A lovely day... not only the turning of the year but really sunny and I enjoyed myself. Got up just in time to wish the boys a happy solstice before they rushed off to school.
I had a morning doing a report for the York World Naked bike Ride, as we had issues with the police on the ride, who said they were only there to observe, but they prevented some of our marshalls from keeping the ride safe by 'corking' a junction where it would have been dangerous for a motor vehicle to split the group... but later they did some traffic management themselves. Ideally we need a situation like in Manchester where we had police outriders keeping the riders safe.
Gill and I spent some time together over lunch and after lunch I hopped on my bike and cycled over to Kutters/Shannons to get my new chainsaw chain, which cost me £21, but rejuvenates my chainsaw.
On the way back I went to Nationwide, which is the Building Society where I have two accounts, my Fiddlesticks/Composter account, and my savings. Last week I saw a poster which said that my savings account, a 'cashbuilder' was changing, and that any cheque I had made out to a third party would cost me an extra £10, which is ridiculous. So today I asked what the options were to make this situation better, and I had a meeting with a nice guy called Ross who worked out that the account I needed was a Bonus 30. This allows me to make one withdrawal per month, and if I don't make any withdrawals for a year I get some kind of bonus payment... but as I'm not that bothered about a bonus, this doesn't really matter. I might use this purely for savings and see if the Credit Union has a better deal for the occasional withdrawals I make to get magazine subscriptions and the various other things I use this account for.
Anyway, Ross was nice and we got the paperwork sorted, and I came home. I wanted to see if my chainsaw was any good so I got the electrics sorted out and chopped up quite a lot of logs, and split some, and stacked too. A good session... very hot and sweaty but good honest hard work. The chainsaw is working well.
Gill made a quiche for tea. She is the best quiche maker in the World.
Later I sorted out some compostables and found that for some reason one of the shops had thrown out more or less a whole sack of new potatoes, possibly because some fruit or veg had leaked onto them and some of them were damp. So we'll be eating new potatoes for quite a while!
Showing posts with label chainsaw servicing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chainsaw servicing. Show all posts
Another lazy morning. Gill was doing the accounts and I chatted with her, occasionally helping her decipher my scrawly writing in my account book... The boys played happily, first with armies of toys on the landing upstairs, then with virtual armies on the computer.
A very relaxed day, kids enjoying not being at school. I cycled over to Poppleton Road to Kutters/Shannons to collect my chainsaw... the flex going into the machine had fractured and needed to be replaced, this cost me £25, but at least it won't keep on cutting out on me. When I took it in I told them that it was cutting in a gentle curve, and when I phoned yesterday they told me the bar was bent, and would cost £40 to replace. I decided to put up with curved cutting... as the cost of a new chainsaw would be about £100, so spending £65 on cable repair and new bar didn't make a lot of sense. Having a curved cut doesn't matter too much anyway.
Enjoyed the cycle ride, apart from when zooming down the road at about 30mph and the lights changed suddenly to red so I slammed on my brakes, not remembering that I've got new blocks in the discs, and my back wheel locked and I nearly lost it... but I've skidded many times and I controlled it and came to a safe halt at the traffic lights.
Came home via Country Fresh where I bought eggs and veg and picked up three boxes of compostables. Did a stint in the garden loading most of today's haul into the compostumbler.
Tea was nice... a chunk of nutloaf with some home grown cauliflower, coleslaw, olives and other salady bits... and then out to the York Green Festival meeting at St John's.
We had a new attendee, Aaron, who has quite a lot of experience of organising things. This was lucky as Helgi's stage line-up was far too congested and we really needed to cut it in half, give Seize The Day a bigger set and have all the singer-songwriters on another stage. So, Aaron said he'd take this on... which is fantastic, as we're back to TWO stages again. Our second stage will be unamplified apart from 'practice amp' sized rigs, a sort of 'busking stage'.
We got quite a lot sorted and it all looks as if it's coming together... just! But we still have loads to do and putting on an event this size is quite scary. Especially when you're not in charge, and have entrusted others with most of the decisions and work, but still care very much about it happening!
Home at about 10pm and enjoyed one of my favourite films, 'Being John Malkovich' on Film4.
A very relaxed day, kids enjoying not being at school. I cycled over to Poppleton Road to Kutters/Shannons to collect my chainsaw... the flex going into the machine had fractured and needed to be replaced, this cost me £25, but at least it won't keep on cutting out on me. When I took it in I told them that it was cutting in a gentle curve, and when I phoned yesterday they told me the bar was bent, and would cost £40 to replace. I decided to put up with curved cutting... as the cost of a new chainsaw would be about £100, so spending £65 on cable repair and new bar didn't make a lot of sense. Having a curved cut doesn't matter too much anyway.
Enjoyed the cycle ride, apart from when zooming down the road at about 30mph and the lights changed suddenly to red so I slammed on my brakes, not remembering that I've got new blocks in the discs, and my back wheel locked and I nearly lost it... but I've skidded many times and I controlled it and came to a safe halt at the traffic lights.
Came home via Country Fresh where I bought eggs and veg and picked up three boxes of compostables. Did a stint in the garden loading most of today's haul into the compostumbler.
Tea was nice... a chunk of nutloaf with some home grown cauliflower, coleslaw, olives and other salady bits... and then out to the York Green Festival meeting at St John's.
We had a new attendee, Aaron, who has quite a lot of experience of organising things. This was lucky as Helgi's stage line-up was far too congested and we really needed to cut it in half, give Seize The Day a bigger set and have all the singer-songwriters on another stage. So, Aaron said he'd take this on... which is fantastic, as we're back to TWO stages again. Our second stage will be unamplified apart from 'practice amp' sized rigs, a sort of 'busking stage'.
We got quite a lot sorted and it all looks as if it's coming together... just! But we still have loads to do and putting on an event this size is quite scary. Especially when you're not in charge, and have entrusted others with most of the decisions and work, but still care very much about it happening!
Home at about 10pm and enjoyed one of my favourite films, 'Being John Malkovich' on Film4.
Spent most of the morning on the computer, doing washing up, preparing fruit for drying and various other domestic stuff. With the Euro elections approaching, there's a lot of political stuff winging its way around the web, and I found this. I thought it might be fun to see if it predicted my Green intentions. But I couldn't get it to tell me which way to vote. I wonder if others can?
I responded to a Freecycle offer of lots of logs; my friend John Bibby has a neighbour who's taken down a large horse chestnut, an apple, a pear, a huge laburnum and some softwood. I agreed with John that I'd cycle round at 5pm, he'd get his car ready to take some logs over to mine, I'd load and then unload the car, and he'd take me back to pick up my bike with a trailer full. Sounded like a good plan.
I did a bit of work in the garden but it was too hot. I cycled down to Country Fresh with three carrier bags of very mature compost, and picked up a sack and two boxes of compostables plus a bit of shopping.
Came back and tried to make some space in the front garden ready for the log arrival, but my chainsaw is being difficult and only working now and then. I think it has a loose connection, so will have to get it serviced.
At 5 I cycled over to John's and we did two loads, only a small percentage of the large volumes of wood they've got. Arrived back after 7 having done two car-loads and a bike-trailer load. I did a bit of chopping with the chainsaw which seemed to be back working. Weird!
Gill had made Brazil nut sausage things, and cooked some cauliflower, and I was absolutely ready for this.
Later, I spent quite a bit of time doing the York in Transition diary on Facebook.
