2025 - What I did today

Yesterday when the frost eased and the rained stopped (temporarily) I ventured up the lawn to the gh. The poor DFB which were in flower were decimated. Soggy and limp. Not surprising as the gh had gone down to -5°. Started to remove the soggy busy lizzies from the front steps and replanted with homegrown pansies. Planted out some bare rooted Polka raspberries in a temporary position until their porper place gets prepared. Then it rained.

Did a tempoary repair to the 240 volt hookup on my motorhome. One of the pins wee coroded so scraped pin to get a better contact. I will get some emery paper when I am next out and do a pope job on it, along with coating all electical componets with WD40.
Now that I had electic to motorhome I connected  up a small blow heater to help keep it dy inside. I'll leave it on for a few hours.

While I was inside I drained down the boiler and took the plug out of the main water tank so that it doesn't freeze in the winter. I use bottled wate when I am away anyway!
I took a large bowl of soapy water into it and washed the gas hobs and facias along with the sink, draining board and worktop, including the smoked glass cover that drops down over the hob. These ae things that aen't high on the priority list when I am travelling.

I will still use it during the winter so I need to keep it in tip top condition.

Took my bean frame apart. Tidied up outside the garage. Asked Bob to tidy it the last 3 weekends in a row. It hadn’t happened. So if there was anything he wanted on the outside table. He’ll just have to root around in the bin for it. He had his chance. This afternoon finishing off the sound proofing in the ceilings.

Too cold to do much outdoors but............its Fruits week! So, I've put some Carlin peas to soak and I'll try sprouting them. Not holding out much hope as I tried cooking some last week and they stayed as hard as rocks. They're use by 2022. If they don't germinate they'll be composted.

Too cold to do much outdoors but............its Fruits week! So, I've put some Carlin peas to soak and I'll try sprouting them. Not holding out much hope as I tried cooking some last week and they stayed as hard as rocks. They're use by 2022. If they don't germinate they'll be composted.

Dunno when Carlin Sunday is but my granny used to serve them with vinegar added! They ae a bit of an 'aquired' taste!

https://www.heritageandhistory.com/conte...tradition/

Eperiment time again today. I have been looking at youtube videos of people burning wood pellets in a woodburner? I have ordered and recieved a BBQ stainless steel basket off Amazon and supposedly will recieve a bag of wood pellets today to try? I have plenty of logs but thought I would give this a try to see if it works,,whether it heats the room, and whether it's an economical way of heating?

Watch this space and I will let you know results, if the pellets are delivered as promised?

Had a few hours in the garden, in the sun, clearing the ground around the chopped down bushes. Going to scatter some flower seeds there in the spring.
Lots of goings on in the garden today! A robin in the greenhouse, two squirrels chasing each up the oak tree, a tatty winged Red Admiral butterfly sunning itself on the wheel barrow and later on some fallen apples and...........daffodil leaves pushing through the undergrowth. Wonder whether there'll be a flower for Christmas this year?

Eperiment time again today. I have been looking at youtube videos of people burning wood pellets in a woodburner? I have ordered and recieved a BBQ stainless steel basket off Amazon and supposedly will recieve a bag of wood pellets today to try? I have plenty of logs but thought I would give this a try to see if it works,,whether it heats the room, and whether it's an economical way of heating?

Watch this space and I will let you know results, if the pellets are delivered as promised?

I've just been looking at videos Vinny and  it'll be interesting to see how it works out.  One man was filling his using  a soup ladle,    I hope you have something larger.

Eperiment time again today. I have been looking at youtube videos of people burning wood pellets in a woodburner? I have ordered and recieved a BBQ stainless steel basket off Amazon and supposedly will recieve a bag of wood pellets today to try? I have plenty of logs but thought I would give this a try to see if it works,,whether it heats the room, and whether it's an economical way of heating?

Watch this space and I will let you know results, if the pellets are delivered as promised?

I've just been looking at videos Vinny and  it'll be interesting to see how it works out.  One man was filling his using  a soup ladle,    I hope you have something larger.

The deliveries are rubbish around Crimbo time. I have the stainless steel basket ready but was supposed to get the pellets yesterday but they haven't arived as yet. Chomping at the bit to give it a try!  A soup ladle would be fine I imagine as you only need a couple of kilo's to get it going?

The wood pellets finally arrived late on yesterday. I did a trial burning before I went to my excercises last night and it seemed to go ok? They throw a lot of heat out but I don't think they are a cost viable solution, long term. I half filled the little basket I bought and it burned for about 1.75 hours giving out a good amount of heat (enough to get the stove top fan spinning)
Beause I dont intend to have the fire on all day today I have emptied ash and refilled to a similar amount this morning to give me a bit of heat while typing this. I think this will be the best way to use the pellets and hopefully it will dry the clothes I have hanging above the woodburner as well. It gives off a lot of flames and is quite pleasant to watch.