Crossing the Blues
Showing posts with label Tara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tara. Show all posts

Monday 14th February 11

A good day, despite most of it being inside and doing assorted paperwork and admin stuff.

At 10, Will came to meet our eldest and to see if they could work together... Will is a maths enthusiast and we've asked him to help us home educate our eldest.  He's coached two GCSE students already, so we discussed that too.  They just had various discussions and tried out various number games, but next week I'll start paying Will 10 Yorkys for the hour's tuition. 

Just before lunch I had a good telephone conversation with Nathan from Promessa UK, sorting out a few facts to help me write clearly about it on Novaterium.com. 

I also had some conversations with Keith, whom I know from Freecycle.  He responded to my 'wanted' post, where I asked if anyone had a spare electric chainsaw as mine had ceased to be able to be used.  I explained what had happened, and he said he'd have a go at fixing it.  However he was having a busy day himself, so we arranged to meet later.

I got a message from a teacher in France asking if I'd be willing to talk to her students about being a 'freegan'.  I replied immediately and said yes, she was delighted and found me on skype, and at about 3pm we connected and I answered questions about my green lifestyle.  They were a group of 20 year olds, not sure what lesson it was, but that didn't matter.  I had their questions relayed to me by the teacher and they listened to my answers.  One student later found me on facebook, saying he'd lived as a freegan for a couple of years.

I did a couple of hours work in the garden, and sorted out some Mediterranean-grown new potatoes which had been thrown out as they had blemishes and damage from the harvesting.  Later, I washed them and trimmed them, and cut them into cubes and made a potato salad on the stove.

Gill made a celery soup (just 2 potatoes, an onion and a whole head of celery) and an apple crumble with stewed apple from the freezer.  This was a delicious tea.

Justin called to pick up his cheque from the two days work he did, and to leave us the certificates and circuit diagrams of the house wiring, so that anybody doing any further work knows what is what, as this house has really weird wiring.  I told Justin that the lights he said wouldn't work after he removed some crappy flex were actually still working, so he'll need to come tomorrow and check the status of that wire, to check there isn't some problem there....

Then I cycled round to Keith's house in Tang Hall/Heworth, to see if he could fix the chainsaw.  The problem was that I could not undo the nut securing the blade, to tension the chain, as the bolt was turning with the nut as I tried to undo it.  Somehow the bolt had come loose.  He had a good poke around, trying to see if he could get to the base of the bolt to hold that still, but no.  So he undid the screw/bolt things holding the plastic casing together, which then showed that the base of the bolt was encased in the plastic casing.  After some thought, he reckoned that putting a blow torch on the bolt would enable him to pull it out of the casing as the plastic would soften.  This worked, once he'd found the blow torch!  The hole that was left was the right size for a bolt he had in his extensive collection.  He decided to anchor this two ways... by drilling a hole across the head and also into the casing of the saw, and sliding a pin through both case and bolt.  He also had some glue called Sticks Like Sh*t which he used to fix the bolt head into the hole and the pin in place.  We then had a bit of bother getting the case back in place as there were a couple of springs which needed easing into place, and the on-switch was difficult too.  BUT we got everything back in place AND the machine worked!  Whether the chain stays taut when I'm cutting is another matter, but we shall see!

Keith didn't want anything in return... as he'd offered to help me.  I said that if I ever asked him for help, I'd expect to give him something.  I asked again if there was anything I could do by way of thanking him, and he said, well, he was looking for a rhubarb crown.  I said I'd be able to help him with that!

Keith is an example of a person I would like more of in the community around me.  If more people were like him, the world would definitely be a better place.

I got home and did more washing up, cooked potato salad, helped Gill open a PayPal account as she wants to buy something tomorrow, and I found out I won't be in York tomorrow as Ali has two ill PAs and wants me to go over and work... hence Gill needing to open the PayPal thing, as I was going to do that transaction for her, but won't be around.

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Friday 10th September 10

Up early despite a late finish last night.  I had been booked by Tara to help finish off her water butt installation, using the drill bit 'borrowed' through Freecycle.  This was achieved by saying in the WANTED post 'Wanted for drilling just three holes in plastic waterbutts, on one day only'.  When the lovely John the engineer contacted me, I said I'd be very happy to return it, which I intend to do early next week.

So, I set off at 9.30ish and got to her house on the dot of 10am... this time, she was yawning and not quite ready.  But at least she was dressed.  The water butt installation was actually very easy, the most difficult bit was cutting through the plastic downpipe to insert the diverter.  But all three went in and as it was a wetish day, we saw that they worked.  I did a little bit of couch grass root removal and explained how to prepare this for composting safely in a cold compost heap.  She has a lot of work to do, as the lawn is just a mass of couch grass and she wants to make a vegetable patch.  But I predict that next spring she'll have at least some of it ready for planting.  We also dealt with her beech hedge and wove some twiggy bits into a new fence.

She fed me sandwiches for lunch, and gave me two chocolate muffins as she's started a diet today.  I expect my boys will like these.  I also got a tub of highly fattening Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  I'll eat it slowly.  I should be aware of my waistline too...

And then away, zooming into town to call in on the Council Offices to find out about the fate of the Hull Road Ward funding applications I put in, and to try to find out about what the role of a 'sponsoring organisation' is, for future reference.  I met a senior officer but he didn't know the details of individual applications, so I got an email address and need to write to that officer.

And to home, via Country Fresh where I was a bit shocked to see that Rich had been in hospital with a cat bite on his finger.  His whole hand had swollen up and he'd been admitted overnight. Poor Richard!  However, had he not contacted NHS Direct, who told him to go to the drop in, who told him to go to A and E, who said, we need to admit you overnight, he could have lost a limb, or even lost his life.  Blood poisoning can be very very serious. He was given antibiotic injections into the afflicted area, and oral antibiotics, and was today pretty well recovered.  I picked up a couple of sacks and a box, and came home.  There was more, so later, I returned, did some shopping and picked up the remainder.

I had a relaxing afternoon, weeding the pond area, loading a compost bin, recovering fruit for drying.

In the evening I did that fruit management, jarring up a load of dried pears and refilling the racks with wet fruit.

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Friday 27th August 10

I got up earlier than I'm used to as my friend Tara had asked me to come over and help install her compost bins. But that wasn't all... she also requested that I have a go at using the borrowed pick axe to break up the large lump of concrete which we managed to get out last time, and there were also 3 water butts needing to be installed. This seemed a lot to fit into a 10 til 1 slot.

However, the compost bins were easy to do... I used the outline of the base of the bin to make a little trench which the foot of the bin sat in, and the soil that was removed was then put back in the edge of the trench and on the lip of the bin to secure it. We put both of them next to each other in a sunny spot. Whilst I was putting the second one in, Tara chopped up some beech twigs to make an aerated base for the first one.

Then we undid one of her pots of potatoes, there were some but I think they could have been bigger, so I suggested the rest should stay. Then we had a look at her tomato plants which she's been growing on a window sill. They needed a bit of pruning but several of them had tomatoes on, and some will still produce a few more.

We were able to do some of the first water butt installation, by removing a section of down pipe, but then we got a bit stuck with drilling a hole in the side of the butt, so Tara made lunch and I had a bit of a bash at the concrete but I only got a few bits off, and some of these struck me on the face; one cut me and I decided that I didn't want to continue with this.

I enjoyed a cheese and onion sandwich and a hummus and tomato, plus dry roasted peanuts, one of my favourite treats, and then i had to go as I told Gill I'd be back around 2pm. I loaded up my wrecking bar on the trailer (I'd brought this in case we needed to lever the concrete somewhere) and set off, but I didn't get far before my trailer parted company from it's front part; the weight of the wrecking bar had caused one of the weak points of the trailer's metal bars to fatigue and break. It has broken there before, and been welded back together. I managed to fix it with bungees, and fix the wrecking bar alongside of my top bar on my bike frame also with bungees (I should have carried it here before, thinking about it) and gingerly cycle home, hoping that the bungees held the trailer secure.

As soon as I got in, Gill went to town to try to find some clothes for the boys for school.

I had a bit of time on the computer and did some housework.

At about 7pm, we all set off for Simon and Melody's party. I cycled down and Gill and the boys got a lift with Ros and her son in their car.

I had a great time, enjoyed chatting to Phil, and then Lynn, and briefly with Kate and Alison, and I prized myself free after 11.30. A really good social time!

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Friday 23rd July 10

Up early, as had to be getting going soon after 9am for an appointment, and had an achy neck...the sign of a good gig last night!

Gathered a couple of sacks of compost, to swap for logs, and loaded up the trailer with this, the wrecking bar and fork. I headed over to the other side of town, I thought I'd memorised the route but I missed the turning and had to ask a local who had a map. I soon found Tara's house and she showed me her back garden and told me her vision for it. She trusts my knowledge when it comes to gardens (don't know why!) and I told her that in my view, her vision was do-able. We've known each other for a while but haven't seen each other socially for a couple of years.

Part of her vision is a vegetable patch, currently part of a lawn of couch grass surrounding a large block of concrete which once held a washing line. I'd offered to help break up or remove this concrete. Hence the wrecking bar. So I got busy excavating around the offending lump and dug down until I reached the base, about a foot down, and then I started to lever it up, Tara pushing down on the bar and me inserting bits of broken concrete slab which she conveniently had available. After a bit of time we had the thing out of the hole, and the hole full of bits of broken slabs and half bricks. The lump of concrete was about 2 feet by 2 feet by a foot deep, and I was unable to break it up other than to chip some bits off the edge. I gave up as my hands started to blister. We had lunch, a veg stew, baguette and nutloaf, very nice! We spent a bit of time sorting through some beech hedge offcuts, which provided me with a trailer load of fuel and a green bin of compostables for the Council compost system.

I had to get back as I had other things to do; 4 cheques to put into the building society, a York in Transition cheque to give to the Council re the Mansion House Alternative Energy event in October, and then to Alligator to pick up a lot of not very nice sacks of materials which had sat far too long, and were 'fragrant'.

Home to get them into two tumblers with lots of shredded twigs, and then a bath, as I was going out tonight and working tomorrow. Lovely to have a bath with the gas not kicking in at all, a 100% solar heated bath. Gill wasn't happy with the stuff I'm bringing home, and if I'm to do it, it needs to be regular as it gets horrible quite quickly. I guess my ankle being broken might have affected my collections a bit, but that's no excuse really.

A quick bit to eat and then cycled over to Lord Mayors Walk to St John's, where I'd booked two tickets to see Satish Kumar's lecture called 'Soil, Soul and Society'. Gill didn't feel like going, so I offered my spare ticket to Ivana.

As one would expect in a small city like York and such an inspirational speaker as Satish Kumar, I knew lots of the attendees and it was good to see some old friends, and newer ones!

Satish Kumar was born in India and in 1962 he heard about Bertrand Russel's 8 day protest walk from Aldermaston to London, his response to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the lunacy of the nuclear arms race. He decided he couldn't just let this situation happen, and thought he ought to walk to Moscow, Paris, London and then to Washington to protest about the madness which was/is the nuclear weapon situation.

On the way out of India, crossing the border to Pakistan, a friend wanted to give him money and food, but Kumar refused, as he was determined to do the whole journey without money, and just accepting whatever nourishment was offered. On the way to Moscow, he met a couple of women who worked in a tea factory, who offered him and his friend a cup of tea. Because of their support of his mission, one of them had a bright idea.... and gave him 4 boxes of tea, saying they weren't for him, but for each of the leaders who had their finger on the nuclear button. She asked him to pass on this message: 'If you are about to push the button, please just stop and have a cup of tea and think about what you are about to do.'

So, Kumar walked to Moscow, Paris and London, delivering the tea and message, and in London met Russel, who bought the travellers a ticket to New York on the Queen Mary.

Another unfinished blog post... I WILL write out my notes as this meeting was excellent, but not now.

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