14.09.2023 Keep on bailing!

 ~o~

 Thursday 14th. Veiled sunshine.  Up at 6am. I am struggling to dry a backlog of washing. The sudden plunge in temperatures is not helping. I have a washing line full under the greenhouse roof. One clothes airer outside and another in the lounge. The greenhouse should rise in temperature if the sun breaks through. The lounge has dropped to 65F overnight with all interior doors closed.

 It should be a cooking day but I have an appointment at the doctors. Almost mid-morning. So reaching the cooking class by bike would probably be after 12.00 and rather pointless. IMO. I have a shoulder of reduced mobility. Which causes me excruciating pain when I put on a jacket. I have a sick note for the museum. No more weight lifting!

 I went for a short walk. Where I had a chance to speak to the excavator driver at the major earthworks. The field had been mowed on my side of the newly raised drive. Suggesting preparation for the importation of soil. To raise the level to match the new field on the other side. 

 It seems the shorn area nearest my home will not be increased in height. It has always been rather marshy and lies at the foot of a large, sloping field. Which extends [uphill] right up to the forest over a kilometre away. 

 My concern remains that their new drive will act as a huge dam in heavy rainfall. Increasing the risk of flooding. This was already evident when their earlier earthworks caused a flood in a neighbouring garden. Possibly even into the house. It looked deep enough from the viewpoint I could reach.

 There is a new drain pipe under the new drive to carry away the minor stream just as before. Whether this will be sufficient to avoid flooding is a complete unknown. Two decades ago there were always large puddles out on this field in winter. My wife and I joked that we should start a boat hire business. 

 Now the rain collection area remains much the same but the pooling area is drastically reduced. With little or no chance to increase drainage across the dam in an emergency. The official data map shows the field as a low point. With a high, potential flooding risk to my own property after heavy rain. This is prior to the new earthworks.

 Raising the near field "might" provide an improved run off into the existing stream. Albeit with its rather limited, drainage system. Perhaps a lake outside my boundary would provide a deeper emergency storage area. Or sump. Forming a much increased capacity for run-off from the hillside to the east. 

 It is not unusual for there to be standing water just beyond my boundary in winter. The reeds attest to the marshy conditions in the field. As does the natural pond. The water table isn't far down on my own ground.

Fleeting sunshine is raising temperatures and speeding the drying of my laundry. After three days disconnected, the car battery was down to 12.15V. It started instantly. I am just going to have to remove the earth clamp after every use.  

 Warts and all! It has taken me 17 months to reach this peak of unadorned ugliness!

17.00 All the laundry is dry and brought in. No more [valid] excuses for nudity! 😏

 I am tidying in readiness for the council visitor tomorrow. The image above shows the awful truth. The more I get rid of. The more the cosmetic flaws stand out! Most of this wall was covered in furniture, picture and calendars for the last 27 years. 

 The ugly, TV furniture "stand" will soon be gone. I now have the correct fixings for the TV wall mounting plate. Plasterboard has little strength beyond that provided by the paper coverings. The usual arrangement, for weight bearing fixings, is a load spreading device, or form. Which expands when a bolt or screw is tightened. Hopefully preventing the load from tearing out the fixings. 

 There are some very weak fixing devices sold at ridiculously inflated prices. Buyer beware! Do your homework first. If you must fix anything to plaster-boarded, hollow walls. 

 Dinner was fish fingers, pasta, peas and tinned, chopped tomatoes. There was too much pasta and not enough tomato. I had used up the pasta and only used exactly half a tin of tomatoes as usual. I should have gone back and cooked more tomatoes. I was too lazy. 

 I am watching a Netflix series on living to be 100. I can tick off very few of the essentials. So there's hope for me yet.

~o~