I'm a lumberjack an I'm ok

At last the weather is kind enough to allow me to get onto the land where I'm clearing the trees and where our firewood is stored.
I'm going to concentrate on sawing and splitting some of the stacks from previous years and replenishing our wood store for a couple of months then set about clearing a few more trees.  There are still lots of branch stacks from previous years and I will attempt to burn these once the birds are done nesting

This is what's left of the wood from the original 2009/10 site there could actually be enough to fill the woodshed this year.  Its unusual to be able to access this site so early in the year but because of the dry spell I'm recovering the wood while I can.

Just tidying up last years effort here, this represents our emergency wood pile in case of severe bad weather in winter.  The stack is on the edge of a hard topped track which would allow access in all weathers

Pipes n things

Well we managed to get away with having the drive blocked for only a further day than was necessary by Severn Trent.  They have a little advert on their site that says "spotted a leak? you can now report it on your mobile!  My reply to that is why bother it took them 6 months to come and attempt to repair our leak.
 The temporary traffic light failed spectacularly around 2100 the second night.  By failed i mean they were on red at both ends.  We were then treated to some interesting games of "chicken" by people realising that the lights were not going to change.
During the night the lights were removed and the cones grouped around the hole and a sign showing "road narrows on the left", causing only a minor inconvenience to other road users, was displayed.  You know what's coming next don't you, why the heck couldn't they have done that in the first place!
This left the three cars from the terrace parked within the cones between the lights and the hole in a very dangerous position.  The terrace is on the crown of a bend and so drivers were approaching, almost unaware of the 3 vehicles until the last moment.  Thankfully there were no accidents.
Finally - - , the gas man did turn up he did service the boiler and announced that it was only between 75 and 78% efficient and maybe I should consider replacing it, - - - - if only the B services we rely on were 78% efficient would we consider changing them!  I thanked him and sent him on his way.

Severn Trent own goal - - again!

Severn Trent are continuing to get right up my nose!  (again! see blog of 15/11/11)  Yesterday around 8:00 a van appeared across the road from the bottom of our drive and a couple of blokes proceeded to put up emergency traffic lights.  No problem there i thought we had the whole road surface relaid only 3 weeks ago so its about time someone put a hole in it!
Imagine my surprise when they erected one of those barrier rectangle across the bottom of our drive! it turns out a Severn Trent man had discovered a leak at the bottom of our drive some days ago and scheduled the repair for yesterday. I believe its normal Customer Service to let you know when they are going to block your drive.  Instead the man told our self appointed neighbourhood watch man who's information in the past has been suspect!
We managed to get all the vehicles out from behind the terrace before they started digging.  And here's the irritating bit, 4.5 hours later the site looked like this.

So for the 4.5 hours work they managed to disrupt the A6 traffic by putting up traffic lights and this barrier, oh and they used one of those cutting machines to mark out where the hole should be!!!!!!!!!! it was going to be a long siege!!!!
As the afternoon developed they, "hit a snag" by managing to damage the pipe further and needed to replace it.  Did they have the right bit!!!!! no comment.
So there we were being told the hole was too big to cover and unstable so we wouldnt be able to access the drive.  There was just enough room to get passed and our neighbour John tried it.  Managing in the process to scrape his van on a pedestrian sign they had erected.  In his frustration he then threw the sign down the hole.  Like the Bernard Cribbins song i can only say about John "hes too hasty far too hasty" lol.
So here we are this morning no vehicles at the back of the terrace except the SORN'd Boris.  Expecting another exiting day watching things develop.  Sally has dashed off a "what the hell's going on" e mail to Severn Trent i shall just send them the link to this blog.  "Customer Service" MY *RSE!

But wait! more excitement today,  We have an ageing combi boiler which I refuse to replace just because its only 78% efficient according to British Gas. However not being completely dopey we do have one of these monthly payment agreements for repairs etc.  Today between 1400 & 1600 the Gas man is meant to be coming to service it.  Not long ago we were due a service and the bloke phoned me up an hour before it was due and cancelled it and told ME! to organise another appointment and was then late for that.  Customer Service!  Ditto above comment.  Why are "we" so crap at it?

11:30 update Just received a letter from British Gas saying if I don't book my inspection/service soon my insurance might be invalid Ggggrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Rain what rain?

Since about Wednesday the forecasters were all doom and gloom for the weekend weather.  Sunday they were predicting would be wet then they switched it to Saturday and by Friday just to be safe they were saying both days would be wet.
Saturday did dawn wet but cleared to give us a nice warm day to get stuck into putting some seeds into trays in the greenhouse.  Sunday looked like it would be very cloudy but by 1000 the sun was cracking the pavement.  Yet another day was spent in the garden, we managed to make a new step up onto the top terrace where the shed was blocking the original entry.
On both days we managed to be able to sit in the sun and down a few drinks while waxing lyrical about the October Kurumba holiday experience!
The cats both enjoyed the sun with Tom sitting on the swinging seat and watching with one eye the antics of little, well not so little now, Sainsbury.  He seemed determined to fall into the pond but managed not ot in the end.
He determined to leap on the next door neighbours roof, which comes to within 2 feet of the ground and catch a blackbird which was entertaining us with some early morning song from an antennae.  It was long gone by the time he got to the peak but struck a pose for the pic below before coming back down

Here he is trying hard not to fall into the fish pond

Not for the squeamish!

When I got up yesterday there wasnt the ususal clamour at the bottom of the stairs door from Sainsbury, he was in the kitchen throwing up a fur ball, nice I mused as I cleaned it up.  He had been off his food for a day or 2 and I wondered if that could have been the reason.

The day panned out well hoovering out the pond, its amazing how much gunge settles on the bottom, it will probably want doing again in a couple of months but at least it got out all the leaves etc from autumn and winter.  

The moved shed finaly got its coat of preservative that I have been promising it for some time.  I did however give up on trying to get enough guttrering pieces to fit all the way around it.  

Just my luck though that the DIY shops have moved to 76mm half round guttering and all my off cuts and brackets etc are 75mm, isnt life just cruel!  So its a complete new set maybe today maybe Monday.  I want to drain the water into the pond so there's a little challenge. 

So as the afternoon drew to a close Sally arrived home and as she was getting changed I was sorting out the worming tablets for the cats as well as some food.  Little sainsbury then took on an odd stance and i realised it was time for a bit of a"throw up". 

Sure enough out came a load of biscuits and as they do he backed off and laid them in a neat line on the kitchen floor.  Another heave and out shot a few more biscuits and attached to it was a white tape worm! he again backed off and by this time had about a foot of tape worm on the floor with the rest of it disappearing into his mouth.!  I rushed across to him grabbed it and pulled out another foot or so before it snapped off!  

This obviously was the reason for him being off his food.  The vets just told usto let him settle down overnight and then worm him as normal in the morning. 

Heres a happy snap of the parasite in all its glory!!! for reference the blue thing is 9cm/3in long, with another pic of the miscreant who disgorged it! 

Pond day tomorrow!

Having been rather chuffed at not losing any fish over the winter I spoke to a friend too soon the other day about  it.  This is the time though that they get stressed, sounds odd fish getting stressed I mean whats stressful about swimming around in circles?  Seriously though its something to do with not feeding all winter and then all the bugs starting to grow again as the water warms up.
So at the moment we have lost one small (2 1/2inches) koi which was part of half a dozen left over from a spawn late 2010 early 2011.
We have tried all the potions to keep the stress levels down in previous years but nothing seesm to work and we laways lose a few.  Now trusting in nature and our clean water regime.
So tomorrow its hacking all the water plants down a size or two then hoovering out all the gunk thats on the bottom of the pond.  After that I shall put in my second pump and home made filter which worked a treat late summer and autumn last year.

Leap year? On the move

Yes the leap year, I wandered into work for my first full day after the hols on the "8th" of March, however my casio watch was showing the 9th.  So there I am taking bread off the shelves dated the 8th thinking how could all this have been missed by the code checker.  Thats  a check which highlights 2 days later that there might be items which should be reduced on that day.
It was only when I asked a colleague who had done the code check that by a process of strange looks and squinting at watches that I realised my cheapy casio could not have been programmed for the leap year!

On the move! our bakery Team Leader has been trying to join the cops for ages and at last he has been accepted he joins up on the 11th of April so we are in for a new team leader.  Could be a bit of trial for the boss lady Tracy finding 1 as good.

The weather of late has been unseasonably mild and i always start thinking about going logging again in this type of situation.  Might give it a go towards the end of the month.

Super Tuesday

I watched yesterdays lunchtime news talking about the "Super Tuesday" candidates in the USA and had to laugh at the comments about Mitt Romney (can you believe that name!)


He it appears: 
Is a billionaire (has made loads o cash off other people)
Is a Morman (believes what he reads in his own bible) 
Is out of touch with the real people (and what are "real people", oh yes the ones that work and pay tax) 


Perfect credentials for any politician I reckon.


Back to work after nearly 3 weeks off tomorrow, cant wait - - - - yeah! 


Tom and Sainsbury hard at it this morning, mind you it is raining rather well outside

Sally's new vehicle, Cyril now has seats covers fitted and will be complete when he gets the paw print stickers applied this weekend.   

Shed move complete

We decided to keep Sally's beloved Boris the defender after finding out he appeared to be a bit of a collectors item. We had initially decided to sell him because of Sally's intention to move to part time work this year meant we didn't need 2 4x4s.
The problem of where to park him up after acquiring a 3rd vehicle (Cyril the Corsa combo van) was solved by deciding to move the shed from our parking area up into the garden.
This I completed with the help of a neighbour last Thursday & Friday.  The challenge however was to shorten it from its original 10ft to just 6.  It turned out to be a reasonably simple operation and with the help of a 3rd person we managed to carry the large end pieces up the garden and re erect it there.

This pic shows the shed with the roof off and before we shortened it.

This pic shows Boris backed into the gap left by the shed.  The shed, (outlined) can be seen up in the garden, we intend to erect a trellis in front of it which will almost hide it when the summer foliage grows up it.

Back to reality

After a fabulous holiday we left Kurumba in style as we arrived on one of their huge air conditioned speedboats.

We were flying Sri Lankanair and had to fly first to Colombo and then have an 11hr 45min flight back to Heathrow.  The flight would have been fine except for a young child who would throw a one and half hour screaming tantrum sleep for an hour and then do it all again.  Hey ho the price of paradise.

We stayed the night at Heathrow then drove home on Sunday in the sunshine.  The cats were overjoyed to see us and ate everything we put down for them for an hour or two between bouts of prowling the garden scent marking everything in site - - - lovely!

Reporting for work on Wednesday was a joyous occasion as I only had to do a 2 hour shift!  I remembered Tracey (she who Must! be obeyed) mentioning I had 6 hours left of my annual holidays and agreeing she could just put it on a day to suit.
Bless her cotton socks it was the Wednesday! after working 2 hours, and having part of that taken up by "fire training" I returned home.
I now have another week off in which to move the shed so we can park up Sally's beloved Boris the Defender while she uses the replacement a Corsa Combo van that has been named "Cyrel".
Please feel free to watch the dismantling and moving of the shed on our site at http://hakuraman.gotdns.com