Zuk - The gremlin returns...

After rejoicing over the faulty distributor discovery and the subsequent fix, 6 months down the track the engine splutter and miss returns.
Rob reports the engine shuts down completely if you turn on the wipers or lights.
I give up, so its out with the tow rope, and in to Dion at Wanganui Auto Electrical, with instructions to submit it to Auto Electrics 101.
Didnt take them long at all.
The main earth cable, (multi-strand copper is it?), has corroded away and the strands a brittle mess.
New earth cable, and we're on the way home and back to work.
Hasnt looked back since, and the engine temp's behaving itself even better.

Massey University 50th Anniversary

Tiritea House, the old VC's residence

Nostalgia day today. This year marks 50 since Massey changed from an agricultural college, to a university, celebrations have been going a week, and my decade went through today.
Just a couple of my old class-mates turned up, but a distinct collegial familiarity with all the other faces, ancient recognition from the old campus, hostel, or rugby field, or careers in tandem crossing years and fields of endeavour.
Naturally, conversations lubricated broached with the more infamous and hilarious exploits of university student-hood. Pre-varsity at the time, I had the view held by wider society of uni students looked on with some disdain, long-haired protesters, but I quickly came to admire the absolute creativity and sheer audacity of some of the pranks and pranksters here.
I guess to open reflection at this level might seem hardly appropriate, but its this immersion in the creative melting pot that is a university that made me, and the critical thinking path I think, or hope, I've taken in the business of life and living. And my contribution to humanity a pretty humble one compared with those of the shoulders rubbed today.
It was great to catch up with farm management lecturer, Peter MacGillivray, naming me in one, with his fantastic memory recall. No one lecturer made so big an impression on critical thinking with so few notes, all our dip-ag class agreed. He's been a great lifetime servant of Massey.
TS Chang provided the other trigger, sheep performance research, that launched my sheep and beef breeding interest and career.
Less than 1000 students back then, 30,000 today.
Very pleased to hear that university planning includes restoration to original of Tiritea House, the Main Science building and the Refectory as part of earthquake upgrading. A couple of dippies drove a mini and a fiat round the ground floor corridor of Main, passing at the front vestibule, and the Refec was the scene of many a Sunday bun-fight and table run.
But I do remember my lecturers with just as great finity as I do the hallowed halls, MacGillivray, Small, Chang, Bowler, Jacques, Rees, Meek, Regnault, Baker, and sadly, the face but not the name, of the economics/accountancy man, (Ward?), who put me on the path to vital cashflow/budgetry skill.

Looking across the Common to the Refectory and Pink on the right

Old Hostel, where I lived for the year, (125 quid for the year it cost), is gone now, used to be to the left of this pic. Its reputed one student went a whole year without underpants, every week or so he'd flog another pair off the clothesline. Another character rolled his station-wagon on the access road with the hostel beer order aboard, 18 flagons-worth running in a stream down the hill to the hostel entrance. And when the Mog girls hi-jacked and apple-pied our laundry basket, my pillow slip got a nice lip-stick kiss mark on it, I day-dreamt it was that pretty little Johnson blondie did it, lol.

Good start to the lamb season

So far so good, certainly a better start to the season than last year when the three months leading up to New Year were so dry. This Jan have had nearly 90mm rain and the place is hanging on pretty good despite a heap of drying wind the last week.
We're 100 lamb sales ahead of same time last year, and at a bit over $93 gross per, nearly $20 ahead on price as well.
Even so, to be really comfortable over here, you need to achieve at least $100 per head.
Our annual draft of 15 month heifers made a couple of dollars less than last year, at last weeks local store female cattle sale, and were actually about 5kg lower av lwt as well, so the market's pretty consistent, $753 av gross for 336kg lwt.
Have been seriously comparing the merits of the commercial ewe flock vs same su's in beef cows, and although the annual gross with a beef herd is a lot lower, the net profit is nearly double.
Will be keeping these surplus heifers next year and putting them to the bull with the others, with a view to at very least, increase the beef herd size.
Past experience has shown they'll get in calf here at 250kg and up, at yearling stage, and this years 2 yo's calved 100%, with no assistance necessary, a really good achievement coming out of last summer's drought.

Draft muster, New Year 2014

More on the Quad Bike Issue

Another child's lost it's life in a quad accident, 6 year old, rolled into a ditch and pinned under the machine, had a helmet on but that's no protection against water, and the weight of a quad on a small body.
Public reaction's reached a crescendo with one recent letter to the editor of the DomPost stridently advocating policing and fining of farmers not obeying OSH recommendations, that should be made into law, and policed whatsmore.
Just how he thinks that's going to happen worries me as a land-owner. Are police going to run spy drones over farmland or what?
If this is an indication of Wellington sentiment, then Prime Minister John Key only got it half right when he said, in a misquoted context, Wellington was dying. I'd say its already brain-dead, particularly when you add into account the ongoing NIMBY saga's of resistance to any change, the Basin Over-pass, the Kapiti Expressway, and the preference to impose on one farmer's life with the Transmission Gully project instead of the cheaper re-location option of the 75 or so householders to upgrade the existing highway route.
Fortunately, a voice of reason appeared on Friday in another letter to the editor, from none other than the Operations General Manager, Work Safe NZ, who reiterated the four principles; always wear a helmet, choose the right vehicle for the job, be trained and experienced enough for the task, and no kids allowed.
Although it conflicts statistically with a coroner investigating 5 quad related deaths, she also said there was only one quad related workplace death in 2013, and the message was getting through.
Alleluia.....
People like Gerry Cuneen who advocate getting tough on farmers need to realise just how severely bureaucratic attitudes affect employment, I won't employ people, full-stop, if I'm to be responsible for every foible of their character.
And as for kids on quads, I got sick to death years ago, of visiting townies turning up here with undisciplined kids whose ingrained belief was that they could have a burn around on somebody else's $15,000 machine, then look at me like I'm some sort of shit when I wouldn't refill the fuel tank for them.
Those days are long past.
I saw a statistic some time ago, that 45% of farm related bike accidents were actually ocurred by visitors.
Thankyou for your comment Work Safe Ona de Rooy.
I've had bikes on this place since 1965, I dont wear a helmet all the time, but I always do if the task might eventually include risk.
I do service and maintain my machinery regularly, and generally look after them, always have.
I have a range of machines to select for different jobs.
I rarely let anyone else drive or passenger on them.
My father was an ag contractor/farmer, an artisan at his ag work, and a stickler for looking after machinery.
That's my grounding, he put me in control of a tractor in my early teens after riding with him since primary school age. I got severely reprimanded for the few minor accidents I had, and touch wood, have never had an incident of import since, mainly due to never exceeding around 20kph, I think.
I've noted recently, OSH personnel saying theyre targeting older farmers for their arrogance on this point, and that we're just as likely to be involved in serious incidents.
I'd say that's more a quirk of the farmer demographic being loaded to the over 50's age group end.
I'm just waiting for the day OSH turn up here to give me the once over, probably female, half my age, getting paid twice what I make off my humble "square", and telling me how to suck eggs.
But I hope its Ona de Rooy, or someone she's trained to be as realistic.
Just read that 8 people died last year in bicycle accidents on the road. I wonder if the Wellington PC police are going to start preventative surveillance on townies.
So far as us rural folk are concerned it would be far simpler to deny ACC payout on any claim where breach of the 4 quad safety rules was evident.
In the meantime, we should do a lot better at being safe on quads, not so much to avoid personal injury, but simply to avoid the attention getting focussed on us by, and any further growth of, the PC police.

Flood Update

Well, some good soul did come and re-join the boundary fence where it was cut to allow up-valley traffic around a flood-blocked section of road, nice professional job too, so thanks whoever.

Another 50 acres increased 6" asl

Now the water's gone, I see there's about 50 acres out of action, covered in muddy silt. I figure it'll take till end November to dry out, half of it will crack and let the grass through, and depending if it gets dry enough, will probably drill a summer brassica into whatever the grass dosent get its way through.
Once again, the village 2 km down the road suffered. Main part of the problem there is the on ramp to the new highway bridge across the river built in the 60's, now dams the free passage of water in a way it never did. That's engineers again for you, every time something substantial gets built, there's always a consequence down the line.

SH3 traffic waiting to negotiate the one-way dam-bank

What the Whangaehu/SH3 intersection really needs is a 2 lane underpass under SH3, which will allow the water to keep going on its way.
Also, the intersection will be safer for cross and inter-valley traffic with appropriate on and off-ramps.
But what's the opinion of a humble resident farmer worth in the face of a qualified engineer?
In the words of our famous beer, Yeah right.......

Flood

Wont be mustering to the yards from that direction for a while

Here we go again......
I'd put this flood at about a 1 in 10 year level in terms of effect, and its timing in that frame is consistent.
Checking Horizon's river level forecasting yesterday, after only 22mm rain overnight, the gauge about 10-15km upriver from here was showing a peak of 11.5 metres to occur at 8pm last night.
The really devastating 2004 flood was 13 metres, and the 2006 one, 10 metres, but we were still a bit unsure how much we could tempt fate so far as leaving stock out.
Even though the local rainfall wasn't great, you cant tell what the effect of the huge catchment upstream from here will have, and I have to say, Horizons monitoring system, rainfall, soil saturation, expected run-off etc, works pretty good.
At 6 metres and rising at the upstream gauge, we know we have 6-7 hours before the river breaks banks down here.

Scot doing a bit of aqua-mustering

The stud lambs are only a month old, but all the mobs got boxed and taken up onto the hill faces I spoke so glowingly of assisting the cow wintering.
The beef herd's right in the middle of calving, and one of those mobs we shifted, as it turned out, un-necessarily, and the dogs spent the night well above ground-level in the woolshed.
A visiting mare I was foaling for a friend, we arranged to go to Letham Stud up on the hill from here, and the yearling I was boxing turned out with a paddock mate.
After the 2004 flood, I dunno who it was, Min of Works I think, decided that there wasnt enough of a water-table along the road outside the farm, so they rebuilt the road 18" higher. I tried to talk them out of it, explaining if they they just cleaned up the road verge I'd be happy for the flood water to run free across the road into paddocks following its old natural course downstream.
But no...... it has to be one of the stupidest bits of engineering I've ever seen, the water stays dammed on the river side of the road, and runs through the family homestead that's been dry in every flood since it was built around 1920, and also through the horse stable.
The horses spent the night paddling ankle deep, but I'm confident they're safe around the stable paddocks, its just this infernal 4-6" that the road works is damming up that's really consigning the home I grew up in to be an elaborate hayshed.
Citizens of Wanganui ought to be careful about Horizons spending millions on city stop-bank works, in my opinion, engineers dont always get it right.
The best way to handle flood water is to watch what it wants to do, and let it do it un-impeded.
Keeping out of its way is the best strategy.
Now I wait for the flood water to recede so I can sort these mobs of sheep and cattle back out where they belong.
I'm grateful for the help of neighbours Malcolm and Cameron, shifting stock.
Not so for the young gawkers who farted up and down the road in their tractors this morning for no apparent reason other than the thrill of seeing if it could be done, and who helped themselves to a drive around my paddocks seeking an alternative to the impassible bits of valley road.
In the end I let them cut the boundary fence so they could get round, but I bet no bastard offers to rejoin the fence for me.

Motorcycle Helmet

Scorpion EXO100

When in PN yesterday I bought a bike helmet on special from ANZA Motors Harley Demo Day, a  Scorpion EXO100.
Open face model which will earn me criticism from the full-face brigade. Such critics argue there's no protection if you fall face first, but ignore that lack of a visor riding into the sun is pretty imperilling with full-face, this one has a visor. Its also got a flip down sun lens, and have to comment its one of the best shaded lens I've looked through, excellent definition and very little dimming of the vision, and lovely range of sight through to the peripheral. Easily removable, and a clear one comes with it. The visor clips off too.

Riding home from PN, I didn't have a face scarf, but wind wasn't unpleasant. The wind noise is a bit distracting however.
At the sale price, $149 incl, it would make an excellent round-town lid, but I had farm use in mind if I wasn't bowled away with on-road suitability.
Bugger the full-face critics, most cops round the world wear this model, and as far as looks go, its a stunner. OSH have a real problem getting farm people to wear helmets on bikes and quads, and I think the main drawback is the models available are so, so, plain DAWKY.
A model like this, boys will be boys couldn't help wanting to put this one on!
Its really comfortable on, maybe a little on the heavy side.