Last Saturday I got up bright and early to collect a compressor from our friend, Sace, and get started with a small sandblasting pistol I bought online for €22. 3 hours, and several coffees later, I managed to prep, suit up and make a start.
My experience with the big blaster we used elsewhere in the house was excellent, but full protection is an absolute must, so it was back to doing Breaking Bad impressions again.
The thing about htis blaster is that it's relatively low pressure, and more geared towards precise work, like taking paint of bits of furniture, or rust removal. It's not quite cut out for cleaning clay and plaster off large stone wall surface. But, I persevered, and got three of the four walls done. Here's a before and after shot.
Believe it or not, there is a difference! Look down the bottom right for the biggest differences! Anyway, it's ok, and we can move on to repointing these parts soon.
I had to stop working on the workshop a week ago, due to a problem with my back, but with a little help from a friend, and a little more work myself yesterday evening, the old feeding troughs are completely removed. Must be several tonnes of material!
First, the nano-project. We've a stream running by the house, partially culverted, but it's really shallow. When there's melt-water, it's a raging torrent, but in summer, it reduces a lot. But there are these metal rails on the side, just before it goes underground, for sliding in boards to act as a small dam. I thought it'd be nice to deepen the water just a little, for the benefit of the local wildlife, in particular the ducks who had nested upstream a bit.
The rails
I had a few heavy boards (turns out they're oak) from the old cow stalls, so cut one to length (exactly 2 metres), slid it down the rails and, and hey presto, job was done.
Before
After
It's not perfectly sealed, but it slowed the flow down enough to back up the water a bit, and after an hour, was 10 cm deeper.
An hour later
The next morning, it was a full 20cm deep, although given the slope, it only goes back 5 metres or so. So lets see if it makes any difference. We've a nice little biotope alongside the stream, with the remains of a large pear tree stacked up alongside the cow stall wall. It's home to all sorts of burrowing bees and wasps, slow worms, and, my favourite, a little green lizard.
At least hauling water from the stream is easier now!
And to the mini-project, which is not mini at all, I started hacking out the feeding troughs in the cow stall on Tuesday, after work, and did 2 or 3 hours each evening, and a couple more on Saturday. In fairness, it's going a bit quicker than I expected, but it's quite well built, so not a quick job. Here's a quick vid taken on Sunday.
Tomorrow, we'll get a container to load the rubble into, and once that's done, I may take part of the floor up. Very tempted to take it all up, so I can get a floor with a gentler gradient and proper drains, but let's see.
