Recovered Timber for New Access Staging on our Garden

 Today Jo and recovered the old timber that had been removed from the offside non-residential moorings opposite us which was replaced as the original was collapsing.

This photo is an old photo but the timber is all on the bank behind the new pontoon, but since this photo the fence had been replaced which made recovery more interesting.

I used a boat hook to pull the timber towards us and Jo grabbed and put it into the workboat.

This was all the timber recovered, and in the workboat ready to have the nails removed and stacked on our patio and pontoon. It took us till lunchtime to do this.

This is me grinding off the old nails after lunch, I then passed the timbers to Jo and she stacked them on our patio and pontoon.

The empty workboat.

The timber neatly stacked temporarily on our patio.

Some recovered fence posts which we hope to use to add a safety fence to the staging which the original did not have.

This is what is left of the collapsing staging, which Jo removed the footway from, to expose what was underneath for Simon to see in preparation for replacing it. 

It needs replacing for 2 reasons, it had started to collapse at the front edge and the footway was sloping, and most of the footway timbers were rotten and a few had already broken due to the rot, due to these 2 reasons it was no longer safe to walk on.

The staging is to give easy access to our hedge at the back of our garden, which without the staging would be impossible get to due to the slope of the garden, especially when wielding hedge trimmers!

In this photo the hedge is on the left.

Keith

Snowing ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

Definitely snowing this morning 

Keith

Hadarford in Railway Modeller

 My narrow gauge model railway Hadarford is in the October issue of Railway Modeller.

Ever since I purchased my 1st issue over 50 years ago, I have always wanted to get a layout of mine within its pages.

Keith

Fence Painting

Yesterday and today, Jo has been painting our mooring fencing, gate and bunkers.

I helped a little until my back started to hurt.

I have had at least 2 of my prolapsed discs return, and I have been taking things easy recently.

The final touches.

Keith

Repainted Gnome

Having been busy lately working on my railway, especially painting, and having my paints out, I decided to repaint our garden gnome.

He looks a lot happier now.

Keith

Finished Water Cans

The freshly painted water cans looking a lot better now.

Keith

New Gate Fitted

Today the hinges and catch arrived in the post, and I soon had the gate hung in place.

It opens right back out of the way.

From the path side.

Keith

Veg Patch

Having set up the new mini greenhouse, Jo has cleared an area of of garden ready for a veg patch.

Keith

Water Cans

With the continuing good weather I have decided to repaint out 2 water cans, this is them before I started.

Keith

Mini Greenhouse

Having decided to stay on our mooring for the rest of this year, we ordered a mini greenhouse, which arrived today.

We soon had it assembled and fixed in place ready to start to grow some vegetable seeds.

Keith

Slide Repairs

With the good weather at the moment Jo and I set about doing a temporary repair to our back cabin slide, replacing a section of one of the runners with a new piece of wood, and primered ready for final painting.

Keith

New Gate Entrance to our Mooring

With plenty of time on our hands I set about installing a new gate post at our stern end of the mooring.

New gate, which was an old table I made, in place but awaiting new hinges and a catch in the post.

This now gives us gated access at both ends of our mooring, which is far more convenient for us.

Keith

Ducklings

We have a family of ducklings and their mother who visit us every day, the ducklings sit on the wheel whilst mum sits on the bank keeping her eye on them.

Whilst the ducklings are enjoying the sunshine on our wheel, we are enjoying the weather on our patio.

Keith

VE Day Celebrations

With us being in lock-down we have put out our union flags to quietly celebrate VE Day.

Keith

Hatton Station to Saltisford Arm

With a relatively short run down the Hatton flight this morning we are safely back on our mooring where we will stay now for the foreseeable future.

The Saltisford Canal Centre is in complete lock-down, it is not open to the public of visiting boats as we have vulnerable residents here that we are protecting.

Keith

The Arena Birmingham to Hatton Railway Station, 22.9 miles, 20 locks, 3 tunnel, 9hrs 55mins.

An even longer day today by an extra 20 mins.

Now moored alongside Hatton railway station

Keith.