One Down

Well I shot one dead, a rabbit that is, which instantly reminded me why I let my firearms licence lapse and I gave away my rifle and shotgun.
I really don't like killing things, even rabbits but still I need to rid our garden of these destructive little animals.
Note: Rabbits are classed as a pest in New Zealand

Accuracy!

The airgun has arrived and assembled, then I to fired a couple of pellets to get my eye-in, at this point I would like to say I class myself as a fairly good shot, in fact I made the school shooting team for a short time in my younger days.
Sitting here writing this blog about my experiences of not losing my touch, dead-eye, etc a few words spring to mind, which would could easily describe the results, a few of them are, Barn, at, couldn't, 5 paces and hit.
The result is the pesky rabbits will continue live-long, dig and eat our garden.
I have set up a large target to improve the score and to date have finally managed to hit the target, that's the target card, not the printed bit with the cross and circle....

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!