Well after marking out the fence, Steph and I have decided that this weekend we will attempt to make the fence. It started out as 5 strainers (about 1m deep holes) and 7 posts (about .6m deep holes), it has now blossumed to about 90 posts and have counted how many strainers yet..I think I'll hire a post hole borer instead of doing the digging by hand, we'll still ram them by hand. Hopefully Matt and Kylie will come up and help. With it being the 5th of Nov as well I might get into the paddocks and bring up all the branches and have a bit of bonfire.
So today I have to price up a bundle of about 100 fence posts and 300m of sheep netting etc.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 30, 2005
And another weekend
Hmm, what did we do this weekend....On Friday afternoon, after doing my work I headed into Masterton to pay the bills etc, and visit Norwoods (a tractor place) regarding the PTO converter I bought a while ago as it had a few splines shattered off it after using it three times! It turns out that it's due to there being a bit of movement in the roll pin and the impulse force is too great for the thin metal, the solution is a new PTO drive shaft for the tractor. So today (Monday) I'll order that, and hopefully fit it on Saturday. Whilst in town I bought myself a nice set of hand files for wood carving, and a cheap dremel imitation hoping to use the flexi-shaft with my dremel, but unfortunatly it didn't fit, so now we have a spare dremel-like tool, this one can be put aside for stock work I think.
On Saturday I thought we would bring the sheep in, so we could get some good photos of the lambs, and check their feet etc, but after two failed attempts of rounding them up, we gave up and decided just to do the goats hooves as the queen was quite lame (again), it turned out that she had scald (due to the wet grass rubbing between the toes and making it raw). We treated the hoove, and then trimmed the feet of the other goats aswell. Also since Markissa has been in a small area behind the water tanks we decided to put her back in one of the paddocks so she could get some grass again, Steph put her down there and erected a electric fence to restrict her eating and to make the grass last longer.
In the afternoon we heading back into Masterton to pick up my watch (the one Grandma gave me for my 18th) as I had broken the adjustment dial and had just got it repaired, also there was a craft show in town so we had a look at that, which was very so-so.
That evening we watched Batman Begins, I wasn't expecting much, but it was quite watchable.
On Sunday morning I had planned to get up bright and early, and whilst Steph was having a lie-in, clean up the workshop, but alas plans never quite go as expected, and it was I who had the lie-in! Anyway once we eventually got out of bed we decided that at some stage very soon we will need to organise getting the fencing in the paddocks done. We planned to head down later in the day and mark out with electric fence tape where the fences are going to go. Since one of the "drums" of tape is actually an old feed bin with the tape wrapped around it, and it's not particularly functional, I decided to make a new drum, two bits of ply and three bolts later we had a nice new electric fence drum.
Once the fencing tape was all nicely on the drum Steph and I laid out the fencing and worked out how many stays,strainers and fence posts we need, 5 strainers, 7 stays, and 7 fence posts plus about 50 metres of fence netting and some gudgeons. I'll buy all this on the weekend, and hopefully get the fence done.
With that all out of the way, I waterblasted the bike whilst Steph was mowing the lawns. All tired and hungry we headed into Carterton for lunch and to look at the A&P show, there was a good tractor parade with one Fergy like ours. Whilst wandering around I saw a stand doing chainsaw carving, I managed to acquire a few piece of orange-heart macrocarpa for turning.
When we got back, I stripped one of the rimu walls we were given and cleaned up the workshop.
Ah at the trainstation. Till later..
On Saturday I thought we would bring the sheep in, so we could get some good photos of the lambs, and check their feet etc, but after two failed attempts of rounding them up, we gave up and decided just to do the goats hooves as the queen was quite lame (again), it turned out that she had scald (due to the wet grass rubbing between the toes and making it raw). We treated the hoove, and then trimmed the feet of the other goats aswell. Also since Markissa has been in a small area behind the water tanks we decided to put her back in one of the paddocks so she could get some grass again, Steph put her down there and erected a electric fence to restrict her eating and to make the grass last longer.
In the afternoon we heading back into Masterton to pick up my watch (the one Grandma gave me for my 18th) as I had broken the adjustment dial and had just got it repaired, also there was a craft show in town so we had a look at that, which was very so-so.
That evening we watched Batman Begins, I wasn't expecting much, but it was quite watchable.
On Sunday morning I had planned to get up bright and early, and whilst Steph was having a lie-in, clean up the workshop, but alas plans never quite go as expected, and it was I who had the lie-in! Anyway once we eventually got out of bed we decided that at some stage very soon we will need to organise getting the fencing in the paddocks done. We planned to head down later in the day and mark out with electric fence tape where the fences are going to go. Since one of the "drums" of tape is actually an old feed bin with the tape wrapped around it, and it's not particularly functional, I decided to make a new drum, two bits of ply and three bolts later we had a nice new electric fence drum.
Once the fencing tape was all nicely on the drum Steph and I laid out the fencing and worked out how many stays,strainers and fence posts we need, 5 strainers, 7 stays, and 7 fence posts plus about 50 metres of fence netting and some gudgeons. I'll buy all this on the weekend, and hopefully get the fence done.
With that all out of the way, I waterblasted the bike whilst Steph was mowing the lawns. All tired and hungry we headed into Carterton for lunch and to look at the A&P show, there was a good tractor parade with one Fergy like ours. Whilst wandering around I saw a stand doing chainsaw carving, I managed to acquire a few piece of orange-heart macrocarpa for turning.
When we got back, I stripped one of the rimu walls we were given and cleaned up the workshop.
Ah at the trainstation. Till later..
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Rain falls, Grass Grows
Well, with the rain that fell on Monday afternoon, and yesterday and today being lovely sunny days, we should see quite a bit of growth on the grass front (even yesterday coming home from work we both noted that the paddock wasn't brown from the top of the hill now). That's quite a relief really because it's been very slow to get established.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Friday, October 21, 2005
A Nice long weekend
Three days off, and a few important jobs around the place done now. This weekend was Labour Weekend (ie. a Bank Holiday) and with it being close to Amy's birthday we had a family day out at the Zoo. Steph and I headed down to Wellington quite early in the morning because Steph had a little bit of work to do first thing. Once Mum and Dad turned up at Amy's there was a bit of discussion as to if Dad needed to ring Barry and Ann because they were also meeting us at the Zoo, and we were trying to decide if the Zoo was really a good idea because the weather looked iffy.
After a while we piled into the two cars and headed out to the Zoo. As we arrived you could see the band of rain coming in, and then we had to wait around for about an hour for Barry and Ann because there was a minor misunderstanding regarding phonecalls!
The Zoo wasn't too bad, a bit chilly, as the chimps in the photo prove! After the Nocturnal house Dad and Barry disappeared and Amy, Mum, Ann, Steph and I went around.
After the Zoo it was decided (eventually) that we would head up the coast to Porirua. Once we got there Steph and I bought Amy some lunch whilst Dad and Barry went to "Bond & Bond" to look at a new digital camera for Dad, and Mum and Ann were somewhere else. After lunch we had a look in a few shops and ended up buying Steph a nice new mohair jumper. Then we meet up with Mum and Ann, Dad and Barry again, and they were all heading over to the NorthCity mall for coffee, so Steph and I went around CraftWorld with Amy (because that's where she wanted to go if we went to Porirua). Once we finished at CraftWorld, we drove Amy over to NorthCity (would have been about 20-30 minute walk otherwise), there ended the family day out. Steph and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Amy which was good!
As the day was getting quite late we zipped up to Paraparaumu and decided that we would try getting to either the Saddlery Warehouse or the woodturning shop as we didn't think we would have time for both. After scooting through Paraparaumu, we found that the Saddlery shop was closed, then zipped north to the Lindale center where the woodturning shop was. Thankfully we got there just in time, and I managed to get the chisel I was after and a few project kits, and some timber.
Then we head north again and took the Akatarawa road between Waikanai and Upper Hutt, yikes I forgot how twisty that road was!
Sunday was much more sedate, we got up nice and early, did some house work, then I headed down the three tree paddock with the topper mower to give it a clean up, worked quite well. Mum and Dad popped in for a quick visit on the way back to Waipawa. Then in the afternoon I finished the paddock and then played on the lathe for a few hours before Steph and I headed out to Wakelin House for dinner.
Monday morning we got up just before 9am, and quickly headed down to try and round up the lambs for docking and castrating. But sheep being sheep, they were typically difficult and Steph and I tried several times with them bolting just as they got near the gate, and then John (our neighbour) arrived to show us how to do the docking, and with the extra person after a few attempts the sheep were in the makeshift yards and we got going. The first ram was a bit difficult as we couldn't find the testicles initially, but we won!
And then we docked them aswell. It turns out to be really easy, with a special tool that applies rubber rings you just put one 3cm down the tail, and one above the testicles and below the teats on the boys! I would have took photos but the weather wasn't particulary friendly to electronics (ie drizzling).
The rest of the day was spent just doing odds and sods, except Jenny asked if we could top her paddocks, thinking it was going to take hours I offered to do an hour, and then carry on next weekend, but once I realised the mower works quite nicely in 3rd gear the paddock only took about 40 minutes!
The last job for the day was picking up the remains of the bonfire the other weekend and dumping it on the compost pile. This was intended to be an easy and quick job, but upon entering the paddock I realised that our neighbours cows had smashed a fence and if I proceeded I might have startled the cow and it was all agmost wire netting! Steph phoned John and Trish and they came down a moved the stock on to the next paddock and are going to fix the fence this week. After the first scoop of the fire the tractor ran out of gas, and then it started raining, well I had started the job and it was only a few scoops so I quickly picked up the rest of the fire and then headed back to garage. The afternoon was mine, so I started making a rose petal dish for Steph, it's a hollowed out bowl (quite deep) with a pewter rose lid, but the sides are going to have rose petals carved in them, all made in English Oak. When I came back up to the house, it was no longer the afternoon, but actually 7pm!
After a while we piled into the two cars and headed out to the Zoo. As we arrived you could see the band of rain coming in, and then we had to wait around for about an hour for Barry and Ann because there was a minor misunderstanding regarding phonecalls!
The Zoo wasn't too bad, a bit chilly, as the chimps in the photo prove! After the Nocturnal house Dad and Barry disappeared and Amy, Mum, Ann, Steph and I went around.
After the Zoo it was decided (eventually) that we would head up the coast to Porirua. Once we got there Steph and I bought Amy some lunch whilst Dad and Barry went to "Bond & Bond" to look at a new digital camera for Dad, and Mum and Ann were somewhere else. After lunch we had a look in a few shops and ended up buying Steph a nice new mohair jumper. Then we meet up with Mum and Ann, Dad and Barry again, and they were all heading over to the NorthCity mall for coffee, so Steph and I went around CraftWorld with Amy (because that's where she wanted to go if we went to Porirua). Once we finished at CraftWorld, we drove Amy over to NorthCity (would have been about 20-30 minute walk otherwise), there ended the family day out. Steph and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Amy which was good!
As the day was getting quite late we zipped up to Paraparaumu and decided that we would try getting to either the Saddlery Warehouse or the woodturning shop as we didn't think we would have time for both. After scooting through Paraparaumu, we found that the Saddlery shop was closed, then zipped north to the Lindale center where the woodturning shop was. Thankfully we got there just in time, and I managed to get the chisel I was after and a few project kits, and some timber.
Then we head north again and took the Akatarawa road between Waikanai and Upper Hutt, yikes I forgot how twisty that road was!
Sunday was much more sedate, we got up nice and early, did some house work, then I headed down the three tree paddock with the topper mower to give it a clean up, worked quite well. Mum and Dad popped in for a quick visit on the way back to Waipawa. Then in the afternoon I finished the paddock and then played on the lathe for a few hours before Steph and I headed out to Wakelin House for dinner.
Monday morning we got up just before 9am, and quickly headed down to try and round up the lambs for docking and castrating. But sheep being sheep, they were typically difficult and Steph and I tried several times with them bolting just as they got near the gate, and then John (our neighbour) arrived to show us how to do the docking, and with the extra person after a few attempts the sheep were in the makeshift yards and we got going. The first ram was a bit difficult as we couldn't find the testicles initially, but we won!
And then we docked them aswell. It turns out to be really easy, with a special tool that applies rubber rings you just put one 3cm down the tail, and one above the testicles and below the teats on the boys! I would have took photos but the weather wasn't particulary friendly to electronics (ie drizzling).
The rest of the day was spent just doing odds and sods, except Jenny asked if we could top her paddocks, thinking it was going to take hours I offered to do an hour, and then carry on next weekend, but once I realised the mower works quite nicely in 3rd gear the paddock only took about 40 minutes!
The last job for the day was picking up the remains of the bonfire the other weekend and dumping it on the compost pile. This was intended to be an easy and quick job, but upon entering the paddock I realised that our neighbours cows had smashed a fence and if I proceeded I might have startled the cow and it was all agmost wire netting! Steph phoned John and Trish and they came down a moved the stock on to the next paddock and are going to fix the fence this week. After the first scoop of the fire the tractor ran out of gas, and then it started raining, well I had started the job and it was only a few scoops so I quickly picked up the rest of the fire and then headed back to garage. The afternoon was mine, so I started making a rose petal dish for Steph, it's a hollowed out bowl (quite deep) with a pewter rose lid, but the sides are going to have rose petals carved in them, all made in English Oak. When I came back up to the house, it was no longer the afternoon, but actually 7pm!
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Another weekend
Sunday is quickly coming to a close, today we had to pop back into Masterton, we bought a 2.4Ghz cordless phone yesterday, apparently it had a range of 1Km, but it didn't even reach the end of the first paddock! Oh well. When we got back, I decided to burn all the green waste we had, so I got the tractor out and used to squash up all stuff into a smaller pile because it was in two piles, one about 5m long (around 2m wide and about 1m), and the other about 10m long (around 1.5m wide and .75m high). It's all burnt now, and the tractor made it much easier.
This morning I also changed 1/2 the water in the big fish tank, waterblasted the entrance way, and weeded one of the flower beds (more weeds than anything else).
Gee's I'm tired, so I might call it a day here.
This morning I also changed 1/2 the water in the big fish tank, waterblasted the entrance way, and weeded one of the flower beds (more weeds than anything else).
Gee's I'm tired, so I might call it a day here.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
One more important lesson.
I usd the tractor again to top the bottom half of the driveway, and whilst putting it away, I hit the shed! Thankfully the shed is fine! Remember, the brakes are not that great.
Mower gets used
Yesterday afternoon I shortened the drive shaft of the mower using a hacksaw, and this morning I mowed the strip down the side of the property. It was quite a learning experiance. Things to know:
1. The mower is a mower, not a plough - several times I hit large mounds of dirt (which I couldn't see), and the mower, whilst trying valiantly to flatten them out, didn't quite always succeed.
2. Whilst mowing watch where the FEL is - I had the FEL quite high so as to not obscure vision, this was fine until I hit a big branch in a tree with it and snap it off!
3. The mower needs to be in contact with the ground to work - because the grass/weeds in places where about 70cm tall I was adjusting the height as I was going along, every now and then the mower came too high and there are patches of unmowed weeds!
4. The blades need to be spinning fast to cut grass - Trying to do it carefully and slowly, it took a while to realise that the speed of the PTO was proportional to the engine speed - duh.
5. Conservation of momentum, Big heavy blades attached to drive shaft act like a flywheel. When the blades where spinning free (such as when raising the deck), they kept spinning for a while after disengaging the PTO, when the clutch was released after, the tractor lurched forward.
I'll take a photo when we get back from town - got to get Amy's birthday present.
Till later.
1. The mower is a mower, not a plough - several times I hit large mounds of dirt (which I couldn't see), and the mower, whilst trying valiantly to flatten them out, didn't quite always succeed.
2. Whilst mowing watch where the FEL is - I had the FEL quite high so as to not obscure vision, this was fine until I hit a big branch in a tree with it and snap it off!
3. The mower needs to be in contact with the ground to work - because the grass/weeds in places where about 70cm tall I was adjusting the height as I was going along, every now and then the mower came too high and there are patches of unmowed weeds!
4. The blades need to be spinning fast to cut grass - Trying to do it carefully and slowly, it took a while to realise that the speed of the PTO was proportional to the engine speed - duh.
5. Conservation of momentum, Big heavy blades attached to drive shaft act like a flywheel. When the blades where spinning free (such as when raising the deck), they kept spinning for a while after disengaging the PTO, when the clutch was released after, the tractor lurched forward.
I'll take a photo when we get back from town - got to get Amy's birthday present.
Till later.
Friday, October 14, 2005
New members
Well, I finally got around to visiting Michelle, and I picked up Monkey (the goat), and Winston the ram, as you can see from the photos, Monkey is a typical goat and has her face in everything!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
The last few days
OK, so what's been happening, On Monday evening I decided that the goats and alpaca's didn't have enough quality feed and it was effecting them (well the goats anyway, Bully's gut area was looking a bit hollow) so I moved them all down to the paddock with the lambs in, I'm hoping that with the goats and alpacas being browsers and the sheep beening grazers, the paddock should be eaten fairly evenly and hopefully will last until the top three paddocks are ready (fingers crossed). The only down side is that I will have to pick up alpaca poo this weekend as the grass is too long for harrowing it at the moment.
On Tuesday when we got home, the goats once more proved they were goats, Mikey was standing in the middle of the newly sown paddocks. It turned out that he had either worked out that there was a small gap at the intersection of the two fences or that are gates are crap (three bits of tubular steel with electric fence tape as the body of the gate) and pushed his way through. So I coaxed him back through and filled the intersection with branches (yeah right, thats going to work!) and started to walk back up the paddock, by the time I was out of the first paddock, Bully was beside me! Arghhh. This needed the hammer and staples. Knowing that I needed another bowl of food to get Bully back down, I went to the shed, and then started back down to the three tree paddock where everyone was. Bully was calling to the other two all the way down, he was probably saying "More foods coming...". After a few minutes of stapling the fence and rigging up the taranaki gate, I once more started up the paddock. This time I managed to get to the top, and touch plastic, the goats are still there.
Last night, whilst we were putting Markissa to bed (we've been grazing Markissa on the driveway due to lack of grass, and there is a gate that needs closing and a fence to be dismantled when we finish), I was watching the lambs, all four were at the top of the paddock chasing each other and generally being silly, then they all stopped and in unison ran down the middle fence line in a bunch - heading straight for Galiano and Monty who were chushed up under the trees. At around 10m, there was a very short,loud "Get back here" bleat from the older ewe, and all the lambs stopped, turned around and started walking back, that was until Galiano decided to get his own back and chased them. Knowing most of you have never seen an alpaca run, it's enough to scare anything - they look dim and docile whilst standing around, but they are dim, docile and un-coordinated whilst running, it really is a sight - they run in a similar fashion to a camel (well, they are related). The neck goes all over the place and normally a gallop up the paddock has many bucks and random kicks, what at, only they know!
That basically gets us up to date. This morning Steph went down to check on Markissa, only to hear meowing coming from my workshop, Hopper must have been in there when I was last down there, and got locked in, silly cat, and whilst Steph was locking the workshop, she heard Markissa behind her, now Markissa is supposed to be beside the arena and behind the barn, not infront...pesky horse had pushed the fence over, so now it's electric - that should keep her out of too much trouble.
Till later..
On Tuesday when we got home, the goats once more proved they were goats, Mikey was standing in the middle of the newly sown paddocks. It turned out that he had either worked out that there was a small gap at the intersection of the two fences or that are gates are crap (three bits of tubular steel with electric fence tape as the body of the gate) and pushed his way through. So I coaxed him back through and filled the intersection with branches (yeah right, thats going to work!) and started to walk back up the paddock, by the time I was out of the first paddock, Bully was beside me! Arghhh. This needed the hammer and staples. Knowing that I needed another bowl of food to get Bully back down, I went to the shed, and then started back down to the three tree paddock where everyone was. Bully was calling to the other two all the way down, he was probably saying "More foods coming...". After a few minutes of stapling the fence and rigging up the taranaki gate, I once more started up the paddock. This time I managed to get to the top, and touch plastic, the goats are still there.
Last night, whilst we were putting Markissa to bed (we've been grazing Markissa on the driveway due to lack of grass, and there is a gate that needs closing and a fence to be dismantled when we finish), I was watching the lambs, all four were at the top of the paddock chasing each other and generally being silly, then they all stopped and in unison ran down the middle fence line in a bunch - heading straight for Galiano and Monty who were chushed up under the trees. At around 10m, there was a very short,loud "Get back here" bleat from the older ewe, and all the lambs stopped, turned around and started walking back, that was until Galiano decided to get his own back and chased them. Knowing most of you have never seen an alpaca run, it's enough to scare anything - they look dim and docile whilst standing around, but they are dim, docile and un-coordinated whilst running, it really is a sight - they run in a similar fashion to a camel (well, they are related). The neck goes all over the place and normally a gallop up the paddock has many bucks and random kicks, what at, only they know!
That basically gets us up to date. This morning Steph went down to check on Markissa, only to hear meowing coming from my workshop, Hopper must have been in there when I was last down there, and got locked in, silly cat, and whilst Steph was locking the workshop, she heard Markissa behind her, now Markissa is supposed to be beside the arena and behind the barn, not infront...pesky horse had pushed the fence over, so now it's electric - that should keep her out of too much trouble.
Till later..
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Guilt blog
Thankyou to every one who has pasted their thoughts onto Steph and her spots (Eurythema Multiforme, close spelling anyway). They are significantly less noticable, and she is felling much better. Unfortunatly I have now contracted her cold, and quite frankly, this morning at 8:30, I was all for getting back on the train and coming home..but I survived the day!
Back here though, Markissa's hoof has still got a big hole in it, so she's still out of work - in the arena anyway, but there isn't any abcess. Steph is cleaning it out each night with hydrogen perioxide (6%) and filling the hole with Stockholm tar, so she comes in smelling of wood smoke, yum!
Bed time, the downloads I was doing have finished, so I'll try to do a post tomorrow on the train on the way in to work.
Back here though, Markissa's hoof has still got a big hole in it, so she's still out of work - in the arena anyway, but there isn't any abcess. Steph is cleaning it out each night with hydrogen perioxide (6%) and filling the hole with Stockholm tar, so she comes in smelling of wood smoke, yum!
Bed time, the downloads I was doing have finished, so I'll try to do a post tomorrow on the train on the way in to work.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Well, not quite what we intended
Sunday afternoon, 5:30ish and finally finished for the weekend. Yesterday I went to town and bought Steph a surprise because she was feel miserable about spots. I bought her a big pink unicorn (about 1.5m long) and a bunch of flowers in pink wrapping, she seemed to like them. We didn't need to clean the neighbours paddock up too much, just a harrow, Steph did that with the bike whilst I dismantled the electric fence. Because it was raining, I intended spending the rest of the afternoon in the workshop on the lathe, but a power cut put paid to that, and instead I dug out the BBQ gave it a good clean and started cooking dinner instead, hapuka steaks (a fish). Very yummy if I do say so myself. Oh, in the morning I did try to pick up the weed pile with the tractor but Steph did it faster with a fork!
Today, we made a new electric fence along the side of the arena so Markissa can graze there for a while, not really enough grass, but we'll put her out on the driveway each night for a while to get her feed. Also the neighbours told us about a tree that had fallen in their paddock that they wanted cleaned up, so this afternoon, Steph and I trundled around with the tractor, cargodeck and trailer and brought back a full trailer load of split timber, the tree was really dead, and we were picking up huge trunks and carrying them around, it looked qutite funny. The tractor, now we're charging the battery between uses, is going really well.
I was going to mow a bit of the driveway, but when we went to hook up the mower, we found out the drive shaft is too long, I'll ring the tractor people tomorrow, and see if I can get it shortened.
Well, I think that's about all, no photo of the lambs 'cause they haven't really changed much..
Till later.
Today, we made a new electric fence along the side of the arena so Markissa can graze there for a while, not really enough grass, but we'll put her out on the driveway each night for a while to get her feed. Also the neighbours told us about a tree that had fallen in their paddock that they wanted cleaned up, so this afternoon, Steph and I trundled around with the tractor, cargodeck and trailer and brought back a full trailer load of split timber, the tree was really dead, and we were picking up huge trunks and carrying them around, it looked qutite funny. The tractor, now we're charging the battery between uses, is going really well.
I was going to mow a bit of the driveway, but when we went to hook up the mower, we found out the drive shaft is too long, I'll ring the tractor people tomorrow, and see if I can get it shortened.
Well, I think that's about all, no photo of the lambs 'cause they haven't really changed much..
Till later.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
The weekend is upon us
Finally, the weekend, and thankfully due to a late night stint of programming, today is mine (I had a call from a guy at the office requiring an emergency fix for a bug), such is life, it's fixed now and I'm passing the next stage off (otherwise I need to Wellington).
So whats on for the weekend, in a few minutes I'll wake a team member and ask them to do the next stage. It looks as though we might need to move Markissa from our neighbours paddock because the neighbour doesn't like the way the paddock is looking (all pooey and not a great deal of grass!) but Markissa doesn't need much grass because she is a good converter of feed, translated - doesn't need much to get fat! I might take the tractor over and do a bit of cleaning up, they have a huge waste wood pile that if pushed side ways by a few metres could be burnt (currently under the power cables!). Getting rid of that would make the paddock quite a bit safer. Also I might mow it too, whilst there isn't much grass, there is a fair bit of weeds, and if we can get them whilst they are growing, the grass might be able to beat them growing, unfortunatly the paddock was mowed last year whilst they were seeding, just spread the weeds, and due to time of year it was probably reasonably hot in the FE spore count.
Back to today, Steph has also asked me to go into town as she is spotty and doesn't want to go shopping - so I guess I'll be going into Masterton today aswell, I won't bother picking up any timber for the post and rail fence because it rained hard again yesterday, and the ground will still be too wet for the fencing.
I might grab the tractor and pick up a huge pile of weeds on the back lawn that is slowly becoming a hill in the lawn, and there is also a large pile of large pieces of wood to be chainsawed, I guess I could do that.
Agmonst all the jobs I want to do a bit of wood turning, I'm currently making a chalice out of oak, and I'll make another start on the "secret project", and we've been invited out to a friends for lunch on Sunday.
It should be a busy weekend. I'll try and take some more photos of the lambs.
Oh and we might be getting some new stock, a goat (not an angora) and a black merino ram, a friend of ours is moving out of area, and she has asked if we will take over her stock, hell why not, I just have to remember to ring her.
That should be about for this weekend - the normal will apply, I'll post updates throughout the weekend, hopefully I won't need to go into Wellington!
So whats on for the weekend, in a few minutes I'll wake a team member and ask them to do the next stage. It looks as though we might need to move Markissa from our neighbours paddock because the neighbour doesn't like the way the paddock is looking (all pooey and not a great deal of grass!) but Markissa doesn't need much grass because she is a good converter of feed, translated - doesn't need much to get fat! I might take the tractor over and do a bit of cleaning up, they have a huge waste wood pile that if pushed side ways by a few metres could be burnt (currently under the power cables!). Getting rid of that would make the paddock quite a bit safer. Also I might mow it too, whilst there isn't much grass, there is a fair bit of weeds, and if we can get them whilst they are growing, the grass might be able to beat them growing, unfortunatly the paddock was mowed last year whilst they were seeding, just spread the weeds, and due to time of year it was probably reasonably hot in the FE spore count.
Back to today, Steph has also asked me to go into town as she is spotty and doesn't want to go shopping - so I guess I'll be going into Masterton today aswell, I won't bother picking up any timber for the post and rail fence because it rained hard again yesterday, and the ground will still be too wet for the fencing.
I might grab the tractor and pick up a huge pile of weeds on the back lawn that is slowly becoming a hill in the lawn, and there is also a large pile of large pieces of wood to be chainsawed, I guess I could do that.
Agmonst all the jobs I want to do a bit of wood turning, I'm currently making a chalice out of oak, and I'll make another start on the "secret project", and we've been invited out to a friends for lunch on Sunday.
It should be a busy weekend. I'll try and take some more photos of the lambs.
Oh and we might be getting some new stock, a goat (not an angora) and a black merino ram, a friend of ours is moving out of area, and she has asked if we will take over her stock, hell why not, I just have to remember to ring her.
That should be about for this weekend - the normal will apply, I'll post updates throughout the weekend, hopefully I won't need to go into Wellington!
Friday, October 07, 2005
Spot the Fee
It's been several days since the last blog, I've been busy with work, and with daylight savings have kept me busy once I get home. But sitting here on the train, I have some time to let you all catch up. Since the last post, I tried to carry on with the post and rail fence around the water tanks, but we've had so much rain the holes I had dug already has filled up, and I need to wait for the water table to drop a bit before I continue.
I did get Tom out and clean up some yucky mud infront of the shed the other day that was starting to smell, not sure if I made an inprovement or not, but the tractor did start first time with the fully charged battery.
Unfortunatly whilst Steph was on the plane to Perth it looks like she contracted a sore throat, to combat this we bought her some "Irish Moss" cough syrup - what a mistake, it currently looks like Steph is allergic to Irish Moss as she has over 100 spots. She's off to the doctors today to get it checked out. First we thought it was insect bites but since I had none, we thought it unlikey.
I've started turning an oak chalice, photos once it's finished ofcourse.
Steph was supposed to have her first lesson yesterday, but a combination of not being well, Markissa being lame again, and it raining, Steph called the lesson off till another day. I know Steph reads this at work, so once more, I'll reiterate - one day Steph might make an entry of her own!
Anyway, we're coming out of the tunnel now (9.8Km long through a mountain range), so I shall continue with work, and it's only a few stops till I get off anyway.
I did get Tom out and clean up some yucky mud infront of the shed the other day that was starting to smell, not sure if I made an inprovement or not, but the tractor did start first time with the fully charged battery.
Unfortunatly whilst Steph was on the plane to Perth it looks like she contracted a sore throat, to combat this we bought her some "Irish Moss" cough syrup - what a mistake, it currently looks like Steph is allergic to Irish Moss as she has over 100 spots. She's off to the doctors today to get it checked out. First we thought it was insect bites but since I had none, we thought it unlikey.
I've started turning an oak chalice, photos once it's finished ofcourse.
Steph was supposed to have her first lesson yesterday, but a combination of not being well, Markissa being lame again, and it raining, Steph called the lesson off till another day. I know Steph reads this at work, so once more, I'll reiterate - one day Steph might make an entry of her own!
Anyway, we're coming out of the tunnel now (9.8Km long through a mountain range), so I shall continue with work, and it's only a few stops till I get off anyway.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
First day of daylight savings - not quite as planned
Well the plan was there, get home and start on the post and rail fence around the tanks, but nature conspired against me, it was miserable weather so I decided to stay indoors instead. Oh well, maybe tonight, we'll see. Also I have to get on with some wood turning, I have a few presents I need to make.
On a totally unrelated thing, our friends in England are now the proud owners of 7 blue great danes, have a peekhttp://www.altusdane.com/serendipity
Anyway, I need to get on with some work.
On a totally unrelated thing, our friends in England are now the proud owners of 7 blue great danes, have a peek
Anyway, I need to get on with some work.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Home Gardening with a Tractor - How to
First thing this morning I decided that I would get the tractor and clean up some trunks that we had left by the back garage for chainsawing, but the tractor was very reluctant to start, I was very annoyed - I even took the truck down and used jumper cables from the truck, but it just wouldn't turn. After trying with the crank handle and still having now joy, I gave up and resigned myself to ringing the guy we bought it off and having a whinge . but the job still needed to be done, so instead of just picking the trunks up and tossing them in another resting spot, Steph and I chainsawed them into firewood, and a few slabs for turning. After working up a bit of a sweat we decided it was time for coffee, after which Steph wanted to play with Markissa (one day she's going to do a entry...) I decided that our battery charger wasn't grunty enough to charge the truck/tractor batteries, so I then headed into town to pick one up. Took the boys along for the ride aswell.
I stuck the battery on charge as soon as I got back and after a few hours at 6 amp/hours it was 50% charged - whilst it was charging I carried on with a Macrocarpa bowl I'm turning, just to the sanding stage at the moment. At around 4pm, I thought I would try the tractor again, and with the battery at 50% the tractor started straight away! So I quickly got onto the cleaning up of the sawdust and the dead leaves etc from where the trunks were and then I tried using the FEL (front end loader) for weeding! Well there were weeds growing along the edges of the flower beds and I had the huge mechanical hoe, why not I thought. The first attempt went really well, then I tried over in the BBQ area, well....The ground isn't quite flat and I found out that the dirt underneath the lime is brown! And I dug a hole with the wheel 'cause I didn't realise I had it in gear whilst trying to lift the FEL, it was too heavy, but the wheel just spun. Thankfully that area is on the list for redevelopment (paving slabs). The other development that I might do soon because it should be cheap and easy, and make a big difference is put up a trellace giving us a front garden/lawn/BBQ area and then a back section for car parking etc.
Oh the photo above is "Peggy Brown", she is one of the "mated pair" that is the mascot of Steph's work. But as you can see the grass is growing quite well, we had a look yesterday and it was still just popping through, but today there are green lines through the paddock!
That's all for today.
I stuck the battery on charge as soon as I got back and after a few hours at 6 amp/hours it was 50% charged - whilst it was charging I carried on with a Macrocarpa bowl I'm turning, just to the sanding stage at the moment. At around 4pm, I thought I would try the tractor again, and with the battery at 50% the tractor started straight away! So I quickly got onto the cleaning up of the sawdust and the dead leaves etc from where the trunks were and then I tried using the FEL (front end loader) for weeding! Well there were weeds growing along the edges of the flower beds and I had the huge mechanical hoe, why not I thought. The first attempt went really well, then I tried over in the BBQ area, well....The ground isn't quite flat and I found out that the dirt underneath the lime is brown! And I dug a hole with the wheel 'cause I didn't realise I had it in gear whilst trying to lift the FEL, it was too heavy, but the wheel just spun. Thankfully that area is on the list for redevelopment (paving slabs). The other development that I might do soon because it should be cheap and easy, and make a big difference is put up a trellace giving us a front garden/lawn/BBQ area and then a back section for car parking etc.
Oh the photo above is "Peggy Brown", she is one of the "mated pair" that is the mascot of Steph's work. But as you can see the grass is growing quite well, we had a look yesterday and it was still just popping through, but today there are green lines through the paddock!
That's all for today.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Steph's back
Just a quick entry to say Steph's back at Littlebush and all is well with everything else.
Since tomorrow is a normal day, I'll do a proper blog then, at the moment Steph is jet lagged and I'm tired from the long drive early this morning.
Since tomorrow is a normal day, I'll do a proper blog then, at the moment Steph is jet lagged and I'm tired from the long drive early this morning.
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