5th June
A Curb, a Fence and a Clean Car
Since moving back to Wales and meeting our neighbours, Jan and Nev, we have said we must get together for a coffee. Nearly two years on with restrictions lifted and having matching slots in the diary’s, we finally got together. We arrived at 11:00 for coffee and cake and then realised it was 13:45. Where had the time gone. As we were leaving, June hadn’t noticed the high curb and narrow pavement outside the house and promptly missed her footing, dropping 5 inches, landing on her side on the road. Scary to watch as there was nothing I could do to help. I know from experience that once June has hit the deck, all I can do is wait while she sort of re-boots herself (in computer terms) and I wait for instructions on what to do. In this case, Nev got a chair, June rolled over and got onto her knees and then used the chair to support her front while I waited for the command to raise her posterior. After a 5 min sit, I got the outside walker from the shed so she could walk back home, where she sat with a brandy and ginger while I went in search of medical patch up stuff. She had slightly grazed her knee, but had completely removed the skin on her arm, just below the elbow. Fortunately, nothing appeared broken. At this rate, I’m going to start looking on eBay for one of those inflatable body suits, so if/when she falls again, she should bounce back. Oh and a helmet too.
Following on the saga of the unknown fence wrecker, Dave (with some help from me) replaced the posts and rails in a day. Some of the posts had rotted off, but came out easily; others needed up to 45 mins to remove as the stumps were in some solid concrete. As we were working adjacent to the main road and the speed limit is generally ignored, I employed Bones to catch the eye of drivers. He was quite happy to just sit and observe, didn’t stop for tea or lunch and did slow the traffic down. One woman even turned her car around and stopped to take a photo and the bin men commented on seeing cars breaking as they approached Bones. We’ll give the posts a few days to settle, then we’ll re-attach the sheep – dog – fox – fence to it. A tidy job as they say.
My Skoda Karoq is coming to the end of it’s lease in November, so with vehicle lead times anything up to a year, we started looking to see what was available within our price band. I wanted a hybrid to be somewhat greener than my diesel, but not wanting to jump straight into all electric as I expect costs and battery technology to improve over the next 4 years. We settled on an MG HS Plug-in Hybrid that would be available at the end of June. So with that timescale in mind, the Skoda (or skip as Steve calls it) needed just a little bit of overdue tlc. Outside washed and algae/moss removed – tick. Inside emptied, vacuumed, wiped, sprayed – tick. Seats, parcel shelf and other accessories returned – tick. Wow, looks good and bonus of finding £1.22 in change, four screwdrivers and a tape measure – what a satisfying afternoons toil. Now there’s just this carrier bag of receipts, sweet wrappers, etc to sort!
26th June
Grit, Soil and a New Car
With fine weather comes outdoor work and the last few weeks have been no exception. Dave, assisted by me, have cleared around the side and back of the garage, ripped up 12 foot long tree roots, compacted the soil, covered it in weed suppressant sheet, laid a few tons of grit and finally compacted the whole lot again. The result is a free draining, slip-proof surface which is very easy to maintain. In addition to that, we’ve constructed a feather-edge fence around the tank and will add a bit more fencing around the rear of the tank to tidy it up a bit more. I am currently erecting a 2′ x 4′ wall greenhouse which I have had sitting in its box for 20 years!
While sorting out that area, we laid a drain pipe from the soak-away drain outside the garage across the lawn to eliminate the submersible pump issue. While at it, I dropped a length of armoured cable into the trench so I can provide power directly into the firewood cut/split/store poly-tunnel. After back-fill, cementing and general tidying up the front, we moved some heavy plant tubs and an olive tree from the back garden to finish off the area in-front of the tank screen.
When mowing the lawn, there are always area’s that you can’t cut with a ride-on. One area has been the triangular piece next to the shed. I had a moment of inspiration at some ungodly hour of the morning – put a triangular flower bed there. So, the pile of ex-fence posts, a few 1-ton bags for weed control, a big bag of topsoil and a load of surplus vegetation, transformed the area into something pleasing to the eye. After preparing assorted lengths of stacked wood, I drilled 11mm holes through the stack and then hammered lengths of 10mm rebar through the lot and at least 30cm further into the ground for stability. I cut the builders bags open and laid them on the ground, piled on the top soil and added a piece of surplus fence rail across the front, again anchored with re-bar. The surplus bags were trimmed back and as with the other weed suppressant sheet, sealed with a blow lamp. The resulting bed looks good and saves mowing time.
We had a call to say the car could be collected on 24th June, so into action for transfer of registration (£80), sort out registration plates for Skoda (£25) and change insurance details (£25). Then on day of collection, change insurance details again (£25) and a further £60 for a different vehicle for the 3 months remaining on my policy!
After collecting the car, I think I need a in-depth training session with NASA with all the adaptive this and that, 360 degree camera’s, eco and battery modes, multiple instrument cluster layouts, assorted joysticks and all things digital; thank goodness I spent a life in electronics! I have charged it twice from 50% capacity and it’s costing a couple of quid each time, so £4.50 for 32 miles of battery driving. We will log and calculate the running costs over the next few months to see what savings we have made.
