Friday 24 April 2009

Thursday 23rd April 09

A very lazy start to the day. Gill went to Easingwold by bus to pick up the two flat irons which were advertised in the Press a little while ago. I did various things around the house and generally pottered, answered the phone and took Fiddlesticks bookings, or passed enquirers on to my agent if I was unable to do the work because of already being booked...

Gill came in after lunch bearing two quite rusty flat irons. We wondered what we could do to make them usable again? I think there is a chemical product which when applied to rusty metal, reacts with the oxidised iron and makes it wholesome again... but I have no idea whether this might work and where to get it from. I probably need to speak to a car restorer or something like that. And then, to make the bottoms really flat and smooth. How to do this? Sandpaper??? At the moment, the irons are useless for Gill's needs. Any flat-iron restorers out there? Advice gladly received!

Gill once again went to school and got our youngest, she's doing this regularly from now on as part of her exercise regime! I sorted out some growing media in the garden, and then cycled down to Country Fresh with 5 carrier bags of riddled rich compost for sale. I came back with 3 boxes and a sack of juicy rottables...

But no time for processing those as was off to the LETS bring and share meal at Lynn's, which was very enjoyable and social, as I met several new people. I too dried fruit and flapjack to share... as usual the fruit was very popular! One of the new LETS members was Michael (his wife Suzi was there too) and he was cycling (she was in a car) so when I left at 7ish, he came too and we cycled together as far as Bishopthope Road, where he went on to Acomb and I peeled off to The Stables for a York in Transition meeting.

Barry chaired, there were 13 of us there, a good turn out. And a swift meeting, covering a lot of ground... we'd finished by 9. I decided not to go on to a pub as I wanted to get home. I stopped by Country Fresh as I'd seen a lost and lonely pallet which I bungeed onto my trailer, then to a skip where I found another two! So, an excellent haul of pallets, which goes some of the way to replacing a pallet compost heap which I've had to take up and break apart, as it was becoming too rickety and falling to pieces. Infact the one I've taken up is the original pallet heap that was in the garden when we moved here in 2001, so it has had a lot of use and lasted well. It's replacement will be slightly bigger and raised up off the ground to deter rodents. I'll need two or more horizontal pallets on the ground, and then four sides on top of that, wired together. It results in a tall heap, but less access for rats, who like burrowing into compost heaps at soil level, and as mine are now mostly above soil level, there is nowhere for them to go.

Gill was pleased to see me and we had a relaxed evening.

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