Self-isolation Activities

[Nigel Kirby]

16 hours ago, Bryan said:

 

I know of them thanks Andy, but the wood is free issue at the allotment site, and preparing it gives me something to do! However it's maybe something to raise with the committee.

 

Pressure treated fence posts when treated, will last more than 20 years, which holds true for pine and spruce, while cedar may last up to 40 years.

[Robert M Estall]

hmmm. My 4 inch pressure treated posts were further treated with modern creosote alternative and planted in medium crushed stone rammed down until the whole structure felt firm. Every couple of years I would go along giving the base of the fence a little extra stone and tamping. Bottoms of the posts rotted out variously between 10 and 12 years. About half have been propped up with concrete spurs and I mean to do most of the rest this year. The posts above ground are fine, even the gravel boards are just about OK. But they are supposed to rot and be replaced. Maybe I have super virulent microbes in my soil! Plenty of time to consider and perfect my assault on the problem. But the builders yards are closed so it may have to be a bodged job. I do have some timber might sort out a few gravel boards

Edited April 8, 2020 by Robert M Estall

[Mr Standfast]

I've been searching for errudite and poetic quotes to counter the discrimination against ugly municipal concrete fence posts.  Nothing, I've got nothing...😉

Edited April 8, 2020 by Mr Standfast

[Harry Harrison]

13 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said:

ugly municipal concrete fence posts

Actually I can look across the road right now at a very nice long close-boarded fence that's been there about 4 years. You wouldn't know they were concrete posts, they've weathered in nicely.

[Shergar]

When the outside temperature rises
And the meaning is oh so clear
One thousand and one yellow daffodils
Begin to dance in front of you - oh dear
Are they trying to tell you something?
You're missing that one final screw
You're simply not in the pink my dear
To be honest you haven't got a clue
I'm going slightly mad
I'm going slightly mad
It finally happened - happened
It finally happened - ooh oh
It finally happened - I'm slightly mad
Oh dear!
I'm one card short of a full deck
I'm not quite the shilling
One wave short of a shipwreck
I'm not at my usual top billing
I'm coming down with a fever
I'm really out to sea
This kettle is boiling over
I think I'm a banana tree
Oh dear, I'm going slightly mad
I'm going slightly mad
It finally happened, happened
It finally happened uh huh
It finally happened I'm slightly mad - oh dear!
I'm knitting with only one needle
Unravelling fast its true
I'm driving only three wheels these days
But my dear how about you?
I'm going slightly mad
I'm going slightly mad
It finally happened
It finally happened oh yes
It finally happened
I'm slightly mad!
Just very slightly mad!
And there you have it!

[Johnnie5]

A fence post technique they use around here is to put concrete around the wooden post slightly above ground level then shape the concrete with a slight crown so that water runs away from the post.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/garden-structures/fences/how-to-set-fence-posts-that-won-t-rot/

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Johnnie5 said:

A fence post technique they use around here is to put concrete around the wooden post slightly above ground level then shape the concrete with a slight crown so that water runs away from the post.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/garden-structures/fences/how-to-set-fence-posts-that-won-t-rot/

 

That's best practice using concrete, but for many purposes concrete isn't necessary, and when the post does eventually rot, the concrete is a pain to remove.

 

Re treated wood, we use that on the allotment site, but there is no guarantee that the process has been carried out properly, and by the time that you find out that it hasn't, it's too late to do anything about it!  I guess the thing to do is to buy from a reputable supplier, even it means paying a bit more.

[Ed Rooney]

I spent a lot of time today carefully trimming my beard. Stange behavior, since I'm the only person who sees me except at a supermarket check-out where I'm wearing a mask.

 

[Dyn Llun]

52 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

I spent a lot of time today carefully trimming my beard. Stange behavior, since I'm the only person who sees me except at a supermarket check-out where I'm wearing a mask.

 

I ended up with a beard more than over 45 years ago as a result of my work then as an advertising and fashion photographer working is a studio in Cardiff. In addition I also used to do some part time modelling - ok, don't laugh. Anyway, a job came in from one of the advertising agencies to shoot an ad. for a merchant shipping line. It was a recruitment advert for merchant seamen officers. The caption was 'Join the such and such shipping line and see the world'. The humorous picture was to be an officer in slightly tattered uniform, sitting on a log on a desert island putting a message in a bottle. The agency creative director said "you do the modelling Pete so don't shave for a few days". The job got put off and put off so I ended up with a beard. It's been there ever since.

 

Pete Davis

https://www.pete-davis-photography.com/

http://peteslandscape.blogspot.com/

https://www.instagram.com/petedavisphoto/

[Robert M Estall]

Trimmed most of my hair this morning as all the barbers are closed. The top bit isn't worth the bother but the bits 'round the back and sides are thick and flourishing. No comments yet, but as you say, who's looking?

Edited April 8, 2020 by Robert M Estall

[Allan Bell]

14 minutes ago, Robert M Estall said:

Trimmed most of my hair this morning as all the barbers are closed. The top bit isn't worth the bother but the bits 'round the back and sides are thick and flourishing. No comments yet, but as you say, who's looking?

 

Just going to let mine grow and when it becomes too long brush it back and wait till the barbers open and ask them how much they will pay me for my hair for making wigs.

 

Allan

 

[Thyrsis]

3 hours ago, Shergar said:

When the outside temperature rises
And the meaning is oh so clear
One thousand and one yellow daffodils
Begin to dance in front of you - oh dear........
 

 

Haha, thought we had a poet among us until I googled the words! 

Very apt though.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Thyrsis

[Ed Rooney]

I had my hair cut down to the skin just before the shutdowns. I hope it doesn't get '60s-long before this situation ends. If I had a dog or  a cat, we could have long meaningful conversations. I tried talking to the Herring gulls that settle on the building marquee out my window. They were oblivious and rude. I'm doing a lot of hand laundry and getting pretty good at it. I use Dr. Beckmann's Non-bio Travel Wash. I could use a dartboard in here. Or maybe a pool table. If this goes on long enough, I might become the next Hurricane Higgins. 

[Phil Crean]

3 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 Or maybe a pool table. If this goes on long enough, I might become the next Hurricane Higgins. 

Or Rocket Rooney😁

 

Phil

[Robert M Estall]

shot a fair bit of pool in my time but prefer a big snooker table. my favourite was a 3/4 size which was still pretty big. Back in Ontario, the winters were long and the village lads out in the scruffy rural villages had little else to do but go down to the pool hall,  we called it the pool hall but they played snooker on full sized tables. They got seriously good at it! Cliff Thornton came from there, there were a couple of other international players came from there back in the day. They drank beer, these days they drink designer water. Probably play a better game I guess.

[Ed Rooney]

 

There were pool halls in Brooklyn, as there are pool halls here. In the '80s in Oxfordshire I played Bar Billiards. Now, as you see above, it's Virtual Pool. But that's not much fun because players can't use effective English. We (I) scratch all the time. Grrrrrrr. 

[John Mitchell]

 

I've taken to composing really bad limericks:

 

There was an Alamy photographer from Surrey

who grabbed his camera and flew out in a hurry.

When told to socially distance,

he put up no end of resistance.

And now he's stuck at home eating cold curry.

 

P.S. I love curry dishes, but not when they're cold.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by John Mitchell

[Mr Standfast]

I'm going to pull a photobook off the shelf, blow the dust off and have a good read, one a day.

 

Today it's Bert Hardy's Britain. Text by colin wilkinson, on the Bluecoat Press, 2013.

 

Stay safe.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Mr Standfast
typo

[Allan Bell]

18 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

I had my hair cut down to the skin just before the shutdowns. I hope it doesn't get '60s-long before this situation ends. If I had a dog or  a cat, we could have long meaningful conversations. I tried talking to the Herring gulls that settle on the building marquee out my window. They were oblivious and rude. I'm doing a lot of hand laundry and getting pretty good at it. I use Dr. Beckmann's Non-bio Travel Wash. I could use a dartboard in here. Or maybe a pool table. If this goes on long enough, I might become the next Hurricane Higgins. 

 

You can have good meaningful conversations with a teddy bear. I'm doing it all the time now.

 

Allan

 

[John Morrison]

39 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

You can have good meaningful conversations with a teddy bear. I'm doing it all the time now.

 

Allan

 

 

But is the bear talking back?

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, John Morrison said:

 

But is the bear talking back?

 

Yes.

 

Allan

 

[Bill Kuta]

23 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

I spent a lot of time today carefully trimming my beard. Stange behavior, since I'm the only person who sees me except at a supermarket check-out where I'm wearing a mask.

 

 

I can remember realizing one day about 25 years ago, when I had had my beard for about 15 years already, that I didn't mentally picture myself with a beard. Do now, though.

[Shergar]

Mrs Shergar says. "As far as self isolation games are concerned in the future she must receive any rule changes in writing and 24hrs prior to the game starting" !!!!!!

[Bill Kuta]

Saw in another source today:

 

They should put more wine in a bottle, so that there's enough for two.

 

I've never been able to clean out my house because I didn't have the time. This week I discovered that's not the reason.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Bill Kuta

[John Mitchell]

3 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Yes.

 

Allan

 

 

Uh-oh!