Hedgerow Food

Jan has been scrounging foraging for towpath food and found three different types of plum tree in close proximity to the yard.  She did a preliminary reconnaissance before taken me back in the early evening with a boathook.  Flexible devices these boat hooks!

Some of these plums are sweet whilst others are tart.  We think it will be an interesting jam!

It was somewhat of a relief when we woke to find the toilet tank gauge registering ¼ full.  We were starting to worry that it wasn’t working.  The toilet was installed on the 7th, and it’s taken 14 days to reach quarter full.  This tends to confirm my own theoretical capacity calculation of 54 days which was done back in 2010.  Having such a large volume of effluent “fermenting” probably means it’s time to do some in-depth thinking about what ‘additive’ needs to go into the tank.  We’re not all that keen on using ‘blue’ and will probably opt for brewers yeast for our first trial.  It’s likely to be the cheapest option and easily sourced.  If that doesn’t work we’ll gradually trial the increasingly more expensive options.

The early part of the day was spent doing more filling and sanding.  By mid morning Jan and I were sweeping down Waiouru before cleaning off the remaining dust with tack cloths.  Darren checked the quality of our work and was sufficiently satisfied to start applying undercoat.

First he did the entire roof with a grey undercoat.

He then applied a white undercoat for the coach lines on either side and the rear.

I hadn’t realised the undercoat would be the same colour as the topcoat. You learn something new every day!  Waiouru’s roof will be light grey; hence the grey undercoat and Jan has opted to have off-white coach lines.  It’s Darren’s day off tomorrow so Jan and I will lightly sand back the undercoat using 240 grit paper, sweep the area and then clean the last of the dust off with tack cloths.  This should enable Darren to apply the second layer of undercoat on Thursday.  He has also suggested he can apply the first undercoat of black to the gunwales on Thursday if we sand and clean them tomorrow.

The joiners are waiting on a delivery of oak so they can make a start on the trim in Waiouru.  Perhaps tomorrow?