Saturday 4 June 2011

The plot thickens...


October 2010...


Last month...

Back in 1988, just after the big storm the year before, I built a sizeable barn replacement for a local farmer.

His old barn had blown over, and of course, he needed a replacement pretty quick, as his cows were beginning to low a bit louder, and generally become unionised over the wet hay issues, as well as having nowhere to sleep when it was cold.

So Scrobs was called in to build a new one, and it was ever thus.

Apart from the frame collapsing spectacularly, while I was chatting with the old boy and watching from the side, we got it going pretty quickly, and had to decide what to put on the roof.

The natural farmer's choice is corrugated asbestos, because it looks the part. I originally wanted metal, but the noise would have been too great during the one thunderstorm we were due to get before this summer we're in now, so the farmer won the argument, and asbestos it was. The roofing weights were recalculated, and it all went up like a dream.

Just this week, at the allotments, a very generous soul has given our group down the end, a large plastic and steel container for rainwater collection. He gets these for free from a place which would have to 'recycle' them in the Meltdown Chamber at Dungeness Power Station, or somewhere similarly bureaucratic, because it once contained wood preservative, but they are magnificent for the job of collecting the faint dribble of mist which we might get before July is out.

The agreement is that I fix it up next to our shed, and divert the downpipe which normally goes into the bath I use for water, into this big tank. That's fine, but in doing so the roof needs recovering because it wasn't built by Scrobs, and there are various deficiencies in design, which need rubbing out.

Our generous soul also came up with the idea of supplying some corrugated metal sheets to put on the roof, but I can't get them home to cut them, and have already mucked up my hacksaw trying to do it without power. So I was b******d.

Until GS suggested that I might like some spare Onduline sheets he has lying about. Now, this stuff is peculiar, corrugated bitumen stuff, and I knew very little about it, until in a jiffy, I'd picked them up, snipped them to shape and fitted them all last evening!

Great result! We have a red roof at the front, and a cream roof at the back, and I'll pop on the ridge sometime today!

This is the stuff he gave me, and it's exactly what was needed for the job.

But why the connection to a barn built in 1988 you ask? Come on, I can hear the whisperings, the sideways glances and rolling eyes! You're all (both of you) muttering 'That silly old fart Scrobs is losing the few marbles he has left, and is killing time before his next tincture...'!

Well the answer is this. The farmer at some stage, suggested that all his agricultural chums were rooting around for sheets like this, because they were perfect for the oddities of uneven roof joists, leaning structures etc., and could be cut with a clasp knife, and why don't I use them on his barn?

He looked decidedly crestfallen when I'd said they would be useless...

Wish I hadn't now...

6 comments:

Thud said...

Faint dribble of mist!...we should be so lucky here in the ever wet north west.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Funnily enough Thudders, it's started to rain today, after several weeks of nearly no moisture at all!

I plonked several gallons of really evil-smelling liquid manure all over the plot today, so that the rain would disperse it and make the parsnips feel good, as well as the carrots, spuds, salsify, beans, onions, shallots, leeks, more leeks, tomatoes and raspberries...

And I still want to plant out some more little chaps!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Sorry Thud, I've only just seen your request on your blog re the water tank!

I'll get a pic up here, and we can all laugh at the prospect...!

Philipa said...

I love your stories, scrobs. And have a generator you could have used. Ah well, glad you got the job done in the end. Interesting about the ondine. I'd ike to enclose the side of my house and have neither money not muscle. Ah well again!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

It works Pips! Last night, and much of today, we've had at least half an inch of rain, which really is needed here!

I went down this evening to see the result, and it seemed that everything was just bulging with goodwill at at last getting a real drink...

Know the feeling...!

Thanks for your offer of a generator though, we're going to work out a way to create a collection panel to fill the tank, and may be some time! Plot neighbour is muttering about moving his shed across, so for a financial wizard (which he is), I reckon we'll get at least something done, if it holds water that is...;0)

Philipa said...

Dearest Scrobs, just had a missive from a friend in Wales who is expecting an official drought to be called today, making watering crops much more difficult. An official drought in Wales? In wales?!!!!

Blimey.