Author: v8owner

We saw the little bunnies today. At least, we had brief glimpses of them as they frolicked in and out of the hay. There are at least five, and the ones we saw are all the same colour as Mrs Bunny. They’ve even started nibbling grass – and they’re only two weeks old.

Haircut day. We were up early as usual, and as the hunters were scheduled to be here this morning, the hens were not released into their external pen. We took advantage of this incarceration to move their plastic fencing to a new area. Now hopefully they won’t be quite so keen to try and escape for a while. The hunters arrived bright and early i.e. 10 a.m.

LSS had gone to the aged FIL to switch on the freezer and sort out his medicines for the week. I observed the hunters from the kitchen window. Six of them were stationed in a line at the edge of the field leading down to Soggy Bottom. Each had a shooting stick – or rather, a three-legged chair – and these were, as usual, heavily utilized. As I watched, the second gun stood up, leaned his rifle against a nearby bush, and adopted a rather strange posture with one hand to his head. I picked up the binoculars for a better look. Ah, that indispensable piece of equipment for a day’s shooting. The mobile phone. No wonder they never shoot anything.

Another spot of adjustment was carried out on the reedbed. The “T-piece” greywater distributor had become entirely clogged with reed roots, so I cut it off just before the “T”. I don’t think it’s really required. Some of the thickly-growing reeds near this entrance pipe were also moved to the other end of the reedbed. If the entrance pipe becomes clogged with reed roots in future, I may just route the hose from the sump pump straight into the top of the reedbed and dispense with the pvc entry pipe altogether. It’s all a learning curve.

Once again it was a very windy day. Looking out of the kitchen window, I saw a flash of something bluey-green in one of the trees near the pond. Initially I thought it was one of the numbered cards which the chap in charge of the local hunt attaches to marker posts. These posts are carefully-spaced to maximize the chances of the hunters shooting each other. But it wasn’t a piece of card. No, it was our resident kingfisher. No luck for him today; the pond is still frozen over!

Following the LSS-blowing-a-gasket-with-the-aged-FIL yesterday, she has decided to plug in the unused freezer at the other house. Up until now, she has been going to the aged FIL’s house every other day, taking fresh food. However, the aged FIL’s attitude has been having such an adverse affect on her health, and causing such stress, that from now on she will only visit the other house once a week. Sundays will be the day she sorts out his sundry medicines for the week ahead, and stocks the freezer with ready-meals type food. There is a microwave oven in the house – we gave it to the in-laws as a present several years ago. This new-fangled invention was treated with deep mistrust; and it has only been used since the carers started feeding the aged FIL.

The blackberry wine has been bottled (24 bottles). All these brews are being stored upstairs in the barn. As I insulated the roof last year, it’s the best spot we have for keeping wine etc. We can’t have a wine cellar here due to the high water table.

Whilst I was putting the wine upstairs, the hens forced their way through a small gap in the end of the portable fencing, and were scratching away happily underneath the chestnut tree near the well. I managed to chivvy them back into their pen without too much fuss. I think they’re trying to make a point. “Look, we’ve eaten everything in sight. We want more stuff to eat. And the grass is greener on the other side.”

The weather has taken a turn for the worse recently. It’s not the sub-zero temperature which is the problem; it’s the blasting wind. So working outside doing things like dismantling pallets has been temporarily suspended as it’s just too unpleasant. Mind you, there are still a lot of indoor tasks which can be done. I’ve bottled the barley wine, and sloe wine. I’ve racked the blackberry wine ready for bottling tomorrow. Once that’s out of the way, the mead needs to be racked as it’s not quite clear enough yet.

We have not yet seen any baby bunnies. There is warmth and movement in the nest, but it’s best not to disturb them. Last week one of the kits died; LSS discovered its half-eaten body in a corner of the hutch.

The electronic cat-flap has now been locked; Cat brought one too many mice into the house. The final straw was when LSS opened the plastic bag of porridge oats to discover that a mouse had taken up residence therein. The chickens were delighted to eat the oats. Of course this means that we now need to open the kitchen door to let the cat in and out; but the advantage is that when the cat meows to be let in, it’s obvious that she doesn’t have a mouse in her mouth.

This afternoon was the scheduled visit of the aged FIL to the retirement home. When he was told of this visit a couple of weeks ago, his response was “Fine, whatever. I don’t care.” According to one of the carers, apparently he has recently said that spending his life in bed is not as brilliant as he thought it would be; it’s somewhat lonely. Now please bear that in mind for the next paragraph.

After lunch, LSS went to the other house to await the ambulance. Of course, as soon as it arrived, the aged FIL decided he didn’t want to go. The ambulance staff were unable to force him to go to the appointment. They did try reasoning with him – but without success. LSS returned home and telephoned the manager of the local branch of Social Services (the one who advised her to apply for the retirement home in the first place) for advice. Unfortunately there was no answer, so LSS left a message. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

A more visual-type post today. Here’s the result of the tree felling carried out last week:

Lots of further cutting and splitting to do!

And yesterday our neighbour gave us a truckload of pallets for future construction projects. A double-purpose photo this time; showing the stack of pallets and the current weather conditions: snow.

Early this morning, LSS received a telephone call from one of the two retirement homes to which she had applied on the aged FIL’s behalf. They wish to see the aged FIL to make an assessment of his condition, because the application form (signed by the doctor) states “The patient is bed-ridden.”

Simple enough, no? All they need to do is get in their car, travel eight kilometres, and they can assess him as much as they like. Ah no. It doesn’t work that way. They wish to see him at the retirement home.

So LSS needs to go and see the doctor. To get a prescription for an ambulance. To take him to the retirement home. And bring him back. And to top it all off, she needs to be present as well. “It’s going to be difficult to arrange a date for all this, as I’m working,” she said.
“No, it’s very simple. Just tell your boss you need to take the day off,” was the reply.
“I AM the boss. I’m self-employed. So if I’m not working, I don’t get paid.”
“Oh. Well in that case shall we say Friday next week?”

It was -6.5°C this morning. On a day like today it’s even difficult to do the laundry; because the outlet pipe from the washing machine was frozen. We had to wait until the afternoon when it warmed up a bit.

We had been thinking that Mrs Bunny may not have been pregnant after all; she wasn’t eating very much and didn’t seem to have any fur missing (they pull out some of their fur to line a nest). However, this morning LSS had a look inside the great big pile of hay in one half of the double cage – and there’s definitely a furry nest there, with occupants. She didn’t look too closely so we don’t yet know how many there are.

Cat was behaving suspiciously in the lounge again, so has obviously brought another little furry friend home. “I don’t understand it. I brought my breakfast inside, but it’s gone missing…”

We spent the morning repairing the aged FIL’s access road, with the assistance of his neighbour. Due to the amount of daily vehicular traffic (the carers), the road has started to resemble the lunar surface; with potholes gradually becoming craters. The neighbour has a machine called a telescopic handler. This has a large scoop on the front, so this was used to spread a large pile of aggregate along the length of the road. Then LSS and I used rakes to even it out. At least all the potholes are now filled, and hopefully this repair will last a while!

Today saw the first snowfall of the year. There wasn’t very much of it, and it was mixed with sleet, but it didn’t immediately vanish either. The hens did not seem too bothered. “Pawk! Can I eat it? No. Oh well, back to scratching then.” Part of their fenced-in area looks like a scene from the battlefield of the First World War. Who needs goats or pigs to clear an area? We don’t.

Unfortunately I also noticed another problem with the greywater reedbed sump. The pump was constantly starting and stopping. I found that the outlet leading from the sump into the reedbed was blocked. I tried flushing it through by sticking a hosepipe down the pipe, but this had limited success. Now if you refer to the design of the reedbed system here: http://www.la-darnoire.com/greywater-reedbed.shtml (look at the second sketch) you’ll see the T-shaped entrance pipes through which the greywater enters the reedbed. Fortunately when designing this entrance pipe, I had the foresight to seal the ends with screw-caps. I unscrewed one of these end caps – and discovered that the roots of the reeds had entered this pipe, blocking it fairly comprehensively. Fortunately access to this pipe is fairly easy, but I think I’ll need to make a small cutter which I can use to clean out the pipe – something similar to the cutting auger they use to clean tree roots from sewers.

So much for the New Year resolution to make more frequent blog posts. No, not really. I stopped making New Year’s resolutions a long time ago. The truth of the matter is that my computer keyboard ran out of ink.

Seriously, I have just not been in the mood. However, this has now improved, and although I can’t promise a new blog entry every day I will try to ensure the interval between posts is not too long.

On the garden front, things are not looking too brilliant. LSS pulled up a few parsnips to go into her vegetable curry. Unfortunately it looks like we won’t be doing any parsnip wine this year; the crop has been very poor.

A week or so ago we were required to complete a census. Whilst LSS was at work, I was visited by the official census person. Unfortunately the timing could have been better, as LSS was at that point knee-deep in paperwork for the aged FIL (retirement homes application forms). Of course LSS had to fill out the census forms on behalf of the aged FIL as well. And as I was the bearer of this bad news when LSS got home (the paperwork had to be completed within 48 hours), I was the unfortunate recipient of an angry tirade (although I had filled out as much of the forms as I could). Moving swiftly on to other news…

The pond has once again frozen over. And isn’t it funny that problems with mechanical items always occur at the wrong time of year? LSS’s Hyundai started losing power at low revs. I initially though there could be a problem with the clutch. Then there was an increase in noise from underneath, so the diagnosis of a hole in the exhaust pipe was fairly easy to make – this was confirmed when I crawled underneath. The next day the engine management warning light came on. LSS took the vehicle to a local garage, who said the low revs power problem and engine management light warning were all due to the hole in the exhaust; the lambda sensor was giving incorrect readings. They quoted €180 for a new front exhaust pipe. Plus labour of course. So instead I ordered a replacement part online, saving €100, and this arrived a couple of days later. So despite the freezing weather, I was underneath the car, installing the new front pipe. The engine management ECU was reset by simply disconnecting the vehicle’s battery for five minutes, and everything is now back to normal.

Then, when cleaning the greywater reedbed filter last weekend, I noticed that the plastic barrel which was serving as a sump had risen out of the ground by about 20 centimetres, lifting the wastewater entry pipe and slightly buckling the side of the barrel. I initially thought the cause was a phenomenon called “frost heave” (where water in the soil freezes and expands in volume – this can even crack concrete). However, further investigation revealed the culprit – the high water table. All the cold wet weather recently means that the water table is now 30cm below the soil surface. I opted for the easiest remedy, putting 14 bricks inside the barrel, and also placing a block of concrete scavenged from the aged FIL’s shed on top of the lid. All this added weight means that the plastic drum is now once again in its original position. I estimate I’ve lost some 20 litres of greywater capacity due to the bricks, but that still leaves 100 litres which should be sufficient.

The Aged Aunt is still in the recuperation centre (the same place the aged FIL was). She’s doing all right; they’ve inserted a steel pin into her femur so she’ll have to avoid airport security screens in future. But she’s getting physiotherapy and seems cheerful enough.

A small tree near the pond was leaning over the road due to the sheer weight of the ivy it was carrying, so I cut it down. It is now currently awaiting further processing so it can go into the wood shed. If it’s not too windy, one day next week I’ll make a start at felling the first of the two large dead aspen trees. They’re both the same size; with a dbh (technical term: diameter at breast height) of 0.68 metres.

As an update regarding the Yagi antenna: I think it needs to be mounted at a greater height. However, as I don’t have any 20-metre poles lying around, further refinements will have to wait. I obtained a new battery for my old Sony Ericsson mobile, and I now have a signal strength of one bar inside the house. However, I’m not sure whether this is due to the new battery, or the Yagi. I do know that I’m not at all impressed with the Blackberry’s reception. Which is a pity, because I like the full Qwerty keyboard. Here’s the mounted Yagi (and I did NOT enjoy installing it one-handed from a nearly vertical ladder):

The 2013 batch of elderberry wine (24 bottles) was tested last week. Unfortunately something seems to have gone a bit wrong with it, as the taste was rather sharp and slightly vinegary. So we reluctantly decided that we would have to use it for cooking rather than drinking (we don’t throw anything away unless we absolutely have to!)

However, as it was so cold yesterday evening, we had a brainwave. We poured a bottle of the stuff into a saucepan with some cloves, cinnamon, orange juice, sugar, and a tot of apple brandy – and made some mulled wine. Delicious. 23 22 bottles left…

I’ve also started fermenting the next batch of beer. A barley wine this time. I’m aiming for a 12% brew.

Well, I hate to admit failure.

But unfortunately it transpires that I’m not a mobile phone antenna boffin. Because of the extremely poor reception where we live, I constructed a Yagi antenna, with the directors and dipole cut to the correct length and spacing for a frequency of 900MHz (GSM). I used a length of PVC pipe, and connected some 75Ω coax to the dipole via a balun. Here’s the constructed Yagi: (excuse the mess on the workbench!)

I then leaned the ladder against the end wall of the house, and balancing precariously on the top, connected the antenna to the gable end, using another length of pvc pipe for the mast. I pointed the Yagi at the closest mobile mast (apparently 2km away, due East). The coax cable was fed through a gap in the brickwork just below the roof tiles, into the barn.

The other end of the coax was stripped, and the copper braid bent back, to form another dipole suited to the 900mHz wavelength (each piece of copper being 83.25mm long in case you were wondering; these two pieces in total equate to half a wavelength). I stapled this coax to a beam in the barn, and came back inside to switch on my new Blackberry.

Before installing the aerial: Zero signal.

After installing the aerial: Zero signal.

So at the moment I’m a very disappointed puppy.