… a thing right now in my room. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
I’m being done up like a kipper just now.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
First job was to rescue the remaining Hawker deep-discharge batteries and charge them up. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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! <\/p>\n
Even more surprising was that the inverter didn’t even bat an eyelid. <\/p>\n
The saw needs some “attention to detail” before I can use it to cut wood, but this is definitely progress.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
It was then that I lost the light and so I spent the last hour tidying up in the barn again. <\/p>\n
And despite all of this time that I’ve spent tidying up, a I really can’t see any difference at all.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Definitely the highlight of the week, that, and I can’t think why I hadn’t done that before.<\/p>\n
Next step is the coffee pot on the stove, and put the produce in a thermos ready for the following morning. <\/p>\n
I ought to be much-better organised than I am.<\/p>\n
