Hold clearing day.

Hello Dear Friends and Followers.

So how did you fare against Storm Aileen?
I was woken up by one of our outdoor chairs blowing over, but that was it. I feel like I have so little to moan about when you see what is happening in the Caribbean and the USA. I can only imagine the suffering those poor people are going through right now.

This morning with all the usual morning things done, it was hold day today. Because we stopped transporting and selling coal last year, we have sort of filled some of the hold with junk and boxes and today we had to sort it out, so we could start on the work to turn our hold into a model railway room. Yes we are having a model railway running around our hold. The layout is going to be called Hadarford and yes it will have a canal scene, so if you wish to watch the progress, please go to Keith's blog.
We started preparatory work for the building of Keith's model railway room in the hold. First we ploughed our way through the rubbish, which meant be ruthless, what we did not need or want, went in the bins, then moved everything as far forward as possible, which allowed us access and remove the first two rows of shutts (floorboards) from the bulkhead at the saloon end of the hold.

The state of the base plate looks worse than it actually was. It is in better condition than we thought it might be.

I set about scraping and removing the loose bits. I then used a wire brush on Keith's drill to move more stubborn bit of rush and coal dust. I had expected there to be a lot more coal dust under the shutts, but there was very little. Whilst I hoovered up and painted the base of the walls, Keith went to Screwfix to by some lagging for the water pipe which runs along the floor.

It is already for oiling tomorrow morning, then we can do under the next 2 shutts. When Keith got back from Screwfix, he got on with lagging the pipe. Hopefully this will stop the condensation which appears to have been happening.
It is so nice to have made the start and I am hoping the rest of the hold will be much easier, we will find out tomorrow.
As the afternoon drew into the evening, I went out and did some strimming and hedge trimming. Everything seems to be growing like crazy with this funny old weather we have at the moment. I can see I am going to have to get out in the garden and pull a few weeds up and then there is the cutting back to do, now that we are into Autumn.
It is 8 pm and it is now dark, arghhhh I am not a lover of the nights drawing in.

Pop back soon xx