Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

... staggering, and it wasn’t deer, didn’t take a lot of doe ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/cases-declining-for-now/

[Erichill16]

This is the Tiger we borrowed.IIRC  At the time it was owned by Yorkshire Traction and had been restored by their apprentices and could be hired for wedding etc. As a few of our MRC members were drivers for Tracky they could hire it out at staff rates and of course we didn’t need to hire  a driver. 
I also remember going to Beamish and Crich with it.

In the photo, its parked in front of Tracky’s booking office in Barnsley bus station and the crew mess/signing on building is in the background. Behind that  building  can be seen the top of Barnsley (exchange) railway station.
All swept away now but the area is still the bus/rail interchange 

[Ozexpatriate]

14 hours ago, TheQ said:

Passed deer running across the harvested fields both going to and from the dentists.

11 hours ago, Tony_S said:

When I did biology at school we studied the teeth of sheep. Are deer similar? 

Quite a bit of that going around. Yesterday I passed some arborists removing a tree in someone's backyard. A deer appeared from the house next door and crossed the street behind me, more or less in front of a house that routinely has a pickup truck parked with the vanity plate "TOOTH MD" (or some such, it might be "2TH DR" I'm not sure).

 

It's unusual to see deer there at 10:30am but not around dawn or dusk. There is an forested space behind the development.

 

A lovely day outside today - except for the banging on of some roofers that I can hear. There's been a lot of that lately. Sunny but not hot. Rain is expected tomorrow evening and into the weekend.

 

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I doubt it was an Atlantean if it had wooden seats. Wooden seats indicates that it was a crew bus used for transporting workers.

A number of rear-engined buses were fitted with wooden slatted seats at least upstairs.  These ran largely in mining and other industrial areas and were so fitted to reduce the chances of dirty work clothing soiling the seats.  Mexborough & Swinton was among those who operated such beasts.  Northern industrial towns and their municipal bus fleets is not an area of my expertise but there is every chance that a hired M&S bus was in fact an Atlantean with wooden seats.  

 

In other news we may be tempting fate but arrangements are in hand for - dare I say it - a holiday.  Booked many moons ago with our good friend in Pendeen who manages otherwise redundant buildings on the family farm as guest accommodation.  It looks at this stage as though we shall be able to go though it was by no means certain when we reserved early in the year with everyone theoretically locked away.  

 

Cattery is to be viewed soon with a provisional booking to confirm upon visit unless we feel it's a wrong 'un.  However with five star reviews and some superb images, plus a slight cost premium over others, we should be fine and His Pawsship will also have a holiday.  

 

For ourselves tentative restaurant reservations are being made on the basis of places offering "outdoors indoors" dining; not just for Dr. SWMBO's comfort but for mine as this will be early November.  Or is that Novembrrrrrrr?  

 

Travel could be by train and with a car hired locally but is more likely to be all the way in our own Little Red Driving Box.  It's further than I would like to drive in one day but I have done it before.  It tired me out.  But someone isn't yet comfortable taking a chance of a train trip of almost six hours being busier than her comfort threshold allows, the overnight train remains our favourite trip but has its confined and shared spaces, and hiring a car when we already own one is doubling up on costs and, in theory, unnecessary.  So it looks like a 700-mile round trip at the wheel then.  

 

What ever it feels good to be not just contemplating such a thing but to be actively putting it all together with rather more certainty than has been the case for eighteen months.  

 

I'm off to the sleeping car.  Unless there's still a nightcap available in the lounge car   Sleep well.  

[polybear]

8 hours ago, AndrewC said:

Bl00dy hell. The price of wood. 

I needed another sheet of 12mm birch ply. It's gone from £62 to £91. The upside is the timber merchant hasn't changed their terms, so it is now free delivery. Saves me a schlep to Footscray. But still, nearly 50% increase in the past 6 months. 

 

I suspect it's all down to the increased costs of shipping; as a general example the cost of a container from China to UK last year (June) was around $2500 - this July it was around $15000.

 

In other news:

A day of tiling - three walls done, two to do.  Grouting will be on Monday.

Bear got an unexpected email at midday - the expected Model Engineering Class at College that was due to start next Thursday was brought forward to start today - so Bear had a frantic afternoon trying to get the necessary bits together and work out what the bl00dy hell I was making 18 months ago - and what stage it was at.....

Only three of us actually made it - so we spent time setting up the milling machines; they've just purchased three new ones at probably £30K a piece - so now have five, along with something like 15 new-ish lathes.  They've also shelled out on some new tooling, so now have a couple of collect chucks for the lathes and also a dividing head and rotary vice for use on a milling machine.  All we need now is a surface grinder.....

[Gwiwer]

12 hours ago, Tony_S said:

When I did biology at school we studied the teeth of sheep. Are deer similar? 

 

Yes.  Deer also have teeth.  

[polybear]

A million bucks?  I knew the US Legal System was nuts, but.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58591006

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[simontaylor484]

Allegedly there is a shortage of shipping containers worldwide. Now it may be the case that they are all in the wrong place ie all in Europe instead of China  ready for filling 

John Lewis is reputedly chartering their own ships to ensure delivery of x**s stuff

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58581812

Edited September 16, 2021 by simontaylor484
Link found

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Gwiwer]

3 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

a shortage of shipping containers worldwide. Now it may be the case that they are all in the wrong place

There's one here.  It's the store-room for the village shop but until very recently clearly displayed its identity.  Last week two men arrived and painted it into allover plain grey and fitted a felt roof.  I suspect that it might at some time have quite literally fallen off the back of a lorry.  

 

I was off to bed before but that was subject to the availability of a nightcap.  The Nightcap Bar was indeed still open, the nip of Raasay Single Malt was well-received, and it was closer than the bathroom which I had intended to visit anyway.  I made suitable use of both in suitable order and am now definitely off to bed.  Maybe.  

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well the weather has, once again been very kind to me and I’ve finished the garden fireplace wall. My first task this morning was to build 2 temporary wing walls, either side of the fireplace wall, Sheila was busy this morning, ironing and washing the bedding, so after I’d built the temporary wing walls, I took a photo using my phone, then saved it to the iPad and then asked Sheila to take a look when she had a minute.

 

Whilst waiting for her decision, I swept up all the debris from the area where all the bricks had been stored and moved the few ‘odd’ bricks to behind the shed, but these will probably end up going to the tip. These odd bricks are a different style to those used in the fireplace wall and would have looked very out of place if used. I then brought the recently renovated cupboard from the cellar and put in its new permanent home, below the kitchen window. I then went to the workshop and did some model making. Whilst in the workshop, Charlie messaged me saying that he wouldn’t be coming today, as he hurt his leg last night whilst in Manchester! Anyway, I managed to get an hour or so in the workshop this morning, and I finished constructing the twin gable end window of the engine shed, there’s still one more to do, but that shouldn’t take long. 

 

I eventually got an answer just before dinner, Sheila was very pleased with the wing walls that I’d temporarily built. So, as Charlie wasn’t coming, I decided to rebuild them permanently after dinner. Ironically, this is exactly how I envisaged building the wall when I designed it several months ago, but Sheila didn’t like the “untidy side walls” as they looked too ragged, but she now loves them! Still, “All’s well that ends well” to quote a certain Mr W Shakespeare. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Didnt get up until late and spent most of the day outside doing various jobs. 
SWMBO hasn’t been too good all day so went to bed straight after tea so I’ve been quietly roaming around on here trying not to disturb her. Her bp was 80/56 so we’re going to keep a check on that though her usual bp reading isn’t much higher. I used the machine and came up with 119/85 for me so seems the machine is not throwing a wobbly.

Goodnight,

Robert

[PeterBB]

On 15/09/2021 at 17:28, 45156 said:

 

 

I've got to say that we are a bit down, to say the least.

 

Fodder run tomorrow AM - back tomorrow (?).

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Hi Stewart, sorry to hear about your moving issues and can certainly appreciate the stress it is causing.  Hope things improve quickly.  In the meantime if you 'agreed buyer' comes it a bit just delay him by a bit of inactivity with your solicitor.  As you have read our buyers were a real pain and only at exchange did we hear just how much in terms of the agents.  we were rung by them with a 'boss' who was not going to be present on then day of completion who was worried about the response a less experienced person was going to be pestered as the buyers had been to ask for the key as they had seen us with vans outside.  They were suggesting that keys be left with a neighbour for them to pick up to get in as it was obvious that we had left.  SWMBO and the agent came up with an answer the pleased the estate agents - their reply when asked for the keys was that they had to go to our solicitors for them.  

I duly took the keys to the solicitors and their reaction on receipt suggested that the agents had updated them - remember they had signed and sealed their sale without thinking that they could be homeless - and would definitely 'play the game'.  It appears that they did as asap on the day the buyer appeared but had to wait and were not handed the keys until all transactions were confirmed.

We have since heard that one of them locked themselves out ... good stress relief for SWMBO and must admit I concurred with her smile.

 

Had written something earlier that referred to a number of other posts but lost it like or instance on John'v vaccination surmises; the antivax marchers and their billboard, the million for cut hair, the cost of wood - also took a bed apart and kept the wood  - SWMBO was not happy at that but it will definitely pay off - '42's art update, apologies - with skimping necessary bye pas quiz, big grass snake skins, polymer and supers comment - many of them, Koala sleeping, bonce staple removal and the 'democratic process' of our Fraggle Rock biker.  Thanks and cheers. 

 

Thanks to reading through todays blogs stress levels have disappeared - ER is definitely therapy.

Edited September 17, 2021 by PeterBB

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

There's one here.  It's the store-room for the village shop but until very recently clearly displayed its identity.  Last week two men arrived and painted it into allover plain grey and fitted a felt roof.  I suspect that it might at some time have quite literally fallen off the back of a lorry.  

They can be purchased for as little as £1000. Considering that they spend much of their life at sea its no surprise that they corrode quite quickly. The roofs in particular take a fair bit of punishment. Its cheaper to flog them off for scrap or re-use than to send them back to china.

Edited September 16, 2021 by PhilJ W

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[brianusa]

 N Korea has got itself a operating Missile Car which Lionel thought of many years ago.  If its anything like mine, the missile doesn't go very far but the operation is similar.

     Brian.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, inner temple Hare early.

That does not imply lack of sleep, I had 4 hours, short break 3 hours. Very good for me.

 

Shipping containers,  I seriously thought of buying two 20 footers, for use as a shelter for the not to be mentioned hobby.  They are quite common around here used as sheds normally painted a plain green, sometimes with additional rooves and entrances.

They would have been placed doors to doors with a central wooden section between providing conventional doorways and slightly more length. The reason I didn't go ahead, was getting them the 100yards from where they would be dropped to their final site. The ground is very soft I would have needed lots of plywood and the round poles as rollers , then the Landrover to push.

 

Various model manufacturers made model missile systems for our hobby and road bound vehicles mostly of toy standard . I seem to remember they had one thing in common , the missiles were very disappointing, plopping on to the floor after a few inches..

 

This week's second  major system will be finished soon after I get into work , I left it doing a rerun of one automatic section that just failed before.

 

Time to.. lie back and think of breakfast.

 

 

[chrisf]

Greetings

 

It is a pity that some ERs do not want to play any more.  One of the things that I like about this thread is the sheer variety of what is posted.  I do not pretend to know much about some of it, particularly fine dining and aero engines, but that is not important.  What is important is the facility to express opinions, let off steam, pour out the heart and much, much more.  Sometimes there are spats, as there are in any community for we are human.  Much more often there is support for those who need it.  Let us stick together and play nicely.

 

For yours truly there will be a fodder run this morning and a meeting in a coffee bar this afternoon.  Both are encouraging signs that life is on its way towards returning to normal, whatever that is.  Good job too.

 

Best wishes to all 

 

Chris

[polybear]

5 hours ago, brianusa said:

 N Korea has got itself a operating Missile Car which Lionel thought of many years ago.  If its anything like mine, the missile doesn't go very far but the operation is similar.

     Brian.

 

And it seems that Aus will be having Nuclear powered (but not armed) subs - much to the annoyance of China (Jeez - talk about pot calling the kettle black......); rumour has it that France are less than happy too (polite speak for mightily p1ssed off...).  Oh dear....

 

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Various model manufacturers made model missile systems for our hobby and road bound vehicles mostly of toy standard . I seem to remember they had one thing in common , the missiles were very disappointing, plopping on to the floor after a few inches..

 

I guess even in "those days" the various manufacturers had some concern for little jimmy's eyesight, which is probably a good thing.

 

 

[Grizz]

Morning All, from Sussex County....

 

A beautiful Sussex sunrise this morning...created for just staring in wonder at, particularly when enjoying an early coffee and listening to Freightliner Heavy Haul train 784V - 0342 Acton T.C. to Newhaven Day Aggregates, dropping gently down Hamsey bank through the mist. 45 late running this morning. 

 

 

Today is a varied day. Finish creosoting the new anti chicken fences, then stapling the mesh on to them....the fences not the chickens..

 

A 'got to do' job today is finish off a project that has taken me 8 months so far. Admittedly when I took this on as a request from a friend of my son, it was made clear that there was no rush but I just want to get it finished now.

It is was spare Dapol Class 68 body (an absolutely excellent model IMHO) that the chap wanted resprayed and detailed into a 'Caledonian' liveried Class 68, 68030 'Black Douglas', suitable for the latest livery run on the sleeper trains in Scotland. With no real world prototype to base it on I have gone for the nearest loco type, a Class 67, and a generous helping of 'Rule 1'.

 

The Railtec waterslide transfers are as always superb and I am quite please with the result so far. The orange cant rail line is a nightmare to get straight but that is down to my lack of skill rather than the transfers and it does make the difference, especially around the front of the cabs.

 

It has inspired me to use one of my spare 68 bodies to create a fictitious GWR green class 68 for use on the 'Pasty Beds' from Paddington to Penzance. 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great day all.

 

ATB Grizz...

 

 

 

[polybear]

32 minutes ago, chrisf said:

Greetings

 

It is a pity that some ERs do not want to play any more.  One of the things that I like about this thread is the sheer variety of what is posted.  I do not pretend to know much about some of it, particularly fine dining and aero engines, but that is not important.  What is important is the facility to express opinions, let off steam, pour out the heart and much, much more.  Sometimes there are spats, as there are in any community for we are human.  Much more often there is support for those who need it.  Let us stick together and play nicely.

 

 

 

Very, very well put that Man

Fine dining?  Well (and meaning absolutely no disrespect to our resident expert - as Minion Bear most definitely doesn't want to fall foul of "The Boss".....) if some of the offerings meeting that description I've seen on telly are anything to go by then I'm left thinking the following:

1.  WTF do you call THAT?

2.  Surely you're not thinking of eating THAT?

3.  I wonder just how much you get away with charging for THAT?  And I don't care if you have been on telly - or how many Michelin Stars you have above the door.  (Personally I'd be more interested to see five stars from the local council for cleanliness etc.).

4.  You call THAT a main course?  A starter.  Maybe.....

5.  Where's the Chips?    (OK, Bear isn't a total lost cause - I'm rather fond of Dauphinoise Potatoes too, though I've yet to find a "Joe's Cafe" with Double Egg, Sausage, Dauphinoise Potatoes and Beans on the menu.  Oh well, Bear can live in hope I s'pose.....

 

I'd better stop there, before I reduce iD to total, irrecoverable tears......

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

They can be purchased for as little as £1000. Considering that they spend much of their life at sea its no surprise that they corrode quite quickly. The roofs in particular take a fair bit of punishment. Its cheaper to flog them off for scrap or re-use than to send them back to china.

I bought a 20 footer, one TEU, when we were moving for £1200. That included delivery to site, cutti g of  dntilation holes and fitting of a padlock cover.  A local farmer friend allowed me to put it in his yard forv18 months rent freee. I still saved at least £1000 compared with renting one commercially.  When we finally moved I just gave the farmer the keys. It served as a temporary store as we e ptied the house and aggregated what was coming to France o to pallets or into trailer loads. I havevheard that there are two qualities of container.  Single voyage ones and long term use ones.

 

Stewart, I do hope that you get sorted soon.  It is said that moving is one of the three big stressors in life, along with bereavement  and divorce.

 

Anyway yesterday was interesting.I discovered the water on the shed floor when letting the chickens out.rain was dripping along the  line of the junction with the woodshed.  After a quick breakfast I went back up and started moving stuff.  Most of the potential damage was stuff in cardboard boxes that have never been fully unpacked since the move over 3 years ago.  I put up a couple of tables and started a rapid triagevoperation.  Dry, damp and beyond redemption.  The boxes couldn't be picked up as the bottons had gone.  Ironically this task of sorti g the carp has been procrastinated for over 3 years by SWMBO.  After an hour we got most ofvit sorted and a lot of stuff is either off to the tip or the charity shop. Nothing irrreplaceable has been lost. My comment that the flood has finally got us movung on the sortung process went down like a lead balloon.

 

A formal wedding invite for next year arrived late morning so the next three hours before and aftervlunch, were spent wrestling with Ryanair's website, booking a hire car and booking a hotel.  The wedding neatly coincides with Emily's 3rd birthday.  Whilst engaged in this mi d numbing exercise,  so ethi g must have been goi g on in what I call a brain.  I headed back to the shed and got a ladder out p,us a hosepipe for test purposes.  Sure enough I fou d the culprit.  The downpipe from a 10 metre length of gutter between the woodshed and the main shec was blocked. This was where I'd installed the diverter for our irrigstion water. The heavy rain had overloiaded the diverter and the gutter had backed up above the waterproofing line.  Half an hours work and the problem was solved.

 

Anyway todays tadk js hard, a model railway group lunch and meeting. It's a hardclife.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie