No dig diary, 9th May 2021

Posted on May 10, 2021 by james

Today I sowed climbing beans (Cobra and Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco) and runner beans (Czar), the first to eat fresh and the latter two to pod and use over the winter.

I also emptied out three of the pots containing courgette seeds that hadn’t germinated and of the six seed in them, five showed no signs of life at all whilst the sixth felt as though it had rotted inside. Not a great success this year. Fortunately I think we’ll still have enough plants to provide us with courgettes for the summer.

I was hoping to get far more done than I did. Other than sowing beans, I planted out the rest of the loofah gourds, cucumbers and the aubergines, some in the polytunnel and some in the greenhouse. I also went on a bindweed hunt and removed three or four shoots that I found in the polytunnel. I did nothing significant outside though. That was mostly because this afternoon it has been quite windy and rainy and no fun being out in it at all. Instead I drew up a map of the plot so I can plan where to put everything — I’ve delayed so many plants for so long because of the weather that the situation is starting to become a little overwhelming and I need a clear idea of what I need to do, otherwise I stand in the greenhouse door, see the carpet of green covering the staging and my brain melts 🙁 I need to cut it all down into manageable pieces.

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The 3D printer is dead! Long live the 3D printer!

Posted on May 8, 2021 by james

My first 3D printer, the Geeetech aluminium copy of the Prusa i3, died this week. I’ve been printing out some parts for my beehives and it began randomly stopping in the middle of prints, and then it wouldn’t heat the bed or print head properly. I suspect the controller board has failed. I can probably fix it, though I suspect what I’ll actually do is some serious upgrade work as the bed doesn’t maintain its level for very long, the bearings are a little ropey, it could do with a fan on the print head and so on.

So until I can do that I decided to buy a new printer, and in the end splashed the cash on an Ender 3 v2, which arrived yesterday.

First impressions are that it’s pretty well made, quite solid and well thought out, except for the assembly and setup instructions which are, well, below average. Fortunately there appear to be quite a few videos on the interwebs that cover all that stuff.

One thing I will change is the springs under the bed. The supplied ones don’t look particularly reliable. I’ve ordered some replacements that are rectangular in section with flat ends. I’ve also read that replacing the connectors at each end of the Bowden feed tube is a good idea so as I have suitable replacement parts lying around I might well do that at the same time.

Bed levelling was a bit of a slog to get right, but having used the scrap of paper between the bed and print head I switched to a test print with a single layer circle in each corner and the centre of the bed to allow me to judge when it was correct. That seemed to work much better. I’m now repeating the last print I did on the old printer so I can compare the finished articles.

The printer itself is very quiet compared with the old one in terms of motor noise, but the fan(s) make up for much of that — it’s still a long way from genuinely quiet. It’s sitting on my desk next to me at the moment and it certainly won’t be staying there.

As long as this first print turns out ok though, I will consider it a worthwhile upgrade.

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Swimming, 7th May 2021

Posted on May 7, 2021 by james

It was Tattoo City, Arizona when I got in the pool today. I felt decidedly “under-inked” (ie not at all). Probably triathlon or IronMan competitors. I know what they’re like 😀

My set of 20 x 50m reps was the best yet. I started with a 43s rep, then put in plenty of 44s and the occasional 43, only dropping into the 45s twice, and one of those was when I had to swim behind someone for half a length. Very happy with that. I did struggle to make it into the 18s with the 25m reps afterwards though, and only managed a couple. My entire body had just run out of go by that point.

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I suspect a “brushing” scam

Posted on May 7, 2021 by james

Someone I know (not me, honest) received this item in the post today. No return address or indication of the sender or vendor.

I suspect it might be connected with a “brushing” scam, in which case other than the usual checks of account hacks and suchlike there’s probably little we can do.

I am however intrigued as to what it actually is. The round end has a splined socket with a keyway and looks of a broadly similar size to a class 1 tractor PTO, so I might try it for fit tomorrow, though I’d not trust such a low quality piece of cast aluminium to drive anything off a PTO (a PTO-driven fan, perhaps?).

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There’s coriander, and then there’s coriander

Posted on May 6, 2021 by james

The photo below is from the polytunnel, where I planted eight coriander plants from early sowings, four either side of some dill. All of these plants were sown in the same module tray and transplanted at the same time, but those on the left (seed for an unnamed variety from Dobies) seem to have a total disinterest in producing leaf and are heading straight to seed, whilst those on the right (a variety called “Cruiser”, from some random supplier on ebay, I think) are bushing out nicely. I think it’s obvious where I won’t be buying my coriander seed again…

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No dig diary, 6th May 2021

Posted on May 6, 2021 by james

Whilst I was out swimming this afternoon, a delivery arrived that was schedule for this morning.

Six more tonnes of green waste compost, now just about covered by an 8m x 5m tarpaulin. Most of it will probably sit there conditioning for the next five or six months, to be available when I top up the beds with compost towards the end of the autumn. I’m expecting that it will last more than a year though, unless I start creating more beds.

I also thought I should check out how the newly-planted tomatoes were doing as the temperature did (just) get below freezing last night. They’re all looking ok though. I hope that’s the last time I need to concern myself with frosts this side of next winter.

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Swimming, 6th May 2021

Posted on May 6, 2021 by james

Despite reducing my interval time to 85 seconds on Monday, today was really my first session that I could do properly and it went ok. I completed all twenty 50m reps, though it was getting tough towards the end. I think that might actually be due to not getting enough calories on board at breakfast and then struggling to recover the situation in time after lunch. After a few minutes rest I attempted some 25m reps, but couldn’t manage as many below 19s as I did earlier in the week. That might be for the same reason. However, I did have three reps on 19.00, 19.01 and 19.06, so I wasn’t far out. I think 0.06 seconds is probably about the length of a finger.

Back tomorrow for another go.

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Swimming, 4th May 2021

Posted on May 5, 2021 by james

I thought two of us were going to have the lane to ourselves today, but a couple of other swimmers arrived slightly late and I lost track of where I was whilst we were shuffling ourselves about. The dream continues however: despite the reduction in interval to 85 seconds I only had one 50m rep over 46 seconds today and that was when I badly fluffed a turn. Most of the rest were forty-five point something, with several 44s, a 43, and on one rep only I was back in less than 43 seconds! After a few minutes rest and a gentle paddle keeping out of everyone’s way, I managed all but two of my 25m reps in under nineteen seconds. I tried really hard on the last to keep it to the one, but I really was running on empty by that point and I just couldn’t keep the pace up.

Day off tomorrow, then I shall be back for another go on Thursday.

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Swimming, 3rd May 2021

Posted on May 5, 2021 by james

I don’t usually do bank holiday swimming sessions, but given the more formal arrangements for lanes etc. at the moment I thought I’d give it a go today. There were only two of us using the fast lane at the start of the session, so we took a lane line each and everything was going (ahem) swimmingly. Then four boys in their late teens arrived with someone who was presumably the dad of at least one. They all decided to use the fast lane too. Admittedly the boys were relatively quick, though rarely over more than a single length. Unfortunately much of the time they just hung around at the ends getting in the way, had poor lane discipline, stopped swimming halfway down the lane, swam two abreast and generally caused chaos. The dad probably shouldn’t have been in the fast lane at all. Doubly so when he decided to swim breaststroke 🙁

I slogged it out to the end, but I’m not really sure I actually gained much benefit from it. I certainly can’t count it as a successful completion of the set because I had so many delays that I really couldn’t do it properly. Such is life. I shall return tomorrow and have a proper go.

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No dig diary, 2nd May 2021

Posted on May 2, 2021 by james

The tomatoes and calendula appear to have survived happily enough in the polytunnel over the last week or more, so I decided today to finish planting the rest out (I only did half the bed last time, “just in case”). These were all dibbed in, the tomatoes having a string looped under the root ball to support them once they get taller. I now have six plants each of Orange Paruche, Apero, Floridity, Olivade and Costoluto di Fiorentino planted out, plus a couple of plants my wife bought (a yellow-fruited variety and a striped variety) for a total of thirty-two plants. I have a few spare plants, so I’ve potted those on and will keep them in the greenhouse to replace any failures.

Whilst I was working in the polytunnel I also removed the last of the chervil and ruby chard that we harvested for salad leaves over the winter, as the plants are all flowering or trying to flower now. I put in some stakes to support the peppers once they’re planted out as well, though I still have more of those to do.

In the new “no dig” greenhouse I planted out all of the melons that have been in the other greenhouse for the last ten days. I’m sure they can survive in there if they’ve been happy enough as they are, and they’re reaching the point of needing the space for their roots. They are a mixture of Ogen and Emir varieties. I hope we’ll get some decent fruit, though I suspect they’ve been held back quite a bit by the weather, too. There’s still a bit of space in this greenhouse and I think it will probably be taken up by aubergines, but I’m not sure yet.

If the forecast can be trusted (probably not, given the lack of accuracy over the last month), things should start to warm up a bit after mid-week. I hope at that point I can seriously get into planting out the many other plants that are waiting to go into the outdoor vegetable plot.

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