Monthly Archives: April 2024

Lovely Autumn Day

As usual on a Tuesday, Bangle and I go shopping, ending up with a walk at the Regional Dog Park.

I’ve booked in the Landrover Discovery to Newport Auto Electrical in Omahu road. The fault being intermittent it may take a while for them to rectify it.

Keith burned the bon-file pile on the old Ginkgo stump today, the last day we’re supposed to burn stuff outdoors until September. It’s a pollution thing, not risk of fire.

Cluster Flies Anyone?

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Hectic Start To The Week

Well I knew and expected:

  • Sally Pearce – to clean the cottage over, dishwasher, fridge
  • Mark – my roustabout five half-days a week
  • Keith – retired forester working on cutting down the old eucalypts

I did not expect:

  • FloorMart carpet installer – came to do more measuring
  • Henare – hoping I’d got the replacement Echo chainsaw bar over the weekend

I’d completely forgotten about my 11:00am appointment with the Mitre-10 wood burner installer but he rang to say he couldn’t make it today so we agreed 11:00am on Friday.

Did I say, I’ve been excused permanently from jury duty due to my advanced years.

In the afternoon Bangle and I went to see Karola but she, again, wasn’t pleased to see me so we ducked out and went home. Chatted to Bridget and Jodi (head carer at Summerset Palms) and agreed that probably best if I waited until Karola was more settled before visiting again and Jodi will phone in perioding updates as to how things are. I am still torn as to whether we acted too soon; Karola’s frustration at being in the memory care unit is just what I would have expected if she did not have Altzheimer’s. Bridget reminds me that the “home” Karola refers to is the life at Karamu we had a decade ago, not what she experienced in the last couple of years in the cottage.

I remembered to feed the chooks before it was dark today. Turned off the homestead kitchen hot water yesterday and the main hot water cylinder today as Briget won’t make it back here for a couple of weeks. Moved the stack of pictures in the homestead upstairs passage, out of the way of carpet installation. Bangle and I popped round the orchard for our “constitutional” this evening.

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Cause Of Escaping Water From Cottage Pump-house Identified

Bangle wouldn’t eat a piece of apple nor half a kiwifruit today. The fruit is quite old but it’s unusual for Bangle not to eat everything offered.

Beautiful day so I took Bangle for lunch at Karamu Road Bat Espresso and then for a walk along the Clive estuary and wetlands. Quite busy with walkers and cyclists.

Later I did the search for the leak as foretold yesterday. Bangle and I walked the bundary and the taps and troughs in-between finally coming across the tap for irrigating the Totara avenue along the Long Acre inner fence. That tap was full on. As I recall there are a couple of breaks in the irrigation alkathene pipe at the far end, accidents of thistle mowing I think.

I turned the tap off and the pump behaved as it should, turning off once the pressure reached its designated level.

The dish washers in the homestead, the single-drawer Fisher & Paykel dish washers, had what seemed to be unwashed dishes in them so I turned both on. There was no dish-washer powder in the homestead so that’s probably why they hadn’t been done. I fetched a spare bottle from the cottage.

Lonely Spoonbill Stands Out Amongst Myrid Black Swans And Ducks – Clive Wetlands

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Cutting Back On Thistles

I needed to get to The Stihl Shop before noon, when they close on a Saturday, so that they could order a replacement bar for my chainsaw. I was there in plenty of time but today they said they couldn’t order the specific bar I needed but suggested I try Huskqvarna – which turned out to be Outdoor Power just down the road, where I got my mower from. So, while ordering my replacement bar I booked the Grillo in for a service next week – it’s about 20 hours over the designated service interval.

Joan Phillips sent me a card for Karola, wishing her well and enclosing a $20 note for me to get Rush Munro icecreams for Karola. So today I got a tub of passionfruit and a tub of chocolate.

Picked up a pack of 50 replacement blades for the little electric Ozito strimmer Anna bought while here.

On way home got a coffee and a sandwich and then took Bangle to Frimley Park where we shared the BLT sandwich and she had a bit of a run-around.

Got refills of diesel and petrol for the farm machinery then (see below) mowed the luxuriant crop of Californian thistles in the One Acre paddock.

Bit worried that the new cottage water pump doesn’t stop running. Turned off the outlet to the paddocks leaving only the feed to the cottage on. Pump stopped as it should. Bangle and I went round all eight water troughs but none were obviously leaking so I have to do a more thorough survey of troughs, taps, and, where above ground, pipes tomorrow.

Mowing Californian Thistles In One Acre Paddock – ⅔ Complete

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Accident Waiting To Happen

I heard on radio this week that “cars are wider than they used to be”. Well if experience counts these days they certainly seem wider. I was looking carefully out of the right side of the car to where the pump fitter was working, hoping not to crash into anything or any body, and CRASH, I hit the left wing mirror on the garage door upright. I hit it once before, only a couple of millimetres too close, and got away with it. This time I was maybe a centimetre too close and the mirror housing cracked and disintegrated. I’ll see tomorrow what duct tape can do.

Today I was expecting Mark, a man from Harris Pumps & Filtration to replace the cottage water pump, and a man from FloorMart to install our replacement homestead stair carpet.

Well, Mark took a rain check, but the others did turn up albeit just before lunch. I got dressed early in case they turned up at 7:30am or some other early time; I’d also left the homestead unlocked in case I wasn’t awake when the stair carpet person arrived. I needn’t have worried.

The Harris man took all afternoon and several trips back to his workshop to replace the cottage water pump but all seems to be working OK now. That pump not only provides the domestic potable water for the cottage but is also the automatic backup supply for the homestead rainwater tanks to ensure there’s water for the sprinklers in a severe drought. It also feeds all the water troughs and 12 outside taps.

The stair carpet man didn’t actually install any carpet today but re-measured the stair carpet and the passage carpets upstairs in the homestead. Next week he’ll get the carpets cut and the edges bound.

Marcus and I chatted on the phone about the wood burner. Marcus is happy with the Firenzo Topaz in-built zero-clearance fire box. Because of the complexity and extent of the work needed for a faux chimney we’re going to go for a standard round flue painted “karaka”. If it really looked hideous we could always add the faux chimney surround later though I think that very unlikely. Mitre-10 contractor is scheduled to come and quote for us for the installation on Monday. Stewart Luttrell’s quote is $11,950; we’ll see what the Mitre-10 quote is.

Poor MG

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ANZAC Day

Despite being a public holiday, Mark came today as did Henare & Jack, and also Keith.

Keith continued with his bonfires. Mark did a lot of weeding, round the Canary Island Palm (the octagon) and the little circle round the Ginko in front of the homestead.

Henare is borrowing my chainsaw but managed to clog and damage the chain bar irretrievably so I’ll need to get a new bar if I can tomorrow. There was a 20” diameter branch pinning down the fence by the cattle stop and Henare was not confident of just sawing it up into manageable bits so Keith, who saw them struggling when he drove past, somehow managed to get the big branch off the fence and onto the bund.

I took Bangle round the orchard and we ate apples. I also picked up some walnuts from the trees next to the concrete trough and they turned out to be quite edible. I’m not completely sure they’re safe for me to eat so I’ve only eaten a few today.

Walnuts From Karola’s Walnut Trees

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“AA” Captain

The New Zealand AA, which I have been an associate member of for decades and decades – so long that I only pay ¼ of the membership fee – sent me an email recently offering for sale a number of quite interesting items. So a couple f days ago I ordered one of their “grab and go” bags for when the impending tsunami is really quite close, or the river has yet again burst its banks with even more enthusiasm than in 1976 and 2023.

They were also offering a decent looking hand torch, LED bulbs, quite powerful, and long lived. That and a small item for breaking the glass of side windows (not the windscreen) in case you were submerged in your car and it was inconvenient to open the door. I bought a torch and a couple of the Resqme Escape Tools, one for me and one for Bridget.

I was prompted to get the Resqme tool because recently I’d seen an advertisement on television that assured us our little hammer gadgets (combined seat belt cutter and hammer – I have one in each of three vehicles) won’t work on tempered glass, and yet most modern cars do have tempered glass windows and laminated glass windscreens. Trying to escape from a submerged car one cannot apply sufficient force underwater to break tempered glass. Resqme, however, is a small device containing a spring-loaded hammer which you press against a corner of the window and it breaks tempered glass. Be warned, however, that on some makes of car the front windows may be made of laminated glass and it won’t let you escape.

Here’s what the AA say:

The resqme tool is a unique portable safety device that can be attached to your keychain. This 2-in-1 rescue tool is a window breaker and seatbelt cutter that allows you to get out of your car in an emergency.

The resqme is an innovation award winning compact device only 76mm long and weighing 17 grams that you can attach to your keychain with its removable clip. In case of an emergency you can easily pull the resqme from its clip. Once the clip is removed the sharp steel blade can cut any seatbelt. While protecting your eyes and push the black cylindrical part of the resqme against a corner of a side window until the steel spike is released and breaks the window. The steel spike releases 12 pounds of pressure to break any tempered glass.

and here’s a picture, its 76mm long and weighs only 17g

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The Essential Bag For Survival When Time Is Running Out

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Today was quite hectic beginning with me taking Karola for our six-weekly haircuts with Kim at Colours & Hues in Ahuriri.

Keith continued with his bonfires of the tree rubbish from the eucalypts; Mark did more mowing and cleaning up around the place; Henare and Jack came and started on clearing the cyclone debris from Gabrielle on the fence near the cattlestop.

In the afternoon the FloorMart carpet installer came and measured up – he expects to put up the new stair carpet in the homestead on Friday. Harris Pumps & Filtration team also came and changed the UV zapper and the particle filters in the pump-shed by the homestead; they also checked both homestead and cottage pumps. We’ll be getting a new cottage pump soon because it’s been working reliably since 1983 and is getting old, so old that parts are unobtainable.

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Fewer MYLK Meals This Week – ANZAC Thursday Is Public Holiday

Shopping day again. Cleaning lady Pavla TXTed to say she couldn’t do it thisweek but that’s not a problem, once a fortnight is probably all I need for the cottage anyway.

I checked and the new stair carpet for the homestead, which is 700mm wide, will still end without exposing any untreated wood. So while I know some of the bedrooms will need additional staining, the stairs and passageways will be just fine.

Marcus is going to go to the Onekawa factory where Firenzo make their wood burners and check out the Topaz model. I wonder if it’ll be allowed within Hastings “air shed 2”.

Shopping went smoothly. Then Bangle and I went for a long walk in the Regional Park on the way home.

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Woodburner Discussions

Marcus came round and we chatted about our intent to get a woodburner installed in the homestead living room. Later Marcus and his contact, Stu Luttrell, came round and assessed what it’d take to install a zero-clearance woodburner inside the existing wooden-framed chimney breast. Much of the complexity comes with wanting to have the visible above-roof appearance be as close to the original as possible. We have another installer coming next week and we’ll compare what they recommend.

I called Heritage NZ in Wellington and discussed what we wanted to do re the wood. burner. If we can get the wood burner installed witha chimney chase (faux chimney top mimicking the original)

Bought 4 litres of dark rimu wood stain for the homestead upstairs floors as the new carpets aren’t the same size as the ones they replace. I may need to extend the staining of the stairs too if the narrower carpet doesn’t hide all the unstained wood. I reduced the carpet width when we put the stair lift in, it runs alongside the inner wall of the stairs, fartherest from the stair handrails.

The Grillo needs a service, it’s past its “hours for next service”.

This is the second time a MYLK meal in its plastic tray has buckled when I took it out of the oven, spilling about a third of it onto the door and floor of the oven, dripping through to the drawer and floor below. Bother!

I have been gearing myself up to clean the oven when, unexpectedly, I got an email from our previous cleaner business owner, Sally Pearce, saying she had time between her other jobs to do a few oven cleans. She’s coming next week! Hooray!

From Summerset Photo Board Outside Jodi’s Office – Karola & Tux

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Second Time – MYLK Tuscan Beef Spills Into Oven When I Take It Out

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Free Thinkers

Peter Offenberger, as usual, ferried me to and from Free Thinkers which starts around 12:30pm and goes on till almost 5:00pm. Usually on the second Sunday in the month this time it was deferred a week so that Karol and Lorraine could ensure they were Covid free. Theyd been to a family function at which at least one lperson subsequently tested positive foe Covid.

A good turnout today, 12 of the 15 members I think. As expected concerns were raised about Iran/Israel, also the crisis in Sudan, the changes in TV news in New Zealand, and a variety of other topics. Main topic was about the media, where did we get news we trusted from etc.

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Funeral In Berlin – Twists & Turns

Light drizzle turned to rain late afternoon. I finally got my copy of Funeral In Berlin (bought online) into a form I could use. It’s taken all week as I bought a program to decode it but then found the program would only work on a very back-level version of MacOS. So over the week I cleared then installed an old Macbook Pro with themost recent version of MacOS that the decoding program supported, installed the program, decoded the file, and, tonight, watched it. Meanwhile in frustration I’ve bought an expensive set of DVDs which allegedly have all five of the Michael Caine films featuring Harry Palmer.

Around mid-day the backup generator burst into life. It took me a while to figure out what was making the noise. TThere was no power cut so I assume it was one of the generator’s regular test runs – it switches itself on for an hour or so just to verify everything is in working order.

Keith and a neighbour worked, despite the drizzle, on reducing much of the fallen spruce to firewood. Keith lit a fire, which I suspect he really enjoys.

Wednesday 17th April – The Damaged Spruce Brought Down

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Today Keith Saws Up The Spruce And Burns Small Slash

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Week’s Ending

Main thing today was taking Karola to dentist to have her new crown fitted – that took most of the day going to and fro. Otherwise rather quiet.

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Geoff & Felicity Head For Home

Late moring had a walk round the property looking at trees and cyclone damage and lambs. After lunch hey set off, calling in on Gill & Ben in Paraparaumu on the way.

Mid afternoon Bangle and I went for a walk in the park at the top of Joll road, picking up my MYLK meals for the rest of the week on the way.

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Felicity & Geoff + Charlotte & Peter – Alessandro’s

Late morning Keith toppled the conifer next to where the Sitka Spruce used to be. The conifer was badly damaged when it was side-swiped by the fall of the spruce during cyclone Gabrielle.

Felicity, Geoff, Bangle and I went over to see Karola in the afternoon but Karola was not in a happy frame of mind so our visit was quite short.

Later we, without Bangle, joined up with Peter and Charlotte for dinner at the Joll Road pizza place, Alessandro’s.

The Conifer As It Fell This Morning – Fell exactly Where Keith Planned (video by Matt Sanders)

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Shopping Day – Felicity & Geoff Arrive

Pavla TXTed to say she’d start at 1:00pm not noon today. I TXTed back saying fine and would she please do homestead first as Bridget had to leave in a bit of a rush on Sunday so the rooms still have mess from puppy Tuxedo’s tearing up of cardboard etc. Pavla in fact finished the tidying and cleaning in the homestead and then did the cottage as well- awful lot of Bangle hair after missing last week’s cleaning.

Went shopping and was back before 2:00pm. Geoff & Felicity arrived soon afterwards.Cups of tea all round then we all went to the Front paddock and moved out the sheep then took down the electric fence ready for the big digger and rope attempt to pull down the remaining eucalypts and damaged conifer.

Geoff and I took Bangle for a good long walk at the Regional Dog Park and then we cooked and ate a good snapper fish meal with some fresh green beans donated by Felicity.

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Marcus Begins On Homestead Wood Burner Project

With Bangle, popped over to see Karola after my 3-monthly blood test in Stortford Lodge. Also notified Michael White of BedPost that I wished to proceed with buying the bed and mattress.

Bridget, when visiting Karola yesterday, took photos of Karola where she appeared in the weekly pin-board of residents. Karola was in about a quarter of the photos on the board this week.

At Summerset Palms, Karola is Joining In To My Surprise

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I “Think” This Is Karola’s New Friend, Eileen Eames

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Bridget Back To Wellington Late Afternoon

Late morning a black saloon car came up the drive, turned towards the cottage, stopped, backed up and glided away back down the drive. I hope it was just Marcus who maybe got a phonecall he was wanted elsewhere. Less desirable is if it were some undesirables just casing the joint, scared off by the obvious presence of occupants. I have started locking the doors now, I’m feeling more vulnerable with Karola not here.

Felicity & Geoff Rashbrooke are coming up for a visit on Tuesday, returning to Wellington on Thursday.

Bridget, Bangle, Tux and I went over to see Karola this afternoon. We took sandwiches and coffee from Green Meadows New World.

Karola’s Sheep – A Watercolour. Artist: Edwina Robinson

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Bridget’s Birthday

After lunch Bridget, Bangle, Tux, and I went into Hastings to Harvey Normal and looked at beds. I am looking for a brand new double bed and mattress to replce the larger Queen sized bed in the cottage. It’ll take less room and I’m going to orient it north-east rather than south-east although that’s not terribly feng-shui. Bridget then suggested / commanded that we go to at least one specialist bedding shop so we went to BedPost in Napier – and found a similar bed and mattress for over $1000 less. Between these two we popped into Hastings Mitre-10 and looked at wood burners. Mitre-10 will send out an installation expert to advise us because knowing what will fit in the living room with its existing wood chimney breast can be tricky. Crossing fingers that the existing wiring and sprinkler pipes are not in the way of the flu and surrounding foam-concrete insulation.

We popped in to see Karola and Bridget and the dogs stayed for an hour or so. On the way home Bridget stopped at the Regional Dog Park and Bridget took them for quite a long walk.

To celebrate Bridget’s birthday we went to Alessandro’s in Havelock North – delicious meal.

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Walk In Anderson Park

Bridget came safely up from Wellington last night. This morning, before breakfast, she took Tux and Bangle for a walk.

I went over to Summerset palms after lunch and Paula from Top-2-Toes came at 2:30pm and did Karola’s toes, not without some resistance but karola liked the foot massage for each foot after the trimming. Afterwards Bangle, Karola, and I went to Anderson Park in Napier. It’s quite a long way from Summerset Palms but, as Anna pointed out when she was here, it is a good place for walking with Bangle. Lots and lots of ducks and geese too.

Later we walked both dogs upstream from Carrick Road to soak up their energy; Tux had not come on Bangle’s earlier walk in Anderson Park.

Keith TXTed to say the big logging truck and the 35-tonne digger are not coming next week as the forecast predicts too much rain.

Evening Dog Walk Upstream From Carrick Road

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Lion’s Mane Mushroom

Out with Bangle to town; picked up MYLK meals for the rest of the week plus lunch from Wild Bean Café, which Bangle and I had on the bench under a walnut tree a short walk up the park at the end of Joll Road, alongside Tainui Reserve. Well I had coffee and apple turnover while Bangle enjoyed some sniffing about.

Keith has given me some “mushcoffee” to try; it’s a mixture of things to make it more like your morning instant coffee but the key ingredient is Lion’s Mane mushroom – allegedly very good for cognitive health and anti-Altzimers. It’s another of these ancient foods allegedly used to good effect by the Chinese.

The Lion’s Mane Mushroom Concoction Keith Gave Me, Imported From Australia

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Reminds Me Of Karola’s Blue Bambina She Had At Uni In 1960s – Many Happy Hours Riding In This

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Wednesday – Recovering After A Busy, Chaotic Shopping Day

Mark completed weed spraying – long overdue but done at last. One has to wait for dry weather and almost no wind at all.

Later in the afternoon there was the sound of chainsawing over by the eucalypts.

I went to see Karola, I usually go on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Today we had a walk round the nearby Waitangi Reserve. It’s about ten minutes away by car and nestles on the banks of the Ngaruroro river, nearest Napier. Hohepa, the farm and cheese making and shop, is on the opposite bank.

Menu At The Summerset Palms Café

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Royal Society of NZ – Talk On Local Meridian Wind Farm

Well rather a good day in fact. Got Bangle over to Emma for grooming by 9:30am then did the shopping including ordering five MYLK meals for the week. Picked up Bangle at 11:45am.

I took both our Cyclone Pup small trailers in to get WOFs (warrants of fitness)  at the local VTNZ. It’s the first time I’ve towed with the MG. First one, 150UD, passed without problems. The second one, 5ATR, wouldn’t indicate left but I took it in anyway because in the past they’ve passed the vehicle as long as I fixed any minor problem and returned just to get the sticker.
Well I was very pleasant;y surprised when the mechanic said that the light wasn’t working but he could make it work by holding the car connector firmly – implying that it was one of the pins not making proper contact. So I said I’d fix it and he passed me. Got home and eased apart the pins as he suggested and it’s now working just fine.
The big trailer, A613F, doesn’t have a WOF sticker because it and its holder have fallen off. I asked at VTNZ and they said I it had a WOF up till 25th May. However you only get 14 days grace, you can get aWOF 14 days before it’s due,  so I need to bring A613F back early in May.

 

Quiet afternoon and then I remembered that the Royal Society (Hawkes Bay Branch) had a talk this evening by James Meares, a civil engineering consultant to Meridian about the building of the Harapaki wind farm between Napier and Taupo. So I called Peter Offenberger and he took me in his car to the lecture.

James Meares was most complimentary about Meridian the company and the amazing progress made on this project, on time, within budget, etc.

The wind farm is quite vast. At the higher points they had ice and snow to contend with and winds so strong that “they tipped over loaded 20ft shipping containers’.
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Dental Appointment

Took Karola to have a large filling within a cracked tooth removed this afternoon at Aesthetic Dental in Hastings. A temporary filling will be replaced with a permanent crown in a couple fo weeks time. The appointment was very expensive, over $800, but apparently the tooth had a crack in it and the filling was crumbling.

Afterwards we had afternoon tea in Frimley Park again.

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Keith And His Drone

Keith showed me his drone, bought second-hand for $2000 from a guy in Tauranga. Very fast, very manoeuvrable. I tried it for a bit with the goggles on. The goggles show you what the drone-mounted camera sees and I soon felt dizzy. The drone is to get the rope up and over very high branches on the remaining eucalypts sothey can be pulld down with a 35 tonne digger.

Late afternoon Marcus and family came and had another look at the homestead; they are still enthusiastic. I got the rental appraisal today and if I put a wood burner in Duncan says it should fetch between $1100 and $1300 a week – assuming I get the garden tended separately. I’ve suggested to Marcus that because of the many good attributes in having them here we’d only charge $500 a week – assuming we get the wood-burner in and they look after the paddocks etc leaving me only a little bit of garden round the cottage.

Keith’s DJI Avata FPV drone – Pro off TradeMe

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Quiet Saturday

Cynthia Chalmers and Ann Richie were planning to visit Karola this weekend. Also Kirsty called to see how we were getting on and last week Joan Philips TXTed and emailed with news.

Karola and I tried having afternoon tea in Frimley Park and there’s a table and rubbish bin near the road and under one of the large trees. It’s a good spot. There’s also a table at the Regional Dog Park but it’s in full sunlight which isn’t so good.

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Culvert Not Broken

Mark checked the culvert under the grass bridge, which took some digging, and confirmed that the culvert is intact, it wasn’t fractured by the fall of the Sitka Spruce – which I have been erroneously calling a Himalayan Spruce for some time.

The current trees listed as “protected” with the Hastings District Council are:

Himalayan Spruce = 27.5m

Canary Island Pine = 33.6m

Shellbark Hickory = 26.6m

Tulip Tree = 31.8m

Sitka Spruce (with growth on side) = 44.0m <— Felled by cyclone Gabrielle, February 2023

English Oak = 25.8m

Baywide Dingos, the team who built the ha-ha wall and made the 121 driveway, have agreed to quote to fix the end of the ha-ha. They took a long time to answer because I used an old, out of date, email address from 2009.

Henare came and looked at the damaged fence where we’ve been felling eucalypts. We now plan that Keith will finish doing the boundary fence repairs and Henare, after the tree work has been completed, will do the inner fence that protects the five metre wide planting area.

Cyclone Damage – Shattered End Of The Ha-Ha Where It Met Grass Bridge

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Photo From 2010 – Somewhere In The North Island Surely (Landrover Is A Clue)

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More Butternuts Than I Could Eat In A Fortnight

Duncan of Pukeko property management came and looked round the homestead with a view to giving us an assessment of the rent it might attract on the open market. We’ll use that as a ceiling for our rent negotiation with Marcus.I told Duncan I expect to get a wood-burner installed to comply with the government legislation for “healthy homes”.

Earlier I went over to Summerset Palms and picked up Karola for our 12:00pm appointment with Paula, Top2Toe, to have our fingers and toes done. Unfortunamely Karola didn’t want any of it today so I had mine done and we’ve rescheduled Karola for Friday week.

After discussion with Bridget i called FloorMart and asked that they comm and install the stair carpet as soon as possible. Daniel has taken over from Brett Person as installation scheduler so we’ll be dealing with him in future.

Went for a walk with Bangle upstream along the Ngaruroro stop bank. We saw a large paddock that, before the cyclone last year, was a mass of young tomatoes. The cyclone flooded it – the Ngaruroro broke its stop banks. And now there’s 10,000s of butternuts about to be picked.

Picker’s Machinery and Loads of Boxes.

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Hundreds Of Thousands Of Butternuts

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Finally We Visit The Dentist

After ignoring multiple emails pleading with us to visit the dentist and tooth hygienist since early 2023, we today went to see our dentist, Tracey Eales, in Lyndon Road in Hastings. I’m happy to say, despite the long absence from the dentist’s chair, both of us had a generally clean bill of health. We’ve agreed to see the hygienist next month and Karola has one bad tooth, mostly an old filling, which will be replaced with a crown in the next couple of weeks.

So, that’s the highlight but I did have a meeting with our lawyer Sarah Beckett of Willis Legal and discussed the creation of a lease agreement for Marcus and family to rent the homestead. We’re going to offer a five-year lease and at Sarah.s suggestion we’re getting an 3evalution of what the market rate would be if we were to lease out the homestead on the open market. Of course what we actually ask for per week will be a fraction of that and I’m expecting it to be in the vicinity of $500 pw as the local rural rents I’ve seen are over $900 pw. Sarah will send me and Bridget (for Karola) copies of her draft.

The ministry of Work & Income wanted me to call them and update my superannuation details so I tried. Late morning the time “on hold” was estimated at 72 minutes. At lunchtime it was down to 59 minutes; mid afternoon it was still 71 minutes. Late afternoon I called again and just stayed on hold till they answered – it took about 75 minutes. The actual business was conducted in about five minutes.

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That Eucalypt Felling Video

No Pavla today and Mark went home at lunchtime because of the frequent showers.

Tuesday, shopping day, and a short walk with Bangle at the top of Joll Road. Sheep enjoying the fresh grass in the Front paddock. Keith’s mate from down the road, Peter Wiffin, has bought a tungsten-tipped chain for his chainsaw. As Keith showed me yesterday, several of the Eucalypts and other trees have nails or wire embedded which wrecks ordinary chainsaw chains. Keith says the embedding is at least 30 years old and was probably children making swings or tree forts, that sort of thing.

Napier’s Boardwalk Cafe – Watching “Across The Harbour” Swimming Marathon With Anna (Photographer) – 15th February

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Napier Marine Parade, Cape Kidnappers In Background, Taken On Sunday 25th February

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Drone Film Of Biggest Eucalypt Coming Down – 26 February 2024

Big Eucalypt Comes Down–2024-02-26

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Bit More Tucker For Sheep

Anthony Fletcher saw some news about John Bostock and his sons – he is huge in horticulture in Hawkes Bay and he part-owns his son’s organic chicken business too. Karola has leased John Bostock her 17 acre apple orchard, we must be about half way through his 17 year lease.

So here’s a bit about the Bostock connection

Bostock senior is said to have lost $30M due to cyclone Gabrielle. He has since publicly advertised for investors interested in buying all or parts of his Hawkes Bay businesses. Commentators muse whether it’s retirement for John Bostock (pre-cyclone for a while he was on NZ’s “rich list” whatever that means), or is just prudently wanting to grow his businesses in geographies other than Hawks Bay. The commentators believe it’s the latter – he never again wants to be so committed to one geographic location.

Then a month or so later it was publicised that his two sons, who own a very successful organic chicken business 50:50 with dad, have sold the whole enterprise to Inghams – 2nd largest chicken meat producer in NZ and based I think in Australia. The boys said that nothing would change regarding their organic methods.

Yes some of dad John Bostock’s orchards host the chicken venture. The chickens sold at organic shops and some supermarkets (used to be in New World Hastings, but no more). The chickens are a variety bred especially for super-fast growth under organic conditions. Having seen photos of them they don’t look like chickens at all.

Meanwhile, Karola’s orchard is chicken free. My chooks find the twelve acres round the house quite enough.

Today was a beautiful day weather-wise. Keith the forester has bought himself a drone the better to get his super-strong rope up into the top of the eucalypts when he pulls them down. And we have quite a number of fence posts broken during the eucalypt felling so I’ve asked Henare if we could borrow his very excellent fencing spade. He popped over with it this afternoon and I left out half a dozen eggs which his wife Denise really likes. Some of fencing I quite like but NOT the digging of post holes which need to go in almost a metre. Nor the stapling of battens, especially old ones which are like steel and really damage your wrists. I doubt Mark or Keith really like hole digging either so I”m searching round for someone to help.

The grass in the Front paddock is very long while the other paddocks are almost grazed to the ground so this evening, after I came back from visiting Karola, I finished putting up electric fence across the paddock a bit away from the tree work but giving at least ⅔ to the sheep. There’s no boundary fence so I hope the electric fence does hold them. However the deep roadside drain would be quite an obstacle stopping them getting on the road even if the electric fence wasn’t sufficient deterrent.

Twin Fences A Metre Apart – It’s Proven Effective For Lambs In The Past

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