Pesky Rabbits

Finally the decision has been made, I have purchased a rifle to dispatch the rabbits that are creating havoc with our plants and garden.
After much discussion, Mrs DIY agreed, this was the only way to go as poisoning wasn't an option, we have a Labrador dog that eats anything that vaguely resembles food.
I found the air rifle on 'Trade Me', a NZ web auction site, at good price and less than the same rifle I found on a US site and that was comparing $ for $.
I would have like to get a real one but as my gun licence had expired, didn't feel like going through the full Police interview and home visit for a new one, so it's an air gun, still the muzzle velocity is 1200fps which is fine for rabbits...
All I need to do is aim straight!

Already have downloaded some Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall (River Cottage) recipes from the UK Guardian web site.
This is a showing of real commitment and optimism on the writers part.
mmmm rabbit pie for dinner...

Head Down In the Heads

For the past two days I have been rebuilding the plumbing system in the forward head of the boat, fitting the new toilet and holding tank.
There's very little room to move around and fit the pipework, because of the limited room you have to work, jambed in a half sitting position, with your left arm threatening to dislocate itself.
Halfway through the installation I made the decision to replace all the existing pipework, it had been there for at least 20 years, Not a pleasant job! I won't continue this description of it's condition any further...
Now we have nice clean white sanitation pipes.
I should have the installation completed with about another 3 hours work, it will be a great day when we will be able to flush.
The next on the 'to do' list is the stern head.

Head n bathroom/toilet-nautical term

Snow!

I knew I shouldn't have mentioned snow, last night we had a polar blast move up the country and now the road over the Rimatukas is now closed...and more is forecast.
Wellington has a beautiful day, Martinborough, rubbish, the mountain range that runs up the centre of the island and divides the Wairarapa from the Wellington region makes a huge difference to our weather.
The dog (Oscar) woke me up, deciding at 1am  in the morning (It was freezing) to become an outside dog and move to his chair under the barn deck, normally he's an absolute wimp when it comes to bad weather and will spend his day guarding the heating system but not today.

What Difference a Year Makes

The pictures were taken at about the same time of  year give or take a few weeks , this year we have hardly any blossom, usually the driveway Almond trees are smothered in blossom.
Global warming, or just a change in the weather pattern?

 This Year

Last Year an unusual dump of snow, first for 30 years!

Table for the Gallery

The Table is completed for the gallery, a place for people to sign cheques, and the EFTPOS machine for credit cards.

Mrs DIY supplied the picture from a shop window she had passed (reference only!) and told me this should be easy to make, so...

Wind

What a wild night, we had winds of around 100-120 Kms/hr.and then rain.
Reminding me of an old mariners rhyme.
"Wind before rain, it'll be fine again.
Rain before wind get the topsails in"

The saying goes: 'Come the wind before the rain, soon be setting sail again.' When a cold front is moving in, if the wind picks up before the rain, the storm is likely to be less severe and shorter. If the rain arrives before the wind, the opposite is true.

Wellington Marine Weather!!!

Recreational Marine Forecast: Wellington

Valid to: Midnight Friday 7 Sep 2012

Issued: 11:13am Thursday 6 Sep 2012

Warning: STORM warning for COOK

Situation: An intense northwest flow covers much of the country through Friday. A trough moves onto New Zealand from the west Saturday then moves away to the east on Sunday, followed by disturbed westerlies.

Forecast:
Gale warning.
Thursday: Northerly 20 knots gusting 30 knots rising to 25 knots gusting 35 knots this afternoon and to 35 knots gusting 45 knots this evening. Moderate sea becoming rough this afternoon and very rough this evening. Fine and cloudy periods, fair visibility in evening drizzle.
Friday: Northwest 35 gusting 45 knots, rising to 40 knots gusting 50 knots for a time in the morning. Sea very rough. Fair visibility in scattered rain, clearing during the afternoon.

Outlook:
Saturday: Northwest 40 knots. Rain.
Sunday: Northwest 40 knots, easing to 30 knots later. Showers clearing.
Monday: Northwest rising to 40 knots early. Mainly fine.

This is a reproduction of the weather report for this weekend, it looks very likely that we won't be sailing on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. bum!

Holding Tank

More progress on the final rebuild of Duamara, (Thursday's Child of Lee) I made a mock-up of the holding tank out of Coreflute and Gaffer Tape, just to make sure it would it would fit and I could get it into the space available. (51 litre capacity!)
So now it's ordered, all I need to do now is put the bits together...

I have been very fortunate in being able to get the advice of a friend, who lives in Ireland (David's diagram) who has a similar yacht to ours and was able to give me some direction on how the plumbing could go together.
I will be using this solution with a couple of mods of mine.
(An electric Macerator pump, a slightly bigger air vent, plus a connection for pumping-out at the marina.)

I had to go back to the boat yesterday as I lost my wallet and my final place to look was the boat, yes, I had left it on board, a round trip of about 2.5 hours, I'll try not to do that again!

Winter Sailing in Wellington NZ

The only problem with winter sailing in Wellington is either too much wind or none but a really nice day for a flap!

Colonoscopy

A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me a email joke, I don't usually read them but this one made me laugh, I shouldn't have.

Later, on a fairly routine visit to the Dr. in relation to a minor issue, it was suggest that I should make an appointment for...\ Yes, you guessed right and its all true! (but mine was Klean-Prep)

I share the following email I think this explains the procedure much better than I could:

ABOUT THE WRITER: Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humour columnist for the Miami Herald.

Colonoscopy Journal: 
I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy.

A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis .

Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner.

I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's enemies..

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.

Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons). Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humour, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.'

This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but, have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.

The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologise to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked..

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.. 
At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point..

Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand.

There was music playing in the room, and I realised that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate.

'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me..

'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood.

Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that It was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

And yes, I'm fine. K