Outdoor Work.

Started the outdoor job's this week,
Continuing on from last summers job of removing render, I started  removing the render from the upper half of th house, this is no easy task as it has been up there for a very long time. Judicious use of the lump hammer and an assortment of cold chisels removes most of it, then it's down to an air hammer fitted with a with chisel. The other day when I started it was bitterly cold with persistent showers, today was completely different , a clear sky  and when the sun came round my side of the house it was decidedly hot, being a bit on the short side puts you at a disadvantage when the wall is ten feet tall, so borrowed a set of tower scaffolding from a neighbour.

 
 These jobs play havoc with your hands especially when you keep whacking them with the lump hammer. 

more Images

The Stone images come from the numerous old buildings  left after the population decreased and farms and crofts were bought up but the buildings were no longer needed, on Orkney it is cheaper to build new than to renovate, although most are beyond salvation.

 

Sandwick, South Ronaldsay.

 

 

Eastside.

 

 

Images, Iron ,Wood & Stone

Sorting through files on the hard drive the other day I realised that most of the pictures I take spend their life hidden away never being shared with others, so today I decided to post a few and share them with you . One of the subjects I like photographing apart from the wildlife is what I call Wood & Iron, Orkney has an abundance of old cast iron winches, made in Victorian times and used to haul out the small open fishing boats, most are just left to rust away, On the mainland they would have been carted off for scrap years ago.

                                            Old Winch at Eastside , South Ronaldsay

                                                 

                                                          Sandwick , South Ronaldsay

 

 

 

The Wood images come from the old fishing boats left to rot on the foreshore and other objects scattered around the islands, although these are less frequent as most wood is used for firewood owing to the lack of trees on Orkney. 

 

Old Fishing Boats, Sandwick, South Ronaldsay

 

 

Old Cart Wheel, St Margaret's Hope.

 

Old Mahogany Chest

Jill returned last week from a three week trip down to Bristol to see family, While she was away we had four days of gale-force winds with sleet and hail, Down at Stromness at the wave energy site they recorded a wave height of just over twenty six feet which is a near record. Over the last few months Jill has been looking on the web for an old wooden trunk to put all her sewing bits and pieces in, unfortunately for her they are far too expensive with a price range of £200-£800+ ,so with her away I decided to have a go. So a few words with Billy my friendly neighbour ,Billy collects wood for his fire, everyone around here drops off wood for him, old furniture ,old beams, pallets anything that will burn, so a quick look around his storage shed produced a few old mahogany top’s off sideboards and cabinets . well after three weeks in a freezing shed I produced a storage trunk, it was meant to look old so only the old varnish & wax was removed leaving the old colour and staining. The handles and hinges were to bright so two days in the log burner reduced them to really old looking metalwork, the chest was treated with sanding sealer & five coats of wax polish applied with wire wool. As you can see from the pictures below it looks old with plenty of dents and cracks, all of which were in the original wood, I was pleased with the finished chest and Jill was impressed with my work.

 

Small project

 

A small project that I completed was the restoration of a small stool that had been lingering in mum's shed for many years, first the old Seagrass seat was removed and then all the black paint was cleaned back to reveal the origional wood, this was waxed and polished before a new seat was woven in Seagrass ,and all for under £20 ,not bad.

Summer Jobs.

First new post for some time, Have been hard at work on various projects over the last few months.
After building the boat I had some work on the house to catch up with, I started off with a paint job on the front of the house, it had never been painted before, hard work painting rough render it took a few weeks to finish including the windows and door. The next project was the kitchen extension which over the years had seen the render patched up and Finlay painted white,not by me, what a mess.
The render took about four weeks to remove with club hammer and bolster, I tried a Kango but the under lying stone is sandstone and was to easily damaged with power tools. After removal of the render all holes were filled with cement and then a red sand mortar mix was used for pointing, Finlay a porch was added and windows and door painted, new gutter & down pipes will be added next year when I finish the the top half of the house.The last job of the year was to shorten the height of the tree at the end of the garden which has grown to tall and was excluding sunlight from the garden.

Removal of the render revealed a nice sandstone wall

 

 

Concrete window sill and lintel were rendered with a mortar mix with added pigment.

 

 

 

The end result ,just needs new guttering and a carriage lamp on the wall.

 

 

All you need is a good sabre saw , plenty of warm clothing and a head for heights.

 

 

 

 

Kid's Holiday

Went down south for three day on the 20th to see family and bring back the grandchildren for two week's.
On the 21st & 22nd went out birdwatching with Damien, we went to Chew Valley on Saturday & to Slimbridge Wildfowl trust on Sunday, Great time weather was sunny with light breeze, better than the constant rain over the last few month's.
The flight to Inverness & on to Kirkwall was uneventful but  the further north we went the greyer the weather.
Over the next few day's we managed to get the boat in the water ,the  first trip I took Alanta & Mitchell round the bay and then returned for Jill , the next day I took Mitchell out fishing for three hours ( no fish) while Jill & Alanta went into town shopping. The weather changed for the next few days with rain and a strong South westerly breeze, today it is still light showers but warm so will try to take them out on the boat this evening at high tide,.