Monthly Archives: June 2018

Mid morning we joined Peter & Charlotte at Ya Bon in Hastings for coffee and to hear about their 7-week long UK trip spending three fortnights at different homes, minding their cats while the owners holiday’d elsewhere. Karola drove me in her Zoe. They had brilliant UK weather at it’s best and sounds as if they were very fortunate in their choice of cat owners and the B&Bs they stayed between their cat sitting assignments.

Henare came round in the afternoon and mowed the circle in front of the homestead. He and I then spent the rest of the afternoon pulling up a long piece of buried alkathene pipe with the tractor – with much damage to the homestead lawn and the pipe I must say. If only it had been raining we could have made a real mess.

And suddenly the day is done. Short, these winter days.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—14℃ no rain [76.3]

Karola drove us into Hastings in her new electric car for the weekend shop. Bangle was allowed in the back, on a blanket.

I’ve contacted Bay Electricians and Hadyn is booked to come on Monday to connect the car charger so that Zoe can feed peacefully all night. The alternative is a child-minding stint at the end of the road while Zoe drinks from the Unison fountain in their car park. It’s free but time consuming.

We took Bangle round the orchard – it is still full of over 100 smelly lambs (not ours) getting fattened.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—13℃ no rain [76.5]

Unison rep turned up around 8:30am and marked out where our mains cable runs underground from the roadside to the mains box. I was surprised and delighted. The cable takes a circuitous route, perhaps avoiding major trees at the time (30-40 years ago), and runs alongside the concrete stormwater pipes before crossing underneath right near the start. So, much to my relief, there’s no need to lower the electricity to lower the stormwater drain.

I did Karola’s GST and finished it by lunchtime.

Afterwards I did some digging round where the electricity mains crossed under the stormwater drain, just to make sure the odd path was the true path. I found the warning plastic tape and a telephone cable in the indicated place.

I also excavated at the north-east corner of the homestead garage and unearthed the second blue pipe and the pipes feeding the garden tap on that corner. By turning on the valve where a blue pipe entered #2 rainwater tank it became obvious at the garage end which was which.

Karola had a visit from Lyn Sturm, self-published author of a book about her grandfather.

I took Bangle round the orchard before we set off for Steve & Anne Stuart’s place at 679 St Georges Road, Havelock North, Hastings 4201 (06 877 3342).

The Stuarts live in a 1910 villa built mainly of rimu native wood and have spent the last 17 years gradually converting it into a very gracious, meticulously restored, comfortable home.

Steve has a company, Tangible, which manages vineyards for investors, mainly vinyards in Marlborough. Anne was a friend of Vicki Bostock and they know John Bostock very well, in fact, like us, they have given John a long term lease of their paddocks for organic apples.

Steve was for a while the CEO of AirNet – the wireless Internet provider we have used since 2001 providing broadband across a line-of-sight connection between our garage and somewhere high on Te Mata peak. AirNet became NOW and NOW sold us along with the rest of their wireless customers to a small company called AONet.

The Stuart’s thoroughly endorse our architectural draughtsman, Ruth Vincent. For joinery they recommend Malloys in Napier. Where they needed mouldings run to match existing architrave etc they recommend Napier Wood Processors. Bruce Williams is their civil engineer and Pinnicle Stone have been their source of very inexpensive stone – marble and granite.

Looking back towards the Mains Box

From The Mains Box Towards The House

From The House Back Towards The Mains Box

House Towards The #1 Rainwater Tank

Looking Back From #1 Rainwater Tank To The House

Back Across The Driveway To #1 Rainwater Tank

The Turn Towards The Road

Zig Through The Camelias

Zag Back To The Wooden Fence

From The Pole Back Towards The Wooden Fence

Gushing Pipe Comes From The #2 Rainwater Tank – Proof Positive

North-East End Of The Homestead Garage

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—13℃ no rain [76.5]

No SwimGym of course although there should have been. Instead I did a few laps of the big oak tree on Karola’s mountain bike.

Karola went to Napier to discuss hearing aids with Bay Audiology – she wants ones with rechargeable batteries.

I tootled off when she came back and got us fish & chips for our main meal.

Builder Paul came round as planned at 1:00pm and we discussed the sprinkler system and his role in:

• Making a pump shed next to the rainwater tanks
• Working with the sprinkler installer (almost certainly Paul van Weerden of HomeSafe) to open up the floor where the sprinkler installer needs access to the ceiling below.

Paul has also agreed earlier to inspect the foundations to see whether they need attention and to paint the walls and floor of the cellar with water-proofing.

As Paul Libby left, Rod Findlay arrived (wood burners), measured up, wrote down our preferences, and departed. He had a couple of niggles concerning whether there was room between the living room and dining room fire surrounds to put in two modern wood burners with their special extra-safe “zero tolerance” cabinets.

And as Rob finished, two Renault Zoe electric cars arrived, one being Karola’s new car, the other the means to transport the two drivers back to Taupo. Karola went with one of them for a brief drive. And a little later we took Karola’s “Zoe” down to the electricity fountain in the Unison car park at the end of the road and let her drink for an hour or so. She was 60% full when we went back home.

Rang the AA and got the Zoe insured immediately.

Tonight Karola’s Subaru is where the Landrover was, parked in the homestead garage, and the Landrover is outside. We’ll have to tidy up the homestead garage tomorrow so that both of them can be housed side by side.

I joined an RSA online meeting on Fake News & Truth Decay this evening. Of the three speakers only Peter Ellerton offered new and interesting ideas, new and interesting to me anyway.

Peter Ellerton is a lecturer in critical thinking at the University of Queensland and the founding director of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking project. His research and practice are concerned with the development of pedagogical expertise in teaching for thinking. Peter also writes widely on the public understanding of science and the characteristics of public reasoning.

Peter made distinction between lying, bullshit, and truth. You lie when you know and care about the truth and deliberately communicate something different. Bullshit is when you may not know and certainly don’t care about the truth of it but you say it anyway – usually in furthering your current agenda.

You can no longer tell what’s likely to be true from the format and everyone knows that.

The distinction between opinions, experience, and facts are blurring. But it’s not case of rejecting all but the facts, facts don’t apply in all cases, wise and considered judgements are very important.

Humans generally have such a strong preference for a coherent world view that the truth of it is secondary. And the preference is so strong that people often come to think that what is coherent with their view must be true.

Everyone thinks they are more than averagely rational. Most think they are very rational.

The public have a strong appetite for judgement – easy to do and there’s the satisfaction of closure. But thinking is hard work. So TV audiences love to judge …. thinking, not so much.

Hence, one approach to counter false positions, false facts, and false opinions, is to encourage public reasoning. Thinking collaboratively. Arguing to learn, not just to win. And one step on this path is, when discussing collaboratively, to be able to state the opposite position so that everyone agrees on what that position is.

Not One, Not Two, But Three Cars – Scandalous

Happy Lady In Her Renault Zoe, A New All Electric Car

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—13℃ no rain [75.9]

Richard Blakeney-Williams from EVCentral in Taupo emailed that Karola’s car is ready and he will get it delivered to us here tomorrow.

After lunch Karola went off to the dentist’s to get her gold crown fitted – all very piratical.

Isaias Gomes (“Gomes”), a young Portuguese man from HSM Group in Hastings, arrived as planned and we spent an hour going over the sprinkler requirements for the homestead in order that he can supply a quote. Bright, helpful person. His wife works at Harris Pumps & Filtration for Stephen Harris. Stephen Harris’ brother-in-law is the owner of HSM Group (Fred Stevenson).

Karola took Bangle round the orchard in the rain.

Later Karola & I went to the cinema, Focal Point Cinema & Cafe in Hastings (my third choice for cinemas in the area, chips were dire & foyer atmosphere is grim). We went to “Tea With The Dames” featuring four very old English actresses, dames: Judy Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins & Joan Plowright – I know the work of and like the first three but am not familiar with Joan Plowright’s work. Mildly entertaining, Karola particularly liked all the 1950s – 1960s flashbacks.

The Crowded Cinema

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—11℃ 4.3mm rain [76.0]

Ivan the electrician called and then dropped in and his visit was a success. He tested the cable I’d found that seemed surplus to requirements going from the mains box underground to the house. Neither end was connected to anything so we can use it for the circuit to a new pump next to the rainwater tanks. No digging required.

SwimGym – well ….

I went late to SwimGym today. Karola & Bangle went shopping and dropped me off at the gym. To my surprise there was a knot of tradesmen chatting to a large and tall grey looking man in the foyer, the landlord.

Jonathan popped out of his cubicle and beckoned me to follow him into the gym.

Apparently the bank had foreclosed on him and seized his business assets. He said he knew it was coming and was OK with it but his face and demeanour said otherwise.

After explaining to me what had happened I began my exercise but one of the foyer committee came in and said I had to go, the gym was shut. That was the first time I was asked to leave. I returned to help Jonathan and was instrumental in the new building owners letting him get out of the building with a computer containing his client database and one large TV screen before being told to leave, again.

Apparently Jonathan had been unable to pay the bank for a couple of months and had refused to talk to the bank. So not surprising that they eventually acted. What wasn’t so pleasant was that the landlord, the owner of the gym and swimming pool building, did a deal with the bank and bought Jonathan’s business from the bank presumably at a knock down price. Landlord intends to refurbish the place for $300,000 and then reopen under new management in about six weeks. Landlord is a low-life who has been convicted of fraud and perjury. Well that’s what Jonathan says anyway.

I asked Jonathan was the business not a going concern then. Apparently not, he says it’s because of the lack of parking and the state of the parking area – the latter being in large part due to the landlord not repairing the huge potholes for months and months, and then getting it done so badly that there were potholes again within a couple of months.I offered to lend him $10K if that would help but he said no, there was no way he could pay it back. The business just doesn’t pay.

So that was a sad morning. I called Karola when it was clear I could not continue my exercise, she came back and waited in the car park, and bought Jonathan a take-away coffee from the garage across the road. After I’d done what I could for Jonathan we continued on to New World, got the food for the start of the week, and then went home.

Mid afternoon I went to Harris Pumps & Filtration and asked whether they could supply the Wallace pump specified by Paul van Weerden for the sprinkler system. They can. I also bought a thing that works like a ballcock. You suspend it inside a water tank and it opens and closes a valve in a water pipe based on whether the water level has dropped to a critical level or risen to an acceptable level.

So my plan du jour is to ask Paul the builder to build us a little pump shed, buy the pump and ask Gareth the plumber to install it including pipes over to the house for the sprinklers and the filtered domestic supply.

Later I was showing Karola my attempts to find a good place to bring bore water over to the rainwater tanks and she suggested an additional option, going from the garden tap on the north-east end of the garage rather than from the one near the big oak. The big oak route would entail digging a trench across the hardstand at the back of the house. Karola’s path would be a bit longer but much less disruptive of driveways. I then realised we could actually use one of the two redundant blue high-pressure water pipes laid so long ago intended for a pump housed in the garage. Without digging long trenches we could connect the garage end to the garden tap supply less than a metre away and bring the house end of the blue pipe to within a couple of metres of the rainwater tank. That uses something I though I’d have to waste and will be a lot cheaper.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ no rain [76.6]

We set off for Karl Matthy’s house at 120 Kent Terrace, Taradale around 9:30am. Karola & Lorraine were the hosts. Te Rangikaheke, Michael Kane, Andrew Reitemeyer (Pirate Party), the Middletons & Brackenburys, and Lowell Manning made up the gathering.

Te Rangikaheke has assumed leadership in the void left by Lowell Manning resigning as president. But only in a temporary role for not more than six months.

Andrew Reitemeyer is good value.

Karola & I left before the BINZ lunch, had our own soup and toast and watched a recorded All Blacks match from last night.

Late afternoon I began excavations near where the old green shed used to be beginning with the ground around the garden tap.

It’s all a bit mysterious. There is the garden tap, one of the twelve put in by the Bishop family almost twenty years ago that are fed by the pressure pump next to the bore by the cottage. But there is also what was an old bore or well, one that was supposed to be sealed as part of the planning consent for the new bore. There’s another sealed old bore near the eucalyptus trees in the Front paddock.

I think what happened is that after the new bore was completed it was connected to the old bore head above the seal so that pipes and taps attached to the old bore would still have water. What was interesting was that when I turned a valve on a pipe coming out of the old bore water flowed albeit at the pressure of the groundwater rising from the bore.

Anyway, the excavations are to locate where the garden tap pipe joins the north-south mains. When I know this I will know the line of that north-south mains 50mm alkathene pipe and can mark where the spur off the main to the rainwater tanks should go.

Bangle weighed 17.1kg today.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—18℃ no rain [76.4]

Cold night and little kitten was miserable so we called Henare and said it needed to go back to its family for a few more weeks, it’s too young to be by itself here. And we took it back to Henare’s place and put it with its five siblings.

We walked with Bangle round the orchard mid afternoon.

As arranged we went out to Bill Buddo’s farm, 126 Douglas Road, Poukawa – off state highway 2 between PakiPaki and Te Aute. We went to see some of Paul van Weerden’s work – 35 sprinklers in an old one-storey rimu house. I had a look at the roof space where most of the piping was laid and we looked at the sprinklers in the ceilings with their camouflaging covers. Bill Buddo & Dr Corrina Proehl have restored their house and extended the kitchen so it’s comfortable and beautiful. They have back-to-back wood burners in the kitchen and dining room, one an inset burner, the other free standing but mostly within the original fire place.

Gaylene and Iain Middleton came up to Hawkes Bay in the afternoon. Before we met up they went to a schools chamber music competition in the Century Theatre. We joined them and Karl Matthys & his wife Lorraine for dinner at Kilims in Hastings Street, Napier. Middletons then followed us back to Karamu for the night, Iain & I discussed issues of great moment until 12:30am.

“Ginger”, Karola’s Outside Cat

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—11℃ no rain [76.3]

SwimGym before lunch, including the weekend shopping.

Rest of the afternoon spent on computer backups and re-installing “High Sierra”, the latest version of Apple’s MacOS operating system. Despite my hopes the system is still rather sluggish.

On the bright side, MacPaw, they of the CleanMyMac program with an annoying bug, came back with a fix that worked. It should have been cleared up by their “remove” program but as I pointed out to them, not all CleanMyMac files were removed and indeed it was by deleting one of the remaining files that everything suddenly worked as expected.

I contacted Corrina Proehl and Phil Lynch about their sprinkler projects – references given by the sprinkler man, Paul van Weerden. Will be talking to Bill Buddo, (021 431 821 – 126 Douglas Road), Corrina’s partner, tomorrow. Also emailed Anne Stuart, Ruth Vincent suggested we should talk to her and take a look at their extensive renovation of an old Hawkes bay house.

Arranged for Paul Libby the builder and separately Ivan Alach the electrician, to come and chat about their part in installing the sprinklers.

Henare brought round the neutered and microchipped orange and white kitten for Karola. Henare has called him “Ginger” so I guess “Ginger” it is. He is in one of the dog crates in the cottage sunporch for tonight. Bangle has not yet been introduced.

Karola & I took Bangle round the orchard late afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—11℃ 0.1mm rain [76.1]

Computer work most of the day – still struggling with Apple systems. A lot of hanging around while not much happens.

Contacted Rob Findlay who’s company, Rob’s Plumbing & Heating, installed the cottage wood burner in the nick of time – before local bylaws prohibiting our particular wood burner came into force. He will arrange to come round and look at the homestead and our proposal to re-install wood fires in the living room and dining room. Karola is very much against but I think it’ll make those big rooms very much more inviting. We need to do the sprinklers the same time as they will help counter Karola’s fears of fire to some extent.

Got the quote from “Sprinkler Paul” and it was at the top end of what we’d hoped for but not out of the question.

We took Bangle round the orchard late afternoon.

Bridget’s Back Garden – Constructing Retaining Walls

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—11℃ 0.3mm rain [76.1]

SwimGym.

Karola went to an Historic Places trust meeting in Duart House in Havelock North mid morning, returning with shopping after lunch.

Henare called in at lunchtime for un-chlorinated water and a coffee.

I spent the morning – in fact much of the day – wrestling with my computer. Late afternoon I took a break and went outside to search for the homestead end of the second water pipe going from the garage to the east verandah. I found it easily, it’s been plumbed in ready into the 2nd rainwater tank. I had a touch of the “sunk cost blues” as I cannot think of any use for a supply of low pressure rain water over at the garage right next to a garden tap with water under pressure from the bore.

Slightly better news – well a hope anyway – is that when I looked at the wiring going underground at the southern end of the east verandah I can see clearly the bright orange conduit carrying two ethernet cables and two telephony cables. I can see one fat pipe containing 3-phase domestic supply and that two of the phases are unused, just taped up. There’s also a smaller wire – maybe a draw wire – that vanishes into the ground beside the others – about the size of domestic electrical wiring but black. And the real hope is a separate smallish conduit containing a domestic electricity cable and an earth wire – and it doesn’t connect to anything. Could the electrician back in 2003 have had the foresight to add this cable in case of future needs, we can but hope. It would be ideal for running the new pressure pump.

Karola & I took Bangle round the orchard as darkness fell.

The End Of The Second Water Pipe Laid In 2003 Across To The Garage

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—11℃ 8.6mm rain [76.8]

I wrestled with computer problems most of the day. Mostly fruitlessly. My main computer recently started running exasperatingly slowly but my attempts to improve its performance led me down rabbit hole after rabbit hole. A couple of lost passwords didn’t help – having to reset one of Karola’s iThings to get round it and then finding it hard to rebuild it to the pre-reset state.

Gill called to say she’d found out more likely links about our paternal grandfather, A G E W Simmons aka Brackenbury. Ben called last week with a tenuous thread to the Brackenbury name, Brackenborough Hall Farm near Louth in Linkolnshire.

Sprinkler Paul called and sent an email re the sprinklers. He was very pleased we’d decided to take the electricity to the pump rather than move the water to and from the garage.

I took Bangle round the orchard; Earlier Karola thought we’d set off and she went round the orchard by herself looking for us.

Bleak View Of Orchard In Winter

Paul van Weerden’s sprinkler proposal for Karamu

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—13℃ 0.2mm rain [76.1]

Bangle was unsettled last night and seemed to have issues with her rear end – it did look rather red – so we took her to the vets this morning after breakfast but before SwimGym or shopping.

Vet cleaned Bangle up a bit – not uncommon after the gastric stomach upset she had last week – including her scent glands. Gave us antibiotics and steroid tablets. Bangle seemed much perkier after the visit.

Returned home from the vets and then I set off again for SwimGym then shopping.

Rewa and her gang came at lunchtime and took away their last load of firewood.

Also, Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage. Of course Karola had done a vacuum round before they came which means they didn’t make it much cleaner and they invariably move stuff around, muck up the shower head, re-arrange the bathroom toiletries etc – grrrr.

In the afternoon did a lot of mowing with the tractor – cutting back the Iris (Iris foetidissima – but ours doesn’t) and nettles – under the groups of trees in the Middle paddock, round the Canary Island pine, and in the Goose paddock. Should last for the winter now.

I took Bangle round the orchard. She frolicked and bounded along, in good spirits it seems.

Middle Paddock – Looking South From The Cottage

Middle Paddock – Western Belt Of Trees Near Sheep Yards

Goose Paddock

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—14℃ 1.6mm rain [76.8]

Sunday chores like paying the bills. Also fosicked around in the files and located a 2004 sketch of the water pipes fed by the 1980 30-metre deep bore, the garden taps, sheep troughs and so on. It was surprising, and rather daunting, how many people were involved in moving and transforming the cottage here, and how long everything took.

After lunch Aira and Rewa and assorted young men, Rewa’s sons mainly I think, came over with a small trailer and took away three loads of firewood from the pile I’d designated as for Henare and his extended family. Henare was intending to come himself today but was called in for orchard work, probably because rain is forecast for the next few days.

Karola fed her sheep some hay, for variety, and also swept up some of the mounds of dead leaves bestowed on us by recent winds and rain.

I finished the days tasks by mowing the cottage lawn and curtilage, ending in the dark, lit only by lights in the cottage.

Bangle weighs 17.5kg today.

Looking East From The Cottage

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [75.9]

Listened to Country Life on the radio – interesting segment about the Mystery Creek Field-days, how it has become an important national and international meeting place for farmers and those who have things and ideas to sell.

As I was going to bed last night I surprised a rat behind the microwave. It dashed behind the fridge and then made a dive for the corner of the sink bench, next to the dish washer. It’s the same corner I saw a mouse disappear into a week ago. In the morning I investigated and found there was an opening about the size of a traditional match box (70mm x 45mm) up into the space behind the cupboards.

Later, around 2:30am, I was woken to a hullabaloo in the roof space above the dining room – a rat, or rats, tromping about and some squeaking. Either a mouse snack or maybe a nest of young rats.

After breakfast I decided that, my eight mouse traps and two rat traps were not going to succeed so I decided on a different tack. With tin snips I fashioned a metal cap for the hole under the sinkbench kickboard and glued it in place. I then gathered up all the traps and set up the two rat traps. At Karola’s sugestion I set one on the inside of the little gate in the bargeboards at the southern end of the cottage, one of the two ways in under the cottage. The other is now on the south end of the east verandah of the homestead.

It being quite a nice day now, sunny and warm, we decided to get our recent tree purchases planted. Karola planted her chokeberry shrub in the railing triangle next to the gate from the One Acre into the Front paddock on the north boundary. To give the chokeberry better sun I pruned back the Karamus nearby in the planting area as they hung low over the fence at that point.

I dug out the ailing swamp cypress and Karola planted that in the western planting area about ten metres north of the concrete trough. Dug out quite a big hole, wider but not quite as deep as for a fence post. I dug down and noticed a layer of reddish gritty soil, probably a layer of ash from when orchard prunings were burned on the spot over many years. That may be what ailed the swamp cypress. I dug down past the ash layer and back-filled with soil from elsewhere, hoping that the new swamp cypress will be able to get below and overcome the highly alkaline ash layer.

Finished the afternoon by planting five replacement Manuka while Karola popped down to the garage for a paper.

Ewes Munching On Karamu Branches That Were Overhanging The Fence

Karola Planting Her “Chokeberry” Shrub

Big Hole For The Replacement Swamp Cypress

Replacement Swamp Cypress Bedded In (On Left)

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—20℃ 1.7mm rain [75.9]

With Karola, SwimGym and shopping combined, taking up most of the morning. We did drop in Henare’s chainsaw to be fixed.

After lunch we admired the pathway cleared for the new drain.

We mulled over several ways in which we could inexpensively and without a lot of ground disruption have a sprinkler system that didn’t fail if the electricity in the homestead were to be switched off. The RCD switches, valuable in stopping me electrocute myself by accident when fiddling with wiring or drilling hoes in walls, is so sensitive that any fire which damaged wiring could trigger the RCD and turn off all power to the homestead. So we’d prefer the pump for the sprinklers to be on a separate source of electricity.

This was in my mind when, in mid 2003. we built the homestead garage and had the underground mains cable from the road re-routed away from the homestead to a new mains box on the north-west corner wall of the garage. A single trench was excavated from the garage to the end of the east verandah and in that trench we had pipes for: garage stormwater, telephony and ethernet cables, electricity to and from the garage, and a pair of high-pressure 25mm blue water pipes

Electricity for the homestead now runs from the mains box on the end of the garage back down the trench to the homestead. There’s a sub-main for the homestead in the current kitchen. Any wiring damage or electrical malfunction in the homestead now only trips the homestead sub-main, not all of our electrical supply.

One day we expected to replace the homestead plumbing with a pressurised system having a pump taking water from the rainwater tanks. To avoid losing water pressure in case of a fire in the homestead that deactivated the electricity supply, either through wiring damage or by the fire service turning off the power, the pump needs to be powered separately from the homestead sub-main. So we thought we’d put the pump and water filters in the north east corner of the garage with its own electrical circuit from the mains box.

Roll forward fifteen years and we’ve started on the homestead renovation project that will replace all the current plumbing with new high-pressure pipes, removing the need for a header tank in the roof space (that’s another story), along with creating a new kitchen and adding two new bathrooms. We intend to install a modern domestic sprinkler system at the same time.

Problem: the 25mm pipes laid in 2003 are barely big enough for domestic water supply and are certainly inadequate for a sprinkler system. The main issue for domestic supply was the length of the pipe bringing water from the rainwater tanks to the garage, pumps push better than they pull. The pipes are about 50 metres long.

Solution 1: For the source of water to the pump add another 32mm pipe from the nearest tank, meaning a new trench but one that was mostly hidden by vegetation. However, as advice on the sprinkler options came in, it became clear that the 25mm pipe carrying water from the pump to the homestead was still too small.

Solution 2: Forget the pipes laid in 2003 and just put two new 32mm pipes in a new trench from the north-east corner of the garage to the south-east corner of the homestead via the nearest rainwater tank. Larger pipes and shorter runs – that would work but is not ideal because, while the pump could be located in the garage, the UV zapper and filters need to be separated from the sprinkler supply. This means separating the domestic and sprinkler supplies at the south-east corner and putting the filters etc on the fork delivering domestic water. So, pump in the garage, filters etc back at the homestead.

Solution 3: At last, came to my senses. If “The Mountain won’t come to Mohamed …”. So, dig a new trench from the garage to the rainwater tanks but instead of laying water pipes just put in a power cable. Pump, filters etc all in one place in a pump shed next to the rainwater tanks. Electrical supply directly from the mains box in garage.

Solution 4: (preferred). What if we use one of the existing underground water pipes as a conduit for the electrical cable from garage to rainwater tanks. No new trench, all conditions solved. The pipes are deep enough to be legal (200mm – 8 inches down), it remains to be seen whether our electrician would play ball. Karola and I had this last thought independently as we walked round the area this afternoon. Morphic resonance strikes again!

So, our plan du jour is Solution 4 including a new pump shed, not under the east verandah, nor in the garage, but nestled in the undergrowth next to the three rainwater tanks. Late afternoon we spent a couple of hours beginning the clearing of the space for the pump shed

As dusk fell I took Bangle round the orchard – which for the last couple of days we’ve shared with 100 or so lambs the orchardist has arranged to feast on the autumn flush of grass and get fat.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [75.9]

Paul van Weerden arrived 8:30am having had a quick run down from Hamilton starting at 5:00am. We talked about what we’d like and what he could provide and looked at photos of recent work his company had done in old houses. Then he did a detailed inspection of the homestead before setting off back to Hamilton hoping to beat the Mystery Creek field-days crowds mid-afternoon. Both Paul and Kim think that the blue high-pressure pipe we put in while building the homestead garage is bigger than 25mm. However, if it is only 25mm ID (internal-diameter) then no-one thinks that’s big enough. So I unsealed the end of one of the pipes, they’ve been sealed for about 5 years underground with layers of plastic tape to avoid dirt and water getting in, and measured it. It’s 25mm ID. So I’ll need to think of another solution that allows us to have the homestead water pressurised for sprinklers and normal domestic use even when the homestead electricity supply has been shut down. My feeling is that a significant part of the fire risk at Karamu is through electrical faults and any damage to the wiring is likely to trip the RCD (residual current detector) and turn off at the switchboard.

Karola and I continued with our clearing of the path for the new stormwater drain and I, eventually, uprooted the stump of the orange tree. Late afternoon Karola went into Napier for various errands, returning just after sunset. The path for the new drain is now cleared and marked with a white tape.

Orange & Magnolia Branches Ready For A Bonfire

Orange Tree Stump Finally Yielded

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—19℃ 0.1mm rain [76.8]

SwimGym and then shopping – what with that and breakfast and suddenly it’s lunch time.

In the afternoon Karola helped me with more clearing of the path of the proposed new stormwater drain across from the rainwater tanks to the ha-ha. This included an assault on an old (for an orange tree) citrus tree that is growing right over the old first-generation clay stormwater drain running from the homestead east verandah to the depression that is now part of the ha-ha. I found bits of the old drain when we were making the ha-ha. It was choked with roots and smashed. We pulled the orange tree over and cut it up leaving only the stump for tomorrow.

Paul van Weerden (Homesafe Fire protection – Paulvw@home-safe.co.nz 07 824 8004 or 0275 055 044) was supposed to come today and propose a sprinkler system for us but the storms closed the Napier – Taupo road with multiple slips so he postponed until tomorrow. That gave me time to prepare floor plans for the homestead properly scaled at 100:1 and with versions showing the dimensions of each room.

There were a few branches down overnight, the largest being a piece of oak that stripped the branches off one Titoki and broke a major branch off another along the 121 driveway. I chainsawed this into pieces convenient to pick up with the tractor and the others into firewood.

Heavy, Rotten Oak Branch Fell Last Night

Pulling Out The Old Orange Tree Right In Path Of New Drain

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—18℃ no rain [76.5]

Rained very hard in the night and off and on all day – a lot of surface water.

I spent much of the day working on a new set of tutorials for SketchUp – the very powerful and capable 3D modelling system. Unlike the many small tutorials I’ve done in the past – describing solutions to specific tasks or problems – these lessons are well structured and thorough, beginning at the beginning.

Henare dropped in so I could pay his power bill online.

We took Bangle round the orchard between showers late afternoon.

Middle Paddock Saturated

Ha-Ha – More Ditch Than Dry Wall

Sitka Spruce Branch From On High

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—15℃ 16.6mm rain [76.8]

SwimGym late morning. Then food shopping during which Hawkes Bay Mowers & Chainsaws TXTed to say my chainsaw was ready – so I picked that up on the way home.

Meanwhile Copas man had come to do the annual service for the Hyndes waste management system, which, by Alan Copas own admission, was many months overdue. Upshot of that was we needed a truck to come and empty it. Karola suggested that the truck could get closer by coming through the removable section of the railings nearby which meant driving across the Middle paddock. So I disassembled the railings and the truck came and pumped out the tank. Five tonnes, said the truck driver which added to the considerable weight of the tanker truck.

So, it got stuck. The more it spun its wheels the deeper it sank into the mud. We tried pulling it out with the little new tractor, the Kioti, but no chance. So I took the Landrover over to the Fergie over by the ha-ha and jump-started it, unhitched the Caravaggio chipper/shredder, and we tried with that tractor. For half an hour or so we tried and tried but the truck wouldn’t budge – the Fergie just dug its own big holes in the paddock.

So the truck driver then unloaded his load back into our waste-management system and after a few more tries we got the truck moving forward. Another few tries and I hauled it backwards through the gate and onto the gravel drive, narrowly missing gateposts and brushing a tall palm tree in the process.

Truck driver then took out his extension hose and sucked the load back up while remaining safely on the gravel driveway. Why oh why didn’t he do that in the first place – we shall never know. It turns out the truck driver was working with Hills the well diggers in 1980s and had helped dig our water bore. Small world etc.

After the plumber and truck had gone I tried again to pull over the old orange tree blocking our path for the new stormwater drain from the rainwater tanks to the ha-ha. Even with the Fergie and even attaching the chain a couple of metres higher up the tree it wouldn’t budge. I suspect I’ll need to sever a couple of the larger roots.

Peering Into The Abyss

Pumping It Out The First Time

Oops – Stuck

Fergie To The Rescue (After Unloading)

How It Should Have Been Done Initially

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—13℃ 35.7mm rain [76.5]

After the activity yesterday I slept all morning – well it was still below 10°C at lunchtime.

Made up for it by getting stuck into clearing the old suckering Magnolia and its covering, nay immersion, in billowing blackberry. Henare’s chainsaw stopping every few minutes didn’t help either. Karola hacked away at the blackberry. Karola decided that as the old Magnolia was so rotten and twisted that I should cut it all down to ground level. It is already suckering vigorously so we’ll not be short of Magnolias. Another day might see the drain path cleared.

I put a torch at the rainwater tank end of the path for the overflow/storm water pipe and sighting from the ha-ha end, the path goes directly through an old orange tree next to the ha-ha so Karola decided it has to go. So far my attempts to pull it over have not worked. I’ll try with the heavier Fergie tractor tomorrow and probably attach the snig chain higher up. I don’t fancy digging out the stump by hand.

In the evening we got an email from Gill containing a scanned image of my paternal grandfather’s marriage certificate so had a happy half an hour on the phone with Gill attempting to decipher it.

Bangle weighed 17.3kg today.

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—12℃ 0.2mm rain [76.8]

Cold but sunny day.

At Karola’s request I mowed the nettles under the oak tree in the Totara paddock. The sheep won’t eat them standing but have been seen nibbling the cut foliage once it’s wilted – and no longer stinging I gather. I also mowed a strip round two sides of the One Acre so we can walk there with Bangle.

More work on clearing the path for the proposed replacement overflow/storm water drain.

Graham and Tracey called in as planned mid afternoon and left after dark, around 5:30pm. We nibbled and chatted.

Flowers In Ampfield, near Winchester, UK – c/o Geoff Robinson

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [75.9]

SwimGym

Haircuts mid morning and I slipped away while Karola was having her turn and did the weekend food shopping.

Kim Weeks of Almak Ltd in Napier (kim@almak.co.nz 021-666-982) came after lunch to discuss sprinklers. He thought my latest plan for providing a water source for sprinklers and domestic supply would work well and that we had plenty of water represented by the three 22,000 litre tanks. He thought that even with the lower requirements for domestic systems compared with commercial ones it would be expensive. The main problem seems to be access to the ceilings of the ground floor rooms. His view is that skimping on where you protect with sprinklers is faulty logic, if you’re going to do it you protect every room in order to quench it before it becomes uncontrollable. His perspective is that the primary purpose of sprinklers is to allow people time to escape, property protection is secondary.

Kim assured Karola that sprinkler systems are very very reliable. He is often asked whether sprinklers go off by accident and he repeatedly assures people that no, they are very very reliable. I guess I believe him. Mrs Google suggests sprinklers fail as infrequently as one sprinkler head failure in 16 million.

Kim said that Almak is a) overloaded with work at the moment and b) usually works on commercial installations with their more stringent requirements. He recommended we talk to a contact he had in Homesafe Fire Protection. Small world, Pat Pearl of Homesafe Fire Protection is the first contact I made when looking for three businesses to give us quotes. Pat’s right-hand man is one Paul van Weerdan (Paulvw@home-safe.co.nz 07-824-8004) – who is also the man Kim recommended we contact.

From a BRANZ report: Cost Effective Domestic Fire Sprinkler Systems (July 2000) that I found on the Web this evening.

Also of particular interest in this report is a system called a flow-through sprinkler system. This is particularly well suited to retrofitting sprinklers to an existing house and saves substantial cost by incorporating the sprinklers in a ring main of pipe that decants into one of the lavatory cisterns – obviating the need for expensive back-flow control valves. The water in all the pipes is fresh all the time and so doesn’t need back-flow protection.

After Kim left I spent a couple more hours on clearing the path of the new stormwater / overflow drain from the rainwater tanks to the ha-ha.

I took Bangle round the orchard as dusk fell.

First Load Of Magnolia Trimmings – From The Old Tree Overhanging The Path Of The New Stormwater Drain

Magnolia Branches That Were In The Way Of The New Stormwater Drain

Smaller Branches From The Trimming

A Seriously Pared-Back Very Old Magnolia

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [75.9]

Much of the day spent in watching over Bangle and recovering from the early hours ministrations at 12:30am, 2:00am-ish, 3:30am-ish, and then, thankfully, not till 8:00am-ish. The good news being that by this evening Bangle seemed heaps better. From being unable to stand, back legs seeming not to hold her weight, and just lying on her side, now she’s walking round, jumping onto the sofa, and so on – almost her old self.

Later, between light showers, I chainsawed up the Karo branches, unloaded a small trailer full of firewood and stacked it with lots more wood in our apple box wood pile.

More Like Her Old Self

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—10℃ 5.0mm rain [76.4]

Bangle woke us three times in the night, whimpering that she needed to go out. We obliged and on the second time, around 2:30am, we had cups of tea and I had breakfast. This carried on more or less during the morning so after lunch we took her to the vets. Neil (Neil Stuttle, not Stuart Badger this time) checked her out and said it was either something she’d eaten or a gastric flu – and he’s seen a number of similar cases of gastric flu in dogs in Hastings recently. She’s not anaemic, not off her food, temperature is normal. She’s just getting weaker and has the trots. Vet gave her an injection to ease any nausea and some liquid “Imodium for Dogs” as I call it. As recommended we’ve put her on a diet of chicken and rice for now – which she gobbles up enthusiastically.

I went to the dentist mid morning – one replaced filling, otherwise no problems. I asked how old the x-rays were that Tracy the dentist was using. Two years old she said. I am low-risk for problems otherwise she’d take new ones each time. Nice to hear.

Karola went to Visique Shattky on Russell, Optometrists in Hastings at lunchtime. Apparently, despite her misgivings, Karola’s eyes are in quite good condition, no cataract nor macular degeneration issues for now.

Before the vet visit I did another hour on clearing the way for the replacement stormwater drain, finally cutting my way through a tangle of roots next to the Pittosporum a few metres from the rainwater tanks. By the time we got back it had started to rain.

Haven’t seen a Katydid for ages. They used to be common on Fuchsias growing in the shade at the back doors of houses when I was young. This one (below) got upstairs in the cottage.

Katydid – Looks Like She’s On The Snowy Slopes

Current Overflow Pipe Exposed – Only Went To Edge Of Lawn

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—12℃ 4.3mm rain [76.3]

I followed up on the sprinkler technology for the homestead. Based on information from Pat Pearl, Managing Director,Fire & Safety Ltd in Tauranga, the sprinkler systems need careful balancing of the pump with the flows needed to provide sprinkler function. We can either continue on track for the domestic supply and have a completely separate supply and pump for the sprinklers, or we can have a combined system. We’ve been told by one company that they need 120 litres/min flow and that 25mm pipe is just too small. Also the inlet for the sprinklers needs to come direct from the pump, bypassing any filtering.

So, what I’m looking into is to give up on the idea of having the pump and filter in the garage and instead having a bigger pump able to do both jobs. Put it next to the rain water tanks or under the verandah. The output from the pump would split – one line to the sprinkler system and the other to our UV & filters ready to be connected to our new domestic supply.

I have another supplier coming to see us on Friday, and one more saying they’ll ring back.

Bangle has had an upset tummy for a couple of days, and nights. I was up a couple of times in the early hours when she said she wanted to go out, and then she needed cleaning up before coming back inside. So rather a broken night for all of us.

Despite having had very little sleep Karola went to a Hastings District Council meeting around lunchtime – to listen to a submission from the Friends of the Hastings Library suggest to the council that the co-habiting art gallery be moved out of the library building and the space be devoted to public access to the Internet.

I took Bangle round the orchard at lunchtime and we both took her round again late afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [76.3]

Rained quite hard on and off all night and in the morning. It’s Queens Birthday today so no SwimGym.

Even more Harlequin Ladybirds upstairs in the cottage today so I’ve collected some to take to Ben when we visit later this month. Ben told me they were a new and invasive insect first seen in the Waikato in 2016.

The Waikato Times reported rising numbers there in May 2017 and said: “. . . it is useful that people report suspected sightings to MPI. The ministry will be able to help callers with identification of the insect and information.”

https://nzacfactsheets.landcareresearch.co.nz/factsheet/InterestingInsects/Harlequin-ladybird—Harmonia-axyridis.html

From the photos online this is certainly true: “The appearance of adult harlequin ladybirds is very variable, which often makes it difficult to distinguish from some other species in New Zealand. However, harlequin ladybird larvae are sufficiently distinctive for the second, third and fourth instar larvae to be reliably identified.”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10451667 (15th July 2007. but I’d not heard of nor seen them before May this year)

Karola & I went with Bangle round the orchard, starting with a leisurely stroll through the Front paddock after Karola inspected the line for the proposed new stormwater drain..

I then worked until dusk on clearing the path of the proposed new stormwater drain from the east verandah to the ha-ha through dense wilderness of Camelias and Magnolia. Part of the drain needs to pass close by a large Pittisporum and I am cutting some quite large roots in preparation, hoping that it’s not weakening the tree too much.

Harlequin Ladybirds Upstairs In The Cottage

Road Ditch Backs Up Into Our Ha-Ha

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—16℃ 1.7mm rain [76.6]

Karola & I moved a pile of pumice boulders – probably originally from Mrs Harris rockery in 1960s, round near the cottage back door as it was then – and popped them into the Stump Dump.

I mowed a large patch of nettles in the Front paddock. Karola says the sheep will eat them when cut, but not beofre, and they’re health sheep food.

I cut down three Karo trees (Pittosporum crassifolium), at Karola’s request. They have been growing in front of two Pohutukawa (NZ Christmas Trees, Metrosideros excelsa) Karola has been nurturing at the end of the homestead garage block. The Pohutukawa are probably past their worst frost-tender stages now, and the Karos will probably re-sprout from their base.

Henare came, as planned, and took away the big trailer piled high with firewood for one of his relations, Ira. He brought it back a couple of hours later, had a coffee and chat, then took off to pick up his son Scott down from Hamilton. Now I find out that the problems with his chainsaw are well known to him but he just forgot to let me know. And it was caused, he thinks, by a mate in the orchard filling it with the wrong mixture.

With the Karo trees felled and all the smaller branches chipped/shredded, the remaining thicker limbs will have to wait until I get my chainsaw back from being repaired.

I did some prospecting for the ends of the two blue high-pressure water pipes between the homestead garage and the east verandah. Finally located one of them without damaging the electricity main, ethernet cables, telephone lines, and stormwater drains all underground at about the same spot. It was much closer to the end of the east verandah than I recollected. Now to find the end of the other pipe, the one that will take water from the rainwater tanks to the soon-to-be-installed pump in the garage. Maybe I’ll leave that to the plumber, having located one pipe, the other will fork off from it after crossing the driveway, probably to the rain water tank closest to the garage.

Bangles weight: 17.3kg

Last Pieces Of A Pile Of Pumice Boulders

Three Karo Trees, Nursery For The Two Pohutukawas, Severely Pruned

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—14℃ 29mm rain [76.8]

Henare called in at 7:30am on the way to work and lent me his chainsaw – the one I gave him last year – as I said I’d like to borrow it to finish off the pile of branches while my chainsaw was getting fixed.

Started to cut the last dozen or so branches but after a few cuts the chainsaw just faded away, the engine gently died.

So, Bangle and I went off to town – starting with Hawkes Bay Mowers and Chainsaws & Henare’s chainsaw. Of course the chainsaw refused to play up while I was there.

Then on to New World for papers and some Earl Grey tea for Karola.

We then dropped in at Bunnings Warehouse looking for plant fertilizer tablets (no joy), some bargain LED lights (As per Iain Middleton’s email this morning, 6 for %9). I got a dozen even though they’re not really the most suitable, being a “cold white light”, except as backup and with LEDs you are only going to need a replacement every ten years or so. Still, must act on well meant advice from friends. And I did spy a section of the store selling mouse traps so I bought a pair of a type I hadn’t seen before. That makes ten traps baited and ready now in the cottage.

Finally to The Plant Store in Pakowhai Road which had the fertilizer tablets but only in singles, so I bought 20.

In the afternoon I did an energetic hour of chipping and shredding with the mended Caravaggi – worked well and I only jammed it once. Did I mention, when I retrieved the Caravaggi from Hawkes Bay Tractor Dismantlers they said several customers seeing it there had asked if they could buy it.

Then I persevered with Henare’s chainsaw and by dint of restarting it many times managed to saw up the remaining pile of branches. So the downed tress on the eastern side of the homestead have now all been either mulched or made into firewood.

Late afternoon I tried to make a line from the rainwater tanks across to the ha-ha, from the point where the current stormwater drain begins across to the hole in the ha-ha wooden wall intended for its discharge. The blackberry is ferocious and I suspect that a straight line will go right through either the old orange tree or the Magnolia. Some more investigation is needed.

I took Bangle round the orchard.

An Hour’s Energetic Mulching

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—14℃ 1.0mm rain [76.9]

SwimGym with Karola

Then, it being Friday, we went out for the weekend shopping.

First stopped at Hawkes Bay Mowers & Chainsaws and left my chainsaw there for repair – it having stopped completely, almost certainly due to dirt in the carburettor.

Then Cornucopia for my weekly bread, followed by New World for the rest of the food. At Karola’s behest I also bought a Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia).

Onwards to Clive to Greenleaf Nurseries to check up on our autumn 2018 tree orders. Much of it seems to be on the way. We added a Hoop Pine, a Swamp Cypress, and 16 English Limes to the order and took away with us 5 Manuka and the Swamp Cypress.

I got grilled fish and chips for lunch – that’s twice this week. This time because I forgot to get the fish when at the supermarket earlier.

After lunch I drove the Fergie up to Hawkes Bay Tractor Dismantlers and picked up the Caravaggi chipper, mended, again.

We went with Bangle round the orchard. Once we got to the Front paddock we went slowly round the boundary looking at the many trees that Karola has planted – seeing how they are doing.

Later Henare came round – for non-chlorinated water and to show us kitten pictures. Karola has chosen one to have “on appro”. We’ll pay for it to be spayed and inoculated and micro-chipped then Karola will have it for a while to see if it settles in and doesn’t upset Bangle too much, otherwise Henare gets it back. Well it won’t really be “on appro” because we’ll have paid up front for the treatments.

Big Slab Of Bark 3-4 Metres Tall, Fallen From A Large Eucalypt

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—14℃ no rain [77.0]