Late Winter Bits and Bobs - 2017.

[robo]

Had a quick look around the allotment while in the middle of stripping the remains of the gazebo I could see at least four sheds upside down one shed was one of those small metal ones that has traveled the full length of the allotment and is lying against the perimeter fence it looks buckled and bent in four different directions on top of the sheds at least three pollytunnels and two greenhouses are missing ,various fences have blown down and raised bed covers are everywhere

[Primrose]

Said a fond farewell to my faithful Nokia 6310 mobile phone yesterday. It fell out of my pocket on the top landing and hit the bottom stair one time too many. It has happened a few times before.
Split the battery.
I shouldn't have given away my spare battery 6 years ago. I thought I had more than one.

Luckily the Nokia C3-C1 that I dropped down the loo a good few years back and then packed in rice has dried out fine and is once again working ok it seems.
The phone did get extremely hot yesterday as I was charging it, I had plugged the wrong mains charger into it. Nearly a big ooops as I had been out, leaving it on charge, and when I returned it was gettting too hot to handle.

It,s probably far too late now for me to mention this but if you still have the phone and everything else is ok it's worth contacting the Ministry of Fones in Susan's Road, Eastbourne (google them) with details of the model number. They're a small quirky business which seems to specialise in replacement parts and batteries for all kinds of obsolete mobiles. Not too long ago they found me a replacement battery for a 12 year Nokia mobile. I couldn't believe my luck as I'd tried everywhere to find one without success.

[Primrose]

Sounds like a lot of people are going to have a rather busy week-end trying to rectify storm damage. I suppose the only thing to be grateful for is that it's probably a little too early for wrecked poly tunnels and greenhouses to be full of newly sown seedlings. I suspect a lot of people will be venturing down their allotments rather dreading what awaits them.

[Pawty]

Hi,

No lotty for me this weekend. We need to head to my mum in laws to help sort out the Doris damage. Huge branches down which fell on three rows of vines. The weekends lesson.... how to use a chainsaw! I'll leave the pole bashing to mr Pawty.

Hope everyone is well and didn't suffer too much damage.

Pawty

[peter]

Cutting up a wonderful old Sycamore tree at the Big House today, as it succumbed to the gales yesterday, such a shame.....but it did get it's own back, as it fell into the dell and it's all got to be carried out by hand.

And on the positive side, many logs.

[oldherbaceous]

Indeed there is Peter, many cubic metres of logs.......

[Primrose]

I'm somewhat surprised at the demand for logs. Last year in our local park a large tree was blown down. The parish council called in contractors to cut it down into logs and put out the word that themlogs could be collected free of charge by local residents. The rush of people turning up to the park and getting wheelbarrows out of their car boots was unbelievable. Within hours there wasn''t a twig left !! I,ve no idea how much a sizeable delivery of logs for an open fire or wood burning stove costs but I imagine freebie logs in this manner are quite hard to come by

But don'tthey need a spell of drying out before they are suitable for burning ?

[Westi]

Oh Pawty!

Reduced volume of wine available for you all this year then! That's personal as well as business btw!

[tigerburnie]

But don'tthey need a spell of drying out before they are suitable for burning ?

I season mine for at least a year, some I'm burning now were felled 8 or 9 years ago(that is longer than normal, I just had a lot for a small stove).

[Colin2016]

Always plenty of wood on the beach...There was a buoy floating on its own & a caravan roof yesterday courtesy of Doris.

[Ricard with an H]

I,ve no idea how much a sizeable delivery of logs for an open fire or wood burning stove costs but I imagine freebie logs in this manner are quite hard to come by

But don'tthey need a spell of drying out before they are suitable for burning ?

I stopped cutting my own wood, its very cathartic cutting and splitting but I'm not up to it anymore (Note to self; sell the chainsaw) I pay £75 for 1.5 cubic metre air dried softwood. My storage is 6 cubic metres, I use it all together with about £250 worth of smokeless fuel. Our stove heats just over half the barn, lounge and kitchen get a lot and because of the shape of the place the hot air travels up through the gallery and into the upstairs bedroom. Downstairs bedrooms have to be heated by central heating. Oil fired and I hate it although it works well and from I gathered is still the preferred option if you don't have natural gas.

Processing wood for burning costs a lot of man hours and you need lots of storage.

[Geoff]

Well that made me light the stove and watch the rugby, miserable day again 17.5mm and counting!

[peter]

Been windy all day, not particularly string, but noticeable.
Drizzly rain started around three.
Excellent rugby, my club beat Canterbury 46 - 30 and I saw three of our tries from the pitchside bar I staff as a volunteer.

Now eating samosas, pakoras and bhajis in front of...

20170225_174009.jpg (1.98 MiB) Viewed 3090 times

[Colin2016]

Good to see your dog has prime spot.

My dog is curls up on the settee with me but as soon as I go to put log on fire she disappears to another room. When my wife put log on she stays put.

[Westi]

Sounds very much like a 'Perfect Day' Peter!