Trees Down

The tree surgeons arrived with six guys shortly after 8am this morning.  By 9:30am the trees were down, three of them had left to go to another job and the remaining three were struggling to get their grinder working.  The videos show the trees coming down.

They made light work of our precariously angled holly, and the silver birch didn't take much longer.  This second video is taken from the community garden. 

 

We would rather not take the trees down, but both of them are responsible for damaging the fence and we have to keep the fence in good repair - mainly to keep Brody from exploring places he shouldn't.  At least the wood will get used.  The trunk and larger logs have been left for the community garden people to make into benches.

Make every drop count / Fence Progress

A while ago now the representative from the Essex and Suffolk Water campaign "Make Every Drop Count" visited us.  As a result various freebies were dispensed.  However our savings are minimal.  Our taps are not suitable for inserts, our cisterns are already dual flush, our shower head is already as efficient as it can be, and our water pressure is s low at times that showers are impossible.  Its the 'freebies' I really wanted to address.
A little bag of granules that absorb water was added to each cistern. One of these immediately disabled the short flush capability and had to be removed.  The other is still in place.  The short flush in that cistern had never been enabled, and did not work when tried.  A replacement rose for the end of the hose was provided.  It was poorly made and frequently detaches from the hose, it is also partly broken - a real waste of money by the campaign. However the plumber did tighten up the tape so that it no longer leaks.
Eventually a water butt was provided, and was soon installed.  It filled up in the first heavy rain the next night, and today I completed putting the down pipe bracket back.

That took a long time for two related reasons.  My power drill is battery operated, I listened to a number of people before I bought it about 4 years ago, who all said that battery drills are not under powered - it is.  It also has a keyless chuck, or to put it another way, it is impossible to keep the bit locked in the drill when it is used in hammer mode.  So drilling in brick means constantly stopping to re-lock the chuck and then stopping for the day to recharge the battery.  Only one of the two batteries now charges.  I use it very rarely, so to have a battery fail so quickly was disappointing.

The first of the fence panels is now replaced. On Saturday I used a saw that I inherited from my father to cut the fence panel from the standard 6 feet to around 4' 6", and Jo helped me slot it between the posts.  The panel is the right way round, according to my dad who insisted that the outside was the side that looked best.  This makes sense, because if the panel has to be moved I need to be able to hold the rails.

Tree Damage

We have been in our house about a quarter of a century.  For most of that time, we have encouraged the trees near the boundaries to grow. We like trees around the edge of the garden.  However, it is not a huge garden, reasonable by Billericay standards but not really large enough to support mature trees.

A couple of years back we had to remove a silver birch - a tree that Andrew had planted, that was leaning at a precarious angle.

There is also a silver birch at the back of the garden, with an oak tree close by.  I'm hoping the oak can stay.

My foot gives a sense of scale and helps to show just how far the concrete gravel boards have been 'bent' by the birch.  The piece of fence was originally bought to confine Brody, but was never used.  It is a good temporary barrier to keep him from exploring a new garden.

The holly tree is at an alarming angle, but does not point in the direction of the shed.  If it fell, the worst victim would be next door's fence, which is already supported on a cut gravel board that allows its roots to pass under the fence.  I'm unsure whether the tree on the right is part of the one tree or separate.  If it is separate, the roots must be completely mingled.

These pictures record the before situation.  More when the trees are down.  In that time I will work out how to replace them too, I hope.

Fencing

As my rapier wit will not allow me to get to the cut and thrust of the issue until I have parried away all these useless puns, I'll just have to get to the point.  We have been trying to put up a fence.  Yesterday I had a day off work.  Andy and Mike were also off work.  We started shortly before 10am in the end.  The next few hours were spent cutting back trees and preparing the line.  It has to be quite a high fence but the drop to the base is already 18 inches or so (~0.5m) below the level of the garden because that's where the level for the drainage ditch is.  It is very muddy.  We have the line cleared and the holes were dug for the four posts.  There is not a great drop from one end to the other but there are a couple of mature trees to pass.  There are also many less mature trees that mark the existing border.  One of the holes (only one) immediately filled with water, it was second from the top of the run of four.  We put the posts in the holes and packed them down with hardcore and stones.  Then we put a cement cover on.  It was unlikely to work, but what else is there to do?
This morning we found that the cement is still soft, so work for the day is over.  We moved the tree cuttings on to the garden to block access to the property. 

The reason for all this work at the wrong time of year: The boys want to get a dog.  The garden must be secured.  Project Dog is now on hold pending some dryer weather.

By late afternoon we had finished work for the day, so had some time free.  I visited the recycling centre with some old CRT computer screens (all working) but nobody wants them - you really cannot give them away. 
Then we went to look for fencing for another part of the garden.  It seems that you can't buy fencing this time of year!

This morning I was feeling stiff from the previous days exertions.  Surprisingly though it was my left shoulder that was painful - not my right.