Wheel Nemesis

I'll dedicate November to the fight I had with the pictured nemesis. I was entrapped by our maintenance person to replace the strapping, which I did on the other set, when it came to this one the steel bolts had fused with the aluminum. I decided to replace the aluminum part with a threaded rod, seemed like a good plan, however, after two weeks the threaded rods started to bend.

I went medieval on the original aluminum, breaking studs, heating them, soaking in oil and penetrant, skinning thumbs and generally banging myself up, finally returning the wheel set to a useable state. A valuable lesson regarding the perils of volunteering.

Quackers

The paddle was cancelled this morning, not because of the weather, but of general malaise. I've been sick for a few weeks now and it seems to have peaked this week, Karen is on the slippery slope as of this morning.

So, instead of an early paddle we strolled down to the marina, tested out my new camera, a Canon G11 and watched the little ducks. Then we made our way over to the Black Bean Coffee house and consumed much goodness and felt better with our lot.

I love the smell of Tarmac in the morning...

It looks like there is an end in sight. Today, after three weeks of disruption, they are finally "black topping" our road. We are the lucky side that will be able to escape later.

Just William

Blocked

This shows how deep below our driveways they are digging.

Digging the Dirt

And the digging continues, they are already at our neighbour's house and her car is stranded, we're not sure if they have finished and maybe it will be our turn on Monday to be blocked in.

Thursday at the Blackfish

Jessica decided that we should have a free beer and our birthday photo taken at the pub on Thursday.

Free beer, who could say no?

Cheers!

The Watchman

William is making sure that they do a good job, or maybe he's just catching the afternoon sun on the kitchen table, whichever, he's doing a good job of it.

Roadworks

The next few weeks will see our road looking like a war zone as the fixers move in to resurface. Apparently their simple job has been complicated as they have found an old log road, perhaps over one hundred years old, so they have to excavate the soft material and replace with clean fill.

Lots of fun.

Hounds

Birthday Girl

Happy to be out and met by a couple of local hounds on our walk down to the pub today, Happy Birthday to Karen.