Monday morning.
Yesterday was a hot one. I cut my one side hedge and half of Mickeys yesterday. Not clever on a hot day, but needed to get it done.
The last week had been a flurry of random, but focussed action.
Lucky the Chevy truck is patient and loyal.
Loads happening, nothing related to the C10 though.
And it may be a while still.
However, after my back really screwing my life up for a year and stopping all progress on all projects, it seems to be on the mend very slowly.
It will not heal in the conventional way, but with a bit of clever use of planning, leverage etc, it is allowing me to do some stuff.
The Rezin Rockit, GoKart and a few other things are all awaiting their turn.
As is usual here, my first stop when restarting my life, is to take stock of stuff.
So a clear up and clear out was in order.
The scooter I got from Craig in 2019 found a new name on its V5c when I gave that away.
Followed by clearing out two pallets of breeze blocks, given to mate Neil. Amazing how fast stuff moves when you give it away.
.HEIC)
So on Tuesday Neil came with his Transit van and his 13 year old grandson, to whom I had offered the Italjet Scooter. Harley had thought it over and decided he would rather build a car for when he is 17 which is a wise move. So the scooter went onto FB Marketplace and was gone, collected and ownership changed in less than an hour.
We loaded all the blocks in.
As far as it could go, so Harley and I carried the blocks through, and Neil packed them, his back is also knackered.
Nearly 150 of them.
.HEIC)
I tried to make him take some more stuff but he declined mHarley took a very good office chair that was surplus for his own bedroom.
Walking around looking at the C10 and other stuff, Neil asked what next, so I said a new pair of fenders needed to be bought and imported……
He looked at the old ones, blasted and primed and said that if I got some patch panels, he would give them a go at repairing.
Of course I had the panels and rear supports for years.
So as a “Favour Trade” he took the fenders away and will be welding them up for me.
.HEIC)
Pretty good result, even though not planned at all, life has it’s own way of keeping the books balanced I guess.
Next job was clearing more of the alleyway in order to build some storage space for all the lumber in the carport.
New pressure washer worked well, I cleaned the walls (they are not sealed against the garage wall, and a leak in the gutter, blus some weather and rain getting through there, plus all rain off the garage and carport actually flowing down the alleyway and out the back to the farm had left moss on the walls on both sides, of course the spray ends up on the roofing too, so I ended up cleaning all four sides of the alleyway
These plus more needed to be processed.
.HEIC)
Before cleaning on Tuesday evening after work
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After.
I also discovered 5 sheets of nasty/cheap Chinese packing crate ply, all badly rotten on the bottom edge, so stripped all the rot back with the pressure cleaner, as well as both the front and rears.
Then let it all dry, and cut the sheets down to remove the rot, as they had a job waiting too.
.HEIC)
I took Friday as a leave day in order for Mickey and I to be able to knock out the shelving and racks.
Starting at 8.30 we worked nonstop, just grabbing tea and sodas through the day, finishing by 4.30pm
This included feeding a 45 gallon drum incinerator all day with so much of the offcast bits, and wood found to be damaged over the years.
I also have a havit of using the worst bits first and then the better. Mickey loves using the bigger longer, pretty bits, so it was bit of a job to stop him grabbing the best bits first, but he got my motivation quickly enough.
These upright posts are around £10.00 each if you buy them, they came from a deck that was lifted and you can see, undamaged, the rest if the wood, likewise.
We used a load of turbo screws, and the 120mm hex head decking screws used in the heavy stuff was all rescued from the deck that was dismantled by Mick.
So a lot of this between us, and with multiple tools, we could both measure, cut and fit.
.HEIC)
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Two cement mixers tucked into their custom space.
All the shelving was planned around the mixers that are bulky and also an aluminium table frame Mick wanted to incorporate as another dry working space outside, as it saves on getting the driveway/garage/carport full of dust and sawdust.
So this was Friday afternoon 4.30 and Mick was off to the pub for a well deserved pint.
.HEIC)
Saturday morning by 08.00, Sally was here and the three of us started packing the wood from the carport into the racks and shelves.
I have an ability to visualise and calculate in space, which neither Mickey nor Sally can do, and in fact she was stressing.
By 11.00 all the wood, some steel etc was out of the carport.
.HEIC)
Mick was already working at the table making a trellis for his sunny corner at the house.
Made me grin that he was straight onto using the work table, which has 45mm planks and a sheet of ply on it.
Packed.
.HEIC)
And the carport filled with toys that all need motors and transmissions found and fitted
.HEIC)
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