I really don't fancy going out in that

The weather forecast for today was appalling.  It was predicted to rain, intermittently, for most of the day, and the temperatures were to be well below the seasonal norm.

It was definitely going to be an indoors day.

Andrew, our gate installer, was of the same mind, and pinged us yesterday evening to see if it would be convenient to come and sweep the chimney.  He arrived just after nine o'clock and it was pissing down. It seems a morning sweeping chimneys was a far better occupation than laying slabs.*

While Andrew and Mark attended to the chimney, I grabbed the clippers and tidied up Whiffler and Hobson's faces.  I even managed to clip Whiffler's front paws, but he wasn't particularly cooperative, so I left it at that for today. I will need to finish his paws and tidy up around his bum at some point in the next few days. I also need to give Hobson a complete clip, and don't get me started on The Rat... She looks like something feral at the moment!

In the afternoon we took Whiffler in to see Kate, our dog sitter.  The reason for this visit is that we are off narrowboating the week after next, and the dogs will be staying with Kate. As Whiffler is most definitely geriatric now, we wanted her to be comfortable with having him for a stay.

Kate was more than happy with Whiffler, as she has a lot of experience with older dogs.  She said he seems to be doing well, considering his age. His twelfth birthday is only three weeks away.

We arrived home in the late afternoon and decided that a fire was a good idea. I braved the cold and drizzle and soon had a fire blazing in the log burner.

I really hope Summer arrives soon!

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* His original plan for today

Bits 'n pieces

Wednesday started with a drive over to Bromsgrove for a dental checkup. I arrived well before my appointment time, and was mildly irritated to find that the dentist was already running late. I eventually received a glowing report on the state of my gums, and headed home.

I spent what was left of the mooring in the tomato greenhouse,  where  I thinned out the plants, removed side shoots and tied the larger ones in to the bamboo canes.  

With the tomatoes now sorted, I retired for lunch and a short snooze on the sofa.

On waking I lit my smoker and headed up to the orchard to finish the reconfiguration of the hives. I removed the top supers from hives #1, #2 and #3, and these were placed on hives #4, #5 and #6. These have a reasonable amount of honey stored in them, and I am hoping that the queen-right hives will add to that in the coming weeks, although we are currently in the June gap.*

The work in the apiary didn't take more than a few minutes, and I found myself looking for a little job, that would occupy me for an hour, or so.  I grabbed a wheelbarrow and a graft,** and dug a hole for the post that will be used to retain the gate, when it is left open. 

I had applied a little forethought when siting the post hole, and I was hopeful that I would manage to avoid the roots of the nearby ash tree.  The first eight inches of soil came out easily, and then the graft hit a root that ran across the hole.  I muttered a few expletives and attempted to gauge the size of the root.  It wasn't some torso-sized monstrosity needed to support a century old ash tree, but it was difficult to judge. I hoped it was one from the hedge.

I grabbed a hammer and old chisel from the workshop and attempted to cut through the root.  Fortunately the Gods were smiling on me, and I soon had the root section excised.  An hour later I was putting away my tools, having excavated the hole to a depth of twenty inches ... more than sufficient for a two foot post.

I decided that digging the hole was more than enough for this afternoon, so I put off concreting in the post until later on in the week. With my work finished, I headed indoors to get myself tidied up for this week's Tai Chi class.

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* The June gap is a UK phenomenon, where there is a lack of nectar producing flora during this month. The Spring flowers have faded and the Summer blooms have yet to flower.

** A narrow bladed spade, used for digging post holes

Bikes and Bees

I needed to be up early today, as the BMW was booked in for its annual service at Motorrad, Cheltenham.

I had set an alarm for six o'clock this morning, but that was redundant, as I was wide awake just before five! I hauled my arse out of bed, breakfasted, completed my ablutions and early morning chores, before wheeling the R1250 R out of the garage.

I was on the road by quarter to eight and took the most direct route down the M5. I managed to hit rush hour traffic in both Worcester and Cheltenham, which gave me a chance to practice my filtering skills.

I arrived in Cheltenham just before quarter to nine, and soon had my bike booked in. I then settled in a comfy armchair, after helping myself to a large coffee and a couple of free biscuits.  I had booked a waiting appointment, so I spent the morning with my head in a paperback.  The bike was ready just before eleven o'clock, and I was back home well before midday.

I arrived home absolutely shattered and I was bloody freezing. 30% served a warming bowl of homemade oxtail soup for lunch, and I then lit a fire and slept in front of  it for the next hour.

I woke sufficiently thawed and sufficiently refreshed to head up to the orchard to check on the bees. 

I have decided that the hives with laying workers (#2 & #3) are lost causes and I will let those colonies dwindle and expire over the next few weeks.

There is still hope for hive #1. I introduced a frame of eggs and brood last week, and this week's inspection showed that the workers have produced a number of capped queen cells.  I will now leave this colony for at least a month to see if they manage to successfully raise a new queen ... fingers crossed.

The queen-right hives (#4, #5 & #6) are all doing well. A super was added to hive #6, so all three colonies now comprise a brood box and a single super.

I plan to give each of these colonies more space by moving a honey filled super over from hives #1, #2 and #3.  I made preparations for this reconfiguration, by adding clearer boards to these hives. Hopefully the bees will move down from the super overnight, and I will be able to move them tomorrow.

So that just about completes today's Journal entry. I will add that I did check the traps in the store room this morning, and I had caught yet another rodent.

Something's died in here

For the past few days, whenever I have wandered in to the store room, it hasn't smelt quite right. I couldn't identify the smell, but it really wasn't very pleasant.

It was still there this morning, when I wandered in to get a bucket of honey and some clean jars. It is starting to smell like something has died in there!

I spent most of the morning bottling honey, and I had picked the perfect day.  The morning was showery, and there was no way I could have attended to any of the outside projects that need my attention.

After clearing up the honey bottling paraphernalia, I returned the bucket of honey to the store room and decided to investigate. I grabbed a torch and started to peer under the shelving racks.  There were plenty of items of crud, as one might expect in an outside store room, but nothing that would create a nasty sniff, and then my eyes fell upon the culprit.

At this point I should explain that I am normally very good at checking the mouse traps in the store room, but had neglected this task for the past few days. In that time I had managed to trap a young rat, and decay had set in.  Needless to say, I got rid of the damned thing and ensured that all of the other traps were still set.

That was pretty much it for Monday. I did swap the saddle on the BMW to see how it affected comfort and riding position. We also nipped down the road to a local trading estate to collect half a dozen wooden pallets ... We definitely have enough to start stacking the ash in the carport now.

I also left the store room door open, to let it air for a while.

Apparently this was a lazy day too

Choosing to live in a three hundred year old cottage means that there is always something to do.  This can range from a half a day* spent rotorvating the vegetable patch to weeks of work sawing, splitting and stacking logs. With this in mind, I am coming to the conclusion that I really do need to make sure that I build some leisure time in to my week.

I have realised that I am constantly exposed to jobs that need to be done, and I have a tendency to get on with them, rather than, occasionally, stepping away and doing something else.  This became apparent this weekend. We normally take it easy over the weekend, but this one seemed as busy as the week that preceded it.

This morning started with a trip to Screwfix to pick up a bag of Postfix and a length of drainage pipe.  These are needed for a couple of jobs that have come to light over the past few days.**

Once we were home I spent a few minutes admiring  'Chelle's new car, and catching up one her news, before retiring to the workshop. There, I spent a happy hour planing the grime from the hardwood post, that I unearthed in the carport yesterday.  At the completion of my efforts, it looked rather good, and will certainly compliment our new gates, once installed.

The workshop was vacuumed free of sawdust, before I headed out to the carport and quickly daubed a coat of Danish Oil on the post. All I need now is get it concreted in to the ground, a cabin hook screwed to it, and the gate won't swing shut.

The afternoon started with a brief spell of tidying in the carport. On reflection, I felt that I actually put more things in there than I actually managed to throw out.  I am well aware that I need to have a proper clear out, as space is desperately needed for a huge pile of ash logs.

I then grabbed a spade, broom and shovel and continued grubbing out the grass and weeds from the brick edging in front of the garage.  It was bloody hard work, but I am now able to sweep up the sawdust that had become lodged between the many tufts of grass.

Once I had recovered from the exertions of weeding, I broke out the mower and gave the front lawn a long-overdue cut.

That was it for the day. We were both exhausted, but 30% had sagely suggested that this evening's dinner was courtesy of China Twon.

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* In my working life as an IT Technical Solutions Architect, I quickly learnt that even a "five minute job" will take half a day, by the time detailed design, scheduling, reporting, time recording etc, etc was accounted for!

** The Postfix is for the new post that is needed to hold the gate open. Have a look at yesterday's Journal entry, if you are remotely interested.  The length of drainage pipe is needed to replace a length of damaged drain, just outside the gateway.

A day off

It is the first Saturday of June, and, consequently, the day of Cotswold Shooting Ground's monthly shoot.  Bubbles had pinged me earlier in the week, to remind me, so I ordered some cartridges and put it in my diary.  

I must admit that I have become less keen on going clay shooting in recent months. I still enjoy the challenge, but the group dynamic has changed.  Little Miss Sunshine* is now a regular attendee, along with a variety of randoms. The larger group has a different vibe, and seems to lack the intimacy and leg-pulling that I enjoyed, along with the challenge of actually hitting a few clays.**

I've previously mentioned that our relationship with Bubbles and Bobbyn is nowhere near as close as it was, and that seemed apparent this afternoon.  It is not the easiest thing to maintain a conversation when you're clay shooting.  It is noisy, you're wearing ear defenders, and your attention is wholly focussed on hitting clays at regular intervals.  However, it is usually possible to have a chat between stands and find out the latest news.

During our round, I attempted to chat with B, B & B,*** and they happily responded to my conversational gambits, but I got nothing in return.  None of them enquired about what I had been up to, since I last saw them.**** I may be being over sensitive, but I came away with a definite sense that we are drifting further apart. 

The fishing season resumes in a couple of weeks, so let's see if an evening angling on the Avon has a different vibe.

So, that was my afternoon shooting, but I did achieve a few other things too.

In the morning 30% and I hitched the trailer to the car and headed down in to the village to collect a pallet that was going spare.

I also need to be able to fasten the right hand gate in its open position, so it isn't able swing in to the car, or motorcycle, when driving through the entrance.  The simplest solution is to install a short post at the edge of the drive, and use a hook and eye to hold the gate open. I had a wander around the carport and came across a 4' long post that was about 3" square.  I picked it up and it was very heavy. It was far too dense to be softwood, so was likely to be a nice hardwood post ... perfect for my needs.  I took it in to the workshop and cut a chamfer on the top, to shed the rain.  As the freshly sawn wood was exposed, I realised that I had found a lovely post. It is deep red and fine grained, and most likely an exotic hardwood.  It'll look superb, once it is cleaned up, planed and installed.

The only other news for today was that it was bloody chilly, and we actually lit the log burner for a few hours this evening.

Here endeth Saturday's Journal entry.

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* Bobbyn, Bubbles wife. Please note that her alias is liberally coated with sticky sarcasm 

** I actually shot reasonably well, for me, and finished on a score of 48/80 (60%)

*** Bubbles, Bobbyn and Ben

**** Back at the beginning of April, as I was unable to attend the May shoot

Sawing, Splitting & Sweeping

Sawing, splitting and sweeping neatly, and alliteratively, sums up my Friday endeavours.

In the morning I broke out the chainsaw and cut up logs until the petrol tank ran dry.  My endeavours included the fragmentation of three of the large slices of trunk, and the pile of wood now looks significantly smaller.

I then hauled the log splitter from the carport and spent the next few hours splitting the sections of wood into log burner-sized logs. 30% was a huge help, ferrying them up to the log pile in the orchard.

Once the logs had been split, I grabbed a rake, shovel, broom and barrow and cleared up the sawdust.* This was barrowed up to the orchard and will be used as the brown constituent of 30%'s composting experiment.**

By the end of the day we were both exhausted and did very little. Fortunately 30% had the foresight to prepare a Chilli, earlier in the day. We barely needed to chew!

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* That was produced by todays chainsawing, AND that was exposed by the removal of more wood from in front of the garage.

** One third grass clippings and two thirds sawdust, with a liberal dousing of nettle tea.

Well stacked?

Most of my time today was spent stacking ash logs in Rose Cottage.

There is still an enormous heap of logs, piled high, outside, but I am a little nervous of stacking too many in the log shed.  The reasoning behind this apprehension, is that a pile of logs is nothing like a pile of bricks.  They are not a regular shape, and any log pile will always have an inherent tendency to collapse without warning.

Since, later in the year, I will need to skirt past the stacked ash to collect dry logs, I really don't want to be the victim of a log pile collapse. Being trapped under a ton of logs is not going to be a pleasant experience!

I am therefore erring on the side of caution, and plan to stack the majority of the logs in the carport. As I mentioned last week, "There is no such thing as an empty carport." It is a space waiting to be filled.

In the afternoon I thought I might mow the front lawn, but 30% reminded me that I would first need to deal with the old gates.  These had been abandoned on the lawn, and looked even more pathetic than they did when they were hung across our driveway.

The gates needed to be taken up to the orchard, where they will be cremated on the bonfire.  I decided to strip away as much metalwork as possible, so I picked up my impact wrench and unbolted the hinges, ironwork and other fixings.* I then employed my reciprocating saw, cut them in to manageable chunks, before we hauled them away.

While using the reciprocating saw, I probably gave it too much thought. It is a cheap  middle of Lidl item, and it rarely sees the light of day. When deployed it is a crude tool with no finesse, but its strength is that it will cut through timber and metal, using the same blade. Basically it is a tool for demolition, rather than construction and the user instructions really should state, " that it should be used like it belongs to someone else."

Basically, I abused the damned thing and it performed like a little demon. I may not use it often,** but I'm glad I have it in the workshop.

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* Including the original crudely carved house sign

** Its last outing was when I removed the timber partition from the space that became our potting shed.

New Gates

The big news for today is that Andrew and Mark would be installing the new gates. These, and their posts, have been cluttering up the carport since the New Year, and I seemed to have spent far too much time out there weatherproofing them, in preparation for today.  It will be fantastic to finally see them hanging at the entrance to the house ... and to have some free space in the carport too!

Obviously A&M would be working on the drive, so I would not be sawing or splitting logs today.  The weather wasn't particularly clement either, so I hid in the workshop and installed a new rip fence on the bandsaw.

The original rip fence would not sit square on the cast iron table, and an internet search located an inexpensive upgrade from Axminster tools.  It was priced at £16, which was ridiculously cheap, but received amazing reviews, including one from a chap who had the same model bandsaw as me.

The new fence arrived a couple of weeks ago, and has sat in the workshop collecting dust.  Today I finally had the time to get it fitted. It wasn't a particularly complicated job to install. I needed to cut out three slots in the aluminium extrusion, and then use the original fittings to secure it to the cast iron table.

It is a vast improvement on the original and was dead square, in relation to the table and blade.  I am truly amazed at the quality and value of this saw upgrade .... I can't wait to use it anger!

In the afternoon I headed up to the orchard and started stacking the ash logs in Rose Cottage.  I spent a good couple of hours up there and made a reasonable dent in the huge pile logs.  I now have a neat stack that is about one meter square and is, at least, as tall as I am.  I would guess that I now have more than half a ton of logs stored out of the weather.

I would have continued stacking the logs, but my blood sugar dropped, and I needed to stop, eat and have a recuperative nap.  I was rudely awakened, a good twenty minutes earlier than I would have liked, by 30%. She informed me that Andrew was just about finished and we wandered out to inspect his efforts.

Swanky!

The new gates are a complete transformation, and we are delighted with how good they look.  

The original softwood gates were well past their best before date.  Their posts were no longer upright* and the gates were slowly collapsing.  They looked bloody terrible, with a strip of scruffy chicken wire tacked to the bottom of them, presumably to deter rabbits or terriers from entering?  

The house now looks a little more cared for with its swanky new entrance. I just need to make sure I cut the hedges this Autumn.

My final activity was to head down the lane for this evening's Tai Chi class ... although I pretty sure I'm getting more than enough exercise at the moment.

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* One of them had been attached to the trunk of the ash tree with a steel cable, in an attempt to keep it standing straight ... that didn't work!

A definite change in the weather

The weather has definitely turned, and, with showers forecast, it is difficult to make a decision on how to fill my day.

This morning I decided to haul the log splitter from the carport and make a start, splitting the wood that was sawn on Sunday. I probably managed an hour, maybe a little more, before the rain started. Obviously water and electricity don't mix, so the log splitter was put away, and I looked for something else to occupy my time.

I headed up to Rose Cottage and spent some time re-stacking some logs. Basically I need to make as much space in there as possible, to accommodate the ash logs. The big BUT is that I need to stack the ash in such a way that I can still get access to the dry wood at the back of the shed. My plan is to stack the ash on the right hand side of the log shed, leaving a corridor down the left hand side. When Autumn comes, I should be able to sidle down the corridor, to gain access to the dry logs stored at the back of Rose Cottage.

Today I needed to shift a stack of softwood, that had been left near the front of Rose Cottage, since I left it there last February. These logs have now dried, so they were moved to the back, with the rest of the dry wood. I now have space for some* of the ash.

With space freed up in the log store, I returned to log splitting, and finished working my way through the wood I had sawn up on Sunday.

I then had a massive sleep, and it was two hours before I shifted my arse off the sofa.  When I eventually got my shit together, I headed outside and cleared up the sawdust and chunks of bark and wood from the grassy area in front of the garage doors. 

I'm getting there ... slowly

You can definitely see that some progress has now been made, and there is far less tree out there, than there was.

This evening saw us head in to Redditch to see Jonny Cole at The Palace Theatre.  Jonny is a Black Country comedian, whose set is based around popular songs that have been re-written with comedic Black Country references.  One example is the Bill Withers hit Lovely Day, that has been transformed to become Dudley Day. Another was Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry, that had become a tale of a departing girlfriend that took the TV remote control with her ... No Women, No Sky.

It was a very funny show and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I would definitely be keen to catch his next tour. Obviously it helped that we don't live a million miles from the Black Country, and are familiar with the accent and colloquialisms. Both 30% and I attended Wolverhampton Polytechnic, so have an appreciation of the culture, geography and Black Country sense of humour.

One chap in the audience was from London. We really hope that he had an interpreter, as I'm not sure that Jonny's comedy would travel particularly well. At this point I do need to stress, that we thought he was brilliant!

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* There is no way all of it will fit in there. I am considering stacking some on pallets and using tarpaulins to keep it dry.  I am also eyeing up the carport as a potential store too.

I would never have guessed!

There has been a change in the weather, and rain was forecast for this morning.

I really didn't fancy using an electric log splitter when there was a good chance of showers. It is bloody heavy and takes a while to lug it back to the shelter of the carport.

Instead, I decided to see if I could get some of the lawns mowed while it was still dry.  To achieve that, I first need to upturn the mower and re-fit the drive belt.  The mower's drive belt seems to slip off the drive pulleys fairly frequently, and I am now an expert in getting it back in working order.  The plastic belt cover has been damaged and grass clippings to accumulate around the belt and pulley.  I am wondering whether this is part of the problem?*

With the mower now fixed,** the rest of the morning was spent trimming the lawns at the back of the house. It now looks much tidier out there, but I now need to get the front sorted too.

A lengthy sleep followed lunch. At present I am completely shattered and could sleep for hours.  30% thinks it is as a result of the log splitting. She may well be right, but I am also wondering whether allergies may be part of the problem too?

If I am honest, I didn't feel any better after a lengthy kip, and it took a while before I felt compos mentis.  In the late afternoon I joined 30% and other member of of the local Women's Institute for a tour of a local factory.

I had been aware of this company in a vague sort of way. I knew that they did something to do with grass seed mixtures, but that was the sum of my knowledge. It was therefore fascinating to see what was happening inside, and around, the converted agricultural buildings. 

Our first stop was their exhibition field, where they had plots of their various grass and wildflower mixtures.  The plots featured a full sized tennis court, cricket wickets and a putting green. There was a mini pitch, complete with goal posts, demonstrating a seed mixture suitable for football and rugby grounds.

The tour then took us in to the factory, where we were shown the seed mixing machinery. They are have forty eight separate seed varieties and are able to produce a variety of mixtures, dependent on what the customer needs.  All of the mixtures have been field tested to ensure optimum performance. 

It was amazing to see one tonne boxes labelled "Wimbledon only," and orders for Premier League grounds would be coming in as soon as the football season ended. Other production lines were filling boxes for DIY store and Garden Centre chains, and we were informed that they will even prepare one-off orders for customers, in quantities as small as one kilogram.

It was very interesting to see a key component of an International Company,*** tucked away, out of sight in a converted farm in an obscure corner of the county.

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* A new cover has now been ordered

** Gaffer tape may have been used to cover the hole in the drive belt cover

*** Originally Danish, but, through acquisitions, now owns seed producers and suppliers around the world.

Experiments

It will come as no surprise that I spent a large chunk of Sunday morning chainsawing sections of branch and trunk in to more manageable, and moveable, pieces. These will be put through the log splitter in the next day or so.

Most of my efforts were focussed on clearing an area up by the gate post. The reason for this focussed effort is that Andrew will be with us later on in the week, to install the new posts and gates.  

The ash tree was growing only a few feet away from one of the gate posts, and, after the crown had been removed, the trunk was felled on to the ground in front of the garage. It was then cut in to eight inch thick slices, and ended up looking like a sliced banana, albeit one that was five feet in diameter.

I needed to make as much space as possible near the gate post, in order that Andrew can replace the current post. I managed to clear the pieces closest to the gate post, and I think I have given Andrew sufficient space to work. I bloody hope so, because the remaining slices of tree trunk are piled one against another, and I would need to move all of them, to make any more space up by the hedge ... that would be days of effort!

After a morning with the chainsaw I lunched and then snoozed, before heading out to check on the bees.

I have decided that there is little hope of getting hives #2 and #3 queen right again, so my inspection concentrated on hives #1, #4, #5 and #6.  I worked my way through the queen-right hives (4, 5 and 6) and all are doing really well. I spotted all three queens, and hives #4 and #6 are already starting to store honey up in their supers. Hive #6 is a couple of weeks behind the other two, but is building up really nicely.

I then took a look at hive #1. I could see several queen cells that had hatched during the course of my inspection, but there was no sign of either queen or brood. I decided to transfer a frame of eggs from hive #4 in to this colony. Hopefully they will use this transplanted frame to raise a new queen.*

After finishing with the bees, I headed in to the potting shed to try another experiment.

Last year I planted parsnips, but did not have great success. Only a few seeds germinated and, more by luck than judgement, I managed to harvest half a dozen roots for our Christmas lunch.  The roots were large and tasty. The problem was that very few actually grew.

This time I have decided to sow the parsnip seeds in cardboard toilet roll tubes. I have placed three seeds in each compost filled tube. These have all been watered and are now sat in the greenhouse. Apparently parsnips can take a month to germinate and also like high temperatures. I am hoping that I will get better germination in the warmth of the greenhouse, and that I will be able to transplant the seedlings to the open soil without damaging the young parsnip roots.

So, it seems that I have initiated a couple of experiments, both of which will take about a month before I know whether I have been successful.

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* There is no difference between a worker egg and a queen egg. The only difference is the shape of cell that the young bee is nurtured in, and the food that is fed to the larva.  It is a common practice to get a queen-less colony to raise a new queen from a frame of eggs. The workers will choose a cell, containing an egg, and they will enlarge the cell to make a queen cell. They will then feed the larva copious amounts of royal jelly and, fingers crossed, a new queen will be produced.

Let's Split

I have a feeling that my Journal entries may become a little repetitive for the next few weeks, as a result of the need to process the felled ash tree. There will be days when I have other things to do, but my focus has to be on sawing, splitting and then stacking the huge pile of wood that is currently heaped in front of the garage.

So, what happened today?

Despite drinking a reasonable quantity of red wine last night, I woke horribly early and could not get back to sleep. I was up and about a little after five o'clock. 

I started the day by clearing away the barbecue, and then, it will come as no surprise, that I spent the day splitting and moving the logs that I sawed up yesterday.

A lengthy snooze was necessary midway through the afternoon to restore energy levels, but other than that my day was timber focussed. 

I haven't cooked on a barbecue in a very long time

Friday started with a Weber cleaning session. It seems that it had been put away with little or no cleaning,* and there was no way I was going to put foodstuffs on the grill without giving it some serious attention beforehand.

I started out with a wire brush, but it had little effect on  the accumulations of grease and soot. I therefore headed to the workshop and fitted a wire brush attachment to my angle grinder. Twenty minutes later I was inspecting a shiny set of grill bars, before replacing them in to the Weber.

The rest of the morning was spent sorting out barbecue essentials including charcoal, a foil drip tray and the charcoal lighting chimney.

We then took an early lunch, before I grabbed the chainsaw and spent an hour cutting some of the larger pieces of ash tree in to more manageable pieces i.e. small enough for me to be able to lift them up on to the bed of the log splitter.**

At the end of the hour of chainsawing I was very surprised at the size of the stack of wood, prepared for splitting. I am going to be very busy tomorrow.

It was now time for me to put my toys away and get myself cleaned up. B&H were joining us for dinner this evening, and I had decided to roast a loin of pork in the barbecue.  

This is not as straightforward as throwing a couple of sausages on the griddle. It involved getting the barbecue up to temperature, adding the marinaded pork loin, and adding a few blocks of soaked apple wood to the coals, to give the pork a fabulous smoky flavour.  After about an hour of cooking, the pork needs to be wrapped in foil, and fresh coals need to be added to the charcoal baskets. The loin is cooked for another hour, and then rested for a few minutes before serving.

The weather had been lovely all day, and we had a leisurely evening sat out in the garden dining on gravlax, with cream cheese on rye bread, followed by smoky, garlicky pork loin with salad and new potatoes. Strawberries and ice cream were offered as desert, but I'm not sure any of us could manage much after the preceding courses.

There was nothing earth shattering to report from this evening, although it seems that I may be teaching B to ride a motorcycle at some point in the coming weeks.

___

* Thanks TP!

** That'll be tomorrow's fun and games.

Barbecue prep, and more log splitting

There was an impressive thunderstorm last night. I woke to the sound of rolling thunder directly overhead, and flashes of lightning were visible through still closed eyelids. I got out of bed and watched for a while, as did 30%.  I saw terrific flashes of lightning arc across the sky, before realising that I really should try to get a some sleep.  It took a while to drift off, lulled by the rumbles of thunder, quieting as the storm moved on.

We have a barbecue planned for tomorrow evening, and most of this morning was spent in preparation.  I found a few small chunks of apple wood and put them to soak in a bucket of water. They will produce an aromatic smoke, when they are added to the hot charcoal. The barbecue was extricated from the depths of the car port and given a brief examination ... it'll need a damned good brushing before I consider putting foodstuffs on it!

I then wandered in to the kitchen and prepared a marinade based around rosemary, garlic, honey, mustard and seasonings.  This was applied to the inner surfaces of a loin of pork, which had been butterflied, with pockets cut in to each of the wings.  The loin was then rolled, and tied back in to its original form with string. It is now marinading in the bottom of the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm.

The afternoon saw us back in the garden dealing with the logs that resulted from yesterday's session with the chainsaw. I was mostly occupied with the log splitter and 30% shifted them up to the log pile in the orchard ... I must admit that I am concerned that following mathematical equation may well apply ...

Volume of split ash logs ＞available space in Rose Cottage

I am going to have to get that bloody car port cleared again.*

The final news item for today relates to the potatoes, that we planted a couple of weeks ago.  As I was wheeling a barrow up to the orchard, I noticed a few green leaves sprouting from the earth.  This seems quite impressive growth, as they were planted six inches deep and the soil was mounded into ridges along the length of each row. In ten days they have become established and put on growth. It must be the huge quantity of horse manure that was rotorvated in to the soil!

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* I'm not sure whether I have mentioned it before, but a truism has emerged since we moved here, "There is no such thing as an empty car port."  Every time I get the damned thing cleared, some vital piece of equipment needs to be temporarily stored in there.  It is currently home to the trailer, a wood turning lathe, two lawnmowers, a pair of gates, accompanying posts and a wormery!

Impressive!

The need to return the chainsaw blade to TFM at Bromsgrove gave me an excuse to wheel the Guzzi from the garage, and enjoy a ride out in the early morning sunshine.

By the time I got back home, 30% had disappeared for a coffee morning with a few members of her coven.  Consequently, I had the morning to myself.

I therefore decided to amuse myself with little jobs that were not too strenuous, as the weather is still absolutely roasting!

First I made a batch of sugar syrup, as I felt that hive #6 would benefit from further feeding, when I inspected it on Sunday.  The syrup was left to cool, and I headed out to the workshop.

For the past few days I have been pondering the best way to introduce a frame of egg to my problem hives, and I felt that an extra crown board might come in handy. I therefore set to work and soon had one knocked together.*

While I was working I heard a vehicle turn up at the gates, accompanied by the dogs barking. I assumed that it was a honey sale, ignored it, and carried on with my crude effort. At a convenient point, I wandered out to check whether I had made a sale, and noticed a parcel just inside the gate.  I was amazed to find that my replacement chainsaw blade had been delivered in less than twenty four hours.**

A little while later I broke for lunch, but was keen to fit the new saw blade. Within a few minutes I was making a couple of test cuts on a convenient log. The saw now cuts beautifully and I was delighted with its performance.

I was keen to carry on, but the weather was roasting, and I was tired after not sleeping well because of the high overnight temperatures. I therefore decided that a siesta was in order,  and retired to the shade to snooze for an hour.

On waking I headed back outside and set up my Truncator sawhorse.  Then, with assistance from 30%, proceeded to spend an hour producing a large pile of logs ... I'm guessing we'll be splitting and barrowing tomorrow.

I even tried a tried a trial cut of a large branch. It is about six feet long and about thirty inches in diameter.  I have been eyeing it over the past few days and it looks very large compared to the eighteen inch bar on my chainsaw.  I carefully lined the saw up with the branch and started to cut. I was amazed at how well the saw cut through the log. I needed to cut from both sides, but the blade didn't deviate and a perfect slice fell away.  I'm feeling a lot more confident about dealing with the rest of the timber.

After an hour we decided to call it a day, and I retired indoors to cool down and clean up before this evening's Tai Chi class.***

I am hoping that I sleep well tonight, because I have a feeling that tomorrow will be busy too.

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* It's not perfect, but it will do to either keep bees in, or out, of a brood box during my planned manipulation.

** Delivery was stated to be "3-5 Business Days"

*** We were introduced to the Water sequence.

Not quite ALL of the necessary information

This morning started with a visit to the Vet's.  To allay any concerns, I will immediately clarify that it was only for Hobson and Traitorous Bastards' booster jabs.

We were back at home before ten o'clock, but it was already getting very warm.  The expectation is that Monday's temperature record will be broken today!  I therefore planned to avoid anything too strenuous.

I busied myself with the packaging of the BMW seat cowl, that had sold on eBay over the weekend.  I then headed in to Alcester and dropped it off at the Post Office.  It should be delivered in the next couple of days, which will initiate the transfer of funds from the buyer.

I then continued over to the Agricultural supply stores over at Bromsgrove to pick up a couple of bags of layers pellets and a new chainsaw blade. 

I knackered the blade when I was working on the tree stump out on the front lawn. I sharpened it and it would cut again, but the saw bar now pulls to the right.  Apparently this can be a symptom of hitting a stone and also uneven sharpening. Both of these are likely considering the previous use of the saw, and my limited chainsaw sharpening skills.

I was quite happy to invest in a new blade, as I have had the saw for many years and it is definitely time to treat the saw. I did my research and learnt that I needed to know three things to ensure I bought the right chain; the bar length, and the pitch and gauge of the drive links.* These were helpfully printed on the chainsaw bar, so a photo was taken, and off I went shopping.

I was soon back at home with a wickedly sharp new blade, and was keen to try it out. However, the temperatures were ridiculously high, so we had a light lunch and retired to snooze for a while.

Later in the afternoon, I headed out to the workshop and attempted to fit the new blade to the chainsaw.  It didn't take long for me to realise that it was too long.  

Apparently there is a fourth piece of information that is useful when buying a replacement chainsaw blade ... the number of chain links.**

This was definitely a "for fuck's sake" moment, which was swiftly followed by an internet search and purchase.

It looks like I'll be heading back to TFM to return the saw blades tomorrow.

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* 18", 0.325", and 1.6mm.

** 68 in the case of my saw blade, rather than the 72 link chain I was attempting to fit.

I saw the sea

... but that wasn't quite what I expected. Let me explain ...

At some point over the weekend, TP asked if I'd be interested in going out for ride on the Bank Holiday Monday.  I thought that was a great idea and agreed, with the proviso that he would need to help me split and shift some logs, so I could actually get one of the bikes out of the garage.

So, yesterday, we made a slight dent in the huge pile of timber, and a few more details came to light about the ride.  It seems that we will be joined by Dan and Charlie, and mid Wales was mentioned as a destination.

Now I am on record as not being a huge fan of Charlie's group riding etiquette.  TP's isn't perfect, but he is far better to ride with, if Charlie is elsewhere. So, today, I would be riding in a group with Charlie taking the lead ... kill me now, and Dan somewhere in the middle of the group.

At this point I should mention that Dan only passed his test a few weeks ago and has less than a thousand miles of riding experience.  I am of the opinion that the pace of the ride should be set to align with the skill level of the least experienced rider.  This avoids the situation where they are encouraged to ride beyond the limit of their abilities, potentially leading to a mishap.

I recall mentioning this to Charlie and TP, and they took no fucking notice at all!

So off we headed along the A44 towards Rhayader.  The weather was fantastic* and the roads were great, but it wasn't long before Charlie overtook a car and split our little group.  These were not great overtaking roads and, after a few miles, Dan took a risky manoeuvre at a junction, in an attempt to catch up with Charlie. Both TP and I winced and commented, over our intercom, that he really shouldn't have attempted that move.

That basically set the mood for the day. Charlie took the lead and rode like he was out on his own, with no thought for the rest of the group.  Fortunately the roads weren't too bad and he did occasionally pull in to the side for the group to reassemble. 

As lunchtime approached I saw a sign for Aberystwyth and realised that this had become a trip to the seaside.  We parked up and had a very pleasant al fresco lunch in a shady spot.

Over lunch, Charlie chuntered on about our return route. I took little notice for two reasons. One, I didn't have satellite navigation on the Guzzi, and two, I was already prepared to use my phone and place-name navigation** to find my own way home.  I have ridden with Charles enough times to know that he simply cannot be relied upon as a group leader.*** 

This became apparent within a few miles of leaving Aberystwyth.  Charlie and TP were riding in front of me. They overtook a car and pulled away in to the distance.  The road and traffic conditions didn't allow for me to pass the car and I soon lost sight.  I pushed on, hoping to catch up, but was now riding alone.  My intercom chirped to show that I had an incoming call. It was TP calling to let me know that he and Charlie had turned off, and I had sailed past them.

I retraced my steps and found them, using a place marker provided by TP. I was somewhat frustrated by yet another Charlie riding experience, but I did my best to not let it spoil my day. ****

Our return route took us down the A487 as far as Llanrhystud, where we turned off and went cross-country to Llandovery. there we joined the A40 and headed towards Brecon. TP left us in the region of Sennybridge, to head home to Cardiff.

We took an ice cream break, just before TP left us and I used this break to review our homeward route. I decided that I would follow the A40 through Abergavenny, Raglan and Monmouth and on to Ross-on-Wye, where I would take the M50 and M5 home.

I let Charlie and Dan know, and Charlie seemed surprised that a sixty two year old man might pick an efficient route home after more than six hours in the saddle riding twisty roads. We parted at Abergavenny and I gave them a friendly wave before riding the last sixty miles on my own.

I definitely prefer riding that way, and may do much of our France tour solo, linking up with the group in the evening.

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* A UK meteorological record was broken today; the hottest May Day, since records began

** In the old days, donkeys years before satellite navigation, I would simply make a sequential list of towns and road numbers and use that to navigate when riding.

*** I have already mentioned to TP that, during this year's tour of France, we will need to share the destination address and any stops at the start of each day. This is an absolute must, if we stand any chance of avoiding rider attrition.

***  I know that Charlie will never change, and that I need to manage both Charlie, and the situations that arise. Hence the need to demand destination details before we start, and to be happy to find my own way to wherever we're going!

It's getting very hot!

This morning had been set aside to inspect the hives. 30% had planned to spend the morning wit 'Chelle, drinking coffee at one of their favoured haunts ... generally one with a Garden Centre close by!

I was therefore home-alone, and able to work my way through the hives, without fear of interruption, and avoid the heat of the day.*

Before I started with the bees, I carried out a little experiment.  Somewhere in the recesses of my memory, I recalled that punky wood, was a great fuel for my smoker. I normally use corrugated cardboard, but it can be temperamental, either refusing to burn, or burning so quickly that my smoker needs a refill midway through an inspection.

So, I grabbed a chunk of punk wood and, using a cigarette lighter, attempted to get it to burn.  It started to char immediately, but did not flame, neither did it go out.  It just slowly smouldered, and produced a lovely cloud of smoke when I blew on it.  If I can keep the wood dry enough, I may have found an almost perfect smoker fuel.

After checking the hives, I can report that the queen-right colonies (#4, #5 and #6) are all doing well. A super was added to #5, and #6 will be needing one in the next week or two.

I didn't check hive #1, as it is still too soon for it to have a mated queen, so I moved on to hives #2 and #3.  Unfortunately both of these are showing signs of laying workers.  

A session with Google followed to see if these colonies could be encouraged to accept a queen. I didn't really fancy spending £80 on two queens for the hives, only for the bees to reject and kill them.  My search session suggested that my best move would be to shake out all of the bees from the hive, at least twenty yards from the hives original position. I should then set up a hive with a frame of eggs and some stores in the original position.

The theory is that the laying workers will not return to the hive, but the rest of the worker bees will.  They should then use the frame of eggs to raise a new queen ... Well that's the theory, and it doesn't involve spending forty quid on queens, only for them to get killed by an unaccepting colony.

I plan to perform this management technique a little later in the week, when the weather cools somewhat. 

After finishing with the bees, I spent the rest of the morning splitting logs, and had created quite a pile, by the time 30% returned home a little after one o'clock.

Lunch and a lengthy kip followed, before I returned to the log splitter and chainsaw. TP arrived back midway through the afternoon,** and helped me shift the logs up to the orchard.

I can actually get my bikes out of the garage again!

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* The temperatures are in the high twenties, and the news reports are suggesting that we may experience the hottest May weather since records began.

** He had been up to Preston for a "pre-stag" event with his chums; Charlie, Dan and Matt, the groom-to-be.

Mostly Log Splitting

I can now provide an initial report on the performance of the log splitter ... it is bloody brilliant!

There is still a big degree of physicality, especially in the hot sunny weather, but it is much less effort than splitting the logs with an axe or maul.

I spent all morning, and an hour after lunch, processing logs with the splitter, with 30% ferrying my output up to the orchard. She commented that, when I was splitting them with an axe, she could keep pace shifting them up to the orchard, but now I am using the splitter, she returns to an ever increasing pile of logs.  Clearly there is an increase in my productivity, and a decrease in my levels of exertion!

We both avoided the heat of the day, and spent an hour snoozing in the early afternoon.

I then pulled the mower out of the potting shed, and tidied up the front lawn. Unfortunately the bloody mower threw its drive belt AGAIN, so it was a more physical activity than I really wanted.

After recovering from my mowing session, I had a play with the chainsaw.*  I needed to find a way to deal with the larger sections of the trunk, as these are close to five feet in diameter. There is no way I could lift one, let alone load it on the log splitter.

I used the saw to cut out the punky** wood that comprises about 60% of the centre of the tree trunk.  It cut really easily, to leave the outer ring of unaffected timber.  This could then be cut in to more manageable chunks, and loaded on to the log splitter.  I am now slightly more optimistic about dealing with the tree ... although there are some very large sections of branches that are making me very nervous!

After a very hot and busy day, I retired to the shade of the house and took a quick look at my Gmail inbox.  I was delighted to see that someone had purchased the BMW R nine T seat cowl that I had listed on eBay. I am now £200 better off.

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* I really must get my arse in to gear, and get a new chainsaw blade ordered.

** Wood that has been affected by fungus. The fungus has eaten away at the lignin in the wood, leaving behind the cellulose. This leaves a soft, crumbly wood, with no inherent strength.

Splitting and Mowing

It comes to something when mowing the lawn is regarded as taking a break!  Yes, pacing up and down, with the lawn mower in the blazing sun was the most relaxing part of my day. Let me explain ...

First thing this morning I set a batch of honey to warm in a hot water bath.  It takes a couple of hours to liquify, so I headed outside, grabbed my splitting axe and made a start on the smaller pieces of the huge pile of ash.

Throughout the course of the morning, I alternated between honey bottling activities and splitting logs.  It is fair to say that it was quite the hectic morning.  30% was equally busy ferrying barrow-load after barrow-load of logs up to the orchard

The weather has also turned and it is now very warm. Processing logs in the hot sun was even harder, and the weather was definitely accelerating the rate at which fatigue set in. 

Fortunately a chance encounter a couple of days ago was about to make life slightly less arduous. Paul and Deb are a local couple who regularly walk around the Three Miler.  They saw that we had had the tree felled and they stopped to chat.  During our conversation, Paul asked if I was interested in buying his log splitter, which he no longer used.

Initially I wasn't overly interested, but, after yesterday afternoon's splitting session, I gave the offer further consideration. He was offering an electric splitter with a seven tonne splitting force.  I had read a couple of reviews about the model and it received positive feedback.

30 assumed her procurement mantle and, during our lunch break, reached out to Paul and Deb to see when it would be possible to come and view the log splitter. 

We both then settled down for a well earned snooze.

An hour later I dragged the mower from the shed and made a start on the back lawn.  I was about half way through when 30% advised that Paul was in all afternoon, and we could pop over to check out the log splitter. He suggested that we should bring along a couple of large logs to test the machine.

So, half an hour later we headed in to the village with logs in the boot of the car.  After a quick inspection, and run through of operating the log splitter, Paul suggested I get a log and give it a go.  Within a few minutes I realised that this tool was going to make life a lot easier. It might not be as quick as splitting with an axe, but it was far, far less effort!

Cash was handed over and Paul agreed to bring the splitter straight over in the back of his van. Twenty minutes later we were unloading it on to the drive.  A further twenty minutes were spent giving Paul and Deb a tour of the garden before they headed home. While we were chatting my blood sugar plummeted, and an enforced break was necessary to get my blood glucose level back to normal.

As soon as I was compos mentis again, I returned to my mowing duties and attended to the lawns around the greenhouses and vegetable garden.  

As I approached the final furlong TP turned up, and, as soon as I had finished, I joined him and 30% on the patio for a well-deserved glass of wine.

So, as you can see, it was a very busy day, and lawn mowing was the light relief.

No wonder they call it hardwood

 I started the day by spending a few minutes in the workshop.  I unclamped the second cupboard door, and then tidied up a little. The doors look great and I carried out a trial fit in the cupboard aperture.  They will need a little planing, but the fit will be perfect.

I then joined 30% out on the drive and we continued shifting the wood chippings up to the orchard.  Barrow after barrow was wheeled up there, and dumped on the growing pile.  As the morning wore on, a plank was employed to make it easier to empty my barrow on the top of the pile.

We had hoped to finish moving the pile before lunch, but, by half past twelve, we had both run out of steam, and we stopped to rest and eat.  Thirty minutes later, we were back out there, and it took another forty five minutes to finish the job and tidy up

We then retired indoors and had a well deserved siesta.

On waking, I headed out to the huge pile of logs outside the garage, and reached for my splitting axe.  I selected a reasonable section of tree trunk, about twenty inches in diameter, and positioned it on a similarly sized piece of wood.  I took an experimental swing expecting the piece of wood to cleave in half.  I was disturbed to see that the splitting axe had barely made an impression of the section of trunk.

No wonder they call it hardwood!*

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* My last experience of splitting firewood, was the Douglas Fir that blew down as a result of Storm Darragh.  That was softwood and split easily.

Post Script:

After a few more attempts, I eventually found that smaller sections of trunk were easier to split, and they were certainly a lot easier to move around. This wet ash is bloody heavy and very hard. It is going to be a long, hard job to process this huge tree.

By the end of the day we had a reasonable heap of logs piled by Rose Cottage, ready to be stacked and left to dry.

Making a start

First job of the day was to nip out to the workshop, unclamp cupboard door #1, and glue up door #2.  Within half an hour I was finished and able to focus on my main occupation for the next few weeks ... dealing with the aftermath of the tree felling.

There is more down the side of the garage!

Next on the list was to attend to the hedge.  To be fair, the tree surgeon felled the tree with very little damage, although one of the first boughs removed did crush a short section of the hedge.  We know it will recover in a year , or two, but it does present Traitorous Bastard with a possible exit point* ... he does so like to bark and chase passersby. 

Fortunately the hedge is paired with some aged stock fencing. This also got crushed, but could be repaired, so I grabbed a couple of fencing stakes, from the pile behind Rose Cottage.**  These were trimmed to 5' and hammered in to the ground on the inside of the wire fencing.  The fence was then pulled back in to shape and stapled to the new posts.

A couple of minutes were spent primping the crushed hedge, before we stood back to admire our repair job ... That should keep the little bugger within the boundaries!

Lunch and a short snooze followed, before the mower was dragged from the car port and taken up to the orchard.  I spent about forty minutes mowing the paths up to the chicken coop, Rose Cottage and the site of the old mulch heap.  The reason for this activity was twofold; firstly, I am getting fed up of being soaked by long, wet grass when I go to attend to the chickens, and, secondly, we will be barrowing a lot of chipped wood and logs up there over the coming days.

I then grabbed my trusty wheelbarrow and started hauling loads of chipped brash*** up to the orchard. 30% was similarly occupied, although her chipped wood was being deposited on the path in the vegetable garden ... it now looks quite manicured in there.

By five o'clock we had tired ourselves, and finished for the day.  I estimate that we have shifted at least 40% of the chipped brash, and that we should complete that job tomorrow morning.  

Then I'll need to make a start on chainsawing and splitting the logs!

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* It would be one hell of a jump, but he is quite athletic

** I knew they would come in useful, at some point.

*** We started the day with a car-sized heap of chipped wood on the drive

I'm going to be very busy

This morning 30% headed off to London with a sub-sect of the coven.* They had arranged to visit the Queen's Wardrobe exhibition, and had planned the day with military precision, including car parking, train tickets, bus routes and even the snacks each of them were bringing!

I was home alone and did very little, other than keep the dog's company.  The main reason for mostly staying indoors, is that the dogs, obviously, needed to be kept well away from the tree felling crew. so we all had a lazy day.

I did make a brief excursion down the lane, as Pete the Beekeeper had dropped his truck of for its MOT test at the local workshop, and he didn't fancy a long walk home.

I also found a few minutes to glue and clamp the first of my bench cupboard doors. I'm pleased with the way they look. I just hope that they aren't too  out of square, or twisted when I attempt to hang them.

Over the course of the day the ash tree was reduced in height, and eventually the trunk was felled on to the lawn in front of the garage.** The trunk was then cut in to 10" slices, before the tree felling crew headed off.

As the daylight started to fade, I looked out at the huge pile of chipped wood and the even bigger pile of logs ... I'm going to be very, very busy over the coming weeks.***

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* Jules, Mummy Sheila and Paula

** I made sure that I filmed the largest sections being felled, and posted these to WhatsApp for the entertainment and amusement of 30% and TP.

*** At present the log pile prevents me getting any of the bikes out of the garage ... and the BMW is booked in for a service on the 9th of June.

Post Script:

I should also add that today is the first anniversary of Traitorous Bastard's arrival here.  He has settled in really well and is very different from the skinny nervous boy that joined our little pack.  He is now well muscled and very handsome. He is a real ladies man, and loves to settle on the sofa alongside anyone who will give him attention.

He is still quite territorial and noisy at the gate. He also has a tendency to jump up and demands to be acknowledged.  His relationship with Hobson is amazing. They absolutely adore each other, and will play for hours, particularly if they find a favourite toy, which will lead to a boisterous tussle that goes on, and on!

Overall, he is turning out to be a lovely dog and I'm definitely thinking that he should probably stay with us ;-)

The Ash Tree Felling

Today was the day that the Tree Surgeon turned up to make a start on felling the ash tree.

Prior to their arrival, we removed our cars from the drive and I even relocated my little roadside stall twenty yards further along the verge, to put potential customers out of harms way. I then took a photograph of the tree to record it for posterity.

The first hour was spent positioning equipment and rigging ropes up in to the highest branches. Then Rich climbed up into the crown and made a few preliminary cuts. As each branch fell to the ground, his crew leapt in to action. The brash was cut away and fed in to a chipper. The branches were then cut in to manageable pieces, barrowed away, and dumped in the space between the garage and the hedge.  

Over the course of the day, larger sections of the tree were brought down. One was so heavy, that, when it hit the road surface, we felt the vibrations in the house, over twenty yards away.

This photo shows Rich preparing to fell the large branch on his left. That was the last part of the tree to be removed today.  Everything was tidied up and I can report that we now have a large pile of chipped brash on the drive.*

So, that was the excitement for the day, but I wasn't entirely idle myself. 

In the morning I routed grooves in the door frame components. These will hold the plywood panels in place when the doors are assembled. I had to get a little creative to cut these grooves, and ended up screwing a wooden fence to the base of the router and upending the router in my bench vice. I was then able to slide each frame element over the spinning bit, using the wooden fence to guide it. **

In the afternoon I attempted to walk the dogs, but my recent issues with blood glucose control resulted in me having a massive hypo about as far from home as my walk takes me. I ate an energy bar and had to call 30% to come and collect me, Hobson and TB.

I then spent an hour recovering at home, before returning to the workshop. I cut the panels for the doors and dry fitted them in to the frames. I have to say that they look absolutely brilliant. I am so pleased, as my carpentry skills are basic, at best.

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* 30% and I will need to barrow that up to the orchard over the coming weekend.

** I'm pretty certain that it how routers are supposed to be used. I really could do with a router table, but they cost a bloody fortune, hence the Heath Robinson, or possibly MacGyver, approach ... and I still have all of my fingers!

More successful in the workshop, than the apiary

 I started Sunday morning with a little light carpentry.  

I spent a couple of hours in the workshop fettling the tenons, to ensure they fitted snugly in to the mortises.  A bit of light sanding had them slotting together nicely.  The fit is snug, but they can be taken apart without excessive force ... apparently that is how things should be.

I marked up the joints and frame components and then checked the frames, to see how square they were.  I can report that I have two square door frames and eight nice tight joints. They aren't Chippendale or Sheraton quality, but they are certainly good enough for my little Sjobergs bench.

The weather has been cold all week, and today was going to be the best day for checking on the bees.  When I say, "best" I really mean "least windy, and least chilly."  The bees were flying, so I judged it warm enough to take a quick look through the hives.

The new hives*, established by creating artificial swarms from hives #1, #2 and #3, were all in good order. The colones in  #4 and #5 are still stroppy, but all three are building up quite nicely.  That is a good thing as the colonies left to raise new queens do not look great.

I only checked hives #2 and #3, and was encouraged by neither.  Hive #2 has no sign of a laying queen, so my plan is to leave it another week, before considering introducing a new queen.  As I worked any way through hive #3, I started to get excited by the sight of larvae and capped brood. However, on closer inspection it all appeared to be drone brood.  This suggests that I either have a drone laying queen,** or a laying worker.  If it is the former, I stand a chance of being able to find her, cull her and replace her with a new queen.  If I have a laying worker, the colony will be impossible to re-queen and will slowly dwindle over the next couple of months.

I'm a little disappointed by the state of the queen less hives, but that is beekeeping. I just need to look towards next week's inspection and develop a plan, dependent on what I find.

In the afternoon I had a snooze on the sofa, and then planned to mow the front lawn.  Fortunately there was a shower, which messed up my plans. I was actually delighted, as the weather was bloody freezing.

I therefore headed back to the workshop and trialled routing a rebate in some scraps of wood. I am now slightly more confident that I can route out the rebates to hold the door panels, without cocking up the frame components, and without cutting off a finger!

By three o'clock I had had enough of the cold, and retired indoors to light the fire. I tried to concentrate on my successes in the workshop, and the fact that I still have three queen right hives.  There was never any guarantee of the colonies successfully raising new queens.

---

* Hives #6, #4 and #5 respectively.

** Possibly resulting from poor weather preventing successful mating flights

Spuds

Unusually, 30% was up early this morning, and was keen to get on with her day.

After breakfast we divided and conquered. She started out in the garden,* whilst I headed out with Hobson and TB for our walk.  It was definitely an early start, as I was back home a little after nine!

On my return we assembled, with tools, in the vegetable patch and spent the rest of the morning planting three rows of potatoes.** I appreciate that it is a little late to be planting potatoes, but, in my defence, I have only just got the ground ready for planting, and 30% found some bargain seed potatoes whilst out shopping.  I did a little research on the internet, and it seems that I should get a crop ... time will tell!***

I had a short snooze after lunch, before 30% and I moved a small, vacant chicken coop that sits alongside the garage. 30% has been informed that the tree fellers will be here on Monday, and moving the coop will give them more space to fell the tree and pile up the wood.

I then headed out to the workshop, where I spent the remainder of the afternoon on my carpenter's bench project. I can now report that the tenons for the cupboard doors have now been cut. They now just need a little fettling to ensure a snug fit in the mortises.

There is still no improvement in my blood glucose. It is still going sky-high after meals, so my evening was punctuated with regular checks and repeated injections. I'll be increasing my long-acting insulin again this evening. 

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* She also nipped out for a short walk with Whiffler and The Rat

** A row and a half of main crop (Desiree & King Edwards) and a row and a half of second earlies (Charlotte and Wilja)

*** I have planted potatoes in late July, and these gave a small, but welcome, crop of new potatoes in time for Christmas.

Post Script

We should have been out this evening, to see Mark Watson at The Huntingdon Hall in Worcester.  30% kindly added an event to my calendar to ensure I didn't forget. She also checked through her email and other apps this afternoon for the e-tickets.  She even made a call to the Venue to check... as it seems she had got the event in our diaries, but had forgotten to actually book the tickets!

An Indoors Day

 It was another bloody cold day, so I decided to have an indoors day.

Having got the R1250R booked in for a service next month, I decided to see if I could sell a couple of items on eBay, in an attempt to cover the servicing costs.

So early this morning, I headed out to the garage and retrieved a rider's seat and rear seat cowl for the R nine T.  These had been purchased many years ago, but I had never got around to fitting them to the bike. I also ensured that they didn't end up being passed over to Bubbles when he bought my bike.*

I soon had the seat and cowl polished and then spent the next half an hour taking a multitude of photographs.  These were uploaded to my Mac mini, where I cropped and edited them to show off the items at their best.

I then spent a couple of hours drafting two carefully honed advertisements and scheduled them to go live at seven o'clock this evening.

The afternoon included a kip on the sofa, before I lit yet another fire and settled in front of it for the rest of the day.

My eBay auctions went live at seven o'clock this evening and soon started getting a few views and watchers. I was amazed that the seat cowl had actually received a couple of bids. These are well below the auction reserve, but it at least shows that my copy and photos are getting attention.

At this point I should mention that my blood sugar had been ridiculously high today, but I could see no reason why. I hadn't stuffed my face with sugary snacks. In fact I had eaten very little over the course of the day. Neither did I feel like I was going down with a bug.  These are two factors that would drive up my blood glucose levels, but neither seemed relevant and my blood levels were stupidly high.

Over the course of the day I gave myself increasingly large doses of my fast acting insulin, and ate a very small, low carbohydrate evening meal, but it was close to bed time before it started to drop. I increased my slow acting insulin dose too, and hope that things would settle overnight.

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* The seat and cowl are worth a good amount of money, and Bubbs had already got the bike at a very fair price!

What are you doing on Thursday?

I was contacted towards the end of last week by ex-colleague Gary.  He has recently retired and I have, intentionally left him to his own devices, to allow him to find his feet.* 

So, Gary pinged me and asked if I was doing anything today. I replied that it would be good to catch up, so we arranged a visit for today.

However, before Gary arrived, 30% and I took. Whiffler up to the Vet's for his final post-operative check up.  The Vet, who performed the operation, is a lovely elderly gentlemen and he was delighted to see Whiffler looking so well. I lifted him up on the examination table and a rather undignified examination** followed. The Vet reported that he was healing brilliantly and that there were no signs of cancerous growth.

We were sent on our way, after making an appointment for Hobson and TB to come in for their annual inoculations in a fortnight's time.

Gary arrived shortly after midday, and we settled with coffee, to catch up on each other's news. It is only a couple of months since he finished work and has already discovered that there is no way that he could go back to work. I think he still has to settle in to the more measured pace of life that comes with retirement, and ensure that his interests prevent him from becoming bored.

One of his interests is that he has started dealing in vinyl, and he brought up a Dr Feelgood singles LP that I had agreed to buy.  I have no concerns about the quality, as he is a HiFi buff with a Michell turntable and an ultrasonic LP cleaner.  I was almost embarrassed to sit him next to our modest turntable and amp!

Time ticked on, and we headed up to The Why Not up on The Ridgeway for a pub lunch. Further coffee and chat followed, before Gary headed homeward in the late afternoon.

The weather is still unseasonable, so another fire was lit and we settled in front of it for the evening. 

My closing thought is that I really should think about mowing the lawns, but it is far too bloody cold at present.

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* I personally think that you need to find your own way in to a retirement mindset. Chatting with an ex-colleague will naturally make you revert to your working frame of mind. Hence I have left him to calm down and forget about the nonsense that was IT services outsourcing.

** From Whiffler's perspective!

Lit another fire

More talk than action

I started out with a walk this morning, which included a twenty minute chat with an acquaintance, who lives in the next village.

I demonstrated perfect timing, as I arrived home just as our preferred painter and decorator; Jonathan turned in to the driveway. I then spent the next thirty minutes showing him the scope of the work we would like him to take on ... 30% has decided that he should decorate the entire ground floor.*

After discussing the job with him, it became clear that I would need to address a few DIY jobs before he arrives. There are light switches to be changed, a window board to be replaced and some plaster to be stripped off, the wall sealed and a sand and cement render applied. I am certain that this list will grow, and some of these tasks are not five minute jobs!

Once Jonathan had left, I wandered out to the tomato greenhouse and spent the time before lunch ensuring that the bamboo canes were up to the job of supporting the 2026 tomato crop.  I am well aware that the vines can become quite heavy and I have my doubts about the thin wire holding the canes in place.

After lunch I managed a short snooze, before I joined a video call with our Financial Advisor. This wasn't overly taxing.** and my requested pension draw down will be progressed in the next few days.  We also had a brief discussion about inheritance tax avoidance options, but that needs a lot more thought and investigation.

I then got the R1250R booked in for a service, before I settled in the lounge and lit the fire.  It is the middle of May and the weather is bloody freezing. I did turn the central heating off, but the warmth of a fire was extremely welcome as the temperature outside is barely in to double digits.

I must admit that I was reluctant to leave the warm fire and head out for this evening's Tai Chi class.

Reviewing this Journal entry, I can see that I got quite a bit done, but, at the time, I felt that I spent a lot of time talking and not much time doing!

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* I have no objection to this, but her "natural enthusiasm" did need to be curbed, somewhat.  Her initial plan was that Jonathan should come in and decorate the entire ground floor in one go. I pointed out that we had four dogs, quite a lot of furniture to move around, and we needed somewhere to live too. It was also likely that Jonathan wouldn't be available until the late Autumn.  30% took this onboard and agreed that we should give Jonathan the option of doing the job in stages.

** No pun intended

 

Chat with FA

Bike bike in fur service

Tai Chi 

Lit fire bloody cold

I have a feeling I'm going to be very busy

Cowslips; they have nearly finished flowering now, but I need to mention that I love them. I don't know what it is about these little yellow primulas, but I think they are delightful.

At one time, well before we came to live here, the verges and fields were filled with them, but now they are far less common. We are lucky that the verge in front of the house is covered with them in the Spring, and we even have a few dotted amongst the grass on the front lawns.*

One of the possible reasons for the reduction in the number of cowslips is down to management of grasslands.  Many people are unaware that cowslips take a long time for their seeds to mature and disperse. The flowers need to remain, undisturbed, until late July to ensure that they are able to successfully shed their seeds.

Unfortunately, it seems that our local Authorities are unaware of this and insist on engaging local contractors to mow the verges, well before the cowslips, bluebells and other plants are able to reproduce successfully.

I do my best to help the cowslips spread their seeds, by carefully mowing a strip of verge alongside the road, but making sure that the cowslips remain unmowed, until the late Summer. This tends to deter the contract from mowing, but, on previous occasions, we have flagged down the tractors and instructed the drivers to leave our verge uncut. The result is that the verge in front of our house is one of the few parts of the lane that is covered with cowslips in Spring.

I mention this today because we heard the contractor mowing the lane this morning, so I put our wheelie bin out on the verge to deter him from mowing our little patch.  Fortunately this was a successful tactic, and the fading flower heads are still intact.

The other new for Tuesday is as follows ... 

... The morning was mostly taken up with walking the dogs** and dealing with a couple of administrative tasks. I chased up our Financial Advisor, as I had not heard from him, following a request to make a pension drawdown. I also contacted a motorcycle clothing supplier, in respect of a pair of trousers I had returned two weeks previously. It seems that my parcel is stuck at Alcester Post Office and I have not yet received a refund.

I can report that I now have a call scheduled with our FA, and a refund will be made to my credit card in the next forty eight hours ... Result!

In the afternoon I finally levelled off the last of the conifer stump's root wad out on the front lawn.  I now need to arrange for the hire of a stump grinder, but that can wait for a month, or two, or three! The reason for this lack of urgency, is that 30% advised that the tree surgeon will be here next week to fell the ash tree.  I will, therefore, be processing logs for the next couple of months, possibly longer.

For the sake of completeness, I should also mention that 30% took delivery of 500g of brandling worms, and has introduced them to her wormery. We are hopeful that this will convert vegetable scraps to a fine compost, a natural liquid fertiliser ... and a supply of quality fishing bait!

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* They are buggers to mow around, but I do my best!

** I should probably mention that 30% tends to walk Whiffler and The Rat while I am out with Hobson and Traitorous Bastard. Whiffler and The Rat have a much shorter walk due to Whiffler's age and dodgy hips.

Stump Removal, Phase 4

This morning's activities started with the application of the final coat of oil to the bottom rails of the gates.  This didn't take long, and, as it wasn't particularly warm, I was glad to return to the shelter of the workshop.

Once I'd cleaned the brush and tidied up a little, I settled to cutting the rails for the cupboard doors. I then went on to cut a test tenon on a piece of scrap wood.  The test piece was a little loose in the mortices, but I am now feeling a little more confident that I can make a decent job of the doors for my work bench.

The afternoon included a post-prandial snooze, before I headed out for a walk with Hobson and TB.

It became clear that my walk wasn't sufficient exercise, as I then gathered a spade, mattock, axe and wheelbarrow, and headed out to the front lawn. Here I made another assault on the conifer stump's root wad.  After an hour or two I had dug out a wheelbarrow full of top soil and chopped out a good few feet of sizeable roots.*  I had manage to level the ground around the stump, but lacked the energy and enthusiasm to level out the final piece of the root wad** ... that can wait until tomorrow.

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* Having recently sharpened my chainsaw, there was no bloody way I was going to use it to cut out tree roots again.  I'll have to use it to deal with the wood from the ash tree pretty soon. 

** For the moment there is an odd little grass topped mound about two feet away from the stump.

Less than expected!

It will come as no surprise, that I slept like a log last night. However, what was a surprise, was the fact that I felt relatively pain free,* after yesterday's workout with the rotorvator.

Just before ten o'clock we had another tree surgeon turn up to give us a quote for the felling of the ash tree. He seemed very thorough, and, after several minutes of inspection and questioning, he advised that he'd do the job for £1,950. This is a good deal less than we expected, and it is likely that we will be accepting his quote.

The remainder of the morning was taken up with a walk. The weather has turned unseasonably chilly, and both hat and coat were necessary attire ... and I was only just getting used to leaving them behind.

This afternoon 30% headed off to the cinema with 'Chelle, so I took the opportunity to have a lengthy siesta on the sofa.

I then headed out to the workshop and picked up a project that had been abandoned last Autumn.  I reacquainted myself with my mortiser, and finally got the mortises cut in the door frame stiles.

Next, I need to work out how big the rails need to be.

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* As pain free as any sixty two year old can hope to be!

I'll sleep well tonight

 Saturday was forecast to be the finest day of the weekend, so I had planned my apiary inspection for this morning. As soon as the temperature had risen, and the bees were flying, I donned my bee suit and wandered up to the hives.*

I first checked on the colonies that had been created from artificial swarms taken from hives #1, #2 and #3. These are now numbered hives #6, #4 and #5 respectively.  All three are building up quite nicely and hive #6 was moved from a nucleus box to a full sized National Brood box. All of the queens were visible and they are laying beautifully.

I had planned to get one of these colonies to start drawing foundation on some shallow frames in a super, but none of them were sufficiently developed for this. Perhaps they'll be ready in a week or two. I should also mention that colonies #4 and #5 don't seem to have the nicest of dispositions.  The queen in #5 always produced workers that were a little stroppy, but the queen in #4 produced far better behaved workers ... perhaps it is related to the weather or their forage?

I then went on to work my way through hives #2 and #3.  This was their first inspection since they had been split in early April, and I was hoping to see signs that they had produced mated queens.  I could see cells that had clearly produced queens in both of the hives, but, as yet, there were neither eggs nor brood to be seen.  I'll give it another week or two before I start to worry.

The colony inspection took most of the morning, and my afternoon was taken up with a once-yearly activity ... It was time to drag the rotamatiser from the shed.

I have written about this little rotorvator before and, also, about the fact that it is quite a work-out to rotorvate our veg patch.  I'll try to avoid repeating myself, and simply say that I was exhausted by the time I had finished, and my eyelids were drooping by ten o'clock this evening.

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* I had spent the preceding hour levelling the ground and laying a heavy concrete slab as a base for hive #6.

Honey and Comb

It has only been a week* since I was last bottling honey, and here I am at it again today.  Normally I sell about ten jars each week, but 30% had orders from WI and other member of the coven this week, hence my increased sales.

Dealing with the honey took the morning and I was finished by the early afternoon. I then headed out with the dogs for our walk.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tidying up and preparing a few batches of syrup for the bees. 

After splitting all of my colonies I have decided to see if I can get one of them to draw some comb in a couple of supers.  I propose to add a queen excluder and super,** add a feeder on top, and see how well they do over the next week.

I plan to inspect the bees tomorrow, and will probably use hive #5 for this little experiment.

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* Well, eight days, if we are going to nit pick!

** With ten frames of foundation

Road kill in Redditch

This morning started with a visit from a local tree surgeon.  30% had arranged the appointment, so I am unsure how much information was exchanged, but he turned up at the gate, looked up at the Ash, and said "is this it?"

I confirmed that it was and that we wanted a quote for felling it, chipping the brash, and cutting the trunk and boughs in to manageable pieces. We want all of the tree to remain on-site, as the shippings will be used as mulch in the garden, and the wood will be logged and stored for use in the log burner.*

The tree surgeon confirmed that he was happy to oblige and advised that it was going to take a couple of days to complete the job. He also advised that there was a lot of weight in the tree, and it would definitely need to be brought down in small sections.  We await his quote with interest.**

The only other activity in the morning was my usual walk with the dogs.

The afternoon started with a post-prandial nap, before I grabbed one of the less favoured mowers from the shed.  The reason for using one of the more battered mowers, was that I had decided to mow the veg patch.  Having killed off the weeds, I would then, normally, break out the rotorvator, but it seemed more sensible to get the, now dead, weeds chopped up, before rotorvating their remains in to the ground.

I can report that the simple act of mowing the veg patch has made it look much better, and rotorvating will be a complete transformation. Hopefully I will get that done at some point over the weekend.

This evening saw us back at the Redditch Catering College restaurant. It was a wild food themed menu, *** and our dining companions were Mr & Mrs Tweedy.  Once again I have to report that the food was fabulous. I had a duck liver parfait to start, followed by a ragout of rabbit and ham hock, served with pasta. Both were beautiful. I finished with another panna cotta.  It was ok, but not a patch on the one I had last week.

I swear that I need to schedule a quieter day for tomorrow.

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* We have also realised that felling the Ash tree, removes the shade from the roofs of the garage and outbuildings. It may be time to reconsider a small solar array?

** 30% is hoping that it will be under £3K. I think that's a reasonable guesstimate.

*** We are talking about Redditch here, so wild food is probably more accurately described as road kill and dead cat!

An unexpected sighting

It was an early start this morning, as I had an 08.30 appointment at CHEC. It was a fairly routine examination including a visual field test, eye scan/photos and IOP readings. Interestingly these were very different from those taken at Worcester hospital last week.* 

I wasn't particularly impressed by the check-up, but at least I am registered with NHS Ophthalmology, and they do seem to know what they're doing.  Also, I was back home a little after nine o'clock.

I spent the rest of the morning mowing the lawns at the front of the house. The place looks a lot tidier!

At lunchtime my new pair of motorcycle touring trousers were delivered and I can report that they are far better than any. of the other pairs that I have tried on, in the past fortnight ... do I remove the tags?

This afternoon I headed out for a walk with Hobson and TB. Normally there is very little to report about our walks, apart from TB disappearing off in to the distance, and refusing to return.** However, today, things got a little ornithological. 

As we walked down the lane, Hobson was investigating the verges and disturbed a partridge. I naturally assumed that it was a red-legged partridge, as they are not uncommon in these parts, in fact there were two pottering in the garden at the weekend. We wandered on, and then turned to head home. Hobson returned to the same spot and I noticed that he seemed to have something in his mouth. He wasn't willing to give it up, and seemed to have swallowed something. A few yards further on I noticed that he dropped something, so I went to investigate. It was an eggshell, a greenish eggshell.

This didn't seem quite right. From memory I recalled that red-legged partridge eggs are buff with brown speckles. This was completely different. Back at home I hit the internet and was rewarded with an answer to my searches. Hobson had disturbed a grey partridge. I was aware that they are very uncommon in this area, but didn't know that they had been recorded on the Bird of Conservation Concern Red List in 2015.  I shall have to look more carefully if I see another partridge in the lanes over the coming weeks.***

That just about covers Wednesday, although I should mention that a well earned snooze was taken, before I headed up to the Parish Education Centre for this week's Tai Chi session.

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* 18 & 21 mmHg vs 10 & 11 mmHg, a week previously?

** The little sod did that again last Sunday, and was found waiting at the gate to be let in!

*** For completeness I should also report that I heard my first cuckoo of 2026, calling from the area alongside the little brook.