and today i have mostly been...

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Looking very good that steve

[Welly]

Marvelous!

[steve_earwig]

Cheers guys

No milođ today, he had a dentist's wotsit this morning but as it's piššing down I don't suppose he'll bother at all. Leaving me to, umm, it's cleaning and tidying, isn't it? Then I got a phone call from our vet, Mirela, her operating light's broke and can I come fix it? Hell yes, that's better than what I'm meant to be doing. So this morning I've been working off some of our vet's bill

This light's always been a problem, it's got a 12v transformer on it and it uses 4 40w bulbs. Originally it kept blowing bulbs all the time (these are special bulbs that throw the light into the reflector and they're 20€ a pop) so we put a slightly lower voltage transformer in it. It's also been bolted to the wall as it kept falling over. All this, together with a lot of other modifications and now it's not blown a bulb in about 6 years.

Fuse is ok, bulbs are ok, I finally traced the problem to the cable going to the light. Umm, it's one colour one end, another the other, where's the join? Just before I completely had it apart I found a little cover on the main support and it turns out (literally) the cable's been turned and turned and finally parted.






The cable looked pretty screwed (!) and I tried to replace it but I just couldn't get the old one to budge, it's pinched in the corner I guess. So I managed to pull enough through to rejoin it. I guess if it goes again we'll have to think of something else.

Meanwhile there's a patient waiting

Scheduled for neutering at 11.

Mirela can operate with a headlight (oddly enough my old one) but she'd rather not. So, no pressure, all the time in the world... I was just buttoning it up when they brought the patient in, all anaesthetised and ready for her op, so I grabbed all my gear and scarpered.

While I was outside in the examining room packing all my gear away this large female was brought in


Looks quite old, probably pregnant, or could be a huge tumour (the other vet Ana wasn't sure and hadn't had time to properly examine her yet). Friendly too, she's in the feral cat cage but that's all they had spare.

Found in the street tied up in a potato sack! Sometimes I think people really suck

[Welly]

So cat gets pregnant/ill and the owners toss it into a sack and dump it, f*cking bastards

[steve_earwig]

Well usually not if they're pregnant, usually they just drown the kittens in a bucket of water* which leads to the suspicion that it might not be something so simple.

*and at this point I go back to my usual chestnut, all our cats are individuals, they all have different personalities, just like humans, so why are we so special? And then I start tallying up my list of people who I'd like to kill...

[highlander]

I'm guessing that list contains (amongst other names) the names of everybody who has ever been evil to cats. And rightly so - the bastards.

Too right they're all different. I mean, they're all cats, and all exhibit cat-like behaviour, but they definitely have their own personalities. Mum's current cat, Marco, gets really pissed off watching the birds in the garden. He does the usual chittering noise that all cats make at this point, but then gets all stroppy, huffs, sighs, and eventually storms off, stomping his feet as he goes. I also played a very enjoyable game of fetch with him for about 20 minutes a week or so ago - none of our previous cats would partake in fetch. Well, they *would*, it's just they wouldn't actually give the toy back to you, they'd bring it back, flop over, and play with it until you stole it off them and threw it again.

[steve_earwig]

...passing boards up to Miloš














They sure do get heavy, I'm completely cream crackered. Anyway, almost half a roof boarded and it didn't rain. Forecast is clear for tomorrow but after that it's thunderstorms and more rain (remember that?). I also took a couple of short films but they're huge and I'm not sure if I can be bothered uploading them 'cos it takes hours.

Interesting bug

Appeared while I was re-hanging the power feed. Just over an inch long, no idea what it is.

[mjb]

The cable looked pretty screwed (!) and I tried to replace it but I just couldn't get the old one to budge, it's pinched in the corner I guess. So I managed to pull enough through to rejoin it. I guess if it goes again we'll have to think of something else.

It's probably twisted itself into a ball near the bend. Grab a cordless drill, put the rolled up mess in the chuck, and switch to unscrew. Should undo it pretty quickly.

Alternatively, drill a hole on top, right above the lamp, shove a rubber grommet in, then pass the new cable through and zip tie it along.

[steve_earwig]

No balls, the cable was just twisted a fair way, fortunately all it did was pull the wires out of the block, rather than short out.

I was actually thinking to put stops on it, so it can't go all the way around. Next time I'm there (bound to be soon) I'll see if that would cause any problems.

[Welly]

Liking the chainsaw action there!

And "rain" what's that then?

Are you having an over-hanging roof on the gable ends?

[steve_earwig]

Yep.

We were trying to get it finished, or at least mildly waterproof today but we just ran out of time.

Milloš' chainsaw also pissed about so much he ended up using mine, which is way too big to use on a roof, so I had to keep handing it up to him.

Here's one for th memory banks, it sounded like fuel starvation to me, he reckoned it was the filter, which he'd already changed once. He kept on using it though, I kept on saying he should do something before it burned a hole in the piston. So today he came with a new filter and while it was out I suggested tipping the contents of the tank out...

Holey moley! Some fresh fuel later and it was still sick, so I had the carb off and while it was off I noticed fuel coming from somewhere weird...

Yeah, it's in bits. It had a split fuel feed, all shaped and ribbed to excite so he'll have to buy one. About 4 quid in GB but here? I guess I'll let you know but I expect at least 3 times that.

Onwards and upwards...












We didn't get much further than that, it would have got dark first so Miloš called it quits. The forecast for tomorrow is thunderstorms but even if there's just a bit of drizzle Miloš won't be going up there as it'll be slippery. So I'll probably get a day off tomorrow, which is good because I'm completely fried. And I'm not the one that did all the work!

[Welly]

That's very impressive progress between you, I like the 'temporary footing' pieces of wood

The Gable overhang will protect the sides of the building nicely

[steve_earwig]

That's the plan Originally it only had the gable towards the house, the other end was flush, presumable because that end was lengthened to the extent of the gable and they couldn't be bothered to do it properly. It seems obvious but I checked with Miloš that he was going to give that end a gable.

Big thunderstorm last night with heavy rain and this morning everything is full of water and the ground's saturated. The boards don't meet all the way along, you can see gaps around quite a few of them, so it's wet inside the shed but not as bad as it would've been. Shame Miloš didn't have time to cover it all with the membrane (it would have lasted well past nightfall) but that's the way it is. No sign of him today obv. but I know he's got some other jobs to look at.

And today I'm lame Something seems to have gone pop in my knee, the cruciates in that knee aren't the best and it has some arthritis so I've probably aggravated one or the other if not both. Current plan: spend the day with my feet up doing bugger all.

[steve_earwig]

As it's quiet, have a couple of vids.
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I did film Miloš carrying a much heavier board from one end of the roof to the other but the sun bleached all the detail out.

The man himself was here earlier, as the weather's looking a bit unreliable he's off to do another job that doesn't rely on everything being bone dry, which suits me fine as my knee's still a mess.

[steve_earwig]

Oddly, that's the first time I've ever seen a video of myself doing anything and, surprisingly, I don't lurch about like a hunchbacked gorilla as I'd always suspected.