Monthly Archives: January 2019

Another scorcher as they say. However, before it got too hot I raked up most of the windrows of stalky grass that were from mowing the homestead lawn a few days ago. The grass went under the spreading Feijoa directly north of the homestead.

Mid day I trundled off into town to:

• Pick up the two 2.5L packs of Magnum – anti-flystrike pour-on for the sheep. It’d come up north from another PGG-Wrightsons store.
• Next door in Fruit Fed. bought 100m of 13mm irrigation pipe and a few connectors etc, to lay down irrigation for the 16 Lime trees (Tilia).
• Choose a hat – Karola has mislaid my leather one that is very like Ben Bell’s hat but as they didn’t have that in my size I settled for a lighter, non-leather hat of similar style.
• Take back the two Road Atlas books I bought at the AA the other day under the erroneous impression that they were recent publications, having only found out when I got home that they were the same date as Karola’s “old” 2016 one.
• Get a couple of coffees and a friand from the Artisan Cafe.
• Get a few things from Mitre-10, to wit:
  • A longer dowel for Gill’s fruit-picking wire contraption
  • A pair of gardening gloves as I accidentally mowed the left glove of my favourite pair which did not improve it
  • A pair of plastic boards with handles for picking up leaves and the like

All in all quite a satisfactory way to spend the too-warm middle of the day.

Later, at Karola’s request, I made the homestead room at the top of the stairs suitable as a bedroom for her school friends coming in February. That is, I moved the TVs and associated paraphernalia from there to the “Bee room” just down the corridor – oh and I put back one of the new TVs in the living room in case one of the friends wanted to watch something during their three-day stay.

Raking Up The Cut Grass

Done

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—28℃ no rain [75.1] IBOrchard

SwimGym

Mid afternoon I did the mid-week shopping but also continued my quest for a cheap spare wheel for the Renault Zoe.

The chap at Mag Wheels & Tyres in Karamu Road was very helpful. I now know that no NZ manufacturer or major importer has steel 15” wheels with four bolt holes on a 100mm diameter circle. The stud pattern exists but all the rims are smaller than 15”

I also know that alloy wheel, the next step up from steel, are almost always sold in fours. My hope would be to find a wrecker with a set of 15” alloy wheels of the right sort where one or more were damaged. However, there’s so little call for them that they usually go straight to scrap.

As suggested I revisited Mudgeway in Omahu Road with my new requirements, not a Renault 16” wheel but an alloy 15” wheel with the right studs and spacing. No joy.

I am on my second day of re-installing the latest Apple software on my iMac. It’s going well but over the years I have customised the systems to such an extent that it takes days to re-customise a fresh clean install.

The Faithful Following Their Leader – Hopeful Of Sheep Nuts

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—26℃ no rain [74.8] IKBOrchard

Began in earnest the re-installation of my computer – a fresh, clean installation using the latest production-level operating system from Apple. The beta level I was using had a few peculiarities and I didn’t actually set it up completely so had to recourse to starting up my old computer for things like the GST or referring to older documents.

Henare came over as expected in the afternoon and we put Gill’s fruit-picking wire basket on a temporary long pole made out of Henare’s eeling spear and Henare rapidly picked enough plums. I tried climbing the plum tree for more plums but the fruit is all out on the edges of the drip line and I couldn’t reach.

Later I mowed the cottage curtilage, I did the cottage lawn a couple of days ago. Karola said her mower smelt as if it needed oil and sure enough, it was empty but I had spare so refilled it in an instant.

More little tubs of Rush-Monroe ice-cream and watching re-runs of Jonathan Creek in the cool of the evening.

The cottage hot water seems hotter now that we have two new elements and thermostats installed. Probably an illusion.

Henare Picking Plums With Gill’s Wire Fruit-Picking Basket

Pink Plastic-Coated Wire Fruit-Harvesting Basket In Action

Henare Leaves The Low-Hanging Plums For Us

The Broken Top Thermostat From The Cottage Hot Water Cylinder

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—29℃ no rain [74.7] IBOrchard

SwimGym at the start of a rather warm day.

Dylan (or is it Dillon) Findlay and his sidekick Pete did turn up this morning and, as I’d requested, “made good” their half-finished installation of wood burners so that for February Karola can have her living room and dining room in the house back in a liveable state. They put back the mantlepieces, neatly boarded up the openings, and stored the burners in the homestead garage store room.

One of John Bostocks men came over to ask if we were going to the JB “Day at the races” this year – we said no and, thinking about it, maybe there’s been an invitation and we’ve not RSVP’d.

Peter Judd, Grayson Allen’s “sparky”, came this morning and installed two new elements and thermostats in the cottage hot water cupboard. The top element thermostat was corroded and undoubtedly the cause of the intermittent triggering of the safety switch.

Late morning Graham Harvey called and then dropped in for a chat which turned into scrambled eggs for lunch. He was driving an indestructible ute, the property of the regional fire service and he told us enthusiastically about his work, since 2009, with the local volunteer fire brigade – there are six men on his team and they mostly support the seriously well equipped Hastings fire brigade when forest or scrubland or grass fires erupt in the countryside. Graham has agreed they will be backstop for Anthony Fletcher, our house-sitter later this year when we anticipate going to the UK, so in case Anthony has to bolt back to Wellington for any reason he has somewhere safe and welcoming to leave Bangle.

Ruth, draughtswoman, TXTed to say a bereavement in the family had taken her to Wellington but she’d be back on deck soon and getting on with our project.

I did the Monday shopping and dropped in at the AA to insure the Renault Zoe – something which had slipped my mind for months – not a good sign.

It was so warm in the cottage that I found it irresistible to doze until things cooled off a bit. And found a new word today, “octothorpe”, the proper name for one of these, “#”.

Graham Harvey – Volunteer Fireman (Secretary & Treasurer) Of His Local Rural Brigade

Brand New Rugged Ute – Yet To Be Crammed With Tonnes Of Equipment

Planted This Year, Karola’s “William Bon Chretien” Pear Bears Fruit

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—33℃ no rain [74.8] IBOrchard

Lovely cool night but a blistering sunny day.

It took a while to heat up but became too warm for comfort in the sun by mid morning.

Clipped Bangle’s toes despite a fair bit of wriggling and squeaking – but once done she was immediately ready for some treats. She spent a while eating plums of the big old plum tree the other side of the big oak; hope they agree with her, she doesn’t seem to have ill effects from the unripe apples she’s been chewing when we take her round the orchard.

Karola has been watering the micro-orchard of seven fruit trees, an hour or more of a slow trickle per tree. It’s the best way, given how hard and dry the ground is, if you have the patience.

Swept the farm shed floor, swept the hay off the tractor after its hours and hours of mowing, filled up with 15L diesel.

I mowed the cottage lawn before it heated up and left the tractor and Karola’s lawn mower out assuming I’d do the curtilage in the cool of the evening. But the cool was so slow coming it was dark – so another task for tomorrow.

Karola is watching the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne, two men’s semifinal replays and now the final live. Meanwhile I am making progress on reconfiguring the software on my iMac.

Gill sent me a photo of the latest stage in her propagation experiment using air-layering. She said:

It took both of us to prepare the branch – one supporting it, the other loping the branch from the tree and gently removing the tin foil and plastic from around the sphagnum ball.

There was only one visible string-like root growing around the outside of the sphagnum ball. While holding the sphagnum ball in place the new apple ‘cutting’ was gently lowered into the pot – we used seed growing potting mix as it’s finer than std mix.

The branch was then pruned down to about a third. It is now in a sheltered place to help prevent transpiration stress. So far, so good.

Gill’s Apple Tree – Propagated By Air-Layering

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—32℃ no rain [74.9] KBOrchard

Rewa and one of her sons, Rangitera, and their uncle Henare came over and picked up the load of firewood I’d piled up for them. As our wood-burner in the cottage is so small I discarded all the pieces I thought wouldn’t fit for Henare’s family. Turns out that neither Rewa nor Aira, her mother & Henare’s sister, have large wood burners so they’ll have to split most of the logs – they’re the right length just too fat.

Late afternoon, avoiding the heat of the day, I re-mowed the homestead lawn and got the loose grass into long windrows which will be easier to pick up.

You Can Just See The Windrows

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—26℃ no rain [75.4] IKBOrchard

SwimGym after breakfast then the weekend shopping – and pouf the morning’s gone. While still in Stortford Lodge after the gym I called Vet Services – only 20L drums of Magnum. Then went to PGG-Wrightson’s nearby and the same there, only 20L but, looking at their country-wide network of shops my assistant found 2.5L bottles in Gore and others in the South Island – seems that it’s all drained down south. So I ordered a couple of bottles and they will arrive next week – assuming the online inventories are accurate.

Oh and sometime in the morning Karola popped the ewes in the yards and I poured Zapp onto a spot near the tail direct from the container – no gun/sprayer involved. Withholding for meat is 54 days – that’s poisonous! Ewes the let back into the Middle paddock.

Anna, our eldest daughter, was 50 on 24th 2019. She and eldest son Felix and partner Dave Moss decamped to Ghent in Belgium for a few days – beautiful city in mid-winter (see below).

Ghent is a port city in northwest Belgium, at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. During the Middle Ages it was a prominent city-state. Today it’s a university town and cultural hub. Its pedestrianized center is known for medieval architecture such as 12th-century Gravensteen castle and the Graslei, a row of guildhalls beside the Leie river harbor.

Called Ruth the draughts-woman again for an update – no-one there. Called Dylan Findlay re the wood burners and he said he’ll be round on Monday with his mate Pete to tidy up and put the mantlepieces back so that Karola can entertain her friends in the homestead in February. There are still problems with council approval and it’s obvious that the wood burners will not be installed in time for Karola’s Woodford House class mates in February so after they make good we’ll take a break until March.

Margot from Havelock Hills Security called to say the cottage security alarm didn’t “phone home” last night. I can’t see anything wrong, no strange lights on in the control box so if it happens again tonight we’ll have to call in the experts.

Several hours spent investigating possibility of getting a spare wheel for Karola’s Zoe. A single new wheel from France via our local agent is about NZD $1000 – without the tyre. So I started looking at other options including finding a wheel of the same dimensions at one of the many wheel/tyre retailers across NZ. Also there’s a much cheaper possibility to import a space-saver tyre – some Zoe owners have done that. I don’t think anyone likes the “goo” solution.

Link to site describing car wheel specs – thats worth saving for future reference, it’s a web site listing thousands of car makes and models and their wheel specifications.

On a Renault Zoe with a tyre size of 195/55 R16 – marked on the tyres:

WHEEL SPEC for Q90, R90, R110 with 195/55 R16 tyres
Rim -.-.-.- : 6.5J x 16 ET44
Bolt pattern: 4 x 100
THD -.-.-.- : M12 x 1.5
CB .-.-.-.- : 60.1

… which means what exactly?

Rim: width 6.5 inches, diameter 16 inches with a positive offset of 44mm.

… before you ask:

The wheel offset is measured in millimeters and results in a positive, negative, or zero offset.
Positive offset is when the hub mounting surface is toward the front or wheel side of the wheel. It is common to find a positive offset in newer and front wheel drive vehicles.

A wheel expert told me you could drop the ET44 by a bit, say 5-10 mm for a limp-home spare wheel. I assume the tyre would still need to be precisely right for the rim of course.

Bolt pattern: 4 lugs in a circle of diameter 100mm

THD (thread specs): stud diameter 12mm, thread size 1.5mm

CB (Centre bore): hole in the centre of wheel of 60.1mm

The Zoe manual is very light on any sort of do-it-yourself repairs and so doesn’t describe how to jack a Zoe up without damaging the batteries. Someone has found a technical manual which describes it however, so that isn’t going to be a show-stopper.

Ghent – Charming Old European City

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—22℃ no rain [75.7] IKBOrchard

Grayson Allen from Peak Plumbing came today with his son and determined that one of the elements was leaking. He spoke knowledgeably and at length to Karola about hot water cylinders and their foibles. His plan is to replace both upper (leaking) and lower element and if it still looks serviceable once extracted, suggests we keep the lower one as a spare.

Karola & I did a bit of sheep work in the afternoon, gathering the ewe lambs into the yards, then getting the two rams in a separate pen and dosing them with the last of the Magnum. Released the rams back into the Long Acre and Karola then brought the 21 ewes from the Middle paddock into the Holding paddock. Thus allowing Karola to take the ewe lambs out of the yards, across the now vacated Middle paddock and into the Front paddock. It’s like one of those flat square puzzles where you slide pieces around to make a picture, having only one spare space to move to – or like a 2D Tower of Hanoi. Magnum has a withholding for meat period of zero days.

Later I tractor-mowed the homestead lawn. Despite being grazed by the sheep there was lots of grass left lying and so when it’s dried out a bit I’ll try to re-mow the loose “hay” into ridges that will be easier to pick up.

Homestead “Lawn” – Yeah, Right

Mowing The Homestead Lawn/Paddock

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—18℃ no rain [75.6] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola

Then, while it was still relatively cool I finished mowing under the big oak and also mowed round the front of the homestead, down the drives etc.

Mid-week shopping

In the heat of the afternoon Karola watched the India-NZ cricket game on TV, it was played on the cricket grounds in Napier. Karola says the Indian cricketers were a delight to watch.

In the cool of the evening after Bangles walk I took up the electric fence from round the homestead lawn. Pushed the ewes through into the Middle paddock. While doing that I noticed the corpse of ewe #522, I guess she died in the last day or so – no obvious cause.

Under The Big Oak

Circle In Front Of The Homestead

The 121 Driveway

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—30℃ 0.7mm rain [75.6] IBOrchard

After a late start we took the lamb bolus appliance back to Vet Services and then Karola went to Bay Audiology to see if they could fix her new expensive self-charging hearing aids. It turns out they need cleaning regularly and we just hadn’t understood that – the solution was with us. Anyway the young lady at Bay Audiology was patient and polite and we got the information we needed.

Bridget has had some success in tightening their flying fox cable using the winch I gave Chris a few years ago. Bridget has also made great strides in preparing their living room for transformation into a spacious kitchen/dining area, light and airy.

Ivan Alach, our electrician, dropped in to see what the job entailed -providing electricity to three TV recessed cable boxes in the homestead.

Henare & Scott came and had a coffee and ice-cream and a chat then borrowed Karola’s mower to do their lawn.

I started tractor mowing under the big oak but was waylaid by Henare bringing back the mower – it has lost a bolt and the petrol tank is flopping around. By the time Henare left it was dark. I did notice that the old plum tree fruit is almost ripe and found a couple to sample, very nice.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—26℃ no rain [75.9] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola. Upon our return we noticed that a medium-sized but heavy oak branch had fallen onto one of the pair of metal gates at the 121 entrance, squashing it.

Karola went into Hastings and checked with Tony’s Tyre Service – Zoe is mended.

Hastings Honda called to say they’d sold our 5-year old Honda mower for $760 – they were selling “on behalf”. We bought it for just over $2000 on 14th February 2014 so that’s quite a good price I think.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage at lunchtime, earlier than usual. Meanwhile Karola returned from doing the Monday shopping.

The wind was gusting furiously in the night and intermittently throughout the morning – not a good time to do sheep work.

Karola took me into town and I picked up Zoe with her two new, matching, Michelin tyres. The tyre technician is strongly against the use of the goo to fix punctures. Not only does it ruin the tyre even if otherwise it could have been mended, but it damages the pressure sensors if you have them (Zoe does), and is highly toxic to humans. That made me determined to follow Iain Middleton’s advice and eschew any further use of goo-based puncture fixes in favour of having a spare wheel with a normal albeit second-hand tyre.

I took down the electric fence from round the big oak and finished mowing the cottage curtilage.

Henare dropped in for a coffee and chat – he hurt his knee on an orchard ladder and made it much worse by ignoring it and carrying on picking for another two weeks. Now he is off work and slowly the knee is recovering.

Gate At 121 Entrance Crushed ByFall Of Heavy Oak Branch

Renault Zoe’s Punctured Tyre

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—26℃ no rain [76.1] IBOrchard

Karola checked her sheep, the lambs in the Long Acre, the ewes still in the Front paddock with access to the homestead lawn and under the big oak.

Gill & Ben set off late morning for Wellington, over the Saddle road (the Manawatu Gorge road being permanently closed), and down the west coast. Big holdups into Otaki and more on State Highway 1, between Paikakariki and Pukerua Bay.

Early evening until nightfall I mowed the cottage lawn.

Gill Sends Me Photo Of Driver’s Delight – Mile After Mile Of Tailback

Karola’s One Acre Paddock – Lucerne, Red Clover, Phalaris In Flower

Cottage Lawn With Two Weeks Growth

Bangle’s “Bridle Path” Out To The Orchard

Cottage Lawn Mowing Complete As The Sun Sets

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—28℃ no rain [76.5] IKBOrchard

After a lengthy breakfast I, Gill & Ben went to Napier stopping first at Jenny Hendery’s place where I cut a few branches off an old peach tree with my trusty chain saw.

Then we went down into Napier’s CBD and looked for somewhere for lunch, ending up at what used to be Divine’s in Hastings street, now called Ajuna Eatery. A substantial brunch. Then some food shopping in Chantal Organics.

On to the National Aquarium and a happy couple of hours going round the exhibits.

Back home for afternoon tea, siesta, then a rather good cheese soufle made by Karola with some of Lyn Sturm’s GF chocolate cake to follow.

A quiet if rather warm and muggy evening watching episodes of pre-recorded TV.

National Aquarium – Napier – Penguin Enclosure

National Aquarium – Napier – Giant Ray And Friends Being Fed

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—29℃ no rain [76.6] IKBOrchard

SwimGym

Quite a big weekend shop – in the Landrover as the Zoe is still out of commission. It included picking up 15 zinc lamb boluses and the applicator from Vet Services.

The Honda lawn mower was ready after it’s service and so I went to collect it but instead left it there to be sold “on behalf” because with the Grillo arriving next month we’ll have a surfeit of mowers.

Karola & I cut back flax along the driveway to the cottage, it was slapping the vehicles and the seed stalks were making quite a bang.

Gill & Ben came mid day and settled in, and we had afternoon tea.

I realised we were low on Magnum and Karola wanted to pour on Magnum on all the sheep as the conditions seem ideal for flystrike and many of the sheep are rubbing, probably because of lice.

As arranged, Karl & Wendy (and assorted grandchildren) came late afternoon and Karl popped the boluses into all 12 ewe lambs and sprayed them all with the remains of the old canister of Magnum (withholding period for meat of zero days)

Gill & Ben went out for dinner with Charles Dougherty & party. We were unexpectedly asked to dinner with Noel & Jenny to share a gift of fresh fish.

A parishioner and friend went out early in a boat, 34km offshore, and their catch included a large grouper which Jenny turned into a delicious dinner for four.

Karola With Jenny & Noel Hendery In Their Napier Bluff Home With Splendid Outlook

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—25℃ no rain [76.4] IBOrchard

Well, much excitement today because as Karola went to have her hair done she discovered that the Zoe had a flat tyre – rear wheel behind the driver.

Karola barrelled off in her Subaru while I sat down to read the manual. Nothing about actually changing tyres but some info about a temporary puncture repair kit.

Actually it isn’t bad – works for small holes through the tread of the tyre anyway. The repair works like “bars leaks” for radiators, a sticky syrup of chemicals which plugs the hole for a while.

There is no spare tyre, not even a little temporary one, and the tyres are not the run-flat design. The repair kit comprises an air pump powered off the cigarette lighter (12v supply), and a bottle of goo. It works just like the garden hose applicators of seaweed fertiliser. You attach the hose to the bottle and the bottle to the tyre using the usual valve. Set it going and pump it up until the gauge gets to the pressure shown on the label on the driver-side door – the edge of the door. Took about ten minutes to pump up. Coats the inside of the tyre with goo at the same time.

Talked to our salesman in Taupo and he assured us that while the tyre was not common it was a standard tyre, not unique to the Zoe or to Renault. So we booked Zoe in to Tony’s Tyre Service to let their technicians decide exactly what the tyre model was and to order a replacement. I started off in Zoe trailed by Karola in the Subaru in case I had trouble. I hadn’t got through the gateway before a vivid display on the panel came up saying STOP – PUNCTURE. Obviously I ignored it. Richard at Taupo (EV Central) said after injecting with the goo the tyre was unusable so I didn’t see how abusing it a bit more would be bad. I crawled down to Hastings and Tony’s Tyre Service, mostly in the cycle lane, with hazard flashers going.

Technicians instantly found something wrong with the front tyre on the driver’s side, a bulge as if the wall had been damaged by a rock or high curb or something, they opined it was road works that done it. So we’re up for two new tyres. I insisted on having two tyres of exactly the same brand as the originals – Michelin (what a surprise, for a French car). The technicians wriggled – wanting me to have their “in stock” brand, even went so far as to ring the local Renault agents and get assurance that mixing brands wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t budge and it turns out the price for the Michelin and Tony’s Tyre Service in-house brand are about the same. So we wait for the Michelin tyres to come down from Auckland.

I took Bangle round the orchard this morning as she missed out last night. Picked the Runner Beans on the way – some for us and some for Gill & Ben et al.

Gill & Ben came round for afternoon tea and suggested they’d like to stay in Hawkes Bay for another couple of days so they’ll come and sleep here on Friday & Saturday.

Usually the nights are cool and the days warm or hot but recently even the nights have been warm. Enter the fan.

Dyson Fan Rotates & Tilts Too – “Not Many People Know That”

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—27℃ 0.1mm rain [76.1] IKBOrchard

SwimGym.

Lots of rain all day. I did the Midweek shopping. Much of the day I spent on computer work – slow progress but progress.

Dinner with the gang at Rasoi, the new Indian restaurant on Marine Parade in Napier: Karola & me & Peter & Charlotte & Gill & Ben.

Didn’t have to wait so very long. Huge number of choices and what we ordered was delicious. Quite spicy; needed the rice to tame it a little.

Bangle was fed before we left but pretty pleased to see us four hours later.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—22℃ 13.8mm rain [75.6]

Gill & Ben invited us and Peter & Charlotte to lunch at Birdwood cafe on Middle road, Havelock North. It was Gill’s & Ben’s meal out celebrating their significant day 30 years ago. That was when they married, after living together for nearly 6 years, and moved into 66 Seatoun Heights Road in Wellington, a house with spectacular views over the harbour towards the eastern bays.

As usual the staff and menu may change but the excellent Birdwood food and ambiance continues.

Graham & Tracey were expected for afternoon tea with their dog, Toffee, photo below. I am assured it isn’t a “Beastly Frizzle” (Bichon Frise). Tracey mailed to say they couldn’t make it so will come another time when they’re down from their home 45 minutes up the Napier-Taihape road.

Graham & Tracey’s Current Favourite – Toffee

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—22℃ 22.6mm rain [75.0] IKBOrchard

SwimGym quite late and Karola & Bangle did the start-of-week shopping at the same time.

Rained on and off all day, not a lot of rain but enough to stave off the evil day when watering trees becomes necessary.

Inside doing computer stuff, as is becoming a bit repetitive and likely to continue.

Meticulous Maids arrived mid afternoon just as Gill & Ben dropped in for afternoon tea. Meticulous Maids withdrew gracefully and, as we’re fairly busy this week, will reset and come fortnightly on a Monday beginning next week.

Ruth Vincent, our draughtsman for the homestead renovations, came today and took key measurements from the homestead so that she can proceed with the drawings. She will contact Paul Libby, our builder, to arrange for the porte cochere roof truss designs.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—19℃ 19.4mm rain [75.1] IKBOrchard

Karola set off in the Subaru to Bulls where she had planned to meet Justine Haylock at Lethenty and pick up some old tapestries that Justine didn’t want. Karola was carrying a photo of a tapestry that went missing from Karamu in the 1980s but sadly the Lethenty tapestries were different. Karola returned with two pieces of needlework and with three chairs she bought from Justine. They are wheelback chairs like the two that have been in Karamu for decades and very similar to the one we have from Ian’s grandfather, Jack Amsden. Jack died long ago while we were living in England and we have a few pieces of his furniture that we’ve taken with us wherever we go ever since. Justine expects to sell Lethenty, another early 1900s two-storey timber house in a grand style but not well suited to the way we live these days.

While Karola was away I watered the little red beech saplings, heeled in to one of Karola’s raised beds. I also put up electric fence round the big oak and joined it to the fence round the homestead lawn to the delight of the ewes who were already a bit bored with the homestead lawn. The ewes were very content under the big oak, munching away until Karola chased them back to the Front paddock for the night.

Then I tractor-mowed the drives, quite dusty work, showered and went upstairs in the cottage to continue my researches. At the same time I set the Zoe to charge up as it was, for the first time, down to 20% charge.

Karola returned around 4:00pm so it wasn’t a particularly long day – but it was a drive of about 400km.

Gill & Ben drove up to Hawkes Bay today; they’re staying with Peter & Charlotte in Havelock North. They are coming up hoping to experience some of our hotter weather as part of their investigation of new places to live, in effect they’re considering down-sizing and finding a house more suitable for when they’re older. Havelock North may be the place. Unfortunately the weather is being unseasonably wet.

The Three Chairs From Lethenty

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—26℃ 2.8mm rain [75.0] IKBOrchard

It rained on and off all morning so most outside tasks were ruled out. I frittered away the day trying to understand a slew of 3rd party Apple apps for email, search, and so on, still seeking the holy grail of tools and workflows that will organise my many emails, files, to-dos, and so on. Each time I get close I seem to find some feature or other that isn’t available, so I’m back to searching again.

Tonight I rented and watched the film Iain Middleton recommended, Ex Machina – enjoyable sci-fi with some stunning scenery, lovely female robots, and mind-bending philosophising.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—22℃ 2.7mm rain [75.6] IKBOrchard

SwimGym after which I caught up on my backlog of Economists for an hour or so.

Then Karola & I went for the weekend shopping and posted the Economists to the Rashbrookes in Wellington – ten copies going back to August so probably only the science and literary articles are likely to be relevant still.

Gill & Ben said goodbye to Ben’s twin brother Paul and his wife Jean yesterday so they are winging their way back to another winter of discontent in England while Gill & Ben relax before coming to Hawkes Bay at the weekend for a week.

The single Welcome Swallow chick has become three today – they’re pretty tame and already swooping and diving in flight.

Steve Shaw, the arborist, came with a colleague and workmate, Jack Taylor, to park Jack’s ute here rather than driving two vehicles all the way to Porangahau overnight. Steve said he was over half way through assessing the health of the oak avenue trees for the council, over 220 trees assessed so far.

Bangle spent almost all day under the house where it’s coolest. Inside she goes under the stairs and puts her head on the special blue pet’s cool pad – that, at Bridget’s suggestion, Chris gave me for Christmas.

Three Welcome Swallow Chicks Just Below My Upstairs Cottage Window

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—32℃ 2.3mm rain [75.1] IKBOrchard

The woodsmen made an early start and continued all day. They left things tidy, even mended the broken wires in the fence.

Seems very hot and muggy today. Hard to work inside or out.

In the morning I reconstituted the electric fence round the homestead lawn, mending the wire that Henare chopped through with the mower. This only took a couple of hours and then the ewes gleefully stormed onto the fresh grass.

Jenny Price dropped in unexpectedly and we took her to lunch at the Omahu road Bay Espresso – except it’s called Lappuccino now. Bay Espresso still do thier coffee roasting round the back which is why we smelled the roasting coffe even though Lappuccino was shut earlier in the week.

Janet Scott dropped by for a chat with Karola.

All The Large Logs – 2 Walnuts & A Thuja Trunk

The Chipped And Shredded Remains

Walnut No More By The Farm Shed

Walnut No More Overhanging The Homestead Garage

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—31℃ no rain [74.6] IKBOrchard

Jonathan Boyle’s SuperiorExterior tree gang came today and began the destruction of two large walnut trees and the trunk of a tall Thuja, all that was left of the Thuja after storms ravaged it over the decades.

Compared to previous gangs this team of three seemed, on the odd occasions I went and talked to them, to lack the go-factor. And, like Jonathan’s gang that felled the old English Beech a year or so ago, they are not exceptionally careful. When doing the beech tree (Fagus) their digger broke the edge of the grass bridge, This time they’ve broken the top wires of an adjacent 7-wire fence. Still, they’re doing what I cannot so I will grin and fix it later.

I did go shopping once the gang were briefed, they are particularly pleasant and polite, too hot to take Karola or Bangle. Spent the rest of the day on my current quest to find out and implement the latest best practice for handling emails – though I have nothing like the volume of mail the experts do.

Karola turned the St Andrews tea towel into a wall hanging and we hung it in the cottage dining room (see below). I mowed the cottage curtilage, completing the mowing I began yesterday, and screwed in the slats of the upper hot water cupboard shelf, completing that job too.

Tea Towel Art: St Andrews Students Promenading On The Quay

Target 1: Walnut Tree Overhanging The Homestead Garage

Target 2: Walnut Tree Near Farm Shed – Produced Bumper Annual Rat Feast Of Inedible Nuts

Target 3: Thuja That Lost It’s Top Many Years Ago & Died A Few Years Ago

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—26℃ no rain [74.8] IKBOrchard

Late start and rest of the morning doing emails etc. Karola & I went off to town, unusual for a Tuesday, and I bought a couple of summer short-sleeved Aertex shirts having given up trying to locate any long-sleeved ones – long sleeved are better in this skin-cancer prone climate. Also got some dowel for Karola – she’s hanging the St Andrews tea towel picturing a line of students in their red and black gowns promenading along a quay side – Anna sent it at Christmas. Tried to buy another Dyson Table Fan – AM06 white/silver but Harvey Norman were sold out and only had the enhanced function ones costing almost double.

Later, online, I found the same article being offered for $50 less through another chain, Farmers, so I bought it and it will be delivered here next week.

After dinner which included another helping of fresh runner beans, picked today, I mowed the cottage lawn and a track from the cottage gate up to the farm gate into the orchard, this latter being an attempt to have somewhere free of the terrible barley grass to walk Bangle up to the orchard.

Re-assembled the lower of two airing shelves in the cottage hot water cupboard.

Much of the day spent on finding out about software and best practices for personal productivity on the Apple iThings. At this rate it’ll take a most extraordinary set of productivity recommendations to recoup the time spent reading and investigating – but it is enjoyable.

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—25℃ no rain [74.8] IBOrchard

Little bit of rain late afternoon, every bit is welcome. Certainly warm although overcast today and rather muggy.

Meticulous Maids were expected – to clean the cottage – but didn’t come so I expect our fortnightly calendar is off by a week from theirs.

Wrote to the travel agent and to Anna to start planning our 2019 OE (Overseas experience). If things work out we’ll go to the UK and to Warsaw on this trip but it being after BREXIT exit day (29 March 2019) we may be better getting Polish visas on our NZ passports. Early days yet and it may not work out with Anna & Dave.

From the BBC:

What is the ‘transition’ period?

It refers to a period of time after 29 March, 2019, to 31 December, 2020 (or possibly later), to get everything in place and allow businesses and others to prepare for the moment when the new post-Brexit rules between the UK and the EU begin. It also allows more time for the details of the new relationship to be fully hammered out. Free movement will continue during the transition period, as the EU wanted. The UK will be able to strike its own trade deals – although they won’t be able to come into force until 1 January 2021. This transition period is currently only due to happen if the UK and the EU agree a Brexit deal.

But if there is no agreement then UK passports wouldn’t necessarily get us into Poland.

Computer work most of the day while Karola delves into the wartime exploits of her mother and the places she travelled to in the UK during the war.

First Pickings Of Runner Beans – Eaten Fresh Tonight

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—28℃ 4.1mm rain [74.6]

Attempted to re-assemble the front framework and doors to the hot water cylinder in the cottage. Doors and front were no problem after we’d sanded a bit off the bottom of the bottom door. The door catch broke but after fifteen minutes bashing this and that it is working again albeit with a short lifespan I’m imagining. The shelves were much more of a problem, nicely labelled though they were as top or bottom and 0 – 7 front-to-back. Problem was that the old screw and nail holes stubbornly refused to line up and I have no idea where bottom-zero board is to go. The likely places have no holes matching the holes in said plank. I finally gave up and we’ll ask Paul the builder to just come and show us what goes where.

Enjoyable emails are coming in from several of the people we sent our 2018 email newsletter – full of news. Added one more recipient, Susan Hasslocher, who had accidentally been left off. Did a bit of a spring clean of our shared online contacts list making separate groups for ‘ian’, ‘karola’, ‘business’, ‘whitelisting’, and one for the 2018 distribution list.

Janet Scott from next door came for a chat with Karola and bearing Tangelos.

Peter Offenberger called mid afternoon suggesting we all go out for dinner at Kilim in Napier – which we did and it was enjoyable and a good interruption to our at-home Sunday activities. Breaking with (my) tradition I had Lamb Guvech which, gluten-free, was just right for me. In the past I have always had Adana Iskender, a Turkish traditional hot and spicy minced lamb and beef dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—29℃ no rain [74.6] IBOrchard

Fairly calm this morning so I weed sprayed the gravel around the septic tank as I intended yesterday.

Recorded six hours of TV, the last six episodes of “800 Words” – a sort of “Coronation Street” with sunshine set in northern New Zealand.

Released the dozen red beech by the 133 entrance from the invasion of convolvulus which threatens to suffocate everything in its path. Eleven of the original 13 are still alive. Also checked on the older red beech on the other side of the 133 gateway, near the big Lime tree (Tilia) – all still growing and with heads above the weeds. Later I weeded the red beech saplings heeled into one of Karola’s raised beds. The weeds were ferocious as I’d not weeded for six weeks but at least 15 of the red beech are still showing green leaves.

Karola cut down her Cardoon architectural plants in the octagon under the Canary Island palm tree a few days ago and I carted them and other branches and debris from the palm tree and the adjacent Liriodendron, a full load on the big trailer, to the long compost heap running parallel to and very close to the avenue road fence behind the homestead garage.

WeedS-Be-Gone From Around The “Hynds Waste Management System”

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—25℃ no rain [75.2] IKBOrchard

SwimGym mid morning while Karola did the weekend shopping. Karola was held up by traffic in down-town Hastings and whole waiting I oticed there was a sale on R.M.Williams shirts at the saddlery shop so bought the last two long-sleeved shirts in my size at half price.

There was only the gentlest of breezes so I reluctantly got on with weed spraying:

• round the base-boards of the cottage and parts of the cottage perimeter railings
• the cottage tear-drop driveway and in front of the cottage garage
• the large gravel area south of the homestead, where the cottage used to be
• the limestone driveway/entrance to the homestead garage

I forgot to do round the septic tank – annoying. For the first hour I was displeased with the low pressure in the knapsack sprayer, however hard I pumped. Inspection showed that a bolt was missing and my flailing up and down wasn’t actually doing much pumping so I fixed that and suddenly the pressure was excellent.

Then hot and bothered I spent the rest of the day reading and snoozing. As it cooled in the evening we took Bangle for a walk and then drafted the flock into sheep and lambs, putting the lambs in the Long Acre and the ewes in the Front paddock, as far apart as possible. There’s not been a lot of bleating since. The lambs tend to ignore electric fences but the ewes know better so we can let the ewes have the homestead lawn whole keeping the lambs safe behind conventional fences in the Long Acre.

Pink Dye Marks The Sprayed Areas – South Of The Homestead

Limestone Gravel Leading To The Homestead Garage

Driveway Leading To The Cottage Garage

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—27℃ no rain [75.1] IKBOrchard

Took the mower that broke when Henare was using it to Honda in Hastings, asked them to service it and fix the propulsion engaging cable aka clutch cable I guess. Also I remarked that it really was too heavy for me – fine on the long stretches but too heavy to manoeuvre for fiddly bits – so would they like to buy it back.

I tractor-mowed under the belt of trees along the west boundary, near the sheep yards. It was a bit late for this as the lily, nettles, and wild grasses were a bit thicker and longer than makes for a good cut.

But basically it was too hot to do much except get into the coolest shadiest place and read or doze.

Karl & one of his grandsons came in the afternoon and administered the anti-Facial Eczema zinc boluses to all 22 ewes, the ram, and the ram lamb. The ewes and ewe lambs were all together but we only had boluses and an applicator for the grown-ups plus a couple of lamb-sized boluses. So the ewes and ram got adult boluses and Karl administered a lamb bolus to the ram lamb with his fingers – rather him than me.

Nettles and Weeds Gone From Under The Large Oak In The Totara Paddock

More Park-Like Now It’s Mown – Looking South Towards the Sheep Yards

Karola & Bangle Survey The Mowing

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—31℃ no rain [76.1] IKBOrchard

Pretty warm after a cool misty start. There was no SwimGym today, the day after New Years Day as it is a public holiday and SwimGym is closed.

Karola & I spent most of the day writing emails related to Christmas. Yesterday I composed our 2018 term report and sent out 26 individual emails with it. Today I did the final 25 and feel uncharacteristically guilt-free.

In the evening I tractor-mowed the Goose/Ram paddock – a good thing to do after the sheep have eaten all the palatable grass to the ground, creating what you might call a “level playing field” for good grasses and anything else green and growing.

Goose Paddock Looking North

Goose Paddock Looking North-East

Goose Paddock Looking South

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—31℃ no rain [76.1] IKBOrchard

Henare called at 8:30am to say that, unknown to him, son Scott and his partner Coco had been down from Hamilton staying in Havelock North for three days. There’s ill-feeling from Denise, Henare’s wife, about this liaison although they’ve been a couple for years. So Scott didn’t let anyone, especially his mother, know. Upshot was that on their way back to Hamilton they and Henare dropped in and Karola took them on a short walk round the orchard with Bangle – Bangle by the way was a hit with Coco.

Karola spent much of the day emailing and sending cards, replying to people whom she’d lost touch with but who sent her a card or email this year. Another hot day here, or so it felt although yesterday was hotter.

I finally got round to creating a newsletter summarising 2018.

Scott Ormond and his partner Coco

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—26℃ no rain [75.3] IBOrchard