Jump to content

Mick's Drivel


mick
 Share

Recommended Posts

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I had saved a clematis plant that used to grow up some trellis on the side of the old shed and included a photo, taken late last year, showing the clematis in situ. I'm pleased to say that I've now added some trellis to the side of the new shed and sunk the pot in which I had temporarily planted the clematis, directly in the ground at the base to save disturbing it any further now that it is actively growing again. I'm hoping that it will be okay like this for the coming year.

For the past couple of days I've been trying to make some space around the perennial plants I added to the garden shortly after we moved in. At the time there was plenty of vacant soil and I planted the perennials in groups where I thought they would be best suited. However, what I hadn't taken into account was the fact that there are hundreds of spring bulbs planted all over the borders and they have sprung up and swamped all my new plants - in many cases growing up right through the center of the plugs I had carefully planted. I know I've lost some and others are touch and go, but at least some of them are thriving now that I've managed to uproot and move the offending spring bulbs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yes the other half of garden railways, gardening.

Good to hear abut the clematis. I tried growing one here and it just would not thrive. You are making me think i should get some vine plants for my layout posts.

I'm getting excited about my garden as well. I have some hollyhocks that volunteered last year, they've already started putting out leaves nicely. And some of my chards came back this year. I expect I'll be eating something from the garden within a month.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

traingeekboy said:

...I expect I'll be eating something from the garden within a month.

I wish I could say the same. Apart from 11 barrels of potatoes, (now coming along quite nicely), I haven't got round to planting anything else so far this year. There was always going to be too many other things to do and establishing a vegetable patch wasn't high on our list of priorities. But having said that, things are continuing to move forward and in just over one weeks time we are having the right side of the garden fenced off where there is currently only a small fence between the house next door. Just in front of where the new fence will be erected is a small lawned area and it is earmarked as our possible veg plot.

Earlier today I made 2 trips to the local DIY and brought home some bricks, building sand and cement to make a start on constructing the low retaining wall. However, instead of making a start on that I chose to fasten some guttering around the plastic shed as there's the possibility of some rain (and can you believe the threat of snow) from tomorrow onwards. 2 days ago we were basking in the sun at 22 degrees - now it's going to snow - welcome to the great British weather!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gardening can be as easy or as hard as you make it Mick. Pick a spot and throw down some seeds and just let things happen. Well, ok plant the seeds; he he he. Still you get my point. Some chard and potatoes and beans and tomatoes. When the tomatoes come in it's always a blast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a dry spell lasting 15 days I'm now collecting rainwater from one half of the plastic shed in my newly installed water butt. It's strange how for some reason that feels good :?

I had expected the rain to arrive by this afternoon but it caught me unawares with an earlier arrival and so I had to hastily do a temporary job of connecting the downpipe from the guttering into the top of the water butt. I had earlier built a small brick-built pedestal on which the water butt could be stood in order to get a watering can beneath the tap. I've got another 3 water butts to put in place when I decide on the best positions for them. It seems so wasteful watching rain dripping off the shed roofs and onto the ground below.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been a very lazy Easter weekend for me so far. I'd done nothing but watch football on tv until deciding late on to go out to the shed. I'd moved my old part-built indoor layout into the new shed some days ago and left it standing on end so I decided to erect it and try out a couple of new locos. I wish I hadn't :x

I connected the 2 baseboards together along with the associated cross-board wiring and ran an extension from the house to the shed as I've not yet connected the electrics. I turned on the Gaugemaster Prodigy but it immediately reported a short circuit. I thought it may be because I hadn't connected the DC feed to the point motors so quickly connected an old Hornby controller that I use for that purpose. The short was still there and what was worse, the point motors didn't appear to be working either. I tried several different wiring configurations, as you do when in a bit of a piddle, but nothing worked. It was beginning to get dark outside and with no lights in the shed it was becoming difficult to see beneath the baseboards. I did notice, however, that the connectors on 2 of the Tortoise point motors looked as if they'd had a bump, probably during the house move. With those 2 disconnected the short circuit was cleared so I'll have to take a better look tomorrow in the daylight.

Seeing the layout erected along one wall of the shed has given me the idea of having 2 indoor stations, one along either side of the shed, so that trains can work between them. One station could be a through station with the option for continuous running and the other a terminus station requiring the train loco(s) to be run-round. I'll have to see how it can all be fitted in.

Today I received some more potato planters and was able to plant another 4 bags of 'Rooster' potatoes, 5 potato seeds in each bag. I think I've overdone it somewhat with ordering potato sets this year as I still have another 40 waiting to be planted out and I'm going to be running out of space before too long. I now have 15 bags planted up around the garden.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few posts back I mentioned that we were having a new fence erected down one side of the garden and work on that starts tomorrow. Shouldn't take too long as there's only 5 or 6 panels required and unlike just before Xmas when we had some fencing erected along the bottom of the garden, there's no hedge to remove beforehand this time. Today I've been busy getting ready for the new fence by removing the remaining bricks from the old coal bunker and a long row of rockery stones that were in the way. I've also saved as many plants as I could and transferred them to other parts of the garden. Not sure how successful some of the moves will be now that the plants are growing and in some cases also in flower but time will no doubt tell. I watered them in well in their new homes and that's about as much as I can do for now.

It's difficult to get on with anything railway related when there always seems to be something else to do but at least as each thing is completed it leaves one less thing to do. The fence will give added privacy and the new gates will provide additional security. Should we have bought a castle I wonder?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are things I do that aren't good for the environment but I like to think that I make up for it by doing my little bit to help in return. I tend the garden, grow a few vegetables, use solar powered lighting outdoors, low energy bulbs indoors and as you may be aware, I've recently started collecting rainwater. I raised the point about many of these 'save the environment' projects being rather expensive a short time ago; solar panels for example are very expensive for anything other than recharging a single bulb.

I have 4 water barrels, or at least I will have when my recent recent order for 2 water butts arrives. They're just plastic but not cheap by any means, however, being on a water meter I thought it would be money well spent. The other day we had rain and within no time the small 100 litre water butt I had just installed was almost full to the brim. Since then I've used the collected water for watering the potatoes and some plants in the borders that I've been transplanting. It does feel good using your own saved water rather than going to the outside tap to fill the watering can. But what are the benefits of collecting your own rainwater and must there be a finiancial incentive in order to make us take more care about our surroundings?

I'll be honest, one of the reasons I considered collecting rainwater was from a financial perspective; anything that helps cut down on the utility bills has to be a sound idea. I've just had a log burner installed so we can hopefully save on the gas bills but the log burners more for a focal point in the room rather than a way to make energy savings. But what about that water I've collected off my plastic shed roof? Of course, being a natural resource it's supposed to be more beneficial for the plants but does it actually save you money? Well from what I've just read on the water suppliers website - perhaps not a lot.

According to our water charges it cost us 1p (one penny) for each 5 litres of water (according to the figures provided for the use of a shower) so at that rate my little 100 litre water butt has actually just saved me 20p worth of water. It's now two-thirds full so even if it rains heavily tonight I'm only going to collect another 30 litres or so - which amounts to another 6p saving. I estimate that I'm going to have to fill that water butt completely on approx 150 occasions in order to recoup my initial outlay. What's worse is the fact that I've just discovered that my second 100 litre water butt has sprung a leak!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think if everyone was doing what you are doing then it would have real impact, but you have to start somewhere.

I've wanted to build some wind generators for some time based on the same assumption, that if everyone reduced their electrical by a tiny fraction the total result would be huge. One site I found had the design for a windmill that would power a laptop. you figure a laptop only needs 9 or 12 volts but we run the off of full power through a rectifier so we must be using more than that in power wasted. if every house had just one fan to power some simple item like that imagine the energy savings nationally.

I know people who are rabid eco types. Sometimes I just want to slap them. Like today a friend was going on about some shark poachers and how evil they are; we'll yeah it's a shame to kill an animal just for it's fins and throw away the rest, but people have to make money to feed their families. You can't ask people to starve for your political views.

Back the the water hoarding. Here in the west we have serious water issues. Most water is under some kind of 100 year old water rights agreement. People actually buy water from each other. there is an upstream town that uses more water than it should, so they use it up upstream then buy water downstream to feed into the creek for other users. All of these agreements go for hundreds of miles along rivers out here. Denver actually has to treat and return much of it's water.

I wanted to do a grey water system from my kitchen sink so as not to waste the soapy sink water and use it in the garden, but with all the agreements for water I would be in serious trouble doing that. Even collecting rain run off is a big no no because it's technically owned by someone downstream from me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was beginning to think that the new fence wouldn't ever get finished today. The lads arrived about 9am but it was 15 mins or so before they decided to get out of the van. They made a start on the first post and then sat down for a cigarette. After fitting the first wooden panel they asked for a cup of tea and took another break. A couple of posts later and it was another cigarette break before they knocked off for 'lunch' at 11:15. They returned 2 hours later and sat in the van for approx 30 mins before starting work, albeit with a little more gusto than earlier. At 3pm they'd done about as much as they could and left to collect the fill-in panels that had been measured and custom made. About 4:20 they returned and hurriedly began putting in the final panels as the rain fell down. I just looked at their pitiful faces - wouldn't it have been so much better to have put the effort in earlier in the day?

Anyway, then fence is now finished, at least in a fashion. The new gate is not entirely to my liking but I'd sooner put it right myself. The space alongside the right of the pathway looks so much bigger now and the fence gives us a bit more privacy. I've been looking at the available space but I'm not sure what I'll be doing with it just yet. I can see trains, I can see vegetables, I can see flowers.... give me a little time with this one!

traingeekboy said:

I've wanted to build some wind generators for some time ...

I like the idea of all that too. I look out at my weather station anemometers - they're hardly ever completely still. Would it be so difficult to use something like that to power an outdoor railway for example? I don't mean the weather station anemometer specifically but something along those lines. I know the potential savings are negligible and the initial outlay likely to be more than you can comfortably afford, but there's a satisfaction in trying to make your own way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was pottering around the garden in the sun this morning pulling up weeds and taking out some plants that were past their best but I couldn't motivate myself to get out and purchase some more materials to continue the work in the garden. But eventually, off we went to the DIY and soon came back with the car boot full of bricks, sand/gravel and a few other odds and ends. By the time we got back it was raining and any thoughts of getting anything productive done were shelved.

I'm hoping tomorrow that I can make a start on putting in some more concrete footings so that I can continue building the low wall alongside the path. I've also got to start thinking about what to do with the patio area as I'm working up in that direction. Whatever I decide to do with the patio, at the back of my mind I have to remember that there's also a railway to fit in there somewhere and whenever I see something that needs extending outwards I have to think of the possibility of perhaps adding a tunnel beneath or a bridge across :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm getting very annoyed. What on earth is wrong with customer service these days? It doesn't matter whether it's a small local business (see some of my recent moans) or a multi-national company, all they seem to care about is taking your money and to hell with the service!

In March I ordered a patio dining set; table, chairs, and parasol etc from the Greenfingers website. My debit card was charged immediately even though the item wasn't in stock. I was told that delivery would be "on or before 6th April 2012". The 6th April came and went but there was no sign of any patio set. Then, just by chance, I happened to notice that the same company were advertising exactly the same product I had ordered (now showing in stock) at £40 less than I had been charged, even though I had been told the item wasn't even in stock. I contacted the company and was informed that my goods hadn't yet been despatched although they were sitting at the back of their warehouse and my order "would take priority". I duly cancelled the order and asked for a full refund.

Also last month I ordered a garden structure via a well-known retailers online store (every little helps but more direct!). The order went through and I was given a provisional delivery date of Monday 16th April. Last week I was contacted directly by the manufacturer, Forest Garden, who advised me that the goods would be delivered some time during today, Friday the 13th April. I set my alarm but was up by 7am anyway and I waited. I did a few tasks that wouldn't come to much harm if the delivery arrived but other than that I waited..and waited. Just after 3pm the phone rang and I expected to hear the delivery driver asking for directions but it was the supplier calling to arrange an alternative delivery date. He made out that I should have been notified that there were problems with the delivery lorry - yeah, too right I should. Another order duly cancelled! Thankfully, Tesco Direct were much more helpful and arranged for the refund without quibble but no thanks whatsoever to Forest Garden!

We've had some terrible service recently so do excuse my moaning but here's some well deserved praise for Axminster Tool Centre who, despite my trivial order amounting to just over £3.00, delivered it to my door within 24 hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have found out that if you pick it up yourself saves all the hastle of waiting for that NON delivery or MISSED phoned that your surposedly had. Have the cheek to ask for the delivery charged to be taken off the price as you are collecting it yourself. Sometimes it works sometimes it doen't but at least worth the question. Some will give discount just because of your cheek of asking in the first place. It has worked for me on a number of occassions.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

grockle said:

Have found out that if you pick it up yourself saves all the hastle of waiting for that NON delivery or MISSED phoned that your surposedly had...

That would be the ideal solution but there are times when home delivery is the only option. If I could source the same products locally that would be better but it's not always possible to do so. Never mind, I'll get what I'm looking for eventually - just need a reliable supplier!

I don't know about everyone else but I don't like the cold weather too much. Even with maximum temperatures just below double figures if I can stay in the sun I'm okay but out of the sun and I've about had enough. For the past few days I've done very little but with the sun making a welcome appearance today I decided to put in some more concrete footings in order to extend the wall alongside the pathway. Unfortunately I ran out of aggregate before I'd completed it all (not much leeway when you're buying it in small bags and fetching it home in the back of the car) but there's only a short length to finish off. I thought it best to cover it all up for the night to keep the frost off so several old cotton sheets that we use as dust covers were placed over the top. Hope that's enough.

It's been quite a 'sporty' weekend with the FA Cup semi finals, the Chinese Grand Prix and the Aintree Grand National. I watched the Grand Prix this morning, and one of the cup semis at teatime, but I'm not a fan of the Grand National. The National is a real spectacle but I feel for the poor old horses and it's sad to hear that another 2 horses had to be destroyed after falling this year. Can pushing a horse beyond it's absolute limits be considered a 'sport' or should it be classed, as some would suggest, a 'bloodsport'?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mick :o:o:o

Along with religion and politics, a third topic perhaps we should avoid talking about is "sport" when it involves horses / animals :) - everyone you speak to could have a completely different view...

I am, personally, a lover of animals (most - not over keen on cats :o ) but also a follower of horse racing. I feel really :cry: for those horses that lost their lives on Saturday and recently at the Cheltenham Festival - highly public events and ones that the media focus on. But the media are what really make me :evil: - is there a need for them to cover the tragic events in the depth they do? or give coverage to the people who have the extreme views that would stop us venturing outside, in case something untoward should happen? Racing occurs every day of the year in this country, bar 2. Sadly, other racehorses sucumb to fatal injuries every week of the year, be it at the racecourse or on the gallops at home - many occasions which, thankfully, attract no macabre attention from the media. I dont know the answers to the questions any of the people involved with the grand national maybe asking about the way forward, but I hope there arent too many more changes - the race will be in serious danger of losing its "uniqueness".

The Chinese GP was a cracker - pretty much the way this season will be, if the races continue, as the first 3 have :) Isnt it great to have races and not processions :) Slightly disappointing my local hero, JB, didnt get to challenge for the win, but great all the same :!: Whilst on "thorny" topics of conversation, should they race in Bahrain on Sunday??? Not one of my favourite tracks, especially since they changed the course a couple of years ago, putting in all those silly corners.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree that any changes to the Grand National require serious consideration. I don't like the race because I really can't watch the horses jumping (more especially falling), but as in previous years I have to tune in just to see the final outcome. It's a highly emotional time, even if you've not sat through the race, and the Aintree course has a 'soundtrack' all of its own - absolutely unique. As for the finish, well, you certainly couldn't get anything much closer than this year! Of course horse racing carries a degree of danger, even without hurdles and fences, and sadly there are injuries and fatalaties but the Grand National course is the ultimate test of a horses ability and stamina. Four and a half miles and 30 fences to take in - are we asking too much? Are the fences too high or too numerous? Are there too many horses competing in the race? How can the safety of competing horses (and jockeys) be increased without compromising the uniqueness of the race itself? The welfare of the horses must come first and if everything is done to ensure that then I'm all for the race continuing.

It appears from newspaper reports that the owner of one of the horses killed 'According to Pete' has vowed never to race a horse in the National again. What's all that about? The report I read states that the horse was like "a family pet" and that they are devastated at the loss. Surely they more than most are aware of the dangers involved so what was the reason for making the horse run? I'm sure they would have basked in the glory had the unfortunate According to Pete come home in the leading pack.

The Chinese GP was certainly the highlight of the season so far. Thoroughly enjoyed. On the other hand, Bahrain has been out of the news so we really don't know what's going on over there. Has anything changed since this time last year or has it all been conveniently subdued? I'll be watching all the same providing there are no last minute hitches!

Finally just a quick mention for Wigan Athletic - what an excellent result at the Emirates! I'm just a neutral supporter so have no connections with either club but what a refreshing change to see a team of footballers working together for each other and for their manager. There can't be many clubs who can claim to having beaten both Manchester United and Arsenal within the space of one week. And let's face it, they shouldn't have been cheated out of the Chelsea game either. They thoroughly deserve to stay in the Premier League and the Premier League could do with more clubs like them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If they were worried about their horse in the first place why did they take the chance of what could happen them, it beggers belief that they are prepared to take the risk and then complain afterwards if it don't go according to plan, ie survived the course even if pulled up before the finish. Certainly a sport for the well off where money is not a problem.

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A while ago on the forum I was seeing nothing but ads for garden sheds (apart from the asian, chinese singles which seem to appear at will anyway) but now the shed advertisements have stoppped completely so Google is clearly aware that I've bought my shed :? Now I'm getting ads for camera's so I can't hide the fact that I've been looking at them recently thanks to Craig and Griff going on about the amazing qualitites of the EOS 5D.

I used to take a lot of photos at one time; nothing really special but I just enjoyed taking photos. I was also keen to obtain what I considered to be good quality images whenever possible, hence my purchase of a Canon EOS 20D several years ago which at the time was probably more than I could afford. Over the years I seem to have taken fewer and fewer photos until today, the 20D is used just for taking what I consider to be 'snaps'.

Reading about the 5D has started my mouth watering again and of course a new camera would mean more days out wouldn't it? We've not been out much lately......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...