Monthly Archives: January 2023

Off we went shopping as usual. Picked up the laundry from last week. New World pretty quiet mid morning. Tried the Saltwater Seafood shop again for better quality food and they did not disappoint although they’re a bit too far out of our way to make this a regular stop. Also had a dozen eggs to take to “Nourish for Nil” but hung around waiting for them to answer their deliveries door and could hear people inside but find no way in so I left them on the ground by the door. I think that since the Hastings Food bank amalgamated with “Nourish for Nil” they’ve lost interest in tiny contributions. I suppose they get their bulk supplies from the big supermarkets, stuff that’s past its “best before” date. I’ll need to find another target for my surplus eggs.

Mark set to mowing the big patches of Californian thistles in the Middle paddock and discovered another dead lamb, #205R, which probably died at the same time as #212R last week 26th. Later he put more earth round the chook house, building up the land so that perhaps it won’t become a muddy pond after each heavy rain.

Fenceline Still Clear Of Clematis Since Rashbrooke’s Cleared It

… But A Patch Further Along Thrives

Oak Avenue Weather:17.4℃—23.5℃ no rain [77.9] TdO eggs=3 Mark=4

Mark first emptied the big trailer’s load of unwanted, worn out, or broken stuff from my first foray into tidying up the cottage garage into the skip. He then counted the sheep and at the same time poisoned the Scotch thistles he met as he walked round the paddocks. Much of the afternoon he spent digging us another “death pit” now that #212R occupies what was left of the previous one.

Mark observed that in addition to the swamp cypress branch three more had come down in the constant rain – photos below.

Grillo was picked up this morning by Outdoor Power for a slightly overdue service.

It was so hot today that Karola suggested we walked Bangle at the Pakowhai Regional Park. We had a long walk mostly in the shade of trees and bumped into another corgi the same age as Bangle and with similar life history – a breeder’s surplus.

Downed Conifer Branch Just Misses The Driveway Fence

Fell From The Big Fir Tree At East End Of Long Acre

Large Branch Split Off Tree Behind Hay Shed

Oak Avenue Weather:18.0℃—26.0℃ no rain [?] TdP eggs=3 Mark=4

A medium sized branch of the big swamp cypress near the farm shed damaged the gutter but otherwise did no harm.

Made good inroads on cleaning out and consolidating the stuff in the cottage garage. Ground is still very soggy but pleasant day otherwise.

For a change we went over to Havelock North to the walk there at the top of Joll Road, on the edge of Tainui reserve.

My right wrist has been playing up since about 18th January; I got a wrist support on 24th which helped a lot but it’s still not coming right.

Swamp Cypress Branch Dings Farm Shed Gutter

Tour de Havelock (Tainui Reserve)

Oak Avenue Weather:18.5℃—25.2℃ 0.8mm rain [?] TdH eggs=2

A couple of days rain forecast and today is delivering. So a thoroughly lazy day reading etc.

Oak Avenue Weather:17.4℃—19.9℃ 87.8mm rain [?] TdO eggs=4

Mark came at lunchtime; we’d had a quiet morning including a leisurely walk down on the stop bank.

Mark finished off mowing the lawns and driveways and after tea break we, mainly he, potted up the three new Puka plants. It took the two 15kg bags of washed gravel I got yesterday and two 30kg bags of potting mix (from The Plant Depot in Pakowhai road) – there’s about ⅓ a bag of potting mix left over.

Mark then cleaned up the copious rat droppings on the wide shelf up high in the cottage garage – rats had been having a high old time up there.

Puka Pot Plant In Cottage Living Room

Puka Pot Plant Upstairs In The Cottage

Quail Family Outside Cottage Kitchen Window

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

Paul the gas man arrived just before we set off to town. We discussed the generator installation and admired the two 45kg gas cylinders delivered by RockGas in Hastings. Paul (the gas man) spent most of the day installing the fixtures for the gas cylinders and running pipe to where the generator will (we hope) be sitting when it arrives next Thursday.To meet regulations we have to have some of the windows on that side of the homestead garage sealed shut. Gasman Paul sealed two of the four but will wait to see how the generator installation goes before sealing any more.

Karola, Bangle, and I went off to pick up the pre-prepared meals for this week from MYLK at the end of St Auban’s Street. We also popped into Mitre-10 where I got some gravel and sought native puka shrubs for the cottage. The gravel is for the base layer in the big pots for the puka shrubs. No puka at the Hastings shop but allegedly some at the Napier Mitre-10 Mega. Rounded our trip off by dropping off the laundry and picking up a couple of things from New World I’d forgotten to get on Tuesday.

Later we went to the Napier store and they had several puka shrubs, some variegated (a Karola bête noir) – I bought three plain ones.

Mark came and continued mowing the homestead lawn. He paused for a bit to trim the lower branches of the Feijoa tree directly north of the homestead, near the lip of the ha-ha, so he could mow under it. Mark TXTed me to say he’d noticed a dead lamb, #212R, in the paddock and he buried it in “the pit”. Now we’ll need another “pit”. Lamb seemed to have died of poisoning so ate too much of something it shouldn’t.

Electrician Ivan dropped in and replaced the broken power point in the homestead living room and fastened the ceiling rose in the cloak room. He then helped investigate how I can move the cottage living room TV from it’s current position on the north-west corner to its original position against the bedroom wall nearest to the dining room.

Gas Line And Bottles Installed For Generator

Two Pots For Two Puka Shrubs

Two Puka Shrubs Plus A Spare

Oak Avenue Weather:11.7℃—23.9℃ no rain [?] TdO eggs=3 Mark=4

Paul came followed shortly afterwards by Matt and they continued fixing the removal of the cottage wood burner, specifically they carefully mended the hole in the cottage exterior wall within the sun porch where the flue came through from the living room. A neat job using bits of original weather board we’d saved up in the big shed.

They also fixed the cottage kitchen ledger door which scraped on the floor since the installation of the vinyl floor on top of the cork tiles.

Paul made an adjustment to the gutter in the north-east corner of the homestead back porch which should reduce the overspill. He replaced the split kwilla board on the new verandah and adjusted the interior french window catch.

Paul began replacing window catches with the ones I’d bought matching the ones in the cottage. He’s also going to replace or match up the bolts on all the old french windows.

We agreed I would approach Selwyn to get his assessment as to where the PIR (motion sensor) detectors should be given the new interior partition and french doors to the outside. I’ll also contact Monique to know the coast is clear for her to return to finish the painting. I’ll also ask her to touch up the cottage walls where the wood burner has been removed.

Paul showed his old mate Graham, the guy who helped him on putting up the homestead new verandah roof, round the homestead. Graham and his wife Linda had asked to see what the finished work looked like – take selfies and so on.

John the honeycomb blinds installer came mid morning and installed the second light-blocking blind in the cottage bedroom. Like the other blinds fitted into the old window frames this needed little notches cut into the bottom of the side architraves amd paul did this before he left for the day.

Mark spent the afternoon mowing the lawns which have grown prodigiously over the last few days. He also caught a possum last night.

In the early evening Karola and I went to Keirunga Park to the homestead there for the annual Friendship Club dinner. Margery Cobb and Peter & Charlotte were there along with the other regular Friendship Club members. I sat opposite a woman who did dentistry school (the Willis Street “Murder House” as we called it at school) with Gill. Mrs Oliver (husband Peter) is vegetarian and as the two diners with special needs we shared a platter half GF half vegetarian.

Electrician Ivan called this evening saying he’d called round this afternoon and installed the extra power points in the room at the top of the stairs.

Oak Avenue Weather:14.3℃—21.9℃ no rain [?] TdO eggs=2 Mark=4

Paul closely followed by builder son Matt arrived around 8:30am and started on the small jobs, mainly continuation of the homestead project. Today however they removed the delightful little Jøtul wood burner from the cottage including its flue and chimney stack. As Karola suggested, Paul may find it a handy barbeque burner for their beach bach. There’s a bit more repair work to do in the sun porch.

Paul also located the nail causing the tiny leak in the bedroom at the top of the stairs, the leak noticed by Gill as being right by the bed. Paul will be back tomorrow to continue his list of small items such as the split verandah floorboard, the sticking internal french window catch, several replacement window catches, and so on.

Karola intends to have indoor plant in the corner where the wood burner was.

Today was busy for us: Bangle to groomer Emma by 9:30am then shopping and back to pick up Bangle by 11:30am. Only a dozen eggs to “Nourish for Nil” today – chooks are laying erratically. Dropped in at Stortford Lodge for coffe and went to pharmacy and talked to Christina about my aching wrist. She recommended a wrist support designed specifically for carpel tunnel injury – and it’s worked a treat.

And it being Anna’s birthday today we joined forces with Bridget to send her a nice big bunch of flowers.

Farewell Jøtul

Carpel Tunnel Wrist Injury Relief

Oak Avenue Weather:15.4℃—21.9℃ no rain [?] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

Saw a mother quail with a dozen or so chicks in tow – little bundles of quicksilver no bigger than bumble bees.

Meticulous Maids came after quite a long break over Christmas and the New Year.

Patrick Cooney, staying at Hamoana away from the heat of summer in Perth, Australia, popped in for afternoon tea and a catchup.

Mark mowed and mowed on the homestead lawn until the afternoon break when he switched to using the Kioti tractor to create a fire break around the cottage railings.

Oak Avenue Weather:11.9℃—23.4℃ no rain [77.9] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

Slept till lunchtime, again, but nothing urgent today. Warm and occasionally sunny day.

I emptied the trailer into the skip which is now overflowing.

Talked to Jenny Hendery about our store of empty preserving jars and the copper cooker for them. She suggests contacting Kura (Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Hou), a community college at 22 Wycliffe St in Napier, off Kennedy Road in Onekawa, (06-843-4600). But not until they open in a couple of weeks.

In the afternoon Karola and I took recycling to the Henderson Road Transfer Station including a lot of bottles, mostly cordial and olive oil bottles, we found in Karola’s “Summer House”, the old wash-house.

After the Transfer Station we went to Gagan’s the greengrocer just down the road. An old Māori man observed that the Landrover’s front driver’s tyre looked a bit flat. He was right so on the way home I put air in all four tyres, 28 psi in the front and 38 psi in the back as per the manual. They were all quite deflated.

Rubbish From Karola’s “Summer House”

Oak Avenue Weather:16.6℃—24.5℃ no rain [77.9] TdO eggs=4

A job I’ve been wanting to do for many months is to sort the stuff in Karola’s Summer House – the old detached homestead wash-house. It was so full of stuff that you had difficulty getting through the door. Karola was sure she’d only put stuff in there she wanted to keep but it quickly became evident that others must have used it to put lots of stuff they didn’t want.

A number of useful items came to light like three full unopened bottles of olive oil, a pack of a dozen bars of sand-soap, and two unused packs of dog poo bags.

Oak Avenue Weather:13.3℃—25.4℃ no rain [77.9] eggs=3

End of another week and now hot, sunny summer weather. Mark came and spent the afternoon mowing the One Acre which he started on wednesday and pretty much finished today. The One Acre was getting to be a mess with almost all of it having great swathes of Californian thistles.

The two missing carpets were supposed to be delivered today but when they hadn’t arrived by 1:30pm I called and said hat although we’d be out they could leave them on the cottage verandah. Still no carpets this evening.

We went down to the stop bank and just walked upstream; Bangle and I did about two kilometres in total but she was very hot and struggled a bit with the last 100 metres of the outbound trip.

As they said, The Hub texted to say my bike was ready to collect. It has a new seat, new handlebar grips, and several new cables in addition to the usual service. At $150 I thought it very reasonable. When I went to pick it up they said “what colour is it”. I wasn’t sure but said perhaps rust-coloured. One of the chaps knew exactly which bike it was and said it’s out the back, it’s the oldest bike in the shop. Both my and Karola’s bikes were bought at The Hub in Stortford Lodge. They really know their bike stuff, including electric bikes, very expert.

We went home and I fed chooks etc before Karola and I set off for Hastings to pick up my reconditioned bike and this week’s laundry, finally getting fish and chips from Captain Salty for dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:14.7℃—27.1℃ 0.2mm rain [77.8] TdT eggs=4 Mark=4

The idea is that now we’ve finished the frozen meat meals Ben and Gill cooked for us, and encouraged by Bridget, we have a prepared meal every Thursday. So it’s major shopping day on Tuesday, fish on Tuesday and Wednesday, MYLK meal on Thursday, Captain Salty F&C on Friday, smoked salmon on Saturday, steak on Sunday, and soup/salad on Monday. Rince and repeat.

Last Friday we had SPICY THAI BEEF CASSEROLE and CHOCOLATE PUDDING, both GF and using rice left over from Bridget’s stir fry the previous day a good meal was had by all.

Today it was just Karola and me and we had COTTAGE PIE, CAULIFLOWER CHEESE and SULTANA RICE PUDDING. Delicious but a bit too much for the pair of us.

We set off for the MYLK shop mid morning, and also tried to deliver a couple of dozen eggs to “Nourish for Nil”. I didn’t have enough eggs for Tuesday. Eventually I found them and delivered the eggs.

When we started our egg donations it was to the Hastings Food Bank; there was the mixup where I initially delivered them to the Salvation Army food bank nearby. Then a month or two of delivering them to the Hastings food Bank. This then amalgamated with “Nourish for Nil” way up Karamu road and then at Christmas they moved to a new location in west Queen Street. It’s now much more convenient for us but I made a mess of finding the new location by going to east Queen Street. Karola got quite cross with all the to-ing and fro-ing.

Mark took a rain check today. It did rain gently off and on all day.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [77.7] TdT eggs=2 Mark=0

Mark began mowing the One Acre today, It was the lucerne paddock but now is a sea of Californian Thistles with an understorey of grasses.

Despite Karola’s protestations I put up a small mirror in an oak frame in what she now calls the “bus stop”, the homestead back porch. We’ve found a use for the two Ormond Chapel pews we bought some years ago and they do make it reminiscent of a bus stop.

Overnight vandals broke our 133 entrance gate (see below) but I hope I can get it rebuilt – will need Natalie to come and repaint it. Maybe the same villains who did wheelie on our lawn yesterday.

I couldn’t get the right number of sheep counting them in the paddock so Karola and I rounded them up into the yards and noted all the numbers; there are 53 so all present and correct. Karola is pleased with how plump and healthy they look.

Took my bike into The Hub at Stortford Lodge for a service and reconditioning – it’ll be ready on Friday they say. Booked the Grillo in for a service but they’re pretty busy so it’ll not be for a couple of weeks.

Vandalised 50-Year-Old Front Gate

Large Areas Of Drowned Tomato Plants Seen From Stop Bank

Patient Chook With Pesky Chick On-Board

Oak Avenue Weather:11.9℃—21.0℃ no rain [77.8] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

Bangle started barking then Karola saw a vehicle speeding back down the drive to the cattlestop. I went out to incvestigate and found tracks across the lawn between the homestead and cottage. The ruts were pronounced and a few lawn divots had been thrown up so whether it was a small truck with heavy load or attempting wheelies I don’t know. The twin tyre ruts make me think it was a small truck or van, not a car. I filed a police report with photos just for information.

We popped into town and did the Tuesday shopping; we were quite late starting out and so the fish in New World was mostly gone. Remembering electrician Ivan’s recommendation of Saltwater Seafoods on Karamu Road we bought our fish from there and Karola says it does seem good quality. We also paused at Farmlands and I think finally got our account credited with the $70 or so they’d mistakenly charged us due to faulty printing on this year’s sheep tags.

Unwelcome Visitors Make Ruts In The Lawn

Divots

Bit Of Plastic From The Unwelcome Visitor’s Vehicle

Oak Avenue Weather:12.1℃—22.8℃ no rain [78.5] TdT eggs=4 Mark=4

Mark came and spent the early afternoon mowing with the Grillo. After our break we did sheep work. A recent email from Lachie our shearer said that there was a lot of fly strike about so we dosed all 53 sheep and lambs with Magnum pour-on. We then drafted out a few dirty ones and applied Maggo over their rear ends and gave them Coopers Alliance drench: #816, #714, #113, #123, #201, #202, #203, #207 (wether lamb without a tag). Meat withholding 14 days for both.

Oak Avenue Weather:12.5℃—21.9℃ no rain [78.8] TdT eggs=4 Mark=4

Lazy day, a Sunday, with just the Sunday tasks to do.

I have stopped feeding the chooks any chook pellets as they don’t seem very keen to eat them and I fear I’m only feeding sparrows, I’ve finished the current bag anyway. In the mornings I feed maize to the geese and chooks, and the doves & pigeons. I thought that maize was low on nutritional value but they all seem to like it. In the evening the hen, Red Band, and her chick get a tin of 50:50 wheat and chick pellets while the rest get another feed of maize and the chooks chooketeria gets a refill.

We’ve also decided to give up on burying our own green waste. While it’s a good idea to return the waste to the soil the effort and inconvenience – insects and smells – outweigh our virtue in this case.

The Chick Is Growing Up Fast

Oak Avenue Weather:14.1℃—21.9℃ no rain [78.7] TdT eggs=4

Cleaned carpets returned today, all except one which is still drying they say. Bridget has reallocated some of these carpets to different rooms which is a big improvement. When she comes back next time we’ll get on to purchasing carpets to replace the ones now in the skip. All the ones with tears or very worn are in the skip.

Bridget and Natalie laid out the carpets and did some final sorting of old bed linen etc for the “op-shop” and cleaned up.

We all went to Pakowhai Regional Park again and the More’s drove off to Wellington from there, TXTing that they were back early evening.

Later I turned off the hot water, checked all the windows and doors were locked, turned off the TVs and the hob, oven, dishwashers etc, leaving only the fridges and freezer on permanently.

Recently I asked Jenny about who might be interested in some spare beds and she said to try “LoveLink” which makes up beds for rehoused people who have no furniture. Jenny’s Op-Shop, incidentally, is on 06-835-0116. Jenny also said that the Lions have a book place in the Hastings Show Grounds which would take my many paperback science fiction I am thinking of divesting.

Oak Avenue Weather:13.9℃—21.7℃ no rain [78.6] TdP eggs=4

Bridget and Natalie continue with setting up the homestead and we select a few more things for the skip and the “op shop”. We put up a wall-hung bookcase that used to be in the Bee bedroom in the new library and it just looks right.

Bridget and I picked up todays MYLK meals from the shop. Later we enjoyed the Thai beef casserole with rice left from Bridget’s stir-fry yesterday. Followed by chocolate pudding. All delicious.

Mark came and as it’s still so wet underfoot he continued renovating the chest of drawers. No joy in catching possums overnight.

Wellington – A Beautiful Sunny Day, For A Change (courtesy of Gill in Seatoun)

Oak Avenue Weather:9.9℃—19.5℃ 2.4mm rain [78.3] TdP eggs=4 Mark=4

A light lunch for us all at Lappuccino’s.

Another pleasant walk and ride down at the Pakowhai Regional Park with the dogs. Meanwhile Mark came and, because the ground is still quite sodden, continued with his restoration of the chest of drawers destined for the homestead ‘tween’ bedroom now known as the ‘white’ bedroom. Unsurprisingly the chest of drawers is being painted white.

Later Mark, Bridget, and I moved furniture off the balcony to its final (for now) resting place either in designated bedroom or in the store room. We sorted out the beds too so that each bedroom now has its bed, base, and mattress.

Bridget heard a possum growling/screeching last night so Mark set the cage traps tonight.

Tuesday night Bridget cooked us a fish pie, scrumptious, and tonight it was a chicken stir fry – one of the things we shall miss when she and Natalie head for home on Sunday.

Ngaruroro Cycle Track As It Dives Under Expressway – Yesterday

Ngaruroro Cycle Track As It Dives Under Expressway – And Today

Oak Avenue Weather:13.3℃—19.6℃ 1.6mm rain [78.2] TdP eggs=2 Mark=4

Lots of rain overnight and this morning but in the late afternoon it was mainly sunny and hot. We all went down to Pakowhai Regional Park in the sun; I did my bike ride while Natalie, Bridget, and Karola took the two dogs on a walk under the trees of over a kilometre.

Ngaruroro river is up, fed by the rain in the ranges, and stretches from stop-bank to stop-bank. A noticeboard described the need for stop banks, how they were made, and said that they estimated a one-in-a-hundred years flood would fill the river to within 800mm or so of the stop banks. Today’s flooding just touched the foot of the stop banks.

Natalie, Bridget, and I moved excess furniture from the homestead into the garage store room.

This evening we tried the pre-cooked meals from MYLK (“My little kitchen”) – that is Natalie and I had half a “medium” meal and Karola tried one of their complete “micro-meals” which was more than she could manage. Delicious.

Ngaruroro In Flood – Water Stretching From Stop-Bank To Stop-Bank

Cycle Track Submerges Where It Dips Under The Expressway

Oak Avenue Weather:16.1℃—25.0℃ 19.4mm rain [78.3] TdP eggs=2 Mark=0

Not really the best holiday weather, didn’t stop all day but had harder and more drizzly patches.

Postman brought parcel of another dog car-seat protector, for Zoe this time. I already have one for the Subaru. Bridget has ordered one for her car too. Bridget also, in a frenzy of online purchasing, bought Karola a dark blue version of the very warm and comfortable jerseys she bought recently – one green, the other light blue. And so there will be three.

Got wet feeding the chooks this morning and again feeding and collecting the eggs this evening. There were no clear spells.

Bridget woke me up in the middle of the noght, well about 9:30am actually, to tell me someone had called in asking if we knew the owner of a medium-sized brown dog. We did not. Allegedly the visitors had chased it around for an hour or more before they caught it and they’d taken it to vet and determined no microchip. Obviously no collar with tag. But was that real or was it a fishing trip with an excuse to go up to houses and see if anyone was in, precursor to a burglary?

Shopping with Bridget late morning, going to MYLK in St Auben’s Street and on to New World in Havelock North. The MYLK business provides prepared and cooked meals which Bridget has found as a potential alternative to Gill & Ben’s frozen meals – Chilli Con Carne, Beef Bourguignon, and Lamb Stew. MYLK provides fresh or frozen meals, a selection of a couple of different recipes each week-day, usually with Gluten-free options. Bridget’s Chris observed that in Wellington you’d be hard pressed to buy the ingredients for the prices MYLK charge and there’d be less waste, less packaging, less work for the diners. We’re trying a couple tomorrow: one mini-meal which is a whole meal for pone person, meat and veges; the other the meat part of a meal for two.

Later we all trundled off to the Pakowhai Regional Park with the dogs, squeezing into the Subaru. It was raining but not torrentially and I bked to the end of the park then along the stop bank to the Expressway. The return trip is just over five kilometres. The dog walk is over a kilometre there and back.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [78.9] TdP eggs=2 Mark=0

Last night we opened the drainage valve for the three rainwater tanks – 66,000 litres. Overnight all three tanks, which are joined by pipes to make one big tank, were empty. The water went down the stormwater drain to the ha-ha and from there out to the big road drain. I had turned off the valve from the automatic refiller from the cottage well and to the sprinkler system and to the domestic water supply but forgot to turn off the pump itself. Luckily Bridget heard the pump working away without stopping so I rushed over and turned it off; the pump was hot to the touch but not very hot. Whew.

I turned the automatic refilling valve back on and water gushed into the tanks. After a few hours I checked my rudimentary level finder – a plastic pipe fastened to the side of tank #2 – and saw the level was over a foot deep, above the level needed to feed the pump. Turned on the pump and the domestic and sprinkler valves and everything was pretty much back to normal. The automatic refiller will give us about a metre of water in the tanks and ‘m hoping the forecast rain will help refill.

Bridget said the water in the shower was still discoloured but after she ran hot water in the kitchen and a bathroom for a while it became sweet and clear. The refilling exercise worked.

At just after 5:00am this morning I woke to a loud crash of a tree branch falling to ground. There were no accompanying animal noises or noises of iron roof destruction so I assumed it’d not done any real damage and went back to sleep – my iPhone said 05:06am. When feeding the doves and hens later I looked around but couldn’t see a big fallen branch.

Mid morning I got a phone call from Peter Fitzpatrick, the manager of our Bostock orchard amongst others. He said some of his workers scared away a burglar trying to break into the big sheds on the next door orchard. The burglar ran back to his ute, hidden in our orchard, and drove off at speed. Registration was photographed but it’s probably a stolen vehicle. Police came and took details. Peter said our bay of the big shed, the one with a roller door, had been opened; he suggested I check it for anything taken. The police say there’s a spate of orchard robberies in the properties near us so we should be vigilant.

Later i went up to look at the shed contents and on the way noticed the big branch that I’d heard in the early morning; quite substantial.

Bridget and Tux like walking in the Pakowhai Regional Park so for a few days at least we’ll be doing our dog walking and bike rides there; it’s a lot drier than around our orchard. The abbreviation for that exercise route will be “TdP”.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [79.6] TdP eggs=4 Mark=0

Late morning Alex spent an hour or so water blasting the front wall of the homestead garage which now looks shiny white.

A couple of days ago Bridget met some people with a dog similar to Tux, a “retropoodle” or poodle-retriever cross. The dog, called “Dude” is black with curly hair and long legs like Tux – a rug on legs – but Dude is almost twice Tux’ size. The owners are Lisa and Kevin, Lisa is a chef at Lappuccino and Bridget says that if i take some eggs to her at Lappuccino’s she’ll give me a free meal. Shows how much in demand eggs are due to the new legislation outlawing battery hens.

It was the first Free Thinkers meeting in the new year. I took them half a dozen eggs as my contribution to the afternoon tea. Peter offenberger took me over to Taradale in his nee Toyota Iconix EV. Roomy, good range, and packed with safety and multimedia features.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [79.1] eggs=4 Mark=0

Bridget is doing a wonderful job of reorganising and cleaning the homestead. The skip was exchanged for a fresh one today so we’ll be able to start filling that.

Natalie and Bridget vacuum cleaned and washed the floors but we also had some quiet time just sitting on the new verandah reading and drinking coffee or hot chocolate.

Red Band and her chick are still thriving; the chick beginning to show some adult wing feathers and looking like a very small ostrich.

Bangle and Karola and I did a stint down on the stop bank, dodging most of the drizzle late afternoon while Tux, natalie, and Bridget did the same a couple of hours later.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [79.2] TdT eggs=4

Got the two dozen eggs in to Nourish for Nil in time; Bridget then got us beef patties for dinner and, despite being a bit early, our laundry was ready so we picked that up too.

Bridget and Natalie made great progress in sorting out the homestead dining room; Bridget and I put up the big TV in the living room and it all worked. Bridget cooked our dinner and served it to us round the old Kauri dining table in the homestead dining room.

Tux and Bangle went round the orchard twice today.

Oak Avenue Weather:16.6℃—23.1℃ 1.2mm rain [79.3] TdOx2 eggs=2 Mark=0

Bridget and Tux and Karola went for a wlak round the orchard this morning; Bangle is a bit apprehensive of Tux’s “Tiger-like” bouncing around so declined to go.

Bridget rang from the homestead to say she’d found a business to clean our homestead carpets – in fact it was Natalie who found the business – and so it was agreed we’d get the carpets in reasonable repair in both the cottage and homestead cleaned. A van came and they were whisked away.

Later we went into Hastings where I dropped off the laundry and then Farmers. At Farmers Bridget skilfully negotiated with them to sell us a 3½-seater Oasis-II sofa in light grey together with a matching chair at sale price (50% off) even though the sale finished yesterday. Now it won’t arrive until at least June which is what gave us pause when in there buying a sofa for the room at the top of the stairs a couple of days ago. However we’ve save $2000 over the usual price which make the wait worthwhile. The sofa and chair are for the cottage, replacing the horrid old 3-seater we bought and brought back from America in 2001.

On to New World for the real essentials: mint sauce, bottled water, chocolate etc.

Then Bridget drove on to investigate a business called MYLK. It was closed until next week. This local business creates individual meals which just need heating up to be a balanced, delicious main meal. From the online description and menus it looks like they have plenty of options that would suit Karola and me. The idea is to have one of these a week, replacing the frozen meals that Gill and Ben gave us and which we’ve now finished. We’ll give it a try.

Then on to Mitre-10 where I got some LED lights to replace the halogen ones we got long ago, before LED became as cheap as chips. Halogen lights burn so hot that they always seem a potential fire hazard. Bridget bagged a few more toys for Tux.

Later Tux, Bangle, Karola, Bridget, and I went down to the stop bank and I got in my 30 minute cycle ride.

Oak Avenue Weather:16.3℃—22.1℃ 5.0mm rain [79.6] TdT eggs=3 Mark=0

Lunch at Lappucinno’s then mini-golf in Napier – all of us except Bangle.

Chris had work to do in Wellington so he took off mid afternoon. Karola, Bridget, and I popped into town for some fish for tonight’s dinner. We got it from “Saltwater Seafoods” on the corner of Karamu road and Frederick street. That shop was recommended to us by the electrician, Ivan Alach and Bridget endorsed his recommendation, very good fish.

Bridget made us a delicious fish pie dinner.

Still very windy and more windy days forecast. Mark came and did another day’s mowing.

Found ten eggs in the broody coop which explains the low egg counts over the last few days, now corrected in the log.

Oak Avenue Weather:15.4℃—21.0℃ 1.4mm rain [79.9] TdO eggs=4 Mark=4

Oh it’s shopping again and a combination of my weekly shop and Bridget’s daily shop – horrendous prices. The laundry turned out to be closed until tomorrow. We did go to Farmers though and bought Karola another pair of pyjamas then Bridget took me to the shop-within-a-shop in Farmers, “Stevens”, and she bought a slew of cooking utensils for the homestead including a wok suitable for induction hobs and a variety of tools to go with it.

Mark came and mowed the afternoon away.

Bridget cooked us a rather good stir fry dinner with chicken coated by hand in a ginger sauce and lots of vegetables.

Oak Avenue Weather:14.9℃—21.9℃ 0.8mm rain [79.7] TdO eggs=3 Mark=4

Brunch at Karamu Road Bay Espresso then into Napier for a walk along part of the Marine Parade with Tux and Bangle. Soon after we started it began to rain and we got back to the cars just in time to avoid a good soaking.

Bridget is intent on getting a comfortable sofa for the room at the top of the stairs and has done her research. There are suitable items at Farmers with huge January Sales discounts. The Napier store didn’t have the specific sofas Bridget had found in Hastings so we went home, dropped off the dogs and Chris, and went to the Hastings store.

Karola and I looked at the items Bridget recommended and we chose a small but heavily discounted comfortable sofa in a sort of green/grey flecked tweed upholstery.

Prices may be good but the delivery times are terrible. The item we bought was available right away but the other we considered wouldn’t be here until at least June. And even “right away” meant late this week if we were lucky so we decided to pick it up ourselves. Later we took the Landrover down and picked up the sofa; the More family were enjoying it watching TV this evening.

Oak Avenue Weather:12.6℃—20.7℃ 3.0mm rain [79.4] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

Chris was playing with Tux on the lawn when somehow Tux got free of his lead and suddenly dashed after one of the chooks; it would happen to be Red Band and her little chick. Mother hen stood up to Tux bravely but then scuttled into the Goose paddock. The chick had flown off in the opposite direction and was hiding somewhere in the grass round the big oak trunk.

Tux decided not to follow Red Band under the gate into the Goose paddock and Chris quickly got things under control. Half an hour later the chick appeared in the broody coop and I shut it in. Moments later Red Band turned up too so I let her in. Looks like no lasting harm done.

While this was going on Bridget and Natalie continued cleaning and arranging stuff upstairs in the homestead.

Mid afternoon we all went to the bush walk at the top of Joll Road in Havelock North; it takes a while to get there but it is by far the most pleasant walk in the area.

Later Karola, Bangle, and I went down to the stop bank and I rode my bike while Karola and Bangle had a bit of a wander. Some heavy showers passed over and I got soaked. We complensated by popping into town for Wild Bean coffees and some tubs of Rush Munro icecream

Oak Avenue Weather:12.9℃—18.3℃ 1.5mm rain [79.2] TdT eggs=3