 20 runner bean stalks.

We currently have 8 ewe hoggets: #410, #413, #417, #421, #433, #434, #439 & #443.

And “George I” the ram and 3 dry ewes: #043, #218, #249.

And 21 ewes with lambs at foot: #003, #040, #101, #108, #116, #121, #133, #152, #209, #213, #224, #227, #229, #231, #233, #241, #311, #327, #328, #333 & #337.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—14℃ 0.2mm rain [83.8]

Quiet day after returning from Wellington. Sheep all present and correct.

On my round, “beating the bounds” to see if anything interesting had happened while we were away and when it rained so much, I found that the men who cleaned our three 22,000 litre rainwater tanks had closed off the pipes joining them and forgotten to reopen them. So the rain filled one of the tanks to overflowing and the other two are still empty.

I went to check how the runner beans were faring and found not one leaf was left. Vermin, probably rabbits, had eaten every single leaf. I shall take protective action and try again.

Later Karola and I moved the pine corner cupboard that was suspended from a wall in the homestead kitchen to a new home in a corner of Karola’s office. The cupboard was sitting in an outhouse of our house in Otterbourne when we bought it in the mid-1970s and came out with loads of other dubious stuff when we re-emigrated back to New Zealand.

All 20 Runner Beans Nibbled To Death

Pine Corner Cupboard Moved To Karola’s Office

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—7℃ no rain [84.3]

Up in good time, took Bramble for a good walk along the beach and over the hill.

Packed, Karola cleaned, and we were off towards home by 10:00am. We met Bridget at IBM in Petone and she took us to a nice cafe for brunch / morning coffee. I had a delicious gluten-free spicy kedgeree. As Bridget said, more an Indian kedgeree.

Then we went to see a small exhibition of Edward lear’s work in Upper Hutt before driving off up over the Rimutakas. We stopped the other side in a small park to let Bramble have a stretch. We stopped again in Pahiatua for a so-so cup of tea and again in Norsewood where I had tea and a gluten-free toasted ham & tomato sandwich and Karola took Bramble for another stroke and had a coffee.

It being Friday and also end-of-term for many NZ schools we took the road less travelled, SH50 rather than SH2, to Hastings. We were in time to pick up the bread and it was still daylight when we reached home.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—13℃ 0.9mm rain [?]

Karola got up earlier than usual and took Bramble for a long walk along the beach. I rose at the usual time and took her for another walk up and down the zig-zag that is part of our “over the hill” walk. It was still very very wet underfoot and drizzling off and on so I anticipated much mud if we went off the paved zig-zag and down the bush track to the Williams Park Duck Pond as usual.

We set off in our finery hoping to get breakfast once at Marsden College which is in Karori but we hadn’t reckoned with the very slow traffic across Petone foreshore. We were just in time for the ceremonies to begin.

The day was to start with a service, the college is C-of-E, and the venue was to have been St Mary’s just across the road. However the chairs had been “borrowed” from the church and not returned in time so we instead had the service in the school auditorium.

It was a communion service with an additional segment at the beginning where Natalie and another girl were formally baptised. I gather this was at Natalie’s instigation. Natalie’s other grandmother, Annemarie More, drove in from Upper Hutt to be there, and Bridget had drafted in Penny Dallimore, her friend and lawyer, to be god-mother. All went smoothly and Natalie at school is a changed person, confident and sure of herself. Penny & Bridget left for their respective workplaces after the service.

Following the service the grandparents (It was, after all, the annual “grandparents visiting day” for the primary school part of Marsden) had morning tea and were taken to see the children’s class rooms. I slipped off to move the car and returned just in time for the concert, again in the auditorium. There were songs and poems and readings, all the levels of class within the primary school had their chance. Lots of music and some Chinese song and dance. Natalie’s sister Alex was in several wielding a ukulele or saying her lines.

A light lunch ended the visit. Karola & I returned to Days Bay and relaxed in front of another nice fire.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—9℃ 7.0mm rain [?]

SwimGym alone.

Then packing and off to Wellington for Marsden College for Girls “Grandparents Day”, and Natalie’s Christening.

Good lunch at Latitude 40 South in Waipukarau. Across the Takapau Plains and left at Woodville, across the Wairarapa plains and over the Rimutaka hill. All the while it poured with rain and was quite cold, but at least there were no gales.

Arriving at Days Bay we gave Bramble a walk on the beach and then went to Eastbourne for food and light bulbs. I got a large dinner of rice-battered fish and chips, Karola had “shrimp fried rice” and we settled down in front of a blazing log fire (in the woodturner).

Fluorescents In The Garage – Both Behaving

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—7℃ 34.4mm rain [?]

A slow day, still showers now and then, more expected on Thursday & Friday.

Spent the time reading and writing emails plus a little more on my programming course.

Karola went into town with Bramble mid afternoon, otherwise they too had a quiet day, including a long walk round the sheep and orchard.

Henare popped in around 6:00pm after work – but he thought it was Wednesday so was a day early. He’s minding the shop until we get back on Friday.

Paddock Puddle

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—13℃ 5.7mm rain [83.1]

SwimGym – without Karola until her minor mole surgery heals right up – she had the stitches removed today so I can no longer address her as my dearest Igor.

Raining all day – great. But cold.

Karola moved the hoggets plus ewes #043 & #218 into the One Acre and moved the ram into the Long Acre in preparation for our trip to Wellington on Wednesday. She also wired up the main lawn and let the ewes and lambs have a go for a couple of hours.

In the evening we went to a talk at the Hastings Library – Lowell Manning on “Basic Income”. Peter & Charlotte were there as well they had alerted us to the lecture.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—7℃ 10.7mm rain [83.0]

Rain started last night and has been continuous all day – and we’re hoping it will continue for another day or so because strong drought is forecast for summer and currently the aquifers are well below the average for this time of year.

Dozed much of the morning listening to the drumming on the roof. Delicious.

The sheep are gleaming white after their wash. So far it’s been mild, it won’t be so nice if the temperature drops markedly.

Sent off letter to Ginny & John agreeing to their latest offer for 3/14 Pitoitoi Road flat in Days Bay. We shall miss the superb location but we so rarely took advantage and were not giving sufficient attention to maintenance that it makes a lot of sense to sell while we have an enthusiastic purchaser.

Karola was a bit concerned that the fridge wasn’t cold enough and we might accidentally poison ourselves with meat or fish. So now everything liquid is frozen solid, including my much anticipated rhubarb & cream.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—7℃ 27.1mm rain [83.2]

Saturday and the beginning of the Rugby World Cup. Norma Cherrington TXTed from the UK to remind us just before 7:00am this morning. Karola, who was intending to watch anyway, was in front of the TV just as the national anthems were being sung.

After breakfast I toddled down to Mitre-10 and bought 20 runner bean seedlings. Karola and I planted them – see below. They seemed very fragile so I’m just crossing fingers a few of them take. They’ve been planted, watered, and covered lightly in pea straw.

I mowed the cottage lawn – it’s supposed to rain heavily tomorrow and continue raining for much of the week, so just in case I don’t get another chance …

I also added a bit more wire up under the eaves where the swallows roosted last night.

Twenty Runner Bean Seedlings

Jenny & Noel Hendery – For Dinner

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—14℃ 23.4mm rain [83.2]

SwimGym – but not Karola because her minor surgery has to heal first.

After breakfast we did a quick trip into town for the weekend food.

Jim Cornes dropped in to see if we had any more slabs of elm left over from the big elm tree he helped Karola get milled years ago – the same tree that provided the cottage kitchen bench tops. There was one slab left but I thought it looked pretty rotten. Jim has a huge sheep grazing business, thousands of acres and dozens of orchards leased for fattening lambs. Turns out that the grazing guys Karola spoke to in her orchard recently are in Jim’s employ.

Late afternoon I put up the poles for a row of twenty runner beans. Three standards (warratahs) in a line with a loop of #8 wire fastened to the top and another near the ground. Then 20 bamboo poles, about 2 metres long, were placed between the strands of the loops, the wires being twisted so that there is a crossing between each pair of poles . Each loop of wire is like a line of figure-eights with a pole in each hole. I’ve cut holes in the turf and now we’re ready to get some plants. Cross fingers there are no hard frosts to come.

Finally I chopped up a few more slices of eucalyptus for firewood.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—25℃ no rain [83.4]

Lazy morning but it freshened up mid morning. Karola had a physio appointment and then went searching for pea straw for her sheep but everyone has run out – anticipating the El Niño drought I expect.

I took down the electric fence from round the bay trees around the cottage lawn – the ewes have had a good graze and I will mow again soon so we can tread across the lawn in safety – right now gumboots are advised.

Several hours were wasted due to a strange flaw in the web log software – posts were not appearing and the times seemed odd. I finally figured out that the posts weren’t appearing straight away because they were flagged to be published “right away” – that is, according to the time stamp provided by my computer. And for reasons unknown the “local time” as perceived by WordPress, the web log software, was an hour out. After much unsuccessful googling I happened to notice that it wasn’t a mistake in calculating daylight saving but in fact WordPress’s idea of GMT was an hour out. Very odd. I even paid to ask an online expert but they couldn’t help and I got a refund, thank goodness. And this evening it’s righted itself – and the posts are popping into view the minute I send them. What a waste of time – I suspect a temporary glitch in the set up of the New Jersey AceWebHosting server.

And I chopped a little more gum for firewood. Otherwise I carried on with my programming education.

Karola is planning ahead for her flock – how they will be fed during the summer. I am preparing to plant some runner beans.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—25℃ no rain [83.6]

SwimGym

Karola had an appointment with a skin specialist at 10:00am so we both went off at 9:30am. It was all done by 11:00am and so straight back to Karamu for morning tea. The wound on Karola’s forehead is not large and was only precautionary and will soon heal.

The two mobs of sheep have become amalgamated – unlike the local councils which are to remain firmly desegregated according to the referendum completed yesterday. Some of them came with their lambs onto the cottage lawn for another chance to nibble he sweet grass there.

The Welcome, well actually the unwelcome, as Karola remarked, swallows were still roosting on top of a junction box for the solar power, high up under the eaves of the cottage walkway. I think I cure that by screwing a disc of plywood over the box and to the adjacent rafter. We shall see.

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—25℃ no rain [83.6]

Cool night then a glorious sunny day.

Karola and I took the LandRover to Tamatea for it’s 6-monthly warrant of fitness (WOF). Later, after lunch, Karola had a hearing test in Napier and she dropped me off in Tamatea on the way so i could retrieve the LandRover. The WOF only cost $48 which was surprising – but we are regular, if infrequent, customers.

Gill & Ben left around 11:00am to travel down the Wairarapa and over the Rimutakas to Wellington.

Before Karola returned Bramble and I dashed into Mitre-10 in Hastings and bought a 150mm long cabin hook and eye, and 10 90mm long galvanised eyelets. The cabin hook was for the cottage back door so that, despite it’s gentle spring designed to allow Bramble to push her way in, it could be held open when ferrying stuff from the kitchen to the garage or washing line.

The eyelets were to attempt a swallow-deterring pair of wires across the top of the windows of the cottage verandahs. Initially it seemed this was not going to succeed as the swallows just perched on the eyelets, but later tonight they’d gone off.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [83.9]

SwimGym

Organic chicken sandwich lunch in the sunshine.

A late start because we kept forgetting things but e persevere and did more than half the usual routines.

Meticulous Maids came around 2:00pm. Meanwhile Gill, Ben, and Karola had gone off to GreanLeaf nurseries to buy some plants. Karola bought six fruit trees, Gill some red hot pokers to take back to Wellington.

Bramble and I went round the sheep – all seemed to be OK except that ewe #116 has had two nice lambs overnight: #534E and #535R. Also I noticed that the dry ewe, #249, was bleeding at the muzzle. Not sure if this was continuation of the terrible knock one ewe gave herself trying to get through a solid metal gate when we were helping #209 deliver her first lamb some days ago.

Peter & Charlotte met up with the group at GreenlLeaf and I, in the LandRover, caught up with them later at Bay Expresso on Karamu Road for afternoon coffee. Afterwards Karola and I went back to GreenLeaf and retrieved her six trees and dropped in at Pernel Fruit World for some potatoes and Ballarat cooking apples for baked apple desert.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—17℃ no rain [84.5]

Cold night, helicopters and wind machines. Bright sunny day.

We went to The Mission for a very pleasant lunch, hosted by birthday girl, Gill.

Afterwards we returned to Karamu and sat and chatted in the sun till it began to get cool. Peter & Charlotte went home and we’ll see them again tomorrow.

Soup for supper – it was a substantial lunch – and a bit of “The Last Day Of The Proms” and “Yes Minister” beside the fire in the cottage, then a (relatively) early night for all.

Charlotte & I Took Group Photos

…And Here’s Charlotte, An Impromptu Shot

Ben’s Taking The Photo

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ no rain [84.5]

Karola and I went off in the LandRover to buy another 20 bales of pea straw. We knew from last time that stocks were getting low. We set out in sunshine but by the time we got there it was drizzling and the straw was going to get wet – well the top layer anyway. So it was fortuitous that there were no bales of pea straw or meadow hay to be had – all sold out. On the way back we stopped in at Elders on Stonycroft Street and got a couple of bales just to be going on with while we rethought our strategy.

Henare came round for a chat and a cuppa mid morning.

Otherwise a quiet morning for all. Late afternoon I replaced the broken axe handle, reassembled the chainsaw with a sharp chain, and split 1/3 small trailer load of eucalypt from the rounds over by the Macrocarpa in the Front paddock.

Ewe #311 had a lamb, #533. That only leaves #116 and #249 and I think #249 is dry this year.

In the evening we all had a large and delicious dinner – beef casserole courtesy of Gill, multiple vegetables from Karola.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—14℃ 0.2mm rain [83.5]

SwimGym – but without Karola

We both did the final weekend shopping, picked up the bread, and got a new handle for the axe. The handle, from Farmlands, cost almost as much as a brand new axe costs at Mitre-10.

Karola tried to replace her broken cafeteria glass beaker in Napier yesterday and got one almost the right size. Today it proved to be a tad too tall so I went online and bought one from FishPond – it has to come from the UK so will take a week or so.

I took down the rest of the electric fence round the homestead lawn.

Gill & Ben arrived about 5:00pm. We all had a scrumptious roast “JB” organic chicken dinner with apple/blackberry crumble with cream to follow. (“JB” organic chicken is from a business recently started by one of John Bostock’s sons – John Bostock who leases Karola’s apple orchard)

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [83.6]

Mild day. Karola got the homestead ready for our weekend visitors – hot water on, beds aired and pre-heated, etc. She also had a trip into Napier to get a replacement cafetiere glass and do a little food shopping for the weekend.

No sheep news.

I mowed the cottage lawn, took down half of the electric fence round the lawn and big oak, and mowed the edge of the grass under the big oak and along the edge of the lawn where the sheep had been unable to graze.

Karola relocated her father’s war medals which was a relief to her.

Old Plum Tree In Flower

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ 0,1mm rain [83.8]

SwimGym on a cold morning – Karola did her 30 lengths but I cut my hour short so we could leave at once to get home out of the bitter cloudy start to the day.

Ewe #241 had twins #531E and #532R overnight. During the day #525E died after being trapped in the little hay shed all night without a drink. Unfortunately she got in under the railings but then somehow was unable to get back out.

I mowed about half of the usual cottage lawn and environs before it became distinctly chilly and the sun went.

We got in touch at last with the Fusion Cafe in Accurst and Karola sent them a prepaid courier bag so that they could return her LL Bean bright blue rain jacket we left behind on Sunday.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ no rain [84.2]

Cool beginning to a lovely spring day – warm and sunny out of the wind.

Ewe #227 had twins #527E and #528E. Ewe #337 had singleton #529E while #327 had a ram lamb, #530R.

Mid afternoon we went out and tagged the last 11 lambs. There are only four more ewes which might lamb and one of them may well not have a lamb this year so rather than the usual 40+ lambs we’re only going to have just over 30 – and two thirds of them are ewe lambs which is unusual.

I thought I’d fixed my iPhone last night but not so. This evening after another frustrating day of reinstallation I think it might be alright. But I got nothing else done with my programming. Annoying.

Karola spent much of the day sorting through family history and reorganising her office – the one on the end of the homestead garage. We’re also looking forward to Gill & Ben coming up on Friday for a long weekend.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [84.4]

SwimGym – but Karola still pretty whacked from the excitement of the weekend so by myself today.

Otherwise a pretty quiet day. Ewe #101 had a lamb, #525E, there were no other changes except to conjecture that ewe #249 is probably dry and ewe #218 is limping unexpectedly.

Henare called to report that an elder sister, Brenda, had died and see if Karola wanted to go to the ceremonies.

Karola did some clearing of fallen branches from the main lawn. The Middle paddock ewes had another hour or so on the cottage lawn and it was a delight to see their lambs gambolling around the garden.

My iPhone 4S is proving very tiresome. Somehow or other the Settings app had disappeared. No-one else reported similar recent behaviour. I spent several hours resetting, rebooting, reloading until by chance mid-afternoon I saw that the Settings app was actually still there but hidden inside a folder. Not amusing. A key part of the frustration was that in order to restore the iPhone to factory settings – or indeed to any different version of the system, one was asked to use the Settings app to “turn off ‘Find My iPhone’”. The way round that was not only obscure but required re-entering of passwords many times. By dinner time I had an older system installed but some bug caused it to think that most of the storage space was occupied – by, I don’t know what, just called “Other”. So it failed to reload my apps, audible books etc. Finally mid evening it seems to be behaving again.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—16℃ no rain [85.2]

Rose at the usual time. It was cold outside but too wet for a frost. The sun shone weakly. Cattle beasts and copious mud as far as the eye could see. This was Burleigh this morning.

After breakfast and a chat with Harry we packed up and I then took Karola to church in Bulls – to the service also commemorating 100 years of Lethenty, the grand house where cousin Hilary Haylock lives still, aged 90.

Karola attended with a group of friends from last night’s dinner and “fashion show” and afterwards they went on the the launch of Hilary’s new book “Ladies of Lethenty”.

Meanwhile I returned to Burleigh and then went with Harry to his factory where he described and let me see a number of his current projects and his inexpensive, almost antiquated, but effective workshop engines – lathes and moulding machines and so on. Harry does have a knack for finding ultra-cheap ways of making complicated plastic and metal parts at a fraction of the cost of conventional practice.

Bramble and I picked up Karola from the Bulls hall, the scene of the book launch, and trundled off towards Hastings. We stopped for lunch in Ashurst, a pleasant soup that was too filling for us to eat all at once. We asked to take the remainder away in a coffee takeaway cup and then left it behind on the table, possibly along with Karola’s raincoat which we will have to retrieve tomorrow.

Once home we checked the sheep. Ram lamb #513 has died; Karola suspected he would as he wasn’t very strong and had a gammy leg. On the other hand, ewe #003 had a singleton, #522E, and ewe #040 had twins, #523R and #524E. So a total of 23 lambs.

I called Burleigh later to thank Chloe for a very pleasant stay only to find that we’d left a small bag behind – I thought I’d checked everywhere – which she’ll very kindly send over tomorrow by courier.

Bruce Utting called and we heard quite a long story about how the Internet blackmailers had commandeered his aged Windows XP computer, demanding $1000 to unencrypt most of his files which they had encrypted after breaking into the computer. Seems like the best solution is for him to send the infected computer to a landfill and buy a brand new one then try and reconstruct as much of his data – photos and the like – from various flash drives and cameras. We’re not sure how his computer got infected but assume it was when he clicked on a link in an email from some bad-hats masquerading as one of the Chinese online shopping websites – he was shopping for LED lights.

A Typical Piece Of Harry’s Workshop

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—17℃ no rain [?]

Karola was up early and went off to Havelock North to the French baker there – to pick up bread and a cake she’d ordered. We packed and set off shortly after 10:00am for Bulls and Burleigh, arriving just in time for the sumptuous buffet lunch put on by Chloe.

After lunch there were short talks from family members. At the previous event in 2011 the talks had been about direct ancestors of the Wilson family. This year it was the turn of the in-laws. Among these talks was a rather good talk from Karola about some episodes her Polish father experienced in the Second World war.

Later there was a display of clothes worn by family members from generations past, the theme being “Ladies of Lethenty”, the name of the new book commissioned by cousin Hilary, being launched tomorrow. Several damsels of uncertain age modelled dresses of yore, quite a number from Karola’s mum, Cynthia’s wardrobe.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—21℃ no rain [?]

SwimGym

After breakfast I did the shopping including my gluten-free bread. Then I fenced off the bay trees so that the sheep could enjoy the rest of the cottage lawn.

Karola edited and rehearsed her speech for Saturday.

In the afternoon we tagged the remaining lambs and the hogs. At Karola’s suggestion I left tagging the ram, George I, until he’s shorn late spring. I believe the lamb tagging went alright although it was much easier with two of us, The lambs are surprisingly mobile and run away after just 24 hours. I was less fortunate with the hogged tagging because I missed #439’s ear completely so wasted that tag, and #410 jerked her head violently at precisely the wrong time and the tag tore out making a big, bloody rip in her ear.

More lambs today: Ewe #229 had #518R and #519R.

Ewe #209 had been having trouble lambing since just after lunch so, before it got dark, Karola and I got her into the portable yards and eased out the lamb. She seemed grateful and the lamb was breathing OK when we left them. If it makes it till morning that will be our 20th live lamb, #520E. Around 9:00pm she had another, #521R.

Mum Eats Fast As Lambs Frolic Nearby

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ no rain [84.8]

Went round the sheep several times. Buried the dead lamb, at last. Also drafted out #218 whom we still believe is barren, and put her with the hoggets in the Long Acre. A bit tricky as we had to go through the holding paddock and therefore play one of those shuffle-the-squares games to get past the ram. He is quite boisterous, at one point trying to charge through a gate and giving his head a serious bang. I was pretty careful not to get between him and anything solid.

We now think that the dead lamb was a twin belonging to #121.

Lunch at Bay Expresso.

Ewe #133 had lambs #513R and #514E. Ewe #213 a singleton, #516E. (She had another overnight, #517E)

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—14℃ 1.4mm rain [84.1]

SwimGym – though mine was incomplete mainly due to excessive chatting by the Gym owner, Jonathan.

I had a dental checkup after breakfast. As I was backing the car out of the cottage garage I felt a resistance. The old carpet the car sits on had got itself caught in the left from wheel, wrapping itself being the brake pad. We could not budge it. While I was out – I took the LandRover – Karola got the AA to come and free her. He was just leaving as I came back.

Peter Wiffin came and took another truck and trailer load of old big apple wood trunks.

No new lambs in the Front paddock. Two more lambing in the Middle paddock: ewe #108 has lambs #510E and #511E, ewe #152 has lambs #512E and #515R. Plenty more to come yet.

Karola had a whirl into town at lunchtime.

Sun shone and it was relatively peaceful by mid afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [84.9]

Much bleating first thing because the twins from the Front paddock and come into the cottage lawn with their mother but had then decided to explore our side of the electric fence – consequence being that mother was demanding her lambs come to heel right now, and they were ignoring it.

There’s a dead lamb over by the sheep yards and ewe #218 is hanging round there as if bereft – but as she was dry last year we’ll be surprised it it really is hers.

Oh and #121 is the mother of #508E born yesterday, and later this morning #333 had #509R. the weather is cold, it’s been raining on and off for 24 hours and now the wind is getting up.

I was delighted this morning to see that the triplets were tucked in at the base of a large tree and all quite dry.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—11℃ 10.9mm rain [84.3]