Monthly Archives: September 2016

SwimGym, rather late this morning and again Karola’s cold meant it was by myself.

Call from Power Farming – the tractor was going to be delivered before the end of the month – to say they expected to deliver it next Wednesday. No apology, attitude as if I should be delighted. I was unimpressed.

At lunchtime we went into Hastings for the usual Friday shopping. Mid afternoon we went to Greenleaf Nurseries and picked up our trees and shrubs. They all looked healthy.

Checked the sheep – all present and correct but no new lambs. Switched the ram & wether with the hogget ewes because the grass was getting away in the holding paddock and yards. Hope the lambs can get it under control.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—16℃ 1.omm rain [76.1]

Lots of rain overnight and heavy showers off and on all morning.

Greenleaf Nurseries called, offered $100 discount and the trees will all be ready to pick up after lunch tomorrow, Friday. With the trees I bought yesterday that makes 82 trees to plant soonest, while the ground is damp and in time to get established before the dry heat of summer.

I fed the lamb twice today – a messy affair. Karola is still having difficulty because the lamb seems not to know how to suck. You have to stick your little finger in its mouth at the same time as introducing the teat – that way lambs reflexively suck. But this way a lot goes over the feeder and the floor.

Got petrol for the LandRover and put air in its tyres – they looked a bit low, and they were, which has never happened before.

Late afternoon I finished wiring up and crimping the bits of fence on the east side of the new shed then Karola and I put on the old Totara battens – the fence is complete.

Again used the Chinese meat mincer to create “cauliflower rice”. Bramble gets into such a frenzy when we use the food processor – something about the loud buzzing noise drives her nuts. So, for $20, I got a new meat grinder via TradeMe (like E-Bay but local to New Zealand). Bramble doesn’t mind me grinding the cauliflower at all – no fuss. What a relief.

Short Fence Complete

Chinese Aluminium Mincer Creating Cauliflower Rice

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—16℃ 0.9mm rain [76.4]

Early SwimGym but Karola has a cold so by myself.

Later this morning we took Bramble in to the Vets for her small op to remove most of the hardware in her leg, it now being healed up.

We finished doing the rounds of the local plant nurseries checking whenter the trees and shrubs we want are available and how much they cost.

• Mitre-10 Mega: the Hastings branch and also the Napier branch done yesterday, they both said they’d ring back but didn’t. Where I usually go for plants, not trees
• Green Door: also yesterday, on the road to Havelock North
• Oderings: off Pakowhai road
• The Garden Depot: on Pakowhai road, just near the end of Evenden road
• Palmers: beside the first roundabout on the expressway to the airport
• Greenleaf: where I usually go for trees, on the road to Clive

The only really satisfactory one was Greenleaf – they had almost everything we asked for and prices were not too bad for all except the French Lavender. The French Lavender I got today from The Plant Centre along with 6 small Totara trees for Karola. The rest I’ve ordered from Greenleaf and should hear more about tomorrow.

List of plants:

The lamb Hilary has never drunk very well for Karola so today I had a go. Made the teat opening much larger, stuck my little finger into the back of her mouth and the milk just vanished. Also the brew I gave Hilary was much stronger – more powder – than Karola had been offering. Karola goes to Wellington on Sunday so I’m hoping that Hilary has decided she likes to drink before then.

Retrieved Bramble from the Vets late afternoon, all done and will be healed up in a few days.

Later I crimped up the short wire and batten fence alongside the new shed. It just needs the battens now. Still numerous showers that are keeping everything damp.

Fifteen Lavender and Six Totara 

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—15℃ 13.0mm rain [76.5]

So we were up in good time, but no food or drink with caffeine for Karola. Off to the hospital arriving 30 minutes early. Wait of about an hour with nothing except filling in a short form and watching three other people go in ahead of Karola. Then another long wait and after approximately 3 hours this allegedly quick max 30 minutes procedure scanning Karola’s heart was done. The actual scan was completed in a few minutes. Still, everyone was very nice and polite.

In the afternoon I rushed off to town to get prices and availability on a few trees. I did Mitre-10 and then realised that the Clinton-Trump debate was due to air at 2:00pm NZ time so I rushed back home.  Saw the debate on TV with a backup steamed off the Internet to another TV. Ninety minutes and I guess Hilary Clinton just about came out on top – except that Donald Trumps supporters are not renown for caring about facts and details so it may make little difference to their overall standings.

Afterwards we went back into town so I could finish my earlier mission – a visit to Green Door and the same tree questions, then food from New Wold and off home. In between times the lamb was given a feed. And intermittently it rained.

When out with Bridget I happened to spy the crisp wallets that Natalie and Alex had for their iPhones – off TradeMe for a few dollars. So when I came home I ordered one for myself – to protect the iPhone and hold a  of credit card and driving license so I could leave my heavy wallet at home most of the tie.

Very Nice iPhone Wallet Arrived Today

Lamb Hilary’s Mum Died On Sunday 25th September

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—14℃ 5.7mm rain [76.4]

SwimGym, just me and mid-morning. I got up early but then dozed until time to take Bramble to the Vets. We did remember this time. Stuart Badger checked her out and was very pleased with how the leg had healed up. I helped him x-ray the leg and based on that he suggested removing the two screws now surplus to requirements so we have another visit on Wednesday to do that. Not a big deal, a tiny bit of surgery.

Rest of the day for Karola was mostly just cleaning and tidying up after the Sunday gathering. Meticulous Maids came just after lunch and cleaned in the homestead taking particular care to remove all crumbs – there’s evidence of rodential activity which must not be encouraged.

Jonathan McKay told Karola that the homestead downstairs hot water was really very hot so I turned down the thermostat.

Karola set up a pen on the cottage lawn and, in between a few rain showers, put the lamb out there. She also fed it about six times today and it’s nibbling grass so omens are good. I buried the mother ewe #231 in Henare’s splendid death pit – very muddy work.

I also did a bit of straining upright of the same post I worked on yesterday – this time it was leaning at cross-purposes to the fence so I pulled it up and whacked in a big peg to stop it leaning over again. The gate now shuts cleanly against all the slam post. And spent quite a time looking up hedging plants and walking round calculating how many of each variety I’ll need. Kanuka (30) to fill gaps in the 250 metre long planting area at the west boundary, Pittisporum (9) to put outside the railings at the 133 entrance. and a dozen shrubs to in-fill the bay tree hedge around the cottage lawn – oh and some ground cover plants – lavender and prostrate rosemary – to cover the spots between bay trees. That’s today’s plan anyway.

Gill & Ben safely home from Perth and resting.

Gill’s Damson Tree In Blossom

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—13℃ 1.7mm rain [76.8]

This is Karola’s big day. She instigated the co-opting of a regular Sunday service at the Ormond Chapel on the bluff at Napier to become a remembrance of Alexander Ormond, one of the family who went off to war in World War I and was killed, along with thousands of other New Zealanders, at the Somme. The clergy and parishioners enthusiastically embraced the idea and the Ormonds, especially the Mahia members of the family, were very well represented. There were more than 30 Ormond family members who attended, swelling the usual congregation of 3 – 6.

Karola invited them back to Karamu afterwards and 12 cars came – more than 20 people, mostly locals. It was a pot-luck meal so in addition to what Karola prepared there were plenty of other dishes and packets. To mark the entrance on Ormond Road we put a small umbrella on the 121 entrance and parked the Landrover opposite the entrance with its hazard lights flashing. No-one reported any problem in finding us.

Henare came to the church and he and Denise came to the pot-luck lunch, Denise contributing a popular bacon & egg pie. Two of Henare’s sisters were here – Irene Bird and Ira – Ira with three grandchildren in tow – mokopuna.

I got up at the usual time which, it being the beginning of daylight saving, was an hour earlier than yesterday. I changed as many clocks as I could find before breakfast. Before we set off for the chapel – the service began at 11:00am –  I did manage to get in half an hour on the fence near the new shed, straightening up the strainer at one end.

After the guests had gone I went round the sheep and foud that ewe #443 had lamb #617E and #410 had a lamb, #618R. Also ewe #231 died under the Macrocarpa tree in the Front paddock a few hours earlier. It took me 30 minutes to catch her lamb and now Karola has another mouth to feed, lamb #614E.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—12℃ 4.1mm rain [76.6]

SwimGym, just me and on a Saturday because we missed the Friday session as we were on our way back from Wellington. Spoke to Bob Masters who came and had a look at the lucerne paddock on Friday. He says the weed killer didn’t do a very good job and right now it’s too wet after recent rain to take the next step. I had a look and agree that the glyphosate has been only patchily effective – maybe a second application would be prudent.

Henare came and mowed the circle in front of the homestead and then started weeding the border round the homestead verandah. He wants it to look cared for when his relations come here tomorrow after the chapel service remembering Alexander Ormond. The chapel, up on the Napier bluff, was named after Alexander Ormond who was killed in the first world war about 100 years ago.

I worked on the post & batten 7-wire fence protecting the new shed. That included a couple of small posts and the 7 wires, strained up but not yet crimped. Karola continued preparation for the pot-luch lunch tomorrow at the homestead. We don’t know how many Ormonds will come to the chapel tomorrow, nor how many will continue on to the pot-luck lunch. But the service has been publicised to the family members by email (using Arthur Ormond’s 120-name mailing list) and on Facebook.

Val McKay nee Ormond and one of her son’s, John, came up tonight from Masterton. They’re spending the night and attending the chapel and pot-luck lunch tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—14℃ 5.0mm rain [77.3]

No SwimGym today

Left Silverstream around 8:30am and pootled up to Woodville, over the Rimutakas and through the flat country of the Wairarapa. Then on to Waipukurau where we stopped for lunch. Our favourite restaurant there, Latitude 40 South, has moved down the road into the Civic Theatre building. The menu was almost the same, the food was good, but the decor is rather downbeat – not shabby but a rather naff style.

Got back around 1:430pm. Henare TXTed asking if we had anything for him to do today as he’d finished in the orchards for the week. We said yes and he came around 2:30pm and we worked on the fence round the new shed until 6:30pm, by which time Henare had put in three small intermediary posts in the railings section and installed three stay posts for the wire-and-batten piece.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—15℃ no rain [?]

Up in good time to set off at 8:15am for Karori, getting to St Mary’s in the nick of time at 9:00am for the annual christenings. Alex and two other girls were christened, two other girls had their christenings affirmed – they’d been christened as babies. Not too long and everyone behaved and there was quite a lot of singing.

And then it was time for morning tea in at Marsden and Bridget & Penny (Alex’ godmother) left for their respective workplaces. Bridget, as a mum, had made egg-mayonnaisesandwiches for the morning tea and she also sent in rice crackers with a bowl of the egg-mayonnaise for those needing “gluten-free”, that is, for me. Delicious. The only other gluten-free items on offer were chocolate brownies – nice but very full of sugar.

After morning tea we were led to Alex’ classroom and her teachers. Karola and Annemarie interacted as expected. At 11:00am we filed off to the auditorium where the Primary school pupils and teachers entertained us with a concert celebrating the last academic year. Lunch, actually more of the morning tea, was at 12:00pm.

In the afternoon we went to the New Zealand branch of upmarket apartment store David Jones which has  has replaced Kirkaldies on Lambton Quay. We then went to Te Papa for a coffee and I sat in comfort while Karola and Annemarie went off and looked at pictures on the floors devoted to art. Bridget finished work, picked up her daughters from Marsden, and then went out to the airport to pick up Chris. We arranged to meet at a restaurant in upper Willis street, the Bresolin. Superb food and not noisy, and easy parking – excellent. Afterwards we drove back to Annemarie’s for another relatively early night.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—14℃ no rain [?]

SwimGym

We took Bramble over to the Pet2Us kennels in Meeanee – Bramble seemed happy enough to stay there. I checked the sheep and combination-locked the vehicle gates – the ones wide enough to admit a vehicle. Karola TXTed Chris Ormond who is going to bring his daughters over tomorrow to check on the sheep. I let HHS (Havelock Hills Security) know we were off for a couple of days.

Then we packed for Wellington and set off late morning. It was pouring with rain and Karola drove the whole way – to Silverstream where we stopped for the night at Annemarie More’s house.

On the way down we began listening to another Anthony Price audio-book, “A Different Kind Of War”. His books do tend to ramble interminably but, nevertheless, I like them. We stopped for a light lunch at the Cafe in the museum in Masterton. Upon arrival we went out early for a pleasant meal at The Silver Spoon and then went to bed early.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—10℃ 19.8mm rain [76.3]

We forgot Bramble’s vet appointment yesterday afternoon so went in this morning and apologised profusely and got her another appointment next week. Bramble goes to the kennels for two days tomorrow and we go to Wellington for the Marsden “grandparents day” and Alex’ confirmation ceremony. We’re staying in Upper Hutt with Annemarie tomorrow night, attending the ceremonies on Thursday morning, returning to Karamu in the afternoon.

My online-ordered foot-operated door stop for the new shed arrived today. Well it was the right supplier, the right name on the product label, but not the right part. Instead of the left-handed wall-mounted door stop (black) I got an extension accessory for existing door stops. I spoke to the distributor and, the ‘right’ person being out to lunch they said they’d ring back – this was just after lunch. No call so late afternoon I tried again several times on my mobile – got the out-of-service tone each time. Tried the land-line and got through to the precise person I wanted who said theuir computers and phones had been out all afternoon. She was very apologetic and helpful and a replacement, the right part, will be on its way shortly along with pre-paid courier bag for the return. In the end a pleasant experience due mainly to the attitude of the person I spoke to.

Took my best reading specs in to optometrists – kneeled on them and broke off one arm, or temple as it’s known in the trade. Also got a replacement power wart for my Belkin USB hub – finally tracked down why fewer and fewer things seemed to work when plugged into the hub but did work plugged into other USB ports. A dead power supply. All fixed now.

Karola went out round the sheep (no changes) and then round the orchard with Bramble. Around that time, daydreaming, I came down the cottage stairs and slipped on the third from bottom one, landing on my side.. Gave my head a real thump on the wooden floor and mildly strained three fingers on my left hand. Otherwise shaken but unharmed.

Later I finished the mowing I began yesterday – the cottage lawn. Karola and I then began constructing the short bits of fence to complete the fences around the new shed.

Today’s Mowing

Some Of Yesterday’s Mowing

A Start On The Post, Wire, And Batten Fence

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—14℃ 3.5mm rain [75.3]

SwimGym

After breakfast went into town to get tonight’s fish, and to get my long auger sharpened – it’d become almost unusable because I’d blunted the tip on too many wires and staples while drillig holes right through strainer posts for gate gudgeons. Then went to Mitre-10 for a grease-gun – the one I inherited here is very old and I suspect broken, it also needs packing with grease rather than accepting a cartridge. Got 200 more 4” outside woodscrews and a centre-punch. My hole punches are all designed for banging nail heads below the surface but I need something to start a hole when drilling into metal.

Adjusted catch on the front (133 entrance) gate and wired up bottom gudgeon so gate cannot easily be lifted off its hinges. Also adjusted the long gate from the new shed into the goose enclosure, adding a catch and making it sit higher off the ground. Also stuffed wires into the wall and put on the wall plate for the security and ethernet cables in the new shed – left exposed by mistake by the Cook brothers.

Mowed the grass, everything I usually do except the cottage lawn itself. We’re well into the spring flush and the grass is growing very quickly.

CooksAVS Didn’t Finish The Job

Striking Magnolias Next To The Ha-Ha

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—17℃ no rain [76.1]

Karola opined that the front gate, the 133 entrance gate, was drooping so today I rehung it and it now has a slightly upwards demeanour. In so doing I had to redrill the gudgeon holes higher up so I probably need to build up the driveway beneath the gate.

Henare arrived just as I was finishing the front gate and so we started putting up the new shed railings starting with two very carefully positioned half-round posts to hold the three 3-metre sections of railings. We cut three sections of railing to act as a template for where these posts should go. Meanwhile I hung the long gate adjoining the railings. After lunch we cut the rest of the railings to size and, after some steady rain that eventually ran out of puff, screwed on the rails. It all worked out very well and all I have to do now is add three intermediary posts and screw the rails to them.

A retired couple came to see Karola about making Karamu a stop on an antique car outing in November.

Henare and I also put up a replacement curtain rail over the cottage front door. Later Karola started sewing the rings onto the heavy curtain she uses to keep out the significant drafts round the edges of the front door.

No more lambs today.

Front Gate At A More Jaunty Angle

Gate & Railings Pretty Much Complete

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—20℃ 6.8mm rain [75.9]

Jeff Rencontre came again today to do a bit more on his marvellous restoration of my rimu map cabinet.

Lambs tagged & docked, all except ewe #311’s ram lamb #616 born today. Several had very blocked tails and we spent more time, me holding & Karola snipping & washing, trying to freee the tails up and get the worst off. Not at all pleasant.

Fixed Caravaggi chipper/shredder so that bolts do not work loose again – using Loktite. When next I need to unscrew these bolts I’ll have to heat them up.

Ordered a foot-operated door back-latch, SlamClick brand, same as the ones on the homestead garage, for the farm shed. They are excellent.

Map Cabinet – Sanded & Varnished Professionally

Royal Blue Map Cabinet Drawer Fronts

Fifteen Lambs Tagged & Docked

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—20℃ 0.1mm rain [75.9]

SwimGym

Presumably we went into town and picked up the GF bread and food for the weekend. However we were back for the inspection, just loitering around. Paul the builder came and Jeff the painter popped in too.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—18℃ no rain [?]

Rain overnight but another very nice day.

Painter Jeff came and did some more “final” bits of painting on the new shed. Rain damaged a bit he did yesterday and so he’ll be back on Saturday to remedy that. Meanwhile he has made great progress on the rimu map cabinet – it’s looking splendid.

Aaron, Power Farming sales, rang to say the tractor will be delivered late September.

Bramble started limping this morning, on the mended leg, so that spurred me to get her another checkup (next Monday), The limp gradually diminished during the day so I suppose she just strained it a bit and it’s recovered.

More lambs today but Karola reported all present and correct. It’s past time to tag and dock them – at least the earliest ones.

Karola wants the homestead sun porch back – I’ve been using it to store obsolete and broken electrical/electronic stuff. So she loaded it into the back of the car – it only just fitted – and we went down to the E-Waste drop-off point. Five computers, two multifunction printers, a dozen networking boxes, three stereo systems or parts thereof, two computer monitors, and on, and on. We paid them over $200 for the pleasure but Karola is happy.

I opened up the Caravaggi chipper/shredder but could find no damaged or loose parts, except perhaps that a number of the bolts holding the main flywheel in place had loosened and maybe one of them was scraping on the faceplate. As usual I cut myself on one of the stainless steel tempered sharp blades – little finger to the bone. I also wrecked one of the little fastening bolts by tightening it with its Allen key until the key slipped – that’s when I got cut. Now I can’t undo that bolt. I should hate that machine.

Final inspection of the new shed is scheduled for tomorrow. Not necessary, but, for looks I guess, I removed the boxing round the concrete ramp and piled up gravel against the lip.

Late afternoon I deconstructed the temporary netting fence protecting the new shed – rolled up the netting, pulled out the standards.

Rosemary & Muehlenbeckia – Spring Is Sprung

Old Plum Tree In Full Bloom

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—18℃ 0.5mm rain [76.4]

At Karola’s request we are now practicing for daylight saving in a couple of weeks time, getting up an hour earlier.

SwimGym

Quite a hectic day.

At breakfast saw a small covey of Californian quail pecking for food on the drive alongside the flax and firewood stacks leading to the new shed. To our annoyance a large magpie appeared and literally chased them off. It actually lunged at quail after quail. They scattered into the flax but the magpie followed. Then the covey flew away.

In the morning Bob Masters came to spray the One Acre ready for cultivation in abut ten days time. We were expecting Murray Cranswick but in the end Bob just borrowed his tractor & spray equipment..

Jeff Rencontre came – only a day late – and continued his very thorough “old school” painting of the new shed. In addition Karola got him to paint a couple of well constructed kitchen chairs that had been a nasty pink and birdshit-spattered. They are now a gleaming Karaka green. I asked Jeff to take on the map cabinet that’s been languishing in the homestead sun porch for weeks. I’d like that to be natural rimu wood where practical (eg the top) and a deep glossy blue otherwise. I have spent much energy trying to remove the paint with limited success. Jeff likes the challenge.

To my surprise, and for reasons that are a bit confusing, involving medicine for Scott’s eczema and rivalry in the orchard where Henare is working, Henare offered to work here today and I lept at the chance. Henare put in one strainer post before lunch and another after lunch. He also moved Paul’s substantial over-order of weatherboard from the new shed lean-to to the east verandah of the homestead. Karola has asked Paul to use some of it to patch the south side of the homestead where the cottage used to be attached, so the spare weatherboard, already primed, will be easier to reach on the east verandah.

Both Jeff & Henare take water from our bore to use at home because the chlorination of the town supply due to outbreaks of notifiable diseases from contamination make it taste horrid.

Bramble got excited about something in the firewood stacked along the inside of the driveway fence leading to the new shed. I investigated and it was a quail. Perhaps it had sought refuge from the magpie (above) and dislodged wood, trapping itself. Anyway I gently pulled out pieces of firewood around it and lifted it out; it flew away, not obviously damaged by its ordeal. Bramble was not best pleased.

No change in the sheep today – 16 ewes and 15 lambs, five of the ewes still to lamb.

Karola & I finished the short railings that complete the fence between the Middle paddock and Goose Enclosure. We also spent quite a bit of time moving wood and apple boxes and the stock crate out of the way so we could measure clearly were we wanted Henare to put in the strainer posts. These posts create a rectangle of clear space around the east side of the new shed, keeping out the sheep and making access to the lean-to easy.

Mid afternoon I was called by Aaron White, sa salesman from Power Farming and we agreed to the sale of  a Kioti CS2610 tractor with grass mower and front-end loader and rear 3-point linkage and PTO. I toddled down to the office and signed. Tonight I made the bank transfer, $25,668 but only $22,320 before GST. I requested he throw in a mulching attachment for the mower and an extension to the towbar fitting, to be included in the original price.

Next Door (Copes) Plants Apples In Craig’s Old Vege Patch

Short Railings Complete Fence Dividing Middle Paddock & Goose Enclosure

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—20℃ 3.0mm rain [76.3]

Ivan the electrician and his mate arrived and spent the morning finishing the electrical wiring to the new shed. No sign of painter Jeff Rencontre today, nor is he answering his phones.

One more lamb, ewe lamb #616 to ewe #327.

After lunch Aaron White from Power Farming arrived with the little tractor. I had a test mow in the Goose paddock. It is fast but doesn’t have a particularly smooth cut. We tried pulling one of Karola’s trailers but the hitch is a bit too low and near the PTO so if we bought it I think we’d want the tow bar lengthened and raised in height. Also we’d want the mulching attachment that Power Farming can make locally – rather than it spitting out hay which would smother the grass it lay upon.

Attached the Caravaggi chipper. The Kioti lifted it without fuss, the chipper weighs 300kg and the Kioti specifies it’ll lift 318kg. However when we tried to set the chipper going it made nasty metallic graunching sounds so I’ll need to find out what has come loose inside it tomorrow.

I picked up the replacement seat cushion for the Fergie from Power Farming. The old one is in such bad shape after a decade in the elements. I also dropped in on Ceres (John Deere) and Norwoods (Kubota) and picked up their latest prices for something almost identical to the Kioti CS2610 from Power Farming. The quotes were a little lower than Power Farmings, but within 10%.

Dug in two hefty half-round 1.8m posts to bear the short railings that join the north-south fence up from the Long Acre to the new shed. Put up the top rail and intend to finish it tomorrow.

Completed a backup of both my Macbook Pro & Karola’s Mac Mini today.

Power Farming’s Kioti CS2610 – Minus Its Front-End Loader

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ no rain [77.0]

SwimGym – a good session today, Karola did a full 20 lengths & I completed my half-hour HIIT routine.

I called Bob Masters and he arranged to come tomorrow to spray the One Acre. Later he called to say his little tractor had sprung an oil leak – a gasket had failed – but that he’d arranged for Murray Cranswick to come in his stead only on Wednesday morning.

Paul and a concrete truck arrived and the ramp up to the new shed was poured. Paul finished smoothing it over and then went off for a couple of hours, returning to carefully add a brushed texture to the surface, an anti-skid texture. Paul said that Ivan the electrician had agreed to come tomorrow morning to connect up the new shed mains and on Friday the inspector would be coming to give us final approval. Oh and painter Jeff Rencontre told Paul he intends to come tomorrow for one last day of painting.

Karola & I moved the trough and portable yards out of the One Acre in preparation for spraying. We set up portable yards at the north west end of the Front paddock ready for tagging the lambs. No additional lambs today though.

I contacted Gaylene and Iain Middleton last night. I went to school with Iain but haven’t seen or spoken to him since then – maybe 1962. They are heavily involved in the UBI discussion in New Zealand and are founder members of the organisation BINZ. UBI is a topic which interests me too. I had an exchange of emails with Gaylene.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage today.

Power Farming are expected here tomorrow afternoon to show off the Kioti small tractor and see if Karola can be persuaded to drive it.  Norwood (agents for Kubota tractors) called and enquired whether I’d received their quote for a tractor – I’d given the same RFP to Norwoods, Ceres (John Deere agent), and Power Farming. Norwoods are sending more info shortly.

Paul Creating The New Shed Entrance Ramp

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—16℃ no rain [77.3]

An absolutely gorgeous spring day – warm sunshine and hardly any breeze. Henare volunteered to come round and get the gate up in the repositioned railings fence. Meanwhile Karola went off to the Ormond Chapel in Napier for the Sunday service.

Henare had to put in the large strainer gatepost twice to get it in the right position so that the gate swung true and reached across to the matching slam post. After he’d put these posts in and we’d hung the gate, using the same holes as last time, I added the two hasps – one to hold it open, one to hold it closed, and the twist of #8 wire through a hole in the bottom gudgeon so that when chained up no bright spark could just lift it off its hinges. Karola was out for a long time at the service and then at Countdown supermarket so I cooked scrambled eggs and bacon for the three of us for lunch.

Finished Gateway

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [76.7]

Gill & Ben set off for their holiday in Perth this morning. Nasty cold and wet morning. Two more ewes lambed last night: #043 had twins #610 & $611, #229 had twins #612E & #613R.

I popped into town, running into the preparations and road closures for todays Hastings Blossom Parade, and as well as picking up this years sheep tags from Farmlands, also bought a new Makita 18v cordless power drill from Hector Jones and, from Mitre-10, 100 more big screws for fastening railings.

We pottered about but were driven back inside by bitter showers every hour or so.

Henare unexpectedly offered to come round mid afternoon and we added the small bracing posts to the repositioned railings – very helpful because the longer the railings are left without those intervening bracing posts the more likely that they will warp and bend.

Henare Completing The Repositioned Railings

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—12℃ 0.2mm rain [76.8]

SwimGym – but beastly weather and Karola stayed tucked up warm in bed.

Ewe #439 had ram lamb #609R overnight. Mother and lamb bonny despite the freezing wet conditions.

Karola, Bramble and I did the weekend shopping just before lunch. Kirsty called from their car on the way up to Wairoa to see if we could meet for lunch, which we did, they arrived just after we got back from shopping and we had a pleasant light lunch.

Cold showers all day but between the showers we did get some things done. We separated out the ewe hoggets from the rest and bunged them in the Long Acre, moving the ram and wether to the Holding paddock as part of this manoeuvre. Then all the ewes were given free reign of the Middle and Front paddocks. They immediately rushed to stake out possies under the Macrocarpa and Eucalypts at the east end of the Front paddock.

Ben from AONet came round to make the physical switchover for our landline – from copper to VOIP wireless. Turned out that the existing connection went first to the homestead, then across to the homestead garage, and from there up to the cottage. All working now although there was an initial hiccup – no Internet access – because Ben had inadvertently bumped a power plug and a key networking box had thereby been turned off. We were alerted to this by Havelock Hills Security – an alarm sensor-monitoring heartbeat had been missed. I then tried to access the Internet – no joy. Rang Ben and he said maybe check the networking boxes in the homestead office and make sure all the plugs are firmly attached. That’s when I discovered the loose power plug.

I noticed there was no water flowing to troughs near the yards and, after a little research, found there was an air block on that part of the trough watering pipeline. I opened taps and turned the water on and off and this seemed to work. Anyway, all is flowing as needed now.

CooksAVS bill came today, $40.50 more than expected. I gently enquired and apparently it was clerical error. Selwyn sent a corrected invoice. I give then the benefit of the doubt but fist they propose a ridiculously over-engineered solution for about $1500 for extending the cottage alarm system to the new shed. After discussion this becomes less than $800. And now the mistake on the invoice.

Henare & Scott came round for a chin-wag, and to fill up myriad plastic bottles with tap water from our bore. Living in Flaxmere their water has been chlorinated in response to the contamination afflicting Havelock North so we are a source of tasty un-chlorinated water.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—10℃ 11.3mm rain [76.8]

No additional lambs today. Weather got colder and in the evening turned to persistent bitter rain.

I went down to Power Farming in Omahu Road this morning, as arranged, and looked over a small “sub-compact” tractor they have for sale. It is not very powerful, which might be a problem, but it has an enticing array of features. It comes with a front-end loader, a bucket, a better bucket than the one on the Fergie, and a lawn/grass mower as well as a tractor 3-point linkage and “power take off” (PTO) at the rear. They will bring it down here next week, if we hit on a sunny, warm day, and see if Karola can be enticed to take it for a spin – mow a little grass maybe. If so then I think we’ll buy it – otherwise, not.

Paul came and began work on the concrete ramp up to the new shed. At his request I ordered 3 cubic metres of “AP40” gravel to form the foundation of the ramp and to extend the driveway in the vicinity of the new shed. It arrived shortly afterwards but was very wet and hence heavy.

Henare TXTed to say he had some spare time this afternoon so as soon as he arrived he helped Paul shovel some of the gravel into place for the ramp foundation. Henare, Karola, and I then had bacon and scrambled eggs for lunch. After lunch Henare and I put up the fresh planks for the railings of the relocated fence between the cottage and the new shed. We still have some small posts to add in between the main ones holding the railings up (see below), and the gate and its strainers to put up, before the fence relocation is complete.

Power Farming’s Kioti CS2610 – Minus Its Front-End Loader

Foundation For The New Shed Ramp

New Rails In Place

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—11℃ 14.3mm rain [76.0]

SwimGym

That ram lamb that Karola was trying to save died in the night, thankfully.

There are new mothers in the One Acre, #434 had #607R and #413 had #608R.

Gareth Donnally (E G Wall Ltd, 06-877-7626 or 027-486-5724 – 104 St Georges Rd, Hastings) came before 8:00am and started work on digging the cable and stormwater trench from the new shed to the cottage. Once the trench was excavated he pulled out the concrete-encased strainer post now surplus to requirements since the repositioning of the railings and somewhat in the way. The strainer was 2.4 metres long with over a metre in the ground well encrusted with 1/4 load of concrete left over from laying the concrete slabs for the cottage paths and garage. The sledge hammer handle was broken in the attempt to release the strainer from the concrete so I replaced it with a new handle I bought in case of this many months ago. Paul levered and bashed and eventually got the strainer free. We buried the block of concrete in front of the new shed roller door where it will form an inconspicuous part of the sloped entrance into the shed.

Ivan Alach (06-877-7808 or 027-247-9988 – 18 Tainui Drive, Havelock North) and his mate came mid morning and laid the electricity conduit and cable. That cable has to be at least 600mm underground and covered with a warning orange plastic ribbon. He will be back sometime next week to complete the lighting, powerpoint, and proximity detection system fit-out for the new shed and connect the power.

Selwyn Cook (the alarm specialist) and brother Tony Cook (the audio-visual specialist) of CooksAVS arrived after lunch, laid the three Cat5E outside gel-filled cables, connected up the ethernet cable, the alarm cable, and installed the new shed PIR and smoke alarm. The alarm zones in the cottage have been amended so that the smoke alarms in the cottage garage and new shed share a zone, and the PIRs in those buildings also share a zone.

Gareth got Elms to bring 3 cubic metres of pea gravel and surrounded the stormwater pipe with it before getting the plumbing, including a new bubble-up near the cottage, inspected. It passed.

Paul fitted downpipes connecting the gutters to the storm water drains and also added archetraves to the windows and person-door of the new shed. He’s also taken away the scaffolding now that Jeff Rencontre has finished painting the high bits so it’s beginning to look like a finished shed.

Norwoods and Power Farming left responses to my RFP in our letter box this morning. Ceres (John Deere) is expected to respond tomorrow.

Craig Treneman (Bostocks) called in to let us know that the orchard rent was going up from $22,000 to $28,000 a year – that means about $300 more a month for us after tax. Coincidentally Peter Fitzpatrick also called in to ask about the shooting that upset Karola over the weekend. Karola already knew from a conversation with Janet Scott that the shooting was Chris Jones, her orchard manager, and his son enjoying a bit of sport on Saturday. Peter says that Bostocks need to know if anyone is shooting on our orchard because of the potential for irrigation pipes to be punctured and fruit damaged by shotgun pellets. ProFruit had a case last season where an entire days delivery from many orchards had to be dumped because they found a pellet in an apple being prepared for juicing.

Late afternoon, responding to a call from Howard at Total Timber, went to pick up the railing planks for the repositioned railings. Later Karola, Bramble and I went into Hastings and, among other things, dropped off the retrospective contract with Paul for building the shed at his house in Woodstock Avenue. We got whitebait (now in season) and lemon-fish (aka shark) for dinner.

Gareth Struggles To Uproot The Concrete-Encrusted Strainer Post

Main Line Of Trench Completed

Power Cable & Storm Water Pipe Laid

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—20℃ 2.6mm rain [76.9]

I called Ben of AONet after a disturbed night for Karola at the thought of losing her phone number, the same number she’s had for maybe 40 years. Ben had retrieved the number, whew, and now we’re waiting for him to come out and change something so that we begin using the wireless link and not the old Telecom copper line. Couple of days he said. Meanwhile people trying to get in touch, mainly local trades people, will get a “no such number” signal. Still a big step up on last night when we thought the old number might be lost forever.

Today was the day to get the Landrover fixed. AA’s tow truck came as promised at 10:00am and we went and collected it with a new set of spark plugs around 5:00pm. Whew, $180 poorer but we have her back in better tune than before.

I checked the sheep and found one of ewe #333’s twins dead – the ram lamb. I shooed the ewes that had lambs, including today’s mother, #209 with ewe twins #605E and #606E, into the Front paddock and added the One Acre to the pasture for the remaining ewes. If the One Acre is going to be blitzed with Glyphosate next week we better get what grazing we can from it in the meantime.

I was carrying the dead lamb to the pit when suddenly it twitched. Long saga cut short, Karola has been feeding it with colostrum and keeping it warm but I think 98% chance it will not last the night. Ewe #333 would not feed it and bunted it away savagely yesterday so it’s been exposed and starving for over 24 hours.

Trip into town to get colostrum powder for the ailing, nay almost dead, ram lamb, and another litre of Glyphosate weed killer for the preparation of the One Acre to become our lucerne paddock. Dropped off two chainsaw chains to be sharpened at The Saw Doctors, and dropped off a copy of my “RFP For A Small Tractor To Replace The MF35” at Power Farming, the Kioti agent.

After morning tea I went out again and ordered some railings for the relocated fence between the cottage and the new shed. We did not have enough old railings to do it, the previous railings are too short, and so I’ve asked for (9) 150x50mm 4.8m rough sawn planks with three of these being sliced down the middle into 150x75mm thinner ones. They should be ready on Thursday.  Then I dropped a copy of the RFP off at the John Deere agent, Ceres Engineering, and another at Norwood’s the Kubota agent. I also drove a bit further up Omahu road and spoke to Kerry at Hawkes Bay Tractor Dismantlers. He’ll be coming to see the ailing MF35 in the next day or so.

Late afternoon, just before getting the Landrover, I did an hour more chainsawing of the fallen Red Cypress branch – another session should do it.

Jeff Rencontre came round just before dinner bearing an invoice. The new shed has cost 40% more than I’d hoped, but it does fit in well.

Pukekos Standing, Like Storks, On The Top Of The Casurina Windbreak On Our Southern Boundary

Landrover Off To Tamatea Automotive

Karola Tending The Poorly Ram Lamb

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [75.9]

SwimGym

Ewe #333 had twins overnight. However the ram lamb seems to be rejected by his mum – but somehow he’s been licked clean and has had some food, so we shall see.  Meanwhile the ewe lamb’s number is #604E. Whilst out looking at the sheep, and pushing out the other ewes so only those with lambs remained in the One Acre, I found a goose egg – at least that is what I suppose it is. So maybe all our geese are female.

Henare came before going to his orchard work this morning and he rammed home the four main posts on which the relocated railings depend.

Jeff Rencontre came and painted today. Late afternoon Paul came with the last month’s invoice and a contract to sign. Apparently it’s the law that any job over $30,000 needs a contract between builder and client, and we’ve just exceeded the limit.

I heard a loud, ominous crackling from the Lawsoniana trees near the 133 gateway. A while later a sizeable branch crashed down – without harming anyone or anything and not even particularly in the way.

Thinking that our transfer from NOW to AONet for both Internet and landline was complete I called NOW – they recently sent me an invoice for August – and let them know that we’d stopped using their services so maybe they should close our account and nullify the invoice for August. Oh what woe. It turns out that AONet are all over the place with their billing and so I was supposed to continue to pay NOW until further notice. Thanks to my call our account was closed and consequentially our landline was disconnected. We have, we hope temporarily, lost our landline phone number. This number has been the same for 40 years and we are very much hoping we can get it back. We’ll not have a landline for a week or so but that ales into insignificance compared to the loss of our personal phone number.

Goose Egg Abandoned In One Acre Paddock

Lawsoniana Branch Comes Down

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—20℃ no rain [75.6]

Ewe #439 had twins, ewe lambs #602E and #603E today. Several other ewes seem to be almost ready.

Henare came mid morning and got started on moving the posts for the railings. By late afternoon he had all the posts out of their original holes and the four main posts seated i n their new position, ready to be rammed. Henare plans to drop by tomorrow morning to finish them off. Then we wait until the trench is dung, the storm water and cables are laid, before fitting the railings.

I also spent an hour or so chainsawing up the fallen branches, well actually the whole crown, of the Red Cypress that fell before we left for England.

More research on sub-compact tractors – I think I need to choose between Kioti, Kobuta, and John Deere, all of which have dealerships on Omahu road.

Gill and Ben are off to Perth for a holiday next Saturday. Harry, Chloe et al went to Wellington for Saturday – a celebration of Chloe’s 70th birthday.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [75.6]

Beautiful spring Saturday. Sadly one of the twins died in the night and so #224 will only have lamb #601E recorded.

I did go into town for a longer reciprocating electric saw blade and some big screws. The blade is long enough allow me to cut the many glued nailgun nails holding the railings to the uprights on the piece of fence from the cottage south-east corner to the new shed. The screws are 100mm (4”) long with a hexagonal hole in the head and are designed to be used outside for fastening wooden planks. I plan to use these instead of nails to save the wear on my wrists, and I suspect they’ll be better at resisting the tendency of the railings to warp.

We took down the railings and, although most of the nails were cut using the reciprocating saw, Karola was able to remove dozens of nails, the ones which came free without cutting.

The Railings Deconstructed

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—24℃ no rain [75.6]

SwimGym

I researched tractor prices – for the MF35 I hope to sell and for new sub-compact tractors to replace it. Karola did the food shopping in Hastings.

The Landrover was expected to go to Tamatea Motors this morning but Heath Goldfinch said he was “full on” this week so could we get it brought in early next week. We changed the towing date to Tuesday morning.

Paul Libby called and said that digging the trench to the new shed was scheduled for next Wednesday, and the electrician was primed to attend too so all it needs is for my security installer to be notified. On that front I have discussed the job we need done for the new shed – alarm sensors and ethernet cabling – and the quote has gone from $1400 to $800. I note that their hourly fee has gone up to $75/hr since they did the conversion of the existing alarm systems to use the Internet in July.

No more lambs seen today but we’ve seen the feral black-and-white cat several times, over by the homestead garage.

Jeff Rencontre was here painting the new shed all day.

Karola and I began moving the old railings from the cottage across to the new shed to a new position aligned with the north-western corner of the new shed.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—24℃ no rain [76.2]

After a certain amount of mucking about I was able to log in to Karola’s UK bank and pay off her credit card. This included switching from Anna’s mobile number to mine as the authorised mobile in order that the two-stage authentication could work without involving Anna in forwarding TXT messages for every transaction.

Also this morning I was able to get prices for the seed needed to crete the lucerne paddock from Farmlands and from PGG Wrightsons. As hoped it turned out that the seed merchant chosen by Bob Masters was very much in line with the other vendors. We expect to go ahead with the September creation of the lucerne crop in the One Acre paddock.

Karola went round the sheep and reported that ewe #224 had had twins overnight, two little ewe lambs.

All of us went to Flaxmere to New World for food and to the Pharmacy.

I went out to start the Landrover and it stuttered and gave up. Called the AA but they couldn’t fix it and it has to be towed to our garage – Tamatea Motors – tomorrow, 10:00am.

Snow On The Ruahines – West Of Karamu

Ewe #224 Starts The Karamu Lambing In 2016

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—22℃ no rain [76.3]