Monthly Archives: May 2020

Good And Wet

Showers, some heavy, all night and through the day. Despite having over four hours to dry the painting I did yesterday was undone where the rain got on it – was diluted by the rain and ran off the wood – odd.

Sunday tasks addressed and, but for the mowing, all completed.

Karola counted nearly three dozen pukekos in the paddocks this morning; I counted 14 doves on the bird table this evening.

There’s water in the tray under the cottage hot water cylinder so we must get it serviced soon.

Did a bit of online retail therapy: ordered books to complete Karola’s set of books by Barbara Anderson; bought a kitchen timer as we’ve mislaid our old one; and a little present for Lexi’s birthday in a few days.

Found the mislaid Firefly DVDs.

Karola had phone calls with Lyn Sturm and, later, Joan Phillips.

Karola let her ewes have the Middle and Totara paddocks as well as the Front paddock. I pushed the ram and old faithful #209 from the Goose paddock into the Long Acre.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—14℃ 12.8mm rain [77.85] IKBOrchard TdT

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Painting Over The Cracks

Saturday morning radio starts for us with the Country Life programme and then goes on to Kim Hill’s eclectic interviews and reviews. Sometimes there’s something really interesting in there along with much that can easily be avoided. For example Kim talked to Dr Michael Mosley about sleep. We’ve seen his TV program on sleep, heard the interview, and now I have the book, “Fast Asleep”.

Over recent weeks Kim has had a segment talking to Dr Chris Smith from Cambridge University – a virologist expert in the Covid-19 pandemic. He is well worth listening to – has the science at his fingertips and is practical and calming.

I did plenty of painting in the afternoon, made good progress. The weather was kind, no rain and aftewr lunch it was above ten degrees – that being the lower bound for when paint will dry properly.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—14℃ 2.5mm rain [77.93] IKBOrchard TdT

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A Week To Go – Then The Chooks Arrive

Plan du jour is to move the chook house to a permanent place in the goose paddock facing north in the lea of the Copper Beech. Mark will put a very temporary sheep netting fence round the chook house so that for a few days at least the chooks will be penned in but not actually imprisoned in the house. It took a couple of hours this morning.

The four wheels of the chook house cannot bear its weight and indeed one wheel has already buckled dramatically. After the move today three wheels were slightly buckled and the fourth wheel had fallen off.

Karola took us to Hastings to discuss the broken wheel with Wheels Plus where I bought it. Apparently the four wheels I bought were cheap and cheerful Chinese ones which are fine for intermittent use under light load. But there’s another more expensive wheel, exactly the same size and shape, which is a rugged industrial-strength wheel. So I bought four of these and got 25% off. I guess they were a little embarrassed that the original purchase broke after travelling only a few hundred metres.

Mark finished moving the firewood out of the railings corner of the goose paddock near the Copper Beech – hard by the site of the chook house. He then pretty much completed the erection of a temporary sheep netting fence with metal standards enclosing the chook house. This will give the chooks a bit of space when they arrive without free rein.

Still quite a lot of painting to be done and Karola suggested a small gutter along the back to avoid water cascading down onto the food and drinks cabinet.

Chook House Goes Walkabout

Chook House In Position In Goose Paddock

Anna’s Bubble Has Half-Day Holiday – Picnic In Windsor Park

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—16℃ no rain [77.66] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Little Half-Gate Installed

I browsed the Internet looking for containers suitable as food and water trays for the chooks. Found something that was exactly half the width of the space in each of the food and drink spaces. I rang the local store of the Storage Box chain and had them put a couple of the trays aside for me. I wanted to make absolutely sure they would fit before getting all four.

After lunch Karola, Bangle and I drove into Hastings to pick up the trays. KArola used the time to drop into Spotlight and she found a couple of table cloths which, while not of the pattern and colours she especially likes, would do in a pinch. We also picked up afternoon coffees and snacks for ourselves and Mark and I got the two sharpened chainsaw chains – so all in all a useful trip.

Meanwhile Mark had moved another load of firewood onto the new heaps and continued working on the ¾-high small wooden gate. The hope is that while geese and chooks may safely pass under the gate, adult sheep will not.

Today Karola found her newest spectacles. They were an insurance claim when she dropped the previous ones on the Clive walk along the wetlands and someone ran over them before we found them. This latest pair has been AWOL for a couple of months but Karola has been very quiet about it. “To lose one (pair of spectacles) may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

Undercoat On The Inside Of The Food & Drinks Cabinet

Located Polycarbonate Trays – Four Of Them Just Fit In Chooks Food & Drinks Cabinet

Mark Finished The half-Gate Letting Geese/Chooks Through but Keeping Sheep In

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—14℃ no rain [77.38] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Very Busy Morning

Off we went around 8:00am to take the Landrover over to Tamatea Automotive in Napier for its WOF. Karola following in the Zoe to bring me back of course. In an unusual leap of prescience I had put the lists for the mornings shopping into Zoe before we started even though we planned to return home for breakfast before starting the Hastings shopping proper.

Our route to/from Tamatea Automotive, in Tamatea on the outskirts of Napier, takes us past New World in Green Meadows, a large supermarket similar to the New World franchise in Hastings, our normal haunt. So, no queues, we decided to try to do the weeks grocery shopping there.

Karola took the list of fruit and vege, I did the rest. The list is cunningly constructed to match the Hastings store layout so it was a nuisance at Green Meadows. Hence it was about half an hour longer to shop there and I had to ask for directions several times. Being a new World though, most of the items we listed were available. Because of my allegedly poor writing we ended up with a spare lettuce and no cauliflower, and they didn’t have Karola’s favourite yoghurt nor her Huntley & Palmer biscuits. We also ended up with two copies of the Dominion newspaper. So, on the whole, a success.

Karola gave the lettuce to Mark.

After breakfast off we went to Hastings. First stop Mitre-10 for a litre of turps. Then on to New World in Hastings for the few things we didn’t get at Green Meadows. I was asked if I had a Gold card at the entrance, I said yes and was admitted immediately. There were no other people trying to go in at the time, no queues, so I thought this rather odd. I was out again in just a few minutes and asked the security guard why she had to check that I had a Gold Card. Oh, she said, because then you go straight to the front of the queue. Hmmm.

On to the OMG shop for two paleo GF loaves, still warm from the oven, and a coffee from the Artisan coffee shop next door. Picked up Karola’s dry cleaning and dropped off a couple of blunt chainsaw chains for sharpening at The Saw Doctors. A successful morning.

At last Dr Michael Mosley’s latest book arrived, Fast Asleep. I ordered it many weeks ago and am looking forward to going to sleep while reading it in bed.

Mark moved lots of firewood to the new piles and then made the small 3/4-height wooden gate for the Goose paddock – he still has the hinges and catch to do but the gate is finished.

The Landrover passed its WOF with no issues.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—15℃ no rain [77.76] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Pesky Scammers

Karola woke with suggestions for the chook house – she thinks I should park it inside the goose paddock and let the chooks and the geese roam by going through the little side gate facing north. At present I’ve converted that gate to a geese creep, the geese can go through but not sheep. I expect Mark will build us a ¾-height gate for the same effect while still acting as a gate.

Graham Linwood, conservation architect, sent through his email ready to send to the council and to Heritage NZ, documenting the reasons for and effects of our Karamu renovation in “heritage-speak”. We approved the email and so it’s headed off to try and open the logjam we’ve encountered for the last six months.

I got a call from Visa asking about a couple of transactions they thought were suspect – well that’s what they wanted me to think. Same as Karola got yesterday and BNZ asked me to get their phone number if I could. Well. we’ve had “Caller Id” for months but I’ve not bothered to find out how to use it. There’s no obvious button on the phone to fetch up the last callers number. So I browsed around and found the owner’s manual for our particular phone. It couldn’t be easier now we know which button to press.

I got another call, same scam, a couple of hours later. Sent the two calling phone numbers, both ostensibly from the UK, to bnzabuse@bnz.co.nz.

Karola made a small start to the jigsaw Lyn bought and brought to her yesterday – but I don’t hold out much hope she will actually do it. Lyn was dragooning Karola into dressing up and going with her to the Silky Oak Chocolates factory on Friday but I called and vetoed it – no going to public places without good reasons while we’re still under any sort of lock-down.

I painted the insides of the chook nest boxes with their final coat of Karaka green – a dark colour to make the nest boxes private and cozy.

Mark did another two trailer loads of firewood from the Goose paddock to the new heaps behind the homestead garage. He then began weeding the couch grass infested garden strip inside the cottage railings – the special Manuka shrubs are on the outside at that point.

Nest Boxes Get Final Coat

Summer In Ealing, London – Felix & Dave Relaxing

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ no rain [77.69] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Earthquake In Wellington Magnitude 5.8

We heard on the radio that there was an earthquake earlier today, 7:53am, near Wellington. Magnitude 5.8, 30km north-west of Levin, 37km deep. Bridget said it felt about the same as the magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake in 2016.

All of our extended bubble were OK, no damage.

It rained here most of the night, nice gentle rain, and today it’s much milder.

Mark came after lunch and we began the afternoon with a “training session” whereby I tried to remember how to detach and attach the mid-mounted mower under the Kioti tractor and Mark figured out how it was supposed to be done. Now he should be able to attach the mower any time it’s needed. In the past I did the attaching procedure and he then drove the tractor.

Mark’s afternoon continued with moving a trailer load of firewood from the goose paddock to two new piles I’ve started behind the homestead garage. One pile is small stuff, almost kindling; the rest goes on the second pile which is too big for us to burn in the cottage wood-burner and we will give away.

Mark’s action-packed, fun-filled afternoon continued with finishing the weeding of my specialty Manuka shrubs and my small group of Fuchsia. He stopped when the rain re-started late afternoon. The weeding consists mainly of trying to pull out couch grass.

Lyn Sturm came round with a jigsaw puzzle she’d bought for Karola. Lyn is planning an outing on Friday with Karola, visiting Silky Oak Chocolates.

I put another coat of white semi-gloss on the inside of the chook house and an undercoat on the inside of the nest boxes. With only two weeks to go before the chooks arrive I want it to be thoroughly dry inside the house before they take up residence, so I’m cutting it fine.

New Zealand earthquake: PM Jacinda Ardern live on
TV in Wellington as North Island hit

Leader says she can feel ‘quite a decent shake here’ as the 5.8 quake strikes during a live interview

o o o

The quake lasted about 15 seconds and was felt by tens of thousands of New Zealanders as far afield as Auckland in the north and Dunedin on the South Island.


“We’re fine,” Ardern told Bridge, signalling she was ready to continue the interview as the quake rolled to a close. “I’m not under any hanging lights.”

Undercoat Applied To Inside Of Egg Boxes

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ 0.8mm rain [77.84] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Cold Enough For A Fire Again Tonight

Tried to start the Grillo but it stalled when I engaged the blades, again and again. Stared disconsolately at the engine wondering what to do. Noticed a cover held on by two large wing-nuts – obviously intended as a customer serviceable unit. Opened it and it was the air filter totally blocked with dust and debris. Took ten minutes with brush and banging to get out a lot of the dust, reassembled and then the Grillo went just fine.

Mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage before it rained. Then took Bangle for her orchard walk and it did start raining just as we got back. Lovely rain but brrrr, it’s cold.

Rubbish out, Zoe charged, all the Sunday tasks done.

Bridget In Wellington Gets Some Autumn Planting Done

“Keep Calm and Carry On” – 2020 Style – From The RSA

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—16℃ 7.9mm rain [77.93] IKBOrchard TdT

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Painting Continues

Really quite chilly but the sun shone. After lunch and my Tour de Twyford I spent the afternoon painting.

Lyn rang Karola mid day and they arranged to go out this afternoon having afternoon tea and pikelets at Lyn’s house in Frimley Village.

First Top Coat Inside Finished

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ no rain [77.95] IKBOrchard TdT

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To And Fro On A Friday

Off to the Health Centre in Hastings for 9:00am appointments – me for my first ever visit to a podiatrist, David Greenhill. Karola for an annual regular checkup with GP Richard Jamieson.

I finished just before 10:00am but Karola was still in with the GP – they always run late at the Health Centre. Our haircut appointments were at 10:00am and 10:30am so I took the first slot then zipped back and ferried Karola to the second one.

Having forgotten a few things in the excitement we went back into town late morning. Swung by Royston hospital to my ophthalmologist to pick up a replacement face pad from reception – I’d been told to drop by any time – only to find it closed. I expect they only work 3 – 4 days a week at that location. Sigh!

Picked up a book Karola had ordered from the Hastings library, Barbara Anderson’s auto-biography. Barbara Anderson went to Woodford House and authored nine books, novels and short stories about life in New Zealand. I found them very good reading and Karola is fond of them. Barbara Anderson died just a few months ago.

Got some more tins of undercoat and a local paper for Karola from Mitre-10.

Mark came after lunch and he cleaned the inside of the Landrover after Karola’s unkind remarks about the smell inside – of “old men” she said, very musty. Anyway we traced the smell to mildew forming on a couple of pieces of carpet in the back. Mark also did a good job of cleaning the windows inside and out. I think it was sticky pollen hat had coated the windscreen making seeing out difficult.

Mark was then introduced to the tedious and endless game of spot poisoning Californian thistles. Meanwhile I finished undercoating the inside of the chook house. With eight days of rain forecast after the weekend I must strive to get the painting done before Monday.

Undercoat Finished On Inside Of Chook House

Ealing – Felix In Lockdown – “Competitive – Moi?”

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [77.90] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Brrr – Very Cold Start To The Day

No more sheep deaths today, all present and correct.

In the morning I crafted an email to Max Rashbrooke after listening to an interview he did recently about UBI and GMI. While he railed against UBI, a common sport amongst “policy wonks”, he did also say a number of useful, sensible things. The irony being they were the same things that I’ve discussed with Iain Middleton for the last couple of years, ensuring that New Zealanders have the right to a regular unconditional payment of money, adequate to live on, should their circumstances warrant it – no questions asked. To avoid the inevitable unfairness and expense of fencing such a payment with invasive, onerous, and judgemental rules and conditions, Iain Middleton’s “basic income” does indeed distribute it “universally”, to all NZ citizens for example, but uses the personal tax system to retrieve it from those who, through their level of income, don’t need it.

Mark continued tackling the thickets of blackberry along the roadside fence. Mid afternoon he switched to mowing under the belt of trees starting at the sheep yards and for that we re-attached the Kiote tractor’s mid-mounted mower. Karola took the Landrover and big trailer to the transfer station with the blackberry Mark uprooted however, it being still “level two” it wasn’t as straight forward as it used to be. Apparently one is supposed to book for a time but they let her in notwithstanding. Also, given there’s a minimum charge even for green waste, we should have waited until we had the trailer piled high with blackberry.

I did eventually do another couple of hours painting inside the chook house.

A Cold But Sunny Afternoon

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [77.38] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Ewe #507 DIed – Busy Day

What a busy day. Off in two cars. First to Farmlands for some more wheat, more sheep nuts, and a litre more of sheep drench. Then after Karola dropped off slacks tat the dry-cleaners, we took the Subaru to Tony’s Tyre Service for wheel balancing and alignment, to get the brake and power steering fluids replaced, to get a split “cv boot” replaced, and the headlights de-misted.

On to New World in time to pick up the pre-ordered groceries. We were a little later than usual and maybe that’s why, instead of wheeling out our groceries in a trolley I had to scrablle round extracting them from one of a dozen lockers round the back. To OMG for my weekly GF bread and, multi-tasking skilfully, coffees from Artisan next door.

One problem with online shopping is that if something you’ve ordered isn’t available by the time the order is picked and packed then choosing a substitute is tricky or you go without. I knew what was missing from the final order form emailed through just before we left this morning so, as the queue to get in to CountDown was only 3 – 4 people long I shopped for the missing items and got them all. I also got a couple of items I hadn’t remembered in time to put on the order – the order is frozen 24 hours before pick up.

Once back home we unpacked and Karola noticed that the Dominion newspaper was Tuesday’s not today, Wednesday’s. So, again I called the help line and negotiated a refund. Last week it was squishy kumera. The online shopping is too complicated and with too many irritations. There’s the initial dummy order online which I use to reserve a pickup time the following week – these slots go quickly. Then there’s the working through the lists and editing the dummy order to match what we guess we’ll want in two days time. There’s the pick-up and taking home, the unpacking and, if history repeats, calling the New World help desk about something that’s wrong with the order. Not counting the extra trip to CountDown to find the items unavailable when they picked and packed our order at New World. SO we’re going back to our own, unaided, shopping trips, maybe just once a week.

Overnight ewe #507 died, I presume of massive Barber’s Pole worm infestation. Mark and I got it into the pit, joining the other two recent sheep deaths, and Mark filled the pit in.

I then went off to my deferred but regular appointment with the opthalmologist.

After that Mark helped drench the sheep – in fact he did drench the last four. Of the four sheep, including the ram. which had been in the Long Acre, we put #814 and #816 back with the main flock leaving the ram #911 and the matriarch #209 to keep each other company. Al the sheep have been drenched today with Matrix, (withholding for meat of 14 days).

Mark carried on mowing the Goose paddock and then began an assault on the blackberry beginning in the north-eastern corner. We went back into town and picked up the Subaru, $600 the poorer.

Bridget’s Car In Khandallah – A Really Good Frost

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [77.43] IBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Chaise Longue Moved Upstairs

Bit of drizzle in the morning but dry all afternoon so I was able to do the tour de Twyford keeping dry just before lunch.

Mark and I took the larger of the two beds from upstairs in the cottage to the hall in the house. That bed also has a truckle bed that fits underneath it – we took that too. Then we took the chaise longue from alongside Karola’s side of the bed downstairs up the stairs and placed it under the southern window. Karola wants it up there so she can recline and see out of the window – the upstairs cottage windows are quite close to the floor.

Mark finished picking up the firewood from yesterday and creating two stacks behind the house garage; large stuff for fireplaces bigger than the cottage wood burner, and the little stuff that we might use.

Mark then Grillo-mowed under the big oak. Partway through his mowing Mark ran out of petrol so I took the Landrover to Caltex on Omahu road and refilled our cans with diesel and 91 octane (standard) petrol.

Karola said one of her sheep, #507, was listless and hanging back, just like #719 who died recently. In #719’s case there were no outward signs of poisoning or trauma or diarrhoea. I had a thought, I should have remembered from earlier years, there is a disease we’ve had before that has the same hallmarks, in fact Kaz told us about it, Barber’s Pole Worm.

So late afternoon Karola got her sheep into the yards and I dosed #507 with Iver Matrix® Mini-Dose
Hi-Mineral drench, (witholding for meat of 14 days). We expect to do all the sheep tomorrow and just hope we got #507 in time.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—14℃ 0.8mm rain [77.65] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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A Mulching We Do Go

Today we have guest sections (see below) from Lexi More and Natalie More concerning their reactions to restarting school today after weeks of being home-bound under Covid-19 lockdown.

Uncomfortable night turning over the decisions we’re making about our financial security. We didn’t react to the 2008 global melt-down (sub-prime mortgages) and it took about ten years to get back to where we were. All the economic news about the Covid-19 pandemic is dire and yet the financial world hasn’t collapsed, yet. Our financial adviser called and argued his case for some changes to our proposed list of sales; I asked for him to send through what he would do given our desire to be less dependent on stocks and shares. That he did and we agreed with his changes; he’s now implementing the plan and time will tell whether it was a prudent step or we should have left well alone. That may be the case if my fears of global recessions and economic turmoil don’t happen.

I called Tamatea Motors again and this time got hold of Heath Goldfinch, proprietor. Yes they are frantically busy after the move to “Level two” but he can do the Landrover WOF and service on Wednesday next week.

Lyn Sturm called in, feeling a bit too cooped-up in her house in Frimley Village, and she and Karola chatted on the verandah, suitably socially distanced.

Mark came and mulched up first the heap of branches from the Chinese Hawthorne and then the slash from the big privet tree over near the solid wooden fence, north of the 133 entrance. He mulched into the big trailer and added the mulch to our pile behind the house garage. I completed chain-sawing of the logs from cutting up the privet and the Chinese Hawthorne, quite exhausting.

Chinese Hawthorne Surgery Complete

Bridget & Lexi Show Off Their New Possum & Wool Socks – Presents From Grandma and Grandpop

Gill Turns Karamu Crabapples Into Beautiful Jelly

Lexi reports:

Today was our first day back at school after being away for roughly seven weeks during New Zealand’s Covid-19 lock-down at “level four” and “level three”. All that time we were doing remote learning. Now we’re in “level two” and back at school.

Working at home has its distractions, I thought today I had escaped the hammering and drilling of the builders working at home but in my “Socs” lesson today, (“Socs” is Marsden’s abbreviation of “social sciences”), that all to familiar sound crept through the window and it lasted all lesson.

The ‘new normal’ is clearly very different from the ‘old normal’, with full attendance in my class today; that’s even more than attend online when we do remote learning.

We have to sanitise our hands before walking into a new classroom, and every door is left open so we don’t have to touch handles. There are also new desk arrangements so we stay out of each other’s ‘moist breath zone’. Tip: to all the people out there who use hand sanitiser, I found it best not to use it before eating lunch otherwise your lunch tastes “interesting”.

Our locker bays are a place to mingle and spread germs so some people moved their lockers for better separation. I’m above average height and yet I am stuck in a bottom locker (not inside the locker, but assigned that locker) which is annoying so I was thrilled at the opportunity to change. Well I thought I could have changed lockers but “first come first served” meant that all of the spare top lockers were taken and I am yet again stuck with a tiny bottom locker.

Remote learning has its challenges in managing your time and figuring out what lesson you have. In my year group (year 9 which is mainly made up of 13/14 year olds) we have one synchronous (on a video call) lesson for each subject a week. At the end the teacher describes the work we are expected to do at home, on our own, for the following week.

At school you live life day by day, and don’t ever know exactly what you’ll be doing in your next lesson although online the whole week’s work is right in-front of you. One thing I miss from remote learning is the later wake up time, although being back at school does mean a more stable routine.

It’s nice being with the teacher for the whole time you are doing their lessons and it’s underrated how nice it is to put your hand up, have the teacher come to your desk so you can ask a small question without having to send it in an email or say it in front of the whole class.

The school day finished as usual but with limits of numbers on school buses most people took a carpool.

Natalie reports:

The day started with my alarm going off at 6:55. I got ready and then we were off to school. I put my bag in my locker and went to wash my hands before getting out my books and heading to form time.

When Ms Bartsch (my form teacher) came in she gave us hand sanitiser to use before placing it at the front of the classroom for other classes.

After form time we had a live streamed assembly which went over new rules due to Covid-19 that we were introduced to in the previous week. The main points were to keep left when walking down the hallways, wash your hands when you arrive at school and before you eat, use hand sanitiser when you enter a classroom and keep out of each others ‘moist breath zone’.

In my second period I had study which was unfortunate as I had already completed homework from lockdown and we hadn’t had a class with work to do yet. Another bad thing was that I forgot to take my headphones to school so doing German “Education Perfect”, (courses on a teaching website), was harder.

Next I had morning tea so it was off to the bathroom to wash my hands before grabbing my lunchbox and finding my friends.

After morning tea I had Maths and Geography. In Maths we are currently doing trigonometry and were learning about radians and various equations to find parts of a circle. In Geography we mainly talked about what we were going to be doing now that were are out of lockdown and wrapped up the learning we did remotely.

Then it was time for my lunch of a bread roll.

After lunch there was Science and English. I am currently doing the Physics rotation in Science and this was our first face to face lesson. In English we were practicing speeches we had written in lockdown to present on Wednesday.

The school day ended with us going home with the Hille’s with whom we are carpooling. School now is similar to what is was before in some ways. The most notable differences are no group projects which for me mainly affects science practicals and the constant hand sanitising.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ 1.2mm rain [77.94] IBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Gloomy Weather – But Much Wanted Rain

Winter weather but dried up enough to do a bit more chain sawing. So the usual Sunday chores were rather neglected as I spent the afternoon reducing the large, broken, and berry-laden branches of the Chinese Hawthorne to bare branches and a pile of small stuff to be mulched. I’d almost finished when I realised I was being soaked by a torrential (but short-lived) down-pour. It was near dusk so i stopped for the night. It is obvious now why the branches just broke off the main trunk; this year the berry load was huge and heavy.

Taking Bangle round the orchard we were first accosted by Rory, next door’s new puppy who dashed up their drive to McNabb Road and from there into the orchard to join us. Then, being taken for a walk along the opposite side of the big field drain separating Karola’s orchard from Max’s orchard to the west, two big dogs barked at us which unsettled Bangle.

Having been prodded by our financial advisor to consider some investment changes – after all he probably has targets for getting his clients to move stuff around as they get a small fee per transaction – I decided to look at Karola’s and my “portfolio”s – that’s the grand name for them I believe. Well, that was depressing – so much value dissipated already due to the pandemic and yet, to my way of thinking, so much worse to come. So we agonised over what to keep and what to ditch while it was worth something – airport shares for example, when will they ever recover to 2019 levels?

If I were competent at these sorts of financial musings I would have sold everything back in March and just put it under the mattress (or the equivalent) until Christmas – that way we’d lose the amazing growth in our lucky dips: A2 Milk, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Apple, and Polar Capital, but would at least keep what we have. But I know I am not, so we flounder in the dark trying not to be complete novices.

What with the chooks coming next month and the climate and soil so advantageous we could be self-sufficient here and live on the smell of an oily rag – in fact sometimes I think Karola would prefer that – but one hopes it won’t come to that. We’d need to invite Gill & Ben and Bridget’s family to join us – a little commune. Would six chooks be enough, I muse.

Chinese Hawthorne – Brought Down By Weight Of Its Own Berries

… Almost Done – Reduced To Firewood And Mulchings

Karola’s Persimmons Are Ready To Eat

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ 1.3mm rain [77.84] IBOrchard TdT

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Saturday Morning With Kim Hill

Quite interesting programs on the radio which took up too much of the morning – Country Life and then Kim Hill’s Saturday morning. She has a rather good Cambridge doctor most Saturdays recently giving us the latest on Covid-19 and responding to questions people TXT in.

Karola finished her big book; I did a few emails; a very quiet day. Emma Speeden TXTed and is offfering to groom Bangle for us on 22nd June – even dog groomers were locked-down in March and April.

Late afternoon I did an hour or so with the chainsaw cutting up the big privet tree I felled a few days ago into firewood, stacking the smaller stuff ready for mulching.

Karamu Crabapples – Gill Is Making Jelly – Yum

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—17℃ 10.8mm rain [77.80] IKBOrchard TdT

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Subaru Checks And Balances

I had one of my regular quarterly diabetics health checks this morning, still all A-OK. Karola drove me there and waited patiently for me – reading a book, the book of the moment, Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and The Light.

After lunch Karola took the Subaru, fresh from passing its WOF yesterday, to Tony’s Tyre Service to see if the tires were in imminent need of replacement. They were not but during the (free) inspection they said they could replace the brake oil, mend the wheel right inner “cv boot” that was split, also polish the headlights (misty with age and abuse), rotate, align, and balance the wheels. I later confirmed that they could also replace the power steering fluid and that then more than covered the items identified yesterday by Bayswater as needing additional attention.

Mark came at the usual time, 1:00pm, and finished mowing the house lawn before beginning on the goose paddock. I mowed the goose paddock a few weeks ago to reduce the leaf cover and allow the grass to grow. Unfortunately there were still plenty of leaves still to fall from the big elm trees and now they have fallen, hence the repeat mowing.

Mark Finished The House Lawn Today

… And Began The Goose Paddock

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—19℃ 34mm rain [77.93] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Karola’s Birthday & Down To Covid-19 Level Two

Cool partly cloudy day. Rain overnight, enough for the ground to stay wet until late afternoon.

Mark came and dug a new pit, again inside the planting area. The previous one he and I dug still has room for one more occupant but I thought it a good activity while waiting for the ground to dry out. Mark then continued Grillo mowing, this time he did about half the house lawn including under the Liriodendron.

I at last got started on painting the inside of the chook house. Today I did the ceiling – well, it being a cathedral ceiling I did the two sloping sides of the roof and the supporting timbers. Got paint in my hair, on my hands, on the chook house linoleum floor, and so on. To minimise the paint-on-self I wore Karola’s blue boiler suit which is too big for her and really a little snug for me. To pretect the floor I laid newspaper over it so the only paint on the linoleum was where my walking or wind had moved the newspaper. I cleaned the spots off with turps afterwards. A shower didn’t really make much difference to my hair, face, and hands but in time it will wear off. This white undercoat paint does have the desired effect of making the inside of the chook house much lighter.

As we suggested, Mark took Caz back a bag of feijoas – they litter the ground under the feijoa trees and we don’t really have a use for them.

Karola got a call this morning from Suzanna Grace (ex Woodford), a nice message from Annemarie More, a call from Anna in Ealing, a visit from neighbour Janet Scott, a call from Felicity Rashbrooke, and, by courier, a delightful bunch of flowers from Gill & Ben.

To her surprise, at 7:00pm this evening, there was a FaceTime group call on my iPhone and suddenly Karola was looking at three bubbles: Bridget’s family in Khandallah, Annemarie More in Silverstream, and Gill & Ben in Seatoun. We had a virtual party for about 30 minutes, still somewhat plagued by a persistent echo but still much appreciated by Karola.

Birthday Bouquet From Gill & Ben

Undercoat Inside Chook House

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [77.93] IBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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An Indoors Sort Of Day

Out at 8:20am taking Subaru for a WOF and service in Stortford Lodge and then on to pick up the groceries from New World at 9:00am. Returning via OMG for two paleo GF loaves and two coffees from Artisan next door. A few things that New World had run out of so went to CountDown – no queues – and got those items plus newspapers.

It rained on and off in the night and all day so we agreed with Mark that he’d not come today.

Picked up the Subaru around 5:00pm. All rather expensive: over $400 for WOF and service; estimated another $400 if we get a damaged part of wheel assembly repaired and another $700+ for replacing a faulty oxygen sensor – part of the pollution detection system. Oh and the tyres are close to illegal tread depth, and the steering & brake fluids need replacing. Sigh. We’re not getting the oxygen sensor replaced at this juncture and will put up with the permanently lit warning indicator.

Lockdown Sanitising Facilities

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—16℃ 5.0mm rain [77.95] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=0

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Shopping Online Blues

I was just going to sleep last night, it’d gone midnight, and as I turned off the light I had a flashing thought – I HAVE NOT DONE THE SHOPPING LIST. One can edit an order up to 24 hours before you’ve booked to pick it up so I had to get it done before 9:00am tomorrow. Initially the order was for three bananas – just to book a pickup time. So I sprang out of bed and went back upstairs to do the list. I went through my eight lists of groceries and chose the items and quantities I guessed would do. Got back to bed shortly after 1:00am.

In the morning I re-visited the shopping list and, with help from Karola, removed those for which we already had too much and added a few I’d not considered last night.

Submitted the order at 8:52am, whew.

Fed the doves and geese and then off we went, Bangle, Karola, and me, over to Havelock North in the Landrover pulling the big trailer. We were after twenty bales of pea straw for Karola’s sheep as winter supplementary feed. Got to the Nelson’s place, “Nimmon Baling”, to find a queue of small trucks and utes, all after hay for their animals. Mr Nelson, the owner, was there, and recognised Karola. One of his geriatric workers – he employs the most ancient of men to manhandle the hay bales – used a forklift on an elderly tractor with broken lights and dinged bodywork to place two super-bales on our trailer. This is a recent innovation, until 2019 I had to put each of the twenty bales on the trailer myself while the worker rolled them down off the top of the stack.

Once home we parked the Landrover up alongside the hay shed and when Mark arrived after lunch he stacked them in the shed. Bit of a fright when I got Bangle out of the Landrover as one of Karoa’s older ewes rushed at her and bowled her over. Last time we had something similar the ram broke Bramble’s leg. Anyway, this time only ego bruised I think.

Mark then finished rolling up the temporary netting fence around sapling/suckering elms and continued mowing the lawns.

I checked all the vehicles to see when their registrations were due and their WOFs and service. The two small Cyclone trailers, Karola’s Subaru, and the Landrover are all due for WOF renewal this month.

I took the second Cyclone trailer, 150UD, to the vehicle testing station for its WOF. No queue today so it was quite quick. One fault, a loose bolt holding on the safety chain so I went home, fixed the bolt, and Karola drove me back to complete the test.

Buying Pea Straw For Karola’s Sheep – Winter Supplements

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—17℃ 1.1mm rain [77.63] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Mark Re-Started Today

After breakfast we all went in to Hastings to the Health Centre where I picked up Karola’s repeat medicine prescriptions, ordered online as you do these days, before standing in line to have my quarterly blood test. The line waited for about 30 minutes before being let in – they were admitting only four or five people at a time and the tests were taking twice as long because of all the hand washing and wiping down between customers. According to the old duck behind me in the queue we were lucky, last time she came the queue stretched out into the car park and she was waiting for well over an hour.

The Stortford Pharmacy which contains the local post office doesn’t open until mid morning so we were too early for that and tootled off straight home. At Frimley we stopped for a newspaper and coffees and a sticky treat for Karola, jam and custard tart I think they called it.

Later we went back into town and posted a couple of letters for Karola plus a book and a small box of crab-apples for the bubble at 66 Seatoun Heights Road. I picked the crab-apples this morning and hope Gill will find a way to turn them into a jam or preserve and perhaps give us a small jar back – you never know. Got another coffee on the way back – well Jacinda wants us to support our local businesses.

Mark came as expected, soon after I’d done my Tour de Twyford. He began by starting the deconstruction of the netting temporary fence round a large patch of sapling/suckering elms. Karola has decided not to have a row of elms along the Long Acre northern fence-line.  Meanwhile I popped down to Caltex in Omahu road and got loaded up with diesel and 91 octane (ie standard) petrol. Filled up the Grillo and then Mark spent the rest of the afternoon mowing the 121 driveway and behind the house garage.

Mid afternoon I took one of Karola’s little trailers, 5ATR, down to the local Vehicle testing station and sat for an hour in a very slow queue to get the trailer its slightly overdue warrant of fitness (WOF).

Anna in Ealing has been overrun with mice for the last few weeks – they are very bold and climb all over the kitchen. Anna has declared war as the attached video shows.

Anna’s War On Little Plague Of Mice In Ealing

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—16℃ 0.2mm rain [77.64] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Finished Trimming Cottage Bay Tree Hedge

Had a pleasant morning as I got back to a bit of programming, taking up where I left off in May last year.

In the afternoon I continued trimming the bay tree hedge along the railings of the cottage garden and, just as the sun was setting, finished mulching all the clippings up and putting everything away tidily. Most satisfying. The “before” photos are on yesterday’s journal entry.

Am watching a most enjoyable and absorbing TV series called The Morning Show; it’s on a channel called Apple TV+; the three Brackenbury bubbles, Karamu, Khandallah, Seatoun Heights Road, have all bought new iPhones recently and so we each have a year’s free subscription to Apple TV+. The Morning Show is Apple original content – that is, Apple commissioned it for exclusive showing on Apple TV+.

The Trimmed Cottage Bay Tree Hedge

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ no rain [77.73] IKBOrchard TdT

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Late Autumn Tree Work Begins

Mark TXTed me and we agreed he’ll restart, coming on Monday afternoon. As providing a service to the small-holding he’s obviously an essential worker anyway, but cross-fingers we’ll go to Level 2 on Thursday. Note his handiwork on the old red trailer below.

In this semi-locked-down world I bought a Subaru smart key replacement battery CR1620 from Warehouse. It arrived today and i fitted it and, whew, the key works again.

I made a start on trimming the bay tree hedge round the railings of the cottage garden.

Cottage Garden – Bay Tree Hedge

… Winter Trim Underway

Fruiting Mulberry Tree With Tui – It’s Been Here For Weeks

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [77.71] IKBOrchard TdT

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We Do Like The OMG Bread

The best laid plans …. and so we’re out of fresh paleo GF bread and onions, or will be before next Wednesday, so Karola drove me and Bangle into Hastings for another loaf from OMG. And being next door to Artisan, and it our solemn duty to support local enterprises, we had coffees. Then back up Omahu Road, left on Henderson past the rubbish “transfer station” with queues of householders getting rid of several weeks accumulation, and down to Gaga’s, the green grocers. Karola got onions and a whole lot of other vegetables and even more raspberries.

Karola spent much of the day quietly reading on verandah in the sun. She took break from her Hilary Mantell big book to read Bob Brockie’s autobiography.We both enjoyed her cousin James Wilson’s “Losing The Silver Spoon”, then Roger Hall’s “Bums On Seats”, and now Bob Brockie’s “Brockie” – all autobiographical, New Zealanders, and in roughly the same time as us. We’ll send the Brockie book to Ben and Gill as I think it would appeal.

Using the small tractor, close to the back of the house garage, I pushed piles of leaves and branches onto the bund, making the bund about three metres tall at that point and clearing a space in front of the bund where I can stack firewood.

Jenny Hendery rang to say she’d spoken to Caz who said Mark was willing and able to come and continue helping here once the lockdown level allowed. She and Karola then chatted for quite a while.

Later Karola accidentally dialled Annemarie More and they chatted, and chatted.

After our leisurely walk with Bangle round the orchard as the sun set, I started up the old Fergie and mulched big trailer load of branches, finishing just in time for dinner.

Guest contributor Karola – On Sleeping Under Lockdown 2020-05-05

It was a wild and windy night…… so neither Ian nor I had a good sleep, but before I did try to go to sleep I had been reading my birthday present, Hilary Mantell’s third and very long continuation of the Tudor dynasty and Cromwell, The Mirror and The Light.

After several hours of sleep, I woke up and after a time decided to go upstairs and continue reading until I felt sleepy. That is popular advice from many “experts” including Ian’s medical guru, Dr Michael Mosley. However, as it turned out, the narrow shiny print and my normal glasses did not make for easy reading so I remained upstairs for some time but eventually returned downstairs for the bathroom.

I noticed that the time was 5:50 am so more or less abandoned the idea of sleeping. At this stage Ian was in a deep sleep and breathing heavily so I did not even make a cup of tea in case he heard the kettle – our kettle seems to get noisier as it gets older. Upstairs I suppose I dosed off for a bit but in between, but the wind was blowing strongly and the attic windows rattled quite a lot.

Downstairs again, Bangle was on the sofa but wanted to go outside. I let her out and then turned on the heating for an hour and made a cup of tea. Bangle then came back in and lay under the table. I believe it was about 8 am by then and still no sign of rain…

Now for the difficult bit. Mislaid my silver rimmed reading glasses. So, think, where they might be. When did I put them and where did I go after that?

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—23℃ no rain [77.63] IKBOrchard TdT

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Karola’s iPhone SE Arrives

The second new iPhone SE arrived today so I copied over Karola’s stuff onto it and she now has her own new phone that should last a long time – well at least five years. The only difference between Karola’s iPhone SE she’s been using for the last fortnight and the new one is the amount of storage – her new one has the minimum whereas the first one was configured for me but was initially used to make sure Karola would be comfortable with it.

Karola had a long phone call with Lyn Sturm over in Frimley Village.

Late in the evening I finished this bi-monthly GST report for Karola. The cattlestop project and then the chook house, it’s been a busy two months of GST.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—21℃ no rain [77.56] IKBOrchard TdT

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Jenny & Noel Hendery Drop By (Safely)

Today at 9:00am we picked up our first weekly online shopping with contactless pickup at New World in Hastings. It saved over an hour in queueing and doing our (my) own pick and pack but there are some downsides:

– some in-store items eg the local newspaper are not offered on the online shopping site

– several items while shown on the shopping site (which I ordered) were not available or needed substitutes when the order was actually picked and packed

– two of the three kumera were half rotten – that is squishy and beginning to leak – but it’s been a bad year for kumera so maybe unavoidable

– you have to think ahead even more than a week because you can edit your order only up to 24 hours before pick-up

– you have to remember to order and pay for some item on the day you pick up the last order so that you get your preferred pick-up day and time

– it takes almost as much time to decide on what to buy and edit the order as it would to do shopping in-store

I guess we’ll continue doing the online thing, even though they don’t deliver to our road yet, just because of the improvement in safety.

After picking up the groceries we bought a loaf of the very special paleo GF bread from the OMG shop. Artisan coffee shop is right next door and I saw that they too were open (level three conditions) and serving through a window onto the street so I got us both a coffee – delicious.

Later in the day we went in to Stortford Lodge and I posted two overseas parcels for Karola; the post office moved a few months ago to become a counter in the pharmacy so it piggy-backed on the safe shopping procedures that the pharmacy had been using all along since lock-down began. We also picked up a pair of galvanised hinges from Farmlands – the last of the ironmongery for the chook house.

Jenny & Noel came by to drop off a jersey that Jenny had knitted for Karola – just the thing for htese cold mornings and evenings. Jenny is very generousin doing this for Karola and some time back Jenny also gave us a small embroidery of abstract tree shapes which I happen to like very much.

Late afternoon I cleaned up the mess of tools and sawdust in the house garage and parked Karola’s Subaru back in its garage – since Zoe came back it’d been out in the elements.

From Our Own Lemon Tree – And There’s More To Come

Just A Few Of The Welcome Swallows Swooping Over The Big Oak Today

Partway Through Cleaning Up After The Chook House Construction

View From Gill & Ben’s House On A Perfect Wellington Autumn Afternoon

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—14℃ no rain [77.65]

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Building Of Chook House Finished

Time just seems to slip away – before I knew it the morning had gone. Highlight was by chance finding a pair of glasses that had been mislaid for several hours.

In the afternoon I did do the final few bits of work on the chook house before contemplating painting it.

Chook House Construction Complete – Painting Is Next

Karola Feeding Pea Straw To Her Flock

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ 0.5mm rain [77.97] IKBOrchard TdT

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Just A Little Rain, Pouring From Above

Had an hour with Anna, Dave, and Felix on FaceTime this morning. Tried FaceTime group mode but somehow it wasn’t a success – the audio had terrible echos. Not sure that was because I tried having Karola and me on our own phones within earshot of each other, or mirroring Karola’s phone ot a TV – we didn’t actually get to the bottom of it but switched to an ordinary FaceTime session with only one phone at each end and this still worked alright.

It did rain a little in the night but by lunchtime all traces had dried up. When on my Tour de Twyford after lunch I was hit by a downpour. It only lasted ten minutes or so but I got soaked – not complaining though, it is what our pastures need.

One of the lambs, #801, is coughing so may need some Matrix drench like #714 and #716. We tallied the sheep today, all present and correct.

OMG Bread shop has had a fright as one of their suppliers gave them ingredients contaminated with some gluten. That might explain a stomach upset a few days ago. They promise to do better – are grinding their own grains in future to guarantee no contamination. The shop smells divine when they’ve been baking.

The OMG Shop – Where Our Wednesday Paleo Bread Is Baked

A heavy Shower And Then … This …

Leave The Gate Open For A Moment …

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ 1.0mm rain [77.79] IKBOrchard TdT

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Just-In-Time Cutting Of The One Acre Crop

Had a third of the One Acre still to cut and rain was promised for today so I set out to finish that in the morning. Yesterday I mowed in the afternoon when the dew had dried off completely leaving the stalks dry. Today, with the eralier cutting time, the stalks were more pliant and I had to mow twice over much of the ground to get a decent cut.

Today it was very windy and on the Tour de Twyford I was pedalling in low gear and the wind noise was considerable. After the bicycle ride I mowed the cottage lawns and curtilage and then cleaned a very dusty Grillo. It takes about half an hour using the air hose and is itself a very dusty process.

As I was venturing out to begin mowing this morning I saw a dead sheep lying against the cottage garden railings. It was ewe #719 who had been lagging behind and looking lethargic yesterday. There was no obvious cause. After lunch and the TdT I moved her with the little tractor, dropped her in the pit, and Karola covered her with soil.

The One Acre – Ready For An Autumn Flush

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—21℃ 6.6mm rain [77.62] IKBOrchard TdT

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Began Mowing One Acre – Anticipating Rain

Off to Mitre-10 in the Landrover, to give it a spin, for my 8:00am pickup of the goods I’d ordered online. No queues, no waiting, all done inside a couple of minutes. Hinges and screws.

Parked the Subaru up next to the Landrover on the gravel at the back of the house. Moved the clobber that belonged in the Zoe back to the Zoe – tools, Bangle’s blankets etc. Found that the Subaru smart key wasn’t working so unscrewed the tiny screw and determined that it uses a CR1620 coin lithium battery.

No CR1620 at New World so searched online and found that Warehouse had them. Made an account and online-shopped for the battery and asked them to post it.

Caroline Boiset emailed Karola asking if we had photos of the 2019 IDS (NZ branch) trip to Tauranga because the ones supplied by the IDS (NZ branch) newsletter editor were too low a resolution to be published in the international newsletter. Caroline is the editor of the international IDS newsletter and Karola has helped her out before.

So for the rest of the morning we found the photographs that we’d taken in Tauranga and selected a couple of shots of each of the four locations Caroline was hoping to illustrate: Mavis & Graham Dyer’s place, McLaren Falls Park, outskirts of Tauranga (huge Norfolk pine – which turned out to be three trees acting as one), and KaiMai Mamuku Conservation Park near KatiKati (very large Kauri).

As the forecast is for rain tomorrow and the sheep have been divided into the main flock, including last years lambs, and the ram plus two devoted followers, I started mowing the One Acre paddock. It is mainly dry stalks of Phalaris now plus weeds so by mowing and removing the dry matter were hoping rain will bring the lucerne bouncing back to life. I did about two thirds today. Of couse, by the time Id finished the forecast had changed and suggested no rain until Tuesday.

One Acre – Mowing With The Grillo

Done For The Day

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—23℃ no rain [77.65] IKBOrchard TdT

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Rutting Complete – And Zoe Is Back Home

The ram, #911, was separated from his flock today, as planned. We allowed him a small fan club for the lonely months ahead, #814 and #816. These were chosen because they’ve both been coughing a lot and probably have lung-worm. As well as drafting out the ram and these two consort ewes we called the vet and asked him to make us up a potion against lung-worm. We picked the two doses up from the Vets on the way to pick up Zoe now her damage is repaired. The vet has made a concoction from Matrix sheep drench and both #814 and #816 have now swallowed it. Withholding period for meat for this stuff, Matrix Hi Min 14ml each, is 91 days.

In the morning I edited our grocery order for pickup next Wednesday. The cost of the trolley went from $2.00 for the bananas alone to over $450.00. At CountDown the weekly shop had been costing about $350.00 which may be explained in part as the cost of going “up-market”.

Karola has a personal bank account and term deposit with KiwiBank, intended for emergencies and recently KiwiBank ceased to accept cheques – phased cheques out. So Karola and I called KiwiBank’s help line and after about 30 minutes of “hold” we had a good conversation with the operative, Brenda, and now Karola can do phone banking or Internet banking.

>I also bought some hardware from Mitre-10 under the level three lockdown rules. Hinges and screws will be ready for pick-up from Mitre-10 in Hastings tomorrow morning at 8:00am.

Late afternoon, just as we were about to set off for the Vets, Kawan Collision Repair called to say that Zoe was now finished. So we picked her up after getting the drench from the Vets. Very pleased to have Zoe back although we have hardly driven at all since the lock-down.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—24℃ no rain [77.82] IKBOrchard TdT

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