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Hooray! it finally stopped raining here. We had a nice clear day and I celebrated by painting some outside doors, but only after applying more weed killer to the hardstanding at the front of the property. It is the second application as the last lot got rained on and didn't take. I...

After over 15 year, we have decided to call time on keeping chickens. It has been enjoyable experience, but over recent years, it had become increasingly more difficult, with the rise in cost of the food and the restrictions put in place by DEFRA because of bird flue. Luckily, last year was...

I've just taken delivery of some galvanised washers - only they aren't, they are BZP. The term 'Galvanised' seems now to mean whatever an advertiser wishes it to mean. Is there no trades description that differentiates between the two?. After all' hot dipped galvanised items' will have a...

I thought some folk might be interested in how I make these legs. I used to make sets of these before I ever had a lathe and the process was substantially the same as the one I use now. First, the stock is planed square and to length. - in this case 44mm x 44mm x 600mm. The sections are then...

I'm referring of course to the incessant rain. and with the rain comes the mud. There is a quagmire in my garden leading up to the workshop and the chicken run, and I spend most of my time in 'wellies' I even keep them on in the workshop as it is a real struggle getting them off. The mud is...

A quick question for the folks out there - Is there a preferred orientation of the grain, when bending wood? In other words is it best to bend the wood parallel to the annual rings, or at right angles to them? I note that bow makers have the bows bending parallel to the annual rings. The...

Has anyone used these paints at all, and more to the point are they any good?. I've not heard of them myself so I was just wondering how they are rated,

Now here is a question: does anyone still use casein glue? This is prompted by a recent conversation about Yak Chews, for dogs. Yes, there is indeed such a thing and they are made from yack's milk. I've never used casein glue myself, but versions made from cheese and lime were used back in the...

I've just rehung my workshop door with a pair of these. They were purchased as hot dip galvanised, but I'm not so sure. Firstly, they are very shiny, secondly there is a fair bit of weld spatter that has not been cleaned off. What alerted me to the possibility that they might not be what they...

Just been trying to order some, cap head, Allen screws. Can anybody enlighten me as to why the longer lengths are only partially threaded, As I was looking for some 50mm long ones fully threaded it was a bit of a pain. However, those of this size, with a button head appear to be fully threaded...

If, like me, you are into your gardening in any way, you will no doubt be being swamped with seed and plant catalogues. Just as I thin out my seedlings , I have to do the same with these catalogues. at, at least four distinct times of the year. Otherwise they start bursting out of the kitchen...

This coming year I have to repaint the house, And , I'm on the lookout for a good masonry paint in a Cornish Cream colour. None of us can be oblivious to the rise in cost of paint over these last few years, so purchasing it in 5 litre containers at between £25. and £ 35 a pop, is no longer an...

Before I retired, I always took this full week off work, After boxing day there was no hurrying back to work for a few days, and then being off again on New Year's day. I used to take this opportunity to avoid my customers, unlike the rest of the year when I could easily be receiving calls just...

No , not the rock group, but the weather. Everything here is completely sodden. The garden path down to the chickens is flooded, as is around the back of my workshop. The end of the field behind this is also under water. The lawn is now a quagmire where I have paddled, to and fro, between the...

This morning I have been playing "Pooh Sticks". However, not the whimsical game of A A Milne's imagining, but a much more earthy version, called - "Unblocking the run to the septic tank". The blockages seem to coincide with heavy , or protracted rainfall. And are invariably at the end of the...

Just been sorting out our Rayburn so that we can have it on over the Christmas period. I certainly notice the difference now we don't run it for the majority of the year. No more easy drying of clothes on the rack; no more warm kitchen to come down to in the morning and no more additional oven...

I'm puzzled by a call I often hear coming from one of the hedges surrounding my garden. Up until a few days ago I seem to have misidentified it, as one of those contented sounds that my chickens make inside their hut. However, as we are now down to our last chicken, and I was stood beside it the...

Following on from my thread "A Practical Maths Problem", here are a couple of photos showing my experiments with making ferrules from sheet metal. First shows the bending jig along with a series of my experiments. The second is a close-up of these experiments. And, from left to right: 1, is an...

Last week I had two tiny clusters of blossom on the apple tree It was all white, with no pink tinge, but It has gone now with all the wind and rain we have been having. I can't say that I have noticed this before .The only other shrub/tree that seems to do this, but on a very regular basis...

I'm making a series of ferrules in brass out of a piece of flat 1mm sheet. I am bending them around a 16mm ground, silver steel, rod. A simple question arises from this : what length should the brass be? Pi X 16mm gives me a circumference of, 50.272mm, which is initially what I cut the length...