Monthly Archives: March 2024

Mid afternoon walk with Bangle on the stop-bank at the Clive wetlands. Busy walkway, lots of people with dogs and lots of cyclists.

With the tractor mowed a strip across the Front paddock just before the grass bridge so that I can electric fence it and let the sheep in to the long grass, the western two-thirds of the Front paddock. Because of the tree work we’ve kept them out of the Front paddock for tha last few weeks.

Black Swan Family At Clive Wetlands

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]

Autumn weather, cold wind, sunny spells between quite heavy showers. I hunkered down all day except for a walk with Bangle around rthe perimiter of the Regional Dog Park.

Gill & Ben Settling In on the Kapiti Coast – warmer and less windy than Wellington

Gill & Ben have been looking for a new house for several years because they are not getting younger and the steep slopes without drive-on access at house level are becoming impractical. Nothing suitable comes up except that the Kapiti Coast is their most favoured location in the Wellington area.

So this year they changed tack and started looking for retirement village options. After much research they found that four villages on Kapiti Coast were most likely to have suitable villas.

The villages are a capitalist’s dream. Most retirement villages in New Zealand use Occupation Right Agreements, basically a licence to occupy not ownership. Then for villas, such as those in the Wellington region, you may need to pay around a million dollars.

And when you vacate, to a more spiritual place or because your level of care has increased say, they give you back 80% and you are most likely not going to benefit from any capital gain from the re-sale of the property. Such generosity.

Anyway, I digress, G&B put their names down for four villages being warned that the waiting lists were long but occasionally a villa suiting one’s specified requirements may become available. Which it did.

In this case, lucky G&B, one came up and it was a bit special. This was the villa built by the developer for himself while he built the other villas in the village. A better site, slightly bigger, more garden, more secluded etc. As right as it ever will be for G&B. And it was in the process of major renovation.

So they now have sold their house on the steep slopes of Seatoun Heights. They have been preparing for this moment for years so have physically downsized much of their possessions already.

Meanwhile the village needed a commitment and in order to secure the sale they offered generous settlement terms. G&B’s lawyer says they are seeing villages setting up deals as they need to sell their units and in the slow housing market people are finding it hard to sell their homes.

Interesting wheeze now came into play. If G&B payed $50,000 straight away, last year, on top of the $5000 deposit, they essentially had settlement immediately. The capital balance was payable on sale of their house or in 3 months time which ever came first.

The village lawyers assessed the risk and were sure that the sale of G&B’s house would exceed the required settlement balance; the village meanwhile was not receiving the weekly fees until G&B moved in but this doesn’t actually cost the village a penny. Smart financial wizardry.

Mother And Daughter (Maybe) Grey Heron On Stopbank Alongside Dog Park

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]

Well I slept till almost lunchtime so that didn’t last. But I didn’t get to sleep till after 200am so maybe that explains it.

Earlier in the week I was dealing with last week’s online scam that caught me. Tracey, she of Tracey & Graham up the Taihape road who have looked after Bangle for us when we’ve been down to Wellington or overseas, sends me email occasionally, usually from Trade-Me and usually about chooks of corgis. This time she sent a link to a website selling a dog toy that automatically threw tennis balls for a dog to chase, same idea as they use in tennis clubs for practice by yourself.

So, knowing that Bangle eschews any catching game but Bridget’s big black labradoodle Tux really enjoys them I decided to buy one. A few minutes after I’d purchased the toy I got two emails from different companies but with a page style highly reminiscent of the toy website. The emails each said I had joined their online shopping club and was enjoying an introductory free week (or 3 days) before they started charging a monthly subscription.

Next day I went on the chat line of one of these companies and got agreement to cancel my alleged membership. They agreed but said the cancellation process took a fortnight, which I noticed was beyond the free introduction period. After another cup of coffee I thought well I’ll just check that they haven’t charged me for anything and, surprise, surprise, both the sites which went me emails had lodged a charge. I called VISA and a bit later my bank. They insisted on cancelling my credit card and so I got a temporary EFTPOS card at once while I waited for the new cards – my credit card and multiple EFTPOS cards were inoperable, he new one took a week to get here by post, hence my going to the local BNZ branch to get a new simple EFTPOS card (swipe-only) to tide me over.

Today my credit card is working both as a credit card and a debit card. I updated my PayPal and Apple payment information and so they’re both working again. Not sure whether there are other places which use my card for recurring payments but as Bridget noted, it’s not a bad idea to change your credit card occasionally to cut off any recurring payments linked to the card. I expect the newspaper and printer ink sites are two but that’s no problem because when the card fails they’ll just ask me to update.

Marcus came to see the lambs just as I was leaving for Summerset Palms to see Karola. Henare came over while was away to inspect his hives and left us a big bag of apples.

25th Feb – Ian With Large Possum Caught By Hand In Bushes Near Homestead Back Door – Bailed Up By Tux

The Drain Alongside Summerset Palms – Spoonbill Spooning

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]

This morning I awoke unexpectedly refreshed and with no desire to go back to sleep until lunchtime. I hope this persists.

Yesterday, over by the eucalypt glade, now with only five more trees to come down, Keith put his axe through my alkathene pipe taking water round the north-east corner to feed a sheep-trough and allow me to irrigate the avenue of lime trees (Tilia x europaea), the five swamp cypress and the kauri celebrating grandson Felix’ 1st in Economics from St Andrews. It was quickly repaired with a 20mm connector, a hacksaw, and some hot water. I had turned off the water back at the homestead garage so we didn’t get wet while fixing the pipe but when I turned it back on there was no water. I checked with one of the other sunken taps to make sure I had the tiny white plastic switch in the open position and yes I did.

After mulling it over last night I remembered this happening a couple of times long ago to another of these sunken taps and the solution was to just turn the tap (well more like a switch – just off and on) several times then suddenly the system behaved. So it was this time – now all is sweetness and light, the water flows.

Following on the visit of the insurance estimator Chris yesterday – he was a young bushy-bearded amiable South African Pākehā – I need to get quotes for the fences and the grass bridge and end of the ha-ha, none of which have I touched since the cyclone 14th March last year. I contacted the same outfit, Baywide Dingos, as did our 121 driveway, the grass bridge and the wooden facing of the ha-ha beginning in 2007. Fortunately their involvement was documented in the this farm journal.

Waikanae Thrush In Mid Chirp (Courtesy Ben Bell)

Three Mallards Meditating – Waikanae (Courtesy Ben Bell)

Waikanae – Spoonbill Feeding (Courtesy Ben Bell)

Waikanae Dotterel (Courtesy Ben Bell)

Waikanae – Pied Oystercatcher (Courtesy Ben Bell)

Spoonbills in “the drain” tidal stream alongside “Summerset Palms”

A dozen spoonbills on the drainage lake between Ormond Road and the big Delegates winery

A dozen doves eating the chooks’ food

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]