News in Brief.

And it will be brief for a while due to all the things going on at the moment – at work, at home and at the boat. Well what a busy week so far. Friday I did a bit of single boating and moved Minnow from her moorings to the bottom of the garden to load diesel, gas, food water etc, etc.

Saturday, after Dawn had finished work, we took Minnow up to Hoo Mill for a surprise visit to Andy and Laney off Josher motor boat Lily, surprise it was as well as it was Andy’s mom’s 80^th birthday and they had all gone to a surprise party for her and did not return until the early hours of Sunday morning and so we ended up having to drink the supplies that we had taken with us!

At about 4.00am on Sunday morning Dawn was awoken by what she thought was somebody rolling one of these water barrels along the towpath past Minnow, that is until it repeated a second time and she realised it was thunder followed by a good old downpour. Sunday was quite a lazy day as we started off with a full cooked English, followed by a couple of hours chatting to Andy and Laney, who by then had arose from their pits, By about 12.30pm we were ready for the off and so made our farewells and we moved Minnow on up to Stone. The trip was quite uneventful apart from being raced to a bridge ‘ole by a hire boat so I chucked her in astern and let her walk across the canal and straddle across the bridge ‘ole making them wait while I buggered about getting Minnow back in channel, then just before Weston lock an old couple on a forty footer decided to pull out in front of us as they saw us approaching only to proceed to travel at less than tick over, which as those of you who know is something a Bolinder hates. They finally tied up just before stone but the damage had already been done and Minnows Bolinder played up all through stone locks, I should have put the lamp on really I suppose to put a bit of heat back into the engine.

We finally tied up at Stone at about 5.30pm and left Minnow opposite Roger Fullers place so he could keep an eye on her for us. We walked down off the towpath to the garage on the main A34 and sat on the wall munching crisps and a chocolate bar from the garage while we waited for Dawn’s nephew to pick us up. When we got home it was shower then ordered a Chinese take away for delivery. While we had been away we had received a message from the breeder of our new ‘boat dog’, as George was now 14 years old and boating was all getting a bit too much for him. The message was to say to call her and arrange to go and see the litter. On Monday, while I was at work, Dawn phoned her and arranged to go over that evening. The whole litter were beautiful, great big three week old chunky chocolate Labradors,

there are three dogs and four bitches. We have pick of the litter, but we have already said we will be having a dog but have not yet picked one as I like to wait until at least 6 to 8 weeks to give them time to grow a little bit and to develop their individuality. Can’t wait for the next few weeks to pass and pick one and bring it home and take him Boating! Dawn has already picked his name, Bruce. So until next time

Don’t bang ‘em about, Bruce

Blossom

Another new generation of boaters

Just a very short update on the ‘Blossom’ family of boaters. I reported last month about my youngest daughter presenting me with a beautiful new grand daughter, well the ‘tribe have been at it again. This time it’s my eldest daughter who gave us our latest addition at 1.30pm on Tuesday, this time an 8lb baby grandson, can’t wait to teach him all about Bolinders.

Mother and baby are now both doing well after a seventeen and a half hour labour (the Edge tribe have always been known to take their time) So many thanks go out to Rebecca and Neil for such a wonderful gift, and please,

Don’t bang ‘im about.

Blossom.

Buon Appetito!

What a wonderful meal, as always, we had at The Plum Pudding, Armitage, canal side on the Trent and Mersey just by the Eastern end of Armitage tunnel.

Giuseppe Laconi – otherwise known as ‘Il Marchigiano’ cooks traditional, home style meals in the peasant tradition so if you’re looking for Spaghetti Bolognaise or similar, you won’t find it on the menu, but what you will find is excellent service of some brilliant food and wines. If ever you are passing and you enjoy a traditional Italian meal, the water is deep and the moorings are right outside the pub. If you enjoy a ‘feast for a fiver’ or a ‘ two for one’ then it’s not for you as with most Italian restaurants it is not cheap, but well worth it. Two starters, two mains with additional sides of garlic bread and sautéed potatoes and two deserts as well as two large glasses of Pepsi and a bottle of Italian red set me back £74 so not that bad really. Now that’s our 13^thanniversary out of the way, I can get back to working on Minnow! So till next time

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom.

PS Dawn said if she'd have known, she would have got her posh frock out and had her nails done!

Happy anniversary

Have had a really good week as far as Minnow was concerned. On Tuesday the cotton line I had ordered had arrived so spent the next couple of evenings making a new set of rockets for the cratch along with a set of cabin strings and chimbley strings, which I’ve always known as ‘ears’ for some reason. This was something that young Charlie Atkins taught me to do when I was a lad and he was living at the top of the ‘old thirteen’ in Birmingham and driving the British Waterways tug Bittel. Spent the last three days down Minnow getting lots of jobs done. Saturday started off with a trip into Rugeley town to buy a tin of white gloss, a tub of creosote, and a new scrubbing brush, after mine took a ‘swim’ over the weir at Haywood lock a couple of months ago after being flicked off the fenders by the rope I was strapping Minnow in with. The day was a bit wet so not a lot of painting done and so I spent my time clearing out all the junk from under the cratch and storing it tidily away in the bow cabin. Following this I got the suitcase generator out and started it and tried the ‘security light’ which we have as a tunnel lamp. After making a bracket to mount this lamp on the front of the box mast I then hooked up the battery charger and gave the three leisure batteries a top up ready for our trip to Middlewich. I now retired to the dry of the back cabin and hung some small jugs on the ribbon plates.

Sunday was a lot drier if not a little windy and so I re-painted the engine ‘ole and back cabin slides and also gave ‘the biscuit tin’ vent a coat of green. I also gave the large brass mushroom ventilator a good polish. When I got there Ling had gone for the other side of the bridge and Brian told me that they had left about 8.00pm the previous night after I had gone home.

Monday was another great day, especially as it was our 13^th wedding anniversary and I gave Dawn a really special day down at Minnow working! What more could a girl ask for ( we are going out for an Italian meal tonight though) When I looked at the newly painted slides, the wind had blown loads of bits off the roof of the industrial unit next to our mooring and so those had to be re done. I scrubbed the hose on the front of the cratch then mopped and wiped all the cratch cloths down and then set about fitting the new rockets and even though I say it myself, they look good.

As we were going out tonight and also as we had our three year old grand daughter with us, we had to leave Minnow quite early and take her home in time to get ourselves ready.

So for now, and till next time,

Don't bang 'em about

Blossom

Hot under the collar

Well Summer’s come at last I hear some of you say, and I know I should not moan, but I’m one of those who hate the sun and hot weather. As soon as the sun starts blazing down, I run for the shade and this last weekend, god it wuz ‘ot. My philosophy is that no matter how cold it is you can always put another layer of clothing on, but when it’s hot and you’re down to your last layer there’s nothing else you can do! Spent the whole week end down on Minnow working. Most of the time it was just too hot for painting but we did manage to red oxide the timberworks including top planks, cross beams and mast and stands as well as blacking the gunnels with bitumastic, getting the second coat of varnish on the back cabin top and the first on the bow cabin, I have also managed to make a start on re-blacking the false floors with creosote and bitumastic. I have also ordered some new cotton line to make a new set of rockets for the cratch as the old ones were worn out and rotten.

One of Minnows sister boats was moored the other side of the bridge ‘ole all weekend, Sarah Edgeson’s newly acquired ex British Waterways maintenance boat Ling, although I did not see anyone on the boat all weekend.

Blossom.

To go or not to go, that is the question.

Well can't wait for the next three weeks to pass as we are off on our summer jolly on Minnow. As I have mentioned earlier we are planning to take a leisurely trip up the Trent and Mersey spending the week end at the Middlewich Folk and Canal Festival the returning back up the Shroppie. We have been to and through Middlewich many times over the years and moored above Kings lock as well as below the town but we have never been to this festival before. I was warned recently about trouble on the canal at this festival from gypsies who jump all over the boats removing anything loose or valuble especially brass etc and was also told not to leave your boat at any time during the weekend. I just wondered if anyone reading this blog had any - good or bad - experiences of the Middlewich festival. Any comments would be much appreciated as at the moment we are having second thoughts about going.

Blossom

Dog walking and cups of coffee

The week before last, I was keeping my better half sweet by doing some work at home, namely at the bottom of the garden and as I stepped down the bank to the canal I slipped and landed quite heavily on the base of my spine. After about half an hour it eased and I thought that was the last of it. This Sunday I decided to continue my ‘good deed’ and to re-lay about a dozen slabs on the patio which had all sunken and moved. By the end of the day, while I was sat at my computer, typing up my blog, I could feel the aches and pains getting worse in my back but just thought ‘they will go after a good nights sleep’ but they didn’t. The next day at work I was in agony and by Monday night could hardly move. It has been three days now and it is only just about getting right. When Dawn came from work she said that being as it was such a nice evening did I want to go to our favourite chippy in Handsacre by Crown Bridge (58) get fish and chips and take them to Fradley Junction, park up by Keepers lock and eat them then take the dog a walk up the canal past the Swan and up to Woodend lock. With this agreed we loaded the dog in the back of the car, grabbed the bottle of red sauce and the salt pot and off we went. With fish and chips consumed we got out the car and strolled along the towpath/roadway up past the pub and the bikers and drinkers enjoying the last of the evening sun shine sitting on the benches and tables out side the ‘Mucky Duck’ as we got just past the junction there was a shout from off the island of “ alright Blossom, Dawn, how ya doin. It was Viv and Simon off Monarch and Grimsby. After the exchange of a few words, Simon shouted do you want to come round and have a coffee. And so the dogs walk was postponed and we spent the next hour catching up as we had not seen them since last summer. Viv is now the manager for OwnerShips at Fradley and the work that she and Simon have done in the shop there is astounding.

They sell a good range of food and supplies including organic and ‘green’ foods and products, gifts, boat fixtures and fittings magazines, books and bric a brac to name but a few so please drop in if passing or even for diesel or a pump out. (There you go Viv there’s your free advert) By the end of the hour, Email addresses and mobile phone numbers had been exchanged and even discussions of a mini boat gathering that involved food and beer. Sounds like a good mixture to me, so until then,

Don’t bang ‘em about.

Blossom

identifying Grand Union's

Whilst discussing the merits of Large Woolwich engine ‘ole tops I thought there may be some reading either Chertsey woman’s, Dove’s or my blog who may make use of a little boat identification as far as Grand Union’s are concerned and so I have come up with this. There are many variations amongst the boats built for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company and when one has mastered the various types identification is relatively easy. First of all the ‘classes’ of boats, while I strongly disagree with classes of boats, I will use them for ease of description.

Grand Union’s break down into three main classes, Town class, Star class and Royalty class these in turn, can be broken down into builders incorporating such yards as Wakers of Rickmansworth, Harland and Wolff of Woolwich, W J Yarwoods & Sons of Northwich, James Pollock & Sons of Faversham, The Steel Barrel Company, Uxbridge and Woods. Again these can be broken down even further into Large and Small and in some instances Middle. ( depending on the built depth of sides) Some were of wooden construction, some were of composite and some were all steel construction, majority were flat bottomed and a few were vee bottomed. All the Small and Middle boats are ‘Star’class and the large boats are ‘town’ class, although some of the ‘Stars’ are other heavenly bodies such as Moon, Comet, Planet, Meteor, Sun, Venus etc. and some of the ‘Towns’ are cities, .such as Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol etc.

Ok clear as mud now! It is no wonder that some people find it difficult to tell the difference so I thought I would add my two pennyworth just to confuse, forgetting for the moment all the wooden boats, as these are quite distinctive and readily identified. The all steel riveted large motor boats split into two groups. These can be identified by their alphabetical names A-H (Aber to Hawkesbury) are large Woolwich boats while H-Y Halsall to Yeoford are all large Northwiches. Another and easier way to identify them is by their construction/design differences.

From the counter. All Woolwich counters, both large and small, have only two equal tunnel bands around their counter

while Northwiches both large and small, have three tunnel bands, a large one at the top and two smaller ones below.

From the bows, (Northwich at the back, Woolwich nearest camera) on Woolwich boats the side plates are riveted through the flanges of the stem post on each side of it while on Northwich boats the side plates overlap each side of the central stempost and are riveted through from the side.

Also the top of the stem post on Woolwich boats finishes level with the top of the deck, while Northwich stem posts continue over the top of the top bend and then return to the deck. And so that’s it, at least I tried

A good day done

Had a really enjoyable day down the boat on Saturday and feel as though I am starting to finally get on top of the jobs resulting from the Winter and in readiness for the Summer boating season. I really need to get my finger pulled out as we are off in four weeks for a fortnights holiday. We are going down to Middlewich on the Trent & Mersey for the Middlewich Folk and Canal Festival over the 18^th – 20^th June then going to take a week to come back via the Shroppie, so I have to really get stuck in to get the boat ready. A start, though, has been made with the flywheel cover.

there’s the Ocean plait Mat in place doing what it was intended for.

And just to show the Mast Dropper in position-

Then finally I gave the two back end cupboards and the hold steps a rub down followed by a coat of red oxide.

I would have given the cabin top another coat of varnish but, There were far too many ‘sugar fairies’ in the breeze.(dandelion seeds) and as I said to Brian off the next boat to ours, if I had of varnished it would have ended up as a mohair finish!

Blossom.

Maltese Beauty and a Donkey's D**k

Making the ocean plait mat for the cabin top got me into the ‘ropework’ mood and so on Wednesday night I decided to make Dawn a mast dropper which she has been going on about for twelve months. She only want’s one so she can talk about it (it’s only because of it’s alternative name which refers to a donkeys appendage.)

I am only doing a short blog tonight as I am sooo tired. We had friends visit us last night and they did not leave until after 2.00am this morning. Paddy and Lucy Courtney live aboard a 60’ narrowboat at Nantwich and are on their summer cruise and contacted us to say they were coming past our house so we suggested that the moor at the bottom of the garden and spend the night with us as we have not seen them for about 5 years

They both retired two years ago sold everything and bought a boat to live on and are enjoying every moment. Spent most of the night talking canals on such subjects as ‘cabin roofs’ ‘nice places where to park’ and places with ‘tight corners’ what’s all that about? One thing that did come out of the conversations which I never knew about Paddy was that although I knew he did his stint in the Royal Navy, I never knew he actually spent a year with the RN’s canal based submarine and frigate. Which had been talked about recently on CWF.

We popped down to our moorings to show them Minnow and start the Bolinder for them, then it was back to our house for drinks and nibbles.

We had a cracking evening catching up, Thanks Pat & Lucy and have a good trip down the Coventry, and as always, don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom

There’s a rug on the roof

Or to put it correctly, we’ve now got a mat for our cabin top.

Let me start with an apology for the previous post was written yesterday and should have been posted yesterday, but we went out with my daughter and son-in-law and my two grand daughters last night and I forgot to post it before I went. So I haven’t gone mad doing two blogs in one day, just catching up so to speak.

It does not matter how careful you are when using a cabin shaft properly, for closing bottom mitre gates when going downhill, knocks, bumps and scratches are inevitable on the cabin top as the shaft is put back. Back in the early 1970’s when Charlie Atkins Jnr was working the tug Bittle for BWB and living at the top of the Old Thirteen in Brum, he made two ‘mats’ to place on the cabin top for the cabin shaft hook to sit on. Clive and Pat Stevens who used to run Battersea and Barnes still have theirs, unfortunately I let mine go with Bingley when I sold her. I have never had another as I did not know how to make them, but I do now. I was browsing the net and came across a site for dolls houses and there, as a door mat was an identical mat to the one Charlie had made me. It was called an ‘ocean plait’ and the article went on to explain how to make a miniature one for a dolls house out of white cotton string, but it went on to say that by using larger diameter rope a full sized one could be made. After spending most of Sunday in the garden moving soil and weeding, I came in at tea time and proceeded to make a mat for Minnow using about 20 foot of 6mm white polypropylene ( yes I know it should be cotton line and scrubbed but this will do for a starter)

The rest of the evening was spent painting a swag of roses and daises on the flywheel guard which has already been painted the same colour as the engine, (Mid Brunswick Green)

Can’t wait until the week end so that I can fit the guard to the engine. There’s just the day tank that I want to decorate with a few roses and then that’s it, no more embellishments. I promise, that it so long as nobody Bangs ‘em about

Blossom.

A Wet Fish

Rain, rain and more rain. Went down to Minnow on Saturday but could not get any of the jobs done that I really wanted to as it poured down most of the day. So I spent the day tatting about in the back cabin. Wire brushed the range then gave it a good black leading followed by brass polishing which included Fiddle rails on range

Six rosettes

Chimbly chain

Four brass bed knobs

Back door handles

Ticket draw handle

Towel rail over range

Nine pot hooks

Star horse brass

Four mini brass windlasses

And not even started on the engine and so do I like polishing brass – no I hate it – but I do like to see it.

Brought the engine flywheel guard home with me as I needed to drill some extra holes in it, as I am moving it further back towards the engine so that it catches any oil that spins off the flywheel. While I have it at home I will also paint it. Here’s hoping we have some better weather next week end and I can varnish the cabin tops and get on with some of the jobs I need to get done before we head off for the Middlewich Folk and Canal Festival on 18,19 & 20^th June.

Blossom

Spent all day bonking.

Just a quick update really, took the piston down to Minnow on Tuesday and spent most of the morning lying on the cold floor of the engine hole with my hands through the air intakes fitting the big end bearing back together.

Screwed the 6” bolt into the top of the piston to use as a handle then lowered the piston back in the bore until it sat on the lowest piston ring. One by one the piston rings were eased in by tapping them in with a piece of 3/8 nylon then tapping the piston down to the next ring until all rings were in and the piston was sitting down on the big end bearing

Connected, shimmed and tightened the two bolts in the big end then rotated the flywheel several times by hand to check free movement of piston/crank/bearings etc. oiled the big end bearing with the oil can before putting the two air intake covers (Bells) back on. I now turned my attention to the top end and fitted, bolted and tightened the cylinder head. Another new asbestos string gasket for the hot bulb followed by assembly of the hot bulb, the water jacket, the spindle assembly then finally the oil rod control.

By early afternoon the Bolinder was all back together and the lamp was put on. Ten minutes pre-heating and second kick and away she went with a crisp sharpness to her beat. For the next couple of hours I ran the engine and played. The rest of the afternoon was spent ber-bonking, twiddling and tweaking until I was once again happy with the performance. By tea time I had packed all the tools away cleaned all the black oily hand prints off the engine and engine ‘ole and left for home a contented man. And so, because I am in such a good mood, you can bang ‘em about as much as you want !

Blossom

Servicing the washing machine

A busy week end so far. Friday night saw us out on the pop again, we had been invited to a friends 60^th birthday party at a club in Rugeley town and I must say the buffet was good (helped soak up the Guinness) and so was the disco. Saturday morning I went down Minnow and took my sore head with me. As the previous week end I had fitted a new string gasket to the hot bulb but had not tried the engine, I had decided to run the Bolinder up later on today. I started by rubbing down the back end boards and giving them a coat of red oxide just to freshen them up. I had intended to give the cabin top a second coat of varnish but the skies were grey and threatening so I gave that a miss and decided to start the engine, or at least I thought I would. I wanted a film of the engine being started which showed each of the various stages of starting and so I had taken my flip cam with me which I proceeded to film the pre-start checks while the lamp was on warming the engine. As I had to wait ten minutes while the hot bulb warmed up, I switched the camcorder off. I then decided to start the engine first, run it until it was hot, then stop it, and then film starting it. I never got that far though, after a couple of kicks it started and I ran it for a couple of minutes, and then stopped it. I then set the flip cam up on top of the tunnel lamp to film the starting. I gave the flywheel a kick expecting it to fire up straight away, but it didn’t, in fact it took several more kicks before the Bolinder responded, at which point it started in what I call ‘washing machine mode’ where it fires as it comes up to top dead centre at each side of the cycle ending up with the flywheel; going half a cycle in each direction, back and forth like the old top loader washing machines. After several further attempts to start, all resulting in the same action, I decided to leave it and let it cool down. Although after an hours cooling it would have cooled enough for me to be was able to work on the engine, I decided to leave it until the next day. This ‘washing machine mode’ is the result of not a powerful enough ‘bang’ to send the piston over top dead centre and it can be the result of at least one of two things. Not enough fuel injected in or not enough compression. As I has messed with the spindle last weekend, that’s where I started on Sunday morning, stripping the spindle out and checking the ‘spray’ by manually pumping fuel through it. The spray seemed to be coming off slightly one sided so I cleaned the nozzle out again until all was well and the spray was perfect. After re-assembly of the engine I again put the lamp on as I knew the fuel input was right. All you ever need for a Bolinder to run is heat, fuel and compression and they are guaranteed to start and run. After ten minutes pre-heating I kicked on the flywheel and again the engine started in washing machine mode, as it also did for the next several failed starts. So that was the start of the rest of the weekends work for being as the fuel was right I took it to be a problem with the compression, in other words the piston rings were probably gummed in again and so I set about stripping the engine down and removing the piston. When once I had the piston out it was obvious that was what was wrong with it as the piston rings were all stuck in.

PISTON RINGS ALL GUMMED IN

With the piston suitably bagged up, I headed off home as my daughter, son in law and new grand daughter were coming over after four.

Monday Spent most of the day in the shed working on the piston with paraffin, old kitchen knife and some 200 wet and dry. By tea time all the crap had been removed and the rings all moved freely within their grooves.

ALL CLEANED AND MUCK REMOVED WITH RINGS FREELY MOVING WITHIN THEIR GROOVES.

Dawn is back at work tomorrow but I have the day off so I will be re-fitting the piston etc. and hopefully starting the engine in correct mode so until then, as always

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom.

New generation of boaters.

Just a very short and sweet blog tonight. The early morning peace was broken this morning at just turned 6.30am when Dawn’s mobile started ringing. It was Sarah, the youngest daughter , to say that her contractions were every 3 minutes and that Kev was about to take her into hospital. By 8.40am it was all over and my second grand daughter, Bethany, was born. As soon as I got back from work we were off up the hospital to visit and at 8lbs 7ozs she is both bonny and beautiful ( just like her Gramps!) and so here she is and I’ll let you judge for yourselves.

A sobering Sunday

Joyful nights bring sorrowful mornings, as I mentioned in yesterdays blog, we were off out for the night last night, I only wish I had only had two or three Guinness but when your in good company and it’s going down so easy- well what more can I say. I did not get breakfast on until turned 10.00am then we chucked a few things in the car and headed off down the moorings. Weather wise, the morning had started out promising but as the morning rolled on and into afternoon, the clouds started gathering and then about 4.00pm it started raining. It’s amazing, as I mentioned earlier, Minnow had been coated in lime by a farmer liming his fields up at Hoo Mill and at the time I said that what it needed was a good downpour of rain. Well it hasn’t for the last fortnight and so we had decided to wash the cloths down with a hard broom, a mop and a hose pipe, before taking them off for the Summer, we both set to scrubbing and swilling down until all was clean again. While we waited for the cloths to dry I filled a bowl with water and washing up liquid and washed down the off side of the cabin and scrubbed all the lime dust of that as well then swilled it off with the hose pipe. I was just coiling up the hose pipe to put it away when the first couple of rain drops fell – I don’t believe it-

This putting the cloths on, and taking the cloths off is an annual event for we fully cloth the boat in winter just to keep the rain out so we don’t have to pump out so often, then take them off at this time of the year for boating an empty boat fully clothed is not a method of boating to be enjoyed.

The only problem with clothing the empty hold up is it can lead to randomly storing allsorts under the cloths like “where shall I put this” “Oh just stick it under the cloths. Which while the hold is clothed up ain’t a problem, but when you take the cloths off and all is on view to every passing boat then this accounted for the afternoons work. Moving empty diesel containers, bags of coal, batteries, a sack truck/trolley, two generators, timber and a host of other various items. While I did this Dawn set about the bow cabin top with her plane blade and removed all the lifting varnish then scrubbed it all off with an old toothbrush. All in all another satisfying day getting lots done. Unfortunately the rain stopped us putting the first coat of varnish on the bow cabin and the second coat on the back cabin as well as some red oxiding I wanted to do, but, hey ho, there’s always next week and so as always till then’

Don’t bang ‘em about.

Blossom

A satisfying Saturday

As I had mentioned in a previous blog, the cold weather over this winter/spring had taken it’s toll on the graining varnish on the cabin top and Dawn spent time over Easter peeling off all the blown varnish. The weather forecast for the weekend was for hot dry weather so, an ideal opportunity to get a coat of varnish on it. Got down the mooring about 9.30am and started by washing down and scrubbing all the marks off the graining on the cabin top, as well as all the ‘farmers lime’ from the weekend spent up at Hoo Mill. With that done, I had to leave it to dry completely, which would not take too long in this weather, and so I turned my attention to the engine. On the journey up to Hoo Mill the gasket between the cylinder head and the hot bulb had started to blow a little bit but nothing to worry about as they do tend to do this. On the way back it started really ‘blowing smoke’ from out the engine ‘ole doors and so I decided to fit a new one while I waited for the cabin top to dry.

Removed the oil rod from the top of the spindle and raised the spindle by hand screwing it out, loosened the nuts holding the spindle flange in then carefully pulled the spindle out of it’s mounting. Slackened the fuel supply pipe and rotated the spindle and pipe out of the way of the engine. Disconnected the in/out cooling water pipes followed by the two nuts holding the mounting onto the top of the hot bulb.

THE SPINDLE ASSEMBLE REMOVED

Lifted the flame hood off out of the way then proceeded to remove the five nuts clamping the hot bulb to the cylinder head.

THE HOT BULB REMOVED

With both the flame hood and the hot bulb off the engine I took advantage and gave them a quick paint over with Calfire stove paint prior to fitting them back. While the flame hood and hot bulb were drying I got back to the cabin top which by now had completely dried. For the next hour I gave the whole of the cabin top a coat of International yacht varnish. Now with the varnish wet I returned my attentions back to the engine.

THE NEW STRING GASKET IN PLACE

I greased a 3 foot length of asbestos string which is used to produce the gasket by spirally winding it in a coil on the mating surface, the grease simply to hold it in place while you mess.

THE HOT BULB

With this done the hot bulb was bolted back on followed by the flame hood. While I had the spindle assemble out of the engine but still connected to the fuel supply I cleaned the carbon build up off the end of the spindle and cleaned the hole in the end using a set of gas welding nozzle cleaners. Having cleaned the nozzle I then loosened the fuel supply pipe and rotated the spindle assemble back and placed it loosely into it’s mounting before tightening up the fuel pipe. The spindle was again lifted clear of it’s mount and a small oil jug placed under the nozzle to catch the diesel as I gave the lifter several pumps just to check the spray pattern with the spindle both raised and close. All was fine and so the whole lot was put back together.

ENGINE ALL BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

With this done I once again turned my attentions to the cabin, this time the cabin sides, well one cabin side as I sat on the edge of the wharf and proceeded to scrub down the cabin side with a sponge and soapy water followed by a coating of Auto Glim car polish and a good buffing. By the time my arms were aching and it was getting on for 3.30pm and I needed to get back as we are out to a show night at the Power Station Club tonight at six, A Take That tribute band (I’m only going for Dawn’s benefit) still I suppose I could end up having a couple or three Guinness.

Till next time

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom.

Eggstrodinary free food

The one thing I really love about this time of the year is ‘eggs’ especially duck eggs and goose eggs. I know some people say that duck eggs are too strong for them but if you’ve never tried a goose egg – yummmmeee.

To give you some idea of size that’s a cracked goose egg and a hen egg in it’s shell in this bowl and as you can see the goose egg yolk is bigger than the whole hen egg! Unlike a duck egg they do not have that strong flavour and are more like a hen egg, and I’m not on about those pale insipid things one buys from a supermarket but proper free range hen eggs that have lived on a wide variety of wild growth etc. with their bright yellow yolks. Some good friends of mine, from the days when I used to do a lot of match fishing, operate, manage and fish a local lake where there has been an ongoing problem over the years with Canada Geese, hundreds of them who all nest on the two small islands in the lake and each year swell their numbers by breeding about fifteen to twenty broods of goslings, usually about over a hundred, that is until the last couple of years since they have been ‘managing’ the geese as well, that is after a little tuition by yours truly. Canada geese are strange animals as if one is sitting a nest of six to eight eggs on average and you take them all leaving one in the nest, they will lay another clutch. So the method is this, the fishermen have a small fibreglass dinghy which they use for maintenance and an emergency boat, which they row over to the islands and take all but one egg off each of the nests and discard them as it is not known how long they have been laid. The egg that’s left is marked with a felt pen. They return a couple of days later and take all the newly laid eggs removing the one marked with the felt pen and discard it, then they mark another fresh egg with felt pen. The geese then conveniently lay again in time for another egg gathering. The resulting eggs are shared out between several of us. The season usually last a couple of months and as Dawn doesn’t like them I get them all! The only thing with them is, like duck eggs, you have to cook them well so I either have them whipped and as an omelette or as a fried egg cooked both sides and when I say a fried egg, they are usually about six/seven inches in diameter (on the plate that is not the egg) with a yolk about 2½ inches diameter!

Writing this has started me off so I’m thinking of a goose egg for supper, so till next time,

Don’t bang ‘em about.

Blossom

Tea and a chat

Tonight we spent a very pleasant hour or so with our neighbours to be up at Keith Balls yard at Stretton on the Shroppie. Dawn and I went there to visit Sarah and Jim and their big Woolwich motor boat Chertsey which is undergoing a major improvement program including new back end bottoms, some patching to the footings etc., some reinforcing of the usual lace like sections on the knee’s, replacement engine, hull blacking and red oxiding inside. Well I must say, most impressive it all was as well. We sat in the cosy back cabin drank beer (well I drank tea!) warmed by the ever reliable Epping range and chatted about a variety of subjects, all canal related and mainly about Chertsey as I was keen to find out what their intentions were for her ‘restoration’. The funniest moment of the evening was when Keith went off to get chairs for me and Dawn to sit on in the yard. He came back with two white plastic patio chairs, an aluminium mini work bench and an old folding wooden deck chair which he proceeded to open, put down and sit on. There was a loud crack and Keith ended up full length on his back lying on the yard floor on top of the smashed deck chair. “at least I now have some wood for lighting the range” was Sarah’s response whilst the rest of us just fought back the tears of laughter. No camera so no record I’m afraid. By 9.00pm we made our farewells agreeing we would see them again soon and headed off home.

Blossom

Know your Knobsticks

For some time now I have been thinking about having a go at painting Knobstick roses. This was the knick name given to the more realistic style of roses painted for the Anderton Company by Bill Hodgson. I have never received any tuition as such but simply picked it up over about the last 50 years during which time I have simply listened, looked and tried. Some of my very early attempts were very poor when I look at them now but I was only a lad.

Later flowers and scene’s are, I think of a more acceptable standard like this bucket I painted last year

So anyway back to the practice, starting by forgetting anything I had ever learned, for the style is completely different. I studied what images I had and what were available on tinternet, which I must say was very limited. I painted a couple of practice boards a dark green undercoat, which gives an ideal surface as it isn’t a high gloss surface making it readily accept the flat colour paints.

After some practice the above was my first real attempt. My good lady wife said they were OK but thought that they looked flat, that the centres did not appear raised and so with that said it was back to the practice boards along with a few changes to the techniques I was experimenting with for the next couple of weeks.

With the two full weekends we have had it was not until tonight that I was able to complete my latest attempt which I must say I was quite happy with and certainly something I can work with- my good lady wife- she say’s there OK but remains, as always very non-committal. Peoples views would be appreciated, and be honest, don’t worry as I take constructive criticism well!

Till net time

Don’t bang ‘em about

Blossom.