j.e.d.

Painting.. hmm, don’t enjoy it.. that and digging holes, so finishing off this front fence is a pretty good achievement.. may need to add a couple of posts on the left but I’m calling it job done, tick that off the list.

I always wanted to paint the fence black (using old diesel oil.. read: tight arse), and also always wanted to paint the gate a different colour that accents the black and will carry through to the shed and house.. I had a colour in my mind but didn’t really know until I looked at samples what would actually eventuate. Funnily enough this is not what I was thinking of as I originally was thinking a honey colour, but I’m super stoked how it turned out.. Couldn’t be happier.

Saturdays effort just before the rain set in..

And todays result.. super happy to get this done.

The other day I picked up a bridge. I was gonna build a bridge to access the orchard from one end, but I couldn’t build one for the price I picked this up for. Still gotta smash some steel rods into the ground to anchor it  permanently, but it’s where it’s gonna be.

Minor work done, but it is getting slightly warmer albeit raining quite a bit still up here. Daylight savings is gonna help a lot in the next few weeks I feel.
Borrowed my mates drop saw to help cut things straighter and did a little job making the top of the letterbox support. Measured the height of the post by parking the ute beside it and eying it up for perfect reach out height. No tape measures were harmed in the making of this structure.

Cut the top and angle brace out of the same 125sq senton pile, then decided the brace needed to be ripped down to about two thirds to look better balanced.

Sitting on an offcut to see what it looked like..

And now fixed in place. Not sure how useful the box is as it lets in a lot of rain, but it’s just for show really. Locally made by an old fella from Galv sheeting then powder coated.. I like it a lot.

Nice to see the trees in bloom and leaves coming out.. spring is here.

Easy to post oldschool spotted when they’re all in one place.. will make a Father Day Drags post in the pics and vid’s section so as not to clog up this thread, but @cletus’s car deserves a spotlight.

Finally managed to pick up the fence rails from a mates yard. Got a whole packet in the end cos my boss gets a good rate directly from the mill down in Nelson. Was waiting for a while as my boss said I couldn’t pick it up due to the weight of the pack being near on 3 ton, so the initial talk was to split the pack so I could. Turned up expecting to get half the pack only to discover said mate has a she’ll be right attitude like me and said ahh that pack is only about 2.5 ton so should be fine.. hmm..  50 PSi in the tyres and I was away. Got there in the end with a few more grey hairs on the head.

Made a couple of jigs which proved to be a game changer when you’re doing it all yourself.

Got the easy part done last weekend.

Also had my free frames from work turn up that I’ll be building my shed out of.

This weekend I finished up the front fence and I’m pretty rapt how it’s all turned out. I checked the rails into the gate posts.

Ran the rails down the left side and trimmed all the long post tops down.

This is my favourite pic of the day..

Minor success.. installing air shocks for improved ground clearance.

Gave the rubber stop bracket on the right side of the car a little trim to clear the air shock housing as the body of the shock is so much bigger than standard.

Also needed to slot the top bracket to make it easier to start the bolt up the top due to the size of the shock.

All worked out in the end and now the car sits better.

Well bugger me, that escalated in a hurry.. I wandered into Rainbow Nurseries in Ramarama to see when their next sale was on, got told hasn’t been an open door sale for the last few years due to covid and new buildings being built but she remembered me from last time a number of years ago so showed me around and then emailed me a list of trees they had for sale online. 
All I wanted were a few trees to go up my driveway as I like the old “tree lined driveway” look.. I ended up getting a bit carried away.. bought 16 prunus awanui (cherry) trees for the driveway and 21 Betula jaquemontii (birch) just cos they were cheap and should look nice when established.. $40 plus gst per tree ain’t bad considering they’re 2-3m tall.. 

Anyway, 2 days and 37 trees later they’re all in the ground.. note to self.. no more trees. And, move those mounds of dirt before they become permanent features.

Pics I took from back in 2015 popped up on my FB memories

Time to plant some trees for the orchard area.. normally I’m good at buying trees and leaving them in their bags for months on end, but this time bought and planted within the week, so winning there.
Picked up 12 trees.. x2 apple, x2 pear, plum, apricot, peach, nectarine, orange and mandarin.. also got a macadamia and an almond tree for something different so will see how those two go.

Still to add are a couple of avocado trees my mates mum has for me, a couple of feijoas in my back yard I want to relocate along with a lime tree and a big lemon tree.. I also have a guava but that’s a big old knarly thing I’m not sure if I can get out.. will see how the digger goes with that one.

Been doing some research with a little help from Ben, looks like this is a Trans am not a Firebird.. and a bit of a cross between the factory 75 with 77 bits on it.. I took a look at the carjam report as well and the VIN code is the same there too, along with discovering this car is a bit of a tramp as she’s been through 25 owners before me since being in NZ since ‘79.. I don’t feel very special anymore.

Backed the car out for a couple of pics and assess a bit more what needs to be done.. so far it’s headlights, windscreen wipers and squirters, side mirrors, some minor tidying up of the body/paint to make it look less rough in some areas, install the new lock set and door window weather strips that came with the car, and possibly some heavy duty or air shocks in the back to stiffen it up as muffler clearance is an issue with a couple of people in the car.

Confirmed this is also a factory manual car as the clutch pedal is still sitting in there but pushed up against the firewall out of the way.. might be a good selling point when the time comes.

But she runs nice, drives nice and sounds nice with the new exhaust and Gilmer belt.. not at all as obnoxious as I thought they’d be never owning a car with one installed.

Part of this journey is sourcing things as cost effectively as I can make it (read: tight arse), so I’m always on the look out for bargains. I managed to pick up a whole heap of 200x50 H4 retaining timber from a guy really cheap and he asked me if I was after a water tank as they had a new one written off by the insurance company after the Auckland floods.
This is a 31,000L Aqua Tank, new they go for $4,549 and I picked it up for $750. Bargain.

I tried being responsible and got quotes to move it to my place, but at $650 and $1200 for transport that was gonna blow the budget seriously.

The guy I bought it off had a little digger so armed with my trusty transport trailer, purpose built timber cradle and a “she’ll be right” attitude, we loaded it up last Sunday. I decided to wait a few days for the weather to settle, whacked on some wide load markers and headed off at 3:30am in the morning to avoid traffic and other things. In the end the trip was uneventful, the load was very secure and I got to drive down the road with a flashing orange light on my roof.

Hopefully the dent will pop out.. while the tank is on its side I’ll jump inside and try to jack it out as I don’t know if the water will force it out.. anyone have any better ideas?