Kicking off the workshop/brewery and a nano-project

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.