Roselea

Author: Stephen

  • Conder to the rescue

    As we blogged earlier the extension tube would not fit the top of the sewage processor. I rung the manufacturers (Conder) who said they would get back to me soon. A short while later I had a call from the General Manager of Conder! We discussed the problem and I gave him the measurements of the collar on the tank. He asked if we would try a fix of cutting a few slots into the base of the extension tube to try and get it to bend enough to fit, but said if this didn’t work they would make a custom extension tube.

    We cut 6 slots and tried to fit the tube – no luck. Tried with more and more cuts but to no avail. So I rung the GM back and he agreed that they will make a custom extension tube and send it to us A.S.A.P.

  • Started and stopped concreting the tank.

    Started mixing concrete and pouring round the base of the tank but we were stoppped by the mixer breaking down. Took it apart and found the motor start capacitor has blown up.The capacitor with the electrolite boiled out the side.

    Ordered a replacement so hopefully will restart the concreting tomorrow.

  • BCO inspected the sewage processor in its hole.

    Dave the BCO came and approved the sewage processor in situ.

  • Its Raining – Oh good …

    After a month without daytime rain we can finally burn the pile of hedging pulled up on the 7th of June! In fact the rain stopped just long enough for us to have a lovely bonfire. It will also lay the dust for a day or two.

  • First 6 days of Leach field construction

    We have been busy for the last week… On Friday we set out the trench lines for the leach field.

    Day 1 – Saturday

    Marked out and dug the first trench next to the hedge.

    Day 1 - A neat trench
    Day 1 – A neat trench

    Day 2 – Sunday

    Made a dispenser for the Geo-textile. Then started the cross trenches so we could lay the geotextile in the first trench and partially refill. The problem was the corners started to collapse into the first trench.

    Day 2 - Trench After the corner fell in
    Day 2 – After the corner fell in

    Dug out the collapsed stuff and tried the geotextile. There wasn’t enough intact walls to support the geotextile !

    Day 2 – After we tried the Geotextile

    Day 3 – Monday

    So we decided we would just dig the whole thing out! Then line with geotextile and refill in layers while compacting it down. Most of the hole dug out today.

    Day 3 - A Big Hole
    Day 3 – A Big Hole

    Day 3 - Pile of Dirt
    Day 3 – Pile of Dirt
    Day 3 - Pile of Sand
    Day 3 – Pile of Sand

    Day 4 – Tuesday

    Finished the hole and started to dig a ramp to allow machines access to the pit. Greased to digger.

    Day 5 – Wednesday

    Finished the ramp and drove the digger to the bottom! (A bit scary) Leveled the bottom and compacted

    Day 5 - Completed Hole
    Day 5 – Completed Hole
    Day 5 - The ramp
    Day 5 – The ramp

    then fixed geotextile over the whole of the hole.

    Day 5 - Geotextile lining completed
    Day 5 – Geotextile lining completed

    Started to put the sand back.

    Day 5 - End of day - some sand back in hole
    Day 5 – End of day

    Day 6 – Thursday

    Spent all day filling in the sand in thin layers and compacting as we went. Had a scare at 17:27 (see the time lapse)…

    Day 6 - End of Day - most of the sand in
    Day 6 – End of Day

    Yes the dumper rolled off on its own and Shaun was down there… Luckily I noticed it starting to move and shouted “SHAUN – GET OUT OF THE WAY” and he ran to the corner. It actually stopped as soon as it reached the bottom of the hole and wouldn’t have hit Shaun but …

  • Clear the end of the Loke.

    The last 10m of the loke has been used as dumping ground for soil, rubble and junk for many years. A few years ago our neighbor cleared a section  by hand filling a couple of skips. As our proposed driveway exits near this rubbish heap it needed to be cleared. So I used the digger and dumper to remove most of the stuff and add it to the spoil heap at the top of the site.

    The rubbish heap.
    and After

    another view of the cleared loke

  • Set up temporary fencing

    Now the hedge is gone we needed a barrier against accidents by passers by. So we pounded in a set of posts and topped them with a rail. The red and white poles show the positions of the water and electricity supplies.

    The Temporary fence

  • Ripped out most of the Hedge along the loke.

    We used the digger to pull out most of the Hedge from the Old Garage to the Front path along Smiths Loke. This will give us better access to the site and allow the re-routing of the utilities. The hedging is now sitting in a giant pile waiting to be burnt…

    The Loke a year ago
    The loke a year ago.
    Hedge Gone Now
    With the Hedge & Garage gone

  • Removed concrete garage base

    Removed the concrete base of the old garage. Started by using demolition hammer then decided to try using the mini digger.

    The mini digger wouldn’t start! The battery had gone flat over winter. Tried to jump start it with some leads we had laying around and had no joy! Went a borrowed some proper sized leads from the Garage round the corner and got it going.. But the alarm went crazy! and would not shut off. Eventually we had to shut down and disconnect the battery. When we restarted normal-lacy was restored.

    With the digger we could lift up slabs and break them with a sledge hammer. After removing two of the three sections we had to stop so we could pack for our holiday.

    On the Saturday after our holiday I removed the last section by my self.
    We have set up a Webcam so we can have time-lapse videos of the work and here is the first recording…

    Removing Slab Pt 1

    And the Saturday Recording …

  • Approval on Boundarys and Levels

    We received an email from the Planning officer to say that we have approval over the addition info we sent at the end of April. So No further planning issues are outstanding.