Thursday 30/11/23  We loaded the trailer with a bench which Eddie donated and some wood I brought for kindling and making things, Emma has also bought us a new incinerator. On our way to the mill I loaded up more wood from the fire site while Eddie struggled to undo the frozen padlock on the barrier to the riverside track.

Our first job was unpacking the incinerator and fitting the legs to it, then lighting a fire in it to burn scrap wood and cuttings. I also lit the fire in the wagon and put sausages in the oven above to cook for my lunch, so I made sure the fire stayed alight all morning.

Eddie started getting logs from two builders bags near the compost bay, he split some of the small logs with an axe for kindling, there were some large logs amongst them which I split with the log splitter for the woodburner. I took a barrow of logs to the wagon and stacked them next to the fire to dry out.

Eddie got screws and nails out of the wood we salvaged, he put them in a container as we don't want discarded nails causing punctures. The wood will be used for making signs, fence posts and wildlife habitat boxes. While working outside we saw a Hare running in the fields and a tractor cutting all the banks of the stream with a flail, including cutting trees along the back of our bank. 

I cut brambles, nettles and thistles around the bags of logs and burned them on the fire. I also hammered in fence posts near the blacksmith’s area as they had fallen over, this fence protects the drop into the trench. We heard Buzzards calling and saw them flying overhead.

At lunch time I had sausages in rolls which had cooked well in the oven. In the afternoon Eddie noticed our sign from the fence was missing and spotted it half way down the river bank, so I retrieved it with a rake and fixed it back on the fence with garden wire to keep people out of the danger area between the damaged walls. 

We unloaded the bench from the trailer, we will sand it down this winter and paint it when we get better weather, we'll probably put it on the footpath opposite the mill for walkers to use. Eddie cleaned the trailer seats and swept it out, so its ready for transporting visitors at Mills Weekend open days on 11 & 12 May. We cleaned out the bird feeders with our cleaning kit and refilled them with seed, peanuts and suet balls.

Thursday 7/12/23 We saw a Buzzard and Heron fly up from the riverside track on our journey, two Cygnets and a Swan were near our bridge at the mill and a Fieldfare was in the tree nearby. Eddie lit the fire in the wagon and I put the historic bottle with a round base which Beryl gave us on the shelf in the visitor centre.

Eddie made tea and while drinking it in the wagon he noticed sawdust on the floor under the kitchen cupboard, I emptied the cupboard and saw a live mouse in there. I got the mouse out and it ran off outside, we threw away the washing up sponges from the cupboard which had been partly eaten, everything else was still sealed.

We topped up our chainsaw with oil and went across the bridge with tools and wheelbarrows to cut up fallen trees which were cleared from the footpath. Howard joined us and helped us take them back to the logstore, we'll cut them smaller and split them so they fit our woodburner stove in the wagon.

Back at the mill we had another cup of tea and as it was Howard’s 60th birthday recently we gave him a card and chocolate birthday cake which Anne Marie made which was really delicious, only one slice was left at the end of the day which we took back for Beryl, even Eddie had a piece and he doesn’t usually eat cake.

Howard removed the smoke alarm in the wagon as it kept going off last time so we had to take out the battery, he has ordered a heat activated one which should give less false alarms, it will be installed as soon as possible.

We took all the car park signs out of the visitor centre and checked them, two were alright but many had loose screws and boards falling off so we all repaired them and stacked them tidily in the visitor centre which has made more space. The signs will be taken back to The Maltings ready for the next open days on 11 & 12 May.

We got the Heritage Open Days banners, posters and bunting out and cleaned them all with a bucket of river water which Howard got. I cleaned the plaque on our new Cherry tree and Eddie filled the bird feeders.

Two of our nest cameras are out of action, one in the Barn Owl/Jackdaw box and one on the feeding station, only the Great Tit and Hedgehog box cameras are working. I checked all the connections in the wiring loom but could not find any fault. Howard checked the cables down the tree and under the wagon, then looked in the box where all the cables connect together, in case mice had damaged them, but no evidence of mice or damage was found. We need to do further tests, we have a spare camera extension cable to swap with existing ones for testing.

Graham Bartlett  

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