Bar-b-q Season Approaches.

Be Prepared, That's what Baden Powell has taught me and what better way is there to prepare for the first days of outdoor cooking than by the production of charcoal.

Last years efforts to use this highly advanced charcoal production facility



produced some fine ash on the first attempt, the second attempt fairing little better, with this measly quantity resulting from hours of hard work filling the apparatus with cut branches.



The difficulty is shutting all the air out at the right time (when the smoke changes colour, although that's all very subjective). After some high tech modification, (a bit of fire proof material and a couple of pieces of wire) Saturdays attempt could, at best, be called underdone. However, it is black, lighter than it was and something I can place in the bar-b and set fire to....



Needless to say, we'll be enjoying tommorrows bank holiday with a bar-b-q lunch. Mrs VL's convinced is going to light, burn with a good flame and dissapear inside 5 mins. If you don't hear anymore on this subject, that's probably what happens!!

Groundskeeper Willie was involved in the last attempt, and will surely advise that it's so cheap to buy it's not worth the effort. The Saw Sharpner and Peggys Aunt are visiting week after next. He's bound to have some good advice, when he's done with the saw, we can set to work and have another go....

The great wood pile of 2007.

I got back from Southampton to find that I had recieved a delivery of firewood. For those of you who remember the great wood pile of 2005/6, I'm pleased to say this is not quite as daunting but I've got some work to do...

The wood in the trailer is the final bit of 2005/6 where it's been waiting all winter to get chopped up.

Looks like we're covered for another couple of winters.

Under the bridge and home at last.

I'm finally back home after too many long hard weeks onboard "Liberty of the Seas".

The trip from out of the Baltic sea involves going under "Storebelts brua" or "The great belt bridge" which connects 2 parts of Denmark together. The worlds largest cruise ship is built with this in mind, and passes under at full speed, with the stabilisers pulling the boat down and clears with a mere 2 metres to spare. Spectacular to be on top, here are some photos for your appreciation.

The Office. Part 8 - Moving In

I was at home, and the Misses was in Bergen during easter. When she got back she had the surprise of finding the office ready to move into. The long weekend was 3 days of hard work, but since I left for Finland on Monday afternoon and I won't be back for a couple of weeks, I wanted it to be ready for use in Mrs VLs studies.

I have to say, I'm very satisfied, almost proud and I was dissapointed not to be present at the unveiling to my dear wife. It's taken way longer than the blog posts suggest and it's still not finished, but it's useable and I hope that Mr's VLs study experience is enhanced from now on

I hope the pictures speak for themselves, all that remains are the drawers and the permanent phone/adsl connection (hence the extension lead).

My Old Girls....

My Spitfire is 31 years old and my Landy 41 Years. It's good to see the older generation helping each other out. The Landys been back on the road now for over two years (and way too many miles!) and the Spits getting ready for it's return to the spotlight...

I did some work on the brake lines and the need to take a test drive was an excuse to get the engine running after the winter break. She needed a little help, greatfully provided, as you can see.



The Spits due a new windscreen this week, then I've got to stamp the chassis number in the chassis (I changed the bit of the chassis where it used to be), and shes ready to be registered for the first time in nearly 9 years. Then it's simply repair and paint the boot, bonnet and doors and fit the interior and we're done....



It's worth the effort.

The Office. Part 7 - Round, A new challenge

Both the legs for the end of the desk and the supports for the top shelves are 43mm round posts. This provided a new challenge, as you can see from the photo's, in my opinion, I rose to the challenge.

Caption Competition

Witty Captions Please, and a prize for correct answers, "What am I"

The Office. Part 6 - The first trial build

After the complexities of the drawer unit, constructing the rear part of the frame and the less visible legs was pretty simple. By now I had enough bits to start trying it all together, the living room turned into a construction zone and Mrs VL, seeing the progress being very tolerant.... As you can see, it was starting to look promising.

The Office. Part 5 - Ikea, eat your heart out.

The evening that I built the carcass for the drawers left me feeling quite satisfied. I didn't really have a plan about how this was going to fix together, all I had was the 2 sides and the base cut to size. Flat pack, you could call it.

After studying the problem and the drawer sides/runners that I had bought on a recent visit to Kaunas in Lithania, I came up with a plan. Some time with the router and a tenon saw later and, as you can see, hey presto, flat pack, glue and some assembly required, but no bits missing....









What's more all the bits for this came out of a single 2m x 0.6m sheet, and nothing else. I think this was the point at which I really started to believe that the office could not just be a reality but something really quite special.

The Office. Part 4 - There's always a catch.

Obviously, whilst going to all the effort of building a new office, there's no point in putting it in the same old poorly decorated room. When first spending time and money on painting the walls and wood work, it seemed a shame to keep the same old carpet, which was a little past it's prime.

Carpets and cats don't go so it was decided to sand the wooden floor down and apply some new coats of varnish.

It all sounded simple, but as those of you who have dealed with previously varnished floors will know, it wasn't. Mrs VL started off with the belt sander, which simply melted the old varnish and made even more mess. Next step was to rope in a poor unsuspecting visitor (the cat's foster mum in this instance), adourn chemical resistant poly bags and attack the floor with paint remover,


(Cutting edge reporting this, one can't begin to imagine how much trouble I'll get in for posting this picture...)

Success was little more than partial. Weeks later and after more chemicals, many worn out sand sheets for both the round and belt sander and with much frustration the floor was finally ready for a new coating.

Here's Mrs VL half way through the first of many coats. You can also see the new colour scheme, freshly applied.

The Office. Part 3 - The lower book shelf.

I started constuction with the easiest bit, the lower part of the bookshelf which also makes up part of the support for the desk itself.

After some fussing about with my router gig to get the correct width for the mortices that support the end of each shelf, it all came together very well, and is good and solid.

Here is the result.

The Last Spud

Last weekends Saturday dinner, kindly cooked by the mother in law whilst we were busy with other projects, saw us consume the last of the product of last years "lazy beds".

Below is a picture of the harvest of one of the 3 types we planted. All in all they all kept very well in our basement food store, and I am very pleased that we have not had to buy a single spud for the best part of 9 months.

The last Onion was consumed during our dramatic winter holiday , again you can see part of the harvest in the photo (in the sack). These also kept excellently so we'll be growing even more this year. Need to get some garlic in as well, I've missed out on that for the last two years.