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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.
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