The Moleing Man (by sarah)

The Mill has spring water which is piped down from the farmers field behind the Bakery. There have been multiple issues with this water supply some of which we have documented and some of which I haven't got round to mentioning yet.

Such as the ecoli issue and the blocked tank and the cracked earthenware pipe and the blocked pipes etc...

The most recent one was that the one of the pipes that carries the spring water into the house under the lawn seems to have perished (at least I think this is what the pipe is for the system was put in by Al's granddad and seems to be a bit complex and meandering). This ment that water was seeping out in the path around the pound making it a bit of a quagmire 🙁

This also means that the water isn't gettting into the Mill (I assume there just isn't enough head) so Barbara's house is a jumble of pipes giving her a tempory water supply - unfortunatly not only is this a trip hazard but it is also a flood harzard if Barbara forgets to turn it off once all the tanks are filled etc... which has also happened a few time.

Now we weren't really sure where the pipes went, or how collapse/persihed they might be and it looked like we'd have to dig the whole lot up - making a right mess of the whole lawn. Barbara is really militant about the grass as well as anyone who has accident driven on the verges down the drive will know.

So it was decided with the plumber - (who doesn't do digging) that we would get the Mole man in. Now I wasn't privvy to this conversation so when Barbara knocked one morning to say the mole man was here to look around and so was the plumber - I thought that she was being mean and erradicating our little hill building buddies, who are admittedly making a mess of the lawn :/

Anyway I missed this visit as they were gone before I got outside and after a little bit of talking at cross perposes my error became apparent. Mole men are men who have a compressed air device which bascially sledge hammers its way through the soil/stone under the ground - making a tunnel for pipes and cabiling and what have as it goes. And all with out making a mess by digging a trench that runs the length of the pipe/cable.

Then, Thursday morning when I came back from Cheltenham there was a guy digging a whole in the lawn by the back window of the Mill. I assumed it would be the mole man or maybe the guys who are going to clean the gully out - but Barbara hadn't actually said anyone was coming so I thought I'd best check it out.

And I got to look at the fun things - and watch the metal cylinder that is the mole being fed into the ground and watch the guy line things up with a strick stuck in the whole at the other end by the Mill and a viewer with cross hairs in it (this reminded me of survaying).

All he did was basically dig two wholes - one each end and then fed the mole in - it thumbed its way across the lawn with him standing above it to check its progression (I assume he was feeling the vibrations of the thumps). They then threaded the blue water pipe through, cut it and added the connectors at each end.

When the boss arrived I asked him about the technique and he showed me other thumpers which can make wholes of different sizes - including largish ones 5 inches (around 12 cm) which are good for laying cables.

He is mainly employed by the one of the local councils to relay water pipes - this is genius as basically you don't have to dig up the road to fix a burst pipe which is wastefull from a tarmac point of veiw. Also due to how this works he replaces the whole pipe so instead of fixing a perishing pipe in one place and just shifting the leak further down the system he is fixing the system!

They seem happy with this and he is starting to get work from other councils around here.

He even goes to the effort of putting the turfs he has dug up onto boards so that they don't put mud all over the lawn etc... He prides himself on how it looks at the end - if we had dug a trench it would take ages to get rid of the little furrowed dip you get when the soil has all compacted down.

Here is what we were left with! Plus all of this took like half a day which is a fraction of the time it would have taken to dig a trench.

I was very impressed and think that if we ever get to laying the cables we want along the drive we will be employing him!

For anyone who's interested there P.C. Moleing Services Ltd. specialists in Underground pipe and cable installation.

Contact:

Phil Clutterbuck Hillview Cottage, Over Old Road, Hartpury, Glos

Tel: 01452 700523

Red Nose Day – Or Jean as A Clown Day (by sarah)

Today was Red Nose day and as always I made sure I had a nose - I have been collecting the different ones since I was 4 years old and have fond memories associated with each:

The first one I got in hospital, they came round with a tray and I didnt have any money but some else bought me one. It got droped and rolled behind the wendy house in the day room - the nurses and a doctor move the house so that I could get it back.

I dont remeber what order they appeared in but there have been tomato ones, hair do ones, poking tongue out ones, fluffy ones, ones with embossed faces and heat change ones which got y brother into trouble as he announced in that pink mean pregnant.

Jean wasn't really old enough to participate in the last Comic Relief but she was this time.

And though it was a bit too close to the World Book Day dress up her Pre-school were having a clown day.

I found out about this a few days after I found out about the World book day event and I basically work on both costums at the same time.

I made the hat with a bit of help from Jean - the buttons were all of her work which is cool 🙂 as I think they look fantastic. As always the hat had to be pink - I let her choose! We also decorated one of her large white t-shirts with glitter fabric paint that I got for her snpw cloud costum. She had a great time swerling the paint on the t-shirt and I did manage to get a magizine stuck inside the t-shirt - it was there to stop the front of the t-shirt sticking to the back!

Barbara had a pair of childrens clogs - proper wooden ones that are just right for Jean and she loves them and I thought they would make good clown shoes!

Dad however did have to sand the jagged sharp glue away from the inside of the shoe - one of the clogs had been repaired at some time in the past but very very badly.

I then picked up the strippy trousers from a charity shop for 50p - these can double as pirate trousers or count draculars trousers! That and the £1 for the nose are all that I laid out for the costum everything else was 'in stock' as it were which was cool.

The hat is far too heavy - it is also just about the sturdiest hat ever and in the process I discovered that fabric glue is good for sticking more than fabric!

Jean was really excited about this outfit though she kept insisting she was Aladdin!

She made me wear my red nose to take her to pre-school in and I even went inside wearing it. They were doing show and tell and Jean had to go straight to the front to show her hat off!

We sent her in with her trainers as the clogs are not very practicle for running etc...

She had a great time and we bought lots of little smiley brown cakes with red glace cherry noses to eat from the nursery - I then wizzed off to London to look at a piece of the moon 🙂

I was a bit sad not to see more red noses but as mine was secreted in my bag at this point I woundered how many other people had them but just werent wearing them! I did however give some money to a man in red tights at Paddington station - he had a red curly wig, face and nose 🙂

I have unfortunatly left this years red nose with glasses on, on the ear of @ndy's nabaztag in the office in Highgate :/

Hopefully the 'how to' on the hat and t-shirt will appear on Salaric Craft soon.

Science Writers disappointment (by sarah)

I thought things might be getting abit tight to enter the Young Science Writer of the Year compertion and as this year is the first year since I found out about it that I am actually in a position to enter.

No floods, being healthy enough to actually get stuff done and being back in the science world even though its part time. With my ambition/long term goal being bringing science to the masses I was actually really looking forward to stretching the writing skills I have been learning over the last few years - to me this was a fussion project and looked like fun.

This year is also the last year I am young enough to enter - so I went to the website and... its not running this year - not explanation or anything just no running 🙁 Looks like I'm not even going to get my chance at it - I mean I boubt I would have done very well at it but at least I would have tried but the oppurtunity has been plucked from me.

Never mind - tomorrow I get to put my moon rock in a machine for blasting!!!! Mwahahahahahh!

Artistic Frustration (by sarah)

Last night I saw once again the most fantstic moon, it was a pastal tangerine colour and it was in a twilight sky, just above the horizon and it was huge. It hung there like the proverbial eye and the trees below were bathed in golden light from the setting sun.

But would Alaric turn the van round to go get the camera? Would he even stop to look at it - no!

This is the bane of my life when it comes to photos - I know I'm not exactly brilliant and I would probably have blurred it anyway but hey the moon was hanging over our valley!

I had a similar problem when the snow was on the ground - Dad didn't understand that I wanted to stop the car to get out and take photos of the whole of the bowl shaped bit with like all the built up bit in it - covered in snow. I had asked Alaric to come out and walk up to the main road to take pics as with my pelvis and back I can't afford to be out in the snow falling over on my own but he wouldn't.

Its not their fualts they either just dont see it or do and are genuingly busy but I find it so frustrating along with people talking constantly at me when I'm trying to write, paint, make websites and other things.

And as for having my projects moved or my pooter used when I'm not there - that really makes my blood boil - only becuase people don't know where the fragile bits are or the fact the laptop is on its last legs and has a tendency to crash if you do certian things and it takes me so long to have everything set up to work its a right pain if I have to restart.

I am feeling alittle bit frustrated and am trying to claim back my work space in the office but its slow going.

On the plus side I saw a shooting star last night with a green tinge to it and a cloud that looked like a rabbit or hare running under the moon.

I have a piece of the Moon! (by sarah)

Erm I think that I forgot to mention that even though I have not yet paid my top up fee and therefore do not have libary access etc... I have been given a small sliver of moon rock to blast with lasers 🙂

I have been staring at the moon lots since they gave it to me two weeks ago and am also petrofied I'll screw something up!

I got to take the carbon coat off of it and so have a quick peek under a reflected light microscope. It does seem to be an interesting sample - its from a lunar meteorite that fell to earth which is interesting in itself.

After my disappointment over the mini projects I was so startled to get this sample I have been sort of shell shock reading - I know very little about lunar geology so I am having to do some heavy reading. Fortunatly I seem to be able to apply stuff I learnt whilst doing the Carbonado essay and the moon formation essay last term.

I really feel I need to get to grips with this as it is such a blindingly fantastic sample (they have the meteorite as well) that I have jumped ship and will be doing this meteorite as my main project as well - this masters has just dragged on too long now and I don't want anything logistically complicated.

However I do still want to do the astrobiology - impact lithology stuff but when I was looking at it before I found huge issues in talking to microbiologist and isotope chemists who didn't understand one and other and having to translate stuff to each of them that I barely understood myself.

I was recommended to get my hands on some undergraduate texts for the micro-organism thing and the chem I'm picking up from the papers I'm reading and hopefully from the machines I'm going to be using. My origonal project was drawn up with the idea of it being a PhD anyway so this I think is the best course of action.