Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

I've got two high pressure steam engine lubricators cleaned up and ready for stripping down and refurbishing. Beautifully built by Kirkham's of Bolton and I have all the spares for them. I shall enjoy doing these....

[Sue]

Back to the mound this afternoon. Progress is being made but the worse is to come. The back, near the fence is tough hard soil embedded with nettle and bramble roots. It's so humid at the moment an hour is about the limit of my exertions, thunderstorms are forecast over the next couple of days. If it actually rains it should soften the soil.

[Stanley]

It's a bit like serving a prison sentence with hard labour...... Good luck with the softening.....
Enjoying my lubricators, have a look at shed matters but I will be hampered this morning as I have to go to Butts Clinic for retinoscopy.....

[Sue]

No rain! Back to the chipping and scraping. I hope the trip to the clinic goes well.

[Stanley]

No problems Sue, just a few photographs of my retinas so they can look for problems. (They never picked up on my detached retina....) Worst thing is the savage eye drops they put in to enlarge your pupil, they don't wear off for about 6 hours.....

[Sue]

Rain rain rain. I never thought , as a good northerner, I would be so pleased to see rain. It hit 34 degrees yesterday and was so humid. A day off the mound today. We are taking our friend Audrey to the dentist. I am doing some sewing. I designed a pair of linen trousers and am just finishing them off

[Stanley]

We are getting your rain here now Sue. It might soften your mound....
Shopping day today so I may be late getting into the shed but otherwise nothing pressing on my calendar.... Life is one long holiday here!

[Sue]

So I sewed most of the day and did some shopping, no mound digging for me and today, guess what? I have a bad back. All that digging and not a twinge but sit in a chair at a sewing machine and ouch, can't move. Never mind I have the necessary tablets with me but digging may be off. The family return from their weeks camping and are with us till next Wednesday.

[Sue]

We are having real wet rain, stair rods as we northerners say, so no gardening even if I wanted to.

[PanBiker]

Setting to on building and installing our new kitchen which was delivered this morning. Half my kitchen and the whole of our back room is now filled with flat packs and worktops, let the fun begin.

[Stanley]

Sue, absolutely typical, many back conditions are caused by bad seating positions. When you think about it, sitting is not a natural behaviour for the design of our bodies.... We had that rain as well....
Today I shall be finding a way to accurately cut tough thick walled glass tube....

[Stanley]

After numerous set-backs I successfully cut my glass tubes yesterday so today I can crack on with the rebuild of the first lubricator. I can promise it will be quite nice.....

[Stanley]

Cracking on in the shed.... It's just like going to work in a morning and I love it....

[Stanley]

Doing as little as possible....

[Stanley]

It worked.... 14 hours sleep hit whatever was attacking me on the head....
Normal shed today but nothing strenuous.

[Stanley]

Finished reassembling the lubricator yesterday, looking good! Today is lid-making, they both need new lids.

[Wendyf]

Helping to lead the Earby History Society's walk for the Pendle Walking Festival. We are doing a 7 mile walk this time, starting & finishing at the Youth Hostel and following some old routes.
Starting off down Mill Lane to Stoneybank, then on the old track behind Moorhall Farm to meet Heads Lane which we follow up Harden Clough as far as Harden Old House where we go downhill to cross the beck before heading back on the other side of the clough to Thick Bank. From there we follow another old route down to Dotcliffe and into Kelbrook before heading through the church yard and back into Earby behind Sough. (We were going to do a detour to look at old Sough Bridge which can still be seen underneath the road, but didn't think crossing the main road with a large group of folk would be a good idea.)
Must go and get ready, we set off at 10am!

[Sue]

Now the family have gone home it's back to the shrinking mound. Bob and our son in law, Ed managed to dig out some very large stones and lumps of concrete. Some heavy rain has softened the soil. We are beginning to make progress. Bob is constructing a wall with the stones as we work. A photo will follow at the end of today's work. Not many days left though, there are other things to do and we are back on the ferry on Tuesday.

[Sue]

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[Stanley]

You lot are gluttons for punishment! After all that exercise you must be as fit as a butcher's dog!

[plaques]

you must be as fit as a butcher's dog!

A thirsty butchers dog.

[Sue]

Very thirsty. Many a beer and cup of tea have been consumed. Did another two hours thus morning but when the temperature climbed to 29 we had to stop. It was great first thing, thick mist and cool.

[Stanley]

You brought back a 70 year old memory there Sue. Loading FYM by hand into a spreader first thing in the morning in Warwickshire.....

[Sue]

Talking about manure, we spent yesterday afternoon collecting one and a half trailers of goat manure from a French friend who keeps goats. A stable full and a promise of more in October. It should do our rubbish soil some good. We have added loads of compost and bought dried manure but this is the good stuff. Fingers crossed. We will rotavate it in next visit.

[Sue]

Oh yes it hit 32 yesterday and was still that when we went out at 6.30 pm to the same friend for an evening BBQ in the garden, surrounded by goats of course!