Monthly Archives: December 2021

Another warm day.

Mark came round at 12:30pm – we’d just finished our short walk along the stop bank. Our first task was more sheep work. We put Magnum on all the sheep, even the rams, to dissuade blowflies from laying eggs on them. We also noted that the button tags on all eight ewe hoggets were blank – the printing had washed away. Two lambs also had indecipherable button tags but as they are wethers I’m not going to worry about that. I’ll have to get eight large tags for the hoggets and randomly assign them the eight numbers. Where is Ancestry.com when you need them? Some of the five daggy lambs are twitching their tails a lot so, more as a precaution than known fact, Mark put Maggo (meeat withholding 14 days) liberally around the tails of #112, #114, #121, #122, #124.

Mark got a couple of small trailer loads of branches from around the Liriodendron and the big oak before afternoon tea. Then he mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage while I, in 30 minutes, put a bucket of water on each of the eleven Totara trees along the Long Acre fenceline. Karola prompted me that they were looking a little stressed. I’ve now turned on the watering for both sets of Red Beech trees, the five SwampCypress plus 16 Lime trees (tilia), and the Manuka plus micro-orchard and Bay tree hedge round the cottage.

Senior moment last night; I accidentally locked the chooks out of their house so they slept al fresco last night and laid their eggs who knows where today. <sigh>. This morning I saw Rachel (Red-Band) over by the rainwater tanks by herself and scared off a cat that was watching her. Got worried later in the day when she didn’t appear but late afternoon she did turn up to my relief.

Karola cooked up my special dessert fruit mix – Granny Smith apples and rhubarb.

Monarch caterpillars population has swelled overnight on the swan plant so, after consulting with Gill & Ben, I culled back to only two or three caterpillars per plant.

For The Chop

Oak Avenue Weather:11.1℃—23.7℃ no rain [78.088] TdO eggs=0 Mark=3½

Karola made her second loaf of OMG gluten-free bread today.

I spent a relaxing couple of hours listening to Victoria Coren Mitchell (wife of Dave Mitchell of Would I Lie To You and many other comedy programmes). In her radio programme, Women Talking About Cars, she interviewed Dawn French, Olivier Colman, Sarah Millican, and Germaine Greer.

I found Orange-Band sitting on a nest in the chook house last night and checking again today she is still there so she is banned to the broody coop for a few days, hoping it will get her back to normal.

Mark came and began with a couple of hours cutting the worst patches of Californian thistles. It is said that if you cut them after rain they get diseased and die back. We shall see.

Mark found ewe #514, deceased, and buried her in the pit. There’s still room for another one.

Later Mark and I rounded up the sheep, intending to apply Magnum against fly strike now it’s definitely warm and humid. First we checked for daggy sheep and selected the five worst, all lambs, and Mark drenched them with Matrix (meat withholding 14 days): #112, #114, #121, #122, #124.

Oak Avenue Weather:12.5℃—23.7℃ 0.2mm rain [78.787] TdT TdO eggs=3 Mark=4½

Shopping for the week deferred from yesterday. No OMG GF bread baked this week or next. Lass in Cornucopia suggested I bake my own and sold me a packet of pre-mix plus, after she reminded me, some yeast.

There being no baking of my special OMG gluten-free bread this week or next Karola kindly set to and baked a loaf from the OMG pre-mix; this was a packet I bought almost two years ago for the very first lockdown but it baked a fine loaf, delicious, especially when still warm.

I let Yellow-Band out of the broody coop today and she seems quite cured of re-offending – for now.

Happened to walk past the swan plants and counted ten Monarch caterpillars gobbling their way through the leaves. A Monarch butterfly visited while I was watching so I’m imagining we’ll have overpopulation soon.

Swan Plant With Caterpillars

Oak Avenue Weather:14.7℃—21.3℃ 3.2mm rain [78.662] TdT TdO eggs=4 Mark=0

About a third of the Boxing Day letters were emailed last night, another third today.

And that’s filled out our day quite enough. Tuesday is usually shopping day but anticipating some shops being closed for the public holiday we’re intending to do that tomorrow.

Trotting Bangle round the orchard after dinner it started to rain, gently at first but proper rain by the time we got back, damp but not soaked. Glorious rain; just what the paddocks and trees need.

Oak Avenue Weather:17.1℃—29.0℃ 6.8mm rain [78.590] TdT TdO eggs=3

A second day trying to create this year’s Boxing Day letter. I thought I had it mostly done yesterday but Karola started some editing that meant most of the day was spent in rewording and re-laying out. I have to admit is is very much better for the editing and re-editing.

Henare popped in around dark, tended his bees and then stopped for a coffee and a chat.

Oak Avenue Weather:11.9℃—30.8℃ no rain [78.456] TdT TdO eggs=4

A hot and muggy day making us wonder whether our younger trees will be needing a drink soon.

I did make some preliminary photographs of our mains electricity box for OMC Power Equipment, the outfit I spoke to at length about getting Karamu a backup generator.

Oak Avenue Weather:14.9℃—25.3℃ no rain [78.715] TdT TdO eggs=4

Late start, an overcast day but warm and slight breeze. Suddenly a Facetime call from Bridget and we shared their present unwrapping remotely.

Karola and I got the More family a hefty donation to Médecins Sans Frontières instead of trying to second guess what they might actually want as individual presents. This prompted Lexi to give us a Christmas present this year that is a donation to a tree planting organisation in New Zealand. That is just so much better and more to our liking. Thank you Lexi.

Had a short but very upbeat chat on phone with Gill and Ben.

Late afternoon we scrambled round and found a Christmas card that could be repurposed, attached it to a large box of chocolates, and walked over to neighbour Janet Scott with this Christmas present. Karola gave her chocolates last year and thinks they went down very well, pretty quickly. While there Janet told us about a strange thing she read in Friday’s newspaper. A letter to the editor signed by Turia Brackenbury. You don’t see that name often in Hawkes bay.

Very Large Puffball Fungus On Edge Of Driveway

Christmas Dinner At Bridget’s – Bridget, Annemarie, and Natalie

Oak Avenue Weather:16.3℃—24.0℃ no rain [78.332] TdT TdO eggs=3

What do you call this end-of-year break when your readers may not celebrate Christmas, at least not any more. Or if a reader should be of a different faith, or no faith at all. Mike Cowlishaw has neatly sidestepped the awkwardness by labelling it the Winter (or in our case Summer) Solstice holiday.

Kim scheduled hair appointments for us both today so we’ll be neat and tidy for the festive season; we went into Hastings mid-morning, traffic is as busy as I’ve ever seen it, and escaped well coiffed and unscathed before noon.

Mark is on holiday from today.

I had a very good talk with the guy from OMC Power Generators; he’s had the business for over thirty years and sold hundreds of generators all over New Zealand. He rang me in response to the query I wrote earlier today, shown below. He recommends a gas driven generator rather than diesel – a 3-phase 18kVa generator with the automatic switch-over when the grid fails. Apparently has installed several for doctors recently. He also has many marae installations but of larger diesel generators for their big kitchens etc. We shall continue the dialogue.

Here’s my project:

Reinforced by recent planned outages as our lines company did some maintenance, I realise how dependent we are on having a continuous electricity supply. Being outside the scope of town supply and sewage we rely on electricity powered systems for much of our normal living: loos, domestic water, livestock water, sprinkler system as fire protection, cooking, heating, computers, and on and on.

Assuming the weather is only going to get more extreme in this part of Hawkes Bay we can expect stronger equinoxial gales, more damaging downpours (like Napier earlier this year), and, in the future, in this low density area of orchards and lots of trees, our grid electricity supply is likely to be disrupted more frequently and for longer.

So I am considering creating a backup electricity supply, probably based on a diesel generator, that could keep us up and running pretty much as normal for at least a week or ten days.

I have a builder and electrician who would be happy to help but I need to make a plan for the system, ideally to sit down with an experienced person who can help decide the elements I need, a generator, diesel fuel tank, concrete pad for the generator, maintenance needs, and so on.

The mains fuse box is more than 50 metres from either of two dwellings so noise isn’t so much of a problem. The supply is three phase. One of the dwellings has grid-connected PV but the sparky says that’ll not be a problem as a backup supply would interface between our current mains box and the grid – the PV complexity is apparently handled our side of the mains box.

If you think you can help, perhaps by putting me in touch with a local engineer to help design the system, please do let me know. I’m not in a great rush to get this done – sometime over the next month would be fine, so no need to respond immediately.

Oak Avenue Weather:14.5℃—25.7℃ no rain [77.775] TdT TdO eggs=6 Mark=0

Got eMail from Harvey Norman saying the rest of our kitchen things were ready to be picked up. Karola, concerned that someone else might nip in and get them, insists we dash off and pick them up immediately. And Karola wants to take Bangle despite there being really no room for her once we’re loaded up with an oven, a hob, and a range hood. Off we go in the Subaru station waggon, pick up the items, put Bangle under Karola’s feet in the passenger seat, and tootle back home.

Tried some of the Bostock’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar – it’s still as vile as when, after hearing Sue Kedgley extoll its virtues, tried it several years ago. So it must be doing some good and I shall persist.

Then we make a second foray, this time with rubbish bins of paper, plastic, and glass, to the recycling depot next to the transfer station in Henderson road. Afterwards Karola suggests we pop in to Gagan’s greengrocer roadside stall just down the road. Oh, but the car park is full, way too crowded, so we reverse out and trundle back towards home.

Karola then decides she really didn’t like the cherries she bought at New World and surely, even though Gagan’s might have had better ones, we could go to the cherry orchard called Kirstens over towards Middle Road and Birdwood Cafe. So we do, it’s only about half the way to Birdwood. On the way we discuss whether Kirsten’s annual visit to Europe was now permanent, and whether I’d seen a “for Sale” sign on the orchard gate last winter.

We arrive, Karola chooses her cherries, and I ask the elderly lady serving us, “where is Kirsten these days”. “I am Kirsten”, she says. Kirsten and I were wearing masks which helped smooth things over.

Meanwhile Mark continued attacking the barley grass; he’s mown great swathes of barley grass seed heads – it’s these which can be very dangerous to sheep and dogs if they get into an eye or jaw or other joint.

After dinner, when it was cooler, Bangle, Karola and i went down to the stop bank for our daily exercise. We passed a police car leaving the stop bank – not a good sign. There were several car loads of young people down there, mostly just down for a swim on such a hot day, probably. I went off on my bike; Karola and Bangle stayed in the Landrover as there was too much activity and another dog barking that made Bangle cautious. On the way back from my turnaround point, 3½km from the Landrover, I met a slowly moving police car on the cycle path – it did just fit. I stopped and the pleasant young constable asked if I’d seen four Samoan boys wearing just swimming togs and jandals. Sadly I had not – and will never know what mischief they had been up to, nor whether they were ever located. It’s non-stop excitement down at the stop bank.

Oak Avenue Weather:12.5℃—29.0℃ no rain [77.826] TdT TdO eggs=6 Mark=4

Peter Fitzpatrick, Bostock’s orchard manager for Karola’s orchard, popped in just as we were getting up to deliver John Bostock’s Christmas gift. They give a gift to each of his landlords in Hawkes Bay, of which there must be over 30 by now – he has 70 organic apple orchards and many of them are leased. Four bottles of Bostock wine: Merlot, Sarah, Chardonnet, and Pino Gris, and a bottle of his organic apple cider vinegar. The latter is beloved of people such as Sue Kedgley. Maybe the new Mrs Bostock, widow Sally Apatu nee Baines, has environmental sensitivities like JB’s first wife Vicki Bostock nee Glazebrook.

Karola had a dental appointment in the afternoon, a slot freed up by cancellation replacing her appointment in late January.

Mark came and after doing a few bits and pieces, including cleaning up the fallen branch in the sheep yards and repairing a break in the micro-orchard irrigation line, did a fine job of mowing barley grass with the Grillo. The irrigation mishap was from the Grillo just catching on a pipe bulging up above the grass.

Six eggs today, one for each hen, an unusual event.

Asparagus Harvest Over – They’ve All Gone To Seed

Stop Bank Orchardist Has A Small Row Of Hops Along The Boundary

Oak Avenue Weather:15.6℃—32.3℃ no rain [77.830] TdT TdO eggs=6 Mark=4

Bit of a rush to get the shopping done in time to go to my afternoon dentist appointment. A cracked silver filling was replaced but in excavating that dentist Tracey Eales found a bigger crack going down the tooth so now I’m to have a crown on that tooth.

Mark came and concentrated on mowing: first the cottage lawn and curtilage – amazing how much it grew in a couple of weeks; then a patch of barley grass around the Canary island Pine.

While we were in town the GIB sheets arrived, including the scarce aqualine GIB and it’s now stacked inside the homestead ready for next year.

Rashbrookes rang for a Christmas chat and we exchanged lengthy notes on building works and the world in general.

It was not only quite hot today but blowing a gale which put me off cycling on the stop bank.

Homestead Project In Abeyance Till Mid January

Oak Avenue Weather:13.6℃—31.8℃ no rain [77.950] TdO eggs=5 Mark=4

Mark TXTed to say he wasn’t coming today as did Henare’s woodsman cousin Anthony Hunia. Actually quite a relief not having visitors today.

Ivan (electrician) called in and we gave him another half dozen eggs. He’ll be back mid January. Paul also came over from the homestead to say he’s bought enough of the scarce aqualine GIB for our purposes but he had to buy slightly oversized sheets to be sure we had them for next year. He’s going to store them in the homestead hall for now.

I calle Ruth (architect) and she says she’s just been overwhelmed with clients wanting instant answers to urgent questions. I was sympathetic and we now don’t expect her to get to our plan change drawings until mid January.

Karola & I popped into CountDown for some bits and pieces, stopping at Rush Munros for a shared banana split – sitting in the cool shade of their covered area avoiding the 30℃ plus temperatures outside.

Top Of The Scaffolding – Looking South-East

Top Of The Scaffolding – Looking North

Top Of The Scaffolding – Looking West

Top Of The Scaffolding – Looking South-West

Oak Avenue Weather:11.6℃—28.0℃ no rain [77.897] TdO eggs=3 Mark=0

Called Anna and Dave in Ealing and said “Happy Birthday” to Dave.

Left keys in Landrover and battery went flat but soon jump started with Subaru so not a problem.

Watered raised beds as although there was rain just a couple of days ago it soon dries out. Moved the plant propagation table from beside the summer house over against the railings behind the cottage pump shed – at Karola’s request as she imagines what it’ll be like if her tree people come here in April. The NZ Dendrology Society annual trip and AGM is in Hawkes Bay this year.

Henare came round after dark to look after his bees; we have a group of hives alongside the five swamp cypress on the north boundary and another group still in the north-east corner next to the Bentham’s Cypress. Henare rang a relation who does tree work and Anthony Hunia (027-873-1569) is coming tomorrow to release the hooked up branch – the one that broke off on Friday.

Oak Avenue Weather:10.2℃—24.9℃ no rain [78.001] TdT TdO eggs=4

Karola and I discussed Christmas today. We agreed with Bridget that we would stay at home this year due to: Covid, especially the Omicron strain; that we are vulnerable to burglary while there’s active building work on site; we’re still quite exhausted from our enjoyable but active entertainment of two guests last weekend.

It being Felix birthday today (UK time), and Dave’s tomorrow we called Anna and spoke with Felix, Anna, and Dave. Really delightful to hear their voices and it is a relief to hear that Anna and Dave have had their booster, Felix is having his on Monday, and Barney is probably the most prepared having had Covid already and two jabs. Anna said that the situation in UK with Omicron is just short of catastrophic; they don’t know how long the NHS will hold together. When I asked Anna said she thought that perhaps in 2023 her family might be able to visit us here in New Zealand.

I showed Karola the broken branch lodged high up in a tree near the roadside boundary behind the homestead garage. We may need a tree surgeon to remove it.

On Friday This Large Branch Tore Off The Main Trunk

View From The Other Side

Oak Avenue Weather:14.1℃—26.5℃ no rain [78.326] TdT TdO eggs=4

Ivan called in this morning as he said he would. Not only after another half dozen eggs but to talk about aspects of the homestead rewiring. Firstly he thinks that the mains electricity board should open into the laundry rather than under the stairs so that it is protected by a sprinkler. Also, there’s no natural light under the stairs so it’d be better to have the box opening into the laundry. I agreed to that. Then he observed that the back porch sprinkler was placed in the centre of the porch which meant the proposed pendant light had to be offset. I called Paul Van Weeden, sprinkler man, and he said that for any ceiling projection such as a ceiling rose it must not be closer than six times the depth of the projection. So builder Paul and I persuaded Ivan that having the light centred within the opening and steps to the outside would actually be better. Sprinkler problem went away. Ivan also suggested some outside lighting slaved to the back porch internal light. I immediately agreed and said we’d reuse one of the cottage sun porch carriage lights. These are not visible from the outside due to a late modification to the cottage sun porch and an ordinary internal light would be better there anyway.

Whilst over talking to Ivan and Paul we revisited the design of the shower room, the small room off the end of the laundry with a loo, basin, and shower. The main waste pipes from upstairs all come down next to the outside wall in the shower room and I know we’ll need to partition off some of the shower room for that. Today we came up with a better plan than just having an extra wall straight across and 200mm or so parallel to the exterior wall. The waste water main will be boxed in from the floor up 2.5 metres. Above that the pipes proliferate so we’ll have a partition right across above 2.5 metres. The loo position, half-way between the shower and the exterior wall, still works. The basin can be moved to be centred on the inside wall between the shower and the doorway, there’s 550mm of space there. And that displaces the 450mm wide heated towel rail which can go against the wall with the laundry. Everything fits again.

Ivan and Paul also convinced me that the vanity unit and basin mirrors should not reach down to the basin level but be separated by a row of tiles. I went down to HomePlus and talked to Nick Curry and he suggested that we install the mirrors last, after the vanity units and basin are installed and the light fittings installed. Then the mirrors will be made to fit the width of the unit below exactly. Nick will arrange for installation and the tiling – 150mm high plain white tiles.

Paul and Ivan installed the fans in each room with a shower; Ivan had metal cowls made for the outside as he assures me the normal Chinese plastic ones will get brittle and fail in a few years.

Mark came and continued constructing the two big shelves for the orchard shed.

No contact with architect Ruth, nor with Grayson re the water softener and possible heat pump for hot water in the homestead. Nor did Craig from Outdoor Power come this week to repair the Grillo.

Oak Avenue Weather:14.7℃—27.7℃ 0.2mm rain [78.326] TdO eggs=5 Mark=4

I watched a TV series last night in its entirety, Brave New World. I mistakenly thought it was only six episodes but I got hooked and watched till the very end of the final, ninth, episode. I have forgotten the Aldous Huxley book Brave new World, so have no reason to rail at the injustices it does to the text.. Enjoyed it much more than Dune Part 1 which i saw recently in cinema, and more than Foundation which I watched recently on our TV. There was rather more time spent on orgies and the like, although nothing like the explicitness raged against in some negative reviews. I did like the woman masterminding the whole New London system, in fact there were a number of likeable characters including the “hero”, the badlands savage man, and his girl friend. Downside was that I got to bed around 3:00am.

Bruce Utting called around 9:00am for a chat. He and Kirsty are having a sociable Christmas with family and friends but their family is one of those riven by the anti-vaxxer madness imported from the USA so it might take some care to avoid angst. I was pleased to hear that Bruce & Kirsty still have four chooks.

Karola & I popped into Stortford Lodge to the pharmacy there as I am running out of meds. We took advantage of the expected wait for the pharmaceuticals to grab coffees from BP’s Wild bean Cafe across the road.

The rain having stopped and things having dried out quite a lot, Mark came today. He took another trailer load of stuff up to the big shed for long term storage and a collection of copper pipes to the Stump Dump awaiting my trip to the scrap metal merchants. Most of the afternoon Mark spent on the big shed shelving project, creating two shelves running the length of the big shed bay with a roller door. This will create more space for stuff that still works but is unlikely to be used by us, ever.

Talked to builder Paul about the window in the new back porch and took his advice to have a fixed glass window comprising several small panes mimicking the panes of the double-hung sash windows in the laundry and kitchen. Paul framed up the new partition between the main hall and the stairs. The old front door opens into this hall which will serve as a library and possible downstairs bedroom if one becomes necessary.

At the end of our walk round the orchard this evening I picked raspberries from the neglected vines in their netting enclosure in the north-west corner. The enclosure began life as my runner bean patch; it has no netting top but just netting to prevent rabbits. After a few years of runner beans I introduced a few raspberry vines and cared for them for a couple of years. My reward was less than a handful of berries. For the last two or three years, apart from cutting back and weeding in the autumn, the vines have been neglected and our reward today was over 500gm of fruit.

Over 500 Grams Of Raspberries From Neglected Vines

Pohutukawa – New Zealand Christmas Tree In Bloom

Paul Framed Up The New Partition Dividing Front Hall From Stairs

… Looking Back Towards Old Front Door

Oak Avenue Weather:14.3℃—26.5℃ 3.6mm rain [78.010] TdT TdO eggs=6 Mark=4

I missed out on the Tuesday shopping yesterday and so we’d run out of milk and other food. I got up in good time and went shopping at New World before 9:00am. It had been raining all night and was still raining for much of the day.

We drove Jane into Hastings to the bus stop for the InterCity bus in good time. We had coffee at a tiny coffee shop just opposite the bus stop and once that was finished had a cheese toastie – Jane spied that being offered on a small menu board inside the shop. We shared it and it was surprisingly good.

The bus came, a double-decker much bigger than Karola remembered from her bus trip up to Hastings when she came back from having her stent put in at the Wakefield hospital in Wellington. Jane had a reclining “gold” seat and reported later that there was plenty of room and it was a comfortable though long trip.

Saturated Riding Grounds – “Arena On Ormond”

Oak Avenue Weather:17.1℃—21.0℃ 24.6mm rain [78.120] TdT eggs=5 Mark=0

Jane was booked on a flight from Napier down to Wellington at 1:00pm. Around 8:30am she got notified by Air New Zealand that the flight was cancelled. Jane rang her travel agent in Wellington who were surprised by this news but investigated and found it was true. Jane was then booked onto the next flight, the 3:00pm one.

Apparently the cancellation was due to Wellington weather. I called Gill in Seatoun and she reported that the wind wasn’t excessive, nor the rain. Ben suggested it was a fog problem which they can’t see from Seatoun Heights Road, it’s round a corner of the hills.

So we drove over to the airport in plenty of time for the 3:00pm flight. I thought it strange that there were no queues for check-in but were quickly advised that the 3:00pm too had been cancelled and the 5:25pm flight was fully booked.

Jane booked herself onto a bus travelling from Hastings to Wellington on Wednesday, just in case. It’s about six hours including half an hour comfort stop in Palmerston North.

Jane called her Wellington agent and they said they could get her on the 5:25pm flight despite Air New Zealand’s claim that it was fully booked. We had coffee and cake and waited, and waited but still the agent could not confirm her seat. After what seemed like hours, most of it on hold, the local airport loudspeaker came alive and told us that the 5:25pm flight too had been cancelled. No more flights today. We relayed that to the agent and he offered to get a seat on the first flight out tomorrow. Jane politely declined.

On the way back from the airport we thought we’d try good old fish and chips as there is a branch of TakiTimu fisheries near the Ahuriri lagoon on the way home. They didn’t have any Terakihi nor Snapper, in fact not any fillets of fish to fry. I saw that the regular battered fish pieces looked quite small; they were Travelley I was told. I doubled my order to six crumbed pieces to make up for the small size. Imagine my surprise when I was given quite a large parcel of fish and another with half a scoop of chips, as requested. The older lady who was clearly in charge said they’d popped in a few extras because the pieces were quite small. When we got home I found we had about twenty pieces of crumbed Travelley – a dozen of which are now in the freezer.

In the evening we watched the last two episodes of the last series of The Durrells which was harmless, relaxing TV entertainment.

Oak Avenue Weather:17.0℃—19.0℃ some rain [78.025] eggs=4 Mark=0

Jane was picked up by Angela and taken out for the day as planned. As Jane said:

On Monday Angela wants to take me to meet her new granddaughter, Georgia. Angela and I have been invited to have dinner on Monday night with someone I flatted with 50 years ago.

Angela is a singer, a soprano, and she asked to join the Napier Civic Choir on Saturday and Sunday for the Messiah concert. Angela Pack, who lives in Paton’s Rock, a small town in Golden Bay, is a long-time friend of Jane’s. Angela’s daughter, Helen, is recent partner of Dr Rob Kanagaratnam; recently they had a baby making Angela a grandmother. Rob used to be Karola’s dentist but he’s set up a new surgery further away and less convenient than our current dentists’ so we’re staying put. Karola has registered with my dentist, Tracey Eales.

Our Coral Tree – Old But Hanging in There

More Gravel Removal Down At The Ngaruroro River

Oak Avenue Weather:12.5℃—22.1℃ 2.4mm rain [77.681] TdT TdO eggs=4 Mark=0

We all went over to Hamoana, on the coast, and had a superb lunch at Clearview – a winery and restaurant which is pretty much Karola and Ian’s favourite when seeking an up-market location with delightful food. Despite the incessant if gentle rain it was a most enjoyable outing.

After lunch Janet made her goodbye’s and set off for Waipawa to meet her brother-in-law, stay the night, and travel back to Wellington. We anticipated Jane would stay with us for another couple of nights, flying down to Wellington on Tuesday.

In the evening Jane watched a (relatively) recent Midsomer Murders with us on the cottage TV. Unfortunately it wasn’t a particularly memorable one although brimming with political correctness and diversity.

Anna, in Ealing, TXTed me to say she’d had her booster Covid vaccination. Hope we can get ours soon too as the new variant, Omicron, is obviously much much more infectious and the jury is out on whether it is more or less virulent than the prior super-infectious variant, Delta.

Anna In Ealing Has Her Covid Booster

Oak Avenue Weather:12.5℃—20.4℃ lots of rain [77.717] eggs=3

Gentle rousing from sleep and then we all, Karola, Jane, Janet, and I went off in Janet’s car for lunch at Birdwood Cafe on Middle Road in Havelock North. Excellent meal and modest portions, which is appropriate these days. Under an umbrella on the lawn at the back.

The ladies reminisced, continuing from last night’s conversations about life in Bulls, where Karola and Janet grew up, and Wellington, where Karola met Jane at university.

Later Karola, Jane, and Janet went to the big event around which this trip was organised. Handel’s Messiah at Iona College for (originally Presbyterian) girls. Thanks to one wealthy benefactor Iona has a new and very special auditorium, renowned throughout New Zealand for its acoustics.

Jane Fuller And Janet Waite Nee Walton Outside Birdwood Cafe

Striking Pathway To Rear Gardens At Birdwood Cafe

Outside Birdwood Cafe: Jane, Karola, Janet, and Ian – Taken By A Friendly Passer-By

Karola, Jane, and Janet – Off To The Messiah In Janet’s Car

Oak Avenue Weather:15.6℃—32.4℃ no rain [77.548] TdT TdO eggs=1

Hectic morning. First I had my quarterly diabetes medical check which involves first the practice nurse, Janine, and later the GP, Richard. All the indicators are still OK although the diabetes marker is up a tad so my Metformin dose is to be doubled, back to what it was in May 2019. My blood pressure was up a few points with Janine but by the time Richard saw me he took it again and it was back down into super-healthy zone. Between these two sessions I drove Karola to her hair appointment, returning to pick her up soon after she’d finished. So that all worked out well.

Mark came and continued mowing starting with the 121 driveways so it looked neat and cared for when Jane and Janet arrived. Mark did the driveway then cleaned the Grillo remarking that the driveway is the dustiest piece of mowing we do and probably accounts for most of the problems with the air filter.

Afternoon tea over, Mark subdivided the Goose/Ram paddock with electric fence and the put one ram in each half before letting the rest of the sheep into the Long Acre.

For the rest of the afternoon Mark began mowing a belt about ten metres wide along the railings of the cottage, creating the beginnings of a fire break to protect the cottage from potential grass fire in the Middle or Totara paddock.

I did a little pruning of the Rimu and Totara trees around the Canary Island pine,the trees recently liberated from their tree guards. I also pruned some low hanging branches in the sheep yards where the weight of new foliage had made then bend low into our way.

Dean the plumber has contacted HomePlus and arranged with them to pick up our white goods as they arrive and he needs them.

Dean showed interest in a fallen oak, he’d like it for firewood so I agreed and said he could take any amount of the big pile of sawn firewood behind the homestead garage as we had no use for it.

Jane Fuller and Janet Waite arrived late afternoon. Janet is daughter of Dr Walton, the GP for Karola’s family in Bulls last century. She married a doctor and became Janet Waite. He died just seven years ago.

We chatted over afternoon tea and then went for a walk down on the stop bank. Jane, who has not ridden a bicycle for many years, had a go on my bike and was delighted that she still remembered how.

Lots more chatting over dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:18.0℃—28.2℃ no rain [77.444] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

After a chat with Paul and Ivan I popped down to HomePlus to discuss the order for white goods with Nick Curry. Having searched online for all the items on the list, almost all were as I specified or had photos of when asking Nick for a quote. As I said to Nick today, we are not fond of sharp edges nor of little bits of wire as handles, and we’ve mostly achieved that.

Nick is looking for a different wash basin for the shower room, one less angular. And he’s identified better options for the sinks taps in the kitchen and laundry, taps with kinder contours. I added a couple more mirrors o the order and reduced the mirror height to 1000mm from 1100mm. Changed the vanity unit drawer handles from a stark metal one to having a groove built into the lip of each drawer, just like my map cabinet. As per the plumber’s request I asked for the shower units, the bath, the wash basin and the mixer taps to be delivered as soon as possible.

More discussions with Ivan and builder Paul. Paul repaired the holes upstairs where sprinkler Paul & Michelle needed access to install the sprinkler heads for the downstairs rooms.

Paul is also going to make good the old chimney breast cavity in the Bee room. Replace the floor that is currently inviting a plunge to your death on the concrete below, line the cavity, and put a ceiling on it including a spacious trapdoor. Later he’ll get some cabinet doors to close off the entire cavity from the bedroom. Maybe then it won’t be a main thoroughfare for possums and rats getting inside from the attic. Paul will also patch up the HWC in the cottage now the new cylinder is installed and working.

Ivan agrees that he can put up the heating pads to go behind the mirrors in the three rooms with showers; the pads will be slaved to the light switch for the light above the mirror.

Mark came and finished mowing the homestead lawn before mowing the cottage lawn as I thought that would be nice for Karola’s visitors tomorrow. Jane Fuller and Janet Waite are coming for the weekend; Jane is staying a bit longer.

Rang Outdoor Power and agreed with Craig that he’ll come over and fix the Grillo’s broken battery cable next week. Show us how to take off the deck belt too so I can ask the folk in Omahu road if they can supply a kevlar match.

On the way round the orchard I noticed one of Karola’s sheep was very daggy, #929 I think, so I coopted Mark into getting all the sheep into the yards and drafting out the ones with dirty bottoms. I missed a couple the first time round so after Mark had gone Karola and I did another draft and ended up with twelve sheep to be drenched: #511, #514 (the poorly one looking a bit better), #813, #814, #817, #909, #927, #929, #107, #111, #118, #123. Matrix (withholding for meat of 14 days).

Oak Avenue Weather:15:2℃—28.7℃ no rain [77.619] TdT TdO eggs=2 Mark=4

Paul pointed out that the corner of the floor in the south-east corner of the old junk room – now part of the new kitchen – is rotten. He explored and determined that it was only the floor boards, not the joists. He made a good mend using repurposed kauri – and it’ll be under cabinetry anyway so needs to be strong rather than decorative.

Sprinkler Paul and Michelle came and within a couple of hours had finished installing the sprinklers. Now both floors of the homestead are protected from fire with sprinklers. They said their goodbyes and headed off back to Hamilton.

Happy to record that the six Black orpington hens are tootling about with their champion, the Light Sussex cockerel – so no reverting to broody so far. And by lunchtime there were three eggs in the chook house so my fear that they had started laying away – there were no eggs in the chook house yesterday – is unfounded.

Mark came and continued mowing. At one point the Grillo broke down. The positive lead from the battery had slipped out of its connector. I alerted Outdoor Power and Mark managed to make a temporary repair with duct tape that lasted all afternoon.

Mark says he saw ewe #514 walking about, still ver very skinny but on her feet.

I spent much of the day going through the list of items being bought for the homestead from HomePlus – taps and basins and showers etc. The price is good and I have just a few questions on a handful of items.

The New Kitchen Corner Now Mended

Neat Patch In New Kitchen Where Once Was A Wall

Oak Avenue Weather:16.6℃—27.9℃ no rain [77.634] TdT TdO eggs=3 Mark=4

Wellington still getting rain but here it’s clearing and drying out. Wellington had 165.2mm on Monday and Tuesday – all December’s rain in a couple of days. Nothing like that here.

Shopping quite efficient today.

Mark came at noon and fetched the old homestead kitchen door from the big shed in the orchard. It’s going to be our new back door.

He and I then did some rearranging of the homestead garage including moving Karola’s 4500mm long Kauri plank into her office, laying it across the tops of her filing cabinets. We also moved the map cabinet more out of the way. The cabinet holds most of my kit for experimenting with electronics – Arduinos and the like. It’s an ungainly 1200 x 800 cabinet with seven shallow map drawers.

Mark took a small load of stuff up to the big shed, rejected from the homestead garage as not being of further use to us but items that might be useful to someone else. Seems a pity to put them into the landfill.

After afternoon tea Mark continued mowing under the big oak; the rain and warmth has made the grass grow very quickly.

Stuart from Classic Kitchens called and we had a long chat about the next steps. He’s going to come next Wednesday, (after Jane and Janet’s visit) and measure up the laundry sink bench and cabinets.

Pocket doors on the food cupboard are fine although they’re known for getting scratched by the sliding mechanism so may need repainting in a few years. Having a door wide enough for an under-bench 25 litre hot water cylinder is a challenge. If push comes to shove we may lose the built-in rubbins bins. Hardware for drawers that are a full 600mm deep are available but for the shallower 400mm food cupboard have no delivery date at present – they’re from Europe. We’ve agreed that Classic Kitchens can make the drawers and just hang onto them until the hardware eventually arrives.

The detailed quote came from HomePlus and later Nick Curry called to make sure it had arrived. A quote also arrived from Floor Mart for vinyl for the laundry and upstairs bathrooms. Oh and builder Paul’s invoice for last month.

Sprinkler Paul and Michelle arrived – they set off from Hamilton at 4:30am this morning. They expect to finish the installation of the downstairs sprinklers tomorrow. Meanwhile builder Paul has worked his magic on the end of the new verandah where it smoothly adjusts to match up seamlessly with the old sloping front verandah. The old verandahs sloped to repel water; modern verandahs have an inch gap between them and the house proper and are completely level.

Look Ma, No Step

Much Tidied Homestead garage

Start Of The New Appliances For The Homestead

Oak Avenue Weather:15.6℃—27.1℃ 3.2mm rain [77.441] TdT TdO eggs=0 Mark=4

Sorry to hear that Dave’s cat Diesel (Anna’s Dave, lived in Richmond, 16 years old) was killed by a car though Dave says Diesel was pretty deaf and an accident waiting to happen.

Meanwhile Anna has got on with her kitchen remodelling and I think it’s a great improvement. As Anna says, a relaxed atmosphere and with modern appliances.

Heard from Gill and saw on TV the rain bucketing down in Wellington though neither Gill’s nor Bridget’s places seem to have been affected badly.

I counted six bundles of fluffy feathers scooting around in the rain today. So for now none of my Black Orpingtons are broody.

Tried to get blood test at lunchtime but the queue was too long so we came back again mid afternoon and it was quite quick.

Grayson called about my request for information for a heat pump to heat at least the hot water cylinder in the homestead and he says he’ll come round in a few days to discuss. After more thought I agree with Bridget that it’s hard to see how that could be effective in heating the kitchen/breakfast room or cloakroom or laundry so unless there’s a good financial case I doubt we’ll go ahead with it.

Paul had some (mildly) bad news in that the special aqualine GIB for bathrooms is delayed, none expected till well int the new year. The pandemic has created a renovation frenzy it seems.

I thought the rain would hold off here til mid afternoon so Mark came to do as much mowing as he could before the forecast downpour. It started soon after midday so Mark did a little but then went home early. The forecast is for rain at times every day for over a week.

Anna’s Refurbished Kitchen – Sink Bench In Same Place

… Looking Towards Back Door From Conservatory

Little Room Off Kitchen Where Fridge Used To Be

Oak Avenue Weather:16.6℃—24.7℃ 2.2mm rain [77.550] TdT eggs=3 Mark=1

After breakfast Karola and I looked at the work on the homestead and where all the appliances and benches will go.

Later we went down to Harvey Norman and picked up the new washing machine for the homestead. Stopped by Rush Munro on the way back.

Bit of a backlog of bills and so on but got them out of the way today.

Ewe #514 is looking very poorly. I gave her some Ketol “pick me up” for sheep and cattle but I fear she’s not long for this world.

I relented and let the two hens out of the broody coop. I’ll see if that short stay cured them for now.

Henare came over to tend his bees after dark.

Some Serious Plumbing

Hole For The New French Doors Onto The West Verandah

The West Verandah Taking Shape

Oak Avenue Weather:16.4℃—27.9℃ 0.8mm rain [77.529] TdT TdO eggs=2

Having forgotten to pick up some of the appliances ordered through Harvey Norman on Friday I scrambled to get there before noon today, Saturday. Unknown to me until later, Harvey Norman customer pickup is open until 5:30pm all weekend. We took he Subaru and Bangle. There was only room for the under-bench fridge, microwave, and single dishwasher drawer, and even then Bangle had to sit under Karola’s feet in the front.

Saying we’d be back for more later we set off for home. Just as we arrived the phone rang to say that Harvey Norman had loaded the wrong dishwasher so would we please bring it back. Transferred the erroneous item to the Landrover, shut Bangle in the cottage, and went back for the two single-drawer dishwashers.

Karola and I made a real effort and tidied up and swept and vacuumed the homestead garage so that we could store the new appliances. All cleaned up and appliances stowed before dinner.

Another phone call around 5:00pm saying that a truck had just delivered our washing machine to Harvey Norman, would we like to pick it up now. Not today I said.

Lexi’s Team Won The Gillie-Edie At Marsden Prize Giving – For Their EVOLOCITY “Blue Machine”

Oak Avenue Weather:16.1℃—22.9℃ 0.2mm rain [77.417] TdO eggs=2

Went into Stortford Lodge to pick up a repeat prescription for some eye drops then on to Hector Jones to get new “floor tools” for my Nilfisk multi 20 INOX vacuum cleaner – an industrial vacuum cleaner I bought from them maybe ten years ago. I’ve used it almost exclusively as a sort of leaf blower for cleaning the floor of the garages, especially in the autumn when leaves blow in. In the meantime I’ve misplaced all the things you put on the end of the pipe for actually hoovering floors. etc. So I bought a couple of new ones.

Then to the new Countdown for a few food extras for the weekend and detouring to Rush Munro for ice creams – well it was quite warm this morning.

Mark came and spent the entire afternoon mowing the cottage lawn and curtilage and beginning on the homestead lawn.

I rescued an egg laid in the broody coop instead of the chook house. I suppose that’s where Bangle got the hens egg she was munching on yesterday afternoon. Cunning new plan went into effect. The two broody hens that sit in the chook house all day and who may be dissuading the other hens from laying there are now sharing the broody coop until they come to their senses.

Slipped over to Havelock North for the opening night of the film Dune. Karola very kindly accompanied me although I did say before we went that it was undoubtedly not going to be to her taste – but I’d like the company. Pity that I took such a dislike to the principal character, Paul Artrides. I think he reminded me too much of pretty boy Chris Thompson from my youth. Loved Charlotte Rampling as Reverend Mother Mohlam – I always enjoy her acting.

Solved the mystery of the unloadable vaccine passport. I loaded mine onto iPhone easily. Then when trying to load Karola’s iPhone the installation program running on my Mac said that her IOS needed an upgrade. Did that and then it just said ‘done’ – it’s been loaded. But no sign of it on her iPhone. Today when displaying my vaccine passport at Rush Munro’s I saw that the vaccine passport was for Karola Brackenbury. Yes, both passports were in my digital wallet on my iPhone. Mystery solved.

Mark’s Mowing

Oak Avenue Weather:12.4℃—22.3℃ no rain [77.453] TdT TdO eggs=1 Mark=2

Made up a folder of the specs of items bought for the kitchen and laundry, in fact two identical folders. One to be kept in the homestead for consultation as needed by Paul and plumber Dean. Paul and Dean and Ivan were here today.

Finished taking photos of the bathroom and similar items where what we have is as good a base as any for what we get for the homestead. Then took my photos and list down to HomePlus and went through it with Nick Curry. Nick and his sons own and operate HomePlus. Nick and I came to an understanding that I expected to pay a bit more working through him – someone local, someone we knew and had previous experience with – but not outrageously so. First I asked how much he would be charging for the bath I ordered yesterday. He wasn’t sure until the wholesaler sent him the paperwork but thought it’d be around $1450. The catalogue price and the online price is $1900. And I said that I’d rung Maco ($1700) and AW Holder ($1475). I explained that my experience with Kitchen Things had meant the difference between their prices and online offers, possibly exacerbated by the Black Friday nonsense, had meant the difference was too big for me to ignore. Nick seemed comfortable with that. And we went through the list and accompanying photos; he’ll put together a package matching our requirements.

Was so relieved that I’d got all those decisions underway and that I was not holding up the project. No news back from Classic Kitchens yet about doing the laundry sink bench as well as the kitchen.

Oak Avenue Weather:13.9℃—20.4℃ no rain [77.703] TdT TdO eggs=2 Mark=0

A rainy day, gentle but persistent.

Ivan (electrics), Dean (plumbing), and Paul all on deck. Paul called me quite early as he was concerned that I might have bought the one metre showers already. He’d been worrying that in fact there wasn’t room for a one metre shower in the master bathroom. I went over after breakfast and asked Paul to take me through the issue. Bracing GIB and associated metal tabs may not be overlaid by a shower for fear of water damage. It seemed that the special bracing going along the upstairs west wall went just 120mm too far. I called Ruth and explained the problem; she and Paul then spoke on the phone for several minutes. The upshot was that Paul could add another stud and noggins to shift where the bracing ended the requisite 120mm northwards. Whew.

Upshot was that we reviewed all three intended shower installations and decided both upstairs bathrooms could have the desired one metre showers. Downstairs in the shower room off the laundry we decided to have a 900mm shower now that Paul was building an 170mm false wall to hide the waste pipes and space was getting a bit tight. Bridget gave her approval.

Dean marked approximately where most of the laundry, shower room, and cloakroom white goods would go, and the vanity units. Looks like it will all fit comfortably. Ivan and I went round checking the placement of lights and switches and that too seems promising.

Sent an email to Classic Kitchens with some minor changes that Bridget and I decided on when she was up here. Also asked if they would build the laundry sink bench too and advise on cabinetry.

Spoke to Nick Curry about the Tondo 1500 free standing bath and he said it’d been ordered and might arrive this afternoon.

Right now the strawberries in New World are under-ripe and the raspberries already soggy in the store. Gill made us envious with her home grown strawberries at Seatoun Heights road in Wellington.

Gill passed on a photo that Christina Patterson sent her recently, the photo (below) taken a few nights ago of her father (Andrew) on the left, and uncle (Nicholas). Nicolas turned 75 yesterday. They are Peter Brackenbury’s sons. Peter Brackenbury was my father Michael’s half brother.

Gill’s Plentiful Home Grown Strawberries – What A Treat

Andrew and Nicholas Brackenbury – Grandsons From Grandfather Graham Brackenbury’s First Marriage

Oak Avenue Weather:14.7℃—17.9℃ 8.4mm rain [77.708] TdO eggs=2 Mark=0