Tuesday 15th November 2011 – IT’S NOT AS EASY …

… as you might think putting up this wind turbine and despite a good day’s work I’ve hardly scratched the surface of it.

First job was to reposition all of the planks on the scaffolding so that they are where I want them to be, and then to put the ladder where it should be as well. And that wasn’t the work of five minutes either.

After that it was to cut up an old scrap scaffolding pole (I bought a couple of those with just this kind of purpose in mind) to make the horizontal battens on the wall. There’s an overhang on the roof of about 70mms and so I’m having to invent something to stand the upright pole 70mms out of the wall, and that’s not easy.

Next task was to drill the holes for the mounting brackets to take the horizontal battens. And with the hard stone that we have around here this was playing havoc with the batteries on the Hitachi battery-powered SDS drill.

And then I had an idea.

I have a mains SDS drill – about 750 watts-worth but it’s pretty lightweight and not any better than the Hitachi. That’s always been down here but back in Brussels a few years ago I recalled buying a really heavy-duty 1050 watt SDS drill – with rotostop and everything. And that would make short work of drilling the holes.

And so I had to hunt that down somewhere around the house or the barn and eventually, much to my surprise, I actually discovered it.
And then it was to wire in the 1500-watt mega-inverter that I bought for the barn.
And then it was to trail an electrical cable all around the side of the house from across the barn.
And then look for an adapter because the drill is still wired to a European plug.

But now you see why it’s taking me so long.

But once I was up and running, that drill went through the stone like a hot knife through butter.

After much manipulation I have one of the horizontal battens on now, and that cement mastic stuff is excellent. But I’m going to have to take it off because I’ve thought of an improvement and I shall be doing that tomorrow.

What with having to manipulate the heavy upright pole (and that wasn’t easy either) I was exhausted and in any case heaving heavy pipes around 10 metres up in the air by the light of a torch is not recommended.

We talked the other day about the film Tony Rome. Now that film is from the mid-60s and one of the things that was going through my mind was “is this the earliest ‘mainstream’ film to have a reasonably-explicit lesbian love scene in it?”

I spent all afternoon trying to think if there was one any earlier than this but nothing came to mind, apart from some subculture stuff in the 1920s

Secondly, I was watching an episode of The Prisoner this morning at breakfast – “It’s Your Funeral” – and one of the actresses in it caught my ear. And I mean that too because while I didn’t recognise the face, the voice was ringing in my ears telling me something.

And it wasn’t until much later that the penny dropped. It was no one other than Annette Andre, which might mean nothing to you but her most famous role was as Philia, Michael Crawford’s sidekick in the film version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

That film which, although excellent in its own right, was notorious for dropping Frankie Howerd from the lead role in favour of the dreadful Zero Mostel and featuring a cameo of Buster Keaton, two things done simply so that the film would have a wider audience in the USA.

Monday 14th November 2011 – WELL, THAT’S FINALLY THAT!

Yes, I’ve finished the wall today.

And about time too if you ask me. Mind you it’s just as well because the weather is going to change on Wednesday so we are told, and we can expect rain. So at least that gives 36 hours or so for the chalk to set and to harden before the rain gets to it.

Of course with the rain it means that it isn’t going to freeze any time soon, and that’s good news too as it gives even more time to cure before anything serious can attack it.

It seems that I’ve finished just in time

Mind you, it was awkward up the ladder doing this last bit and it’s made me realise just what a good idea it was to buy this scaffolding. A very good move, that.

There was some mortar left over too and so for that I did some work on the inside of the rear wall. And that was interesting too because I was still out there at 18:30 with a torch working on that – not like me, considering that we are on winter hours.

It was pretty tiring up there too and I didn’t really feel like going to the Anglo-French Group meeting but I managed to tear myself off the sofa and go down to St Gervais d’Auvergne.

Tomorrow I’ll be putting up the wind turbine – not something that I’m looking forward to doing on my own but it won’t get done on its own no matter how long I stare at it. And when it’s done, I can move the scaffolding out of the lean-to and put it at the side, ready to start on the roofing of it.

Isn’t this all progress?

Sunday 13th November 2011 – I DON’T THINK …

… that I will be seeing the wild boar again.

The farmer came down this morning to bring his cows to the field behind the house. He went for his usual walk around to check the boundaries and he must have seen the wild boar tracks because half an hour later the hunters arrived.

I was once at a meeting where I heard a hunter describe hunting as “a noble sport”. I’ve no idea what is noble or sporting about 20 armed men ringing a thicket, sending a bunch of dogs in to flush out everything that is in there and then blasting into oblivion whatever comes fleeing out.

It’s all really sad and pathetic, and brings out the worst in human nature if you ask me. But it’s legal to do it and part of the French rural tradition, so I have to put up with it whether I like it or not.

>This afternoon I went down to Loubeyrat. FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 2nd XI were playing there today and it’s a nice drive down.

We’ve been here before, a few years ago, and one thing that impressed me then was the view that could be had from the corner of the football ground. It’s right on the edge of the Faille de Limange – the fault line that runs down the centre of the département and there are views from here right across the plain and the valley of the River Allier all the way over to Vichy and the Montagne Bourbonnaise.

It was a real shame about the match though.

Although FC Pionsat St Hilare lost the match 3-0 they were desperately unlucky here. Two superb free kicks and a defensive howler were responsible for the goals but apart from that they did really well. This was probably the best that I’ve seen them play in recent times. They even managed to have a good shape that they kept throughout the match.

It’s just a pity that they can’t play like that every week.

Back here this evening I watched one of the videos that I had bought at Noz in Montlucon for a couple of Euros the other day. This was a Frank Sinatra film called Tony Rome.

Not only does Sinatra not sing in it (for which I am extremely grateful) he acts spectacularly well in his role as a private detective in Miami. If you know any of the Philip Marlowe films, then think of Humphrey Go-kart in The Big Sleep, bring it up to date by 20 years, film it in technicolour with good outdoor scenery and give it some meaningful and convincing co-stars and there you are.

It’s easily the best film that I have bought for quite a while and it will be one that will feature on my regular playlist.

There was a follow-up of it called The Lady In Cement. While it is very very rare for a follow-up to be anything like as good as the original, I shall be trying to track down a copy of that.

But it really was a good film, this.

Saturday 12th November 2011 – I’M GOING …

… to bed in a second.

Yes, I’m thoroughly exhausted and I don’t know why. Probably the early start this morning had something to do with it.

Up with the alarm waiting for a phone call for this photo safari thing, and it turns out that I had not been patched in to an earlier e-mail circular and so I’d missed the point of this trip out. But anyway it didn’t take us long to do what it was that we had to do.

This afternoon, seeing as how the weather was so beautiful I went to Commentry to do my shopping there.

And while I was in the car park of the Les Bonnes Affaires I was buzzed by one of these motorised hang-glider things passing low over the town. I was trying to think where he might have come from because there’s no suitable cliff in the vicinity off which to leap into the ether – unless he can run with his feet fast enough to make a clean take-off.

And I wonder what the rules might be about low-flying over a built-up area like this

While I had the camera out, I noticed another example of poorly-sighted solar panels – over there on the roof of that bungalow. Facing full west they are, so they don’t receive a glimmer of sunlight until early afternoon.

These “become a producer of solar energy and sell to the electricity board” high-pressure salesmen have struck again. It’s hardly surprising that the industry has such a bad name when they do things like this.

I did make a couple of interesting discoveries though. And they were both at Bricomarche.

they have a huge pile of water-resistant 8mm plywood at €39 a sheet of 2.5×1.25 metres. It’s expensive all right but it’s what I need for the roof of the lean-to and they do have it in stock.
they also have the stove that I want for downstairs. A woodstove with an oven and with a central heating boiler built in – for €1499 too. That’s exactly what I want, because the sun will heat the water in the summer and I need something for heating it in the winter. If this does everything, it will be perfect. I can even do cooking with it as well.

But the real reason for going to Commentry was that with the weather being so nice I could nip down the road to Neris-les-Bains for a swim. It was glorious in there – the water just right and the pool quite warm as well. Shame it can’t be like that all the time.

At the footy tonight the 3rd XI match was cancelled as the opposition couldn’t raise a team, and the first XI went down 2-1 to a team that they had played off the park, something of which they seem to be in a habit of doing

I’d tell you much more about the game but enough of this for now. I’ve fallen asleep twice already while typing as far as this, and if I don’t get a move on I’ll be ……..THUD THUD

…….ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

-1

Friday 11th November 2011 – I COMPLETELY FORGOT …

… about a sack of sand that I had in the barn. I’d bought it to use for storing the carrots and so I had put it on one side. But the carrots aren’t up yet and I can always buy another sack of sand another time.

I hadn’t forgotten that it was a bank holiday today, but when I finally crawled out from underneath the quilt and saw what a gorgeous day it was (23°C in November?) then I changed the habits of a lifetime and decided to put in a day’s work on the wall.

This was too good an opportunity to miss, especially as I had remembered about the sack of sand.

And I’m glad I did as well because even though I was still working outside when the light went, I managed to finish the wall as far as I could reach and I’m ever so impressed by that. All that remains of the wall is the bit that I can’t reach from the scaffolding, and for that I can put a ladder up on Monday and quickly do that if I get a move on, and then that will be that.

Just the wind turbine to mount after that (I have some funny … "you said that the other day" – ed …), and to anchor it to the wall, and then I can get on with putting the roof on the lean-to. I’ll be really pleased if I can get that far this year.

I took the camera up the scaffolding just in case we had Part Two of Wild Boar Wars but of course, with the camera on hand, they were conspicuous by their absence. No surprise there, then.

Tomorrow I’m off on a photo safari around the local area, and then shopping in St Eloy. Tomorrow night it’s Pionsat’s 1st XI against Methanol and the 3rd XI against Blot l’Eglise.

Ohh the joys of footy!

Talking of which, you can see last week’s matches which I have now put on line.

Thursday 10th November 2011 – I DIDN’T …

… get so much done today.

And that’s despite having an early start as well.

But in the night when I had to get up to go for a gypsy’s, I saw a mouse appearing from a hole in the insulation in the ceiling. It saw me and darted back inside, and I heard the tell-tale scamper of tiny feet up into the roof.

And so this morning I spent an hour or so cutting up the off-cuts of tongue and grooving and making a wall across the insulation and shoring it up. And so far, it’s been All Quiet on the Western Front. We shall see. But mice are persistent creatures and if there’s a way in they will find it.

And it wasn’t All Quiet on the Eastern Front either.

I didn’t get much done on the wall because I spent much of the afternoon watching two herds of wild boar battle for possession of Lieneke’s field. The noise was spectacular to say the least. “Deafening” is another good word to describe it.

I didn’t have the Nikon D5000 with me up on the scaffolding (I’d probably get a pile of dust in it or drop it or something) and although I was tempted to go down and fetch it, discretion was the better part of valour. All of that aggression about 20 yards from me and if I had been observed I might possibly have become involved in it, and I’m not half as well-armed or well-equipped as a wild boar.

And they are quite noisy bar stewards as well.

Tomorrow I’m going to be pointing for as long as the sand holds out, and then I’ll make a start on the wind turbine.

-1

Wednesday 9th November 2011 – I BET …

… that you are fed up of hearing me talking about this wall.

Well, so am I, if the truth need be told, but not long now. Even as I speak, I’m sitting on the scaffolding planks doing the last row that I can, and there’s just about 90cms underneath that that I will have to do from a ladder.

But that can’t be done until I’ve moved the scaffolding, and that can’t be done until I’ve mounted the wind turbine (I don’t half do some weird things around here) and then there’s a strip that I can’t reach from the scaffolding – that’s going to be a ladder job too.

I’m likely to run out of sand tomorrow and so rather than spend all of this time getting out the Sankey trailer, what I’ll do is simply to go to the quarry at Montaigut with a dozen or so sacks and bag it up myself there. That’s much more sensible, I reckon.

But I can’t believe that I’ve used so much sand. There was more than a trailer-load here before I started.

At about 17:40 it became too dark to work and so,by the light of the solar lamps around here I started to tidy up at the front of the house. I’ve been pulling up weeds and putting them in the brazier that I bought the other week. When they have dried out I can have a bonfire.

There’s piles of other stuff that can go on the fire as well. High time I had a tidy up.

But it’s all getting to be quite exciting around here just now.There might even be a roof on the lean-to before long and won’t that be progress?

Ohh – and remember the thumb that has a lime burn on it? I’ve hit it with a hammer today. It’s not having much luck, is it?

-1

Tuesday 8th November 2011 – I’VE NOT …

… been feeling myself today.

“And quite right, too” I hear you say.

And I think that some of it has to do with shock. Shock of being wide awake and compos mentis, or rather, as compos mentis as I can be, long before the alarm went off. And that’s not something that happens every day either.

And breakfast was interrupted by a phone call – seems that there’s a panic down at the footy club and so I had to sort that out as well.

When I finally made it outside, I had to reposition all of the planks on the scaffolding to get to where I need them for the next round of pointing and once I had done that, I could carry on.

For some reason, this has taken longer than I expected and I don’t know why.

I’m also on my last bag of sand and so I’ll have to go down to the quarry this week and get some more. That means pulling the Sankey trailer out of the undergrowth,which should be exciting.

But where I am now is the last bit of the pointing that I can do on the scaffolding. The rest will have to be done off a ladder.

And so before I take down the scaffolding, I’ll have to put up the wind turbine on the side of the house. That’s going to be exciting, trying to get that up on my own. And it’s complicated too as because of the roof overhang,

I need to do some engineering to get it to work.

And when that’s done, and the scaffolding is down, I can fit the roof on the lean-to. If I can get that far before the end of the year I shall be well-impressed.

I’ve come a long way this autumm.

-1

Monday 7th November 2011 – WHAT A DEPRESSING …

… miserable day this has been!

I woke up to a hanging cloud stuck on the mountain this morning. It was enough to make me turn over and go back to sleep.

And so when I did finally heave myself out of the stinking pit it was still there. And it’s been there all day and not moved an inch. And it’s still there even now.

There’s been no solar energy in the barn, and about 4 amp-hours here in the house. Winter is definitely here.

The batteries have gone flat on the anemometer on the house, and so that was the cue for me to get up on the roof and take it down.

I then made a framework bracket out of aluminium and put the new one up on the side of the house. Not that I needed to bother because the wind that we have received here today can be measured in minutes. A far cry from the 20 hours of wind the other day.

After lunch, despite the grey damp conditions I carried on pointing the side of the house. It’ll take ages to dry of course in this weather but at least it won’t be freezing and so it will have the time to dry out. It’s important that it’s properly dry before the frost gets to it.

I did quite a lot, looking at it when I finished, and another two good days might see it finished if I am lucky and the weather holds out.

At the Anglo-French group tonight, I had a good chat to Bill. It seems that this house repair stuff is getting to be contagious as this week he’s restarted work on his house.

Good for him!

Although it did remind me of the story about the small boy at school who was asked to write a sentence containing the word “contagious”. And so he wrote “our neighbour went out to mow the lawn yesterday and my dad says that it will take the contagious to finish it”.

I’ll get my coat

-1

Sunday 6th November 2011 – WE HAD MORE …

… football today of course.

Mind you, we nearly didn’t. If Percy Penguin hadn’t sent me a text message I probably would be still in bed asleep right now.

After a hurried breakfast I shot off to St Maurice près Pionsat to watch the fist half of the 3rd XI’s match which kicks off at 13:00. I couldn’t stay long – only for the first half in fact, as I needed to be off to catch the 1st XI’s match that kicked off at 15:00

It was 1-0 in FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s favour when I left, but it turns out that they ended up by losing lost 2-1. and that makes me wonder what happened in the match because they were well ahead in the game from what I saw.

But then it’s always going to be difficult for the 3rd XI without a recognised goalkeeper and I wish that the club would make more effort to find one for them.

But Pionsat’s goal was a pearler – another absolute screamer from Xavier, 20 yards out.

He’s big and rather ponderous, just like a lower-league centre forward should be, but sometimes he pulls something out that is so unexpected.

And he can be like that when he’s playing football too.

He has probably the most powerful shot of any footballer I have ever seen, and like this one today, many a goalkeeper has put both hands on the ball but it hasn’t done the slightest bit of good.

If there hadn’t been a net in that goal, the ball would have probably made it all the way to the Atlantic without bouncing.

From there I had to drive like hell through the back lanes to the suburbs of Riom to watch FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI in the match against E S Malauzat. And that was a hard-fought game that turned out to be very bad-tempered, and what made me happy in one sense was that most of the physical stuff was being dished out for a change by Pionsat.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’ve criticised the team time and time again for being something of a lightweight side, easily hustled off the ball, but they were nothing like that today.

Pionsat’s rather physical tactics were having the effect of making the opposing players become all wound up and the opposing specattors were baying at the ref to do something about Pionsat’s physical (but reasonably legitimmate) tactics, but it all made absolutely no difference as Pionsat won 2-1

Pionsat’s goals were two of the best goals that I have ever seen at this level of football. The one scored by Jerome was particularly outstanding.

This was what I called a good day out

And so back home in the miserable depressing rain to find out that it has been miserable and depressing here all day and there’s been almost no solar energy today.

It’s still raining now – misty and foggy outside and it’s probably going to stay like this until next summer I reckon. But it’s not important because if it is still raining tomorrow I can finish off the steps and I’ve also bought the boards to make the worktops in the washroom bit.

I also need to work out where I’m going to put the front door. That has come with its frame and so I reckon that it will be easier to fit it before it’s glazed as the door will be lighter and so easy to manipulate. I can then take the door out of the frame and have it glazed.

-1

Saturday 5th November 2011 – ONE THING …

… that I will never understand is how tonight Pionsat’s 2nd XI, with a full complement of players, a decent goalkeeper and several players back in the side who have been missing for ages, can totally outplay an opposition so convincingly and STILL lose 4-3.

It simply beggars belief and those who were watching it will still be pinching themselves tomorrow about this. It seems like as if the football team has been and gorn and done it again and it’s driving me to despair.

Mind you, what also had many spectators scratching their heads was why one of the left-backs and who had played sweeper so successfully for the 2nd XI the last time he played, was playing as an attacking midfielder.

And why a guy who had played in central defence for the 1st XI so successfully (to such an extent that he won my “man of the match” awards the other week) was playing in midfield, and why one of the usual centre-forwards was playing at centre-half.

And why this formation was persisted with after the guy who was playing centre-forward this week (and who was quite effective too) was carried off injured after 30 minutes.

It was all totally mystifying.

This morning I was up early and into Montlucon. I picked up the new wheel for Caliburn that I had ordered last week and I also bought some stuff in Brico Depot, including some cheap kitchen worktops that I’ll use in my laundry room.

But pride of place, and the reason why I went to Montlucon today, was to go to Lapeyre to order the window for the downstairs here.

And Terry was perfectly right, as he usually is. A made-to-measure window for the bedroom cost me €650 back in the early part of the year. The window in the living room is larger but rather than go for a made-to-measure window, there’s a standard-size window that’s 1cm narrower and 2cms shorter than the opening.

If I don’t mind filling in around the window opening, then that window will cost me all of €342. Do bears go for picnics in the woods?

And it will be ready on 25th November as well. That means that it will be installed before the severe winter sets in.

So what I’ll do on the next rainy day or two is to plan the fitting of the front door. It probably won’t be glazed, but I’ll screw a board and some insulated plasterboard over it and that should stop the draughts.

And with the new fire, I might even be warm here this winter at this rate.

-1

Friday 4th November 2011 – THERE WON’T BE …

… a photo today, folks!

That’s because I did nothing of any importance – well, as far as visually goes.

This morning was a computer morning, even though I’m on winter hours. Someone has asked for a quote for a solar panel installation and I needed to track down some product. One thing led to another and I was all morning doing things like this.

Later on I managed to make my way outside.

First job was to reposition the planks to the correct working position. And then I spent a delightful few hours chiselling out the old mortar. It was only after that that I could start on the pointing.

But I didn’t get much of it done. Each time I was up the scaffolding with a bucket of mix the heavens opened. And by the time I was back down soaked to the skin and with an empty bucket and covered up the lean-to, the rain would stop.

And so I would start again and then so would the weather.

This kept on until about 16:00 when the heavens truly opened. By 22:00 we had had 25.5mm and it was still coming.

But the advantage of having plenty to do is that I could go and work indoors. I’ve now measured in the beam in the lean-to where I want the studding to go for the stair rails for the inside and I’ve cut the lets.

And so on Monday when I start back I can either start on the wind turbine, carry on with the pointing or finish off the stud walls and stair rails in the lean-to, if the weather will let me.

That wasn’t everything either. I’ll have to go to the UK soon as a client wants a huge load of electronic items that are only available from Radio Spares. Don’t like that idea very much, but there we are.

-2

Thursday 3rd November 2011 – IT WAS HARD THIS MORNING …

… to get out of bed. I was aching in places I didn’t even realise I had places after the exertions of yesterday. The sections of scaffolding are quite heavy and carrying them up ladders and manhandling scaffolding planks into position is strenuous work, especially at my age.

Still, if it’s hurting then it must be doing some good.

Once everything was sorted out around here I had a set-to with the pointing on the side wall.

And isn’t it easier doing it from a scaffolding than from a ladder? If I had had a scaffolding up here from the start I would have finished it long ago.

And you are probably wondering why it is that the pointing that I did today hasn’t joined up with the pointing from before. That’s easy to explain.

When you assemble the scaffolding you need to have the planks set at 2-metre heights so that you can have something solid to stand on while you fit the one above,and then climb up to that one to do the next one above, and so on.

And then when you have assembled your scaffolding you can reposition the planks at the height that you want for working.

That was in fact going to be the first job this morning, but with winds gusting up to 40kph throughout the day and the wind turbines going round like there was no tomorrow, this was not the time to be manipulating heavy scaffolding planks while standing on a ladder 8 metres up.

That can wait until the wind drops.

There’s plenty of wall to go at and so I can pick a part at a safe working height from an existing plank and point that bit.

And so it’s definitely easier working from a scaffolding, especially in a gale-force wind. And the wind was so strong that it’s blown down my wooden fence. That gives you an idea as to what we were going through. So that’s yet another job that I shall have to add to the backlog of work to be accomplished around here.

Two steps forward, three steps back.

However I was enjoying myself on the scaffolding and I was surprised when it suddenly went dark.

“A rainstorm approaching” I thought, but in actual fact it was knocking-off time. The day passed really quickly.

We did have the rainstorm later, however. 19mm in two hours and it’s still raining now. I hope it dries up for tomorrow as I’m itching to get back to work. I want to have this wall finished.

-2

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 – NEVER MIND …

… the Towering Inferno – and never mind the legendary Tower of Power either. This is what I’ve been doing today.

Well, not all today. The first thing was to give the downstairs part of the lean-to a good clean-out so that I could fetch the scaffolding inside, and then I had to sweep up the floor of the first floor so that I could erect the scaffolding.

It was half-way through that part of the exercise that I realised that maybe it was not such a good idea to put the framework of the washroom in position yesterday. It’s bad enough trying to negotiate the small hatch in the floor without having to negotiate a gratuitous upright as well.

But I tell you what – you know these tournaments where the military have to dismantle a field gun, pass it over a wall and through a hoop and then re-assemble it? I’m entering for that next year. Putting this scaffolding up onto the first floor of the lean-to is good training for that.

And so the scaffolding was erected and that took quite a while to do – mainly because it’s the first time I’ve put the scaffolding up on my own, and I’m not as young as I used to be.

But there it is – all in place and 8 metres high. In fact it’s so high that my ladder won’t reach the top. I’ve had to put that on planks 1 metre off the ground and shin up there like a monkey.

What has impressed me is that the floor of the first floor, that I fitted last summer, is perfectly level. I proved that by setting the adjustable feet of the scaffolding to the same height before I began the assembly,and when I checked the first row of scaffolding with a spirit level, it was absolutely level.

The floor is also extremely strong as well. Not only does it take the weight of the scaffolding, it can withstand the shock of a scaffolding plank (and these are heavy) being dropped onto it from 8 metres up. That is definitely impressive.

Mind you, never mind the answer blowing in the wind, my friend, the scaffolding at 8 metres high is swaying about too and not surprising – we’ve had gusts today of over 25mph.

You might be thinking to yourself that tomorrow I’ll be attacking the wind turbine, but not a bit of it, and that’s all Terry’s fault.

Normally I’d fasten the wind turbine pole with anchor bolts drilled into the wall but the problem with them is that they are never a very good fit in stone and work loose after a while – you need to be constantly tightening them up. But when we were doing the windows Terry showed me a kind of mastic that you squirt into holes and which sets like concrete.

And that gave me an idea.

Drill the holes about 1cm deeper than necessary, squirt a pile of stuff into the hole, ram the anchor into the hole, fit the mounting bracket and tighten up. The force and pressure will force the mastic everywhere into the hole, the crevices, the screw threads and so on, and then set like concrete and (hopefully) you won’t ever be able to move it.

I need to wait until Saturday and shopping so that I can get a tube or two of it. It’s expensive but if it does the job it will be well worth it.

And so until the weekend I’ll be pointing the wall, and in the comparative luxury of a scaffolding too. It makes a change from shinning up ladders with a bucket of stones, a bucket of water and paintbrush, a loose-handled brush, a hammer and chisel, some mortar and a trowel.

-1

Tuesday 1st November 2011 – THE ONE THING …

… that I like about having made some space inside the house is that when it rains I can work indoors. And the one thing I like about it raining is that I have plenty of work to do that can be done indoors as well.

And so what with the pouring rain this morning I brought inside the struts for the stud wall-cum-ladder that I’ll be fitting inside the lean-to and I spent much of today working on them.

And to such an extent that I have two of them – the front two – now fitted and screwed into position. Mind you,that involved working in the dark with a torch because we are now on winter hours of course and it goes dark at 17:45.

The bit in front (nearest the camera) will be the wash room, where the washing machine and stuff like that will eventually be installed. Then we’ll have the steps up, and then a little workshop or something behind it.

That’s really all the excitement for today – I haven’t done very much else, although I made myself a really wicked aubergine and bean casserole kind of thing, with enough left over for two more days as well. I suppose that’s fairly exciting.

Tomorrow if the weather is good I’ll put up the scaffolding on the lean-to and plan the erection of the wind turbine. And if it rains I’ll carry on with the stud walls in the lean-to. That’s what I like about having choices.

But I forgot something.

If you have been following my website you will recall that I’ve been talking about the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry, and in particular the restored Mobile Technical College, “Shopmobile 5“.

Anyway I’ve had an e-mail today from the person who was in charge of the restoration project and he’s sent me a pile of photos, together with a promise to sort out a pile more stuff for me if I want it. Do bears have picnics in the woods?

I suppose that that’s exciting, isn’t it?

-2

EPIC HALL

The Poisoned Pen (or Poisoned Chalice, more like) – or my relentless struggle against reality