What have you been doing today?

[Mottie]

Been attempting to clean the patio. Thought I'd invented a new system of weed removal, but then noticed the wall, door, window and me were all spattered with huge blobs of mud. Back to the drawing board!

Been there, done that. Damn pressure washers!

 

[diy_fun_uk]

A bit of harvesting over the allotment - got some new potatoes, mint, courgettes, beetroot, lettuce and mixed radish.

View attachment 347693

Haven't done so well with the strawberries though. From 12 plants, this is my total crop so far!

View attachment 347694

Had the kids and grandkids round for dinner and the football. A good day in all only spoiled by my son chucking a wet wipe down the downstairs bog and blocking the macerator! There’s a job for tomorrow!

Is it true that, generally, home grown stuff tastes better than supermarket bought? Or bit of an old wives tale? Assuming it's true, is the difference more noticeable with certain produce and if yes, what ones?

 

[securespark]

Been there, done that. Damn pressure washers!

Can you come over and do a bit more?


Just trying to work out the best solution to weeding the cracks...

A rotary tool to scrape out the cracks?

Plus maybe a cat friendly weed killer?

 

[securespark]

Is it true that, generally, home grown stuff tastes better than supermarket bought? Or bit of an old wives tale? Assuming it's true, is the difference more noticeable with certain produce and if yes, what ones?

Deffo tomatoes.

They taste way way better than the ones you can't buy in the shops....

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Cherries on my brother's tree (Stella variety) taste far better than anything in shops. Apples too - not sure of variety.

 

[Mottie]

Removing a wet wipe from our macerator that my son accidentally chucked down there yesterday.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thinking the dog, on the adapted stair lift, might be more at risk of accidentally stepping off the rear, than her trapping her feet on the leading edge, against the stair - as well as the possibility of her needing to use the lift, to go down - I transferred the vertical board, to the rear....

She was happier, climbing on the lift to go up, in fact now she voluntarily climbs on, and gets impatient, waiting for the button to be pressed to take her up. Happy to ride up, with, or without the front, vertical guard board in place, and stands well clear of trapping her feet at the front. So I transferred it to the rear, which caused absolute her absolute chaos, at first. She found it caused her lots of confusion, she just couldn't quite work out, at first, how she was supposed to fit on the board, to ride up. It took lots of coaxing. After a few trips up on the lift, she got the idea, and accepted it was fine, with board behind her, instead of in front.

Then I tried her for the first time ever, to get her to ride down on the lift. She was quite a struggle to get her on, her very nervous facing the big drop in front of her, but with me walking in front, stepping backwards, as the lift progressed down, giving her lots of reassurance, we managed it, just the once. At least now I know, it is possible to get her back down too, using the lift

Arriving at the top, or bottom, there is a big wag of the tail, and a - aren't I clever.

 

[Mottie]

Is it true that, generally, home grown stuff tastes better than supermarket bought?

Much, much better.

Deffo tomatoes.

They taste way way better than the ones you can't buy in the shops....

And funny to say, they actually smell like tomatoes.

 

[crystal ball]

Daddy Osprey returned this morning with a headless trout, the theory is he may have been ill as his fish count was dropping before he went missing

Osprey chicks removed this morning and taken to a centre at Inverness, handover was at Spean Bridge commando memorial, after they have fledged they will be re located to a reserve in Spain, daddy osprey is still not fishing even to feed himself

 

[crystal ball]

Much, much better.

And funny to say, they actually smell like tomatoes.

When I was a nipper my grandad was a keen gardener, he grew toms in his greenhouse, fed them with garden tea from a water butt replenished from by products from sheep on the common, the aroma from the plants was overpowering. He kept a huge veg garden and also a floral front garden despite losing a leg in WW1

 

[securespark]

What a banana!

Anyone else would have realised that the laws of physics would dictate that when you apply a high pressure water jet to some mud, the water would propel the mud onto everything within a half mile radius!

 

[Mottie]

Two of our fixed rate ISA's and two of our fixed rate bonds mature this week so I’ve been searching the net for better deals. Turned out the company we were with wasn’t that far behind the best offers on the market so I reinvested with them. CBA with isa transfers or withdrawing funds and moving them about.

Replaced our broken click clack pop up basin waste with a swivel one. Just a few leaks afterwards as per…..

 

[securespark]

We have a click clack in the ensuite and while the action is good, the flipping thing leaks. And the two in the bathroom are temperamental.
I have thought about the swivel wastes, but I'm not sure I can trust them.

Anyway, today I took down one of the 6ft flus in the kitchen and swapped it for a JCC Skypack. Easy to fit in that both halves are very light. And you only need a screwdriver to fix the base to the ceiling. You then attach the front to the base with clips, attach the earth flylead and the lead from the supply. Then it's just a case of attaching one to the other and they just clip together.

My only struggle was that I can't climb steps, so I was working from an exercise platform, which is about 6 inches high.....

Nice soft light and looks less utilitarian than a flu, even Mrs S said it looked good!

 

[Mottie]

Much to Mrs Motties annoyance, I agreed to do a service on a couple of cars owned by a customer I’ve had for over 40 years. "You’ve retired from that" she said. It’s just service on an Astra and a Fiesta. Piece of pìss. He dropped the Astra off at my house early this morning for me to take in today. Checking it over, I noticed it needed a set of front pads so I put the wheels back on and drove it up to Eurocarparts to get a set of pads as well as the service bits. Drove back to the workshop, took the pads out and….wrong pads. Worse thing was, I'd destroyed the box opening them and as the discs had a very slight lip, I also took the edge off the pads with a file to clear the lip. It was after I’d lubed them and tried to fit them that I discovered they were wrong. I cleaned them up and put them in what was left of the box, finished the service and went back to ECP on my way home. I thought they’d refuse to accept them back as I’d taken the edges off. Luckily they didn’t notice. They taped the box back together and gave me the correct pads this time. I went home and fitted them outside my garage at home. I didn’t mention to Mrs Mottie that I’d f'cked up, just told her I had to wait for them to get them in and rather than go back to the workshop, I did them at home. I’d have never heard the last of it otherwise! Got too much on for tomorrow and Friday and we're away the weekend so doing the Fiesta next week. I must do something about selling that workshop or renting it out but it’s costing me nothing and it comes in handy for fixing my own cars. I had it valued a while ago and it was valued at approx 40 times what we paid over and above the average price of a standard 3 bed house without a garage in that area in 1984 so not done too bad.