75ZT Community

Cleaning out the gutters has been my job of the day. They have not been done properly for thirty odd years.
Tomorrow a seven metre roof ladder is to be delivered. This will enable me to fix a bird cowl to the chimney pot, before the Jackdaws begin nesting.

Well, first visit of the year to a garden centre with the missus, I got off lightly with only £30 or so spent on soil and potted plants. Still keeps her happy.
I paid for our gutters cleaning last year as it happens, like you Steve around 35 yr since they were done, cost was £65, not worth me taking a chance of falling off the ladder for that price.

takestock wrote:Well, first visit of the year to a garden centre with the missus, I got off lightly with only £30 or so spent on soil and potted plants. Still keeps her happy.

I paid for our gutters cleaning last year as it happens, like you Steve around 35 yr since they were done, cost was £65, not worth me taking a chance of falling off the ladder for that price.

Hi Dave
It is Mike cleaning his guttering, i do mine twice a year from off some steps as we are in a bungalow, did a few jobs round the garden yesterday and finished the shed, gave one of the garden boxes away, the other went to the tip along with some other rubbish.

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Plants are starting to bud a well so a good sign the netter weather is coming.
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Just the slabs to jet wash and the front drive and then I'm happy to say I'm in front of myself for a bit, next will be sorting out jobs inside the home.

My gutters are done at least twice a year, but we do have an enormous sycamore tree which produces copious amounts of leaves.

Similarly, we are also in a bungalow, so not too much danger.

Cleaned all the front drive Friday wet it even though is was spitting fine rain, covered it in Bio washing powder, left it for about 3 hours then brushed and washed it all off helps kill the green algae, yesterday gave it another wash off and all is good, may paint it this year with water proof paint ?

Walk around the lake planned for us today, couple of miles, all sounds very healthy until we get to the end. This is where we end up.
https://www.facebook.com/thebaronparklane/

Bright sunny day here in NE England though sounds a bit breezy outside. Saw some 14% red wine on offer in B&M at the local retail park yesterday, two for £9 but I had to pass on it as the card payment system was down and it was cash only. Same in Poundland too but fortunately Tesco and others were not affected. Farmfoods was not affected but as I walked in and bent down to pick up a basket a local idiot shot past carrying stolen goods in his arms with a very small female member of the staff in hot pursuit. It happened so quick that I didn't realize what was happening until it had happened and looked up to see him running off with his booty. Sometimes happens in Poundland and I suspect that it has more than a little to do with the absence of dedicated security staff on the door. They are the only two on the retail park that don't have security staff on the door and I really feel for the general staff who it seems are expected to put themselves in harm's way and tackle the problem. Anyhow, might go back today to buy some of the wine mentioned above.

Agree on the staff being expected to chase etc. We were on a short break away in north Wales and saw a shop worker chasing a youth who had a carrier bag full of what seemed to be swag. staff member caught up to the thief and relieved him of his swag but then what is the shop worker supposed to do? In this case the staff member simply recovered the goods and the would be thief just wandered into the crowds (with no consequences) what deterrent is that without police presence/intervention?

TBF shoplifting isn't new, though the scale of it might be. Years ago, I worked in Woolies. The store detective spotted someone, and as a saturday kid she asked me to follow him. I did. However he turned nasty, so I didn't engage as he threatned to 'glass me'. OTOH, the police did get involved properly. I went to the police station, and they showed me some photos. I easily identified who it was. Very quickly, he was found, with the stolen shirts still tucked inside his jacket.

Back in the day shoplifters seemed to be more discreet whereas now it is done without any worry or concern often with much glee and goading. I think it will take a retrospective change in the law to deal with this, first to deal with those who preside over this and second to rid decent society of any so-called persistent offenders - and permanently so.

Nice sunny day here in NE England so might make a start on trying to sort the problems I have with a couple of taps. Maybe start with the bath tap which has become tight and difficult to turn with very restricted movement. The other with a problem is the kitchen sink, not so much the tap but the swinging arm which is leaking at the base where it swivels. Looked at it a while back and found a bit of metal missing from the area where the sealing O-ring sits so have bought another complete tap unit to replace it. Taps are all of the quarter-turn type which don't seem to last ten minutes in comparison to the traditional screw-turn taps which lasted years and could often be sorted with a replacement rubber washer when needed. Those were the days ... sigh.

Weather nice here in the Midlands for the last few days so I am the last run of sorting out my shed, tip tomorrow, we also uncovered our garden furniture and washed those down, nice to have a sit in the garden the last few days even if it only for a short while at the moment, soon be barbecue time

Agree, weather has been better, though this afternoon it was persisting down. Past couple of days been spent starting on the journey of clearing my parents apartment, and dealing with solicitors etc. Brief visit to the allotment yesterday to strim the grass on the plot, and collect the overwintering leeks. Today, ignored all of the admin and spent some time making a homemade stuffing / meatloaf. First time using my recently aquired Kenwood chef for that. Had with a roast chicken, and previously mentioned leeks from the lottiement. George (the Stourbridge Junction station cat) would have been proud. Oh, and we are now getting back to enough sun to top up the car (no not the French tincan, a new one).

I finished the repainting of all the white rendering on the front elevation yesterday. Today my attention turns to my 75, the water pump needs to be replaced.

Bathroom ceiling is my next project over this coming week, along with jet washing all the slabs, front and back, then i wil be dropping on the eves verges filling and painting those, time flies when you are enjoying yourself

Not so dry in NE England today, not raining heavy but a little light drizzle nonetheless. So will likely stay indoors and give further thought to the jobs that this time of the year seems to invoke on the to-do list, lol.

Had the problematic bath tap apart in recent days, found one of the two small O-rings on the main stem to have abraded and the resulting small loose rubber bits to be causing the tightness when turning the tap on/off. The O-ring though worn and damaged was still intact and I don't have a replacement so I cleaned and lubed it with a smear of silicone grease and it is working fine for now. The undamaged O-ring was given a clean and a lube too and hopefully both will last until I can sort it properly with replacement parts, preferably just new O-rings.

Looking through the living room window this morning I noticed another job that needs doing. One of the double-glazed window units is condensing in the air gap and I'm not sure which road to go down with it. Some advocate a repair but others say a repair will be at best a temporary repair and advocate a replacement unit. I'm leaning towards a replacement unit which I intend to fit myself but will have to give more thought to it atm. Time for a mug of coffee for now.

Rain didn't start until later here. New pressure washer arrived today as the 10 year old one started playing up and leaking, probably frost damage. So part of the back garden washed down this afternoon.

Had a day in the garden yesterday and that resulted me staying in all today with a bad back. Hate getting older.
Hope its better for the weekend as we are going to Hull for the evening to wish bon voyage to our old friend Andy, known to us all as Trikey on the O.C.
He is going to work and live in Mexico on a long term contract

Bright and sunny here today with a clear sky which might make it a little chilly outside. Will find out soon when I venture out to collect some meds which I might combine with a trip in to town for the exercise. Good to hear of Trikey Dave, hope it works out well for him. It doesn't seem that long ago that he and Debs were out and about on the OC forums, how time has flown. I worked for a few years near Lincoln and sometimes think of my time back then, when I do Andy and Debs will often enter my thoughts courtesy of my use of the A15 and the M62 which connect not that far from Hull. Some of the guys I worked with lived in the Humberside area, one in Barton and another in Scunthorpe. Both good friends that I've since lost touch with since we last met over thirty years ago, I wonder how life has treated them since.

Bright sunny day here in NE England again today with a clear sky. Will likely venture out for the exercise and try to remember to have my clocks upstanding for the change to BST at 1am tomorrow Sunday 29 March. Hope you all remember to put them forward one hour; early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise - said Benjamin Franklin.

WillyHeckaslike wrote:... the change to BST at 1am tomorrow Sunday 29 March. Hope you all remember to put them forward one hour; early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise - said Benjamin Franklin.

We have very few clocks that don't change themselves. Many years ago, when we didn't, we had family coming for lunch and missed the change. Ooops.