What I Did This Weekend - In Pictures!

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I cut the ancient boundary hedge the other day - a mixture of hazel and hawthorn, with many other interlopers.

DSC_0485.JPG


The more observant (and more critical) amongst you will notice the plume of hawthorn that has erupted behind the oil tank. This is very awkward of access and gets attacked only every few years. This was one of those years.

It was a lot less windy today and the event concluded with no fatalities.

As is often the case, the debris looks a little bigger than it did when it was in place.

It does, however, possess the useful property of being shreddable straight away.

DSC_0487.JPG


A few minutes later, this was the result - the whole pile reduced to a nine inch high, eighteen inch diameter pile of readily compostable bits.

DSC_0488.JPG


There is also the warm glow you get from shredding something that has stabbed you repeatedly.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
I cut the ancient boundary hedge the other day - a mixture of hazel and hawthorn, with many other interlopers.

View attachment 8738

The more observant (and more critical) amongst you will notice the plume of hawthorn that has erupted behind the oil tank. This is very awkward of access and gets attacked only every few years. This was one of those years.

It was a lot less windy today and the event concluded with no fatalities.

As is often the case, the debris looks a little bigger than it did when it was in place.

It does, however, possess the useful property of being shreddable straight away.

View attachment 8739

A few minutes later, this was the result - the whole pile reduced to a nine inch high, eighteen inch diameter pile of readily compostable bits.

View attachment 8740

There is also the warm glow you get from shredding something that has stabbed you repeatedly.
Hmm we have a lot of Hawthorn in with the privit, maybe a shredder is the way to go....
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Hmm we have a lot of Hawthorn in with the privit, maybe a shredder is the way to go....
For the 'right sort of garden', a shredder is a real asset.

Stuff such as that seen above doesn't even need to go into a heap, you can just spread it as a mulch in the borders.

The 'kinetic' shredders, such as the Alko seen above, can be a bit noisy, but there are (allegedly) silent shredders out there now.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I've been waiting for the 'right weather' to do this - an overcast day without too much rain. Sunny, and I would be grilled in the greenhouse, or pouring and I would get soaked going backwards and forwards outside.

The white box across the back is a 6' x 2' electric thermostatic propagator, made from expanded polystyrene slabs and filled with a couple of inches of sand, to give some 'thermal mass' for the heater cable.

Over the years, the legs on the left at the back have slowly rotted at the bottom, lowering that side to the point where things might all let go sideways out through the glass...

DSC_0489.JPG



Of course, it was too low now to get the jack under it - reminiscent of working on old Citroens - using a substantial plank as a lever got it up high enough to put a concrete block under and then I was able to jack it 'properly'.

It's all a bit more reliable-looking now.

DSC_0490.JPG
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
About fifteen years ago, my trusty old bike was stolen and, in haste, I bought a replacement from Back2Bikes, just to keep me going. It has proven to be an excellent device, causing no issues beyond replacements due to wear. So, I decided to keep my eyes open for a 'spare' Claud Butler Urraco and one turned up on eBay, not identical, but near enough.

It was in bits, so I've put it back together and fitted the carrier that I recently found again, plus the lighting arrangement. The tyres are fairly old and a bit too knobbly for me, so they will be replaced at some point soon.

View attachment 7960

View attachment 7961
It being a nice evening for it, the bike has just been out for it's first 'real' night run. I went out before, well past the streetlights, but it was out and back on the main road, with its centre and edge markings. Tonight, I ventured down some back lanes, in total darkness and with no markings. It was quite successful, I may do a longer trip, if the weather holds.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
It being a nice evening for it, the bike has just been out for it's first 'real' night run. I went out before, well past the streetlights, but it was out and back on the main road, with its centre and edge markings. Tonight, I ventured down some back lanes, in total darkness and with no markings. It was quite successful, I may do a longer trip, if the weather holds.

Sounds to me like there's an easy 20 points going there. (15 of them for the bike !!) :P
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I've spent a bit of time over the last few days demolishing the old 'temporary' woodshed.

The idea is to replace it with a 'phone box' to the left of the doors, leaving the hard-standing available for a work area, and allowing the left-hand door to open again.

I've used about ¾ of the wood in it over the last year or so, so now seemed a good time to approach the task.

DSC_0505.JPG


DSC_0506.JPG


DSC_0507.JPG
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
This was the amount of wood left in it - I thought it might fill one of the greenhouses.

DSC_0509.JPG



But it almost disappeared in there...

DSC_0510.JPG



There were some 'iffy' bits of wood - wormholes and some damp stuff from the bottom edge - they can stay there and get used first.

DSC_0512.JPG



The speakers were useful through this task.


And, I've done all this without standing on a nail - so far...
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Decided to take a walk down the coastal path to a place called Stanbury Mouth this morning. Fairly remote place although only a 10 minute drive. The sea is a bit difficult to get to.
Stanbury3.jpg


The narrow gully at the bottom is a bit of a stuggle, especially as the wind is funnelled in here, and blowing at gale force.

StanburyGully.jpg


Worth it though. Not much sand, but what a view of Lower Sharpnose Point ... (aptly named I'd say.) There used to be a path down that ridge, used by climbers who performed on that big slab at the bottom. Not used now, very dangerous.

SharpNosePoint2.jpg
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Today looking like it might be dry - at last - I decided to start demossing the greenhouse roofs. The moss grows prolifically on the roof bars, but never on the vertical sides. At times it can swell alarmingly and might have been responsible for cracking panes in the past.

DSC_0532.JPG



This involves removing the W clips, the glass panes and their Z clips, removing the moss from the rails and the glass, then replacing everything.

DSC_0533.JPG



It's worth doing about once a decade, as the moss wicks water through in a few places, too.

DSC_0535.JPG
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I was going to do one side a day, to reduce the risk of disasters...

But, looking at the others, which now looked worse, I carried on and did them all today.

DSC_0534.JPG



I managed to do it all with minimal losses - I broke nothing, but I did find a couple of W clips that had corroded away, having been surrounded by perpetually wet moss, and I did lose two, finding one, but the other disappeared at the speed of light - and I 'lost' a Z clip , but that was there at end when I looked :mystery:

DSC_0536.JPG
 
Last edited:

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Decided to take a walk down the coastal path to a place called Stanbury Mouth this morning. Fairly remote place although only a 10 minute drive. The sea is a bit difficult to get to.
View attachment 8854

The narrow gully at the bottom is a bit of a stuggle, especially as the wind is funnelled in here, and blowing at gale force.

View attachment 8855

Worth it though. Not much sand, but what a view of Lower Sharpnose Point ... (aptly named I'd say.) There used to be a path down that ridge, used by climbers who performed on that big slab at the bottom. Not used now, very dangerous.

View attachment 8856

Watching a TV program that we recorded at the moment, featuring the Cornish coast. Lots of places looking like this so listening out for places posted ( and @BobClay supping lockdown beer on his lawn :))

Looks a lovely area to live @BobClay
 
Last edited:

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Well I ended up in Cornwall by default. If I wanted the job at the time, that's where I had to go. I did give some thought to moving back up to the West Midlands when I retired, (I've got family scattered about up there) but the thought of selling up and buying and all the moving and bother that goes with that put me straight into "can't be arsed" mode. :P
It is nice but quiet, especially in the winter. I've sort of got used to that though. It is nice to walk a few yards and be in green fields (even if they are full of cow shit .. :eek:)
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Quite often, when presented with a failed quartz clock, the failure is either the electronics or the plastic gears failing through wear, neither of which is worth pursuing, as a new movement is only a few quid.

This one turned out to be fixable - eventually.

"I've had it for years, but it's never worked", I was told, as it was handed over, with two more movements "that might come in handy".

Popping a fresh battery in the three of them found that only one made the tell-tale once-a-second tick, one of the spares.

So, I swapped the movements over, which some messing about, as the fitments were not interchangeable. I popped the battery in and all was well, for about four seconds. Although the mechanism was 'ticking', it turned out that the hour hand was seized in place. Although the second and minute hands were 'free', winding on the minute hand provoked a 'jump' in the gearing inside the case, but this required a torque that the clock itself couldn't produce.

So, it all came out again and the case was carefully opened. Eventually, the hour hand tube was withdrawn from the housing and it could be seen that some superglue had found its way in there. I have a set of drills in 0.1mm steps from 1 to 10mm, so it was possible to ream out the hole in stages, to get it running free again.

it's not often that you will fix one of these things.

DSC_0544.JPG


The next problem was that the hole in the clock face was too big, so a washer was needed - and this brought the second hand into conflict with the glass, requiring some fiddly adjustments to get it working without falling out.

DSC_0545.JPG
 
Top