Category Archives: Projects

First step of lawnmower cutting deck repair

Posted on June 17, 2026 by james

I managed to remove the broken bracket this morning. There wasn’t an awful lot of room to play with and I added a few more scrapes to my forearms. This is it. Now I need to work out how to … Continue reading →

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The lawnmower wants to die

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

After replacing the steering linkage that snapped just a few weeks back, yesterday the ride-on mower failed again. This time, the lifting bracket for the cutting deck has sheared off. It’s not easy to get a photo of whilst it’s … Continue reading →

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Almost finished tidying up after the water leak

Posted on May 14, 2026 by james

One of the last few jobs after digging up our leaking supply pipe was to restore the entrance to the vegetable plot. I decided not to replace the previous steps however, but re-lay this matting that will stabilise the slope … Continue reading →

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Due to the rain today

Posted on January 25, 2026 by james

I have been contemplating automated irrigation for the polytunnels and greenhouses. There are some cheap kits on Amazon these days, but I’m way less than convinced that they’ll flow sufficient water for my needs and after stumbling around trying to … Continue reading →

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Should get a bit more life out of it

Posted on January 22, 2026 by james

It seems to be all too common that the handles of large trugs snap or break off the body of the trug. I have quite a few sitting around here. Having found a bit of scrap 12mm ply and an … Continue reading →

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A new cork pinboard

Posted on January 20, 2026 by james

Made from, err, corks. Obviously it was quite a tough job acquiring all the corks to start with. I’d not recommend it without having put in years of practice first, though you can cheat by just buying the bags of … Continue reading →

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Mains water leak (hopefully) resolved

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

The final paperwork is still to arrive, but it looks as though our water leak may now be fully resolved. The most shocking thing is the amount of water lost. At our current rate of consumption it looks to be … Continue reading →

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Decking out, paving in!

Posted on January 16, 2026 by james

The path to one of our external doors is decking which is now starting to degrade quite badly so I have decided to replace it with paving slabs. And by chance I was offered these reclaimed ones for very little … Continue reading →

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How much?! A mind-numbing water leak

Posted on January 16, 2026 by james

Our water supplier read the meter at the start of last September which prompted a letter to me just before they sent the bill saying, “Errr, your bill is going to be quite big. Do you have a leak?”. “Quite … Continue reading →

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And more Speidel apple mill repairs

Posted on January 16, 2026 by james

This time it was a mill that wouldn’t run despite the rotor spinning freely, which suggested an electrical fault. After testing the obvious stuff such as the fuse and power cable it seemed as though there was no choice but … Continue reading →

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