grendel

Replacing black plastic clips with nice shiny brass ones

Pleased to see the battery charging at 6am this morning in real world conditions.

Well I am back, arrived quite late due to a lorry fire on the m2. So the tale will start in the morning

Water Rail pre dates electric razors, so I dont believe she has one (will check this evening when I get to the boat), should I replace the shaving mug just in case? (not that I ever use one).

I think I would need at least 2 ten berths to fit my workshop into.

but to fail to keep something unavailable means they keep it available- double negative

so they are keeping it available?

funny, i had considered that

early start as the boot fair was on and i hadnt had a chance to get there for several weeks , ended up buying a cast iron drill vice (good solid thing) two weller soldering stations for £3 each (later found to be selling on ebay for £85 each) these are professional ones with temperature controlled tips, both worked. Today was the first good cycling day in about a week, so off i toddled, I had decided to cycle sme of the pilgrims way (north downs way) big mistake, though its advertised as a cycle way after about a mile there was a 1/2 mile section of nettle hell, so bad i stopped and pushed the bike, (pushing it with the bike actually in the nettles to knock them down somewhat, I still got stung on both legs, even the pedestrians were proceeding gingerly. eventually I got through that found a dock leaf and administered temporary respite. then the path was muddy with the back wheel slipping every direction and making progress tricky. up into the woods and I find a pedestrian gate (apparently cyclists were supposed to lift their bikes over this obstacle, as bike tracks carried on, I had a think and lifted the fence post that had wire fencing attached, unlooped a wire loop from the gatepost and moved it out of the way. then proceeded. Just after this I was asked by a woman had I seen a teenage downs syndrome girl on my route apparently she had wandered off, I responded I hadnt, but would keep my eyes open, about a mile further on I encountered two more people looking for her. AFter wending my way further through the muddy woodland path, I got to the road, here there was a locked gate and a stile, very cycle friendly when you have a 70kg bike- not. I eventually fought my way through a holly bush and round the end of the fence and had a choice of routes- back toward canterbury I thought. This was when I found the Girl, just walking along the road, asking if it was the correct way for chartham. I indicated it was and wondered how I would let those searching for her know. That was answered a mile later when I passed one group of the searchers I had passed earlier, I let them know she was about a mile ahead and turned back to stop her and reunite them. once I caught up with her again I let her know the people who were looking for her were on their way and waited until they came into sight, good deed done for the day, after that it was a case of heading home and putting some cream on the nettle stings. Not a route I will be trying again soon, maybe next time I will start where I left off, certainly some of those footpaths need someone to head along them with a strimmer and mow down the nettles.

got some 0.8mm brass sheet today, so started making a few spare cable clips.

does that mean you actually hit him?

technically, you dont park at a petrol station- you stop to fill up, so do you just stop to fill up with water? I would argue that you just stopped, you tied up temporarily (much as you would apply the hand brake at a petrol station), and then you went and moored up.

Water rail has the bulkhead behind the lever carved out to allow an extra half inch travel for both forward and reverse .

so thats 7'10 1/2" from the cill on the village side to the bottom of the bridge and 8'3" from the cill on the other side, the village side cill is 2" further out of the water than the other side so when just the other side cill is submerged there is 8' 1/2" on the village side, hence my statement if both cills are above the water there is at least 8 foot (possibly more but I wont commit to that) certainly in the middle of the span there will be a couple of extra inches, but you will lose those on the village side

Ok so here is my sketch if you want the numbers

at ludham there is 8 ft in the middle if the water is at the same level as the cills either side (I went and measured it), there is an inch or so difference between sides with the village side being the slightly lower.

actually just measured it, and the closest points are 425m from white slea to deep dyke, and with deep dyke 185m long theres plenty of available spots at the far end of deep dyke if you had been at white slea

so hopping from deep go dyke, deep dyke and white slea would fall under that, though parts of deep dyke and deep go dyke might exceed that limit

those 50W panels I linked to even running on a cheap PWM charge controller, do manage to have enough output voltage to start charging at 5.30 on a grey wet morning, I would expect 10% of full output (or less) under those conditions, so maybe 5W, they also state they have diodes to help prevent the issue with shade and shadows.

the low energy supermarket 100W flexible monocrystaline panels are 1200 x 540mm and around £100 each (https://lowenergysupermarket.com/product/flexible-100w-white-solar-panel-only/) so you could work out how many would fit your area for an approximation. (other brands and sizes are available- eg this 130W panel sized 960x640-https://uk.eco-worthy.com/products/130w-12v-flexible-mono-solar-panel?currency=GBP&variant=40700112994453&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqLau89a_gAMVD4dQBh20RwdZEAYYAiABEgIew_D_BwE I see renology do a 175W panel sized 670x960 (currently out of stock) but the different options are there

as you are headed to Margate, just after you leave the thanet way on the road to margate (a28 canterbury road) there will be some trees of yellow bullace (otherwise known as shepherds bullace) on your left (where there is a tractor path paralleling the road) in the past I have picked buckets full of them for liqueur making (vodka rum or brandy) even resorting to climbing on the roof of the car to reach the higher branches.

just checked my home install and at 5.30am on a wet miserable day (10 minutes after nominal sunrise) the panels are up and running, I dont expect them to be pushing more than a couple of watts into the battery this early (remember the 50W will be at full sunshine at midday).

As some may have noticed I recently fitted a solar panel to Water Rail, it came as a kit and is only a 50W flexible monocrystaline panel https://lowenergysupermarket.com/product/flexible-50w-white-solar-panel-kit-1/ this was less than £70 for the kit (other sizes are available). and was installed to the engine battery just to top it up and keep it fully charged I went with this size purely on the basis that the size was perfect for the space on Water Rails front roof with the screen down. I chose monocrystaline because they are better at charging in bad weather (I have a similar panel at home and regularly see it charging at 5am as soon as its daylight and even before the sun rises, so it even charges on overcast days). I would want larger capacity panels should I expect them to be able to keep the domestic bank topped up from usages such as the fridge and lights

well its been a busy day, what with work, and a delivery, then a cycle ride to pick up a prescription that turned into 10.3 miles, then back home to finish assembling my delivery, a 90 litre capacity cycle trailer rated at 80 kg, its now put together, I do have to go get some spanners to tighten the nuts, and figure how to attach it to the bike, pump the tyres then find somewhere handy but out of the way to store it, this means I can now do my weekly shopping by bike, saving having to use the car. it also gives me the opportunity to bypass the local tips booking system (that needs your registration number to book in, I can now just put a couple of bags in the trailer and off down the tip to get rid of them, getting to be a necessity nowadays with the bin men striking, meaning unimportant rubbish such as recycling isnt being collected.

the answer to all 3 of those conditions could be summed up with 1 word- Shock.