Sunday 12th February, 2012

Frozen in at Barby Wood

Not being able to move at the moment due to being frozen in - thawing today but freezing again tonight - we are still here at Barby Wood. We were approaching the bottom of the water tank so I started the daily run fetching 75 litres of water down from our house in Barby. I guess I may need to do the same with some diesel next week as I doubt we will be seeing Ian and Ali on Gosty Hill for a while yet.

Still, I have not been idly wasting my time here, having now almost completed the partial refit I am doing on Draco. I ripped up all the laminate flooring throughout and replaced four of the sub floorboards, as they were showing signs of being the worse for wear. They have been down for 13 years and did get rather wet for a week or three back in 2007 when the pre-water pump filter leaked when we were not on board for a while (I was on Janna at Windsor and Krystyna was here and there....) and also, looking at the boards themselves, I don't think they were either Marine Ply or WBP, so not surprising they had started to suffer!

I removed the previous wardrobes and cupboard units from the bow end of the saloon, utilising the large hammer method and have now laid a new laminate floor throughout. I removed the old double-divan set from our bedroom and built in a new bed frame, so that we can more easily utilise the space underneath for storage. I built up new cupboard units - flat pack from Ikea, they look more professional that I can make (I'm no wood butcher) and we now have only to decide on the final layout of them. The large double-unit
is in place with the DVD player and stereo in pride-of-place on it, the flat-screen TV mounted on the cabin sides. We just have the single drawer-unit and the four smaller cabinets to site and I'm done! Good job because I have a new project on the horizon - that's aside from the one to build a tilt and rotate unit to mount the solar panels on! and the hands-free hoist up system for the wind generator, although my Brother-in-Law is manufacturing the main part of that..

Part of our new mooring spot

The new project? ... we have been cc'ers for 5 years now, having been moored at the Engine Arm, Napton for many years before that, but I have just concluded a successful negotiation with a local farmer here at Barby. As soon as we can move again we shall potter round the corner and through bridge 79 to the offside, where we have 200 ft mooring and use of about 1/2 an acre of land adjacent. I am not sure yet if initially we will be able to get Draco alongside the bank due to the depth, or possible lack of it, but we are certain to be able to get Success in and may have to breast up for a while until I sort things out.

Another view - lots of work to be done!

Lots of work to be done clearing some vegetation from the bank-side and also around the plot of land - looks like I need to do a service of our chainsaw and power-strimmer.

Ensure you close the gate!

Talking of bridge 79, this is an accomodation bridge which carries a bridle path across it. The land either side of the bridge now belongs to two separate farms, so there are gates either side of the bridge. The one on the towpath side never fails to amuse me as you may see in the picture - don't forget to close the gate behind you :->

A busy spot
the birds seem to be queueing up....

A Chaffich on floor cleaning duty

Finally, our bird feeder stand is doing great service at the moment, we regularly have lots of visitors, including in the main: Great Tits, Blue Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Robins (3 of them usually contesting the others' territorial rights), Blackbirds, Mistle Thrushes, Sparrows, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches - we spend long whiles just watching them, beautiful.