OneGuyFromBarlick

I changed my mind and cooked most of my veg for next week today. I shall do the greens tomorrow after I have done my four hour chicken......

PanBiker wrote: ↑07 Apr 2023, 11:21

Stanley wrote: ↑07 Apr 2023, 07:06 Good job I shopped for veggies in the Town Square yesterday, the veggie offering in the Co-op was, once again, dire.

I did an Aldi run this morning, noticed they have a full range of veg, nothing looks to be in short supply down there.

There is always a good supply of veg on Bacup market, hope they don’t let us down tomorrow, our patisserie friend and wife are coming for a meal in the evening.

Lovely walk round Hollingworth Lake before lunch, it was heaving with people and all car parks full. I think we got one of the last spaces, free parking today as its Good Friday . Its the busiest I have seen it since covid

Lovely day here in Barlick.... no traffic problems.
I think I might make a piston and a rod this morning in the shed. But before I do that I shall put my chicken in to roast for 4 hours......

Morning

Beautiful day yesterday. To day promises to be nice but not as sunny. Bacup market this morning, a bit of cooking this afternoon ready for our visitors this evening.

The aluminium foil between the router and the burglar alarm sensor seems to have done the trick. We had no random alarms going off in the night . Such a simple cheap solution.


Have a good day all

The alarm company will be glad to hear the foil has worked Sue! Today will not be as sunny but perversely could be warmer because of the change in the wind.



Bob will laugh at me this morning, I found myself fighting a piece of scrap aluminium bronze...... But I got there in the end, I shall finish it tomorrow.

I've browned my chicken and dealt with it and the roast veggies and gravy that sat with it. Now for a short break, a walk and a sit in this lovely weather (Because it will be wet and windy tomorrow), and then back home to finish cooking my veggies. (Just the greens to do.....)

Tomorrow looks lovely on my forecast Stanley, Monday looks rainy though and Wednesday looks 'orrible!

You're right Wendy, I had mistakenly marked today down as Sunday..... Thanks for the correction....
Still, I have finished my cooking. That's quite enough honest endeavour for today...

Easter weekend is traditionally spent thinking Friday is Saturday, Sunday also thinking it's Saturday and Monday thinking it's Sunday. Other than that it's a fairly normal weekend

The Thursday night used to be the day for walking up Pendle to watch the sunrise on Good Friday.

Good Friday for us, and some chap called Lowry, was Daisy Nook

Lovely sunny day spent, very steadily, digging stuff out of the muck heap and spreading it on the deep beds. This year's weed of choice (in the muck heap) is the thistle, which has very brittle white roots plunging deep into the heap. Colin, who can't control where his legs go in normal circumstances, has been up and down, on and off the roof adjusting his aerials. I have stopped worrying about him, if he falls off then he dies doing something he enjoys.....

Wendy, there's nothing quite like old well-rotted horse manure for garden soil is there. As for Colin, you are right to ignore him, waste of time trying to modify a force of nature......
I shall be making my tough little slug of bronze into a piston. In case anyone has forgotten I don't use the cast iron and the piston rings that Stuart's supply. I've seen to many good engines ruined by getting water into the bores while running on compressed air and leaving the pistons to rust and seize up. A bronze piston with a soft graphite packing seal in a groove will run for ever and can't rust.
Looks as though a walk is on the cards as well. Wendy was right, I was wrong and we have one more decent day, in fact warmer than yesterday!



Johnny Pickles made this wonderful model of a cross compound mill engine and gave it to the Bradford Industrial Museum at Moorside. They contacted me many years later to see if I would 'go and have a look at it' because it had seized up. I refused because I had already heard that they had been running it on compressed air and let it rust.

The first half hour was spent finishing the piston and fitting it on its rod. Then I addressed something that has been annoying me for a while. Over the years the surface finish in the 4Morse taper in the quill in the tailstock gets roped by drills jamming up and galling and eventually you have to do something about it. It just so happens I have a set of Morse taper reamers for numbers 1,2,3 and 4. So I got them out, fitted the two jaw brass finisher's chuck so I could drive the reamer and did a light skim inside the quill. Only light, I just wanted an improvement not a refurbishment. That done I cleaned Mrs Harrison and put some tackle away. A good hour and a quarter with useful things done....

Wendyf wrote: ↑08 Apr 2023, 17:39 Lovely sunny day spent, very steadily, digging stuff out of the muck heap and spreading it on the deep beds. This year's weed of choice (in the muck heap) is the thistle, which has very brittle white roots plunging deep into the heap. Colin, who can't control where his legs go in normal circumstances, has been up and down, on and off the roof adjusting his aerials. I have stopped worrying about him, if he falls off then he dies doing something he enjoys.....

Morning

We too put manure on the garden , delivered every October and spread on the garden by a little irish man. I leave it on the surface over winter as it stops weeds and I have just hoed it all in. This year the weed of choice is sycamore , there are sycamore shoots all over the garden. As for Colin well what can you say .

Taking advantage of the nice weather on Friday Bob cemented round the base of the greenhouse and ran sealant round the glass frame where it meets the brick base. Hopefully it will stop the constant flooding of the floor when it rains. We will find out tomorrow no doubt. Today he will be busy at the park with the train. Its the first official day of the season, though they ran trains when we were away.

I intend sewing after I have put Danish oil on the wooden garden furniture having washed it down yesterday. The main garden bench is of a sturdy recycled material, that cost us an arm and a leg and needs no attention whatsoever. Its the same style often seen in parks now. I ordered it a couple of years ago and was shocked when I realised I had only ordered the table that links two chairs but no chairs . I had misunderstod the advert so had to reorder to get the chairs. It was a serious financial error but we have never regretted it. I think they will last the rest of our lives and our daughters lives .I also have to put away the ´posh’ pots and glasses after our visitors last night and I want to change and wash the bedding

Another nice day before the weather changes, have a good day.

You make me look like an idle bugger Sue! I've done my honest endeavour bit and am now off to bed. I refuse to worry about all the things I could be doing....

Over winter our wood shed suffered the ravages of water ingress and wood rot. The roof and back wall have completely collapsed (10' x 12' x 8' high). Yesterday was a nice day so I went down to the bottom of the garden to have a look at it. Today promises to be another nice day so I will have another look. Well that's enough work for one week. Don't want to rush into things. Always leave something for tomorrow as they say.

plaques wrote: ↑09 Apr 2023, 07:47 Over winter our wood shed suffered the ravages of water ingress and wood rot. The roof and back wall have completely collapsed (10' x 12' x 8' high). Yesterday was a nice day so I went down to the bottom of the garden to have a look at it. Today promises to be another nice day so I will have another look. Well that's enough work for one week. Don't want to rush into things. Always leave something for tomorrow as they say.

We have done 18 months worth of looking at the greenhouse. Mind you all the good days seemed to clash with us being somewhere else. Stanley there will be a lot of sitting drinking tea today. Bob will be out for hours. In fact I am drinking tea now oiling the outdoor bench is so we can do even more sitting

Good to hear that Sue. I used to live with a woman who had been reared by Puritans and taught that to be still was sinful. The consequence was that she grew up confusing activity with action and in eight years I only managed to effect a small change in her outlook.
I must have been lucky because I always believed that sitting still and thinking was a laudable activity and even now I do a lot of it. (That's why I always smile inwardly when I hear people banging on about 'mindfulness' as though this is a wonderful technique they have invented....) I used to enjoy jobs like rebuilding the wood shed or the greenhouse, in fact in my time I have done both but now I look at the shed in the yard which is shrinking because the base is rotting away and wonder which will stand longest, me or the shed!



I shall be in the shed for at least an hour and might have a walk later. Otherwise I may just sit and think!

A good hour and a half working on the glands for the valve and piston rods. This included some imaginative work holding using pressure from the live centre and a small piece of emery paper to give us grip. In addition I dressed my grinding wheel, a dirty job, so it could be used properly to dress the castings. I am ready now to drill for the studs, mark their position and drill and tap the castings to hold the glands.

Morning

As it happens , Stanley, there was not much inactivity, when I looked at the washing basket it was full to overflowing, let alone the bedding, so washing filled a lot of the day and as the iron was up for sewing I ironed as it dried. I did have a couple relaxing sits in the conservatory with a a cuppa and I did get the bench oiled. The dress pattern I was having a go at making myself was a much longer task than expected and required a good deal of brain power to work out how to do it. I was trying to copy a bought summer dress I love but is looking rather worn. I was just finishing when Bob came in and I hadn’t even started making the roast chicken dinner. Luckily the weekly pud was the rhubarb crumble ( first rhubarb of the season) left over from the meal with our visitors on Saturday.I was in bed asleep by 9.30 pm and woke at 7.30 this morning !

Today will be far more relaxed. We are off to Wendy and Keiths for lunch and the afternoon. Definitely a sit and chat day. Perfect for a damp day. Have a good day all

Why am I not surprised to hear you had a productive day.....
This morning I shall be in the shed with the glands and after a second sleep I am aiming for a walk and a sit because the forecast is for a dry day with sunny intervals.....

This morning I carried on with the glands, they need to be prepared for the 5BA studs and the lid and steam chest have to be drilled and tapped for the studs. I drilled the glands and marked them with witness marks denoting orientation and then used them to mark the castings. You may be wondering why I am using a 5MT dead centre as a punch to mark the position of the stud holes. You live and learn and during the last fortnight I have discovered that even with my lousy eyes I can get very close to a good position when marking for drilling and tapping. I think it's because the taper is so clear and acts as a pointer. I ended up after an hour in the shed starting drilling and tapping for the studs. I shall finish the job tomorrow, no point rushing and finding trouble!

Morning

I had a pleasant couple of hours in the morning making the toile from the pattern I made on Sunday. My hard work seems to be paying off, it seems to fit so far. I shall do a little more on that today. We went to Wendy’s at 12.30 , home about 6.00 and had a very pleasant afternoon eating and chatting.

This morning looks ok but rain this afternoon. I shall sew again, but may have a trip later to the garden centre to get some veggie seeds and seed potatoes. Bob is out at the Model engineers this afternoon. I may sweep out the green house to complete its Spring tidy up, and before it gets full of seed trays, though I won’t be planting many seeds till we come back from our next trip to France

Have a good day all