He who dies with the most toys....

Railway dogs

For some people it's coins, for others it's frequent flyer points or compliments. I even know a retired minister who collects railway dogs. But for me, it's always been tools. 

In contrast to my Dad, who considered that every tool he owned was a hammer, I'm on a quest to find the right hammer for the job.

So it was with much fanfare that I recently welcomed three new tools to the fold.

Air powered riveter

There are approximately 2,000 rivets in the ceiling of our house – all installed by me, by hand with a lowly Bunnings hand rivet gun. By the end of each day it was a two handed job to pop rivet. Imagine my surprise when a friend mentioned to me recently that he had an air powered rivet gun. I hadn't known such things existed!  Suffice to say that within days of that conversation I bought one.

Conclusion: I wish I'd had one 2,000 rivets ago.

A box and pan brake

So, I was in the market for some weatherproof covers for my water pumps. At around $160 each I wondered if there was a DIY option that didn't look like a recycled compost bin. And yes there is, if you have a box and pan brake.

There's a 3 minute demo of one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4RWkf7eo1g&t=9s

Conclusion: It's brilliant (and no, you can't borrow it).

Clekos

Wikipedia puts it best:

"A cleco, also spelled generically cleko, is a temporary fastener developed by the Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company. Widely used in the manufacture and repair of aluminum-skinned aircraft, it is used to temporarily fasten sheets of material together, or to hold parts such as stiffeners, frames etc together, before they are permanently joined. Clecos are installed in holes predrilled through the workpieces (usually holes intended for permanent fasteners installed later). They expand on the far side of the workpieces and then draw and clamp them together while maintaining the desired alignment and preventing distortion of the pieces."

There's a 1 minute demo here if you're keen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYpEfo_OSKI

Conclusion: You can never have too many clekos.

How to make it rain

The pipeline runs to the (broken) windmill
in the distance.

I feel somewhat responsible for breaking the dry spell in the Bega Valley.  A week after I finished the weir project it rained - the first measurable fall we've had for months.  And just to prove the point, we've had a little bit more every week since.  Not that we're complaining - the rain is wonderful and already the paddocks are getting a green tinge.

Let me tell you about the pump.  It does an impressive job, pushing around 200 litres of water per minute over a distance of 250 metres and an elevation of 20 metres.  If you ever need to move a lot of water you'd be hard pressed to beat this thing - it's a fire fighting unit consisting of a 5.5hp 4 stroke Honda motor attached to a twin impeller Davey pump. Ours is around 15 years old but they still make the same combo.  You can read more about Davey pumps here if you're that way inclined.

I have to admit though, that after all the work the weir looks pretty unspectacular (photo below).  But it has delivered! We pumped around 10,000 litres out on the first day and the water level didn't drop at all. What a gift.  

Kind of unimpressive really.

The Weir

One of the selling points when we purchased Pemberley in 2005 was access to water.  Despite the drought our little creek still flows, albeit underground in some places, and the small weir remains full.  In fact, last century it was the water supply for the farm's dairy and house.  The creek doesn't appear have to a name on the maps, but flows into Wattle Camp Creek just past our boundary.  Maybe we should name it?

In the 1960s the owners laid 250 meters of galvanised pipe from the weir to the house tank. According to a previous resident it was a revolution not to have to carry the water up the hill in buckets. (It is a very steep hill.)

It has always been our plan to reboot the pipeline and the drought has spurred us on to do it before summer.  A couple of weeks ago we optimistically shoved a hose down the pipeline at the top - hoping it would trickle through, unobstructed, to the bottom.  It backed up after a few minutes.  We then dug up the weir end of the system to find meters of clogged and rusted pipe.

So, we had two options.  Dig up and repair the old pipe or lay a new one.  We chose the latter.  After ripping the route with the Fergie (built in 1948) we cleared the trench by hand (approximately 23 cubic meters of dirt).  The plan is to lay a 40mm PVC pipe and get another 60 years out of it.

The last 45 meters

The target is yonder windmill (near the trees)

The potting shed has windows

The transformation of the 5,000 gallon water tank into a potting shed continues. First we moved it (see the post here). 

Then we cut holes in it!

The latest development has been the lead light windows. (Don't all potting sheds have lead light windows?)  It was an interesting exercise making and installing windows into curved walls which varied between 100 mm to 150 mm thick.  But, job done.

The next challenge is to make a door.  I might need to mull that over a bit before I get started though.  

Pickets

After a couple visitors recently missed our entrance we thought we'd best make it stand out more. The make-over included moving the gate 3 meters further into our property, giving us more room to get off the road when opening the gate - especially handy when dragging the trailer around.  We also upgraded to a wider, 14 foot gate and galvanised posts.

Front entrance

There's still some fine tuning needed to smooth out a couple of humps and the old fence posts are yet to be removed... but it's nearly finished.  After the front gate went so well we figured we were on a roll so we did the eastern house gate as well.

I kept track of the time involved (and I now know why no-one else around here has a white picket fence.)

Hours below exclude installing the posts and swinging the gates:

• Front entrance
• number of pickets - 110
• paint pickets - 28 hrs
• install pickets -  17 hrs
• install rails - 7 hrs
• paint rails - 5 hrs
• sand pickets - 5 hrs
• shape tops - 3 hrs 
• average = 59 minutes/picket
• House gate
• number of pickets - 60
• paint pickets - 9 hrs
• install pickets - 9 hrs
• install rails - 2 hrs
• paint rails - 2 hrs
• sand pickets - 2 hrs
• shape tops - 1 hrs
• average = 42 minutes/picket

Two things I discovered:

1. Things always take longer than I think they will. (I did already know that.)
2. I do get quicker as I go. (Thankfully.)

Rolex and the eastern gate

The phone's home

I picked up our 1950s telephone box from a friend of Mum's last century for the princely some of $20. After repairs it become somewhat of a local landmark on the front lawn of our Canberra home.  But we couldn't leave it behind, it was destined to be part of the Pemberley landscape. 

I don't know how much a phone box weighs, but the glass is 1/4 inch thick and much of the timber is hardwood.  The roof is galvanised sheet tin and the ceiling is 1/2 inch thick lining boards.  But despite the kilos, getting it on and off the truck was simply a case of manpower.

However, repairing it required a bit more effort.


Looking a bit sad after the long trip and a couple of decades between makeovers.

I repaired and repainted as much as I could before we stood it up.
(Somehow a red phone box doesn't look right in white.)

The bottom of the door and walls needed new timber and reglazing.

Friends, family and the 1948 Fergie all helped to stand it back up.

Rolex is very happy with the final result.