Tag Archives: fitting beam

Friday 20th January 2012 – I CAN’T SEE …

… a thing right now in my room.

There’s a gusting wind blowing up outside and it’s in just the right direction to blow right down my chimney so every couple of minutes a load of smoke is blown back down the fire and out of the air vent into the room.

I’m being done up like a kipper just now.

But I was right about the weather – it’s rained for most of the day. And it is indeed nice to see the rail cascading off the new roof on the lean-to onto the ground, well away from the wall, and everything inside the lean-to being bone-dry for a change.

I can’t believe my luck with the weather for that 10-day spell when I decided to go for broke and do the lean-to roof. It’s not like me at all.

So I did some sawing of the wood this morning, but a downside of this now is that I’m cutting it faster than I’m burning it and I’m now running out of room to store it. I suppose that I shall have to make a larger woodpile, or a taller one or something.

I could, I suppose, even dig the trench that I need to dig at the side of the house by the “other” lean-to, drop the drainage pipe in there that needs to go in there and connect it into the drainage system, fill the trench with gravel, cover it over with a weed blanket and then build the real woodshed where it is supposed to go, but that’s not the work of half an hour.

After the woodcutting (which I managed to do without any interruption for a change) I did some more tidying up, starting in the lean-to.

First job was to rescue the remaining Hawker deep-discharge batteries and charge them up.

And here I’ve hit a problem, in that the battery box I made for the previous batteries is too small – the Hawkers are taller. But anyway once they were out of the way I tidied up in the lean-to, collected all of the stray solar panels and stacked them in a corner, and then hung up the smaller gardening tools so that I’m not tripping over them.

Having moved a couple of solar panels out of the barn I could then get in there and make some space to put the old Rutland wind turbine tidily out of the way.

This led to the discovery of a circular saw, not the 600-watt one that I can’t find anywhere at all, but the old 1050-watt one that was all rusted solid having been left in a container that filled with water through a leak in the barn roof when I was ill and which had subsequently been partly-dismantled for spares.

Of course, now that I have a 1200-watt inverter all things are possible, so I gave the saw a good spray with WD40 and reassembled it with some other bits and pieces. And much to my surprise it fired up!

Even more surprising was that the inverter didn’t even bat an eyelid.

The saw needs some “attention to detail” before I can use it to cut wood, but this is definitely progress.

This afternoon, with the weather deteriorating, I restarted work in the bedroom – the first time for God knows how long. I’ve fitted the false beam at the side wall – the beam that hides all of the electrical cable – and I’ve also packed out one of the plasterboard panels that didn’t quite mate with the others.

It was then that I lost the light and so I spent the last hour tidying up in the barn again.

And despite all of this time that I’ve spent tidying up, a I really can’t see any difference at all.

This evening by way of an experiment, I brought a kettle of water up here and put it on top of the woodstove. And after about 2.5 hours it was gloriously warm and I had a lovely hot wash and shave in front of the fire.

Definitely the highlight of the week, that, and I can’t think why I hadn’t done that before.

Next step is the coffee pot on the stove, and put the produce in a thermos ready for the following morning.

I ought to be much-better organised than I am.

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Tuesday 18th October 2011 – It’s been progress on all fronts today.

This morning I had a good go on the website. For the last couple of days I’ve been making a start on the pages for the month I’ve just spent in Canada, and I’m actually on Day 4.

You might therefore be thinking that in another 10 days or so at this rate I’ll be finished, but I bet it will be nothing like. The first three days were pretty uneventful – it was on the fourth day that everything started to happen. I can see this being more like 10 months before it’s done.

stone wall repairing collapsed lean to les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis afternoon I’ve been up the wall again. Not as much progress as I would have liked, but the chevrons at each side of the wall that I have been doing – they are now nailed down to the beam and the outer and inner faces to the wall are now completed.

I’ve been infilling with crushed breeze block and a weak concrete mix and I’m about halfway up the centre of the final part of the wall. It won’t be long now until that’s done too.

It’s a shame that I couldn’t finish it this evening although I was doing my best. I was beaten by the dark (and I really DO mean dark) because it was 19:25 when I finally knocked off.

We also had some excitement elsewhere around the premises. I have a pile of dustbins, buckets and so on all around here in crucial places catching the rainwater to be used in the garden or in concreting and the like. A few days ago, the friendly frog who lives around here hopped into one and couldn’t get out. Luckily I noticed him and was able to liberate him.

This afternoon he had managed to do exactly the same thing. I saw him there when I went to wash my hands, and so I fished him out.

But badger me if, this evening when I went to fetch some water for washing up, he hadn’t gone and done exactly the same thing again.

That’s three times I’ve rescued him – if he ends up in there again tonight, well I’m afraid he’s on his own.

And we had some wind today – and serious wind as well, gusting up to 26kph which is not far short of a record for here since I’ve had the anemometer installed. All I need now is to fit the wind turbine up there and I’ll be happy. It’s high time it was in the place where it ought to be and doing the business  

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Saturday 15th October 2011 – WE SAW …

… the geese yesterday but this morning there was a horde of some other kind of bird assembling ready to fly off for the winter, and this is sad. In fact it’s more than sad – it’s depressing. Autumn is coming to a close already.

No idea what kind of bird they might have been. I know that I’m a keen birdwatcher, but that’s not concerned with any kind of bird that you might see flying about in the air over my property.

And so this morning after my 4 hours sleep (I was still up at 05:39) I was up and breakfasted and then I attacked Canada 2011.

lean to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut not before I had taken a shot of the work that I’ve been doing. You’ll see how much I’ve built up over the last couple of days, and you’ll also notice that the beam is in position where it should be.

When I restart work next week I’ll be building up the stonework so that it meets and infills the woodwork. And tipping cement and lightweight concrete into all of the gaps, that will hold everything nicely into position.

It’s all good stuff, make no mistake about this, and it’s coming along nicely.

In St Eloy les Mines I bumped into Bill and we went for a coffee and a chat to put the world to rights.

But in LIDL I also encountered a woman who was discussing things with her 4 year-old son “Do try to control yourself, Jasper”
Help! We are being invaded by Hooray Henries.

Back here my return was serenaded by the sounds of flute being played in welcome. Yes, it IS that time of the year and Lieneke and the others have turned up. And how well Lieneke looks. She’s dropped about 20 kilos over the last year and it really suits her. She’s probably losing years as the rest of us are adding them on. 

And no footy again tonight either. whatever am I going to do until tomorrow?

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Friday 14th October 2011 – WINTER IS ON ITS WAY

geese fly south for winter les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis is just a small part of the huge flock of geese that assembled over my place this afternoon. They had been honking for about an hour and eventually they all put in an appearance right over me, coming in from every direction possible.

They circled around for a while, formed up in a huge echelon, and then departed hence. It wasn’t half impressive watching them do all of this and the noise was astonishing. But it is a fact that when they leave they take the sun with them, so I’ll be battening down the hatches and sorting out the firewood

And as as aside – why do birds fly south in winter?

Answer – “it takes too long to walk”.

And while we are on the subject of the weather, on the TV Monday night the weather forecaster promised us sun from Wednesday until next Monday. But I don’t know where it’s all gone too because we haven’t had it yet and the temperature has now plummeted.

fitting beam collapsed lean to repairing stone wall les guis virlet puy de dome franceToday was a momentous occasion outside on the wall of the lean-to because the beam is now in place where it ought to be. But it’s a bit of a disappointment because it’s about 0.5 inch too high in the vertical plane but about 0.5 inch too low under the chevrons. That means that the central beam is about 0.75 inch too high and the end where I’m working.

Ahh well.

Still, it’s progress I suppose. and from here on, the back-filling is pretty straightforward. It’s not going to take too long to finish off now and then I can plan my next step – always assuming that it doesn’t finish me off first.

But one thing is for sure – it won’t happen on Monday as I have a furniture removal to do – to Issoire.

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Monday 2nd August 2010 – We talked about the rain.

And I can tell you with complete confidence that in the 18 hours from about 14:15 to 08:15 this morning we had a total of 42mm. Now that is not all that far short of a record, and it gives you some kind of an idea of what kind of weather we had just now.

The morning was dark and miserable – at about 10:00 I was getting a total of about 2 amps of my charging system, a right winter’s day type of charge. Mind you this afternoon it brightened up considerably and it was quite warm. But it didn’t last and as I was leaving Pionsat after the Anglo-French group meeting we were having torrential rainstorms again.

sunset rainstorm heavy cloud les guis virlet puy de dome franceAs I turned up the lane to here I noticed the sun setting between two heavy rain clouds and so I quickly took a pic. I didn’t have much time to set up and what with the driving rain it’s not come out as well as it might.

But it’s impressive just the same and I’m getting to like this new Nikon D5000 camera. And that’s just as well, considering the money that I spent on buying it. I’d be disappointed with anything else.

We managed to get a load of work done on the roof today in between the rainstorms. All of the chevrons are on and they are bricked in and cemented into position. It looks quite impressive. Tomorrow we can add the laths and the voltige and put the tiles back on, that is if the weather lets us. It’s looking pretty ominous outside there right now.

roof collapsed lean-to fitting new beams flooring les guis virlet puy de dome franceAfter we knocked off on this roof Terry came to give me a hand in this lean-to for 10 minutes, for which I was grateful. We took out the collapsed beam and fitted the new one, and then fitted the other new one into the beam hangers against the wall.

After Terry left I had a root around upstairs in the barn and came across some 25mm planks. They are now fitted and you can see the hole in the floor where the stairs will come in from downstairs.

Once the floor was fitted I roofed the place over with a pile of corrugated iron sheet that I have found over the years in various places. I have some others but they are underneath firewood, gravel, hardcore and the like, preventing that from being infiltrated by weeds. I looked out for a tarpaulin but the only one I could find was a 6×4 meter and I don’t want to waste that. I’ll have to buy another 4×2 metre that should do, and I’ll need a thin piece of 25mm to fit against the wall.

And I was carried away doing that and so almost missed the start of the Anglo-French Group meeting tonight. That shows you how keen I was.

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Thursday 3rd December 2009 – I put it in

fitting new floor beam les guis virlet puy de dome franceposition – the final beam, as you can see. And it took quite a while to do as well.

Firstly I had to position the hangers and screw them in. It’s not possible to cut lets into the transverse beam as there are other beams let into the other side and so the nails are in the way. And the hangers have to be millimetre-perfect so that the floor will be level.

Then the beam needs to be cut to size and that has to be millimetre-perfect as well.

Thirdly, once the beam has been cut to size it needs to be lowered into position and it’s quite a heavy beam so doing it on my own was complicated to say the least. I dropped it down to the ground floor twice and so I nailed some cantilever outriggers across the gap so I could slide it into position.

Once it was in, I could drill through it into the wall in order to mark where the anchor bolts need to go.

And then I had to drill out the holes in the beam to 12mm and then drill the walls for the anchor bolts

Next was to fit the anchor bolts into the beam with just a small amount of the anchor visible

And then roll the beam back into position

And then line up the protruding anchors with the holes in the wall

And then get the beam as close up to the wall as possible

And then screw the beam to the hangers so that it’s in position

And then whallop the anchors through the beam into the holes in the wall.

It’s not tightened up anywhere as yet though – that’s because I want to fit the verticals and it’s only when they are in and fastened up that I van tighten the beam fastenings – that way it will all go into tension.

That took most of the day as it happened, and I finished off by painting with white acrylic paint the part of the wall in the stairwell that doesn’t already have paint on it. I do that because with cement-rendered walls the cement flakes off and makes dust that gets everywhere. The acrylic paint binds it together.

And in other news, OUSA has made the headlines again with the latest proposals for OUSA Sutures – that nasty little stitch-up of a document that proposes that all the OUSA delegates to the Students’ Annual Conference can go socialising (read “piss-up”) at OUSA’s (read “British taxpayers'”) expense and leave the business of running the Disorganisation to the Executive Committee – some of whom received as many as 5 votes from a student body of 180,000.

OUSA Sutures is a controversial document and has ignited all kinds of debate – most of which recognises it for the crap that it is. But to become OUSA Policy it needs to receive 2/3rds of the votes at Conference. At the last Conference there were a grand total of 137 delegates so it comes as no surprise to anyone to learn that in January there will be a meeting to discuss OUSA Sutures and OUSA has set aside a budget of £9.000 for the meeting. And who is being invited to the meeting? Why, 96 delegates to Conference.

Now firstly, can anyone tell me what proportion 96 bears to 137?
And secondly, the closing date for delegates to Conference will not have passed by the time this “briefing” is to take place. So how do they know who will be the delegates to Conference? Well, there’s always a “hard core” of delegates who go every year and who have become part of the furniture. And of course, there are the delegates that the Executive Committee cam approve to fill vacant places.

And so these “delegates”, just over 2/3rds of the number likely to attend, will be invited to a “briefing” long before their names are officially announced as delegates for their branches and before the branch nominations are even closed. They will each have £95 of OUSA’s (read “British taxpayers'”) money spent on their “hospitality”.

All I can say is that if they don’t show their “gratitude” at OUSA’s Conference next April they will have Caligula and her Horse and Pol Pot’s Sibling around to kick their collective @r$e$

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Tuesday 1st December 2009 – I woke up this morning …

… to the sound of heavy rainstorm cannoning off the roof, the barn, the windows and just about everything else in the vicinity (this sounds like a rather good blues song, although I haven’t had the blues since I started taking the Prozac). That was at the usual time of 08:00 this morning.

Even though I’m working inside, it’s still not the kind of weather that you really want to wake up to so I turned over and went back to sleep.

hanging cloud les guis virlet puy de dome franceAt 09:10, the next time that I surfaced, it had stopped raining so I decided to raise myself from the dead. And this was the view from my window.

You’ve heard me talk about the hanging clouds that sometimes hover right over the mountain. Well, this is one and it was a good one. 7.5mm of rain we had, and badger all electricity (although not absolute zero like a few weeks ago).

On a different topic I do recall saying to my loved one that I would never let her down. But since I’ve moved into my attic, it’s just as well that I remember to let her down every morning as I seem to be attracting a stream of visitors coming to inspect my living quarters. Today, Liz came round after her French lesson to see what I was up to. She even brought some vegan ginger cake with her, left over from Saturday’s chantier. It’s nice to have visitors round even if it means that Randy Raquel has to be deflated every morning.

She’s the second one of that ilk that I have had. The first one – we were having a discussion about Uganda when I accidentally bit her. She … errr … broke wind and flew off out of the window. I went to the local edition of Ann Summers to get a replacement.
“Do you want a normal one or a Muslim one?”
“What’s the difference?” I asked.
“You don’t need a foot pump with the Muslim ones. They blow themselves up“

stairwell stairs dismantled les guis virlet puy de dome franceToday I fitted the beam in the floor. It took ages as you need to very carefully make the lets in the existing beams so that the new beam is a tight fit. It takes ages to drill out the lets, chisel them to slightly undersize and then file them to perfection. Then cut the beam to slightly oversize, file it down to perfection and then whallop it into the lets with a huge sledgehammer. Finally drill through the original beams into the new beams with a 3mm drill and then whack a pile of 5×200 nails in through the drill holes to hold everything in place.

And I know why the beams that I fitted in the attic floor were too long and too deep – the one that I fitted in the floor today is too shallow and not quite long enough. How on earth did I manage to do that? And I still can’t find the missing beam. How do you lose a beam that is 4m x 20cms x 6cms?

Tomorrow I’ll be cutting and fitting the verticals. I need four of those but I can only do two of them as I don’t know where the other two will be until I start to fit the stairs in.

And in other news, I had the pompiers round selling calendars. The one I bought is an organiser-type that gives you a space to write appointments in. It also gives the Saints’ Days, and I see that my birthday is the day of St Modeste. Now how appropriate is that? My overwhelming modesty had always let me down – if it wasn’t for that I would be absolutely perfect.

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