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Little Old Man Weekly

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Little Old Man Weekly

In the year 2021

25 February 2021 Acoustic isolation.

Acousticly isolated.

The Little Old Man is getting even more little old manish if such a thing were possible. He has quite a few options for generating 240 volt mains on board, there is the main 1 kilowatt inverter in the stern locker which needs a trip outside and a delve under the covers to switch on. There is the dedicated 350 watt inverter for the water heater that can be undedicated. There used to be a little 150 watt plug into cigar lighter socket inverter which failed after 30 minutes of running the laptop [65 watt] and there is also his ancient plug in 300 watt square wave generator inverter which rattles and bangs and vibrates and is likely to drive the poor little old man mad when it first starts up. [It quietens down a bit after a while when it has had a chance to blow all the spiders out of its innards] This latter can be seen in the pic above sitting on a foam sponge to isolate it accoustically from the resonant kitchen worktop.

The foam sponge. Saved from a [short] life of mopping out the oily bilge.

13 February 2021 Daffodil defense.

A barricade of small sticks.

The other day CRT contractors came along the towpath with hedge and grass cutters and I felt that my hedgerow daffodils were in peril. So little old man that I am have protected them with a barricade of small sticks which at least may make a satisfactory graunching noise if they are attacked by the mower.

As I did it, I was reminded of my A-Level chemistry lessons which were taught by Tam Muir. A typical lesson [if it was inorganic chemistry] would start by him telling us to 'take out your Holmeyards' and then some exposition of the revered contents. The particular memory that was trggered was on the subject of zinc. According to Tam zinc is used to coat the steel used to make dustbins and I'm sure my notes had the immortal line that 'this enabled them to withstand the emissaries of the sanitation department' well so be it and I'm hoping my few feeble sticks will enable our daffodils to withstand the emissaries of the CRT with their great grass mower. We shall see.

Drunken winding hole sign, another casualty of the hedge cutting

What happens when they are not protected.

Daffodils are not the only fruit! Snowdrops..

11 February 2021 Coal bucket.

Coal bucket with shovel in reach of the fireside chair.

Sometime last year the Little Old Man acquired a very nice brass coal bucket from the facilities wharf. He has been very pleased with it as it holds well enough smokeless knobs for a cold day's burning and it fits perfectly on the hearth by the stove.

It had but one small defect which was that the Little Old Man found it difficult to close the lid using the coal shovel without moving from the considerable comfort of his fireside chair. No matter because after a search through his many boxes of bits and bobs that might just come in handy one day he found a small strip of steel that had been the target for a magnetic cupboard catch in its former life. A little action with hacksaw and drill soon fitted this for its new life as a catch so that the coal shovel can now close the lid without spoiling the comfort of the Little Old Man.