Monthly Archives: February 2017

Henare arrived around 9:30am to mow the rest of the lawns. First mowing round the edges of the hose main lawn and under the Liriodendron and other trees hard to reach with the tractor, he then mowed the circular lawn directly in front of and north of the house. The whole thing took him about 3½ hours, leading nicely to a fish & chip lunch which I got from Hawkes Bay Seafoods in Heretaunga street.

Meanwhile Bangle & I went round the orchard and I picked the few remaining fresh mushrooms, giving them to Henare because he likes mushrooms and Karola has had quite enough mushrooms for this season. I then had a crack at sharpening Henare’s dutch hoe but apparently sharpened from the wrong edge so that was not so good. I really couldn’t do it on the other side with the bench grinder so next time will revert to vice and the portable grinder.

Ben?I asked Ben how many people were working for Alan Copas now, he said three electricians and three plumbers. from Copas Plumbing & Electrical came round, by prior arrangement, after lunch to service the “waste management system”. We would have been so much better off with an ordinary septic tank what with the need for electricity, the constant rumbling noise, and the expensive annual service. I asked Ben if he had a plumber’s ticket then? He said no, an electrician’s ticket – becuase the thigs most likely to go wrong with the wastew management system were electrical these days. Anyway, the service went without a hitch and we’re clear for another year.

Main meal being the F&C midday we had rather strong, pungent mushroom soup for supper. I added half a pack of “Zero” Konjac Rice to mine which added some bulk, changed the texture a bit, and didn’t change the flavour at all. The Konjac rice is more versatile and less intrusive than the pasta – which comes in slivers like cooked spaghetti.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—22℃ no rain [74.2]

SwimGym at the usual time but I was up for about 30 minutes at 3:00am because Bangle was regurgitating with a lot of sick-making sounds and I worried that she might have a bone splinter caught in her throat. Seems OK this evening and will not be giving her a cooked bone again – chicken bones are as bad as chocolate and raisins but lamb and beef bones are supposed to be OK. Karola thinks it might have been reaction to her vaccines a couple of days ago.

Then after a pleasant 2-egg breakfast I slept most of the morning. Awoke and took Bangle round the orchard.

After lunch I used the tractor to mow around the driveways, behind and in front of the house garage, and most of the house lawn – it took over two hours. Henare is planning on coming tomorrow and using the lawn mower to finish off the house lawn – specifically all the places the tractor can’t reach, including under the Liriodendron, and the circle round the Ginkgo in front of the house.

I also fixed the vehicle gate from the farm shed into the goose paddock by moving the gate-catch staple and wiring up the hinges so the gate can’t be just lifted off its hinges. Also moved the automatic possum trap which seems only to have caught two possums in the last few months and put lure strips in a couple of places to find somewhere frequented by rats.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [73.9]

Quite a busy day. Sunday is chores day. Heavy cloud and the smell of rain, very humid, but not an actual drop. Bangle and I went round the orchard as usual.

Karola planted several willows in gaps in the yew hedge along the roadside north of the 133 entrance. Her mishap whereby she accidentally sliced through the water pipe that snakes along that fence line was quickly rectified, jug of hot water, one 20mm alkathene pipe connector, and a hacksaw to trim the pipe. A hose fitting also broke when she was watering the newly planted willows – the plastic fittings often get brittle with age – but that too was soon mended.

I took down the dividing fences between the strips of the Middle paddock so that the sheep get a chance to eat acorns across the paddock before they become too tough to nibble. Bangle joined me and had a delightful time following the scent of a rabbit – which I nearly trod on as it was hiding in thick grass.

Took the Landrover down to the garage, filled it up and got 20 litres of diesel for the tractor.

Later I mowed the cottage lawn and under the cottage washing line. Using the Honda lawn mower, not the tractor. Because of the decent drop of rain last week, following on some persistent watering over the previous three weeks, the grass is quite lush.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—22℃ no rain [73.9]

Another quiet day, warm and sunny. Another walk round the orchard and we each, Bangle and me, ate a fresh, crisp, red apple.

Only other outside activity today was finishing the clearing of a strip across the One Acre. Karola is bottling some apricots and musing over how to best tidy the cottage garage but gets a little dispirited every time she goes to make a start. I did a fair bit of DVD ripping and emailing.

Karola and I went to Taradale for serial haircuts, we read while waiting our turn. On the way back, using the road past EIT and through Omahu village, we took a short detour to Gagan’s roadside vegetable shop and got silver beet, strawberries, and round beans.

I checked the rat traps in the house – bait still intact. I got the old NextGen remote extender working in the house so that one can change freeview channels on the control box upstairs from the comfort of the sitting room downstairs.

Pathway Ready For Electrification

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—21℃ no rain [74.1]

SwimGym with Karola, a little later than usual. After breakfast (two boiled eggs and a single piece of toast) I took Bangle for a walk around the orchard. It had rained a little overnight but seems set to be sunny and dry for a while now. Gathered plenty of mushrooms on the way round. Also bumped into Peter FitzPatrick in a Bostock ute and a cheerful mood.

Rested most of the morning after that while Karola took herself off to town for the Friday shopping.

Did Karola’s GST late afternoon. Karola began re-organising the cottage garage.

Not More Fresh Orchard Mushrooms, Says Karola

Karola’s Subaru DPZ625 – licenced to 13/05/17, WOF expires 05/17

Ian’s Disco WX2288 – licenced to 04/03/18, WOF expires 06/17

Ian’s Sub-Compact Kioti Tractor B5GWU – licenced to 25/10/17, WOF not needed

Ian’s Old (1962) MF35 Tractor 18WYT – licenced to 24/11/17, WOF not needed

The Big Trailer A613F – licenced to 14/10/17, WOF expires 12/17

Karola’s Number One Cyclone Trailer 5ATR – licenced to 04/06/17, WOF expires 06/17

Karola’s Number Two Cyclone Trailer 150UD – licenced to 16/04/17, WOF expires 05/17

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ no rain [74.0]

Took Bangle round the orchard after letting the ewes into their fresh strip of the One Acre. Saw a black rabbit hopping about on the orchard drive, probably an escaped pet as it wasn’t frightened by me or Bangle watching it 20 metres or so away. Karola independently reported it on the house lawn later in the morning. From the gunfire tonight in the orchard I suspect it is now an ex-rabbit.

Bangle went to the vets today for her “core dog vaccines” plus “kennel cough vaccine” – essential if she is to go to Pet2Us in March while we go off to New Plymouth for the annual IDS meeting. I was all a twitter as I was getting Bangle into the car for this, expecting some resistance once we got there but in fact Bangle behaved extraordinarily well, possibly thinking she was on show standing on the vet Steward Badger’s table. All a-twitter so that I tried to back out of the cottage garage without first opening the door. I bent it roughly back into shape and it still opens and closes OK, thank goodness.

Bit of a quiet day, still getting our breath back after the excitement of all the visitors over the past week.

Black Rabbit In The Orchard

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ 1.7mm rain [74.2]

SwimGym with Karola

Walk round the orchard with Bangle. I found a ripe apple with a few pecks in it, picked it and ate most of it as we started off round the orchard. As we completed our return leg Bangle suddenly grabbed an apple in the grass and carried it along until we got back inside the gate near the sheep yards. She then crunched and swallowed the entire apple. Strange dog.

Invited by Harry & Chloe, we went out for lunch in Napier, at Bistronomy, James Beck’s restaurant in Hastings Street. Very nice food and modest portions, which suited us.

Late afternoon I spent another few hours watching videos from YouTube of debates where Christopher Hitchens was involved – entertaining and informative.

Bangle Eats A Whole Apple

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—22℃ no rain [73.9]

All quiet for most of the morning. Harry & Chloe arrived around 11:30am and we all toddled off to Birdwoods Cafe on Middle road near Havelock North. Lengthy lunch, good food, and then Tony, Julia, and Mahe drove off back home to Wellington. Kevin left after he and Julia had had a run this morning, before morning tea. Harry & Chloe took us back to Karamu where Harry tried out his new drone, a DJI Mavic Pro. We all admired the new farm shed. Harry, upon being shown the One Acre approved of the use of his electric fence to strip graze it and said that it could perhaps have been grazed a little earlier, after most of the lucerne had flowered, as there’s a sweet spot for lucerne regrowth, right after they’ve flowered.

Bangle was with us looking at the One Acre and got her first electric shock off the fence. Howls of anguish and some rushing about but 30 minutes later it was as if it never happened.

Mushrooms From The Orchard – Another Scrumptious Breakfast

Harry’s New DGI Quadcopter

… showing actual size

Inspecting Ian’s Little Tractor

“Boys and Their Toys”

Harry Takes The Helm

The Drone Video

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ no rain [73.9]

SwimGym with Karola

Couple of showers and then the rain had gone.

The youngsters went off riding hired bicycles in Napier – with Marne in a trailer – until mid afternoon. Tony, Karola, and I chatted and generally had a quiet morning. Tony, Bangle, and I went round the orchard and picked a basket of mushrooms. We had bacon, tomato, and mushrooms on toast for lunch.

Julia, who is an accountant working with the NZ Charities Commission, had a talk to give to Napier accountants about the new standards for Charities when making their annual financial returns to the government. It was held in the Business Hub near the wharves at Ahuriri. Kevin, Tony, and I attended as Julia’s personal rent-a-crowd. It was actually quite interesting. Karola minded Mahe, or vice-versa.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ no rain [74.1]

Sunday – the end of the Art Deco week in Hawkes Bay. Anthony Fletcher took us all to the 8:30am Navy Breakfast at The Mission. A hearty breakfast was had by all. The speeches were mercifully short and the band played appropriate music, not too loudly. The sun shone – first time this week.

There was a power cut, planned, in Ormond Road from 9:00am until after 2:00pm. After we got home all but me took Bangle for a walk around the estate as, although it was still rather wet underfoot, the sunshine persisted. After that Karola read and relaxed in the cottage while the others went to Napier to the Ocean Spa for swimming and relaxation.

Meanwhile I slept from the time we got home from the Navy breakfast until 1:30pm. Still no power so I then used the generator to boil water for a coffee. The generator roared alarmingly – the kettle takes a lot of energy when quickly boiling water.

Late afternoon I let the main flock into another strip of the Middle paddock and then laboriously snipped the next electric fence pathway through the One Acre lucerne, plantain, and fat hen. The sheep will begin eating this next swathe tomorrow, when the ground has dried out a bit.

Mid evening Kevin, Julia’s partner, arrived from Auckland and, after Kevin had been refuelled, they went out to see the lights on Ahuriri lagoon – it’s the last opportunity tonight.

New Electric Fence Pathway Cut Today

Comparison – Grazed Versus Ungrazed Strip In The One Acre

Anthony Fletcher, Grandson Mahi, Daughter Julia – At The Mission For The Navy Breakfast

Julia Fletcher & Mahi – In Art Deco Finery

At The Breakfast Table: Anthony, Karola, Mahi, And Julia

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—19℃ 3.9mm rain [74.1]

Karola and I had a quiet day while the visitors trudged off into Art Deco land in the rain. Bangle walk was in the rain around the orchard. Male sheep had the afternoon in the One Acre and the ewe flock had a couple of hours in the evening. I should move to the next trance of pasture but it’s too darn wet to spend an hour or so cutting the pathway for the electric fence.

Splendid roast leg of lamb with many vegetables this evening, followed by apricots and ice/cream.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—16℃ 36.8mm rain [73.5]

SwimGym

Today – apart from walk with Bangle and putting sheep in and out of the One Acre, it rained, and rained – wonderful.

Friday shopping in the morning and then just mucked around inside all day. Visitors came back and Tony & I went off and brought back fish & chips for everyone. Pudding was raspberries and ice-cream. Watched last episode of second series of “No Offence” with Tony & Karola. I’d seen all the earlier episodes but it was still pretty confusing even for me, heaven knows what the other two made of it.

Yesterday mid morning it started to drizzle, raining softly all day and overnight until lunchtime today – wonderful rain.

Yesterday and this morning spent much of the time, having engaged Laura at FlightCentre to look up some flights for us, in doing my own online search. I found flights at a lower price, several hundred dollars lower and sent them on to Laura. Check the Dubai-London segment she said – sure enough, without a hint on the search, that segment was Economy class. Laura knew of a couple who booked online and only found out when they were at the airport, and were rightly rather upset. Issue for us avoided. We have three flight options held for us and will decide tomorrow.

Both flocks of sheep had time in the One Acre yesterday but have been kept out while the rain lasted today to avoid pasture pugging.

Anthony & Julia Fletcher and Tony’s grandson Mahe arrived yesterday mid afternoon. We had a delicious, if tough, dinner of venison patties and venison steaks. Later that evening Tony & I watched the last half of “Men In Black 3”, a truely mindless experience, as expected.

More Photos Of Bangle – Before She Joined Us

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—19℃ 25.6mm rain [73.4]

Bangle has been legally adopted by me today. She is a four-year old red & white Pembroke (Welsh) corgi who was raised as a show dog, had a litter (by cesarean – so not all went smoothly), and since then has been quite fragile – not at all like Bramble. After two weeks with us on loan, Bangle has relaxed a little and enjoys the country life and wildlife. Over that time she progressed from sleeping only in her box (lent by Anne Lacey, the previous owner), to sleeping on the sofa, to sleeping either on the sofa or under the stairs where it’s cool and safe.

Ms Bangle Brackenbury – microchip #900108000539482

Bangle When Very Young

Bangle – From Kelbryn Website

Bangle – Publicity Photo

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—19℃ 46.3mm rain [73.2]

SwimGym with Karola

Both flocks of sheep had another few hours in the 2nd tranche of the One Acre paddock.

Bangle had a walk to the mailbox and to let the ewes into the One Acre and around the orchard.

Chris Day(financial advisor) turned up as planned at 11:00am. He has a brand new top spec Jeep he imported from the UK and it is very big, very swish (black, tinted windows), and full of the latest array of sensors and aids. Not sure if he really needed to see us or was just dying for someone to admire the new wheels.

Karola went off to town for an appointment. I went soon afterwards to get food and some hardware. From B&H I got some new electric drill driver bits as my many others have worn smooth through driving myriad screws including 100s of 100mm large wooden railing screws. From Mitre-10 I got some fine sand to soak up the oil leak from the Landrover – to be expected at its age. Also four thin sheets of MDF sawn to cover the tennis table. Karola’s brainwave was to reuse the tennis table, which hardly ever gets used, as a work surface for my electronics stuff.

In the early evening we joined Peter & Charlotte at a lecture commemorating the 1931 Napier earthquake, a lecture about the scientific research going on in New Zealand about earthquakes & submarine landslides – the lecture held in the Napier National Aquarium and held by the Hawkes bay branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Afterwards we reapired to Kilims in Napier CBD for a meal and chat.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—27℃ no rain [73.6]

Started planning our 2017 trip to see Anna et al in July.

Late morning, after taking Bangle round the orchard, I spent almost an hour finishing off clipping the strip across the One Acre so I can put up electric fence dividing it from the rest of the pasture. Bangle has tried the sofa and found that good for resting night or day. Anne Lacey says she used to lie on their sofa in the evenings sometimes so that’s a sign she’s feeling at home. Now Bangle has progressed to the hole under the stairs that opens into our wardrobe. Cooler there I suspect, and feels safe too no doubt. More copious dog hairs on my suit and trousers I guess. Bangle is also showing an interest in birds and rabbits, seriously considering giving chase, which I think means she’s enjoying life here.

Male sheep had first go in the new strip of the One Acre and tucked into the waving tall stalks of Fat Hen. Mid afternoon Karola switched them for the ewes and ewe lambs and they too were heard to rejoice at the abundance of sweet foliage. Karola had already spoilt them by sweeping up the ground-covering fall of acorns outside the house garage for them.

Karola, Bangle, and I went in the Landrover up to the west corner of the boundary with the Scotts and trimmed three Casurina trees in the shelter belt so that Karola’s Cypress nestling in front of them was given breathing space.

I potted up Bangle’s food for the next 22 days, food I cooked for her last night comprising two packets of Prime Angus Beef Mince and two heaped cups of long-grain rice.

Got round to adding a central support for the railing at the back of the farm shed where Karola’s electric fence posts are hung. The weight caused the rail to sag alarmingly.

View Down A One Acre Dividing Strip

The Strip Grazing Corridor In The One Acre

Third Barrow Of Acorns For The Sheep

Cypress “Released” At Last

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ no rain [73.3]

SwimGym with Karola

Final items for the tax preparation and I was then ready to drop it off at BM Accountants for Pam Morrison who manages our returns each year. Did some shopping while I was in town, including the expensive beef mince for Bangle’s dinners.

Henare came in the afternoon and I paid his electricity bill online again – he gives me cash and I pay online using our bank account – only takes a moment. He went off to town and returned later for more beautiful un-chlorinated drinking water.

I started preparing a strip across the One Acre paddock so that I could put up electric fence tomorrow. Over an hour and I was still barely half way.

Cooked Bangle’s mince and rice dinners – I do lots at a time.

Huge fires raging in Havelock North and in Christchurch. Lots of people evacuated, so far only a couple of houses burned to the ground. There could have been many more, the fires fanned by strong gusty gales were virtually uncontrollable until the weather changed.

Oak Avenue Weather:21℃—33℃ no rain [73.5]

Sheep had a few more hours on the One Acre corridor and first strip. Three lambs are getting to be persistent escapees, ignoring the electric fence.

Quali family still around, at least 10 youngsters despite karola’s sighting of a stoat running under the cottage a couple of days ago. A few rabbits gambolling here and there. Plenty Pukekos.

Graham (Sky TV) turned up around 10:00am and replaced the Sky decoder box. All good.

David & Deryn arrived around 11:30am and we had morning coffee and lively conversation, leaving after midday for lunch at Birdwoods cafe over on Middle Road in Havelock North. More conversation and a pleasant meal.

A bit more on the final stretches of tax preparation and filing.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [72.9]

Took Bangle for walk round the orchard. Let male sheep into the One Acre corridor for the morning. The ewes had it for three hours in the afternoon while I chipped a mess of branches including the pile of small bits from the big Swamp Cypress branches that fell down a few weeks ago.

Karola has spied a wasps nest on the 133 driveway and I sprayed the entranceway with poison this morning and puffed with lots of poison powder this evening.

Karola helped gather up branches to be chipped and then went on to start weeding the raised beds. She has quite a lot more to do but the improvement is most noticeable. At Karola’s request I emptied the two small trailer-loads of mulch under the Feijoa tree directly north of the house, on the edge of the ha-ha.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—21℃ no rain [72.7]

SwimGym with Karola, then most of the morning taken up with my quarterly Diabetes check with the GP, Richard Jamieson. No problems there and today I was within my preferred weight range after weeks of not quite making it – between 72.0kg and 72.9kg. Karola saw Richard yesterday and he is thin as a rake. So Karola enquired as to the secret. And whether he’d heard of cauliflower rice/mash. We live on it, he said. Poor Karola.

Nearly finished the tax preparation, I’ll take it in to the accountants on Monday.

In the afternoon I first pruned back some young oak branches growing on the verge in the avenue, obscuring our line-of-sight when driving out of the 121 road entrance. Then I made a north-south corridor in the One Acre with the tractor, along the fence between the One Acre and the Front paddock, and erected electric fence. Karola did an hour or so of Caifornian Thistle weeding in the One Acre, she’s still pretty exhausted from her trip down to Wellington last weekend.

Ewes Exploring The New Corridor In The One Acre

Prolific Damson Tree – Present From Gill

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—20℃ no rain [72.7]

Karola went to her GP this morning, just before the power went off. Pierre Houwers, (works for Aaron Duncan, Freenergy Solar Solutions), came around 11:00AM and installed a replacement controller for the solar panels system, replacing the Enphase Envoy-C with a new and enhanced Enphase Envoy-S Metered. In addition to the earlier model’s function, controlling the micro-inverters, this model reports on the electricity usage for each phase of our 3-phase supply.

After he left I went back to doing more filing and tax preparation.

Upgraded Solar Panel System

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—17℃ 0.6mm rain [73.5]

SwimGym

I saw that in the night the sheep had forced their way into the adjoining strip of pasture – well it may be that one ned uprooted itself as the soil got soggy and the sheep just stepped over the low wires. Anyway, before going to SwimGym I fixed the fence and chased them back into where they were supposed to be.

Took Bangle for a walk but not around the orchard because she would have got soaking wet – just up and down the drive.

Rained all night and drizzled all day – lovely, lovely rain. Spent the day on the tax prep and filing apart from going to pick up Karola at 2:30pm from the Napier airport.

Henare dropped round briefly for a coffee, chat, and more unchlorinated water.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—16℃ 8.6mm rain [73.3]

Hot morning and cooler with a little rain in the afternoon, much less than forecast of course. Took Bangle out and picked a few runner beans.

I cut a narrow strip across the One Acre to allow electric fence through and gave the male sheep that 8-metre wide strip for the morning. Moved the main mob so that they had a strip of the Middle paddock instead of the Totara paddock.

Then I took back the two applicators for the zinc bullets – one for adult sheep and one for lambs. Got some fresh King Terakihi for dinner. Spoke briefly to Karola in Wellington, I gather she’s having a good time with her childhood friend Maryna Mews, over in NZ for her husband’s academic conference and their 70th birthday party.

Rabbits all around at dawn and dusk. Quail family trekked past the cottage window at diner time; still 11 youngsters. Other quail families in the planting area around the boundary too. A good year for survivors it seems.

Got back to the filing and tax preparations in the afternoon. As I do the last 12 months filing I’m archiving or throwing way everything, almost everything, before 2010, one year longer than the statutory retention period for financial documents in New Zealand.

Electric Fence Carves A Strip Out Of The One Acre

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—33℃ 25.5mm rain [73.4]

SwimGym albeit an hour later than usual. After breakfast took Bangle round the orchard.

Belatedly began the preparation of our personal tax returns for the year ended 31 March 2016, which today meant sorting out the last year’s filing. Surprising how much of the existing filing is now obsolete.

Karola is in Wellington and due to go to Maryna Mews 70th tonight.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—33℃ no rain [73.5]

In the morning I finished reconstructing the grazing strips in the Middle paddock. Took Bangle for a walk and picked runner beans.

Took Karola to the airport for her 1:00pm flight, returned home and pottered about all afternoon, answering emails etc.Took Bangle round the orchard. Did some of the Sunday chores.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—26℃ no rain [73.0]

Found that Vet Services in Napier had some lamb “time capsule” zinc bullets so went over and collected a dozen. Then on the Meanee to get Black Doris plums and 2 punnets fresh raspberries. On to Farmlands to get another 2 litres of Magnum pour-on against fly-strike. Also got a can of foot-rot aerosol and borrowed an applicator for the lamb “time capsules”.

Amalgamated the wether lambs and the ram and his wether hogget companion. Gave them all zinc bullets which means all of the sheep have now had them (withholding for meat – zero days). Drenched #610, #611, #618 with Cydectin (withholding for meat, ten days). Then applied Magnum to all the sheep (withholding for meat, zero days). Put ewe #218 with the ram and wethers; she has history of being dry or lambing very late.

Spent much of the afternoon re-mowing the electric fence strips and a new strip in the One Acre along the south fence. Then put back the corridor electric fence and the strip divider joining it to the electricity supply on the cottage railings. Finally put a fence along the strip in the One Acre, the fat-hen, californian thistles, lucerne, and plantain.

The ram, wether hogget, 8 wether lambs & #218 were pushed into the One Acre and left there for a couple of hours before ending up in the Front paddock. The rest of the sheep were given access to the Goose paddock, Long Acre, Holding paddock, corridor strip, and a strip comprising the Totara paddock.

Bangle had a good day, walks round the orchard and other places. She forgets to be a timid scaredy-puss now and then and behaves quite normally.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—28℃ no rain [72.9]

SwimGym with Karola

Shopping around noon, including diabetic blood test as usual every three months, and a visit to Vet Services to discuss the impending Facial Eczema risk for our sheep.

The second of our wheel-stop heavy rubber strips for the garages arrived with the postie today.

Took down all the electric fence, took over an hour, on the assumption we’d need to keep the sheep in the paddock least likely to breed the FE fungus while the risk was high, that is, the Long Acre. After discussion with Helen of Vet Services I got the last 30 “time capsule” zinc bullets to dose the sheep with – it protects for four weeks.

Mowed the cottage lawn, anticipating the Middletons arriving tomorrow. But Gaylene rang to say Iain was ill and so they wouldn’t be coming.

Henare came and got fresh, sweet drinking bore water again.

Karola & I gave all the ewes and ewe lambs one of the “time capsule” boluses – they are very large and heavy so stick around in the rumen for about four weeks. Its pretty daunting to get them down and they really were too big for the lambs so I’m hoping fervently we haven’t done any lambs harm. Still it’s got to be better than the disease itself.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—31℃ no rain [72.8]

The rubber wheel stops arrived today, well one of them did and is already pressed into service in the cottage garage. Expect the other one tomorrow. And Bangle’s new collar, same design as her current one which is treasured by her previous owner, well, actually still her current owner for a few more days.

A nice drop of rain, not nearly enough but so much better than nothing. Ironically after weeks and weeks without rain and temperatures in the high 20s & low 30s, today was the day for an international cricket Twenty20 match at McLean Park. Looks like it’ll be cancelled completely, the estimates for a late start after the pitch dries out have been getting later and later.

Bangle has had several walks and is beginning to accept us I think. She has no trouble eating, that’s for sure.

Started on our 2015-2016 tax return preparation, due to the accountants a couple of weeks ago. “Such fun” as Miranda’s mum likes to say.

Janet Scott called round for a chat with Karola.

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—25℃ 3.5mm rain [73.8]

SwimGym with Karola

People in the gym were muttering about how uncomfortably hot it was last night – I know we measured 34 degrees outside the cottage yesterday during the afternoon.

Watered the nine Pittosporum outside the 133 entrance, they seem to be holding up well anyway. Karola’s three Kowhai by the 3-gates railings are doing OK too but the adjacent Ake-ake are really wilting badly. Watered them too. The prize Rangiora, nine of them along the 121 driveway, are a mixed bag, seven are fine but the end ones are badly hit. Watered them too.

More of the 27 Konano (a form of Coprosma) Karola planted under the oaks along the 121 driveway are dying, we seem to lose a few more each year. Karola’s new Lucerne paddock has big patches of dying Plantain and weeds, presumably where the shingle bank that runs across diagonally comes near to the surface.

Bangle had an uncomfortable night – the heat – and has been blowing hot and cold today. That is, one moment she takes fright at the least move you make and slowly walks away if your path even hints at being in her direction. Later she’ll come up and jump on my lap or ask to be stroked. Bangle seems to like Karola more than me, but then most people would agree with that.

The sheep are still on their second tranche of the Middle paddock but they also have the corridor along the back of the Middle and Totara paddocks plus the yards and holding pen and Long Acre and Goose paddock. It’s all very dry and mostly standing straw. They’ll be alright as long as they have water, which they do. Ram & wether companion have the Front paddock to themselves but there’s nothing but golden stalks there either.

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—28℃ 0.1mm rain [72.9]