Early Risers.

[leopardml2341]

Not enough jobs ticked off mi list for today

[jonny777]

I really do sympathise with those who suffer from hay fever. I know the symptoms because I get the same reactions from being in a swimming pool, or from painting large areas with oil based treatment - creosote being the main problem. 

 

I would be horrified at the fact that I could not spend much time outside, for fear of those symptoms, even in the shade. 

[The White Rabbit]

Summer's here... and the seaweed oracles suggest it's planning to stay for a week or so at least. The garden's plants are almost visibly growing as you watch them. I had to top the bird baths up twice today. My sympathies too to those who suffer from hay fever. 

 

A venture out for medical purposes earlier and the roads were certainly busy. Unfortunately a fair few vehicles were being driven by those who shouldn't be trusted in charge of a wheelbarrow. Maybe I'm just boring but I thought that when propelling a large metal object weighing up to a ton at more than walking pace, it is generally prudent to keep looking in the direction of travel, with occasional glances in other directions. Not the other way round ... otherwise you should not be surprised to find yourself in the undergrowth or playing marbles with other large metal objects, the owners of which are about to get very, very cross with you... 

 

When not taking evasive action, today has been a miscellany of paperwork and little jobs. I'm currently trying to interest somebody, anybody, in a Darles Chickens collection and some other 'classic' hardbacks. Autocar newsletter sent off to print. A little shopping list composed, with the emphasis on 'summer' food and more fruit than a winter shop. Though I hope we'll have our own soon. The redcurrants are ripening but I spotted the blackbirds clocking them earlier, so we may have competition there. Judging by the flowers on the strawberries, we may have a bumper crop, especially if it rains at the right time. No sign of flowers on the blackberries yet though. 

[Erichill16]

6 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

The garden's plants are almost visibly growing as you watch them.

. 

Especially the weeds!

 

[polybear]

Bear's plans for the day were thrown a bit of a curve ball;  work started with planning the final requirements and measurements for the worktops - which needs care cos' mistakes cost £££.  Then an unexpected call from buddy next door, asking to borrow my green garden bin & loppers - he wanted to attack a neighbours, sorry, T0ssers conifer trees (in a strictly legal way) that were overgrowing the communal shared alleyway behind out houses cos' they were becoming a nuisance.  So Bear offered his services too - I stand to benefit most of all, being at the far end of the alleyway.  Another neighbour was also helping too; I guess about an hour and a half saw it done.  Mr. T0sser rents the house out (it's at the bottom of our back gardens) and he's got the right 'ump with us cos' we successfully blocked him from building another house in his back garden - and rightly so, too.  He did manage to get permission for an extension though - but has to have obscure (toilet!) glass in the upstairs windows though; he also has to satisfy the council regarding adequate parking provision for the extended home before work can start - which is nigh on impossible.  The permission has actually expired now - not sure if that's because the council kept batting back his parking ideas or because he's not chosen to proceed.

Anyway, as revenge he got some blokes to plant 80+ conifers around the perimeter of his back garden to block sunlight into our gardens.  They planted them too close to his fence - so the fence is being damaged too......

A certain Bear has already discussed the situation with the council tree man (with photos) and he's on record as saying that as soon as they start to cause loss of light he can act - meaning Mr. T. will have to cut them back to fence height (and keep them there) - that's a LOT of work with a LOT of tree to get rid of.....

Poor Mr & Mrs Tenant are stuck in the middle - they wanted to trim the trees but were told not to.....

 

The afternoon saw worktop planning completed and a request for estimate submitted - and already returned with a price attached.  Bear is now contemplating a visit to their factory/showroom - a 150 mile round trip, but desirable cos' the worktops are a big ticket item......

 

[New Haven Neil]

When I talk about my past working on BIG engines, its often hard for people to grasp how big ship diesels can be.  I came across these today....

 

That's a piston he's sitting on (not me)....98cm bore.  And yes, two exhaust valve rockers, that's an 8 cylinder engine, 30,000 hp.  Burmeister & Wain 8K98FF engine.

And this is the fan it drove.

 

 

[PupCam]

Clear Prop!   I'm here!

 

A relatively uneventful day in Puppersland with the main action being focused on my young Grandson (Tuesday's are "grandson minding days") which is hard work for Mrs Puppers and pure joy for Puppers.  I had to repair a damaged level crossing gate (for his Brio like wooden train set) but that was attended to with some fettling in the garage.  Grandson is very keen on trains and who am I to try and dissuade him?  Whilst in the garage, I thought I'd do a quick calibration check on that Smiths Chronometric tachometer I mentioned previously.   It was lovely and linear, apart from a step at about 6000 rpm.   Me thinks the needle moveth on the drive shaft so that will need some attention and then another check. 

 

Jab #2 in the morning

[polybear]

4 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Jab #2 in the morning

 

Bear has #2 lined up for Saturday - lets hope they get their act together and stock up on the lollies this time, otherwise I predict a certain Bear will get the right 'ump....

[simontaylor484]

Puppers that's how I learnt all sorts of d I y tasks and engineering operations and swearing was at the side of my Grandad.

 

Neil that must be the largest piston i have seen previous to that it was one from a Class 37 that had been purchased from C F Booth in Rotherham we collected it through the pallet network.

 

 

 

 

[JohnDMJ]

44 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear's plans for the day were thrown a bit of a curve ball;  work started with planning the final requirements and measurements for the worktops - which needs care cos' mistakes cost £££.  Then an unexpected call from buddy next door, asking to borrow my green garden bin & loppers - he wanted to attack a neighbours, sorry, T0ssers conifer trees (in a strictly legal way) that were overgrowing the communal shared alleyway behind out houses cos' they were becoming a nuisance.  So Bear offered his services too - I stand to benefit most of all, being at the far end of the alleyway.  Another neighbour was also helping too; I guess about an hour and a half saw it done.  Mr. T0sser rents the house out (it's at the bottom of our back gardens) and he's got the right 'ump with us cos' we successfully blocked him from building another house in his back garden - and rightly so, too.  He did manage to get permission for an extension though - but has to have obscure (toilet!) glass in the upstairs windows though; he also has to satisfy the council regarding adequate parking provision for the extended home before work can start - which is nigh on impossible.  The permission has actually expired now - not sure if that's because the council kept batting back his parking ideas or because he's not chosen to proceed.

Anyway, as revenge he got some blokes to plant 80+ conifers around the perimeter of his back garden to block sunlight into our gardens.  They planted them too close to his fence - so the fence is being damaged too......

A certain Bear has already discussed the situation with the council tree man (with photos) and he's on record as saying that as soon as they start to cause loss of light he can act - meaning Mr. T. will have to cut them back to fence height (and keep them there) - that's a LOT of work with a LOT of tree to get rid of.....

Poor Mr & Mrs Tenant are stuck in the middle - they wanted to trim the trees but were told not to.....

 

The afternoon saw worktop planning completed and a request for estimate submitted - and already returned with a price attached.  Bear is now contemplating a visit to their factory/showroom - a 150 mile round trip, but desirable cos' the worktops are a big ticket item......

 

 

An interesting scenario!

 

IIRC, as the trees are on the aforementioned Mr t's property, they are his and any trimmings made by external well-doers should be returned to said person, i.e. dumped unceremoniously in his garden! The last thing you want in this situation is to be accused of stealing his hedge! Check with your council tree man

Edited June 1, 2021 by JohnDMJ

[simontaylor484]

We had someone on our round cut a conifer hedge and drag it in their garden bin to a kiddies play area and dump it there was.loads of it I do have photos but for some reason they won't upload to the site. I also came across the photo of a horse tethered in the front garden of a council house

Edited June 1, 2021 by simontaylor484
Autocorrect

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

An interesting scenario!

 

IIRC, as the trees are on the aforementioned Mr t's property, they are his and any trimmings made by external well-doers should be returned to said person, i.e. dumped unceremoniously in his garden! The last thing you want in this situation is to be accused of stealing his hedge! Check with your council tree man

 

Buddy next door reports that he hand delivered a letter to the tenants a couple of weeks ago, requesting they attend to the overhanging branches - diddly squat response (I think they are worried about upsetting the landlord - who in turn is trying to upset us).  I think the rules are that you technically should "offer back the bits" to avoid accusations of nicking 'em; if you dump them over the fence without invitation it becomes fly-tipping - and pretty unfair on the tenants cos' they're nice people (Polish, possibly - and have been there for some years now and are absolutely no problem whatsoever).

[Coombe Barton]

... looking at patterns ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/06/01/first-day-of-summer/

[JohnDMJ]

16 minutes ago, polybear said:

if you dump them over the fence without invitation it becomes fly-tipping - and pretty unfair on the tenants cos' they're nice people (Polish, possibly - and have been there for some years now and are absolutely no problem whatsoever).

 

Whilst I note your comments about the tenants, how can returning the property to its rightful owner be seen as fly tipping? If kiddy's football landed in your garden, I'm sure you'd return it? Is the principle not the same in both cases?

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The foot that I dropped the box on isn't hurting at all. Is that a good sign? 

23 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Buddy next door reports that he hand delivered a letter to the tenants a couple of weeks ago, requesting they attend to the overhanging branches - diddly squat response (I think they are worried about upsetting the landlord - who in turn is trying to upset us).  I think the rules are that you technically should "offer back the bits" to avoid accusations of nicking 'em; if you dump them over the fence without invitation it becomes fly-tipping - and pretty unfair on the tenants cos' they're nice people (Polish, possibly - and have been there for some years now and are absolutely no problem whatsoever).

 

2 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Whilst I note your comments about the tenants, how can returning the property to its rightful owner be seen as fly tipping? If kiddy's football landed in your garden, I'm sure you'd return it? Is the principle not the same in both cases?

If you have an address for the owner why not deliver the prunings to that address? Time to put the kettle on, be back later. 

[polybear]

9 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Whilst I note your comments about the tenants, how can returning the property to its rightful owner be seen as fly tipping? If kiddy's football landed in your garden, I'm sure you'd return it? Is the principle not the same in both cases?

 

English Law works in strange ways....

I guess a football is still useful, whereas clippings off a tree are pretty useless to the vast majority of us - and therefore fall into the "rubbish" category much more readily.

[New Haven Neil]

52 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Snip<

 

Neil that must be the largest piston i have seen previous to that it was one from a Class 37 that had been purchased from C F Booth in Rotherham we collected it through the pallet network.

 

 

 

 

 

They got a little larger, to 105cm bore, but that was a step too far, and they were troublesome.  Actually the 98's were far from perfect..... to coin a phrase.  Crepe was another word for them. That language you refer to was common around them!

 

Sulzer/Wartsila have now settled on 96cm bore for the current generation, they make a lot more power pr cylinder than those engines I sailed with.

 

We used engines of similar power to a class 37 for generators.....babies!

[polybear]

9 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The foot that I dropped the box on isn't hurting at all. Is that a good sign? 

 

If you have an address for the owner why not deliver the prunings to that address? Time to put the kettle on, be back later. 

 

That would cost Bear cake tokens - if he wants them, he can come get them....

[simontaylor484]

Bear is quite correct in what he says the law is you have to offer them back to the owner of the hedge/tree. Just dumping them over the fence although satisfying in some cases is a no no 

[Gwiwer]

15 hours ago, polybear said:

Does Bear win the "First Post of the Day" award?

Depends where one is reading the post  

 

 

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

A busy day, mostly in the garden but with plenty of rest breaks, but in the late afternoon a bit of bookwork was undertaken. After tea, a zoom with the Barnsley branch of the wheel tappers and shunters club. 
I have pmed a couple of people and always started by saying some like ‘ I hope you don’t mind me contacting you directly’.

I have a small number of good friends but.....

Anyway, an early night, the nephews are coming around tomorrow. 
Robert

[Gwiwer]

A lovely peaceful evening on the river tonight. Perfect wind-down to a quite warm day. 
 

What you can’t hear in the photos is the gaggle of teenagers swilling vodka and dancing. To Abba and Dexy’s Midnight Runners. At least it wasn’t c-rap music

 

 

[PupCam]

40 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

... looking at patterns ...

 

Pupper's doesn't know Robert Dingwall, professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University or indeed have access to the huge resource of data that no doubt he has.  

 

Doesn't stop Puppers from not having a very high opinion of Professor Dingwall ......

 

There used to be a joke that went round work along the lines of "Sociology degrees are available in the paper dispensers in the cubicles of the toilets".  Perhaps slightly unfair and apologies to anyone here with a sociology degree ....... No offence intended.

[PupCam]

8 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

A lovely peaceful evening on the river tonight. Perfect wind-down to a quite warm day. 
 

What you can’t hear in the photos is the gaggle of teenagers swilling vodka and dancing. To Abba and Dexy’s Midnight Runners. At least it wasn’t c-rap music

 

 

 

What a beautifully tranquil scene (although I note the fact that we cannot hear what was going on!)

 

[Tony_S]

39 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

Whilst I note your comments about the tenants, how can returning the property to its rightful owner be seen as fly tipping?

You shoukd offer the trimmings. The offer does not need to be accepted. When the neighbours tree landed in my garden smashing things it was still technically their property. I told them it was going in my front garden and they could collect it.