… with the pic from yesterday you’ll notice something of a change. In fact we’ve put the new woodwork on the roof.
Putting the chevrons onto the ends of the beams was exciting. The beams were so perished that there was little to nail to. All these years of exposure to the weather have taken their toll. The chevrons however went on quite easily but getting the old ones off was quite something else. I’m going to have to buy a bigger crowbar.
Some parts of the main woodwork have been attacked by the damp and by the beasties and so I’m going to have to treat them to some xylophene. In two places I’m going to have to put some strengthening pieces into take some of the weight. I think that I am just in time with this roof – it wouldn’t have held out for much longer.
Disposing of the old wood was quite easy as you can see. But it’s made something of a mess of my garlic bed
The original plan was to keep the old wood as it might be trimmed off to do for the shorter lengths that are required for the other side. But most of it is in a pretty poor state and there won’t be much to salvage. And I won’t be short of firewood either.
Seeing as it was Friday we knocked off earlier and just as Terry was leaving, Lieneke my Dutch neighbour came round. She was impressed with my new parking space and she was also impressed when I told her about Terry’s new business. She’s going to have a chat with her husband over the weekend and then have a chat with Terry on Monday. As I have said before, there are three secrets of success for the kind of business that Terry is undertaking with his homme a tout faire and they are “talk” “talk” and “talk”. Everyone around here has jobs that need doing but they don’t know how to go about them or they don’t know who to approach for advice and assistance.
Lieneke had the usual conducted tour of the premises and after that I set about having a solar shower seeing as the water in the bucket was a delightful 41°C. But the water pump in the new (well, new last year) shower kit has stopped. The impeller that pushes the water round is only an interference-fit (or push-fit) onto the shaft and it has worked its way loose. Cheap substandard Chinese rubbish. Whyever couldn’t they make a splined shaft? Is that really too difficult?
In the end today I went into reverse-technology mode.and dug up the old footpump-action pump out of the caravan and used that. It was quite nice being outside and showering but I’m fed up of these electric pumps – it’s the third one that has failed on me. Trying to find a decent reliable low-volume submersible 12-volt pump is proving to be quite difficult. I reckon that at the end of the day I’m going to go into even more reverse-energy mode and go for a gravity shower – that involves building a framework 2m high so I can put the bucket on that and then stand underneath it.
Tonight was a very important meeting, the AGM of the Pionsat Football Club. And it went totally out of my mind and I clean forgot about it..
There’s nothing wrong with gravity. It has worked for centuries and shows no sign of abating.
As far as the Chinese kit is concerned, usually Chinese stuff is so badly designed it’s not possible to fix it. What you need is an electric water pump out of an old car.
Phew! I turn my back for five minutes and look at all you’ve managed to do! Most impressive! just think of all you can do once you’ve got a dry barn to pile more junk…er stuff in :-))
The downside of the gravity feed is that each time I take a shower I have to climb up a ladder with 15 litres of water to fill the tank again. And electric water pumps are fine but either they aren’t built for long-term running and burn out or else the pressure is too much. 60 Litres per minute would blast me away as well as exhausting my supply before I was clean.
And hello again Krys! You have been sadly missed. Are you okay, and have you been anywhere nice? (notice the studious ignoring of your final remark).
.
You could run a hose to the top of the construction and use a hand pump to raise the water then use a pull valve to release it 🙂
True, but then I would still have to shin up a ladder to slide back the glass lid of the box to drop the hosepipe in. I could in theory put in an inlet and connect up the hosepipe to that but then I’d still need to check the level up at the top – 20 litres is the optimum amount of water for solar heating in an open tank with a glass lid.
Once you move beyond there (water-level drainage and that kind of thing) the engineering is starting to become more complicated and I’m not in a position to do that yet until the renovations on the house have advanced into where the bathroom will be. I don’t want to go off on twopenny packages – I will want to be doing it properly at the right time.
Hmm 20 liters?
Could use a ball-cock or an outlet pipe so that you know it’s full when water comes out.
An overflow pipe with a oneway valve to keep the heat in is what I was going to suggest too.
I’m fine Eric, we went off on our hols for a while. The internet connection is rubbish though and I felt like I was in siberia. Except for the glorious weather that is. It’s been lovely and very restful just sitting listening to the sea and reading. Mind you it looks like it will be the last holiday for a long time.
Osbourne is going to ensure the sick and disabled are kept even further below the poverty line. But maybe that’s the idea, Starve us, freeze us in winter or otherwise kill us off and it cuts the welfare bill. God knows where the jobs we are all supposed to go out and get are going to appear from. Because no employer in their right mind would give me a job, when they can get someone able-bodied or an illegal immigrant instead! 🙁