A little touch of Paradise.... Part 1

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57
Location
Hamilton, New Zealand
Well maybe :D.

We have moved again. For a long while now my wife and I had wanted a home where she could have a studio for her art work and I was always dreaming of having a larger workspace.


Because my wife suffers from hyperacussiveness ( hearing sensitivity) as well as other side affects from a serious brain injury we had been looking to the rural sector for a quiet living arrangement.


Purely by chance I was sent an insurance to repair some windows (glazier by trade) and duely did the work.


The locality was 30 kilometres outside Hamilton and to the west. The property owner mentioned that he had relocated the old homestead to the other side of his property and would I like to tender for the restoration of the leadlight windows in the house. Well honestly does a bear @$#% in the woods :rolleyes:. The house was a work in progress at that time. I asked him what he intended to do with it to which he replied he would prefer to rent it rather than sell at this point ...well guess what .. I said we would like it...he said ok...and to top it off I got the job of repairing the leadlights too. :congrats:

So with little further ado we moved out to the country and rented out our house in town. This was November 2008.

After moving out to the country and getting settled in there was just the minor job of erecting the double garage /workshop. This would afford me twice the area I had previously had :clap:

It took about a month to get it erected, and another month to get the power and cladding on, theres still a few things to finish off but the workshop is lockable, dry and cosy.

In part two I will post some piccies of the locality including the helicopter that woke me at 8.00am today. So much for a sleep in but thats the country for you. If the weather is fine the works gotta be done.
 
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A little touch of Paradise.... Part 2

Heres a few shots of the locality we now live in. The shots of the chopper were taken at 8.30 am this morning. Some of the other shots were at various times.

Photo 1 is looking directly west at Mt Pirongia, this is the view at the back of the workshop/house.

Photo 2 Is looking south east from the front balcony

Photo 3 Is the ranges due east of us.

Photo 4 Is due south wit Mt Kakapuka in the distance

Photo 5 Is a close of the chopper at work

Photo 6 The valley directly south and below us

So this gives you an idea of the location
 

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A little touch of Paradise.... Part 3

So now comes the important bit. The retreat for all and sundry :thumb:

First photo is directly out the back door looking north. The workshop is to the left of this view ( which is also the view from the kitchen)

The rest of the photos are fairly well straight forward.

On the to do list is the following:

Add more powerpoints.

Line the rest of the workshop with ply.

Line the ceiling (It gets cold at altitude, even in summer)

More shelving to be built

New router table to be built

Find a home for all the household items currently in storage

And I'm sure there will be a truck load more to come as well.

Photos to follow
 

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Larry youre right. I waste a heap of time sitting on the porch looking at the view. Especially at the end of the day. The color and texture of the landscapes is always a joy to be hold.
I made the mistake of letting my wife see this.:( New Zealand has been on our dream vacation list for quite a while - even more so after watching LOTR about a dozen times.:rofl:
 
So cool ------------------Absolutely great. We don't have views like this in Texas. Just where are you.

Ray Gerdes

We are here :p North Island , New Zealand

Photo 1 shows a map location

Photo 2 shows a close up from google maps. The black circle shows where our house now is.

Map three is a wide angle terrain photo showing the mountain bottom left and the city of Hamilton (pop. 150,000) top right

Hope that helps :p
 

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Yeah its a nice place to live. If any of the forum members our out our way, let me know. I'm sure we could find a bed for you.

As a foot note to all the above I am and have been since about the age of 9 an avid amatuer astronomer. The nightsky here on a perfectly dark night is astonishing to say the least.

One of my next wood work projects will be the construction of a 14" truss frame telescope similar to this one
 

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Aw Ralph, my heart bleeds for you, man. It's a shame you have to live is such a desolate, unattractive place like that. Maybe we should take up a collection to see if we can raise enough money to get you moved out of such squalid conditions. :rofl:

Looks like an absolutely gorgeous place to live, and you've got the beginnings of a nice shop going, too. Congrats on finding your own little paradise. :thumb:
 
Yeah its a nice place to live. If any of the forum members our out our way, let me know. I'm sure we could find a bed for you.

As a foot note to all the above I am and have been since about the age of 9 an avid amatuer astronomer. The nightsky here on a perfectly dark night is astonishing to say the least.

One of my next wood work projects will be the construction of a 14" truss frame telescope similar to this one

If you get a chance google Tom Clark. He is a woodworker and an amateur astronomer who builds beautiful wooden telescopes. In fact here is a link I found.

http://www.tomclarkbooks.com/tomclarkbooks.com/The_Modern_Dobsonian.html

I live on the Big Island in Hawaii and have yellow street lamps to keep the city glare down so it dosen't affect all the telescopes up on Mouna Kea.
 
That is a beautiful place Ralph. Gazing over that vista has to be great for your, and your wife's creative inspiration. Thanks for showing us.

I'm surprised that the sheep don't seem too concerned about the helo. Even the one holding onto the rotor hub looks pretty relaxed :)

Take care
Peter
 
Thanks Royal for the link. I had seen a couple of Toms scopes but didnt realise he had made so many.

Um the correct technical term Is "Good on yah M8" :D But yes we do :p

Actually the photo is a little deceptive. The sheep are about a mile away from the heli ( except for the one inspecting the rotor hub. Clever little sod aint he:clap: )

The photo showing the helicopter from the underside was taken about 40 feet above our house as he rolled over for another pass done the valley back toward the sheep . I should point out that I was rather pleased with that photo as I used depth of field and full optical zoom to get it. It brought the trees and the more distant mountain into frame. Its the first photo i have taken using those settings. Compliments to Fuji for making a very nice camera.
 
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Ralph ... what do U use for lenses system? I have a (HAD) friend that made telescopes from scatch. Quite an art I thought. I look forward to pix.
interesting Q-- what are they spraying. Only thing came to my mind was fertilizer.

good on yah M8 Ray Gerdes

Lenses and system vary depending size and style of telescope. Generally dobsonian large aperture.

They were spraying zinc and liquid urea. The zinc helps keep facial exchema to a minimum and the urea promotes rapid pasture recovery.
 
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