News from Nelson - March 2 2011

Hi all,

In the past few weeks we have managed to get our builder up to look at some jobs. I would imagine that we will see the builders back to do the work once the weather starts packing it in (nothing like having some nice, dry indoor work when it’s not so nice outside).

Jan’s NSO concert went well. The pieces were a bit challenging, but in general they were delivered well. There was a good review in the newspaper (though the presentation of the programme got slated!).

Montrose Drive appears to be peopled by saints. These guys are just great tenants… I suppose we were due for a break on the tenant-front though.

Preserves are ploughing along well; I picked up another 70 Agee jars in the past couple of weeks. Of course, we are now just about out of things to preserve, but getting the jars gives us a great head start on next year. We now have well over a hundred jars of preserved tomato puree, pumpkin puree, stewed apple, apple juice, pear quarters and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I have managed to pay Kathleen back the jars we borrowed as well.

Speaking of Kathleen, Frits has had surgery on his back, and is currently recovering at home. He seems to be coming along OK, but isn’t sure yet whether his back feels better or not. I guess by next week he will have more of an idea.

Yet another person having surgery is Ian, who has just had a hip replacement done. He seems to be recovering well by spending plenty of time spreading humour around.

Glenys & Kevin came over for a night & we watched a couple of movies; some wine went west, and boy, was it hard getting going the next day! We had a great time though - and it made us realise that we do this kind of thing way too rarely.

The little digger that Jan was going to hire a few weeks ago had to be postponed, so that is happening in a fortnight. That means we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks, put in our clothes line, and move a mound of dirt over a wee bit between the office and the shed so we can plant some screening plants in autumn. Jan is also talking of clearing the drain down the road before the autumn rains start.

Speaking of rain, our water tanks are still full. It is amazing to be at the far end of summer and be almost at full capacity. We are also still getting credits from our PV panels, so all in all this house doesn’t cost too much to run.

John has finished his last tour of the season and picked up Bon dog last night. Coco and Fliss are both a bit lost without her.

This Saturday Jan is doing a motorbike training course, and then we are going into Nelson for dinner. On Sunday we are having a family lunch at Founders Brewery, which will be great.

Lots is happening in April; Christél and Ray are coming down at Easter, and Magda, Julie & I will all catch up with them (it will be great to get together again). Kathleen & Frits are having an Easter Saturday shindig at their place, and Jan & I will head in for that. Kel is off to the US for a flying family visit, and I will catch up with her when she gets back, 3/4s of the way through April. Jan & I are heading out to dinner for Magda’s birthday at the end of April. Our Rotary exchange student, Nathalie, has her parents visiting her from Belgium, and there is a BBQ at our club Secretary’s place so they can meet us all (and double-check we aren’t leading their daughter astray!).

Happy birthdays in the next few weeks to Murray H, Birthe, Gerhard and Glenys.

Right, I think that's it. Catch you again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Kathleen talking on marine collagen

A friend of ours, Kathleen, has been speaking on National Radio about her research with Plant & Food Research at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ocw/ocw-20110317-2134-Adding_Value_to_Hoki_Skin-048.mp3

Preserving & Agee Jars

Hi all,

We are all well in Nelson & hope you are all enjoying your season!

So far this year we have done 70 bottles of preserves. Stewed apple, apple juice, stewed plums, pear quarters, beetroot and tomato purée have rolled off the Rosepine production line and have been lovingly stored in the cellar.


One of the local horticulturalists opens their tomato patch up to the scavengers once their tomato crop is past its prime - for 70 cents a kilo. Last weekend Jan & I picked up about 35 kilos and made tomato purée all day Sunday (thanks to Bunty giving us the scavenging tip-off!). I have another 18 kilos of nearly ripe tomatoes in front of the sliders in the lounge that I picked yesterday, turning fire-engine red in the sun. I will preserve them on Sunday when they are nice & ripe.

So this is just a quick request. We are looking for Agee Jars and/or rings to do some more preserving (either green or gold-sized jars/rings). We want to get a good stock ahead for next summer, and need to pay a friend back for 20 jars that we borrowed. We are interested in any amount. 2, 3 or 100. If you have some old rings lurking in the bottom drawer and no jars left to match them with, we would be happy to take them off your hands.

We are happy to buy jars if anyone has some to sell - though they probably need to be relatively local (or have some easy personal courier method to us in Nelson!). Drop us an email or flick us a text if you can help on 021 998 846.


More news next week :-)

Sam & Jan

Earthquakes, Nuclear Plants and Carbon Credits

Awful news about Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant problems. In the past day Japan has experienced a lot of strong aftershocks - in fact 38 over magnitude 4, and three over 6 (check out http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php and http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/). Some of the earthquakes are as shallow as the one in Christchurch on Feb 22. A shaky day.

What a terrible combination of disasters for a country to have to deal with; thousands homeless, winter, little power, roads out and no way to get food to the survivors. Our poor Cantabrians seem lucky in comparison.

Interesting from my safe seat in New Zealand that the earth's rotation has been shortened by 1.8 microseconds and earth's axis moved by 25cm... but pretty damned awful to be feeling the effects of it on the ground in North East Honshu.

While John Key said in a UN address in 2009 that there is a 'growing regard for nuclear power in New Zealand', I think that the additional risk of a post-earthquake nuclear power plant failure has been clearly demonstrated in the unfolding situation in Japan. Nukes may be carbon-neutral, but they aren't safe when the world is being rocked on its axis. Perhaps GE should add as a rider to their plant sales collateral "Earthquake-prone countries need not apply".

News from Nelson - March 2011

Hi everyone,

The Christchurch earthquake continues to dominate our news, along with the situation in Libya. Petrol has risen by about 13 cents per litre in the past couple of months, but oil companies have kept the price in Christchurch as it was in an effort to make things easier on Christchurch residents.

Jenny L came up for a few days with her brother & sister-in-law as a rest from the failed Christchurch infrastructure. She came to stay here for a night, and it was great to see her. She was itching to get back down to Christchurch though, and check through her house thoroughly. The Uni is opening again on March 14^th.

It is amazing, but none of our friends appear to have been hurt. The only people we know of who have lost their house are Dave & Jo L (but they & the kids are all OK). Everyone else seems to have come through in good shape.

The central city will take a long time to return to normal; first of all the people of Christchurch need to decide if they wish to rebuild the CBD in the same location, or if it should be relocated to firmer ground. Repairs will apparently cost about $20b.

Photo: 3News (2011) from http://modernsurvivalblog.com/earthquakes/another-quake-rocks-christchurch-new-zealand/


Tessa is now up in Auckland, and is planning on settling there. She is staying with Mike & Kara while she organises everything –she has a preschool position already and is about to move into a house-share in Botany Downs.

Like the rest of the country, here in Nelson we have had a bit of rain, and the temperatures have fallen from some 30 degree days to some cooler temperatures.

In the past few weeks we haven’t really got any work done around the house, as Jan is practicing for the next NSO concert (which is in a fortnight), I am busy teaching a full-time teaching load this semester, and we have been doing lots of other things on our weekends.

We dropped off a trailer-load of firewood to Montrose Drive and picked up a trailer load of green waste from them – man, have we got some great tenants thus far. They seem to be treating our house like their own, and really taking care of it inside and out. It is wonderful.

Last weekend we helped out with the Weet-bix “Tryathlon”, which is a triathlon for primary school children. It was a great event, with nearly 1400 children sea-swimming, cycling and running (and only 4 accidents). I organised a group from Rotary to help out as marshalls on the cycle course, and made banana cake & coffee to bring in for our Rotary helpers team. It was great fun to take part and help the kids complete the event.

We also had Robbie & Janet’s birthday party at their farm in Tapawera - a 'cowboy' party. Luckily both Jan & I have hats, check shirts and boots, which made the whole dress-up aspect really simple. The party was in the woolshed, complete with a really good covers band who played nearly the whole time. It was a really good night, and we caught up with all sorts of people. Fleur & Neil were there and we had a great chat to them, as well as a surprise catch up with Nathan I.

Jan & I also volunteered to help take down a set of water fountain installations from a Nelson street display. There was a competition for these ‘water works’, with the winner getting a prize of $3000, and all the pieces were purchased. The one I liked was a stone sculpture of a man & a dog in a dingy on some rocks, which has been bought by a local pub (the Free House), to go in their beer garden. The fountain is a jet of water that squirts up between the man & dog, as if their boat has been holed. Very cute.

We also went with Sandra & Kevin to the Crusaders vs Waratahs rugby match at Trafalgar Park – moved to Nelson because of the Christchurch earthquake. It was a great opportunity to see a really good game at a very low cost ($32 for both of us on the embankment - plus loads of Stephanos pizzas to keep our strength up!). We would love to be going this Friday coming for the Crusaders vs Brumbies match, but we have friends coming over for a BBQ & movie.

We now have 50 jars of preserved apple puree, apple juice, pear halves and stewed plums in the cellar ready for the winter. I had to borrow some jars off Kathleen to get us through, so now I am trying to buy more Agee jars so that I can pay her back for the loan. Thank goodness for TradeMe and the Buy Sell Swap!

A group of us caught up with Jen C for breakfast the other day – she and some other members of her Friday painting group have an exhibition on at Kaimira Estate for a month, which is pretty exciting. She is thoroughly enjoying Golden Bay, and is now a mad contract Bridge fiend (to the point of having stood for Vice President of the bridge club). The damage from the late December floods is still being repaired.

I have also managed to catch up twice with Kel A – which must be a miracle in the space of a month! Duncan is in PNG, she is splitting her time between Welly & Nelson, but is off to the US in April for a break.

Oli took some fantastic photos at Oma Friedel's 96th birthday in Feb. A couple to share with you below:

This weekend Jan is going to hire a small digger so we can fill in the dirt around our big water tanks (and I can get my clothes line in on top), and move a mound of dirt over a wee bit between the office and the shed so we can plant some screening plants in autumn. We have also ordered our next lot of fruit trees for the gully.

Fliss didn’t have anything stuck in her throat; she had laryngitis! Bonnie then got an eye ulcer, and we spent two weeks back and forth from the vet for both of them. I emailed John & said that it was like a dispensing ward here with all the various meds that had to be administered at each meal time! Fliss is now pretty right, and Bonnie’s eye is slowly coming right.

John got back last week, and is reunited with Bon dog. He heads away in another ten days or so for his last tour for the season, and Bonnie comes back for another stint of ‘home away from home’.

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Melissa, Brigitte, Sandra W, Mike D, Jen C, Frits, Duncan A & Dilani.

Right, I think that's it. Catch you again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young