It’s been a while since I last posted. The weather here has just been terrible and to be honest I have given up on trying to do Astronomy here in Cornwall. Since my last post I have given variable star observing a go using the remote telescope network in the US. Yes, it’s expensive at about one US dollar a minute, but if added up what I have spent on my observatory over the…
Dairy Doors
Today is dairy door day, but first we had to make the door frames. These were made from 50x 100mm tanalised timber which were bolted into the granite blocks behind with expanding bolts. These were a pain and I now regret not using ‘Thunderbolts’ as these just thread their way into the block just like a woodscrew. To prevent water getting into the dairy, I used a row of brick blocks to form a…
The Beast from the East
The Beast from the East was forecast to hit by lunchtime on Wednesday and on cue, it did. Here it comes….. The forecast was for temperatures to fall to -1C, but we had -5.5C by late evening and the lowest recorded was -10C….Brrrrr. I did venture out and have never experienced high winds coupled with such low temperatures at the same time.
The MkII Bird Feeder.
Mk1 Bird Feeder With the Deluxe MKI bird feeder destroyed during a storm, we decided on one last attempt and resurrecting the ultimate and bomb proof bird feeder, using as many of the original components as possible. First we had to dismantle the MkI. That wasn’t too difficult as it fell apart as the slightest knock. With everything broken down we could then decided how large the new structure could be once we had…
The Dairy Workshop.
We were supposed to have started work on the workshop over the Christmas break, but never seemed to get round to starting. However, with New Year well out of the way and a little bit of settled weather, we got going. First in were the uprights. They are bolted to the roof beams at the top and the wall at the bottom. With not a single flat or straight surface, all we had to…
Stonewall Rebuild
This has been one of those jobs that was at the top of the list when we got the tractor. Finally got round to start rebuilding the fallen walls around the policies. The first one completed was in the Ivytree Field. First you have to dig out all the fallen rock and most of the soil back down to either ground level, or at least something that is stable. The other side was looking…