Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

pic off the top of a box ......





rock 'pavement' layer separates real easy





it's coming ... that mud-stone layer is going to take some ripping out





.... the forks are me spare 4 ton set !!

According to Google ..... there's circa 2.4t on there ...... managed an hour or two Saturday, after sorting everything else





can well believe it .... 'tis bloody heavy !!!


stashed it out the way for now .... regretting giving away me roll of pallet wrap !!





then peeled up a bit more for palletising .....





..... the easy way !!


suddenly looking a lot bigger with that 'pavement' ripped up a bit





not a lot did today though, after a morning's running around sorting bits for Vicki's car and some/a lot of the afternoon attaching 'em.
Easiest set of pads I've ever fitted ... really neat set up !!


did manage to get to Raglan, as a last call, just before they shut at lunchtime, to pick up me coils .... looked good ... get one on Sunday.


Also managed to have a stop of at Barnesy's 'digger emporium', to eyeball a machine for a mate, on the way back and actually caught up with the man himself, for a change ... and managed to tie him down to a time to go take a look see what he's got in the way of 4 in 1s .... several to choose from apparently !!

One of the lads on CEF reckons that pallet of stone is worth circa 300 quid ..... any one else care to proffer an opinion / valuation
Gonna have a few .

got to be 6-8 pallets-worth there .... and more, ... if I went looking for it ..... all good for the toy fund
And there yer have it .... damned near up to date ..... just today's exploits to report

[v8druid]

Modified the rock bed strata last Wed.s morning ....... looked more like this afterwards !!!!!





specifically to get me blade up on it, to load against......





Took bloody ages to rip that dumper full out.


Worth the effort though ... loading out the soil was a POP afterwards ...
Better not rain 'tonight' .... left her up there !!


Alex came around tea time and we've spent a few hours creating some bits to mod his Blek ...... few holes and a bit of welding to be done and it should be usable.
Been trying his Screwfix TCT steel saw ..... impressed, aside from all the hot bits of swarf, coming at you at a rate of knots ... cuts well though


He managed to capture the elusive 'greater bearded Druid' on the sticks, when he arrived ..... sneaky !!








LOL .... not often I'm in front of a camera



the saw arrived ... eventually .. Thursday afternoon, despite their tracking say it was still in Suffolk !!











God knows what's all over it or what it's been used for, aside from steel ..... looks like it's lived in a cement works !!!!!


all there though and it'll clean up.


acute shortage of lube and seriously dirty .... doubt it's been cleaned in years.
Standing order in my old place .... nothing to do for ten .... clean a machine down ..... our band-saws were always kept well clean and cared for.


it'll do what it's made for and'll probably outlast me !!



spent the day Thursday playing with Alex's Blek mod.s ..... he's now desperate to use it ......


had to create the mother of jockey wheels for it .....














Sorry no finished item pix ..... Alex legged it, with it, in one of my trailers, about half nine Thurs. night, before I remembered to get some snaps.
Mig didn't want to 'perform' ........ 'til I remembered I'd been welding 1,6 and 2mm with it last ...... worked a lot better for some more juice



another day shot to sh1t Friday .... had to go to town, so thought I'd do it in the morning and crack on afterwards.


Out of all sorts, as beyond our usual two weekly-ish shopping expedition ..... resulted in multiple locations required, which all takes time .... add in the multiple folk I am likely to encounter at each one and it takes a LOT of time.


combine that with several phone calls from Josh, who was tackling his very first rear wheel cylinder on his run around ... on his own!!


and then finally, just as i'm about to head home, a call from Pam. Vicki's BIL (a fitter at the MOT garage) who is/was supposed to be sorting her motor out, this week, while they're away .... it needed a couple of tyres and front pads - MOT declined - has done f**k all about it .... and it's now Friday - a week after it failed !!!!


I'm furious ..... could've sorted this on Monday ... so stopped off at vicki's house on the way home ... picked up the fail sheet .. rang a mate to sort it out some tyres in the a.m. and another to order some pads for the morning too.


Tyres - "fine - no prob.s - see you tomorrow"
Pads - "er, no stock, try and get 'em for the morning!"
was gonna do the pads while it was on the two poster having its booties fitted. Grrr!


rang Pam back - sorted ... "when is the ticket out on it" ???
30th June FFS .... daren't drive it to tyre place .... ANPR and I'd be bollo-ed, so when Pam got back Friday night we had to shoot down and grab it, so's I could whip the wheels off it in the a.m. and go get 'em shod.
Pick up the pads, hopefully on the way back and do 'em on the floor, so I can hopefully get summat done for me too Saturday.!!!!!!!


Oh and a trip to Raglan to get me solenoid coils too, if I can catch 'em between the rest of the running around.


By the time i'd got me best working rags on Friday afternoon, put all the shopping away, had summat to scoff and got out there, the day was buggered!!


So greased the old girl head to toe and thought I'd give the rock layer a bit of a separating and get some of it on some pallets, out the way.
bar-ing 'em apart was the easy bit .... getting some of the lumps onto a pallet was a different story!!


Didn't look to see exactly how hot it was Friday afternoon, but it was bloody hot!


one pallet full was enough for me !!








1200 x 1000 x 850 -- I make that about a cube of rock ... might put a couple of bands around that, 'fore I try and pick it up






the rock/rubble pile, well two piles, actually, is growing once again - these are going to have to see some destructive forces exerted on 'em, to reduce some of these to more rubble sized bits !!








I'm getting within sight of 'the finish line' ...... everything else seems to be conspiring against me reaching it ATM !!!!!!


then of course it'd be bloody Sunday .... on Sunday!!!!!


Argh!!!!!!!!

[v8druid]

was two o'clock 'fore i got to it Monday ....










Pam went off to Plymouth for the week ..... after an early treatment that morning, 'fore she departed ....


if it isn't the cat ..... it's Ber rrrrt the pheasant getting in the way ..





think he liked the cool soil I was turning over


was another swelterer


five of these down the field ......




I would really love to get the 'Drema down there, to sort this lot out, but the cross cambers are 'exciting' ..... bad enough in the JakieB ...





not a case for being adventurous ..... it'd go wrong real quick if it got out of hand / shape and'd be a total disaster !! ..... would make squaring up down there so much easier though!!


getting the batter into some semblance of order ready for a final trim, once I have that final rock layer out and the floor reasonably squared up...





yet more rocks .....





the collection is growing ....... again !!





it's shaping up nicely though ......







FB message Monday evening, from Leigh at Raglan, to say me coil is ordered and should be here tuesday .... 35 quid ... plus an exorbitant 15 quid carriage ......
so that's going to make a hole in the day at some point, while I go fetch that and nip into town for a few essentials ..... like cat food .... they're both eating for Wales ATM


Having crawler back will make life a lot easier for batter trimming and was hoping to get a hell of a lot done this last week
weather is set fair for at least another week !!



rang Tuesday morning, as instructed, to see what time it'd be in ... Marty on the phone according to 'Richard' .... he'll call me back.


Hour later I ring again .. got Paul (who's a lot more reliable/switched on) "Mart's on the phone to 'em ATM ... no one told us they'd need a card payment, before they'll ship, yesterday FFS "


"So it won't be arriving today then?? ... in that case order me a second one to come with it ... a spare'd be handy ... would've ordered a second anyway if I'd been called with a price, as promised"
Nadgered the morning a bit


A nice young lady in Pallet2ship, told me Tuesday evening that Pallex will be bringing me my bandsaw Wednesday (their tracking says it's still in Suffolk - - ****ing useless tracking system they have). Good job I emailed her and asked on the Tuesday morning ... so no trip out for me 'tomorrow', 'til that turns up

[v8druid]

jumped in her to refuel her Saturday morning, picked the boom, went to swing her around ....... and wasn't having any of it ... slew brake solidly on !!





very lucky I'd left her parked, so's I could get under the cab, just about [mental note to self - NEVER, EVER leave her cross carriage]
Back belly plate off, in search of the five way servo distribution solenoid valve block .... knew which one I was after, having been here before [sooome time ago].





voltage at the plug .... open circuit on the solenoid coil ..... bugger !!





too late to catch Hydrema by now, so a quick measure up and rang Leigh at Raglan on the off chance they might have a coil or a valve I could rob one off 'til I / he could get a new one. ....... nope ..... but he could have me one for Tuesday





Hmmmm ..... so what could I do for a pro tem measure .. sun's out and I wanted to get on ...... think !!!


Dived underneath her in search of the leg solenoid valves .... could live without them for a few days ... rarely use em, 'cept to level up sometimes ....


Bugger -- totally different coils


Front belly plate off in search of the lo/hi speed change over valve .... different coils again


There's five of these on this valve block .. WTF could I rob that I didn't need/could do without for a few days? ......


Axle locks .... could use the blade ... nope, having thought about it, the solenoid keeps the axle unlocked .... Bugger again!!


so half an hour studying the leccy diagrams and hydraulic schematics .. eureka ... sort of.


The crawler range is selected by one of these valves ..... could either live without it - or with it permanently engaged ... whichever it was, without the coil activating it .... transpires I now have no crawler, 'til me new coil arrived.


took some getting at and off !! been replaced at some point and a little vaseline, at that time, would've made life a lot easier to get the sod off.


Eventually got it all back together - minus a crawler coil - and we now had slew and travel, but no crawler ranges .... I was mobile and workable.


time to stick some cherry in her with that lovely new pump I bought....that worked fine!!

Clara'd arrived by now and had to do some grand dad-ing for a while, but did get an hour 'tween five and six to give yon bank a bit of attention and rough it out some.





trouble was the shite piled up rather quickly and spent quite a bit of time persuading those rocks above, out of the batter and then refilling the not inconsiderable hole they left, when I eventually persuaded the buggers out!!





this had been on the agenda for that morning's adventures and said shite would've gone straight in't dumper and away, so getting a view of the batter was just a tad impeded, once it had mounded up ... hence just roughing it out for now.


Tea and Clara put paid to any further progress at six, so parked her up for the night and spent some more time with the little un .... she was off to Vietnam Sunday night for two weeks to see her 'other' grand-dad, who's working out there currently....


what is it about kids and dirt? .....





...... she likes nothing better than playing in it!!


her little set of steps .... up, down, up, down -- etc.!!





now she's swept that rock bed off a bit, you can see the joints quite nicely ... hoping for some very respectable stone out of that bed and what's under it at the high point can get ripped out and used to fill the lower spot further in !!

Pam's already seen 'the rocks' and is dreaming up summat, to create me some more work, with them !!!!
I see another rockery coming on !!
we are however better equipped to handle the job, than when the first one that got did .... Jake and chain .... he didn't do too badly though

anyone'd have thought the Romans could’ve laid those blocks ...... 'cept for the 12-18" of mudstone laid on top ..... and their bubble'd have been well pissed





bit of an inclined plain to that bed

Out of curiosity......I got the broom out after tea that evening .....








going to be some nice lumps to be had in that lot


Ground must've had some serious movement over the millenia, since these beds got laid down, to have canted them at the angles they're sat at.






Very short night on the Saturday (30th) .... Clara to stay ... 02.30 and I can hear GRAND DAD ... GRANDDAD .. I'd only been asleep an hour.


Got her another 'bedtime' bottle of milk, settled her down and Pam jumped in with her ..... 05.30, she's in with me, wide awake and wanting to go outside to play in her car ..... Could not do this seven nights a week ... don't know HTF Vicki copes with the sleep deprivation !!!!!


went off with her mum early afternoon ... weren't going to see her again for two weeks .. seems odd, as we see so much of her.


So mowing time, as, being a Sunday, wasn't allowed to 'play' with me dirt move .... the Dane is probably on a par with the 'Drema in the noise stakes, however ... tough; grass beside the drive needed cutting, followed by the Countax for the lawn.
then had to weld the little Mountfields handle back together, fore I could set to all the smaller bits.
Came away in her hand apparently !!!
TBF .. it's been welded once before, but the parent material had parted company with the weld repair - bloody thin ol' tat.


All grass suitably massacred and with the rate it isn't growing currently, wouldn't need doing for another week hopefully.



So .... Monday morning was going to be ........ shot to sh1t ... Pam was off to Plymouth for the week, to spend time with Josh and Shem; his mum's first week back in school after maternity leave, so was gonna be an early treatment in the morning, 'fore she departed ....
then lookout dirt bank ... had a whole week to myself to make a real dent in the task ......


it had better not ****ing rain

[v8druid]

By the 29th / 30th .. not sure which, I'd dug up a new pet rock .......














Lil' bar steward caused me some grief, trying to dig, then work, around it ..... could not persuade it into/onto the bucket, so pushed it out the way a bit and got it with the forks, last thing in the evening.


you'd need to book a double pallet, with Pallex, for this 'un .... and feed 'em a line about it being 1200 kilos ....... not often I'm up on two wheels, cross chassis, at such a short reach !! She'll do a stuffed dumpy full of 3/4" to dust full stretch over the side on the forks and stay on 4 wheels .... this was HEAVY!!


I wanna meet the tw*t who buried it !!!! Made up ground / tip .... all sorts in there with it ... plastic membrane, jabalite, etc.!!


it'd been a rip into the remaining dirt / bank day ....





and found a respectable number of extraneous rocks in the process .. together with all sorts o' crap ..... as said





including the one above





which was a right PITA ...





and did not wanna go in or on the bucket !!
A surprisingly low tally of only eight very stuffed dumper loads today, but didn't get cracking til noon.


taxed the car .... sorted some bills, shifted some funds about to deal with them and the Visa bill, few other essentials and the morning had vanished ... oh and also had to deal with .......


Pallet2ship/Pallex .....


bought this on the Wednesday .....




Double pallet booked for Friday morning to collect it and fetch it home from Suffolk





have had several of these over the years and a damned good saw they are too.





sold my last one, when I cleared the w/shop out, for a grand. 'Bout what they usually make.
This for 400 quid was a steal, even with the 120 bucks to get the lil' sod home.
17" x 13" cut cap. on the square ... a respectable size and they're a good mitre saw too.





Anyway .... phone call that morning at ten to eight .... the seller .... he'd had the shipping label I sent him last night and he'd just noticed he'd supplied the wrong collection address ...... FFS ! ... that was his old yard and the saw was at his new yard.
so after a few emails, messages on their (Pallet2ship's) system and a couple of phone calls, I eventually managed to re-direct them to the right address.
TBF the guy I spoke to was very good and got it sorted .. reckoned it'd still get collected Friday.
so that consumed a couple of hours first thing, before moving on to all the other 'end of the month' stuff !!!

and another one I might just get in a jiffy bag .... need to be a big bag though and the posty is gonna need four shredded wheat to get it in his sack





must've chased the lil b'stard around the floor for ten minutes trying to get it in the bucket ... eventually up-ended it, sat the bucket over it and scooped it up ... lil' sod!!





and there was this one .... ........ plus several others





My day didn't go quite as planned, on the Saturday morning .............

[v8druid]

Monday saw me ripping the tish out of some rock in the afternoon and got 'shot' of another seven loads, before treatment stopped play!!




did manage to rip out a load ready for the next morning ....





and for once .... and hoped I was not tempting fate .... left her sat ready for the morning .....





Was bloody warm again ..... oil temp'd got up to 60, nudging 70 later and the sticks had been bloody hot to hang on to !!!


thought we might have the Akerman out to play Tuesday, with them big Bofors teef .... had a stubborn bit that did not wanna play ball !!


the gateway I gave some attention to a few weeks ago, looked reasonable, when I went up with some more fill ..... and there was now several piles sat around it ready to tidy it up a bit more, 'fore getting about 30 ton of rock judiciously spread about, to top off with .


Talking to one of the local farmers .... word is the weather is set to hold like this for July, August and maybe even September ... talk of another '76 summer (for those that can remember it) ... for them that can't ... 'twere a mega summer !!

27th saw 'the ramp' take a pasting again .....
blade's down not for stability, but to see WTF I was doing..... right in the sight line !!





and came down off what was left of it, for the last time, that afternoon ....





to turn my attentions to it from t'other direction ...












got to sort out the 'larger' lumps tomorrow, before 'ossing' it off up the field, to that gateway .....
spoke to the guy, about stockpiling all the rock there for future usage .... shame to just bury it all, elsewhere, which he agreed with.
Free stone is not to be sniffed at ..... by a farmer !!

only got six of these out the next day ......





Clara day, so lucky to be doing anything !! .... rip a load, stick it in the dumper, then give Pam a half hour 'breather' with the little 'un ... she had been turbo charged all day ... must be solar powered? !! then go empty it and ....... repeat!!


six of them's a fair pile though ......





and more to get on top of that again the next day! Hell itd been a warm one yet again !! Hotter 'tomorrow', apparently
Loads more pix in the bucket, if anyone's interested !!


http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...?sort=3&page=1


http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...?sort=3&page=1

managed another seven loads the following day ..... takes time to rip it out and break it up to usable sizes .....








then got started on the bottom level ... the layer I'm sat on is some quite decent hard stone and is in a layer about 8-10" thick, in blocks, so'll be coming up carefully .... might well be able to use a lot of it ... more mudstone under that and then a layer of boulders ..... hopefully will not be getting down that far / having to disturb any of the lil' sods.





'chanced my arm' again and left her sat for the night ...... really could not see it raining on us





pity the bed is at such a queer angle, but at least it dips in the right direction

the 29th was a crud shifting day, so's I could have a clear run through on the soil front, to get down to yet more rock layers .....








unreal how long these things take to get done .... had to have a bit of a re-juggle on the floor first though


can see the rock layers quite well there ..





not a lot left to re-home ..... dirt day 'tomorrow', to start the day off, at least







A certain fast moving, highly intelligent, night vision equipped, furry quadruped had been a total PITA that day





he settled there eventually, for close on an hour, oblivious to / totally ignoring me working away above his head !!


was a late-ish start, after Pam collared me for some jam making assistance ...





picked and processed, within 24 hrs .....





the remnants ....





due to the fact that she 'under estimated' the weight and amount of sugar required (bought) to go with 'em all in the pan .... more sugar required ..... her garden's been doing well so far, this year ..... but we're having to compete with 'cat flap' squirrel and his butties, on the strawberry front ..... and nice they were too, 'this evening'!!

[v8druid]

to aid in making sense of order ..... jump a few days to Friday the 23rd June ...

I'd had a looong couple of days ....Shem and Co. arrived The previous evening, which was nice. Shem not sleeping all Thursday night wasn't so good ..... especially as he kept most of the rest of us awake with him ..... well me anyway and his mum ... Pam slept like the dead and his dad managed most of the night too.
Josh was off on his mate's 'stag' weekend on the Friday (he's best man), so after a shopping expedition for provisions to feed seventeen of 'em for the weekend, he departed.
Beautiful day so the rest of us, including Clara and her mum went out to a very clever piece of 'farm diversification' 'bout 10 miles away.


Fair play to them they have it sussed ..... bloody sight easier than mucking out and milking.


lots of kiddies play areas, pedal go karts and track, zip wires, swings, trampolines, bouncy castles, loads of 'playground type' equipment, cafe, climbing frames, ball pits, squidgy soft equipment, you name it they had it sussed ...














kept the kids (and Pam) amused for hours .... that and a picnic, plus all the animals to feed ......


I have to say I was impressed ... well organised, sensibly priced and an all in one, everything in job!!


I was less impressed when, by about eight in the evening, my 'hayfever' type allergy (we have no idea of specific triggers for it) had gone sub orbital.
Worst I've had in maybe two years!!
Had to be something there, which set it off, but was getting through the toilet rolls at a rate of knots and sod all of me various med.s was touching it.


yet another virtually sleepless night for me - sneezing, sniffing, snorting, snozz blowing all night, barely able to breathe !!


I was wrecked this morning, but it had abated to a degree ... a small degree.


My mate's funeral was at three and I was bearing ... "see how I am by the time we get there Pam" really not wanting to cry off, on the duty.


I swear to you guys .... I walked into that church yard and was like I'd never had an issue ...... clear as a bell, head totally sorted!!!! Not a sniffle, all the time we were there.!!!!!!!

Mart arrived in style, bang on three ...... to about five hundred or so friends and family waiting to 'see him off'.





was either gonna be this, or the bonnet of a County; he'd been a timber man most of his working life, in one form or another, and was the bollox on a County, hauling timber out of some pretty inaccessible/ridiculous spots round here, with his own machine.
We settled on this ... damned near new, relatively clean and Mart had been admiring it only a few days before his accident.


His last 'flight' / off load (Courtesy of a Kesla and a brand new Cranab)





before we carried him in ........ and back out an hour or so later, to a 12 foot hole


It'd been a ****ing long couple of days !!!!

........and the nose ........ had been a right PITFA the rest of the afternoon and evening ......
Make of that, what you will ..... me, well I really don't know, but I got to carry my oldest friend, as he'd have wanted, shoulder high, with five other of our mutual friends

I think he'd have been well chuffed with his arrival.


I felt very uncomfortable, taking those couple of pix, but did it mainly for his wife and brother. I really hope that someone got some better ones for them.


No question, he had a great send off and one he'd have been proud of !


head hit the pillow that night and I was gone ..... unconscious for nine hours ... I never get that much sleep and felt a lot less 'zombie like' for it.


Pam'd got a 'family party' day organised, kicking off early afternoon, on the Sunday, to celebrate her 'elderly farmer' cousins 80th .... if the ol' bugger shows up...he knows now't about it and his bro will be bringing him on the pretext of a quick cuppa at Pam's


it was going to be lunch at a local 'eatery' he likes, but the 10 days notice, Pam gave him, wasn't enough for his busy diary and no-one could make it the following w/end, so they were all descending on us, 'bout half two.


Was gonna be a.n.other long-ish day



And it were !!


the lil' kids had a whale of a time in the sunshine





the bigger kids had an equally good time, playing with the little 'uns and 'the wrinklies' jus' kicked back ..... LOL


over-spill car park worked fine ...





couldn't see the cars from the drive with 'em up there and Ken had no idea when he arrived .....


we all sat about and talked the usual shit .. ate lots of nice things and them that imbibed got slightly pissed .....


birthday boy got one of Pam's cakes .....





and Clara blagged a new balloon
we were well and truly knackered, by the time they'd all gone and we'd cleared up ..... were then treated to one of Werngounsel's finest sunsets ...





and another brahma the next night too ..... hell it'd been a few hot days !!

[v8druid]

Any up date Druid??

Sorry Stock ..... been a bit busy / pre-occupied, with all this lovely dry digging weather ..... and other things

..... 'nother major catch up is in order ....

so ..... the GRINDER .....


A little bubble wrap would've saved the paint scuffs!! ... on what was otherwise a new machine !!



as good as new otherwise and has had virtually no use ... on just ali



bit of a handful to get back in one piece ... on yer own, but got it stood up ...



I'd be willing to bet my left nut this is the sum total of material removed with this lil' peach ....



the paint's still in the bottom of the collector bucket .....




even the work table still has most of the paint still attached..



belt off to inspect the graphite impregnated platten covering and rollers








rule no 1 ...... keep the rollers clean and free of build up ....



this is the secret to the belts survival ... the serated, soft front wheel ...
allows flex of the belt's surface and stops it tearing !



keeping the wheels clean stops the lil' bugger vibrating



All in all ..... one very happy druid ..... would've run it up, but got collared by SWMBO for a few 'tasks' .... so that put paid to the rest of the day !!

my favorite abrasive medium --- Zirconia alumina ..... 36 grit .... rips the sh1t out o' plate and lasts for ever ..... almost.
you would not want a finger anywhere near the business end when running.
that's almost certainly the grit and medium in that video.
they'm a tad rough on the 'dannys', installing 'em .... what you'd call 'non-slip grip'


me couple of spares, I kept






and five spares that arrived with the Kepp ..... pity they'm 60s

[Stock]

more on the belt grinder tomorrow ... day to myself .. sort of !!

Any up date Druid??

[v8druid]

been looking for a new belt grinder for months .... single phase are few and far between, but with the advent of 3ph .. options have broadened had a couple of Grimax ones in the workshop and were used all day, everyday.Selmach (Selkent that was) have stopped doing the Grimax and now do Kepp .. essentially the same Swedish machine and thought I was gonna have to bite the bullet and fork out the 1200 quid plus Vodka for one ..... or buy this one




for £860 ....... when this popped up ..... starting bid of 500 quid



spoke to the guy and he told me it was 2017 ... his dad had bought it for his ali fab workshop and promptly died .. complete, but off the stand for ease of storage and a load of belts with it (I do have a few spares too) deal done for £550 palletised and it should be on its way with Pallex ATM anyone who's never used one ... little vid below
one of my most missed tools

well it arrived this morning ...... much to my surprise
tracking said it was still in their Portsmouth hub???


Driver was very lucky to catch us here ....





Pam's B/day today and an easy day, with lunch out was on the cards


so here is where it's stayed all day !!


Told Pam that her daughter was doing her a birthday meal, this evening so ... go easy lunchtime



went to her favorite 'scoffery', which does lots of gluten free choices ...
including a serious selection of deserts .. GF ones !!
this was new on the menu





said if she was going to eat that amount of cream .... she might as well get down on the floor and let me give her gall bladder a good kicking now ...
might not hurt quite so much later ..... ... or at least not appear to !!

and that's not a trick of the camera's lens ..... it was THAT big
....... like a rabbit in the headlights





"it's a tough job, but someone had to do it" ..... sure as hell wasn't going to be me .... tha's a Druid goes to hospital jobbie!!





remarkably ..... after yet another meal at 7.30 this evening .... she's fine
Pam did however admit this evening, that she did not think she was going to see off lunch time's desert !!!!


more on the belt grinder tomorrow ... day to myself .. sort of !!

[v8druid]

Why are you strimming that verge? I thought that you had the flail head now mountable on the Drema ?

I have Andrew ...... but ..... it's a bit wide for some of it .... the bloody bank has become convex and 'infested' with ant hills/tussocks ..... and when she gets it into her head she's gonna strim it .... it really ain't worth the argument

[v8druid]

OK .... almost up to date ...... as promised ... a few pix of the wiring ....










will do for now to run a few things ....


Spent a few hours friday having a bit of a square up..







need to have her level .... in all directions





If only to get the oil level right in the sump !!








actually had a little bit of help too ..... as she was out there!!


note the steel toecap sandals !!!! ..... just kept her out the way 'til it was on the deck ....





she loved the ease of the bag lifter ....





all cleared up





apparently Clara and her mum & dad are in need of some too !!





so much for filling the last/third box from Alex .......... but I do have a bit of oak in reserve !!


delivered yesterday afternoon, after Clara'd left us, headed for a friends third B/day party with mummy !!


Damn, that trailer needs a wash off and a coat of paint !!!!!

we seem to be attracting a surfeit of wild life ATM !!


next door's chickens (not numpty's-t'other neighbours) are regular visitors





this is Ber rrrrrrrt, the pheasant and 'Cat-Flap squirrel' ... arguing over Ber rrrrrrt's brekky





Ber rrrrrrt not happy and Cat-Flap left him well alone, sneaking the odd piece when he wasn't looking ..... which surprised me!!





Cat-Flap - you can guess how he got his name - is also very partial to Pam's strawberries, which are all ripening nicely, in one of her veggie growing boxes.
She is going to need an armoured cover next year to keep Cat-Flap AND his mates out of there!!!!!





they've snaffled their fair share, to date !!!

Ber rrrrrrt is a bit of a waif and stray ... been here for months .... I don't think he can fly ... never seen him airborne!!

Cat-Flap and his mates are just a PITA ...... seem to be a hell of a lot of squirrels about this year ..... trouble is, the older you get the more benevolent one becomes towards the wildlife .... flies, wappys and hornets are fair game ... everything gets left to their own devices ... as long as they'm not in the strawberry beds

[AndrewMawson]

Why are you strimming that verge? I thought that you had the flail head now mountable on the Drema ?

[v8druid]

this popped up in my inbox on the 13th ...... who wants to join the Drema owners club - ultra exclusive - especially this model







https://www.machinio.com/listings/30...achinio-alerts


£18,547 - 4,800 hrs - '99 ...... Not a dear m/c IMHDO and very probably negotiable - looks well cared for.
Same grab as I had with mine - Hydrema's own


And before anyone asks ....... the dash is even less legible than mine, for identifying the 'mystery switch'


Only down side is it's 900 miles away - in Germany !!!!

I'd not had a great deal to report, 'til then, due to having seen a great deal of this lil' lady, recently .....





which leaves little time for much else!
Have managed to turn the most recent delivery into a large pile again,





...between everything else ....





and yes .... that's 'the boss' in overalls !!!!
think I'd rather be on the strimmer, than the clear up....





It all needs constant attention and no-one else seems up for it !!!!

also had a few hours, here and there to get started on some outlet installation ..











the cable glands on the tops are purely temporary, to keep the moisture out, 'til I can get to town for some blanking caps.
connections are all internal, into the backs .... when I'd got a few more spare minutes to get some 'lectrical spaghetti between them and the bus bars in the cabinet

14th June

I have been keeping an eye on these three and meaning to do this for a while ...... before we have another Plantohyd fountain to contend with.
So ripped off the three original hoses and headed for Raglan, ....
came back with these ..





the crowd hose on t'other side's decent and recent .... this side was on borrowed time





took some wrestling back on and into the exact alignment I wanted, together with the 'rotate/aux' line, which were a lot easier --- straighter and smaller!!





also took the opportunity whilst I was 'well oiled' to slack off a few others and tweak them all into a better alignment, instead of going sideways when she's stretched out, they now all sit a lot more neatly .....





will be nice not to worry about stressing these hoses, for fear of them spilling their guts everywhere. .... or dropping whatever is on me forks !!!!


Dropped Clara, mummy and granny at the garden centre, en route, before spending an hour with the lads in Raglan, sorting these out .... never seen them sooooo busy. Been like it for two months apparently.


Bit of a chat with Leigh the owner whilst I waited for someone to put these together ... tells me that Fuchs have stopped doing Plantohyd, by the barrel ... 25s only now ... he also gave me some spec sheets for a Morris's equivalent oil which very slightly exceeds the Fuchs' spec -- just.
Morris's tech director assures us that it is permissible to mix the two and I have it in writing, by email.
Leigh also said that it's no wonder it's such a dear oil .... it's the best spec. there is in Bio-oil...now't better. Known Leigh a long time and trust his info. - - it's his game !!

it's been a 'strange' sort of week so far .... My oldest and one of my closest friends was killed last Sunday morning, attempting/practicing an emergency landing, near to his gliding club, along with a friend of his, in the club's powered glider.
No one knows who was at the controls, and we may never know ??
News was a bit of a shock Sunday night and my heart just hasn't been in much this week. We've been friends since we started school together, 56 years ago and sort of instantly bonded !!


Never imagined having to go see his wife, in this sort of circumstance .... there are no words you can offer, of any real meaning He was such a nice bloke


I left it a couple of days, as she had enough to contend with, with plod, air crash investigators and all of her family, but was glad to see me, Wednesday afternoon.


so,as I say not done a great deal these last couple of days ... aside from the usual Clara care, me hoses, which needed doing and kept me 'occupied' and I spent a few hours this morning filling Alex's crates and a.n.other/the last of me vented bags, with yon pile.








enough left for another crate, which Alex has said he has for me .... then I think we have enough for a winter or three !! ....... plus there's a large oak yet to come down and be dealt with !!

Spent thursday evening, after Clara went, sat wiring the sockets on the genny and contemplating mortality, times gone by, etc. .... got beaten by the light - - just ... takes time to get 3 ph. wiring right .... and needed to keep the mind occupied

Clara'd be here again the next morning yelling GRAND DAD!! .... C'mon grand dad .... want to go in the JCB ...
she's learned to differentiate between the diggers now ....
s'not "other one digger" anymore ..... still struggling a bit with Hydrema though

[v8druid]

so ........ a catch up ....

second of June was a bits and bobs day .... lots of lil' things needed catching up on .... it'd been relatively dry, despite the forecast of downpours .... it hadn't ... much !!


Yon genny was hard wired into the mains, with changeovers, etc. built into its system. One of these is telemetric control, via a modem, fitted into the LARGE box of lectrikery.
Anyway, said modem is live 24/7 and without being hard wired, it relies solely on its battery to run the modem and it's associated circuitry.
With it hard wired it has a battery charger built in to maintain the battery at peak condition ....





and thus run the modem.


so it's .... battery leads off, unless I want to run it ATM ... bit of a faff, so stuck an isolator on the neg side in the afternoon ..... would suffice for now and allowed quick, easy isolation of yon modem and battery .








would've preferred a bit of brass or copper for the link and sure I have some of each here .... somewhere .... Damned if I can recall where though


I'll have a look and see if said modem can't be removed from the circuitry ....
I'm never going to have need of it and maybe consider running a stand alone, flying lead to the charger, to keep the ol' battery topped up ...
it's on a std 3 way chassis plug / socket connection, so can be easily removed from the circuitry too, for an alternative power source to the previous hard wired supply.


Also would be trying to suss where/how to locate some outlets from it, ideally without using flying/trailing sockets ..... not easy!! May well end up having to go with flyers !!


was also going to weigh the beast and re-orientate it, but .......




..... then I got rained on ..... big time !!!!!!!!!!!
A job for tomorrow 'praps.

Well 'tomorrow' was a better day than forecast ..... positively glorious in fact


First job .... sort the bloody mower, 'fore I could use it on all the little bits, before a 'visitation' ....





belt guard flapping loose under the deck! ... had collected a serious quantity of grass and thrown the belt for the wheel drive!


took as long to get the bloody blade off, as it did to sort the rest and re-profile the bolt head ...





WTF put such a small head on the bolt is beyond me .... self tightening in use and takes some undoing the 14mm AF is now 13mm AF ... a nice tight 13mm ..
next time the mig is 'in play', it's getting a 20mm nut welded onto it for some 'proper' purchase !!!


had Alex here all afternoon with his bed he's building for his truck ...
and a nice job he was making of it too, but without a 'Druid style' bench to build on, the heat had got the better of the main runners and it was in need of a little 'magic' to normalise it and get the curves out of it .......





some judicious application of some large clamps, combined with strategically placed packers and an experienced eye had it looking a lot more like it ought to/was intended .





nice and flat ..... this is gonna look the bollox, once completed .....was gopnna be wheel arches tthe next day !!

some of you may have noticed the genny has spun through 90 deg.s and a bit more out the way of the bench ....
Picked it up with the dynamometer that afternoon ...... anyone care to hazard a guess on the weight?? .... with a full tank of fuel (circa 300 litres)??


Also allowed me to fully open the front door, so's it can get the cleaning treatment, like the rest of it ...





as promised ... a decent pic of one very large silencer ....





it's no wonder you can barely hear it running ..... tha's some box!!!!

guess who came out to play that day ......





mud guard sections .... as they arrived ....





and in process of becoming 'mudguards'





the apprentice serving his time ....... fettling




finished articles getting 'attached' with a few carefully placed stitches





flipped over and getting properly secured ....





and looking the business
















next job was a few infill / trimming panels to close the sides off and create some storage lockers