Wednesday 17/12/25  Heavy rain and strong winds were forecast all day Thursday, so we went to the mill a day earlier. Eddie emptied ash from the fire onto the gardens, as wood ash is good for the soil, then he lit the fire as it was another cold day. 

We had a cup of tea in the wagon while Eddie filed out the poker hole in the bracket on the new log rack we made last week, this makes it easier to get the fire poker out.

I brought peanuts and bird seed as we were running low, we emptied the sacks into our containers and filled up the feeders, we saw blue tits on the peanuts straight away.

The nyger feeders were wet and congealed as finches don’t eat it this time of year as there are plenty of thistle and teasel seeds around, so we took the feeders apart and cleaned them in a bucket of water using the brush. We put the parts in the wagon near the fire to dry.

I took pictures of displays in the visitor centre for a new article for the website showing the finds and exhibits which were discovered in the early days digging the site.

Helen gave us a wooden planter a while ago which has not been used yet, so I collected it from the lawn and brought it back to the wagon to keep kindling wood in, we left it by the fire to dry as it was soaking wet.

We noticed a water butt was leaning over when we filled a bucket to clean the nyger feeders, so we emptied the butt into all our buckets and removed it, there was sludge at the bottom which we cleared out. Eddie got some wood which we put under the paving slabs to bring the base level both ways, I checked it with our long spirit level.

The water butt was put back and refilled, I refitted the pipe which fills the water tank in our loft for flushing the toilet. The scaffold board walkway in front of the butts had rotted away so I used two old bridge boards to put on top which makes it safer to walk on.

We put all the buckets back in the compound along with more black material we found nearby under nettles. I also put plastic bird food sacks from the shed in the compound to make more room in the shed, we use them for various things. Eddie took the canes away which were supporting the sunflowers as they have died back.

Fred gave us a big box filled with packs of screws that he no longer needs which we brought to the mill today, there is a good range of sizes which will be useful as we get through a lot of screws making and repairing things. Our last job was assembling the nyger feeders which had dried, we put them in the shed ready for use.

There is a review of the year in the Articles section which summarises the main news and activities this year, there is also an article about displays in the visitor centre, this is under Major Finds.

Happy Christmas to everyone who follows our website, the Christmas tree has been put out in the field in front of the holiday cottages which looks good lit up in the dark. The next planned work party will be New Years Day.

Graham Bartlett  

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