Plastic free July

Little chance

I have just received an order from Midland Chandlers, great 12 volt and narrow boat fixtures and materials. But, it arrived in 3 really huge boxes of air filled plastic pouches. 4 lamps, 2 bits of fire board and 2m squared of landfill plastic

This would be very useful for anyone moving or needing to space/pack delicate things. Send me a message if you would like it, it’s free to a good home. You will have to collect 🙂

All about Toilets

As far has compost toilets go this one is pretty snazzy. Having used facilities in Mongolia which is a hole over an open pit 3 meters below. Azerbaijan which used to have the worst toilets imaginable. Just piles of poop which you add to and have no where to go. World records in breath holding have been smashed in these delightless cholera corners and much footwear rendered un-salvagable. Anyway I digress..

Upstairs bus toilet will be an 12v electric powered construction which will separate liquids from solids, which will produce garden compost for solids and cost a small fortune. Below is a video about one of the models I m looking at. If anyone from Sweden is reading this. What do they cost over there?

When living off grid the whole question of toilets and the waste we, via them produce, can be a sticky topic!

At the moment I am using a beautifully constructed wooden toilet in a wooden hut. Instead of water, sawdust (lots being created at the moment) is sprinkled on the contents below.

Laying the downstairs underfloor in Walter

Walter is a little tipsy turvy

Although jacked up on concrete hard standing and the spirit level says Walter is straight!!, the floor isn’t straight or flat, he has had a hard life treated not so gently

by divers and passengers alike. The whole floor slopes gently in directions away from the drainage outlets!!
The rubber flooring is glued onto hardboard and is in places lifted and has water damage underneath.  I have decided to put down an underfloor of 9mm plywood to strengthen and flatten the floor before putting the underlay and final wooden flooring on top.  
Oohh, my second Youtube video.  Nailed, glued and precision cut it! OO

Downstairs design change

This weekend my sister, brother in law and nephew 

popped over for a physically distanced catchup.
An ideal opportunity to get others thoughts on the floor plan as I am having problems squeezing everything in.
A good question from Oli, 
Why have a central island and not just a regular oven and hob?  Aahhh, but I have a good answer.   I want the oven to be high, much easier and safer to move food in and out of it.  Also, a central island will break up the corridor effect, separating the entrance food prep area from the dining and cine viewing area. So with heads together we how have a slightly changed floor plan which is really cool.  An L shaped area which breaks the viewpoint and allows for a high hob.  There is also space to move comfortably around all areas, not bump into the wood burner AND an extra work surface.  I love it.  

Plumbing Pontification

 I know nothing about plumbing. Here are my initial thoughts as I am drinking my morning coffee.  I rang a couple of plumbers but, no answer, so on my own.

  
I have spent the entire windy, cool day in my little Iceni roundhouse with the heater on tick over watching wallies show me how to use plumbing materials.  Surely it cant be that hard.  Let’s begin. My schematic shows a two coil water cylinder with the water being heated using solar

thermal power during the warmer months and a wood 
burner during the colder months.  For those times in which the weather can’t make up, it’s mind there in an immersion connected to 240 mains electricity.  
Oh, excuse me apparently according to my electric man!! 
it is now 230 volts.

 
 

 Next excitement is the shopping list.  What must I buy?

I have decided to wait before purchasing the water tank, thermal panel and wood burner until later, I don’t want to 
blow 3 grand and find I can’t pay for the smaller things I need immediately but I do need to get the plumbing in before panelling…….more youtube videos.  10 hours!! 10 HOURS to work out 4 materials. Agghhhhh
OK, so here we have my full day’s work.  I still haven’t plucked up the courage to push the proceed to checkout button.
What do you think, shall I?
.

Painting the Outside of Walter

Wind, Rain, Storms! 

A fantastic day to make an i-movie 
about the painting of Walter so far and
share it with you. 

Just thought I’d share a stormy photo first.

Gorgeous huh? The light, the clouds, shade,
wind, the smell of the sea and of lightening
and fish and chips as I near the quay.

  

Ok, so today I am treating you to an all singing all dancing video including, chickens and Barley the Lurcher.  Hang on to your seats.
Ok relax, the video file is too big.  Plan B
So uploading into drive and embedding the code as a link didn’t work ….. On to  Plan C
Start my Youtube Channel and link to that.  See you next week!!!!!
Ohh much easier, so sit back and enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13aeptQUL4&feature=youtu.be

Week 3 Overview

Did you miss me?


This week has been a week of hot weather, 

chicken rebellion, 
precision woodwork and 
much paint sloshing.  
It is so nice to wake early… 5ish. shrug on work shorts and t-shirt – actually, stay in pyjama shorts and a t-shirt.  
Brew an enormous mug of filter coffee and 
begin painting.  
10 am stop for eggs and salad, 
then by midday with temperatures around the 
30-degree mark. 
STOP.
  
 
Steve has kept to his traditional 9 -3 working through the heat in metal Walter, which is even hotter now the aluminium panels have replaced 1/4 of the windows.  All the side batons are in place ready for panelling. We decided to replace a section of the back flooring, which over the years has begun to rot.  Then laid the rest of the underfloor.   
Yummy looking good, I like it.  And so ends week 3.

Squabbling Chickens

No bus news today,  the weather is too nice to sit and write a blog so I thought to share a funny chicken story and photo.

The chickens never lay where we can find their eggs.  Often a search will find a very broody chuck sat on 10 or more eggs which, when stuck in water, all bob around on the surface.  Old, rotten eggs. Today we found two chucks on the same nest squabbling over 8 eggs, the kept stealing from each other which was very comical.  I finally got them to move by blowing on them !! Stealing 6 eggs I marked the other two and put one in each nest box.  Now two chickens happily nesting in two separate boxes.  

Shopping for Sunlight

Agghhh,  I have spent the entirety of yesterday, a rainy day, trying to work out which systems and which electrical bits and bobs to buy.  During the lockdown, I have been enjoying a little online shopping flutter, I bought some nice jeans and am now awaiting my Merrells.  But, how can I tell from a trade catalogue what the downlights, spotlights, switches, connectors, cables, the solar flipping panel is like?  I need to get close and personal to really see if it is what I need.

I have created what I think is the wishlist
for my solar needs, seems a rather pricey way to suck the energy from the sun and into my water and electrical batteries.  Thank goodness for specialists who I can talk to… Mmmm maybe later, it’s 5.30am and I been have up for an hour, awoken by the rising sun hitting the newly inserted aluminium window inserts, which ricochets directly into my bedroom.   Wake up world,  it’s a lovely day.

 The specialist has replied.  This is the edited printable version…..

Do not buy any of it.
Item 1 – Too expensive, check individual prices.
Item 2 – Don’t need, that type cable not required, too short.
Item 3 – Very poor quality, don’t need, already have.
Item 4 – Wrong Type, for flat roof.
Item 5 – Wrong Type, for flat roof.
Item 6 – Unnecessary, over-priced, pay for label, not for product.
Item 7 – Cheap China crap, will blow-up at any time.
Item 8 – Cheap crap, <400 cycles, only last a year.
Regards
Chris Millyard
An Engineer – who doesn’t like seeing people getting ripped off.