Shed State - Two Degrees and getting Warmer

First posted on http://woodlandantics.wordpress.com

After days of temperatures below or around freezing in the shed it’s finally getting a bit warmer – all of 2 degrees C today and balmy temperatures upto 8 degrees are forecast for the weekend, along with heavy rain. All of which finally got me back on the lathe today. Yes that is a set of chair legs on the crate – more of that soon.

Slowly getting used to the wordpress site. Overall it’s easier to use but I haven’t managed to get the font and character size the same as it used to be on blogspot. Somehow a photo dropped off the frozen trough and load of logs post and I’ve only just noticed it -so here’s a purely gratuitous one.

On no, S'no joke all over again!

First published on http://woodlandantics.wordpress.com on Wednesday

In the throws of working on wordpress I've failed to copy the posts across to this site, but I should catch up later today when I back get from working in the shed. So this post is a little behind the times as the thaw has set in with heavy rain all this morning. Amazing how quickly things have changed, from a warm wet November, when it seemed that we'd have a mild winter, though the big freeze of mid December and early January and now the thaw. It seems hard to remember that we were snowed in only a few days ago.

Oh no it happened all over again yesterday, with another 3 inches of snow falling on still frozen ground, but this time with no gritting or ploughing of the roads. It was very noticeable this time that there was a lot less patience with the confitions and with other drivers. A predictable chaos ensued as lots of people thought they could handle the conditions, only to discover otherwise.

Conditions on the road to Liphook were chaotic for a while with cars failing to get up the hill and cars sliding downwards at the same time. I made the mistake of going to gawp and watch the entertainment but got pulled into traffic direction on the hill for 3 hours whilst we pulled cars out with a tractor. That’ll teach me.

But after a couple of hours it all went strangely quiet as folks either got to their destination or realised they would not get there and turned back.

The first signs of a thaw arrived though, and the icicles over the side of the house, just above the logstore made getting logs a bit too dangerous until I knocked them off. The longest icicle was about 4ft.

Now we’re just waiting for the snow to go as the temperature slowly rises and it’s even started raining today. It’s been fiun and very different while it’s been so cold, but the thaw is not so much fun – back to the woods before too long as there is a lot to do now.

Frozen troughs and a load of logs

First posted on http://woodlandantics.wordpress.com

Everything seems to take longer in the Big Freeze and there are unanticipated jobs to do as well. The shetland cattle that graze the Lynchmere Commons during the summer are on the adjacent meadows for the winter and during this weather they are fed hay harvested from the meadows in the summer. But in the persistent low temperatures the water feed to the troughs has frozen solid.

For the last few days I’ve been moving water to them in containers to help out the grazier. Today temperatures rose enough that I managed to unfreeze the feed using a blowtorch, so that will make things a bit easier for a while

At the same time I managed to get into the woods for the first time in a week and move a load of logs that I’d prepared before the current snow hit us.

Not a big load, but enough for the depth of snow and the slope back up the hill out of the woods. But what should have taken an hour or two took the best part of the day.

Got a new leg

Also posted on http://woodlandantics.wordpress.com

Despite the big freeze I’ve made some progress on the repairs to my shortwheel base landrover.

The work started by stripping off the wing over the affected chassis leg. One of the good things about these old vehicles is the aluminium bodywork which is bolted so removing and replacing major items of bodywork can be quite easy – the more often you do it, the easier it gets.

The old chassis leg had cracked above the axle. Replacing the complete leg is not a normal operating procedure and to do it right we’ll need the replacement to be aligned perfectly or else the spring will not sit properly. To help this we constructed an angle iron jig across the front of the chassis so we can align the front of the replacement accurately. The rear is aligned by measurements. All done before we cut off the old leg.

The replacement chassis leg from the donor vehicle is fitted in 2 sections, first the rear spring hanger (bottom right of the image) and then the main leg is eased into position with a bottle jack to align it at front and rear before welding.

The replacement leg fitted, welded and with the spring, axle and wheel reattached. I’ve never attempted anything as complicated as this before and at times I really thought it would have been better to go for a new chassis. But thanks to my friend Richard it’s turned out really well. That’s the good news.

We also repaired the chassis on the other front leg which was much less corroded and then short test drive. This happened just before New Year, hence the relatively small amount of snow on the ground.

The bad news is that, as always, I found a bit more work that needs doing. The front panel is badly corroded and in need of repair before it collapses and the radiator needs replacement. Despite having just been upgraded to 50% antifreeze the waterpump chose this moment to spring a leak. So a new water pump whilst we are at it. But with temperatures only just recovering from a steady minus 3 C in the shed it will be a while before I can get this work completed.

Snow and Blogs

With the snow still on the ground I have a little time to do computer work today. Of course it should be my tax return, but instead I’m getting to grips with WordPress which seems much more advanced and useful than the current google blogspot site.

Here’s the view from the kitchen window with the bluetit's fighting it out for Alison's homemade fatballs.

I am just starting to build the new site and I intend to keep posts on both for a while as I get the hang of it. If it works out I will switch to wordpress eventually.

The new site is http://woodlandantics.wordpress.com not much there today, but it should start to build in the next few days unless the weather suddenly turns balmy or I get a sudden urge to do my tax return.

It looks as if it will allow me to put up photo galleries of my work and other pages as well as the blog posts - now I just need to put in the hard work.

Snow on Lynchmere

Some snowy photos from around Lynchmere this week..........



The old wooden bus shelter (no buses sheltering here for a few days now).....



Fairly unsuitable for cars as well......



This hay meadow also looks good in white......



Not much sign of anyone using the post box at the moment either.....



St Peter's church - even the church services have been cancelled.....



Now is that signpost measuring distance or is it time to get there in hours?



The old ash tree close to the barn looks good in all seasons, but especially in winter when it's shape is accentuated.



all this marching through the snow taking photos is quite tiring, not to mention cold as the temperature remains stubbornly below zero all day, so it's good to get back home....




....stoke up the stove and keep the snow at bay!

The journey to work took.....

.......almost all day on Wednesday! The start was a walk up the lane past the cars abandoned by those who didn't make it up the hill the night before, on my way to the barn to fetch a tractor. None of the minor roads had been gritted or ploughed - including those that are bus routes. But not much danger of a bus for a while.




It was still snowing with everything a very heavy grey as I walked up the track to the barn with snow upto my knees.




Luckily the tractors started. Winter now being on the way I decide to fit the doors to my tractor before setting off.




Giving the tractors a run had been part of the plan for the day as I had intended to move some logs. That wasn't going to happen but there were plenty of other jobs for which the tractor was now the best form of transport.




Nobody was going anywhere up on top of the hill so I visited a couple of people before heading back down where a few tractors and the odd 4x4 had been around.




I was called back up the hill a few minutes later as a large oak had just fallen across and blocked the road. Abandoned cars and trees falling during the day made the roads virtually impassable. As the A3 was still blocked this minor road was the alternative and it wasn't long before a collection of landrovers, including the army, were waiting or helping to clear the tree.

On the twelth day of christmas...

.........my true landrover gave to me..............

12 inches of snow




11 bottles of beer




10 welded patches




9 loads of firewood




8 shock absorbers




7 logs a burning




6 bags of bolts




fiiiiive wheeeeeelnuuuuuts




4 parabolic springs




3 bowlhooks




2 turned bowls





........and a range rover with an MOT

s'no joke!

It snowed as advertised last night. 12 inches on the path to the front door, and it's still snowing at the moment. This was the scene at 7:30 this morning when I reached the lane with my shovel. Deep enough to make walking a problem and the few people out and about are walking in the ruts made by the one landrover that has gone down the road this morning.


I've cleared a path to the lane, a path out the back door for Friz (Alison's dad's ex-guide dog is on holiday with us) and one around the side to fetch logs, so we're alright for a few days.

Welcome to the Wood-Mate

Not surprisingly with the temperatures plummeting firewood is never far from my mind at the moment. I've always wanted something to process the odds and ends of old handles, offcuts and small logs lying around the yard and cope a bit better than the saw-horse does. Cutting small logs is always frustrating with the chainsaw as they jump and roll so much and you make so many cuts for so little wood, get a broken back and are lucky not to dig the saw into the ground or a nail. So welcome to my Wood-Mate.



I had something of a brainwave today and when trying to cross cut a log on an old workmate I came up with a really easy to make firewood processor. The workmate was salvaged from a skip years ago, but any basic bench would do. Just add 4 sash clamps to make a cradle and 2 thick bungie cords to hold the wood securely - then cut with chainsaw.



The addition of an old fish crate (available in random colours to hardy beachcombers ) under the end serves to catch all of the wood from the cuts at the ends

Leaving only the central cuts which are caught by the bungies.

I even tried it with an old birch faggot and it sliced through the birch spray as well. Instant kindling as well as firewood.

In only two loads, about 12 saw cuts, I'd processed 2 or 3 dozen rods, sticks, offcuts and logs and tidied up a lot of old wood lying around the yard.

But the biggest application is probably still to come. I'm keen to try this out on some birch brash on the commons. It has the potential to allow me to process smaller wood which is normally wasted. I can take the tops and feed them directly into the charcoal bins instead of having to split it first.