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Monthly Archives: May 2024
Two Quotes For Ha-Ha Work Now Underway
Henare came and continued work on the fences. Later he brought over a Māori distant cousin, Woody? Mitchell, who asked if he could take some tree stumps – the bit above ground – for one of his clan to carve with. I told him about the Thuia trunk I offered Henare several years ago and they may take that too.
Man came and sized up the job to repair the end of the ha-ha and says he’ll get back to me with a quote end of next week, acknowledging that its public holiday “King’s Birthday” on Monday.
Mark brought both his dogs today so there was quite a bit of barking and Bangle wasn’t thrilled.
Tried to take the Landrover’s trailer(A613F) for its overdue WOF but on checking found that the driver’s side indicator light isn’t working. The bulb is OK so it’s somewhere in the wiring.
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Special Stair Rods Put Back
FloorMart guys came this morning. The last part of their project was to replace the wooden stair rods and brass fittings that Karola imported from the UK when the previous stair carpet was installed, also from FloorMart. The new stair carpet is some 200mm narrower than the previous one so that it didn’t interfere with the stair lift. In fact it looks more balanced when you use it than it does in the photo below.
Mark and I went to GoldPine and bought 30 battens for Henare as he finishes the inner fence and begins mending the boundary fence where felling the eucalypts broke the fence. Keith is off on a project for a couple of weeks so Henare’s agreed to fix the boundary fence as well as the inner fence. Despite his two artificial hips and wonky knees Henare does a good job of fencing.
Rosie drove me to Hastings to pick up the weekend MYLK meals and we then went over to Tainui reserve, the gentle pathway along the stream there, and had half a BLT sandwich each while I had my usual latte coffee and Rosie had hot chocolate made with coconut milk – she has to be dairy free.
Homestead Stair Carpet Including English wooden stair rods.
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Intermittent Light Showers And Cool
Henare came and continued on re-making the inner fence along the road boundary afer a few days up at The Mahia at the funeral of one of his older brothers.
Mark took a rain check today; just as well because after lunch it did rain. Listened to a couple of episodes of a documentary series about China while I walked Bangle along the Clive wetlands.
Bangle has been a bit sluggish for the last couple of days, probably not helped by a chunk of lamb chops she found somewhere in the grounds. Some terrible poo today so maybe it’s worked its way through.
Clive Estuary Stop-bank Track Looking Out To The Wetlands
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Started Putting Back Pictures In Homestead
Mark came as expected nd did his half-day of work. Marcus came with Grant and Grant took a lot of measurements – I think the wood burner is going to be big and flush with the wall so it’ll look spectacular yet not destroy the feeling of the room.
Rosie came and drove me and Bangle on our Tuesday shopping trip. Fish shop then Nourish for Nil, (a dozen eggs), BP for lunch sandwich and coffee, exchange loads of laundry at Diamond Drycleaners, and leave my old (1973) red tartan dressing gown to be mended at Stitch ’n Time in King street.
Today Rosie tells me she’s just found out she’s dairy intolerant so the hot chocolate I got for her I had to drink.
We did stop briefly at Mitre-10 where I purchased some PruneTec application for putting on large tree cuts to minimise infection. I proffered my Mitre-10 gift card only to be told that the half I’d ripped off to make it less bulky had the essential bar code on it. Another $20 wasted. Later we went to the Joll Road dog park and had lunch and gave Bangle a walk.
Rosie has helped me begin putting up some of the eight large hunting prints on the passage walls upstairs.
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Dry And Dismal Day
Second contractor I reached out to last week rang and intends to come round and size up the broken end of ha-ha job pursuant to giving me a quote.
Mark came and after lunch he helped me move some furniture upstairs in the homestead. Later I took Bangle to the dog park and then to pick up a late coffee and apple turnover from Stortford Lodge BP.
Gill forwarded me an old photo of some of the Simmons family with my paternal great grandmother lower centre.
Photo From Christina Patterson-Brackenbury Via Gill
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Autumnal Snap
Phone calls with Bridget, Harry, Chloe so no shortage of chat today. Otherwise calm day. Took Bangle to stop bank late afternoon. Set mouse trap after emptying the dead mouse that’s been there, under the bureau in the cottage living room, for weeks. I thought that a couple of times in last week I’ve seen a flitter of greygoing into the bedroom from the living room. And there were some gnawing marks on a bar of soap in my dressing table top drawer.
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Videos Galore
Watched a Daniel Dennett video – link sent by Harry – this morning. Mind stretching and interesting. More lasting information from another video he sent entitled The End Of Civilisation? In a nutshell my “take-away” as the hip people say was twofold. First that inequality within societies was seemingly a necessary condition of civilisation collapse, and we are heading in that direction. Secondly that as a civilisation grows more and more interdependent – more connected and tightly woven – it becomes ever more resilient in the face of small shocks, but more vulnerable to complete breakdown in the face of large shocks. That made sense to me.
I also listened to one of Dr Michael Mosley’s “Just One Thing” podcasts and in this one he talked about the benefit of an isometric exercise called The Plank. Among other body strengthening benefits it’s apparently particularly good with addressing lower back pain. According to Dr Mosley that is the number one ailment in the world today. I’m going to try it.
In the afternoon I took Bangle for a long walk down at the Clive wetlands.
Paradise Geese And Ducks In Clive Wetlands
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Quite A Busy Friday
Mark came and continued with painting the shelves. I’ve decided to have three shelves each about 8” (200mm) wide, along the entire length of the homestead laundry inner wall.
FloorMart man with a van brought the completed carpets, bound at the edges, for the upstairs homestead bedrooms.
I rang the AA Insurance and added Rosie to the list of frequent drivers. Rosie May Ormond (2007-05-18) has a restricted License she got this month. Usual “excess” on our vehicle insurance is $500 but for Rosie it becomes $1050. And my premium for the MG, QHB596, rises by about $700. If I heard the AA man right, if Rosie had an accident driving the MG and I hadn’t put her on the frequent driver list it’d cost an extra $2500 per claim which might have been the cheaper option.
Rosie drove me and Bangle into town where I dropped in at Bayswater (now the MG agent for Hawkes Bay) and ordered a replacement wing mirror, then retrieved the two pairs of trousers with legs shortened appropriately. We picked up a BLT sandwich and drinks from BP and I got a repeat prescription from the chemist while we waited for the drinks. Picked up another couple of MYLK meals (which only became available today), went for lunch and Bangle’s walk alongside Tainui Reserve.
John Bostock rang me again and late afternoon Bridget was able to send the signed and witnessed “Deed of Lease Assignment” back to him – he really should have given us more warning.
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Thursday Run To Pick Up MYLK Meals
Rosie my driver came at lunchtime and we took Bangle into town. Picked up lunch from BP and then I up-liifted two MYLK meals before we went on to top of Joll road where Bangle had a short walk and we had our sandwich and drink on the picnic table under a walnut tree at the far end of the walk, where it turns into a tramping track up into the bush.
On the way home we stopped at Alexanders, on my whim, and I bought two pairs of work trousers. The trouser legs had to be turned up so I left them there until done.
Mark came and, as it was still quite damp underfoot, he worked on painting the shelves for the homestead laundry in the homestead garage.
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Friendship Club Visits Hastings Water Works
Ably managed by Margery Cobbe, Karola’s original primary school teacher and now well over 90, about 15 of us went by bus from Havelock North to the drinking water treatment plant in the middle of Hastings for a guided tour. It has been raining for the last couple of days and we were able to see the workings of the plant during occasional fine breaks.
As arranged I drove over to Peter Offenberger’s place at 9:30am, parked there, and walked down to the waiting bus in central Havelock North. We grabbed coffees from Hawthorne shop en route. The introductory talk was interesting, emphasing the huge amount of water delivered to domestic and commercial properties in Hastings.They UV filter the water to stop any biological contamination as well as filtering out particulate matter – just as we do with our rainwater tanks on a vastly smaller scale.
As a tourist attraction in central Hastings, and as an educational resource especially for school children they’ve done an excellent job though perhaps the emphasis on Māori myths and legends is a little overpowering.
One of the fencing people I approached yesterday for quotes on the cyclone ha-ha damage came round and will be sending a quote. He sounded much more as if he wanted the job than the half-hearted response from Baywide Dingo.
Late evening I went over to Mitre-10 in Napier and got more shelf brackets – Mitre-10 in Hastings has run out. On the way home Bangle and I had a short walk in the dog park despite the heavy rain.
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Chauffeur Rosie Ormond Started Today
Bangle had an appointment with Emma to dog groomer today and Rosie passed her “restricted license” last week so she’s able to drive me around. Rosie is home schooled so has the flexibility to drive me whenever I need a chauffeur. So we took Bangle to Emma’s for her 9:30am appointment, then did my weekly shopping, then picked up Bangle and went home. Gentle rain for most of the day but picked up quite fiercely as darkness fell.
John Bostock called me this morning to see how I was getting on with the signing of the lease reassignment. So I called Sarah Beckett late afternoon and she said she’ll review the document tomorrow and get back to me.
Mark was going to come today to do more painting of the shelves to go up in the homestead laundry but it looks like it may be a wet week so he took a raincheck.
Pavla came and cleaned the cottage; she’s been unable to do much of her cleaning work for the last month because of school holidays and the first her youngest, then her eldest, getting a virus. Pavla plans to come fortnightly as the cleaning here doesn’t take her long – that suits me.
Email to Marcus late afternoon
Marcus,
Day went well for me, no stress of driving, works well.
We got onto the subject of chooks – I wondered if Rosie liked them or had any. She said that you had some chooks and were quite fond of them..
Glad that by chance we discussed that because I’ve been trying to buy another half dozen Australorp pullets and found it very hard – no-one nearby advertising any and Canterbury or Waikato have some on TradeMe but need them picked up.
If you have chooks and bring them with you there’s a big run and massively over-engineered chook house as I suspect you know. At present I only shut in my six Black Orpington chooks when Bridget is up here because she’s worried that her dog Tux will chase/worry them and she doesn’t want him to get bad habits.
My chooks are not living up to their advertising, only laying a few eggs and mostly in spring/summer. That’s why I was on lookout for some better layers.
If you add one chook to a flock it’s very likely to be bullied but several chooks can often work out ok. So if you want to combine flocks that’s OK or if you want to bring your flock then I can dispose of my six.
Some Quite Hard Rain So Damp Underfoot
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Major Rain Forecast For Next Two Days
Excitement today was that Keith says old tractor has battery problem and he had to jump-start it yesterday. So he took it off tractor for me and put in MG’s boot – lead-acid batteries are too heavy for me to lift these days. Took it to Newport Auto-electrical and they measured he battery, bought from them on 2022 so not very old, and they said battery is good but need charging up. The old 1962 MF35 tractor has a generator not an alternator to keep the battery charged up.
Henare came and worked on re-erecting the inner fence near the ex-eucalypts. Six hours today.
Keith believed that generators can charge battery when running very slowly, even when idling. Newport engineer said it was other way round, alternators, which have standard on all vehicles for many decades, can charge faster and at much lower engine speeds than a generator. So I expect Keith let it idle for long periods of time and flattened the battery. Anyway tractor and battery are now hooked up to a charger overnight and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Marcus came round at midday. Says Rosie is raring to go as my chauffeur. We agreed to choose Grant Burney (027-241-8590) to be our wood burner installer and to manage the project. He can’t begin until July but Marcus is happy with that.
Mark has planted the 10 new red beech trees near the 133 entrance, mostly replacing ones that didn’t make it. He’s also repaired the two gateposts at the 133 entrance where the railings post had drifted away from the post hanging the big wooden gate. Looks very tidy now.
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Harvesting Persimmons
Henare came round with Jack and, as I suggested, picked persimmons for their family.
Sent Sarah Beckett, our lawyer at Willis Legal in Hastings, a copy of the Deed of Assignment of Lease and a copy of the 2013 lease agreement so she can reassure me I’m not doing anything imprudent. In my younger days I would have trusted myself to do due diligence on something as simple as this but these days I’m not so confident.
And before you know it it was getting dark so I fed the chooks and took Bangle for a walk round the orchard.
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Winter’s Day – Sunny & Cold
Did a bit more. late afternoon, on taking staples out of broken posts and battens on the boundary fence along Oak Avenue by the ex-eucalypts. Was worn out and puffing in 45 mins.
Watched several videos triggered by the links sent by Harry.
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Sent $400K To Willis Legal (Sarah Beckett)
Henare came round to try and finish Denise’s application for New Zealand superannuation. He forgot crucial papers and so went home and couldn’t find them so h came back and we managed to finish the submission without any papers. Henare had one crucial number on his phone in a message from Scott.
Went out and tinkered with the broken boundary fence and Brian Cope came along the road and chatted about the Cope’s experience with StarLink.
Outside 20℃ at noon, up from 6℃ overnight.
I was very pleased to see Sarah Beckett’s recommendation in her email to check the account number to receive the lump sum by phone. Karola’s cousin in London a couple of years back sold her flat for over UKP 1 million and went on holiday before she distributed the money to her investments. So the money was sitting in her Lawyer’s account and they got emails from the cousin asking to distribute the money to various off-shore banks. The emails looked just like previous emails she’d sent the lawyer, looked really authentic.
As we were told the story, the lawyer was about to press ‘send’ when she thought, hmmm, maybe I’ll just double check. She called the cousin. The emails were fake and had the money been sent it was highly unlikely Karola’s cousin would see it again – cousin’s retirement would have been ruined.
I forget how easily emails can be faked.
Bruce Utting found mMeta’s AI unhelpful so I tried it too.
According to Meta’s AI via WhatsApp …
Ian Brackenbury is a well-known figure in the IBM community! He is a seasoned IT professional and a recognized expert in the field of IBM Z mainframe security. Ian has worked at IBM for many years and has authored several books and articles on the topic of mainframe security. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. If you have a specific question or topic related to mainframe security, I’d be happy to try and assist you!
Not useful nor accurate but playfully evocative.
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Alabaster Skin – Skin Test A-OK
I had my annual skin test today. Once a year I get checked as precaution although the ozone layer is in much better health than a few decades ago. I hear that despite this there’s still quite a number of cases of skin cancer in New Zealand.
Later Bangle and I walked in the Tainui Reserve and I got more hardware from Mitre-10 as well as replenished fencing staple supplies from GoldPine.
Henare came for another crack at Denise’s superannuation application. We need more details; Henare will investigate.
Fire Pit In Base Of Fallen Sitka Spruce
Bluebells In Hampshire – Edwina & Geoff
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Goodbye To Large Downed Conifer
Bridget took me to do the shopping today. Soon after we got back I met up with forester Keith, Sandy Mowat (021-552-680) and the Hiace truck driver.
They had already sawed the trunk in two so it would fit on the truck and I watched them load the timber and drive away.
Henare and Denice came round as expected to continue her registration for superannuation. Today, when continuing the process, the questions changed. We were no longer asked for a photo of Denise but were asked to get her partner, ie Henare, registered for myMSD. We didn’t have the paperwork so postponed more progress until another day. Henare has 5 days to answer the questions after which we’d have to start all over again.
The Damaged Cypress Trunk – Off To Swamp Road Mill
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After The Aurora
Henare came round this afternoon and we continued in our attempt to get his wife, Denise, registered for New Zealand superannuation, now she’s almost 65. We spent an hour on Friday and got someway through the registration. But Denise needs a bank account so we were stymied and Henere left to do that. Today we spent another hour and got almost through the process before we needed Denise’s passport details and Denise herself for a photo.
Mark came as usual on a Monday but left after a couple of hours for personal reasons.
Keith called me to relate his adventures last night. He saw my torch-light bobbing about as I took the bin out last night and thought it might be the return of his car despoiler. He said he lurked in the orchard across the road for an hour waiting to see if there were more suspicious activity. Keith seemed unaware and disinterested in the aurora australis.
We took the dogs for a walk along the Ngaruroro stop bank, upstream from the Carrick road access point. I got help from Henare to begin putting up a long shelf in the homestead laundry.
One of my seven Black Orpington chooks died today. She’d not been spritely since an accident when trying to grab the chooks off the Goose paddock railings after dark months ago. She struggled and flapped and got away but in the process I think something was broken. Anyway for the last few days she’s been acting depressed and today I found her dead, badly egg-bound.
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Free Thinkers
Second Sunday in month so it’s “Free Thinkers” at Karl Matthys place in Taradale once again. Peter offenberger is incapacitated at present and Fergus & Esther Veitch rang and offered me a lift. A small gathering today. Andrew McClune ferried me and Alton Harris and Peter Edmead home afterwards.
Solar Flare Aurora Australis Lights Up NZ Skies
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Keith Gets Tagged
Quiet, quite cold day, mostly cloudy. Bridget drove me into town where we got ten more cardboard boxes so that I can decant some of our many books into them and take the three Cudby & Mead rimu book cases over to the cottage.
Walk With Bangle, Bridget, & Tux Along The Clive Wetlands
Forester Keith’s Car “Tagged” Last Night
Keith Took Hours To Clean It All Off
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Cold Nights & Cold Breeze In The Daytime
Dean Sewell came late morning from Hurford-Parker, our insurance broker, and took me through the coming year’s insurance premiums. If we stay as we were then, with only inflation and cyclone Gabrielle uplifts, our combined insurance for property – houses and contents etc – will be about $26,000. Medical insurance is another $4000 on top of that. Seems a great deal to pay out year after year. I am pondering the $26,000.
The tractor wheel now has a new inner tube and the replacement 2nd hand tyre on it and it’s back on the tractor.
I am on my third day I think of having two cups a day of the Lion’s Mane mushroom concoction called “Mushoffee”.With a little bit of honey it isn’t particualrly pleasant nor unpleasant – tastes more like hot chocolate than coffee to me though.
Bridget took me into town to pick up my pirates glasses. These are my expensive transition prescription glasses where the right eyepiece has been made opaque so I can drive using only my good left eye. The first time Shattky’s the optician’s tried to make it opaque with black nail polish it sti;; let enough light through that my bad eye could see movement. This time, with black tape applied to the inside of the right lens, it’s opaque enough.
We then had lunch at Westermans which is only a few doors down from the optometrist.
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Cold, Occasionally Wet Weather
Dentist (Hygienist) late morning – I haven’t been for years. Later, with Bangle, picked up MYLK meals for the weekend and took Bangle for a walk over at Tainui Reserve – much of it is still closed due to cyclone Gabrielle. The some bug bombs as requested by Bridget though it’s so much colder now I think cluster flies are no longer an issue.
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Wheelies
Discovered that the sand-blasted tractor wheel, which looked to me as if it had been undercoated, was the grey colour that sand-blasting leaves the prepared surface – something about titanium crystals Keith Told me, Anyway, Mark painted with metal primer before he left this afternoon.
Round Karola’s orchard with Bangle – she likes eating fallen apples.
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Measuring For Upstairs Room Carpets
Hayden the Floor Mart installer came and measured up the five carpets for the upstairs rooms in the homestead.
As per the conversation with Marcus, we’re not having fitted carpets but carpet rectangles with a hemmed edge that stops 600mm from each wall. There is a carpet in the main bedroom already, same material as the passage carpets from our previous carpeting spree many years ago. Looks like that will fit in the Bee room and so insead of a new carpet there we’ll have a small carpet in the cottage living room. The existing cottage living-room carpet was removed along with most others when Karola broke her hip, to avoid more slipping accidents, and it had some large holes which may even have contributed to her fall.
Shopping in the afternoon while Pavla did the cottage cleaning.
Picked up the sand-blasted wheel and I mistakenly thought it’s grey colour was because they’d undercoated it. So I didn’t paint it with metal primer as I should have.
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Tyre-ing
Sally came just before noon and cleaned the fridge and freezer in the cottage garage. She persuaded me to throw away five rusting cans of baked beans and chopped tomato – I gave it to the chooks.
Keith took the front left wheel off the old Fergie tractor and I took it ,and a replacement tyre from HB Tractor Dismantlers, to Bay Tyres to get the replacement tyre put on our old wheel. The replacement wheel had to be discarded because it was for a different tractor make and the wheel bolt holes were too small for the Fergie. And we later found out it was rusted through in places as well. Our wheel was OK but very very rusty so I’ve taken it to a sand-blasting business near Progressive Meats. They’ll finish it by tomorrow afternoon then I need to paint it with metal primer. So it’ll Wednesday before I can get Bay Tyres to fit the replacement tyre on the old wheel.
While I was waiting for Bay Tyres to get the tyres off the old and replacement wheels I took Bangle for lunch and a walk in the Regional Dog park.
Henare came and borrowed my chainsaw to cut up some firewood for his extended family. Little hiccup because Henare was not familiar with modern saws and their chain brakes – so he had the brake on and thought it had jammed. Easily fixed, and he did work it out for himself, eventually.
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Quiet Sunday
Checked the generator gas bottles and seem to have plenty in them.
Talked with Marcus about the phone and Internet at Karamu.
Old tractor has a flat front tyre and seems perished beyond repair. Keith will take the front wheels off then we can take to tyre shop and try to get new tyres.
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Last Of The Eucalypt Giants Toppled
Today we had traffic management out stopping the traffic while Keith cut down the four remaining tall eucalypt trees. And we had the 35 tonne digger and skilled driver to nudge the trees in the right direction. Matt was there with his drone to take photos. Late afternoon Henare came round and was able to watch the felling of the last very big eucalypt.
First Of Four Trees Falls Precisely On Target
There She Goes
Last One, The Big One – Keith Going Up To Tie The Rope
Keith Makes The Vital Cuts
Should Have Fallen To The Right, Oh Well
Only Damage Was The Old Lemon Tree
Now The Clean-Up Begins
Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]
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Stair Carpet Laid
Mark and family are still suffering from flu. I had my flu jab for 2024 last Wednesday. Just as well. I’m not eligible for my next Covid jab for another month.
Mid morning Grant came and I, with Marcus, discussed the needs for the wood burner in the homestead living room.
At lunchtime a team from FloorMart came and laid the carpet on the homestead staircase and along the upstairs passages.
At some point Keith invited me over to see him use the drone to pull a rope over s tree fork high-up.
As planned, mid afternoon Jenny & Noel Hendery biked over for afternoon tea on their electric bikes.
Later I went into Hastings and picked up my chainsaw with a new cutter bar. I then pickd up my driving glasses now with the right lens painted opaque black. So all in all a productive end to the week.
Keith’s Drone Carries A Rope Up To The Fork, Drops It Down The Other Side
The 35 Tonne Digger, Ready For Tomorrow
Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]
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Quick Filling Repair
This afternoon I went to see the dentist, to replace a filling in upper left jaw. Took no time at all. Then picked up this week’s MYLK meals, went home, and took bBangle round the orchard.
The Leilandii cypress I planted several years ago to block out the wind – where Clematis vitalba had killed the Casurina hedge.
Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]
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Quarterly Checkup
Met with practice nurse and then Dr Richard Jamieson late morning. All level pegging.
Late afternoon I tried to start the Landrover. It started so Bangle and I drove it down to Newport Auto Electricians where it’ll be for a while while they sort out the intermittent fault – possibly in the wiring to the fuel pump which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Bangle and I walked the two kilometres back home.
Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]
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