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]
