19.05.2025 Thursday rain will stop play.

 ~o~

  Monday 19th 54F/12C. Bright, with wall to wall sunshine promised. Reaching 19C/66F. A lighter northerly breeze. It could be very wet on Thursday. 

 Up at 6.15 after an unusually quiet night. I think the dustbin lorry woke me at 5.15.

 The contractor, who bid on the gravel work, is calling between 11 and 12am.  I'll have a short walk to loosen up and then finish off tidying the graveled area. My hands and wrists are aching from all the hard work.

 8.00 57F/14C. Back again. Sunny and warmer than the last few days. I didn't even notice the wind. I will start clearing right away and have coffee when I come back in for a rest.

 9.00 Back in for a rest, to cool off and morning coffee. I have cleared 95% of the wood from the graveled area.  

 9.20 Off we go again. It won't get itself tidied!

 10.30 60F/15.6C. Veiled sunshine. Back in again. Hot, tired and thirsty. I have been digging up granite boulders. They were used to mark the edge of the observatory's gravel platform. Which my wife and I laid from a lorry load of gravel dumped outside the gate. Now the same rocks are rolled off the rear bank. To help to stabilize another area. Most of the observatory contents has gone down the garden in wheelbarrows. To rest on another pallet. There were two more concrete anchors hidden under that! More work.   

 12.00 The contractor has just left. We discussed the gravel depth and area to be covered. Heavy rain on Thursday will make it difficult to excavate. So he has delayed the work until next week. That gives me more time to clear the site but is disappointing. The stacks will all have to be covered with tarpaulins before the rain comes. What will happen if it rains every day as forecast? He didn't say. This is a bit of an anticlimax after working so hard in the fine weather.

 I have lifted both anchors and they have joined the rest on the bank. To make a total of 24. The mass of garden tools has gone around the corner. As I clear the space in front of the workshop. This shed roof has a massive overhang. Which is all too tempting to use for storage.

 I might be tempted to cut it back to make a normal overhang. Before it rains! This will make excavation work much easier. As well as providing a wider turning space for vehicles. Plus a wider and gentler ramp down to the western lawn. I never thought about this until now. Because all my wife's gardening items gravitated to the shelter provided. Which I dared not touch. I just hope the gutter fixing screws will undo. It was a struggle. Cross-head screws. I brought out the electric, torque screwdriver.

 16.00 I have continued my labours. Removing the front row of plates from the workshop roof. I had to remove the gutter as well. Then cut away the rafters and battens. Now I just have to re-fix the gutter brackets and clip the gutter back up. The door had to be rehung higher too. Having removed the timber crosspiece above. To gain more headroom. 

 I may have to cut a strip off the bottom of the door while I am at it. To ensure clearance from the new gravel level. It has been dragging on the existing gravel for 20 years. I moved the door to the front of the building. Then blocked up the original doorway. Which faced the wind and the rain. It was after that I added the gravel. Which flowed downhill to cause the clearance problem.

 I dug out some photographic prints from early on. There were two tiny widows to the shed. I fitted a large cast iron window with multi-panes when I moved the door. The bathroom window was a small horizontal rectangle. I replaced that with a normal window too. Wooden framed, double glazed. It all seems so long ago I can hardly remember it now.

 I have been shortening the shed door. It has gained almost 200mm [8"] of ground clearance altogether. Shortening the roof overhang has gained me 90cm [3']. Well worth doing. 

 Dinner was organic sausages, baked beans and chips. I washed up while it cooked.

 

  ~o~

18.05.2025 He's at it again!

 ~o~

  Sunday 18th 50F/10C. Bright overcast with a more cloudy day promised. Northerly wind again.

 Up at 6.00 after a busy night attending to the fire bucket. I was drinking lots of water to combat the effects of sweating due to the near constant, heavy exercise. The salad can't have helped.

  My efforts to clear the site must continue apace. There is still much to do. The contractor is coming tomorrow to examine the site in person.

 7.15 Time for my walk. 

 7.50 Back again. Full sunshine. Lots of birdsong. I met two of my neighbours and a very small guard dog. 

 8.00 54F/12C Time to get back to work. Priorities? Clearing the space outside the house. Deciding the most efficient way of removing the pile of recyclable timber at the back of the gravel area. There are lots of long lengths. Which would need individual handling. Carrying them any distance would eat up the available time I have left. I'll have morning coffee on my first rest.

 8.50 Back in again. Dripping with sweat and already tired. Too windy to go without a jumper. Too hot to wear one. It is beginning to seem like a world's strongest man competition. I have moved the heavy carport components, the recycling bins and assorted other stuff. Which had no reason to be there anyway. 

 It has all gone down the garden. Onto the sloping western lawn. Tidily and within reach but safely clear of any likely excavation and earth moving activities. Time for morning coffee. So I can regain my strength. Perhaps I should change my t-shirts after every stint out there.

 10.00 The area outside the the house is completely clear and strimmed of grass and weeds. The carport's, polycarbonate, roof sheeting has gone into the greenhouse.

 11.00 I am breaking up the "patio." A very loose term for splashes of concrete thrown over rough ground. Covering the area just to the north of the house. Laid probably half a century ago. Without the least preparation or leveling. The resulting mess varies between an inch and four inches of crazed concrete. 

 Which meant an hour of swinging a pick and sledgehammer. Then trundling the broken concrete off to the far end of the gravel area in the wheelbarrow. To dump the rubble over the edge. At least as much to do again. Am I having fun yet?

 If I can get this area leveled and graveled to a suitable depth. To match the whole parking space. Then I will gain enough height to lose a full step going indoors. This is still well below the non-existent damp proof course. Probably 20cm below the indoor floor level. 

 12.00 Another 40 minutes of pick, sledgehammer and wheelbarrow. My back is aching. I need a rest. The image shows the small stuff I haven't dumped yet.

 15.40 I had a nap and lunch then went back out again. To complete breaking up the concrete as far as the step. Only about 6m x 1-2m wide. I used the DeWalt hammer drill on the last bit next to the step. To avoid undermining it. The drill is not very powerful on thick concrete. Only managing to flake off the surface. 

 I found three different runs of concrete drainpipes under the concrete. Which I didn't know I owned. Nor cared about after their demolition. I haven't seen this area clear since we moved in all those years ago. The concrete was always hideously ugly, dark with damp and crazed. Though my wife managed to cover the entire area with her plants.

 18.15 Back in again after clearing wood, rubble and rocks. I decided to stack the wood beside the gravel area. Where there is a drop to the original garden level. This meant I did not have to walk backwards and forwards. It's not pretty but will serve for now. It's been a very hard day! I am not sure I want to make a Sunday dinner. 

 Dinner was cheese of toast with mackerel in tomato sauce. I gave the mackerel five minutes on top of the cheese and the corners of the toast were burnt.

 

  ~o~

17.05.2025 It's never ending!

 ~o~

  Saturday 17th 52F/11C [7.30] Bright sunshine. It could be cloudy at times. Windy from the north again.

 Up at 6.50 after another quiet night. It must be all the exhausting exercise. Not remotely finished. I have to tidy up the concrete anchors. Move all the plywood and then start on the loose stack of timber at the back.

 First I need a walk to ease my back pain. 

 8.15 Problem solved within a few hundred meters. I was only gone for 25 minutes. It has clouded over as the DMI suggested it might. The spirea hedges are in flower. The post in the foreground is the Danish equivalent of a cat's eye. Historically Denmark has had deep snow during most winters. Which made cat's-eyes rather pointless. 

 9.00 I have finished moving the plywood down to the bottom of the garden. I leaned the incredibly heavy, wet stuff against the tree stump. The dry, laid flat on a pallet and stack of larch boards. Yet again I am dripping with sweat and tired. Morning coffee is indicated. Having a rest. To recover for the next stage. All that wood! I'll try layering it at right angles. A long stack doesn't work. 

 9.30-11.00 I moved more wood down the garden. I can't win. No jumper and I freeze in the wind. I put a jumper on and sweat profusely. I began to remove the steelwork from the concrete anchors. It usually required a tap, or three, with a hammer on the spanner. Just to break the rust bond. 

 They all unscrewed in the end. After which I used the sack truck to move the bare anchors to the bank. Not easy with the lumpy gravel and loosely filled holes. There are three more anchors buried at the back. Perhaps more. Under the stack of the remaining timber. It is all exhausting work. So I need another rest! 

 12.30 It is never ending! I have been lifting and dismantling more anchors. I can see at least five more. Waiting to be lifted. My original observatory had six sides. The enlarged one had fourteen. With four more anchors needed for the pier. Now I have had to remove the clothes airer. To make enough room for the blocks. Time for another rest. I am dripping again! 

 12.45  I haven't been shopping. So there are no rolls left for lunch. I'll just have to have toast.

 15.30 Back in for a rest. I am knackered again! 22 anchors lifted. Metalwork removed and blocks moved to the bank. There is one more anchor hidden under a pallet. Which is loaded with heavy stuff. It will all have to go but I can't face moving that lot today. 

 Meanwhile, back at the hovel, I have been trying to raise the temperature indoors using the greenhouse. Heat exchange is poor without forced circulation. I managed a couple of extra degrees to 67F/19.4C in the room. The four skylights are open in the greenhouse but not the end doors. There has been quite a bit of cloud today. Highest temperature in the greenhouse was 100F/38C before I opened the skylights. It has since dropped to 90F/32C out there.

16.20 I had better go shopping. In the car. I am too tired to ride the bike. My hands and wrists are aching.

 17.15 I had to visit both supermarkets due to a lack of standard stock in the first. Only to find the second had no stock either. 

 Dinner was salad. With heart lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and hard boiled tweggs.

 

  ~o~