Monthly Archives: February 2020

Today, now we have the real thing in-situ, was spent planning how to connect it to the surrounding railings.

I popped down to GoldPine and bought posts and railings until the trailer sagged under the weight. On the way back I photographed each of the four entrances with cattle-stops – all very old.

The main complication for me is that the side railings are angled so that vehicles wider than 3.4 metres can get through as long as at wheel level they can fit through. At the top of the railings, about 900mm up from the pipes, it’ll be 4 metres wide if everything works out. The side railings will be 3 metres long so that the actual cattle-stop at 2.4 metres long nestles inside the railings. I expect to have a small pedestrian gate on either side so that Bridget and her daughters can get their bicycles through comfortably, for example.

Karola helped unload the wood and cut up the side railings; the 4.8 metre long planks are unwieldy without help.

Timber For Sidings Cut And Ready

Four Cattle-Stops On Ormond Road

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—30℃ no rain [75.7] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola and Bangle, then shopping and hair cuts with Karola but not Bangle – day quickly heating up and cars not good for dogs in those circumstances.

I happened to be passing some of the traps and saw Mark had caught a hedgehog, which I released, and possum number 25 since 1st December.

Mark did a thorough mow of the west side of the 121 driveway, including around the Rangiora and up to the goose paddock fence. He then spent most of the afternoon on blackberry from the 133 entrance north towards the 145 entrance. He’s about half way there. Just before his day ended he made a good fist of uprooting the iris under the main feijoa tree directly north of the house.

Despite asking all involved to call me before swinging the cattle-stop into place, they didn’t call me, they didn’t call Paul. late afternoon I spied a big truck with integral crane pulling away and found they’d dumped it and run. It all seems to be there and pretty much in the right place so I guess I mustn’t grumble. Paul came round when I told him it had arrived and checked it out. Now the next thing is for me to dig in the posts for the cattle-stop side rails, then I’ll call Paul and he’ll get the pipes set up and the ground surrounding the cattle-stop filled with gravel and compacted.

Guy at Newport Auto-Electricians called to say that the locksmiths had made four calls to try and get the Landrover going to no avail so he’s chasing an “immobilisation bypass” that won’t need the chip and its secrets to work. More on that next week.

After dinner I mowed tracks in the One Acre, two diagonal paths for electric fence cutting the lucerne into four fairly equal pieces, each with its own gate.

The New Cattle-Stop Has Arrived

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—26℃ no rain [75.9] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Karl came with wife Wendy at just before 10:00am and they attended to the sheep as planned. Karl didn’t think any of the ewes needed crutching so he gave all the ewes and lambs a bolus each, to ward off facial eczema, followed by spraying with magnum to repel any nasty blowflies which intended to cause the dreaded fly-strike. And the lambs all got a drench against the lethal Barber’s Pole worm – we lost seven ewe lambs in a week to that particular parasite a couple of years ago.

Mark came and continued with pruning the Griselinia hedge along the south boundary alongside the stump dump. He finished that and began mowing the 121 driveway and behind the house garage.

Dennis from Lattey’s and Paul Wheatley came and looked at the cattle-stop job. The plan is to load the cattle-stop onto a hiab truck (onboard crane) at Latteys and bring it here and unload directly into place. Probably tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile I dashed into town because the last slices of my special and delicious paleo GF bread had gone mouldy. I took the opportunity to drop in to Saw Doctors and Sean sharpened my largest high-speed metal drill – for nothing, as apparently I’m a good customer with my requests for buying and sharpening chainsaw chains and Silky pruning saws. Picked up a few bits fropm New World and got my loaf of paleo bread from OMG, the specialty bakery. Keeping the loaf in an air-tight container certainly stopped it drying out into an extremely tough loaf but to stop the mould I must put it in the fridge as well. So I dropped in on The Storage Box and got the smallest air-tight container I could – the assistant knew exactly what I needed because she too is a fan of that OMG bread.

I mowed the cottage lawn – albeit there was very little grass to mow.

As Karola, Bangle, and I began our walk round the orchard this evening I made final adjustments to the little gate from the planting area into the orchard by the big shed.

New Stay Post And Re-Hung Little Gate Near The Orchard Shed

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—26℃ no rain [75.9] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym with Karola, both very sleepy.

Karola got Bangle a vet appointment because of her leg. She’s been favouring it and limping for several days. We can’t find a prickle, there’s no heat in her paw or leg, so we are puzzled.

Got ready to go to Hamoana to Patrick & Lis’s New Zealand summer bolt-hole for lunch. They go back home to Perth next week.

Rang Paul to see when the cattle-stop was arriving. It seems there’s been some hitches. The instructions clearly say the two heavy pieces of the cattle-stop will arrive on a truck ready to be lifted off by crane and laid in place. Pity that the trucking firm decided to send them in a covered truck. The immediate solution to that was to have the truck go down to Lattey’s Civil Engineering, where the cranes are, and unload it there – which they did with a fork-lift. Paul checked that everything was there and sent the delivery truck on its way.

Then some urgent problem meant that the big crane was whisked away for the rest of the day. So now the plan is to re-load the cattle-stop tomorrow onto a truck with an integral hiAB (substantial crane), bring it here and uload straight off the truck into place.

Delicious lunch at Hamoana, other guest was Ross Denton, then off to the vets. Rebecca the vet examined Bangle and, like us, could find no cause for the limping and no sign of discomfort so she’s given us three days of anti-inflamatory pills for Bangle and we’ll see what happens.

Mark spent the afternoon heaping up the leaves and periwinkle along the roadside from the 121 entrance down to the Scott’s boundary. Big piles and also a rubbish-bin full of bottles and plastic.

Mark caught a rat at last, near the farm shed. Lure was cheese fragments in peanut butter.

I finished staking up the Pacific Yew that Karola planted under the Camellia near the Summer House – due to the heavy cover of Camellia branches it’d grown sideways to find some light and now Mark & I have reclaimed that area from the thickets of blackberry, Camellia branches, and periwinkle it has light from above and may straighten out.

Re-hung the little gate into the planting area from the orchard shed.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—24℃ no rain [75.9] IBOrchard Mark=4

Paul and Gareth came this morning and excavated the bed for the cattlestop which arrives tomorrow.

Negotiations as to how to get the large crane (truck is 2.4 metres wide and 11 metres long, not articulated) to the inside side of the hole. That way the delivery truck backs in to the edge of the excavation, the crane reaches over from the opposite side, plucks up first one section then the other, and lowers them gently into place.

Dennis is the crane driver and he came to reconnoitre – he remembered me from when he and Graeme Cameron (Tricky Trees) cut down a big gum on the roadside fence line. Lattey Civil Engineering have provided a crane for several things over the years including moving the old wash-house, moving the old square red water tank, lifting a huge broken branch off the big oak, and maybe more.

Mark came after lunch and, at Karola’s suggestion, he trimmed the box hedge along the 133 back driveway. This happens to be just in time for the attempt, tomorrow, to bring the big crane in through that driveway.

I spent the morning working out what Heritage New Zealand (Laura Kellaway) is actually asking for as additional information. I’m dithering between just adding more to Ruth’s original plans from last June and ignoring Graham Linwoods largely cosmetic changes, or going with what Graham has sketched. The next step is for Karola, me, Ruth, and Graham to have a meeting to decide how to complete the assignments from Laura.Had a good call with Ruth and she agreed to participate.

James Russell (Jimmy Rural) returned my call and will look out a Texel ram lamb for us to be here in the next week or so. As Karola very much desires, the ram will be here for a couple of months then James will buy him back.

Late afternoon, after Mark had gone, I replaced the broken stay post next to the little gate from the planting area into the orchard by the big shed.

Large tabby cat seen stalking across the Totara paddock.

Paul & Gareth Creating The Smooth, Firm, Level Bed For The Cattle-Stop

Gareth Compacting The Gravel Pad

Ready For The Cattle-Stop

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—22℃ no rain [76.1] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym with Karola

Monday shopping with Karola – got 25kg of kibbled maize in case the whole maize is contributing to the recent dove deaths.

Made a few calls to set things moving:

• Called Karl and he is coming on Thursday to give all the sheep anti-facial eczema “boluses”, to spray them with Magnum against fly-strike, to drench the 2019 lambs against Barber’s Pole worms, to provide a pre-tupping crutch to any ewes needing it. Karola is relieved.
• Called ChemWash and he’ll be coming to wash the sides of the cottage in a couple of weeks.
• Called Power Farming to discuss selling the mid-mounted Kioti mower – they are to call back
• Called Jimmy Rural about the ram – he’ll call back

Mark spent the afternoon cleaning up the 121 entrance, moving heaps of leaf litter and periwinkle to the bund. There’s another afternoon’s work to complete it.

Meanwhile I began topping the Griselinia hedge that forms an “L” shape round the stump dump in the south-eastern corner. The leg of the “L” along the avenue isn’t very tall – lack of sun and water due to the avenue oaks and plane trees – but along the south boundary the Griselinia is tall and beginning to act like an avenue of trees rather than a hedge. So I am cutting the tops off to bring it in line with the roadside hedge and cutting back the branches encroaching on the neighbour’s land.

Another dying dove today but I also saw six live ones so somehow our flock is getting recruits.

Southern Boundary Griselinia Hedge – Partway Through Topping

Today’s Griselinia Slash Laid Out For Sheep

Mark Made The 121 Entrance Neat And Tidy

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ no rain [76.1] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Well, this has not been the best week for the doves. With another two found dead today near the eucalypts in the Front paddock that means six of ten have died. I saw four this evening, which tallies. I wonder if the whole maize grain is just too much for them – Karola wondered if it was the food. Both maize and wheat are intended for animal consumption so it’s very unlikely they have been coated in poisons.

Spent another half day putting up electric fence. This ime I was distracted by the wysteria again growing through the homestead verandah floor so cut back and poisoned those runners. The fence is up and shocking – which is a good thing. I let the ewes in and they were delighted. The electric fence includes all around the big oak and the homestead lawn. Because it’s summer and most plants have died back or gone brown I included the grass in front of the homestead, around the ginkgo and along the east verandah. So it’s about a third larger than usual.

Talking to Harry tonight, we chat almost every week, I discussed the state of Karola’s lucerne paddock, how the lucerne has sprung into life now the phalaris is cut and it’s very dry. There are some small patches of lucerne that is flowering but Harry commented that it was rather late for the main flowering. The plan now is to divide the One Acre into sections and lightly graze these in turn. If the ewe mothers-to-be get a decent feed maybe they’ll be in better condition for the ram in a few weeks time.

Turned the watering systems off after being on since Friday night. Noticed that in just a couple of weeks the convolvulus has grown up almost all of the 16 young red beech trees so I got rid of that. They have greened up a bit since implementation of the watering system.

The day was pleasantly cool with high cloud and some strong winds. Got through most of the usual Sunday tasks.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—18℃ no rain [75.7]. IKBOrchard

Overslept and missed the Country Life programme on the radio. Main goal today is to put electric fence round the homestead lawn and big oak, enlarging the swathe of lawn Mark electrified a few days ago.

Taking down the fence took half an hour but I spent the rest of the day working on the electric fence. Constantly diverted by little side tasks that ate into the day.

I collected up the palm fronds under the Canary Island palm and then began mowing the path for the electric fence, not because it really needed it but pushing out the boundaries a bit, mowing some long grass on the edge of the lawn. Then I decided to tackle the Portuguese Laurel tree, allegedly poisonous to sheep. I cut it down ten years or more ago and poisoned the stump but now it’s come back to life. It is at the end of the ha-ha and overhangs the route the sheep take to get onto the lawn. As I had the Vigilant weedkiller to hand I remembered that the big privet outside the 133 entrance, about 30 metres north of the gate, had started to regrow again. So for the fourth time I cut off the new foliage and applied weedkiller liberally.

I finished Grillo-mowing round the perimeter of the grazing area and cleaned it using the air compressor. As the compressor was set up I then cleaned the farm shed floor and then turned my attention to the Kioto mid-mount mower which I’d detached from the tractor a few days ago. It took a while and there was a lot of grass and dirt and dust in the mechanisms – looks much better although I uncovered places where rust was beginning and the original paint had peeled.

Back to the electric fence. I am not satisfied with the way we attach the temporary electric fence to the permanent wire from the pumpshed north towards the damson tree and then east along the ha-ha. So I used a small length of electric fence insulated wire to connect the permanent fence to a switch I mounted on the gatepost of the little gate under the Chinese Photinia. Oh, and in order to give the sheep a bit more grass I cut back the lawn side of the Taupata hedge from the cottage garage north to the Chinese Photinia.

At last, as dusk fell, I put in the posts and put up the wires for most of the fence. Darkness fell early as the forecast rain did come albeit not for very long. And i still have about a quarter of the fence to do tomorrow. It was late and dark so Bangle didn’t get her orchard walk this evening.

Somewhere in there Karola and I put the 35 sheep in the yards and drafted them into the 2019 lambs and the rest – in anticipation of mating the main flock in the next few weeks. Oh, and Karola’s old falthful ewe, #209, is not to be mated any more so she joined the lambs.

I found a dove carcass on the lawn in front of the house and assume it was part of the stoat killing spree a week ago. Karola then found a dying dove under the big oak – it looked like it had been poisoned, I hope it’s not just gorged on the maize and wheat with lethal effect. Still, I saw five doves flying round late afternoon so we’ve still got a flock.

At breakfast Karola pointed out a group of Californian quail running through the cottage garden and out into the paddock. I counted nine, three adults and six smaller birds, presumably the offspring although now with adult plumage.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—28℃ 8.5mm rain [76.2]

Looked out of the cottage window this morning and counted eight doves – four on the bird table and four under the Camellias. So of a possible ten – the two originals that have been around for years, the eight I got from Emma Speeden – the two that were killed recently probably by a stoat, all are accounted for. The trees resound with their gentle cooing and they make distinctive feathering noises as they fly up and down.

Karola dropped me off at SwimGym while she went to get her replacement glasses fitted, returning to a coffee at Fuse in Stortford Lodge, five minutes walk from the gym. Then we did the weekend food shopping plus:

• Two more galvanised steel rubbish bins – the perfect rat-proof containers for grain and seed
• 20kg of wheat for the doves and another bottle of Vigilant weed killer – I checked, wheat is about a third the price of the packaged “dove mix” and a combination of maize and wheat will be just fine for the doves, sparrows, and the occasional pukeko and pigeon
• Jump leads for the Subaru – so if there were another instance of flat battery while the Landrover was away I could still jump start the Subaru from the old Fergie tractor battery.
• Screw-in large hooks for the inside wall of the farm shed lean-to – for suspending alkathene pipe out of the way
• Seaweed liquid fertiliser to see if I can buck up the ailing Black Doris plum tree in the micro-orchard
• Couple more Aertex shirts and a dozen handkerchieves at Alexanders – Karola had spotted that they had a sale on

We treated ourselves, it was a hot day – to a single-cone ice-cream at Rush Munro’s on the way home.

Mark had already been at it for over an hour when we got back. His traps had caught possum #24. He was making good inroads on the blackberry, periwinkle, and convolvulus inside the north railings of the 121 entrance. He finished it by the end of the day.

Karola Saw Cleo – Black Cat With White Bib – First Time In Months

Oak Avenue Weather:20℃—33℃ no rain [75.90] Mark=4

Last night I found out that the program charting the weights of Dave (Anna’s partner), Bridget, and me isn’t working – due not to anything we’ve done but something that’s changed with the software provided by the scales manufacturer, Withings. The scales are working just fine and reporting to a cloud database. It’s the link from that database to my code that has stopped working. Assuming the problem is fixed we can at least get the missing numbers from the cloud database and manually add them to our charting. I worked on this for a while last night and again this morning.

Mark came, checked the traps and released a small hedgehog from one of the cage traps.

Then we went back to clearing the verge around the 121 entrance, mulching up huge quantities of weeds, blackberry, and leaves, and finding more and more plastic, tins, and bottles discarded by passing motorists. A hot, dusty, dirty afternoon. We, and mainly Mark of course, finished the north side of the entrance.

The convolvulus is smothering much of the undergrowth all along under the oaks and along the verge from the 121 entrance to the 133 entrance and beyond. I took a little time off the mulching with Mark to release the rimu, red beech, and other trees nestled in the corner between the end of the bund and the 121 northern railings.

The 121 Entrance Showing Ground Cleared On The Northern Approach

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—25℃ no rain [75.90] IBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym with Karola & Bangle

Quick shop after breakfast.

When Mark came he reset his traps and then we put up the second gate at the 121 entrance. I’m pleased with the way they meet in the middle, just close enough and the same height.

Karola said this morning that the thing she really really disliked about our Kioti tractor was the mowing attachment. It’s a mid-mounted mower and Karola says that because you can’t easily see what you’re mowing it endangers young trees and plants and doesn’t do a very good job. Also it makes such a mess because it doesn’t pick up. That’s why she suggested getting the Grillo. So I agreed to sell the mower attachment and Mark & I detached it. We’ll clean it up and next time I take the Kioti in for a service in a month or two I’ll see if Power Farming will buy it or sell it on commission.

Mark began demolishing more blackberry on the north side of the 121 gateway while I mucked about for ages changing the orchard mower for the mulcher on the Fergie. Once this was done Mark began an afternoon of mulching up the blackberry and other weeds he’s cleared from round the outside of the stump dump.

Mark did heroic clearing of the undergrowth around the 121 entrance, uncovering ever more rubbish – plastic, tins, bottles and so on. While we had a drink mid-afternoon, Karola went to take a look and collected up most of the rubbish she could see.

I brought the Grillo down towing the old small trailer to pick up more rubbish and the pieces of branch hidden in the undergrowth. While taking it along the edge of the road to get to a pile of discarded bottles and tins I got too deep into the roadside ditch and the Grillo got stuck. Diff-lock didn’t help and I just dug myself in deeper. I remembered that Brian Cope did the same with his ride-on mower when coming home from his parents’ place further down the avenue and that time I pulled him out with the Fergie.

Well, anyway, so we used the Kioti tractor and chain to pull poor Grillo out. Even the tractor objected initially but combination of low-ratio, diff-lock, and four-wheel drive did the trick, Mark driving the tractor and me on the Grillo.

I counted six doves on the bird table this morning and again six late afternoon. No stoats trapped though, nor any possums or rats.

The Rehung 121 Gates Now Swinging Outwards

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—28℃ no rain [75.79] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Going out to feed the doves I spied a small white form on the ground under the bird table. It was a dove, decapitated – no sign of the head. Later, going out to fetch the mail I found another dove corpse under the old plum tree – this time obviously someone’s meal. I think it’s the stoat that Mark saw yesterday. We’ve set traps for the stoat near where Mark saw it but I’m not hopeful.

And the chocolate and cheese baits fared no better for rats – no catches. With the fruit ripening in the orchards there’s just so much food about maybe they can afford to be more cautious than usual. And acorns everywhere, also seeds of all kinds.

Mark came and finished off the blackberry eradication between the 121 entrance and the Scotts (south) boundary. Even though he’s digging out the roots it’s only a temporary removal, we know.

I got very dusty and dirty with the old Ferdie tractor and orchard mower, flattening more of the undergrowth – this time on the inside of the 121 entrance railings. Then Mark and I moved one of the 121 gates to swing outwards in anticipation of the new cattle-stop.

121 Entrance With One Gate Rehung To Swing Outwards

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—28℃ no rain [75.88] IKBOrchard Mark=4

We intended to go to SwimGym in good time but first Bangle insists on coming, won’t be left behind, then we find the Subaru battery is flat. Now Zoe will be out for repairs for at least six weeks, they tell us. The Landrover is awaiting a second-hand part that Landrover no longer make – from “Landrover Heaven” in Napier – we’ve got stuff from there ourselves in the past but this time it’s the last item Newport Auto-Electrical need to complete the repairs to the Landrover, including a new petrol pump and various wires and ducts chewed by rats. And I left the jump leads in the Landrover so cannot even use the tractor to jump-start the Subaru. Tried a couple of battery chargers – the first was very old and defunct, the second worked but was charging very slowly.

We got the AA to come and check the battery which ended up with us buying a new one from him. He was very chatty, knew the Harris’s and knew the Russells at Tokanui Station – apparently he came into possession of an old jam jar from the Frimley Jam Works – a firm from way back when the mighty Williams family owned what is now Frimley park.

So by 1:00pm the car was running again.

Earlier I’d made use of the time by fixing a couple of dining room chairs which had loose cross-bars, potentially hazardous for a heavy or fidgety person sitting on them. The wood glue was so old that when I squeezed the sides of the small plastic container they shattered. Still I’m hoping the glue will do its job.

Then, prompted by comments from the Duette honeycomb blind saleswoman who came to measure up for three more blinds last week, I “fixed” the super-draughty upstairs cottage window, the one facing south. Just meant changing the position of the latch, no idea why I put up with it for so many years.

Mark came and tended his trap-line, delaying the baiting of the rat traps until I got back from shopping with chocolate and cheese. We’ll see if the change of bait makes a difference. Bruce & Kirsty down in Otaki continue to have great success with peanut butter as the lure. Mark also processed the three possums we got over the weekend, freeing up a little more space in the homestead garage fridge/freezer.

I went off to SwimGym and then shopping, returning to find Janet Scott and Karola deep in conversation – local news. Meanwhile Mark had put up some electric fence across the house lawn, a strip about a third of the lawn including all along the ha-ha. Karola wants to graze her sheep there, it being greener than any of her paddocks.

Whilst leaving SwimGym I got an email from architect Graham Linwood forwarding the latest communication fro Laura Kellaway of Heritage NZ. It was bureaucratic stalling, suggesting we had to document everything in painstaking detail and describe the procedures we’d follow for step-by-step documenting the changes – as if the homestead renovation were some sacred Maori site or archaeological dig. I am furious of course. Architect Graham will talk with Chris Cochran in Wellington (very respected conservation architect in Wellington and on the board of Heritage NZ) to see if these demands are reasonable. Depending on the feedback from that I am ready to close down the whole project, Laura can win but she’s not mucking us about any more. Perhaps we could do the kitchen and just update the bathrooms if it comes to that.

Mark and I began changing the gates at the 121 entrance so that they swing open outwards to the road. That way they can close off all vehicle access when we need it and I don’t need another gate across the cattle-stop. So pleased that Karola thought of it.

Couple Of Chairs – Loose Cross-bars Glued

At Long Last – Cottage Upstairs Original Window (South) Now Fastens Tightly

Bruce & Kirsty Can Catch Rats – Why Can’t We

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—28℃ no rain [76.17] IKBOrchard Mark=4

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

Yet another possum today. Is our lure acting as a possum magnet perhaps.

Karola & I went out to the 121 entrance and picked up rubbish from there back to the Scott’s boundary. Later as I walked along the road from the 121 entrance to the 145 orchard driveway I found the amount of roadside discarded rubbish very sad.

The lid of our post box has a broken hinge – it’d come away from the body and to my delight I was able to pop-rivet it back together.

Amongst the rubbish we picked up were three roadside markers, snapped off near ground level. I sawed them sorter and used two to illuminate each side of the post bearing our rapid response number at the 121 entrance.

Checked Mark’s traps and found we’d caught another possum, a heavy female, number 23 since December 1st. Reset the traps. Still no success with trapping rats which must be far more numerous here than possums. Time to change the bait.

Discarded Road Marker “Re-purposed” To Mark Our Road Entrance

Adorning The 121 Entrance “Rapid Response” Number

Heavy Possum #23

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—28℃ no rain [76.12] IKBOrchard

Heard from Graham Linwood yesterday. Laura at Heritage NZ still seems to be mucking us about, wanting us to do more work, to make the complete council submission for building consent and then to decide what she does and doesn’t like about it. I don’t think Graham is impressed either.

Paul sent email saying that he and Gareth the plumber expect to begin the cattle-stop work week after next, the last week in February.

Saw tabby cat from cottage kitchen window, marching across the lawn from the Goose paddock, small rabbit in mouth. Way to go tabby!

Started mulching the pile of Rangiora cut down from along the railings at the 121 entrance.

At 9:30am had to leave to take Bangle for her 3-monthly grooming with Emma Speeden. As Karola suggested I took a couple of photos to show Emma how her Barbary doves were settling in – she was pleased.

Noticed that the Timm’s possum trap on the driveway had a catch and then checked the other Timms trap over by the red beech to find another one. That’s 22 possums since 1st December 2019.

After lunch I finished the mulching. I took the mulch up to the sheep yards and put a layer on the crush and race and then spent an hour pushing the big heap of mainly phalaris straw behind the house garage into line with the rest of the bund – Karola’s long, thin compost heap along the roadside fence under the oaks. Using the old tractor I was able to heap it up until it was several metres high.

The gate between the Long Acre and Goose paddock drags on the ground so I lifted it and now it opens without fuss.

Attached the old orchard mower to the Fergie and minced up the undergrowth outside the 121 railings and along the road verge from there to the Scott’s boundary to the south. Very dusty and dirty. Ground very rough and lots of plastic bags and other rubbish thrown there from passing cars.

Mulched Up The Rangiora I Chopped Down Yesterday

Mulch Spread In Sheep Yards

Tidying Up The Bund – Tall And Narrow

Orchard Mowed 121 Entrance – North Side

Orchard Mowed 121 Entrance – South Side

Orchard Mowed From 121 Entrance To Scotts Boundary (South)

Possum #21

Possum #22

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—22℃ no rain [76.19] IKBOrchard

SwimGym

Then a bit of a rush to get to the Health Centre by 9:00am. We had nicely scheduled appointments, all standard checkups, nothing out of the ordinary. As usual, every three months, I saw the practice nurse, Janine, first while Karola had her GP session with Richard. Then I saw Richard and Karola read an Economist. All done in 50 minutes, including getting the prescriptions in the pharmacy on the ground floor.

A bit of weekend shopping, food, batteries for Karola’s two wrist watches, another loaf of freshly baked “paleo” bread, coffees from Artisan next door, more dog food, and a locking nut and washer for the tow-ball for the Grillo.

Mark caqme and tended his trap line – possum #20 met its end overnight.

After lunch Karola and I, joined soon afterwards by Mark, mulched up the recent slash from the 133 gateway. Mark & I then began our next major project, to lay low the blackberry and other weeds from the 121 entrance south to the Scott’s boundary. Mark focused on weeding along the roadside fence and in the planting area along the south boundary beside the stump dump. I cut back the rangiora along the 121 railings. A lot of it had died back or was suffocating under convolvulus and periwinkle – Karola is sure it’ll re-sprout soon enough.

Later I finished Karola’s GST for December/January.

Karola Mulching (aka Chipping & Shredding)

… Nearly Done

Rangiora Tangles Cut Back To The Ground

121 Entrance Railings – Can Be Seen Again

Some Major Weed Clearance Along The Roadside Fence

Barbary Dove Getting Quite Tame (1 Metre Away)

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—24℃ no rain [76.16] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Morning spent in chainsawing up larger branches that have accumulated over the past month or so.

In the hot afternoon we just pottered about, Karola typing on her iPad, more stuff from her mother’s diaries and letters.

Mark came, tended his trap line, stacked the firewood I’d cut up this morning, and spent the rest of the afternoon putting up a netting and standard fence to keep sheep out of the area we’ll be working in when we re-align the railings to create more space outside the paddock alongside the cottage garage.

Temporary Fence While We Change The Railings For Karola

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—22℃ no rain [76.35] IBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym

Karola & I went mid-week shopping after breakfast. To Havelock North to put in the completed personal tax information for last year, then after the New World food shopping, dropped by Farmlands in Stortford Lodge to buy a new pair of strong tree loppers and 20kg of sheep nuts for Karola.

Back-tracked a tad to pick up a couple of coffees at Fuse and finally a quick stop at FairTread to get a spring washer and wing-nut for our very old small trailer – the one that isn’t a Cyclone but the one that has a hitch which I can slip onto the ball of the Grillo. The thread on the hitch needs a wing-nut or similar and is Whitworth, the least popular common thread pattern in New Zealand after “metric” and “UNC”. No chance. In a flash of inspiration I remembered that there were ratchet spanners for specific nut sizes – not adjustable spanners but ratchet ones which worked like a socket wrench. So I bought one for this particular nut, no need for wings, problem solved.

Got back just before Mark arrived. No trap catches overnight so we left them as-is for another night and Mark went straight into completing his very good job of weeding the tangle of periwinkle and convolvulus etc under the karamu hedge wither side of the 133 gateway. We then mended one of the panels of railings at the 1433 entrance by adding small blocks under the ends of each rail – I cut the blocks, Mark did the rest.

Later I cut back the karamu shrubs either side of the gate into the Long Acre paddock, the one down near the stump dump that leads onto the 121 driveway. Gave the sheep the slash.

Mark’s Neat Weeding At The 133 Entrance – Before

… After

Grillo Pulling The Very Old Small Trailer

Cutting Back The Karamu Shrubs Down Near 121 Entrance – Before

…After

The Broken Railings – Mended

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—24℃ no rain [76.25] IKBOrchard Mark=4

I did 20 litres of Roundup (Glysophate) weed spraying in the morning. Round the base boards of the cottage (where concrete foundation endangers the mower), round the waste management system aka septic tank, along the ha-ha top edge, the palm tree octagon, round the west side of the homestead, over much of the hard stand behind the homestead, and in front of the cottage garage. The red dye lets me know what’s been sprayed and also I go round with red hands for a week or so afterwards.

I cut back a couple of the Escallonia (Apple Blossom) shrubs in the cottage bay tree hedge. It was supposed to be a fragrant shrub complementing the bat trees and lavender; yeah right!. I plan to move them in the autumn. Mark did the same savage cutting back on the other three – there are five Escallonia in all.

First Mark attended his trap line, he’d caught possum number 19 overnight.

Mark spent much of the afternoon tackling the tangle of weeds under the karamu hedge either side of the 133 gate.

As expected, Paul Libby, our builder and building project manager, came round and sized up the cattle stop project – it was very nice to see him again.

Early evening Karola took me to a talk at the Hastings Library put on by the Landmarks Trust. Graham Linwood, who happens also to be lobbying Heritage New Zealand for us with respect to our plans for renovating the homestead. talked about Hastings architecture from the 1931 earthquake until the present.

Spraying – Round Cottage Septic tank

Spraying – Along Top Of Ha-Ha

Spraying – Canary Island Palm Octagon

Spraying – Round Cottage Base Boards

Escallonia (Apple Blossom) – Severely Pruned

Site For The Cattle-stop Outlined In Blue

Landmarks Trust Talk By Graham Linwood On Hastings Architecture

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—28℃ no rain [76.68] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym with Karola

After breakfast we did the start-of-week shopping including extracting cash from the Hastings branch of the BNZ and ordering Karola a new EFTPOS card – she had hers swallowed by an ANZ ATM in Flaxmere a while ago. We also picked up a copy of Karola’s tax certificate from KiwiBank – I having mislaid the original.

Odd thing happened while we parked in the big public park near the railway line. Karola parked just inside the entrance and as we walked across the park heading for Shatkey-Visique optometrists we fed a parking meter. They’ve changed so that you type in your number plate rather than getting a paper ticket and leaving it inside the windscreen. On the way back from the optometrist towards KiwiBank we passed the car and a couple of traffic wardens. I idly asked if we were Ok for a few more minutes. Just type in your plate number and it’ll tell you he said. There was a very new parking pay machine right next to us so we did as he suggested and it said we’d not paid.

Upshot was that despite parking in that park for decades neither of us had twigged that one small set of spaces was tagged for one-hour parking whereas the rest was for all-day. Apparently that was posted on signs as you entered the park, but nowhere else, no dividing lines or notices alerting you to this. So we’d parked in one area and paid in the other. We saw the warden a little later and he said he’d checked and we had indeed paid albeit for the wrong park. Cautioned not to do it again. One of several bewildering changes for us older folk.

And why the optometrists – well purely by chance I had noticed Karola paid for the welding of one of the arms of a pair of favourite spectacles when asking for the “gold weld” to be done. And, when she picked them up a couple of days ago, along with ordering replacement spectacles for the ones dropped and broken on a walk along the Clive wetlands some weeks back, they charged her again. I put on a bit of a bad tempered show saying that for us older folk that would so easily be missed and it was a BAD THING they had done. The assistant asked if we’d like the repeat charge refunded into our account or held on credit for our next purchase at Shatkey-Visique. What? Rather miffed, I said what I would like was an apology and my money back! Belatedly we got both of those. They have no shame.

Karola has been wittering on about whether the arms of her favourite glasses are really gold rather than silver – they look silvery. This wasted quite a lot of time, examining the glasses in different lights to see if we could tell, after all the arms look like silver but the weld was called a “gold weld” on the invoice. So we did ask and apparently “gold weld” is nothing to do with the metal used, it just happens to be the name of the technique used to mend the arm. Thank you for that!

Between times I requested an insurance claim form from our broker and filed a claim for Karola’s broken glasses – the excess is only $400 and the glasses, bifocal lenses and new rims, cost almost $800.

I had a series of calls with Peter Leith, the cattle-stop manufacturer, who can ship the cattle-stop any day we want. So I asked Paul Libby, who used to be our master builder, if he would take over the coordination of the whole project – organising plumber Gareth with his digger, Adam Chambers of Lattey Engineering for a man and a crane, and the transport from Te Puke (or maybe it’s Levin) of the precast cattle-stop. Paul plans to come over tomorrow afternoon and size up the situation.

Mark came after lunch and we returned to some semblance of sanity. He tended his trap line and then cut back the northern half of the Karamu hedge along the 133 railings and fed the slash to the sheep. He spent the rest of the afternoon digging up iris in the ha-ha, rhizomes and all. There’s plenty more of that to do.

As expected the rep for the honeycomb blinds came mid afternoon and she has gone off with the measurements to make three more blinds for the cottage: the bathroom window and the two upstairs windows. I have selflessly agreed to let Karola have my two thermally-backed, New Zealand themed sets of “toile” curtains from upstairs, repositioned downstairs in the living room.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—24℃ no rain [76.75] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Today was trudging through the preparation of stuff for our accountants, chasing up elusive or imagined pieces of paper from a year ago.

Not too hot but Karola baked one of Dave’s magic sourdough GF loaves and I succumbed to a lunch of tomato soup and crusty bread. Made worse by Karola then suggesting we repair to Rush Munro’s for afters. Later it was a light supper of venison patties followed by raspberries, blueberries, and cream. The scales will not lie tomorrow.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—24℃ no rain [75.99] IKBOrchard

Quiet, cool day, very pleasant.

Red beech watering is working well. Turned on watering for runner beans, lime avenue, bay tree hedge – there’s still no sign of rain.

Collected up the fallen lemons (see below). Bridget suggested that instead of drinking “Pams Soda Water with a Twist of Lemon” I try plain soda water with some fresh real lemon juice. None of the sugar and a bit of a bite but very refreshing.

Karola weeded and released her Irish Yew tree which is hidden away in the planting area down by the Scotts boundary.

I made progress on the tax information for our accountants.

Watched first episode of Endeavour Series 6 tonight in anticipation of soon watching Series 7. Allegedly the new series relies heavily on the context of the last one.

Our Lisbon Lemon Tree (Very Old)

Picked Up Off The Ground Below The Lisbon Lemon Tree

Gill Digs Up An Old Photo From Over Sixty Years Ago

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—28℃ no rain [75.96] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola.

Shopping for the weekend with chauffeur Karola. We dropped in at Kawan Collision Repair, where Zoe is holed up, and picked up shopping baskets – there are no single-use plastic bags for free from supermarkets any more. I picked up a few more bits for the red beech watering system. Happened to see a striking mural on a building behind Shatkey-Visique while Karola was inside ordering some new bifocals to replace the ones broken out along the Clive wetlands a while back.

Mark came and did his trap line – two more possums so we’re up to 18 possums since December 1st. No more rats though and, despite the peanut butter, we’ve caught not a single rat in the tunnel traps.

We then put in the watering system for the remaining 16 red beech trees and fixed a couple of leaks in the stuff we did yesterday. Mark buried the pipe in a small trench where it crosses the track under the big Lime tree and through the wooden gate into the Front paddock.

We then, at Karola’s suggestion, cut the low-hanging small branches of the big Liriodendron tree so that sheep grazing underneath cannot reach the leaves. Until now we’ve fenced off along the Liriodendron drip-line because otherwise the sheep strip the lowest branches leaving us nasty bare sticks all summer. Knowing how they enjoy Liriodendron leaves we let the sheep eat the prunings.

I set the sprinklers onto the octagon. Now that Mark has weeded it and levelled it we hope to plant Wysteria, using cuttings from in front of the house, and Muehlenbeckia complexa – maybe it’ll climb the Canary Island palm.

Again at Karola’s request Mark began cutting back the hedge of Karamu shrubs at the 133 entrance, he finished the south side.

Beech Tree Watering System – Out Of Harms Way

Red Beech Watering System Completed

Watering The Octagon Around The Canary Island Palm

Liriodendron Tree – Pruned Up Out Of Sheeps’ Way

Sheep Feast On The Liriodendron Prunings

Spied Artistry Opposite The Library On Eastbourne Street

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—22℃ no rain [75.89] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Politicians on radio, long-winded and, in my opinion, losing votes whatever they said. Good things would be taken for granted and people wanting to take umbrage would be having a field day.

Henare came round for coffee and a chat just before lunch – he’s very absorbed with his new bee keeping venture and the associated complicated family relationships.

Mark came and checked his trap line, moving it closer to the rainwater tanks where his chew-cards were getting a lot of attention. No catches last night.

Then we, mainly Mark, finished setting out the pipes and joins and drippers for the 36 red beech on the north side of the 133 entrance.

I changed the washer on the new tap fixture we put in for the 16 red beech on the south side of the 133 entrance; it has stopped dripping. I set the sprinklers going on those red beech for a couple of hours. I hope we can replace them tomorrow with the same drip irrigation we have for the ones on the other side of the gateway.

Tried out the drip watering system for the 36 red beech and every dripper was merrily dripping just in time for the end of Mark’s day.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—27℃ no rain [76.23] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Last night there was an earthquake off shore near Tauranga, 5.5 intensity, light shaking they called it. I certainly felt it here as did Gill in Seatoun, Wellington. Bridget in Khandallah didn’t feel anything.

Mark reported traps, possum #16 is no more and there was a rat too but not in one of the three tunnel traps, just a Victor trap by itself.

Very late getting started, I went to SwimGym late morning. It was when coming out of there and, unusually, turning right to pick us up coffees at Fuse, I missed the car doing the same thing, turning right across busy traffic from the BP station across the other side. Bang, but at low speed – Bangle didn’t even fall off the back seat though she was not best pleased.

The other guy was calm and pleasant – his car was less spectacularly demolished but even though it was just one headlight and maybe some denting around it, it’ll be expensive. Zoe, built for French drivers perhaps, absorbed all the energy in the front bumper and spoiler etc, leaving a pile of mangled plastic on the road including lights.

The other driver was quietly persistent and got my details – I was so flustered that I didn’t take a photo of the cars in-situ nor his number plate let alone his name and license number. Not my finest hour. Karola came in her other car and rescued me. I called the AA and they were prompt and courteous, claim accepted and tow truck dispatched – flatbed because I quickly read the drivers manual and that’s the only type of towing permitted.

Later in the day the other driver called me, I think, but it wasn’t clear, to be sure I wasn’t trying to blame him. We agreed we were both only looking out for traffic on the public roadway, just an accident. He didn’t ask for anything but did mention that his excess he had to pay before the insurance stepped in, was $400. Feeling guilty, as I do about every incident I’m involved with, and it being obvious he was less able than us to find $400, I offered to pay half his excess, just to help. Then he told me he and his wife were beneficiaries. Living “on the benefit” would make $400 a major problem so, despite Karola remarking it seemed a bit OTT to her, it was a good thing to do.

Late afternoon when he’d seen $200 go into his account he rang and Karola took the call. He and his wife were very very grateful. I’ll sleep a little better tonight.

Being down to one road-worthy vehicle – the Landrover is still away being fixed – Karola is insisting that she drive me everywhere for now. So we tried to get back on track with the shopping etc and I picked up a pile of bits for making the irrigation network for the red beech trees. Turns out that the middle-sized pipe I have is 16mm ID, not the 19mm ID available in Mitre-10 and Bunnings Warehouse. Also, to my delight, Fruit Fed (commercial horticulture suppliers) and much cheaper than either of those mega-store DIY “lowest price” outfits, or so the Fruit Fed man said.

Time for the Welcome swallow family to move on so I took down the camera with its cap of mud swallow’s nest and tonight they have to find somewhere else to sleep. Karola cleaned the layer of guano from the verandah below the camera.

Mark attended his trap line and then completed the installation of the new 133 gate stop before working with me on the red beech watering system. It’s coming along.

Ouch, Poor Zoe

You Need Eyes in The Back Of Your Head

New 133 Gate Stop

Red Beech Watering System Beginnings

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—26℃ no rain [76.31] IKBOrchard Mark=4

Karola had to go in to Stortford Lodge for a blood test – just standard checkup – so I went with her and popped in to Fruit Federation to ask about the sizes of alkathene pipes used for irrigation. Apparently I am not alone in being mystified. The smallest pipe, not a dripper tube, is 13mm ID (inside diameter), effectively the old half-inch pipe. Fruit Fed sells that to commercial growers and it’s also sold by Mitre-10, Bunnings Warehouse, and garden centres – they all agree on that size of pipe and the fittings to go with it. Larger sizes are also pretty standard, ¾” (20mm) and 1” (25mm). The confusion is with the between sizes. For domestic garden irrigation Mitre-10 and Bunnings sell 19mm ID pipe but other places offer 15mm and 18mm pipes and the fittings between these and 19mm pipe are not interchangeable.

20mm pipe, the old ¾” pipe, is used extensively for water troughs and other heavy duty farming purposes but it has a much thicker wall than the cheap and cheerful 19mm pipe sold by the DIY stores and garden centres.

Now I have enough of a middle-sized pipe for my plans for the red beech trees but apart from knowing it’s smaller than 19mm I’m not sure what size it is – I’ll take a piece in to Fruit Fed tomorrow and find out. Several contented hours today were spent mapping out the reticulation for watering the red beech trees and counting how many of what type of joiner and adapter I needed. Each of the 52 trees will have its own individual dripper supplying up to four litres an hour when turned on.

Mark came and checked his trap line – another possum last night. That makes 15 possums since 1st December 2019.

Mark spent the afternoon weeding and adding mulch to the base of each of the trees we released yesterday.

I popped down to the end of the road and spoke to Lattey Civil Engineers and Adam agreed they’d help with the cattle stop when it arrived, provide a crane to lift the two sections off the truck and into place. Karola & I took the Landrover down to Newport Auto Electricians to see if they can cure the “cutting out”.

All Cleaned Up And Mulched

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [76.72] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym then Monday shopping plus picked up some domestic irrigation bits and bobs at Bunnings Warehouse. Also bought two small parsley plants for Karola and a cheap battery tester now that Karola’s very old (Radio Shack – that dates it) one has ceased to give reliable readings.

Mark came for the afternoon. First he checked the traps and reported two possums (dinner for his animals tonight plus more fur to the growing sack), and 2 or more rats. No sign of the rats but the GoodNature traps cannot lie. Today Mark re-baited the traps – all down near the Macrocarpa tree in the north-east corner – and in addition set a couple of traps for stoats over near the sheep yards. Bangle has found two dead rabbit kits on different occasions, each one possibly a stoat kill. Hence the traps. Fortunately I have two bottles of stoat lure due to GoodNature sending me the wrong order and then replacing with the right one without extra charge.

Karola then advised Mark while he reorganised the hay shed and loaded the 20 new pea straw bales out of the big trailer.

After afternoon tea Mark and I took tree guards off eight trees: two swamp cypress, four Totora, one Chestnut, one Lyriodendron. Mrl pulled out the standards, not easy when they’re baked in in this hot weather.

Gill sent a photo of her 2020 harvest of Hawera plums which made me immediately go out and eat a few of our peak-condition Santa Rosa plums on the very old tree near the house garage.

Trees Want To Be Free

Hawera Plums From Gill’s Garden

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—31℃ no rain [77.22] IKBOrchard Mark=4¼

Began by Grillo-mowing the Goose paddock now that the sheep have grazed the edible stuff leaving only stalks and weeds.

Lyn Sturm came and whisked Karola away to a lunch with the Hawkes Bay Founders Society. Karola tells me there were about 90 people there.

I mowed the cottage lawns and then packed it in as the temperature was in the mid thirties.

Cleaned the Grillo with the air compressor which took almost an hour. After the mowing up by the sheep yards yesterday, and again after doing the Goose paddock and cottage lawns today I was covered in dust and a little sunburnt so in both cases a shower was the order of the day.

A “Park-Like” Goose Paddock

Cottage Lawn – Drying Out

One Acre – Lucerne Storming Back After Phalaris Removed

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [77.32] IKBOrchard

The day started with a bang when I realised it was Saturday and we had half an hour to get to Nimmon Baling if we wanted to get some more hay for the sheep, well actually pea straw. We have only a few bales left and as the drought progresses others will buy all the bales for sale that they can find. The Landrover played up. First it did its little choking routine while idling, just as I was checking that the trailer lights were working. The engine coughs and splutters and then dies. We wait for about ten minutes and it’s happy to start again. This has happened several times recently, it started late last year.

So, off we go to the outskirts of Havelock North where the hay barns are, only the Landrover engine cuts out while we’re doing 80kph or so along Longman’s road towards Havelock North. It’s done this once before recently, cut out while travelling at speed. So it’s not just a problem with the idling. Waited a while and then, just as Karola was starting to dial the AA numbewr, off we went again.

Got our 20 bales and drove back without incident. Oh, yes, Nimmon Baling is open 9:00am – 10am on Saturdays, hence the bustle.

Late afternoon I did continue digging the new pit for Karola, the pit started by Mark yesterday and about half done by his time to knock off. He did the hard bit, clearing the vegetation off the top and cutting through the rock-hard foot or so.

Welcome swallow brood took their first flight today, a few minutes after I photographed them (see below). All back in their nest tonight.

After dinner Karola surprised me by suggesting we nip down to Rush Munro’s before they close and grab an ice cream for dessert – well it has been a warm day.

Between dinner and dessert we took Bangle round the orchard and she found a very young, very dead rabbit at the mouth of a rabbit burrow. From the wounds I suspect a stoat which is good news for the anti-rabbit brigade but not so good for ground-nesting birds.

After dessert I Grillo-mowed the holding paddock next to the sheep yards, choking on clouds of dust with a strong hint of sheep manure. It was so grimy that I showered immediately afterwards and shall probably catch whatever sheep diseases are transmittable to humans.

Second Hatch – About To Take First Flights

Twenty Bales Pea Straw For The Sheep

New Sheep Pit – Started By Mark, Finished By Me

Ice-Cream Dessert – At Rush Munro’s

Holding Paddock Given A Haircut

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—25℃ no rain [77.42] IKBOrchard