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you can get one that is exactly the right size fro the hole
or you can get one that has various diameters
Jacqui, you just have to make sure the tightening nut is done up really securely on the second one
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Great to hear your story. Was very close to having a narrow boat built a few years ago, chose the boat and builder and was about to place my order. Even found a mooring 2 minutes from my house. Panicked a bit and in the end decided against it. Might come back around that wy one day though.
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Nov. 13
*God I love living on a boat. *
:)
That feeling for it will only ever increase with time.
Pretty sweet that you can use shore power whilst at the yard, will your mooring have power/water? My main gripe had always been power generation, I.e.having to run martin engine our agennie to power anything more than a phone charger. Being in a marina/residential mooring with power would be great though.
I'm currently working with a company on a wind turbine that has no blades! Which gets aground many peoples issues with them (noise, visual impact, planning, danger to animals and kids etc), will be a while before its available but could be good :)
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Nov 15
Dining El fresco.
After three weeks on the boat and being at the mercy of the Tesco Express and a rather sorry excuse for a Chinese; I have done a rash thing. Last night I cooked a proper meal.
*Erm, sort of proper. *Mushroom risotto courtesy of the decidedly mediocre Uncle Ben. The choice to use his meal as the base was one of economics. I am still without engine and i am down to one calor gas bottle. The 20 minutes it would take to make proper rice was weighed up against unknown quantity of gas and the inability to acquire more until I reach Springfield.
I added my own onions and my own mushrooms. **The result was passable. ** Little did i know i was not the only one enjoying fine dining via my own skills last night.
It seems Duckie has found and exploited a rather unique opportunity. Several boats have come in and gone out of the dry dock since our arrival here. This is done similar to the way a lock operates, meaning the dock is temporarily filled with water from the river then pumped out once the boat is in.
**Water is not the only thing that comes in when this happens. **
Upon my arrival to the dock this a.m. the owner of the currently docked boat, who works for Greenpeace, informed me that Duckie was caught supplementing his diet with a rather large crayfish.
She, was mortified. All i could think to do was smile and pat the little dude sitting at my feet. It's a very cat like thing to do. Way to go duckie! Shortly followed by the thought – man, I hope it doesn’t make his farts stink! -
@coppithat. thanks for that babe!
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Awesome.
I heart Duckie.
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hahaha, greenpeace woman needs head looked at, in cat eating fish shock horror!
You should see a dog catching and trying to eat mice/slugs/insects/spiders (they just dissect them)/seaguls (never caught one yet!) and anything else slow enough for an ageing pair of doggies to jump upon (oh field mice too!).
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About
A float on Miracle - 20ft narrowboat
Posted by
@Jacqui
Nov. 13
*God I love living on a boat. *
That was my first thought this morning as I stepped out into the sun to drink my first coffee. The sky is clear today and for the first time in about a week the seats outside are dry. Its’ a beautiful day.
I finished preparing my speaker cases on Wednesday, they’re ready for oiling and then mounting back on my new doors. I don’t have the oil though so its going to have to wait. I’m not short of things to do though, I still have locks to drill and screw in and my light fixtures need changing.
I’ve been avoiding changing my lights because the new ones are circular. I’m not the most naturally gifted crafts person and the thought of cutting six holes in the wooden interior roof of Miracle was something I was dreading.
Simply put, I don’t want to fuck it up.
Circles are complicated things and the chance of me getting it wrong and the boat looking shitty because of my own lack of skill has hobbled my enthusiasm. What if the saw slipped. What if I cut them too big? Possibilities of making a mess seem endless. I’m on the mains here at the dock so its not too pressing; that, and I am scared.
It wasn’t until last night when talking to my friend John that he informed me that a hole saw existed. Immediately I presume he’s teasing me like people do when they send the rookie out for the “paper stretcher” or the “left handed screwdriver.”
How do you think I cut the circles for the music trailer? he asked laughingly.
I thought about it, unable to picture what said device would look like. Yes. It exists he chided. I’m looking at mine right now. What if my fittings are too small for the circle? There are adjustable ones. He sounds so reassuring, like I need him to be. Right. Tomorrow I am going to go in and ask Paddy to use his hole saw.
**He better not laugh at me. **
My other task of the day is to spilt the Ash logs that Leonard left for me. I got very excited about the prospect of owning an axe. I want a Viking axe.. but its huge and impractical.Then I was informed that what I really want is a hatchet. So, I excitedly tell Paddy my hatchet plan. He says nothing. He smiles. What you want to use is my log splitter.
Leonard has told me Paddy has the tools for splitting up my Ash, so when Paddy turns away and comes back with a huge iron bar I know I am about to learn how to use a log splitter. It’s a big iron spear with another long iron tube surrounding it. Paddy grabs a piece of scrap wood about a foot wide and 3 inches thick. He places the wood upright and then puts the spear head on the top side, he slides the tube up the shaft of the spear and when its eyelevel he releases it. The spear end is driven into the wood about 2inches in that single effortless movement.
Nothing to it.
He takes a hall of the rollie dangling from his lower lip. He’s repeating the movement with one hand as he smokes with the other, within a minute the once impressive off cut is in 2 and then in 4. With big logs it may take you 20 goes. He tilts his head to avoid his own smoke.* But, it will do it and its not much effort. *
Do you want to do it now?
No. Tomorrow maybe. Tonight I have to go to town. He shrugs and puts the log splitter to the side.
That was Friday. Today, I am indeed splitting logs.