Howie's end

Hi Robert

I've been putting off sending this message, but the awful truth is that the little fellow passed away recently. Obviously being as I am not an Entomologist I have no educated idea as to what / how caused this, but I did notice a few days ago these tiny (only a couple of millimetres long) black insects crawling on him (and they seem to live around his body) - so I wonder if they were the culprits. I know he didn't make it, but considering how close he came to a fiery end all those months ago, I'd like to think his life was better for the turn it took. We will never know for sure how old he was, but being as Huhu's entire live span can be up to three years, he could have been "born" as early as 2008.

Thanks for letting me share his story via your blog.

RIP Howie.

M

I'm sorry I didn't get to see Howie flying free. You were a great caregiver to him, M and you'll be sad too, that he didn't make it through to beetlehood. Still, you're bound to find another grub, now that you know the kind of habitat they enjoy. Perhaps you'll dub him, Howie2 and he'll go the full 9 yards. I wish you luck!

Rob

Radio Key

I've done summer radio for a couple of ... summers, I like it very much. It's a great opportunity to provoke and entertain at the same time and maybe even slip some ideology :-)
John Keys tried his hand, or rather, mouth, at radio this afternoon. Even the reports by his adoring blogging fans are 'reserved' - I suspect he was lame (didn't listen, too busy digging). This comment from The Dim-Post probably sums up the talk-back hour best. I'll link to the blog, in-case someone wants to follow up.

"Just days after a New Zealand SAS soldier was killed in Afghanistan and as Standard & Poor’s joined fellow ratings agency Fitch in downgrading the New Zealand economy, Key is hosting an hour-long show on Radio Live.
A news bulletin during the show reported the second economic downgrade, but Key had not mentioned it by almost halfway through his show."

Jan's in Southland - all's Wright with the world

This morning I met the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright and had a wee chat with her, before she began her adress to the combined councils of Southland. I have long admired her work, especially her findings and conclusions around lignite mining. Today, my admiration for her grew, both from what I heard from her in our little tete a tete, and from the presentation she gave to the assembled be-suited councillors.
Her message on lignite? It's the very worst of the fuels and presents too many problems with it's production. Jan was very clear that she doesn't find credible, Solid Energy's (Don Elder's) assurances that they will sequester the CO2 produced beneath Southland's green pastures, or under the seabed of the Great South basin, or that they will off-set the huge volumes of gas produced, by planting trees. She managed the climate-denier from the Gore council, he's the Deputy Chair I believe, well, by presenting the reasons for her firm belief that climate change is real, and comforted him by saying, 'I commend you for taking an interest', but that's as much as she was prepared to concede. Southland's Mayor Frana Cardno spoke powerfully about her concerns around lignite, saying that buried lignite was, 'money in the bank' and that that is where it should stay for the meantime. Jan described the extraction and use of lignite as a fuel as, 'truly unsustainable', and gave it no quarter. Those in attendance must have been struck by her clarity of purpose and depth of knowledge of the lignite issue.
I've not had a chance to hear what their reactions are but will be asking around for their opinions later.
She, incidentally, described the situation with the Waituna Lagoon, as 'truly alarming'.

Headline - Banks a twerp

Headline of the day, perhaps the week, from the local rag and featuring our own wealthy actoid, Louis Crimp.


Banks a 'twerp' says Act backer

Frackers front

Two keen fraccing men presented themselves at Environment Southland on Wednesday, to smooth any anxiety councillors might have over fraccing, especially those brought on by reading opinions other than those from industry representatives. The didn't like the Gaslands DVD that's circulating in the public domain and went to great lengths to belittle that production and the people who were startled by what they saw in it.
Our intrepid Times reporters were there and Alex Fensome published this report today.


Environment Southland has been told to ignore negative and misleading media coverage about fracking.
Chris McKeown, the commercial general manager of L&M Energy, and John Bay, from the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand, met the council on Wednesday to discuss the process.
Fracking involves injecting a high-pressure mix of water and chemicals into a well drilled through a rock seam to break apart rock formations and release gas or oil trapped there.
It could be used in Western Southland to access potentially huge reserves of shale gas in the Waiau Basin.
The two men told councillors they were there to counter distortions and untruths about fracking in the media, although they were happy with The Southland Times's coverage of the issue.
The specific targets of their ire were the documentary Gasland, by Josh Fox, which claimed to expose environmental damage caused by fracking in the United States, and a feature article published in The Press in July, councillors were told.
Mr Bay told the council it should link up with the Taranaki Regional Council, which had experience with fracking, and ignore the claims made in the film or other media.
Councillor Robert Guyton said after the meeting he believed Mr Bay and Mr McKeown were there to sell the industry agenda and allay fears.
"I thought they were quite dismissive of opinions which might be held by the general public," he said.
"They were (also) very dismissive of Gasland ... but did go through point by point through the various issues brought up. At the same time I was aware these were industry heads talking."
Gasland includes footage of tapwater being set on fire at homes close to wells in Pennsylvania.
The industry had always maintained that was because of a poorly constructed water well allowing naturally-occurring gas to leak up it.
Environmentalists have also alleged fracking contaminates aquifers with toxic chemicals from chemicals in fracking fluid.
While there had been problems in the United States, New Zealand had much stricter mining regulation, Mr Bay said.
Most of the fracking fluid injected into the well would be caught during the gas extraction process, he said. Claims fracking caused earthquakes, repeated in the media, were ludicrous.
"The forces in an earthquake are many magnitudes greater than any pump on the surface can generate."
"They were quite willing to answer questions," Mr Guyton said.
"It was good they were down here and it's interesting they pinpointed (the council)."
Council chair Ali Timms said the talk was interesting because the council did not know much about the process.
Liaising with Taranaki was a good idea, she said.
"It makes a lot of sense. There's no point re-inventing the wheel ... they will have expertise which will be of value to us."
- The Southland Times

Diplomatic much?

Kimberly Crayton-Brown, reporter for the Southland Times, rang me last night after reading my 'check your chair' post, with questions about our plans to dissect our chairwoman's performance, and that of our selves, with a system of performance appraisal. Kimberly was quite keen for me to rate the ES chairman Ali Timms, and while I was sorely tempted to make mischief, I told the truth, saying that I believed 'no surprises' was an important part of an assessment like that, and that we hadn't laid down the criteria for appraisal yet, though I did have a number in my head :-)
Here's Kimberly's piece.

An Environment Southland councillor wants the performances of council members assessed but says a blog post on the topic is about openness and transparency, not a comment on the performance of the chairwoman.
Councillor Robert Guyton asked in a blog post yesterday whether councils should assess the performance of their well-paid "talking heads".
Cr Guyton told The Southland Times last night he had raised the idea before a council meeting on Wednesday.
"We have a caucus opportunity at 8.30am where we talk in a casual, friendly way about the issues. I brought it up right at the end and it was well received."
He thought it would be a good idea to have an ongoing system to assess a chairperson, and other councillors suggested the idea be extended to cover councillors, too.
"It gives you good feedback with how everyone is performing, and it gives the public a good opportunity to get a look at how councillors regard each other," he said.
While the council did not have a performance assessment system in place, it was an idea that had been floated before, Cr Guyton said. It was not a matter of personal opinion, it was setting criteria so people knew what they were going to be judged by.
When asked to rate the council chairman and councillors' performance, Cr Guyton said it was not fair to ask someone to rate their fellow councillors without some framework to work around.
"It needs to be fair for everyone; it is not a punitive system," he said.
Councillor Marion Miller was looking into possible criteria for an assessment and councillor Nicol Horrell was investigating performance assessments used by other councils, Mr Guyton said.
THE BLOG POST:
"Should councils assess the performance of their chairs? "Not the cigar-burned, port-stained, over-stuffed leather numbers that enfold and soothe us when we meet, but our `talking heads', be they chairman, chairwoman or chairperson.
We all do it, casually and incidentally, of course, as we go about our business – chairs demand our attention with their throat-clearing, icy stares, little gongs and so on, and can dominate proceedings, but are anecdotal ratings of their performance enough? I'd like to see a formalised process for assessing our well-paid chairpeople.
"Councillors too, should be measured, performance-wise.
"Our council is pursuing the idea right now, having had the concept presented to them yesterday. By me. "I think it's very important that we scrutinise our chair and in turn be scrutinised by each other. "I'll keep you up with the play, as it evolves."
- The Southland Times

Space junk ahoy!

We saw a chunk of junk from space, flashing down to the ground over Waimatuka, as we drove home from town tonight! No shooting star for sure - much chunkier, brighter and coming straightish-down, rather than the usual sweeping shooting-star trajectory. Haven't heard yet if it landed on someone's head or not but tomorrow's Times will carry the story if there is one.

Check your chair

Should councils assess the performance of their chairs?

Not the cigar-burned, port-stained, over-stuffed leather numbers that enfold and soothe us when we meet, but our 'talking heads', be they chairman, chairwoman or chairperson. We all do it, casually and incidentally of course, as we go about our business - chairs demand our attention with their throat-clearing, icy-stares, little gongs and so on, and can dominate proceedings, but are anecdotal ratings of their performance enough? I'd like to see a formalized process for assessing our well-paid chairpeople. Councillors too, should be measured, performance-wise.

Our council is persuing the idea right now, having had the concept presented to them yesterday. By me. I think it's very important that we scrutinize our chair and in turn be scrutinized by each other.
I'll keep you up with the play, as it evolves.

Underground coal gasification

Do you know what this is?

Read this article and you'll be well informed, and I hope, off-put.

"Mr Dalton said five cows, grazing 1km downwind of the plant, also tested positive for benzene and toluene, six months after the incident.

"They are the only cows known in the state of Queensland to have tested positive for benzene and toluene. Cougar Energy said it could have been thefarmer driving his tractor round and round the cattle."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/5695896/Trial-fears-after-toxin-found-at-Aussie-plant

Trial fears after toxin found at Aussie plant

The halting of an experimental energy trial in Australia has sparked concerns about a similar trial in the Waikato.

An underground coal gasification project in Queensland – which involved setting fire to a coal seam hundreds of metres below ground – was stopped when traces of the cancer-causing chemicals benzene and toluene were discovered in groundwater near the Cougar Energy-owned plant.

State-owned mining company Solid Energy is establishing a $22 million scheme to tap energy from impossible-to-mine coal near Huntly. The pilot was due to get under way in March, but has been delayed until Christmas.

Members of a community group that fought for more than a year to have the Queensland plant shut down say Waikato residents should be worried.

However, Solid Energy says strict monitoring of the project is in place to prevent environmental damage.

"As a community we hated it," Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group secretary John Dalton said. "If I lived in Waikato I'd be particularly worried. If anything goes wrong it tends to go wrong in a big way.

"UCG has always been a risky technology. It's been around for 100 years but no-one has been able to master it to the extent that is considered safe. It is promoted as clean because the burning is underground.

"But there are simple scientific facts that you can't sidestep. One is that every time you burn coal underground it emits benzene and toluene."

Mr Dalton said the plant had a huge impact on the local farming community.

"The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, which is Australia's research body, recommended underground coal gasification doesn't take place in areas that have potable water or really useful aquifers nearby.

"It should never happen near prime agricultural land. We are a very rich agricultural area here, you [Waikato] would be more so. We had organic dairy farmers who lost market share because they were downwind of the site.

"The whole district loses its reputation as green. The land value ... no-one wants to buy land."

He added: "I really feel sorry for you, because it's a really, really stressful time for the community."

Solid Energy's general manager of gas development, Steve Pearce, said lessons had been learnt from the failed Australian plant, as well as abandoned projects at Hoe Creek and Carbon County, in Wyoming.

A plant in South Africa had been operating for four years "with absolutely no issues" and two other schemes were being trialled in Queensland. "The number of problems is actually quite small. We are monitoring what is going on internationally."

Solid Energy would not allow groundwater to escape by maintaining a low pressure in the gasifier, he said. "The aim of all of the design work is to ensure that. That is one of the fundamental aims ... protection of the environment."

And he noted that traces of benzene and toluene were naturally present in the coal seam, which baseline monitoring of the Huntly site had detected.

"I know in our area that if you analyse coal seam water there are hydrocarbons in it. It doesn't surprise me that they would detect one or two parts per billion [in Kingaroy]."

Although he admitted problems in Australia had made him nervous, the company had made every effort to reassure local residents.

"If I wasn't confident we wouldn't be doing this," he said. "Our company certainly wouldn't endorse, or undertake something, where we weren't confident."

But environmentalists want an end to UCG. Greens Senator for Queensland  Larissa Waters, who was part of the fight against Kingaroy, said it was necessary to "safeguard rural communities, groundwater and food producing land."

She said that although Cougar Energy had been ordered to decontaminate the underground water, "the tragedy is that some may remain there forever".

New Zealand Green party co-leader Russel Norman said the moratorium on the Kingaroy plant should set alarm bells ringing.

"There are outstanding issues with it. It's such experimental technology and there are real issues around water contamination."

Kingaroy: what went wrong?

The Queensland state government finally shut down Cougar Energy's Kingaroy plant last month and ordered it to be decommissioned.

It was ordered closed in July 2010 when tests found readings of 2 parts per billion of benzene in a nearby groundwater monitoring bore. The acceptable limit is one part per billion.

The local community fought the development of the plant for more than a year.

Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group secretary John Dalton says "thousands of pages" of reports were produced after the trial "went badly wrong".

Mr Dalton said problems occurred within three days of the plant being fired up. He believes that an influx of water from a nearby aquifer hit "super heated" coal creating "enormous steam pressure".

Casing around the bore rose about a metre out of the ground and "busted the valves and the steel pipes that take the gas over to be treated".

It fell back down but rose a second time, he said. "... the whole furnace was burning without the pipe works being connected to the treatment area."

Contaminated water was then found in a monitoring hole about 250m away from the burning seam.

Mr Dalton said five cows, grazing 1km downwind of the plant, also tested positive for benzene and toluene, six months after the incident.

"They are the only cows known in the state of Queensland to have tested positive for benzene and toluene. Cougar Energy said it could have been the farmer driving his tractor round and round the cattle."

Last month, officials upheld their decision to close the site but Cougar may appeal against the decision.

"The company still say that Kingaroy is their flagship enterprise and they are leaders in this technology. Well, we reckon it's an embarrassment," Mr Dalton said.

Working out of doors

Busy outside today, grafting apple scions to apple rootstock.

Right beside us, a bed of onion weed grew on stinkily.

This flowering plant has no name known to me. Does anyone know it?

But I know the name of this flower - trillium! Who have thought that I'd grow them?

The heavy bunches of kowhai are looking really battered and largely spent.

The fennel's bushing-up and the plantain's coming on strong!

Being spring, there are yunkers. This little guy didn't make it through the boisterous weather we've been subject to over the past 4 days. Tossed from his nest by the tempest, I'd say, then died of cold.

Southland creativity

Today I visited Lesley's farm. He's an inventive guy. His tunnel house sheltered blossoming peach trees, growing in tractor tyres. Guinea pigs ate down the grass on the floor, tootling out into the wide world through clay pipes if they wished. He'd built 30 starling nest boxes and all were occupied last year. His tractor was fitted with a custom-made hood. He dug his own wells, using a truncated spade, and lined them with ...car tyres!
These were just a few of the interesting things I saw at Lesley's. What I heard from him was even more amazing! Wanna know how to prevent bearings and milk fever? Ask Lesley. It begins there.

He didn't, did he?

Tell me he didn't, please!
Key didn't install himself into the All Black lineup for the national anthem!
It can't be true.
Photoshopped is it?
Pleeeeease!

(I've found a clearer photo. It is clear to you all, isn't it?)

Fried Red Tomatoes

Nek minnit #2

Those two words are creating friction in our household!
The clip of the gap-toothed scooter rider, describing his terrible discovery is to my mind, bloody funny.
My wife doesn't agree. At all. It raises not the hint of a smile from her, no matter how many times I play it :-)
My daughter says it over-exposed and reels-off a dozen variations on the theme (all funny) that she hears daily at school.
I'd like to post the clip here for any of you who haven't seen it yet (was I the only one?) but don't know how to do it!
Can someone help me?
How do you embed a youtube clip in a blogspot blog?

Nek minnit

Brash arrives at conference with announcement

Back to school

On Friday morning I was rung by a young girl I've never met who most politely asked if I would come to her school and talk to her class about growing a vegetable garden. I'm heading off to Wyndam Primary School tomorrow morning armed only with what I know about gardening and teaching and accompanied by Rosario, our Chilean guest, who will teach me some Castellano Spanish, mixed with a little Quecha, on the way.
We are going to start the day with a glass of mate - she has a bombilla!
Ay ay ay!

A moment in time

I spent the morning in the company of Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei (and others) and found myself in the unique position of being the bearer of strange and earth-shattering news, having watched Don Brash on Q&A announce that his Act Party were adopting as their own policy, the de-criminalization of cannabis.
That's correct, THE DE-CRIMINALIZATION OF CANNABIS.
Act Party.
Don Brash.
No wonder Boscawen has abandoned ship.
It was great to share the joke with Metiria.

Land management - Eastern Southland style!

John Banks leading Act - just sick!

Saturday's gone quiet!

The weather's patchy in Riverton. In between squalls I'm nipping outside to plant and sow. I've moved a small bunui (stilbocarpa), severing it from its a parent (a tubular leaf-stem, weighed down by its umbrella-like leaf, touched the ground sometime in the winter, roots formed at the point where stem met soil and a new bunui began its life) from beside the water-tank to the picket-fence near the entrance to the garden. If it survives, and they're temperamental things, bunui, that ordinarily perch in the deep peaty soils of the mutton-bird island, way to the south, I'll have a specimen to show visitors as the steel themselves to voyage deeper into my wild garden. I planted four fuchsia also, not the native kotukutuku, of which I have many, but the flouncey  imports that have flowers that look like sugary tutus. I think I'll like them but if not, they compost down just nicely. I sowed a colander-full of Greenfeast peas that I'd soaked over-night and covered them with bird-proof netting - no gain in me feeding the birds outright, they will have to at least make an effort to get underneath the netting and scratch the swelled-up peas out. That'll give me a chance to terrorise any that get caught under there. I cultivated the roadside strip as well, a rough scumble with a garden fork to scritch out any grass clumps. There's plenty of crimson clover flowering in there and as much chickweed as anyone might want, so I don't want to go back to bare soil just to prove I'm boss. I'll soak some tick-beans and broadcast them into there tomorrow. A Chilean woman arrived at the door, just as I was going out it, and startled me, having not seen her approach, but I recovered quite well and had a brief chat (her name is Rosalia and she's bright and breezy). She's going to be helping with grafting apple trees over the next few days and I entertain the hope that she's a good cook and will want to amaze us with something exotically Chilean.
The town seems very quiet, though I've not been down into it. Robyn did say that today's farmers' market was one of the busiest we've had, thanks to Al Brown and his effusing, but I stopped home for the morning and tried to provoke my fellow bloggers with barbs, but hardly anyone rose to the challenge, such as it was, and so I've concluded that Saturday's gone quiet.
Preparing, like I am, for the rugby, perhaps!

Howie's gone quiet

And his dad's fretting a bit.
Fingers crossed for the little guy.

Land care, Tapanui-style

Reminder - climate change and truth

Feed pad - mud and cows held together by electrified wires

Blackmount forestry

How's that economy of ours looking Bill?

Apple letter - Southland Times

Gardening columnist Wally Richards wonders, through Thursday's gardenin page, if the growing of apple trees is still as popular as it was many years back.

It is in Southland, Wally, and that popularity is growing fast!

Here in the deep south, it's those very same varieties grown by our early European settlers that present-day home orchardists are seeking out and planting; 5-star Pippin, Norfolk Greening, Merton Russet, Keswick Codlin and dozens of other varieties that graced the orchards that flourished before the days of supermarket imports and cool stores. Wally will be pleased to learn too, that there are Southlanders driving the renewed interest in southern orchards - the Open Orchard team has collected and grafted as many of the old varieties as they could find on the region's farms and around its towns and have them for sale to anyone who wants to grow a heritage orchard. Many of our Southland schools have planted orchards of their own, with trees grafted from orchards in their own local area and 'sample' orchards of apples, pears and plums have been planted, the largest having over 300 heritage apple trees, in Riverton, Mataura, West Plains and Otautau. Apple orchards are not a thing of the past for Southlanders, Wally, they're a happening thing!

Robert Guyton

Riverton

Green rising

"This could be the year of the Greens – finally they might crack the 10% mark that has eluded them in every general election so far. And with the popular demise of Labour and the ideological confusion of Mana, the Green Party might end up being the real success story for the leftish side of the political spectrum."


Could be.


Bryce Edwards @ Liberation explores the likelihood.

Annie's Gotland Pelts

Just back from Annie's, where I took photos of her marvellous flock of Gotland Pelts. I took some shots too, of her mini-flock (flocklet?) that she's made herself from their wool, felting onto wire frames to recreate, in miniature, those that bleat outside.

Rows of spuds

I created a series of furrows, curving through the soil of what was once our chicken run, and Robyn set out the sprouted spuds along them, then raked the soil over the pop-eyed little things to encourage them to grow.

She planted:

Le Ratte
Catriona
Jersey Benne
King Edward
Pink Passion
Pink Fir

Forget the bread, we're off to the circus!

The tomatoes of Brian

Brian lives in Edendale, in the shadow of Fonterra's giant milk-powder factory but that doesn't stop him from growing a fabulous garden. When he told me that he had tomatoes still on the vine at this time of year, I was a little dubious, but he sent me photographic evidence. I was expecting them to look wizened and partly-deflated, but on the contrary, they're plump and full. Just goes to show ya!

Hedgerows

Unprepared for an oil spill

The Southland Times headed Jay Harkness' letter boldly and rightly so. In his letter, Mr Harkness of Greenpeace  NZ shreds oil man John Pfahlert's opinion piece of earlier in the week, describing the nonsense that was said regarding the use of dispersants as a measure to control a major spill, the huge unlikelihood of mobilising 6000 ships in the event of a spill in the Great South Basin and the un-mentioned contribution to climate change that results from oil extraction and use. I'll not copy the letter out, but take it from me, Mr Harkness has Mr Pfahlert's measure.

John Purey-Cust on Waituna

I'm a great admirer of John's. He's been in the business for many years, knows farming, forestry and the lie of the land and he writes beautifully. Today, in the Southland Times, he says:

"Bryce Johnson (September 20) errs when he says that the declining state of the Waituna has only recently been noticed, last February. Alarm was being voiced much earlier than that, by anglers and lagoon neighbours as well as Environment Southland staff. It has also been a regular item on Southland Fish and Game agendas.
  The difference between then and now is simply one of regime; the then ES council took the view that landowners were to be persuaded, not instructed; now the new council, partly but not only persuaded by the state of Waituna, believes in action.
  I applaud that.
  The heart of the problem - and not just in New Zealand - is the increasing dependence on nitrogen fertilizers and the consequent move into what is, in may ways, hydroponics.
  The short-term advantage to the farmer is immediate and obvious. The disadvantage is that everything downstream becomes the system's toilet.
  The lagoon has become the toilet for the Waituna catchment.
  In contrast to most other catchments, where the issue is more complicated, the only polluter at Waituna is agriculture.
  It therefore becomes an ideal place for the development of safe farming systems.
  Do that, dairy industry, and the world will be grateful.
  Carry on as now in an indifferent and sulky silence and we will continue to trail the world. The forecast is of another 400,000 cows in Southland is not then a happy prospect.

JOHN PUREY-CUST
Gore

Muted morning

Pigeon feather, oat blade, alexander leaf, straw,

Walking along Dee