Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

the plant sticking up is a begonia

So are these mainly - taking over my kitchen table. They are so easy to take cuttings from - all descended from one from next door.


begonias.JPG

I have them at home but not as big as these, the leaves must be a good 8-10 inches in length. By the way how do you do the cuttings, is it from a leaf

[Sue]

Morning,

It was a very pleasant day warming up slowly. We did a bit of essential shopping in the morning and it was nice to see the local market was picking up. The fruit and veg is all local grown but the queues were huge. I am not surprised if home vegetable plots have been as big a failure as ours. After lunch I washed some pillows and cotton chair covers then I sat under the trees and read for a couple of hours before washing down the wooden picnic bench and table. I then read some more and had a beer. About 5.00 the patch of garden I wanted to tackle was in the shade. I only got it half finished, declaring it was too warm to sweep up the cuttings and it would have to wait till this morning when it would be cooler. We ate outside, a rather ordinary meal of macaroni cheese followed by fresh melon. I then read all evening, finishing my book just before bedtime. I shall have to slow down, I only brought 4 with me on my Kindle.

This morning I shall clear up the debris from yesterdays gardening, and whilst it is still cool, brush off the dirt from the front gate, ready to treat the wood when the weather is cool enough . The gate really suffered from lack of treatment over the last three years and has become very warped. I can’t unwarp it but can try to prevent it getting worse. I can’t wash it down as that use of water is banned, and unlike washing the table and chars, the gates are rather in public view.

There is a car boot sale locally this morning, but it is dedicated to music stuff so we aren’t going. However Joanne and Paul , our local English friends are so they are popping round for a cuppa around lunch time . I have no other definite plans for the day but may continue washing bedding . 30 degrees is forecast, we have clear blue skies

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

We are having more comfortable weather Sue, more like normal summer temperatures up here in the foothills of the Pennines... Here's what I have been up to.....







I think you can see my problem in the first image. My Standards are still not pe4rfectly square and so cannot line up with the base of the steam cylinders at the top. So I decided to take the shaft out, force the standards into a correct position and measure for the dimensions of the crankshaft. As you can see from the second image I can't get them in far enough because they are fouling on the bottom lids of the cylinders. These are going to need reducing in diameter. Then I cleaned all the parts and lids so that I can read the witness marks that will keep me straight. So tomorrow I shall be into some very careful turning again but this time the lids. Then a refit and measure to see how much room there is for the shaft. It's going to need reducing again. The third image is where I finished up, all my parts identified and ready for another attempt to get a fit.
I'm not interested in how it got like this, the real root of the problem is that there are many important dimensions missing off the original drawings so I'm working in the real world, making the parts fit!

[Sue]

...the real root of the problem is that there are many important dimensions missing off the original drawings so I'm working in the real world, making the parts fit!..


I know that problem Stanley. So often the theory of how a garment should go together does not match the practice. More so when Maxine and I have made the pattern ourselves

[Stanley]

Yes Sue, and in those circumstances reality wins over theory every time. There comes a point when the drawings have to be translated into a solid object.
I shall be in the shed working away at the problem this morning. Not sure about the walk and bookie watch as we are promised a wet day.... I shall see what it's like when the time comes.

[Sue]

Morning

Thankfully it is and will be cooler today at about 25 degrees. Yesterday it was 31 under the canopy of wisteria and about 36 in the garden itself by mid afternoon. We did a bit of garden tidying in the cool of the morning and cleaned up the gates ready for treating, then our friends came. It was after 1 .00 when they left so it was a late lunch, then it was too hot to go outside. Bob decided to treat and paint some rust on a couple of radiators and I decided to wash all the pillow and mattress covers on the beds that have not been used for three years. It all dried really quickly. It was an opportunity not to be missed . Today I shall make up the beds for our visitors which will only leave the rooms to titivate before they come . The house was still so hot when we went to bed that we had to use the portable air coolers that we have in each bedroom. We don’t need them very often but we certainly did last night

This morning we are off to Questembert. We love the market there and are still on the look out for soft fruits to freeze. We will possibly get some fish for our tea as well as fresh bread and veg. At this time of year I would be buying leek plants for the garden but in this drought it is a waste of time. I am struggling to water the few plants we have. This afternoon, depending on the temperature , could be gate treating with Danish oil, which has worked brilliantly on our wooden bench at home.

So thats it hope the day treats you all well , have a good one

[Wendyf]

Are you on mains water Sue?

[Stanley]

We only have 16C to contend with Sue and plenty of showers.....
I have been in the shed for almost two hours doing small things very carefully!





The first thing I did was reduce the diameter of the lids so they don't interfere with the standards. Then I assembled the standards with the pump and the steam cylinders and measured the space I had for the crankshaft which was approximately 25 thou less then what the drawings indicate so I reduced the width over the outside flanges by 15 thou on each side. I finished with the standards fitting properly and the shaft definitely going to fit. I put more witness marks on and tomorrow I'll strip it all back again and refit with the crankshaft in place. Theoretically it should fit now but I won't be satisfied until it is in place and running freely.....

[plaques]

Woke up to find about five yards of cast iron rainwater guttering lying on the floor smashed beyond repair. The supports had rusted away. The whole section of about 12 yards along the gable end will need replacing. This is old 6 inch section cast iron where replacement is long gone in the normal trading circles. My normal big job man has already been contacted we'll see what he says. Definitely a scaffolding job with a working height of 20 ft.

[Big Kev]

That's a bit of a nuisance, fortunate it never came down with people under it.

[Sue]

Are you on mains water Sue?

Yes thankfully but not mains sewers. We have a septic tank.....fosse septique .

Its still only 20 here and a cool breeze, definitely gate treating afternoon, and my towels should dry.

That's a mess about the guttering, hope you get it sorted

[Stanley]

Ken. Let's hope that when your man inspects he doesn't find that more guttering is on the verge of dropping.
20C sound reasonable Sue, that's what we are getting here (or very close to it).
I shall be in the shed ministering to my pump. Very complicated but I gradually get to grips with it and will be moving beyond what the last person to work on these castings did. It is frustrating at times but is keeping me out of mischief..... As for later.... we'll see what the weather brings us!

[Sue]

Morning

On the whole it was a pleasant day yesterday. Though cloudy it reached 23 degrees and there was a steady breeze, which meant I could continue with my washing. Yesterday was cushions off the kitchen chairs and more cushion covers . The cushions needed the strong breeze to help them dry . Today will be the rest of the voile curtains and I am keeping my fingers crossed that none of them disintegrate. I managed to get all the beds made up for the first round of visitors but put the dust sheets back on them for the time being to keep spiders and flies at bay. Bob has been busy down at the bottom of the orchard cutting back the tangle of shrubbery to get to the fence so that it can be temporarily removed when the man comes to cut the trees down.

We also had a good visit to the market in the morning. I love the atmosphere of a french market and as usual we sat at a cafe with a coffee watching the world and its wife go by. The markets are picking up and so is the tourist tat that they are selling but we still managed to buy quite a few things eg bread, fresh fish, green beans etc.

Today we have food shopping for our planned meal with Joanne and Paul on Thursday evening plus a few other items that we could not get at the market yesterday. I seem to be running out of washing powder, (well liquid is what I use here), I can’t think why

We seem to shop, every day but we don’t tend to do a BIG shop . We just keep a constant list of things we are running out of and when the list gets long enough to warrant a trip out that's what we do. We usually combine the shopping with something else. At the beginning of a trip here we run out of lots of things as we tend to let the stocks run down before we come home. We used to keep a well stocked cupboard but after the 18 months of being unable to come so much of our store cupboard was out of date and thus it had been a waste of money throwing it all away. We now have a different strategy as you never know what the future may hold .

it looks like my flowers need dead heading again . Otherwise I have no agenda for the day.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Interesting to hear that you've modified your storage strategy.... So much stuff has an almost unlimited shelf life... It sounds busy....
Have a look at Shed matters for the images, I'll just put one in, where I finished up.



I've had a good hour and a half in the shed. First thing was to re4sharpen my HSS cutter, make sure it was set on centre and take a skim off the two faces of the crankshaft to get a better finish and give me another 5 thou of fitting room. You may wonder why I have suddenly got into tomato soup.... Every time I go to switch the compressor on I think "Must drain the condensate from the reservoir." This morning I did it and yes, it's always the colour of tomato soup! Then I marked drilled and tapped the holes on the bottom side of the steam cylinder so I could fit it and make sure the crankshaft runs freely. I finished up looking for studs. I shall finish that process tomorrow.

[Sue]

Anything with a thickening agent in it etc lose their thickening power . I don’t worry about dry products, pasta , rice, flour, tea coffee and cleaning agents. However I do abide by the dates on tins and other packet foods. Its not bacteria as hopefully the seal on tins is pretty good these days and the preparation of tinned food is better but the fats change over time and the food does not taste nice if its long past its sell be date. We always kept a good store so that we could always make a meal or a lunch when we arrive, or if we get snowed in, which did once. We try and keep the meat in the freezer no longer than six months, and that is always the first thing we have to top up. We do buy that in bulk as that seems to be the cheapest way to buy meat here. Our local supermarket does a bargain tray of meat on a Thursday. Different meat each week. The local butcher, who is not that local is incredibly expensive.

Even my paints go off, they dry out, they separate. The artists paper loses its sizing and soaks paint up like blotting paper.

Now the jams and pickles I make last ages! Pickles do lose their colour and can go mushy.

Dry things get nibbled by mice so I have lots of storage jars and plastic boxes

[Sue]

Just bought a 1.6 Kg chicken in Super U. It was nothing special, just a chicken . It cost 15 euro. The equivalent in Tesco, apparetly, according to google is about £4.50 to £5. Correct me if I am wrong.
We would normally pay about £7 for a farm chicken off Bacup market, the same size.

I cannot believe the price of meat in France . How do people afford to eat

[Tripps]

You've hit my specialist subject - I'd better stay away from France.

Morrison large whole chicken

[Stanley]

I never give price a thought when I order my meat off Stuart and Kath Brown. They deliver for me because they know I can't do the walk down to the shop these days. All I can tell you is that last week's order was an oven-ready chicken, 2 Scotch Eggs and a pound of hot and spicy chicken wings.... £11. I take the view that all that interests me is quality, I dare say many will think Browns are expensive but all his meat is local and high standard.
Today I shall be in the shed quietly pursuing the Shand Mason pump. Now I have got my head round it I am quite enjoying making sense of the castings even though there are no clear drawings or instructions. Whoever did the preliminary work on the castings was a very tidy machinist in details but hadn't got a good overview of what was needed to make it work.From what I can see he/she gave up when it came to building the crankshaft up. That's where I started of course, making one out of solid and it has become obvious that the overall dimensions of the shaft as it was made were too large for the space available when the castings were properly fitted.
So it's a puzzle but it keeps me occupied....
The rest of the day looks OK, the weather should be good for a walk and a sit.
Oh, one other thing I have to do is deal with a slow cooker full of oxtail which was slowly cooked yesterday!

[Sue]

Morning

I never normally think of the price, if its what we want /need we get it but yesterday we were looking for a chicken for 4 people and a little over for another meal. Most were far too small. Here we usually buy a small chicken because of both the price and the quality, at home we buy one that will last us all week , prepared one way or another because they are a good buy and good quality . After yesterdays talk about not doing a big shop, that is exactly what we did yesterday spending well over 160 euros for little more than cleaning basics and a few extras for our meal on Thursday night. I was shocked that the eco friendly, septic tank friendly washing detergent was over 8 euros.France really is the only place where I actually come in a shop, at home we buy online and Tesco deliver. Bob does the list and selects much of the everyday stuff that we need by price. Here we have to be sure every product going down the drains is septic tank friendly so price is not our only consideration.

As for meat most is priced beyond what we would pay at home and it is often tough. There is little lamb to buy but the pork is plentiful and delicious. Beef has very different cuts to what we are used to buying so perhaps I don’t always have the right one for what we are cooking but even so we are not impressed. Yesterday it was noticeable what a poor selection of normal veg there is ie carrots and french beans. There were loads of cheap courgettes, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes , but little for a meal of the meat and two veg type. There are cauliflowers but well over 2.5 euro each

So you may have gathered we shopped yesterday afternoon. In the morning I washed the remainder of the voile curtains which dried quickly and were back at the windows within an hour. I replaced all the cushions and covers , brushed down the suite and feel very content about the state of things. Today I shall clean out the display cabinets and feel the Spring cleaning and catch up cleaning are done. I have no particular plans otherwise. We shall phone Nicole to try and arrange to go and see Roland sometime over the next few days. I would love to bring him back for a meal with Nicole but our car will not fit 4 adults and his zimmer frame or wheel chair. Then there are the mechanics of him walking over our gravel path with his zimmer frame . The thought is work in progress.

Another nice day forecast and again a comfortable low 20 s temperature. Have a good day all.

[Wendyf]

Sue, last year the shop in Colne where we got our refills of Ecoleaf laundry liquid and washing up liquid went out of business so we invested in 20 litre drums of both. Now I do my own refills!

[Stanley]

There's another area where I don't have to worry, I have mains sewers!



A fiddly morning. It took me over an hour to get to the stage where I could use the drill to turn the shaft in all three bearings. No point detailing all the things I had to do but it was all classic fitting. The last pic shows where I am now, I can choose now where I go next as all the problems with the fitting of the shaft have been solved. That makes it a very good morning......

[Big Kev]

I've been going through some of the documents I got from my mother last week. One is part of my father's army record, when he did national service. I've put a copy of it in the National Service thread. I will be studying old photographs later to see if I can identify any other of my ancestors.

[Sue]

Sue, last year the shop in Colne where we got our refills of Ecoleaf laundry liquid and washing up liquid went out of business so we invested in 20 litre drums of both. Now I do my own refills!

Thats a good idea Wendy. They do refills at Super U of all sorts of stuff, but not washing detergent and i have yet to identify the original bottles that go with it...WORKING ON IT.
This liquid , called Le Chat, a name i rather like, does not need much. I put in a third of what they say. I do at home too

[Big Kev]

I've just looked at Le Chat laundry liquid on Amazon. It's expensive stuff. I know 'needs must' but ouch!

[Stanley]

On a vaguely related note. At one time I was in charge of the sewage system at West Marton Dairies and so had a professional interest in aerobic and anaerobic systems. Domestic cess pits work on the anaerobic system and an expert in these once told me that if the process broke down a sure remedy was to drop a dead cat in. He said that was their preferred starter when installing a new system. I thought you might need to know that Sue!
I'm making good progress now on the Shand Mason pump. I have the shaft installed and working so I shall be surveying the piste this morning and working out where to go next. The rain will have passed by lunch time so it looks as though bookie watch is on again....