Pigeon Poo ! !

After watching me every day for a week, painting, sanding, painting ..2 coats of grey and 1 of a cracking Post Office red, not a leaf nor pine needle did drop until the second and hoped for last, when there it was - 3 pigeon plops right in the middle. And the pigeon sat there cooing its little head off...ha

A BIG MISTAKE was to brush on the first layer of red oxide......some of the brushstrokes are still visible and I think a third coat of red will be needed before I can call it done....it will never be perfect but hey I want to get her on the water, possibly next year ???.
Love the red...next spell of good weather, will get a couple of layers of Oxford Blue on the sides.......then to think about lines and colours, thin, thick, double. Apparantly you can buy pinstriping tape. mmmm that sounds interesting and even more choices......and decisions ! ! harrumph harrumph

Can't waste this fab weather

Giving the front cover a refreshing break, its turning out to be a bit of a struggle.... SO on hearing the weather forcast and trusting it ! out with the Dinitrol filler and I have started the next layer on the roof, not very much filler needed this time and a lovely thick battleship grey undercoat is now covering about about a third of the roof, peraps a bit more eh! ha...........

I started early and lit the fire as there was a bit more waxoiling to do on the floor inside, it thinned down a treat in a pan on the stove !!! and brushed into all the nooks and cranny's that had been missed. So another good job done, thank you weather.

Anyway, whilst stuff was drying (and on such a warm sunny day it all did dry out very nicely), having already spotted staining on the sides after a fire had been lit i realised that despite the chimney being a double skin type, there are a dribbles of water leaking on to the roof and down the side (see pics).

Now I know it never did that before and close inspection revealed a sort of guttering collar round the base of the chimney which would catch any of this stuff... but it had perished and had was leaking water. On looking through the web I find chimney dribbles are a common problem but I havent seen anything like it. It obviously worked ok, made out of an old aluminium pan base with about 1" of side left, with a hole cut out of the base so that it just fitted on to the collar and the chimney sits on it, the dribbles are contained...Definately a Jim invention then Ha Ha..
Now where's them old pans ??????

And another puzzle !!!

Well it is actually quite straight forward and looked so simple at first !!!!

but climbing up and down, balancing on tiptoe and trying to get a plastic sheet over the front end did pose a bit of a problem on my own and I realised very quickly that a) I didnt have enough fabric (covered in strawberries purchased some years ago and never used) and b) the original design being one piece stapled to a plank down the middle is just too unwieldy and heavy for me to be able to put it on and take orf .. at all really ... so the puzzle is to create a front cover that I can manage easily... after all I am not gonna get any stronger or more supple eh! Ha Ha


SO after scrounging several yards of blue, I am going to try a 5 piece job with each piece managable and rollupable !!! two on top, two sides and a front.........and it will be a minor miracle if it works.... its not just a pretty front end we are aiming at .... it has to function.....

There will have to me some minor adjustments and additions to the cratchboard. I have to say that with the right tools its posssible to do so much and if you look carefully the dowel on the left is actually a round peg shaped out of a square block...oh what fun is a workshop

Ok then, after much throwing, pulling, sliding and fortunately no slipping phew, now at least I have a rough pattern for the 3 shapes, the blue half-top covers almost all of the conservatory floor !!!

and the sides are much bigger than I expected. Hmmmmm much thought going into this so its a good job I am waiting for the 2nd coat of Sikkens to dry on the woodwork before a final fitting.

All sticky smelly stuff but she's looking good and I hope it all works. We have the form but do we have the function?
Only time and use will tell





Form & Function eh! ... OU Science course and source of many great debates in the art/sculpture world Ha Ha

and here's a perfect example sitting on top of the wall at the bottom of the garden. Created by Jim when running the Stourbridge College workshops
The 'flower heads' are huge cast metal screws and makes a great barier. (This corner is about to be given a back gate/door in the wall, a fence on the other side which will show it off a treat and steps in front ...
delightful form and excellent function ..... 

aaaaaaahhh, so many things to do, how did I find time to go to work I wonder Ha Ha ....

I always wanted to do woodwork !!

But it wasn't allowed at my school....cookery for girls and woodwork for boys...no choice for us then........but that wuz 'a long time ago in Accrington' Ha. Of course because we weren't allowed, the urge to diy has always been high on my list of things to master etc.. AND its wonderful to have a fab workshop and so many tools to use.....Jim's dream retirement.....inventing in the workshop by day and telescoping the nights away. Thank goodness I learned some lessons well !!!! and plenty of health & safety instructions should keep me safe (touch wood ???) But I am quite amazed at what I have managed to do so far....A good teacher wuz my Jim.

SO making a new cratchboard has been perfect to try out all the equipment...and now I have got the hang of the using router, well you have never seen so much in the way of shavings and dust and so much fun, nothing is safe Ha Ha. Two coats of cuprinol done should give it plenty of protection, next will be two thin coats of Sikens. The pegboard is just a temporary, to see how it all works first .. Its all evolving somehow....I stare at something long enough and slowly it turns into something usefull ha ha ..

Sometime I would like to do some stained glass panels, I have a couple of round ones somewhere safe (!!!) that I made when we first moved on to Wildrose, but never got round to fitting them in the front doors, again something for the future...for now it all has to be just practical and enough to be able to continue with other stuff.

This will be a prototype as I have put it together in completely the wrong order and there are holes that should have been drilled earlier in the construction. More joints could have been glued and plugged so as now I have good measurements and a pattern, this will do nicely until we are on the water. It will also test my design for ease of use and strength. The front tonneau cover is the next puzzle....hmmmmmmmmmm where's the sewing machine ??

But at the moment, there isnt a piece of wood safe from me and my router now I have got it working ffffffabulous

Staying cosy and keeping busy . . .

sheeted up fore n aft for the winter....lots of things to do indoors and this is just the weather for a log fire at home and Dennis to help me with some woodwork ! ! Decided to start with the front cratch board. The original had a large headlight in the top half and I painted the usual diamonds and roses as was originally done when we first bought her.

This time I have been graced with a considerable amount of 2 x 1 beech in 4 ft lengths so I thought it would be good to use it for all the woodwork and so here goes with my first bit of proper woodwork with its replacement. I have to say it finishes smooth as silk after sanding. I think I have much in common with Gibbs (NCIS), he builds boats in his basement and appreciates the feel of the wood........

Anyway this one is going to be able to have either glazed or painted panels or something, we shall see. But I thought it would be good to save any decorative painting until she is back on the water and all the living and sailing jobs are done, after all, that will be a delight to do in the lazy summers I intend to spend on her.....so until then, varnished Beech will look just fine.

Am slowly getting to grips with such things as woodwork tools, band saw, and all the different bit bits, countersinking screws, pegging, sanding, (wish I had taken more notice when I was Jims Apprentice ! !) The router however still has me foxed, I think I am scared of it really. I did give it a try out with the bit that I found in it. But the collet tightening nut was stuck and I had to get help to loosen it . Anyway now I have the correct bit in, I cant seem to get the thing to drop for the cut....Thank goodness for detailed diagrams and instructions and I will just have to keep practicing.......

Fortunately Dennis is keeping a close eye on all the work and checking the joints . . ha ha, pity he cant read .... yet ...

A Black Bottom for Christmas

And dont she look good. A nice thick layer of bitumen all round. Its been a good year for Wildrose, and she has kept me fit doing it....

Going for a break for a couple of months now to get the workshop sorted and practice on some woodwork , that will be fun ha ha.....
wish I could remember how to use the router though, want to be able to cut out circles .... portholes.
I have to say that Utube has been great for finding out how to do stuff, hasn't failed me yet

"Come on Rosie, Light my Fire" ... said Wildrose on a cold and frosty morning

Now whilst the boys were doing the front deck, I was building up the hearth ready to fit the stove.....having looked a lots of others, I decided once again to do it my own way and so have had a go at a small version of the one I did at home .......... so here goes and wacha think?

Base plate is a non-combustable sheet resting on ballast and floor supports. On top is a layer of small 10x10x5 cms concrete brickets supporting two 2ftx1ft welsh slate floor tiles, left over from my kitchen and bathroom update ha ( I just knew they would fit in somewhere special)

And the sweetest little stove you ever did see, now fitted, what a treat to light it and feel the warmth ... mmmm

a bit of a milesone too and well celebrates this years efforts.......

And thats what I call proper central heating ha ha
and the rather large looking hearth will show its purpose when I try out a bit of griddled chicken, stir fry & jacket potato yum yum
but need a floor in first...arriving on monday...

Meanwhile -------- the smoke goes up the chimley just the same ... Howzat Ha

Arghhhhhh .. now I remember choking on the smoke when sailing with the fire lit....harrumph......We did get a taller chimney, but when I checked them out at a brilliant little chandlers at Compton, I found them to be too heavy for me (any chimney is too tall to get under the bridge at the entrance to Bumble Hole arm !!!!!, it was my job to stear whilst Jim removed the chimney and dodged the bridge !!! ....)

So this is a medium sized chimney and the reason why I intend to fit an exhaust gas heat exchanger to pump hot water round the boat when travelling ... yeh baby ya gotta be cosy, "its the law" said Jim.