It might look like rain forest

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

but actually this is just Willett Hill, and a lot colder!

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Intellectual pygmies

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

I gather from the news that the Writers’ Week at a major Australian festival has collapsed in the last few days because a Palestinian author was “disinvited” at least in part because of the recent horrifying events at Bondi Beach, leading many other participants to drop out.

It is being reported that a senior member of the Jewish Community Council for South Australia has said “I think for everyone who has dropped out that it’s rather pathetic because that means they agree with what Dr Fattah is on about… Namely, that Israel should not exist.”

What an absolute load of bollocks.

The two issues are clearly in no way connected. Whether someone should be allowed to speak in public or not is completely different issue from agreeing with their views or otherwise and those people who have dropped out of the festival as a result are quite capable of disagreeing with deplatforming the author in question without supporting views that she may or may not even present were she to appear. To suggest otherwise is the act of an idiot or a blatant attempt to misrepresent reality, presumably in order to stoke up further dissent and division to their own benefit.

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New potatoes for Christmas

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

When I harvested my Charlotte potatoes in the Summer there were a few green ones thanks to the blackbirds digging around in the dry compost looking for good. Rather than put them into the compost, I saved them in hessian bags in a dark shed and in mid August replanted them in old plastic sacks full of soil/compost with the idea of moving them into a greenhouse if we started to get frosts and harvesting them at Christmas.

A month after planting they were starting to look good, with shoots making it out of the soil.

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Apple juice with a bit of bite

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

Or sting, more accurately.

This is the end of one of the syphons in a bottle filler. It’s not uncommon for people to start them off by sucking juice through the syphon via this hole. Note to self: check the syphon is clear beforehand.

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Get a load of my plums!

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

Victoria plums, that is. I’ve never had so many before. We can’t eat them all right now, so most will be destoned and frozen.

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Pressing the first batch of my own apples

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

In the past I’ve mostly mixed up all my apples to press, but there were so many in 2025 that varietal pressings became viable. This is the first batch, of Blenheim Orange.

After the Blenheim Orange I had some Ashmeads Kernel.

Very much looking forward to tasting them both.

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Field fire!

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

Everything became so incredibly dry this Summer. Our grass had gone way beyond crispy. And then one day I noticed this out of the window.

I believe the farmer was harvesting the straw from this field and presumably something caused a spark that started the unbaled straw on the ground burning, at which point it spread frighteningly fast. Quite possibly the entire field was gone in about thirty minutes and the hedges had started to burn as well.

A friend’s house is less than one hundred metres from the rightmost plume of smoke. Fortunately the fire was brought under control before it could get any closer.

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Wasp invasion!

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

For the second time in three years, wasps invaded around the edge of one of our Velux windows. They’re getting in through the gaps in the aluminium flashing where it fits around the slates in this photo. In fact you can probably see some of them. They then have a nest just above the window.

Unfortunately they’re then digging their way through into the room.

Not sure what the correct fix is for this. I assume that ideally those gaps shouldn’t exist. I may try cutting some slate shims, smearing them with something very sticky and pushing them up into the gaps.

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Speidel fruit mill bearing replacement

Posted on January 13, 2026 by james

I was delivered a Speidel fruit mill, already heavily disassembled, beacuse it had stopped working. I assume the person who had opened it up thought there might be an electrical fault. I wasn’t 100% convinced though, and the fact that there was absolutely no rotational play in the cutters backed that up, I felt. It seemed much more likely that it had seized to me and there really aren’t that many ways such a simple device can seized, so I started taking the rest of it apart to see what was what.

I split the motor in two and removed the rotor to make life easier. This is actually the bearing from the bottom end of the motor, but sitting on the the top face of the motor housing. There’s a bit of corrosion on the top edge of the bearing there, but nothing that looks terminal.

Aside from the filth, this, the top end bearing, looks somewhat more concerning. And in fact I couldn’t spin the inner part of the race at all. It was stuck solid. Clearly at least one part of the problem. Replacement was clearly going to be necessary so I needed to remove that too.

This is the other side. The circlip needs removing to release the bearing at which point it can just be tapped out from the top.

And here it is. Ick.

According to the stamp on the body the mill appeared to be about fifteen years old, so as well as replacing both of the bearings (good practice in any case), I bought new seals too. The old ones were quite hard and probably contributed to the bearing failure by allowing apple juice to leak through.

The items I bought in the end were:

  • 25x42x7mm Nitrile Rubber Single Lip Rotary Shaft Oil Seal with Garter Spring R21 / SC
  • VA25 NITRILE Rubber V-Ring For Shafts 24-27mm (pair)
  • Codex 62052RS Rubber Sealed Deep Groove Ball Bearing 25x52x15mm (2 off)

I think they came from Simply Bearings, but other bearing vendors are available. With postage it came to about £30, perhaps £35. Far cheaper than paying almost £900 for a new mill.

I cleaned parts up as I reassembled the motor, put the motor back into the mill body (which is pig-awkward and resulted in me leaving some skin behind) and reassembled the blade carrier and blades. A quick check that the motor now spun freely and we were good to go so I plugged it in for a final test before it went back out on hire.

If I have to do this again, I’ll document the entire process including photos. Since it was half-disassembled when it came to me I didn’t feel that it would be that useful this time around.

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Speidel apple press bladder replacement

Posted on January 12, 2026 by james

Oh no!

Fortunately it is possible to buy replacement bladders. Unfortunately, removing the old bladder can be something of a pain. It would appear that from the factory, the pipework for the hose connections and pressure release valve is put together with some very heavy duty sealer/threadlock, I assume so that the pipework can be fitted with all the joins at the correct angle and will then stay there without leaking.

I discovered however that by removing all the fittings at the top end of the mill so the bladder is free to come off, just loosening the nut holding the pipework to the press base (which is not threadlocked) gives sufficient play to allow the bottom end of the bladder to be released at which point the entire thing can be removed.

Fitting the new bladder is the reverse of disassembly as they say in all the good manuals. And the proof of the pudding is in the testing.

And if you’d like proof that you really don’t want even such a small leak in the bladder allowing the water inside to escape into your apple juice, look at the inside of the old one.

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