Monthly Archives: May 2017

SwimGym

The morning post brought Karola some special merino wool slippers and me a smart phone holster. The shoes are a success – from Bridget for Karola’s birthday. The holster less so and I will try to return it for a refund.

Then Karola spent much of the morning sorting out her medical records, and searching for recent blood test results. She has to have another one this month.

I finished a back-up of my computer system, reflecting my local copies of emails and web logs following my migration to a new account at AceWebHosting.

Just before lunch we all went off in the Landrover for some Wednesday shopping.

• Hawkes Bay Scrap Metal to ask if they’d take old wire as well as old guttering and flashing – yes, but we have to burn any high-tensile wire before they’ll take it
• Gagan’s roadside vege shop – where I succumbed again to autumn raspberries.
• Picked up two new chains for my new chainsaw, from the Saw Doctors in Omahu road
• Karola went and had her blood test
• To the post office to send off my Apple Magic wireless keyboard to the agent in Palmerston North
• Dry cleaning dropped off
• Countdown supermarket for grapefruit and meat for Bangle’s dinners
• New World supermarket for everything else
• The Stihl Shop – to pick up a replacement bar and sprocket for my old chainsaw, bequeathed to Henare.
• Hohepa, the disability service providers shop, for fire lighters and cheese

Henare called soon after we got back and offered to come and continue putting in the strainer post. This he did, leaving as darkness fell with the strainer in place but not yet rammed nor with stay posts.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—18℃ 0.2mm rain [72.6]

Karola planted the final 12 red beech trees and put mulch round them all – a sterling effort seeing as how I have somehow not got round to it for days and days.

Byron and his partner came round after 9:00am and dropped off my chainsaw. Byron made a thing of sharpening it and said he’d tuned it up but I am still most unimpressed that he kept it for an extra day. When asked if he’d replaced the petrol – oh no, his petrol can is empty. He split a bit more firewood, another ½ hour taking his balance to 5 hours.

I moved bits of wood around, including the heavy trunk of the Grevillea robusta, but seemed to get very little done today. I did call Apple Support about my troublesome Magic Wireless Keyboard and they then redirected me to an official support centre in Palmerston North.

I ordered an iPhone holster online, for Karola if she likes it. Karola took Bangle round the orchard. Bangle had an apple.

Karola wants the drive to the cottage to be self-contained. That is, instead of coming down from the big house, to have its own loop in front of the cottage garage. So I’ve mown the long grass under the big oak to reflect the path that might take and we can practice to make sure there’s enough room. I did try with the Landrover and trailer and there is just enough room to come to the cottage, loop round, and leave.

I went in to the Saw Doctors and ordered two spare chains for the new Echo chainsaw.

Today we gave Bangle an anti-flea & worm dose – poured onto skin along back.

Magic Keyboard – Woderful But Frustrating

Magic wireless keyboard for Apple devices is a thing of beauty and has a magical feel, but ….

Since I got it (6th December 2016), it has intermittently but often inserted extra characters in front of the one that I typed. I am finally so annoyed by this that I’m trying to get Apple to fix it – presumably a fault in the actual keyboard.

Serial# F0T6457006PGW79A7

Product# MLA22ZA/A

Web order: W529075297

Invoice Ref: 4415719067

$138.26+GST=$159.00

I called the 0800 number on the invoice and they, eventually, referred me to Palmerston North authorised support

Phone number 06-350-9990

Karola’s Red Beech Planting (The Nine In The Foreground)

Grevillea robusta Trunk & Protruding Stump

Trunk Gone & Proposed Loop Path Mown

Stump Cut To Below Groundlevel

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [72.8]

SwimGym

After a hearty breakfast (two large boiled eggs) – I’ve been 10 days within my preferred weight range so am rather pleased about that – I hurriedly completed the clearing of the orchard driveway of the trimmings I did earlier. It took two large trailer-loads and I didn’t have time to unload the last one before zooming off for an appointment with my ear nurse.

I last visited her, Frith Gray, in 2008, so this isn’t a frequent occurrence. All satisfactory and over in about 15 minutes. Whilst in town I did a bit of food shopping but also dropped in on Alexanders Menswear and bought a couple of pairs of winter trousers and a belt – with the smaller waistline befitting my new slim self.

Dropped into the Stihl Shop (chainsaws) and ordered spare parts for the old chainsaw I’ve bequeathed to Henare. Henare thinks if he gets a new chain bar and sprocket he’ll be able to make it work – so I am getting the spare parts for him and he’ll pay me back.

Also got a secateur holster for Karola and posted a letter for her, to Gill in England. In the post office I asked what the fast options were:

1. International Air Letter (large): $3.30 – 6-10 working days
2. International Courier…..…….: $39.59 – 5-6 working days
3. International Express Courier: $64.06 – 2-5 working days

Hmmm, that was hard.

After soup & toast for lunch I spent the daylight time adding various piles of tree trash to the bonfire. Also picked up quite a few small branches that will make good firewood in a couple of years time, for later chainsawing to length.

Bangle and I herded the geese back into the Goose paddock. At some point they’d slipped through a temporarily open gate into the Middle paddock. We also wound up the short electric fence stopping the wether lambs get to the acorns. The ram and big wether have had access to them for the last few days and so now the wether lambs must take their chance. We then went round the orchard and shared an apple.

Byron was supposed to return my chainsaw today – ha!. He also said he would come today and work of the remaining 5½ hours he owes us – ha! Maybe towards the end of the week, I’m most upset about not returning my chainsaw on time, not the wood splitting per se.

My old web hosting account is due for renewal next week. I have downloaded the whole site to my local computer and set up the web logs and email on a new account with the same ISP. Today I cancelled the old account. The original domain nicekiwi.com will be added to my new web space shortly but emails and web log access should continue uninterrupted.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—17℃ 1.7mm rain [72.1]

Sunday and cold enough that Karola had the heater on all night. Drizzly day, all day but I got outside for much of it.

Karola went to see Maggie Nagel in Taradale. She’s been very ill but got back from hospital a day or so ago. Karola baked pikelets (baked?) and took them over to Colin & Maggie – her visit, and the pikelets went down a treat.

Spent the morning on computer – I’ve pretty much moved off my old hosting account to the new one and lots of stuff just works – that’s good.

In the afternoon I picked up some of the smaller branches in piles around the place, results of our tree work since the big storm. Henare came round mid afternoon and began digging a big hole for a strainer post – Karola wants one of the damaged fences in the Front paddock, the one broken by a substantial oak branch, moved out of a hollow about three metres. Once Henare started I saw that I needed to take the fence down to give him room so much of the rest of the day was spent taking off the netting and wires.

As dusk fell I quickly got another load of ngaio trimmings off the orchard drive where I’d dumped it. There’s still probably another 2-3 loads to do but the drive is passable.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—14℃ 5.7mm rain [72.8]

Bangle barked heralding the arrival of Postie on a Saturday morning with two cardboard boxes. She observed that she doesn’t deliver or pick up mail on Saturdays any more – she put a leaflet in our letter box about it several months ago. The boxes were two Kindling Crackers, one normal for Gill & Ben birthdays later this year, and one king-size for us. (see below)

I started in the morning by lopping off about five large branches of ngaio near the north-west corner of the Front paddock, the ones Byron didn’t have time for yesterday, branches that are shading the planting area unnecessarily.

Just before lunch I went off with the Landrover and big trailer and:

• posted magazines to Bridget – now I know that Postie doesn’t deliver letters or pick up mail on Saturdays, she just delivers parcels.
• got 20 litres of diesel for the tractors
• went to Gagan’s the Sikh greengrocer/grower and bought two freshly picked punnets of raspberries and a large fresh cauliflower
• bought fencing stuff from Goldpine – 3 rolls of #8 wire, 40 1.5m metal standards, a #2 2.1m strainer post, and 200 fence battens

I then went along the orchard drive just nipping off the larger branches low down that protruded into the roadway. Byron came over and borrowed my chainsaw mid afternoon just as I was finishing.

I then laid out the fence battens, five between each pair of posts, and carted three large trailer-loads of prunings from the orchard drive side of the ngaio hedge to the bonfire site. There’s probably another four to do, but it’s not obstructing the driveway so not urgent. It was dark by the time I’d done the three loads.

Meanwhile Karola has been carting trailer loads of tree trash to the bonfire site from all over.

Sister Gill With Her Brand New iMac Computer

Our New Kindling Cracker Arrived Today

What’s In The Box

Just A Couple Of Branches Of Ngaio

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [72.2]

SwimGym

Karola did the Friday shopping with Bangle while I pottered. She also got one of her trailers its due WOF (Warrant of Fitness).

I fixed up a board across the farm shed lean-to so that the stacked green firewood can use ⅔ of the lean-to and there’s still room for the Caravaggi chipper etc.

Karola finished weeding the patch where the last three red beech will go and began moving tree trash to the bonfire site. She’s decided that we should burn the branches rather than chip them as it’s quicker and burning is allowed at present, and there’s a large bonfire area which will need to be resown anyway.

I got a small trailer-load of mulch and spread it round near the 133 gateway ready for planting nine more red beech. I got another two loads and put them on the patch Karola has just weeded, by the wooden gate and lime tree.

Byron finally turned up around 3:00pm – he said he’d be here shortly after 8:45am. Of course he wanted more cash and his chainsaw was broken yet again. No cash and I lent him my chainsaw and he did a couple of hours of solid tree work. He lives dangerously, lots of one-handed chainsawing, climbing without any protective gear several metres up the tree he’s felling. It’s quick, he’s very strong, he does a really clean job, but it’s very dangerous and I’m amazed he’s survived so long – he’s 36. Byron has 2 toddlers with his current partner and a 15 year-old daughter by someone else – a weekend fling apparently. Byron has been in Australia for the last 13 years and has returned to his father’s farm, the family farm, in Puketapu. He has two older brothers, also in Australia, and they plan to return home soon and, like Byron, to build houses on the family farm.

Today Byron cut down two ngaio trees along the orchard drive, that had been blown over in recent gales, and another one in the north-east corner which is leaning way over and shading out the other younger trees. He managed it without breaking any of the nearby trees in the planting area and took all the rubbish over to the bonfire leaving me with the larger logs in the big trailer. But for his incessant requests for more loans I’d have him back, but the precarious existence, hand-to-mouth, is too stressful – having to rebuff his demands.

So another ½ hour of firewood work and 2 hours of skilled tree felling – the latter at double time – so Byron now only owes us 5½ hours.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—16℃ 0.3mm rain [72.8]

Mended Karola’s rake – well fixed the head on more firmly. Also located a mislaid plastic bottle of Vigilant, necessary for Karola’s campaign of ivy & blackberry eradication.

In the morning Karola carried on weeding and poisoning invasive ivy and blackberry in a small corner of ground next to the big wooden gate, just past the lime tree. She also raked smooth the two small trailer-loads of mulch on the ground behind the 133 gate where I expect to plant nine more red beech. That will leave three red beech to go where Karola is weeding now. I then still have to put a ring of mulch round the 25 trees already planted.

In case Byron appeared as promised to return our trailer this morning, at Karola’s suggestion I marked the Ngaio trees along the orchard driveway using warning rape – barber’s pole read and white thin plastic tape about 75mm wide. Then, for the rest of the morning, I took down the inner fence along the Front paddock northern boundary, from the railings by the swamp cypresses down to the Wellingtonian and 145 road gate.

Took Bangle for a walk round the orchard and an apple. The pruning has been done and all the branches mulched up. At the same time of course the grass gets cut so it’s easier going now for Bangle’s little legs.

Byron finally turned up around 4:30pm with our trailer and did 30 minutes more firewood splitting. I said it was too late to begin felling trees so he said he’ll come tomorrow. We shall see.

Top Wires Down

Netting Down

Netting For More Tree Guards

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ no rain [72.5]

SwimGym with Karola

There was just time to go to Havelock North to listen to Charlie Daugherty talk about the Hawkes Bay Biodiversity Strategy. Peter Offenberger, who was at the bee lecture last night, told us about this lecture and as it had rained overnight and wasn’t due to clear until lunchtime it seemed a good idea to go. The talk, by Prof. Charles Dougherty, retired assistant Vice Chancellor, VUW, was hosted by the Havelock North Friendship Club.

Despite the cold Karola went back to her weeding. I continued with taking down the netting fence, got about half the fence down and the netting rolled up. It’ll make lots and lots of tree guards; this is European sheep netting with smaller holes and so is better for tree guards, stopping sheep getting their noses too close to the trees.

Byron came late afternoon and we looked at the two ngaios along the orchard drive I’d like felled; he said he could do it, no problem. He did another 30 minutes of firewood splitting and stacking and then asked if he could have some dry old wood to split and sell so his family could eat tonight – he reckoned he knew someone who would buy a trailer load of firewood at a keen price despite the late hour. Well after dark off he went, borrowing our big trailer, only to return with the wood in an hour’s time – his contact had gone out for the evening. So he thought he’d take the firewood for himself (what happened to the staving family?). I offered him three tins of baked beans, beans that have gluten in so I can’t eat them, but he snorted something about not wanting charity. Then he asked me for petrol for his car, again, offering to replace it “tomorrow” but so far cash and petrol and the return of borrowed trailer has not happened when promised. So I gave him another couple of litres, he really wanted five he said. I was silent.

Notes: The Biodiversity Strategy For Hawkes Bay

Started in 2011, an outcome of Hawkes Bay Land & Water Management Strategy. The strategy was in place by 2016 with a 30-year timeline, supported widely by local government and NGOs.

Habitat diversity has reduced dramatically since the arrival of humans in New Zealand, mostly attributable to agriculture.

New phrase now in use: “ecosystem services”. These provide:

• provisioning (eg genetic diversity)
• regulating (eg help control climate, water, provide pollination)
• supporting (eg formation of soils, growth of trees)
• cultural (eg recreation and tourism)

Diversity reduction indicated by, for example, the extinction of species in Hawkes Bay (although they continue to survive in other parts of New Zealand):

• 9 species of bird
• 2 frog species
• 5 lizard species
• 10 plant species

Examples of responses to the need for biodiversity:

• VUW now plants a tree for every graduate annually
• Zelandia has been a great success, beyond its boundaries, despite Charles initial scepticism, due in large part to Wgtn City Council predator extermination campaign

The HB Biodiversity Strategy vision and objectives are of two kinds:

• native habitats & species focus (the environment)
• community, partnerships, Maori (people)

Today the strategy is at the foundational stage, a baseline has been documented, the level of biodiversity in Hawkes Bay today. A Foundation is being established as the legal entity to own the strategy. Charles note that councils in New Zealand have a statutory duty to address biodiversity, via the RMA (resource management act).

Along positive lines, the NZ govt has a “predator-free New Zealand” strategy aiming to eradicate 3 species of rat, 3 species of stoat, and possums by 2050.

There are already significant biodiversity projects elsewhere in New Zealand: Jazoom (Abel Tasman), Northland, Taranaki.

As Karola observed at the meeting, much of the biodiversity work begins with water. Charles said that water catchments were crucial units of habitat, yes, water is the key.

Incidental remarks:

GDP was invented to inventory countries after WWII, not to be the predominant measure of economic growth as it is today.

85% of New Zealanders live in cities today, it will become more so in the future.

“biophillic cities” – bringing nature into the cities – several major examples, in NZ only Wgtn so far.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [72.9]

Bitterly cold and only occasional glimpses of the sun. I began the pulling down of the netting fence along the northern edge of the Front paddock, triggered by the need to fell a couple of tall, heavy ngaio trees along the orchard drive that, only discovered yesterday, had been blown partially over in the storms. I hope to get Byron to fell them but they will fall across the planting area and would have broken the netting fence.

Using tractor and a small trailer I got a load of mulch for Karola to spread over the area she’s been weeding near the 133 entrance, towards the lime tree.

Off we went at 4:30pm to attend a lecture on bees at the Eastern Institute of Technology. We were there in good time, before 5:00pm. The “lecture room 2” was quite difficult to find but eventually someone guided us there. It was in darkness. We sat and waited, and waited. Then I had another look at the programme, oops, starts at 6:00pm. So we went off in the car to a MacDonalds and had a cup of coffee, Karola had a toasted sandwich. When we got back the hall was filling up and in fact the lecture started 15 minutes late as more and more people arrived.

This was a lecture sponsored by the Hawkes Bay branch of the New Zealand Royal Society, “Why Bees Are So Awesome” by Porf. Peter Dearden, Director of Genetics, University of Otago.

Notes On The Lecture “Why Bees Are Awesome”

Bees, of which over 20,000 species have been recorded, are arthropods, and arthropods make up more than 80% of all described living animal species. New Zealand has 28 species of native bee, all non-social, and they are not crucial for polinating natives because insect-polinated natives mostly rely on flies.

The bees of interest are English honey bees, Apis mellifera which provide honey and related products and are a crucial pollinator for many New Zealand imported plant crops. Honey bees are “eusocial”, living in societies with a division of labour.

Eusociality in honey bees evolved independently, it occurs in a variety of animals but arose long after they had common ancestors. Eusocial communities frustrate biologists because individuals expend energy raising their sisters, not their own offspring. Opinions differ as to why and there’s no undisputed reason.

Bees (A. mellifera):

• are very unusual amongst insects in having a symbolic language, their “wiggle dance”
• can navigate using the sun
• are haploid-diploid (some drones are haploid, all workers and queens are diploid)
• the ‘queen’ – ‘worker’ difference is determined entirely by diet, not genetic inheritance

If a bee is haploid then it is a drone (male). If a bee is diploid then a specific gene determines the sex of the insect. If the two alleles of that gene are identical it too is a drone, otherwise it is a female. Diploid drones are quite common but the workers invariably kill these drones so the mating flight comprises only haploid drones.

As above, any female larvae can be induced to become a queen just by choice of diet. Queens emit pheromones (QMP) which suppress the ovaries in workers but, strangely, worker ovaries can be revived if the QMP supply ceases. As someone asserted from the audience, and the lecturer confirmed, workers who start laying eggs produce haploid drones. So, I asked “what’s the point then”, as it seems it’s not a way to re-queen a hive after queen death. Lecturer waved arms a bit at that point – something about last ditch lifeboat for the the genes from that hive fly is to off to mate with queens from other hives – not convincing.

Major focus in NZ is whether there’s sustainable diversity amongst bees, they being so crucial to pollination, given the tiny initial population of breeding stock, and prohibition of new stock from overseas.

Mary Bumby, the sister of a Methodist missionary, was probably the person who introduced honey bees to New Zealand. She brought two hives ashore when she landed at the Mangungu Mission Station at Hokianga in March 1839 and they’re all pretty much descendants of those two hives. Studies have shown however that:

• as you would expect, genetic diversity in a hive is minimal they’re all daughters of the same queen
• diversity across New Zealand is plentiful
• Oddly, some alleles making up that diversity are found only in New Zealand bees, local bees can increase their genetic diversity

Ended on a cautionary note: in the last few years insect species diversity is said to have dropped by 90%. Pesticides are major part of that problem. Household sprays are the devil’s brew – indiscriminately killing all animals in three animal orders.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ 1.5mm rain [72.0]

SwimGym

Spent too much time on emails related to the BINZ organisation. Karola shopped in the morning, got some nice snapper for dinner, and then swapped over her persimmon tree guard, the one in the Middle paddock, for a much larger one – to let its branches breath. She also harvested the persimmons, about a score I’d say.

I drenched ewe #443 who has been the lone daggy ewe for a while now, with Cydectin (meat withholding of 10 days). The wethers who were recently drenched look much cleaner and perkier.

In the afternoon I did mainly computer stuff except for a long chat on the phone with Iain Middleton.

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [72.5]

Iain & Lowell joined us for a languid breakfast, setting off for Wellington mid-morning.

We were supposed to set off, with Bangle, for lunch with Tracey & Graham way up the Taihape road but Graham rang early morning to say their dog Bella was very sick and they were taking her to the vets so no lunch today.

The three of us walked round the paddocks and the orchard early afternoon and Karola spotted that one or two of the Ngaios in the tall windbreak along the orchard drive had been bowled by the recent storms. So that’s possible work for Byron when he next appears. Bramble and I shared an apple, as is usual while there still are some on the trees. Karola gave her ewes some nuts and hay, just for a change.

We saw that the six wether lambs were pretty daggy so, after our walk, I drenched them (Cydectin – withholding for meat of 10 days). At Karola’s request I also put an electric fence across the Long Acre paddock so that the wethers can have some fresh grass but not get at acorns.

We were just having dinner when Henare turned up, wanting me to pay his electricity bill online – he gives me the cash equivalent but it saves him going into town to pay at the TrustPower office. Henare also admitted that he didn’t like the cellphone he bought to replace the one he lost, so could he please have Karola’s old one – the one he’d returned just last week. We fiddled with it for a while and got it running using Henare’s latest SIM card.

The Wellington BINZ Contingent

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—11℃ no rain [72.5]

Started the day by using the new chainsaw to limb up the fallen tree and get the parts blocking the driveway out of the way.

Then haircuts for us both in Taradale. While Karola had her hair cut I had a quiet coffee in the next-door Bay Expresso, at the same time trying to play the next round in my current game of Words With Friends against Anna in Ealing. Gill rang to say that there was a beautiful picture of snow across the Eastern Bays on the Orongorongos (the southern section of the Rimutaka Range). Karola did a little shopping while I had my hair cut.

We returned home and gave Bangle a short walk before setting off again to Taradale, to the home of Karl Matthys & Lorraine, (120 Kent Terrace, Taradale – 06 845-4372 or 027-243-4780), for a Hawkes Bay BINZ meeting. There we joined Iain Middleton & Lowell Manning and a dozen others for a couple of talks, much discussion, and afternoon tea.

Afterwards Karola, Iain, Lowell, and I had dinner at the West Shore Fish Cafe before returning home for a raspberry & cream dessert and bed.

Gill’s Photo From 66 Seatoun Heights Road – The Orongorongos

Tree Felled Across The Drive Yesterday

Trimmed And Off The Driveway

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—13℃ 2.3mm rain [72.9]

SwimGym with Karola – first time I’ve been back at my target weight for months. Yippee.

Breakfast. Byron suddenly appeared on our doorstep even though I’d TXTed him we were busy this morning and he should come in the afternoon if he was going to do more splitting for us today. He’d been here since 8:00am and had done an hour and a half already. Turned out his phone was broken – he does seem rather accident prone. And he hadn’t TXTed us when he started because he didn’t have our number on the new phone. Anyway I sent him away saying the afternoon was still available if it suited him. He’d need to bring his chainsaw for the two medium sized trees we wanted felled. Oh but Byron’s chainsaw was broken and in the repair shop. In fact he was hoping we’d advance him more cash so he could get back his chainsaw.

We both had doctor’s appointments late morning so off we went. Both were given flying colours for people of our age – the exercise and choice of food is obviously helping. I proselytised the film Polly sent us, “That Sugar Film”, to both the practice nurse and Dr Richard.

Afterwards we did the weekend shopping, aiming to be back before 1:30pm when we’d agreed Byron could arrive to cut down a couple of trees. Then I get a call, Byron is in his car, it’s run out of petrol on the expressway, half way from Napier. Could we bring him some petrol. I supposed so, when we’ve finished shopping. So we dumped the shopping in the kitchen, grabbed Bangle and a jerry can of petrol intended for the lawn mowers, and set off.

We went via Pakowhai road so that we’d join the expressway facing in the right direction. Byron said he was between Pakowhai road and Link road – well he was about 2000 metres beyond the Link road but we found him. Now we find out that he has his wife and one child with him in the car and the battery is flat. So what was to have been a 20 minutes drive there and back became a nightmare of jump-starting on the expressway with truck and cars hurtling by a few metres away.

I demurred at putting our car on the road side of his, so that the jump leads would reach, so Karola, Bangle and I got out and Byron edged our car alongside, almost touching the inside white line lane marking. Not expecting any of this we’d come out with Bangle sans collar and lead so I crouched down a bank as far from the frightening traffic as possible, clinging on to her in case the noise tempted her to bolt out of my arms into the fast lane.

Byron tried fruitlessly for ten minutes or so to start his car, eventually concluding that, being on quite a lean on a bank, the fuel pump was unable to deliver. So Karola and he used our car to tow his car back up the bank and onto the verge almost touching the traffic, and got our car on the down-bank side, further from the traffic but itself now on a lean. Success, Byron’s car started and off we went – oh, except that in the commotion my reading glasses fell out of my shirt pocket, gone and lost forever. Let no good deed ever go unpunished.

His wife is very nice, they’re both young, thin, and wiry, two toddler daughters, but apparently poorer than church mice and there’s no casual work for Byron at present.

Byron of course had to borrow my chainsaw, his being broken and in the shop for repair. Byron felled the two trees with great accuracy, he and his wife unloaded the firewood he’d put into the big trailer this morning and that was that. Byron had had first use of my brand new chainsaw – at least he said it was a very nice chainsaw. Again Byron wanted to touch me for more cash – ostensibly to pay for the repairs on his chainsaw, he had only an hour before the shop closed for the weekend. Ah, so there was $450 up front for him to pay for a hot water cylinder he’d bought on TradeMe. And there was a post-dated cheque from his parents for $130, I subbed hm for that. Then there was money for petrol, I loaned him $50 for that. Enough is enough. It’s not that I don’t trust him but what he owes us is increasing faster than he’s working it off. He said he’d repay the $130 and $50 when the cheque cleared, fat chance. So I commuted it to even more hours. Talk about living in The Precariate.

Interim summary – Byron Gregory:

• 21st & 22nd April: $500 contract for fallen branches ($500)
• 24th & 25th April: more fallen branches & felling Ngaios and 5 eucalypts ($1044)
• 13th May: 2 hrs splitting, $30/hr $450 up front
• 14th May: 1 hr splitting, loan of $130 for Byron’s post-dated cheque problem
• 16th May: 3½ hrs splitting, loan of another $50 for petrol
• 19th May: AM: 1½ hrs splitting, PM: ½ hr tree felling at $60/hr plus 1 hr splitting
• Loans commuted to more hours as Byron seems persistently broke – so 11 hours to go

The Indian man from Langes came as planned late afternoon and replaced the clock mechanism in the Bosch oven – it seems to have removed the intermittent fault whereby the clock reset to zero and stopped the oven working if you joggled either of the mechanical switches for heat and fan settings. Time will tell.

Grevillea robusta Tall & Proud

Grevillea robusta (Australian silky oak) End Of Days

“Fore”

Pin Point Accuracy

Tasmanian Blackwood Bites The Dust (Near 133 Entrance)

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—16℃ no rain [72.7]

Karola continued weeding and I planted another two red beech amongst the existing ones. Byron suggested he’d come today but then didn’t.

Yesterday afternoon and last evening I had two long telephone calls with Iain Middleton. Today I had three long – but not quite so long – calls with his wife Gaylene who is concerned about the direction that Lowell Manning, the president of BINZ, is taking the group.

Yersterday and today Karola has been talking on the phone to the family of Maggy Nagel who has just been admitted to hospital, seriously ill.

The 50 KiwiTech fibreglass posts arrived today courtesy of our Postie and I replaced the borrowed electric fence posts with these new ones. At Karola’s request I got a scoop of earth from the pile near the farm shed and filled a couple of depressions – possibly early sheep graves – where Karola had just finished weeding.

Mid afternoon there was suddenly a torrential downpour with violent winds; an hour later it’d passed through but it was too wet to do much outside. I did fill one small trailer with mulch ready to spread where Karola is weeding but even that activity churned up too much mud.

Twenty-five Red Beech With Marker Posts

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—19℃ 8.7mm rain [73.2]

SwimGym

Quick dive into town to get today’s fish and tomorrows dinner.

Karola spent much of the day weeding on the patch where I’d taken out the Acanthus and some of the blackberry. She’s made a beautiful job of about half. If the rain holds off she may get the rest finished tomorrow.

Byron TXTed he’d be around in the afternoon but other things must have cropped up.

Smith & Smith’s Paul came and put the new Landrover windshield in – fixed at last.

Walk round the orchard and an apple shared with Bangle.

Otherwise just pottered round and did emails.

Karola Hard At Work – Bangle Looks On

Gleaming New Landrover Windscreen

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—19℃ no rain [73.5]

The day began abruptly while we were half asleep having forgotten that Smith & Smith man was coming to mend the Landrover windscreen. He came last week but found our Landrover had a heated window whereas he had a plain replacement. And today he found that the supplier had sent two left-hand side supports instead of a left and right – so there’ll be another wait and this time the Landrover has no windscreen while we wait.

We had an appointment in Havelock North with one of our financial advisors (Tobias Taylor at Spicers) at 10:00am so I first rushed into Stortford Lodge for my annual (as distinct from quarterly) blood test. We were only a few minutes late to see Tobias. He quite skilfully explained why it’d been a pretty uninspiring year for us in his care – without actually mentioning the percentage gains we’d made. That was just as well because pretty much nothing happened in the last year. But we had an enjoyable chat, mostly about world affairs, and especially the inanity of some New Zealand politicians. We admonished him to be a bit less wussy for the next few years and bid him farewell until next year.

Karola, Bramble, and I walked round the orchard. Bramble and I each had an apple.

We got back just in time to receive the Lange’s man returning our fixed dishwasher. So I had to don Karola’s blue boiler suit and crawl under the cottage – very uncomfortable because the cottage was moved to its current location in the rain and much clay was disturbed putting in the piles leaving a sea of rock-hard irregular lumps to crawl over. Oh that, and the cobwebs everywhere and the lack of headroom. Ugh. Good news was that, when reconnected, the dishwasher worked and, on my way back up I found some keys and a whistle of Karola’s that had obviously been down there for years.

Byron came in the afternoon and worked for 3½ hours, until after dark, splitting and stacking firewood. That’s 2 hours on Saturday, 1 hour on Sunday and so 10½ hours to go. He’s been pre-paid for the work – so that he could pay for a hot water cylinder he’d rashly bought on Trade-Me. Then he borrowed another $130 secured with a post-dated CASH cheque from his parents, and tonight he borrowed another $50 so he could get petrol for his car. My support for the precariate knows no bounds, yet.

Late afternoon I went up a ladder and cut off some medium-sized dead branches off a conifer in the new red beech grove – managed to get them down without damaging any of the red beech saplings. And did an hour of pulling up blackberry in the area I denuded of Acanthus yesterday. There’s still a lot to pull up.

The Murky Cottage Underfloor

Cottage Dishwasher Inlet & Outlet

Another Load Of Split Firewood

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—15℃ 0.7mm rain [73.2]

SwimGym with Karola – a cold start.

Bangle and I went into town for Monday shopping – that is mainly for the fish. Got some king terakihi for me and salmon for Karola.

Byron called and postponed his next bout of firewood splitting.

Spent much time on emails including asking Laura at Kiwitech for 50 1-metre fibreglass posts to act as permanent sapling markers. They stand out much better than bamboo or wooden stakes, being a gleaming white.

Bangle and I walked round the orchard and shared a crisp apple.

Karola planted the remaining two of three red beech in her triangle near the 121 entrance and put tree guards on each one.

I started clearing a small area near the 133 gateway, thick with long grass, acanthus, blackberry. I dug out the acanthus today but as the roots broke off every time it’ll be back. We should get about eight red beech in this area once clear.

Acanthus Weeding – Will Only Be Temporary

Acanthus mollis

https://www.weedbusters.org.nz/weed-information/acanthus-mollis/59/

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ no rain [73.3]

It was Karola’s birthday today. The second night of using her FitBit to see how she was sleeping, objectively. And the first two nights, which she thought were better than usual anyway, were measured as being pretty normal.

Byron the arborist called to say he’d like to do an hour of firewood splitting this morning and come he did, with his two toddler daughters who frolicked around the Wellingtonian while their dad filled our big trailer with more split wood. Byron has had an advance of $450 in order to pay for a hot water cylinder he bought yesterday on TradeMe, after today he’ll still owe us 12 hours of chopping. On top of that he asked if I would lend him $130 to buy a new chainbar for his chainsaw and a Mothers Day present for his partner. I have a post-dated cheque in return. What I do for the Precariate.

At long last I disassembled Karola’s industrial-strength Philips drench gun and replaced the o-rings and felt washer. I noticed that one o-ring was missing and replaced that and I think that was the cause of its misbehaviour the last few times I’ve used it. Anyway it seems to be working properly now.

This morning I dug the holes for the remaining five red beech trees destined for the area immediately round the lime tree. Late afternoon I planted the trees and watered all 23.

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [73.8]

Cloudy day with hint of showers.

Henare dropped in to pick up a rope he’d left in the Landrover and return the phone he borrowed from Karola.

Meanwhile Byron the arborist who helped a lot after the big storm rang asking if we’d like him to split some of the firewood rings into pieces we could use on the cottage woodburner. He came and did a couple of hours and has begun stacking it in the farm shed leanto. It’ll need to dry for a year before making dry firewood.

And a Pacific Island couple, not young, very large, called in asking if they could have some firewood. Apparently they’ve moved down from Auckland and are living in a house without electricity and trying to do it up. I relented and gave them a small load of old but good oak firewood. I said, and Karola reinforced, that they should not tell their friends as this was a one-off, not to be repeated.

Karola began making some tree guards for the red beech she’s planting in her “Australian Section” down near the 121 gateway.

I planted 17 of the red beech trees.

Byron Splits Firewood – First Two Hours

Red beech Saplings In Position

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—13℃ no rain [73.9]

SwimGym with Karola

Then the morning shopping for the weekend (oh, and plus some new shoes for me and some of those small bowls that hold left-overs that is freezable and microwaveable.)

Still raining, rained all day and well into the evening. Karola lit the fire. A day for dozing and reading, which we did.

Using a program called WordFence I have enhanced the security of my weblogs since the successful hack by Indonesia To World last month.

Here’s a list of the attempts to access my weblogs from known bad actors in the last month alone.

Weeks later I am still weighed down with the effort of moving to a new weblog account, made harder by moving off Google as our mail server at the same time. As part of that move I’ve ended up with about 200,000 emails where once there were only 20,000 or so – vast numbers of duplicates. I found a program to detect and delete email duplicates but I was not reckoning on the robustness of the IMAP protocol. After processing several tens of thousands of emails, allegedly deleting about 15,000, I find that the server replaced them as quickly as they were deleted. The program averages 7 seconds to process each email. Hmmm.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—13℃ 20.9mm rain [74.0]

Rain is forecast and there were showers overnight and intermittently during the day.

We took the Subaru in to Stortford Lodge for its WOF this morning, using the Landrover as the extra vehicle. On the way home I dropped into Lange’s to see how the dishwasher was coming on. Apparently they are waiting for a new drainage pump to arrive and also a new clock for the Bosch oven is also on order.

Bangle and I ambled round the orchard between showers, and we each had an apple.

I put electric fence posts where the first 25 red beech trees are to go but Karola said it was too wet to dig any holes today.

The garage TXTed to say the Subaru was ready so we went into town, making a detour to Noel Leemings where I bought Karola her teal-coloured FitBit Change 2 with a large wrist strap, for her birthday.

Henare came round early evening and he’s not been answering his TXTs from me because he’s lost his phone. We gave him an old phone of Karola’s, a Nokia, and he was delighted as it’s the same model that he lost. Henare took the Landrover and small trailer of firewood to another of his numerous relations – that was what I had been TXTing him about for the last three days. So, Karola gets her small trailer back.

Rain became persistent in the evening.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—17℃ 22.4mm rain [74.4]

SwimGym with Karola

Two boiled eggs for breakfast, two bits of toast – 400 Calories for sure. But it was a cold morning, everyone agrees.

Man came to replace Landrover windscreen but our windscreen is heated – has embedded wires – so he went off to find the right one and will be back next Tuesday.

Call from Lange’s re the dishwasher. They can’t look at it until they have the inlet hose. But there are attachments at both ends of the hose and both are not simple bolts or screws so if I try to remove them I’ll surely break something. Why don’t they just use a hose of their own – well because the attachment at the far end is a cut-off switch to avoid flooding and the dishwasher needs the hose plus the gubbins at each end otherwise it won’t go. Impasse resolved by me realising that with effort I could just squeeze the attachment at the far end through the two holes made in the floor and cupboard dividers for the hoses. The two holes were actually adjacent and made a sort-of bow tie hole, thinner in the middle. With some squeezing of plastic I got them through and Karola took them down to Lange’s on Eastbourne street.

Shopping for Wednesday’s fish etc.

Karola spent much of another day on weeding under the Lime tree.

In the afternoon I did another two trailer loads of old planks beginning to rot, and again our bonfire blazed until after dusk.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ 0.7mm rain [74.2]

Bit of a lie-in this morning, it was rather cool.

More bonfire work throughout the day. I got another load of wood rubbish and firewood from under the eucalypts – stuff we’d missed when cleaning up earlier. Then the top half of the Thuja which blew off several months ago, sawn into rings by Byron, the arborist who cleaned up our storm damage. It was pretty rotten. And another load of rotting planks and boards from the pile of cortage detritus.

Karola found ram #1032 dead under a conifer this morning. We got one of the large animal vets, Camille Flack from Vet Services, to drop in on her way home and see what the ram was eating before he shuffled off …

Sadly, and we had been warned by several people several times, including Rob Forsyth, the breeder of #1032, it’s acorns all the way down. Vet says that Macrocarpa and conifers cause abortions but do not kill so my theories re the dead lambs were also wrong. All the time it’s been acorns. So there’s something about the acorns just recently – or their palatability versus the long grass, that has made our sheep succumb. Never seen it before and in fact Karola feeds our sheep on acorns she sweeps up from in front of the big house garage every year with no obvious ill effects.

So, all my dire mutterings about conifers and macrocarpa are ill-founded. And we are not about to cut down or fence off the oaks. Our older sheep just run to the oaks for the new acorns in late summer.

Karola did more sterling work under the Lime tree, clearing mostly ivy and blackberry.

Meticulous Maids came at lunchtime, cleaned the cottage, and were finished by mid afternoon.

I buried the ram and thus completed occupancy of our most recent death pit. The little tractor is a real boon for transporting then burying dead sheep.

The Rotten Thuja Trunk

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—20℃ 0.1mm rain [74.3]

SwimGym on a cold winter’s morning – felt like a frost.

I nipped out after toast and boiled egg breakfast to do Monday shopping with Bangle – fish for dinner.
My intent is, for breakfast, to have my tuna and mayonnaise spread on toast on the non-gym days,
a large boiled egg and toast on the gym days. And fish for the evening meal on gym days.

Man came from Langes – to fix dishwasher and oven. He disconnected the input and output pipes and took the dishwasher away. We had to take off the elm wood bench-top so he could get into the back of the dishwasher.

Walked round the orchard with Bangle and we shared an apple.

Karola spent the sunny middle of the day doing more weeding near the lime tree, in
preparation fore planting of red beech trees. Of course, now i’ve purchased a new pair of the
special Wolf Garten secateurs for Karola, the old ones have turned up. Is often the way these days.

Sally Pearce rang to say one of her maids was ill so no Meticulous Maids today, probably tomorrow afternoon.

Brian Cope came round to see our red beech saplings and chat.

Gaylene Middleton called last night about the Hawkes Bay meeting of BINZ, to ask if we could put up three BINZ members for the night. Her husband Iain Middleton,
Lowell Manning (president of BINZ), and a stranger from Dunedin who is also
committed to the Basic income cause. That’s not until Saturday 20th May, and they
only want to stay the one night so we said yes. Means we’ll have to go to the local BINZ meeting
on the Saturday afternoon I guess.

Mid afternoon I finally got around to pushing in the bonfire heap into a small central pile
and adding a trailer-load of rotten wood from the cottage redevelopment five years ago.
It’s been lying in heaps in the stump dump (road end of the Long Acre paddock,
next to the 121 entrance). The discarded weatherboard, linings, and sundry lengths of
wood were starting to rot, and were for the most part split or broken so I’ve burned the lot.
There’s a second load waiting to be burned tomorrow and probably another couple of loads after that.
I’ll keep back a few solid bits of Kauri, and some clean Kauri boards without lots of nails.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ no rain [73.5]

Quite a cold morning. Took Bangle round the orchard after breakfast then spent a few hours cleaning up emails.

Tracey & Graham arrived about 11:45am for a roast organic chicken meal, with Henare’s crayfish from the Mahia as a starter – which Tracey thoroughly enjoyed. Tracey & Graham were introduced to Bangle and they all got on well and we’ve been invited to leave Bangle with them in July when Karola and I go to England and France with Anna and family. We anticipate a look-see visit for Bangle before then.

Late afternoon I mowed the cottage lawn that has been neglected for a couple of weeks.

Karola reports that ewe #209 and the one with a bad udder, #311, are both limping badly. Karola has asked if Karl could come and take a look at them this week.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [73.9]

Went into town to Mitre-10 to buy a replacement pair of special Wolf Garten secateurs – Karola having mislaid hers. Also got a replacement dimmable low-lumens LED light bulb – one broke after only a couple of months. Got some diesel for the tractors and to start the bonfire.

Laid a line of garden hoses from the nearest tap to the bonfire and left it running all afternoon, just in case. Took photos, see below, then lit the fire. By nightfall it was pretty much just embers glowing with a couple of small hot spots. After the fire started I got a trailer-load of branches and old wood offcuts from where they’d been gently rotting down in the stump dump.

Karola is still toiling away clearing the area for the red beech trees. Meanwhile I moved the sheep around, drafting out the 6 wether lambs and putting them in the holding paddock, letting ewe #218 rejoin the others, leaving the rams in peace. Looks like we still have 21 female sheep and 9 males. Ewe #209 has a sore back left leg which I tried to treat but she wasn’t very cooperative – trimmed her foot and sprayed with anti-footrot aerosol.

Bonfire Ready To Burn

Bonfire Alight

Getting A Good Hold

Three Hours Later

As Night Fell

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [73.4]

SwimGym

Shopping. We’ve invited Tracey & Graham for lunch on Sunday so I got a fresh Bostock organic chicken. Also got Bangles prime beef mince etc – it comes round so quickly.

The appliance servicing business, Langes, need us to get the intake and outtake pipes disconnected on the dishwasher before they’ll check it further. So, muggins donned Karola’s boiler suit and scrabbled under the cottage, turned off the intake tap and unscrewed the pipe, and pulled the outtake pipe out of its U-bend. Bramble joined me under the cottage, had me at her mercy, and so licked my face enthusiastically. The ground under the cottage is just a sea of lumps of clay and pretty uncomfortable to crawl on.

Langes also offered to get a replacement for the oven knob that has a small bit of plastic broken off, part of the clip that holds it in place. They quoted $200 for the part. I was not convinced that the intermittent fault, whereby the clock resets itself sometimes when you turn one of the two knobs, one for setting the temperature, one for activating the fans, had anything to do with the broken knob clip. So I got a printout of the parts list for the oven from the Australian Bosch site, and I noticed that the NZ$200 part was priced at AU$27. Hmmmm. Then I called the Bosch help line. Technical support said there was no electrical connection between the clock module and either of the knobs, the broken bit of plastic couldn’t possibly be the cause. Best he could offer was to replace the clock electronics. The saga continues – if Lange’s markup is 7 times then the electronics unit will cost about NZ$1400, the replacement cost for the entire oven.

We’re both a bit subdued today so not a lot else to report. I did do one more trailer-load of woody debris onto the bonfire.

Ian In Karola’s Fashionable Blue Boiler Suit

Bangle And Ian Emerge From The Netherworld

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [74.9]

Karola’s GST payment still isn’t registering on the website so I guessed the payment hadn’t gone through and tried again. The IRD did not ring back as promised yesterday so I rang and stayed on hold this morning. Eventually a very pleasant woman answered and agreed I’d now paid twice – I’ll get a refund but it’ll take more than a week.

Karola had an appointment at 9:30am but the man to fix the dishwasher came before that, at 8:00am. He left before Karola muttering about the drainage pipe being very thin and possibly blocked. Ball is back in our court.

While Karola was away I moved the long ladder from the Farm Shed back into the Cottage Garage as Karola requested. I also began shifting the weatherboard offcuts from the Farm Shed lean-to, cutting off the irregularities in some and discarding others. More grist to the bonfire. I also mended an old pallet to hold the offcuts, it’s pretty much on its last legs unfortunately.

I called the AA Insurance about the Landrover window and the fixer is booked for next Wednesday.

Karola counted her sheep and could not get the right number. I also tried and also came up two short. A quick scout around the Middle paddock found two more dead ewe lambs, #604 and #614. I buried them in the big death pit Henare dug last week and already holding five corpses.

Karola took a look at the clearing Henare, Scott, and I have done in the north east corner and says she hasn’t seen it so clear since we returned from overseas.

I at laast replaced the resharpened chipper blades which took about an hour.

Karola cooked another delicious fish pie for dinner. At this rate I’ll never get thin again.

Clean Prospect – Macrocarpa To Eucalypts

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ 2.2mm rain [74.9]

SwimGym with Karola.

Henare & Scott came mid morning and we worked through until 2:00pm-ish when we all had delicious home made pea-and-ham soup. Afterwards Scott & Henare filled the big trailer with wood, mostly rather old and dusty but not rotten, for Henare’s sister, They trundled off at 3:30pm and were back a few hours later. Slight mishap in the a stone cracked the Landrover windscreen – more nuisance than disaster as we’re covered for both vehicles for windscreens – no excess to pay.

In the morning Karola & I looked anxiously for Bangle’s nice blue new collar. We couldn’t find it anywhere. Eventually Karola found it in Bangle’s grooming kit. And I lost a rake – leaned up against a tree or fence I suppose. We’re in the mood for losing things it seems.

The new chainsaw arrived at 4:00pm, pretty quick delivery from New Plymouth. It’s a rear-handled chainsaw unlike my old one which was top-handled and strongly recommended, I now know, unsuitable for work at ground level. I guess the rear handle keeps you further away from the chain. The blade is 14″ not 10″ so it’s a bit bigger, hunky little 2-stroke engine, and weighs 4kg w/o fuel or the cutter bar. My old one, bequeathed to Henare for parts, was only about 3kg.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ 1.4mm rain [74.9]

Henare and Scott arrived just after 11:00am and worked through till 2:00pm when I arrived back from shopping with fish & chips for all. After lunch we carried on until 4:30pm when it was time for me to get changed for the film this evening. Karola & I went to Their Finest, a most enjoyable UK film set in 2nd World War Britain, concerning the making of a documentary to support the war effort.

My new chainsaw has left New Plymouth.

Bonfire Growing In Midfield

Large Piles Of Timber Trash Pushed Onto Bonfire

Area Under Wellingtonian Clearer Than It’s been For Decades

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [74.6]

SwimGym then a boiled egg and one piece of gluten-free toast for breakfast.

Worked on getting Bridget’s emails available from a backup that fortuitously included her emails just 4 weeks ago. I uploaded all the mail for bridget’s account overnight – well it began yesterday evening and finished mid morning. I had created a dummy account on the server and moved all the mail to that so Bridget could access it. This evening it seems that the missing emails, several hundred to do with her current house, have been retrieved and reunited with her account now sitting on her own web space in New Jersey (or is it Texas – not sure).

Henare came late morning to help with making the big bonfire that will burn all the harmful conifer branches, macrocarpa, and several dozen old rotting apple tree trunks and other tree rubbish. He had just started when he decided his son Scott would like to help too so he went off to fetch Scott. They returned at noon and worked through till 2:00pm when it started to rain, as it had done all night. While they were doing this I tidied up some small trees that got crushed in the eucalyptus felling last week. My trusty little chainsaw wore out and has completely given up – which put paid to any more of that.

After a lengthy afternoon tea Henare and Scott went home and I made a start on Karola’s GST. Don’t feel that I accomplished a great deal today. Better luck tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—13℃ 0.3mm rain [74.6]