Parlez-Vous Francais ?

Another hectic but good week overall. Weather has been dry so has allowed a fair bit of progress. I spent the best part of the week tracing an underground water supply which had been bodged, crossed and spurred by the previous land owner. I managed to find the majority of the runs but one is going to need finding with the Cat and genny working with the trace wire. Basically a flexible cable is put along the plastic MDPE pipe as unlike steel pipe it doesn't really give off a signal when using the Cat (Cable Avoidance Tool). The genny then energises the trace wire and the Cat is then able to pick up the signal.

The rest of the lads have been busy stripping out an old cattle shed and putting in all the concrete formers for a wash pad in a haulage yard.
I've been looking at a variety of trucks for them and quite like some of the ex-utility company Defender 110 and 130's. They have a good set-up with tool lockers etc which could be useful.
Well, this looks as though this will be the final week that I have my Defender as my Discovery is now in at the dealers waiting to be prepped and go through the workshop. As I've said before, it has been the best Defender I think I have owned and I'll be sad to see it go - well, until I'm sat in the comfortable heated leather seats of the Discovery....

Managed to get a low-loader move in yesterday afternoon so the 14 tonner is now at the next job ready for early Monday morning. Bit of a challenging job this one with a wet hole in a woodland needing to be drained. The levels are fairly tight and it will be a constant operation between digger and site level to get it right. Having said that, those are the jobs which make the whole thing interesting.
One of my customers in London who has a big property in France has requested that we go over to France at the end of April to carry out some maintenance and repair work on the place. It is in a beautiful part of Normandy and is always a 'work hard, play hard' type of job which sees a lot of work carried out during daylight hours and a lot of eating and drinking of good food and wine in the evening.
It's one of the only jobs I know where I have a 'waiting list' of people who want to work away !
My most important task when I am over there is to go to the village each morning to buy fresh bread, cheese and cooked meats for lunch as well as the ingredients for the evenings main meal and of course a few bottles of wine. Once that has been done, I can attend to the less important matter in hand and oversee what is going on with the job ! The people in that region are fantastic and so warm, friendly and helpful.
If it wasn't for the funny language, you'd swear they weren't French...



Barry Chuckle is infact Wayne Rooney's brother.

Getting warmer

So things have progressed well from last week and we have now completed the drainage as well as cutting back and then rebuilding some trackways.
We installed a new mains water supply to a cottage this week which should be connected in the next week or so when Balfours turn up to spur in.
A couple of mornings of rain made things a bit snotty on top this week but a good wind soon dried things up.
The lad who was due to start on Monday text me Sunday evening to say "soz m8, carnt cum tmoz"
Unbelievable.
He then text on Thursday to ask "Ny wrk nxt week m8?" I was going to reply "Get Fkd" but decided not to bother.
Anyway, I had the number of a lad who was looking for work so I rang him and he came in on Tuesday and turned out to be a good hand.
Everything for a reason.

Next week sees us installing some more water pipe as well as measuring up some lagoons. Another two low-loader moves are booked in and we are due to head further north to sort out a recurring flood problem.
The forecast at present says a dry week ahead so hopefully they are right.
This week has been manic with three gangs on the go but it's also been satisfying and rather enjoyable now the days are drawing out a bit more.
With any luck, within the next few weeks one of the gangs will go onto the civils and construction work permanently as we now have a fair bit of this type of work ahead of us. This should free my time up a bit more to concentrate on running the earth moving and agricultural side of things.

This nice spell of weather has brought all the snowdrops and bulbs out in the garden at home. Things are warming up nicely and everything is starting to come alive. I feel as though I should be out there doing something but have decided to get a gardener in this year (not an Up-hill one I might add...) to go through it all and make it nice for the spring. He can dig the beds over, plant some new flowers, tidy up the hedges, mow the lawns and get the place ready for the start of BBQ season.
He can clear the dawg shit up while he's at it...

Spring is in the air

We started on draining some particularly strong ground springs in the middle of a number of fields.
Over the years several attempts had been made to drain them with conventional methods but when the pipes become blocked the springs just divert elsewhere and the problem continues.
We opened up a 4ftx2ft trench which we piped (just for good measure) but deep filled with reject stone. This way the water can get away easily down nearly two feet square of stone filled gully which is then backfilled to allow normal farming operations on top. The spring heads themselves are then opened up and mass filled with large stone to alleviate the rising pressure.
By the time we had finished the first three the water was flowing down them nicely.

While this was all going on I managed to find the time to go and look at 3 other jobs, bring in 3 load of stone on the Fastrac as well as mark out and plan all the work for this week.
This week sees the continuation and completion of the last of the spring alleviation work, the installation of a new mains water supply to one of the cottages on the farm and then the extension of a hard-standing area for the cattle yard. I then have to find time to go to Berkshire and look at a dredging job for later this year.
Towards the end of this week there will be a low-loader move booked in but the company I use are struggling at the moment to keep on top of things as their main heavy haulage tractor unit caught fire and burnt out last Monday...
Luckily the driver was unhurt and turned up Tuesday to drop off the machinery as grouchy as ever !
They're having to run a standard waggon and can't haul the heavier loads at present.

I have another young lad starting this Monday so we will see how he turns out. He has some turf to cut back first thing and then Tuesday can go on the water pipe job. At least this way it should free up a bit more of my time.
I've still got my Defender and the dealer has said that I can hold on to it until my new truck arrives.
I'm going to be sad to see her go but have to admit that a bit more comfort will be most welcome.
On the other hand I am looking at buying a second hand Defender110 pick-up for my main guy to run around in so he can go and fetch stuff rather than having to wait for me to go and do so.
Not long now before the clocks go forward and we can start getting some early starts in.
To be fair, the mornings are pulling out well now and it's nice to know Spring is just around the corner or that winter is waiting to return.
The one thing we have noticed is that despite any small amounts of rain we have had, when you dig down below six inches, the ground is as dry as anything.
We need rain.... but just not yet.


Catch moths by baiting a mousetrap with an old woolly jumper.