Author Archives: Ian

In the afternoon Rosie came and drove me into Hastings for the usual Thursday pick up of my MYLK meals for the weekend and to take Bangle for a short walk in Tainui Reserve plus lunch under a walnut tree by the stream.

Later on I checked out the GoodNature automatic rat traps. I have a couple in the chook run and another outside the cottage. Replaced one empty gas cylinder and one empty lure packet. There has for two nights been a very clear scurrying of a rat inside the cottage downstairs wall next to my Stressless chair. But there’s no evidence of rats inside the cottage although there are mice droppings and torn and shredded evidence of mice in my two top dressing table drawers. I’ll have to set a mouse trap again – I caught two last month in the cottage living room.

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

Mid morning my new double-sized bed arrived. The delivery persons were late and in a big hurry they said so I didn’t get any help with replacing the old queen-sized bed with the double. After his mid-day break Mark did help unpack and assemble the bed and we then took the old bed over to the homestead in case it’s useful there. Bridget has convinced me to try putting the bed alongside the doorway, so facing south.

I made two overdue appointments, for my eyes and for my back – I’ve been having mild but sleep-interrupting lower back pain for weeks and Bridget said I should go and see Tony Snell who did a great job a few years ago with a similar problem. I also contacted the guy who’s offered to do the repair work on the ha-ha wall, where it was crushed by cyclone Gabrielle’s downing of the big Himalayan Spruce.Bayscape quote is under half what Goodwill C&C Fencing quoted.

Bangle had a walk round the orchard as dusk fell.

Double Bed And Mattress Arrive

Mark And I Assemble The Bed

Ready For Bed Positioned As Suggested By Bridget

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

Mark came at 10:00am for his four-hours of odd-jobbing. Rosie came as planned for 11:30am and she drove me for shopping and lunch and Bangle walk finishing around 3:00pm. I got two fitted sheets and a mild mattress protector from bedbath&beyond, near KMart. The new bed is to be delivered tomorrow morning.

Henare dropped in to get more persimmons and have a cup of coffee.

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

Bangle and I did the long walk round the regional dog park after I had a snack and coffee from BP on the commemorative concrete table near the parking area. As usual several favourable commenyts from other walkers about Bangle. I have drastically reduced my caffeine (ie coffee) intake which may be making me feel lethargic, but that should pass in a few days.

My new double bed is to be delivered on Wednesday morning.

Mark worked on the second coat of dark rimu wood stain around the edges of the homestead main bedroom.

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

Highlight of the day was a long walk with Bangle along the Clive estuary stop bank and then along the wetlands. I’ve seen one or two spoonbills before but today there were 14. Also a group of 4 black swans and seagulls and ducks.

Marcus and Chrissie dropped in while I was out, they TXTed first, and drenched all the sheep. They’ve drafted them into three lots in different paddocks according to how fat they are, how close to being saleable.

Three Spoonbills & A Seagull

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

Bought a pair of egg cups today as, although we used to have about a dozen of them. I can’t find a one now and for the last few days I’ve been eating a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast which is tricky without an egg cup.

Also bought a little tub of white filler so I can patch the little holes left in the GIB by mistakes Rosie and I have made.

Bangle and I went for a short walk downstream along the Ngaruroro stop bank from the Carrick Road access point.

I finished applying the first coat of dark rimu wood stain around the perimeter of the homestead main bedroom. Mark did the first half on Thursday.

To brighten up the journal I include photos of birds seen and photographed recently by Ben at the Waikanae estuary.

Dark Rimu Stain – First Coat

Ben & Gill’s New Volvo EV – Very Stylish

Surprised Shoveller Duck

Sleeping Scaup

Stern Stare Of A Red Billed Gull

NZ Dabchick

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

Off for lunch driven by Rosie. Picked up mended red and black dressing gown bought in 1973 at one of the big London shops now disappeared. A little light web searching and I’ve got it. Barkers of Kensington is where I got bought the dressing gown. I also dropped off a pair of trousers bought from Alexanders in Hastings two years ago. The left pocket has got a hole in it – presumably from my phone rubbing. I’ve asked them to stitch it up so that my phone cannot slip sideways at the bottom of the pocket where it bumps into my leg uncomfortably.

We swung by Cory’s Electrical so that I could check whether the item sold to me as a dimmer switch was actually the right one. And I was right, no, they’d given me a fan speed modulator so they swapped it for the correct item which later in the day I used to replace the broken one in the min upstairs bathroom in the homestead.

Rosie and I attempted to put up more of the eight pictures of The Quorn Hunt but we got them all wrong so took them down again and Rosie suggests enlisting Marcus next week to get them properly spaced and lined up.

I’d hoped Mark would continue with staining the floor in the master bedroom, I’d put the heater on so that it wasn’t too cold to paint, but he did other things including mending the last piece of fence damaged by the cyclone, the short section down near the cattle stop.

Phone call that the trailer lights had been fixed so I went to Newport Autoelectrical and picked up the trailer, immediately taking it to the VTNZ station a couple of blocks down from the expressway and they gave me a new WOF, no problems.

Welcome Swallows On Balcony Rail

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

Mark came today and after lunch break he began staining the band round the perimeter of the homestead main bedroom. Going to be realy cold tonight. Bangle and I went round Karola’s orchard late afternoon.

I feel quite grotty in the mornings and wonder whether it’s my supplements that are to blame. I have to give them a few weeks to see if I feel more energised eventually.

I think supplements must have come in the last two or three days, by post.

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

Middle of the week and usually a bit of a lull after the frenetic excitement of shopping on Tuesdays. Althouh I asked them not to come before 10:00am a van and three old codgers came and took away the spare mattresses and old couch at 9:30am. As already discussed they would not take the wire-wove sprung beds. Bridget suggests taking yhem to recycling so I may enquire if they’d take them.

Daniel from HomePlus came at lunchtime and looked at the upstairs shower drainage plugs. He couldn’t budge them until I gave him a small flat-bladed screwdriver and then they both came up. Very stiff and very clogged. So that mystery solved.

This evening sanded off as much of the white paint and plaster marks round the perimeter of the homestead main bedroom floor and gave it another wash. Mark didn’t come today but I’m hoping tomorrow he’ll come and maybe start the staining of the 700mm wide edge of the wooden floor in the homestead main bedroom. I have to get two coats of stain and two of polyurathane on before Bridget comes up. I turn on one of the oil-filled electric heaters to make sure the stain/paint will cure properly.

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

Pavla TXTed to ask if she could start earlier today so we agreed 10:30am. Mark said he’d located the water troughs leek – it was the trough near the stump dump where the float was oscillating and not turning off. Today Mark mended the break in the boundary alkathene round past Henare’s bee hives. The big excavator broke it when tidying up after helping fell the last five eucalypts and just bent over the end of the pipe to stop it leaking.

Rosie came around 1:30pm and we set off to do the shopping. Just the usual plus I got new oven mittens to replace the ragged ones in the cottage; you can get burned through where it’s worn out. I also bought a replacement dimmer switch for the homestead main bathroom. It cost almost $100 from Cory’s and that’s with a trade discount. And as usual we took Bangle and had lunch on a bench under a walnut tree alongside the stream some ways along the edge of Tainui Reserve.

Nightfall And Solar Lights Show Way To Homestead

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

Mark came this morning which surprised me as it’s a public holiday in New Zealand today, “King’s Birthday”. We mucked about with the trailer A613F’s wiring to try and get all the lights working but no joy. We did get the lhs indicator working but only briefly and the night lights aren’t working either. I tried the trailer with the Subaru but this time different lights failed. I need to try the Landrover with one of the other trailers to make sure it’s the trailer that’s at fault and then take it to Newport Auto-electrician.

Mark inspected the fence repairs that Henare had done and thought they were pretty good.

Marcus, Chrissie, and Minty came round in the afternoon; Marcus to check the sheep and the others to go round the homestead, their future home. I didn’t know but Chrissie said that some years ago they stayed for a week in the homestead so they knew what it was like then and the improvements we’ve made.

Bangle and I went to the Clive wetlands for our walk today.

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

Henare had only a couple of hours work on ence today to finish repairs to both the inner and outer fence along the avenue. He also picked the over-ripening persimmons that are so ripe that birds are pecking them to bits.

Wintery day; Bangle and I had a walk in the Regional Dog Park.

Sent into town twice; first to get some cash for Henare and coffee & sandwich for lunch; then to get some cleaning perquisites to wash the floor in the main homestead bedroom.

Tried to get off the white chalky marks on the stained wood perimeter of the main homestead bedroom. Quite a lot just wiped off but will have to try something different on the stubborn spots tomorrow.

Henare Finished Repairing Fence Today

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

Henare came and did a bit more on the fences. Bangle somehow found some discarded raw meat last week – it looked like some lamb ribs but unclear whether it was cooked or not. Today Bangle came back from a wander round the garden, down near the cattle-stop I think, and came back witha piece of smelly skin and bone which looked like a small fish head. At first I thought it was dead rabbit but then the skin and smell was more like fish. I threw it in the bin. Bangle has had poor digestion off and on recently so I wonder if it’s these bits of putrid flesh that are upsetting her stomach. Where did she get these smelly chunks of stuff I wonder; perhaps someone threw their kitchen rubbish over into our property.

Plenty of email to get through, I am way behind. Bangle and I had quite a long walk up the stop bank starting at Carrick Road. When I (thought I) locked the car and set off the car tooted its horn.ANother warning or alarm I don’t yet understand. On returning down the stop bank half an hour later I saw that the driver’s side door was wide open. Fearing the worst, a break-in with shattered window and missing tools, I advanced in trepidation. But no, it was just the wind so I didn’t close the door properly and, as Bridget later confirmed, our cars do toot the horn if you try to lock it and there’s a door not properly closed.

As forecast, it’s very windy tonight but no rain and the wind is actually warmer than the still air.

A Score Or More Of Doves Waiting To Be Fed

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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