well filled baps The Sheep Chronicles. The adventures of a Sheep, the Works Forecat and the Works Apprentice, George.

[MrWolf]

Thanks for the photos Rob, I was disappointed not to be able to come down to see the layouts for myself as those two in particular kept alive my enthusiasm for building my own during the twenty years hiatus.

 

Those buildings are exquisite and take me back to what was being demolished or modernised when I was nine or ten.

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

It's the attention to detail that you notice as you look closer. Each time you see something new. 

 

Cropping the photos I'm drawn to the uneven nature of the wood lining the wharf. 

 

 

 

And this little building is full of character. 

 

 

There will be more observations along later

I stood there looking at that one at the show for several minutes before realising that there wasn't any stock on it! So much detail to see!

[NHY 581]

Morning all, 

 

Clearly, Butley Mills is a favourite of many of us hereon. 

 

The relevant copies of MRJ are issue 9 with a follow up article on stock etc in issue 19. 

 

Matters at Chateau Sheep continue to divert from playing trains. 

 

There is the small matter of finishing Operation Berlin. A skip is eagerly awaited (?!) to allow the removal of several cubic metres of soil and assorted bits and bobs. Once that's done, the construction of the fence can recommence and can hopefully be concluded over the weekend. 

 

Then and only then, can we commence the refurb of the Room of Doom. 

 

And then we can start on the new layout.............

 

Rob. 

[Nick C]

If you don't already have one, get hold of a proper post hole digging tool for the fenceposts - much easier than using a conventional garden spade, and you get a hole that's much closer to the size of the fenceposts, so less cement needed...

[Oldddudders]

1 minute ago, Nick C said:

If you don't already have one, get hold of a proper post hole digging tool for the fenceposts - much easier than using a conventional garden spade, and you get a hole that's much closer to the size of the fenceposts, so less cement needed...

Excellent advice - provided that the user can rotate the device through 360 degrees, i.e there isn't anything the other side of the intended hole. Some come with a horizontal handle that is detachable, which can help if such space is restricted.

[Nick C]

25 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Excellent advice - provided that the user can rotate the device through 360 degrees, i.e there isn't anything the other side of the intended hole. Some come with a horizontal handle that is detachable, which can help if such space is restricted.

There's two kinds - the auger type you're referring to, and the hinged type - effectively two semicircular spades fixed together. I've got the latter as my soil was so full of stones that the auger wouldn't have worked!

 

One of these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-fibreglass-post-hole-digger/35835

 

[NHY 581]

Hi Nick. All dug and cemented in. The post hole thingy wouldn't have worked. Too much clay and rubble once you dug about 6 ins down. Add in numerous tree roots and stumps. Nope, traditional pick,shovel, axe and even chain saw work and we overcame. 

 

Rob

[2ManySpams]

4 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

Hi Nick. All dug and cemented in. The post hole thingy wouldn't have worked. Too much clay and rubble once you dug about 6 ins down. Add in numerous tree roots and stumps. Nope, traditional pick,shovel, axe and even chain saw work and we overcame. 

 

Rob

 

Sounds similar to our garden. The clay in the summer is like concrete, and like glue in the winter. Difficult digging.

[NHY 581]

Just now, 2ManySpams said:

 

Sounds similar to our garden. The clay in the summer is like concrete, and like glue in the winter. Difficult digging.

 

Not in anyway easy so my back tells me. 

 

Rob

[MrWolf]

15 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

Hi Nick. All dug and cemented in. The post hole thingy wouldn't have worked. Too much clay and rubble once you dug about 6 ins down. Add in numerous tree roots and stumps. Nope, traditional pick,shovel, axe and even chain saw work and we overcame. 

 

Rob

 

Sometimes violence IS the answer. You generally find the average garden is six inches of topsoil, six inches of builders rubbish and then you're into clay and stones. We have similar problems with the woods I help maintain, as it's planted on a hillside which was a tip for all the surrounding development. You either have a post that needs packing or you hit a big lump of concrete or stone that turns a post hole into a well by the time it's dug out.

[Winslow Boy]

Need to add organic matter and grit and when I say add I really do mean add by the tonne not just the odd bag.

Clay soil is really fertile once you manage to break it up which is what the above do. Ideally dig them in. But if you can't due to old age, hooves etc then pile it on the surface, a couple of inches thick, and leave it to Mother Nature. It just takes longer.

[Nick C]

1 minute ago, MrWolf said:

 

Sometimes violence IS the answer. You generally find the average garden is six inches of topsoil, six inches of builders rubbish and then you're into clay and stones. We have similar problems with the woods I help maintain, as it's planted on a hillside which was a tip for all the surrounding development. You either have a post that needs packing or you hit a big lump of concrete or stone that turns a post hole into a well by the time it's dug out.

We had 6 inches of topsoil (mixed with stones), 6 inches of builder's rubbish, another few inches of soil, then solid chalk...

[Gilbert]

No contacts in the Bomb squad then Rob?  Just a tiny explosion would have worked surely?

[Winslow Boy]

25 minutes ago, Nick C said:

We had 6 inches of topsoil (mixed with stones), 6 inches of builder's rubbish, another few inches of soil, then solid chalk...

For new developments builders will reuse the existing soil were possible, it's cheaper. Unfortunately they will mix top soil with sub soil hence the stones and clay. When it's spread around a site, particularly a big one, it's often a 'race' to see how far the soil will go. Good quality top soil is around £100 a tonne and a tonne doesn't go far. Ideally there should be at least a foot of topsoil for herbaceous plants and about two and half feet for trees. That's the minimum.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Winslow Boy
Race sounds better than rush.

[darthmh]

Morning.  It was great to see Ewe in person at the Uckfield show and to put a face to the name.  The quality of layouts on show was amazing. 

[Oldddudders]

5 hours ago, Nick C said:

There's two kinds - the auger type you're referring to, and the hinged type - effectively two semicircular spades fixed together. I've got the latter as my soil was so full of stones that the auger wouldn't have worked!

 

One of these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-fibreglass-post-hole-digger/35835

 

Yes, we have something similar to that, as well as two shapes of auger. Having had to install upward of 50 posts, 2 metres apart, we found the rotating types gave the best results. We didn't have bricks or builders' debris to contend with, but large lumps of limestone could really hold things up. We found pouring dry cement into the hole round the post, before backfilling, worked well as the moisture in the soil quickly mixed with cement and clay. 

[New Haven Neil]

5 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

For new developments builders will reuse the existing soil were possible, it's cheaper. Unfortunately they will mix top soil with sub soil hence the stones and clay. When it's spread around a site, particularly a big one, it's often a 'race' to see how far the soil will go. Good quality top soil is around £100 a tonne and a tonne doesn't go far. Ideally there should be at least a foot of topsoil for herbaceous plants and about two and half feet for trees. That's the minimum.

 

We were the lucky ones - the scraped off soil was in a huge mountain in what is now our back garden, so we got a reasonable covering.  But it still clay underneath, and drains very poorly despite neighbouring farm being three or four feet lower.

 

Butley Mills is one of my all time greats, his ESLR I saw at a Model Engineer exhibition of all things at Wembley donkeys years ago (82?) and I was also captivated by it, the character in the buildings (inc the Snape Maltings clone) was superb.  Rob follows in Iain's footsteps, and me badly in Rob's hoof prints. 

[Siberian Snooper]

When I was a kid and living in Sussex and on clay, dad and me would go to a farm with as many plastic sacks as he could muster and fill them with mushroom manure, I think it was about a quid for as much as you could shift. This was spread around the various flower beds around now and dug in, in the spring.

 

 

[Donw]

Well living in Gravel Pit Road one cannot be surprised at how many stones there are in the soil. Where the soil has been tended there is a reasonable depth of soil but under that it is stones with thick clay. Where bits haven't been tended the soil depth is quite shallow. The implement I favour to loosen the soil in a hole is a digging bar. 

 

Don

[Winslow Boy]

Another way of breaking up clay is to increase the alkalinity of the soil. This can be done with chalk. Unfortunately this is  short lasting and also restricts the types of plants etc that can be grown. Brassicas are happy with a high ph but not Acer's. 

 

Anyway we seem to have strayed off the subject of chuff chuffs so my apologies to his Sheepness, who by his absence I assume is whiling away the time by doing something more useful.

 

Potatoes are a good crop to grow on heavy ground as they help to break it up.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Another way of breaking up clay is to increase the alkalinity of the soil. This can be done with chalk.

There used to be a great product for doing this called Acta-Bacta. No idea whether you can still get it.

[JeffP]

Acta Bacta?

I thought that was a mild curse word😁

[Captain Kernow]

2 hours ago, JeffP said:

Acta Bacta?

I thought that was a mild curse word😁

Or a Hogwarts spell?

 

[SR71]

3 hours ago, JeffP said:

Acta Bacta?

I thought that was a mild curse word😁

 

 

...ah no, that's Aca Dca.

[NHY 581]

Evening all. 

 

Well, thanks to better weather than anticipated and two early starts and long days,  the garden project has effectively been completed three days ahead of schedule.............

 

 

Still some tidying and groundwork to finish but the fence is done and a skip filled with the excess soil, clay rubble etc. 

 

Top day. 

 

So.........we can now start thinking about the Room of Doom.......maybe......

 

Rob