Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
Meta
Monthly Archives: June 2017
A Toothsome Day, Not A Time To Get Shirty
SwimGym with Karola
My R M Williams shirts arrived from the UK, two Turnbridge style shirts with longer tails and, according to R M Williams help desk, unavailable, out of stock, and discontinued. I like the fit, the cloth, and the pattern.
Bought from:
I had a dental appointment for a large filling mid morning, and another one with the so-called “hygienist” after lunch. After the first appointment I got the weekend food from Cornucopia and New World, inc;luding some extra GF bread loaves to restock the freezer for our return. Also a small chicken to roast and more of Karola’s favourite greek yoghurt. I was so preoccupied with this and remembering to cancel the weekly GF bread that I forgot to pick up today’s order. Karola went off taking stuff to recycling, a sort of pre-trip clean-out, and got the GF bread on that trip. I did remember to buy replacement bulkhead light fittings for the house garage, and to try out the new iPad Pro 10.5” model, including a pencil accessory and a combined cover and keyboard. All rather nice except the keyboard is a bit cramped and a bit rubbery to the touch so I’ll probably not get that.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Mid afternoon I attached the old orchard mower to the old Fergie tractor and mulched up the Casurina trimmings from yesterday’s haircut of the windbreak on the south border.
Henare dropped in briefly after work for a coffee and, we suspect, to see if we were still on track to fly out next Thursday.
Chopping Up The Windbreak Trimming Trash
Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—12℃ 0.1mm rain [74.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on A Toothsome Day, Not A Time To Get Shirty
Wether Lambs Go, Windbreaks Trimmed – Progress
Cold start so delayed getting up and about for an hour or so.
James Russell came at 10:00am as planned and he bought karola’s six wether lambs for good prices. Nice bloke.
Afterwards: Bangle – orchard – apple
Then Karola went off to Havelock North to pick up a pair of Banksia yellow rose plants from Green Door. Meanwhile I was fossicking around trying to replace dead light bulbs. I replaced the one in the house kitchen, so at least there’s one light there which works, the other socket just fuses all the lights. One of the house garage prowler lights is dead but in trying to replace it much of the fitting disintegrated – plastic had become very brittle. Replaced another dead light on the outside of the cottage but now plan to change all seven outside lights on the cottage together so they all look the same.
The topping of the Ngaios made a mess on the orchard drive so I called Peter Fitzpatrick to let him know that in addition to yesterday’s trimming – he’d asked for the inside to be done yesterday – there was a lot more debris from trimming the top. No problem, he was going to get it all mulched up anyway and if we had any bigger pieces I should add them to the drive stuff and his man would mulch it all up. In practice there was very little mess outside the planting area on our side. I heard the orchard mulcher going late afternoon so I guess it’s all done and dusted now. The happy old Maori guy, one of JB’s (ie Peter’s) workers talked to me about the trimming around this time last year and he agreed to get the Ngaio tops done this year. I’d since forgotten all about that and so this year I approached the trimming guy directly and asked him to do it. The old Maori guy turned up just a few minutes after the trimmer and his enormous tractor had gone. He was looking for the trimmer to ask him to do the tops of the Ngaios – he hadn’t forgotten our discussion last year. To his delight, although he was too late to catch the trimmer man now, the tops had been done. So everyone is happy.
Karola suggested I mulch up the Casurina trash on our southern boundary and so I spent a fruitless hour or so trying to get the old orchard mower attached to the new tractor. Unfortunately the PTO drive shaft is just too long, even when fully collapsed (one end slides inside the other) to attach to the new tractor. When Karola got home she observed that as the old tractor was working again I could just use it with the orchard mower – wish I’d thought of that.
Southern Windbreak Needing A Trim
Here Comes The Trimmer, Finishing The Section In Karola’s Orchard
Short Back & Sides – Avoiding Karola’s Kanuka In Front
And Now The Top
Ngaios Towering Over The Orchard Driveway
Trimming The Tops
Nearly Done
Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—13℃ 0.2mm rain [73.1]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Wether Lambs Go, Windbreaks Trimmed – Progress
Front Paddock Can Contain Sheep Once More
SwimGym
After breakfast on this rather chilly morning: Bangle – orchard – apple.
Karola got a call from James Russell who will be coming round to look at, and we hope buy, the six wether lambs. “Jimmy Rural”, James Russell & his dad, (022-376-7507).
All three of us then went off to town. First stop was for Karola to have a specimen taken from a “funny” toenail. Then to the Stortford Lodge Post Office and on to the Hastings Sorting Office – chasing up a missing book sent from the UK last month by BookDepository.com. On to New World for a bit of food and Karola then waylaid me into having a coffee and cake for morning tea. Lemon & ginger friande with cream, delicious, but not a recommended diet option. Finally to Mitre-10 where we bought a small fluorescent tube for the cottage kitchen, to replace one that seems disproportionately large even though it is a mini-fitting.
A replacement remote for the cottage garage came today so another hour or so was spent enabling it, and then re-enabling the others which had been disabled by the process.
Early afternoon a nice guy called and came round from AONet. Apparently Lachlan, one of the owners of AONet, had noticed our signal for Internet connection was particularly bad so he asked his man to po round and adjust the dish. It was leaning at an angle, mainly facing the ground in fact, so pointing it correctly to Te Mata peak where the transceiver is strengthened our signal considerably.
We all went over to the Macrocarpa after lunch and put up the rest of the railings. It’s now sheep proof, the whole Front paddock, although the railings still need intermediate half-round posts to add strength and to keep the railings at their proper spacings.
Brimar Trimmers trimmed the outside of the Ngaio windbreak along the orchard drive. I spoke to the driver and with luck in a few days time he will not only trim the tops of the Ngaios but also do the inside upper part of the Casurina windbreak along our southern boundary, avoiding cutting Karola’s conifer and Kanukas.
New Railings – Just Lacking The Intermediate Half-Round Posts That Will Straighten And Strengthen
Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Front Paddock Can Contain Sheep Once More
Team New Zealand Actually Won Americas Cup
We watched with bates breath as Team New Zealand zoomed round the course to victory. Later we learned that the Team New Zealand boat’s foils were damaged before the first race and the damage was increasing with every race.
Bangle – orchard – apple
I went into town, despite it being a Tuesday, to get more Nutrients dog biscuits for Bangle, more half-and-half milk for me, and more GF bread. We’d run out of all three and forgotten to get them on Monday. Also got Karola a couple of Jazz apples, a couple of pears, and the newspapers.
Bangle and I then went into the Front paddock and continued on the new railings under the Macrocarpa. Once the posts were marked and the batten uprights screwed on, Karola joinmed me and we fitted the top and bottom rails before dinner.
Top & Bottom Rails Up
Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [72.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Team New Zealand Actually Won Americas Cup
James Russell – Jimmy Rural – Sheep Buyer
Watched both today’s Americas Cup races and it was all good news for Team New Zealand. It’s at match point now and the next race is 5:00am tomorrow morning. We will be content with watching a recorded replay around 8:00am.
SwimGym
Karola had a doctor’s appointment at 10:00am and went off to do shopping afterwards, including a small new microwave. The old microwave was bigger than we needed but sat on top of the fridge so the space used didn’t matter. The new fridge is higher so the microwave needs to find bench space, so smaller is better.
Karola also called in at the Stortford sale yards to organise our sale of our six wether lambs on Wednesday. Happily Karola bumped into Rose Harding, wife of Bob Masters, the contractor who’s most recent job for us was creating the lucerne/plantain paddock in the One Acre. Rose suggested Karola sell direct to James Russell, “Jimmy Rural” who, in her experience, paid good prices, picked up the stock himself, and would handle small numbers. Karola called James tonight and he has agreed to come and have a look, maybe tomorrow.
While Karola was away I went to Winstones in Omahu road and bought a cubic metre of AP40 gravel – cheap and a mix of stones up to 40mm diameter plus silt and sand. I then laid down two tracks on the muddy tracks of the new loop next to the cottage.
After lunch Karola & I finished putting up the railings next to the One Acre gateway. That leaves only the new railings to be put up across the face of the triangle planting area next to the Macrocarpa, and then the Front paddock is secure for sheep.
Fuschia (From The 2017 IDS Annual Meeting Plant Auction) Still Flowering In June
Cottage Loop Drive – Showing Where The Vehicles Go
Cottage Loop Drive – Tracks Gravelled
Old Railings Reinstated – One Acre Gateway
Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—13℃ no rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on James Russell – Jimmy Rural – Sheep Buyer
Front Paddock Fence Refurbishing Complete.
A Hawkes Bay winter’s day. Cold but sunny start then warmed up and stayed sunny until late afternoon.
We watched the Americas Cup pair of races recorded at 5:00am this morning. Another win for Team New Zealand but I fear that the American boat is now faster. Two more races tomorrow morning. It could be as close as 3 – 4 by the end of the day.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Henare came around 10:00am and worked through till darkness fell, well even later as he finished off today’s last three battens by the light of the Landrover headlamps. In the morning Henare put in two short (2.1 metre) strainer posts for the new railings I’m going to put up, replacing the short netting fence across the corner by the Macrocarpa. In the afternoon Henare finished all the battens from the One Acre norther gateway all the way down to the Macrocarpa and from there across to the new wooden gate by the Lime tree. That is all the post-and-wire fence needed to keep the sheep in the Front paddock; the northern side of the One Acre still need battens but not before we go to the UK 6th July.
No lawn mowing today, the ground is very wet still. In the afternoon I began putting up the short railings forming a V from the One Acre gateway across to the fence – two small posts in and the bottom rails on.
Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—14℃ no rain [72.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Front Paddock Fence Refurbishing Complete.
A Day Of Fencing
Rain and more rain but we awoke to a heavy misty light drizzle which persisted til mid afternoon.
Henare came at about 11:00am and worked through till 5:00pm, sharing a fish & chip lunch with us.
Bangle – orchard – apple
The fencing has made great progress with Henare’s help. Each section of fence, between posts, has five battens and seven wires so 35 staples. The first L-shaped section of fence had seven sections. The fence running parallel to the orchard drive has 39 sections and only 12 remain in the One Acre paddock. The fence running parallel to the road has 12 sections and only six of those remain.
The All Blacks played the British & Irish Lions this evening, we were relieved to find it a lively and interesting game. Tomorrow morning we see the replays of two Americas Cup races. I hate how the local media are talking up the Team New Zealand’s chances – tempting fate I’d say.
Henare Battened Up 11 Sections This Morning
… And Another Six This Afternoon
Meanwhile I Deconstructed A Short Netting Fence
Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—14℃ 1.3mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on A Day Of Fencing
New Fridge/Freezer For Cottage
SwimGym with Karola
Rained all night and all afternoon. Only a short walk for Bangle to get the mail – water lying everywhere in large puddles, mud abounds.
Karola and I went on a shopping expedition, leaving Bangle behind, which was just as well.
First stop, Gagan’s (Sikh roadside vegetable stall), then Farmlands for more batten staples. Henare is coming over in the afternoon and he has a few hundred battens to staple up, and we don’t want him running out of staples. Then Harvey Norman – Karola wanted a new fitted sheet for our Queen-sized bed. All inexpensive cotton sheets these days are sold as sets so we had to make do with a rather expensive one made of Egyptian cotton. Is there such a thing as “conflict cotton” like “conflict diamonds” I wonder.
Since December last year I’ve had a reminder that we want a new fridge/freezer for the cottage so I took this opportunity for us to look at fridges in Harvey Norman. It had to be small enough to fit in the cottage, have a separate fridge and freezer with the freezer at the bottom and for preference not be made by Fisher&Paykel. We found a couple and the Mitsubishi one seemed best. It has three compartments, a fridge with wide door shelves, on top of a vegetable drawer, on top of a freezer compartment. Also, although it and the Panasonic alternative were around $1500, the Mitsubishi was on sale for $1000. It has an ice maker as well, but this was not part of our requirements. We loaded it into the back of the car, lashed the tailgate partly down, and continued shopping. No room for Bangle so just as well she stayed at home.
New World for groceries, Cornucopia for my GF bread and some small leeks. Karola slipped into Hawkes Bay Today to see if she could buy a copy of one of the newspaper’s photos, and then raided YaBon, the French bread shop, for items just dripping with gluten, to learn that YaBon, including its kitchen, is to move soon to new premises.
Finally to Visique Shattky on Russell Optometrists, to pick up my new, insanely expensive glasses. What a morning.
Rain had set in and Henare was hard at work in the rain putting battens on the newly reconstructed fence. I returned to my part, digging in three more posts and putting up the seven wires before darkness fell. It was neither pleasant nor easy in the rain and mud. Henare had almost finished by the time it got dark so he banged up the final few battens by the headlamps of my tractor.
Meanwhile Karola had emptied the old fridge and made room for it in the cottage garage. Henare helped us move the old fridge into the cottage garage and the new fridge out of the car into the cottage kitchen. Karola & I then unpacked and installed it.
Henare Putting Up Battens In The Rain
The New Fridge/Freezer
Unpacked & Installed
Locked & Loaded
Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—14℃ 9.5mm rain [73.0]
Posted in General
Comments Off on New Fridge/Freezer For Cottage
Bit More Fencing
Bangle – orchard – apple
Quite a cold and overcast morning but warmed up later and turned to drizzle then persistent rain late afternoon.
Got four of the seven running posts into the ground before it got too wet.
Karola tried out the King Kindling Cracker and then did a bit of tree guard maintenance in the Front paddock – banging in crocked standards – and then pulled out a whole lot of nettles. She stayed out in the rain doing stuff until after dark. Moved some Belladonnas from near the front gate out into the wilds of the Totara paddock I think.
Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—13℃ 30.3mm rain [72.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Bit More Fencing
Sheep Treated For Lungworm (Winter Solstice Today)
SwimGym
It gradually turned into a heavenly day, warm and sunny and a hint of a breeze.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Karola did the shopping today. I got stuck into the fencing project. Karola called in at the Vets and got some drench for lung-worm. Two of the ewes have been having coughing fits and that’s the most likely explanation – or so Kaz told me many years ago. Karola came back with just enough drench for the two sheep and we penned the sheep up and I administered it to #507 and #224. Withholding period for meat for this stuff, Matrix Hi Min 14ml each, is 91 days – it must be potent indeed.
On the fence I got the top and bottom wires up and put a short extra stay post on one of the strainers. I’m so out of practice it took me three goes to get the snug fit required – also almost the first time I’ve used the new chainsaw, and definitely the first time I’ve worn my shocking orange leggings. The fence is all along the eastern edge of the Front paddock, four metres from the boundary fence, enclosing our Australian section of wattles and bottlebrushes as well as willows and five finger etc. However at one place it has to bend slightly to go through a small gap between two enormous eucalypts and that’s where the additional strainers and stay posts come in.
Southern End Of This Section Of Fence, Crossing The Culvert From The Ha-Ha
The Additional Stay Post
The Tight Gap Between Substantial Eucalypts
Northern End Of The Fence
Middle Section
Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Sheep Treated For Lungworm (Winter Solstice Today)
Perfect Sunny Winter’s Day
SwimGym with Karola, making up for not going on Monday.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Today Bangle flushed out a small family of pukekos, a large fluffy chick and its parents. She chased the chick and caught up with it – the older birds just fly off when she gets close but not this chick. The entertaining thing was that once Bangle cornered the chick she just stared at it for a moment then lost interest. Bramble would have had its head off in a trice. Strange that the pukekos are nesting in winter.
Karola got the ewes into the yards and we noted that #410, with the bleeding lips, seemed to be a little better so I sprayed antibiotic on her muzzle. Ewe #507 did a bout of coughing again – I think it’s lungworm which isn’t fatal but reduces the ewe’s condition. And #508 is limping markedly on her front left foot. That foot was warm while the other three were quite cold so maybe there’s an infection. I pared that foot and sprayed it liberally with foot-rot spray.
Karola and I then made a determined effort to get the next section of fence prepared. By late afternoon we had the netting and wires down and the running posts pulled out. Karola also insisted that I re-strain and crimp the broken top wire of the short fence across the north-eastern corner by the Macrocarpa – it was falling Macrocarpa branches that broke it in the big storm. With this done it isn’t critical for me to put up the replacement railings across that corner, so I suppose it was 5 minutes well spent.
Afterwards I mowed the cottage lawn. This hasn’t been mown for several weeks because at the weekends it’s just been too wet.
Karola Fishes Rolling Up 50 Metres Of Netting
Top Wire Joined Back Up In A Jiffy
Next Fence Section Ready For Re-Erection
Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Perfect Sunny Winter’s Day
Goose Paddock Mown
Overslept and decided not to go to the gym today, but not a problem because Jonathan cannot help telling me the results of the game or race about to appear on his big gym screen. There are two Americas Cup races recorded in the early hours and so we breakfasted and then watched delighted as Team New Zealand won another two.
I went shopping with Bangle, it took less than an hour.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Karola seems to like her Rangiora, the ones we got earlier this year from Pauline Silvester at Naturally Native New Zealand Plants (2013) Limited. Pauline let us know their next batch of Bracyiglottis repanda will be ready in September.
Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the house this afternoon. They’ll come and clean the cottage in a fortnight’s time, ready for Tony Fletcher, our house minder while we’re on holiday overseas.
I mowed the Goose paddock and it looks so much better having blown most of the leaves off and cut the iris down to size. It does look park-like.
Later I continued with the fence reconstruction, removing netting, wires, and vast quantities of staples from the next section.
Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ no rain [72.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Goose Paddock Mown
Much Mowing In The Meadow
Started listening to the news and quickly turned it off as I realised they were about to describe the result of the two Saturday races of the America’s Cup in Bermuda. We then watched the races over breakfast. Most satisfactory. Team NZ first wiped their initial -1 of the scoreboard then won again to make it 1 – 0.
Bangle – orchard – apple.
Karola decided on a new home for the spare alkathene pipes, including the undamaged 50mm pipe rescued from the planting area in the Front paddock, behind the wooden wall along under the Lime tree and near the Red Beech grove. She then took the dozen or so pipes left after my purge yesterday and put them there.
Karola wants a channel from the Totara paddock down to the sheep yards so I hatched a plan to provide that.
First I picked up pine cones from beneath the Canary Island Pine – 20 – 30 cones at least. This was primarily to avoid mulching them up when I mowed the nettles under the Canary Island Pine.
Then I mowed the nettles and iris and a great many fallen leaves under the trees along the west boundary of the Middle paddock. Followed by mowing the nettles around the oak tree and Canary Island Pine in the Totara paddock. Next I mowed lanes for the electric fence, an L shaped path from the corner of the cottage garden up to the Pistachio tree in the Middle paddock then a right angle turn south and down to the Long Acre fence. And re-mowed the lanes for electric fence dividing the four blocks of grazing in the Middle paddock. Later I mowed similar lanes in the Front paddock in case we get time to make it into sections of rotational grazing before we leave.
I then put up electric fence in the L shape that divides the Totara paddock from the Middle paddock and leaves a wide corridor across the west end of the Middle paddock down to the sheep yards.
Henare meanwhile arrived, having finished his orchard pruning for the day, and started putting battens on the reconstituted fence.
Late afternoon Henare and I crimped up the wires on the seven-wire fence – the section from the Swamp Cypresses east to the road. Henare, by the light of my tractor headlamps, nailed up the running posts and so now that fence, from the runner bean enclosure right down to the Macrocarpa, is ready for battening.
Nettles & Iris Mowed Into (Temporary) Oblivion – Middle Paddock
Nettles Be Gone Under Oak In Totara Paddock
Nettles Be Gone Under Canary Island Pine In Totara Paddock
Henare Battening Up Piece Of Replaced Fence
Henare’s Neat Battening
Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [73.1]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Much Mowing In The Meadow
Re-Scaled
Strange night – I woke at 2:15am and had a cup of decaf tea and a piece of toast. Back to sleep and woke again at 5:30am. Karola was already awake, as is her wont most nights. She has episodes of sleeplessness for an hour or so most nights. Yesterday Karola switched the bed to run north-south instead of east-west so maybe that made a difference.
Sadly I realised that the wonderful retro set of bathroom scales I got yesterday are impractical. Not only is the scale marked primarily in imperial stones and pounds but the metric numbers are too small to read and the needle on the dial covers several tenths of a kilogram. Oh well, it was a nice idea.
After breakfast we all went over to Middle Road and got 20 bales of pea straw as emergency sheep feed should they run out while we’re on holiday next month. I took the bathroom scales with us and on the way home I returned them to Mitre-10 no problem. Mitre-10’s other bathroom scales were not appealing so I crossed the road and went to Bristows and got something very like, but slightly easier to use, the scales we had before.
Ewes on the lawn and under the big oak again at lunchtime.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Finished chopping up the damaged pieces of 50mm alkathene that used to be hidden in the planting area, just inside the fence that I’m now reconstructing. Then Karola, Bangle, and I took the chopped up bits plus a broken plastic chair Karola retrieved from the avenue, and an old broken garden bin on wheels to the rubbish transfer station.
Late afternoon I finished putting up the wires on the latest segment of fence, ready for crimping in the morning.
Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—15℃ no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Re-Scaled
Busy Day – Shopping & Fencing
SwimGym with Karola. According to our FitBit wristband tracker I had a good long sleep despite having got up for a while at 2:15am due to, I strongly suspect, having eaten some gluten last night. I didn’t make a fuss at the restaurant so they may have assumed it was a lifestyle choice rather than a real condition. My mistake.
Bangle – orchard – apple
Karola let the sheep onto the lawn again for the day, and this includes underneath the big oak which the sheep are really enjoying. However, Karola and I independently noticed that one ewe, probably #410, has blood on her lips and jaw. If it persists we’ll have to take a look and fix it up before we leave for UK in just under three weeks time.
All three of us went shopping. It being Friday we went to Cornucopia, our local organics shop, for my weekly GF bread plus some organic food – eg small leeks and Bostock chicken – that Karola likes. Then on to New World for the rest of the weekend shopping.
We also went to Spotlight for some fabric perquisites for Karola and to Mitre-10 for two replacement 50 metre measuring tapes for me and a compact 30 metre tape for Karola. Karola needs a non-metallic tape for measuring round her tree guards and 30 metres is the smallest size. She has been borrowing my old cumbersome 50 metre tapes but both the old ones have broken handles, stretched tapes, and damaged lead-ins. Also a couple of reels of yellow builders string for Karola and new bathroom scales. Karola has a preference for the Salter brand, an old established purveyor of weighing scales for hundreds of years, and for non-electronic mechanisms, and for analogue dials rather than digital read-outs. Success on all fronts, and it cost less than double the modern conventional electronic bathroom scalers. The new scales are mechanical (ie a spring), the platform is a decent size and the “speedo” read-out (no, Karola, it’s not a reference to swimwear, its like the speedo in a car).
Somewhere along the way Karola’s door was flagged as being permanently open – the door sensor had broken – meaning that we could not lock the car so on the way home we dropped by Bayswater Garage and Karola’s friend there glued it back together.
After lunch Karola & I unloaded the big trailer of the firewood Byron had split a few days ago. I then went off in the Landrover with the trailer and bought more timber for the fencing project: 100 more battens, ten half-round posts, and railings, ready for replacing a short netting fence across the corner near the Macrocarpa.
After I’d distributed the fencing materials I spent the rest of the afternoon chopping up some of the long lengths of 50mm alkathene that I’d pulled out of the planting area in preparation for reconstructing the planting area inside fence along the orchard drive, from the swamp cypresses to the road. We’ll keep the undamaged pipe but all the pipe that has been bent or cut or otherwise weakened will go to the dump. I’m cutting those bits into ½ metre lengths to make transporting them easier. I had the petrol generator out in the paddock and used a reciprocating saw to cut up the pipes. Darkness fell before I’d finished.
Salter Mechanical Bathroom Scales
Timber Laid Out For New Railings To Replace Netting Fence
Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—14℃ 0.5mm rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Busy Day – Shopping & Fencing
Night Out In Napier
Our bathroom scales are bust so for next couple of days I shall not know whether I’m within my preferred weight range or not.
While it was still cold outside, despite the weak winter sun shining on, Karola & I discussed Ruth’s initial plan for the house alterations. As a result I emailed Ruth with some quick questions about the feasibility of making the new area a bit bigger and she replied, no problem. So we are beginning to feel comfortable with how we’d like to lay out the new area downstairs.
As soon as it warmed up a little I mowed the perimeter of the rough pasture under the big oak before assembling electric fence round it, joining up with the existing fence round the house lawn. Then I let the ewes in and they were delighted to have some new grazing with lots of weeds to savour.
Bangle – orchard – apple.
After lunch I tackled the remaining blackberry in the planting area along the orchard drive. I also noticed and poisoned or pulled out a dozen or so small privets. Then I heaved and strained to pull the long large alkathene pipes hidden in the weeds at the edge of the planting area. I hadn’t known quite how much 2” (50mm) alkathene had been lying around back in 2002 when Karola found a home for it in the planting area. At least it’s been out of sight, out of mind for over a decade.
With the line for the reconstructed fence clear, we’re reusing the original posts, I managed to lay out all but one of the seven wires ready for fixing to the posts and straining up and crimping. Hoping to get this done by the end of next weekend.
In the evening Karola & I went ot a Royal Society of New Zealand, Hawkes Bay branch talk at the Napier Conference Centre on Marine Parade. The speaker was Prof. Michael Corballis, giving the annual Rutherford lecture. The Prof. is emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Auckland and he chose for his topic Mental Travels In Space and Time. The talk was interesting and well delivered although not earth-shattering nor really breaking much new ground.
Afterwards we went into the Napier CBD and went to James Beck’s restaurant, Bistronomy, in Hastings Street. Amazingly good meal but cost a fortune – as expected.
Nasty Privet Saplings
More Blackberry – The Last 10%
Lots Of 50mm Alkathene Irrigation Pipe
Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—13℃ no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Night Out In Napier
Concurrent Eye Appointments
SwimGym with Karola
My replacement Apple Magic wireless keyboard came with the morning mail.
We both had appointments with the opticians this morning, Karola just for a check up and me for a new pair of reading glasses. I had a battery of tests, similar to the ones done by my ophthalmologist Dr John Beaumont, and the optician, Mark Eagle, agreed that the eyes seemed pretty stable over time and in fact apart from the cell apostasy in the optic nerve (glaucoma), my eyes are in good condition (for someone of my advanced years – it goes without saying). My last prescription reading glasses cost $99 as a deal combined with my distance vision glasses, and it was these that I lost in long grass on a bank while attempting to rescue Byron Gregory and family from running out of petrol and a flat battery on the Napier-Hastings expressway a while ago.
My new reading glasses, which should be ready to take to the UK in July, are special “occupational” glasses with graduated lenses. The top part is set to allow good, low-stress vision on a computer screen using 12 point text. The lower part is for reading books and magazines – hardcopy. Muffled gasp – these new glasses are costing over $1000, about $400 for the frames, $600 for the lenses.
Karola suggested we have lunch at Taste in Hastings, we haven’t done that in years, and so we had their fish lunch, delicious. Then on the Countdown for the shopping and back home. I’ve bought Bangle some Tux dog biscuits as treats, these are big, hard, triangular dog biscuits (made in New Zealand, not Brazil), that maybe will take longer than the few seconds she takes to wolf down her usual meals. She certainly likes them but they too get demolished pretty quickly.
Mid afternoon I made some final touches to the reconstructed piece of fence near the wooden gate – crimping up the seven wires and nailing them to the intermediate (running) posts. Unfortunately, but not catastrophically, I tightened the wires to the point that the corner strainer that Henare put in lifted an inch or so. Thank goodness he reinforced the foot – the transverse piece of wood cut into and wired to the foot of the strainer – with long pegs made out of old battens to hold the foot down. Otherwise the strainer would have popped right out. If a strainer has a properly installed stay post, or in a corner, two stay posts, when excessive pressure is applied to the strainer it cannot bend over so it pops skywards in an arc which is rather embarrassing. That piece of fence is sheep proof and the battens need not be attached before we return at the end of July.
Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—13℃ no rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Concurrent Eye Appointments
Good Day For New Zealand In Sport
Cold start but warmed up nicely by lunchtime. Watched the Americas Cup Challenger finals – the last three races or fewer, depending on which boat was first to get five wins. The first race was pretty even in very light winds, so light that the race was eventually called off. An hour or so later the wind returned and the kiwi boat did a pretty much perfect race, beating the Swedish contender handsomely, making it the 2017 contender racing Oracle for the Americas Cup next week.
Bangle – orchard – apple.
Spent the afternoon completing the wires for the replacement fence (see photo below).
This evening the UK Lions played the Highlanders (Dunedin-based super-rugby team) and … the Highlanders won a very even and exciting match.
All Seven Wires Up
Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ no rain [72.9]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Good Day For New Zealand In Sport
Ruth Vincent Sent Outline Draft Plans For House Alterations
A decent frost this morning. SwimGym – with more exciting Americas Cup sailing on the big TVs. Bangle – orchard walk – apple.
After breakfast I took Bangle in to do the Monday shop and to buy a new pair of chainsaw leggings, some maize for the geese, and a new work jersey. It all went rather well. The leggings are a vivd orange, reassuringly bulky but light, and have legs not buckles. The maize is for the geese because they’re getting old and their paddock is short on fresh grass so I thought I’d give them a boost now that winter frosts are upon us. The new work jersey is a luxury, my very old woollen (mostly) “Razorback” one has patched elbows but is otherwise still useful. It’s replacement is now several years old and is way too big and has stretched – more like a dress than a jersey – and is fraying at the edges. The new one is soft and warm being a woollen / possum mix.
While in the New World car park I had a long conversation with Gill about converting DVDs into mp4 files. The conversation continued this evening but most of the problems seem now to be solved and Gill’s new computer makes short work of the conversions.
Byron came and did ½ an hour of firewood splitting, only 4 hours to work off now.
Paul Libby called and he’ll be dropping by in the next few days to measure up for the corrugated iron sheets to repair the house garage. Karla suggested I move the hevy logs from the big oak branch that fell and damaged the garage so I did by borrowing the mini-forks from the old tractor and using them on the new little tractor.
I did another stint of wiring up the bit of fence Henare and I worked on yesterday.
In the afternoon and evening Karola and I mulled over the outline plans for the extensions to the big house; Ruth Vincent sent them in an email yesterday evening.
All Thats Left Of The Bonfire Today
Byron’s Firewood Splitting Pile
The L-Shaped Fence Henare & I Are Putting Up
That Big Oak Branch That Damaged The House Garage
Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ no rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Ruth Vincent Sent Outline Draft Plans For House Alterations
Success With The Old Chainsaw
Byron turned up this morning without warning and did 30 mins more firewood splitting before cajoling me to lend him my chainsaw yet again. You’d think I’d learn , but no. At least I got it sharpened for free and he did return it before 1:30pm as promised.
Henare arrived as planned at 10:00am and we worked for most of the day on the fence near the wooden gate and lime tree. Henare finished seating the strainer and stay posts and put in five running posts before dark. I continued putting up the wires, sorting out suitable lengths from the used wires I have a plenty, trying to find ones that had not begun to corrode.
Karola took charge of the bonfire which had almost completely demolished the big pile of thinnings, prunings, twigs, branches, and leaves. She heaped up the bits left round the fringe and got them to bun up as well. Ngaio being poisonous to sheep it was probably a good idea to get rid of the mainly Ngaio tree trash before putting the ewes in there again. In the afternoon Karola returned to her making of tree guards, this time for selected red beech saplings, the ones most in danger of being damaged by vehicles.
Henare is having problems with the old chainsaw I gave him. The new bar is fine but replacing the sprocket is not easy or obvious. I did some Googling and eventually found a YouTube explanation of how to do it for the two most popular types of chainsaw sprocket. The procedure was unexpected but not too complicated. It began with stuffing some cord into the piston to jam it and then you used a screwdriver and hammer to bang on the clutch plate to loosen it in a clockwise direction – the opposite of what one expects. The rest of it was dead easy except for the ten tiny bearings – looking like ten tiny short (10mm) wires which fell out while I was taking off the clutch. Henare patiently got them back together and to my delight I hadn’t lost any of them. We put it all back together and it started straight away.
Henare was happy to have borrowed my old chainsaw leggings on Saturday, they fit him, and so I’ve given them to him and will get myself a new pair – they’re over a decade old.
Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [72.4]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Success With The Old Chainsaw
Bonfire Day
Cold start and overcast but cheered up and sunny by lunchtime.
Emptied the big trailer in anticipation of Byron turning up and continuing his firewood splitting. But, despite ringing to say he was on his way, no sign of him today.
GoldPine closes at 12:30pm on Saturdays so I rushed off and bought 20 ¼-round fence posts so that Henare, when he finishes putting in the strainer post tomorrow, can start on the associated running posts.
Did a final pick-up of tree trash and bits of firewood from the heap Karola has been clearing on the west boundary near the big shed.
Brian Cope brought the old tractor back mid afternoon. The hydraulic selector handle had broken but he managed to make it work well enough for his purposes and plans to get a replacement one tomorrow. I needed the old tractor back because it, unlike the new tractor, has nothing which will burn near the bucket, the bucket and arms are just physical linkages with the hydraulics being well back from the business end, so I can push together the bonfire without anything catching alight – the most vulnerable are the front tyres.
After a false start I got the bonfire alight and by nightfall it’d consumed almost all the pile. It needed a lot of pushing together though as there was no wind and the leaves and branches were very damp.
In preparation for laying out the wires for another stretch of the north inner fence, by the headlights of the tractor I mowed a strip along the line of the fence.
Bonfire Just Alight
Well Underway
Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [72.7]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Bonfire Day
Cottage Chimney Swept
SwimGym with Karola.
In the Louis Vuitton Challengers Final, a brilliant race from the Kiwis against the Brits this morning, on the TV at the gym. From 27 seconds behind to winning by 31 seconds.
I had a dental appointment in Hastings this morning, Karola one with her audiologist in Napier. Afterwards, Bangle still with me in the Landrover, I did the Friday shop. Then took Bangle for a walk round the orchard.
Karola arrived home in plenty of time to receive the chimney sweep who cleaned the cottage flue in under 15 minutes – there were two sweeps.
Brian Cope asked if I could help him move some river stones he’d bought – he’s making a large gabion to protect their patio from the wind and needs to ferret through the pile of river gravel to select the largest stones for the visible outside facing on his gabion. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabion>. Brian wanted to borrow me and a tractor to turn the stone pile. Instead I lent him the old tractor. I also suggested he might have some work for Byron, our precariate tree man, and he agreed.
Worked on the fence in the afternoon, crimped the strained up wires and stapled most of the posts before Henare dropped in for a coffee. I lent him my chainsaw leggings as he wants to use my old chainsaw that he’s resurrected at work in the orchards. Apparently he can earn a lot more if he uses a chainsaw for pruning, another fellow is making twice what the others do simply by using a chainsaw – same price per row but much quicker to prune a row. Henare has obtained helmet etc but no leggings so was asking about how much they were and where I got mine. He’s working tomorrow, Saturday, so I suggested he borrow my leggings for the day; he can return them when he comes round on Sunday to finish putting in the big strainer post near the wooden gate into the Front paddock.
Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Cottage Chimney Swept
Progress On Fence Reconstruction
Cold start to the day but warming a little in presence of a weak afternoon sun.
Bangle & I collected the mail and then went round the orchard, the brisk walking staving off the chill.
Then I continued putting up the first stretch of 7-wire fence along the inside of the planting area in the One Acre and Front paddocks. By evening I had all 7 wires up and under strain; next I will crimp the wires, finish stapling to the posts, and probably add some battens although battens are optional until we get back from our European holiday in July. Meanwhile Karola carted tree trash from the Middle paddock to the bonfire, small trailer-load by trailer-load.
I alos took down the railings between the gate and the fence; a structure enclosing one of Karola’s liriodendrons and some hebes and intended to stop sheep crowding against the fence when being pushed through the gateway.
Was Railings – Now Only The Gate Post Left
Wires Up – Going East To The Railings And Swamp Cypresses In The Front Paddock
Wires Up – Going West To The Railings And Runner Beans In The One Acre Paddock
Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—13℃ no rain [73.2]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Progress On Fence Reconstruction
Fence Reconstruction Begins
SwimGym
Cold but sunny so, while waiting for it to warm up, Bangle & I went into town for the Wednesday shopping and to buy a chainsaw chain sharpener. This device, at least the cheap consumer products, only sharpen one link at a time but they do get the angles right and are consistent – something which only skilled tree workers can do with a hand-held round file.
Late morning Karola & I started on reconstructing the inner fence along the orchard drive, along the One Acre paddock right down to the Macrocarpa. Karola tackled the two large blackberry infestations down near the Macrocarpa – it being an ideal time to do this while the fence is down. I started up the other end, by the railings across the north-west corner, and laid out five of the seven wires for that half of the fence.
Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—15℃ no rain [73.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Fence Reconstruction Begins
Apples 2017 WWDC Online & Streamed
Felt very cold this morning although outside temperature was about 9 degrees. Slept in a little. Probably the expected after-effects of a hectic long weekend in Wellington.
Against my better judgement I watched the entire keynote speech from this years Apple World-wide Developer’s Conference in San Jose, streamed across the Internet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About a fifth of it was useful or interesting. Rest of it was self-adulation by Apple big-wigs that the newest version of their software did this or that. All I felt was disappointment – why wasn’t this or that in the first version my goodness, if it is such a good idea. Of course the increases in processing power, graphics performance, and display technology took their machines to new dizzying heights, but the software tweeks, enhancements, and make-overs seemed on the whole just rectifying mistakes they’d made earlier. Why oh why go into raptures about putting drag-and-drop on the iPad. To do that extremely well might get some grudging approval, but hey, it was Apple that threw all the conventional PC mechanisms out for the iPhone and then the iPad. The “awesome” improvements in integration – embedding hand-drawn graphic in emails, character recognition of hand-printed (using the stylus) sentences – hardly pushing the envelope there. Another depressing point about the conference was the overwhelming but predictable sea of 30 – 45 year old males in the audience, looking about as charismatic as boiled cabbage.
The visual media capabilities – mostly due to the massive increases in processing speed and associated technology advances – are wondrous. This makes for some dazzling games imagery, startlingly naturalistic photography, and impressive integration of real video and computer graphics. Apparently most people really do a lot of gaming, watching videos, and playing music on their iThings and for them this is all “awesome”.
The iPad Pro with stylus has been made much more like a PC albeit with touch and voice as the primary input mechanisms. Presumably this is intended to appeal to business customers wanting a tablet with just enough of a laptop to support their workplace function. The same piece of hardware can function as a PC, a scanner, voice recorder, dictation machine and so on. Impressive but hardly “awesome”, and not nearly “the next big thing”.
And Siri, the intelligent agent with voice recognition. OK, so it’s getting even better at recognising your speech. But this year the focus was on the understanding of your affairs that SIri has. For some it will be magical how well Siri seems to know your likely tasks ahead, what you need to use, what you want to see and hear. For the rest of us it’ll be somewhat creepy how good a picture of your habits and predilections Siri has developed. Maybe one day we’ll just take it for granted and expect a map of your travels to just be there when you start driving – not just your current location but a guess, usually right, as to where you’re headed. From 2017 onwards, IOS will know when you’re driving just by using the compass, accelerometer, and so on. No actual interaction with the vehicle needed. So can self-police your use of, and distraction by, your iThing whilst driving.
Something new: hardware and software development tools for building machine learning apps and augmented reality apps. For brother-in-law Harry this is the really interesting stuff, using on-board machine-learning assist via a high-level ML API, and ditto for augmented reality. A lot of detailed but generic function comes with the software kits which should make the prototyping of new apps using ML or AR much faster to implement. One sophisticated user of these services is Wingnut AR – a Peter Jackson company – they provided a stunning shoot-em-up demo.
The other new, much anticipated product is a speaker. A small, inexpensive, but elegant and powerful smart speaker. Allegedly with very high quality sound and Siri on steroids as the brains. Using Siri one can manage home consumer gadgets, lights, heaters, radios and so on. One can also manage one’s music libraries in sophisticated ways. And as a personal assistant Sirir can get info about your environment, the news, buy stuff, book stuff just like it does on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone – all with a small, inexpensive Apple speaker called the HomePod. Of course Apple’s Siri on HomePod is playing catchup with Amazon’s Alexia on Echo and Google’s Assistant on Home; it’s much more expensive but allegedly has much better quality speakers. Apple’s assertion that HomePod is “the next big thing” going to revolutionise the industry as iPod, iPhone & iPad did sounds particularly hollow.
More here … https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/6/5/15740140/apple-homepod-high-price
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After lunch I put electric fence round the house lawn and also between the Totara paddock and Middle paddock. The idea is to have the ewes graze the lawn and Totara paddocks, allowing the Middle paddock a month to recover. While we’re away in July half the flock will have the Front paddock (assuming I have mended the fences in time), the other half will have the Middle paddock. They’ve been grazing the Middle and Totara paddocks for the last three months and growth is beginning to slow down with the cold overcast weather.
Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage as they do every fortnight.
I took Bangle round the orchard and we shared an apple. Karola then went out with Bangle and got fresh Gurnard for dinner – from a shop, not with rod and reel, in case you were wondering.
Byron Gregory, our precariat woodsman, said he would come today and work off his five hours of firewood splitting still owed. No sign of him.
I tried to book in the tractor for a 100 hour service but was advised it could wait until I’d racked up 200 hours.
Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [73.6]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Apples 2017 WWDC Online & Streamed
Graham & Tracey’s For High Tea
SwimGym
Cooked Bangles next lot of mince & rice.
Brought the three remaining apple boxes of dried firewood over from under the Macrocarpa into the Middle paddock next to the farm shed. Picked up the loose firewood from under the macrocarpa so I have a heaped trailer load of split or small-enough firewood on the trailer and the bigger bits needing splitting have joined the others, including the English Beech rings, in the Front paddock.
Off to Graham & Tracey, 45 mins up the Taihape road – we arrived at 15:08. “High Tea” provided by Tracey while Bangle sniffed around getting used to the place and the occupants – Graham & Tracey, Belle (Sheep dog) & Buttercup (Foxie). Graham showed me his Ozito chainsaw chain sharpener, a money saver.
Bangle, Karola & I returned home and were in front of the fire soon after 6:00pm. It was raining when we left but seems there was no more rain down here.
Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—14℃ 1.7mm rain [73.5]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Graham & Tracey’s For High Tea
Return From Wellington
Breakfast at Annemarie’s. I took Bangle for a quick walk round the block and then Bangle & I drove off to Seatoun to see Gill & Ben for morning coffee and to deliver their next joint birthday presents – a Kindle Cracker. Gill had found some “no sugar added” pots of jam and some Maggi GF chicken gravy mix packets for me.
I admired Gill’s brand spanking new iMac – a very sophisticated looking, elegant machine with a razor-sharp display. Also Ben’s museum of Mac desktop computers from days gone by. They also have a rather special weather station mounted on a verandah post that I covet – one day, one day. It monitors rainfall, temperature, wind, and humidity and sends the results to Ben’s computer wirelessly.
Then, with Bangle in her crate in the car, I toddled back to Khandallah for grand-daughter Alex’ 11th birthday lunch. A delicious roast rack of lamb with roast vegetables followed by modest portions of pavlova and whipped cream.
Mid afternoon Karola, Bangle, and I set off for home, arriving just after 7:00pm in the pitch dark of a chilly winters evening.
Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—13℃ no rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Return From Wellington
Off To Wellington (Alex Birthday Lunch)
Gave the king-sized Kindling Cracker its first outing – we’re taking a standard-sized one down to Gill & Ben. A 13 year-old school girl came up with this simple idea and has managed to get it manufactured (in Australia) and marketed. I’m guessing that will reduce the many injuries sustained rom axes while splitting firewood.
Calmly and quietly we prepared for our visit to Wellington leaving just before noon, aiming to get to Annemarie’s house in Silverstream well before our restaurant booking at the Silver Spoon for 5:30pm. I drove as far as Dannevirke where we had a coffee and Bangle stretched her legs. Karola drove most of the way in rather bad weather.
Got to Annemarie’s place in time for a short walk with Bangle including part along the Hutt river stopbank. Then off to an absolutely splendid dinner with Annemarie at the Silver Spoon. Every time we’ve been there the food has been outstanding – modest portions but totally delicious.
Later I did some maintenance on Annemarie’s computer – solved an issue with “certificate errors” in her email and updated the operating system to the latest version.
Initiation Use Of The “Kindling Cracker”
Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—13℃ 0.8mm rain [?]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Off To Wellington (Alex Birthday Lunch)
Wet So Spent Most Of The Day In Town
SwimGym with Karola.
Later we went into Hastings, not just for the weekend shopping, but to take Bangle in to get her toes clipped, to pick up my new trousers, and to have lunch at the New World bistro. Every now and then I have a lambs fry & bacon, mash, and onion gravy meal there just for a change. On the way back Karola suggested we get Bangle a roomy cage so that while in Wellington over the weekend she can sleep in the car in comfort.
It was raining most of the day, including all afternoon, so we did computer stuff mostly. Karola has finished her article for the local IDS NZ branch journal, describing one of the places we visited in March. She also chose 25 photos out of 132 to send with the article so that the editor, Peter Arthur, could select any that he liked.
We’ve had a warm, cosy fire going since lunchtime.
Bangle’s New Crate – Her Home Away From Home
Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—13℃ 7.9mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Wet So Spent Most Of The Day In Town
Pecking Order – Lighthearted Amusing Kiwi Film
With the chainsaw cut down two remaining Tasmanian Blackwood trees just outside our boundary fence along from the 133 entrance. Took the tree trash to the bonfire, cut up the rest and added it to the split firewood pile in the farm shed lean-to.
Then Karola & I scuttled off into Hastings to see a film at the recently opened Focal Point Cinema. The film, which has got rather extravagant reviews, was a gentle rollicking kiwi tale, Pecking Order, about the ups and downs of competitive poultry showing and the politics of the local Christchurch poultry club. “Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see”, quoting Samuel Johnson who made the remark concerning the Giants Causeway in Ireland.
Mowed round the grass under the big oak and round the house lawn, including along the top of the ha-ha so that in a few days I can put up electric fence and get the ewes in for a feast.
Took Bangle for a walk round the orchard.
Brought an apple box of firewood from under the Macrocarpa, where it has been keeping dry, to just outside the farm shed. Put a tarp over it so we have dry firewood for about a week.
Tasmanian Blackwood Tree Trash
Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—13℃ 1.5mm rain [72.8]
Posted in General
Comments Off on Pecking Order – Lighthearted Amusing Kiwi Film