I can't see a thing ...

... right now in my room. There's a gusting wind blowing up outside and it's in just the right direction to blow right down my chimney so every couple of minutes a load of smoke is blown back down the fire and out of the air vent into the room. I'm being done up like a kipper just now.

But I was right about the weather - it's rained for most of the day. And it is indeed nice to see the rail pouring off the new roof on the lean-to and everything inside being bone-dry for a change. I can't believe my luck with the weather for that 10-day spell when I decided to go for broke and do the roof. It's not like me at all.

So I did some sawing of the wood this morning, but a downside of this is that I'm now running out of room to store it. I suppose that I shall have to make a larger woodpile, or a taller one or something. I could even dig the trench that I need to dig at the side of the house by the "other" lean-to, drop the drainage pipe in there that needs to go in there and connect it into the drainage system, fill the trench with gravel, cover it over with a weed blanket and then build the real woodshed where it is supposed to go, but that's not the work of half an hour.

After the woodcutting (which I managed to do without any interruption for a change) I did some more tidying up, starting in the lean-to. First job was to rescue the remaining Hawker deep-discharge batteries and charge them up. And here I've hit a problem, in that the battery box I made for the other batteries is too small - the Hawkers are taller. This is a problem. But anyway once they were out of the way I tidied up in the lean-to, collected all of the stray solar panels and stacked them in a corner, and then hung up the smaller gardening tools so that I'm not tripping over them.


Having moved a couple of solar panels out of the barn I could then get in there and make some space to put the old Rutland wind turbine tidily out of the way. This led to the discovery of a circular saw, not the 600-watt one that I can't find at all, but the old 1050-watt one that was all rusted solid having been left in a container that filled with water through a leak in the barn roof when I was ill and which had subsequently been partly-dismantled for spares. Of course, now that I have a 1200-watt inverter all things are possible. I gave the saw a good spray with WD40 and reassembled it with some other bits and pieces and much to my surprise it fired up! Even more surprising was that the inverter didn't even bat an eyelid. The saw needs some "attention to detail" before I can use it to cut wood, but this is definitely progress.

This afternoon, with the weather deteriorating, I restarted work in the bedroom - the first time for God knows how long. I've fitted the false beam at the side wall - the beam that hides all of the electrical cable - and I've also packed out one of the plasterboard panels that didn't quite mate with the others. It was then that I lost the light and so I spent the last hour tidying up in the barn again. And all of this time i've spent tidying up, and I really can't see any difference at all.

This evening by way of an experiment, I brought a kettle of water up here and put it on top of the woodstove. And after about 2.5 hours it was gloriously warm and I had a lovely hot wash and shave in front of the fire. Definitely the highlight of the week, that, and I can't think why I hadn't done that before.

Next step is the coffee pot on the stove, and put the produce in a thermos ready for the following morning. I ought to be much-better organised than I am.