Monthly Archives: October 2017

Karola had another fairly happy day working on tree guards – making and installing.

In the morning I took my trusty chainsaw and cut some dangerous protruding small stumps – stakes really, terrible for tyres – down to ground level – over by the Wellingtonian in the north-east corner.

I then trimmed back the willows in the planting area due west of the cottage. One in particular was crowding out a Totara and had made it quite distorted. We hope that now the Totara is released it will straighten itself up. I took the willow branches to the ewes and lambs in the Long Acre where they were picked clean. The thicker branches might be planted and should grow – most of the willows began as posts rammed into the earth.

Finally, while still dressed for chain sawing, I cut off the ends of a number of broken fence posts languishing in the stump dump. The under-sized posts are ideal for stay blocks and strainer footings.

I took a large load of old wire and wire netting from the stump dump to the bonfire site.

After dinner Karola & I took Bangle round the orchard.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ no rain [73.6]

SwimGym with Karola, a little later than I’d hoped but all done and breakfasted by 9:00am.

Karola took the Subaru in to the AA nominated damage assessor (panel beater), I took the Landrover to New World for the Monday shopping.

No sooner was that all done and we got a call saying Karl & Wendy, our shearers, were on their way. The sheep had been in the yards all night and so were hungry and thirsty but poo’d out. As the shearers like them. I rushed to get the ram and wether up into one of the smaller yards and get the gates open before the truck arrived.

Karola’s plan was to have the older sheep, everything but the lambs, shorn. Then to put the anti-flystrike Magnum pour-on spray on all the sheep. Magnum withholding for meat, zero days. Also to draft out the male lambs so that from now on the ram, wether, and 14 male lambs will be fed the best tucker and encouraged to grow heavy and fat. No prizes for guessing where the male lambs are headed, ewe hope before Christmas. I had one complication, I’d put the button tag in the wrong ear of #707, but no, he’s not a ewe lamb, he’s a ram lamb. That corrected and all the numbers tallied.

Ewe #218 had twin ram lambs very late so Karola, thinking her lambs were a tad young to wean, popped her in with the rams. Of course when it came time to shoo the ram lambs into the Front paddock they were very resistant to leaving their mums, but eventually we got them moved. There will be much bleating about the bush for a few days.

Henare came round and borrowed Karola’s lawn mower, his $100 dollar one broke a while ago.

Karola and I walked Bangle round the orchard in the early evening.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—20℃ no rain [73.2]

Karola & I still have colds which is annoying and distracting – but not so bad that it stops us doing stuff, just slows us down.

Karola’s project today was to remove the heads of the almost-flowering Acanthus 0 we have quite a crop outside the 133 road entrance and they are beginning to pop up everywhere.

I poisoned a dozen or so Scotch Thistles – I’ve been looking out for them as we walk round and it’s amazing how many there are untouched by previous eradication attempts.

We went over again, using Karola’s notes and this web journal, when each of Karola’s recent plantings took place, and where. We checked each spot for the missing fork. No joy. Last place I’ll be looking is the bund – Karola’s hundred-metre long rubbish pile just inside the road fence behind the homestead garage. While searching for the missing fork I happened across the remains of the possum we knew had perished somewhere inside the homestead garage. It wasn’t in the walls but in a cardboard box in a corner. As Karola suggested, I consigned the box to the bonfire pile.

Took Bangle round the orchard. Earlier in the day I looked up how much food a moderately active Corgi like Bangle should be given each day, two cups full. I really don’t see the need to continue feeding her 50:50 Nutrients balanced diet biscuits and Prime Angus Beef with rice. We cook the latter ourselves – it’s better than most of our friends have themselves. With the new puppy, Bracket, expected early in January I plan to have Bangle happy with a Nutrients-only diet before then.

The mulching of the Special Manuka concluded yesterday but today I put mulch on the piece of the cottage garden on the other side of the railings from the Special Manuka. The drip irrigation pipe divides and one tributary goes outside the railings and services the Special Manuka. The other fork winds its way around the variety of young trees Karola has planted in that area, including a Persimmon and a couple of Lilacs. It carries on along the beginning of the Bay tree hedge, crosses under a piece of the lawn and then feeds the rest of the Bay tree hedge and Karola’s raspberries. I’ve only just dented the surface of the weeding around the Bay trees, but where I’ve weeded is now also mulched. It only took one small trailer-load of mulch.

Fresh Layer Of Mulch On Part Of The Cottage Garden

Welcome Swallows Finally Decide To Nest On The Wall Of The Cottage Garage

Kingfisher Nesting Pair – In Tall Palm About 20 Metres From Nest In End Of Rotten Sawn-Off Branch Of The Big Oak

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ no rain [73.5]

Rabbits and Pukekos outside the cottage kitchen window again.

SwimGym on a Saturday, with Karola, to make up for missing it yesterday

We spoke to AA Insurance about Karola’s little mishap with her car yesterday and the next step is to get the damage assessed on Monday.

I also cancelled our haircut appointments for next Friday and again in December – and now I can’t for the life of me remember why we didn’t want to go next Friday. But Karola wants a change anyway and I am not that fussy so might as well go where she goes.

In anticipation of Henare’s arrival I tractor-mowed a pathway which included going round the Liriodendron and octagon, and around the homestead lawn circle. This is not only keeping the path of future electric fencing short but gave Henare the boundary of his homestead lawn mowing.

Henare arrived and started on more lawn mowing at 11:30, Apart from a long lunch he worked through until 6:00pm and got under the Liriodendron mown plus re-mowed the homestead lawn areas not amenable to grazing – quite a lot of lawn actually.

Karola has now lost two lightweight forks while tending her new trees. She has searched, I have checked, no sign of either of them, very odd.

Karola & I discussed the stuff in the stump dump (near the 121 entrance), and our half of the big shed up at the orchard, what should go, what might as well stay. We also looked in vain for the missing forks – although we saw the grounded magpie again, it’s not getting any better at flying.

A little more stuff got put on the bonfire – wood and metal objects that have some combustible stuff attached or are made of high tensile steel.

Bangle and I meandered round the orchard before dinner.

Henare’s Circle Under The Liriodendron

And The Homestead Circle (NB Sans Palm)

The Old Front Drive

Splendid Karamu Rhodos

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—18℃ 0.5mm rain [73.5]

Weird, I’ve picked up a cold or maybe some sort of hay fever. Woke at 1:15am and didn’t get back to sleep until 3:00am – only to be woken at 3:15am by Karola who smelt a rat. Well, not a rat as such, but burned toast. In my night-time snacking I’d run out of GF bread so resorted to frozen GF buns. Too big to put in the toaster, too hard – solid frozen – to cut, I tried to defrost a bun in the microwave, stopping only when I saw smoke swirling round in the microwave. Lucky not to set off the fire alarm, but not wanting to wake Karola with opening windows and doors, I pretty much ignored it. Didn’t work, and Karola once appraised of the situation threw open windows and doors galore – which helped reduce the stink but didn’t improve my sleep. Hence, no SwimGym today.

Karola had a meeting with Jacob Mackay, her contact in Perpetual Guardian, to discuss the future of her trust fund. This has been slowly declining for decades and is really not worth the management fees. Karola hopes to use the capital for the homestead, either as part of the redevelopment or for maintenance. I joined the meeting and made notes.

After that we had morning tea, well coffee actually, at Adoro’s in Hastings Street in Napier. And then on to New World in Greenmeadows on the way home.

After lunch Karola planted the four remaining Five Finger trees. She did have a slight mishap involving reversing her car over one of our super-tough water troughs which demolished the front wrap-around bumper. Ah well, nothing drastic.

Late afternoon I put mulch around the special Manuka, having let the drip irrigation drip all night. Then Bangle and I dropped into Cornucopia in Hastings to pick up my GF bread order. Later Bangle and I went round the orchard.

I saw a ground-based magpie again today. There’s one adult, raucous magpie that contemplates dive bombing us in the Front paddock. It happened a couple of days ago and, looking round to see what the dive bombing was about, I saw a magpie that seemed unable to fly and ran after it and caught it. It’s plumage was dull and it was probably ill, I thought it was either an old or infirm adult, mate to the swooping one, or maybe a juvenile prematurely out if its nest. Several days later it’s still alive and I still don’t know.

The Flightless Magpie

Early morning as the sun is coming up I can see plenty of fauna outside the kitchen window: a family of rabbits, including one kit, half a dozen pukeko with one chick, and a pair of Californian quail which promenade along the cottage drive every morning. Karola pointed out the kingfishers nesting in the rotten end of a big branch of the big oak tree. And I’ve heard, but not seen, the screeching of summer parakeets.

Thick Mulch On Manuka Suppresses Weeds & Conserves Moisture

Waving Stand Of Plantain & Lucerne In The One Acre

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—19℃ 0.3mm rain [73.4]

Karola spent much of the day on tree guard maintenance – some guards get mangled by sheep, some are outgrown by their inmates, or grow up so need higher protection.

I have finally got round to weeding the piece of garden outside the cottage bathroom window. This is in preparation for extending the drip irrigation lines to include the new special Manuka trees. Couch grass has invaded and infested this part of the garden, strong, stringy, and spreads its roots everywhere. It is frost tender but can survive drought and flood. It gets so entangled with the good plants that it can only be attacked by uprooting couch and plant. And any piece of root can regenerate. So we beat it back with no expectation of eradication.

Karola took Bangle round the orchard this morning, I took her again just after dinner.

Weed Infested Plot – This End Cleared

Tackling Couch – Second Groundsheet Load

Drip Irrigation Pipe Buried Under Gateways

Weeding Done, Putting Down The Drip Irrigation Pipe

Drip Irrigation Working

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—21℃ no rain [73.4]

SwimGym and after breakfast Karola took Bangle for a walk round some of the orchard before we set off for our Friendship Club bus trip up Middle Road to the TukiTuki Dairy Goat Farm owned and operated by Lydia and Sean Baty and two employees.

The goats produce organic milk that is turned into infant formula up in Hamilton, presumably for export. A tanker comes at 7:00am every second day and carts away thousands of litres of goat milk. Currently the flock is about 1000 adult milkers and Lydia said their aim was to get to 2000 in the current shed and after building another shed to reach 4000 goats. Lydia & Sean are switched onto being sustainable and spoke of the way they husband water and reuse the bedding and so on. The goats looked happy, but what do I know. They, the goats, were inquisitive and friendly, not at all shy. Biggest issue and risk is disease. With no use of antibiotics they have to be very careful with the cleanliness of the environment and the goats as well as the milk itself.

More here and here

Karola had invited Margery & Brian Cobbe and Peter Offenberger back for lunch so we had soup and salad and a pleasant chat until mid afternoon.

A Flollop of Kids

The 80-Goat Rotational Milking Shed – One Load Every Ten Minutes

Two Thirds Of The 2000-Goat Capacity 50m x 83m “Loafing Barn”

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—21℃ no rain [73.0]

Spent the morning engrossed in my economics online course.

Noticed that the sheep had done a good job of eating out their current cell, under the Canary Island pine, so I gave them the next cell, to the north, next to the One Acre. Also, as planned, with the shorter grass it was easy to pick up more than a barrow-load of pine cones which make excellent kindling.

I took Bangle round the orchard.

After lunch Karola and I lashed down the high pile of scrap metal on the big trailer and I took it to the merchant just up Omahu road. About 280kgs and I got the princely sum of $7.00 – but as the man said, that’s a lot cheaper than paying to take it to the dump.

Karola planted the first of her six Five Finger saplings, up near the west gate between the One Acre and the Totara paddock, in the planting area. She has a splendid young Totara growing nearby.

Last thing I topped a single pass round the fence line of the One Acre. The plantain and lucerne is getting pretty tall and thick and I’ll need some tracks for electric fencing for rotational grazing with the male sheep next month. It actually took four passes over the same track to make an impression. I mowed so as to throw as much of the good fodder through the fence where the sheep could reach it – some were interested.

Excellent Kindling – Canary Island Pinecones

Almost All Gone – The Trailer Was Piled High

One Acre – Before

And After (After Darkness Fell)

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—22℃ no rain [73.1]

SwimGym with Karola, roads very quiet at 7:00am due to it being Labour Day public holiday.

Then Bangle and I went shopping and it was much busier out on the roads and bustling in New World. Once back home bangle and I strolled round the orchard.

Finished the cottage weekly mowing by mowing the cottage curtilage – that takes about as long as the cottage lawn itself.

At Karola’s request I brought back the large trunk of the Grevillea robusta that used to stand next to the cottage, and used it to block vehicles coming to the cottage from the homestead under the big oak, replacing the much smaller Thuia branch I’d used previously.

Just as I finished this Henare dropped in for a coffee and chat. We easily persuaded him to stop for soup and toast and then to spend a coupe of hours mowing the homestead circle round the Ginkgo tree, and along the sides of the homestead.

Using the tractor I mowed round the outside of the circle, effectively marking the line where I can mow using the tractor, so that Henare could see the extent of his task. While Henare, using the Honda mower, mowed parts of the homestead lawn, I used the tractor to mow along the 121 driveway and behind the homestead garage. It began to rain and got heavier so I retired inside.

Meanwhile Karola took car and trailer up to the runner bean patch, well, nearby, and planted a Five Finger (Pseudopanex arboreus).

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—18℃ 0.5mm rain [73.4]

We watched the All Blacks match played late last night in Australia, that took up most of the morning.

Much of the rest of the morning spent in exchanging emails with Peter Clemerson where I reminisced about my computing career and the people I’d bumped into and ideas I’d come across. I don’t usually remember many of the leading-edge bits of technology I was involved with that have become boringly commonplace twenty years or more later.

I started cutting the edges of the cottage lawn yesterday and completed it today. This is preparatory to weeding the bay tree area and already does look better, combined with mowing the cottage lawn (but not the cottage curtilage) late afternoon.

Bangle and I trotted round the orchard.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ no rain [73.8]

A stunning day – sunny and cool and barely a breath of wind.

It being a public holiday yesterday we could not get my special GF bread so Karola went in and picked it up today. Meanwhile I cleared the floor of the cottage garage and blew out all the dust and dirt and gravel – a lot of gravel comes into the garages on tyres and boots.

After lunch Karola took Bangle on a walk round the estate, checking on her recent plantings of Norfolk Island pines.

Henare came after lunch as expected, bringing a vanity unit he wants to adapt for his own house. He needs to reduce its width and height so I lent him my jig saw, a drill, and screw driver and he had at it till late afternoon. Having cut and glued and screwed to his satisfaction he then helped me load up the big trailer with all the old wire and bits of guttering we could find down at the stump dump, ready for me to take to the scrap metal merchant on Monday. I have to burn any high-tensile wire before they will accept it, otherwise it wrecks their cutting machine, so there’s a small pile of wire and netting to put on the bonfire.

While Karola cooked me a beef and kidney casserole – a treat that tastes delicious but is not good for me – I did some edging of the cottage lawn – a useful preparation for eventually weeding the bay hedge and other beds round the perimeter.

we stopped and watched the Caulfield Cup horse race in Melbourne on TV – 4:30pm AEST so 6:30pm for us. Karola enjoyed her few minutes of racing excitement.

Jacinda, Jacinda, Jacinda is best
I wouldn’t give tuppence for all of the rest
With apologies to Flanders & Swann

My Thoughts On Labour’s Victory On Labour Weekend

I thought that there was quite a striking similarity to the USA but only in that the status quo here was boring, predictable, and socially conservative. The New Zealand chattering classes, us included, thirsted for a change of attitude while the less well off majority felt financially at war with the government. Daughter Bridget, wife Karola, sister Gill and I are delighted. An historic moment of family agreement.

The new prime minister Jacinda Ardern, is a very accomplished and charismatic lady.

Partly it’s because Ms Ardern is actually very competent. She radiates sincerity and strength and vows to address many of our society’s festering sores: climate change, exploration for oil, gas, and minerals in territorial waters and national parks, just giving away pure drinking water to Chinese businesses out of our overtaxed aquifers, nitrate and sediment polluted rivers, the list goes on. Not to forget the big hitters, housing prices, health melt-down, education shambles, immigration of low-skilled rather than scarce-skilled individuals, unfortunate lack of tax on assets meaning that the place is flooded with rich Chinese and European and USA investors making a killing buying up both New Zealand land and our successful small businesses.

Partly it’s because her predecessor, Andrew Little, was low profile, dull, and uninspiring. He had what I would describe as a “John Major-ish” image. It’s not his fault but he was ineffective against a bland but soothing National story-line with tax bribes for the un-poor. So the contrast with Jacinda Ardern was a very pleasant shock.

The new government not only has the fragilities of coalition (New Zealand First and the Green party) but major issues to wrestle with such as:

• Is there anyone in the Labour party other than Jacinda Ahern who has any depth? The NZ First leader, Winston Peters, is NZ’s most accomplished politician by far, a master at politics and an incredible survivor, although it is understatement to say we do not agree with all his policies. The Greens, who only have a “confidence and supply” relationship, have the most reasonable agenda since … well since ever. Their current agenda overlaps with the Labour party so they will be their usual strident selves on issues the mainstream is arguing over anyway: rivers, climate change, and health/education. So they are, unusually, pulling in the same direction.
• New Zealand is said to be heading for a significant economic downturn, a legacy of our recent economy and of current world events, and probably unavoidable whoever is in power. The bubble of prosperity, which, like in the USA, has not trickled down, is about to be pricked so the opposition National party may be licking their wounds but privately heaving a sigh of relief.
• The policy corrections that would make New Zealand a more humane society probably cannot be implemented without making the economy seriously worse.
• And what, if anything, can the new government do about the epidemic of ‘P’ drug taking, of teenage suicides & the small but widespread numbers of people wth clinical depression.

So, lots for New Zealanders to think about, but a glimmer, just a glimmer of HOPE.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—19℃ no rain [72.9]

SwimGym with Karola

Later I did the Friday shopping with Bangle, but not for my GF bread as that shop shuts on public holidays, unlike supermarket New World.

or the remained of the morning Bangle and I watered each of the Manuka saplings planted in gaps in the hedge between the homestead and Karola’s orchard. There are 27 new Manuka plants plus one amazing surviving Kanuka from the planting last summer and one special red Manuka that Karola planted a couple of years ago. So, 29 buckets of water.

Bangle and I continued on from that to walk round the orchard during which she unearthed a couple of half-eaten apples, nibbled by birds or rabbits I guess – or even wasps maybe. The apple trees have almost finished flowering, the blaze of white blooms has all but vanished.

I let the sheep have one of their Totara paddock cells as well as theirpasture corridor, teh cell including the Canary Island pine. Sheep were delighted.

In the afternoon, good companion that I am, I went with Karola to the local annual A&P show, held in the Hastings show grounds on Hawkes Bay Anniversary weekend. It’s a public holiday in Hawkes bay and with New Zealand’s Labour Day on Monday it makes for a long, long weekend.

The A&P show was appalling, as anticipated. Ghastly noise, crowds, unspeakable riff-raff, huge amounts of unhealthy fast food, rubbish everywhere. But still, we weren’t there for that but for the small item of show jumping, last thing on the schedule supposedly beginning at 3:00pm.

We arrived before 2:00pm to be sure to get a seat. The seating for the parade ground and horse activities was almost unoccupied – the crowds were all in queues for fast food or buying stuff in the exhibition hall or at the stalls crammed into the space behind the stands. Or gawking at new cars and machinery littering the lawns, amongst the food stalls.

The only person Karola knew was Jenny Price, Woodford old-girl, and she soon wandered off to find a warmer place to sit – it was chilly in the stands – all concrete and bitter wind whistling down the aisles. We watched a very ponderous final parade where a string of fractious animals were led by frazzled owners past the stand, accompanied by a loud and peace-lacking pipe band, followed by various old tractors and the like, lovingly driven by enthusiasts and their loved ones. The parade was over an hour late, having been advertised for 2:00pm. So no show jumping until that finished.

We moved outside to get warmer and a better view of the jumps. The jumping started around 4:30pm and was all over soon after 5:00pm when we went home. The things we do for love.

Henare dropped in as darkness fell. I was just watering the special Manuka next to the cottage, 22 trees in all. As Karola usually says after watering, that’ll make it rain – but that’ll be good because natural rain is by far the best for the plants.

I gave Bangle the last couple of large triangular addictive Tux dog biscuits yesterday so tonight, instead, she got half a small Granny Smith apple. Not the same but still appreciated.

Hastings A & P Show – Crowds, Bustle, And Fast Food

The Grand Parade

And Old Machinery

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [72.9]

We were both woken at 5:30am by gentle barking from Bangle. She had somehow slipped out unnoticed and spent the night on the verandah. It wasn’t very cold but she felt a bit neglected so by 5:30am decided to let us know. Karola got back to sleep but I decided I might as well stay up as the dawn chorus was at full volume and it was getting light.

Gill TXTed me around 7:15am – they’d got up at 5:30am too and set off for the hospital in time to be admitted at 7:00am. Ben is in the Wakefield hospital, as planned, for a hernia operation today. Gill is with him and kept me posted on the turn of events. It was all over by mid afternoon, now we hope for a speedy recuperation.

Started the day by erecting the electric fence for the cells in the Middle and Totara paddocks – I’d done the corridor on the west side earlier and the sheep have been enjoying that.

Spent the mid morning on my new online course – The Core Project – An exciting updating of traditional economics based on an online text book called The Economy. Friend Geoff Robinson is doing it with me but it’s early days, well see how we go, I expect it to take only a few hours a week but over many weeks.

Karola, once it warmed up, went out and continued fighting the jungle that is either side of the 121 driveway. I helped briefly in late afternoon by seeking out, cutting and poisoning Robinia pseudoacacia, (Black Locust). There used to be a cluster of medium sized trees but now we’ve reduced to a few suckers and saplings. Karola also planted the last of her three Norfolk Island pines, over in the north-west corner near the 145 Orchard entrance.

Karola took away he recycling mid afternoon and while she was out got some fresh vegetables from Gagan’s.

Bangle and I went round the orchard.

Stoat Running Across The Paddock, With Prey

Felix With Grandmother Barbara Florent In Boulogne

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ no rain [72.8]

SwimGym

Karola went to the dentist mid morning and fitted in the mid-week shopping. Meanwhile I went off on a tangent, watching a video on the computer, a talk by Nobel Laureate Daniel Khaneman about his 2013 book, Thinking Fast and Slow. By the time I had made notes on the presentation the morning had long gone.

Bangle and I wandered round the orchard.

Karola planted the second of her three Norfolk Island pines, over near the runner beans & my raspberries.

I started the project to add irrigation and mulch to the special Manuka – first weeding then putting in the thin irrigation pipe. The special Manuka I put in last year has really grown and is a decent splash of colour. I hope this year’s planting will be as vibrant.

The old codger from FloorMart didn’t turn up at 3:00pm but they did call and say he’d gone AWOL and could they reschedule to next week.

Bracket’s lime green collar arrived in the post along with a couple of books that Karola left in Wellington and Bridget posted back.

At Bridget’s prompting I booked Karola flights – there was a one-day sale today of Air New Zealand internal flights – so that Karola can go to Wellington in early December and attend Marsden College’s prize giving and mind the young ladies for a week.

The Initial Planting Of Special Manuka, Flourishing

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—15℃ 0.3mm rain [72.2]

Woken earlier than I really wanted by the phone ringing – got to it on the last ring, I mean I just missed it. Later I observed that the landline ringing was from the drop-through of my iPhone. So why didn’t I hear the iPhone.

This has happened intermittently over last few weeks and I am suspicious of the recent Vodafone phone firmware upgrade – the one that provided the emergency TXT channel. A few days ago after missing a call from Bridget on the iPhone but picking it up on the landline I did an experiment. Called my iPhone and it flipped immediately to the landline. Called it five minutes later and it rang the iPhone.

Called Vodafone today to see if they could shed light. Best guess is that we’re on the absolute fringe of local 3G coverage and it seems that my iPhone is switching between 2.5G and 3G. The time to resynchronise with the other band is enough to make my iPhone appear to be unobtainable for a while. Well that matches the behaviour. But is hardly consoling.

Anyway, it was the young man from Power Farming who later came out and replaced a faulty relay in the tractor so that’s all back to normal.

Called Jacob Mackay of Perpetual Guardian and got Karola an appointment to discuss the future of her Wier-Potaka trust. Popped down to the carpet business on Omahu road, next to the expressway roundabout. Geoff Person, the old geyser who owns the business, master minded the carpeting of the stairs and upstairs hallways a few years ago so Karola hopes he can help again as we get the cottage stairs carpeted. The renewable hardwood (Eucalyptus saligna) staircase is slippery and I have fallen the last few steps, as did our house-sitter Anthony Fletcher. Also, Bangle won’t go up the stairs. I did train her for a while and got her up a few times but the problem is, when she loses her nerve she naturally stands up on her toe-nails, slips, and crashes down the stairs. I hope the carpet will fix that. I’m sure the new puppy, Bracket, due in January, will have no problem and I don’t want Bangle to be left at the bottom.

I spent much of the day spraying with weedkiller, six or seven loads of 6 litres. I add a dark red dye to the mix so I can see what’s been done.

Then Karola had me bang in a standard for the tree guard for the first of her three Norfolk Island Pines, up near the sheep yards. Coming back from that I noticed our Red Beech saplings were getting choked by rampant climbing weeds so I released all 40 of them.

Then I finished the winding up of the 2 kilometres of electric temporary fencing wire. and took Bangle round the orchard.

Hard Stand Behind The Homestead – Sprayed

In Front Of The Homestead Garage Block – Sprayed

Nasty Inerradicable Italian Lily (Arum italicum) – Sprayed, And Sprayed

133 Ormond Road Entrance – Sprayed

Electric Fence From Round The Homestead Lawn And Under The Big Oak

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—20℃ no rain [72.8]

SwimGym with Karola, and involved taking in Subaru for service at the same time, using the Landrover as the ferrying vehicle.

Dropped in at Power Farming on the way home from SwimGym and explained the recent difficulty with cold starting the Kioti tractor. They sent a man round later and he diagnosed th eproblem – something had come adrift and got burned on the exhaust and scraped by a belt. So I guess they’ll get a replacement.

Subaru service done late morning so we went to collect it. Karola then returned home with Bangle in the Landrover and I did the usual Mondasy shopping. Remembered to take my own bag in – which I’m getting better at now. I wouldn’t use non-automated checkout for preference now either, quite the modern man. :-). But of course I’m still “in the wrong” because I’m obviously taking food out of the mouths of those least able to afford it by reducing staff numbers at New World.

Still finishing off the chores from Sunday, bills and suchlike, and mowing the cottage lawn. But the bulk of the time was spent erecting some new electric fence so that Karola can rotationally graze the Middle and Totara paddocks. I re-mowed the pathways along which the electric fence is to run.

Geese Enjoying Their Sunken Bath

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

Karola decided to cut back the Muehlenbeckia, and none too soon as it is making a mess inside the cottage garage, forcing its way inside and up within the walls and back out through the weatherboards. Also covering the steps up to the cottage sunporch. I helped with some of the higher vines.

Bangle and I did amble round the orchard today, checking the sheep in the holding paddock to see if they’d eaten it down yet – no they hadn’t so we left them there for another night.

Karola & I banged in standards on her Rangiora, to keep the tree guards in place.

Henare, who borrowed Karola’s green lawn mower last night, brought it back this afternoon.

I mowed lawns today, the bits that I usually mow as part of the cottage lawn mowing task. This time I have done everything except the actual cottage lawn itself. I think I will distinguish between the cottage lawn mowing and the cottage curtilage mowing – the latter being between the cottage and the driveway, to the east, and under the clothes line ip to the cottage kitchen garden raised beds.

Muehlenbeckia Had Invaded The Cottage Garage

Muehlenbeckia Had Spread Across These Steps

Groundsheets Full Of Muehlenbeckia

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—18℃ no rain [72.8]

I continue to wrestle with computer stuff. Karola out working on her drive verge weeding project, she planted two more Rangiora and has all twelve in now and watered.

Bangle & I went round the orchard.

Alex called to say they were buying a dog harness for Bracket. Also Bridget said that not only will Bracket come to us after a couple of months training, but she’ll be spayed and micro-chipped as well. Bridget expects to come here with the girls before Bracket is ready and then some or all of us will go up to Tauranga to pick her up. That’s the plan.

Henare negotiated some work here this afternoon which suited me well as the homestead grass that’s not open to the sheep is getting long again, even though it seems as if we’ve only just cut it all when we “limbed up” the Ginkgo.

Karola & Bangle & I got all the ewes and lambs into the yards and we gave them all a dose pf pour-on anti-flystrike mixture, Magnum. (Zero withholding days for meat). I also put more antibiotic on lamb #710’s four feet even though she’s limping a lot less these days. And lamb #711 had lost her ear tag so I put in another one and overwrote the number with 711.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—22℃ no rain [72.6]

SwimGym with Karola

Shopping with Bangle and Karola

I made some progress on my web log technology today – thank goodness, at last. Took Bangle round the orchard.

After lunch Philip Irwin, secretary of Historic Places Hawke’s Bay, came to look at the homestead, scouting for a good venue for a committee meeting in early December.

Late afternoon I did pick up some more sticks for the bonfire but mostly spent the day on computer. The weather was changeable, mostly cloudy and with occasional spells of a chilly wind so not so inviting for outside work.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—18℃ 0.2mm rain [72.5]

Bangle & I walked round the orchard mid-day. In the afternoon I cleaned up pile of branches and firewood from my chainsawing a few days ago – before the torrential rain – and put the brush on the bonfire, the firewood in the apple-box stacks.

I did put some grass seed on the teardrop lawn in front of the cottage and where I’d moved the heap of earth before planting the fancy Manuka plants in front of the railings between cottage and farm shed. But the seed is rather old – I don’t know what the statute of limitations is on pasture seed.

The One Acre lucerne and plantain crop is bolting up with the warmth and the rain.

Karola spent another hard day clearing blackberry and iris and big clumps of grass from along the west 121 driveway verge. She also swanned off to the shops briefly for some more fertiliser tablets for her trees.

Karola’ Battle With The Undergrowth

Cleaning Up The Chainsawing Rubbish

Lily Patch Under The Golden Himalayan Spruce Is Mown

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [72.8]

SwimGym with Karola – an hour late and Jonathan spent too long talking to me, but otherwise OK. Karola did the mid-week shopping. I took Bangle for a short orchard walk that included applying Vigilant to some Scotch thistles I missed during my round-up (“Roundup”, ha) a few days ago.

I carried on with fixing up my weblog stuff, it’s going to take more of an upgrade than I expected – but well overdue to cobble together the latest “theme” and plugins and so on. There’s a new and much better access control system to learn and customise, AAM – Advanced Access Manager.

Early evening we went to this weeks New Zealand Royal Society (Hawkes Bay Branch) talk at the Napier Aquarium by Dr Elspeth Macrae on genetic modification of plants. A solid talk plotting the major facets of the emotional subject of GMO in context in time and by technique. Peter offenberger was there and also Jennifer Hartley. Jennifer used to be a member of the now defunct Hawkes Bay Federation of Graduate Women, as did Karola. Jennifer was a professional botanist specialising in New Zealand weeds.

I suppose Dr Macrae came to give the talk with some trepidation because the media portray Hawkes Bay as a hotbed of anti-GMO activists. None were there tonight though.

The basic CRISPR procedure only removes genes, doesn’t add anything and does it with precision. Because it doesn’t add DNA material some countries have declared it is not GMO, the GMO regulations don’t apply. Apparently there are many positive genetic modifications that can be made by just removing genes and this is unregulated in most important countries.

I asserted boldly that surely there must be stuff they wanted to do that needed one to add to the DNA, for important traits needed in their efforts to keep the world from starvation and to ameliorate climate change. Elspeth said that there was a DNA-adding version of CRISPR too, but that was regulated.

Dr Macrae spoke of her Crown Research Lab, Scion’s, research into fighting the invasion of wilding forest species that today are controlled with sprays on public and private land at great cost. Dr Macrae’s team aim to use CRISPR to make the forested trees infertile so only nursery grown clones need be planted commercially and obviously they won’t spread. She also spoke of similar techniques being important in New Zealand’s public government goal to have New Zealand be predator-free in 2050 – ridding the entire country of possums, rats, and stoats.

Home page for Predator Free NZ

So I asked about Gene Drives, would they be used, and were they safe. Dr Macrae said it’s different for plants and animals and she only knew the plant side of things – but yes it was a technique to implant inheritable sterility and there were concerns.

From the NZRS Website

Gene drives

In 2015, researchers demonstrated the use of CRISPR to develop ‘gene drives’, a genetic system named for the ability to ‘drive’ themselves and nearby genes through populations of organisms over many generations.

In sexual reproduction, offspring inherit two versions of every gene, one from each parent. Each parent carries two versions of the gene as well, so chance (50:50) normally governs which particular variant of the gene that will be passed on.

But ‘gene drives’ ensure that the genetic modification will almost always be passed on, allowing that variant to spread rapidly through a population (see FIG. 4). So far, ‘gene drives’ have been developed in yeast, the fruit fly, and two mosquito species.

One of the mosquito gene drives, developed in the US by researchers at the University of California, causes a malaria-resistance gene to be passed on to the mosquitoes’ offspring, meaning they are unable to transmit malaria in mice. The other mosquito gene drive strategy, developed by Imperial College in the UK, propagates a gene that sterilizes all female mosquitoes (which could suppress specific mosquito populations to levels that will not support malaria transmission).

This Evening’s Talk

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [73.4]

Stopped raining but a lot of drying out to do. Karola braved the mud and went on with her clearing down the western side of the 121 driveway mid morning.

I am trying to set up some “wiki” web sites – an experiment with potentially a good way of storing articles and comments about some subjects of interest – maybe including the economics online course Geoff & I are doing, CORE-Econ it’s called.

We went to Havelock North around 5:00pm and joined Charlotte and Peter to attend the film Blade Runner – 2049 at the Events Cinema (used to be Cinema Gold). I enjoyed it, Charlotte enjoyed it, the other two not so much. It was loud, dystopian, and quite violent but lots of juicy philosophical issues raised that seem more pressing with the ramping up of AI technology.

Afterwards we had a very pleasant meal at the Indian restaurant across the road from the cinema, Namaskar.

Photos From Anna – She & Felix’ Trip To Look At St Andrews – He Goes To Uni Next Year

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ 1.9mm rain [72.9]

SwimGym for Karola at the usual time but I didn’t go in until lunchtime, combining it with the Monday shopping.

It rained all night and most of the day. I finally got out for a walk round the orchard with Bangle late afternoon. Otherwise it was staying inside and reading or computer stuff.

Meticulous Maids came and did the cottage in the afternoon.

The Scott’s Orchard

Our Paddocks

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—15℃ 24.7mm rain [72.5]

Having stupidly stayed up until after 4:00am trying fruitlessly to find out why several different things had gone wrong with my web log software, I was a bit shattered today. And it rained gently all day long. So no progress on the tree planting or anything else outside. Bangle got a quick walk round the paddocks in the rain. I did the Sunday chores so at least the bills are paid and so on.

Called Peter Offenberger and the four of us plan to see the film Blade Runner, the new one, on Tuesday.

Still the web log software isn’t totally fixed, but the main stuff is and I may have found a reason for some things stopping working since I upgraded to the latest Mac operating system, apparently Apple decided to remove some common stuff that lots of people rely on because it’s old and could conceivably be used by malware – though I think that’s a stretch. Replacing the commands they removed fixed that particular problem.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—14℃ 23.5mm rain [72.8]

Mid morning it started to rain and rained mostly gently all day and evening. I took Bangle for a walk round the Front and One Acre paddocks. The tractor sprayers were trying to beat the rain in the orchard and started noisily soon after 5:00am, thats why we didn’t venture into the orchard today.

Karola struggled on with her clearances along the west side of the 121 driveway – vanquishing some tangled thickets of blackberry.

I felt like a little chain sawing so, until it started to rain, I did a few outstanding small sawing jobs. Demolished the half-dead Camellia tree next to the trunk of the big oak. At Karola’s request cut back the very low hanging branches of the Golden Himalayan Spruce, on the bend of the 121 driveway, next to the gate into the Long Acre. It really needs tidying up to about four metres but I can’t chainsaw up more than a couple of metres without a ladder – and I am not about to do that. Also cleaned up a low-growing branch on a couple of elm trees and trimmed up a nearby half-dead Camellia.

Rest of the day was inside, reading and pottering.

Seventeen Fancy Manuka

Not A Runner Bean In Sight – Yet (But See The Raspberry Canes)

One Acre – Lucerne Paddock – But Mostly Plantain

The Swamp Cypress Grove – North Of The Homestead

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—15℃ 14.3mm rain [72.4]

SwimGym

Then the weekend shopping with Bangle. That’s the morning done.

Bangle & I walked round the orchard.

Karola spent the day wrestling with clearing some of the edge of the 121 driveway, between the drive and the Goose paddock, ready for her remaining Rangiora.

Late afternoon I dug the holes and planted the 17 red and white Manuka saplings along the railings between the cottage and the farm shed. Still have to install some irrigation pipes and add much mulch.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—22℃ no rain [72.3]

Karola continued with tree guards, clearing ground, and planting – two more Rangiora in today.

Bangle & I went round the orchard and let the sheep in to the Homestead lawn and under the big oak. I then spent the rest of the morning with four 6-litre refills of the knapsack sprayer spraying round the cottage again, and repeating the area where I’ll be planting the fancy Manuka, and then zapping all the Scotch thistles and Californian thistles I could find along with the nasty invasive Italian lily and some blackberry. Ended up spraying the entranceway to the cottage garage too.

I mowed the tree grove in the Middle paddock – it too, like the Goose paddock, looks park-like now.

Then I mowed the 121 driveway and lawn behind the Homestead garage – also with the tractor – and finally did the Sunday cottage mowing because the forecast for the weekend and early next week is for rain.

West End Of The Middle Paddock – The Tree Grove

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—15℃ no rain [72.4]

My iPhone uttered a loud klaxon at just before 1:34am, jolting me harshly from sleep. I turned it off but it came on again a few minutes later. Stopped it again and fumbled round to see if I could figure out what happened.

It sounded again at about 1:50am for the last time. Meanwhile I had struggled out of bed and turned on the radio in the kitchen – nothing, slience, even though it was tuned to the National station. I had fleeting thoughts of North Korea and whether Trump had done the unthinkable and launched a global nuclear war. We’d have felt an earthquake so it probably wasn’t a Tsunami warning – and outside the moon shone bright, so not a volcanic eruption. Ah, the radio was inexplicably switched to shortwave – the National radio was still playing – so probably a mistake or a nasty piece of IOS malware.

Nearest to the loud menacing sound I could find this evening is:

The text below explains it – and later the NZ Civil Defense issued a sincere apology to the 10,000 or so people so rudely awakened. Apparently the test was a mistake by the European company creating this civil defense mobile phone warning system for the NZ Govt.

Managed to get a screen shot of the accompanying notification (below).

After a less than peaceful night, SwimGym with Karola

Too windy outside for much so we had a pretty quiet day – did the Wednesday shop together. I read all afternoon.

Early evening I mowed the goose paddock and after dinner I sprayed round the cottage, and the strip where I’ll be planting the fancy Manuka, with weed killer. Also finished the tank by spraying thistles in the Totara paddock.

Restoring The Goose Paddock To “Park-like”

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—23℃ no rain [72.3]

Karola is busy making tree guards for the remaining five Rangiora. She spent the afternoon in Napier – getting her hearing aids checked and buying more crimps and string – tree guard making perquisites.

I planted 14 Manuka this morning and 13 this afternoon. I used three Red Manuka (“Wiri Joan”) in the hedge and kept four of the standard Manuka back to be extra white contrast in the display I am planting between the cottage and the farm shed.

Sheep had another day on the homestead lawn and round the big oak. Bangle & I walked round the orchard.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—21℃ no rain [72.2]

SwimGym

Lazy morning, Karola did the shopping. After she got back Bangle & I went out to the orchard and she played hide and seek with Pukekos while I cleared the 28 spots I’ve chosen for the Manuka infill plants. I did find one small Kanuka still alive and looking quite healthy, the only survivor from the 30 I planted too late last year, I thought they all had perished. It was warm but very windy today. I was sheltered in the Manuka hedge but it was too windy for karola to put in any more of her Rangiora.

I have 28 ordinary white-flowered Manuka in ½ litre pots in a tray of 28 plus some special red and white cultivars for putting along the railings next to the cottage – between the cottage and the farm shed. I planned to have 8 red and 8 vivid white Manuka along the railings but Greenleaf Nurseries could only get 5 white ones so I made up the balance with extra red ones. But that will be too overpoweringly red so I’m going to use 3 of the 28 and put 3 of the special red ones in the Manuka hedge. Karola already has one red Manuka in the hedge – Red Damask I think – and so there’ll be another three red “Wiri Joan” at random spots along the 300 metres of Manuka hedge.

Late afternoon I dug the holes for the 28 new Manuka in the hedge.

Sheep enjoyed another day on the homestead lawn and under the big oak.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—21℃ no rain [72.6]

Karola planted another four of her dozen Rangiora today. Quite a big clearing job to prepare each site, lots of tough couch grass.

I let the ewes into the fenced-off part of the homestead lawn and under the big oak and they were most pleased.

Bangle & I went round the orchard.

Otherwise a rather quiet day, pottering and doing the usual Sunday chores.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ 2.6mm rain [73.3]