Monthly Archives: January 2017

Catching up on bills etc. and endless emails. Bangle had her first night here. Anne Lacey came round to inspect at lunchtime and stayed chatting for an hour. After having an additional 40 winks after breakfast I was woken by Patrick Cooney ringing me to see if I knew a little about the USA political structure – how much is Donald Trump constrained legally by Congress & the Senate. I didn’t know but had same happy thoughts as many Americans. But we are wrong. According to my web searching, the last two presidents, Bush and Obama, have assumed wider and wider powers and Donald Trump can do a great deal, pointing to his predecessors for precedent. Not good news.

Ewe #413 died this afternoon. She had been ailing for ages – probably the delayed effects of Facial Eczema. Karola fetched Mark Hendery over to take the remains of ewe #413 for his dog, I changed, had dinner, and took him home again on the way to a Royal Society NZ branch meeting at the Planetarium in Napier. Interesting talk on Migration – history & projections. Crucial distinction between migration law, which speaks only about immigrants obtaining the right of permanent residence in NZ, and Dept Statistics figures which count anyone coming and staying in NZ for a year or more and anyone leaving and remaining out for over a year. The latter is a much larger number beloved of politicians. Figures are further complicated because Australian citizens are allowed to come and reside permanently as they wish. Also the Dept Statistics numbers include students here to study, tourists on long trips, and various other people who come for more than a year but are definitely going to leave again.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—33℃ no rain [73.8]

SwimGym

Quick & early trip to shops for food. Tried to contact Anne Lacey while at New World to borrow Bangle but no reply to TXTs. Went home and slept until 11:30am. Anne Lacey had overslept – watching the tennis last night, like us. Anne brought Bangle over at lunchtime and Bangle is spending the night. Gave Anne some runner beans. Bangle is a Welsh (Pembroke) corgi, she has been a show dog and mother, she was born 17 November 2012, making her 4 years old. Bangle is on a ten day trial to see if we all get on.

Turned off the watering of the runner beans, bay hedge, and manuka shrubs next to the farm shed. Continued watering the lawn round the cottage in the hopes of greenness for the Middleton’s visit anticipated on Friday. Picked up some rubbish dumped in the 121 road entrance – again.

Slept again in the afternoon with Bangle alongside on the bed. Bangle’s personality is very different from the late lamented Bramble. She is painfully shy and jumpy.

Saw big family of quail from the cottage windows. This time I counted 14 young ones. Previously I’ve counted 8 or 10 or 12 and never been quite sure. There are at least 3 – 4 families of quail on the property, most in the planting areas but a couple that do a circuit at dawn and dusk around the driveways. I don’t quite see how a quail hen could keep 14 eggs warm, she’d have to fluff herself out and spread her wings to cover the eggs.

Henare & Scott came after work for water and a chat. They surely are members of Guy Standing’s “Precariat”. Work today and tomorrow picking pears but no work on Wednesday and no firm date to restart picking.

Quail Family of Fourteen – Amazing Survivors

Bangle – My New Corgi, But A Very Shy, Fragile Corgi

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—24℃ no rain [74.1]

In the morning Karola & I stayed at 34A Izard Road, minding the grand-daughters, while Bridget & Chris went searching for good white-goods deals for the rental at Cockayne Road.

When they returned we said our goodbyes and lit out for home. On the way we stopped for afternoon tea with Cecilia Johnson at Pukera Bay where we joined Rob & Sue Joiner who were visiting Cecilia. They met Cecilia in Cambodia.

Sue works part-time for the Ministry for Vulnerable Children (used to be “Child, Youth & Family”).

Rob is retired but also created the cover design for a number of monographs Cecilia recently edited. These are authored by recent immigrants who have been on Cecilia’s “English as a Second Language” courses, part of the “Porirua Language Project”, and the monographs talk about their family experiences before and after immigrating to New Zealand.

Rob was at Rongotai College a year behind me and so we gossiped about the people we could remember from those far-off days.

Cecilia is very interested in UBI. Her views were reinforced by observing that in Cambodia it is very likely that the jobs of women working in large clothing factories will disappear as automation takes over. These people will, through no fault of their own, have no jobs.

All was very dry when we got home, no rain at all while we were away.

In the evening Karola watched two tennis matches on TV, the Nadal-Dimitrov semi-final and then the Nadal-Federer final of the Australian Tennis Open.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—33℃ no rain [?]

Bridget & Karola spent the morning working on the 7 Cockayne Road redecorating. I, however, went over to Tawa, to 11 Allen Terrace, for a meeting of BINZ (Basic Income New Zealand). This is a group dedicated to spreading knowledge of UBI to New Zealanders. It is affiliated with the world-wide UBI effort, BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network). Lowell Manning, one of the instigators of the successful movement to adopt MMP back in the 1990s, is the founder and leader of BINZ. Iain & Gaylene Middleton are key members – the meeting was held at their house this time. The meeting lasted for two days although Tom and I only attended for Saturday morning.

Attendees were:

• Lowell Manning (President & media spokesperson, founder)
• Gaylene Middleton (Secretary)
• Iain Middleton (Director of Operations & éminence grise)
• Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea (Maori committee member from Rotorua)
• Michael Kane (Treasurer) & his sister Eleanor Sarten nee Kane (Media Spokesperson)
• Tom White & me, both of us were there to observe.

Tom & I left after the buffet lunch.

About BINZ

BINZ website

Basic Income New Zealand (BINZ) was formed in May 2015 to promote the establishment of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in New Zealand. BINZ intends to affiliate with the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) an international organisation, in the near future. Visit www.basicincome.org for further information, including their BIEN FAQ for answers to common questions that many people have about Basic Incomes.

A ‘Universal Basic Income’ is an income granted unconditionally to all citizens, as individuals, without distinctions, means-test, work requirements, claw-backs, or offsets against other income. It is intended to replace all welfare payments, except perhaps those for individual special needs.

BINZ came into being following Professor Guy Standing’s lectures on the topics of “The Precariat” and “A Precariat Charter” during a Humanist and Rationalist conference held at Havelock North, in February 2015. Professor Standing is a founding member of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), an international organisation established in 1986 with the aim of linking individuals and groups interested in the basic income concept.

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Bridget’s family, Karola, and I went to the local “pub” for dinner. Bridget & I went back for more painting after that.

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

Karola & I again went over to 7 Cockayne Road and did more sanding and cleaning and generally preparing for painting, including taking down curtains and wall fittings. We had to be there at 9:45am to meet a gardener who came to quote on giving the garden a once-over and for tending the garden fortnightly. After the gardener had left we went and had another pleasant meal at Dunshea’s Deli, returning for some more work on the walls and ceilings. Late afternoon we joined up with Bridget. Living room ceiling top coat and covings finished today, and a start made on the dining room.

Bridget’s family had a pizza dinner, I had a Kaweka meal with added frozen peas. Afterwards we all watched a children’s film, “Miss Peregrine’s School For Special Children”.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—21℃ no rain [?]

Bridget is working, 9:00am – 2:00pm every week day and sometimes on call after hours. So, while Bridget was “at work”, working from home because the BNZ building was closed by the recent large (7.8 magnitude) earthquake on 14th November last year, Karola & I went over to 7 Cockayne Road and began sanding and wiping walls, preparing for painting.

We had a welcome and delicious lunch at the Dunshea’s Deli on Burma Road, I had a gluten-free breakfast called “dirty eggs”, Karola had a croissant. Later we returned to Bridget’s and we all three went back to Cockayne Road to start painting. Today it was undercoat for the ceiling and covings of the living room. We stopped for F&C dinner – well most of the family had F&C but Bridget & I had baked fresh Terakihi – and then returned to complete the first coat on the walls and ceiling of the living room.

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

SwimGym

Then finished packing and checking the sheep were safe, water troughs OK, gates locked etc etc – finally getting away around 10:30am, still 2-3 hours earlier than usual. Went down the west coast, SH 2, SH 57, then SH 1. Seas really rough and mist hid Kapiti Island along the Centennial Highway between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay. Got to Bridget’s around 3:30pm.

Bridget cooked us a baked fish dinner and afterwards Bridget & I went to her new rental property, a three-bedroom house in nearby Cockayne Road. When we got there we found ourselves locked out because the front door has two deadlocks and Bridget only had a key for the top one. As we found out later, the previous owners didn’t have a key for the bottom lock, never had, so it was rather annoying when locked from the inside. After I’d forced entry through a small window in one of the bedrooms I took off the bottom lock to avoid repeat experiences. Bridget & I planned what we would do tomorrow morning, when it would be just me and Karola, and then in the afternoon and evening when all three of us could get stuck in.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—28℃ no rain [72.6]

Late getting up but in time to go and pick up Bangle for another visit. I first took her for a walk round the orchard perimeter and then we spent several hours in the One Acre paddock, Bramble sitting or lying in the shade while I cut back flax and lemonwood and karamu shrubs, back to the fence-line so that later on Bangle and I can walk along the fence-line to get to the runner beans or whatever without trampling more lucerne & plantain.

Anne Lacey came and picked Bangle up mid afternoon and Karola and I then went into town until 5:00pm. When we returned we telephoned Henare about looking after the place while we are away from tomorrow, Wednesday, until late on Sunday. Karola decided that the light fitting in the cottage laundry should be replaced, the plastic was brown-singed and the skirt holding up the lampshade was only gripping with a bit of electric tape. So we bought a replacement at Clarence’s Lighting Depot on Heretaunga street and I replaced it.

After dinner I re-attached the tractor front-end loader and mower. Again the front-end loader proved tricky, again there was spilt hydraulic fluid, but I’m getting better at it. In comparison attaching the mower was a breeze.

Having noticed a pin-hole defect in part of the water trough pipeline up by the yards I removed a couple of inches round the flaw and reconnected it. Unfortunately when I turned the supply back on no water flowed. I turned all ten taps fed by that water line on and wiggled the on/off switch a few times. After I’d walked the 2300 metres end-to-end a couple of times suddenly the on/off switch worked and all was well.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ no rain [73.1]

SwimGym with Karola. Quick trip into Hastings for the food, not at all crowded on the roads nor in New World.

Ewes into the yards and then I caught the errant wether lamb who must have jumped the fence to be back with his mother, and reunited him with the other lambs. Karl & Wendy came mid morning and crutched all 18 lambs and they’re now looking good. Lambs rejoined the main flock who for now have the corridor along the back of the Middle and Totara paddocks plus the first lane of the Middle paddock, adjacent to the Long Acre.

Karola and the others went to Bay Expresso in Omahu Road for lunch. I did not.

Aaron Duncan came after lunch and quickly fixed the Solar controls, just changed a terminal block and it all sprang back into life. Same fault that Chris had identified yesterday. Although the wiring of the hot water cylinder mystified Chris and me initially, it is actually wired as needed.

The two independent thermal safety cutout sensors, one top, one bottom, are wired in series so that if either one is tripped the top element is shut down. The bottom thermostat attached to the bottom element has its own built-in safety thermal shut-off. The independent thermal shut-off at the bottom is intended to control any external source of heat such as a gas or diesel boiler or heat pump.

The Honeywell timer’s LHS “hot water” buttons control a relay in the fusebox. The relay provides mains power to the top element. The RHS “Heating” buttons of the Honeywell timer control the pump feeding the hot water radiators.

The bottom element is fed by a separate circuit which goes from a fusebox switch to the Ensolar magic controller box and from there to the bottom element. It has to be the bottom element because the magic box is using the heat in the hot water cylinder as a sort of battery and therefore it needs to be able to heat the entire 300 litres.

Aaron and I talked about getting batteries to integrate with the solar supply and as a first step Aaron will install a new solar controller that captures detailed consumption data in real time. This information will give us what we need to design an appropriately sized array of Enphase batteries.

Turned off the irrigation early afternoon, and gave a good soaking to the swamp cypress trees over on the orchard road boundary, behind the railings north of the house.

The grand-daughters spent an hour or more with the tractor in the morning and again in the afternoon, this time towing a small trailer. Afterwards Bridget and Alex went to Splash Planet and … splashed. Afternoon tea and then, at Alex request, we watched the third and final episode of Sherlock – pretty dire. Then they all set off for Khandallah around 7:00pm.

Meantime I chainsawed up the fallen swamp cypress branches for future firewood.

Fallen Branches Reduce To Firewood And Pile To Be Chipped

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—20℃ 0.3mm rain [74.8]

It was 7:30am and I was standing in the cottage bathroom when there was a familiar tearing sound and crash. I looked outside for a fallen branch but saw nothing. The farm shed and the fences I could see were OK. I went into the dining room and looked out, still I saw nothing. Later I did see that it was three large branches that had torn themselves off the tall swamp cypress just 20 metres from the farm shed.

Up late and Karola cooked us all breakfast.

Chris helped me detach the mid-mounted mower and the front-end loader from the tractor, making it more manoeuvrable and like a dodgem.Then the grand-daughters had an hour or so on the tractor, driving round and round the big oak.

Lunch at Clifton Cafe – very slow but the meal was fine.

Girls had more tractor driving in the afternoon. Later Chris took them to the Planetarium in Napier and they returned for dinner around 8:45pm. After dinner another episode of Sherlock, very very slightly better than last nights episode.

Tractor Dismembered

Swamp Cypress Broken Branches

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—27℃ 0.3mm rain [73.8]

Bruce Richardson called to say that Karl would not be coming today to crutch the lambs as agreed, instead if we’re lucky he’ll come on Monday afternoon. The sheep had spent the night in the Holding paddock. So, I drafted out the sheep into lambs (18), older ewes (12), and the ewe hoggets (9). I gave the nine ewe hoggets their adult tags and they then rejoined the older ewes in the corridor along the back of the Middle and Totara paddocks. The lambs stayed in the Holding paddock.

Pleasant brunch at Bay Expresso in Karamu Road.

After lunch Bridget and the grand-daughters had rides on the tractor including mowing some of the Totara paddock. With Bridget’s encouragement Karola also had a go at mowing. Then the More family went out on their bicycles, well Bridget stayed in the car and read actually.

Lamb roast dinner followed by an episode of Sherlock

Alex

Natalie

Bridget

Karola

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—21℃ 0.3mm rain [73.1]

SwimGym with Karola

Mowed the cottage lawn etc – quick because, even with the heavy watering I gave it last week, there’s been little growth.

Weekend shopping after searching for and finding some gloves that will protect me from the thorns and prickles of blackberry and thistles. Most work or gardening gloves provide very little protection. At the other end of the scale, welding gloves are so unwieldy.

Bangle was dropped off for three hours this afternoon and she is getting more friendly and bouncy, but still a way to go before she treats this as home I’m sure.

Karola decided she wants a wider corridor for the sheep across the back of the Middle and Totara paddocks so I moved it and completed the between-strip fences too. Karl ONeale, the shearer, is expecting to come tomorrow to crutch the lambs so Karola has all the sheep in the Holding paddock overnight.

Bridget & Chris, Natalie & Alex arrived just a few moments ago and are making themselves comfortable in the house.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [73.5]

Slow morning and finally I went off to get the shopping and also to pick up Bangle for an introductory hour or so. Bangle came and was here for a couple of hours including a walk round the boundary, sighting of sheep, geese, and pukekos, some quiet time on the lawn and finally she jumped up on my lap – so maybe she’s getting a little used to us.

After I’d returned Bangle we had an early dinner and I then began putting ip the electric fence for the strip-grazing of the Middle paddock. Karola rolled up the wire from around the big oak. One lamb keeps getting through the electric fence and today she was particularly nuisancefull and while I was trying to reunite her she wandered out onto the avenue verge. Probably just as well that a very large truck roared past and blasted on his horn so she decided to come back inside the 121 gates. Tonight the sheep are in a corridor fenced off along the west side of the Middle paddock, and in the Holding paddock. The fence is electrified and they have three water troughs to choose from.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—27℃ 2.3mm rain [73.3]

SwimGym.

Karola still in a state because of her lost hearing aids.

Biked down to Power Farming to pick up the tractor. It has a tow-bar and we have a bike holder that fixes to any standard tow-bar so i took that with me and carried the bike back. It was windy, very windy, and I got blown about a lot biking along the avenue. On the way back I stopped to drag a sizeable branch off the road. Other traffic had been swooping round it.

Let the sheep under the big oak, had breakfast and then collapsed into sleep not waking until 1:30pm. Found I’d missed an opportunity for Bangle to be dropped off for an hour or so of familiarisation.

Henare dropped by for water and a coffee. Karola suddenly admitted she’d found her hearing aids while I was asleep. End of that particular drama for now.

In the afternoon I had a video conference call with Bridget and her lawyer Richard Small of Impact Legal in Wellington, signing to buy a house for Bridget’s trust. Then I had to scan in all the signed documents, having been watched signing by the lawyer of course. The files are large and I still am struggling to get them to him so he can forward to the bank.

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—29℃ no rain [73.5]

Breakfast at Burleigh at my usual time.

Read and chatted with Harry much of the morning. Chloe followed up the pretty decent dinner last night with a low-cal healthy lettuce sandwich for lunch.

With Karola off to the church for Hilary’s funeral around 1:15pm – the funeral started at 2:00pm – we were in second pew on right, behind Rosemary et all – close family. A pleasant service and large overflow crowd in marquee and the church hall watching on monitors. Many of the usual suspects there – Hilary’s daughters Rosemary (and husband) & Justine, Justine’s daughter Andrea and husband, Mary Wilson, Cecilia Johnson, Frank & Marina Wilson, David Natusch, Sue & Godfrey Walker, Yvonne Wier (Kaz’ widow), Harry/Chloe/Tessa&Peter/Laura and dozens of others of whom I knew almost none.

After the service we joined the throng in the churchyard and chatted for 30 mins or so then Karola & I set off for home. Straightforward relaxed drive, arriving home at 6:00pm, as predicted accurately by Mrs Google. I got the sheep out of the Long Acre and gave them a spell under the big oak, got the mail, unpacked etc and we had a light meal and that was it.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—26℃ no rain [?]

SwimGym with Karola

Found a flat piece of the house lawn and practiced removing and replacing the tractor’s mid-mounted mower, with Karola taking photos as aide memoire for the future. You have to remove the mower in order to be able to clean it – which I did.

Whilst the mower was detached I used the tractor to complete the task of moving the clay heaped around the goose bath – formed when digging the big hole for the bath and an underpinning of gravel.

Took the tractor, now reunited with its mower, down to Power farming for its 50-hour first and free service. I’ll pick it up on Wednesday.

Very hot afternoon but I did go out and cut and poison thistles in the paddocks – there were not very many but most were coming into flower. Finished around 2:30pm then prepared for the trip, leaving before 4:00pm and arriving at Burleigh on time (for a change) around 6:25pm. Lovely beef barbecue dinner ensued.

Sheep Enjoying The Long Grass and Weeds Under The Big Oak

Goose Bath As Planned and With The Clay Heaps Cleared Away

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—28℃ no rain [72.5]

Sheep let under the big oak again for two sessions, one around 7:00am and another around 4:00pm. They’re still eating voraciously.

Karola is only getting 3 – 4 hours sleep most nights, this has been going on for over a year now and isn’t helping. She wakes in the early hours and then can’t get back to sleep. Meanwhile I, allegedly, snore away the whole night long. We’ve tried various over-the-counter remedies and if they work at all it’s only for a few days.

Quite a full day today for me. Karola, pretty whacked to begin with, completed her pruning and weeding of the Taupata hedge from the cottage north along the edge of the house lawn, to the Liriodendron. The hedge got frosted badly two winters ago and seemed to have died but now new shoots flourish and it needed cutting back.

Encouraged by Karola I connected the chipper to the tractor and chipped/shredded her piles of trimmings from the Taupata hedge. Thought I’d do the rest of the chipping I’ve been avoiding for a few weeks and so did another 90 minutes converting three piles of small branches, some very rotten and dusty, into mulch. Quite hard work. I, the tractor, and the Landrover all got covered in dust and detritus – took ages to clean both vehicles.

Watered the remaining third of the cottage lawn most of the day then turned it off along with the irrigation of the manuka, bay tree hedge, and runner beans. Cleaned out Karola’s old concrete water trough by leaving a hose in it for a few hours. Marked out four swathes of the Middle paddock which will be our next strip-grazing area, then mowed a path for the electric fence separating them. Did most of the usual Sunday chores such as pay the bills and answer some overdue emails, take out the compost and rubbish bin.

Whiteboard Marker on Gloss Enamel

After A Week, Wiped Clean With Turps

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—32℃ no rain [73.6]

Sheep let into under the big oak first thing, for 2 – 3 hours. They had another turn late afternoon and are now safely back in the Goose paddock for the night.

Karola went out before / instead of breakfast to return the hired strimmer, due no later than 8:30am. She also stocked up on groceries. Later I did a quick trip down to Gagans, local grower and roadside shop for fresh vegetables – for a cauliflower, carrots and parsnips, and the two last non-frozen punnets of raspberries.

Watered the nine Pittosporums outside the 133 entrance – though unlike several other of our young trees they don’t yet seemed stressed by the lack of water. Also continued watering the nine Rangiora down the west side of the 121 driveway. Started the sprinklers on the cottage lawn – we want it to be refreshing and green when Bridget and family come up here next (long) weekend. Also turned on the irrigation to the manuka, bay tree hedge, and runner beans.

Retrieved our second “energiser” from the orchard pump shed and at the same time took down and brought back the old timer (belonged to the previous owner, Graham Velvin), and the water recorder and its wireless aerial – Bostock’s have their own wireless water meter. Also salvaged as much of the electric fence insulated connector wire as I could but could not budge the three long aluminium earthing stakes driven a couple of metres into the ground.

Set up the energiser to make the electric fence round the big oak live – but its inconvenient, crossing the driveway and having only a temporary earth. Karola and I discussed how best to have a permanent energiser installation in the farm shed, providing attachment points for the Middle paddock and for the Goose paddock and under the big oak.

At last I connected up the trickler tap at the end of the goose bath. And then I mowed under the Coral tree and also under the trees stretching from the sheep yards along the west boundary to the wide gate into the orchard. I’d noticed the iris starting to get quite tall and so wanted to nip it in the bud, so to speak. The Coral tree mowing is so that I can fence it off and wait until autumn for some seedlings. We get lots of seed]lings every year but, unprotected, the sheep eat them.

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—24℃ no rain [73.5]

SwimGym with Karola and afterwards we went straight to HireCorp and got a day’s supply of the nylon cords for the strimmer – Henere is expected mid morning to continue yesterday’s efforts.

After breakfast, scrambled egg for a change, I popped into town for the weekend food and to see if the fitting for the goose bath tap was ready. It was.

Henare and son Scott arrived mid morning – Henare on strimmer and Scott raking up the large amounts of cut grass still lying around from when I cut the house lawn after we let it get way too long.

I put up electric fence round the big oak and let the sheep in. Once they discovered the open gate they rushed in and devoured the lucerne leaving not a flower and gorging on most of the foliage. There are only a few lucerne plants flourishing under the big oak so they’ll need to find something else tasty tomorrow. This is not the first time the lucerne has been grazed heavily and it always seems to bounce back.

I got fish & chips for H&S for lunch. Karola and I had grilled terakihi fillets, no flour. I also cooked up a mess of runner beans and asparagus for us all. Henare & Scott went back to work and I painted another coat of gloss white on the storage box label cards.

Late afternoon I went out and picked another lot of runner beans. As the older, larger beans have an unpleasant cellulose inner casing I’m leaving the large ones on the vine and only picking the tender young beans. Had these with supper, delicious. Karola says once a day is enough – more than enough.

Karola’s friend and relation Hilary Haylock died earlier in the week aged 92 and tonight we had some phone calls and emails communicating the logistics for the funeral next Tuesday. We’ll go and stay with Harry & Chloe on Monday night, the funeral is at 2:00pm the next day, and we’ll toddle back home immediately afterwards – that’s the plan.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—28℃ no rain [73.3]

Actually quite a useful day, all things considered. A late start but then a trip into town proved better than expected.

My visit to JayCar to buy a 3-metre HDMI cable, for example. The only 3-metre cable they had, vouchsafed to be of high quality, priced at $40. I bought a cheap and cheerful 1.5 metre cable from them two years ago for under $16, and that same cheap cable is now $12. So I asked for a simple connector instead – $20 and anyway out of stock, says the uppity salesman, hoping to swing me back to the $40 cable. What about an HDMI wall plate – that includes a connector inside the wall and another outside. Over $20 for that. Well what about just the little plastic connector that slots into the wall plate – grumble grumble – no, none of those … oh yes we do seem to have some here, $15.

Then on to the Stortford Lodge post office to post back the pipe connector I received yesterday, the one that isn’t a bit like the photo on the web page and won’t actually work to connect galv. pipe and alkathene. I was worried that the cost of sending it back, it’s quite bulky and heavy, would be so much that I’d end up preferring to keep the connector. But no, it was simplicity itself – a pre-paid postage bag cost $6.50.

And on towards home stopping at Harris Pumps & Filtration who, according to Gerald the owner of Hastings Saw Doctors, have two superb thread tapping machines. First I asked them whether when joining alkathene to galv. pipe it was better to have the galv. pipe or the alkathene be the male component. The alkathene, they said. And for $12.50 they’ll put a thread on the end of the pipe and provide a connector to alkathene – leastways that’s the plan. We’ll see what they actually come up with.

In the post yesterday I received an invoice from Hawkes Bay Tractor Dismantlers so they’ve obviously fixed the old Fergie MF35. It was less that $500 and transpired that it was not a head gasket and no the block did not need planing but it was just a cylinder head that needed repair, hence the low price. Karola drove me up there – to their depot in Barnes Place off Omahu Road – about 3 km away, and I drove the Fergie home.

Just before I got to the Ormond Road round-about I smelt the smell of burning insulation & oil so, leaping instantly to the likely cause, I crawled round into Ormond Road and stopped, called Karola for water and a towel, and waited to be rescued. The reason the engine overheated in the first place was a leak in the radiator. And again the radiator was dry, hence the smell and, as I crawled to a stop, the curls of smoke – not steam, smoke, rising up from the back of the engine. The towel was to avoid being scalded when I opened the lid if the radiator had contained water. In no time I was on my way again and got home without further incident.

In the morning Karola summoned cousin Henare and then went off and hired a strimmer / weed-eater for the day. Henare came around 11:00am and left around 4:00pm – we had lunch for about an hour in the middle. He cut the weeds along the top edge of the ha-ha and started on going round the edges of the lawn. At the start I had to make another trip into town because the hire place had neglected to provide the shoulder strap. After that Henare needed more two-stroke mixture so I made up a batch of that.

Then, being out of petrol for two-stroke (20:1 mixture of standard petrol and two-stroke oil), and coincidentally out of diesel for the tractors, and serendipitously it being a “10 cents per litre off” day, I pootled off down to our local petrol station and filled up the car and the diesel and petrol cans. Once there I could not find my AA card, essential to getting the discounts, but as I almost never use the card anywhere else I said maybe I left it in the garage last time I visited – and I did, and I got it back.

It was quite a warm day; the kitchen thermometer said the outside temperature was 34 degrees celsius and this was echoed on the evening news with Hastings being the hottest place in New Zealand today at 34 degrees. I painted the boards destined to become label cards for the plastic storage boxes with a gloss enamel and left them to harden overnight.

After Henare had gone for the day I started on the sheep work. They have spent 7 days on each of the four tranches of the Front paddock and need somewhere fresh to go. First I rolled up the electric fence dividing the Front paddock into a corridor along the ha-ha and four equal sized blocks. Then I pushed the ram and wether out of the Long Acre into the yards before shooing the sheep across the back of the Middle paddock and into the Long Acre via the Holding paddock, finally shutting them into the Goose paddock. I released the ram and wether into the Holding paddock.

The intention is to give the main flock some of the long grass and even longer weeds under the big oak over the next few days, using the Goose paddock as their overnight stop. I then rolled up the electric fence cordoning off the bulk of the Middle paddock from the Totara paddock and a strip along the back of the Middle paddock.

As we were traversing the corridor along the back of the Middle paddock ewe #413, who has signs of being hit hard by facial eczema, suddenly stumbled and lay down and convulsed. I left her behind wondering if I’d have another corpse to deal with so soon after #043 but 30 minutes later she was on her feet again and over chatting to the ram through the fence.

Cousin Henare Ormond Strimming Away

All Karola’s Electric Fence Posts Neatly Arrayed

All Karola’s Reels Of Electric Fence Polywire

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—34℃ no rain [73.5]

SwimGym with Karola

Karopla went off to doctor’s appointment this morning and got the food for tonight. I painted the hardboard thin covering for the five filing cabinets upstairs in the cottage and, after some re-arrangements from Karola, another covering for two more cabinets nearby.

Lots more runner beans today.

Henare and Scott came round asking me to be a witness to Scott’s identity so that he could apply for a full drivers license. I had to go back in the farm journal to find out how long I’d known Scott – five years. Henare and Scott lugged the two sawn-off fire doors – wooden but very heavy – downstairs in the cottage and over to the house garage where I intend they be workspace for me and my electronics projects, should they resume.

The new desk position upstairs in the cottage is a big improvement. Not only does the rimu door give me a bigger desk but with my (feng shui) back to the wall I can see out of both the north and south windows.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—32℃ no rain [73.5]

Mowed the cottage lawn etc and it was getting up around 30 degrees when I finished. I’ve been mowing with shirt off for last couple of times – to replenish the vitamin D – and as it’s only for 20 minutes or so I don’t expect to come to any harm. Not even pink.

Having sanded and oiled the recycled Rimu door for my desktop yesterday, today I realised that the plan I intended meant that both long sides of the door would be visible, hence I needed to do something about the hinge side. So I plunged in and sawed off about 3mm along that side then sanded and oiled it – turned out OK actually. Much pondering with Karola about the best layout upstairs in the cottage and so now I sit facing west instead of north, out into the room instead of back to the room. Behind me I have five green filing cabinets, the same number Karola has in her office, but, unlike hers, mine are pretty full. Today I bought a sheet of hardboard and painted it – to cover the tops of those five filing cabinets. Hardboard undercoated and painted grey. Karola has a small table for her computer and everything important has a home and is working again. This arrangement uses fewer extension leads and the wiring seems much simpler.

Tried using a gloss paint on MDF to see whether that would work as a poor man’s whiteboard – for the labels on the plastic storage boxes. To my delight, Karola found that mineral turps cleaned off the whiteboard marker writing quite adequately.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—32℃ no rain [73.5]

SwimGym with Karola – after turning off the irrigation and picking another crop of runner beans.

First trip into town was to get today’s fish and tomorrow’s mince and to buy some whiteboard paint and some longer pop rivets. The longest rivets I could find in Mitre-10 or Bunnings Warehouse were 15.6mm long. Today at B&H, a real hardware store for tradesmen, I got 19mm pop rivets which, when I tried them, worked perfectly. Slightly less success with the Resene whiteboard paint which I found on the Internet last night. The minimum, indeed only, quantity they sold covers 14 square metres – I want to paint about 2 square metres to make label boards for the 30 or so plastic storage trays in the Farm Shed. Worse still, the whiteboard paint, allowing writing and rewriting using marker pens, comprises a base and a fixing liquid. All 14 square metres need to be painted within three hours. So no resealing and using on something else later. It was hideously expensive anyway, so must be returned.

Updated the sheep tally records, and Karola did the same for hers. We have 41 sheep in all at present, 39 ewes and lambs, the ram, and his companion wether. I went out in the noonday sun and counted them, and counted them, and counted them. Finally I got 39 and immediately stopped.

Got the GST finalised in the afternoon. Lots of items this time because all the work outfitting the Farm Shed incurs recoverable GST at 15%. It’s tailing off now so the next time it’ll be quicker to produce.

Karola & I went back into Hastings late afternoon. I returned the whiteboard paint and bought a half litre of high-gloss paint that I’ll use instead. There’s a good chance that the marker pen will come off with meths or, if that doesn’t work, I’ll just paint over the top on the odd occasion I need to relabel a storage box. We accidentaslly bumped intop Henare and Scott in Stortford Lodge, outside the post office. They are seasonal workers with no work at present – not for a couple of weeks says Henare, then it’ll be pear picking and he will bring us some.

I planned to take the old rimu door, a second-hand door that I bought a few years ago as my desk top, to PJ at Steads the joiners to ask them to shave a bit of the edge to make a smooth front. Karola thought that if, instead of shaving off a bit og the hinge side I just sanded the opposite edge, getting rid of the writing and blemishes and marks where the door lock used to be, it’d be just as good. So I, using my electric sander, sanded and sanded and sanded. We had dinner and I sanded some more. Then we put on a thin coat of Danish oil and it’s looking quite nice. We’ll see what it looks like in the morning.

Solid Rimu Recycled Door – Sanded & Oiled

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ no rain [74.0]

Watered the cottage lawn overnight and this morning. That way I hope we’ll see it going green again as with the recent paucity of rain it’d turned brown as brown, only a few weeds remaining green and bare patches appearing.

Yesterday Karola said she would like some of the plastic storage boxes I’ve bought for the farm shed so this morning I popped into town and bought another eight plastic storage boxes. At $6 each they are the best value I’ve seen and I’ve checked in three other stores. They are strong and light and a very convenient size, about 250mm x 600mm and 120mm high.

We took Lis & Patrick Cooney out to lunch at Clifton Cafe, returning to their house in Haumoana for coffee afterwards. An enjoyable time had by all, in fact we left for the lunch appointment at around noon and got back after 5:00pm.

The Sunday chores got neglected as did Karola’s GST (and my diet), but I expect I’ll make that up over the next few days.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—26℃ no rain [73.9]

Karola noticed her old ailing ewe was lying down as if dead and I was sent to investigate. It was clear she was in considerable distress so I first rang Peter Wiffin, a neighbour with a gun and dogs to feed, but no answer. I then called Mark Hendery in Napier and he agreed to come and put ewe #043 out of her misery – and he has hungry dog and cats to feed as well. I drove over to Napier only to find I got ensnared by some big cycling event that’s taking place this weekend – the roads to Mark’s place being part of the route. So I had to ignore various “road closed” signs and talk my way past several marshals to get to his house. Took Mark back to Karamu where he dispatched the ewe. I then took her body over to the pit Henare dug a short while ago and Mark skinned and disembowelled the carcass. I buried the offal and then we went back to Napier in the Landrover with the meat in the back. Again much dodging about to negotiate the cycle route – but the actual race wasn’t starting until much later, there were just a few adventurers riding bits of the route for fun.

I re-mowed the Goose paddock to try and sweep much of the long cut grass into a central windrow, stop it shading the growing grass. Also mowed the 121 driveway, part of tomorrows chores actually. Then I installed the grinder on the farm shed workbench and sharpened a few garden tools – they really are sharp now.

Turned on the irrigation for the runner beans, the bay tree hedge, and the manuka. Also set up and turned on sprinklers to water the cottage lawn.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [73.8]

SwimGym

Shopping – very quick. Sheep allowed the fourth tranche of grazing in the front paddock. So far 7 days per tranche seems to be working.

We’re both pretty weary from the visitors earlier in the week. I got started on the GST. More runner beans for dinner.

Karola is tending ewe #043 who is looking very old; gives her some sheep nuts but the old girl isn’t at all lively, just sits around in the shade mainly.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—25℃ no rain [74.3]

Last day for Julia & Christopher. We had another hearty cooked breakfast, well Christopher and I did. Chatted for most of the morning.

For lunch we took them to Birdwood Cafe on Middle Road, Havelock North and had a meal outside on a table with umbrella in quite busy but peaceful green surroundings, trees and lawns and hedges and chatter. A few small dogs and children, and a bantam hen. Very nice. And the food was good too.

On the way back home we stopped in Hastings for me to pick up my weekend bread, unfathomably it had arrived a day early and Cornucopia rang me earlier to say it was there. And also for Julia to get some flowers for her next host.

Julia & Christopher left mid afternoon.

I picked my runner beans, the second picking, the first was 5 days ago, and the harvest is now in bounteous swing. Karola has offered to freeze most of them as there are just too many for two of us to keep up.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—22℃ no rain [74.4]

SwimGym

A full breakfast with Julia & Christopher (and a lunch, and a big evening meal). So not exactly a “low-cal” day today. Karola entertained her guests much of the day. Meanwhile I finished the garden tool stalls in the farm shed, at long last. Evening meal was at Vidals in Hastings and the food was delicious and decidedly expensive – a bad thing for someone trying to eat less but irresistible I’m afraid. Karola invited Ade White and his friend Helen Gilbertson who were excellent company.

Not sure what the colourful weed is (below), but the Thorn Apples are rampant – as is the Fat Hen towering over everything else. Long live the plantain and lucerne.

Why, one might ask, does one need quite so many pairs of spades and forks. Ditto the shovels. Also, hung neatly on an old horse saddle rest, are most of the the garden hoses, six in total at last count. And the vet cupboard (red) and garden poisons cupboard (green) are all safely locked, but with keys in the locks it’s not clear that this would be much of a deterrent.

Colourful Weed In The One Acre

Thorn Apple, Flower & Fruit – In the One Acre

Completed Stalls For Garden Tools In Farm Shed

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—27℃ no rain [73.5]

Rain overnight and occasional showers in the morning. Karola busy getting the house ready for the visitors. I pottered including making some more garden tool stalls in the farm shed. Julia & Christopher arrived mid afternoon and later went to the local cricket ground, McLean Park in Napier, to see New Zealand play Bangladesh in a 20-20 game.

I spent the evening cleaning up the Postie filter extension – the part of the email-to-weblog system that is customised for me. Took a while to get back into the swing of it, PHP and RegEx expressions and all that jazz.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—28℃ 0.9mm rain [73.1]

No SwimGym today as it’s closed until Wednesday as part of the New Year’s public holidays.

Mostly indoor stuff today, in part because it did rain off and on throughout the morning.

I did a quick shopping trip, for today and tomorrow, and mindful that Julia & husband Christopher Van der Noot will be here late Tuesday leaving Thursday morning. Karola has booked herself and them to go to a cricket match at McLean Park in Napier on Tuesday evening, tomorrow night, Bangladesh vs New Zealand.

Mucked about trying to connect a piece of PVC (alkathene) pipe to a length of galvanised steel pipe, the latter having a nice old tap (that Karola likes) on the other end. Talked to Harry about it after I’d boiled the alkathene for several minutes and forced it onto the pipe only to have it slip straight off when I attached it to our water supply. I thought Harry’s idea of twitching some high-tensile wire round the join was too tricky for me but luckily a guy in Mitre-10 described the proper fitting to join smooth galv. pipe to alkathene and I have bought one online.

Jenny Price dropped by just as we were about to have dinner – she does that a lot. Mad as a hatter, but not in an unpleasant way.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—23℃ 2.2mm rain [73.3]

Fixed the sticking cottage garage door and then, after much pondering and false starts, fixed the jamming cottage sunporch slider door.

Karola continued with tree guard maintenance and in the afternoon I attacked the wysteria and roses invading the house verandah, the house lawn, and almost enclosing the steps up to the house front door.

That plus the usual Sunday chores such as paying the bills took me through till dark. I did find time to pick the first small crop of runner beans.

My Runner Beans – Sweet-As

Oak Avenue Weather:20℃—28℃ no rain [73.3]