Friday 25 November 2016

A weekend of quietness

Now weekends are a time for planning for peace,well unless you are fostering. But fostering was very years ago so a few things needed sorting quietly.

First job, reset the sliding side door on the V4 T4 van, checking the Haynes manual revealed that this was a very simple little job, looked like it would take 20 minutes at most.

The management was off subduing some jungle  and at 09.30 with her going up the drive it was time to break out some tools.  I  think her job over ran a bit so, it was 13.30 or so when she came back down the drive to be confronted by daughter Bruce, me, with trolley jack, crow bars,wedges and a 10 lb sledge hammer. I suppose really she wasn't to know, so when she observed "You.ve just started then" I should not have replied in quite the way I did.

Peace eventually descended well after a fashion. When you live in the sticks, there are certain jobs that need doing regularly, like cleaning the flues. Logically these are jobs for the summer when the fires are out and you can leave windows and doors open to dissipate the ensuing clouds of debris. 

Naturally, we hadn't done that so, a few weeks back we swept the flue for the Rayburn, a messy old job that turned into too. Of course out main stove is only ever woodfired so the flue would contain far less sooty type stuff. Nevertheless some 6th sense made me decide to empty the living room, not a stick  of furniture or fleck of rug remained when I started to dismantle the flue. This was to prove one of my better calls, pulling the flue generated some ash and cinders, a fair old bit of it infact. Breaking into the Green Goddess Fire Engine hearth kit to clear the chimney triggered a series of deluges of black powder that filled the room with a fine black mist and buried the hearth in a huge pile. The vaccum was abandoned in favour of a shovel and  a big debris bag. Then came the vacuum and the steam cleaner and eventually all was restored.

Flue rebuilt and, wow, we have a warm living room and a warm house with the heat controlled.

Over all a good call, rest of my life in ruins, but hey ho... 

R




 

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