Early Risers.

[polybear]

5 hours ago, petethemole said:

We have hard water.  The local water companies have water quality reports for different districts.. They are quite informative.

 

 

Bear has found such a report for my postcode, which tells me that the water is right at the top end of the "medium" water hardness scale - so setting 1 (or maybe 2) on the dishwasher (there's 0, 1, 2 and 3).  We've always  considered the water as "hard", so level 2 will probably be chosen in order (I think) to better protect the dishwasher against scale.

 

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The UK is streets ahead of many nations in vaccinating our population.  Despite the surge in cases there has been no matching surge in hospitalisations nor in mortality.  

 

It'll be interesting to see if there is a surge in significant cases of long covid.

 

And a happy birthday from Bear to those whose birthday it is (or just has been)

 

In other news:

An afternoon spent fully securing one of the kitchen cabinets in position, followed by finishing off the panel above the F/F.  Seems to have gone well.  I also managed to do the washing up in the new sink for the first time - and this is the first time I've managed to do the washing up in the kitchen for maybe 6 months.  Even getting a drink of water or filling the kettle from the tap is a novelty....

And Bear has received three separate deliveries from Amazon today, with a fourth still expected.  Seems they're not capable of joined up thinking at Amazon and deliver the whole lot in one go.  Still, at least I'm makin' 'em squeak for my annual Amazon Prime subscription....

And on that note, Bear found new levels of excitement when the new washing up bowl was delivered.  Is that sad?

[brianusa]

Here in GH we are lucky to have very soft water, so soft you can use it straight in car batteries. (if ever you need to do that any more).  It comes from deep wells in the area and is extremely cold, so much so you don't need ice in your favourite libation.

   Brian.

[JohnDMJ]

Good Evening Awl, for it seems brighter and quieter than previous evenings of late.

 

I will dive straight into the hard or soft water debate!

 

Since 1967, my parents' houses have been fitted with water softeners; some mistakes were made in the design of the plumbing system as all houses involved were purchased 'off plan' so could have been modified any which way. However, only one of the two cisterns and the garden tap was ever on the incoming feed; the whole of the bathroom (in the UK sense of being the place where the bath tub resides!) was on the softened side.

 

Now I have my own house where I have installed a water softener and have three feeds to all wet locations:

 

Cold Hard to both cisterns and garden tap

Cold Soft to bath, basin, boiler, appliances (dish and clothes washers) and 100degree Celsius tap

Hot Soft water to central heating and all 'normal' hot water outlets.

 

Nett result: only one lot of salt required to satisfy four appliances! (Contrary to popular belief, softened water is harmlessly drinkable!) (Other references are available!! 54 years of drinking softened water does not seem to have done me any harm! [Although I bow to those that know me's better judgement, of course!])

Edited July 6, 2021 by JohnDMJ

[New Haven Neil]

@Pacific231G It is a shed on the wagon, the crane is actually a goliath crane a long way behind it on the pier, sadly about to be scrapped at the time of the photo.  Unfortunately I didn't hang around to watch the shunt, as I was in the company of a young lady at the time who was fully taking my attention.  Not the current Mrs NHN, but a pleasant memory just the same. Very.

 

Happy belated birthday to Andrew ( I think I did this elsewhere), a happy birthday to Pete, and a happy one tomorrow to Phil in case I forget!

 

Today was lunch out with friends out west in Peel, most pleasant, and a chat with some....tourists!  Our borders only opened last week, and we seem to have a LOT of visitors.  Many locals see them as harbingers of doom, bringing their covids here to kill us all, equally many see them as the saviours of many businesses.  I'm in the latter group, we need them to come, but I am worried many will be put off returning by the attitude of some locals.  I'm with Rick, we need to get on with it, if you need to isolate/mask/whatever then that's fine, it is a personal choice, but we need to move on before every business goes bust.  Not just mine.....which did a year ago as many will be aware.

[Erichill16]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

the Macerator.  They're usually fine, unless of course you .......

.......fit it the wrong way round.

[New Haven Neil]

Oh, water. 

 

Rock hard on Tyneside, except the water that used to go into Scottish & Newcastle Brewery for Newcastle Brown Ale, which came from a different place, piped separately into the brewery.  This is no longer the case, beer brewed elsewhere, does not taste the same. I don't actually like it much, but even I can taste the difference.

 

The water here is soft and fluffy, which resulted in enough suds to fill a shower cabinet first time using shower gel, after Tyneside! Used to it now, I use it directly in the loco boilers and you can put it straight into batteries, except they're all AGM technology now and don't need to be topped up!

[JohnDMJ]

Found elsewhere:

 

[Ozexpatriate]

Having warm-to-hot days and cool nights presently. Last night I wanted the windows open rather than relying on the air conditioning.

 

This meant opening the blackout blinds since they inevitably thump into the window frame with the lightest breeze. With the blinds open, the growing pre-dawn light awakened me and after closing the windows and blinds I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to watch the ladies' quarterfinals, and watched a good deal of all of them before starting my day.

 

I continue to be envious about reports of rain. I think this is our 20th consecutive day with no precipitation. Oregon is doing 'OK' on the wildfire front but the evening 'smoke forecast' is reporting wildfires in California and British Columbia. Manufacturers of masks have switched their messaging from viral to smoke protection.

 

Today is supposed to be very warm, although 32°C barely registers compared with the recent heat-wave. I have errands to run, am not interested in the football (which is on the cable sports network here), but am dragging with the early start and don't feel motivated. It does look beautiful outside.

 

The 4th of July was very quiet. With the fireworks ban there were dramatically fewer fireworks-related calls to firefighters.

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[leopardml2341]

That's all folks!

 

Was that Looney Tunes sign off?

 

If so, it's highly appropriate for today

 

Goodnight all. 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Hard water is best for brewing beer but soft water is best for brewing tea. That is why if they start brewing beer at a different brewery miles away from the original brewery it tastes different, its all in the water. I don't know if Tony's noticed it but the local water hereabouts leaves a reddish brown stain. That is due to some of the old cast iron trunk mains still being in use, the stain is rust. Most of the local water here comes from deep boreholes down into the chalk which underlies most of south east England and indeed the near continent.

[Dave Hunt]

Happy birthday to Andrew, Pete and Phil. 

 

I'm not going to make a comment about the decisions announced today by Bozo and his henchmen on the grounds that it would probably get me banned from RMW. 

 

Dave

[Gwiwer]

 

Or - as in the case of this illustrious establishment - it is plumbed in to the hot water supply not the cold.  We have no idea what sort of Italian Computer-game plumber might have been involved because the work was done some years before we arrived.  I suspect it was Dodgy Joe.  We get through macerators at the rate of one every 18 months because they are not designed to operate at the temperature offered by the hot water.  It has also confused guests at times to find the cistern feels warm and the flush steams; at least the offending item is in our own en-suite and not the family bathroom normally offered to visitors.  

 

We investigated the potential for having that rectified.  The landlord is unwilling to dig up the floors to re-plumb the bathroom and would prefer to pay the somewhat smaller amount required to remove and replace the macerator as required.  

 

Other plumbing operatives and skill levels may be available

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not been about much for the last couple of days but happy birthday Peter, Phil and Andrew.

Usual day regarding Tuesdays duties but sorted out a couple of jobs that have been hanging around. Firstly I managed to send the vat return which I’ve been having trouble with in logging into my HMRC account. Secondly I’ve agreed terms with a building contractor for the building conversion, 10% discount on his original quote so relatively happy. He can start in 6 weeks and expects to take 10weeks. I’m not putting any money on the job being done in 16 weeks time.

Yesterday we went to Skipton but by the time we arrived I realised I wasn’t feeling A1 and didn’t even enjoy the fish and chips that was the main reason for our visit. Anyway called at Embsay station and bought a couple of books so day wasn’t a complete waste. Got home about 6.00pm and laid down on the bed and promptly fell asleep, woke up about 9:30, brushed my teeeth and went back to sleep. Hence no report last night.

Early start tomorrow and not sleeping very well so I’ll bid you a (relatively) early Goodnight.

Robert.

[southern42]

Happy birthday to Andrew, Pete and Phil from me as well.

 

Toot on the flute as usual but the two tunes seem to be coming together a lot better. End to end with just a couple of stumbles.  So I am concentrating on playing them better each time, picking up on little phrases to improve in various ways. This, strangely, keeps my interest no end. Thinking...another year and I should get them where I would like them to be...(I wonder!)

 

Some G word accomplished - I do not seem to be able to go out to enjoy a little sun and NOT find any weeds to dispose of...  Then it went dark and rained...and thus another day of no M word.

 

And now it is ' night all and nos da.

 

Polly

 

 

[PhilJ W]

I nicked this from another thread.

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I saw a great mask sign today, outside a shop.

 

”Please wear a mask in this shop.

 

If you are not wearing a mask, I will have to take your temperature before you come in, and I only have one, RECTAL, thermometer.”

 

 

 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

14 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Morning, from an unexpectedly dry rock, rain seems to have dodged around us. 18c too.

 

@Pacific231G As I lived in Shields I got sent to Riversdale!  Got as far as Class 4 combined and of course Class 2 Part A from the phase 3.  Degree came later in life in a totally different subject - HR!  I have a photo somewhere of the little Ruston actually moving along the pier railway, just before it was sold.  I later saw it at the Yorkshire Dales railway, not sure if it is still there.

 

Aha found them.  Taking a risk on here.....

Just checked it out on Google Earth, the tracks are still in situ.

[Pacific231G]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

@Pacific231G It is a shed on the wagon, the crane is actually a goliath crane a long way behind it on the pier, sadly about to be scrapped at the time of the photo.  Unfortunately I didn't hang around to watch the shunt, as I was in the company of a young lady at the time who was fully taking my attention.  Not the current Mrs NHN, but a pleasant memory just the same. Very.

 

 

Perfectly good reason for not watching shunting. You'd probably have lost her attention.

 

The rails for the goliath were still there when I saw it but, unless my memory is tricking me, the crane itself had been scrapped by Sept. 1969 when I arrived.

I did see one of the "Get Carter" bucket chains (possibly the one in the film) relentlessly dumping colliery waste into the North Sea but I don't remember where. I didn't have a car so it can't have been too far away. I found it a very eerie sight and sound and , with no visible human involvement and a deserted beach, there was something rather alien about it. 

AFAIR there were  still rails on the north pier at Tynemouth at that time but they'd been lifted from the yard at the shore end though their trackbeds were still very obvious.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Pacific231G

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well we’ve had an awful lot of rain today, so once again I’ve not had to water the plants, it’s been done from above. I also managed to time my journeys to and from the shed very well, not getting wet at all! 

 

Today’s task was to clear the shelves in the shed and remove the shelving units, then dismantle them and re-assemble them in smaller units. I completely cleared one, brought it to the cellar, dismantled it and then rebuilt it as 2 smaller units. I’ve managed to make these smaller units without cutting up the legs of the large units, as I have several short lengths, which were offcuts and there’s enough for the other 3 units too! They were then put in the underfloor storage area and then re-filled. I’m hoping to do the other unit tomorrow. When that’s been done, there are 2 units in the cellar that will then be moved into the shed. Now, you may well be asking yourselves, why not put the ones in the cellar straight into the underfloor storage area. Well the reason for all the swapping and changing is the ones in the cellar are 12 inches deep, the ones in the shed are 18 inches deep, so once everything’s done, I’ll have a little bit more room in the shed!

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

... if they start brewing beer at a different brewery miles away from the original brewery it tastes different, its all in the water.

Very true. It's all about pH and the dissolved minerals - also whatever chemicals are used in the purification process. Beer is very sensitive to water chemistry.

 

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Hard water is best for brewing beer but soft water is best for brewing tea. 

Not necessarily regarding beer (I would agree for tea). Brewing styles developed to adapt to the alkalinity of the local water.

 

Plzeň has very low alkalinity and is why it is home to the Pils style.  Higher alkalinity is partly why most of the traditional English and Irish beers tend to darker and malty. Locally, here in Oregon, the water (snow melt) has low alkalinity and is very flexible in terms of making a variety of beers.

 

A quick search identified this article. I found it quite informative.

 

And happy birthday! Enjoy one of your favourite brews, even if it's a cuppa'.

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

Our water is reknowned for hardness. The joke at university was that if you didn't have dandruff when you started, you'd have it at the end of first year.

We have a water softener -- they are universal here. Ours does everything except the outside taps (lawn & garden) and on tap in the kitchen which has a pair of filters in the line. We are not sure what to do with it. Drinking water is softened and the Britaed.

 

Our government had a stockpile of protective gear, including masks, from the 2002 SARS outbreak. However they were life-expired by last year. Who knew that masks had a best-before date? (Who found out?) My question: would they still work as dust masks for wood-workers and such?

 

Tomorrow is haircut day!

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by BR60103