Sawdust
"I’m known all over New Zealand as Sawdust."
"When we left the mill we were all covered in sawdust. We used to go to the pub - four guys and me, had our little corner. By the time we left there was about half a metre of sawdust on the floor. I was called Chuck for a start, and it evolved to Sawdust.
I was not a particularly bright child at school; I was good at woodwork, geography, and things like that. I came here to Akaroa High School. When I was 18, I went into my compulsory military training. That was very successful. I stayed a wee bit long which took us on big trips to Fiji and whatever areas needed peacekeeping overseas.
I did firewood from the age of 15. I built my own saw bench in those days. I bought an Austin Seven, I jacked this Austin Seven up in the air, put the belt on the back wheel and built a sawbench.
My father saw an opening after all the sawmills in Banks Peninsula closed down after 1890. They planted macrocarpa and pine trees to get shelter, and because the trees were big enough to mill he started milling over there in 1945 then we shifted from Okains Bay to Duvauchelle Bay.
I got pretty well involved with it, you know. Dealing with builders all the time and cutting timber for their houses or whatever they were doing. Timber was cut at the sawmill at Duvauchelle - some of it went to the Chatham Islands. The first chainsaws arrived in about 1950 - sometimes it took longer to get the chainsaw going and than if you cut it with a hand saw!
It took me four years to build my house, all made of macrocarpa. I had to keep my business going as well. That's a real thing of self-satisfaction. Going to the bays, cutting down the tree, carting it, sawing it up, bringing it here and building a house out of that - not many people get that opportunity."
- Don (Sawdust)
View more stories, or nominate someone: @humansofchch
www.humansofchch.org...
We're talking new year resolutions...
Tidying the house before going to bed each night, meditating upon waking or taking the stairs at work.
What’s something quick, or easy, that you started doing that made a major positive change in your life?
Is now the time to change "The Garden City" Title?
Something to natter about over tonight's events.
Since the 2010/2011 Earthquakes, Christchurch has struggled to replicate or make a come-back to regain the "Garden City" title.
There are a large number of contributing factors, land and properties being destroyed and rendered inhabitable = gardens lost for many years or altogether, during the Chaos that followed, residents, businesses and the council had far greater priorities to worry about.
Now the dust has mostly settled, it is becoming more and more obvious that "The Garden City" title can never be lived up to again.
My observations are decisions are being made that are making it impossible:
Huge chunks of land are now mown wastelands, for exercising and dog walking.
Other areas have been converted into water retention/nature and wildlife reserves, none of the plans I have seen or heard, indicate a move back to a Garden City image.
Add to this that high-density housing is reducing the land to grow a garden on and the latest charging for water usage has had a visible effect on how people keep the berm outside their houses. Lots of the properties that are still intact for gardening are now rental properties and it is not hard to see which of those properties are as you drive around, but lots would not win the Garden Award.
I am not in favour or against any of the factors mentioned, I heard chch referred to as "The Garden City" and thought if we had to come up with a new name, what would we want it to be, that reflects a new Image?
Cathedral City is out
Cycle City.....
Wetland wonderland ......
Dog-Friendly City.
I hope you receive all that you deserve in 2025
.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
-
62.8% Summer
-
35.8% Winter
-
1.4% Other - I'll share below
Loading…
