Monthly Archives: June 2020

Grillo Drive Belt

It was a really miserable day, sharp, freezing breeze with constant rain – a raw sort of day.

I spent much of the day programming; most enjoyable.

Craig from Outdoor Power called to say he had a possible drive belt for the Grillo. He came over and fitted it and it seems to work OK but it isn’t the official belt and so we’re not sure how long it will last – it’s “almost” a perfect replacement, but not quite.

Called Mark to suggest he might not want to come this afternoon because of the weather. Then he told me that yesterday he hit a finger with the sledgehammer, a glancing blow and overnight it had swollen up quite alarmingly. He thought no bone broken but he’d not come over today.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—9℃ 6.1mm rain [77.74] IBOrchard eggs=0 Mark=0

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Grillo Woes

Outdoor Power workshop mechanic Craig rang and arranged to come round this morning and try a drive belt for the Grillo, not the right one as we now know the shipment of manufactured goods from Italy is months delayed. He came, it didn’t fit. He went off to try and rustle up something from several other local suppliers, their suggestions didn’t fit either. He is going to try further afield tomorrow and will let us know how he gets on.

Railing Re-alignment: I finished moving the corner post, changing the design to have a bevelled corner. Everyone says that this is much better than going so close to the tree and fits in better with the bevelled corners of the main cottage garden.

Mark hung the new wooden gate into the cottage garden. Then Mark and I cut to size and put up the remaining railings. There’s still the intermediate posts to put in, a lot of screws to go in, and the temporary netting fence shielding the area to take down. Mark, as I found out later, banged his finger with the sledge hammer and bruised it rather badly.

The ewes were not interested in my early morning offer of a go on the homestead lawn, preferring the crop in the One Acre. Karola turfed out the hoggets and let the ewes back into the crop.

Mark saw two grey herons today, circling round and then settling in the big oak tree.

The Wooden Gate That Mark Built

Railings All In Place – But Some Still Need Fastening

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—11℃ 5.3mm rain [77.81] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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How To Locate An Electrical Wiring Fault

Heard a croak from high in the big oak tree and spied an elegant grey heron with white head. Later he or she flapped very slowly round in circles over the Canary Island Pine and Big Oak. It’d be nice if we got resident herons again.

Fitted the transparent plastic sheet over the netting front of the chook house, much reducing the icy blast from the infrequent but icy easterly wind – one we’ve been experiencing over the last week or so.

In accordance with Karola’s wishes, and actually a good idea, I’ve uprooted the corner post of the railing realignment project and instead we’re going to bevel the corner to keep further away from the trunk of the Swamp Cypress. Also the new hole is half-dug. Also, rather than have the new gate hinge bolts appear to be back-to-front I’ve switched all the other bolts to point the same way.

I gather from the news that there’s a heat wave in the UK at present. Anna’s bubble is keeping to itself but is having some refreshing outings, the latest to a beach in Chichester – and they appear to be alone.

The electricity in the homestead has a fault which trips the RCD safety switch. This doesn’t happen straight away so it’s hard to isolate the circuit at fault. There are none individual circuits with switches in the main fuse box so a while ago I set them to: 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 – where 1 is ON and 0 is OFF. The RCD had tripped again since then so it is probably one of the ‘1’ circuits. The new setting is: 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.

Draught Excluder Fitted To Chook House

Anna’s Photo – Could Be The Coromandel But It Is In Fact Chichester

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [77.73] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Rain Showers, Some Heavy

Karola has pointed out that the open-fronted chook house has a sharp easterly breeze whistling in on cold nights like the last few. I pledge myself to make it less draughty.

Quick trip to Mitre-10 in the Landrover. Picked up more of those expensive but very strong railing screws and a couple more of the hexagonal-headed drivers we use with power drills. The heads seem to wear smooth rather quickly and the drill buzzes round but the screws stay put – hence the new drivers.

I also got a sheet of clear plastic roofing material to put over the netting front of the chook house.

My experiment in letting old matriarch ewe #209 back with her cousins was not a success – nor a failure. She didn’t seem as overjoyed as I’d expected and they certainly didn’t bow to her age and seniority so I reunited #209 with the ram. If #209 has lambs this year they’ll be a month after everyone else so #209 can stay with the ram for longer than any of the others – rams can be hostile to their lambs so it’s best to separate him out before lambing begins.

I delved into the chook house after dark and checked the leg rings, replacing the blue one that I cannot have clipped shut on the first attempt the night before. Also I think the cockerel’s leg is a bit too thick for these rings so I took his one off.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—16℃ 16.0mm rain [77.40] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Identifying The Chooks

Was annoyed last night to find that I had no weight on the graph of daily weights that Dave, Bridget, and I share. It would be the first time I’d forgotten to weigh myself all year, except for when away from home. Delighted this morning to see that it was just the Internet being a bit slow and I had remembered.

Showers all day but bit of a lull after lunch.

Mark came after lunch and finished assembling the new gate. I began putting up the railings and Mark joined me and we put up two sets of rails. Very annoying that I had asked Mark to put the hinges and bolts on the wrong side of the new gate – as we found out the minute we began to hang it. So Mark finished the day by reversing the hinges.

Karola came and looked at what we’d done and then decided she really didn’t want the railings going so close to the swamp cypress – the one that’s about 10 metres north of the pump-shed and 10 metres into the Totara paddock. So we’ll look at that again tomorrow.

Put coloured plastic bands on the right leg of each chook. Karola helped and we waited until after dark, I got in the chook house and gently plucked each chook from its perch. Karola then took it from me, covering its head with her jersey. I popped on the band. Slight commotion from some of them when I went to pick them up but subsided to quiet clucking or silence when head under Karola’s jersey. Operation was a success but we’ll now have to see whether the bands are actually visible beneath their skirts of fluffy black feathers and I’ll need to match colours to personalities.

Oven needs cleaning. We know this because our lamb chops tonight were not burnt but in cooking them the smoke alarm went off, repeatedly until we opened some windows. Bangle was not best pleased. Our monitoring service, Havelock Hills Security did not call so I called them and asked why. I was concerned that maybe our monitoring wasn’t working but it was OK. The alarm had gone through but they saw that I had turned it off almost straight away so know it must be a false alarm.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—16℃ 13.2mm rain [77.68] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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2020 Tree Planting Begins

Woke in the night and, in the stillness, I could hear the water pump going on and off regularly and way too often. In the morning I went searching for the leak. A hogget must have rubbed against a tap in the Front paddock because the tap half-way along the ha-ha was pouring. Turned it off and problem solved.

A rainy patch with repeated showers all day and night. So, inside all morning except for a while spent collecting up the tools Mark would need for making the new gate – part of the railing realignment.

The gate is modelled on the big wooden gate near the Lime tree opening into the Front paddock by the grass bridge. I took photos of it for Mark (see below).

The chooks are roaming widely; Karola took photos of them outside the cottage dining room window (see below).

I called Graham the architect. He’s currently in Christchurch, back next week, and will push things along when he gets back. I called Greenleaf Nurseries and Dan said that our order was ready for pickup. Karola & I took the Landrover over to Clive and picked up the trees:

  • 10 Totara – new avenue along fence between Long Acre and Middle paddock, in the Middle paddock
  • 6 Red Beech – filling gaps
  • 3 dwarf Manuka with brilliant white flowers – infilling my special Manukas border along railings by cottage
  • 20 Yew
  • 20 RengaRenga – ground cover

Mark has cut the pieces for the new wooden gate and screwed them together; now it just needs them to be bolted securely and the hinges added. I popped down to Fast Trade when I discovered I didn’t have enough bolts of the right length.

Later, whizzing round the orchard with Bangle in the dusk, I momentarily lost concentration and tripped on a small branch, a pruning, and fell headlong forward into a puddle of mud. Gosh, it’s ages since I fell over, quite a jolt.

Ian’s Chooks – Very Free Range

Model For New Gate – Half A Full Farm Gate

Mark Has Most Of The New Gate Assembled

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—14℃ 6.7mm rain [77.62] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Friendship Club Meeting

A hectic day. Fed the geese, doves, chooks, and indirectly a zillion sparrows and similar looking small feathered beings, and too many pukekos. Then hurriedly made the shopping list for the coming week and rushed off to New World to get the groceries. Got back in record time, including getting bread from OMG and coffees from Artisan.

A few minutes after arriving home we were off again for our 11:00am meeting of the Friendship club. We got there just a few minutes after 11:00am and were pleased to find people having morning tea. It wasn’y until half an hour later that, when enquiring when the talk was going to start, that we found out the meeting had actually started at 10:00am and we arrived after it’d finished. We had good conversations with some of the other members which was very likely much more interesting than the scheduled talk or the AGM. Peter Offenberger invited us to lunch so we and Peter’s friend John Timpson (a marxist) had lunch at Maina restaurant. Most enjoyable.

Got back to find Mark had, as expected, continued working on the railings realignment project. He completed putting up the posts before he left late afternoon.

The chooks are getting quite adventurous today, finding their way into the cottage garden and hopping over the railings into the Totara paddock. Karola let me know when she saw them fossicking around under the Canary Island pine.

Karola drove me in to my 4:45pm appointment with John Beaumont, opthalmologist. He prescribed another complementary eye drop for my glaucoma which is a real nuisance, one nightly drop is what I’m used to. A second type of medicine taken twice a day and with at least five minutes waiting between the two different drops in the evenings is not attractive. But then it is quite nice to be able to see with both eyes.

Delicious fish meal tonight and later Bridget rang, as she often does, and Bridget, Natalie, Lexi, Karola, and I swapped anecdotes about what had gone well, and not so well, today.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—15℃ 1.6mm rain [77.82] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Katie Patrick – Interesting Ideas

Morning spent investigating the online writings and videos of one Katie Patrick, an American-Australian brought up in Melbourne who has devoted her life to finding out how to turn concern for the state of the world into people actually doing stuff to make a difference.

She emphasises the “Value-Action gap” – that knowing about tragic situations in the world is not enough to galvanise us into taking even the smallest steps to alleviate them. Katie talks about how to accomplish the persuasion of people like us to make a difference and avoid just emphasizing the problem by swapping stories, leading us into feelings of helplessness. I think that, despite her initially disconcerting appearance, she has her head screwed on – advocates evidence-based action and scientific findings.

Katie Patrick describes the importance of moving from hand-wringing about the state of the world to thinking hard about what a better world would look like and then, for whatever issue is absorbing you:

  • measuring the current state of the world, “getting the numbers”
  • determining the human behaviour that will improve the numbers

She sees that a positive feedback loop is the key to helping people make a difference and that there are a variety of rewards for progress, based on behavioural psychology that can reinforce the desire to go on. Cash rewards are a weak incentive; much stronger are socially based incentives, individual recognition, comparison within groups, personal pledging, and a smorgasbord of others.

So, we should cut back on the swapping of doom and gloom, and focus on imagining the better world, then take quantified steps towards that goal.

Mark came and strung up electric fence along the top of the ha-ha so that when we let the ewes on the lawn from the Middle paddock they’re not tempted to jump down the ha-ha and join their lambs on the Front paddock.

He then rammed in the first three posts for the railing re-alignment project and began digging the fourth hole.

Later we went over to Noel & Jenny Hendery’s place in Napier where Jenny gave us a delicious meal and we had a very enjoyable evening.

Seatoun Heights Road – Wellington Harbour Shrouded in Fog

Anna’s Bubble Spends Afternoon In Richmond Park, London

… And Spies A Heron Out Boating

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—16℃ 0.2mm rain [77.84] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Bangle Gets Long-Overdue Grooming

Off in good time to drop off Bangle for her first dog grooming since before Lockdown, March 25th. Emma remarked that she’d somehow now got a pure white dove amongst her dozens of grey-pink ones. All ours are the grey-pink variety.

After breakfast I went off to my scheduled dental hygienist appointment and Karola went to pick up Bangle.

Mark came and as it had rained a lot over the last few days we wondered if it would be too slushy to dig holes. Mark removed the turf from the five holes needed for the raiing realignment project and we found that the soil underneath was damp but not wet – so he dug three holes this afternoon.

At one point I decided to separate the young hogget ewes from the ewes which had been mated – which we hope are in-lamb. With a bit of help from Mark we managed that very quickly and I executed the Baldrickian plan to get the hoggets back to the Front paddock while leaving the ewes in the Middle paddock. This involved taking the 21 ewes down into the One Acre crop, next to the Front paddock. Then moving the hoggets in that same direction and at the last moment redirecting them into the adjacent Front paddock. Then moving the ewes back into the Middle paddock.

It’s like one of those small square puzzles where you can move 8 or 15 buttons round, there is one spare hole, and the object is to get the buttons in order. The reason for this bizarre shuffling of sheep is that the hoggets still cleve to their mums and will not be driven away from them. So the mums are moved to make a lure for the hoggets.

Sorting Sheep From Lambs – Mark Pushing Them Into The Crush Pen

Drafting Complete

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—16℃ 2.5mm rain [77.60] TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Zoomed With Rashbrookes

Lots of mostly gentle rain all night and into the morning.

We all went on a quick trip into Hastings and got a few groceries from CountDown. CountDown has a few groceries that are not supplied by New World – such as GF Wheatbix (You’d think that was an oxymoron), and Beyond Meat patties.

Rest of the day we spent inside – when it wasn’t actually raining the ground outside was too sodden to make much progress. The weather did brighten mid afternoon.

We had a zoom video conference with Geoff & Felicity Rashbrooke for about an hour, at their suggestion. Our picture of them on our TV was excellent but, as usual, the sound wasn’t so good and in fact our use of the TV may have caused a bit of an echo at their end.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—15℃ 11.2mm rain [77.81] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Couch Grass Woes

Tootled off to GoldPine and got galvanised strap hinges for the new gate Mark will build as part of the railing realignment project.

A surfeit of birds here – 24+ Pukekos, our 4 elder statesmen geese, at least 16 Barbary Doves, Seven chooks, fantails, mynahs, etc ,etc.

Bridget is having a Covid-19 test this morning; like Gill she has a nasty cold so is getting herself tested, not because she has much chance of testing positive but because, like our reaction to global warming and other global issues, we need to do what we would have others do. As we saw with Mr Cummings in the UK (and our own Minister of Health) – if others see that you think you don’t need to do “the right thing” then they’ll think it’s alright to follow the same path.

Mark had done a solid job of uprooting some of the massive infestation of couch grass along the railings between the cottage and the farm shed. Today I continued with this so that Karola had space to re-bed her rhubarb (see photo below). I can now see why it was taking so long and how much couch grass and roots there is in every fork-full of soil.

Mark had stripped the Macrocarpa edging from all but one of the six raised beds and I did the last one today. We can now select the pieces worth salvaging and see how many raised beds we can reconstruct.

Untreated Macrocarpa Edging Removed From Raised Beds

Some Has Rotted, Some Will Be Salvaged

New Home For Rhubarb Clumps – Massive Couch Grass Infestation Cut Back

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—15℃ 1.0mm rain [77.33] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Rock & Roll But No Tsunami – And Gill Is Clean!

Significant rain overnight. Earthquake around 1:00am woke me. Apparently felt on the east coast throughout New Zealand it was a magnitude 7.4 at a depth of 33km about 700km north-east of Gisborne – so a long way away.

Anna’s Dave TXTed from UK asking if we were alright – earthquake news travels fast. On the other hand, Bridget in Wellington didn’t notice it.

Peter Offenberger’s 74th birthday – he now shares age with Karola though she is still a tad older and I cannot see that changing.

Karola had a haircut this morning so I drove us in and got coffees from BJs, just round the corner while I waited. Homeward bound we decided to see if Karola’s friend Lyn Sturm would come out for lunch. She would and we all went to the Hastings Sports Centre cafe. It was busy but is an open and friendly place absolutely full of pensioners. In fact to our surprise there were Brian & Margery Cobbe with groups of friends – so it is definitely a good place to go.

Mark came and began by putting up the short railings – part of the railing realignment project – that join the main cottage railings to the realigned section. Mark is to make a new gate which will swing from the post (see photo below) to the corner of the cottage garage.

He then re-erected the little gate near the pump shed, it will let us into the Totara paddock from the new parking space north of the cottage garage (see photo below). His afternoon ended with a bout of weeding of the cottage garden near the bathroom window.

So pleased when I got Gill’s TXT saying her test for Covid-19 came back negative.

Piece of Cottage Railings Effectively Swivelled Through 90 Degrees

Little Gate Re-Hung From Original Slam Post, Now Opening North Instead Of West

Karola Casts Eye Over Her Railing Realignment Progress

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—16℃ 4.4mm rain [76.95] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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On With The Railings Realignment

Off late morning to get more cash and return a piece of guttering, a plastic fitting that turned out not to suit. I always feel that when I return something to Mitre-10 I need to buy something of equal or greater value so as to avoid questions of repayment or credit notes.

Actually we first stopped off at Stortford Lodge for Fuse coffees before going to the bank, then to Mitre-10, and, on the homeward journey, getting ice-creams from Rush Munro. Rush Munro was closed all through lockdowns four, three, and two so we, Karola in particular, is very pleased to see it re-open at last.

Gill has a cold and so, as requested by our government, is getting a Covid-19 test tomorrow; it’s very very unlikely but how can we expect others to do the right thing if we don’t.

Mark dug out the old gate post for the little gate and re-planted it ready for the new gate from the cottage garden into this space. He also dug up the rhubarb clumps and put them in wheel barrows so Karola can re-plant them inside the railings that back onto my special Manuka shrubs, near the cottage bathroom window.

The realignment requires two more 4-metre spans of railings so I popped down to GoldPine and bought six “fat” (6” [150mm] wide) rails. I happened to have four “thin” (3” [75mm] wide) rails already and there are just enough of the main railing posts but we do need another four intermediate posts. Mark ended his afternoon by making the four intermediate posts.

Railings Realignment Project Takes Shape

Grandson Felix – Lockdown Chef In The Ealing Bubble

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—15℃ 11.6mm rain [76.83] IBOrchard eggs=0 Mark=4

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In Cognito

What a day. It was planned last night. I intended to set off at 8:30am, get the shopping done by 9:30am or so, get the bread and coffees before going to our appointment at the Health Centre at 10:15am. We actually left at 9:00am. Luckily Karola had already bought most of the week’s fruit and vege at Gagan’s yesterday so her list was quite short but, as finally dawned on me when I started shopping, mine was rather long. In fact I basically raced around New World with my trolley, swerving round (other) OAPs mesmerised by goods on a shelf too high to reach. We did all the errands, including returning Karola’s library book before it became overdue, and getting our coffees prior to our appointment at the Health Centre.

Today’s visit was a peculiar one, both Karola and I were taking a basic cognitive faculties test, suggested by Bridget, in order to establish a base line. The idea being that as we get older we don’t actually get faster and smarter, some reduction in super-powers is normal. But the worst person to ask whether they are having trouble is the person themselves – it’s so gradual that they adjust and don’t register the change. The next worst is their nearest and dearest because they too experience the gradual changes and may over- or under- estimate the actual change. Having a cognitive test every year puts the monitoring on a much less subjective basis. So thank you Bridget.

How did we do? Well for both of us the answer today is “nothing at all to worry about” – which is just what you want as your base-line measurement.

After the Health Centre we went to Beatie & Forbes branch in the KMart plaza and Karola bought a history book she’s been wanting for a while. I dropped in at Mitre-10 and got a few screws and other bits and pieces. We arrived home just as Mark arrived at noon.

Mark, in no time at all, dug out the four main railing posts – part of the realignment project – and then, with guidance from Karola, began clearing the area next to the cottage where today there are six rather neglected raised beds. The only plants that we’ll save are a couple of rhubarb clumps and a large thicket of geraniums. The rest is basically just weeds.

While Mark was unearthing posts Karola took nails out of planks and I dug up some of the edging boards that used to define the extent of the raised bed kitchen garden.

I tinkered with the gutter at the back of the chook house, blanked off the end nearest the door and added more brackets. The chooks seem curious about anything I do near their house, coming to look and cluck interrogatively.

Tentative Chook Names so far
Rooster Charlie
Alpha Hen Miss Ellie
Always Wandering Hen Rachel

 

The Re-Alignment Project – The Current Jungle North Of The Cottage Garage

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—20℃ no rain [76.90] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Persimmon Presents

Quiet morning but Mark came mid day and began by completing erection of the electric fence extension to surround the big oak tree. The sheep quickly came over and explored this fresh bit of grazing.

Mark and I did some more tidying up over next to the runner bean enclosure; we cleaned up the enclosure itself, trimming back the raspberry canes and removing the dead runner bean vines. We also staked up the purple akeake nearby, it blew over a year or more ago and by tying it to a neighbouring cabbage tree I hope it will re-establish and grow straight and strong.

Mark then went along the western plantation area and, where he’d dumped the copious leaves off the Middle and Totara paddocks, released any flax or tree branches caught under the mounds of leaves.

Karola & I chatted to Felicity Rashbrooke – it’s her birthday – and Karola decided to send Felicity persimmons. Karola packed one of John Bostocks Christmas gift boxes, a nice little box that once held two bottles of his wine, with persimmons and we packed that inside a cardboard box and sent it via NZ Post down to Wellington.

Karola also made up a small package of persimmons for Denise Ormond, she also had a birthday recently. We posted the Wellington parcel at the pharmacy in Stortford Lodge then dropped off Denises’s persimmons at her place in Flaxmere. On the way home from there, on our route, we dropped in to Gagan’s roadside green-grocers and Karola bought most of next weeks fruit and vege.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [76.63] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Panton’s Plumber Arrives Early

I am wondering why the chooks don’t seem to eat any food. They have plenty of growers pellets in a dish inside the house and I scattered more on the ground. They seem barely to have touched the pellets in the house and only scratched and pecked for a few minutes at the pellets on the ground.

I tried throwing them some dove mixture – wheat and kibbled maize. They liked that more, but didn’t finish it up. Tried mixing some fine grindings from the kibbled maize with hot water – making a sort of mash, They showed polite interest but again only fleetingly.

It’s not the chook behaviour I’m used to – but maybe being free range they’re getting a lot of high-protein food from foraging. Must try some more apples and persimmons.

Alistair from Panton Plumbing came late morning – we weren’t expecting him till the afternoon. He thinks he may have found and cured the leak in the hot water cylinder, (HWC), and he serviced the eight water radiators. We have to wait a week, dry out the HWC tray, and hope we don’t see more water in the tray after that – otherwise it’s bad news, probably needs a new cylinder.

Mark did some clearing and putting away – of netting, standards, plastic plant pots, and the like. He began erecting electric fence round the big oak.

I ordered ten Totara, eight Red Beech and three white flowered Manuka shrubs (variety “Wiri Susan” I hope) from Greenleaf Nurseries to pick up later this week.

Black Orpington’s Can’t Jump – Right?

Anna’s Bubble – A Walk In The Countryside – Summer

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—12℃ no rain [76.99] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Henare & Scott Call Round

The rooster and a couple of the hens jumped out of their temporary enclosure this afternoon. My plan was to make them completely free range tomorrow but it seemed unfair for only half of them to have the freedom so I deconstructed the fence.

In my usual wasteful way I cleaned the concrete sheep trough (up near the big shed in the orchard) by running a hose in it for a few hours. It’s the same way I clean the goose bath for neither of these can be upended like the regular plastic sheep troughs.

Took down the rest of the railings that are being re-aligned around the cottage garage, leaving the posts with their metre long buried sections for Mark to unearth later this week.

Henare Ormond & son Scott came for a coffee and catch-up. Henare and Scott and one of Henare’s numerous brothers are in partnership making Manuka honey. Scott is still “with” CoCo but is not going back to university (Waikato) this year. He says he can re-join next year. Right now he’s helping out Henare with his apple orchard pruning work and playing a lot of badminton.

Cold, Crisp, Beautiful winter’s Day In Hawkes Bay

Unfenced At Last

Realignment Project – Rails Down

Oak Avenue Weather:-3℃—13℃ 0.1mm rain [76.83] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Oh The Smell Of It

There was this decomposed possum carcass that Bangle found a few days ago. Karola kindly popped it into a plastic bag and popped that into another plastic bag. I popped it into the main rubbish bin outside the homestead garage. Today Karola noted the strong foul stench rising from said bin and the millions of maggots trapped in the plastic bags. I let the chooks have some time with it, they do like their protein fix such as maggots – and then re-wrapped more securely and put back in the bin – it gets emptied on Monday morning early.

Chilly start to the day and never did get very warm. Karola worked on her changing of one large tree guard into two smaller more practical ones. I continued with the railings deconstruction as part of the Railings Realignment project requested by Karola some months ago. Late afternoon Karola helped by de-nailing some of the dismantled boards. Most of the railing planks can only be separated from their posts by sawing through the nails but we remove the nails where we can.

Realigning Railings Project

Bangle And Visitor Rory From The Copes, Next Door (North)

New Occupants Over The Back Fence (To The West, Off McNabb Road)

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—12℃ 0.1mm rain [76.94] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Mark’s Daylight Saving

A sullen sky, overcast with low cloud all day – a bit like England in winter.

Plumber from Panton’s arrived as planned shortly after 7:30am. Unfortunately he, as he admitted, was not technically au fait with hot water cylinders nor heating radiators so, apart from a cursory check for any obvious leaks, he was unable to help. Pantons will send an appropriately knowledgeable plumber early next week, allegedly.

Mark has a new arrival time from today, 12:00pm instead of 1:00pm. It gets pretty dark by 5:00pm so changing to finish at 4:00pm means it’s lighter and he also avoids the 5:00pm rush of workers leaving Hastings for their homes in Napier. The rush hour, yes I know, but it is a lot slower then than at other times.

So Mark now comes from 12:00pm till 4:00pm, what he calls his “daylight saving”.

Having pretty much completed the chook house project it’s on to the next one, moving railings attached to the cottage garage to make more space for parking and allowing the raised garden beds to be moved further west. Mark put a temporary netting fence round the affected area weeks ago and today I breeched the cottage railings where they attach to the garage, next will be to deconstruct the railings from the garage across to the cottage pump shed. I wonder if Bangle will notice the hole in our defences.

This afternoon Mark finished transplanting the little Plane tree sapling and Walnut sapling to new holes at the south end of the Goose paddock. Karola approved the installations – small tree guards wired to three standards, a layer of mulch, and a good watering.

He then dug out one railing post where I’d breeched the railings – these posts are sunk about a metre into the ground. He finished the day by clearing a pathway through the flax and other rampant growth from the One Acre paddock across the plantation to the orchard up in the north-west corner by the runner bean enclosure.

Karola spent most of the day outside clearing leaves and tidying up. Mid afternoon she began converting one over-sized tree guard into two small ones.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—16℃ 4.6mm rain [77.09] IBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Higher Purchase

As the chooks seem to quite like the broad flat kwila perch I added yesterday, today I replaced the original branch perch with another kwila one. Checking in the evening I found cockerel and one hen on the top perch, three on the lower perch, and two on the floor huddled up to the rest. I suspect they like huddling for warmth.

Mark completed his Kioto tractor mowing of the Front paddock; he still had problems with the tractor overheating but I think that’s just because the old dead stalks are so dusty quickly clog up the radiator. Aferwards Mark began on transplanting the two wilding saplings to permanent places at the south end of the Goose paddock – more properly the Ram paddock. The wildings in question are a chestnut that has self-seeded at the west end of the cottage garage and a plane tree that also self-established amongst my special manuka hedge between the cottage and the farm shed.

Karola had a long chat with Lyn who seems to be in the wars at present with her health. The pleasures of getting old and wearing out.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [77.04] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Shopping Wednesday

After breakfast off we went, Karola, Bangle, and me, to New World for the week’s groceries, OMG for a loaf of GF paleo bread and for coffees from Artisan next door. Also picked up some cash for the gardener – we missed him during the lock-downs 4, 3, and 2. And dropped in to The Storage Box but my fourth clear plastic tray has not yet arrived from the manufacturer.

I forgot to get the clips for the piece of gutter to go along the back of the chook house so, after morning tea, we drove off again to the nearest plumber, Holder & Son in Omahu road, and then detoured to Gagan’s the roadside green grocers for a few more fresh vegetables.

The owner of Outdoor Power, Trevor Manuel, brought back the Grillo, serviced but without a replacement belt for the damaged one – that isn’t expected until the end of the month.

Mark came and began by finishing the transplanting of five Escallonia “Apple Blossom” from the Bay Tree hedge to the octagon. He then began mowing under the big oak – a second attempt at clearing leaves mainly – but had to stop after an hour or so because the damaged belt driving the blades did finally break.

Afternoon tea and then Mark continued with the Kioti tractor mower – no picking up – finishing under the oak and getting well started on the Front Paddock before the end of the afternoon.

Last night Mark set one of the cage traps and caught a large possum which he took home for animal tucker. This evening I was almost tripped up by a possum racing across my path to get to a tree – it must have been out in the paddock searching for food when I startled it. I was checking the chooks because, at Karola’s suggestion, I’d added another perch to the chook house, a 150mm (6”) wide piece of kwila hardwood, and I wanted to see if they were using it. Rooster and three pullets on the original top perch, two pullets on the new, lower perch, and one pullet on the floor of the chook house.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [77.04] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Populating The Octagon

Mark completed putting up electric fence round the homestead lawn and I let some very grateful sheep in. Mark then cleared the octagon surrounding the Canary Island Palm – long-time home of a flock of feral pigeons – of the weeds that I’d sprayed a couple of weeks ago. He began transplanting the Escallonia “Apple Blossom” shrubs from the Bay Tree hedge to the octagon. The plan is to move those allegedly very fragrant shrubs from the hedge where they’re just rampant – crawling over the neighbouring plants and out onto the lawn – to the octagon where we hope they’ll be less dominating.

Meanwhile I moved a flax bush from too close to the little half-gate into the Goose paddock to a gap a little further along the edge of the 121 driveway to the cottage. Went and got the Kioti tractor bucket full of windfall apples and put them in the homestead garage fridge for later feeding to chooks and sheep. Otherwise much of the day spent programming.

Summer In Ealing

Dave Paces Back To His Mark Before His Massive Long Jump Attempt – Felix Is Sceptical

St Marys Road Bake-Off – Felix’s Triumph, Mouthwatering – But He Came Last (And First)

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—17℃ no rain [77.50] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Vehicle Servicing

First thing was to get Zoe in to Napier for the planned service at Bayswater Motors so Karola drove Zoe and I took the Landrover. The trip was made quite hazardous by the strong sun shining into our faces, “sun-strike” as they call it in America. On the way home we dropped in at the Plant Shop on Pakowhai road and purchased a bale of pea straw to use as a staging platform alongside the long ladder from ground to chook house.

Late morning Matt from Outdoor Power came and took away the Grillo on a small truck, it too is due a service.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage early afternoon.

Mark was diverted from his electric fence erections to cutting back the flax along the 121 driveway where it goes east-west along the Goose paddock fence.

Chook Update

I was concerned that, once the pop-hole was opened, the black balls of feathery joy would not go back inside their house of their own volition.

After a couple of nights shut in the house – for acclimatisation – I opened the pop-hole this morning and … out they popped. At Karola’s suggestion I got a bale of pea straw (see above) and it made a platform sort-of halfway up the ladder.

We have a couple of persimmon trees laden with fruit, just starting to go squishy, and Karola found that they really do like persimmons. Also apples of which we have plenty on the ground in Karola’s orchard next door. And I took chook-breeder Sarah Robotham’s advice and got a small dog-roll, that’s a winner too – they find it even when they can’t possibly see it so maybe they can smell food – I’d never thought of that.

At sunset I put a trail of dog-roll going up the ladder – quickly eaten without actually putting foot inside the house. Same again later with apple, again good interest but that stopped short of going for the bits on the floor inside the house.

I imagined coming out well after dark and scooping them up off the ground – and them not being best pleased. But in the twilight I was delighted to see the cockerel and one hen had gone inside and as I watched the rest followed – all by themselves. Whew.

The very temporary fence gives them space as you can see from the photo below – it’s 900mm high European sheep netting (smaller holes). The cockerel jumped out mid afternoon but when no-one followed him he was desperate to rejoin his fan club.

Personalities are emerging already – there is one particularly bossy hen, she thinks all tasty morsels belong to her and is severe with anyone who appears to have found something nice. That’s “pecking order” in action. Even the cockerel gives her quite a wide berth.

Chooks First Taste Of (Limited – For Now) Freedom

The Oven Cleaner: Just Checking – Anything Need Eating Up, A Mouse Perhaps? (Photo from Bridget)

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—17℃ no rain [77.12] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4 eggs=0

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Keeping The Chooks Amused Whilst Under House Arrest

Cottage lawns mown, rubbish out, and livestock all tended. Cold day but sunny. We both spent most of the day inside, me enjoying programming and Karola, ditto, reading.

Karola had two small and very fresh eggs for breakfast – the first eggs from our new flock.

Chooks like persimmons and apples so they got both today. Karola cleaned up a very old tube drinker for water for the chooks and they appreciated that, preferring it to my plastic tray of water. Karola also had an excellent idea which might help get the chooks to walk the plank from and to the house – put a hay bale next to the ramp as a half-way house. We’ll try that when we let them out of the house this week.

I cleaned the Grillo after the mowing, it takes about half an hour with the air compressor. Grillo is to be picked up tomorrow for service and we’ve noticed a fearful knocking when the blades are engaged so perhaps they’ll diagnose and fix that.

Gill & Ben Wander Along The Coast – Staring Into Rock Pools – Bliss

Lyn’s Very Hard Jigsaw – Bridget Gets Started

All 1000 Pieces In Place

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—15℃ no rain [76.82] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=0

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Cold Yet Bright

Fastest Tour de Twyford today, possibly because it was sharply cold but very little wind.

Karola suggested that the chooks might like squishy persimmons, of which there are many now that suddely they’re all becoming (over) ripe. She was right. One of the pullets is already showing dominance and it’s not the one we think is laying – by the colour and size of her comb. The leader pullet made sure she got first dibs on the nearest persimmon.

Another small egg today.

I spent the day enjoyably, programming. Karola mostly continued reading.

Pullets Peck Persimmons, Charlie Looks On

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ no rain [76.81] IKBOrchard TdT eggs=1

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Chooks Arrive Safe & Well

Was a scramble to get the chooks house ready, so much so that they didn’t actually take occupancy until 4:30pm.

We met the Pet Bus before 1:00pm at BP Bay View – the other side of Napier, loaded them and “Wild Bean Cafe” coffees into the Landrover and tootled home.

Mark continued mowing the Middle and Totara paddocks to remove the thick layer of leaves and let the grass breath.

Apart from a few little drips and missed patches the chook house painting was completed yesterday so today it was a matter of attaching the lids of the nest boxes and the food and drink cabinet, putting back the netting front, the door, and the pop-hole door. Also swapped the cheap and unsatisfactory wheels with the new more robust ones and lowered the house off its chocks back onto the ground.

Expecting the chooks to be a mite displeased with their several days of travel in a cardboard box I prudently put all three boxes in the house, loosened the lids and withdrew. After a while heads appeared and some thought about leaving their travelling boxes.

They seemed not at all frightened or annoyed, just clucked softly to each other so I carefully tipped them out of their boxes, picking a couple of them up to hurry thing along – no fuss, no cackling, no beating of wings – they are so calm and utterly unfazed by being handled.

Found an egg in one of the boxes, so will see if Karola can have it for breakfast tomorrow.

The floor, linoleum over plywood, is covered in quite old wood chippings; the nest boxes lined wirth meadow hay, and the food & drink cabinet has water, oyster grit, and pullet pellets. Lets hope they get a good night’s sleep.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [77.03] IBOrchard TdT Mark=4 eggs=1

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Lexi aka Alex’s 14th Birthday – How Can That Be, So Soon

Karola picked most of her persimmons yesterday as the birds indicated they were ripe – by pecking holes in them. She boxed up a few kilograms of them and we sent them off to Adrieen Kebble nee Wilson down in Otaki, one of karola’s cousins. Adriene is being treated for cancer but when Karola spoke to her yesterday she seemed upbeat and in good spirits.

Lexi’s birthday and my little present of four very strong fridge magnets got there in time. Lexi is adept at collages and other art items so it seems she’d always be in need of a strong fridge magnet. Karola meanwhile wrote Lexi a long TXT which was probably more appreciated than the magnets, but there we are.

I got back from the Tour just as Mark was coming in the gate. He deferred putting up the rest of the electric fence round the homestead lawn instead spending the entire afternoon picking up leaves from the Middle paddock. Karola wanted the heavy leaf cover lessened so that the grass grows now it’s rained and the temperatures are still low teens. And tomorrows forecast is for rain hence the change of plan.

Painting all afternoon, the cosmetic detailing of eaves, rafters, etc in Karaka Green.

Mark shot a possum last night but despite hunting for over an hour neglected to get a single rabbit. Mark’s hunting may be linked to Bangle’s retrieval of rather smelly carcasses which she drags under the cottage – not a good idea and I’m not looking forward to trying to retrieve them.

Mark says he saw a cat with four kittens down in the stump dump last week but I have retired from the community service of “catch and desex” of feral cats.

Karola rang the local Tranfer Station (waystation for the land-fill) and booked a slot. She took a Landrover load of paper and cardboard to the recycling centre there.

Last night I joined a zoom meeting organised by the local (Oceana) chapter of the UK-based RSA, (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce) – I am a life member. I invited friend Iain Middleton as a guest and saw him pop up on the list of meeting attendees. The topic was ostensibly about future options for society post Covid-19. It turned out to be about the role of media for societies in crisis, recent experiences. Of interest was the observation that since Roger Douglas economics – user pays, no subsidies, pay our way – took over New Zealand in the 1980s we’d seemed to turn into a nation of mean-spirited, self-centred citizens. But our behaviour, well the behaviour of most of us, during the lock-down was surprisingly unselfish. “Stay at home, Save (other people’s) lives” – who would have thought that would fly here. Sort of justifies my byline, “I’d Rather Be in New Zealand”.

Showing The Difference Made By Mowing With The Grillo

Chook House Detailing Paintwork Done

North Aspect (Above), West Aspect (Below)

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—22℃ 3.4mm rain [77.21] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Chooks Locked And Loaded

A hectic day, Wednesdays as shopping days are becoming that way.

First we posted Bridget’s dozen willow stakes, then New World with our shopping lists, fruit & vege for Karola, and protein etc for me. Weekly bread from OMG and coffees from Artisan next door, then to Countdown to get the things unavailable or that we forgot at New World, and finally back home. So, all done by 10:30am.

Lots of painting and so still on track to finish tomorrow with the chooks arriving midday Friday. Mark moved more firewood and the Goose paddock does look significantly better without the untidy long stack of rotting firewood along the north fence. Mark has started putting electric fence round the homestead lawn.

Sarah Robotham emailed to say my six chooks and their cockerel leader are on their way. Will catch the ferry tomorrow night.

Two Of Six In Their Travelling Crate

Two Crates, Three To A Crate (Cockerel Has His Own Crate Of Course)

… And Overnight One Of Them Laid An Egg (Not To Scale)

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ no rain [77.21] IKBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Postings

Karola wrapped up the jigsaw she was given by Lyn – we did try but at 1000 pieces and large areas of sky and mountain and pastures it defeated us. I popped the FireFly DVDs in the box and we went to Stortford Lodge and posted it to Bridget – the post office is inside at the back of the pharmacy there.

Tomato soup for breakfast at 12:15pm – this is the time-restricted eating diet, long may it last. I did the Tour de Twyford today in sunshine and with the water rapidly drying up from yesterday’s constant showers.

I went out to the plantation area up by the big shed and sawed off some willow branches making about ten little willow sticks for Bridget to plant down in Khandallah. Karola wrapped them up and we’ll post them tomorrow.

Mark finished the temporary sheep netting fence round the chook shed – just to keep them from getting lost until they’re acclimatised. He then continued moving firewood from the goose paddock fenceline to the new piles.

I did a few hours painting and am making good progress, there’s a chance I’ll be finished before the chooks arrive on Friday – as long as it doesn’t rain again. The door, pophole, nest box and food&drink cabinet lids are all off while they’re painted and the rain got in. There were a few millimetres of water on the floor yesterday but by this evening it’d drained away and the linoleum was dry.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—21℃ 0.2mm rain [77.67] IBOrchard TdT Mark=4

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Constant Gentle Rain – Queen’s Birthday Monday

Too wet to do much outside but I did get the door and pophole painted as they were in the dry in the homestead garage.

Started, re-started my programming project to enhance the weight tracking program and quickly got immersed. Had a fire all day for the cheerfulness as much as warmth. Karola continues devouring her small library of Woodford House old-girl Barbara Anderson writings. Barbara Anderson died in 2013. I too find her novels captivating.

Cottage Driveway Becomes Small Lake

Sheep Huddled Under Canary Island Pine

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—16℃ 29.6mm rain [77.76] IKBOrchard

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