test please delete

[ladymuck]

Uneventful day. Faffed for the most part then around 3pm delivered a presentation to clientCo for review ahead of a meeting tomorrow.

This evening I ordered a load of booze to top up the cocktail ingredients stash before watching a bit of the new series of Shetland on BBC.

Just remembered it's bin day tomorrow and I'm not sure if I can be bothered to go out side and drag the bin into position.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Another grey start, with the imminent threat of drizzle and a fairly breezy experience expected later. It's 6°C now with a stretch goal of 11° by mid-afternoon, and the barometers are starting to show that high pressure the Met Office was talking about at 1017/1025mB

[WTFH]

Morning all
Lovely sunrise earlier.

Day 3 of no heat or hot water.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Wednesday.

Grey.

Dry.

Sunless.

Cool in here at 14.1 deg, 13 deg in the kitchen, 12 deg in the leanto, 8.5 deg in the salting house.

1028 mBar, 30.356 in Hg, 771 Torr, 14.909 psi, (down a tad from last night), 73% RH (GDR hair), 66% RH (Lidl electric).

Shirts in the WM.

Shirts out of the WM & pegged out on the line.

Smalls in the WM.

Meanwhile on the 30th of July 2019 NF took an antihistamine, there was much discussion of 6.35mm jacks, stereo, mono, XLR, and Speakon connectors, whereas it was discovered that a 4th season of Veronica Mars streamed on something called Hulu.

Smalls out of the WM & pegged out on the line.

Cottons in the WM.

Cottons out of the WM & pegged out on the line.

No breeze so it's all hanging limply & not drying much, though the shirts wouldn't take long to finish in the TD.

Walk (abbreviated) walked in the grey gloom.

Lunch: scrambled egg etc. It's fecking awkward eating toast on one side of your mouth.

Entertainment: Some KHunt waffling on lying at me on the wireless. <click>

Drizzling.

Washing in off the line.

Shirts in the TD.

Shirts out of the TD and roughly iRoned & airing upstairs.

Entertainment during iRoning: The Infinite Monkey Cage "The science of everyday life" which disappeared so far down some rabbit holes that they forgot to ask the original question. Also featuring the floppy drive music machine.

Smalls in the TD.

Smalls out of the TD and airing upstairs.

Cottons in the TD.

Freecell score awaiting the beep: 91%, running average: 86%.

Cottons out of the TD & iRoned where needed, airing upstairs.

Tea: chicken in white sauce etc.

Entertainment: PM. <click>

Wheeler Dealers S8 E3 Range Rover P38

Star Trek: Enterprise S2 E2 "Carbon Creek". The only one I bother watching.

One p.m. Central Standard Time. Guess wot that's about.

Dr Pimple Popper. Chap with six cysts on his head. Woman with HS in her armpits. Chap with a port wine stain on his nose & right eyelid.

Dr Pimple Popper. Chap with an enormous rhinophyma:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXT-HnuY_rI

Can't do it under local: he has a GA instead in an operating room theatre.

Two women with curious bumps on their faces: some tricoblastomas, some tricoepitheliomas.


I gave away an electric log splitter to her next door but one. I wish I'd realised what it was when I was chopping up alder logs for the fire in the parents' house before I sold it.

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Dry. Reasonably bright albeit cloudy. Currently 7 degrees with a high of 10 expected. No rain forecast. Barometer up to 1029 mBar.

Just remembered it's bin day tomorrow and I'm not sure if I can be bothered to go out side and drag the bin into position.

On my way out first thing this morning I realised that Tuesday is bin day, not Wednesday. Fortunately, the refuse collection engineers know better and had taken the bag out of my bin anyway. I don't generate a huge amount of rubbish fortunately.

[WTFH]

Moving house imminently, well hopefully imminently, new place has a woodburner/multi-fuel.

Any suggestions as to wood or coal/coke/any old tulip being best and/or easiest to get hold of?

I'm guessing coal/similar for use this year - I expect seasoned timber is premium £

Obviously, if immenence happens, I'll look into getting a stock for next winter

The problem with coal, etc is that it tars up the flue, so I'd use it sparingly, but some of the reconstituted stuff isn't too bad. It's also useful to keep the fire going all night.
Just make sure it is a multi-fuel burner, the biggest clue is if it has an ash tray. No tray = not multi-fuel.

Depending on where you're moving to, you may find a local farmer will sell you some seasoned logs. Alternatively, companies like CPL do coal and wood.
Now for some tips:
1. Hold on to newspaper and keep your office paper shreddings, as they are good for lighting a fire without the need for firelighters. Also, the wax from candles or off cheeses can be good to put over your kindling.
2. Get the flue warm quickly - which means getting plenty of heat going with the vents open. Once the flue is warm, then the fire will stay lit and keep burning longer as it has a good draught.
3. Do not let your lady wife put candles near the fire - particularly if they are in metal cone-shaped things so you're not aware there's a candle in there until you wonder what the pool of liquid is on the top of your woodburner.
4. Don't use water to clean the top of the burner, try to stick to just dusting it down. Water + metal + heat = rusty top.
5. Kindling wood. Short (15-20cm) dry pieces of wood that are used to get the fire going. It can be offcuts of shelves, anything, just chop it up into slices about 1-2cm wide. You'll go through a handful every time you light a fire. Don't skimp on how much you put on.
6. Stack wood in sensible places to get it to dry and season. Put a pallet on the ground and build your wood pile on top of that. A well-stacked wood pile is a thing of beauty and will receive nods of approval.

If you're moving somewhere that you'll have access to trees, then the following are good purchases - might have just sorted out your Christmas present list for the next few years:
1. Stihl petrol chainsaw (more than one when you can get away with it)
2. Log saw horse - don't get the folding type, but something more like this: https://www.ffx.co.uk/product/Get/Ro...-50Mm-To-240Mm
3. Bahco saws.
4. Faithful kindling axe
5. Log splitter. Don't get one of the electric ones, instead go for a bit of exercise with one of these: https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clar...rade=Clearance
6. Log grenade https://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-ste...ge-1-6kg/112kh
7. 16lb Sledge hammer for use with the log grenade. (I prefer hickory handles on my axes/sledges, but fibreglass ones are easier to find)
8. Axes. One short handle for more control, one long handle for more power. And if you ever find an axe head lying around, they are great when used with a sledge hammer to open up cracks.

How's that for a start?

[NickFitz]

Lunch: Scotch broth with a crust of wholemeal

[Dactylion]

......... Woody advice.......

How's that for a start?

a) Yep its' multi-fuel (complete with a manual cos it was only installed early this year)
b) Newspaper :-O - I haven't seen a physical Newspaper for donkeys!!
Although an advantage of MrsD only shopping at Waitrose is the "Your Waitrose" she picks up :-)
c) Kindling - I actually have a ton of kindling cos the (Ooni) Pizza Oven uses it - exactly as spec'd
I picked up a (almost literal) ton of it for about 7/ and 6d
d) I don't think chain-sawing trees is an option (although)
e) I think I might enjoy some bashing about with heavy and sharp tools :-)

Ta muchly

[WTFH]

...
c) Kindling - I actually have a ton of kindling cos the (Ooni) Pizza Oven uses it - exactly as spec'd
I picked up a (almost literal) ton of it for about 7/ and 6d...

Ah yes, but have you got a Faithful Kindling Axe?
https://www.faithfulltools.com/p/FAI...-Stick-Chopper

[NickFitz]

Tea has been a pork cutlet with chips and beans

Accompanied on the box by the latest episode of The Met