Mick's Drivel

[traingeekboy]

5d means all in one video and stills. And unlike a video camera you get to interchange the lenses for different looks.

Sport...

I haven't been able to watch the games, but I am very excited about Champions league football. it comes on the tv around noon when I'm at work. I have been known to leave work for a protracted lunch on the day of the final game. In America everyone gets crazy over oblong handy ball and the final game called the super bowl. Champions league is like the super bowl x10. All those great teams vying for the top spot. I just love it. Was sad to see Milan do the expected and fall to Barcelona. Was impressed to see Munich beat Madrid. I like Barcelona, but the mere fact that everyone expects them to win it all, makes me want to see them get upset by the underdog. Disclaimer: No animals were injured in any of these games.

[mick]

traingeekboy said:

5d means all in one video and stills. And unlike a video camera you get to interchange the lenses for different looks...

I couldn't imagine using a camera with a fixed lens now. I've had an SLR for a lot of years (Olympus OM1n was my introduction to the format) and my only deviation since that time was a Minolta Dimage 7i digital which sadly packed in after a the first year!

traingeekboy said:

...I like Barcelona, but the mere fact that everyone expects them to win it all, makes me want to see them get upset by the underdog....

In that case I'm sure you'll have been cheering along with Chelsea yesterday evening as they dumped them 1-0 in the first leg of this years semi-final.

Barcelona have a great way of playing football that's often magical to watch. The stats from last night show that Chelsea made just over 190 completed passes whilst Barcelona completed more than 700! However, when they did manage to get hold of the ball, the one and only shot that Chelsea got on target was the difference between the two clubs on the night. It's a slender lead to take to Spain next week for the return leg.

[traingeekboy]

Chelsea is by no means a second rate team. They do have Mr. Drogba along with a full complement of players doing their best. Is it true that the pitch is bigger at Barcelona? Could be a big issue for the defense as they'll have to spread out a bit. Milan played well on home turf but then had serious issues when on Barcelona's field.

The one thing British teams have going for them: tenacity. British football is tougher and rougher than most european play. I don't expect Chelsea to make it easy for Barca. It's going to be a real battle.

I remember sneaking out of work to watch Milan vs Liverpool. At half time the liverpool team left the field looking destroyed with 2-0 on the board. Then they returned and made a massive comeback. It was amazing. Yeah I'm a milan fan, but I left in awe of Liverpool.

The next game will be the game to watch. I plan to sneak out of work for that one too. Extended lunch at the czech hockey bar where I watch football with the other regulars. It's pretty funny really, for world cup the bar was packed with people for the US games. Any other time it's Russians and other eastern european types along with one brit and one former Iranian professional player. Should be a fun time. Football is always more fun to watch in a group. We share a certain camaraderie regardless of who's team wins because we are a small minority of football fans.

Will it be an all spanish final or are munich and chelsea going to give us another type of final?

[traingeekboy]

Since you have a weather station do you also subscribe to weather magazine by the RMS?

if you do there's an article in it about fish falls and other falling small animals by someone with a familiar first name.

[cleanerg6e]

As your now a resident of Doncaster Mick I was looking on the net the other day for info about the old comedy series 'Open All Hours' and the exterior scenes were filmed in Balby on Lister Street. Nurse Gladys Emanuel started off living in No.32 and then moved to No.34. Arkright's shop was actually a Hairdressers Salon and was refitted just for the filming. Apparently it is now empty and due for demolition. But some people have tried to save it. You can imagine Arkright talking about that can't you. "dare dare de demolition/!!!! not for all the tea in chair chair chair che, not for all the tea in British Rail!!!!!!! The stammer of the character was Ronnie Barker's idea as originally the character wasn't supposed to stammer. BARE BURGLARS!!!!!!!!!!!

Roy.

[mick]

I've not had a great deal to say recently but nothing's really changed. There's been no track laying but I have just completed getting the power supply across from the garage and installing all the electric sockets in the shed.

The wet weather dampened my 'railway' spirits somewhat and I decided instead to set about cracking on with the internal decoration in the house. The living room had been waiting for my attention for a few weeks but then I decided that a pond would make a nice feature at the bottom of the garden so I've been trying to do both depending on the weather conditions. The living room's now just about finished and the garden pond pump/filter is in full flow.

I took a total of 55 bags of soil/rubble to the local tip in the back of the car from the excavation and I still have a pile of boulders remaining!

The final photo shows the pond before I decided to dig further and enlarge the deepest section on the left. Maximum depth was finalised at 3ft 6ins.

The only drawback with the construction of the pond was the need to dismantle the wishing well.........

[traingeekboy]

Noooooooo..... Not the wishing well!!!!

Good to see you are up to something. I have not been modeling either, but have done some infrastructure work with the garden and stock. So I wouldn't say you're not railroading, your just setting things up a bit.

[cleanerg6e]

I like the pond/ paddling pool. Just the place to cool off in when it's 15 degrees.I have thought of a pond over here but there are too many large meat eating birds which would decimate the fish population. I have enough little lizards,snails and worms to feed the birds which are mostly Kookaburras, Magpies and Currawongs. Currawongs are the same size as Magpies but are black and have a yellow eye. What you call Ravens we call Crows. Cockatoos, Gallah's Rozella's, Rainbow Lorrakeets are all vegetarians. I did have a bird feeder and put out a large amount of seed for the Rozellas and in two hours it was all gone. I have a randy little fairy blue wren who has around five females chasing him but they only eat small grubs on plants.

Roy.

[mick]

I've greatly underestimated the amount of work that has needed doing since we moved home to Doncaster last November. On top of that I'd not expected wanting to do many of the things I've since begun. Apart from a model railway I've held other interests before that up to now had never been possible due to either lack of time, space or certainty. Now that we're settled in everything it seems is possible even if in only a small way.

Since my last post I've continued (between the many rain showers) trying to complete the garden pond. It's not finished yet and there are still no resident fish but at least the waters now running clear with the pump and filter operating 24/7.

My plan is to build a small stream running down the garden and into the pond with a pump circulating water from the pond to the top of the stream. It's a good way to use up some of the several hundred stones and rocks that I've been able to remove from the garden. I'm hoping to make it look as natural as possible but currently finding it difficult to achieve that 'natural' look. I've built two short levels which don't look too bad in the raw and I guess that once the waters running it'll look a whole lot better. With some border plants added alongside the stream and aquatic ones in the water I think it might look more acceptable.

I'm still looking at the best way to incorporate the garden railway once the major 'landscaping' (for want of a better word) is complete. I'm glad I didn't rush into it and make a start before getting the urge to install a pond. There's plenty of time.

[mick]

I've just seen adverts at the top of the page for printer toner cartridges and thought it a good time to share a recent experience.

I've been looking round for a suitably cheap laser printer for someone and been weighing up the cost of consumables. Printers are generally relatively cheap these days but it's the price of replacement ink/toner and other consumables that you have to be wary of. The printer I've been looking at comes with an installed trial toner cartridge that's suitable for printing an average of 700 pages and a separate replaceable 'drum' unit which is good for approximately 5,000 pages. A replacement 'genuine' toner cartridge costs between £25-£30 which can print up to 1,000 pages whilst a replacement drum unit costs in the region of £40.00.

Why would anyone pay out £40.00 for a 'drum unit' and £25 or so for toner when I'm able to purchase the whole printer itself for £35 including delivery to my door?

Does 'landfill' spring to mind?

[cleanerg6e]

I only have an old ink-jet printer and can get replacement cartridges from my local post office. It's an HP and the cartridges are coded 21 and 22 and cost $47.00 or around 21 pounds. I rarely print out anything these days so they last a long time. I know people who refill the ink in them but it's expensive compared to the original.

[mick]

It's now more than a year since the SGR was demolished and we moved home a short distance southwards. Since that time we've managed to put our own mark on the new home but most of the planned work outdoors has been truly hampered by the dreadful weather. Before the move I'd progressed well with the Selby layout, built a small vegetable plot and erected my first ever greenhouse. I hadn't owned the greenhouse for more than a few weeks before we'd decided to move home and we never had the time to reap a full harvest from the veg plot.

It has always been my intention to get back what I had to leave behind but as just mentioned, the weather hasn't made that entirely possible just yet. A number of things have been started outdoors but remain unfinished. I've finally got myself another greenhouse but it's only partly assembled and still laying flat on the ground until the ground dries out sufficiently to prepare a level base.

I've had to remove one of my fish from the pond as it appears to have been bullied by the other two - in fact I initially thought I'd lost it altogether because of the cold. I noticed 'Marvin' floating on the surface of the water one cold morning, his body arched and apparently lifeless. I grabbed hold of a nearby plastic bucket and scooped him out and then noticed that one fin was moving. I took the bucket indoors and placed it within another bowl into which I poured some warmer water so that 'Marvin' could receive some gentle warmth. Within a few hours he was upright again and apparently fully recovered. And to think that I was almost ready to dispose of him a short time earlier!

I looked back on the security cameras and found that 'Marvin' had been chased round the pond until he had eventually floated lifeless to the surface. He'd been on the surface for about one hour before I'd noticed him. He's now being cared for in a plastic tub indoors until I decide what's best for him.

[traingeekboy]

It seems fish keeping is like that. We buy these fish and have some feeling of affection for them as in, "here let me add a friend for you." Then the fish proceed with the nipping and bullying till one dies. Although it's worse if you only have three. And if two are males oh oh.

I had finally given up and my indoor 55 gallon tank is just corey cats, tetras, and three molly's. I thought I was safe from all the fighting in the tank, then the male molly got huge and now he rules the roost. Luckily he has too many fish to bully and everyone is fine. There really is no such thing as just one aquarium; you always end up with at least one infirmary tank.

[mick]

I think the old adage "Two's company..." is very apt with my trio of fish. I'd noticed previously that Marvin was getting his nose pushed out and that the other two had kind of paired off but I didn't foresee any serious disputes. I think once the weather warms up again, sometime next year, I'll need to add two or three more fish into the mix in the hope that they'll settle down and create fewer conflicts. Mind you, right now Marvin's having the last laugh because he's currently experiencing a balmy 17 degrees C and being fed while his 2 'alleged' assailants are huddled together at only 5 degrees!

[cleanerg6e]

My dad used to have goldfish in a pond he built at the house where he and mum lived before they sold it and moved into the retirement village unit. When dad retired he and mum took a holiday round Australia taking 12 months to do it and rented out their house. When they returned they found only 1 fish remaining and it was very big. The surmised that it had eaten all the others as on cleaning the tank dad found no skeletons. Dad did have water lilies and a wire mesh to keep the kookaburras from eating the fish.

Roy.

[mick]

Well I don't know about the rest of you but I've just about had enough of these freezing conditions already! I keep checking the forecast in the hope that there's something of an improvement coming along some time soon. Saturday onwards perhaps? or maybe not.

At the moment my weather station anemometer is frozen and has been since early this afternoon. It's going to be a bit of a pain to get to it as it's quite elevated but how long before it'll thaw on it's own? We've produced barely any electricity from the solar panels for a week or more. They're now sitting beneath a 4 inch covering of snow. I managed to partly clear them a couple of days ago using water from a hose pipe but only with limited success and then we had another fall of snow yesterday and through this early morning that covered them completely.

I have some fish in a large tank inside the plastic shed to keep them safe from the cold. The water's heated but the air's so cold outside that the shed is now full of condensation during the day and covered inside with a layer of ice during the night.

I could have done with my greenhouse to protect some of the tender plants but I've still not been able to finish getting it erected and glazed.

I suppose once the thaw eventually sets in we can look forward to yet another soggy mess and then perhaps some more rain. Seriously considering some kind of indoor activities!

[mick]

January 21st I last posted here and finally, FINALLY, we've had some better weather to talk about. I mentioned on December 4th 2012 (yep, last year) that I'd got myself a new greenhouse and I'm pleased to say that I've now got it erected and fully glazed. Today I've been out in the sunshine finishing off the area around it with some gravel and digging over what's will be a small raised bed area - nothing like the ones I had before but sufficient for a few peas/beans. I'm longing to do some work on the railway but I'm aware that there are lots of other jobs that require doing first and I'm determined to get many of them completed and out of the way. I made a new solid wooden gate for the rear entrance today to replace a smaller picket style one and that's been put to one side until I get the posts and necessary hardware. Next on the agenda will be some better lighting for night-time security.

I've got hold of a larger fibreglass tank for the fish but they're still in the smaller one until I make a start on plumbing in the filter to the bottom drain. Sadly Marvin, mentioned in previous posts, is no longer with us - he didn't make it through.

[mick]

I never got chance to take any photos of the new greenhouse when I mentioned it the other day so here's one I took this morning.

I've still got the fall pipes to install on the guttering, hence the reason my water butt is still standing inside the greenhouse. I've worked the excess soil into a small raised bed where Pam wants to grow a few peas/beans and held everything together behind a small retaining wall.

Barely visible in the photo is the fact that I've begun extending the depth of the patio by approximately 4 feet so that the low wall to the right of the pathway can be continued to the right across the front of the bungalow. This will bring it closer to the present lie of the railway track as it curves round towards the weather station and give increased space on the patio. This is all work that was planned for last year but which had to be postponed due to the weather. The photo below is of the same area but taken almost exactly 12 months earlier on 9th March 2012

At this time we were in the process of laying the electric supply to the garage and hadn't yet had the side fencing erected. I hadn't built the wall along the right hand side of the path and there was no sign whatsoever of Worsley Dale! How things have changed.

[mick]

It's been raining again through the night and sitting here with my morning coffee I've just remembered that there are another 50 building bricks still to be unloaded from the car boot that have been sitting there since yesterday. I'd decided, with the weather being so bad, that I'd crack on with some of the little jobs waiting for me inside the house so we had a trip to the DIY for some needed timber and it seemed an opportune time to load the car with a few more bricks for the low wall that will eventually run in front of the patio.

I've just been down the garden to see to the fish and already the walkway is like a quagmire again and I'm slipping and sliding along. I'm happy that I now have at least one side of the garden, the one with the greenhouse, that is in something of a finished state and that can now be accessed without trampling through a pile of mud. Although I consider the construction of my railway to be a priority, this year I really am going to make sure that I can get around the garden without having to wade through mud. Decent pathways will be mandatory!

[cleanerg6e]

The back of your house reminds me of my aunties house in Tiverton both of them. They were forced to move out of one house into another just down the same road. The first house had only just been completely renovated when the local authority booted them out to make their block into an access road to a new housing estate on a green field sight behind them. My uncle died before completing the renovations of my aunties current house. The green field sight is still there according to my aunt and they were booted out in 2004. My uncle loved white gravel and had it for paths and in flower beds too.

For the green house Mick did you think of getting the one from Will's, or was it just a bit too small.

Roy.