Made from one baked beans tin and one SMA baby milk tin. Doesn't take much wood as it works by returning the gases given off as the wood burns. I've since painted it black with stove paint and made a little pan stand out of a tuna can. Also made a leather pouch for it from a bit I had in the garage from Melissa's old sofa we had in Hebden Bridge. 😁
Having not seen any Reds for most of the summer I was starting to wonder if we were scaring them off but this last week they have become easier to spot as the leaves come off the trees and they are bolder as they concentrate on feeding on all those beech nuts, pine cones and Hawthorn berries.
Melissa wanted to go to Hawes Community bonfire on November the 5th so we had our own bonfire at the field the night before on Mischief night instead. The weather was perfect and the fireworks spot on with no loud bangs which pleased Morris though disappointed Edwin.
Picked a spot and planted the first of the two apple trees we bought at the weekend. This one is "Scrumptious" variety. We'll have to wait and see....
We have a very nice night camping out on the 2nd of September. Bit Midge plagued but fun all the same. No sleep was attained by the grown ups....
Going to build a wood store of some sort here. Early August this photo. See what this space looks like a Christmas!
13th July. Found a dead crayfish in the Widdale Beck at our field. Don't know if it's one of the invasive American ones that have been forcing out the native ones or not. But interesting to find one all the same.
On January the 1st (I think?) I posted some shoots that had come up from a coppiced Elm at V plantation. This is the same stump six month later. Well over six feet tall. Quite impressive growth.
I don't know if you can see but there are definitely fish in the beck. There are some tiny fry about an inch long (not in this photo) and then some minows between 2 and 4 inches and quite translucent.
As a little project I decided to strip and restrain the stock on my HW80k. I've had the gun since new. I think it was 1988. A gun shop in the centre of York that is no longer there. Needless to say that the original varnish wasn't that appealing. I used Rustin's paint stripper as per the instructions on the tin. Then whipped it down with a rag soaked in white spirit a couple of times. Next over the course of about ten days I applied several applications of household bleach. Strippling it in until a was satisfied the base colour of the stock would take the stain well. I then gave it a rub down with 400grit. I used the back of my pocket knife blade to clean out all the cuttings on the chequered panels. When it had been left a few days to dry properly I applied the first of three costs of Rustin's spirit based wood dye. The colour I used was Dark Teak. My intension was to as closely match the original shade as possible. I allowed each coat about 12 hour or more then the last coat only four or five hours before I applied the first application of boiled linseed oil mixed with a third white spirit. This was put on evenly with a soft cloth. Rubbing in well as so to bring off the excess dye that would be sitting on top of the harder parts of the beech grain. Thus bringing the grain out. Over the following couple of week I applied between 6 and 8 further coats only the first three though been diluted with spirit. Never put too much oil on in one go. It's often good to come back to a coat an hour or two after it's been applied and further rub it in. This avoids poolings and the formation of overly shiny patches. Very pleased with the overall results. Feels and looks so much better now than it did before. More like a piece of wood!
