Monthly Archives: Feb 2019

I have been exploring on my genealogy – The Masters family from the websites. There was one email message came to our email inbox and it was about the census records in London, UK.

Our great grandfather – Harry came to New Zealand during World War One or before 1914. He met his future wife – Rose where she was born in Oxford, Canterbury, New Zealand and lived in Christchurch, New Zealand. Harry died before I turned 16 years old in 1980. Our family did not contact him except our late grandfather Alan and his brother – Keith. Keith was the only family in Wellington where Harry lived there with his second wife. Note: Harry remarried to another lady – Ellen where he met her down in Wellington in 1932. There was no further children except a stepchild – Ellen’s child from her first marriage.

I always wonder what kind of job do Harry, and his father does in the old days. I know that Harry was an army driver under Canterbury Infantry Battalion C Company and a plasterer around in Wellington. I do not recall what kind of job that Harry had done in Christchurch. My mother told me that Harry moved around Christchurch by looking for a job or got a short term job during the Depression Years. Life was tough especially with the economy, income for a family and bills to pay.

Now I wonder what kind of job does Harry’s father – George Jacob Masters work in Hackney, London. I found one of the records under George Masters through Census in the UK. His occupation was a newspaper compositor in Chatham Place, London. What is a compositor do in the workplace?? A person who put text font or a block of the font into the large frame of the block before putting in the printing machine. Fast forward to 1910, technology changed from the manual compositor equipment to eletrontic equipment. Today it is a digtal compositor equipment.

The next step is I will do more research where does George work along Chatham Place, Hackney, what is the name of the newspaper business and many other interesting places around Hackney.

When did we have the longest drought in Waikato?

In the photo above, facing the mountain – Kaimai pass Te Aroha on a bright sunny day. Te Aroha is about 32 minutes away from Eureka, toward to Waihi Beach is about 1 hour and 10 minutes or a bit align toward to west – Waihi township is about 59 minutes.

This year I noticed our grass on the large section – 1 acre property, was showing signs of brown patches in some areas. This is the first time we have not received any rain even showers back to 24th December 2018 (received 45mm-50mm), BUT we did receive around 25mm of heavy showers back in 14th January. We are not in danger of losing water from the tank via the District Council. I am careful when using the water for the garden and vegetable gardens. I choose the right shrubs in the garden that does not require a lot of water.

Here is the note from the Waikato District Council, showing that the last time farmers faced long drought back in 2007 and 2008.

Recent examples of drought in the Waikato region include:

• 2007- 2008: A drought event lasted from November 2007 to April 2008, during which the Waikato experienced its driest January in a century. A shortage of feed caused by the drought increased the price of silage to four times its normal rate. The cost of the drought was believed to be $1.5 billion to the Dairy sector alone. The economic effect of the drought was one of the factors that threw New Zealand’s economy into recession by mid 2008. 
• 2009: The Waikato experienced a dry spring, the effects of which were compounded by the previous drought of 2007-2008. 
• 2010: Waikato had two dry springs, which resulted in a double drought. The drought led to the owners of the Waikato River hydro scheme, Might River Power, announcing a 10 per cent drop in hydro production for the December quarter. Dairy farmers were estimated to have lost an average $100,000- $150,00 in income over the previous three years due to consecutive drought events. http://www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/services/regional-services/regional-hazards-and-emergency-management/droughts/

We moved here in Eureka in November 2014, and we did not have a long drought, and I planned carefully by choosing the right shrubs and trees for the next 5-20 years. Because we have experience growing up on the farm or living near the rural country in our childhoods. Only one little accident due to the order of camellia hedges last month and I planted these camellia hedges without thinking about putting in pots until Autumn. Mm, now I am using hand watering from 4 buckets every 2-3 days depending on the heat. Lesson learnt.

Our neighbours who are dairy farmers, surrounding here, facing the worst drought than anyone else around the North Island but we don’t really know yet.

Praying for the rain to come……

Have you heard or see a Lime scooter or e-scooter around the community??

Since this morning in the public community disability forum, there was a debate over e-scooter/lime scooter in Hamilton City, New Zealand.

Many disabled people and most ordinary people hated it because they don’t feel safe when walking/riding on their mobility scooter along the footpath. Other people and children love it and get the thrill of freedom to ride without traffic jams, free car parking, able to get on and off the bus for a long distance trips such as from Morrinsville to Hamilton.

What is the difference between these people? Many blind people and Deaf/Hard of Hearing people including elderly people can not hear the noise from the e-scooter behind their back even their side from either left or right. The speed of the e-scooter is around 30kmh on the footpaht and around 27kmh on the road according to the newspaper – stuff.co.nz https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/108032332/escooter-injury-claims-and-near-misses-spark-safety-fears

What about the safety issues for our riders on the e-scooter along the footpath or on the road? So I am wondering what if people and children should wear a bike helmet if they were riding a bike on the road. Currently, in New Zealand, people and children can ride on e-scooter without a helmet. Horror!! It is a total disaster if anyone does not wear a helmet, then it will increase accident and injury plus costing more health insurance to pay for the damage. Som accident or injuries for a day is around 7-9 ACC claims. Have another look at the photo below – is that guy acceptable to use his luggage with wheels while riding the e-scooter on the road or not?

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Well, not for all Blind, Deaf, Hard of Hearing even elderly people. What about a young mother with a baby in a pram or a young child walking on the footpath? A blind man said he was nearly knocked over when walking down the pavement near the lake this morning. Here is another article which recently in Auckland, New Zealand. This story was about one child who is disabled with spinal bifida walking with the grandmother and another child riding on the e-scooter. The child who rode on the e-scooter knocked the disabled child over. Who is to blame? Therefore the child on the e-scooter who knocked over the disabled child was responsible for this accident. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12197560

For the Deaf/Hard of Hearing people, we would NOT hear the noise behind our back or from either right or left side, whooshy pass us. This will give us a fright or a bit of shock. We know there are many young students and businesses people using a mobile phone by texting or listening to music or having a phone conference while they are walking. So we are not sorry for these kinds of people because they are hearing and can hear the sounds without using texting or using one earpiece in one ear while walking.

Perhaps there are many options such as – Need more education on how to ride e-scooter, raise more safety awareness such as wear a helmet. Where is the best place to ride e-scooter, how to control the e-scooter on the road or the pavement, should the council footpath department increases the width of a walkway, is it okay for all children to ride on e-scooter if they are well behaving or know how to use it and the list goes on…….

Sigh! A new technology makes everyone crazes today!

In Waikato, we are experiencing the hottest weather – 32.9oC on January 29th 2019 since 1998-1999. Back to 1973, the small town – Rangiora was the record break 42.4oC.

For the Waikato area, the highest apparent temperature was 35.7oC on the 29th January 2019, and the humidity was 96% on the 28th January 2018.

We, in Eureka, have to be careful with our water supply from the tank when I do watering the garden including the vegetable gardens. The method I use to watering on one part of the vegetable garden including the rose garden and the greenhouse on an even day. On an odd day, I wet the other part of the garden which less garden and plant cuttings in many pots. we were lucky to have a back up bore water hole with a hand pump next to our water pump hut. One thing that we DO NOT have a swimming pool here.

In our property, we were lucky to have plenty of tall and large trees like liquidambar, silk tree, English Oak and many other types of trees growing here. I often sit under the liquidambar tree which shape like an umbrella (upside down shape) and the breeze come from the north. Here is one of the old photo here – the liquidambar tree stands gracefully behind the white flowers of the viburnum tree.

Now I can use our two dogs sits beside me for a short time without distracting from the private road. Before we used to have three dogs and I was forced to leave them inside the house with a courtyard which fenced off. The main problem was the neighbour who came from England and bought the house and another small sleepout back in 2012. From the start we moved here, this neighbour – Ali, rang the dog control officers because one of our ex-dogs jumped over the fence and greeted them in a friendly manner. Ali got the wrong message, and she won’t change her view over our dogs as working/assistance dogs for me who I am deaf over four years. Ali and her husband Gary kept ringing up the dog control officer. Things have changed because we lost one dog on a one early hour of the morning several weeks ago. Everything is so strange and calm.

Our neighbourly – many farms are using waters for their livestock, maizes, to fill up in the drinking well for the animal and other things. Some of the neighbours have got a swimming pool. Not of them have plenty of large trees in their farmlands.

So we are bracing for a long hot drought already, and we noticed the neighbour’s farmlands have gone brown or light brown.