It's been a pretty quiet one here at the lair this weekend and I've actually been at home all weekend for a change. Not, that the weathers been conducive to getting out and about, although Friday was beautiful and Saturday just about bearable, so we can't really complain. As such it's been another weekend of catching up on all the odd jobs that I've been neglecting whilst I've been having fun all summer. The list never seems to get any shorter though. Which I guess is partly my own fault, because as soon as I find a free moment or get towards the end of one project, I'll be scheming the next one, and I've already got enough ideas stored away to see me into retirement and long past! So what have I been up to this weekend? Well, for a starters there been a bit of "Shit Shovelling"! With the growing season now well and truly over, the opportunity presented itself to get a bit of manure spread on the allotment, and to that end I took delivery of a big pile of poo on Friday afternoon. A couple of hours in the late autumn sun saw it moved and spread out out across the plot where the worms can do their work over the winter before it gets dug in, in the spring. The birds that live in the hedge alongside my plot were very interested in proceeding's too, and having taken the roof net off of the fruit cage last weekend, they've now got free access to the best pickings. Regular visits from a Robin, a couple of Blackbirds and a Thrush (unusual visitor) provided a bit of company as I worked, whilst a Magpie maintained careful watch from its overview in a nearby tree, and the Red Kite which must live nearby as I often see it soaring majestically overhead, put in the odd appearance as it maintained it's endless search for food. It's going to need another load to cover the whole plot, but I'm actually waiting on a delivery of fruit bushes (Raspberries, Blackberries and Rhubarb) which will replace the Gooseberries which I never knew what to do with, and have really suffered from caterpillar damage for the last few years, and a bed of Blackberries that have been in place for the last ten years and are getting a bit tired now. Despite being ordered at the back end of summer they're currently delayed, it's been to warm to dig them for dispatch as they're still growing, but I'm hoping to tie in a second manure delivery with the fruit bush delivery, so I can get plenty of goodness dug in with the new plants and the rest will cover the bits of plot that still have stuff growing in them. Whilst I was on the Allotment I took the opportunity to pick the last of the Chillies too. To be honest they've done better than expected, and now I need to find something to do with half a ton of Chillies. As a bit of an experiment I threw some into the dehydrator to see how long they would take to dry. I've previously had excellent success by hanging them up in the airing cupboard, but it's time consuming to thread them all up, and it takes about a month for them to fully dry, so I thought that the dehydrator might be easier. It's not an experiment that I'll be repeating though, as after 20 hours of drying, only half of them are fully dry, and whilst I don't think the dehydrator is expensive to run, it does take up loads of space on the worktop, and the airing cupboard is totally free, so the remainder are going to be going in there for a few months. In other news, "The Emma" had lucky escape in the week, when she hit a deer on the way to work in the early hours one morning. Now, I've seen a few car's that have hit deer and it normally makes a real mess, but she got really lucky (the deer not so much), and considering the forces involved came away pretty much unscathed. Her little Peugeot's going to need a new bonnet at the least though, and that brings us to the next dilemma. Car insurance. Now, between us we pay a lot for vehicle insurance every year (we've got 6 vehicles between us, so it soon adds up) and there lies the conundrum. Her little 206 is brilliant, it's in great condition and it's a GTI and there's not many of them still around. But as far as the insurance companies are concerned it's only worth £1000, so for the damage to be repaired it won't be worth it and I can almost guarantee it'll get written off, plus she'll have had an insurance claim, so next years premiums will go up. And even if they do pay out for the full value, she's not going to get another car that's in the same condition as this one for £1000 (plus it's just had £300's worth of suspension parts thrown at it too). So what do we do? Claim and end up out of pocket in every way and still have to find a replacement car? Live with the damage? Pay to have it fixed privately, without involving the insurance companies? We'll I'll tell you what we did. We spent half of Saturday, sat in the van, travelling around the local scrap yards in search of parts. And that's where she got lucky for the second time this week. As although we probably did 150 miles in the van going to various places, we managed to find a bonnet, front grill, radiator fan housing and assorted clips and bits of random broken plastic bits, all of which are in the right colour for £100 all in. There's a few rust bubbles on the replacement bonnet that will need dealing with at some point in the future. But for £100, a couple of gallons of diesel for the Van, a bit of driving around, and a couple of hours in the drizzle swapping parts over, she's back on the road and another little 206 lives to fight another day. Now that's what I call getting lucky in more ways than one and that's my idea of recycling!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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