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...
Poll: Should you ask before planting tall shrubs/trees near your property line?
It may be fine now but in a few years trees can block out light or views for neighbours.
Do you think neighbours should ask before they go ahead and plant these?
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67.9% Yes, always ask
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30.7% No
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1.3% Other - I'll share below!
Show us your winter craft or DIY projects
When we are stuck inside, it can be a time to get creative. And we think Neighbourly members are quite a creative bunch. So, let's fill the Neighbourly newsfeed with crafty creations from across the country.
Share a photo below of your craft projects, recent DIY, or your hobby. You may just inspire someone else!
Banking Regulations and Large Corporates - Beware
Found out some pretty shocking information.... I cancelled my insurance policy with AMI and they owed me a refund.
Instead of paying the refund, they set up a direct debit on my bank account with BNZ without my authority and withdrew the amount they were supposed to refund me.
Called the bank to find out how that could have happened and they told me that "a number of large organisations were allowed to set up direct debits without any authorisation from the customer".
I called the Banking Ombudsman and they confirmed that was correct. They said it was done to "reduce the amount of paperwork for the organisations and they depended on the fact it would reflect badly on these organisations if they abused the plan" to prevent any issues.
So anytime they want, telcos, insurance companies electricity companies, etc can set up a direct debit on your accounts and deduct money. If you want to dispute it, you have to go through a disputes resolution process, so there goes hours, days or months of your time to get your money back.
Unbelievable!!!!!
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