29 Mar 2024

29.03.2024 Timber!

~o~

  Friday 29th 41F/5C. Bright start becoming cloudier later with possible light rain. Southerly wind increasing. Up at 5.30. Dozing on the computer, yesterday, was not sensible. They could use YouTube as a general anesthetic.

 6.30  The sun is just rising over the low hill to the east. Today I have to clear the trees I felled. Then move more gravel away from the gap. Through which the tipper trailer will pass carrying demolition rubble. To raise the sunken area to the north of the parking area. 

 7.30 I think I'll go for an early walk.

 8.00 Veiled sunshine and a cold wind. I saw a resplendent Yellowhammer. Amongst many other small birds. The ground was too wet to take to the fields. I made it to the lanes and then retreated. 

 I haven't been shopping. So have missed a third, toasted roll with marmalade. Never mind, as soon as I have finished my coffee. I shall be out there slaving away again. 

 9.30 I need a rest! The felled tree trunks have been cleaned with the chainsaw. Then laid beside the trailer passage. More as a guide than for emergencies. I am trying to limit the level raising area to the right of the board on the ground. To avoid spilling over into the cultivated garden. Where there are desirable, mature bushes. Just to the left outside the picture. A black leafed elder and a Cotoneaster Salicifolia. Both must be 15' high now.

 I have raised the left side of the gravel access area. To improve the level for the builder's trailer. The gravel heap will be steadily reduced or moved. By the time the rubble is delivered next week. I may have to fell more trees. To push the raised area further back.

 The branches are cleared into my trailer. Ready for a run to the recycling yard. Fortunately the garden waste area is open year round. I wonder if the supermarkets are open? Yes, it seems they are. I can restock on bread rolls.

 12.15 52F/11C. Veiled sunshine. Another rest. I am actually feeling hungry. Which is highly unusual. I'll have early lunch. 

 The gravel heap is gradually shrinking back where it matters. To give maximum clearance for a trailer. It is very hard work shoveling or raking. Because the gravel is so sticky and heavy. A few more skinny trees have been cut down. Mostly Fastigiate Red oaks. My wife used to collect the acorns in public car parks. Before they were squashed by the cars.

 The Yellow willows were her work too. She would grow them from pencil sized cuttings. The western boundary is lined with 50' tall specimens. They seem to be fastigiate too. Rocketing upwards but only bushy at the top. 

 They have outgrown the mature larch trees in the shelter belt. I stood a 4m long pole against the base of the trees and then photographed it from as far away as possible. The trees are all at least 24 meters high. Over 52'.

 Even topping the fast growing Leylandii "Waterloo." Which she brought with her as tiny plants in the mid 1990s. Only to have the neighbour try and kill them with his tractor sprayer. Back when they were only a few feet high. 

 They became horribly twisted. Before they finally found their feet again and shot up. The "Waterloo" has splashes of cream highlights in the foliage. The image was taken through the window. From the upstairs balcony room. The prostrate yew has also taken off. Since I felled the huge Horse chestnut two years ago. Before that it was constantly in the dark.

 14.30 Returning from delivering the branches to the recycling yard and shopping. 

 15.00 Time to catch up on my sleep. 


  ~o~

 

 

28 Mar 2024

28.03.2024 The big, green dome has finally gone!

 ~o~

  Thursday 28th 40F/4C. A smudgy sky but brightening. Rain is forecast. With windy conditions at times. As weather fronts pass over. Up at 6am. The parking space suddenly looks twice the size! 😐

 Day 1 of being free of the big, green dome project. After three years of carrying the burden. In one way or another. It blocked proper access to the parking space for far too long. Even when I wanted to be rid of it. Even free of charge, there was very little interest. Facebook claimed over 3,500 clicks on my advert but I had only three responses. Including one complete time waster. 

 The sheer scale and weight of the components must have put many people off. The eventual buyer, for mere pocket change, brought a large, flat bed trailer. Typically used for transporting mini excavators. The stacked segments almost dwarfed it! Fortunately the three of us were able to load the trailer. Mostly due to the low bed height and drop down sides. I hadn't intended to help. Though it would not have happened so easily with only two people lifting. 

 The huge, gravel heap is still looming as my next, self-imposed burden. Thankfully things went far better yesterday than I would have dared to hope. I became breathless a few times but no other symptoms. 

 My new neighbour has been demolishing floors. So he has a lot of clean, concrete hardcore lying outside. Some of which I could use to lift the ground level beside the observatory. Where there is a drop of at least 60cm. Over 2' or probably more. Depending how far out I want to enlarge the new platform. With a generous, double carport in mind. For which will use the observatory construction timber once I have demolished it.

 A few wheelbarrows of hardcore. Even if it involved a 150 meter journey each way. Would make lighter work. Than moving at least a cubic yard of heavy gravel 4-5 meters into the void. The gravel is self compacting and flatly refuses to flow. Even heeling a shovel into it is very hard work! 

 Raking is the only way I can manage the work. At the required scale in a reasonable time. Getting another lorry load delivered, just to raise the level, is doable. Though far harder work than maximizing the gravel I have left. The lorry can't reach where it needs to be tipped. Because the ground is too soft.

 7.30. Time for a walk.    

 8.00 It was cool but not cold. Thanks to a lack of wind. The local turbine group was at a standstill. Light bank holiday traffic. The ground was still dry. So I circumnavigated the same field, again. Maintaining a brisk pace on the tractor tire ridges. 

 I was entertained by a large bird of prey. Which was flying slowly and parallel to me. A chevron of geese went over. Noisily complaining at the lead bird's awful sense of direction. Umpteen small birds sang or moved about. A neighbour is erecting some sort of structure up on the hill. Something to do with horses? A large JCB is occasionally active on the new drive.

 8.30 I had another look at the gravel heap and the space to be filled. There is still probably 2/3rds of the original heap left. Lots! So wasting my time. By tootling back and forth with a wheelbarrow full of rubble. Is not really very sensible. Rain is forecast from lunch time onwards. So I ought to shop this morning. If I am going on the bike. Or I'll wait and go in the car later. So I should stop waffling and get on with something more useful! 

 But not yet: I am still waiting for somebody to suggest. That every humanoid robot. Should have a man with a red flag walking [very slowly] in front of them. Now back to work! 

 9.30. 45F/7C. Overcast. Another hour of hard labour. Getting a bit hot and breathless. Time for another rest. I have filled the lowest corner beside the observatory base. The space I have been leveling is much closer to that required. Where is the humanoid robot I was promised? Is it afraid of hard work? 

 If I am to build a double carport I may need to go back as far as the observatory platform. Which means a lot of small tree felling and lots more gravel fill. It is difficult to judge the space available. While the observatory and a large pile of gravel are still in the way. The front of the shed might be a useful reference.

 10.00 Going back out.

 10.45 More hard labour. Then had a nice chat with my builder neighbour about his rubble. He will be delighted to deliver it to the spot where I need it. It will save him having to go to the recycling yard. I just need to make room for his tipper trailer. To reach the low area behind where I am working. We both win. 

 I'll have to thin out the spindly trees too but I have a new chain on the DeWalt. I am now trying to save as much gravel as I can. To more thinly cover the enlarged, raised area. No need to waste it in bulk filling any more. 

 I have been digging away one end of the gravel heap. To make room for a trailer to pass. Then filled a low spot with old bricks.  

 11.40 I couldn't stay awake after working so hard.

 12.20 Woke from an early nap to find it is raining. 

 12.30 Lit the stove. The room temperature is 60F/16C. 

 13.00 Lunch over. Dozed while watching YouTube videos.

 15.45 It has stopped raining. I have been widening the gap at the end of the gravel heap. It is even heavier and stickier when wet! Then I cleared the logs and felled the trees in the expanded, sunken area. Some of them were well over 3m or ten feet longer than I expected. When they fell! I have lopped some of the larger trunks into manageable lengths. Breathless, sweating and tired. Again!

 

  ~o~

27 Mar 2024

27.05.2024 Groveling the gravel.

 ~o~

  Wednesday 27th 41F/5C. It could reach 13C/55F around lunch time. Cloudy this morning with sunshine later. Up at 5am after lying there with my memories churning over. 

 7.30 Time for a walk. The green dome should be picked up this evening.

 8.15 It was cold on my hands but not quite bad enough to hide them in my pockets. Probably thanks to a lack of wind. I took to a field to circumnavigate it via the spray tracks. The ground was mostly firm and dry. Or I would not have bothered. Weak sunshine so far. The sky looked dark to the west. I saw my first Bullfinches of the year. A pair crossed from one side of the road to the other. 

 I am trying to decide what to do today. 100km in the last four days went well enough. 390km this month. Average speed 23kph/14mph. This figure includes when I am tootling along without the need to be anywhere. From memory, my average speed used to be around 28kph on a ride. That was when I first started riding the Moustache about a year ago. Long before the recent breathlessness presented itself.

 Luckily I seem to be able to automatically avoid breathlessness on the e-bike. Simply by adjusting my effort, mode and chosen gear. Though I normally ride in Sport mode in fairly high gears within 80-90rpm cadence. Sport mode offers 240% motor assistance. With Turbo [340%] increasingly used on climbs. 


 While even simple tasks, off the bike, make me unpleasantly breathless. I can still cycle comfortably within my present threshold over extended periods. Had I continued on the manual trike I would probably have given up cycling over two years ago. 

 10.30 I have managed to cover quite an area of hardcore with the sand/gravel mix. Just by using gravity and raking it down the heap. Then raking it out and about. The pole is 4m long and used as a quick measuring rod. Also to check the level using a builders bubble level laid on top of the pole.

 My wife used the same raking technique to fill wheelbarrows. When a local contractor broke an agreement. To send a machine to move the gravel for us. This time the heap is close to the sunken area. 

 So a 77 year old, with a possible heart condition, can still manage the job. Given enough time. The landscape gardener never got back to me. So I'll just have to press on myself. Then the cost will be what I paid for the lorry load of gravel.   

 The board and pole are both level. The light coloured gravel [middle right] is the parking space level.

 11.30 55F/13C. Another hour of raking gravel and I need a rest and a drink of water. The heap looks no different from the other side. While the gravel is almost level over the area I had roughly defined with hardcore. My images do no justice to the area covered. Nor the depth. 

 13.30 It is a beautiful, sunny day. Birds are singing all around me. The southerly wind is blocked by the house. I have seen ladybirds and butterflies for the first time this year. The greenhouse thermometer was showing 111F/44C! So I have opened the internal windows. 64F/18C and rising, indoors.

 14.30 56F/13C. Another hour. It has become overcast. I am making good progress on the gravel. Though I am getting tired, breathless and sweaty now. Pulse 90bpm. I need another rest to recover. 

 15.45 Still at it. I am breathless and knackered. I will have to give up for today. 

 18.15 I have been doing a little more shoveling and raking. I am expecting the arrival of the dome removers between 6-7pm. It is a long drive. So difficult to predict an ETA. There has been no further contact in 3 days. 

 19.10 I am finally free of the green dome. The new owner will use it as a sheep shelter. Perfect! 👍

  Dinner was mackerel on toast with halved tomatoes.


  ~o~