Tuesday, August 21, 2007

It might as well rain until September...

The UK weather has been very poor this summer.

July was incredibly wet with serious flooding across the UK at the beginning and end of the month. A boating rally that I visit in Henley on Thames each year was abandoned early because of the risk of flooding.

The meteorologists say that the jet stream winds failed to make their usual diversion north in the mid-Atlantic, and so all the low pressure systems have been arriving in the UK - blown in from the west.

The weather did however pick up in early August, and I managed to get some more work done outside, helped by my friend Tim - this time to the new patio decking, put down in front of the new workshop.

Tim came across from central Southern Ireland, and reported that it had rained there for 56 days. We were lucky that we had fine weather for our construction work.

The solar water heating panel has now been installed on the workshop roof, and is contributing on sunny days.

The workshop has been fitted out with a new workbench and space for my homebrew-power battery and inverter equipment. The Lister veg-oil powered generator has been moved into its new position in the engine shed - behind the workshop.

The decked area provides somewhere to sit out in the evening, away from computers and televisions, and we now have a wood fired chiminea, which acts as a focal point and some welcome warmth on these chilly August evenings. We burn offcuts of scrap wood that were left over from the shed and decking.

Last weekend, with the help of my nephew Adam, I completed the insulation of the workshop and the engine shed. Not only does this make it warm in winter and cooler in the summer, but the plasterboard backed insulation in the engine shed helps to absorb the engine noise.

The aim is to have the veg-oil generator set re-installed by the beginning of September.

There will be plenty of time to work on this during the Bank-Holiday weekend at the end of this week.

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