15.12.2025 What a Rip-off!

 ~o~

 Monday 15th 44F/6.7C. Another cloudy, windy but dry day. 62F/16.7C in the room.

Up at 6am after setting the alarm for 6.30.  I have a doctor's appointment this morning.

 9.15 Back from the doctors. Shopped while I was in the village. 

 I have ordered new screws for the caport roof in Torx, stainless steel. 

 11.30 Brief, watery sunshine. It is bitterly cold in the wind. I have been sheltering behind the house while emptying the trailer of usable firewood. There were at least two large wheelbarrows of worthless rubbish in the last trailer load of logs. Even after my saving all the potentially useful bits for kindling. A bit disappointing given the price I am paying at the furniture factory. I am tempted to go back to the timber yard. Except that there is no guarantee of getting dry logs there. The price is much the same. 

 I need to fetch more logs. I am down to only a few day's worth. In theory I have a lot of firewood in the vast heap of chestnut. The problem is that I have no idea if any of it is dry. Three years of exposure to [limited] sunlight and wind should have done some good. I had better try some logs with the moisture contents meter.  

 The furniture factory, log vendor was on holiday. Not back until Saturday. I would have run out of logs by then. So I risked a run to the timber yard. Which is practically on the way home. 

 I ordered and paid for half a cubic meter of logs. What I got was less than a quarter. The red line at the top of the picture is half way up the sides of the trailer. That is exactly half a cubic meter. 

A young man brought the logs to the trailer in a bucket on a front loader. Dropped half of them on the ground and just walked away. Chip on his shoulder? Or what? It is no wonder their vast firewood shed is literally full to overflowing! If this were Gravely Blighted I would have rung the local Trading Standards Office. Denmark has no consumer protection. If I name the timber yard here [online] I will end up in jail or be heavily fined. The guilty are protected by law. The victim often pays far more in fines for invasion of online privacy rights. Than those found guilty in court! 

 Dinner was sardines on toast with halved tomatoes. No pictures.  

 

  ~o~

14.12.2025 Twenty screws short of a set.

 ~o~

  Sunday 14th 42F/5.6C [7.15] A cloudy forecast but dry. Windy with SW gusts to 15m/s. 64F/17.8C in the room. I can see patches of frost on the western lawn in the security camera images.

 Up at 6.30 after a busy night. How can the volume in the fire bucket exceed intake by an order of magnitude? I had a tin of beer to celebrate the carport progress. I'll blame it on that. 

 The wind is expected to continue for some days. Which makes the fitting of the huge roof panel decidedly problematic. I can have a biplane. Or a single, larger wing, of low aspect ratio. Choose one. The car won't mind if it's dry. I could apply ratchet straps. To hold the panel in place on the roof while I fiddle with the screws. I'll see how windy it really is. When it is light enough to see the carport across the gravel wasteland turning and parking space. 

 10.00 Back from a short walk. Only to loop along the neighbours' drives. To capture a couple of dozen photographs of my house and carport from the rear. Newly visible through the gap in the trees and winter leaf loss. It was windy where exposed. Not so bad in the garden. Thanks to the shelter belt. The first bird I saw was a Red kite. Which was circling and calling beyond the road to the south.

 I shall have to fix the missing roof panel as soon as possible. Or at least restrain the panels on either side. Which are lifting on the windward side.    

 12.00 The self-tapping screws will not screw in. Regardless if I drill the holes again. 4.2mm screws into 3.5mm holes in the arched steel  rafters. Have the screws corroded? I have enough screws fixed to hold the windward edges. Until I decide what to do next. Buy some new screws? Torx instead of cross-head?  

 I had to go shopping before lunch was even possible. The local supermarket had no "wholegrain" bread rolls yesterday. Nor edible bananas. 

 Dinner was yet another fry-up. As is my wont. Organic chicken, mushrooms and an organic egg on wholegrain toast. I added some cherry tomatoes for colour. Perhaps as a foil to the yolk of the undersized egg. They may be crossing their chickens with pigeons. Perhaps they are merely undernourished?

 I washed up as I went along. As you do. I have an early appointment with the doctor tomorrow. To follow up on our last meeting of a month ago. 

 

  ~o~

13.12.2025 The impossible just takes a little longer.

 ~o~

  Saturday 13th 45F/7.2C. A wet and misty morning is promised. 64F/17C in the room.

 Up at 2am until 4.30. Back to bed. Then woke again at 6.45. 

 I have to finish the foundations of the carport. To ensure all four legs are upright. Before backfilling the remaining holes.   

 10.00 Back indoors after making the legs upright. I used assorted, leaning ladders to achieve a slight bias. So that backfilling would make everything vertical. 

 My idea to make the second foundation holes oversized worked. I used 2x4s to lever the foundation blocks sideways as required. I pounded the backfill with another 2x4 as I went along.

 It felt like rain at times but I was safely under cover. My outer clothes don't feel wet. Though I am sweating I don't feel fatigued. I just went back out to take a couple of snaps. It is definitely raining now. 

 The legs don't look upright. Because of lens distortion in the phone camera. I have checked them all repeatedly with a 1m builders level. The ground falls to the left for drainage.

 The mess on the ground is mostly wet leaves. Accumulated over months. As I struggled to decide the safest way to erect the framework while working alone. In retrospect I would have erected the frame first. Then added the roof panels working from one end to the other. 

 The instructions said to do the roof first and then lift it with multiple helpers. I checked the AI calculator of an online app for small building works. It suggested £1000 equivalent for labour charges. Just for erecting the carport! 

 Apart from tidying up I still have to put the central roof panel back on. I also need to add the few screws in the feet. Which I couldn't insert in the dark. Because of excess galvanizing in the holes in the feet. Though generally speaking the galvanizing is fine. 

 12.30  I completed the bolting of the feet. Then tidied away the accumulation of detritus and raked the leaves away. Now I do need a rest. The watery sun came out. I have yet to fix the central roof panel. That should be amusing!  Lunch first.

 15.30 After lunch I continued to tidy the parking area. I raked the leaves away. Then ran the gravel leveling rake across the entire area. This hasn't been done for a while. Though the gravel seems to remain stable and reasonably smooth. Requiring very little upkeep. Except for the grass. Which insists on growing where it isn't wanted.  

 The scrap plywood can go down the garden to suppress the brambles. The ladders can wait until I have completed the carport roof. 

 I had a trial at parking the Morris and its trailer. Plenty of lateral room but not quite enough depth to fully cover both. The trailer has its own, fitted tarpaulin. So can brave the weather for years. By being moved back just a little. Which will shelter the Morris from nose to tail. For scale: The nose of the Morris is 13m [42'] from the house wall.  Now I really must go shopping in the village. I have run out of essentials.

 Dinner was a huge chicken curry with mushrooms. 

  ~o~