Polycrub part4 :Sheets

The construction notes say that sheeting the polycrub is 'tricky'.

I would prefer a different description .

Fiddly, Awkward, Tedious, Frustrating, timeconsuming, Difficult will do for starters .

The sheets come off a low loader - 7 metres long and about 1200 wide .

First job is to place the sheet over the frame of the hoops. Don't attempt it on a windy day , they suggest. Excellent Advice , I'd add, after rugby tackling one is it tried to make an exit  corried along on a brisk westerly breeze.  So chossing a not-quite-so-windy day we started.

They are joined by a joining strip

So you need to join 2 sheets, 7 metres long, across the curve of the hoops.


The construction suggestions say  several pairs of hands will be necessary. - the plastic joining strip need prising apart enough to slot the next sheet in.

Obviously its something just right for a husband-and-wife team. After  our first attempt , i had a chat with Smiddy Cottage Garden Services , who have installed them before.

He asked

• "how long did the  first go had last ?"
•  about an hour 
• "Wow , as long as that ! "

So clearly not something for a husband-and-wife team to attempt.

But I got the hang of  it.

You need to replace your wife with 4 breezeblocks, 10 metres of rope, sundry wallpaper  stripping tools, fish slices and some custom -made plastic wedges.


Firstly, get sheet over hoops, then attach in place with acoupld of clamps at the free end.
Place breezeblocks approximately 6 inches from joining strip , with rope across the sheet to the other side. This will hold the sheet in place ( even when its windy).

The hoop is approx 2.5 meters offthe ground, so you need some access . Several ladders and bit of wood to get the ladders in the right place does the job .

Then.

Hold the joining strip apart with some whatevers, and tap the new sheet into the join. Start at one end and work your way round to the other side. The problem is that the curvatures of the 2 sheets may not be the same . the alignment may not be the same .

You need the wedges, pie slices, wallpaper strippers at various times. Sometimes you need them all together . The rope is a convenient way of stopping them sliding off - well mostly stopping them sliding off - and also provides some leverage to keep the joining strip open.

It took between 90 minutes and 3 hours per join. And then about 20-30 minutes to screw each sheet in place - 21 screws per sheet

The most tedious bit of the whole job ?

Covering the screws themselves with the  little plastic cover. It needs cutting off , holding over the screw head then tapping in . OK if you get it first time, but the plastic is quite soft and deforms if you dont get it right first go.

After a few bashed fingers and  dropped covers I'll leave this bit for the  summer when you dont need thick gloves for working outside . Or i might just put some white mastic sealant over all the screws to make it look nice. Or I might not.

it looks OK with the neat row of screws , doesn't it ?

Everyone should have one

Of course its not used to go round muddy fields, making a mess. 

Or to go up and down hills just for the fun of it. 

Or to try out the 4 wheel drive in a big puddle of water. 

Its got a serious use . Transporting a load of sheep up the hill.

Of course it has . 

Fee, Fi, Fo, fum

Its easy getting livestock across the pentland Firth.

You deliver a trailer to the ferry terminal on tuesday evening

It sits there overnight.  they put it on the ferry at 6am wednesday morning .
It gets taken to Scrabster.

At Scrabster, Phil takes some sheep to the terminal by 6pm.

They put it on the evening ferry coming back

They offload it from the ferry

You take the trailer home and offload its contents

4 Boreray sheep.

All together .

so what else would they be called if not Fee, Fi, Fo and Fum ?

Polycrub Part3 : purlin'd

So the next bit is to attach the purlins.

Straightforward, really.
Except a bit tricky single-handed.
The 4"x3" timbers are 4.8m long. The bottom ones are easy. Just prop up the far end so that it is reasonably level, attache one end to the hoop, go to the other end, get it straight ( well , as straight as you can if the timber isnt straight)   then fix it . And then screw it into the hoops in between .

The top one is easy  - just get it up there , lay it along the high point of the curve and go up and down a ladder a few times with the newly purchased impact driver in your hand

the ones on the side a tricky. So  put a clove hitch round the pipe and secure the timber in the approximate position and do as before

the final result :

 the next bit is a bit tricky - attaching 7m long  polycarbonate sheeting to the purlins.
This is certainly a 2 man ( at least) job and to be done when its not too windy.

Gale force winds tomorrow, so hopefully  ocer the weekend.

Polycrub part 2 : Mmmmm

Its not those Golden  Arches . The nearest McDonalds is in Elgin, 194 miles away.

I've run out , temporarily, of the ingredients to make concrete , so I've got on with the next bit . They supply recycled hoops from Salmon Farms, which need to  be cut to size and then placed over the trimmed posts.
The hoops as they arrive are about 9 metres long. the finished length will be about 6.5 metres.

Cutting the hoops is easy.
Lifting them isnt quite so easy.
Getting it aligned with , and lifted on to the post is a bit tricky.  If you get it wrong, the hoop  hits you on the head.
Once  aligned, sliding them down one post is easy .
Getting the other end of the hoop is tricky.

They are quite rigid .

So when its on one post , it sticks up in the air.





The suggested way to retrieve it , if single-handed is with a rope and pull it down .

And then hauling it down and pulling it onto the second post is hard work



T

Things I have learned 

• Bits of mortar on the post mean the hoops doesn't slide down 
• Some of the hoops have a bit of a curve to them . its easier to work with the curve 
• If the hoop hits you on the head, it hurts 

Once its on the post, I suspect there is a lot of sweating and hard work to get the hoop off the post, if necessary . Just as well , as it can be a bit windy in the winter 

A tea break 

Rain stopped play for the day 

Polycrub Part 1

 So we have decided that we would like a larger greenhouse. Polytunnels are popular here , but the average life expectancy is 3-4 years ,shredded eventually by the wind.  We heard about the polycrub 

As they are made in Shetland, we reckoned that a polycrub would be likely to withstand the wind.

We dont have any direct sun for 6 weeks or so through the winter , with the sun reappearing over the hill and hitting the house at the end of January .  So the best place to put it would be furthest north on our land that  it  can reasonably go .

So its going on a bit of the hardstanding out the back .
But there are a several problems.

1. Well-compacted hardcore .

Initially it was going to be raised beds , but on further consideration it would be more flexible to  put it on the soil. So the hardcore has to come up . And i think we might need some topsoil . There some being removed from the  new hospital site . I wonder what they are doing with the removed topsoil ?

2. A slope

The construction guide is for a level site. We have a  slope. When I measure it  there is approximately 300mm drop along the northerly edge . So the northeast corner would be  300 mm  lower than the  northwest corner ( the highest point) . And there is a slope north to south, and the southeast corner will be a further 150 mm lower.


3. bedrock

The installation guide says put the  supporting posts in 600mm.  Digging down, we hit bedrock after 200-450 mm.

So the first thing is to see if we can drill a hole.  Peter the Fencer  arranged for some help

and then to drill some holes

 And it wasn't just in one spot

And at the shallowest point ,the bedrock is about 15 cm down.

The solution  for both the slope and the depth of the holes , is shuttering the posts . Which is what they do in Shetland whne erecting these things and the holes for the posts can't go deep enough

So the gap between the posts is filled with concrete , supporting the posts and getting the whole things level.  Hence the cement mixer

 Its a bit sheltered where the polycrub is going . We've measured  63 mph 

Altogether I reckon I could need  0.7 cu metres of concrete . ive been told  by a retired engineer that a cubic metre of concrete weight 2.5 t. So  altogther I'll be putting down 1.75t of concrete.

That should hold it .

But i might just run this past a structural engineer for my own peace of mind.

some interlopers

A bird had decided to  leave deposits on my lawnmower

a quick glance  up and I discovered why .

A closer look and there are some chicks in the nest .

Greenfinches, i think .

New Home

  as

Ferdinand , the orphan lamb, has been moved out into the field. He has hisown bit, with a shelter if the weather is bad . And the bottle-feeding has stopped and he is now on a bucket. (Goats) milk gets added a couple of times a day and milk is taken 'ad lib'. He is also starting to graze on the grass.

And he has been  exploring his new home

moving trees

 its been a bit windy. Some cruise liner visits have been cancelled
Even though its summer.

A tree has been blown down, blown up,and blown down in the past .

Perhaps this one will be the next to go.

A brief video of the bottom of the tree whilst  it was a bit windy.

 

Still standing.Not sure for how long though.

A new road sign

 A new road sign has appeared at the roundabout  going into Kirkwall . Its quite busy, as its the main Kirkwall - Stromness road  .

On closer inspection

And the reason ?

An oystercatcher has made a nest on the roundabout and is sitting on eggs

Hopefully an update when they hatch.

and finally

The last ewe to lamb is due on the 13th, but things got going a could of days early.
We can recognise the signs of early labour , which happened  in the early afternoon, but things changed and the typical behaviour - pawing the ground and separating herself off fromt he other sheep , didnt happen.
So come the evening we  had to have a look.
it was an obstructed labour with the first lamb in an abnormal position whih needed some manual help to get it delivered
Eventually  two lambs were born
.Some video a few minutes after birth

the mother didnt start immediaitly licking them dry , so we realised something was remiss.

We brought them inside as they were wet, it was wet and the mother 'wasnt right'   and got them dried off 

And the vet came and had a look atr the mother - and diagnosed a perforated uterus - an unsurvivable  condition. 

So some colostrum was taken from the ewe and then tube-fed to the lambs 

And now we have our own cady (orphan) lamb  - so its back to bottle feeding  every 4 hours or so until  they are a bit bigger and can join the other lambs 

RIP Freddy

We thought that Freddy  initially had jointill

But  it didnt really improve as we expected, and he developed more problems 



And things got worse inspite of  the treatment (Vitamin E and Selenium) .

So the vet came and had a look at him .

The initial problem we thought was an infection of the joint, even though he was a bit old to get that.
And now the Vet thought he had meningitis - the infection has spread to the brain - or perhaps it was an incurable neurological problem.


So sadly, RIP Freddy

a bit of rain

We've had a bit of rain in the last 24 hours or so - 26mm ( an inch) according to a local weather website.
A lot of water  has come off the hill and the stream has been in full flood.

 And the little bridges  couldnt cope so  various bits have been awash with rain .

The excess water escaped through the duck run

 And it all joined up again in the burn a bit lower down .

And the road has been flooded .

one unlucky driver got a bit stuck

But its not really a problem.  There are a lot of people around with a tractor to pull you out .

So thanks go to Davey.