Feb 2nd 2012

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Feb 2nd 17-23F, -8-5C, still but becoming breezy, sunny. Light snow flurries soon died out. It was bitterly cold! I could feel my back radiating to the clear sky before I even turned a pedal. Once I was under way, into the breeze, it felt as if it was blowing right through me. My nose and cheeks felt as if they were burning. So I had to cover my face with my gloved hand every time I rode downhill.

After two supermarkets I had to make a downhill emergency stop. A huge, foreign lorry had tried to go under a low railway bridge! GPS fail? Or a cheapskate East European transport company using a car GPS to save pennies?  It was lucky he braked in time but my brakes were useless and I had to put my feet down to stop! A combination of ice and snow and worn brake blocks caught me out. Fortunately the nearest (and only) bike shop was in the next village. So I stopped there to buy new brake blocks for the centre-pull, front brake. The old blocks were worn down to the concealed alloy! My lovely £5 Shimano front wheel rim now has a nasty ring scored in it! Grr!

Having fitted the new BBB blocks I couldn't find a 9mm spanner to fit the cable bridge to slacken it off. The front wheel wouldn't turn! I have no screw adjusters on that brake. I suppose I could have borrowed the correct spanner from the shop but my pride wouldn't let me. I carry a bulging tool kit but no spanner for the cable bridge? Nuts! So I had to replace the old blocks but turned upside down just to get home. My hands were black and aching badly with the cold by now.

Going home was even colder! I kept up a good cadence to try and stay warm. Every time a speeding lorry went the other way it was like a 10 degree drop in temperature. My fingers and toes were cold but not aching too badly.

I was talking to the bike shop owner abut winter gloves. He showed me some Sealzkin Outdoor gloves which he said were popular with scooterists.They felt very nice, roomy but not all bulky like my 40oz Thinsulate.  He also stocked Grip Grab but I can't believe such thin gloves can possibly keep hands warm down to -10C. Both were around 350DKK or about £39+. Too costly to take a risk without carefully checking reviews online first.

I wouldn't care if the Thinsulate were warm enough and weren't so damned stiff and bulky. They make my fingers ache on the brake levers so I can only ride in comfort on the tops. Well, having read a number of reviews it seems most of the bike gloves are pure hype. They are sweaty if waterproof and not warm enough for really cold or wet weather.

I have that already in my sub-£10 Thinsulate 40oz. Which are already a nightmare to launder. The fleece lining has to be pulled out and then reinserted. I use a blunt piece of dowel! If only my hands were smaller I could wear a thinner pair as liners. I'm at the maximum size in Thinsulate already and there is no room for even my thinnest poly gloves. 24 miles.

The trees started snowing at about 11 o'clock.
The sun is already climbing higher.

Back at home I was able to change the brake blocks after slacking off the cable bridge clamping nut. I don't own a 9mm spanner. Though I do have a socket. Working at -5C in the shed is still more pleasant than working outside a bike shop on snow. The new BBB brake blocks are excellent! Sure and progressive stopping even when the brakes are balled up with snow. Highly recommended so far. Though they do make a bit of a rubbery squeal when new.

The cold, salt and light side plate rust meant that I have been struggling to keep the chain quiet. I have been using light, daily applications of thin bicycle oil. So I gave it a really good soaking this afternoon. I also oiled and adjusted the head bearings and oiled the gear changers and bare cables. The picture above tells all about my lack of maintenance or having much care about appearance. The brake cable now needs replacing as it is rusting and beginning to fray.

I'm sorry about the lack of new images. I haven't found anything inspiring to photograph. My hands get very cold when I do. So I just keep going when I would normally stop. Time travel edit: I took some pictures to divide up the older text. 

BTW: My 30/30mBit/s fibre broadband is still working well. Though I am more at the mercy of website server speeds than the actual internet connection speed. I wish I knew why YouTube videos are frequently stalling with the new high speed connection. It doesn't make sense when the old, much slower broadband didn't!

Ever onwards.

3rd 14-19F, -10-7C, about an inch of overnight snow but forecast sunny all day. Still with a gentle breeze building. With a maximum of -5C at lunchtime to look forward to. It's odd, while I have been eating my (home made, organic) muesli at the computer the temperature has continued to fall below 12F and stay there. -11C Brrr. :-)

It didn't feel quite as cold as yesterday. Except on the descents. I wore a finely woven, fleece jacket over the Aesse and all the usual gear. I could still feel the air blowing through the whole lot at first but I soon warmed up.

I tried playing with a scarf to protect my face but it was too awkward. My skiing goggles steamed up immediately I covered my face. So I left the scarf  behind.  The fleece jacket worked remarkably well. Rather surprisingly I didn't overheat. Not even on the long climbs. I had promised myself to take it off if I did get too warm.

The edges of my nostrils are getting sore from being continuously cold and wet. It feels like having blown my nose too often. Except that I don't. I use a finger to close each nostril in turn and blow. I'd need a bed sheet sized handkerchief to cope with the constant stream! Despite the close trim my beard was full of hard ice again today. It is difficult to remove without pain.

I forced myself to take some pictures today as the blog is looking a bit threadbare. The snow on the roads is very odd today. It squeaks loudly as I pedal over it. Rather like rubbing a toy balloon. Probably just the low temperature. It was sticky too with cars dropping huge clumps onto the road at intervals. 

My wife said she is going to staple my bag of biscuits to my forehead if I forget them again. I suppose that makes biscuits my staple diet? (her joke, not mine) No stock in the supermarkets again. I wouldn't be surprised if Fakta go bust. I'm sick of doing the rounds of the half dozen "local" outlets only to find they have no stock in any of them! The same holds true for Netto, Rema1000, Brugsen and Kiwi. They send out their weekly reduced price offers newspapers but have no stock when I ride for miles to get there! False promises = fraudulent advertising IMO! The Danish consumer ministry is only interested in stopping the sale of vitamins and Marmite! 23 miles.

 4th 7.5F-17F, -13C-8C, still, mostly sunny. Very cold on my face at first. I had to pull up the chin of my balaclava over my nose. Or the pain was too excruciating to go on. I wore the fleece jacket over the top of the Aesse jacket again. It provides a nice level of comfort without the usual sweating. The cold air can still be felt pressing right through all the layers but it is not really unpleasant. Coming and going depending on the wind direction and my speed. I can unzip both jackets in the supermarkets to avoid the sauna feeling. The supermarkets still without stock.

Mr Higgins well covered in snow. The rear hubs were solid 4" diameter cylinders of snow for much of the morning.

The snow was plastered up the front of my legs from the front mudguard. It sprays out just behind the fork crown all over my legs and the trike. Very little traffic on the lanes so I used the time and "tobacco filtered" sun to take some pretty photographs. The camera, my hands and brain were all working in slow motion in the cold! Legs rather tired today.

Roads mostly snow covered except for the last short leg by main road. It's mazing how my speed increases the sense of how cold. Only a couple of extra mph and it feels as if the temperature drops like a stone. My face, chest, hands and toes can all feel the difference. 20 miles.


5th 9-17F, -13-8C, still and sky quite clear but clouding over. Last night at bedtime my thermometer showed -2F, -19C. Luckily it has now warmed up to the same as yesterday morning. The forecast is not to rise above -5C. It said that yesterday but it never got above -8C. Light dusting of crumbly overnight snow. It didn't feel quite as cold as yesterday but my toes were cold.

Lots of buzzards floating about today. More tame than usual. One has just landed in the birch outside my window. I saw a jay in the middle of a field. Usually they are a woodland bird around here. A grouse was feeding and then running along the verge. There was no where for it to escape through the hedge. At least I assume it was a female grouse. Fat, buff with a small head and red eyebrows. Lanes still thin, hard packed  snow cover. Main roads much clearer. Only 15 miles.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

February 1st 2012

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February 1st 26-29F, -3-2C, windy, sunny, cold. Freezing cold NE wind. I don't mind the cold but the wind forces me to overdress. My nose feels like an icicle while my body is sweating. After a failed attempt at double vests I'm back down to a thin poly vest, racing jersey and Aesse jacket. Racing shorts and light or medium poly tights. Doubled woolly socks and neoprene overshoes. Sweaty 40oz Thinsulate gloves and my Abus U-lane helmet. Usually over a Thinsulate tea-cosy hat. I have both double Thinsulate and single thickness hats. The latter is more useful for windproofing than warmth but feels very cold under the helmet.

Wind chill chart borrowed from the DMI website.
(click for a larger version)
Mph = m/s x 2.2. Or Kmt/1.61 50kmt~=30mph.

The -5C column usually applies at the moment. Though it dropped to -8, -10 and two days of -13 only a few days later.  

Notice the effect of any wind on the effective temperature. Now imagine going downhill into a stiff wind at -5C. I have been outside at -23C with a very gentle breeze. No fun at all! I would never consider riding in such low temperatures. My lowest starting temperature to date was -15C in almost still conditions with bright sunshine. I can still almost remember the pain in my toes and fingers and face. A good 30mph downhill run at -15C would be the equivalent of -40C in still air. The pain in my face is awful even at much lower speeds. Yet I can't cover my face and breathe at the same time. Only a balaclava with a large mouth opening and nose cover would help to avoid icing and steaming up my ski goggles.

My daily temperature readings are taken from a a digital thermometer with an outside sensor on a long lead. The outside sensor is in free air in shadow about 15' above the ground. I have checked it against another and they agree to within a small fraction of a degree. I check the temperature just before leaving and just after I come back.

During this -3-5C cold spell I usually started out with my thin, windproof, Giordana, day-glo, jogging jacket over the Aesse until I warm up. This doesn't usually take long due to the many hills on all my possible routes.

My thin, poly balaclava is handy to keep my ears and neck warm but reduces beneficial ventilation around the neck. It is also rather tight and squashes my ears. My head seems to be the main culprit in overheating when I have too many layers. A Thinsulate double thickness hat with ear flaps would be better than the balaclava under a tea-cosy. My only ear-flap hat is double fleece and very thick. It wont (remotely) go under the Abus helmet.

With cycling, it's always a fine balance between comfort, being too cool and overheating. All due to the highly variable exercise going on inside the clothing. The wind is most difficult factor to cope with due to wind chill of poorly protected extremities. This year and the whole of the last has been ridiculously windy but relatively dry.

All of my cycling jackets and racing jerseys have come from charity shops scattered over a very wide area. Most visits draw a complete blank but (far more importantly) they offer suitable goals for further exploration on the trike.

All part of my oversized, psychological saddle bag of cheap tricks to con myself keep me going out on the trike. Particularly when common sense suggests (another) rest day. Rest days only lead to more. Before I know it I shall be sitting at home. Probably planning the  investment of time and money, which I don't really have, in another of my countless hobbies.

Tricycling has arguably kept me fit and alive when my high blood pressure was a constant worry. The cost of lifelong drugs to treat the problem would be much better spent on woolly socks and new inner tubes. So it was. I haven't measured my blood pressure for a couple of years. Nor do I eat Danish pastries any more. We never ate or drank much in the way of non-food items anyway.

Apart from the expense, if I bought all new cycling clothing I would greatly resent less than 1000% perfection. Nothing less would do for the incredibly high prices demanded for cycling gear. The majority of which is probably produced by child-slave labour in a sweat-shop somewhere in the Far East. My gear may even be considered slightly out-dated by those who regularly spend £250 on their cycling sunglasses. My under a fiver (<£5) clothing covers most of my needs except for breathable waterproofing in heavier rain. The rest of my stuff comes from supermarkets and discount chain stores. Bargains are to be had almost everywhere for the patient buyer.

It sounds completely daft but I'd rather be relatively poor than very rich. I would hate the boredom of being so wealthy that I could afford to satisfy every whim. It would be hell on earth for me! So many useless possessions! The sense of anticipation would be completely absent. The effort that goes into the search and research before a rare purchase can be almost tasted. I thrive on bargains. Hate keeping up appearances for their own sake.

 A homesick Mr Higgins insists on being photographed on the wrong left side of the road.

Imagine having to own a BMW or Audi because it is expected of you? Is there any worse fate than this? Imagine clumsily damaging an older car in a supermarket car park with your "posh ride". Simply because you are too damned careless to bother about your pathetic driving skills? Then telling the owner/victim that it doesn't really matter because it's an old car? This has happened to me three times in the past few years. I couldn't live with that mindset. Have they no pride at all?


My remarkable cycling wardrobe means a new, fairly tidy and completely different appearance on most days of the year. I like the variation and it adds another item to the vital list of reasons to go out. The "nutter on the trike" thus feels part of the cycling fraternity. Even when he is chugging along at half the speed of those similarly dressed. While often pushing three times the dead (mechanical) weight uphill and down.  (and usually feeling superior about it as he gets dropped as if riding backwards)

Having the right cycling clothing is not so much about appearance as comfort. For the most part it works and works damned well! A cotton T-shirt under a fleece jacket topping a pair of cut-off jeans must be about the worst choice of cycling outfit on the planet. Yet some people never even try the correct attire. They think they look cool when they are anything but. Or freezing their nuts off screaming downhill after getting up a good sweat on the long climb. 

It would be so incredibly easy just to get in the car and do a week's shopping. Instead of which I am forced to enjoy a daily change of weather, season and scenery, fresh air and quite daft amounts of exercise for an "old codger." I'm a couple of months shy of normal retirement age. I'm also far fitter than many people of half my age. Regular visits to the quack are now a very distant memory. I thus avoid burdening the system (and my own) unnecessarily.

A nice hill looms. The camber on the corner is extreme!

Mr Higgins takes it all in his stride.

I see different people almost every day. The trike is an ice-breaker and often leads to a chat outside a supermarket. They say most old people are lonely these days. If the trike gives them an excuse to exchange a couple of words for the first time in weeks then why not? I don't usually start conversations but I always talk to any dogs, horses and cats I might pass. Well, you have to, don't you?

I grin at everybody who stares at me. Okay, I sport an extra wheel. Deal with it! I gently greet, wave or smile at most passing cyclists. How else will they know I am eccentric but still safely normal? Better three wheels than one short of a set! Trikes are infinitely more sensible than a mono-cycle. Far safer than two wheels on icy surfaces.

Looking back down the hill. 
The Trykit 2WD makes child's play of climbing on snow. 
The photographer makes a childish mistake with the clumsy foreground.

Living rural-detached I would otherwise see nobody except my long-suffering wife. Chief Laundress, Head Gardener and learned council all rolled up into a small, neat bundle. My absence, on my daily rides, gives her time to relax and think up new reasons to nag me when I finally struggle home again. I can even stretch out the daily riding experience to blogging and photography. Though this often means even more time rattling away on the computer. Only 16 miles and all this chat? It hardly seems justification enough to be going out. But at least you have been given some clues as to why I do.

I went through hell to get fitter, lighter and better. If a lazy sod like me can do it then, probably, so can you. The downside is that you could end up addicted to riding an old racing trike uphill and down dale in all weathers. Then nattering about it endlessly on a blog. But, surely, there are far, far worse fates that that!

Just around the corner the climb continues for about 3/4 of a mile.

It seems easiest to climb on the freshly fallen snow.

Otherwise the lightly loaded front wheel slides about more.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

25th January 2012

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25th 22-31F, -6-1C, still and clear. I set off about 9.00 (-5C) in bright sunshine to reach a distant supermarket. I wore heavier ski underwear but it was really too much and I sweated. My hands were warm in the 40 oz Thinsulate gloves today. As were my toes in two pairs of woolly socks and overshoes. Perhaps the thicker underwear was keeping my extremities warm? Perhaps it was the gentle tailwind?
 
The bike computer packed up every time I took my eye off it. Then the i-GotU GPS logger didn't record anything. Just to add to the fun the Ventus logger recorded only 35 miles!?! Which seems far too short. I'll have to check the distance on Google Earth. Not that this is particularly easy because I follow winding, minor lanes and roads across country to avoid traffic.

I punctured at halfway on a farmer's art installation of oversized rocks beside a busy main road! Who would use a tractor to rake his gravel verge and leave the cycle path completely covered in golf ball sized gravel? Answers on a postcard, please, to:

I was breaking chunks of ice out of my beard before going into the shops! On the way back there was a perishing cold, head wind. I ate only a banana and four cookies since my 7am breakfast. So I was getting rather tired towards the end.

Google, Blogspot and Firefox are all conspiring against me on the editing (again) !! I have reset the pictures and surrounding text five times and each time it reverts to the wrong spacing!!! I'll fix it in html editing when I have the patience. Make that 8 times including html editing! Ten times and now it is resizing images as it goes along!!  P'raps I've been hacked? :-)

Today's dawn captured by my wife on her old Sony P71.

The cells of light looked just like molten lava.

26th 28-33F, -2+1C, clear but windy! Forecast to hover around freezing all day with 20mph steady wind speeds and gusts to 30mph. Supposedly clouding over after early sun. Should be interesting.

It wasn't. The trees were already thrashing about before I left at 9.30. Fierce gusts from the side had me hiding under the handlebars in my balaclava and skiing goggles. (which I hadn't needed before today)

My nose felt like an ice block and the wind was coming from all directions. Though it was helping me along at other times. I had no choice where I was going because I had an appointment. The wind really picked up when I got there. With leaves and dust blowing up in swirls and whistling around the buildings.

On the way back it was pure misery. I must have had 30lbs or 15 kilos of shopping on board. It filled four large carrier bags as I unloaded it all back at home. Most of it was solid or liquid. The wind was playing harmonics in higher octaves as it whistled through my brake levers.

My quadriceps were on fire at 6mph in bottom gear on the flat some of the time! Where the few field hedges still clung to existence it was fine. I could do 10-12mph without effort. My Aesse jacket was wet inside when I took it off! At least the sun stayed out. So that's all right then.  Perhaps I need a rest day to recover my strength? Overnight snow is forecast but the amount and length of snow showers is shrinking all the while. 21 miles today.

27th 29F, -2C, still windy, 2" (50mm) of snow lying, overcast with a little more snow forecast. A rest day? I have just walked along to have a look at the road. It has been salted but the road is much narrowed with raised ridges of filthy slush. This tends to dam up puddles which would give me a nasty soaking as cars struggle to get past. My leg muscles are quite tender in places when I massage them.  As the wind is still gusting to 30mph I've probably talked myself out of going out today. My last rest day was the 28th of December. Hi, my name is Chris. I'm a trikeoholic. I haven't had a ride for 24 hours. One day at a time. :-)

28th 30F, -1C, breezy, overcast finally clearing to weak sunshine. I'm going out after coffee. Can't feel any pain in my legs now. The roads were fairly clear but it made no difference anyway. On a trike with 2WD one just continues regardless of the surface conditions. I heard a loud bang when I ran over some frozen slush on the main road  but the tyre stayed up. I stayed off the cycle path after that.

Though sunny, the wind was very cold. My fingers and toes were fine but I was overheating again due to wearing two skiing vests. I really don't think it helps. I saw a couple of bullfinches in the hedges. Chaffinches are by far the most common birds I see. Even outnumbering sparrows. With blackbirds probably third. Only 16 miles.

29th 28F, -2, overcast, snowing steadily, light breeze. Yesterday's forecast has been completely changed to snow all day. At least another inch has fallen overnight. I have to go out anyway and consider the car an inferior tool for the purpose in these conditions. It's not a lack of experience driving on snow. I used to go looking for snow-covered country roads to practice my driving skills in the UK.

The problem is always the fear that any oncoming vehicle will lose control. I have seen so many cars leave the Danish roads that I no longer trust their skills. They make absolutely no allowances for weather conditions. Fitting winter tyres is normal here. Typically drivers then assume that they are now perfectly safe under any road conditions.

They continue to drive above the legal speed limit. They still drive nose to tail. Overtake without a care in the world. Only to end up on their sides or upside down on the verge. Or in a field. A phone call to the private rescue services and the car is soon gone. Or they hit some innocent soul head-on and another family tragedy makes just a line or two in the local paper.

I had to mend a puncture before I could go out. Obviously caused by that lump of frozen slush on the cycle path yesterday! It snowed continuously until I returned home 10 miles later. I should have worn my skiing goggles to keep the snow out of my eyes but had opted for the yellow sunglasses.

It was easiest to ride on the fresh snow. As it wasn't so slippery as the compressed car tracks. No problems with traction up or down hill. Coming back on the main road is was watery slush between ridges. It threw up quite a spray from the front tyre all the way home. Oh, the luxury of proper mudguards on a day like this! A moron in a Volvo brushed past at 60mph. Giving me a free shower of filthy wet. There was nothing coming the other way. So he could have used the whole road. The I-gotU GPS logger has failed to record for two days in a row now.

These are typical road conditions at the moment. Isn't it odd how difficult to it is to capture the slopes of hills with a camera? This shot is looking down quite a steep hill. I walked some distance up the hill and used a lot of zoom to try and show the incline, but failed. Mr Higgins is actually standing well below my camera position but looks slightly higher. 

I have now added +2/3 to EV on my Panasonic Lumix TZ7 camera and am much more pleased with the results. I usually have to add gamma and contrast in PhotoFiltre to every image I use. Not any more.

I have been trying out Wordpress to see if I could move my blog over when Google invades the world next month. Wordpress is so greedy you would not believe it! It is impossible to even change background colours on the free service. Pay another $30 dollars to change minor details? Pay another $30 to rid the blog of adverts?  Buy this domain name or that. Pay to own a blog template? Pay this. Pay that. Talk about hard sell! This is the best I could do on a shoestring:

Upright-trikes

It's no wonder Google bought Blogger and Picasa. Now nobody can opt out of their global domination. At least I could delete my Facebook account. (or so I hope) It just didn't inspire me to do anything useful with it. So if anyone notices my absence (unlikely) you know where I am. Probably still blogging by candlelight in a cellar somewhere. While constantly checking over my shoulder that the jackbooted Google Gestapo aren't coming down the drive. In an armoured personnel carrier plastered in tasteless advertising. The Chinese could easily afford to buy Google and Facebook. The next thing you know it's back to the Dark Ages. What has this to do with triking? Not a lot.

"Gates" likes these found at the entrance to many Danish villages. Probably intended as a psychological narrowing of the road to try to reduce speeding. The 1056' 321m Brylle TV mast is just visible in the centre background. I deliberately stood in the middle of the road to place the mast between the trees. The Danish flag on the right shows how hard the wind is blowing. The fields "smoke" fine snowdrifts across the roads in the absence of hedges. 

Mr Higgins is further laden with two large carrier bags in addition to the large saddle/sports bag. I simply tie the plastic bags by their strong handles to the saddle frame with thick, nylon cord. Netto's large carrier bags are excellent quality and last for months of such abuse. Probably about as long as the sports/saddle bags themselves. I'm lucky to get six months of use out of a sports bag. So I usually buy them in charity shops and discard them when they wear out. 

The carrier bags are limited to light, bulky items like toilet rolls, lettuce, bread rolls and sliced loaves. Heavier items like tins, jars and the daily collection of organic milk cartons go into the sports/saddle bag. A fellow cyclist had a brand new carrier bag rupture and spill its shopping onto the car park outside a supermarket. I suggested he invest in Netto carrier bags. He looked at me as if I was insane! His loss. I've never had a Netto carrier bag fail on me yet. :-)

Many larger sports bags are far too long to fit between the rear wheels of the trike. So I carefully select shorter bags with a very deep box section to maximise my carrying capacity. One cloth handle is strapped to the rucksack frame with Ty-wraps. The free handle is lifted over the saddle to be supported by the saddle pin once the bag is loaded and zipped up. 

The free, cloth handle is lifted back over the nose of the saddle to allow easy unloading. The handle usually covers the zips of the sports bag so there is an added sense of security when the trike is left unattended. 

Daily practice over the last two years has proved my bag system works very effectively. Particularly since I fitted the cut-down rucksack frame using plumbing clips. I ought to shorten the frame to give some support to the bottom pf the bag but there aren't enough cross rails for my support clips if I raise the frame. I keep looking, in the charity shops, for another ultra-lightweight rucksack frame. One with more cross rails, but no luck so far.

My rear carrier

30th 26-31F,-3-1C, windy, clear and sunny. I organised my route to match the wind direction quite well until the last couple of miles. I was riding mostly on thin powdery stuff. The sun and salt had combined to wet the roads in places. In others there was a couple of inches of windblown snow. Always where the hedges had been removed by farmers. A steady stream of snow was being thrown forwards by the front tyre and balling around the brakes. In the thicker places the snow was flying sideways out of the front mudguard all over my overshoes and long, woolly socks.

Despite forgetting my biscuit snack (again) I kept going for 28 hilly miles in these snowy conditions. The cheapo bike computer kept stopping but both GPS loggers worked today. Toes and fingers were fine but I was too warm in the double vests. The Head Gardener will insist that I wrap up warm! She thinks that if she is could then I must be too.

The forecast is for much colder weather with more snow. My wife and I tried to finish the last yard of trench for the optical fibre broadband. We had put it off because the trench kept flooding. We found the topsoil was frozen literally as hard as rocks! We were eventually able to undermine the frozen stuff and lift it out in large clumps. Job done ready for the final installation. The frozen soil and gravel from the drive will have to wait for a thaw. So we can tidy things up afterwards. I tried using the miner's pick on it but it would not budge. The point barely marked the surface! I wonder if I'm getting enough exercise?

31st 25-29F, -4-2C, windy, clear and sunny. It's been a busy day. The fibre optic broadband installer arrived first. 35/33mBit/s. Not bad for a 30/30 service. The techician was competent, professional and polite. I had to open a new network to get my machine to recognise the new service. It was only a matter of minutes before I was live again. My old service was 4/0.4mBit/s. So I have an 8x faster download and over 60x faster upload. YouTube videos taken only a couple of minutes to upload instead of over 40 minutes!



Then I had to ride into Assens for the 2nd silo demolition. It was supposed to be at 11.30 but after several false starts it was well over an hour late. Lots of people gave up and went home. It was freezing! -3C with a 20mph wind gusting higher. Fortunately my wife had insisted I take a duvet jacket to put on or I'd have given up too. Riding home afterwards, against the cold wind, was 'orrible!

Finally I had to go and collect my car from the workshop. The rear end had been damaged by a moron in a car park shunt. His insurance had accepted full liability. 20 miles. 
 

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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