Monthly Archives: December 2015

Should have gone to SwimGym today but slept in.

We went in to collect Bramble 10:30am as planned. Were briefed on the aftercare which goes on for quite a long time. The surgery was a success and Bramble is on the slow road to recovery. The good news is that within a year she should be back running around as always. But we do have to watch for complications – give her the antibiotics and pain killers and not let her dressing get dirty or wet.

After we got home we decided to go back out, while Bramble was still comfortable on the back seat, and buy a small Coral tree for Kirsty’s 70th birthday being celebrated on Saturday.

Later I mowed the path of the electric fence round the big oak, to minimise shorting, and put up a fence around half of it. Te sheep were onto it quickly and were delighted.

Chris & Sioban Ormond and their two children dropped round as Chris went on one of his delivery rounds. He’s a beer-maker now and Karola had asked for 5 bottles (for Kirsty’s party).

We’re spending quite a lot of time fussing over Bramble – taking her out onto the lawn every few hours for a bio-break. At 15.7kgs she’s quite heavy to lift from a kneeling position. Gill made contact a couple of times to see how Bramble was getting on.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—20℃ no rain [83.0]

We are doing the gym on Tuesday and Thursday this week so no SwmGym today. And as there’s no pool till 5th Jan, no Swim this week at all.

We took Bramble in for her surgery at 1:15pm, helps hold her while she was given anaesthetic, and then left the vets to it. We lunched at Taste in Hastings – a superior meal – and returned home to continue the unpacking and re-arranging engendered by the move from Days Bay. We took the crate off the big trailer and parked the Landrover in the homestead garage – semblance of normality appearing.

I took down the electric fence round the big oak as the grass had grown sufficiently to short it out should we try to use it again.

At about 5:00pm we were rung by Holly from the Vets to say Bramble was awake after a successful operation and we should go to collect her at 10:30am tomorrow.

Coral Tree With Sheep Al Fresco

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ 0.2mm rain [82.9]

SwimGym – except that the pool was dry – emptied for maintenance – and I did only 2/3 of the usual routine in the gym. Pool back on 5th January.

Then we took Bramble to the vets where Stuart Badger examined her and decided she had damaged her back left leg – or rather the ram had. Broken ligaments which is worse than broken bone in that ligaments don’t mend. Anyway he kept her in for sedation and X-rays and we went back at 1:15pm to hear the news. Two joints have some broken ligaments and she needs surgery on both to bolt the parts back together and encourage scar tissue to come to the rescue. The surgery alone – which is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon – will be at least $1500. Afterwards we have to keep her from being boisterous for a couple of months while the surgery and scar tissue formation does its job.

That was pretty much our day. Since we brought her home today – she is due back at the vets at 1:15pm tomorrow for the surgery – we’ve tried to make her comfortable and she’s mainly slept or lain motionless trying to sleep.

We did do a bit of shopping on the way home and I have done a morsel of configuring of Karola’s computer and Karola has done some more “putting away” of the stuff that came up from Wellington on Sunday.

Runner Beans – Soon Be Big Enough To Eat

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—26℃ no rain [83.1]

After the hectic (for us) Christmas of meals out, family gatherings, and doing the final clean-up of the flat in Days Bay, we’re finding getting back to normal a bit of an effort. And of course we’re off on another outing in a few days time – to a 70th birthday celebration in Otaki, and Karola is back on child-minding duties in Wellington mid January.

So, a slow day with Karola working hard to find places for the laden trailer and Landrover we brought back last night.

Bridget has been modelling some of the changes we’d like to make to the homestead, and this too engendered several brisk discussions.

Poor Bramble went out for a walk with Karola and got into a fight with the ram and later suddenly started limping badly – her back left leg. Karola couldn’t see anything specific in her paw and we really don’t know what the matter is but Bramble has been very quiet and barely moved since then.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—21℃ no rain [83.3]

As arranged, we went to La Cloche restaurant in Kaiwharawhara for brunch with Gill & Ben and Ben’s twin Paul and his wife Jean – out here on holiday over Christmas.

La Cloche is very pleasant and the food was good. We arrived early and just managed to get a park nearby with some shade – we’d bought Bramble in to say hello.

Afterwards we turned to Days Bay and did the final packing by which time both the Landrover and the trailer were crammed to the gills. And we set off via the west coast for Hastings.

We stopped at Mackay’s Crossing, just north of Paekakariki, to stretch our legs, and caught a glimpse of a passenger train rolling north. Not something we see in Hastings any more. He tooted in a friendly way. The Christmas weather in Wellington has been exceptionally good.

Karola, as usual, drove most of the way, taking us as far north as Sanson before turning east towards the Manawatu Gorge. This was not only the flatter route but we made the trip using only half a tank of petrol.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—22℃ no rain [?]

The day spent completely clearing the flat and cleaning it. Apart from stowing the larger items, pictured, I was not a lot of help. It was a long day and we – Karola – got almost all of it done.

Breakables such as mirrors and the TV and glass jars had to go in the Landrover so that it too was “chocka” before we’d finished.

Dinner at Bridget’s place – leftovers from the feast yesterday.

Big Things In First – Packing The Trailer

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

Off to Bridget’s in Khandallah, arriving around 9:00am to find AnneMarie More (the other grandmother) already helping bring in presents and prepare for their opening.

Lots of presents for all – in my case because Karola had kindly bought lots of items and wrapped them before we came down.

Bridget had made a Christmas afternoon dinner with chicken and lamb roasts followed by pavlova complemented by Karola’s cherries brought fresh from Hawkes Bay and Annemarie’s cakes.

Looking Towards Wellington At Dusk From Days Bay Beach

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—24℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

Breakfast at Felicity & Geoff’s place.

Then off into Wellington where Karola had to pick up some Christmas presents, books, from Unity Books in Willis Street. To our surprise we bumped into the granddaughters being taken shopping in Willis Street by their father, Chris.

Later we went to the Westfield Mall in Lower Hutt – Karola, having left her suitcase behind in the rush to leave yesterday – needed some clothes. I helped but am pretty sure it was not appreciated.

From The Top Of The Zig-Zag Behind Us In Days Bay

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—22℃ 0.3mm rain [?]

SwimGym

Then we finished packing and set off for Wellington in the Landrover pulling the big tandem trailer with stock crate and special heavy-duty rubberised canvas cover. We missed lunch at Latitude 40 South in Waipukurau by six minutes. Long waiting times at the chemist in Stortford Lodge and again at Kirstin’s Cherry orchard delayed us. We did a bit of exploring around Ormondville before turning left at Woodville.

Stopped to give Bramble a walk on banks of the Manawatu river just south of Woodville and while Karola and Bramble were exploring an abandoned cockerel introduced himself. I was having some cheese and biscuits. Picked up some sandwich lunch items at Pahiatua New World.

Dinner at the pub in Eastbourne and as we were leaving we we bumped into Vicky & friend doing the same. Vicky is Ben’s cousin Steve’s wife and they live in Days Bay on the northern side – Ferry Road.

Runner Beans In Flower

Cheerful Abandoned Cockerel On Banks Of Manwatu

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 0.3mm rain [?]

Bee swarm still in Camelia bush.

Sheep have another day on the homestead lawn.

Val McKay dropped in briefly on her way back to Masterton from Wairoa at lunchtime.

Karola did a small shopping trip for last-minute presents and then did much wrapping and writing.

I spent some time setting up Karola’s computer in the cool of the homestead dining room.

Attached the Landrover and big trailer. Took off the crate back end and replaced it with a simple rod to keep the sides apart. Put on Karola’s green heavy plastic cover so that if it did rain on the way back on Sunday, things inside would stay dry.

We went in again to town and got a few last-minute food items. Hot and crowded in town.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [83.5]

SwimGym for me. Karola is letting her injured foot recover. She let her sheep onto the lawn for another day in deep pasture.

Karola then took her trailer down to the garage – Caltex on Omahu road – to get the wheel bearings replaced so that it can pass it’s WOF. meantime I took the other big trailer to VTNZ on Orchard road and waited in a queue for about 90 minutes to get its WOF. After lunch the garage rang to say karla’s trailer was ready and I collected it and got its WOF verified. No queue at all and that took only 20 minutes.

Later we took both vehicles down to Karamu road, over the railway tracks, to The Clean car valet, to let them loose on the Landrover before we go in it to Wellington on Wednesday.

We picked it up, much improved but still not totally clean, round 5:00pm.

Henare came round after work so I could pay his electricity bill online before he lost his early-payment discount – again. He has agreed to keep an eye on things while we spend Christmas with Bridget.

Small Bee Swarm Overnights In Camellia Tree

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—27℃ no rain [83.2]

Quite a day. Karola has had a painful swelling on her foot that will not go away for two weeks now. It’s been keeping her awake and she hobbles around quite distressed. It all began with an incident while she was out in the long grass by the big shed, putting up electric fence for her sheep, wearing sandals. In New Zealand it is the custom NOT to wear socks with sandals. Something hurt her big toe – she thought there was blood but maybe it was the remains of a bee or a spider – we’ll never know. Anyway, Karola became convinced it was a bee sting and that she was having an unusual, but not dangerous, strong reaction to it.

After a week of no improvement, despite soaking the foot and applying antihistamine ointment, she agreed to see her doctor. The doctor was fairly disinterested (not to say uninterested) and just assumed it was a bee sting and prescribed stronger antihistamine tablets and some mild antibiotics. And so it continued without obvious improvements.

Last night Karola decided that the painful spot was in fact poisoned, was an abscess. This morning she went into the after-hours clinic and to everyone’s relief, but especially Karola’s, the doctor dug out the barley grass seed shown below. Good news is that Karola immediately felt better, the shooting pains when the toe was touched have gone, and we anticipate a quick recovery. Bad news is that we have a huge amount of barley grass – a bumper crop this year – and it reminds us that we have to be particularly vigilant to remove any seeds on Bramble or the sheep. It is the very devil. See photo for the size – and yet it was so deep that we couldn’t see it until the abscess disclosed it. I now think it was not a sting allowing the seed in but more likely a wood splinter or similar – the seed did the rest.

Meanwhile I put up electric fence round the lawn-gone-wild and they’re enjoying a fee days of extra clover, grass, and many types of weed.

Colin (87) and Maggie Nagel (84), old family friends of Karola’s from when they were farmers in Bulls, dropped round for afternoon tea.

Hastings Doctors’ Out-Of-Hours Surgery – Digs Out Barley-Grass Seed

Sheep Enthusiastically Grazing The Lawn

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—21℃ no rain [83.5]

Collected in the electric fence from the sheep yards across to the One Acre. While I was doing that I saw a quail family in the holding paddock, parents and about 8 chicks.

Went out to collect the mail and found the letterbox lying in the ditch. The post had rotted through at ground level. So I spent an hour or so fixing it – attached a couple of short railing offcuts to either side of the original post after chainsawing it flat above the rot.

While I was at it I stabilised the 121 entrance letterbox (used to identify the entrance, not for letters) by belting a peg into the ground behind it.

Late afternoon I decided to get the tractor and do some mowing. I mowed a strip of the Totora paddock from the cottage garden gate straight up to the boundary – so that Bramble can begin her orchard walks without pushing through Bramble-high grass. I mowed under the trees near the sheep yards and round the big trees in the Totora paddock – only nettles and barley grass seem to thrive under their drip lines. Also along the 121 driveway and this should suffice for the summer I hope.

Letter Box Re-Seated

SwimGym

Haircut – and my hair dresser for many years, Nicole, is leaving to live in Australia after Christmas.

Picked up some food, a couple of laser range-finders, and the lawn mower having been serviced. One range-finder for me, one for the More family – that is, as a Christmas present for Chris that Bridget will use. These will be useful for us here as we begin in ernest to discuss and document our wishes for the changes to the homestead.

Karola, Bridget, natalie, and Alex had breakfast at Bay Expresso in Omahu road – I joined them for a cup of tea.

Late afternoon Bridget and family packed and set off for Wellington.

I, at Karola’s request, put up electric fence in a strip along the top of the ha-ha and let her sheep in.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [84.1]

Pottered about in the morning and then Karola and I went over to Haumoana for lunch with Lis and Patrick Cooney and their other guests, Margie and Max Maxwell, Excellent meal cooked by Patrick and much conversation late into the afternoon.

Bridget then invited us to join them to see the new Star Wars film at Cinema Gold in Havelock North. Afterwards we went to Pipis and had another meal – pizza for all except Karola had a salmon salad and I had a flounder.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [83.3]

SwimGym

Then, after breakfast, we took the 12 cull ewes to the Stortford Lodge sale yards – in two loads. By 10:15am the deed was complete.

Karola and Bridget and family went off to Napier for lunch and shopping, returning after 3:00pm. Val McKay dropped in briefly on her way to the Mahia, just as Karola et al were leaving for Napier.

Bramble and I spent a quiet morning together, walking round the orchard and the paddocks.

As evening fell we got welcome rain.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—25℃ 6.2mm rain [?]

Bridget and Karola took Bridget’s car to be valeted at a place down near Splash Planet.

Afterwards we all had brunch at the Coffee Club cafe again.

Peter Fitzpatrick called in with seasons greetings from Bostock International, as it’s now called, that is, our organic apple orchardists.

Then, regrouped at Karamu, and Bridget and her daughters went for another few hours at Splash Planet.

Karola and I, after robust discussion, agreed upon the list of ewes to be culled this year. We then yarded them all up and drafted out the culls plus another couple. Karola now has 19 breeding ewes for 2016 plus 8 ewe replacements. In addition we still have the very late lamb twins, #536E and #537R. The 12 culls are in the yards ready for a trip to the sales tomorrow.

Later Karola and I picked up Bridget’s valeted car – it was quite well done if expensive. We returned, going our separate ways, to Karamu. Karola driving the Landrover, Bridget and family in the Subaru, and I drove Bridget’s Mazda.

Earlier Gill sent me a photo from Manuka Island (next to Rabbit Island in Nelson harbour). It si the beautiful and peaceful view from her window as she and Ben holiday there and Gill writes her Christmas cards.

Manuka Island – Room With A View

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—25℃ no rain [82.9]

SwimGym

I went shopping late morning, picking up a bacon and egg pie for the girls’ dinner tonight.

As planned, Yvonne Wier dropped in for morning tea, on her way to Gisborne – and shared photos of Nina, her son’s daughter with Karola and Bridget.

Karola and Bridget et al went off for brunch at the Karamu Road Bay Expresso again, and then on to Splash Planet for the afternoon.

Jim Cornes came round and picked up the 25 lambs Karola sold him. He was complimentary about the lambs size and health – which I suspect was influenced highly by Karola getting them all crutched just a few days ago.

I attempted two tasks in the afternoon. To tune up the cottage back door Lockwood 002 DX Mechanical Digital Lock, with limited success, and to do something about the swallows.

The swallows are attempting to nest in the cottage garage – as you can see (below) they’ve finished one – and they have a couple of false starts up under the go-between roof as well. My new solution, as banishment doesn’t seem to work, is to provide a shelf for them to perch, roost, and nest on that is less inconvenient than their current preferences. I washed away their existing nest attempts and droppings with a strong blast of the garden hose.

We shall see what they make of the replacement site for their activities.

Swallows Nest High In The Cottage Garage

Welcome Swallow Perching & Nesting Sites

Jim Cornes Loading Karola’s Lambs

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—25℃ no rain [83.1]

Quiet start to the day then we all went out for brunch at the Bay Expresso in Karamu Road.

All except me then went to pick raspberries, PYO at Ruby Glen Orchard in Meeanee. They returned with raspberries and cherries and other fine berries.

All except Karola then watched Star Wars movies in the afternoon. Karola applied herself to some tree guard maintenance. I mowed the cottage lawn etc – as I do every Sunday or two.

After dinner the others went to the Napier Planetarium which was a hit with both grand-daughters.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—25℃ 3.4mm rain [83.5]

Late morning we all went to Coffee Club, a cafe near SwimGym, for brunch.

Afterwards Bridget took her daughters to the end of Ormond Road, near the river, to the equestrian centre to watch the horses and riders.

With Bridget’s help I started putting together the software on Bridget’s old iMac – which I intend for Karola to use.

Bridget spent several hours with her girls practicing driving her car round and round the big oak tree.

After dinner I did a little thistle chopping and turned the irrigation on for the lucerne seed (under the big oak), the bay tree hedge, and the runner beans.

The Ormond Road Equestrian Centre

Flax Gone To Seed – Foretelling A Bad Drought

French Lavender Already In Flower

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—27℃ 0.3mm rain [83.4]

SwimGym but just for me today. Karola is recuperating from the driving and funeral yesterday and her foot is still quite swollen.

We went to see Mrs Hills, Justice of the Peace, in Percival road at 11:00am and spent the hour getting signatures witnessed.

Bridget et al arrived around 2:00pm.

Peter Wiffin came and dispatched poor ewe #322, taking the meat for his dogs. Late Karola summoned Henare and he kind;y buried the entrails – I could have done it but was glad I didn’t have to.

Karola’s sting or bite in her big toe is still very swollen over a week later so this afternoon she went to see her doctor. Diagnosis, probably a lasting reaction to a bee sting – it happens. Antibiotics and stronger anti-histamines. While in town Karola posted the signed and witnessed papers relating to the settlement of our sale of thee Days Bay flat.

We all went to Rush Munro’s for ice-cream mid afternoon. I dropped off the 2015 tax return input to the accountant – earliest it’s been submitted. Bridget then took me to pick up the bread and we all spent an interminable age in Rebel Sport where the youngsters bought items of clothing and shoes. We got fish and chips for dinner.

Runner Beans Flourishing

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ 0.1mm rain [83.5]

Karola and I drove up to Cambridge this morning to attend a funeral at St Andrews. Last time it was Nicky Thomson nee Wilson (previously Natusch). This time it was her son, Jamie Natusch, who died from a fall off the Mohaka bridge on route 5 – the Napier-Taupo road.

We left soon after 8:00am and dropped off more food for Bramble at the kennels. Bramble is banished until Monday. We had a hearty breakfast in Taupo and then drove up SH1 to Cambridge in time to change and be in the church 15 minutes before the service.

Lots of people there: Jamie’s dad, David Natusch, and David’s partner Janice, Jamie’s half brother Daniel, sister Tessa and her husband Andrew, many friends from his school, university, and beyond. The Wilson’s were well represented – Kebbells, Mary Wilson’s family. The eulogies were excellent.

We slipped away after the service and were back in Karamu by 6:30pm even allowing for afternoon tea in Tokaroa where we had tea and cake in a rather swanky retro-furnished cafe.

As we drove in to Karamu we surprised a young Maori girl coming out. She’d lost her Bulldog puppy and was going round the area searching for it. Well that might be true.

The Cafe In Tokaroa – See That Sofa

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—26℃ no rain [83.4]

SwimGym

Rex Henderson came today to discuss the plans for the “potting shed” – aka the farm storeroom.

Then we went into Hastings for shopping.

Sent Chris Day, our financial advisor, some more money to put in Karola’s new bonds portfolio. Received the delinquent Wier Potaka Trust tax return input for tax year 2015.

Took Bramble to Pet-2-Us for her summer camp over the next weekend – to give Alex a chance to acclimatise here. Bridget, Natalie, & Alex are staying for a week beginning Friday. And we’re off to Cambridge near Hamilton for a funeral tomorrow.

Worked with Bridget on getting her applications moved onto her new iMac so that we can borrow her old one and see if it suits Karola.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ no rain [83.4]

Today Karola decided it was time to make her hard choices, which ewe lambs to keep as breeding stock replacements and which to consign to the sales. It took several hours. First we penned up all the ewes and lambs. Then we drafted out the ewes and were left with the lambs. I pulled out some of the bonnier ewe lambs and Karola pointed out one or two; soon we had ten possible keepers – though we wanted only eight.

Counting the lambs and taking their tag numbers proved troublesome – we sent them round and round through the race but could not get the numbers and sexes to tally. Finally we narrowed it down to a mislabelled ram lamb.

The ewes were sent off into the Front paddock along with the breeding replacements. The ram was moved out of the Long Acre and into the One Acre next to the ewes.

Then we re-penned the ewes and breeding replacement lambs, this time in the portable yards, and carefully took each lamb’s tag number yet again, and checked that it was physically a ewe and not a wether. Then we chose the two least sleek of these lambs and carted them, one at a time, in the back of the Landrover, to join the 23 lambs to be sold. What with Karola hanging onto the lamb in the back of the Landrover and Bramble wanting to play, it made for quite commotion.

At last, hot and sticky, we had everyone where they were intended to be.

The new season’s breeding replacements are: #501, #507, #508, #510, $511, #514, #522, and #531.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—23℃ no rain [83.2]

In the morning Ginny & John Horrocks came to the flat and we discussed which of the things that we didn’t want might be of use to them. They are going to be up in Auckland for Christmas until mid January so this is the last time we’ll see them face to face until after settlement day, 15th January 2016.

Mid morning I took Bramble for a walk over the hill and we changed for the Prizegiving. We had a very pleasant brunch at the Cafe near Bridget’s old house in Khandallah before going in good time to take our seats in the Marsden College auditorium. Annemarie More, the “other grandmother” was there shortly before us.

Grand-daughter’s Natalie and Alex got prizes; Natalie in particular got a special medal – the one she collected in Auckland on Saturday – re-presented today. Natalie was also first in science and maths for her year.

Afterwards we went back to Days Bay, packed up and zoomed home to Karamu, stopping for a meal in Masterton. We were home just after 10:00pm.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—26℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

We packed, pausing only to get the lambs into the yards, separated from their mothers, anticipating Karl & Wendy would come to crutch all the lambs in the afternoon.

As it happened, they arrived just as we were setting off for Wellington and had almost finished by the time we drove out of the gate.

We had lunch at “Latitude 40 South” in Waipukurau and went down through the Wairarapa and on to Days Bay.

Runner Beans

Lambs Being Crutched

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ 2.8mm rain [?]

Turned off the irrigations. Runner beans looking quite boisterous. Loud noise from the early morning spraying machines working in our orchard and the surrounding ones. We crossed out fingers that we’d left enough room round the shed for the sprayers to turn between rows.

Karola was off in town for a while so I sat with the sheep as they had their last hour or so on the grass round the big shed. When Karola returned we collected up the electric fence leaving it all unencumbered for the orchard workers and their spraying machines.

Caught another rat (see below).

Spent a while just concocting a super-list of friends and family from which we’ll chose a few people to send Christmas cards to, or letters, or maybe a phone call – or, heaven forbid, a rushed e-mail.

Bridget and Natalie flew up to Auckland today so that Natalie could receive her medal for coming top in a New Zealand-wide science competition run by ICAS.

Rat #4 (Rained On)

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—29℃ no rain [83.4]

SwimGym

The attachment for the automatic rat trap arrived today – it snaps onto the gas cartridge and lets you know how many times the trap has been triggered. Small, simple design. Caught a rat almost immediately (see below).

Karola let her ewes out onto the grass surrounding the big shed again, once in the morning, once in the afternoon. They absolutely loved it – lots of clover and also lots of tasty weeds.

I persisted with my collating of tax information – it’s now complete except for one document promised from Perpetual Guardian real soon now.

As we’re off to Wellington on Sunday I did the weekend irrigation a day early: under the big oak where I’ve spread a lot of lucerne seed, the bay tree hedge, and the runner beans.

Karola went out briefly of the bread and other weekend food and to post some overseas Christmas stuff.

It rained hard briefly late afternoon.

Rat #3

The Trap Strike Counter

Sheep Huddled Out Of A Short Downpour

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—26℃ 3.6mm rain [83.2]

Slow morning and then worked on the tax all day.

In the afternoon Graham Linwood, architect, came off an hour and discussed what we hoped to do with the homestead. He was interested and seems to have a suitable background including some restoration of heritage buildings, like Stonycroft.

After breakfast Karola asked Peter Fitzpatrick (orchard manager) if she could put the sheep on the grass round the big shed. He said OK and Karola put up a fence and let the flock graze there for a couple of 2-hour spells. There’s lots of clover and plenty of weeds which the sheep adore.

Gill passed this on – Just what we need for moving the larger shrubs

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—28℃ 0.2mm rain [83.7]

SwimGym

Karola did emails and housework in the morning, after checking her sheep. Later she went to town for shopping and to get a prescription from the doctor – we seem to do quite a lot of that these days.

Rabbits and quail play outside close by. Bramble is quite inept at catching rabbits but gives them a bit of a hurry-up when she actually cottons on.

I began our tax returns today, starting by doing the last six month’s filing.

Karola Noticed This Trail Which Appeared Overnight – A Snail Trail Perhaps

The Manuka Along The West Boundary – In Full Flower

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—22℃ no rain [83.3]

A little rain in the night.

Karola spent the morning on the raised bed vegetable garden and the afternoon on cutting and poisoning the rush of large Scotch thistles.

I was inside doing admin on computer much of the day. I did go down to the local garage for a paper and to post a letter for Karola. On the way home, about 20 metres inside the 121 entrance, I stopped next to a large rat burrowing into the driveway gravel. I opened the door and it was then so close the door swung over its head. It looked up at me and waddled away into the periwinkle. So, there are more rats to catch. Oh and in the morning I went across the Middle paddock to look at ewe #233 who is still very much under the weather. I almost trod on a rat which ambled away, moving one a metre or so before stopping again.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—22℃ 0.9mm rain [83.0]