An Engaging Community - Saturday 02/10/10

Picked up the battery after its 18 hours of resurrection. Forgot today was a 'Community Engagement' day. The intention of this was to invite the locals to see the progress and answer their questions. A bit difficult when apparently hardly any of the large number of visitors were local. Didn't particularly want to stick around with all the people about so we took a day trip to Cardigan instead.
Whilst there i picked up six of those LED stick on lights, a huge adjustable spanner, 3 books for Frances (Classic Ghost Stories,Children's Encyclopedia and British Wildlife) and some food. Wanted Fish and Chips but they were shut :-(
With the battery back online we settled down to watch one of Frans new films 'The Ant Bully' Pretty entertaining, certainly passed the time.


M Jones

Electrical Resurrection - Friday 01/10/10

The battery is dead. The remedy, electrical resurrection. Drove it over to plug it in to the mains. What I didn't take into account, was how long it would take to charge a 110 amp hour battery. A 'fast' charge puts in 6 amps an hour, taking 18 hours. Preferable to a normal charge that would only put in 2 amps and therefore take 55 hours!A pain as it means not only relying solely on our two cheap hurricane lanterns, but also Fran will have to go without her usual 'movie night' tonight.
Rang the mechanic, Lawrence, to book the car in for a service. Due to the fact i haven't a clue when it was last done, everything needs doing. The minimum damage - £400! Have arranged to drop it to him Tuesday morning. The justification in my mind is a) this should lower the risk of breaking down in the middle of nowhere b) once done, most areas won't need replacing for two years or so, i hope.

Our celestial power station just ain't juicing the panels like it did...

M Jones

Jammin and Shooting Stars - Friday 06/08/10

Today was spent idling somewhat as rain stopped play. Decided to use the down time constructively and set about digitising my diary through a blog. On site is an agricultural building known as 'the clamp'. Here, residents pay for square footage for storage, but also a broadband connection. The electricity hook up is also used to charge depleted leisure batteries. In here I sat and typed until I felt hungry about 12:30/13:00 . After a quick refuel I then resumed  my typing until 17:00 by which time my eyes were squiffy and i'd had enough.
At 20:30 i'd been told there would be a jamming session in the farmhouse so with an armful of firewood I set off. Things didn't really get going until 21:00 and by 22:00 I was ready to hit the hay. I find the rhythms that the group settle into put me into a deeply meditative state.
On my way back I saw Ayres was up and ended up smoking and chatting for an hour on the step outside the caravan. Witnessed a pretty damn impressive shooting star, if that's what it was, but you had to be there... 

M Jones

It Started With The Washing Up... Friday 23/07/10

Made the decision to try and spend the day in a constructive fashion. So it started with the washing up and ended with a trip to Attwoolls...
Bought £160 of mostly useful and essential stuff i.e new 110ah leisure battery, wellies, compass, rain suit for Fran. Plus some eccentric things like an Aussie leather bush hat - sexy!
The latter part of the day was filled with a visit from my buddy Luke and piss arsing about with my air rifle which lead to discovering the culprit behind its recent inaccuracy - a wobbly barrel. Unfortunately being a cheapy £50 job a fair few years ago. The offending part was sealed and unable to be adjusted. Guess what i'm doing tomorrow...

M.Jones