What "man jobs" have you done today?

I had a look at what the young local cat was so interested in the flowerbed.

I found a youngish rat in a bad way - shallow breathing (not maggot skin rippling) but it looks like a/the cat has left it unable to move. The local flies had started to leave eggs on its fur so they knew the story. Next to it was a small mouse. which made a swift exit under the fence. I think the local cat was more interested in the noise of the mouse but the mouse was sort of interested in the dying rat for protein.
So I took a high density block and put it out of its misery. Then left the block on top to stop the cat from coming back to play with it. We've seen both the rat go past the front the pond and the mouse I've seen around. This area has a lot of sheds, and the woman behind us continuously feed the birds so there's normally a mass of them which in turn leaves food on the floor and rats/mice then love the free snacks on the ground.
 
Started the next bit of the retaining wall today. Loads of cut because the concrete was all over the shop :(
There is going to be a massive waterfall down the slope into the trough at the bottom. Can't wait to do that. Another trough will be at the top also for a mini reservoir.

R9ZvpIb.jpg
T73J5bd.jpg
EyfTq5s.jpg
naImZgk.jpg
 
I'd just like to add that I was massively disappointed that Jenny wasn't in that video on the previous page :(

On topic: I watered the garden :D
 
Last edited:
Finally got into the garden to cut the overgrown grass. Filled two green bins, which I need to start paying for collections. Hoped to try my new saw on some really annoying branches but the 5ah batteries need charging. Supposed to rain tomorrow, so at least the grass is out of the way.

Edit: I almost lost the will to live trying to pay Bristol City Council money for bin collections. Online system failed to open payment system. Then spent over an hour on the phone to be connected to their finance department. Finally picked up only for them to be unable to hear me and eventually hanging up.

Managed to cancel original requests and tried it again on Edge browser, very slow to process but it got there in the end :cry:.
 
Last edited:
Today will be a tidy the garden day - we have a little BBQ party at the weekend.

Mow & (s)trim front and back
Weed borders & trim back some of the faster growing rambling roses
Move some of the construction and take some rubbish to the tip


ScarySquirrel said:
Thank you.
Yes, I had some left over 2x4 so used it for this. It's just Redwood pine. I'm still learning so just using cheap wood at the moment.
Click to expand...

I made my garage bench out of 'green' garden timber pine. 10+ years later and it's still doing good and it's fully dried out nicely. Legs just had doubled up and then everything else had notch/mortice & tenon joints. It's not that pretty and currently supports drill holes and jigsaw marks but it gets a plane every so often.
You may find the wood warps/shrinks as it dries but for the purpose of learning that's good.

Do they teach you on how to select and store wood too?

I built my own guitar from scratch so I had to learn what makes a good piece of wood for the purpose and how that wood will age with the grain and if the differing woods will expand/contract at different rates causing warping when glued etc.
I'm currently planning an acoustic archtop build - that takes even more planning and attention to grain, etc, as the flexibility in each direction+thickness due to grain makes the sound profile.
 
Last edited:
Diggsy said:
Good on you for doing that! I’ll bet it was a nice feeling knowing you’d stopped him getting ripped off.
Click to expand...
Cheers. The cowboy also called him several times after he said no and came to his door once as the roof hadn’t been sorted. He also got his so called receptionist to call him. It was two ridge tiles at £14.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom