Mania

Data (as in the ethereal thing we use to communicate these days) is in limited supply to me at present. I need to upgrade my phone contract - an expensive part of life in this country. 

Once a week I go into Havelock and buy myself a night in the camping ground - do my laundry, empty the chemical toilet, have two hot showers, and use their WiFi.

This week I also drove down to Blenheim before slogging back to my outback project and treated myself to a new pair of boots and a small peanut chocolate bar, a visit to a super supermarket, a gas bottle refill, and a coffee in a real cafe.  And I visited the offices of 

1. the Marlborough District Council building inspectors, 

2. A geo-engineering business, and 

3. An earth moving business that installs septic tank sewage systems.

Lovely 1970s floor covering in my caravan

Oh the joys. What happened to a trip to the bright lights to attend some cultural event... theatre or music?

At the hardware store a bloke came out to swap my gas bottle over. I offered to show him the evidence that I had paid the cashier already.  He said he trusted me. "If you can't trust working people who can you trust?"

🤔

I was wearing a boilersuit at the time.

I wear a boilersuit most of the time these days.  It might not be giving an accurate impression of how I spend my time.

How do I spend my time?  Land clearance mostly. 

By hand. 

Faced with a rapidly expanding onslaught of blackberry trying to suffocate the life out of the place, I have finally resorted to herbicide. I feel guilty but I needed to slow it down.  Digging, I'm clearing a few square metres per day - more where it is only gorse, less where the fight includes dense blackberry. I have about 3800 square metres to go. I daren't do the maths.

Planning site layout has hit a glitch - new district environmental plan. I'll spare you the details but suffice to say I need 'data' for emailing. Lots.

The stupidity of the situation is that in my head I sited the house and shed so as to be out of the line of sight that the neighbours above me have towards the water, and to avoid overlooking the personal spaces of the neighbours below me. New rules are trying to force my buildings to be exactly where they will cause the most disruption to my neighbours' enjoyment of their respective properties. 

Now I have to make some sort of application for exemption.

The silliest part is that all three neighbours built on their land before that law change and they backed their sheds right up to their boundaries.  I am being constrained by a new 8 metre offset from boundaries rule .... nuff said.

Meanwhile because it's  what I do, I have established a temporary veg garden - winter greens. Kale. Beet greens. Parsley. Nappa cabbages.  Given the extent of the challenge here it smacks of desperation.  I hear the laughter of mania pinging around my head.. hehehehahahehahehehehahaha.a.a.a....

Not Quite Right (que Supertramp)

Perspective

Yesterday's slash pile

Assembling a supply of bbq fuel (gorse sticks and manuka stumps)