Monthly Archives: September 2022

Start Of A Wet Weekend

No Mark today, too wet.

Paul Goodchild, “The Gasman”, (027 438 7056 thegasmanhb@gmail.com) came as planned this morning and we discussed the work he needs to do to connect gas bottles to the generator. Paul thinks the gas bottle delivery people will be very happy with the ease of switching bottles. Regulations for the safety of gas bottle use means that some of the windows on that wall of the homestead garage may need to be sealed shut – be made permanently unable to be opened. I don’t see that as a real problem.

Quiet day with rain on and off since mid morning which is a pity really because the ground was just beginning to dry out a bit. Called Heath Goldfinch of Tamatea Automotive and booked the Disco WX2288 in to have a service and fix the could of niggles found by the VTNZ WOF inspector yesterday; the first day Heath can do it is 20th October.

In the evening Campbell Watt, the guy selling us the backup electricity generation system, called and discussed the need for permanent window closures and following that I sent him more photos of the west wall of the homestead garage.

Got a chance to put names to faces for the Woodford Old Girls attending the funeral of Margie Maxwell 16th September (photos below)

Welcome Swallow Pair back For Breeding – And Anna’s Gift to Me Looks On – A Right MCP

Peach Blossom Is Mostly Over But At Last The White Apple Blossom

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [76.9] TdT eggs=2 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on Start Of A Wet Weekend

TV – Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

The lamb born in last 48 hours to a surprised ewe hogget was, to my surprise and delight, still with us in the morning.

Mark was busy today.

The new TV, same make and model as the ones in the homestead kitchen and dining room, a Sony 43″ BRAVIA X80J 4K HDR Ultra HD LED-Backlit TV, was delivered by our postie this morning. The outside packaging was intact, not broken. This evening I put up the wall-mounted TV and there seemed to be nothing wrong with it. I finally got it hung and cables attached and plugged in. I switched it on and to my horror I saw a spiders-web of cracks extending out from near the bottom right corner – quite invisible until the screen lit up. When I examined it carefully at the apparent point of impact I felt breaks in the screen but these were not apparent while mounting the TV.

Not Modern Art, Sadly

Paddock Flooding – 29 September (Courtesy Ben Bell While here on Visit With Gill)

And Cottage With Homestead Beyond – 29th September (Again Courtesy Ben Bell While here on Visit With Gill)

Oak Avenue Weather:10.0℃—19.7℃ no rain [76.8] TdT eggs=6 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on TV – Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

Hair Appointment In Ahuriri – “Copper & Hues Hair”

Dragged ourselves out of bed and zoomed off to Ahuriri for our hair appointments. Kim has changed the name of her shop from the Style Salon which she inherited to the much more pleasant Copper & Hues Hair. I got us coffee from the next door Milk & Honey cafe. We then pottered into Hastings and I went to the bank, BNZ, where I was identified as a real non-money-laundering person able to operate Bridget’s trust account. The account got frozen because I wouldn’t go to town and get identified which needed my physical presence, my passport, driving license, Gold Card (pension card), and a signature.

Mark used up the exterior ¼ pearl lustre waterżbased paint left over from the farm shed on giving the new cottage pump shed another coat, Mark also checked the sheep and found a hogget with a new very small lamb. The only way I can explain it is that one of her half-brothers, the one that escaped castration I know not how, is the father. Our two intentional rams did not get an opportunity to associate with any of the hoggets. The mother is so surprised and unsure what to do that I fear the lamb will not get a feed but we know from bitter experience that our meddling is never a temporary thing and once we intervene we’ll be saddled with a pet lamb until weaning.

Accidental Hogget Mother With Tiny Ram Lamb – Not Sure It’ll Last The Night

Dr Ben Bell’s Bird Species List – Seen Or Heard Here At Karamu Over The Weekend

Two Species Of Dotterel Seen On East Coast Beach At The Weekend By Dr Ben Bell

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [76.9] TdT eggs=6 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Hair Appointment In Ahuriri – “Copper & Hues Hair”

Gill & Ben Depart For Wellington

Everyone up in good time, Gill & Ben to pack for their return home to Seatoun Heights Road in Wellington, we three to take Bangle for her six-weekly grooming with Emma. It only took 40 minutes to drop Bangle off and get back to Karamu where we said goodbye to Gill and Ben after a most pleasant visit. Gill clutching her dozen fresh-laid eggs; Ben his photos of Dotterels on the east coast beach.

Bangle is so fluffy and silky clean it seems wrong to immediately get her lathered in mud so no walks today. Not sure whether she agrees though.

The iPad tutorials are not working out – the modern IOS is just too complicated these days, I agree, and while it seems intuitive and obvious for someone who has been doing very similar stuff for years and years, coming to it without the experience is just a huge learning curve. So, we’ve agreed with Beryl to stop the Wednesday iPad tutorials.

Mark came and did lots of mowing including the cottage lawn and round about.

Not An Ideal Place To Lay One’s Egg

Oak Avenue Weather:8.5℃—15.6℃ no rain [?] eggs=4 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Gill & Ben Depart For Wellington

Special One-Off Public Holiday

Sheep and lambs seems to be all present and correct. Walk with Bangle round the orchard was even muddier than before because fof the churning by tractors spraying the trees – bud break for apple trees has just begun.

Ben went off for some serious bird watching on the coast before the rest of us were barely awake.

Taking advantage of my accident yesterday resulting in eight broken eggs Gill & I made a delicious crustless bacon and egg pie. We enjoyed that for lunch but left room for a special pork casserole that Gill cooked late afternoon. In fact it was more delicious than the Mission meal on Friday. Excitement of the afternoon was when I turned the oven on a bit high and the ensuing smoke set off the smoke alarms resulting in a call from havelock Hills Security and much opening of windows and doors until the smoke dissipated.

House Looking Rather Splendid In Afternoon Sun

Ha-Ha Today – Still Containing Plenty Of Water From Recent Rains

Oak Avenue Weather:9.3℃—15.6℃ no rain [?] TdO eggs=3 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on Special One-Off Public Holiday

Wetlands Walk After The Clocks Change

Gill & Ben had a deep undisturbed night last night, perhaps in part because I caught one of the possums that were fighting two nights ago and still roaming about in the roof space yesterday. Sadly for me I had the unpleasant task of dispatching the possum as i could not raise Mark to come and do it. I drowned it and then later buried it in the sheep pit.

Ben has counted 22 bird species at Karamu yesterday and 18 this afternoon.

We all went off to Bay Espresso in Karamu Roas for brunch, including Bangle.They do a mean Eggs Benedict. We sat in the gardent at the back with Bangle sitting under the table and being fed surreptitiously with bits of bacon by Ben.

Then off to Clive to the wetlands where Ben spotted some familiar bird species and I walked Bangle down to the surf. Rush Munro refills picked up on the way home.

Late afternoon I knocked a full tray of ten eggs onto the floor, breaking them all. I rescued the contents of eight and sister Gill very kindly mopped up the rest of the mess. Now to find a recipe that will keep using eight eggs and gluten free.

A communally cooked dinner – steak with onions, green beans, asparagus, brussel sprouts and potatoes – well I had cauliflower mash instead of potatoes.

Bangle By The Crashing Surf – Please Can We Go Now!

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?] TdC eggs=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Wetlands Walk After The Clocks Change

Dinner Party: Gill & Ben, Peter & Charlotte

After a less troubled night Gill & Ben went over to Havelock North to see Peter & Charlotte. They did the shopping for tonight’s meal and then the four of them went out to Hygge (aka Clifton Cafe) for lunch followed by a walk along the beach towards Cape Kidnappers.

Meanwhile Karola, Bangle, and I went down to the stop bank where Bangle and I walked along to the entrance to Pakowhai Country Park and we then tootled off to Flaxmere by way of Gagan’s roadside green grocers and I did a little last minute shopping in the Flaxmere New World.

Mid afternoon I donned head torch and went up in the homestead roof space to see if I could locate the leak. I found the ceiling board where the drip came from, it was still quite wet, and a purlin above that seemed to have some small signs of wet rot along the upper edge. I think it is a long-standing tiny leak that only became evident because of the torrential rain on Thursday night. The roof space is not a pleasant place to visit – too namy signs of possums and rats and dusty with cobwebs. The batts for insulation don’t help.

I set both possum cage traps with fresh Granny Smith apple and some cinnamon and aniseed lure.

Searching For Leak Into Room At Top Of The Stairs – Roof Space Floor

And Roof Above

Oak Avenue Weather:11.8℃—20.0℃ 2.0mm rain [?] TdT eggs=5

Posted in General | Comments Off on Dinner Party: Gill & Ben, Peter & Charlotte

Splendid Lunch At The Mission With Gill & Ben

Late start to the day. Last night I did manage to get curtains up in the “room at the top of the stairs” so that Gill & Ben would not be disturbed by too early morning light. I need not have bothered.

What a night for Gill & Ben.

  • The electric clock on which I had set the time and plugged in on Ben’s bedside table – accidentally its alarm went off at 12:15am – not appreciated
  • torrential rain later followed by a drip, drip, drip from the ceiling, only just missing the bed, woke Gill who stemmed the drips with blankets and sheets to hand
  • then a massive possum fight broke out in the roof space seemingly right above their bed
  • and later it transpired that the storm had somehow broken all Internet access to the property

There were no leaks in any other rooms, thank goodness. The electric clock was unplugged, and the drip quickly dried up but still needs investigation. I need to set possum traps and revisit Paul’s view that they only get in from ground level.

As with previous occasions when the Internet access failed for the site I unplugged the homestead link and waited for it to self-heal. The cottage regained access. So I tested the ethernet cable from the homestead garage office across to the control box under the stairs and that seemed sound, all eight wires connected in the right order. So I unplugged the four internal cables going to the four TV sites in the house and the Internet sprang back into life. Not conclusive but perhaps its one of those four cables that are causing the problem.

As we drove off in Ben’s car to The Mission for a special lunch I noticed a large fountain of water gushing from a broken pipe in the goose paddock so I TXTed Mark and asked him to fix it and also check the ewes and lambs for any casualties due to the torrential rain. He was then to continue the undercoating of the dovecote in the roof of the new cottage pump shed.

Mark TXTed back later to say he’d fixed the leak in the sheep trough watering pipe and finished the undercoating., and the sheep and lambs were bedraggled but all still alive. It being so wet underfoot Mark went home mid afternoon having finished the dovecote undercoat.

Siestas all round after our big lunch at The Mission and a light supper this evening. Despite the soggy ground I did take Bangle for a walk along the stop bank. The Ngaruroro is up to the top of its usual banks but short of flooding across to the stop banks.

Twelve Hours After The Torrential Rain – The Large Puddles Isolating The Chook House

Twelve Hours After The Torrential Rain – The 121 Driveway

Oak Avenue Weather:13.0℃—17.6℃ 25.0mm rain [76.4] TdT eggs=4 Mark=2

Posted in General | Comments Off on Splendid Lunch At The Mission With Gill & Ben

Gill & Ben Arrive From Wellington

Into Hastings to order another TV wall mount for the Sony 43” BRAVIA X80J TV I ordered from RubberMonkey – they are basically out of stock country wide being last years model but RubberMonkey claim to have one. Noel Leeming can get the wall mount but it’ll take maybe a week. I’m hoping to get all the TVs in the homestead to be identical, quite large, quite capable “smart” TVs that will last for many years. On the way back we got Rush Munro tubs of ice-cream for when Gill and Ben arrive.

Mark came and despite quite heavy rain last night was able to start painting the inside of the dovecote. The paddocks and lawns are very wet, just puddles and swamp-like.

Gill & Ben arrived soon after 6:00pm after a relatively uneventful drive up. At one point Gill was somewhat discombobulated by a boy racer who sped out of a side road in front of them and did several spin-outs and drifts before returning whence he came. No immediate danger but could have been nasty if he’d spun out of control.

Mark Applying Undercoat To The Inside Of The Dovecote

Security Clearance Of Brush Down By The Ngaruroro Expressway Bridge – Favourite Drug Dealer Site

Brush Cutter Like Large Lawn Mower On Arm Of JCB Was A Fearsome Sight

Oak Avenue Weather:10.3℃—14.7℃ 15.4mm rain [76.1] TdT eggs=4 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Gill & Ben Arrive From Wellington

iPad Tutorial Day

Lot of rain in the night and more forecast so Mark took a rain-check today.

Builder Paul came in the morning as planned and did a couple of things in the cottage:

  • Raised the laundry door a smidgen so that we can get vinyl laid on top of the cork tile floor, eventually
  • Fitted a new catch to the bedroom door’s carpenter lock
  • Made notches in the living room double-hung sash window frame so that the honeycomb blind rested properly when pulled right down
  • Improved two squeaking boards by angle-nailing them to their neighbours

After lunch we drove over to beryl’s in Havelock North for Karola’s Wednesday hour tutorial on the iPad. On the return home we hit an alarming hailstorm as we drove along the road from Havelock North to Hastings.

Bridget’s Constant Companion – Tux (Tuxedo – For Obvious Reasons)

Pullet’s Eggs Can Be Small – But This Is Absurd

The Hailstorm As It Hit Beryl’s Patio Just After We left

Oak Avenue Weather:10.6℃—20.9℃ 9.0mm rain [76.0] TdT eggs=4 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on iPad Tutorial Day

Final Inspection

After some solid rain in the night it was a bright sunny day mostly. I was up late last night changing the homestead LAN to use the new ethernet switches and the Grandstream GWN7630 WiFi Access Point. I gave up around 1:30am with the equipment installed and battened down against earthquakes and wired ethernet working.

I noticed that Paul and the plasterer (GIB-stopper) were here bright and early. Later I found out that the plasterers had not actually finished in the dining room; it needed a final sanding. Monique, encouraged by me, had begun painting thinking the GIB-stopping was complete. So the walls were sanded by the plasterer and Monique will have some work to repeat but the ceiling and architraves etc will be just fine.

The building inspector came and did his final and thorough inspection, which we passed, to Paul’s evident great relief and satisfaction. He’s done it many times before but they always engender some anxiety as to what the inspector might choose to pick on. There were a couple of niggles, things to be fixed, which Paul and plumber Dean spent much of the afternoon fixing. They sent photos to the council – after which we had our certificate of compliance and completion.

Paul now thinks that the water stain on the laundry ceiling was not an incontinent possum but a spilled water bottle. I prefer this explanation.

Shopping as usual; going at around 10:00am New World was quiet yet the shelves had not been plundered empty so my shop was quite speedy and complete. GF bread from Cornucopia, the Organics shop. Another 1½ dozen eggs to the Food Bank. JayCar to return a broken video cable connector and get a replacement. Dry cleaning picked up; to the bank for more cash; and coffees from BP’s Wild Bean Cafe.

Mark came and put 26 “cats whiskers” gutter protectors in at the homestead, completing protection of all the downstairs gutters.

Then Karola, Mark, and I did the annual lamb docking. Eighteen lambs given ear tags, tail rings, and males converted to wethers. According to the records we kept during lambing all the lambs were as described on the record; right mothers and right sex.

Oak Avenue Weather:11.5℃—23.1℃ 2.0mm rain [76.3] TdO eggs=6 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Final Inspection

Revitalising The Homestead LAN

Monique needed more paint and it’s quite expensive so I had to go into Hastings to the Resene shop and pay for it so she could pick it up and continue her sterling work.

Mark came and finished mowing the homestead lawn; the grass was long and damp so it took longer than usual. He also swapped over one of the vigorous Puriri trees growing in the shrubbery with the one struggling a lot on the lip of the Ha-Ha. The struggler has not really recovered from being savaged by sheep in its early days.

Late afternoon after Mark had gone I started work on the homestead LAN, replacing the switching devices and in particular the highly recommended Grandstream WiFi access point. I was a little surprised to see that it was powered by POE (power over ethernet) so i had to either make the “POE injector” to add 12v to four of the wires in the eight-wire ethernet cable or buy one. I’ve done that successfully in the past but, not wanting any “weak link” in the network possibly contributing to intermittent failures, I bought one.

Oak Avenue Weather:5.9℃—19.3℃ 5.4mm rain [?] TdO eggs=7 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Revitalising The Homestead LAN

Pump Shed Top Coat

Both feeling a bit groggy after the excitements of Friday but we did potter round the orchard with Bangle before lunch. And later I clambered into Karola’s very tight fitting blue boiler suit and, using some old paint left over from painting the farm shed many years ago, I painted the cottage pump shed. I still have the floor of the dovecote to do; I’ll probably leave the inside walls as they are, a soothing plywood natural colour.

Ian In Karola’s Boiler Suit – Ready To Paint

Cottage Pumpshed – Quarter Pearl Lustre Complete

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?] TdO eggs=7

Posted in General | Comments Off on Pump Shed Top Coat

Flat Battery Or Faulty Starter Motor

Harris Pumps & Filtration is open Saturday mornings so I dropped in and purchased a couple of bits of galvanised pipe so that I could replace the broken valve on the cottage bore. The old valve I had lying around does seem to work just fine now and dripping has stopped.

Subaru battery has gone flat again so today we jump started it with the Landrover, left it running for 30 minutes, and then drove it in to Rush Munro’s in hope that it would get charged up. Left it running in the Rush Munro car park but found it was just too busy so we left. Back to Caltex on Omahu road and filled up with petrol and got a couple of ice-creams on a stick. Of course one has to turn off the engine to fill with petrol and afterwards it wouldn’t start. Garage cashier kindly helped with a jump-start. It took a few attempts and the guy said he thought the alternator or starter motor was suspect s the battery seemed to have plenty of juice.

And on getting back home I rather stupidly turned off the engine again. So I had to jump start again with the Landrover and have left it running for over four hours. Tomorrow I’ll see if it starts otherwise maybe it does need some professional attention.

Broken Valve On Cottage Bore Replaced

Gill’s Damson Tree In Bloom

Oak Avenue Weather:5.6℃—15.5℃ no rain [?] TdT eggs=5

Posted in General | Comments Off on Flat Battery Or Faulty Starter Motor

“Maggots” Maxwell’s Funeral

Well I gather that was her nickname at school. Margie Maxwell died and her school colleagues and many others flocked to St Lukes in Havelock for the funeral this morning.

Kirsty Faulkner brought Wendy Shanahan up from Wellington and they stayed the night with us. So, unusually for us, we had a hearty scrambled egg breakfast before getting ready for the 11:00am service. I dropped Karola off at Cynthia Chalmers house in Hastings and they went together in Cynthia’s car.

Builder Paul came as usual and continued repairs to the homestead front steps. Johnny Lett’s water blasting of the north exterior of the homestead had uncovered some rot and damage to the wooden steps. Today Johnny continued painting along the front, downstairs. Monique, his sister, has already done the same for the balcony and wall upstairs and she continues on the rooms upstairs.

Mark finished cleaning the farm shed gutters and their “cats whisker” leaf guards then spent the afternoon mowing the homestead lawn.

Over the last two days my purchases of a new ethernet switch and a new WiFi access point arrived. The eight-way switch is a replacement for the old Cisco switch in the homestead garage office – installed and operational – and the access point is for the homestead, under the stairs, providing WiFi throughout. I need to get this working before Gill & Ben come up next week.

I retrieved Karola from Cynthia’s place after the funeral and we went over to Clive for Bangle’s walk. However the southerly wind was so strong and so bitterly cold that we just did a very short walk before retreating back into Hastings for a coffee and home.

Annie Richie Sent Us A Couple Of Photos Taken After The Funeral

Oak Avenue Weather:0.9℃—16.3℃ 0.2mm rain [?] TdC eggs=4 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on “Maggots” Maxwell’s Funeral

Kirsty & Wendy Arrive

Homestead busy as Monique continued painting the master bedroom, her brother Johnny began painting the outside downstairs front wall, Paul finished the new cottage pump shed (except for the ridge cap which is being made by StratFor at Onekawa) and the plasterers aka GIB-stoppers finished the first pass on the dining room walls.

Karola and I discussed her iPad tutorials and it does seem that the sorts of things Beryl is trying to teach are not really what Karola wants to concentrate on. She feels, and I agree, that Beryl is focussing on how to present the information in an email or a note or memorandum, how to edit and manage emails. Where we differ is that for me this is the basics of using an iPad – how to write emails and notes and TXTs the way most people do, so it looks familiar to the reader. Karola thinks this is only needed for business letters so is not necessary.

Mark spent most of the afternoon mowing then began cleaning the “cats whiskers” gutter protectors on the farm shed – they were very much blocked with leaves, detritus, and even root systems of growing weeds. Obviously we’ll have to clean them more regularly in the future. The threatened rain materialised mid afternoon and so Mark went home.

Sheep and lambs all accounted for; no new arrivals.

Before 7:00pm Kirsty Faulkner and her fellow Woodford House school mate Wendy Shanahan arrived. They are staying for the night and going to Margie Maxwell’s funeral at St Lukes Anglican church in Havelock North tomorrow. Karola and friend Cynthia Chalmers, also Woodford Old Girls are going too.

Kirsty brought a chicken casserole which, with potatoes and frozen peas and beans, made a decent dinner for the four of us. We also had Rush Munro ice-cream and fruit for dessert. The visitors slept upstairs in their own sleeping bags so were no trouble at all.

Oak Avenue Weather:3.0℃—15.0℃ 2.2mm rain [76.4] TdO eggs=4 Mark=2

Posted in General | Comments Off on Kirsty & Wendy Arrive

iPad Tutorial Day

Our walk today took me downstream to the Pakowhai Country Park entrance and back. Karola and Bangle enjoyed a more leisurely rootling around on the banks of the Ngaruroro.

Four saw horses from Trade Tested arrived today – intended as permanent support for two heavy wooden doors to be used in the homestead garage as work surfaces.

Lots of activity at the homestead: Monique continuing her interior painting; GIB stoppers doing their first coat of the dining room; glaziers replacing the cloakroom glass with safety glass as per Ruth’s building plans. Meanwhile Paul has almost completed the new cottage pump-shed with its loft for Barbary Doves. We are attempting to make the loft as rat proof as possible. The loft is lined with plywood, has a plywood floor, and has a landing platform jutting out to the end of the eaves. I am delighted with how it’s turned out.

Mark came and spent the afternoon mowing with the Grillo. According to the weather forecast we have a few hours before it rains again with rain expected on most days until mid week next week.

I drove Karola over for her weekly Wednesday iPad tutorial with Beryl Grayling. On the way home we picked up a further 30 “cats whisker” gutter protectors from Mitre-10, a couple of plug-board length TV aerial cables, and some Rush Munro ice-cream. Rush Munro is moving to the other side of the Hastings railway tracks so it won’t be nearly as easy to go there – on top of which their current shop and garden have been a Hastings landmark since 1931, after the earthquake when the current premises were constructed on Heretaunga Street.

Progress On The Cottage Pump Shed With Integral Dovecote

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [76.2] TdT eggs=6 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on iPad Tutorial Day

Gill’s Birthday – Yet Again

The 13th was Karola’s father’s lucky number. It’s also the day in September of my favourite sister’s birthday – although we don’t mention the number of those she’s had any more.

Being a Tuesday it’s also our usual weekly shopping day. We left Paul continuing on the construction of the replacement cottage pump shed. Karola, seeing the gabled end and weatherboard cladding is quite pleased with the effect – it will fit in well with the other buildings.

Two dozen eggs for the Food Bank; half a dozen for Mark’s family.

New World for groceries; Cornucopia for my GF bread order, some laundry dropped off at the Dry Cleaners, coffee from the Wild Bean Cafe and, while the coffee was brewing, I picked up another three months of meds for me and for Karola. Apparently this week we passed the marker meaning that for the rest of the year, probably until the end of January 2023, our medicines (pills) are free on the public health system.

Mark came and mowed the cottage lawn and surrounding grassed areas, and along the 121 driveway. He then retrieved the old heavy iron bath from the front lawn – where we put it after man-handling it out of the homestead old upstairs bathroom, onto the balcony, and down to the ground. He’s made a site for it behind the old Camellia tree that used to stand beside the doorway of the old green shed – the shed that was destroyed by a large branch off the big oak several years ago. This is to be another fish pond, settled into the ground far enough to be stable but not so far that the geese will imagine they can swim in it. Like the similar bath-pond next to the cottage bore, this will have a trickle of water keeping it from going stagnant coming from an old bore that was supposed to be sealed when our cottage well was sunk back in 1980s. Just a natural head keeps the trickle flowing, no electricity needed.

Oak Avenue Weather:9.0℃—21.0℃ no rain [75.8] TdT eggs=7 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Gill’s Birthday – Yet Again

Monique Begins Painting The Room At The Top Of The Stairs.

Meticulous Maids came just after 12:00pm so we took Bangle off to the stop bank and walked downstream towards the Pakowhai Country Park. Met a ute coming up the path and was relieved to see it was a Hawkes Bay Regional Council vehicle so not trespassing on the cycle path.

My internet access went down this morning and again it looks like the homestead leg is making the whole local network fail.

As requested by email to Paul last night, Monique has come to paint the room at the top of the homestead stairs so that it’ll be pleasant for Gill & Ben when they arrive on Thursday 22nd.

So wet underfoot that Mark didn’t come today.

Paul came as planned this morning and created the little concrete pad for the 27kW gas generator. He then began building the new cottage pump shed. Unlike the existing one built by Karola’s cousin Francis Wierzbicki this one will be in the style of the other buildings – the farm shed, the garages, and the summer house. It will use some left-over weather board and roofing iron from the homestead project. I expect to make the upper part into a dove cote with some perches and nest boxes.

Checked the sheep again and I seem to have one lamb more than anticipated. I think that a couple of the six sheep not logged as having lambed must have been the mothers of dead lambs. Yesterday I let the hoggets in with the ewes as the hoggets had eaten all the grass in the Long Acre and the Goose paddock, and there’s plenty of grass in the rest of the grounds.

Yellow Painted Posts Along Landward Side Of Ngaruroro River Stop Bank – Purpose Unknown

Ha-Ha Still Holding Water – Paddocks Still Saturated

Paul Makes Generator Hard Stand

Paul Makes Start On New Cottage Pump Shed To Match Other Buildings

Oak Avenue Weather:10.4℃—18.8℃ 0.4mm rain [75.8] TdT eggs=3 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on Monique Begins Painting The Room At The Top Of The Stairs.

China and Monarchy

This afternoon I went to the monthly “free thinkers” group in Taradale where one of the main discussion points was about the end of Elizabeth II’s reign and implications / possibilities for New Zealand. The other, even less conclusive, was about New Zealand’s relationship with China. Incidental conversations included quite a lot about Gorbachev.

One new lamb, #026 had ewe lamb #219E but also one dead lamb, probably #531s lamb #205R.

Oak Avenue Weather:10.2℃—16.9℃ 13.0mm rain [75.9] TdT eggs=5

Posted in General | Comments Off on China and Monarchy

Blind Swap

I swapped the two Duette honeycomb blinds from the cottage bedroom with the two curtains in the cottage living room. The intention is to initially block more daylight out so i can get a better late morning sleep and secondly to buy a black-out Duette blind to see if that is even more effective at keeping the room dark. Bridget suggests black-out blinds for the homestead bedrooms so this will give us a chance to see how they perform.

As it took me about ten minutes to put up one of those honeycomb blinds – I Googled for the installation instructions – I’m not sure why I pay $95 for an installer to come and do it.

Also checked that one of the upstairs rooms can be restored to habitable bedroom before Gill & Ben come on 22nd September. Room at the top of the stairs will be the one more easily made back into a bedroom although I’m unsure whether it will be painted in time; it has been GIBbed and GIB-stopped and the electrics are completed and working so not only can Gill & Ben have light but also, should there be a cold snap, heaters. Ethernet and WiFi access to the Internet is also available in that bedroom.

Popped down to Rush Munro’s to get some ice-cream after our dinner of smoked salmon but alas it was closed so we made do with a nasty Magnum Classic choc-ice on a stick.

For the first time my seven hens laid seven eggs in one day. One egg laid in the mud at the bottom of their entrance ladder and the area round the chook house is mostly under water – that will be made much worse by the rain I hear falling now which is forecast to continue until breakfast time.

Oak Avenue Weather:8.3℃—13.9℃ 9.4mm rain [?] TdT eggs=7

Posted in General | Comments Off on Blind Swap

More Rain On Its Way

Rain was forecast for the afternoon and much of tomorrow so I popped round the orchard with Bangle so we get a bit of a walk in while dry – though fiendishly muddy underfoot which meant Bangle ended up with a very muddy undercarriage.

Sorted out some boxing wood and pegs for Paul to use next week when making the concrete pad for the backup generator.

Mark didn’t come today, he had other things on.

Apart from a few bouts of light drizzle it still hadn’t started raining after lunch so Karola, Bangle, and I popped down to the stop bank for a walk. Not cold, not windy, but overcast and grey.

Then it was time for a trip to Captain Salty to pick up our Friday F&C dinner.

Chooks Improving The Pasture – As Described To The IRD

Some Posed Family Photos – Nelson 1957

Grounds of Nelson Cathedral – Evocation of Christopher Robin and Pooh

Vicarage, Todds Bush – Intimations Of The Good Country Life

Vicarage, Todds Bush – Gill Auditioning For Flower Girl In Pygmalion (Annotated By Gill)

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [75.6] TdO TdT eggs=5 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on More Rain On Its Way

Moving Forward on The Generator Project

Aaron Wakeford came round half an hour earlier than expected at 8:30am but luckily we were up and about. He is the local electrician who will install the electrical side of our Generator Project, a 27kW gas-powered 3-phase AC 230V generator. He said that from his perspective it looked very straight forward, a couple of hours work at most.

Shortly afterwards builder Paul turned up along with electrician Ivan. Paul and I called Campbell Watt down in Christchurch and discussed the generator installation; Paul now has enough information to make the generator concrete pad alongside the mains board on the west wall of the homestead garage.

Ivan has finished all the electrical work needed for the final inspection and gave me his bill plus a certificate of compliance which will be required by the inspector. I gave Ivan another half dozen of our super-fresh eggs and he came in for a coffee and chatted for half an hour.

Paul returned later and met a man with a van from one of the local glass companies. According to Ruth’s building plans we need special glass in the window of the homestead cloakroom. That window is an original one taken from the southern end of the north-south passage upstairs so it has to be reglazed to comply.

Mark came and looked round the sheep – no new ones today. Also buried our green waste in the hole he dug for Karola some weeks ago. Rejoined the Middle/Goose paddock fence wire broken by the branch falling on it. He then chopped back vegetation along the base of the homestead east verandah so that Monique can paint the edge of the verandah and finally today began preparing the ground for Paul’s concrete generator pad.

Another pleasant walking day so we went downstream towards the Pakowhai Country Park where there are usually many many dogs but today not one in sight.

Bangle & I Enter Pakowhai Country Park Off The Stop Bank

Pakowhai Country Park

A Little Light Must Fall – Gill’s Double Rainbow This Morning

Oak Avenue Weather:6.2℃—16.6℃ no rain [75.8] TdT eggs=4 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Moving Forward on The Generator Project

Shingles Vaccine – Free, Or Not So Free

Highlight of the day could have been that Karola and I had our free anti-shingles vaccine shots. We’d booked an appointment and arrived there on time. After a short wait we were taken by our usual practice nurse, Janine Hynd, to her office for the jabs. She just asked to make sure we knew it was a costly vaccination. I said I’d come on the basis that it was free. Apparently not; the two jabs needed to complete the vaccination cost about $800 per person. Anyway, she said that if we wanted we could leave and she’d return the vaccine to the freezer. We left.

Mark came and continued with his usual roundup of the sheep news then by completing his clearing away of the big branch I’d sawn up in the Middle paddock. He also moved a couple of large earthenware pots to the concrete pad outaside the cottage sun porch and planted the three parsley plants we bought a week ago. He also moved my bath fishpond from where it nestled at the back of the cottage pump shed out of the way of the pump shed rebuild I’m expecting Paul to do shortly but still utilising the dripping pipe to keep the water fresh.

Karola and I drove over to Havelock North for her Wednesday iPad tutorial and we spent almost two hours with Beryl Grayling teaching Karola the basics of iPad email management.

Once home I looked up the NZ Ministry of Health website to see how I could possibly have got the idea that this morning’s vaccinations would be free. As a consequence I sent Janine the following letter and screen shot. Tomorrow perhaps I’ll find out what the mix-up is.

Email To Hastings Health Centre Concerning The Cost Of Shingles Vaccination

Barbary Doves Enjoying An Evening Snack

Karola’s Orchard Still Waterlogged

Oak Avenue Weather:-1.8℃—15.7℃ 0.2mm rain [75.8] TdO eggs=4 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Shingles Vaccine – Free, Or Not So Free

Ewe #714, Lamb #218

Bitterly cold wind today, not strong but directly up from Antarctica.

Got a call from electrician Aaron this morning and he’s booked to come round and discuss the backup generator plan on Thursday.

Usual weekly shopping this morning. Picked up the three re-sharpened chainsaw chains from Sean at The Saw Doctors on Omahu Road.

Mark came, despite the wet ground and biting wind. He checked the sheep and found two had dies over the last day or so, presumably due to the cold and constant rain flooding the ground. I think it’s ewe #925 that lost her lamb and #003 that lost one of her twins.

I finished sawing up the fallen tree alongside the homestead eastern verandah and Mark disposed of the firewood and the slash. He then told me of a sizeable branch that had fallen out of a Wellingtonian (I think) onto the fence between the Middle paddock and the Goose paddock (where the chook house is). I cut that up and Mark spent the remains of the day carting that to the wood pile or the mulching pile as appropriate. He can mend the broken top wire tomorrow.

Large Fir Tree Branch Crashes Onto Fence

Oak Avenue Weather:0.5℃—10.3℃ 2.0mm rain [75.7] TdT eggs=4 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Ewe #714, Lamb #218

Bucketing Down

Started to rain in the. early hours and continued all day, and forecast to continue through most of the night. Poor little lambs and the chooks will probably sleep under a tree rather than wade through 100mm of water around their chook house.

Went into town for Bangle to have her occasional parvovirus vaccination; she’s now covered for several years we were told.

Also dropped off three chainsaw chains for sharpening at the Saw Doctors.

Very quiet day, no Mark, no walks, just constant rain.

Gill emailed one of the old slides she’s scanning; slides from our family time in Nelson mainly. From an early age I kept animals as pets – mice while still in England in 1950, mice, white rabbit, chooks, hedgehogs, possums, lizards, fish, pigeons, possibly a family cat but no dogs, while in Nelson; chooks, budgerigars, zebra finches, gekkos, skinks in Wellington. I vaguely remember trying to get a kea as a pet while in Elsdon, I had an idea of getting one from the South Island and made a large cage of chain fencing netting for it – but it may well have been more wishful thinking than practical plan.

I was quite a nuisance in commandeering other people’s property for aviaries. In Miramar I used some 4×2 planks lying around to build an aviary, incurring the wrath of the neighbour who had unwisely stored them in the basement of the house we were renting intending to mend the adjoining fence. In Elsdon, living in a rented state house, I remember cutting a hole in the side of the garden shed with aviary outside and dry night accommodation inside – wilfully wrecking government property was frowned upon in those days. And took over the tool shed at the house we were renting in Roseneath for my chooks. There’s a pattern there I think.

Main 121 Driveway

Cottage Lawn

Gill Scans Some Old family Slides – Who Can This Be

Hedgehog Haven, Todd’s Bush, Atawai, Nelson – 1957/58

Aviary In Maupuia Road, Miramar, Wellington – Circa 1959

Chooks – Elsdon, Porirua – 1965

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [75.7] eggs=5 Mark=0

Posted in General | Comments Off on Bucketing Down

A Few Days Respite From Rain

By mid day the ground was really drying out, no more sloshing across paddocks. Filled in five more rabbit holes and used the tractor to compact the filling. Not obviously any more lambs today. Another hour of chain sawing on the fallen tree alongside the eastern homestead verandah.

Short Lived But Vivid Beauty – Karamu Camellia

Gorgious Rhodo

Equine Arena End Of Ormond Road – Seen From Stop Bank

Oak Avenue Weather:10.1℃—17.8℃ no rain [75.5] TdT eggs=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on A Few Days Respite From Rain

Ewe #003, Twins #216 & #217

Today’s stop bank walk took us downstream as far as the entrance to the Pakowhai Country Park – a few acres providing walks for dogs and dog-owners by the dozen. The car park there seems always to contain a score or more vehicles.

Rabbit holes are Karola’s bane so, as requested, repeatedly, I filled in a couple today. Also made a start on chopping up the five-metre tall dead tree that fell alongside the homestead eastern verandah.

Ewe #003 had twins overniight, #216 & $217.

Found a way to watch the rugby live in the evening with a one-week “pass” for Sky. Quite a good game with All Blacks playing more like they used to.

Yes – Ground Is Still Saturated

Stop Bank Walk – Downstream To The Entrance To Pakowhai Country Park

Brother-In-Law Dr Ben Bell – Seatoun Heights Road, Wellington

Oak Avenue Weather:5.4℃—17.4℃ no rain [75.7] TdT eggs=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Ewe #003, Twins #216 & #217

Bathroom Mirror Lights Chosen And Installed

Electrician Ivan called at breakfast time wanting me to decide on the light fittings to go above the four mirrors in bathrooms, laundry, and cloak room. We agreed to meet at 11:00am at Lighting Direct in Hastings but nothing there was to taste and all that were there were expensive.

I intended to go to Mitre-10 anyway to get some cardboard archive boxes – of that more later – but while there I checked out the bathroom lighting options and found some that were not too objectionable, although expensive, so I bought them and Ivan put them up this afternoon.

Bridget called to see how we were and suggested we should do something about blocking the places in the roof space where possums get in. My initial thought is to floor over the roof space so that when up there we’re not balancing on joists and don’t have to contend with batts. Then the plywood can be pushed right up to the eves where we cannot reach but possums get in and by fastening the sheets where we can reach that should possum-proof the roof space. We shall see.

Mark came and counted the sheep – no new lambs today. He then finished the armour-plating of the Grillo mower’s rubber mowings distributor flap. Rest of the afternoon he spent picking up sticks across the paddocks where winter storms and his feeding out of hedge clippings had left them.

Young Ewe #004 With Assisted-Lambing Birth – Lamb #215R

Spring Magnolias Coming Into Bloom

Oak Avenue Weather:3.5℃—19.4℃ no rain [75.5] TdO eggs=5 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on Bathroom Mirror Lights Chosen And Installed

First Day Of Spring, Officially

It was a brilliant day, no wind, Bangle took us down to the stop bank for our daily constitutional. Usually we walk upstream towards Omahu village but today we wandered downstream in the direction of Pakowhai Country Park.

I tinkered with the iPads which I have swapped round so that Karola has my quite new iPad Pro 10.5 inch and I have her even newer iPad Pro 12”. Karola is happier with something more like her old iPad Air tablet and one with a home button rather than tricky swiping up from the bottom edge all the time. Karola sent a couple of emails to her iPad tutor Beryl in celebration of the successful switch.

Mark checked the sheep and found another two ewes with lambs: #906 with #213 & #214, and #004 – a first-time mother having difficulty with #215. While Mark held her still I pulled the lamb out and to our delight after a minute or so it spluttered, shook its head, and appeared to be in the land of the living. The ewe started licking her lamb as we stole away.

Mark and I thought perhaps it was one of the Grillo drive belts that was at fault but even after renewing the belt the fault returned so I called Outdoor Power and spoke to Craig.

Within the hour they’d collected the Grillo and whisked it back to Karamu Road. And much to my surprise they brought it back late afternoon, fixed. An arm of the magnetic clutch whihc engages the blade drive train had become bent, presumably by hitting a stone or hard piece of wood. Craig disassembled the clutch, straightened the arm, and we are back on the road, so to speak.

Mark is doing well in adding a protective layer of sheet metal to the rubber/plastic grass guide for the mower attached to the Kioti tractor.

Marcus Ormond came round for a short chat and to retrieve his marketing brochure with which he hopes to make a local name for his fat lambs. Meanwhile Henare, Scott, and Jack came round and took away the big trailer load of firewood, borrowing our trailer and the Landrover.

Lexi’s Marsden choir, Altissime, did well in the annual Big Sing national contest. Tonight Karola and I listened to the four items they sang on for the finals of the competition.

Lexi – Fourth From The Left – Singing With Her Choir In Christchurch Last Week

Mark’s Copper Sheet metal Grass Spreader Protection

Stop Bank Downstream Of The Ngaruroro Bridge

Inquisitive Young Cattlebeasts

Oak Avenue Weather:1.2℃—17.2℃ 0.2mm rain [75.9] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

Posted in General | Comments Off on First Day Of Spring, Officially