Early Risers.

[Killybegs]

It's Bridie's first day back at work at the Day Hospital today (in case you've forgotten she is one of the dogs!) as her 'minder' has been off sick since Christmas. The patients have all been missing her and demanding to know when she would be coming back. All this means I am back on the early shift, up at 6.30 and over to the beach with the dogs before I get to have my breakfast. At least it is getting a bit lighter in the morning now.

 

To add insult to injury we got caught in a nasty wintry shower, driven by a biting NW wind. Still on the subject of dogs, Ruby seems to have an ear infection, so a visit to the vet is on the cards.

 

Went for a nice long walk yesterday morning, stopping off in town to pick up some supplies. The fleet was in and all the fish factories were working flat out and the sky was thick with gulls looking for easy pickings. There was even work going on in the boat repair yard. My timing was good as the rain arrived shortly after I got back and was still coming down when we went to bed. 

 

Stay safe.

[martin1]

morning all,night shift over !! and day shift begins! funny how young daisy is now soundly asleep !! jack is still sleeping .....tash is going to try and catch up.....raining here and quite cool too,have a good day all,keep dry and warm !! 

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Misty here.

Our postie may have parcels for me today but I suspect tomorrow wpu

D be more likely. I shall out and get passport type photos for the bus pass. I am not going to risk a photo booth or a selfie.

It is half term here. Aditi doesn't have half term but she was hoping the traffic would be less busy.

Tony

[AndrewC]

Morning all from the boring boring borough. Time for my weeklyish update of drivel and rubbish.

 

Congratulations and commiserations as appropriate. Many buttons have been clicked in catching up on things. How about an updated munchkin err squidling picture Mr Squid?

 

Not a lot happening. Work is work. Finished the project that wouldn't die by virtue of them running out of budget. New 6 month project looks to start in the next week or so. Lots of travel involved so not really sure how I feel about it yet. Hard to believe I've been with this firm for 5 years already. Seems like it was only last year. Is there a way to slow down time? T minus 14 years 4 months and 19 days until retirement. As predicted my training from 2 weeks ago plus the next level of the certification coming in 2 weeks looks to be a wasted effort as I won't go near that technology again until September at the earliest, if at all.

 

Back to the vampires tomorrow for more blood letting and glucose testing. Be still my beating heart. So far the changes in diet and exercise seem to be working. 3.6lbs off so far and a lot more energy. I will likely move up to 20 minutes a day on the elliptical next week from the current 15.

 

Fence repairs still (yes still, ffs) ongoing. Part of the problem is weather, part is the effort required. Where each old post was is now a massive lump of concrete that goes down at least 2'. These have to be manually chipped away and broken out with a bolster and lump hammer. Needless to say replacing each post takes about 2-3 hours. By the end of this my back is usually knackered for several days as are my knees. Oh well, only 2 left do to. Funnily enough the post I did yesterday was the worst in terms of the amount of concrete and brick rubble broken up and removed, but I'm not feeling any of the usual after effects this morning. Now that it is warmer there are also more days when I can pour the postcrete as it has to be at least 10c to set properly.

 

Glad Ian and Sherry have a date set. Makes it easier to look at renting an amphibious landing craft so we can all attend.

 

Have a good one all.

[Tony_S]

Andrew, when the fence post needed removing from a broken fence (not one shared with the lady of the leylandii) my nice neighbour said he would deal with it. The hydraulic breaker he used was really impressive. Took minutes, rather than the weeks it would have taken me.

[NGT6 1315]

Makes it easier to look at renting an amphibious landing craft so we can all attend.

Oh yeah! Imagining riding across the Rhine to France in a cloud of spray and with the Ride of the Valkyries blaring, I'm sure the French are just going to love this...

[Guest]

Fence repairs still (yes still, ffs) ongoing. Part of the problem is weather, part is the effort required. Where each old post was is now a massive lump of concrete that goes down at least 2'. These have to be manually chipped away and broken out with a bolster and lump hammer. Needless to say replacing each post takes about 2-3 hours. By the end of this my back is usually knackered for several days as are my knees. Oh well, only 2 left do to. Funnily enough the post I did yesterday was the worst in terms of the amount of concrete and brick rubble broken up and removed, but I'm not feeling any of the usual after effects this morning. Now that it is warmer there are also more days when I can pour the postcrete as it has to be at least 10c to set properly.

 

I don't own a breaker anymore, but last year I was asked to remove 110ft of fencing and replace with new. I hired a small Hilti breaker from Travis Perkins for about £45/day and as Tony says, it takes minutes to remove the old concrete instead of days. Worth every penny. I believe there are three types of breaker - the largest with a hex bit is only really suitable for prolonged heavy duty tasks, but the smaller ones either feature an SDS Plus fitting or an SDS Max fitting. The Max fitting is a little bigger. If you ever hire a tool like this, quite often the hire shop will only have 110v available - just make sure they provide a transformer. May be a bit late now, but worth bearing in mind for any future jobs.

[45156]

Morning All

 

Wet and windy earlier, and an enforced trip to Lancaster using the trusty bus pass as Lily is running out of food, and I don't really fancy doing the shopping this morning.  I do use it because I have it, and I am a strong believer in the concept of "use it or lose it" and that is also true of both the bus pass, and the bus route.  Many of the bus services in this area are supported by Lancashire County Council, and they have already threatened to withdraw the evening and weekend subsidused services to Lancaster, and the bus to Morecambe is also probably in jeopardy.  When we lived in a village outside Norwich, we had two buses a day which served many of the villages on the back roads between Wymondham and Norwich, including Ketteringham which was where we were unfortunate enough to be living at the time )but that's another story),  and which stopped outside our front door.  It was a victim of a cut, as it was a council supported service, and there was very little publicity about its withdrawal.  The replacement service was a circular route from Wymondham to Wymondham via some of the villages, and which did two runs, one in each direction, on a Tuesday - useful, I think not.  As they used the same route number, this was regarded as a revised service, not a withdrawal, and therefore did not need so much bureaucracy. 

 

As usual, there has been a lot to take on board in ERs and hence a generic greeting where needed is the best I can do.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited February 16, 2015 by 45156

[DDolfelin]

Lots of folk in our village have Bus Passes.

 

Unfortunately there is no Bus service.

 

Temporarily, they can call a taxi at a fixed time the day before travel and use the Pass.

That is also being withdrawn shortly.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from a misty and murky Estuary-Land (as Tony has already told you). Congrats and commiserations where necessary and glad to see Debs back even if only briefly.

[NGT6 1315]

I don't own a breaker anymore, but last year I was asked to remove 110ft of fencing and replace with new. I hired a small Hilti breaker from Travis Perkins for about £45/day and as Tony says, it takes minutes to remove the old concrete instead of days. Worth every penny. I believe there are three types of breaker - the largest with a hex bit is only really suitable for prolonged heavy duty tasks, but the smaller ones either feature an SDS Plus fitting or an SDS Max fitting. The Max fitting is a little bigger. If you ever hire a tool like this, quite often the hire shop will only have 110v available - just make sure they provide a transformer. May be a bit late now, but worth bearing in mind for any future jobs.

 

This reminds me how, when we redid the garden back at Ye Olde Home more than 15 years ago, I tore down a few metres of two-inch concrete wall with a sledgehammer only. Exhausting exercise but great for letting off steam, I can tell you!

[AndrewC]

Thanks guys. I had looked into renting a breaker, as I did last year when removing all the old concrete from the other side of the garden. Trouble is it wasn't practical to do all of the fence in one shot so it would have meant renting several times at well over £200. The other issue is there are 2 electrical cables that follow the fence line just below the surface. One for my shed and the other for the neighbour's (the nice neighbour) garage. Hand breaking was the safer option.

[BoD]

This reminds me how, when we redid the garden back at Ye Olde Home more than 15 years ago, I tore down a few metres of two-inch concrete wall with a sledgehammer only. Exhausting exercise but great for letting off steam, I can tell you!

I thought it was longer than 15 years ago that 'The Wall' came down.

[NGT6 1315]

I thought it was longer than 15 years ago that 'The Wall' came down.

 

Well, you know how it is with walls...

[The Lurker]

Morning all, it's taken me a good while to get through the backlog....and it's still grey and gloomy here at Borough Market Junction.

 

Quiet weekend, the Mrs took the Lurker children up to the in-laws yesterday. Sounds like they had a good run - the first leg to Blyth Services took less than 3 hours. Not bad for 180 miles.

 

I took the opportunity to cook a lamb mince potato and pea curry from the Hairy Bikers Curry Cookbook. It was quite successful albeit that when I came to get the peas from the freezer to add for the last few minutes, I found there were none!

 

I chose cross country over rugby at secondary school. I found it hurt slightly less, although even today 30 years later my knees disagree. I turned out to be quite good; I won the very first race I took part in (just a race in our form) and was then in the school team all through school.

 

I want to see Shaun the Sheep the Movie but I think that the Mrs and in laws are taking the kids while they're up north so I may have to wait. We did see Paddington though

[PhilJ W]

Its quite some time since I've had to break up anything such as walls etc. Last time was a wall made of rather hard breeze blocks. Fortunately there was plenty of room to swing the sledge hammer and during the two hours that it took I'd barely broken into a sweat.

[roundhouse]

Thanks guys. I had looked into renting a breaker, as I did last year when removing all the old concrete from the other side of the garden. Trouble is it wasn't practical to do all of the fence in one shot so it would have meant renting several times at well over £200. The other issue is there are 2 electrical cables that follow the fence line just below the surface. One for my shed and the other for the neighbour's (the nice neighbour) garage. Hand breaking was the safer option.

My 5 panels of fencing has taken nearly a year to replace with still 2 to do.

 

I have the similar problem with the fence against a low wall, cables in the ground entwined with the roots of the clematus so all hand digging when I am in the mood and / or have time.

Edited February 16, 2015 by roundhouse

[Simon G]

I played football in a Sunday morning pub league in North Yorkshire where some of the pitches were actual cow fields. Before the game, members of the home teams would go round with a couple of pieces of plywood, removing evidence of said cows from the pitch.

 

 

I have played cricket on a similar pitch in Cumbria.  Eskdale CC has the most picturesque ground, but it is also a sheep field.  The 'square' gets cleared for matches, but the outfield does not, so diving stops on the boundary are not advisable (especially if dressed in whites)!  Not that I am into diving on the boundary these days anyway.

 

Nice morning here, as the overnight rain has passed over.  Will hopefully manage a walk & fresh air later.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

When I retired 10 years ago I had a few DIY jobs to do so went and bought one of these rotary hammer drills from B & Q . I think it only cost about £60 (special offer at the time) Whilst it's probably not man enough for a tradesman it's certainly paid for itself as far as I'm concerned. (Also bought a bench grinder to sharpen concrete points and chisel bits)

 

 

Rest day today after very enjoyable hectic weekend and also waiting for two railway related parcels.

 

Have a good one,

 

Bob.

[BoD]

I bought some tools too.

 

 

 

When I have learnt how to use them I will start on the baseboards.

 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Lovely film link thanks Ed - I'm now deeply engrossed in the lighthouse etc film, a totally different world from today and very interesting.  And 'modernisation' to gaslit, wow (although I wonder if they still use it as their lighthouses don't seem to be festooned with solar panels?).  The only thing which hasn't changed is the sea.

 

Anyway back to earth and yes - I agree wholeheartedly regarding concrete breakers as does the chap who renewed 9 of my fence posts (and 5 panels) in just short of 8 working hours but fortunately the nearest mains cable (next door's) is about 18 inches from the fence and is armoured of course.  I used an electric breaker (Kango hammer style) to take out concrete by our front path but I knew where the cable was so avoidable.

 

Miserable day out there but not much planned - however sun (=fence treatment) is in line for tomorrow I expect.

 

Have a good day one and all.

[station cat]

Morning all,

I'm not trying to be the earliest riser but Im certainly late to bed. I feel absolutely awful about leaving out the lovely Dr Station Cat in my post on our Valentine's Day lovelies. I can only sincerely grovel for your forgiveness - I'll have to mark it down to the onset of senility, or possibly the fact that I'm sober at that time of day! Sorry!! Thanks to Mike (60860) for pointing out my gaffe!

 

Forgiveness instantly granted - and as I insist on having a male cat in my avatar I only have myself to blame in the first place.

 

On the subject of tools, I believe a few more jobs are palnned for the chap who came to do the fence. I suspect he'll only come if he is assured that he won't have to break up any more of our concrete.

[Jock67B]

Morning all,

Early trip to the shop for milk was very frustrating, especially as it was very foggy and half the lunatics on the road had forgotten where there light switch is!

All the talk of fence replacement reminds me when I took on replacing our shared fence, around eighteen years ago, which runs between our garden and the then neighbours. He told us he was going to let the property so I decided to replace the original rotting three feet panels with six feet ones, and with a two brick high wall on the ground, to give us privacy. The builders had set the fence posts in what looked like barrow loads of concrete before the top soil was tipped on, as the concrete was almost three feet down, then fitted the panels before trimming the posts to length.I noticed that the posts were all rotten below ground, and at the same time, that there were ten and a half panels, with the half one adjoining the house. I decided to simply snap off the rotten posts, leaving the concrete buried, and began by screwing a three by three inch post on to the wall of the house. I led off this with a full panel which meant that my post holes would be dug half way between the previous ones. I hired a post hole digger and had all the posts in place, separated by battens marked with six foot lines, by nightfall! With my son in law's help, we nailed in the panels two days later and I'm proud to say that it withstood the elements for those eighteen years until last year's storms. I regretfully, in view of my physical condition, had to stick to 'project management' on the replacement fence as SiL and both his sons did the work! Sorry if it's a bit late for our current fence builders, but I would be delighted if it helps anyone in the future.

Have the best Monday you can folks,

Kind regards,

Jock.

PS, just read your post, thanks for the forgiveness Station Cat!

Edited February 16, 2015 by Jock67B

[AndyB]

Morning all,

Just been for an asthma review, having been summoned by letter.

"And what can we do for you today?"

"I've come for my asthma review."

"Erm,..."

"You wrote to me and told me to come in."

"I've no record of that. Are you feeling ill?"

"No."

"Then I don't know what to say."

"Can I have a repeat prescription?"

"No. I can't print that out here."

 

Searching for a chocolate fireguard emoticon, now. 

 

Anyway, first day of half term and I'm the only one that isn't poorly in the house. Planning on making some progress on the model railway over the coming days - hopefully to extend the baseboard to include options for cassette fiddleyards at each end. 

 

Really liked the Dovey Valley Railway featured in this month's Model Rail.  Narrow gauge is so tempting at times! 

[lightengine]

After a beautiful day in Teignmouth yesterday we have a drizzly grey day today. Heating on and sat indoors reading or crafting methinks.

Luckily we had a walk along the beach yesterday and on the sea wall to Sprey Point. Some of the concreted repair to the incline at Sprey Point doesn't look like it will last too long. Many cracks in it where the sea will get a grip. Strange that Brunels brigade were better builders in those days.