Monthly Archives: May 2018

Awoke to the loud calling, just before 7;00am, of a quail, a Californian quail, on and on and on. Eventually I realised it was Karola’s iPhone – she’d set an alarm to get us up a bit earlier so she’d not be late for her tooth appointment.

Karola went off to the dentists, the second visit to repair a broken molar, one more visit to go after this.

I began investigating local businesses that sold domestic sprinkler systems and we’ve asked for quotes from three companies. I got a reply very quickly from one asking questions about our water supply.

Bangle and I went shopping, mainly to pick up some brochures for insert or built-in wood burners – the sort that are designed to fit flush with the existing front of an old fireplace and be safe even if there’s no chimney left, just a void and wood surrounding it. I also registered Bangle and got a bit of a refund for Bracket at the Hastings District Council offices.

I did a little more chainsawing but the chainsaw stuttered and died so I haven’t quite finished the piles of branches cut from near the homestead east verandah. It being Friday tomorrow I’m not optimistic about getting it fixed for the weekend but Kerry called yesterday and Karola tells me he says he’s mended the Caravaggi chipper and I can pick it up – so maybe I’ll have that for the weekend, weather permitting.

Karola stacked a heaped small trailer of firewood.

We took Bangle round the orchard.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—13℃ no rain [76.9]

SwimGym

Chimney sweep came and did his annual clean of the cottage flu.

Karola, Bangle, and I went over to the homestead and examined under the wallpaper. Bangle seems very at home in the homestead, runs up and down stairs no problem. We peeled back wallpaper in a few fairly innocuous places and verified that the sarking was planed, smooth wooden boards – not what was usual under the scrim according to Ruth. So we can give the wallpaper-on-sarking a bit of a go in one room and see if it works. The room at the top of the stairs (Study on the new plan), and the large bedroom, the Playroom, both need something done to the walls soon. The Guest bedroom actually isn’t too bad and the Sewing room can wait a bit. The master bedroom is in about the same state as the Sewing room – not urgent, but eventually. If a limited experiment works well then the hallways are a priority – the ones where the modern English wallpaper (without overlaps) is peeling off badly at the joins.

I plotted the WiFi signal strength in several places upstairs and down so we could see how well the current Apple “Time Capsule” wireless access point covered the homestead. Not well, the signal got rather faint very quickly.

Time for an hour of chainsawing – still a decent pile to do, but getting there.

Then, after dinner, I replaced the Apple “Time Capsule” (that’s what they call it) with an ASUS WiFi router like the new one in the cottage. Took quite a bit of mucking about due to the enhanced security built into the configuration procedures for the router, but finally I got there. Then I remeasured the signals strength in approximately the same places, and it is better, quite a lot better.

WiFi Signal Strength Comparing The Old & New Routers

 
The old WiFi router is an Apple TIME CAPSULE 1TB (SIM DUALBAND) product number: MB765X/A.

The new WiFi router is an ASUS RT-AC58U Dual Band AC1300 Gigabit Wireless Router.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—12℃ no rain [77.0]

Looked for and found the homestead garage end of the two water pipes (blue, high pressure, 25mm internal diameter) running from the homestead and rainwater tanks to the garage. Also found a heap of leaky pipe irrigation pipe and pieces of wood – all tucked in on the eastern end of the garage and buried in periwinkle.

We went to Havelock North, “Maina”, for morning coffee with Gill & Ben. Karola, Gill, and I also had friands (gluten free) while Ben had a brioche. So it was lunch as well really. On the way we picked up the two chainsaw chains I took for sharpening to the Saw Doctors yesterday. After the coffee Karola & I went to Harris Pumps and Filtration and spoke at length to Stephen Harris about the best solution for our high-pressure, filtered & UV-zapped water supply to the homestead. We left with quotes for the pump and its pressurising tank and the UV filtering system.

Back home I happened to search for a keyboard like the one Karola has on her 1st generation iPad – it holds the iPad in portrait mode – and found one I’d not seen before that gave the same portrait orientation and about the same angle as her current old obsolete iPad keyboard.

I called Harvey Norman in Hastings, they had one in stock, so I took Karola’s newer iPad with me, and Bangle, and trotted down there to try it and maybe buy it. I bought it. Perhaps Karola will swap to using it instead of her elderly 1st generation iPad. Perhaps I will use it to try learning to touch type on the iPad.

Meanwhile Karola called me and suggested I get a saucepan for cooking our boiled eggs and other small stuff in, one designed for an induction hob and the same size as our smallest induction ring.

Harvey Norman don’t sell pots, just the electrical goods for kitchens etc as well as computers and furniture. So I went to Bristows and it so happened that some good kitchenware was heavily discounted this week. I ended up buying Karola two pots and a steamer as well as a rather splendid little orange cast iron casserole dish – big enough for an egg or two at the most.

Got Karola her daily papers and filled up with petrol on the way home.

Then I did another 90 minutes of chainsawing – there’s still a lot to do and the chainsaw needs a service, it’s making heavy weather of it, possibly because there’s dirt in the carburettor. I’ve cleaned the air filter but that made no difference.

After that I was off to get us all, Gill & Ben & Karola & me, grilled Tarakihi (or jackass morwong – Nemadactylus macropterus) and chips for dinner. Karola added a salad and followed up with Rush Munroe ice-creams. Later we watched a detective programme on TV, an episode of Vera. Gill and Ben left after that, still quite early, and they’ll be going back home to Wellington tomorrow.

Found The Ends Of The 25mm High Pressure Water Pipes Laid, In Anticipation, About 15 Years Ago.

Getting There

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—11℃ no rain [76.4]

SwimGym

I had my regular appointment with John Beaumont at Royston Hospital – no issues but, I think, mighty expensive at over $400. They do have fancy scanning gear and the latest stuff for eye testing; I guess that’s where the money goes.

Start of the week food shopping.

Chores and paperwork left over from yesterday when we had Gill & Ben here most of the day.

An hour or so more of chainsawing fire wood in the afternoon until rain stopped play.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage.

Bangle & I went off in the Landrover and dropped in a couple of chainsaw chains to Hawkes Bay Saw Doctors – they should be ready tomorrow. We filled up our two 20-litre cans with diesel on the way home.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—10℃ 1.7mm rain [75.9]

Although rain was forecast it didn’t arrive until about 11:00am so I got more firewood sawn up and have only one pile left to do.

Karola cooked a delicious roast lamb meal for midday – with all the usual trimmings. Followed by Granny Smith baked apple special with cream and icecream.

In the afternoon, in front of a log fire (wood-burner) we chatted about Gill’s book “All About Eve” – well actually it’s called “Eve’s Journey – 1923” and chronicles Doris (aka Eve) Brackenbury’s journey with a donkey to Scotland. We talked about ways in which it might be published: online, small run of a hardback publication, wider release later – that sort of thing.

We then went on a voyage of discovery, picking the last of the persimmon fruit now that sparrows seem to think they’re ripe for the pecking, and looking at the homestead and surrounds, imagining how it would be given our proposed renovations.

Afternoon tea and the some frustrating hours trying to buy a copy of grandfather Aloysius (Graham) Brackenbury’s marriage certificate from Ancenstry.com. Really, on most online shops it’s easy from anywhere in the world – but not on Ancestry.com.

Karola rustled up eggs on toast for supper.

Bangle weighed 17.4kg today.

Ripe Persimmons – The Birds Tell Us It’s So

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—12℃ 1..4mm rain [75.7]

I pruned the group of five Swamp Cypress saplings in the planting area on the northern boundary.

Karola planted several large walnuts in the Long Acre, seed she’d won at the tree auction at the IDS field trip in Dunedin in mid April. Karola gave each its own tree guard. Meanwhile, on the tractor, I mowed all the nettles and some of the iris in the Long Acre.

The main task today was chainsawing up the Camellia and Pittosporum and Flowering Cherry branches from the east-side thinning and pruning of three weeks ago. I got through about half of it and if, as forecast, it rains tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday I may not get it finished until late in the week. I’m not really sure that Camellia wood will burn well, it seems very fibrous.

Scraped large quantities of dead leaves out of the goose bath – it pongs somewhat.

Five Walnut Seeds Planted Along The Fenceline

Nettles & Iris Mown

One Of Three Piles Of Branches Ready To Be Sawn Up

One Pile Sawn, Another, Behind It, Waits

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [76.5]

SwimGym albeit an hour later than usual because, in resetting and beginning to rebuild my iPhone I set my morning alarm but forgot to tell it to ring every day. So I overslept.

Weekend food shopping with Bangle.

Ruth came mid-afternoon and spent a couple of hours making sure she understood what we were asking for in the 20-page document describing the Karamu Homestead Renovation. Ruth did point out that much of what we’d settled on was what she had suggested last year and which we had initially resisted. I think that pleased her rather a lot. Ruth pointed out a couple of places where I’d not got it quite right. The portico aka “porte-cochère” roof should have a roof pitch to match the main building, not the verandahs. The bump-out on the north end of the west verandah is an abomination and must go. It has gone. Some confusion about doors in the new downstairs Laundry & bathroom, and the cloakroom – but nothing that when fixed will be any problem to us.

Ruth thinks we will be forced to gib all the rooms in the homestead if we redecorate because in her experience the wooden sarking surface under the scrim is too rough for wallpaper. We will investigate. Based on the cottage sarking it may be smooth enough.

And, when asked about a joiner, Ruth said Graeme Boaler was her usual man – same name as Paul gave us. Ruth also suggested we talk to Steve (Steven) & Anne Stuart, 679 St Georges Road. They have an older villa that they have extensively renovated and modified and we may get useful information about our renovation options from them.

Later we went out to Pipi’s restaurant in Havelock North with Gill & Ben, here on holiday for a short time, staying in Peter & Charlotte’s place (they are in the UK on holiday for a few weeks). Seems that the owners have not yet sold Pipi’s, it was on the market for $1.1M late last year. We were very lucky, all four of us having my very favourite dish – the Dover Sole. Turns out we ate four of the five Dover Sole they had.

Aaron Duncan (Freenergy Solar Solutions) finally answered my questions. Looks like we could put about 20 panels on the proposed new west verandah roof if we wished.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 7.4mm rain [76.6]

Paul Libby (builder and project manager) brought Gareth Donnelly (plumber) with him this morning and we discussed the first few projects that could proceed before we have drawings and consent for the main construction.

In the afternoon I moved the piles of branches for chipping/shredding into the Front paddock, out of the way and next to the mulch pile – so they can be chipped and shredded straight onto the pile. I have no idea how long it will take to mend the Caravaggi Italian chipper/shredder.

Took Bangle round the orchard.

Set up my GoodNature rat traps in the cottage laundry and airing cupboard – we’re tired of the rodents running amok.

Having spent last evening doing a factory reset on my iPhone SE and loading a minimum of the apps back on, it has worked properly all day today. When Karola rings me I get the call, it doesn’t just drop straight through to the land line.

Karamu Homestead renovation 2018 – Complementary Project: Outside Plumbing

Gareth Donnelly, E G Wall Plumbing

1. Add a spur pipe off the irrigation main running approximately north-south just east of the big oak tree. This spur to be 25mm to carry water at about 65psi, providing water to a point next to the primary rainwater tank. This pipe to end in a valve-controlled pipe feeding the rainwater tank and a garden tap. When the water in the tanks is very low this will be used to top them up by manually controlling the valve. An automated system is not required at present.

2. Re-create the old stormwater drain, replacing the existing drain which is in places broken and root-filled or doesn’t carry water far enough away from the house. The new drain will be 150mm diameter able to take the 100mm overflow from the combined three rainwater tanks plus a separate 100mm feed, joining this drain about 20 metres north of the tanks. This latter junction is to allow draining some part of the homestead roof directly into the stormwater pipe in case the 100mm outflow from the rainwater tanks is not large enough to take the surplus from the homestead garage roof and the homestead roofs. The new drain will exit into the ha-ha channel to the north. which itself debouches into the large roadside drain.

3. We are to purchase a pump and drinking water purification plant (filtering and infra-red treatment) from Harris Pumps and Filtration for installation inside the homestead garage on the north-east corner.

4. Background: The water supply to the homestead will be rainwater replenished by water from our bore only in emergencies. The supply will come from the three 22,000 litre rainwater tanks near the east verandah. Two pipes, already in the ground, are to take water from the tanks to a pump in the homestead garage and deliver it back to the homestead, filtered and under pressure.

Connect up the pump and filters to two blue high-pressure water pipes already installed between the homestead garage and the east verandah of the homestead. Connect one of the homestead-end pipes to the rainwater tanks to provide the water source. Terminate the other pipe under the east verandah with a stop cock, a valve controlling the homestead supply, ready for when the existing homestead low-pressure system is completely replaced by high pressure.

Karamu Homestead renovation 2018 – Complementary Project: Cellar

Paul Libby, master builder

1. Paint the sides and floor with a sealant.

2. Insulate the ceiling with under-floor insulation similar to that already affixed beneath the rest of the homestead.

Karamu Homestead renovation 2018 – Complementary Project: Foundations

Paul Libby, master builder

1. Check the condition of the existing foundations.

2. Add piles supporting the columns on the front and east verandahs.

Karamu Homestead renovation 2018 – Complementary Project: Joinery

Paul suggested Graeme Boaler (incidentally, Ruth Vincent also recommends and uses his services too).

1. First focus would be windows – fitting new sash cords, making sit true in their frames and close tightly.

2. Then similar attention to the french doors upstairs and down.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ 5.6mm rain [76.3]

SwimGym with Karola.

Karola went out to a talk with the Friendship Club then to see Margie & Ian Maxwell before doing the mid-week food shopping and coming home.

Meanwhile I mowed the cottage lawn and the little lawn in front of the homestead garage. This was somewhat interrupted by the following incident.

While mowing I saw one of Karola’s ewes was trying to get up close and personal with the ram in the Goose paddock. I felt sorry for her, she’d only missed out getting in lamb by a week, so I tried to let her in with the ram. The obvious happened, the ram and wether charged out through the open gate and joined the rest of the flock.

I left them to it for half an hour then got all the sheep into the yards, drafted out the ram and wether, and put them back and the ewes into the Long Acre. The Long Acre has long grass and many acorns so we’d thought of putting the ewes in there yesterday, just hadn’t got round to it.

Paul Libby called me but my iPhone is still malfunctioning and drops through immediately to the cottage land line. Karola fielded the call. Paul and his plumber are coming round tomorrow. The plumber to look at the projects to re-do the stormwater drain from the rainwater tanks, set up the high-pressure pump and filtration in the homestead garage, and make good the pipe from the cottage bore up to the rainwater tanks providing an emergency way of filling the tanks in time of drought. Paul is going to see whether the homestead is plumb level or has any sagging corners etc – as part of reviewing the foundations.

Mid afternoon I repaired my gauge for seeing how full the rainwater tanks are – a simple length of transparent plastic pipe connected to a tap at the bottom of one tank and fastened to the side of the tank. Turn on the tap and whoosh, water travels up the pipe to match the level in the tank. All three tanks are linked so this tells us the level in all the tanks.

I also ran a hose up onto the roof of the homestead garage and set it going. I was able to hear the water entering one of the rainwater tanks – so the syphon from the homestead garage gutters into the tank is still working. After dinner I checked and the overflow from the three-tank systems was working, water was coming out of the large (800mm diameter?) concrete drain pipe that drains away across the “133″ front drive towards the ha-ha. So that’s still working as planned.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—15℃ 0.6mm rain [76.6]

As planned Paul Libby, our builder, came to see us and we went briefly through what we had in mind for the Karamu Renovation. We gave Paul a copy of the proposal document and took him quickly through it. He didn’t flag any immediate show-stoppers and from his viewpoint he says the changes seem in keeping with the old homestead design and the way it looks.

It has taken a long slog to get to this agreement and Karola is still a bit antsy re the wood burners although it was her idea to have one in the dining room as well as the living room. Paul reassured her that modern wood burners were really very very safe and not at all like the open fires of old – they have to be, it’s the law.

Karola also thinks it would be best if the wide verandah down the west side carries on around to the back door. The wide west verandah was Karola’s idea having seen several older houses in sunny parts of New Zealand that have them and knowing that the little cupola her dad built on the north-west corner is by far the best sunny spot in the homestead for entertaining or having a snack or chat. The proposed verandah re-creates and improves on the cupola.

It is proposed that the west verandah be 3.5 metres wide allowing for small tables and chairs. We could get three rows of solar panels along this verandah if we wanted to. This was Karola’s suggestion and it fits with our plan for heating rooms on-demand with electrical appliances (eg oil heaters) which we’ve found effective in the past. The wood burners in the dining room and living room will also be useful for warmth and comfort but we are not relying on them for heating except perhaps during a power cut. So our heating plan consists of real attention to insulation plus electricity.

Ruth, our architectural draughts-woman, is coming on Friday to see if what we’ve sketched out is practical. Then she’s overseas until September so I think the main changes will not begin until next year. I sent her a copy of the document and she replied that it seemed doable to her.

There are a few things we can get going on in the meantime, with help from Paul our master builder.

• Install the planned high-pressure pump and bio-filters etc in the corner of the homestead garage, taking water from the rainwater tanks and sending it back to the homestead. The underground pipes were laid for that when we built the homestead garage.
• Reconstruct the big stormwater drain from the rainwater tanks over to the ha-ha, replacing the broken and root-infested original. I left a gap in the ha-ha wooden wall for the new pipe when it was being built. This will also remove the unpleasant concrete hump in the 133 driveway up to the front circle. Paul says that we should expect to direct all rooftop rainwater into the 3 x 22,000 litre tanks and allow any excess to just flush them into their overflow.
• There is a pipe going from the 1980’s bore that feeds the cottage and the stock troughs and garden taps via a small high-pressure pump. At the moment an electric pump under the east verandah sucks water across and up into the header tank (which we intend to remove). We do not need to disturb this arrangement until the old homestead plumbing is replaced.
• A new pipe from the existing underground system carrying bore water under pressure to our garden taps and sheep troughs will come to the rainwater tanks so that in case of drought we can rtop up the tanks.
• Survey the foundations and the cellar and see what, if any, improvements are needed – maybe fill in the cellar.
• Have discussions with the experts about putting in an sprinkler system – do we need to decide and get most of it installed before we begin redecorating any of the existing rooms in the homestead.
• Reinstate the chimney between the living room and dining room and get two safe wood burners put in.
• Do some research into ways to improve the insulation of the existing rooms: in-wall insulation, ways of improving the insulation for windows and external doors, etc.

Old ewe #218, who has been poorly for a long time, finally died overnight. Peter Wiffin, who lives a few doors down the road and has dogs to feed, came and took the fresh carcase away and also #536, the ewe which broke its leg and the leg didn’t mend. She’s otherwise healthy and possibly in-lamb but given the effort our ewes have carrying twins near to lambing – they waddle round like drunken battleships – I thought it was cruel to allow #536 to try to get through that on three legs. So, she’s history and I am very sorry I didn’t take Karola’s advice and have her dispatched when first we noticed it.

I took a look inside the Caravaggi chipper that broke down at the weekend and found a broken bolt so took it back to HB Tractor Dismantlers and they’ll fix it – but it may take a while as they may need to get the part from Italy.

In the afternoon Karola entertained Richard Bailey from the Hawkes Bay Founders Society and I think she’ll sign us up even though neither of us really want yet another group to socialise with – we already belong to and participate in the events of the Hawkes Bay branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Havelock North Friendship Club (was called “Probus”).

Karola took Bangle round the orchard. I mowed the cottage curtilage leaving only the cottage lawn to be done tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—20℃ 4.2mm rain [76.5]

SwimGym with Karola despite Karola having had very little sleep.

We all went shopping including Bangle.

I then spent almost all day struggling to update the SketchUp computer model of the homestead showing the changes we hope to make over the next year. The SketchUp model is NOT very naturalistic, and Karola dislikes it for that, but it’s a lot better than trying to imagine how a verandah here or a portico there might look. I mean, in the hands of an expert the model might be a close approximation to what the final result would be like in a sketch, but with my untutored and un-practiced use of the tool it is pretty artificial looking even though the measurements are good.

Bangle and I wandered round the orchard late afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ no rain [76.5]

Karola and I watched the royal wedding – the bit inside the chapel – together and she kept watching to the bitter end. The sermon was a lively piece of theatre from a bishop from the USA. Diversity was much in evidence among the performers, less so amongst the audience. Memorable moment was, Karola says, the two-year old bridesmaid Catherine poking her tongue out at the crowd during the procession afterwards.

Karola unloaded the big trailer of its piled high stack of logs from the clearing by the rainwater tanks.

I took a couple of hours to lop off the smaller branches of what’s left, ready for chipping and shredding. Then another hour to chainsaw up the main branches and stems into pieces easily transportable. Finally today I cut back the felled stumps to ground level except for a few stems clustered round the main trunk of the northern of the two thickets of Camelia shrubs.

Karola took Bangle round the orchard.

Bangle weight: 17.0kg

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ no rain [76.5]

Long talks about the Karamu Restoration plan, refining our ideas.

In the afternoon I filled up the big trailer to overflowing with timber too big to chip/shred and trimmed about half the remaining tree stems and branches, separating the chippable fro the bits too fat to chip.

Late afternoon Jenny & Noel rang and said they’d like to call in, which they did. We all walked Bangle round the orchard and then on the spur of the moment went into Napier to Kilim for dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—22℃ no rain [76.5]

SwimGym

Then weekend shopping..

More discussions about the Karamu Renovation plans.

Karola spent several hours re-reading through a lot of notes she’d made when researching into the history of Francis Ormond – notes from 1998 and later that I dug out of my digital archives.

Karola and I emptied the big trailer of its heaped load of mulch and I continued chipping and shredding. Unfortunately the Caravaggi kept jamming although the size of the stems, usually the cause of jamming the machine, were smaller than usual – up to just over an inch in diameter. We think it may be the fibrous nature of the Camelia stems having been cut for a few days, so dried out a tad, but not dry enough to chip easily. Late afternoon so I postponed for the day.

Example Of A Jam In The Caravaggi Chipper/Shredder

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—19℃ no rain [76.3]

Worked on the homestead plans most of the day – trying to get it to the point where Karola and I agree on the wording and intent. Karola did say today that I could have the wood-burner I have set my heart on in the living room. I think the most persuasive argument may have been that a house that’s lived in with a wood burner is still safer than an empty house. Anyway, she’s agreed so we can proceed. Karola had a long talk with Bridget and I think that helped too, Bridget is insisting we get on with it, immediately. So I emailed Ruth, the architectural draftswoman, and she’s coming round for a preliminary look at our proposals next Friday, 25th. Meanwhile I called our builder Paul and he is willing and able to be our project manager and is popping in for a chat on Tuesday next week.

We took Bangle round the orchard mid afternoon.

After that I did some wood chipping and shredding for an hour.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—17℃ 0.3mm rain [76.0]

SwimGym

Mid-week shopping with Karola & Bangle.

Mid afternoon I spent an hour or so starting on chipping up the sawn Camelias, Flowering Cherry, and Pittosporum that had shaded the east verandah so much.

Karola put the ewes into the Goose paddock for a change and to get on top of the autumn growth there.

In the early evening we went to Havelock North to sit in on the annual meeting of the Hawkes Bay Heritage Network – a coming together of 5 or 6 local groups and councils with a common interest in protecting and preserving and publicising local heritage buildings. Barbara Arnott, ex mayor of Napier, is the leader of this group. I was pleased and surprised to see Ruth Vincent there, our architectural draughtswoman. She’s the president of the Landmarks Trust one of the local groups working with council on the Landmarks Development Plan.

Landmarks Trust

Hawkes Bay Heritage Network

Ruth has moved back to live in Havelock North from Clive. As she said last year, our Karamu homestead renovation plans seem to have stalled. As it happens Bridget, Karola, and I have spent much time discussing various options and after working on two or three quite significant extensions to the homestead we’ve alighted on a proposal that is much more about adapting what’s there rather than extending the building. This proposal is almost exactly what Ruth suggested early last year.

Chipping And Shredding The Excess Shrubbery

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—23℃ no rain [76.3]

Karola took her car in for WOF, service, and tyre rotation today. She went to SwimGym straight afterwards and I picked her up around 8:30am.

It had rained in the night and so was too wet underfoot to contemplate anything serious outside. So we did email and I worked on the draft proposals for improving Karamu.

I took Bangle round the orchard mid afternoon. We went to pick up the car late afternoon.

Bridget called to say Alex was intending to plant an apple tree at their place in Khandallah in memory of Bracket. I suggested a Cox’s Orange Pippin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox%27s_Orange_Pippin) as the variety, an early UK cultivar from 1830s.

‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ is highly regarded due to its excellent flavour and attractive appearance. The apples are of medium size, orange-red in colour, deepening to bright red and mottled with carmine over a deep yellow background. The flesh is very aromatic, yellow-white, fine-grained, crisp, and very juicy. Cox’s flavour is sprightly subacid, with hints of cherry and anise, becoming softer and milder with age. When ripe apples are shaken, the seeds make a rattling sound as they are only loosely held in the apple’s flesh.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—18℃ 0.3mm rain [76.7]

I took Bracket in for post-mortem on the way to SwimGym. Later Bangle & I did the Monday shopping.

Late morning I got call from the vet’s whose diagnosis was that Bracket had eaten pest poison. I retrieved Bracket and we buried her out in the Middle paddock near the Coral tree.

We then yarded all the sheep and cast out the ram and wether into the Holding paddock. So we expect lambs to arrive between 14th August and 13th October if the sheep keep to schedule.

I planted seeds from the Coral tree in six pots hoping for seedlings in the spring.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage mid afternoon.

We both took Bangle round the orchard late afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 2.7mm rain [76.7]

Rained heavily most of the night and late into the morning.

Bracket had another troubled night, which means that Karola had little sleep from about 3:00am. They both dozed briefly a few times on chairs in the living room.

In the morning Bracket wasn’t eating – we couldn’t get even a bit of cheese with her pills down her – and she became more and more lethargic as the day progressed. But it still seemed consistent with the vet diagnosis of an extreme throat infection albeit the coughing had subsided after the medication yesterday. We called Rachel Griffiths, the vet, again this morning and she said do what we can to entice Bracket to eat with different treats – and thereby get the medicine into her. So I went to Flaxmere New World and got chicken and liver and a couple of proprietary tins of dog food. Karola cooked the chicken and Bracket did eat a few morsels, but without us getting her to have any tablets.

Meanwhile Karola and I did a few tasks around the cottage including moving the heavy curtain on the inside of the big door onto the sun porch – the original front door – to the outside. It is away from the wood burner which was always a bit of a worry, it being only a metre away. We also replaced the two blinds on the north facing windows in the living room with new ones I bought months ago. One of the old ones had lost its spring and unravelled full length at the slightest touch. Strong sunlight had faded the two originals so I replaced both to keep the colours even.

Bracket wouldn’t go out for a walk – in fact did little except pace about or collapse in a huddle on the floor – so I took Bangle round the orchard by herself.

Early evening I tried to get some warm honey and a touch of lemon inside Bracket. She seemed to like it but had trouble swallowing. Later this evening Bracket went into some sort of shock and died shortly thereafter.

Karola and I, but particularly Karola who has got very fond of her constant companion, are pretty upset. Bracket was with us for a short four months but she was a puppy with a huge personality, boundless energy, and, despite her expensive taste in things to chew, we loved her dearly. RIP Bracket.

Bangle weight: 17.7kg

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—19℃ 3.1mm rain [76.9]

What a day.

When we got back from Jenny & Noel’s 50th wedding anniversary dinner last night we let Bracket out of her crate, which she loves, and she ran outside to relieve herself. But she also had a nasty hacking cough combined with throwing up.

Maybe she swallowed something that disagreed with her – dogs are known for that and often regurgitate at leisure having gobbled in haste. Maybe she had been barking while Karola was away, the dreaded “separation anxiety” the training books warn us about, and barked herself hoarse.

It’ll all be alright in the morning we hoped, and went to bed. Bracket continued to have bouts of coughing every half hour or so, but not obviously getting any worse. Around 2:00am Bracket signalled she’d like to go outside by strumming on the wires of her crate. I obliged. I too was feeling a little unsettled – perhaps because of the flu jabs we had the previous day – so I made a cheese sandwich and cordial drink. We both went back to bed.

More coughing every 20 or 30 minutes until a louder and more prolonged fit at 3:30am woke Karola and me up. Karola took her outside. She noticed that the vomit was pink and we got very worried.

Then, with a sharp snap, a mouse trap went off. We’d been trying to catch the mouse for days but it kept setting off the traps without being caught. So I dispatched the large mouse – almost a small rat.

Upshot was that Karola spent the entire night outside on the kitchen verandah with Bracket who was coughing more frequently and with more alarmingly bloody vomit. I had another piece of toast and made us both cups of tea before going back to bed.

Now this is all happening in the context of frequent scares over the last few months that Bracket has swallowed something dangerous. Standing on hind legs her head is now well above table height and she ransacks tables, shelves, benches, reaching right to the back to get at things that look enticing. We’ve put a catch on the bedroom door to reduce the number of bottles of ointment and pills etc that she demolishes. We’ve tried hard to move things up out of reach or put them in boxes out of the way. Our shoes, those she hasn’t already chewed, now live in a large box on the kitchen verandah.

Most recent specific alarms were when she got hold of a disposable razor and mashed the head containing multiple little razor blades. And she squeezed somehow down the side of the fridge and grabbed a plastic mouse trap, setting it off and mangling the mechanism. And she’s chewed up several little plastic bottles of medicine, eye drops and the like. Oh and she really rather likes gnawing at pine cones – which suits us well except for the mess she makes – and these have big seed with hard wooden points on one end. So we have good reason to be frightened for the worst.

Up around 7:00am and not much change. Bracket still coughing, Karola still awake and very worried, not to mention rather cold from being outside most of the night.

At 8:45am we drive Bracket & Bangle down to the vets in Hastings and wait outside until they open at 9:00am.

Nice young woman vet is calm and efficient. No obvious signs of the upset she’d expect from Bracket having swallowed something harmful. And there is a recent upsurge in cases of kennel cough in Hastings, including a new strain they suspect is resistant to the current vaccines. Still, first things first and Bracket has an x-ray. Sighs of relief from me and Karola – no sign of anything metal inside. Whew!

It all points to Bracket having contracted kennel cough, a pretty severe form, says the vet. So Bracket gets a jab and courses of pills and off we go back home, shattered from worry and lack of sleep but very much relieved.

Now we wait for the recovery. Already the codeine pills have much reduced the coughing. We begin the antibiotics tomorrow morning.

Rain was expected mid morning, to persist until Tuesday, but it didn’t arrive until 9:00pm tonight. In anticipation, in the morning I mowed the 121 driveway, round the homestead garage, and half the homestead lawn that Henare didn’t have time for last Sunday. I then spread 5kg of grass seed under and around the big oak – a Fescue mix, allegedly, called “estate”. And that, apart from walking Bangle round the orchard, was it for the day.

And now, just had a power cut for half an hour.

Karola & Her Dogs – Late Afternoon – All Knackered Out

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—19℃ 23.3mm rain [?]

SwimGym with Karola

Then doctors appointments in the morning followed by the weekend shopping and bang, there went the morning. We had our flu jabs today.

I then slept until 3:30pm – the exertions of yesterday I expect.

Karola took the dogs round the orchard.

Late afternoon I did what I’d been avoiding, using the 10 litre knapsack sprayer I tackled the areas where spraying is preferable to ordinary weeding:

• Round the cottage, where mowing too close gets involved with the concrete of piles or drain gully traps.
• Along the south edge of the cottage lawn where the lawn goes up to the railings.
• Around the waste management unit – the gravel square surrounding it; pulling up the weeds loosens the gravel..
• The driveway outside the cottage and the homestead garages; ditto.
• The large gravel stand behind (south of) the homestead: ditto.

In the evening we went to dinner at jenny & Noel Henderey’s place in Napier – it’s their 50th wedding anniversary and as Karola not only was a bridesmaid but lent them her car (Bambina) and Karamu for their honeymoon, they invited us for dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—21℃ no rain [76.1]

I did a lot of chainsawing to finish the clearing of Camelia trunks and a large old very overgrown flowering cherry. Now the eastern windows will get more light and, significantly, this will stop the east verandah and walls being damp for most of the winter.

Karola took the dogs round the orchard.

Late afternoon I mowed the cottage and curtilage lawns. Karola had started on the cottage lawn yesterday.

In the evening we went to EIT in Taradale to listen to a lecture on “Ornamental to Detrimental”. This is a Royal Society NZ Leonard Cockayne lecture which happens every three years. Professor Philip Hulme talked about the effect that non-native plants have had, and continue to have, on our flora.

Letting In The Light

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ no rain [76.8]

SwimGym

Karola did the mid-week shopping and also visited Margie Maxwell in Havelock North, to pick up her glasses case.

I must have spent all day on “the plan” – amending and documenting and discussing the plan for the homestead improvements.

Karola walked the dogs round the orchard.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—24℃ no rain [76.9]

Late start but a glorious day again. Karola decided that some of the ewes were a bit daggy and needed a drench. I made a mistake and got all the sheep in the yards, including the wether and ewe with a splint. I thought the leg had healed up as she seemed to be putting weight on it. Sadly – I really am saddened by it – the ewe got bumped in the yards, maybe even approached by the ram perhaps, and her broken leg came off. My suspicion and hope is that it really had never healed up and the bump mostly just caused the splint and broken bit to fall off. Karola is undecided as to whether to cut our losses and give her to Peter Wiffin or Mark Hendery, or to put up with a three legged sheep.

So, we drafted out the few that looked really daggy and drenched them plus the poorly one, #434, who might have Barbers Pole worm – like the seven lambs that died suddenly this time last year – many of the same symptoms of lethargic, anaemic behaviour. I drenched: #224, #410, #434, #443, #504, #514, #703, #710, #712, #714. (Cydectin – withholding period for meat of 10 days).

The main flock are back in the Middle, Totara, or Front paddock. The drenched ewes and “3-legs”, #536, are in the Holding paddock for a few days to clean it up. The grass is still growing furiously everywhere.

Rough Lawn Under Big Oak After Tractor Mowing

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ no rain [76.4]

SwimGym

Aaron, supposed to arrive at 11:00am but finally arrived at 12:30pm. It took a couple of hours. I now have a Panasonic app on the iPhone to tell me how the batteries are doing. Also, for $185, increased access to my EnPhase portal and the solar controller, more for interest than any real need.

Then we went shopping with the dogs. I had my regular blood test.

Late evening, after another episode of Vera, I got round to the Sunday accounts and Karola’s GST, due in today. Unfortunately I didn’t finish until 12:30am and got zinged with a $10 penalty for being a day late.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—21℃ no rain [76.4]

Bit of dog training in the morning.

Henare came late morning and spent the rest of the day mowing the large homestead lawn now re-growing since I trimmed it with the tractor and covered in leaves from the Liriodendron. He was picking up rather than just mulching in place so it took a long time and he got about half of it done before it started getting dark.

I completed chainsawing the first thicket of Camelias and part of the adjacent very old flowering cherry.

Ewe #434 looks unwell.

I fixed Henare’s problem with the reversing camera he’s fitted to Scott’s car – it was just a setting to adjust for the mirror image received from the camera.

Karola took the dogs round the orchard.

Bangle weighs: 17.5kg, Bracket weighs: 9.2kg today.

Letting In Light

This Has Been Coppiced Before

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—21℃ no rain [76.4]

A sullen day, not cold but high cloud with occasional shafts of weak winter sun.

Bracket woke us up a couple of times and later Karola found that Bracket had taken pine cone pieces into er crate and they must have been irritating her.

Worked a bit on the changes to the computer model of the homestead. Karola mended some curtains. Karola went out for a while and bought Bracket a new hessian pad for her crate. We took the dogs round the orchard late afternoon.

Bit of dog training in the morning and again in the evening. Also watched one of the training videos again.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—16℃ no rain [76.3]

SwimGym with Karola then after breakfast the weekend shopping.

Dean Sewell, our insurance broker came and explained this year’s premiums, checking that they were what we wanted.

I did a little more wood chipping on the east side of the homestead.

Karola took the dogs round the orchard.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ no rain [76.5]

Soon after 8:00am the electrician Hadyn and his apprentice turn up and by mid-afternoon they have wired up the solar batteries, removed the surplus ImmerSun EnSolar regulator, and installed cable and isolator switch for the electric car charger.

The new router came and I fiddled about with it and eventually got it working to my satisfaction.

Karola and I cut back the Karamu shrub hedge along the 133 entrance railings and mulched the cuttings. We also made a start on the Camelia thicket that shades the eastern side of the homestead.

I took the dogs round the orchard.

Tonight, as last night, Bracket jumps into her crate to sleep unaided. She’s also been staying in there when the crate is opened in the morning until she thinks it’s time to get up. We are sure she likes her big crate.

Karamu Hedge Trimmed To Half Height

Cutting Back The Light-Reducing Camelia Thicket

Wood Chipper aka Mulcher Doing Its Bit

Gill & Ben’s Earthworks Complete

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—16℃ no rain [76.9]

SwimGym

Off mid morning for Peter Ormond’s funeral at St Lukes in Havelock North. Quite a big crowd, Ormonds and relations, and others who knew Peter Ormond well through his life with trees. He had an international reputation for his expertise on dry garden plantings.

We took the dogs round the orchard.

Late afternoon Karola & I went to a local meeting of the New Zealand Royal Society, Hawkes Bay branch, This was at Mr Apple’s large packing shed at Whakatu. Mr Apple is the largest grower and exporter of apples in New Zealand, employing several thousand people during the picking season and shipping out millions of trays of apples every year.

Carola Hudson from Gwavas, Peter Arthur, and Phillida Russell At The Funeral

Not Been In A Suit For Years

Some Of The Funeral Congregation

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [76.5]

Read that Apple has stopped making WiFi routers any more and realised that our main wireless routers here are quite ancient so new routers are inexpensive and have much better speed and range and security so I’ve ordered online a couple of new ones, ASUS RT-AC58U Dual Band AC1300 Gigabit Wireless Router.

Mid day we all went to Pet Essentials near Pac-n-save and bought Bracket a head harness. This is intended to be an easy way to stop Bracket pulling on her leash and making taking her for a walk quite tiresome. Afterwards we went up Omahu road to Bostocks Organic Kitchen for a hearty lunch.

Tried to contact EV Central in Taupo to see how our order for a Renault Zoe was getting on. It was supposed to be here at the end of April but it isn’t here and I expect an email soon from Richard Blakeney-Williams to explain what the problem is.

Did some work on deciding and writing down the sets of dog training exercises we intend to do with Bangle and with Bracket. Also watched couple more video lectures which included stuff on getting your dog used to the head harness.

Took dogs round the orchard – infrequent showers during the day so it wasn’t too wet.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—17℃ 0.8mm rain [76.6]