GOOD morning companions ,
ONCE again time has flown by ,with ,actually,a fair bit going on .
lets have a look at the pictures what i took ..
oh yes ...
i had just bolted down the vice , and made bits , then that evening it was pretty blimmen cold , and gabby decided to practice for her "longest cat in the world" (under 3 years old class) competition . ..... i think she may be in with a shout ?
now one of the problems with it being minus 273 kelvin , is i have to turn the well water pump off ,due to the fact the black plastic pipe with the check valve in it , where the old lister pump used to sit , freezes rock hard , and i don't think the new pump in the well will react happily to no flow for 10 minutes .
the reservoir is quite big , i guess 6x4x6 , but unfortunately after a few days it ran out , luckily it had warmed up a bit so i ran the pump for an hour and drained about 6 ft out of the well , but still not enough pressure to fill the cold water tank for the hot water feed in the attic .
i was bemused by this , i thought , hmmm we have a full reservoir, why is the pressure low ?
luckily mr tvr popped round , and with him up at the reservoir , i could blow compressed air into the hose pipe and see if i could clear any debris in the pipe , i did not do much, but he said a few bubbles appeared ,this encouraged me to go to the 1.5" cast iron pipe the hose is connected to , take off the hose fitting , and open up the big tap .
IT flowed reasonably for a few seconds , then went phuut PHUUT a few times , then a bit of brown muddy water came out , then a few more phuts ,then much better flow, and after shutting it off and running indoors i heard the tank filling in the attic with gusto !
problem solved .
my theory is , there's a 90 metre long tube , with water at top and bottom and big load of air in the middle , it then acts like a brake pipe with no real pressure at the caliper until all the air is out , not to mention the weight of 90 metres of pipe water is not there either .
ONE interesting discovery during this drama was that gabby , far from being the pretty little airhead i thought she was , in exactly 5 seconds worked out how the get up the stepladder into the attic ..
and then got back down again ,after a cobweb check ..
i came over all proud parenty for my little Mensacat
SO , back to the astra , i welded and hammered the patches , made the end piece , and then started to make the vertical plate to cover the end wall of the wheel well ..
i looked at this after cutting it out , and realised i had created a 7th dynasty Klingon Bat'leth .
obviously it's much cruder than the later more evolved designs ..
there's one from the 47th dynasty , or "Sea of Blood " period , as it was known .
luckily i have a Klingon 'Blood cousin' , i had swapped blood oath with many years ago during the battle trials on Rigel Seven , he having nicked my ear lobe with his Bat'leth , and me having managed to kick with maximum force in his Orbs D'amour , or, in Klingon , his "PTACH BAH NFFFRARGH"
obviously this created a lasting bond of brotherhood , as i mopped up the ear blood, and he adopted the fetal position ,we swore eternal blood bond , and so it shall be .
ANYRDUP , i digress.
I thought i'd send him an interspacial communication , or 'Interkling' to see what he thought of the design ....
his reply , after seeing the thing , was,
"BHOK NAR CHRESP CHUK NAG NOR KAK"
Which,roughly translated ,means , "May you grandmothers eyes feast the ravens of your ineptitude"
i thought this was fair .
I welded it all in and seam sealed and painted it all too ..
NOW,IN other news , wednesday morning i was rudely awakened by a car plunking down the drive , i staggered downstairs in my old mans dressing gown of purest dark blue towelling , and said to the chap at the door "did i forget an appointment" in my gentlest manner .
it transpired he was here to do the internal wall insulation , and two big vans were about to arrive with the rest of the team !
i pointed out that i had no idea of this , and i had not cleared out all the georgian cupboard ,window surround ,and other period features ,i was going to do beforehand .
a flurry of phone calls later , and chats with builders , we concluded they would start with the top of the house and i would get going and start on the old bits to save .
i had enormous fun trying the find all the hidden filled in screw heads i had put the giant window frame together with ,using a tiny screwdriver to chisel out the filler , so the cordless drill could then undo them,but i got that done , then started taking apart the very old original cupboard in the corner ..
as you can see , just as i removed the frame ,all in one piece i am very happy to report , the entire mass of two inch thick lime plaster decided to fall off the wall on top of me .
So i thought hey , if i remove all of it , then the insulation with take up less room !
er ,well ,
that turned out to be 10 bags of lime to clear up ,,,60 lb bags , so 600 lbs of lime to drag out .
next day i then did the same to the area around the front door too , so another 300 lbs of baggage to drag out ..
boy oh boy that plaster was thick ...THICK !
while not doing that i had fun removing the built in book case , any furniture that wes in the way , pipes is the bathroom , you name it i was running around doing it .
Then thursday afternoon , i get a call from the organiser in charge , "oh robert" , she says ,,brightly , "the cavity wall injection people are coming at 5"...."Er what , 5 pm today" , "yes" ,she chirps beguilingly ....
"is that ok ?" she solicits ...."yes fine no problemo" i say
.....teeth may have been gritted , a bit like the roads here.
so down come a blimmen great 7.5 tonner , blocking the drive , at 5pm , the night is pitch black ,and minus 2c , and then ensues a game of farm tetris to get the builders car out , and van back in .
Mission accomplished the injectors get cracking , and decide there's a solid section where the chimney breast is.... i point out, no , i have had a camera in there and its a continuous cavity .
they drill a hole and find that lo it is so , and haul out their equipment .a few holes get blocked inside , and they start injecting their tiny polystyrene balls and pva into the cavity , every now and then i point out holes its coming through inside ,and they point those up , and carry on , they then start pointing bits on the outside where its coming out too .
i realise its perfect weather for polystyrene balls..since IT'S now -2.7c.
they have to use a big blow torch to stop the injector freezing up , while up a ladder 30 ft in the air , the chap is using a v heavy gear drive hilti hammer drill with one hand boring holes in and putting the injector in , i'm standing on the ladder foot to stop it sliding away , and the other bloke is pointing away for all hes worth .
its very dark and we have two 60 watt light bulbs and a head torch or two .luckily the chaps find out a battery led small light that sits on the oil tank and helps a lot .
we get to 7:30pm and they are off up the drive , and i can get some supper .VERY COLD.
so far so good ..
several rooms are now done by mid friday ..
and i did get my tank in place and start making feet for it ..
next week i have the walls chaps back ,and, at some point , the decorator , the carpenter ,electrician , the loft insulator ,and maybe even the entire air source heat pump crew in , so that should be CHAOS ....
turned out the email to me warning me of all this was sent to another robert by mistake .
I'm finding myself waking up at 2 am , and then fretting , but soon it will all be over and i can get my house back .
i know its unlikely , but just in case anyone is drooling over the chance to make dire warnings about all the things being done ruining the house , and it turning into a tepid tea bag of a damp nightmare ....SHTOP !
i am well aware . time will tell if it works or not , and if not i can fix stuff .
the only way you get to qualify for this program is if you have the whole package , its called the kardashian approach protocol.
hasta luigi ..
regards
robert