Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

Lying bar stewards ..... by midnight yon forecast said drizzle by 10 a.m. Tuesday

Managed to get one load out and up the field....





and another in't Thwaites ....



'fore it turned seriously shitty wet

scrambled off the soft, before it got too sticky and abandoned play .....



was 'sposed to clear up by 11 ..... it did, but then took 'til half five to dry enough to get back on it

shot that dumper load down the field .... and thought better of a second one, .... twere a tad sticky / slippery still, so turned my attentions to sorting the bank and stockpiling what came off it







only trouble with that was ... 'twas getting in the way for getting angles to pull the corner ...... and it was getting dark(er) ....



bloody nights are drawing in all of a sudden .... quarter to eight and I really could not see the edges, so called it a night, "discretion being the better part of valour", etc. ..... and I DID NOT wanna f**k it up !! ... as said ... one chance ... only!!

[v8druid]

forecast for last night and today was ........ shit!!

Have to confess .... I didn't hear the bloody deluge in the night ...... missus said it was some bit wet ... but didn't look too bad this morning and had stopped

Too soggy to get on though, but drying nicely

so rather than waste the sunshine, I decided to go get the 6 loads of shale I'd dumped on the neighbour's parking/turning area sorted out, whilst I waited for it all to dry .... field looked passable, but me dig area was still looking 'sticky'

Grabbed me forks and a bucket and headed off up the drive .....



got up there, dropped me bucket on the floor and just dropping the forks off, to grab the bucket and thought ... "WTF's that running down the side window? ..... PLANTOHYD!! " .... ALL STOP!! .... forks on the deck and "WTF'S that coming from??"
I swear that patch of ground is ****ing cursed for hydraulics ... 'swhere she developed the load sensing line fault last year

Anyways ..... not as bad as could have been ..... small link pipe on the boom lift check valves .. pilot operated and have to say, been meaning to change this bugger for a while .... had to now!!



back to the house for some tools and the car for a dash out to Raglan and me hyd guys, after a quick call to make sure they had the metric ends.
Hour later and a shiny new hose installed .....



......I could get on with what I'd come to do ...... after I'd moved a skip .....



which was right smack bang in the way !!
dunno WTF was in the bottom of it, but it was heavier than it looked .... pushed about easy enough .... picking it up was a different story .... but it moved, with care.

30+ tons of shale pushed about later .....





and the muddy swampy bit was looking a lot tidier
Nice load of planings on top of that and it'll look just dandy

the offending 1/4 hose ..... always seem to go just behind the crimp



not bad though I 'spose .... looked to be an original hose and as said ...... could've been a whole lot worse!!

[Stock]

Batten down the hatches as Saturday to be a deluge...................

[v8druid]

Batten down the hatches as Saturday to be a deluge...................

your side of the water 'praps ..... looks good here ...... I certainly hope so

[ianoz]

Looks like the big tree on the batter is not going to be around much longer .

[Stock]

your side of the water 'praps ..... looks good here ...... I certainly hope so

Yea 23 mm here on Sat and you have it on Sunday...............

[v8druid]

Looks like the big tree on the batter is not going to be around much longer .

Need to enthuse the BIL to jump in the basket with Charlie again Ian .... could do with it being gone and don't want to simply drop it in case it rips the crap out of the bank.

Take it down quietly and then grub out what I cant chop down

[v8druid]

Yea 23 mm here on Sat and you have it on Sunday...............

Aye ..... looking that way by the forecast Stock

Today has been a non starter .... little un been here since nine this morning

Did get some done yesterday afternoon, after she'd gone ......

got shot of the stockpile on't floor first...








before creating another one finishing off that lil' bugger of a batter corner



took a bit of 'pulling' and had to travel as I pulled it to get the bucket rotation at the intersect, as I slewed to follow the dual angles ..... think I did alright with it though

Load count to yesterday evening ....




and the end results ...... from a few different angles ...









I'd wanted to pull the top of the shale layer to level it through today .... 'tis a bit up/down here and there .... but as said ... no chance ...... Hopefully Stock ... and the weather forecasters are wrong about tomorrow, but if they ain't ..... 'least the majority of the wet stuff should end up in the drainage channels .... hopefully

[Stock]

Well Druid its raining cats and dogs here since 1700 this evening, and watching the match from Galway it was atrocious .........
at one point the ball was blown back in to play from a goal kick.............

[v8druid]

Well Druid its raining cats and dogs here since 1700 this evening, and watching the match from Galway it was atrocious .........
at one point the ball was blown back in to play from a goal kick.............

Calm, still, clear night here ATM Boyo ..... Cold though, unless it does cloud over, I wouldn't be surprised to see frost on the grass in the morning ..... but that'd at least mean a clear sky .

I had heard that you lot invented rain anyway ....... and more often than not, lob it our way, pretending it's a product of Wales

[v8druid]

well it pee-ed down here all night (Saturday) and all day and night Sunday ... ground is seriously soggy ... or slick / muddy on the rocky bits !!

Forecast ain't particularly good either ...

At least I've got a decent idea of what needs what, to sort some flows out .....



..... and an idea of levels too, without dragging Stanley out to help!

had to stick me benches back today ... need to use em!!



Needed to rip the roller apart and so much easier than grovelling on the floor ...



getting too bloody old to be faffing about on my knees on the floor .... neither they, nor my feet cope well !!

as usual ... I had some help....



as suspected, the bobbins had given up the uneven struggle with gravity and vibes ......

they've not done badly .... 'bout 3 years since they were last done and it stands around a lot ......
mental note to self ... take the weight off them in future when standing



six new ones installed and ready to get re-assembled ..







was a lot bloody heavier than I remember it .... or 'praps I'm just not as 'good' as I was .... either way, gonna want three shredded wheat ..... or a 'Drema ....
and another pair of hands .... I'll give me mate a bell in the morning and see if he's up for ten minutes guiding it back into spot



or 'praps see what the neighbour's up to for ten minutes !!

new layout for the benches today .... got a patio balustrade to make for me BIL's daughter and need a bit more length, than the previous 'L' shaped layout gave me .... plus got the space to do it now ...







get the roller back together in the morning, then go metal shopping .... ain't gonna be dry enough to do much for a few days on the m/c front ....'sposed to be pissy wet again all night, 'til mid morning tomorrow !!!!

[RedLiner]

Nice work on the roller! It pays though to get some decent quality "Silent Blocks", those that you show there look pretty good. Cheap quality ones rip apart in no time.

I note the anvil in one of the photos.... you do a bit of shoeing as well eh!

[v8druid]

Nice work on the roller! It pays though to get some decent quality "Silent Blocks", those that you show there look pretty good. Cheap quality ones rip apart in no time.

I note the anvil in one of the photos.... you do a bit of shoeing as well eh!

Yers gotta have summat to beat seven shades out of stuff on ..... long story attached to how I came by that anvil

Those metalastics are Rover 2000 / 3500 P6 exhaust mounts .... identical to the original items and a third of the price

Can live with a three year life span and hopefully will extend that, this time, by making sure they don't have the weight sat on 'em, when not in use ... there's a serious amount of it sat on that side of the roller

[RedLiner]

..... long story attached to how I came by that anvil

Go on then, I've got a lot of time for your stories

[v8druid]

well the drive side on that roller was no lighter, the next day, but it had to have it ..... with a bit of a struggle and some grunted curses, it went back on the blocks and got wiggled / inched back into place ....




can't beat having the right tools for the job ..... especially when it comes to C spanners





better than thrashing the crap out of it with a chisel

All went back together a treat and sat really well, with a nice tight drive belt for the wobble shaft ....



this is the Klarius part number, for anyone else with a similar bobbin problem



then it pissed down .... for the rest of the day, so no test drive

stopped about 2 o'clock the following day and everything was 'kin wet and soggy, so filled the 'Drema up again, to make use of the dry time ...



another 21 an' a bit hrs and another 125 litres .... roughly 6 ltrs/hr, over the two fills and 310 ltrs for 51.5 hrs .... not bad

One interesting thing that's shown up with all this bloody rain, in the rock bed exposed, is a series of 'fault lines' which you can just about see in this pic .... the water is obviously making them stand out ...



has to be some sort of seismic cause, as this would have been one sedimentary deposit, all in one big bed/sheet. We have had the odd minor earthquake in this area, over my lifetime, but sod all you'd really feel ... must've been enough at some time to crack these beds though ..... might be handy for ripping out what remains to be taken down a bit


been pissy wet on and off for days and just when it gets dry enough to get onto ... it pees down again

The roller has had a few sessions and is working a treat, with good vibe and whacking it down, with each going over. Goes down even better after a good soaking . I desperately need to get some levels established for the back extremities, to see what else needs to come out / go in at the planings intersection with the rock bed. Getting the other half to co-operate has been uphill and we've had Clara a lot recently ... here all weekend
At least then when / if it ever gets dry enough to get onto, I can crack on.

Ordered some fan belts for Jakie last week .. one to go on and one as a spare ... quoted 7 an' a bit quid each and in stock.
Went to collect 'em Monday, with the bobbins .... "er they haven't come in yet" "you told me stock item!! "

turned up Thursday, Vicki collected 'em for me .... along with a bill for 43 quid ..... SERIOUS ****ING WORDS later and they'd returned to 'as quoted' and they'd 'swallow' the carriage charge on the invoice ... cheeky f***ers.

Most annoying bit was, could've had 'em next day off ebay, for the same money, a week earlier ..... and you try to 'keep it local' .... if it had been dry for a week, they'd have had an even bigger bollocking

Dry-ish yesterday morning, so tackled the fan belt job .... pump drive shaft off ...



alternator tensioner slacked back and old belt off .... think I had my value out of it





... and needed a change

getting the new one on proved a little more interesting

couldn't get the alternator to return against the block and took a little bit of spotting why ???



little bit of modifying later ....



and yes that is a vinyl glove .... manky as hell in there .... very rare that I wear gloves .. for anything, but was easier than getting the shite off later

job sorted



and new belt on and tensioned .....



just had to refit the pump's drive shaft and job was a good un'.

Was about to wind up the roller afterwards, for another 'circuit' and it rained ..... and when I say it rained i mean it ferkin' PISSED down ....



it was bouncing..... retreated to me box and stood there for a good 20 minutes .... even video-ed it (which is uploading) ... rain FFS

gave me some idea of levels though



all I need now is for the ground to dry out enough to get on it and deepen the channel as required, 'fore it all evaporates .... which it wasn't doing today .....

Planings did roll down real well after the deluge yesterday though



bloody vid is still loading so .... watch this space ...........
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