Dorset Holiday

 Beau 1st look around the grounds

 Looking down the field to the sea

 Looking across another field

 Evening sun setting

 Sun starting to go down in the distance Beer

 Where we stayed

 Beau having a mooch

Chesil Beach on a glorious Saturday

June 19th I have been meaning to write this blog for over a month but since we have been back home have knuckled down to finishing off the stone wall pointing on nice neighbours side, sealed the bay windows & porch roofs twice with bitumen & painted the cast iron pots, also dug up around a very large clump of thug grasses & replanted the area so when I came in I felt to tired to sit & write about the holiday.
We had a wonderful holiday at the being of May on a 600 acre organic farm at Tamarisk Farm which has been totally organic for 45 years. If you know us personally you would know that we have been 98% organic eaters since the 1980s we also garden organically.
We can honestly say after being married for 39 years this is the best holiday we have ever had we have never been abroad & always holiday in the UK. The location for this holiday is West Bexington very popular with the sea fishermen & ladies wanting to do beach casting.
Our accommodation was set in a 2 acre field no neighbours so peaceful & 400 yards from Chesil beach the sunsets were stunning but that is another posting with photos. Had underfloor heating, wood burner if required a wet room for showers & the views were breath taking.
Beau also loved the location he did chase a couple of rabbits & also pheasants but they were to quick for him so he gave that up & settled into a mooch around the field, the morning walks was always very enjoyable & came back along the South West coast path which runs along the side of the beach.
Booking for the accommodation is Friday to Friday so as we were already down in Dorset we wanted to visit Bridport it was buzzing with tourists & the Saturday vintage/antique street market is always enjoyable & on every week weather permitting there is also a vintage/antique quarter & they sell everything Vintage  with music playing with a busker, people were dancing in the street it really was a wonderful experience full of joy & happiness we even saw a bride & groom come out of the church into the old Rolls Royce which was waiting for them people in the street were cheering & the weather was perfect nice & sunny with a slight breeze. We all really did not want to leave Dorset in fact we booked a extra day but we could have stay there all year it was idyllic. Please click on the links you will visit some nice websites.  

Ham Radio Mast

 Base bracket fitted

Pole up vertical

 Solar light spinner fitted

Diamond 2000 down!

Wednesday 3rd April Been a wonderful sunny day & after a doggie walk dug over a raised bed ready for  seed planting also put in two bags of fresh top soil.

Then it was over to the Ham Radio vertical winch assisted steel pole & get the aluminium pole down with Cobweb & Diamond 2000 attached to it. Now that sounds a easy job!

Last week I realised the bottom bracket was facing the wrong way because if I brought down the ali pole the aerials would be in the swimming pond! the metal brackets are from the builders merchant with modifications by me! once that was done the next problem I found was the bottom of steel pole was hitting the vertical  4"x4" wooden post anyway run out of energy yesterday so started on it again today.

First job was hacksaw about 2 inches of steel pole & ground the edges then took it over to post attached the steel pole & got it vertical then came the difficult job of attaching the ali pole with aerials to it! anyway after about an hour poles were down & Cobweb & Diamond 2000 disconnected.

My next job will be attaching another steel pole to the existing pole with scaffold clamps to give me more height & refit all the aerials also change the locations of the guy ropes.

Now I have fitted the winch I will be happy winching the aerials into the air without struggling & using manual physical effort.

Good Friday Walk

 Halsdon Nature Reserve

 River Torridge

 Blue water 

 Looking back up the river

 The old Victorian corn mill

 Looking over River Torridge to Bideford

 Bideford Old Bridge

Looking down river to Torridge bridge

Friday 29th March it has been a busy week in North Devon well at this house for me it has! after having critical updates from Microsoft & finding out computer was a struggle to reboot & after many searches on Google decided to do a factory reset only to find out that it was coincidence that the switch on the computer also went faulty! so it was a week spending hours reloading software & having to load new drivers even though the software was for Win7 my HP printer took six attempts to get it on the computer! Then I thought I had lost hours of electronic ham radio contact logging but in the end found a ADIF file so was able to load some of it! I decided only to put on confirmed QSL cards rather than re-type in my log books. 

In the week went to PC World & purchased a Seagate Terabyte portable hard drive for £59 do not want to lose all the software again! On the way back home stopped off in Bideford & had to take some photos off the quay.

Yesterday with the sun & little less wind chill planted the asparagus bed dug up Jerusalem artichokes a brilliant over winter veg dug out another thug grass & planted a clematis & few small plants. With the time I had left got my brand new welder out & welded the bracket to steel scaffold pole which the winch will attach to not the best welding in the world some one say looked like mouse droppings & that was said on many occasions when I worked for a fire engine company but it is amazing what a angle grinder can do lol. Then came in sat at the computer & started to put my QSL cards into the electronic log book great to see that I had achieved Worked All States award now got to input them all to see if on multiple bands.

Today is Easter Good Friday & was seduced by the sunny start & thought it would be a coastal path doggie walk but due to the wind chill went for the first time to The Devon Wildlife Trust at Dolton & the Halsdon Nature Reserve & we were not disappointed.

The wildlife trust is in it's 50th year of protecting wildlife. It does circle Charlie Watts house the famous Rolling Stones drummer with his excellent security at least 10 noisy dogs in his grounds but they are doing a great job! The sun was out all the time we were in the nature reserve & protected from the wind chill spoke to a lovely couple who gave us the history to the area with the Victorian Corn Mill & the paths were old carriage paths where the Lord of the manor would show off his grounds, you can see some more wonderful photos at Halsdon Reserve

Then is was back home to get the washing in all dried out in the fresh air love the smell of fresh dried washing. Tonight for evening meal is fish was always told from a young age it is unlucky not to eat fish on Good Friday as it was Jesus day & yes we are superstitious & Christians. 

Cobweb Ham Radio Posting

 Starting the balun box

 Box drilled & 2BA bolts fitted

 Side view with SO239 socket fitted

 Balun fitted

 Box fitted to pole 

Wire up with 14.25mm car multi stranded cable

 It's up in the air at 20ft

 Close up

Rusted up Duplexer for 2m/70cms

Saturday 16th March Because this is a Ham Radio posting I should have written in the callsigns of the hams who inspired me into building the cobweb aerial.

G3TPW G3TXQ G6PJE & M0PZT just Google callsigns to see their excellent website.

Without their informative very well written with photos & where to go for parts this project would have never taken off so a big THANK YOU to those hams for sharing the knowledge in the true style of Ham Radio spirit. 

Friday 15th March For sometime I have been looking at the Cobweb aerial & due to it's size only 8ft square thought would make a good multi band aerial which covers 14.18.21.24.28 MHz have read some hams using it on 6m also read good results about it. After sourcing the details from the internet a ordered was placed with Aerial Parts Colchester http://aerial-parts.co.uk/ brilliant company & very helpful purchased all the aluminium parts for £35 delivered to the door. I did go with one design using plastic conduit but looking at it now it was a mistake should have gone with my gut instinct & purchased fibre glass hollow poles off eBay I am not happy as it looks like the eagle has landed lol. Before I erected the aerial I took down the 2m/70cms beams & Diamond 2000 vertical which covers 2m/70cm & 6m I was not happy with signal reports on 2m/70cms beams found out that the Duplexer had rusted up inside & outside! so now going to run separate cable to the beams & closer to the house. The co-ax is £1.70 a metre so due to the co-ax being less than 8 months old I recovered it & rotator cable from the under ground pipe saving myself £100.

Thursday 14th I attached the 6ft fibre glass pole to aluminium  pole & attached the Diamond 2000 then attached the Cobweb wow it was hard work lifting all that on your own! anyway once in place got it all fixed but who forgot to put on the guy wires! thankfully I had attached the 3 hook guy wire attachment! I also ran out of time to fix & solder the co-ax plugs.

Woke today after a sleepless night worrying about the 20ft aluminium pole swaying around in the wind I decided had to do some thing. Yesterday morning after doggie walk purchased 30 metres of strong nylon cord & it is amazing what you can do with a step ladder & fishing rod by 10.15am this morning all guys were fitted so Cobweb is at 20ft & Diamond 2000 at 26ft & fully guyed. Was going to put on the co-ax plugs but it started to pour down & the junction box is in the open on side of greenhouse.

Still had not taken doggie for a walk so drove down to Watergate car park on the Tarka Trail & when I arrived sat in the car park was a very wet stray doggie thankfully he came to the car & I was able to put a lead on him 3rd dog saved in the last 2 months! 1 hour later & 2 farms visited he was re-homed so feeling pleased with myself but Beau had still not had his walk & got soaked further going on a walk. Came home had lunch & helped with the house work I do all the heavy stuff when Ros does the dusting.

RHS Rosemoor Open Day Part 2

RHS Rosemoor Open Day