{"id":1961,"date":"2016-05-15T17:33:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T05:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2016-12-19T08:52:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-18T19:52:30","slug":"in-the-mailbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/in-the-mailbox\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Mailbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the interesting things about moving\u00a0to the country is a\u00a0change in the junk mail that arrives\u00a0in your letterbox. Brochures on\u00a0the latest electronic gizmos and flyers\u00a0full of supermarket specials still march in, but suddenly there are also glossy catalogues with pictures of rather more rural apparatus.<\/p>\n

Our regular\u00a0batch\u00a0of circulars include enticements to buy ride-on mowers (we joke that\u00a0we already own\u00a0two of those<\/a>), quad bikes, sheep\u00a0drench, high tensile\u00a0wire, and electric fence units.<\/p>\n

Why\u00a0just the other day this little gem arrived\u00a0for\u00a0the Forbearing Husband to drool over.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Porn for farmers<\/p><\/div>\n

In the city we had a\u00a0‘No Junk Mail’ sign on the letterbox. We couldn’t be bothered looking at yet another batch\u00a0of towels, microwave ovens and\u00a0underwear. Somehow the farming circulars\u00a0we are getting now seem much more interesting.<\/p>\n

In a few years time probably\u00a0the novelty will have worn off. By then\u00a0I’ll be able to tell you off the top of my head how much you’d\u00a0expect to pay on a good day for a 100 pack of 2.5mm\u00a0HC2 Crimp Sleeves<\/a>.\u00a0In the meantime\u00a0it’s quite an education to be appraised of\u00a0mineral supplements for cows at different stages of the dairying cycle, or to view\u00a0a\u00a0picture of a\u00a0Hayes Chain\u00a0Grab Wire Strainer (with extra long chain), and know that I could pick one\u00a0up for $139 from PGG<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fencing items useful in the torture chamber. Number 3: The Wire Strainer.<\/p><\/div>\n

The selection\u00a0of things being pushed is also a clue as to what I should be getting on with in any given season. Spring —\u00a0alkathene water pipe; Autumn — grass seed; Winter — fencing supplies… It’s a regular farming\u00a0to-do list.<\/p>\n

On the topic\u00a0of winter fencing, and keeping in mind my aspirational 2016 achievement list<\/a>,\u00a0I had\u00a0a bit of a tutorial last weekend from Our Neighbour\u00a0Neil. Since then I’ve been practicing tying these:<\/p>\n

\"wire<\/a>

Fencing items\u00a0useful in the torture chamber. Number 27: The Termination Knot (yes, I know,\u00a0it sounds bad).<\/p><\/div>\n

And during the tutorial, when Neil asked me to grab\u00a0the crimping\u00a0tool from his\u00a0shed on my way past, I knew just\u00a0what I was looking for. Thank you rural junk mail, where\u00a0would I be\u00a0without you?<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the interesting things about moving\u00a0to the country is a\u00a0change in the junk mail that arrives\u00a0in your letterbox. Brochures on\u00a0the latest electronic gizmos and flyers\u00a0full of supermarket specials still march in, but suddenly there are also glossy catalogues with… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,35,5,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autumn","category-fencing","category-leaving-auckland","category-power-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":88,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3756,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions\/3756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.charmedlife.co.nz\/cowboybootsandbrokenfingers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}