After a bit of head scratching, I decided to take a chance and buy a new mother board for Suse’s pc which had been knocked out by lightning last month and scarily, to fit it at home. Well, you can imagine our delight when when we switched things back on and everything worked. I should have bought a lottery ticket! So far the pc seems to be behaving itself but we still haven’t done anything about preventing similar problems in the future.
Still, things didn’t continue in the same vein and the lathe which I bought before Christmas had to be taken back to Machine Mart in Glasgow after its switch packed in. In a way, this was probably a blessing in disguise because it really was too small and not powerful enough. Its replacement is a much bigger and simpler machine and although its build quality leaves a bit to be desired, it’s much more suitable for what we have in mind for it.
So far, a variety of bowls, scoops and other bits and bobs have been produced. Preparing the “blanks” for the various pieces is a bit of a dark art; as is the use of the different tools/techniques required for the different shapes and curves which are possible. One day, I’ll be happy with the end product but until then ………
This month has seen us enter summer orienteering events in Switzerland and the Lake District. This triggered work on a rack for a bike mounted on a newly fitted van towbar. Everything made from scrounged bits and pieces to a very professional standard by the talented Mr B. It usually takes us quite a long time to gather all the necessary materials and to assemble them into the finished product but I’m delighted with the end results.
Despite the generally foul weather, we managed a bright winter’s day kayaking around the Summer Isles in Loch Sween with Ali and Oli. With their encouragement, we hope to try and get out once a month during the winter but we know that the weather will probably intervene. We’ll see. Planned trips to ECKO orienteering events, however, didn’t survive the storms, so all we managed to do was a STAG score in Dalzell Country Park, Motherwell. A good little area which we hadn’t been to before.
We did some serious baby sitting in Stonehouse for Caitlin who wasn’t too well. We seemed to cope and maybe even started to remember how to do it and most importantly Caitlin didn’t seem to suffer too much. Unfortunately, I brought a sore throat virus back with me and took sometime to shake it off. Not helped by Fynesider singing and the second meeting of the Shed Club. Things seemed to improve when I fitted an extractor fan in the shed to remove some of the inevitable fumes and dust.