I’m not sure what the situation is now, but they used to keep a pool of houses in Wellington for MP’s and their families to live in but like everything many have been sold off over the years. It makes sense to have them available as these representatives need to be in Wellington, but renting them back from the owners like this sounds weird.

Pinterest links are the worst. I just don’t want that shit and images of random crap isn’t what I’m after.

Not sure how they gather or process that data, given different companies are different and vary a lot. I live in rural Wairarapa and pay 30 cents peak, 23 cents off peak and 16 cents night rate, but it reckons Masterton is 37 cents? Seems doubtful.

Meanwhile in the thread on ACT policies, the guy saying he’s going to piss on their door handles was the most upvoted comment.

I think your comment was about the only one that disagreed with their policies in a civilised way without resorting to name calling.

I wish more people could recognise differences of opinion or perspective without resorting to name calling but this the internet so pretty sure that isn’t going to happen any time soon. Unfortunately I think it encourages those people who take it too far to keep running with their over the top opinions that I reckon lead to violence. One of the biggest challenges on social media when everyone lives in their own little echo chambers.

I use YouTube music because it’s bundled with premium but man that app is so janky, and it often seems to fail with downloaded music for me when out of cellphone / wireless service which defeats the purpose of having downloaded music.

Nope, they’ve lowered it to 80, and we’ve been told that they weren’t going to increase it. The council said that Waka Kotahi was looking to lower all rural roads to 60 which would be pretty slow in such a big area in the Wairarapa. Hence I’m keen for a policy change to return roads that are designed for it back up to 100.

My partner actually purchased a little thumbs up light with a button we can hit when driving to thank the folks that do pull over.

I’m sure this whole situation depends on the particular road in question. On the remutakas the only people I’ve ever seen passing on blind corners are motorbikes which is incredibly stupid and suicidal. But there is a big speed differential between people who know the road and people who don’t - understandably so - but plenty of inconsiderate drivers (both slow and fast too). Generally trucks are the best at pulling over

Not sure I’d describe it as narrow, certainly not compared to other Wairarapa roads, or Wellington roads either for that matter. It’s got a wide median on both sides the entire way. If I could figure out how to post a picture form the mobile client I use, I’d add a picture to demonstrate. I do understand what you mean about the side roads though.

In the Carterton to Masterton stretch they’ve now put roundabouts in 3 different locations and a wire divider down separating the two sides - although I know some locals are unhappy as there is now a lack of turnaround areas - which presumably is to deal with the side road issue, but still the limit is (theoretically when complete) also 80 even with upgrades, again pushing more traffic down side roads.

Pity it’s not sooner but will be great when it comes. The Wairarapa trains are often standing room only during peak times and the lack of options is pretty poor too. Any idea of these will be any faster or just more regular?

If it were fit for purpose each location they changed it, that would be great. But I’ve yet to meet anyone who (for example) thinks changing the road from Featherston to Masterton to 80kph is fit for purpose. Especially the Featherston-Greytown section which is probably the straightest and best maintained piece of road in the Wairarapa.

The only thing it’s done is force more traffic onto side roads which are still 100.

Also, well I appreciate the frustration of having others up your arse (ha) there could also be something to be said for pulling over if/when you are in a slower vehicle (e.g. towing a trailer) - not saying that you don’t pull over, but the amount of people that don’t, even with slow vehicle bays (or worse speeding up at passing lanes) makes the whole thing more dangerous.

Would love a seed box recommendation if you have one to share? My new place is off grid so with limited power prefer to offload a 24 hour server elsewhere so I can be a responsible seeder.

Come join us in the wops. With Starlink everywhere is pretty liveable now I reckon.

I feel ya. It’s a hobby for us so we don’t mind the time, but we probably spend at least a couple of hours a week each in the garden.

Fair enough too. Probably depends on motivation as well - we grow our own for many reasons including a goal of self sufficiency and a better understanding of what’s in the food we eat so it’s not just economics for us.

We’ve obviously invested a fair bit in getting the garden set up, but once you can grow from seed (and especially saving your own seed) it might be just a few dollars for a few hundred seeds (depending on the crop) and some plants (beans, tomato’s, watermelons etc) that are super easy to save seed from. We’re even self sufficient for things like popcorn (and have a couple of kilos worth of seed left - some which we’ll still eat) so that makes a difference too.

Lastly though we just love gardening, and I really enjoy showing my kids the lifecycle and getting them involved in the process. They get to choose and manage some crops of their own, and always speak with pride when we eat the things they’ve contributed to.

If the plants I’ve mentioned I find they either stay growing for a long time (cucumber, courgette) or store very well (garlic, onion etc). We do multiple batches of onions and carrots still but the others I mentioned there usually just one. Brassicas, beans etc we do usually stagger though, as well as getting early starts in the greenhouse and with a seedling warming mat.

On the pest front my old man (who used to be a commercial market gardener for a few years) recommended derris dust for the brassicas. We haven’t used it (and there is mixed opinions on its health impact online) but that’s potentially an option. Insect netting is the best for us though.

We’re currently planting to build a fully netted area in our garden around 50sqm for that reason.

Garlic and onion store super well. We still have some 2 year old garlic which has done fine. Cool dark place and you are good to go. Potatoes can start to root up over time but still perfectly edible. In ground storage for root veg seems to do well for us as well (although some of our carrots end up a bit wonky looking) but wouldn’t leave potatoes in once the ground is getting too wet.

I think cucumbers did particularly well last year due to all the rain and just enough sunshine too. Cucumbers are heavy feeders though so we usually fertilise them every couple of weeks (with homemade fertiliser so it’s cheap).

With our brassicas once it’s white butterfly / caterpillar time we put insect netting over them. Mitre10 had some reasonable insect netting cloches which are fine to start with. We find them quite prone to bolting if they get too much Sun so also recommend planting them in a semi shaded area of your garden. Over summer the area we plant them only gets 3-4 hours of Sun a day and that seems to be plenty.

Another one for us is reviewing our insurance options at least once per year. This has probably saved us at least $1500/year so very worthwhile. Currently have house and contents insurance with AMP, car insurance with cove and tower (as they are cheaper depending on the car), boat insurance also with tower, life insurance with Chubb and health insurance with NIB.

I also find it varies from year to year so I go through and recheck. The multi policy discounts don’t really seem to make up the difference.

This year our old house insurance provider was going to put us up to $320/month from $200/month. I ended up getting the same level of cover through AMP for $190/month.

And just to add, apps like grocer and Gaspy are game changers.

Another big saving for us is stocking up on meat when it’s cheap - either chicken (usually at packnsave) or pork ribs (usually at Gilmour’s) - we produce our own beef and lamb. As such we’ve got 3 deep freezers, and I can’t remember the last time we paid even $10/kg for meat

I should really post up a picture of our vegetable garden - we’ve got a couple of hundred square meters of vege garden as well as a 30sqm greenhouse, and we grow everything from seed so we’re quite set up for it. We do live on a lifestyle block though.

I’d also be shocked if we only got 1kg of courgettes from each plant too. Last year we had 3 and couldn’t give them away quickly enough to keep up while also eating them everyday. Some with cucumbers. We’ve also got about 40-50 brassicas in the ground, and are on our 3rd year of our own garlic and onion supply, and aiming to survive on our own potatoes only this year as well - last year harvested about 100kg worth and this year aiming to 3-4x that. We’re definitely keen gardeners though so I know that’s not for everyone.