15th November 2024 - Pine End

Thought for the day :" My friend stopped working for BMW - he gave no indication that he was going"

Dry

Overnight stay in Llanelli, so off to Fairwood Common to pick up a speaker for Dave that he bought on Facebook. Called yesterday but rand the wrong door bell - there was a recording studio and by the side.

Sound Engineer Barry something - will look up again some time

Back via the shops to get stuff for the Germans arriving tomorrow.

Walked the dogs and did a little more work on the Athelstan Installation for Wednesday, when I install my successor.

Dave and Rhys finally managed to get onto the second Pine end. Have Meshed the wall and brought it out to the same a flat surface and the scratch coat is on. Single layer of limewash on the side walls.

Another week - thinking it is going to be wet at the beginning of next week but we shall see

In other news - learned today that most of the country's multi-storey car parks are going to be unusable in the future. Conversation came out of discussion about the Tinopolis Studios at Llanelli which took over the old Tesco Store and therefore inherited the multi-storey car park which is not open to the public now. Apparently it is built with Rack - so is dangerous anyway along with most car parks of that age.

Then the conversation moved to electric cars and the opinion that due to their extra weight - almost a tone each - the car parks were never built with the expectation of dealing with that amount of weight on each floor - worth thinking about. Food for thought.

Cheers !

14th November 2024 - Trevor Kelway Installation - so leaving Nancy to do the work

Thought for the day: "Did you know that if you hold a Squirrel up to your ear you can hear what it is like to be attacked by a squirrel"

Dry 

Trevor Kelway Installation at Llanelli 

But the Chickens are out on their new perches in the hedge 

And Nancy has been working on the log pile 

Cheers !

Cheers 

13th November 2024 - Computer scare !

Thought for the day :"To the guy who yelled angrily at me when I honked my horn.. your mobile phone is probably no longer on your roof"

Dry and Cold  but rain overnight 

Day still too cold for doing the render on other pine end so it was another day of lime wash on the first pine end and started on the side wall.

It is going to take time and Dave and Rhys have decided to try to work 10 - 3 and calculate hours rather than daily rate. Suits me as I get to pay for the work done.

Will admit it is going to look good .

They got very cold today in fairness ...

I walked the dogs and cleared my computer corner and in fairness it needed it - there was a lot of detritus there but it is all easier to move to paint the living room now

Had a bad moment when my desktop failed to start and I took all the casing off like a pro and looked at the gubbins and had no idea what to do 

Held the start button down for ages as I thought about it and saw the fan start moving and stop!!

Perseverance in a condition of complete ignorance worked once again and after getting a hair dryer out to blow into the fan and get rid of all the dust it started working .. Phew ! That was a relief.

In other news - I liked this little ditty from Brian Bilston 

So all back together now and time to watch the Rings of Power !!

Cheers

(I may get shot for this one)

  
 

12th November 2024 - New Court in Wessex

Thought for the day :"A friend asked me to re-turf a field so that they could carry out a civil war re-enactment... I thought “Sod that for a game of soldiers!"

Dry and cold

Too cold this morning for getting any rendering done ...

Waited around until after midday but the lads only managed to spend half an hour clearing the rubble and render from the pine end.

Walked the dogs and 'Thena did a runner of course - but showed up the other side of the kissing gate after 25 minutes. Managed to get back to the house just in time to get changed and head off to Carmarthen to get a lift to Offa's Dyke for a consecration of Harold Godwyn's Court No 99 with four provinces sending support from Kent, Sussex,  Dunmonia and Magonsaetan - a good turn out for our PGM John Evans to be installed as Primus Master.

A bit slow on the catering meant that we were not able to leave until after 9.30pm, so was just before 1am as I got home. 

Apparently the boys managed to lime wash and paint the pine end before leaving about 3.30pm 

Temperature is falling again tonight so not sure if we will get much done tomorrow either.

Cheers !

11th November 2024 - How much wood can a wood chuck chuck?

Thought for the day :"I still remember 30 years ago pushing chewing gum coated in super glue into my ears. That sort of thing sticks in your mind."

Dry 

So, today decided to employ Nancy as a labourer to get my act together down the lower quarter.

Set her to splitting the Ash wood that is rotting down there while I completed the Wood Store made from the spare pallets we have been collecting. Pallets and covered with weed suppressant. Tarpaulin to go over the roof later ...

The completed store with as much wood as we were able to chuck in there on one day

 

Nancy with her splitter

yup - working well 

The store nearing completion 

exterior wrap of weed suppressant to allow air through but hopefully keep most of the rain out .

 

battened down

and the completed structure

Lower Quarter looking good in the autumnal colours 

Autumn is definitely here

Start of the day 

Start of the day 

smiling Nanoo

Stop Photography

and me - of course

Cheers !

10th November 2024 - And Winter settings on the Solar

Thought for the day :"There has been reported that there has been an increase of thefts of bells recently. Police believe it could be the start of a chimewave"

Rain (just a little)

Found the settings for the inverter again today - for future reference it is the Inverter settings, and adjust the timed charge option. Have set it to charge the battery for two hours at 3am so as to give us more power in the day at the cheaper nigh time rate.

Spent quite a time on the computer doing some calculations. Looked at the figures for electrical use last year and seems that last year our electric charges including daily standard charges which amount to a sickening £180, but actual bills look to be about £1000 for last year. However we have to addon the cost of coal which looks to be going at 8 bags a month - or £96 and we have had heating from September or £700 per annum. Add to that a trailer of logs at £180, and the use of 2 and a half loads (we have some left at the moment)_gives us another £400 meaning that an electrical cost of £2100 would be comparable to our usage last year - perhaps more as the daily rate has increased as well as the costs. We shall see.

In other news, it has been a slow day today - working on the computer mainly though walked the dogs this morning.

The chickens seem to be getting used to having Welsh spoken to them as we leave the radio on Radio Cymru as the main talking radio channel we can find in the chicken compound. We have the radio on to try to trick the fox into thinking that there are people there. we shall see how we get on.

Susie is painting her second Chair for the kitchen

and for reference - the name of the paint

So- on we go with playing catchup on the Blog - needing to go back to the 17th October.

and finally done !!!

Cheers

Though it is quite mild today ....

9th November 2024 - Kitchen Chairs and Batch Cooking

Thought for the day :"While working at The Rolling Stones bakery, you don’t always get what you want, but you do get what you knead."

Wet 

Weekend update on the house  

Batch Cooking books for Susie 

and first chair is painted

three to go 

Cheers !

8th November 2024 - Getting hacked off

Thought for the day :"When you are painting a chair, it's always better not to use gloss. It has to be satin..."

Dry 

Toby Supervising 

Susie starts to paint the Kitchen Chairs 

and a cup of coffee

and the back wall is hacked off

Meanwhile - PIR lights  set in parking area

Cheers 

7th November 2024 - Lost Mr & Mrs Snowy - Fox

Thought for the day :"Accordion to a recent scientific study, inserting instruments into messages often goes unnoticed."

Dry 

Rhys is unwell so Dave is on his own working the second Pine end ...
Hacking off the render. Decisions to be made - whether to take the stone out as we did in the other end, as the stone is very poor, but decision to mesh the existing stone back into the render and then render the whole pine end rather than limewash. Hoping that it will not tap moisture in but the blockwork is fairly sound and this end does not get the heavy weather. Decisions - but a week' work or five weeks work. we are getting to the end of the treasury !

Walls all painted with weathershield

And lawns cut - probably for the last time this year 

Sad news - the Fox struck again.

Sadly lost Snowy our new white cockerel and his mate the white hen 

Though we had lost this one as well but was hiding on top of the Chicken House !

 

Only feathers for the rest 

But dog walking is beautiful at this time of year - the autumen leaves are wonderful.

and more fungi 

Cheers