With the weather warming up I have been back outside again. We have had frosts for the last two weeks and the soil has been hard. However, it is a bit warmer 4 - 5 C, and not raining. So I have been weeding again and have cleared the area where the two greenhouses that will make the greenhouse tunnel are going. As you will see from the GREENHOUSES page under REUSE the area had been very over grown and the shrubs behind needed pruning. This I did with the help of the cat, Porter, he has a great habit of lying in the tree I am cutting, hidden, and then jumping/falling out when the tree shakes with the movement of the saw.
All the wood has been cut up and stacked to dry for logs and kindling. When I started putting the kindling in it's store I got a real telling off from one of the chickens. When I looked in further there was a nest with four eggs in it - one broken presumably by me with the first handful of kindling. I then had the cheek to remove the eggs so I was not popular. Usually I leave the nest so if they are laying outside the hen house I know where, however the store is so full I need the space so I had to reorganise the nest so it is no longer useful to them.
Friday afternoon I had a bit of spare time while dinner was cooking so I decided to start insulating the pipes to the hot water tank. These had not been done by the installer. Initally all went well, then on the hot water pipe leading from the tank, as I put the insulation in place, water began to run down the pipe. As I removed the insulation for a closer look a wall of hot water hit me in the face. Thankfully my daughter had just had a shower so the water was not as hot as it may have been. Initially I thought the nut must just be loose but it quickly became clear that the pipe had separated. So I turned the water and electrics off to find that there was a gap between the pipe and the tank, that I couldn't bring together. Nor could the plumber on Saturday morning! It would appear that after the tank had been plumbed in it was then filled with water, at which point it must have tilted away from the pipe resulting in a weakness that I disturbed. In retrospect, thankfully it did occur when I was there as the water only flowed for a few minutes not hours as it might have been if we had been out.
All the wood has been cut up and stacked to dry for logs and kindling. When I started putting the kindling in it's store I got a real telling off from one of the chickens. When I looked in further there was a nest with four eggs in it - one broken presumably by me with the first handful of kindling. I then had the cheek to remove the eggs so I was not popular. Usually I leave the nest so if they are laying outside the hen house I know where, however the store is so full I need the space so I had to reorganise the nest so it is no longer useful to them.
Friday afternoon I had a bit of spare time while dinner was cooking so I decided to start insulating the pipes to the hot water tank. These had not been done by the installer. Initally all went well, then on the hot water pipe leading from the tank, as I put the insulation in place, water began to run down the pipe. As I removed the insulation for a closer look a wall of hot water hit me in the face. Thankfully my daughter had just had a shower so the water was not as hot as it may have been. Initially I thought the nut must just be loose but it quickly became clear that the pipe had separated. So I turned the water and electrics off to find that there was a gap between the pipe and the tank, that I couldn't bring together. Nor could the plumber on Saturday morning! It would appear that after the tank had been plumbed in it was then filled with water, at which point it must have tilted away from the pipe resulting in a weakness that I disturbed. In retrospect, thankfully it did occur when I was there as the water only flowed for a few minutes not hours as it might have been if we had been out.
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