Every man to his own trade

I suppose that to be p.c. I should say every person but I am from the old school! Now, my mooring is rather nice, at the bottom of mum and dads canalside cottage with all facilities on hand should I need them. There is however one big problem, or rather two of them, two large trees next to the canal and although canal frontage is over 150 feet, no matter where you position the boat, part of the boat is under a tree with all that comes with it i.e. sap, leaves, bird droppings etc. My son says no problem dad, I'll come up for the weekend and give you a hand to 'prune' the trees. The bonus from this visit is that I get to see my lovely daughter in law and even lovelier grand-daughter! Of which I have two I must add! I suppose I ought to mention at this point the lovely grandson as well - enough of all that - back to business. We started to cut bits off of the tree and then realised that it was not quite the simple task we had envisaged. Plan B came and went as did C D and E. We got as far as T and the Tamworth Herald - advert for a tree surgeon. A quick phone call - he'll come and have a look. We were expecting an exorbitant price but he quoted a price we could not refuse. When can you do we ask - now he says. All I wanted done was for the tree to be seriously pruned - I am quite happy to spend the next few days clearing up the bits. He came, he was quick, he was like a monkey swinging through the tree and within one and a half hour the paper stuff changed hands and he was gone. Now all I have left to do is cut up all the branches - come next year I will have so much wood to burn - and it is all free - well almost apart from the cost of the tree surgeon. Which brings me back to the point of this story - every person has their own forte and it is best left to let the professionals do the jobs that they do well. Now, what do I do well apart from........... I cannot think of anything at the moment!

Are BW still wasting my money?

Took a little trip out this weekend, left Hopwas with some friends, down to Fazeley Mill Marina for a pumpout and some diesel (68 pence per litre) and up to the bottom of Curdworth Locks. A nice walk round Kingsbury Water Park and then back to Fazeley for the night before coming back to Hopwas on Sunday. The temperature dropped to -7.8C and we had to do a bit of ice breaking on the way back!

Between Fazeley and Curdworth I notice several hundred yards (or metres) of bank protection works. These consisted of the rolls of coir with water plants planted therein to protect the banks. Great you would say. But, why place them on towpath banks that have been piled? Whilst I agree that steel piling is not the most aesthetically pleasing item in the universe I see no point in wasting money to protect steel piling!!! Maybe I am missing something here and would be most pleased if someone could enlighten me.

Back to the subject of cruising, it was cold and sunny, there were very few boats around - winter cruising has a lot to say for it and waking up this morning to see a heavy frost, the sun shining and ice on the cut takes some beating.

Fame at last

They say that everyone is entitled to their fifteen minutes of fame - I've just had mine - I got a mention on granny buttons log www.grannybuttons.com and got a couple of replies to my blog! It is good to share our problems with others of a similar persuasion. It has been a lovely week weatherwise, lots of boats passing by as it is half term this week for a lot of schools and the same next week for others. There have even been some hireboats and timeshare boats about but Canaltime are conspicuous by their abscence - has something happened to them? Maybe some lock closure has prevented them from reaching me. Challenger seem to be still cruising as do Shakespeare Classic and a couple of Anglo Welsh have passed by.

I managed to get away for a couple of hours the other day to cruise up to the winding hole and back, tomorrow it is out for a couple of days, down to the marina at Fazeley with some frineds out for a day trip, a pumpout and some diesel for the roomheater - what price will it be now? - a night away and then back to normal.

Granny says that to maintain a successful blog you must publish something at least once a week - I've made it just!! - I have lots to say and publish in the future so please keep logging into my blog. I may be a bit quiet on the blog next week as my daughter is coming to visit us on the boat, complete with granddaughter, grandson and dog - that will be three dogs - if you want an idea of what the dogs are like look back in Grannys blog to dogs on Guelrose.

Spring

What a lovely day it was today, almost like spring!! Cleared all the rubbish off of the roof and gave the boat a wash - looks like new again even though it is almost 19 years old. You never know, if tomorrow is the same I might even get round to cleaning the brass and taking a little cruise, just up to the winding hole and back.

Surprisingly there are a lot of boats about today, whilst I was cleaning the boat and working in the garden there must have been about a dozen boats go by, one of them was brand new, I saw it in the workshops at Harveys the other day and now it is cruising. It was called 'No Direction', hardly an appropriate name for a boat as far as I am concerned, it must be going somewhere!! As to where the rest of them were going who knows. Apparently it is half term next week for a lot of schools in the area so I will no doubt see lots of boats in the next week. Half of the enjoyment of canals is sitting and watching the boats go by.

Progress

Maintaining a blog is obviously a sharp learning curve. I have now figured out how include a link to another website in my blog. All I need to do now is work out how I can change the dates on my drafts to the dates they are actually published.

That's all for now, off to London tomorrow to see Mama Mia, it was a christmas present from the kids. Booked a hotel for the night through www.londontown.com at a great discount and got the train tickets through www.thetrainline.com - can you believe it was cheaper to buy two singles rather than a return!

Having a Stretch

Everyone knows that 57 ft 6 ins is the optimum length to cruise the Pennine canals, i.e. especially the Calder and Hebble and Huddersfield Broad. However, it can be done in a 60 footer - if you go the right way round. We did it in 2003 prior to having a 'stretch' in 2004. Now we are 70 feet long and cannot do the Pennine canals any more. BUT, by having a 10 foot extension we managed to increase our living space by in excess of 20%. And, if you are a liveaboard, 20% is a lot more space, bigger bed, by going across the boat you can have a 5 foot or even 6 foot wide double bed!!, extra wardrobes, extra drawers, second toilet, separate cabin for the granddaughter to sleep in when she visits, the list is endless, Do we regret it? No, we don't, it took longer than anticipated, cost more than anticipated but in the long run was well worth it. I also now have somewhere to escape to from her who must be obeyed! A picture of the boat after the stretch is available at www.flickr.com/photos/78944572@N00/438067925. Apologies for the advert!

Time for a change?

When we first became liveaboards we upgraded the heating system on the boat from an Alde boiler running finrads to a diesel room heater. The Alde system was fine in Spring and Autumn but was not man enough for winter conditions. At the time diesel was 22p per litre and the Alde was much more expensive to run on Calor Gas. How things have changed. The last time I bought diesel for the heater I had to pay 70p per litre. Whilst filling up with the diesel a chance comment by the boatyard employee ("Do you know it is now cheaper to use Alde central heating than to use a diesel room heater") got me thinking. After working out the sums I came to the conclusion that he could well be right. However, what alternatives are there? Working out the costs of various heating systems I came to the conclusion that with what I am paying for diesel per year would buy me 135 bags of coal!! Now, I don't know how many bags of coal you all use per year, and can you really find all that lovely free wood lying around to bolster the coal? Maybe the answer is a multi fuel stove with a back boiler supplying one or two radiators (would I need a pump?) By my reckoning the multi fuel stove might well pay for itself in two years.