Phew

This is George's new concrete mixer! We phoned around and got it for $349 at Bunnings. And it's yellow.!! So George is really looking forward to putting the posts in for the fence. Personally I think everything will be concreted shortly! LOL

These are George's post holes and post number one in, next to the post that the neighbours had put in for their gate on the easement.

Raglan again

We flew down to Raglan again this morning. Although the camp ground was chocka the Tongue and Groove cafe was not which was good... had brunch and a coffee and a quick walk round town and were headed home again. It was an awesome day, calm and fine, and we flew over home again as well as Jools and Marys place. Got some lovely photos while there...took my SLR down in the hope to get some dog piccies but got some nice nature ones instead.

Can you see our concrete pad? You can see a white area near the left bottom corner of the photo... also you can see the triangular patch of willow mulch below the barn.. this shows how 'in the country us and the other three houses in this subdivision, really are. Muriwai Beach is visible behind the forest also.

Coming in to land at Raglan. You can see the grass runway.

This is where we park - next to the camp ground. $5 landing fee - bargain.

Macro setting on my little Ixus

Parked up in the shade at Raglan.

On the way home - you can nearly see home.

Ah - there it is!

Dante blogging

Dante decided he would do this blog. It's been raining all day and he has been sleeping all day.

Orchard

I took an updated shot of the mandarin orchard today while I was out in the paddock with the horses playing with my zoom lens.

I wheel-barrowed a few more loads of willow mulch today - looks quite cool hey!

That's the neighbours' empty house in the background.

The view

Took a piccy of the view from the slab today....

Wheelbarrow day

I got up late and half an hour later it was 26.3 degrees!
So in between drinks and loo breaks I managed to;

• pick up 4 wheelbarrow loads of poos
• move 15 loads of willow mulch round the mandarins
• fill the tyre with two loads of sand. The sand was still wet so that was heavy!

Garbo has a bite or a sting on his neck - most likley from when he was lying down.

Oh - and this was my lunch!

Sunday

We did loads today. After going out for breakfast we planted the magnolia tree next to the wash bay. I am not sure what type it is (it was only $5)... hopefully it's grandiflora.

This is the Puriri tree we planted yesterday, and George's strop.

Close up of the Puriri. Hopefully it will get quite tall and canopy like so the horses can use it for shade (it's in the track).

Then we planted 4 Mexican Alders along the eastern boundary around the outside of the track. This was always my intention for the area between the outside of the track and the boundary fence, meaning it will be a nice boundary hedge. 4 down, probably 100 to go!

You can't really see them in this shot.

Close up of one of the Mexican Alders. We have one up by the house too. They got a but windburnt yesterday when they were sitting in the wheelbarrow during that really windy bit before the rain. But they looked happier planted! There was heaps of worms in the topsoil (lovely crumbly top soil).


Then we nailed up some wind protection cloth along the boundary fence between the neighbours house (and their goats) and the pittosporoms. We will do all the way down as this western side gets so much wind, but we ran out of staple thingies.

Then we planted the 4th Magnolia Michelia Figo tree next to the hay shed so there are now 4 along that fence line. (Post and Rail).

This is the western side where we put up the wind sheeting - it's a bit messy this area we have lots of weeding to do along this fence line and tidying up to do as well - and we need to replace a few pitto's. At least now the goats won't be able to stick their heads through the fence.

Then we planted the two camelias - not sure what kind sorry - they were $5 each too, up by the gate.

Then I weeded along the grisilinea line of trees (south boundary), you can see the new grissys we planted to replace the ones that got wet. The guy at the nursery said alot of people kill their grisilineas in summer because they water them too much. Ours just got really wet over winter.

More flowers on the Pohutukawa tree.

Looking at the wind sheeting we nailed up, from the wash bay. It looks so much better. That pile is some more willow mulch for the mandarin area (the drip area should I say).

With the 52 mandarins we have planted over 78 trees so far.!

George then had a fly of his model helicopter on the concrete pad and now he is watering the pad so it doesn't crack. We had the rest of our organic peas in a rice dish I made in the crockpot for tea (tuna, brown rice, sweetcorn, tomatoes and peas).

Puriri tree

We decided to replace the dead Magnolia with a native - a Puriri - you can see it in the distance with a makeshift stake due to the fact that - 1. we don't have a sledge hammer to hammer the stakes in so we can tie it to them, and 2. it was blowing like hell when we got home just before the front came over (only 4mm of rain all night - 2 weak fronts).


Anyway - these photos show all the mowing results.

Matakana

We got up early and headed off after breakfast taking coffee with us, and headed towards Warkworth. We had a few spits of rain along the way but nothing serious. Once we got there (it took an hour) it was cloudy but warm. The sun came out a bit later.



It's such a lovely little village - it has a few shops which are really nicely presented specialty shops, and then we found the market - organic veggies, mussel fritters, free range eggs, oysters, organic juices (we had a strawberry and pineapple crush), organic nuts, and haloumi and pineapple kebabs (yum).
We also got a couple of things for the house - a laundry powder tin, a little square piece of art, and some salad servers. I also got a silicone pink stirring spoon! Oh and a coin purse (for all the coins George gives me!).


We had coffee at Black Dog cafe and then wandered a round for a while before heading home via Omaha and another market, armed with baguettes, organic tomatoes, organic peas and home made hummus (tea!).

On the way home we spotted some amazing pohutukawa trees.

Concrete!!

The concrete pump truck arrived at 5.30am!! And the steady stream of concrete trucks soon after that...until 8.30am and they were all done.

Tomato update

Our swallow couple have made a nest in th washbay rafters.... you can see one of them in there....


Tomatoes galore on our original cherry tomato plant and we planted a new (Tomato 100) one. It was getting a thrashing in the wind today.

Internet

The boys are in the middle now - trying to eat all the long grass in there!


These are our willow cuttings!!



George became an internet satellite installer today - we were sent a part that needed replacing as it was not working in the warmer temperatures (anything above about 12 degrees).

And the good news?! - it's working again now!

Concrete being poured on Thursday!