Daily Archives: 2016-12-01

SwimGym early and alone.

We packed for our two-day visit to Wellington, we’re flying down this afternoon.

Then I took in the flat front tyre of the new tractor to Hastings Tyrepower (221 Wilson Rd, 06-879-7029). The other front tyre was fixed by them on 1st November. Both times it was a failure of the rim beading but this time I’ve trashed the tyre itself because I noticed it too late. They put in an inner tube for now, so I could get it inside and under lock & key while we are away, but it’ll need a new tyre. Bother!

On that trip I also dropped in at Mitre-10 and bought new hacksaw blades and a wheel brace – one that fits the small wheel nuts on the new tractor and gives plenty of purchase to dislodge very tight nuts. I also picked up 5 NZ Bird calendars Karola had ordered as Christmas presents from the post shop in the K-Mart mall, a local paper and some sushi for her lunch.

Jeff the painter came and finished the reconstruction of window sills. They no longer call attention to the dog damage. Jeff is also putting top coats on the house weatherboards Paul put up a week or so ago. He expects to finish that tomorrow.

Upon my return I noticed that the ram and wether were out of their paddock in the Middle paddock, separated from the ewes and hoggets and lambs only by an electric fence. I went out to investigate amidst a hail of cross blaming as to who left the gate open and found all relevant gates still tightly closed. However, in the night, a heavy branch had fallen from a Giant Sequoia and smashed the fence – that’s how the ram and wether escaped.  I opened gates to guide these escapees into the Long Acre paddock and strolled round to get between them and the ewes when suddenly the ewes, seeing me, stampeded towards me, obviously hoping for sheep nuts. The ram joined in and in so doing crashed through the electric fence, and began very positively vetting the ewes for re-mating. I had my work cut out trying to take his mind off it and keep him moving. Rang Karola and she came out and we sorted them out – possibly without a single sheep being impregnated but time will tell.

We left for the airport soon after 12:30pm, a bit earlier than I’d planned as I thought the flight was at 2:00pm. We parked, self-checked-in and were sitting idly having a quiet coffee when Karola remarked that actually the flight time was 3:00pm not 2:00pm. Another senior moment – but the time passed pleasantly enough.

Overnight Wellingtonia (Sequioa Gigantica) Branch Falls & Breaks Fence

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—19℃ 1.0mm rain [73.6]