Paw Shaking. 13th June

Bonfire Night Mooring

Prowling in the grass

A touch blowy this morning, but I coped well with it. They had their Zoom meeting with all the Geraghtys so I left them too it, bobbing in to say hello to the youngest members as I try to each Saturday morning. No Sheffield or Bangladesh today.

Topics today included Lupins and the new bubble guidance for those who live on their own. This is a great relief for Kath and Sean who will now be able to see each other properly, better than the socially distanced walks in the woods they’ve had for the last few months. It was good to see everyone and hear that Marion is now back out enjoying walking along Beachy Head.

Off goes the paperboy

Mick then set off on his puncture proof bike to ride down to Winsford for a newspaper, some milk and bread. The undulating towpath wasn’t so good so he walked to the third bridge where a footpath heads off to join the roads. He returned with everything he’d gone for from a small corner shop. At one set of traffic lights he found it quite liberating looking at glass on the road and knowing he’d not have to avoid it.

The Bonfire night mooring with grass half way up the boat

The blowyness came and went. A few boats did too. One boat had difficulty keeping to the centre of the outside, the outside wanted it to tie up. The man in control wasn’t! Even I know that if he didn’t want to tie this outside up then he would need a bit more umph, even whilst passing Oleanna! But he didn’t. Tom said ‘I don’t think he touched us’. I said, ‘He bloomin well did!’ I stood on the towpath and shook my paw at him! A quick check along the freshly painted gunnel!!! Some feline expletives now accompanied my raised paw. She did say that having been through a couple of locks that the scrapes might not all be from the boat this morning, I think she’s being very nice when she should be seething!

Oy! You! She’s only just painted that!!!!

The boat carried on being attracted to the bank as he scraped his way along towards Middlewich. Wonder if he’s any paint left on his gunnel?

A touch too late in the day to do big jobs on the boat, but one thing has been on the list for years. The front doors.

Patchy and worn

A few months after picking Oleanna up the front doors stopped looking quite so good. The finish looked a touch patchy, not helped by the lack of a cratch cover for a while. I think the new wood had been varnished, but maybe the second coat hadn’t been applied quite as well as it should have been. So with assistance from the elements the varnish wore in places.

One sanded, one cleaned down

I’ve been meaning to do this job for a couple of years and have had a pot of Woodskin for as long.

An inherited tin of Woodskin

After the door furniture was removed they had a sanding down. They had a good wash and hinges and keeps masked off.

Then a first coat of Woodskin. Maybe I should have sanded them a touch more before hand as I can still see where the original coats had worn off. But hopefully with another couple of coats these areas will fade in with the rest.

Looking better already

After one coat though I can definitely see the difference. Just before bed I put a thin layer of washing up liquid on the surfaces that would touch and loosely attached the door handle so that it could be closed again, keeping Tilly in.

The old and new fans

Mick in the mean time took the fan from our composting toilet out. A couple of years ago we replaced the original fan with a silent fan. This now has started to make a noise, I’m very aware of noises when trying to get to sleep, so it’s noise may not be a problem to many people. We’d bought two fans so had a spare to replace it with. Job done.

Dad
Sonny

Tilly took some persuading to return this evening only getting slightly distracted by the swans showing off their babies. Once we were all fed the skies turned darker and darker, a long low rumble filled the air. Tonight we had natures firework display, forked lighting chasing across the heavy clouds. We put the TV on pause for a while so we could watch the display. The rain that accompanied it made me glad I’d not varnished any more exterior woodwork.

The wonderful light just before the storm broke

Tilly didn’t bat an eye lid, or shake a paw at the thunder or lightning. She was sound asleep.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 paper boy, 8 zoom participants, 2 doors sanded, 1 tin opened, 1st coat applied, 1 pooh dust covered fan, 1 clean new fan, 1 scraping boat, 1 inspection required, 1 tub of paint at the ready, 3/4 hour rumbles and flashes, 1 pooped cat.

4 thoughts on “Paw Shaking. 13th June

    1. pipandmick Post author

      Hi Steve, washing up liquid creates a barrier between touch dry gloss paint, so the surfaces can’t stick together. It doesn’t affect the paint or varnish and can be washed off before the next coat goes on or when you have finished. A very handy tip when painting doors or windows. I suspect it wouldn’t work on water based products though.
      Pip

  1. Dave (Scouts)

    Hi Pip. Thanks for the tip, the only washing up one i know of is to coat the outside of the billies before putting them on the fire at scouts.

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