Monthly Archives: April 2017

A quiet day again, no visitors, no shopping. Rain showers. Spent a long time doing emails with brief periods outside for fresh air.

Most exciting thing was Karola looking for her iPhone. She mislaid it yesterday just before we went out to dinner with Gill & Ben. Anyway, by lunchtime Karola had exhausted all the places she thought she might have left it, all the surfaces, all the pockets, all the vehicles. I then went round ringing her phone – in the cottage, cottage garage, house garage and office, main house, farm shed, both vehicles, and so on. Nothing. The connection was still live so somewhere it was ringing. We did a mental walk-through of karola’s movements between the last time she used it and when she noticed it missing. That included round the cottage, in the cottage, vehicles, and so on and also out by the lime tree and big wooden gate. We searched all those places, calling her phone and listening for a welcoming reply.

I’d just about given up when I remembered that there’s an iPhone feature called “Find My Phone”. I thought it unlikely that the relevant set-up had been done to enable it, and likely that we’d almost exhausted the battery by now but I tried it anyway. Oddly “Find My Phone” located Karola’s iPhone way over near the sheep yards – far from anywhere karola remembered going on Friday. I went over and circled the yards and seemed to be almost on top of the phone according to the locator map. I turned on the alarm sound to help find it and heard the beeping. It was not in the yards at all but through the planting area in the orchard. Fearing a flat battery I dashed to the nearest gate and ran along the fence-line following the sound. I got to the spot and still couldn’t see any phone in the long grass. I brushed away the grass and there it was, in a tyre rut, singing its heart out. Whew. Apparently Karpla had taken Bangle for a short walk in the orchard yesterday afternoon and forgotten clean about it – we had no hope of finding it without the tracker app, and were lucky that no tractor had been along the fenceline for it was squarely in the path of any vehicle.

Bangle & I walked round half the orchard and ate an apple each.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—21℃ 11.0mm rain [74.5]

Slow start to the day. Karola continuing clearing the area for the Red Beech. I spending much time on emails, and some time with Bridget on helping move her email from our ‘karamu’ account to her ‘station’ account on neptune.robustserver.com.

I had a long chat on the phone with Iain Middleton abut the history (people) of BINZ since it began in 2011.

Short orchard walk for Bangle, also a coupe of trips in the car and Landrover. I did dig up and pot a few Coral tree saplings. Plenty of them round our lone Coral tree. No sign of Hickory saplings yet – they usually appear in the same vicinity.

Gill & Ben arrived mid afternoon and Gill & I spent a short while finding out that by using a different DVD ripping program that I have, she can rip the several DVDs which failed when using MacX DVD Ripper.

Karola made us a delicious roast organic chicken dinner – far better than the meal out yesterday or on Wednesday night. It really was delicious.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—20℃ 5.3mm rain [74.5]

SwimGym with Karola.

Karola has started on more clearing of the area to be planted in Red Beech.

I mowed the paths for electric fences in the Middle and Totara paddocks, and mowed the nettles round the Canary Island Pine in the hope that sheep would find the wilted nettles a good suppliment.

Dean Sewell, Hurford Parker Insurance Brokers, came at 2:00pm and went through our insurances for the buildings and smallholding for the coming year.

In the evening we went to Fiko, a new Turkish restaurant in Havelock North. Food excellent, noise overpowering.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—23℃ no rain [74.7]

We prepared ourselves for our building draftsman/designer, Ruth Vincent, to come. She arrived soon after 10:00am and stayed until about 12:30pm This time I think the decisions were more likely to stick; Karola felt her wishes were being respected.

After lunch we went over to Clive to Greenleaf Nurseries and picked up our 40 young Red Beech native trees. Having had misfortune with quite a number of trees from Greenleaf I pulled one out of its pot and it was in excellent shape – not root bound, nor just potted yesterday. The Manuka I’d ordered were in such bad shape that Dan sent them back and offered us root trainers which I declined. We can do without the Manuka fill-ins this year, planting 40 beech will be quite enough work.

Later I went shopping – repair kit for the drench gun, 15kg Nutrients for the dog, picked up some washing for Karola, and a bit of food. I was also on a quest for salt for the Bosch 1-drawer dish washer but neither New World nor Mitre-10 had any in stock. Searching later on the Internet it seems no-one in New Zealand stocks it but supplies are available from USA and UK.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ 0.2mm rain [75.2]

SwimGym with Karola

We wrapped up the left-behinds from the Rashbrooke’s visit and the Middleton’s visit, a stuffed toy in the form of a seal and Iain’s back pack. Karola then took them to the Stortford Lodge post office.

Gill & Ben arrived from Wellington mid afternoon, on their way to set up house for four days at Peter 7 Charlottes, as house-minders. They then continue on up to the Coromandel for ben to do some frog census work. Bramble was introduced.

In the evening we all went to Namaskar Indian restaurant in Havelock North.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ 0.1mm rain [74.7]

Byron arrived in the morning and he and his Australian mate spent much of the day completing the tree work. I was involved whizzing round with tractor and trailer and making sure everything was completed to our satisfaction. On the whole they were good, and Byron’s skill at felling from difficult positions was excellent.

No more sheep deaths today, thank goodness.

Karola, Bangle, and I walked round where the tree work had been done late afternoon and we’re both pretty happy with the results. In addition to storm damage Byron cut down five tall re-growth eucalyptus trees, a wattle, and two old ngaios.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ 0.3mm rain [75.5]

SwimGym

Leisurely breakfast together and then Middleton’s drove off back to Wellington. Later i found that Iain had left his back-pack behind so we’ll courier it down in a couple of days, after Anzac day on Tuesday.

After snacking for a while, “displacement activity”, I went and carted the latest death, E#606, to the new death pit that Henare dug yesterday. Once covered with soil that occupied half the big pit.

Meticulous Maids came to clean the cottage early afternoon. Karola thought she’d leave them to it and went off to town to get a new battery for her car.

Byron Gregory and mate came and started on his two remaining tree jobs. By nightfall they had done five of the six storm damaged limbs and four of the five tall eucalyptus regrowth trunks next to the road. Byron expects to finish the job early tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—19℃ 0.1mm rain [75.3]

I found a dead wether lamb this morning in the Long Acre, #610 – so not a Macrocarpa poisoning victim but quite possibly victim of eating the storm-blown needles of another conifer. And one that was almost dead, #611. (Henare kindly dispatched that with my knife when he arrived later in the morning).

The Middletons joined us for breakfast and afterwards we strolled round the homestead boundary. Iain noticed another dead lamb in the Totara paddock, ewe lamb #606.

I called Henare and he came round mid morning and quickly dug us a huge new death pit down near the big old Ginko tree in the Long Acre paddock.

we chatted for much of the morning until it was time to go to the Birdwood cafe on Middle Road for lunch. Good food and very pleasant outside surroundings, if a bit chilly.

Gaylene had arranged for us to visit Karl Matthys at 120 Kent Terrace inTaradale. Karl & his second wife, Lorraine, live in a spacious modern house up on the hills behind The Mission & Church Road wineries. (karl@waspnet.co.nz 06-845-4372).

In the evening, even though we’d had a good lunch, we banqueted on another of Karola’s delicious fish pies and Iain regaled us with stories of his illustrious ancestors, in particular one Charles Middleton.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ 0.2mm rain [74.6]

Lamb #617 died overnight. There was another dead lamb in the Totara paddock today, #619. I carted them over to the burying grounds near the old tall Ginko tree in the Long Acre.

I took the Middletons over to Napier to join a bus at 8:15am ferrying shareholders up to Putere for the AGM of Roger Dickie (N.Z.) Ltd, a forestry investment business. The bus was due back around 5:00pm.

With the tractor I mowed the driveways and around the big oak. Ewe #218 (the late lamber from last year) is showing keen interest in the rams so I let her in with them.

Byron Gregory, an arborist until recently in Australia but returned to New Zealand with a young family and working on his father’s farm, dropped in on spec to see if we’d like any help with the trees. I had been getting a bit overwhelmed by the amount of clearing up to do so Karola easily convinced me to ask for Byron’s help.

Byron’s first job, for $500, was to tidy up:

• A lower and looming branch of Lawsoniana on the 133 back driveway
• A long thin branch hanging from the lime tree near the wooden gate
• The large oak branch that had smashed an inner planting-area fence in the Front paddock, again near the wooden gate
• A wattle, now 3-4 metres high but leaning low over the roadside verge, about 50 metres north of the above oak branch
• The messy tangle of 3 – 4 big branches that had been torn off the Macrocarpa in the storm

After Byron had finished I asked him for quotes to do another six trees and, as a separate job, five tall eucalyptus re-growth stems towering over the roadside near the nort-west corner of the Front paddock.

Karola & I drove over and met the bus, picked up the Middletons, and had a meal at Kilim in Napier before returning home and chatting until midnight.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—19℃ no rain [75.0]

Karola did the weekend shopping while I struggled still with my emails. I did also give ewe #311 her second and final dose of penicillin and took Bangle round the orchard for a walk – have missed those for a few days. Karola also did quite a lot of tidying and cleaning in the house in preparation for this weekend’s visitors. I sorted out light bulbs so that all the lamps and lights in the house were working.

Byron, an arborist, called in late afternoon to see if he could help with any of our trees. We thought we’d try him out and so gave him five locations where large fallen, or partially fallen branches are beyond what I can handle. Today and tomorrow he is cutting up a large Lawsoniana tree branch that has been hanging over the 133 back drive for a while. He’s also pulling down and cutting up a long thin Lime tree branch. Then the substantial oak branch that has fallen across the fence near the wooden gate into the Front paddock. The Macrocarpa has 3 – 4 large branches hanging down, torn from the tree during the storm. And a wattle has grown quickly into a 5-metre high tree leaning out over the road – best if this goes before it gets any larger.

I finished mowing the cottage lawn and then mowed under the washing line and along between the drive and the cottage east wall.

The Middletons arrived around 8:00pm and we had a delicious dinner, Karola made a really good fish pie.

Large Fungus Like A Cheese Soufle

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [74.6]

Sad news that another of our breeding replacement ewe lambs died overnight – again from Macrocarpa poisoning we suspect. So I dug a fresh hole and buried ewe lamb #601.

Gave ewe #311, the one Karl spotted as having an infected udder, a shot of penicillin – Karl dropped off a syringe full early this morning.

Karola went into Napier to Bay Audiology to get her hearing aid fixed. We all went in later to pick it up, repaired – there was a fault, one receiver was not working.

More work on computer as the email and address book are still not working as desired, not quite.

Mowed most of the cottage lawn with the repaired and serviced mower.

Lamb Grave

Lamb Grave Complete

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ no rain [73.9]

SwimGym with Karola

We then spent too much of the morning trying to make the actual number of sheep and the records tally. Eventually we found that I’d missed a dead ewe lamb while Polly was here in March, #615. And today, in addition to the expected death of ewe lamb #605 there was another one over near the Macrocarpa, #612. With those three deaths and the addition of the ram everything tallied, 40 sheep in total. I buried the two lambs in the existing pit and filled it in – no more room.

Karl & Wendy came along as planned at 2:00pm and shore the sheep. Karola requested and I put Magnum on them all to deter fly-strike (withholding for meat, zero days). Karl said it was worthwhile even this late in the year. We put the ewes and ewe lambs in the Middle paddock for now, the two rams and the older wether in the Goose paddock, and the eight wether lambs in the Long Acre.

I popped into town and picked up the sharpened chainsaw chains and mulcher blades. I also got three replacement bolts for the mulcher. Also, it being Wednesday, fish for tonight, lamb chops for tomorrow and other bits and bobs.

Shepherdess Karola Keeps An Eye On The Shearing

Karl & Wendy Shearing In The Truck

Winter Shearing Done, Catching Up On Their Grazing

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—19℃ no rain [75.3]

At last the conversion of our email postboxes from Google to our webspace in the USA is making progress. Karola’s email and my business email, BickaSoft, have been moved and Karola and my iThings have been updated to use the new servers.

I’ve also found a “plugin” for Apple Mail that makes reading replies to emails easier. Instead of putting the reply above the copy of the original message, it now puts my replies after the quoted piece of the original. That and several other enhancements were in a book on Apple’s email that I finished last night.

Looks like it’ll be a nice dry day tomorrow for the shearing, Bruce Richardson rang this morning and said Karl would be over to do it tomorrow afternoon. Karola put the male sheep in the Goose paddock and the rest in the yards so that by tomorrow they’ll have empty stomachs. One little ewe lamb, #605, seems rather listless and won’t run along with the rest. We cajoled and carried her across to the yards. Karola fed her some Keytol liquid reviver and we hope she perhaps ate something poisonous and will improved by tomorrow.

The new Honda lawn mower was ready today, new blades and a service. Also Karola’s old Victa mower that she is quite attached to but was over-revving to an alarming extent, that’s ready too. So I picked up both mowers, did some food shopping, and took in a couple of chainsaw chains for sharpening. Later Karola took in the Caravaggi Mulcher blades for sharpening as we have quite a lot of small branches and foliage to chip and shred.

I tried to take the radiator out of the old tractor, it’s been leaking and causing the engine to overheat. But I don’t have the right tools and anyway the front-end loader is obscuring access. I did what I should have tried long ago, and poured a bottle of “bars leaks” into the radiator and ran it for a couple of hours. No obvious leaks and the water level in the radiator looks the same.

As the afternoon drew on I put a sharp chain on the chainsaw and continued my clearing project. Another day, another tank-full.

Karola is still cleaning up after the visitors, when not making me delicious meals that is.

Caravaggi Mulcher Opened To Extract The Blades

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—18℃ no rain [75.2]

SwimGym with Karola. Very quiet on the streets as it’s Easter Monday public holiday.

The young Rashbrookes went for a cycle ride this morning, including a spell on the BMX track at Clive. They departed for Wellington after lunch. We can now relax.

Another ewe, #507, joined #410 and #224 in jumping up the ha-ha so my experiment in turning the electricity on and staking around the most likely jumping up point did not work. All three are in the Totara paddock tonight. I shall try something different tomorrow.

I have resolved to chainsaw up some of the fallen branches every day, except on holidays when neighbours might reasonably hope for some peace and quiet. I’ll fill the chainsaw tank and use it up, no refills, and that’ll be my day’s lot.

Bramble took me round the orchard this afternoon. That’s when I saw what the storm had done to the spray-prevention netting in Karola’s orchard.

There was a nasty little earthquake here at 5:32pm that had Karola and me scampering for the exits from upstairs, magnitude 4.6, 25km down and 25km south of Hastings. I felt another smaller one at 9:23pm, magnitude 3.6, 23km down and 25km south of Hastings. I didn’t feel the next one at 9:25pm, magnitude 2.8, 22km down and 25km south of Hastings. Rockin’ & rollin’ we are.

Orchard Spray Protection Netting Adrift After The Storm

Friday’s Firewood

Saturday’s Firewood

Monday’s Firewood

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—20℃ no rain [75.3]

Breakfast with the Rashbrooke clan soon after 8:00am. They then spent the morning with tractor and trailer picking up sticks. I’d decided not to be the first in the neighbourhood to chainsaw on Easter Sunday so I waited until Matt over the road started up then I did about half an hour’s sawing. Kids had easter egg hunts etc – as is their wont with the strong peer pressure and barrage of consumer advertising. I disapprove, but it’s hard on the children if you insist on abstaining.

Ewe #410 up on the lawn again so this time I shut her in the Totara paddock, away from the ha-ha. Bit of a puzzle what to do with her, or how to make the ha-ha harder to jump up.

Later Karola, Bangle, and I walked round the property re-evaluating the wind damage. We were very lucky. Janet Scott called in briefly to let us know that the electrical fault of the last couple of days was in the big transformer on the avenue near us. Unison fixed it yesterday evening, as we knew when the electricity started behaving again.

Three More Trees With Big Broken Branches

In The Goose Paddock Near The 121 Entrance

In The Long Acre Near The 121 Entrance

Even The Lime Tree Lost A Branch

Better Shot Of The Macrocarpa Damage

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—21℃ 1.8mm rain [74.7]

After breakfast Geoff & I did some clearing up. First under the Swamp Cypress near the farm shed, then under the Canary Island Pine, and finally around the 121 entrance. I chainsawed, Geoff picked up and drove the tractor with trailer.

Meanwhile Gwen, Bolke and the two children went off on their bikes to Napier. At mid-day Geoff went off to rescue the children, meeting Felicity, Karola, and me at Clifton Cafe for lunch. After lunch we went for a stroll along the Clive riverbank, well actually I dozed in the car, then Geoff decided to run back to Karamu and the rest of us made our way home.

Ewe #410 was up on the house lawn again today. Karola wondered if she’d found a way to slip round the gate at the end of the ha-ha but I think not, she’s just got nerve and timing and jumps up the ha-ha.

Dinner in the old house, with lights on this time.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—24℃ no rain [74.9]

Beautiful day here this morning. Woke to find some power restored but not all. Power off since 11:00pm last night amidst really frightening winds. Back on this morning except for one phase which flickers and lights on that circuit are dim, and the garage doors don’t open – that sort of thing. The waste management system alarm keeps going off – presumably because the pump is on the flickering circuit. Ditto the whole of the homestead. But we have computers, kettles, and light – can’t really ask for more.

Took Bangle round the boundaries assessing the storm damage. A few tree branches down and fences snapped in a couple of places only – so no big deal except for the clean-up. Stock all sensible enough to have stayed out of way of falling debris. Buildings untouched as far as I can see. Solar panels still OK I think. After breakfast – yes the toaster was still working, and the kettle – I chainsawed up the fallen Ngaio branches that were blocking the orchard drive, so our orchardist’s workers aren’t met with a nasty surprise as they trundle from orchard to orchard – we tend to be a shortcut.

The avenue was closed when I got up to survey the storm damage – not unreasonable as there’s a rather large elm tree right across the road. It is being chainsawed up now and will be cleared in an hour or so – several people turned up in their ‘ute’s to watch and get free firewood.

From the radio/TV it sounds like Hawkes Bay got hit badly compared to Wellington and west coast, so other parts of Hastings still without power etc. I blame Donald Trump.

Henare TXTed that he’d like to do some weeding for us before he went up to The Mahia on Saturday, so we invited him round and he did a morning’s digging up of iris near the lime tree, continuing his work in that area a week or so ago.

I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon, up until the time the Rashbrookes arrived, cutting up fallen fir tree branches on the avenue for firewood. They make excellent firewood though, as Karola unkindly remarked, it’s not as if we are short of firewood.

Sometime in the afternoon one of the ewes, #410, jumped up the ha-ha and wandered around near the Liriodendron. When challenged she jumped back into the Front paddock. One to keep an eye on.

Later I got us all – Karola & Ian, 2 Rashbrooke grandparents, Felicity & Geoff, two Rashbrooke parents, Gwen & Bolke, 2 Rashbrooke children, Miriam & Sophie – fish and chips for dinner.

Oak Avenue (aka Ormond Road) – Typical Debris

One Large Elm Across The Road

Snapped Off At The Base

Large Oak Branch Smashed Fence

Several Large Branches Off Macrocarpa

Half The (Rotten) Flowering Plum

Pin Oak Lost Several Branches

Ngaio Blocking Orchard Drive

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—23℃ no rain [74.4]

SwimGym with Karola – on a Thursday because the gym is shut tomorrow, Easter Friday.

Rained quite hard most of the day with constant information on radio and TV about the coming cyclonic storm over eastern north New Zealand tonight.

I took Bangle round the orchard at a fast clip, arriving back under cover just minutes before a particularly strong downpour.

Karola got food for the weekend. I worked on computer, managing to lose my address book aka “contacts” and having eventually to retrieve it from a backup disk. Two steps forward, one step back sort of a day.

Weather got steadily worse until there was a fearsome gale blowing around 10:00pm and the power went off completely around 11:00pm.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—21℃ 38.0 rain [74.3]

SwimGym

Rain forecast but still hasn’t arrived so I mowed the iris under the trees near the sheep yards, in fact all along that fence line in the Middle paddock.

Honda mower not ready yet, they’re waiting for the new blades to arrive. Probably tomorrow.

Long weekend of Easter so bread can’t be picked up on Friday – but will probably be there on Thursday or else pick up on Saturday.

No SwimGym on Friday but opens at 7:00am on Monday so Karola says she wants to go tomorrow morning.

Co-opt by Karola to bang in standards for some tree guards. She planted a special fir and we put up the tree-guards she’d prepared for about six trees.

In the afternoon i went to see John Beaumont, ophthalmologist, for my annual checkup – all good, no better, no worse.

Later Karola & I went to Napier, to the Century Theatre, to listen to Gareth Morgan, economist and leader of The Opportunities Party (TOP) talk about his party’s policies. I am already a member, Karola may join.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—20℃ 5.8mm rain [74.4]

I called Bruce Richardson and he will arrange for our autumn shearing soon. I also contacted three nurseries for quotes for 30 manuka and 20 red beech trees, all in small pots, not root trainers.

Karola went off after breakfast to pick up her glasses she’s left at the doctor’s yesterday. I took Bangle round the orchard and then Bangle & I took Karola’s old, beloved, green mower in to Hawkes bay Lawnmowers & Chainsaws to get it fixed. They are very busy but believe it’s easy to fix – should be done in two weeks time.

Main thing for me today was that, rain being forecast for the next three days, I thought today was the last day this week to mow the One Acre with its thickets of Californian thistles, fat hen, and nightshade. It took about five hours on the tractor to mow the One Acre – basically going over all of it at least twice.

I was puzzled by two pukekos that came out into the field while I was mowing, seemingly not afraid of me or the tractor which, when mowing, makes a terrible din. What was so interesting in the cut grass and herbs and weeds. Just as I was finishing I saw what it was they were after. They were spearing mice that must have been living in the thick vegetation. I saw one run off with a couple of dead mice and then return with a live one it jabbed into silence. Quality protein I suppose. Later I counted seven pukeko on the One Acre, presumably still looking for rodents.

Karola returned after lunch and set about some more work on tree guards.

Karola made the remains of the organic chicken into a very pleasant curry – so the smallest chicken, a size 14, can easily last us for three dinners – first roast, then cold, and finally curry.

Feijoa Bounty Under One Bush – And We Have Three

One Acre – A Mass Of Fat Hen Stalks

One Acre – Still Stalks, But Not So Many

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—21℃ no rain [75.1]

SwimGym with Karola

Karola went off to doctor’s appointment. She returned with a new bedside lamp – Halogen unfortunately, but more directional to avoid disturbing a sleeping partner. It’s only taken us 30 years to figure that out. The beauty of this lamp is that you tap its base to cycle it through dim light, modest light, bright light, and off.

I walked with Bangle round the orchard.

After lunch we took the Honda lawn mower in to be serviced and have its mangled blades replaced. The man said, when the blades get like that they don’t throw the grass into the catcher properly. DO WE KNOW THAT, YES WE DO. Should be ready on Wednesday. We also got another of those bedside lights with tap control for me. Yippee.

Jenny & Noel Hendery, whom we dined with last night, cycled round to pick up some quince and crab apples we’d picked for them a couple of days ago. here was too much to carry comfortably on bicycles back to Napier so we attached the bike carrier to the Subaru tow-bar ball and took them, their bikes, the fruit, and Bramble over to Napier after afternoon tea.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—20℃ 0.1mm rain [74.4]

Sunny cool start to the day. Henare arrived around 10:00am and we both began mowing the lawns grown over-long wiht the recent warm and wet weather. Henare used the self-propelled Honda lawn mower, I used the tractor and mower. I did the main expanses and 121 driveway, Henare did the circle in front of the house, the 133 driveways, under the Liriodendron, under the washing line and the little lawn in front of the house garage. It took us about four hours with a break for lunch.

In the evening Karola & I went to Napier and took Noel & Jenny Hendery out to dinner at Kilim, a Turkish restaurant chain. Good food, good conversation, including back at their place for coffee.

A Start On The House Lawn, Henare In The Background

House Lawn Done

Tractor Mower Plastic Guard Damage From Short Length #8 Wire

Behind The House Garage – Before

Behind The House Garage – After

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

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

Colder overcast day. I spent the morning on computer beginning my dangerous attempt to move our emails from a Google serrvice to our web space in New Jersey. Bridget has used the latter quite successfully for the last year or so and I’m quite keen to get out of the clutches of Google.

Took Bangle round the orchard and then Karola & I set off for Taradale for haircuts. When we got home Karola took most of the quinces to Greta’s shop.

In the afternoon Karola continued working on her tree guards and I mowed the cottage lawn – just the lawn which, due to the rain and warmth, has grown very quickly into a dense sward over the last few weeks. Thank goodness Karola mowed it while I was in Wellington last weekend. The damaged lawn mower blades don’t help so you keep having to unblock the grass chute; I must remember to get replacement blades.

Cottage Lawn – After

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—19℃ no rain [74.9]

SwimGym with Karola.

Bangle & I went off and did the Friday shopping after breakfast. Then we sorted out the sheep so that the wethers and both rams were in the Goose paddock and the Long Acre while the rest of the sheep were in the Front paddock and One Acre.

After lunch we picked about ⅔ of the quinces on Karola’s two quince trees up in the north-west corner. The quinces are so numerous, large, and heavy that they are breaking the branches. Sadly, although I like quinces – some nostalgic childhood memory – there are very few uses for quince, in fact none in our household so Karola tries to give them away including donating them to our old tenant, Greta Flynn who runs a vegetable shop on Omahu road.

Later I wound up the electric fence round the house lawn having decided that the sheep had done a decent job of eating the grass there and I should now mow the lawn with the tractor – tomorrow perhaps.

Karola has made a large tree guard for one of her in-paddock Totaras and I banged in the nine standards to hold it up.

Quince Fruit In Abundance

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—19℃ no rain [74.9]

After several days of welcome rain, at the end of which everything was rather soggy and many places in NZ were flooded, today was a lovely sunny day.

Insurance company’s builder came today to get them a quote. Cross fingers it isn’t too different from the one Paul, our builder, gave us. Karola & I escorted Bangle round the orchard, Bangle having to hop along because the grass was long and very wet. Bangle & I tried a Fuji apple each, they haven’t been picked but the Galaxy apples are long gone. The orchard seems to be about half Galaxy and half Fuji.

At Karola’s request I went to Goldpine and bought a gross of metal standards – for more tree guards. While there I picked up four rolls of #8 wire in preparation for changing from netting to wire-and-batten fences around the inside of the planting areas on the boundary. Bang goes $500.

Karola did a little more on her tree guards, she has several saplings she bought in New Plymouth at the IDS tree auction still to put in, and they need guards.

I wound up the many wires of electric fence that created five swathes of paddock in the One Acre. The plantain & lucerne & red clover has been bolting up with the warmth and rain so that the lower wires were buried under foliage and shorting out. Afterwards I let the in-lamb ewes into the One Acre and, pure happenstance, the ram waited till last to go through the gate, so I shut it, neatly shedding him out of the flock. We were going to do that tomorrow anyway. Given the way the two rams have been challenging each other through the adjoining gate I think there’s going to be trouble once we amalgamate them, until one clearly comes out on top. Although a week later than I’d hoped, taking the ram out now means that we’ll probably get all the lambs arriving in August-September. The plan is for none to arrive while we’re on holiday with Anna et al in July, and to have them bunched up as much as possible so they form a fairly even line size-wise by Christmas.

On the cusp? Well today is the day the ram came out and I changed into winter plumage. No more shorts and knobbly knees but sturdy trousers and winter shirts. Cusp indeed.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—22℃ no rain [74.2]

SwimGym with Karola

Rained gently much of the time and the water is pooling all over the place. Took Bangle around the orchard, negotiating several stretches of water that reached up to Bangle’s tummy 0 well she does have rather short legs – that didn’t please her at all. Karola dried her off when she got back and Bangle enjoyed that.

Karola rushed off to post a letter. Later I went out to Countdown and got food, including some prime beef mince for Bangle’s next batch of rice & mince suppers, some USA grapefruit – so much better than the NZ ones at present, and a couple of punnets of blackberries on sale. I found out why, in one half the berries were mouldy and all the berries were at or beyond their best.

Henare came round late morning, despite the rain, and continued clearing iris from near the lime tree and wooden gate – where I hope to plant my beech grove. He left around 4:00pm.

I started slowly on the recreation of my web sites in a new account – it’s going to take me weeks.

Eastern End Of The Long Acre

Ditto, And Across Into The Scott’s Orchard

The Ha-Ha, Looking South-West

Ditto, Looking East

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [74.5]

Long lie in for most of the morning. Rained heavily all night and most of the day. Far too wet to do much outside so did computer stuff, preparing for moving my web sites to the new account. It’s not going to be easy, especially if I try to tidy stuff up as I move the sites.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—15℃ 93.0mm rain [?]

Slowly got up and ready to leave for the airport for the mid-day flight. Overcast, sullen, and raining mostly. While driving to the airport I found the Wellington traffic and roads quite stressful after the familiarity and space of Hastings. At one point I got a fright because a black saloon just reversed out into the road alongside me. I saw it’s backing lights come on in front of me, then it just gradually backed out. I slammed on the brakes (too late of course) and thought he was going to hit the side of the car, but no. It was probably quite safe and s/he did it every day as there was no obvious alternative if one had gone into the drive head-first.

Karola met me at the airport with Bangle and we trundled off home. I had a lazy afternoon – bit of a walk with Bangle and checking up on the sheep.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—18℃ 27.2mm rain [?]

Got to the meeting 30 minutes early at 9:00am so had time to chat to Iain & Gaylene as Gaylene rushed round making the place tidy. Gaylene had told some of us 9:30am and some 10:30am so arrivals were staggered but the meeting got into play around 10:30am. Te Rangikaheke video-conferenced in. Lowell Manning, the president, and Michael, the treasurer, Iain & Gaylene, the secretary, formed a quorum. We had an hour exchange with Peter Brake, an activist for Basic Income funded via increases in the GST (VAT) tax. Late morning Prue Hyman came, as planned, to sit in and see what BINZ was about. She too is sceptical as to how BINZ, a tiny organisation, can make much impact. Prue compared it to the “Living Wage” movement which has widespread and well funded support.

Gaylene provided a GF hot soup for lunch, much enjoyed, and the meeting went on till around 4:00pm. I stayed behind and chatted with iain & Gaylene until a TXT from Bridget at around 9:00pm asked when I was coming home – so I left. Raining and dark outside.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—28℃ no rain [?]

Mid afternoon we all drove over to Napier airport and my flight was on time and without complications. I picked up a car at the airport and drove over to Bridget’s.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ 0.1mm rain [74.5]