The Tooth Fairy Left a Letter (by sarah)

Jean lost her second tooth in the new house yesterday and spent the day worrying that they wouldn't find it as we still haven't found the tooth cusion I'd made her. She was also doing lots of wondering about how the tooth fairy would get into the house and lift the tooth and swap the money and did they go big/small, or could they walk through walls and were they a boy or a girl?

So she left a letter.

And the tooth fairy answered it. I thought it was just pictures but Jean pointed out it was a letter written in Fairy Language so she immediatly demanded to go on the computer to see if wikipedia could help her translate it. But after some google searching it became evident that there are lots of different fairy languages and dialects and when Jean looked closer she found that the symbols were very toothy and so we came to the conclusion that this is a specific tooth fairy language.

There are teeth and pliers and ladders and pillows and moons.

I told Jean we would probably have to wait until Daddy got home and she could work at translating it with him. She looked very serious and took the letter and sat staring at it about ten minutes later she announced that this symbol was M and this symbol N and before long she had worked out the second word was Jean.

'It now sort of looks like Jean as well Mummy' and she's right it does. She got the first few lines translated before school. And there was me thinking I would have to phone Tooth Head Quarters and ask for a key so we could find out what the letter ment.

Of course as the fairy borrowed one of mummy's pens Jean did initially accuse me of writing the letter until I pointed out I couldn't read what it said.

Near future foundry (by alaric)

When we moved in, I was very excited about the prospect of turning the little garage into a foundry. Even thought it started off tidy and I optimistically hoped that I'd have finished my backlog of work by the time I had all my tools moved in, I ended up busy all the time and it slowly filled with boxes of stuff.

However, come the flood, we had to move much of the contents of our home out into storage. Then more, as the electrician needed to rewire the whole place, so we moved most of the large static boxes from the little garage (our vast crockery+cutlery+glasses empire, our Christmas decorations, our bulky garden toys, that sort of thing). And the nice electrician put many more power points around it (three double sockets spaced out, rather than one waaay at the back!).

And then at the house-re-warming party, my pyromaniac nerd friends got all excited about the fabrication possibilities of the foundry...

So, I've been clearing the place out, and tidying up the results of several years of things-being-shoved-in. And sealing up the gaps, too; after the garage was built against the house it seems to have moved several centimetres away from it. Somebody went around the outside sealing the gap with cement, but they missed a big bit behind the gutters, meaning that daylight shines in through the gap.

A few months back I went up a ladder and packed the gap with cement.

But there's still a bit of light peeking through, and some more up where the roof is (although, by some miracle, no sign of water coming in when it rains), and a large cobweb-infested dark gap around the inside.

So I've been going around the INSIDE sealing the gap up with expanding foam (a delightful material to work with).

The foam didn't go as far as I'd thought - I need to sort out some more...

And putting foam strips around the front door to seal the gaps there up, too, and putting a block of wood in to fill a hole in the door jamb, in the hope that the place will stop being a haven of creepy-crawlies.

They say these things come in Threes! (by sarah)

They say bad things come in threes - well here's todays three:

Number one - we where moving the fridge freezer in from the little garage and due to dad accidently ending up taking all the load there is now a little set of half moon scuff marks where the bracket on the bottom of the appliance cut into the lino 🙁 My poor new floor :'( Poor dad was mortified and thought he'd ruined my entire life - I am currently trying to work out if I can fix this disastor.

Number Two - once the fridge freezer was in place we begain to assemble the Ladder racks unit that we had there pre-flood - it has little adjustible feet - bad was trying to get the thing to stand level when my mum phoned with some suggestions on what to do with the lino - Dad accidently snaped the foot off of the ladder racks - but as loads of rust poured out of the thing this was hardly suprising. To say he was unhappy at this point would be putting it lightly.

Number three - in going to to see how dad was as he'd slunk off to make a replacement foot out of some off cuts of wood - obviously not adjustible, I managed to step on a thin metal tac which went right through the sole of my trainer and into the sole of my foot when the next second I trod on a small stone that forced it up into the rubber sole making it impossible to remove. Foot hurting and a pair of shoes rendured useless - you could say we are having a good day here today.

Roman Urinal (by sarah)

The work men have been sorting out the water falls tunnel which they have been putting metal joist things in to keep it from collapsing. The two guys doing the waterfall look remarkably like they belong in either the RSM or the caving club or as is often the case both!

I asked them if I could come down and take photos - they put a step ladder in the dry water fall for me but I didn't realise (yes I know its a large thing not too notice but then this is me) and clambered down the actual waterfall - when I say dry I mean that there isn't the normal cascade of water flowing down it however most people would consider it actually quiet damp still.

Here are my photos of the tunnel.

The tunnel is at least 400 yrs old and is basically dry stone walls with stone slabs on the top - one of these ceiling stones appears to be a urinal - or so I am informed and is probably Roman in age (or though that is quiet along time period in the UK). Most roman sites in the area where canabilised for other local structures so this seems quiet likely. I actually went straight past the slab as it is in the ceiling and even when they first pointed it out to me without saying why the rock was special I got side tracked by calcified worm casts on its side :/

I did however then see that the rock was cut and the interesting funnelly bit i spotted by myself!

I am quiet excited by this as its sort of like having Time Team in my back garden, but it is a bit laughable that the one really old thing we have (thats of human origin before any of you remind me about all the fossils we have in the garden!) just so happens to be something that men relieved themselves on about 2000 yrs ago :/

I had to take a photo of these nobely calcite deposites 🙂 There where also lots of the little coral type growths that I orinial mistook for teeth when I did the work in the anthropology lab in paleo! (I can not spell the word so it is staying abbreviated but its the place with the fossils at the Natural History Mesuem).

Also I just had to take a photo of this being a geologist. The urinal pics where all taken in a cramped space with me having to lay down on my back so apologies if they are wonky angles!

I really really enjoyed this as I got to where my hard hat for the first time since Kin Loc Leven! But it did unfortunatly cause my pelvis to remobalise for three days :/

Russet Apple Harvest (by sarah)

Last Sunday me and dad decided to start the russet apple harvest as Barbara had been asking for help with it and had already set up the dam in the stream to try and catch all the errant apples that fall due to the wind ect... For those that don't know the apple tree is on the other side of the stream just behind where the green house is (the green house is attatched to the building we live in (when its not flooded that is!).

The hard frosts have already reached our little valley so it is time for lots of things to be harvested at the moment!

We found a ladder and gingerlly made our way across to the otherside of the stream, we decided to jump it rather than use the ladder as a bridge as we noticed it had a rather large crack in it that would not take the strain but would be fine if the ladder were used as an actuall ladder. The back here was quiet slippery and muddy as Albert (Barbaras garderner) has been clearing it of all the scrubby grass in order to put more ornimental things there. But we made it over with no ill effects but than I realised that we had nothing to put the fruit in so had to recross the stream to get some bags!

When I returned Barbara has joined in the fun and was in the middle of donning wellies and get the 'cherry picker' now the only cherry pickers I've ever seen are those little crain things with a basket for humans that window cleaners sometimes use, I've also seen council employees use them to change light bulbs in displays in town centres and that type of thing - what Barbara came back with was something akin to what I would call a 'pruner' it was like a pair of shears on the end of a long poll with wires running down the poll so that you can move something your end and make the shears at the other end work!

Equiped with this dad scaled the ladder with much protest as a) he is scared of hieghts but was too proud to let me do it and b) there happens to be a couple of roses trained up the tree which did their best to scratch him to pieces!

Once in position I handed the cherry picker to him which he wedge by a joint in the trees branches and begain shaking. Nothing happened, no apples fell - all except one apple - which thanks to dads and mine combine bad luck feilds proceeded to hit him on the head! I'm afraid I couldn't stop laughing when I realised that the only apple to actually have fallen off the tree had managed to hit him right on the nogging!

Anyway with a bit of direction from Barbara he soon had the apples tumbling into the stream where they where neatly cuaght in Barbaras apple trap (an old wrought iron fire grate/basket thing with some chicken wire) where she was waiting eagily to extract them with a rake. I mean while I was creeping around the bank trying to retrieve all those that hadn't made it into the stream - I was trying to do this mid strokes so as not to be showered by apples. However dad decided that he needed to extract revenge for my laughter and shook knowing I was under the tree and then laughed like a drain when an apple ricochette off my back side into the water - Barbara then commented that at least that wouldnt hurt as much as one hitting you on the head :/

Anyway we got a good big basket full and the trees still laddened with fruit!