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... the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves ...
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gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 17 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

My shed is erected and clad just the doors to do and I am hoping he has done that today although he may be making them and waiting for the w/e. I just have to find the cash now and add electricity for machines and light as I omitted to ask for a couple of roof lights!! It is 5mx6m-doors on the narrow side. My aim is a large work bench in the middle and the machines in a line on one side, cross cut saw, ripsaw, and the lathe. Work benches on the other side, but I guess it will have a storage area; I am a hoarder-it will come in!

I am envious of your shed, Cassandra, I think it will be better, however, if you call it "Wool City Design Studio".
Don't worry about missing in action, but we do like to hear that you are well, if only a one liner, please. So Billy has cut his niche. Now I didn't know how to put tec screws in and thought you had to drill a pilot hole first; but was quickly corrected and boy do they save time, but that initial first turning of the screw and to keep it in place can be a little trying.

I am glad the event went well, Jam Lady,-875 folks sounds like micro-phones to me! I am pleased your snow is going, we are expecting what failed to fall on you is now on its way here and there was a hint this morning at 5 am., and an attempt this afternoon. I realised something was up yesterday when I followed 2 full gritting lorries home from work to my village.
I like the plastic tool holders, Jam lady, I get lots of round tubing off cuts from pto-power take off-shaft guards from when the tractor drives a machine it is towing. Most of my garden tools have D or T shaped handles so not for me, except that I will use that idea for brooms and hoes, thank you.

I hope all goes well with the crossing, gz.

We are awaiting the first pictures of the completed baskets MR.
Our blackthorn is nowhere near leaf nor flower. But things are starting and one or two hedges are sprouting lower down the hill, but nothing near flowering-a weeks 'weather' to come before that starts-well not till late April anyway for anything round here. My kindling is still flying off the shelves!

Last edited by gregotyn on Fri Mar 24, 17 2:39 pm; edited 1 time in total

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 17 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It's sunny, somewhat warmer, but the snow is taking FOREVER to go away. In other words, it is still white out there.

Gregotyn, your shed sounds wonderful, as does Cassandras. About the tool holders - could you not cut a vertical slit in the round tubing, then slip the D- and T-handled tools in. The D- and T- part would keep them from falling out. They'd have to go with the blade part down toward the floor.

My tool shed is 10 feet by 18 feet, whatever that is in metric. It has double doors on short side close to driveway, single door in long wall. Two windows in that long wall too. Mr Jam Lord put a window in the short wall across from the double doors, and built a nice work bench beneath it. It's very messy as I tend to just stuff things in at the end of the day. And have too much stuff also. I'll show you the outside but too embarrassed to show the inside . . .



Garden club meeting tomorrow, with a speaker talking about unusual annuals. I recently got seeds for a dark purple leaved castor bean, and several Mirabilis, four o'clocks. The latter have tuberous roots so I will be able to keep them from year to year by digging and storing indoors.

No one planted peas on St Patrick's Day, not with icy snow covering the frozen ground. I think of my bananas, cut back, swaddled with leaves, roofed with plywood, awaiting their emergence when warm weather arrives.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 17 6:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Glad that you too have got your shed Gregotyn. Hope you can get set up in there quickly.

I will see about the pictures of the baskets. Perhaps wait until I have something I am fairly happy with. The second one I worked out the frame shape for myself and it didn't go right, so am not very happy with it, although it does seem to be staying together, which I was afraid it wouldn't.

Spent the day in the coppice coup again yesterday clearing up. I worked on a hazel stool with large stems-some up to about 5" diameter. The tops were awful, but we got some potential firewood and charcoal wood out of it. Husband and son were working on some ash tops and managed to get some useable timber out of it.

Lots more coming into flower now. Found early dog violets Viola reichenbachiana and some toothwort Lathraea squamaria as well as more wood anemones. We have never seen toothwort there, and some is quite near the path, so no idea why it has suddenly appeared. Coming up the lane in the sunshine the daffodils and celandines were really lovely too. Apart from a moderate rather cold wind, the weather was lovely yesterday. Sounds as if it is raining at the moment, but hoping it will clear over as husband and son have to start the deer fencing.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 17 11:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Now you see, between you and JL, Gregotyn you have me rethinking what to do with the inside of the shed already! I love those PVC pipe solutions - I have endless lengths of PVC offcuts that would be just the thing. Now to work out how to attach them to that dratty metal wall!

Apparently not even the laptop is allowed near me these days, so regular updates may be a challenge Gregotyn, but I will try!

Today was a start-of-autumn day with grey skies and some pathetic attempts at rain (around 10mm). All my good intentions went out the window as it was raining this morning and I started plying yarn, and knitting and checking out sock patterns and time slipped away. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. I do not have to go to the History Room tomorrow as Steph is doing it, but I will be in there on Friday instead as she is busy then. We are both busy on Friday afternoon as we have a funeral to attend. The chap in question is an elderly bachelor who was very active around the town (was mowing the church lawns the day before he died) and is related to my friend Barbara. As a result I had become friends with him in a distant sort of day (him sending messages to Barb via me and vice versa). He died at home in his own bedroom and was found the next morning by the Minister who was worried he had not returned a call. Best way to go I reckon. Anyway the entire town will be turning out so the History Room will be closed in the afternoon and I will leave a note in the window explaining.

Have to go now as I am being harrassed.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 22, 17 5:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Cassandra, if you take another look at that tool storage using PVC offcuts again you'll see the pipe sections are fastened to horizontal battens which appear to be fastened to a metal wall. So there should be a way . . .

Sunny, chilly, very windy. Down to the teens, Fahrenheit, again tonight.

Snow disappearing on the sunny side of the street. BelleWood Gardens, alas, is on the other side.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 17 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Sounds as if you need to discuss things with Billy Cassandra. He has to learn to share you with the others and with things like the laptop. On the other hand, no doubt he has worked out what you use to get his food and isn't jealous of that. Perhaps Jam Lord will let you know how those battens were attached. The man who died seems to have been known by the whole town; as you say, the best way to go, and quite a send off too.

We went to a farm yesterday evening for a Farmers Market meeting. They are lambing and calving at the moment, so we went down to see them. The sheep are mainly Texel crosses, with a few Jacob and a couple of Herdwicks that were there from her mother to be trained to fences. In the UK most sheep are raised for meat, so although they use the fleeces, they are not so important as in Aus. There isn't much housing near the farm, and it is at the top of a hill, so brilliant view of the stars. Since the moved the street light outside our house, haven't seen such a lovely view of them.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Thu Mar 23, 17 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Your shed is about 3.05x5.49 metres Jam lady.
We had a dollup of snow in the area a few days back, but it stayed on the hills and is still there, we escaped, but it was a lovely sight as I came home. There is always a line round the hills that the snow seems not to dare to go below at this time of the year-around the 1500ft mark and well pleased I am. Frosty this am but roads treated so an ok trip to work.

Cassandra, I only make the comment about you not appearing so often, as we like your views, and after all you started all this-you are the guiding light! MR is right, and you need to sort Billy. We will start to call him William if he becomes nasty as Billy is too nice a name for a cat with attitude. Just keep telling him he is lucky to have such friends and home as he could have become something else!!
Tec screws are the answer if you use the plastic attached to metal, or a nut and bolt with a rubber washer on the outside surface. I recently saw a book and it shows tool storage against the wall, with a door in front also covered in tools both sides of the door, so if you want a tool from the back you open the door otherwise the other tools are already on show-3 banks of tools occupying a relatively small space. Of course the back of the in and out door is for you overalls.

When it is my time I want to go, I just hope it will be in bed. My mother would tell you that I am not built for easy management and if there is an alternative to common sense I would find it, in spite, she said, but I am not built that way it just happens!

It appears that a fleece in the UK is worth less than the cost of shearing unless you have a sought after type of wool. I find that quite strange. I thought that Herdwick sheep didn't need any training to jump-I thought all sheep were escapologists-and I know some Welsh ewes are almost miners.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 17 7:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That is the trouble with Herdwicks Gregotyn. They were being trained not to jump but to stay in the field with the other sheep like good little animals.

We had another day extracting birch at the common yesterday. Son took the chainsaw and sliced the large ones through the length so they could be lifted. We only finished 3 piles of oversized and one more mixed I think, but we still had the trailer and both trucks full. Hoping for one more run next week, then that will be it.

I managed to split and dress another rod for the baskets while son was unloading the timber using the little forwarder and got 5 lengths out as managed to split one length in 2 and the other in 3.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Fri Mar 24, 17 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I must have mis-read the Herdwick post and thought that someone was trying to teach them to jump for showing. Our pig group has a man who trains pigs for the spring fair to race round a track and I think there are small jumps in that!
Do you use the Birch for anything in particular-I wondered if it may be a smoking timber?

Another working week gone and every time I look forward to when it is the last day. 2 days all to myself; I am planning to get some brick laying done at the base of the shed to keep the vermin out and at some near point I have to measure the lengths I want for the saw- bench to go for cutting longer lengths than I can at the moment-only about 5 feet. I also plan to set my pedestal drill into the saw bench, removable when cross cutting, but allowing the drilled pieces to rest on the bench rather than having to wobble in mid air. Priority is to get the electric in, but that is for a professional not my scene-I can do it, but my way may not comply.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 17 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Birch logs are mainly for a quick burn up for firewood Gregotyn. The best smoking wood is oak, and you can taste the difference between other hardwood smoking and oak in the flavour of the bacon. I am hoping to be able to use some of the bark for craft work, but British birch isn't really ideal. It is also quite good for carving I think, so may make some spoons out of it.

Your shed sounds as if it will be as useful as Cassandras, but in a slightly different way. Be good when you get the electrics done.

I am hoping we will make some progress on the jig for the basket frames today, and over the next couple of days I have to sort out the claim form for the Forestry Commission grant. Husband and son have pictures of the work done, so now I just have to sort out the form and get it all off to them.

gregotyn



Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area
PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 17 10:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Now there is something I didn't know-well why would I ask if I knew, regarding birch-that it is a burning wood, thankyou MR. Half of my shed will have to be for storage initially, until I fix a roof that has blown away over winter. Not a major job more a nuisance than anything, but still has to be done. I am thinking retirement sooner rather than later, but I have thought that for a year or so, just not put it into practise and when I settle down to it, and think logically, I would miss the money, worth having even if 100% taxed! Thankyou, common sense has talked me out of it. Actually I would miss the company too, even if I enjoy being on my own to work-living on my own mistakes, we all need to talk to other than to ourselves now and then.

Do the claim form for the grant first, MR-money coming in! I can imagine that a jig for baskets is quite complicated. I used to make a type of hanging basket for my shop and it took ages to get a jig made to perfection, and the baskets to come out right every time. Wood is one of those things that you can cut it and for all reasons the wood is always the same, until you come to put it together and it just doesn't fit-you measure and it is half a millimetre here and there, but all cut on the same jig on the same day, I used to call it the drying out factor.
I have watched basket makers at shows, MR, and I always say I will have a go, but I doubt it very much, too busy on the firewood. Though it is something you can do in the warmth of home, chopping sticks in the house is a no-no!

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sat Mar 25, 17 9:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Milder weather, solid overcast today, snow continues to melt but not yet all gone.

Cornelian cherry coming into flower. The berries do make a nice jelly or syrup.

Cassandra, how is the metal siding for your shed put up? If there is a wooden frame then that could support the interior horizontal boards to which the PVC tool supports are fastened. If there is no framing and it is held up by magic then maybe bolts / washers / lock nuts through the PVC and metal skin would serve.

cassandra



Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 17 7:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The framing is steel JL. Steel girders at the corners, steel battens to join them together and steel battens on the roof. Basically they build it on the ground one wall at a time them raise the walls and bolt them to the slab using dynabolts. It's very sturdy.

Today I washed some of the ryeland fleece which can only be described as fuzzy. I am going to try 'woollen' spinning. what I have been doing so far is worsted spinning and so makes a firmer yarn. Woollen style is warmed as it traps air between the fibres if you do it right.

The funeral went well, lots of people - standing room only and a quantity of seating outside the large church. Lovely service - it makes a nice change when the people conducting the service know and have affection for the person they are burying.

History Room is dominating my life at present what with various people wanting time off (I might have to put my foot down a little) and also the Big Debate about the new Pool. Basically we need to move our pool as it is presently in the former Gaol that we want to restore as part of our convict heritage. Council wants to put the new pool in a site that has a certain appeal but which has many flaws as well (access, lack of parking, no room to expand, in the middle of the High Street which we are promoting as an Historic High Street so a large indoor pool facility in a tin shed is not quite the thing. Others of us have, for various reasons, objections to this. Unfortunately the leaders in each debate are not pure of heart so a lot of discussion on and off line has become deeply personal and potentially defamatory. I have actually blocked one proponent! Unfortunately this means that reasoned discussion at the Public Forum tomorrow night seems pretty well scuppered but I will go anyway and see if I can get a word in edgewise.

Another full day in the History Room tomorrow should just about see me done!

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 17 8:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Unless you have a lot of birch round you there is no reason why you would know much about it Gregotyn. I first knew it as a Guide as the loose bits of bark are ideal for firelighting, and we all used to carry a 'punk' tin with bits like that in it. Hope you get your shed roof repaired. We have one that needs doing too, and we still have to put a proper roof on another one; at present it is a thick plastic sheet held down with rope, but it works. If you did retire, you would need to find some other social contact, perhaps volunteering for something one day a week, or joining some sort of club with other people with a similar interest.

Cassandra, I gathered from your FB posts that the pool debate is getting a bit out of hand. I hope you get something resolved, as having one is a good idea, but of course siting is important. I think I tend to spin as what I call a 'semi-worsted', where I do a rolag, but just let the fibres align themselves as they come out rather than staying fuzzy.

The weather here was lovely yesterday, but rather windy. Husband and I went up to the woods as he had most of the stuff up there to mark out and cut the base for the jig. After we had done that, he stayed and did some painting on one of the buildings while I went to see what they had done with the fencing. It is looking good and should be finished this week. The spring flowers are coming out nicely and in a warm spot I found some dog violet

[/i]Viola riviniana as well as the one that I have currently been seeing, the early dog violet Viola reichenbachiana.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 17 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

No flowers, Mistress Rose. But there was a woodchuck aka groundhog on the back lawn this morning.

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