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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46216
Location: yes
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
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 Posted: Tue Jun 09, 20 7:16 am Post subject: |
 
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Great to know Gregotyn is going well. Was concerned when I heard the reports from North Wales, but reminded myself he lived in the country so social distancing is pretty much a given if you put a bit of thought into it.
It's been freezing here, and tonight is no different. I have had to add another blanket to the bed and may make the installation of the winter doona/duvet my priority next sheet change. This morning the water put in an appearance at 11:30 so it's a good thing i wasn't going anywhere. Tomorrow will be a different story as I am heading out with a passenger but at least it will be a relatively quick trip.
Life is sadly picking up apace so back to passenger transport, bank cleaning, social engagements and such but I am trying to be a bit more selective as to what I do.
My fatal trip was last Sunday (not the one just past) when I spent the day at the Lucky Ewe, fell in love with a second hand wheel and brought it home. It is a double drive upright wheel known as a Sleeping Beauty (brand) Thumbelina (model). It is virtually brand new but was dropped from a height and the flyer broke. It has been very badly mended with a rectangle of rough ply glued either side to reinforce the break. So these are now polygons that are flush with the lines of the flyer and much smoother thanks to my dremel clone.
It works a treat and will be even better once I have tightened up the castle and done a bit more fiddling. Working out how to set tension is a bit of a mystery as the bobbin brake is the same length of yarn as the drive band, but it does superb laceweight. And yes that does make five wheels but two of them are only here long enough to be repaired. I will retain the scotch drive double pedal upright, the double drive upright and the irish tension upright, and maybe one of the Traditionals. At least the uprights don't take up much space.
Not much real progress on the kitchen. In fact is accidentally disappeared under a pile of fleece for a while as the cats decided it was a new toy. But today I have lined up someone to sort out the benchtops for me when I am ready to go, so that is a good feeling.
Must stir up the fire before my fingers fall off. |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46216
Location: yes
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derbyshiredowser
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 980
Location: derbyshire
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15968
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| Posted: Wed Jun 10, 20 7:20 am Post subject: |
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I was glad to hear from him I must say. He seems to be pottering on comfortably, and as I said, now has a mobile phone for emergencies, which is a relief. He is not working at the tractor place at the moment, so more chance for him to avoid people, and he seems quite happy on his own.
Nice to hear from you again Cassandra. I gathered you were all right from the posts on FB, but can understand if things are getting busy again. Good thing Tas is now free of infection, or pretty well so.
I must say I have always been very good with wheels as I only have one, which I have had for about 40 years. Not the best perhaps, but we get on pretty well together, and I only really spin for my own enjoyment, so it suits me.
It seems you need to try to do something about lagging/heating your water supply so that it doesn't keep freezing up. Having it in tanks outside must be a bit tricky, as that must get pretty cold to start with, and trying to keep it above freezing from there might need more than just good lagging.
We have been charcoal burning almost incessantly since you last dropped in. We have been firing 2-3 times a week, so it has been one day empty and refill, second day fire and bag for the last couple of months now. We have been working up to 6 days a week, although we did one full weekend. It exhausted us, so I am now insisting on at least 1 day off a week, ideally 2. Trying to fit in washing and essential jobs in the garden is a bit tricky sometimes, especially as it has been rather dry, so have had to do watering every other evening when we are home. The firing days we are frequently with the kiln until 7 or 8pm, so don't feel like anything other than having something on toast and bed then. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jun 19, 20 8:27 am Post subject: |
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The frozen pipe is a regular event in winter and I have explored all manner of options to fix it, to no avail. Basically the flexible hose is inside the wall and it seems likely that the insulation did not make it to the outside of it, but has been roughly packed on the inside instead, so the hose only has the foil insulation between it and the weather. I am used to it now, so just fill receptacles the night before in case I have an early start like this morning.
The Hall President has stirred into life this afternoon so I have placed an article with the local newspaper, agreed the first meeting should be a combination working bee and meeting so we can get the place (and ourselves) ready for business/agree our CovidSafe plan etc, and generally agree on what happens next. The President tells me her daughter is planning to resign and has written a letter though that has yet to put in an appearance anywhere likely to be useful.
It will be best for all if she does go voluntarily as if she doesn't, it will be me leaving as I have realised over the break just how much harm the battle has been causing me. The boys are also at the end of their tether so it will be make or break I think.
A few more chilly nights here but lovely soft breezes on sunlit days to make up for it. And with Pancakes now open to business four days a week I have been taking one of the wheels in to spin most days they are open. At present I am spinning some black wool which I carded with the result it is coming out lace weight. This is good on one level (I can finally spin lace weight) but bad because i want it to become four ply wool. So I will have to chain ply it to have a hope in Hades of achieving that.
It's a beautiful, incredibly fine HampshireXMerino fleece with the blocky structure of a Downs staple, but the fineness and crimp of around 17micron Merino.
I also bollixed my first attempt at dyeing with Madder by trying to scour it at the same time. Won't do that again, but a good learning experience.
The kitchen hasn't got much furreder as I have been concentrating on being a social butterfly and driving and mending wheels and mucking about with fleece and so forth. But some time this week (not in the next four days which are already booked out), I will have another cookathon to use up all the lovely meat I can now afford.
I have some Gravy Beef for a Beef and Guiness Pie (or possibly casserole with dumplings), some Osso Bucco for some osso bucco, some mince for Chow Mein, some lamb shanks for something truly delicious that takes hours to cook, and some topside for beef and mushroom something or other.
I had my head shaved again recently. Apparently whatever was up with Kat has cleared and I am back to being besties again (I rather suspected this would happen once she had a chance to slow down) and she offered to do it for me. So I am once again bald (well, not really, a number 6 still leaves a fair bit of hair there).
And yesterday I walked into the newly re-opened Bargain Centre and picked up a tweed jacket for $5.00. It's sort of cinnamon/mustardy houndstooth and just my colour. I wore it today when I took my patient down to the hospital.
My other patient has been advised to discontinue treatment so that was a rather sad journey home with them each sitting in the back seat with silent tears leaking from time to time and the husband trying to make light chatter. It will be a blessing if she goes rapidly now as it is brain cancer and potentially quite dreadful.
The fire is necessarily blazing as it is once again chilly, though not minus three as it was the other night. But chilly for all that. I am hoping I get a decent sleep tonight but Billy seems to be going senile in a way which involves waking hourly, treading on my head as he tries to cross the bed, attempting to get in the wrong side of the bed (his choice of sides not mine), getting off, prowling and yowling for a few minutes then coming back, standing on the pillow demanding i lift the blankets, then standing staring for a while before walking over my head once again and trying on the other side before realising he was right the first time. The resulting chilly inflow means this does actually wake me thoroughly every time.
I will certainly be heading to bed a lot earlier tonight than I did last night, and hopefully getting a bit of a lie in, if only short as I will be heading into Pancakes to spin in front of their fire for the day. |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15968
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| Posted: Sat Jun 20, 20 7:28 am Post subject: |
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I hope the ex-Hall Secretary really does leave this time. I am sure you will do a far better job of it than she has done, but as you say, the fight isn't doing you any good. Sadly, it may result in you losing the Hall, if she insists on doing everything wrong.
I have a similar problem with the wool I am spinning. It is very coarse, but as I naturally spin fine, it won't ply up to more than a 4 ply. As it will only be suitable for an outer jacket or rough blanket, It really needs to be a double knitting (your 8ply?) so I may have to see if it is possible to double ply, but no idea if that is possible, so will have to look it up. I have already plyed several bobbins, so don't want to waste them.
Does your fire have a flat top? Ours does and I find it very useful for things that need a long slow cook. I bring them up to the boil on the gas hob, then transfer them to the top of the fire for however long, and it saves a lot of gas. Sounds as if you are going to have a well filled freezer again. Mine is well filled at present, but I need to convert some of the contents to the finished article, particularly odd crusts of bread to bread pudding and blackberries either to bramble wine or seedless jam.
You did well with the jacket. That is a very good price. I once got a 'bomber jacket' style top in a sale at half price, but it was a more horizontal zig-zag pattern in shades of brown. Wool, and lasted a good time. My hair needs cutting, but I am hopeless at hairdressing and so daren't try to cut it myself, and our salons aren't open yet. Our infection rates, although going down, are still too high for that sort of thing.
We have had a rather unsatisfactory week as far as work is concerned. We managed to bag and deliver the charcoal we had in the kiln, but haven't managed to do any more as it has been wet, and son wasn't very well at the beginning of the week. Tiredness and stress I think, as he was also trying to set up DIL for home working, which was rather tricky, and she has been told that she has to do that now.
Nice to hear from you again. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15968
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| Posted: Thu Jun 25, 20 6:54 am Post subject: |
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We are currently into a spot of hot dry weather at the moment, but we are threatened with storms tonight then after another warm day tomorrow, a lot cooler thank goodness.
Had trouble getting the kiln down to what we regarded as a 'safe' temperature to open it yesterday, but then found the air temperature was 29 C, so not likely to get the kiln down to 30 C. Got what looks like a good firing, so hopefully get a nice lot of bags of charcoal out of that.
Having to finish the loading again today, so hope we will finish early enough before it gets too hot, and also in time to fire the kiln again. The wood is well cooked before it goes in the kiln, so should be dry, so hopefully a fast firing.
Your cooking sounds lovely. I really ought to make a couple of big batch cooks, but at present all we have in that line is lamb curry, pea and ham soup and the wherewithal to make chicken stew. I like to have some bolognaisse and cassoulet too if I can, but haven't got round to it lately. |
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
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| Posted: Sat Jul 11, 20 8:57 am Post subject: |
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It's been a bit chilly lately with several consecutive frosts and threats (unfulfilled) of snow. I have been busy sorting out the paperwork for the meeting and emailing them, printing them out and generally distributing it.
I actually gave away all of the copies I was able to squeeze out of the printer before it ran out of toner, so this afternoon have been doing battle with the older printer which still had a bit of toner left - at least sufficient unto my needs.
I was missing one set of minutes but then realised that was the month no-one turned up to the meeting, so that was OK.
Tomorrow will be make or break as there are two critical things that need to get through - the first being the Articles which must be approved so they can be tabled at the AGM, and the other being a decision to not bother having a fund-raising dance in November as we have not yet got even the faintest idea what to do about that. Since our Raffles seem to generate a fairly good return I will be recommending we have two of those - one for October (Spring theme) the other for December (Christmas them).
I'll also be seeking assurance I can have two minutes of speaking time - uninterrupted - to summarise the last five years (ie, start at $56.00 at the end of the financial year, work hard and get almost $2000 in the account after sacking the last president, then gradually whittling that away over the following years so we only had a bit under $200 at the end of the last financial year, compared with this financial year which showed a balance of $911.00. This will of course be viewed as a personal criticism yet again, but you know what - stuff it.
Hoping for the fire to warm things up soon as I am feeling a bit too chilly. |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46216
Location: yes
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| Posted: Sat Jul 11, 20 10:30 am Post subject: |
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glad you have got the finances and paperwork in order, staying in the black having enough"turnover" to do useful things with the "profits" and having a 10 or 20% reserve at the end of the year seems ideal for a community hall
community stuff is not about how much is in the bank, it is about how much was obtained and how it was spent well 
the projections should be what could we do if we have income from A,B and C
this will cost X and this will raise Y if we do it this way
ps if your hall could run to the cost at some point my new canon printer would be ideal for such an organization.
about £300 for the machine but it has ink tanks rather than cartridges which is very cheap to run, iirc about 15 times cheaper to run than a standard "domestic" printer ie ink is not more expensive than cocaine and the per sheet cost in black is almost all paper cost or in colour is 95% the paper costs
overall the per sheet cost is reduced to little more than the price of the paper
for any job that needs high volume at times and good quality (official reports/letters, laminated signs, pitches for funds etc) at others tank ink is ideal
if you need a couple of thousand sheets a year it will be paid for long before it wears out
if you need more it will cover the outlay very quickly
cartridge printers are one of the best rip-offs in "high tech" world
10 p a sheet for black and a lot more in colour, as one colour runs out first so the others are wasted and the head goes with the ink every refill vs 0.1 p a sheet and each tank can be filled as required
no contest, head replaced only when it wears out
my one is a canon g6050 and it works well for the bits of office stuff tt needs(spreadsheets, documents etc), it does my image stuff pretty well for what i have asked of it and it would have saved me lots of cash when i was doing the orchard things.
ps i do not work for canon, they work for me 
pps i have been murdering printers for decades, this one seems robust |
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15968
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| Posted: Sun Jul 12, 20 9:10 am Post subject: |
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If it is not too late, you could tone down the talk by not mentioning changes in leadership etc., just the fortunes of the finances and how it has actually been achieved. Glad you managed to get your copies by one means or another. Our printer, which is an inkjet, has 4 separate cartridges, so isn't too bad, as we can replace them one at a time, and th black one is larger than the others. It is an HP, and pretty ancient now, but still works with a bit of persuasion and rather a long time thinking about getting going.
Virtually all 'do's' like your dance have been cancelled here this year, even outside shows, so think you will do better to stick to the draws, and hope for a bumper one next year once things settle down a bit.
It hasn't been too warm here for summer time lately, and damp as you know the UK can be, but the weather is supposed to be improving now. We have had this week off moving son to his now place. Looks like we are back to charcoal again next week though as we have some orders. |
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derbyshiredowser
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 980
Location: derbyshire
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cassandra
Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15968
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