Yesterday I started to fix my saw. My hand drilling is not very accurate. I miss my drill press, so today Ray and I carried it down to the workshop. It's as rusty as hell and needs some TLC ASAP I'm busy tomorrow but I'll try to do that this weekend.
So after doing what I could to make a new guard, I did a bit on the outside. I didn't take any photos, so I've faked a couple just now.
I've cocked up. I really should have made those bottom trim pieces come right down to the cladding. I don't know why I didn't. Not only would it have saved me some work, it would have looked better, too. Too late now, I'd have to replace the verticals too.
Ray has scrounged some pipes for me, so we have used them to build a honeycomb structure in the soakaway hole. Ray lined the sides with some woven membrane (we recycled some builders' bulk bags) whilst I made some staples for him out of galvanised fencing wire.
Then we sawed up the pipes into short lengths. I already had a few ribbed ones, so we had plenty. We did think of planting them upright, but decided against it as, in time, they would sink into the ground. All the weight would be on a thin ring, so that's quite a bit of pressure.
So with some more membrane on top to stop soil leaching in, we could start filling in again. There is a good foot of soil and I plan on having a raised bed or two there as well.
Of course, we have to get from the workshop to the soakaway, so we started to dig a trench. It was "we" actually, although I admit Ray did rather more of it than I did. We hit something hard. Very hard. Someone, for reasons best know to themselves, had buried a bag of cement. Unfortunately it has gone of and is unusable.
So it currently looks like this. I think we shall have to did the trench a little deeper. It doesn't help that the ground is higher at the soakaway than it is at the workshop end.
Using these pipes has saved me about £400 in soakaway cages, something for which I am very grateful. I've spent far too much on this, I am skint and it is a ridiculous project upon which too have embarked. Sure, I love it, of course, but it was a daft thing to do.
Although it was only 2pm, we packed up. It's been really windy here today and wind and contact lenses are not happy bedfellows. Even with my wraparound specs, dust still gets in and it is agony. The only thing wind is good for is flying kites, something I've not done for far too long. I must put that right soon.
So we stopped and went shopping for guttering and stuff. That will be next week's job.
