Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

had a reasonable day out with Doug, for his 70th .... aside from the Siberian wind .... pass me my ears back, please

Can't believe the ol' bugger was 70

got back to find a lovely PM in my msg box, from an ex employee ..

" Alright slim. Just to let you know the company are looking to put me through university to do my honours in engineering. Just a quick one to say thanks for everything you taught me, it's helped me come a long way"

Slim indeed ..... cheeky bugger

Certainly what makes the job worth while

he could be hard work at times too , but has done well for himself, as have several other ex-employees.

I never minded losing them, if they were bettering themselves

Had one lad .... a great boy, go off to Oz for a year ..... gave him a CD of pix, of a lot of his work and a letter of recommendation, to take with him, for any possible 'employment opportunities' out there ..... it never failed him once he was a great fabricator though.
He now runs his own little fab biz and's doing nicely, thank you.

It could be very rewarding.

27th Feb ......

inch of snow on the floor this morning didn't make for a good start for a trek to Cardiff and me MOT .....

sod all 5 miles away though

saw on the news lotsa folk around the country hadn't fared so well though

Looked like we were in for a caning at the end of the week .... couple of feet and serious cold

well, well, well !!! look what I found in the letter box in the afternoon when I got back from Caeeeerdiff





very tempted to respond with:- " to avoid potential future inconvenience " I shall be shopping else****ingwhere
Cheeky bast**ds


yet another 12 days to get here and they couldn't even be bothered to put a signature on the letter.


every piece of correspondence I'd had from them had arrived 12 days after it was dated !!!!




the following day !!


thank God it didn't come down like that all day here .....





that was'nt fog .. that was the visibility and like it on / off all day.


A lot less than predicted/forecast for the day though ... 'the morrow' might be a different story, but it was changing by the hour.


I did know it is seriously cold out there by the evening and had been all day ... much better than the promised 12" of white shite though




well St Davids Day - Dewi Sant, 1st March was something else ...... Jeeez was it coming down down here that night, as it had done all day.


Had to keep clearing the ever growing heaps against the doors ..... half way up the cat flap ....
And had to do it again before I went to bed, or it could well be submerged, by the morning.
Cats would not be impressed, not as they're overly enthused about being shoulder deep in white shite yet again either






well it snowed all night ...... my motor wasn't going to be going anywhere in a hurry for a while








Rangey had more around it lots more

Rudely awoken at 4 am ....... Squeaky Puss rattling the hell out of the kitchen door.


Came down to see WTF was wrong .... cat flap completely buried and him wanting out, sharpish.


So geared up and went and dug yon flap clear .. together with a few routes to some grass, which I'd also had to clear .... again ..... did all this 3 ish hours earlier, 'fore I went to bed......
could not see where I'd even been


Had to do it all again that morning





good job it'd been blowing like hell all night, or there'd have been an even deeper covering of white shite


didn't venture far that day and looking at the drifts coming out of the fields, into our garden, I doubted the driveway was going to be very good either


Rangey was sat surrounded by a good 18" of the white-shite





the wind had sort of done us 'some' favours and kept it in 'heaps' .... but they were deep 'heaps' .... would've been some covering if it'd stopped where it dropped ......





was still coming down that night, but had eased off intermittently .... Temperature was well down again though!!


Didn't look like I was gonna be going far 'tomorrow' either .... not unless we had some sort of rain - or heatwave over tonight !!

Was supposed to have been going to an Engcon Dig Day on the Saturday ......... just wasn't happening

[v8druid]

eventually managed to get out the following tuesday, thanks to overnight rain and warmer temps thawing the white shite out a bit.


Couple of pix from Chris, our neighbour, who's field I've been filling holes in with my spoil


this was the road at the top of our drive





he's 6' 4" ..... glad I didn't bother clearing our drive on that Saturday ..... only to have been confronted with the Groesonnen Road in this state .... got cleared late Sunday apparently with a blower


couple of his driveway .... he's our next door neighbour two fields away ....









ours that afternoon ....





after some serious thawing and a lot of rain last night .... still a foot deep in places ...... come on rain !!

couple more of our road on the saturday morning, from another friend .. not the greatest quality .... but it was snowing a bit ......
















I didn't even bother trudging up the drive for a look ..... enough down here to know we weren't going anywhere .... let alone Engcon at Tewkesbury !!!

[v8druid]

it all eventually 'went' .- sort of and Friday the 9th dawned bright and sunny, contrary to the forecast, got some gear out to try and get on with a few things.

half hour later it was peeing down !!!


noticed me big concrete block/test weight was looking 'not quite as I left it' as I was tidying me stuff away and thought "better shift that - not looking as safe as it was, on the edge".


anyway ... visitor turned up, coffee was consumed, followed by lunch and it continued to pee down, so thought "sod it - manyana ! "


Mistake - big mistake .... it lashed it down Friday night .... woke me up several times HAMMERING on the Velux !! Some sort of deluge !!!


Looked out the bedroom window on the Saturday morning and thought "f**k!!"





Had Rory from the CEF coming lunchtime, to pick up his orange peel grab, with his new truck, once he'd collected it from Swindon.


weather that Saturday wasn't a lot better than the Friday and damned if I was gonna get soaked sorting the problem ... could still get at Rory's grab so ............ wait for a drier day.


The man himself arrived lunchtime and after a couple of cups of tea, a cuddle with Sparty Puss and getting re-acquainted with Clara it'd eased off enough to load his grab.
He got me into all sorts of grief on FB with one of his 'legendary' live videos of me, tying his grab down .... mostly from numpties who'd no idea of just how good the old half sheep shank with rolling hitch (lorry driver's hitch) is, at holding things stationary on a vehicle !!


was still where we'd parked it when he got back to Kingsbridge, so must've been 'passable' !! Before ratchet straps, t'was all we had to keep yer load in place and still works fine !!


The Monday was a little more clement so had an hour or so tidying up the landslide





and what'd spewed down with it ...


'fore tidying it all away, for now





then stuffed the soil back up into a bit of order and hopefully hold back anything else that was contemplating making good an escape !!





the rest of it'd have to wait for a drier day!

the 15th (nearly caught up guys) was just such a "drier day" so decided to get the corner of the hardstand re-organised, so's I could re-locate some of the stuff from up top ..... before it tried doing it itself !!


pulled everything out the corner ... buckets, pallets o' crap, walker, etc. and re-juggled it all to fit ......





Lifted down a few bags of stone,on pallets, then re-bagged a few more that'd refused to be lifted onto more pallets ----- Grrrrr! Bloody bio-degradable bags !!!!!!!


She never ceases to amaze me, just what she'll lift, full stretch, on rubber, cross carriage!! ....





admittedly we were on two wheels occasionally, but a careful bit of balancing, whilst I get it a bit closer and it's fine ..... could always drop a leg or the blade, but .... I have the drop on what's feasible, without !!





could really have done with the VA-r for squeezing 'em into position once down, but the extra 500 kgs'd have made a big difference to lifting 'em down, to start with, so managed to juggle myself about, to get them all somewhere near where I wanted them, ... for now.


There was another line of bags on pallets across the front there that night, which was about the limit for 'juggling' ..... was getting tight, getting the forks back out, from under the pallets !! .... VA-r will deffo get deployed to shift 'em again ... so easy with the forks under that .


Finished the day off with the disposal of some knackered old pallets that'd been under some of the bags, plus assorted burnable crap ......





now needed some more dumpies, to reload a LOT of stone, that's spewed from those bio-f***ing-degradable bags, that've been sat there far too long, for their own good and my patience !! Hence they'm all now sat on pallets, for ease of movement.


Hopefully got a local stone mason coming to start on facing me retaining wall shortly and I want to be 'ready' for him, when he decides to start.


20 tonne of sand next!!!

had another half day shifting a couple more bags of stone, on pallets, last Friday .... after I'd filled the damned things, by hand, with what had spewed out of the previous receptacles, that'd succumbed to the sunlight ..... bloody bio-degrade-ability indeed


AND burnt yet more crap .......





Had Josh, his wife and baby Shem home for the weekend, last Friday evening, after having to postpone, two weeks earlier, due to the bloody snow ....... for his 30th Birthday !!

[v8druid]

Josh & co. arrived about 7pm ..... the bloody snow started about an hour later ....... and came down for a good 15 hrs !!!!





Another 15-20cms ...... yet again and -3C to -5C with it





getting bored with clearing vehicles, by this stage, to say now't about the drive!!!!!!




Granny Pam had a great time with this one .....





as did Clara, with her lil' cousin





and Uncle Joshy's cake & candles ..... another of Pam's GF creations





and blowing them out ....... several times





Sunday was spent at a little less leisurely pace .... clearing the drive of enough 'white shite' to get his car to the top of the drive for a departure for Plymouth later in the day.....

Helped by a couple of neighbours who's visitors also had to be out and gone too !!





as long as I could see the edges, his car was going up there .... even if it was on the end of a rope behind my 'Rangey'





Had warmed up a bit Sunday, which helped and took advantage of +C temps to get his motor out ..... good job too ..... froze again by 2 in the afternoon
they made it home anyway ..... main roads were pretty good .... better than all the minor ones for sure .




Woke Monday morning to blue skies, sunshine, ......... melting snow and a cold house !!!!


No boiler !!!!!! ....... Sod's law, least it didn't do it Sunday.


spent 5 hrs on my knees 'praying' to the little white boiler God .... stripping it down, going through the damned thing looking for a fault ... was sequencing but not firing up .... cleaned everything, including the photocell for the flame sensing, even though it wasn't getting that 'far', adjusted the ignition electrodes, purged all its lines (Kero fired, blown burner) .... stuck it all back together and ............... we had heat ..... barely had it off all monday ..... get the house warmed up again


No real idea quite WTF it was ??? ..... it's going to get a massive going over when the weather gets better ..... just very happy to sort it


Oh and aside from the large piles of 'white shite' sitting about waiting to thaw ...... a hell of a lot of it had departed through the day


still some substantial drifts through the hedges though ........ was 20cms on that lawn Sunday





I hate it with a passion ..... best place for snow is in the Alps, under a ski lift

Tuesday nights are ....................................... treatment nights





"c'mon Granddad .... this won't hurt, a bit!! "





Could be a while 'fore she gets anywhere near my arms, with a cannular and bag of 'Hamster juice' !!


Smaller gloves required too, perhaps !!!!! ....... and that gentlemen has gotten me right smack bang up to date on my exploits .......... for now, anyway

[Muz]

" Galvanized steel performs well in contact with most fuels which are relatively inert and result in a low corrosion rate. The exception tends to be hydrated fuels such as for example pink diesel where the corrosion rate is significantly higher.
None the less if zinc corrosion products form it is possible that they might result in blockages of filters and tight orifices "

Owing to the collapse or crack atleast appearing in my old diesel tank I dissasembled it to get the tank gear off, and on removing the the main bulkhead fitting which is anodised, I found this ?



IMG_0507.jpgIMG_0508.jpgIMG_0509.jpg

Clearly you can see where the dye has come out of solution and settled on the exposed metal parts ... whether thats significant or not I cant say, but certainly interesting to see, and why would it do that to the metal only ? no plastic was stained internally

[v8druid]

Owing to the collapse or crack atleast appearing in my old diesel tank I dissasembled it to get the tank gear off, and on removing the the main bulkhead fitting which is anodised, I found this ?



[ATTACH=CONFIG]4039[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]4040[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]4041[/ATTACH]

Clearly you can see where the dye has come out of solution and settled on the exposed metal parts ... whether thats significant or not I cant say, but certainly interesting to see, and why would it do that to the metal only ? no plastic was stained internally

very interesting Muz ..... the dye is only an additive and although it won't 'settle out' it will separate. (as the above staining would indicate)
All my truck mounted cranes were all 'stack' exhausts with tall outlets .... an easy day on site would often see a sticky residue build up on the outer, upper 6-12" of the stack, which'd burn off when warmed up, gunning it up the road, at the end of the day .... I'd always been of the opinion it was the dye in the cherry collecting?????

what period of immersion has that fitting had Muz? .... no signs of corrosion though, just staining, which is also interesting
was it the goldy phospor anodise or the sivery zinc anodise coating, do you know??

[Muz]

Yes it was the gold type finish, as they are just plain hydraulic fittings .. the dye was just a deposit at this stage as you could wipe it with your finger, the tank would have been in service for about 7 years.

[v8druid]

Yes it was the gold type finish, as they are just plain hydraulic fittings .. the dye was just a deposit at this stage as you could wipe it with your finger, the tank would have been in service for about 7 years.

and no signs of corrosion Muz .... hmm!! ..... even more interesting

[Muz]

and no signs of corrosion Muz .... hmm!! ..... even more interesting

Actually the washer would have been galvanised ... but some would have been burnt off due to the welding .. doesn't look like it mattered, the dye settled on all the metal parts

[ianoz]

Makes you wonder what the inside of injector pumps look like especially if machine sits around a lot ..
We don't have the problem here in Australia as we don't have red diesel .

[v8druid]

Makes you wonder what the inside of injector pumps look like especially if machine sits around a lot ..
We don't have the problem here in Australia as we don't have red diesel .

I'm still struggling to get my head around the Galv assoc.s' reply, referencing "hydrated fuels" .....cherry is only white with a dye in it and they've got no issues with white ???????? ....... so aside from dying the pumps, etc., red ..... WTF else does it do to gear .... and WHY????

[v8druid]

well the third lot of snow eventually buggered off and the SSE boys must've been having issues ..... been flying the lines around here for two hours earlier in the week .....








thought they were coming in for a landing .......








hell of a job, eh !!


mixed bag of weather this week and been rock sorting, shifting / re-bagging stone and getting it onto pallets so's I could lift it down from the high level, as the rain and Clara days allowed.


Having got it into new bags, no way was I lifting it down, reliant on their straps .... and worse still lifting it about again, when me stonemason turns up to stick it all up.


Local merchants wanted 7 quid, plus VAT, a bag for dumpies .... ten for 30 quid off good ol' fleabay ... tested / certed Oct. '17 ... tha'll do me.


not a lot in the way of pix ....





two down yesterday, after filling the damned things .....





and another two today, between interruptions, from the boss.



Hell didn't it rain last night


my arms are hanging off after bagging that lot ..... and like a swamp underfoot up there !!
.... Followed by a large conflagration to dispose of the bollo-ed bags and various crap.


'Drema's Auto idle been misbehaving this week .... as in not doing as it should. Got to flip the dead man to bring her back to idle ...
I shall have to investigate, that or it's hand throttle cable installation time.
TBH I'd prefer a hand throttle to get a better choice of engine revs ... the two options I use most are 1400 or 1800 rpm ..... reckon 15-1600'd be just right, but not do-able on my dash.


Need to blag another 8 pallets from somewhere, as I've run out of decent pallets to sit the bags on !!


first lamb of the year, in our neighbour's fields, Wednesday ...





got approaching a dozen now


Got a few more Houdinis this year too ..... have rounded up nine of the damned things this week ..... how the hell they jump the fence line, pregnant, is beyond me ... vertical take off sheep .... they walk up to it, quick glance and they're over it .... they are 'Welsh mountains' though, so explains a lot !!

[v8druid]

Yard is starting to 'square up' but, gonna need another re-juggle in places .... got more crap that needs tucking at the back, rather than dumping in front of other things ...
or I'll be forever moving stuff.


the bags of stone are for a 9" face on the retaining wall, down the side of the driveway, which I'm hoping is going to get started on soon, hence my enthusiasm to have it all accessible


Boss had me busy half the day, yesterday . ... filling a bit of a gully between our old driveway and the neighbour's wall ... where we rebuilt/re-erected that fence a while ago.
It's a bitch to keep tidy and mow/keep the grass/weeds at bay, so the level needed to come up to a 'mowable' flat surface.


Dumpy bag, full of gash stone and another of 20 mm to dust and it's looking better (and flatter). Knackered a lot of my day though, but kept her happy.


He (the neighbour) has been busy replacing the stock proof fence between our lawn and his field....





.. not my problem, I'm happy to say, least it wasn't, 'til I got earache teatime!!
We'd already had 'words' about his proposed replacement .... all post and rails, instead of like for like ... std. pig/stock wire and top rail ....
he's done a bit of post and multi rail in his garden .... looks bloody hideous and SWMBO was not having that !!


Anyway, he'd already taken the piss a bit, by raising the height of it, but it looked OK-ish .... then I came in tea time to see he'd gone and double railed a section, instead of banging in a strand of wire to compensate for his increase in height ....
'Fraid there are going to be more 'words' in the a.m. !!!!!!


If I get earache, he's gonna share it ..... and lose his extra rail !!!
Can't understand the guy, after all I do for him, he's got to take the piss.


Short memory .... I was out with him, in all that first lot of snow, just after crimbo, lashing together a temporary water supply, for him and t'other neighbour, (who's as good as gold and always grateful, whenever I get him/them out the shit) .... spent hours, loads of MDPE fittings and a new roll of 32mm pipe, cut up to suit the problem in hand ..... i.e. frozen, exposed/uninsulated joints in his system .... we'd had the same temp.s too and no issues!!!!!!!!


Anyway .... we shall sort it in this morning. ...


we've had THREE whole dry days !!
Me ramp was the driest it's been in months and I wanted to get on it to reach the remaining bags of stone, etc., that I couldn't reach from me planings level.





With that bundle of stakes off the top of everything, I could get at the remaining dumpies and very carefully extract 'em from their resting places





managed to lift a few in one piece (that I rebagged a while back) onto pallets and got the rest down onto the lower level, without them spewing their guts, 'fore they got there ....





I might manage to get one or two onto pallets, if I am REALLY carefully, but one let go for sure just as it touched down !!
More pallets required first though .....


Got as much 'other crud' down as I could, before a late tea, at nigh on seven in the evening .. 'Boss' could see I was busy and making progress, so didn't hinder it with a food break .. timed it just right.
I'd got 99% done, I was going to achieve ; it had just started to rain, as I came off the ramp........and I was starving !!


Situation normal again here last night - - pissing down !!!!!!
Clara day and treatment evening, today; forecast was wet!! ....... it bloody well is too
Much the same on the weather front Wednesday too, if they're to be believed !!!!

[v8druid]

Lovely to get yet another PM yesterday evening, from one of my favorite ex-employees....
a great lad with so much skill and tremendous patience for his meagre years - then!!
Another school boy, I'd had on work experience, from school and told him to come back as and when he finished school .....
IIRC he stayed 10 + years, maybe 12 ?? Broke my heart to lose him TBH
Was 'like one of the family'

" Hi matey. Thought you would like to know i passed my Degree in Construction Management today.
Thank you for putting a firm root in my career path "

[245dlc]

well the third lot of snow eventually buggered off and the SSE boys must've been having issues ..... been flying the lines around here for two hours earlier in the week .....








thought they were coming in for a landing .......








hell of a job, eh !!


mixed bag of weather this week and been rock sorting, shifting / re-bagging stone and getting it onto pallets so's I could lift it down from the high level, as the rain and Clara days allowed.


Having got it into new bags, no way was I lifting it down, reliant on their straps .... and worse still lifting it about again, when me stonemason turns up to stick it all up.


Local merchants wanted 7 quid, plus VAT, a bag for dumpies .... ten for 30 quid off good ol' fleabay ... tested / certed Oct. '17 ... tha'll do me.


not a lot in the way of pix ....





two down yesterday, after filling the damned things .....





and another two today, between interruptions, from the boss.



Hell didn't it rain last night


my arms are hanging off after bagging that lot ..... and like a swamp underfoot up there !!
.... Followed by a large conflagration to dispose of the bollo-ed bags and various crap.


'Drema's Auto idle been misbehaving this week .... as in not doing as it should. Got to flip the dead man to bring her back to idle ...
I shall have to investigate, that or it's hand throttle cable installation time.
TBH I'd prefer a hand throttle to get a better choice of engine revs ... the two options I use most are 1400 or 1800 rpm ..... reckon 15-1600'd be just right, but not do-able on my dash.


Need to blag another 8 pallets from somewhere, as I've run out of decent pallets to sit the bags on !!


first lamb of the year, in our neighbour's fields, Wednesday ...





got approaching a dozen now


Got a few more Houdinis this year too ..... have rounded up nine of the damned things this week ..... how the hell they jump the fence line, pregnant, is beyond me ... vertical take off sheep .... they walk up to it, quick glance and they're over it .... they are 'Welsh mountains' though, so explains a lot !!

My friend Grant who's got a first generation Kobelco ED180 Blade Runner had the computer go to hell in a handbag while he was working way out in the bush so he did the same thing and replaced it with a manual throttle cable. Been working fine ever since. But won't do that with a newer generation machine with the 'fly by wire' controls that I don't understand the existence of on machines under the 80 tonne class.