I'm enjoying the review of the year. This one is a day late as I was on a blood bike shift and the M6 was closed while I was on it !
So March 2024....let's have a look at my photos.
March started wintery in the moorlands so we went south to Chichester !
We are amassing hotel and guest houses to stay at and this is one of our favourites - HollyBank house in Emsworth. We also like Chichester ( a lot ) and have stayed in the cathedral accommodation that is very central but a bit expensive.
The trip was four fold, to reminisce over our time living down south, to see our ex next door neighbour Gillian who is sadly in a care home now. Also for Rachel to meet with ex colleagues and for me to meet with bike friends. I took the folding bike this time not the motorbike as not great for Rachel to be on the back in winter for four hours ! While rachel visited Gillian I rode up to Portsdown hill and back down again. Earlier in the weekend I'd met up with biker friends in a flooded Rowlands Castle
No's 1 and 2 cottage by the mill. Rachel lived in no 1 and Gillian no 2. Great memories.
Look at that weather for the start of March, gives me hope ! Here we are having lunch in the cafe garden of Chichester cathedral
We were walking another favourite place Bosham.
Portsdown Hill. Close to Queen Alexandra hospital where rachel was nurse consultant for 4 year 2014-2018, coming back to Derby to help nurse her ailing mum
5th March back on the DIY at Ivy Cottage - needing some heat so the IR panel was jerry rigged while the plaster boarding was started. !
6th March my east roof solar test had been a success so five panels were being planned to go up on the east workshop roof...I'd previously put two panels up there to see what sort of harvest I might get and was surprised how good it was.
Same day I was out on the Himmy Shirland way emptying my head no doubt !
7th March the plasterboard and flooring insulation was arriving for the workshop...
Not such a successful delivery of 5x 425w solar panels from City Plumbing the next day, the bottom panel was smashed so the delivery was rejected.
But the day was not lost with the vaulted ceiling getting insulated before plaster boarding to come....
Flipping DIY project and helping each other I was up at Chinley on the 9th March helping youngest son Callum get his stone hearth installed for the soon to be installed multi fuel stove .... We'd cut the stone hearth from a large piece he'd brought locally.
10th march was mothering Sunday as Rachel and I were over in Heanor celebrating with Tom and family as well as Rachels sister Helen and husband Barry - lovely day but health was to dip afterwards for a decent amount of time ! I've just added this was the day we'd also been working in Toms new tattoo studio in Heanor.
The 11th March saw me planning one of a few ill fated trips on the bike.... due to poor health in the main and time on other projects. 2024 was the year of altered plans for sure. This was the the Northumberland 250 over three days.... still to do !
Part of the workshop refurb released these two doors, one on the left was the old outside toilet door I'd build in the lockdown year I think. The brown door was the inside door that I took off as I wanted to make a better door. I've made quite a few doors for the cottage, they are easy to construct and much cheaper than buying pre made.
I also brought a folding door mechanism for a door I planned to build into the new opening we'd made for the outside toilet to be inside ! Look to December when its put up here to see that finally get made and hung !
11th March and seems I'm nursing a swollen ring finger.... for the life of me I can't recall what caused it - old age memory for sure !
I do recall a few trips to Heanor to help my eldest son Tom convert a retail unit to a new tattoo studio. So I can add shop fitting to my CV. This was a new floor we'd laid. The photo was taken 12th March a Tuesday so I'd be working there on my own.
Remember that old brown door from the workshop at home... here it is hung to make an under stairs store cupboard. It did get painted shortly afterwards as I recall my belt sander ran out of belts to remove many years of old brown paint. I wonder how many more years the door will now live there. Am I the only one who gives imagination to such inanimate objects ?
This was the taken 13th March. Another day another door. this one was from Toms newish house in Heanor. It was a kitchen door he'd removed as it was hung the wrong way for light switches. Anyhow it was repurposed again by me on my own to make a sliding door to separate off the Kitchen area of his new studio. I should make memory of the fact Helen Rachel's younger sister was over helping decorate... all the way at the time from Walsall. Always be grateful for that help Helen. ( and Barry who'd help lay the floor.)
Yes bikes again, this time on the 15th March road testing a Royal Enfield Hunter 350. My passion for smaller cc bikes was developing. Sadly this underwhelmed me a bit. I liked the look and the size but the motor and the handling were less than I expected.
Seems I was also up in Macclesfield mid afternoon dreaming of bikes. A friend was extolling the virtues of the Forza 350 super scooter... never owned a scooter so went to look at one. Not for me at this time but never say never... he really rates them and we caught up later in the year to chat more about it - that'll be camping in Devon later in the year!
Same day so obviously a bigger run out to Edale on my 750cc Honda. Youngest son looked at a lovely Mill property in Edale, in some ways a better buy for us .... he brought the right place in Chinley. On a few occasions Callum and I have walked from Chinley to Edale - about 9 miles. lovely routes and we can get the train back.
Top of Winnats pass
Next day 19th March we were down at Frogall basin walking the valley or more likely feeding ourselves at Hetties tea rooms at the terminus of the Caldon canal. Lovely place to spend an hour
20th March and I'm taking my old mum out for cake and tea at a farm cafe in Kirk Hallam, nice place and nice memories.
Thursday the 21st March I'm delivering in Birmingham - This is the Medical School on the BMW RS1250. A busy morning shift as this was taken just before 12pm and the bike should be back to the afternoon shift at 1pm - there are two bikes a the Stoke base.
Ok, bit of a shock but we were at the boat on the 22nd March, the diary says boat weekend but it must have been broken up by a visit to youngest sons - see below
23rd March in the evening helping load all my sons tools into his loft as he was moving in the following weekend. I presume we'd been to the boat the day before to prep it for a couple of days staying on board... next pic!
24th March, back on the boat for a day or two looking at the dates on photos and the entry to the calendar - yes we have a shared calendar so we know or try to know what we are doing any given week! This was one of the two test panels that were taken down off the east workshop roof to be replaced by 5 new ones 2.1kw east roof, 2kw west roof. This one is used to recharge the Ecoflow solar battery when we are on the mooring. It is deliberately set steep to get more of the winter (low) sun as in summer being fully south facing it harvests a lot of sun easily.
Sunglasses in March - hopeful for next year!
Shebdon winding hole.
The Shebdon moorings where we keep Percy
Banana bread made on board, lovely.
At some point - the diary says 23rd March Callum came over and helped put the 5 solar panels up. I put the rails up on my own the day before I recall. So. now harvesting 4.1kw of solar on an East/West array. I've still plans to expand more by adding three more panels to a solar veranda in the spring of next year. I was getting these reading from the Home Assistant control software while on the boat it would seem as the photo or screen capture is the 25th March 9.45pm hence the lack of solar
I was experimenting with the Ecoflow batteries on the boat, trying to use them as house batteries via the 12v socket on the batteries. However the 12v output is regulated so struggles to run the fridge as there is just enough voltage drop to stop the compressor starting. We therefore run the Ecoflows when needed as in essence hook ups connecting them to the 2430v side of the boat that then runs the blue Victron battery charger... a bot 'lossy' but it keeps the boat batteries topped up and the fridge runs fine this way.
27th March back finishing the workshop vaulted ceiling - looks a bit Heath Robinson but rest assured it looks 'proper' completed - you'll see the results when December update is put up .... be patient I certainly have had to be !!
I recall Callum helped put up two large sheets of 2.4m x 1.2m plasterboard, very unwieldily. At his place last year we re boarded all the ceilings in his house to cover the old saggy and cracked lathe and plaster and he brought a proper plasterboard lifter - essential but it had gone to another family member hence muscle to get two large panels up. Unbelievably all the other 1.2x x600's I'd got up myself.
Getting there !
In return I helped the electrician ( I had to pick him up from his home in Whaley bridge as he'd had some health issues so could not drive) back at Callum's fit the induction hobs and babysat the stove installers. This was the 28th March - he was moving in on the 30th !
An old photo of me helping Tom and Courtney move house but it's there as I forgot to take a photo of me driving over to Lincoln with Tom to pick up his new car as they needed another car for their pending third nipper ! This was the 30th March!
This is our good friends from Scotland Carrie and John who must have stayed over judging by the time of the photo. It was the Easter weekend take 30th March and if I recall correctly their girls we off doing teenager stuff so they had a free weekend. Correct me if I'm wrong John - if you read this .
Well that was March 2024 - what a month, tired just reviewing all the stuff I did. Tomorrow I'll detail Aprils activity !
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