Monday 26/1/25 We had an extra day at the mill to do a few jobs. When we arrived a robin was on the empty bird feeders so I filled them up, we saw great tits and blue tits on the peanuts and a swan in the river.
Eddie brought logs in and lit the fire, then we went across our bridge to look at the bench seat on the other side of the river as we could see it was broken. We came back to get tools and materials to repair it.
We cut a piece of wood to replace one which had rotted and fallen out, fitted it to the backrest and held it in place with pieces of sheet metal screwed to the wood, then refitted the back panel with new screws. Eddie painted the new wood and also the side tables which needed a coat of paint. Back at the mill we used up the last of the matt black paint on the wooden supports of our steel bench seat beside the river.
We needed to tidy up the camera cable from the blue tit box on the visitor centre, I covered the white trunking protecting the cable next to the garden with black material and stapled it to the building to disguise it. I stapled the other end of the cable underneath the wagon floor all the way along to hold it in place and avoid damage.
It was 10 years ago that we started working on our railway wagon. Over Christmas 2015 it was moved to The Maltings yard to be refurbished and fitted out with furniture. It was finished and taken to the mill on a farm trailer in March 2016.
There was a large branch in the river behind the water wheel so I got the ladder and retrieved it, Eddie cut it up, he also cut up logs we brought back from the fallen trees we cleared last time. While we had the ladder out I used it to access the great tit box on the tree to clean cobwebs out and adjust the camera angle to get a better view.
In the afternoon we put logs from the pallet into the log store and I split some large logs with our log splitter. All logs are now in the log store which tidies up the area. On our way back we got a good view of a little egret in a tree.
Thursday 29/1/26 When we arrived at the mill we noticed another insect hotel was leaning over, so we repaired it by fitting larger screws to hold the legs in place, then took it back to the meadow and staked it down.
The fence had fallen down in front of the trench. This fence keeps visitors a safe distance from the bowed wall which is at at severe risk of falling. We propped up fence posts with bricks and made a new post on a stand to replace a broken one, then stapled the fencing tape to it.
We checked the oil in the Gator truck and went along the river bank where fallen trees were cleared to cut some large pieces to bring back for firewood. Back at the mill we got the saw horse out and cut the pieces small enough for our stove.
There was a great tit on the peanut feeder which was nearly empty, so Eddie filled all the bird feeders. We then had hot sausage rolls in the wagon with a cup of tea.
After lunch we crossed our bridge to cut off a broken tree branch with our long pruning saw and took it back for firewood with another branch that was in the ditch. I topped up our cards on the notice board and Eddie tightened screws in the seat we repaired last time. At the mill we cut the logs to fit our stove and put them in the logstore.
Graham Bartlett
Interactive Plan Activity Previous Projects Displays Review 2025
