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HOME/DiY: ‘Clent Wiston’ is Dirty Hairy, in Sleepers in March

Diggin’ in th’ doit, like a doity dawg!

Further work on the railway sleepers, raising them up out of the dirt on gravel. Which I should’ve done from the off. Making a rod to beat myself with there, eh!?

Wearing a mask due to the dust raised whilst doing the work. It’s hard heavy work. Back bent as I dig or rake the soil out of the way. Then raising the sleepers, then putting three bags of gravel down, and raking that lot that flat.

I actually quite the aesthetics of the speckled dirt on my skin, with the hair over it all! Am I weird!? In real life – at least as I perceive it – qin the sunshine and dappled shade, my skin is more bronzed and hair more golden than in these photos.

Anyway, all six sleepers are now an inch or two higher than before, with gravel underneath each of them. They’re still level (enough for my satisfaction, and hopefully enough for keeping the shed square?) in both directions.

Four sleepers done…

The whole lot seemed to move a couple of inches eastwards, towards the house. Actually that’s alright. As the final sleeper was a bit further apart than all the others. So having them shuffling along a bit has wound up with them all better spaced.

One annoying thing is that I’ve referenced a the sleepers off a splash-board on the neighbours (very dilapidated) fence. If this is misaligned, as it probably is, then all my sleepers are as well. I was actually aware of this from the start. But couldn’t be arsed trying to remedy it.

All six raised on gravel.

Just went and got more Facebook/Gumtree free gravel! Yesterday I went to Bourne (Lincs), twice, and got twenty bags. From a nice Latvian chap. And today I got two big plastic tubs full, plus one bag, from Upwell area, a little closer to home.

I decided to scoop aside the earth along the sides of the sleepers and infill more gravel, so they’re not just sat on gravel, but in gravel. Hoping this’ll better protect them form moisture, to some extent. Will it? I really don’t know!

Gravel along the sleeper edges. House end view.
And viewed from the far end.

Anyway, that’s enough work on that lot for today! Yesterday and today have been, for me at least, pretty hardcore, in terms of exhausting energy sapping hard physical labour. So, to end, one last ‘go ahead, make my day,’ Dirty Hairy moment…

A visible glove line!
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HOME/DiY: Sleepers, Bark-Chip Path

Started laying bark-chips for a pathway.

Today I brought the infill levels up between the sleepers, with earth from either side of where the shed is. I also popped over to Wisbech and bought four bags of large bark-chips, for a path along the southern edge of the shed/garden.

Raising the infill levels.

I also did a good chunk of my Stick Control Summer Challenge. I’ve been doing a page a day most days I’ve done it. I need to be doing more than one page a day to finish before next term starts!

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HOME/DiY: Sleepers, Lunch, Practice Pad

There has been change, even if not discernibly so!

I didn’t take any more sleeper pics. Or rather, more accurately, I did. But they don’t show the progress I made. I basically levelled the sleepers better, and raised the soul with the spaces. Esp’ along the edge that’s going to be the footpath, along Ruben and Anne’s side (the left as you look away from the houses!).

I’m trying to maintain the FODMAP diet. And I’m convinced that my tummy is less distended than formerly. I’m not sure I’ve lost much if any weight. I just think I’m carrying a little less gas around in my guts! Sometimes it’s hard to be motivated over food choices. That’s when any diet is at greatest risk.

Today’s lunch. Sausage omelette (!?) and salad.

Today I made a three-egg omelette, with two Heck sausages (high meat content, no gluten containing cereals or dairy content!), fried in olive oil and chopped up. The orange cubes are Red Leicester cheese. I’m glad I can still have cheese, as I love it. I just have to keep portions small.

The salad was a leftover from yesterdays dinner. And speaking of leftovers, our dinner tonight was the remains of Satay #2, with the addition of rice, edamame beans and water chestnuts, some Thai red curry sauce and gluten free soy-sauce, all drizzled with lime juice.

Both lunch and dinner were, thankfully, delicious, nutritious, and FODMAP friendly.

I’ve even started to add some little bits of exercise into my daily routines. I’ve started doing timed squats. The idea is to work up to 30 days of 30 mins (in smaller bite sized chunks) squatting on flat feet. And I want to add some free hanging in to the mix as well…

I’m trying to cultivate other good habits. For example I’m doing a Stick Control ‘Summer Challenge’: trying to do at least a page a day of Stone’s ancient but venerable tome. Hopefully by summer’s end I’ll have finished the whole book?

All this stuff feels good!

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HOME/DiY: Sleepers For Shed Base

Ta-dah!

Got the sleepers roughly in place. They need tweaking to get them properly spaced and levelled out. They’re close though. Cross-wise they’re all pretty good, but along the length of the shed there’s a slight decline, as you get further from the house.

Workman’s hands!

It was pretty quick n easy, doing the sleepers, in the end. Somewhat surprisingly so. Teresa helped me shift the first one. But after that I was on my own. Just ‘drag n’ drop’, like Photoshop!

The foreman checks over my work. Seems to approve.

It was very sweet when Chester saw what I’d done. He evidently enjoyed clambering over them all, and even snuggled up to one for a little spell. I’m glad I have the guv’nor’s blessing!

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HOME/DiY: The New/Old Shed Arrives!

The blue building is my current/old shed. The pile of stuff on the ground is the new one!

Yesterday old school friend Trevor very kindly helped me move Ken’s old shed from his new place on Norwood Road to our home. Cheers, Trev’!

It doesn’t look too impressive (pictured above). But then you can’t actually see it, as it’s all under the roofing materials. The wooden crap on top is only there to stop stuff blowing away!

Ken, on a recent visit.

Thanks also to Ken, for the shed itself, and for very patiently storing it in his garden for a good long while! And also to Ruben, our neighbour, who helped us unload when he saw us shifting the panels.

Moving the ‘new’ shed highlighted the dodgy wiring to the current shed, which is overhead, and got in the way a bit! And access to the garden via the communal back passage-way (snigger) was always going to be hard work.

Next up I need to do the concrete base. And then it’ll be time to start restoring and re-assembling the shed itself.

Trevor, on his smallholding, just outside March.

Anyway, we’ve been very lucky. A free shed, and a free move of said shed. That’s really something. And Teresa and I are very grateful. We were also lucky with the weather. Amidst frequent rain showers, some very heavy, we enjoyed a sunny spell for the actual move. The heavens just opening as we finished. Result!

I wish I’d got some photos of the process of actually picking up and moving the shed. I should’ve had Teresa ride shotgun, with some form of camera, recording the happy event! But the activity of doing it all was quite demanding, and chased all thought of documenting it from my mind.

The garden, looking very ‘green and pleasant land’-ish.

The weather has been very changeable, and drowsily muggy, of late. When it’s not cloudy and raining, it’s warm and sunny. And the two states have been alternating rapidly. Just now we got back from a little lunch break in the sunshine, and boom, the rains cameth down.