I wasn't feeling brilliant today, and towards the end of it I had a running nose and was sneezing all the time, so I didn't do an awful lot.
But earlier in the day, I did check that tomorrow's Woodlands gig was going ahead. I hope to be well enough... I usually recover very quickly from this kind of ailment.
I visited Debbie and she was in a great mood, having had some good luck.
I came back and had lunch, and eventually decided that whatever state I was in, I really must get down to town to put my cheque in. So I cycled down to Country Fresh, picked up one sack there, then onto Alligator where they had quite a bit for me, and then, with a trailer full of compostables, into town where I put in my cheque from Sunday and got out a cheque to pay a bill. I decided to again try my bank card in the Link ATM and whilst about to do this, was approached by a drunk and possibly Irish man who launched into a tirade of verbal abuse. It seemed he knew who I was, or a bit about me, but I didn't know him. He accused me of all sorts of horrible things, and I was really taken aback. I'm not someone who can ignore this kind of thing; I generally get stuck in, and so I did, telling him it was entirely wrong of him to give me this verbal abuse. I didn't understand a lot of what he said, but I did gather that he had lost a son, and had stood in a general election as an independent and came 6th. He had some choice words for Hugh Bayley, our MP, and was really unpleasant.
This left me quite shocked and shaken, but I kept it together and went to Sainsburys for a nice loaf and some vegan ice cream so Gill can have a treat.
I did some work in the garden but I wasn't feeling that enthusiastic so I sat in front of the stove and stripped yet more copper wire, resulting in a big pile of plastic insulating spaghetti and a bag of tightly coiled copper wire of assorted gauges or widths.
And in the evening I picked some blackberries and tried to find enthusiasm for preparing them.
Showing posts with label copper wire recycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copper wire recycling. Show all posts
Slept much better as there was no cockerel at 3am and again at 5. And my position on the edge of the inflatable mattress was better than being sandwiched between my sons too.
I got up at 8 and started getting stuff together to go home... with a coffee offered from Mary and a visit up the field to give out balloon models as promised last night to about half a dozen children.
Eventually my two were up and breakfasted and we got the tent sorted and into its bag. We got the 11.02 bus back... we were the first on and therefore got the top deck front seats, the best view and a real treat.
We got into York slightly late, at about 12.25, and there was a number 10 bus home at 12.54, so I gave the boys the bus fare and went to get my bike, and then waited til the bus came and they got on and got their tickets, I then cycled home, and of course got home well before them. Gill met them at the bus stop and they reported having had a good time, thank goodness!
I had lunch and a couple of hours dealing with emails and catching up with the blog... and then went out to see Richard at Country Fresh, and when I came back I had a peaceful hour in the garden dealing with the result of this visit.
I picked a courgette and took it round to Debbie but she wasn't in, but I left it for her. I found a load of electrical flex in a skip so I brought that home to recycle the copper.
Gill bought a pizza for tea and had some veggie sausages in the freezer which needed using so we had those plus potato salad with home grown cucumber.
I had a fairly sedentary evening, lit the stove so I could get freshened up for tomorrow as I'm working. I looked up bioluminescent wood and it is colloquially known as foxfire. It is indeed caused by growing mushroom mycelium, although it isn't known what purpose, if any, it serves.
I got up at 8 and started getting stuff together to go home... with a coffee offered from Mary and a visit up the field to give out balloon models as promised last night to about half a dozen children.
Eventually my two were up and breakfasted and we got the tent sorted and into its bag. We got the 11.02 bus back... we were the first on and therefore got the top deck front seats, the best view and a real treat.
We got into York slightly late, at about 12.25, and there was a number 10 bus home at 12.54, so I gave the boys the bus fare and went to get my bike, and then waited til the bus came and they got on and got their tickets, I then cycled home, and of course got home well before them. Gill met them at the bus stop and they reported having had a good time, thank goodness!
I had lunch and a couple of hours dealing with emails and catching up with the blog... and then went out to see Richard at Country Fresh, and when I came back I had a peaceful hour in the garden dealing with the result of this visit.
I picked a courgette and took it round to Debbie but she wasn't in, but I left it for her. I found a load of electrical flex in a skip so I brought that home to recycle the copper.
Gill bought a pizza for tea and had some veggie sausages in the freezer which needed using so we had those plus potato salad with home grown cucumber.
I had a fairly sedentary evening, lit the stove so I could get freshened up for tomorrow as I'm working. I looked up bioluminescent wood and it is colloquially known as foxfire. It is indeed caused by growing mushroom mycelium, although it isn't known what purpose, if any, it serves.
Before I left Sheffield I met up with my sister in law Katie, who had found some clothing belonging to our youngest... easiest to meet up and hand it over rather than to post it.
I used the train journey back to do another bout of email deletions, so my inbox is over 200 emails lighter now.
When I got home I popped up the road to see if our youngest, who was playing with a friend, wanted to come home and play here... but he was happy there. I came back and went online and sent all the emails I wrote on the train and last night, and sorted out various things. Gill and our eldest came in, and I lit the stove to get hot water for washing up, and went outside to do a little bit of stacking.
After tea, I sorted out a potato sack full of cables I'd collected from skips over the past few months... I cut off the outer casing, revealing the two or sometimes three insulated inner wires and often a single uninsulated copper wire. Gill wound up this naked wire round her hand or fingers, depending on the gauge of the wire. When I'd stripped the whole sack of electrical flex, I started on the inner wires, pulling the wire over a blade and revealing the copper underneath. I then passed this to Gill who removed the metal from the plastic, and after an hour, we ended up with several kilos of lovely shiny wound-up copper wire, and a lot of waste plastic insulation. I now have a couple of carrier-bags of copper wire... I'll need to take them to the metal merchant soon. Far better than this stuff going to landfill.. and this method of stripping the wire gives a very clean metal, and no emissions. Some people put the cables on a fire, burning off the plastic, which obviously results in lots of nasty pollution.
Later still, I did a bit more fruit drying... more pears and a pineapple. Good to stop these going into landfill too!
I used the train journey back to do another bout of email deletions, so my inbox is over 200 emails lighter now.
When I got home I popped up the road to see if our youngest, who was playing with a friend, wanted to come home and play here... but he was happy there. I came back and went online and sent all the emails I wrote on the train and last night, and sorted out various things. Gill and our eldest came in, and I lit the stove to get hot water for washing up, and went outside to do a little bit of stacking.
After tea, I sorted out a potato sack full of cables I'd collected from skips over the past few months... I cut off the outer casing, revealing the two or sometimes three insulated inner wires and often a single uninsulated copper wire. Gill wound up this naked wire round her hand or fingers, depending on the gauge of the wire. When I'd stripped the whole sack of electrical flex, I started on the inner wires, pulling the wire over a blade and revealing the copper underneath. I then passed this to Gill who removed the metal from the plastic, and after an hour, we ended up with several kilos of lovely shiny wound-up copper wire, and a lot of waste plastic insulation. I now have a couple of carrier-bags of copper wire... I'll need to take them to the metal merchant soon. Far better than this stuff going to landfill.. and this method of stripping the wire gives a very clean metal, and no emissions. Some people put the cables on a fire, burning off the plastic, which obviously results in lots of nasty pollution.
Later still, I did a bit more fruit drying... more pears and a pineapple. Good to stop these going into landfill too!
Another good day, although was awoken early by a child wailing as he hadn't got a handkerchief and had got something to put into one... the joys of parenting!
But the rest of the day was good.... I did a bit of wooding, a bit of composting, lunch, family chats... my eldest went to a party and we had a peaceful afternoon.
I visited David my photographer friend later on in the afternoon to see the pics he took on Christmas day, and to discuss how to deal with the inadequately filled-in 'Model Release Forms'. The photos had some really good ones in, certainly one or two suitable for my new flyer.
Made several phone calls in the evening, one to our friends Mark and Jennifer in Hebden Bridge, as their son has a birthday and our eldest is friends with him, and to our good friend Dawn in Sheffield and her nearly grown up son, and finally to my Dad who also has a birthday today, so the boys could sing to him. I expect this was a bit of a surprise!
A very quiet evening.... spent another hour or so peeling plastic off copper wire. It is a very tedious job, and I bet I'll only get a few quid for the stuff I've reclaimed!
But the rest of the day was good.... I did a bit of wooding, a bit of composting, lunch, family chats... my eldest went to a party and we had a peaceful afternoon.
I visited David my photographer friend later on in the afternoon to see the pics he took on Christmas day, and to discuss how to deal with the inadequately filled-in 'Model Release Forms'. The photos had some really good ones in, certainly one or two suitable for my new flyer.
Made several phone calls in the evening, one to our friends Mark and Jennifer in Hebden Bridge, as their son has a birthday and our eldest is friends with him, and to our good friend Dawn in Sheffield and her nearly grown up son, and finally to my Dad who also has a birthday today, so the boys could sing to him. I expect this was a bit of a surprise!
A very quiet evening.... spent another hour or so peeling plastic off copper wire. It is a very tedious job, and I bet I'll only get a few quid for the stuff I've reclaimed!
An excellent day! It was a relaxed morning with no shouting or aggro, and then Gill went into town on the bus to try and find trousers for our eldest and so he could get a birthday present for his friend who's party he's going to tomorrow.
I took this opportunity to play with our youngest, he wanted to play on 'Mario Karts' on the Wii... and oh God it was difficult! I was rubbish... came last several times, but hey I'm a beginner and I'm old so both count against me. Half an hour left me exhausted! So much concentration... and then the phone rang and it was Rose up the road asking if our eldest was needing a lift to the party tomorrow... and I asked if her son was in and wanted a playmate? He was and did, so we walked up there and I came back to do a composting job which has been needing doing for a while: the bin made of Anderson Shelter corrugated iron was very well rotted down... I dug it all out and put the stuff in a builders bag, from where I'll bag it up or riddle it and bag it...
Then Gill came back, our eldest with no trousers but a nice appropriate prezzie for his friend.
I then bombed into town on the bike to pay our annual electricity bill to Good Energy through the bank (electronic transfer) and put in a cheque for £30 for 6 sacks of compost Alison had off me yonks ago, the stuff Barry Potter took up on his return journey from delivering the cider press back to me...
Back in time to put some rather overdue compostables which have been hanging about into the newly vacated container, and collect a pile of electrical flex I rescued a while ago which I've been putting off sorting. However, once I'd sat down and got going with the craft knife (pulling the flex into the blade, the blade held still next to my trousered leg), my eldest started to help by pulling apart the grey outer insulation and removing the inner thinner wires, and then when I'd shaved off a long sliver of plastic from the copper wire, he extracted the wire from the throw-away plastic sheath.
We did about two hours worth... a most excellent Father/Son activity, and we did about a quarter of what I've collected recently. Enjoyed the Royal Institution Lecture again, and took wood-heated bathwater up for the older boyo to have a bath before his party tomorrow.
A most enjoyable day. I want, no, NEED more days like this, where I feel like a good parent doing the right things re my offspring. All too often these days I feel like I'm just not coping, but today was a blinder! Mainly due to excellent behaviour from both boys.
I took this opportunity to play with our youngest, he wanted to play on 'Mario Karts' on the Wii... and oh God it was difficult! I was rubbish... came last several times, but hey I'm a beginner and I'm old so both count against me. Half an hour left me exhausted! So much concentration... and then the phone rang and it was Rose up the road asking if our eldest was needing a lift to the party tomorrow... and I asked if her son was in and wanted a playmate? He was and did, so we walked up there and I came back to do a composting job which has been needing doing for a while: the bin made of Anderson Shelter corrugated iron was very well rotted down... I dug it all out and put the stuff in a builders bag, from where I'll bag it up or riddle it and bag it...
Then Gill came back, our eldest with no trousers but a nice appropriate prezzie for his friend.
I then bombed into town on the bike to pay our annual electricity bill to Good Energy through the bank (electronic transfer) and put in a cheque for £30 for 6 sacks of compost Alison had off me yonks ago, the stuff Barry Potter took up on his return journey from delivering the cider press back to me...
Back in time to put some rather overdue compostables which have been hanging about into the newly vacated container, and collect a pile of electrical flex I rescued a while ago which I've been putting off sorting. However, once I'd sat down and got going with the craft knife (pulling the flex into the blade, the blade held still next to my trousered leg), my eldest started to help by pulling apart the grey outer insulation and removing the inner thinner wires, and then when I'd shaved off a long sliver of plastic from the copper wire, he extracted the wire from the throw-away plastic sheath.
We did about two hours worth... a most excellent Father/Son activity, and we did about a quarter of what I've collected recently. Enjoyed the Royal Institution Lecture again, and took wood-heated bathwater up for the older boyo to have a bath before his party tomorrow.
A most enjoyable day. I want, no, NEED more days like this, where I feel like a good parent doing the right things re my offspring. All too often these days I feel like I'm just not coping, but today was a blinder! Mainly due to excellent behaviour from both boys.
A good start to the day. Gill took our youngest to school and then went to art. I had a relaxing morning.
Gill came back having drawn an apple which looked like a dog basket or ball of wool or possibly a tam o shanter hat.
We had a pretty good afternoon and then she offered to go to pick up our child if I would go to the only place in York which she'd found which sells 'Buffalo Mozzarella' cheese (phone poll of 4 or 5 places) so that my eldest can do his food technology class tomorrow. I called in on Kyi-Po on the way through town, and gave in the Planning Application forms from last night to the council.
I found the mozzarella needed at the delicatessen in the market.
I found a skip on the way home which had assorted electrical flex in it, so asked the electrician who was tipping stuff in it if I could have the wire... he was only too happy to know it would be recycled. I strip the plastic off with a craft knife and eventually take the copper to a metal merchants. Home via Country Fresh in good time to house/baby sit whilst Gill went to the parents' evening at the secondary school. Good news from school, which is nice to hear.
For tea I finished off the vegan beany hotpot from last night whilst the kids had a chips and omelet meal... and I went out to a short night out to Cafe Scientifique where Dr. Lynda Boothroyd was speaking about the science of human attraction, something I find fascinating.
Home at 9pm, joined the family in the loft watching fireworks from the Velux.
Gill came back having drawn an apple which looked like a dog basket or ball of wool or possibly a tam o shanter hat.
We had a pretty good afternoon and then she offered to go to pick up our child if I would go to the only place in York which she'd found which sells 'Buffalo Mozzarella' cheese (phone poll of 4 or 5 places) so that my eldest can do his food technology class tomorrow. I called in on Kyi-Po on the way through town, and gave in the Planning Application forms from last night to the council.
I found the mozzarella needed at the delicatessen in the market.
I found a skip on the way home which had assorted electrical flex in it, so asked the electrician who was tipping stuff in it if I could have the wire... he was only too happy to know it would be recycled. I strip the plastic off with a craft knife and eventually take the copper to a metal merchants. Home via Country Fresh in good time to house/baby sit whilst Gill went to the parents' evening at the secondary school. Good news from school, which is nice to hear.
For tea I finished off the vegan beany hotpot from last night whilst the kids had a chips and omelet meal... and I went out to a short night out to Cafe Scientifique where Dr. Lynda Boothroyd was speaking about the science of human attraction, something I find fascinating.
Home at 9pm, joined the family in the loft watching fireworks from the Velux.
