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Monthly Archives: November 2018
Overcast With High Humidity
SwimGym with Karola
Shopping, posted stuff to Gill & Bridget & Natalie, and got chainsaw chains sharpened in case there’s some dry spells at the weekend. A pretty normal Friday morning.
We had a small handful of raspberries off the canes that this year that have run rampant in the enclosure initially devoted to my runner beans.
Called Tom of Peak Plumbing … and asked what the next step was for the leaking hot water cylinder. Being under warranty they’ve contacted the manufacturer and are waitng for a reply.
I made another attempt to get on with my online tutorial on Google SketchUp, it does not help if it sends you to sleep.
Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—20℃ 0.5mm rain [74.4] IKBOrchard
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Grillo FD450 Bought & “Eve’s Journey”, Gill’s book arrived
Very gentle drizzle off and on all day.
To our delight a hard copy of Gill’s published book, “Eve’s Journey” arrived today. Publication has transformed it, it was impressive in proof form but just holding it and turning the pages is a pleasure. We’ll need a couple more copies so we can lend them to friends and family. Might even take a copy with us to the UK next year.
Karola & I discussed the homestead plans for a new front door and agreed to have it modelled on the old front door – panes alongside and above the door – but the door is to be a pair of french doors identical to those in the living room. That will mean making the side panes a few centimetres narrower and longer. Lots of natural light into the bottom of the stairs.
Whipped down to Harris Pumps & Filtration and got some irrigation fittings and then installed the two KiwiTech water troughs that are an experiment to see whether the colour of the trough makes a significance to the water temperature in the Hawkes bay summer heat. There’s a bit of electronics gear to assemble to measure the temperatures and report over the Internet but we have until late January before that’s needed, when it is really hot.
As planned I contacted Trevor at Outside Power and bought the Grillo mower. Summary below.
Later on I did a binge of chainsawing of fallen limbs but still quite a number to go.
Summary of the Grill FD450 Negotiation & Purchase
Background: Grillo FD450 – six are due to arrive in Auckland in February next year, three are already sold. Stihl Shop online advertises Grillo FD450 for $22,490.00 plus delivery including GST.
Outdoor Power in Hastings (Trevor) is offering the FD450 at the at same price, I presume delivered, definitely free shipping to Hastings.
On phone this morning I said that the Grillo FD450 was what we wanted, the only thing left to agree was the price.
Trevor said how margins on Grillo are very thin, unlike Husquevana, especially as they don’t stock and display Grillo machines which would give them additional 5% manufacturer flexibility for being a showroom. But the expense of having a Grillo FD450 on display is not warranted in Hawkes Bay due to the infrequent sales.
Trevor offered to reduce the price by $500 after we discussed the value to Outside Power of having a Hawkes Bay machine to show off.
I said I had three options:
a) Buy the Grillo FD450.
b) Buy a de-thatcher & pickup machine for about $10,000 (Tow&Collect from MetalForm in Dannevirke).
c) Given how much longer Karola & I expect to be active on the place, just hire someone to do what we need.
I asked Trevor to come back with his best price.
He went away, ostensibly to talk with the importer, and came back with a price of $21,500 this afternoon
I replied that if he took our old Honda roller mower as a trade-in I would pay $21,000 this afternoon.
Trevor agreed and I have paid. Honour retained all round I think – price to Karola of $17,850 after reclaiming GST.
Super-Duper Italian Grillo Ride-On, Catcher Grass Mower Purchased Today
KiwiTech Experimental White Trough
Karola’s Crop In The One Acre – Grazed Out Except For Phalaris Arundinacea Stalks
Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—21℃ 7.5mm rain [74.5] IKBOrchard
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Quote For Wood Work
SwimGym with Karola
I saw the pair of quail that Bangle ambushed the other day, the female without a tail but able to fly and run OK. Sadly I only saw a single chick the several times I spied this pair; that’s a lot of missing chicks from the dozen they started out with. Rabbits galore; if you don’t step on a rabbit you stumble on a part-started burrow.
With Bangle for a quick shop while Karola entertained Tom from Peak Plumbing & Gas. Tom had no better idea than us as to what the problem is, concluding it was the cylinder leaking from directly underneath – which we can’t get at or inspect. So, likely scenario is to uninstall the cylinder and either repair or replace it. That will not be simple, there is a forest of pipework feeding the domestic hot water supply and the radiators.
Jonathan Boyle came and estimated the cost of felling two walnut trees and the lone trunk of a Thuja. He’ll send us a quote shortly but doesn’t expect to be able to come until January as he’s very busy, as usual.
With chainsaw in hand chopped down the dead Pittosporum on the corner of the drive turning left to the cottage. Then cut down the two Lacebarks by a rainwater tank next to the 133 driveway. Karola helped clear away the resulting firewood.
Got round to fixing castors on a large drawer for Karola, duplicating Karola’s current shoe drawer; she can fit both in the cottage bedroom wardrobe.
Two Dead Lacebark Trees Felled
Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—21℃ 1.3mm rain [74.4] KBOrchard
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Catching Up On Magazine Backlog
Mowed cottage lawn before the rain came, again.
Karola noticed water in the tray under the hot water cylinder and even when she mopped it out more water came, we know not from which part of the cylinder. Karola rang the cylinder installer, Peak Plumbing & Gas, and left Grayson Allen a voicemail.
Caught up on a few Economists
Nudged Gareth (plumber), Rob Findlay (wood burners), called Jonathan Boyle (Tree work) and he’s coming tomorrow afternoon to quote for felling couple of Walnut trees and Thuja remains.
Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—22℃ 2.1mm rain [74.8] IBOrchard
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Welcome Rain
SwimGym
I then slept till noon, the rain thrumming on the roof. Karola did some Googling research into some early New Zealand ships and her ancestors who were on them.
Bit of shopping in the afternoon while Meticulous Maids cleaned the cottage.
Blasted web space and email etc was out of action for 33 hours, only coming back this evening. Distressing especially as Bridget & I agreed to move months ago and we have a new provider but it’s so much work to move that I haven’t finished it yet and the web log and mail is still all on the old providers servers.
Karola & I have at last got a proposal for the renovation to Karamu we both can live with. We’ve also agreed that once the renovation is complete we will go and live there but will probably return to the cottage once we’re significantly older. We hope to send the proposal to Ruth, our draftswoman, by the end of the month in which case she’ll try and get proper building plans for us by the end of the year.
Spent this evening painstakingly testing out the AV system in the homestead, a piece at a time, trying to identify what interfered badly with the terrestrial TV signal. I have re-done several of the RJ45 plugs and, cross-fingers, that has made the difference because tonight I cannot make it go wrong. Streaming TV over the Internet works, Freeview terrestrial TV works, set-top boxes and DVD player through the matrix switch works, I do so hope this is permanent.
Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ 14.7mm rain [74.7] IBOrchard
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Karola & Lyn’s Big Day Out – Founders Club Trip To Wallingford
Karola loaded a chair and wet weather gear into the Subaru, it’d been raining on and off all night and the forecast for the next week is rain followed by more rain. Then off we set to pick up Lyn Sturm from Frimley Village with her stuff. She’d baked a GF chocolate cake for me which I was marginally grateful for – not ideal for a diabetic with need to lose weight. I dropped them at the Eastbourne Street bus stop in Hastings where they joined a merry throng of Founder’s Club members.
I drove off, stopping at Countdown on the way – running out of milk – only to see that Kartola had left her chair and gear in the car. So, back to the bus stop, even more merrymakers, but luckily the bus hadn’t arrived.
Later Karola told me there were 64 people on the trip to Wallingford, the organisation was very good – Richard & Paddy Bailey are responsible for that. Karola saw a number of people she never dreamed were eligible ‘founders’ but in practice it isn’t limited to Hawkes Bay, you just need to have an ancestor arrive in New Zealand before 1900. They had lunch at Wallingford served by the new caterer/owners one of whom is Gareth, son of Peter Dunkerley the local chemist shop magnate. Gareth is a vet in Auckland who is part owner of Wallingford so clearly vets are paid too much thinks Karola, well, domestic pet vets in Auckland anyway.
To her surprise Karola won a raffle raising funds for more Founders outings and the prize was an amazing collection of foodstuffs and knick-knacks, none immediately of use to us. Karola said she’d never won a raffle before in her life.
Karola TXTed when the returning bus got to PakiPaki and a little later Bangle & I cruised down to the bus stop, picked up the two old biddies, and took them home, dropping Lyn off at her Frimley Village villa.
Meanwhile, as soon as I got back in the morning I spent several hours with the tractor mowing the driveways and under the big oak. As the promised rain still hadn’t arrived I then mowed outside the cottage kitchen and the teardrop lawn before it got really wet. It rained, more on than off, and no gentle misty drizzle this time, for the rest of the day.
With the rain pouring down I set about some serious editing of the Karamu Renovation Plan, noting that, as it was now November and not May when I finished Version #1, this was a plan proposal for 2018-2019. Karola had asked for some re-ordering of the document which essentially ruined my flow so it needed extensive re-editing and, as requested, I inserted a page on the history near the front. The SketchUp model hasn’t been updates to reflect the comments Ruth made in May, let alone her extra comments this month, but other than that I think we’re ready to go. Karola has not requested any more changes.
Too much rain for a walk round the orchard with Bangle today.
Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—18℃ 31.1mm rain [74.8]
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Trees Need Felling But Needs Professional Work
Karola wants the two big old walnut trees to be chopped down. They don’t have edible walnuts, they do have mountains of nuts that attract rats, they encourage codlin moth which is an orchard pest, and one of them looms over the homestead garage and any natural fall would make a mess of the roof and more.
So I climbed up into the walnut by the homestead garage and took a good look at what needed to be done high up to avoid damaging the garage. It was too high for my liking and I couldn’t get to a high enough place to lop off bits that wouldn’t damage the roof, gradually getting it down to where I could fell a major branch without danger. So I gave up.
When examining the sheep a few days ago we found one that looked ill, wouldn’t move off the ground, and one that was limping badly. The ill one, #710, died. Today we got the sheep into the holding paddock and looked for the limper. She, #708, is still limping but not so much. I sidled up to her and grabbed her head, as we do, but she’s a fat, strong hogget. As I clung on, as we do, she dragged me backwards – I was going backwards – and dumped me into the water trough. Nothing damaged except pride and trousers all soaked and lots of mud.
So we got them into the yards proper and I took a look at her feet. The foot she was favouring is warm while the others are cold but I could see no signs of infection so I just sprayed all four feet with anti-footrot stuff and left it at that. There was no swelling further up her leg, so I hope it is mild scald that is getting better by itself.
Bangle had a run around with the sheep today but no walk round the orchard.
Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—21℃ 0.2mm rain [75.1]
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Quail In Trouble
SwimGym with Karola
Then while Karola had a haircut I did the weekend shopping. Just as I was trudging out of New World laden with groceries the heavens opened and down came the rain – but it only lasted for half an hour and back home we had a mostly sunny and pleasant afternoon.
Spent the afternoon on corrections to the Karamu Renovation 2018 document which is getting close to the final version, I think.
A sad moment in the afternoon when I heard crashing and banging downstairs along with a lot of squarking. Bangle had caught a mother Californian quail – the one with the big family from last weekend. Bangle brought her inside and proceeded to chase her round and in the process, when the hapless quail dived under the stairs into Bangle’s lair, pull out a lot of feathers including all her tail feathers to the point where I was staggered she still lived.
Much of the noise was from the male quail which had flown into the kitchen after Bangle trying to get his wife back. He and she flew into windows and knocked stuff off the sills as they tried to escape. Eventually I caught the male quail and rescued what was left of the female. After a photo-op I released them back into the clump of Camellia bushes near the cottage where there was a chorus of frightened and upset chicks wondering what was going on.
Big Clutch Of Californian Quail Chicks
Telephoto Lens – Group Of Five and a Pair (Total of about A Dozen)
Very Brave Male Quail Cornered In Cottage Kitchen
Female On Left – I Do Hope She Survives Despite Loss Of Tail and Many Other Feathers
Beware Pollen Sufferers – The Dreaded Privet is in Flower
Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [75.8] IKBOrchard
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Day of Recouperation
Did a bit of tidying up ferrying stuff to the stump dump. As intended I did some chainsawing before the forecast rain arrived.
Karola had mentioned she thought the Catalpa in the band of big trees running along the west boundary to the sheep yards could be cut back. It’s been cut back before, it tends to grow only towards the light and droop badly and that got worse in the last earthquake.
Ewe hogget #710 died overnight so after dinner I buried it.
Catalpa Given A Bit Of A Trim
Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ 2.7mm rain [75.8] IKBOrchard
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Return To Karamu
Up soon after 5:00am – because we all went to bed so early I think. Cool night and lovely warm bed. Harry was up soon afterwards and we had breakfast and chatted before he whizzed off to move bulls.
Karola & Chloe surfaced a little later and after their breakfasts Karola took Bangle for a short walk. Harry returned from the farm, Tessa and her two children came over on their way to school, and Laura also drove over from her cottage. Goobye’s all round and we set off for Hastings – at Karola’s suggestion via Taihape and the Taihape-Napier road.
Our choice of return via Taihape was inspired, but not in a good way. Two truck accidents before Taihape had lengthy road closures.
A Local offered to take us round the back roads so we and couple of other cars followed her back-track, crossing the river, winding along back roads, returning across the river a few kilometres before Taihape. We arrived just after the queue of vehicles had come through Taihape. Still, activity is better than thumb-twiddling in a queue. Taihape seems rather run down – that and Norsewood make Bulls look positively inviting, we think.
It took a long time to get back via Taihape. We bought lunch in New World in Taihape and ate it in a lay-by along the Taihape-Napier road.
Bulls-Hastings the direct route: 203km, 2½ hours
Bulls-Taihape-Hastings: …….. 232km, 4 hours (plus accident holdup time)
Got back to find all pretty much as we left it. Ewe hogget #715 is lame on front left leg; ewe hogget #710 is lying down, won’t get up, and has swollen belly so probably over-eaten or eaten something poisonous. Tomorrow’s problems.
“Tiger Mum” Tessa – Off To Ferry The Kids To School
Chloe, Ashleigh, and Karola Deep In Conversation
Truck Roll-Over, The Second Today On This Stretch Of Road South Of Taihape
Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—18℃ 0.6mm rain [?] IKBOrchard
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To Burleigh For My Birthday Dinner
SwimGym
We pottered about until lunchtime, finished packing and set off in Karola’s Subaru estate for Burleigh, just north of Bulls. Bangle on the back seat; her large crate in the very back.
Coffee at Norsewood where we swapped drivers and Karola took over. Saddle road, the diversion now the Manawatu Gorge road is permanently closed, was slow behind a line of trucks crawling their way over. Lots of turbines in the wind farms – they are still staggeringly huge though I’ve seen them several times before.
Got to Burleigh only a few minutes after our expected arrival time of 5:00pm. Took Bangle exploring and strolled over to Tessa’s house to see her, Ashleigh, Jimmy-James, and husband Pete. Laura dropped in and later led us through the shrubbery back to the main house for dinner. Chloe cooked a sumptuous four-course meal and we had a delightful time chatting about the state of the world, farming, and whatever the Economist said last week. Early to bed. well compared to my usual bed time of around midnight.
Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—17℃ 9.5mm rain [75.1]
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Joan Off To Hamilton, Ruth Vincent Calls
SwimGym
After breakfast Joan set off back to Hamilton; it was really nice for Karola to have a friend to catch up with and go out visiting other old ducks.
Then Karola and I sat down and went through the old May 2018 document, the proposal for the renovation of Karamu Homestead. Karola clarified some of the English and I was able to amplify on some of the points worrying her. We did not find any show-stoppers, any items specified that we could not live with. Of course there’s plenty of room for improving the document as we think about it more and understand how the pieces fit together. We finished just in time before Ruth arrived.
Ruth came on the dot of 1:30pm as she’d promised. Ruth thought it’d be best if we together discussed the specification and her initial drawings based on it and so we spent three hours going over the areas where we disagreed and where Ruth’s drawings were different from the document. Most of these differences were vacillations by us at our last conference with Ruth:
- there isn’t any disagreement now with Ruth’s interpretation of how the wall joining Apple Room and Store Room needs to be breeched to make them into the new kitchen.
- the porte cochere or portico roofline is to stay in line with the verandah roof as Ruth revised her opinion of how a more steeply sloped roof would blend in.
- the back door and path to the lobby is a segue through the laundry, avoiding the unpleasant rigidity and constriction that makes us dislike the “place of four doors” today. the porte cochere is a little further west than I initially conceived it and the back door is aligned with its ridge-line; the steps up to the verandah at that point are narrower because architects experience say that steps wider than about 1.5 metres are not so comfortable to use.
- the downstairs loos remain placed against the outside (south) wall
- upstairs the linen closet has a window high up on the west side to let in light from the passage beyond.
There are lots of details to consider yet but Ruth wants to hold off further work on her part until we’re both sure we’re agreed on the overall concept as described in the document and any amendments to it we might make for version II.
A couple of topics that remain unresolved at present, just because they’re fresh ideas, not because there are strong views for or against:
- should the porte cochere be repositioned on the west side of the homestead, serving the new doorway off the west verandah into the lobby
- rather than introducing new french doors at the bottom of the stairs, would a replica of the old front door, including its side and top glass panels, be more fitting
We’ve not taken up a couple of Ruth’s suggestions:
- consider combining the dining room, apple room, part of the store room into one large rectangular room as a magnificent combined kitchen and dining area.
- perhaps just move the existing front door and surrounding glass panels to a new location at the foot of the stairs, filling the gap with an exact replica of one of the french door sets in the living room.
Joan Sets Off Back To Hamilton
Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—21℃ 7.0mm rain [74.9] IKBOrchard
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A Spot Of Tree Watering – Now, Surely, It’ll Rain
Spent most of the day slowly re-learning some of the workings of my web sites and moving two smaller ones from the old hosting provider, AceWebHosting, to HostPapa, the new one.
Joan spotted a new quail family with at least twelve tiny balls of fluffy feathers – like a small swarm of large bumble bees – running around on the driveway about 20 metres from the cottage kitchen window.
Karola & Joan were off out and about again from mid morning to mod afternoon.
Watered the seven fruit trees and the root-trainer Red Beech and the Red Beech out by the 133 gateway.
Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—25℃ no rain [75.2] IKBOrchard
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Joan’s Visit – Day One
Joan and Karola went off visiting late morning and returned late afternoon, invigorated and animated.
Mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage, getting an hour of vitamin D at the same time.
I’d attempted to buy salad ingredients on Friday – cold meats and various vegetables. The lettuce and tomatoes were OK but the cold meats – pork and hame – were very average as were the radishes and cucumber. Salads are a good main meal for the next four months so I hope we can find somewhere to get better ingredients, in Hastings neither Countdown nor New World make the grade.
Anna sent us photos of Felix at St Andrews taken by Felix’s dad, Marc. Felix seems to be enjoying his fresher year so far.
Grandson Felix Florent At St Andrews Uni In Scotland’s Far North
Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—22℃ no rain [75.2] IKBOrchard
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Joan Phillips Arrives
SwimGym
Then haircut and shopping and poof, that’s the morning gone.
Henare came around 10:00am and mowed the homestead circle etc until 11:30am when he went off to go up to the Mahia.
Joan came soon after lunch and we had a languid afternoon chatting with cups of coffee and so on. Karola took Joan on an extended tour of the homestead, discussing the changes we’re discussing for the great Karamu renovation.
After dinner we all went round the orchard and Bangle & I also went through the One Acre to see what inroads the sheep are making on the mixed lucerne, plantain, red clover, and tall grasses. Not a lot so far but the lambs have fun hiding from their mothers in the long grass.
Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—24℃ no rain [75.1] IKBOrchard
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Planned Power Outage From 9:10am Till 2:00pm
Went to pick up the Subaru but it seems that the surging behaviour, and probably the stuck-in-gear too, is known and has a solution. So we’re leaving it in for the rest of the day while Bayswater – the garage – fix it.
Got coffees at Fuse in Stortford Lodge because there’s no power at home. They’ve expanded into the shop next door and made that into a mediterranean-style snacking area – all white walls, cool ambience, and bright pictures on the walls. Quite relaxing.
All fruit tree guards now covered with shade netting.No wonder Karola seemed to be doing nothing but tree guards for months, she has about 100 guards and each one has shade netting sewn over the wires.
Karola has moved the fridge and freezer in the cottage garage to new positions and now done a big clean-out of the chaotic piles of stuff cluttering up the garage. Some to dump, some to re-house elsewhere.
Henare is expected tomorrow morning to mow the lawn in front of the homestead and under the big Liriodendron – he’s got the morning available but is off to the Mahia in the afternoon. In preparation I re-mowed the perimeter of the homestead lawn area the sheep can graze, this also reminds Henare of the area he’s to mow.
Seven Fruit Trees Safely Protected At Last
Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—22℃ no rain [75.2] IBOrchard
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Lyn Sturm Comes For Afternoon Tea
SwimGym
Karola had a dentist appointment after which she took her Subaru in for a service thinking the sticker said it was due. The garage said not quite yet but did check out the “won’t get out of first gear” behaviour that happened to me in Wellington earlier in the year. I did mid-week shopping and got F&C for our main meal at noon. Picked up Karola from the garage.
Lyn Sturm came for afternoon tea bearing GF chocolate cake.
I got two birthday cards in today’s mail, from Anna and from Annemarie. Anna kept up her high standard of amusing jokes for my birthday card.
More fruit tree guard work.
Karola moved the old fridge and freezer cabinets round in the cottage garage to make them easier to open- the doors are forever being blocked by things put on the walls next to them. karola also cleaned them both; the fridge in particular was gross, the freezer just needed a bit of cleaning after our mishap when the freezer door was left wide open all night and the contents defrosted. Most of the contents are being held in a fridge until Sunday when they can go with the rubbish.
Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—21℃ no rain [74.7] IBOrchard
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Ruth Sends First Draft Of Karamu Renovation Building Plans
Ruth emailed through her first pass at building plans for the Karamu renovation. We are working through the places she’s changed from our May 2018 requirements. It is very much as we’d requested so where there are differences we need to understand why.
Went to see a Grillo 280 ride-on mower at Hawthorne House, a guest house on Railway road south of Hastings. The Grillo was as expected, as described in the brochure, but wasn’t particularly exciting and so later when we discussed it the desirable features of a large grass catcher and an out-front set of blades seemed less pressing for Karola so we’ve dropped the idea. The Grillo seems a little too much of a simple lawn mower and probably isn’t powerful enough or strong enough for what we want, a combination of a ride-on lawn mower and combine harvester for mowing the paddocks and picking up.
More struggling with the fruit tree guards.
Henare came round for a cup of coffee and so that i could pay his power bill online – he’s been playing and coaching a lot of badminton with son Scott as well as being flat out in the orchards thinning the fruit.
Gill has received bound copies of her self-published book, “Eve’s Journey”, about our grandmother’s journey with a donkey through England when she was quite young.
Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—22℃ no rain [74.5] IBOrchard
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Meticulous Maids Today
SwimGym
Karola did the start-of-week shopping in Flaxmere
Caught up on emails etc and then early afternoon started on next fruit tree guard – clothing it in shade netting. However cloud and rain came, stopping play.
Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—19℃ 2.4mm rain [74.5] IBOrchard
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Relaxed Sunday
Watched an exciting rugby game between the English and All Blacks, which the English really should have won – very close.
Sheep census says that all the ewes and lambs are present and correct.
Another fruit tree guard covered with shade netting.
Sixteen Tilia (Lime) Trees in Leaf Amid Luxuriant Pasture – A Delightful Day In Late Spring
Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 2.6mm rain [74.5] IBOrchard
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Cold Enough For A Fire In The Afternoon
Late afternoon work on putting shade netting on one of the waiting fruit tree guards. Much colder and overcast day – but still better than most of the rest of New Zealand.
It turns out to be quite a painstaking job, it took maybe a couple of hours to sew shade netting to the wire, made difficult because, strange as it may seem, the guards are slightly funnel-shaped, nut perfectly cylindrical. The deer netting, like sheep netting, has evenly spaced vertical wires and alters the size of the gaps by increasing the distance between the horizontal wires going from bottom to top. So in theory you’d think that the distance round the top and bottom would have to be equal given the wire netting was cut up through the middle of one column of cells. But, it turns out that the extra elasticity of the larger cells near the top allows distortion and ends up becoming wider than the bottom. A darn nuisance and hard to make the shade netting skin look neat.
Karola put the sheep into the Front paddock today.
Sheep Following Karola Towards The Front Paddock
Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—15℃ 0.3mm rain [74.5] KBOrchard
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Just A Little Rain (Not Nearly Enough)
SwimGym
Still no sign of the missing picture of Hanna Ormond but Karola found a plate in Rosamund Wilson’s book called The master with the very same photo, showing the long and rather grotesque gold chain that she passed on down the female line and is now held at Burleigh, Karola’s brother Harry’s family home.
We all went into Hastings for the weekend shopping. I had doctor’s appointment as usual every three months – nothing new, which is good.
Warm but overcast day while the rest of New Zealand had a relapse into winter it seems.
Karola did some raking up of the terrible mess (her words) I made by mowing under the big oak. Some good news is that the grass seed Henare and I sowed under the big oak seems to be flourishing – it’s a fescue mix intended for dry conditions and shade so I have high hopes for it.
I mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage – easy at this time of the year as the grass growth slows. Cut high to give it a better chance in the likely drought ahead of us.
Finished the second Mick Herron novella completing all five novels and two novellas in the Slough House series published so far. He’s a good spy novel writer, as Anna told us.
Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ 2.2mm rain [74.5] IBOrchard
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Mislaid Hannah Ormond Framed Photo
Main preoccupation of the day was trying to find a framed photo of Hannah Ormond which was last seen on the mantlepiece in the homestead living room. It was not located today.
For lunch we went to Bostock’s Organic Kitchen and had a plain but enjoyable meal very inexpensively.
Later Karola ferried me to the eye specialist, John Beaumont, for my regular check-up – all much the same since 2015 and before, which is good. He was, as always, running very late and the appointment took a long time as well, about three hours in all.
Finished banging in the five standards per fruit tree guard and distributed mulch round each tree. Watered them, a strong trickle for 15 minutes each in the morning and again this evening.
Seven Fruit Trees – Standards Up & Mulched
Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—28℃ 0.7mm rain [74.5] IKBOrchard
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USA Election Results Not The Disaster I Feared
SwimGym
Karola had a good full night’s sleep for a change.
After a hurried breakfast I drove Karola to her appointment with the foot doctor and while waiting did the mid-week shopping. Afterwards Karola posted Gill some more books in the Mick Herron series and searched for birthday cards suitable for a 77 year old man.
We both did computer stuff, emails etc, until late afternoon, including an enquiry for a Grillo FD280 ride-on grass mower with 280 litre catcher and out-front cutting deck cutting a 113mm wide swathe. We hope to get a demo. I was thinking of a larger model some months ago but the price difference is $10,000 – a bit too much just to get a bigger catcher and means to tip the contents directly onto a trailer.
Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—23℃ no rain [74.6] IKBOrchard
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Melbourne Cup Day
Karola had a dentist appointment late morning and I drove her in, afterwards taking her to Hastings Farmers where she drew a blank and then on towards Napier in case Karola could find what she wanted there. Phone rang when we were almost there and it was Byron wanting to bring a building inspector over to look at the work on the wood burners. So we turned round and went home. Bit of a wasted trip. In addition, when backing out of the dentist’s car park I gently bashed Karola’s new car into a concrete pillar. Nasty paint scrapes and a slight but noticeable bend in the back wheel arch. I am mortified but Karola says she’s not upset – I’m not so sure.
Karola watched the Melbourne Cup horse race live on TV which she has done most years for a long time.
I banged in a few standards but otherwise it was a pretty fruitless day. It happens. I did finish reading “London Rules”, the most recent Mick Herron thriller.
Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ no rain [74.5] IKBOrchard
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November 5th – Maybe Last Time For Private Fireworks
SwimGym
Bangle finished her course of antibiotics this morning.
Karola has a painful toe, has done for a week or so and I finally made her an appointment with her doctor to see what the problem really is. So we all went off around 11:00am for her appointment – and I did the start-week shopping while Karola saw our doctor. Regrouped afterwards and got coffee from the Artisan coffee shop just opposite the surgeries and pharmacy. Off home by way of Farmlands for a litre of thistle killer (Versitil – recommended by Harry yesterday) and then my quarterly blood test.
Rabbits everywhere – a pair or more up at the sheep yards, by the gate into the big shed, on the homestead lawn, under the big oak, everywhere. Also lots of pairs of Californian quail which i like very much. Still plenty of Pukekos but not as many as earlier in the year. Magpies, mynahs, a grey heron (hopefully a pair), the sound of kingfishers – that is, lots of bird life. And this morning I surprised a mallard duck with about a dozen fluffy little ducklings along the top of the ha-ha. They scooted off into cover before I could snap them.
There have been sporadic fireworks over the last few days and tonight a more constant barrage of them has begun. We, most definitely including Bangle – hope they don’t go on into the small hours.
The seven fruit tree guards are all crimped and ready for their skins of shade netting. I can also bang in the five standards per guard having marked their positions this evening.
Karola took the recycling away today in the Landrover and on the way noticed that someone, presumably the council, had slashed the row of native trees lining the road ditch where it passes “The Stables”, across the road from us. The trees were trimmed back to the boundary presumably by the council as part of cleaning out the roadside drain. The slash is all in the drain at present which will not improve drainage.
Council Clears Overhanging Vegetation From Roadside Big Drain
Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—23℃ no rain [74.5] IKBOrchard
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Very Strong Gales & Another (Local – 4.7) Earthquake
The wind gusts were ferocious through the night and into the morning; lots of twigs and leaves on the ground but we’ve not seen any major branches down.
After a very slow start I tackled the Sunday chores – firewood, rubbish bins, etc. Also watered the fruit trees who certainly would benefit from the shelter provided by tree guards with their skin of shade netting. Also, I’ll be applying a thick layer of mulch to keep the moisture in when summer really hits.
Got three more of the seven fruit tree guards crimped up.
Acanthus and Italian Lily are two very invasive plants that while being useful as ground cover and (other) weed suppression in their appointed places are a menace as they invade the rest of the property. They are both showing up round all sides of the homestead, down the 121 driveway, and near the farm shed. I noticed the Acanthus flowering today.
The New Electricity Pole
133 Entrance – The Acanthus Flowering Vigorously
Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—22℃ no rain [73.8] IBOrchard
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Cold Southerly Keeps Us Inside
Although the morning temperature wasn’t so cold, around 10 degrees, it felt cold and the southerly wind was quite bitter.
After listening to the Country Programme as we often do on a Saturday morning, I spent almost all the rest of the day in the homestead very slowly going through a series of tests to try and pin down when the new AV system interfered with the digital terrestrial TV.
I took many TV screen shots showing the signal diagnostics. This also entailed checking that all four of the HDMI extender systems were working, which they are, and that in fact there’s no appreciable interference with the terrestrial signal if only one of the HDMI extenders is plugged in. Also, to my relief, the interference doesn’t seem to be caused by the HDMI Matrix Switch as I feared initially. Interference happens almost exclusively when a second HDMI extender set is plugged in. I’ll need help from Steve Laracy or perhaps even Selwyn Cook to solve this one.
I did have a few breaks during one of which I spied Unison linesmen working on our electricity pole out on Ormond Road. The planned power interruption isn’t due until 15th November but they were switching our supply from the old to a new pole without interrupting the supply which I thought quite adventurous. When I noticed them a linesman was up high in a bucket, cutting the old pole into pieces with a small chainsaw, ’salami slicing’ it. Our power supply comes underground from that pole to the homestead east verandah.
It was cold in the morning and the wind was icy from the south – which had been forecast. I lit the fire mid-morning.
Linesmen Replacing The Old Electricity Pole
One Of Many Rabbit Holes Around The Property – Ankle Hazards For The Unwary
TV Signal Diagnostics Showing Excellent Quality & Strength
Example Of TV Interference When More Than One HDMI-extender Is Plugged In
Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—21℃ 0.3mm rain [74.6] IKBOrchard
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SwimGym & Shopping Takes Up all Friday Morning
SwimGym with Karola – but it’s not called SwimGym any more but Active Fitness. Guess I’ll still refer to it as SwimGym because for us it is that combination which is useful.
After breakfast all three of us went off to town in the Zoe for the weekend shopping. At Mitre-10 I bought another pack of six gutter whiskers plus two extra lengths so that I can complete the experiment on the farm shed and see whether these work better than the mesh solution. So far the ‘whiskers’ look to be doing a good job.
After being embarrassed at the Caltex petrol station while in the Landrover, filling up on diesel (cans) and petrol, and a Harley-Davidson rider asked if I had a “Crescent” (adjustable spanner). I didn’t, oh the shame. So now I have and today I bought a spanner and set of screw drivers for the Zoe. will not be caught like that again.
Also bought another DeWalt 3-metre tape measure to replace the one I’ve lost – it fell off my belt somewhere in the orchard I think.
Then on to New World and thence to Cornucopia (GF bread), and finally picked up a couple of coffees from the Artisan coffee shop in Queen’s Street, across the road from the medical centre.
After lunch I mowed the Goose paddock, mainly to get on top of the Iris which is sprouting up all over the paddock and is not edible by sheep or geese. After that I did a little more work on the fruit tree guards – which should have been finished weeks ago.
The Goose/Ram Paddock – Park-Like After Mowing
Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [74.9] IBOrchard
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Spring Gales
Bangle is still getting her tablets, two a day, morning and evening, disguised in cheese, her tummy seems to be well on way back to normal.
Mowed under the big oak, along the path of the electric fence round the homestead lawn, and along the 121 driveway, which took all afternoon.
Squalls blowing through from the south, cold blasts with occasional rain.
Under The Big Oak After Mowing
Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—14℃ 2.9mm rain [74.7] IBOrchard
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