Blue Flower

Our shed was made in February and March by Fred and the volunteers. It was flatpacked and put on the trailer, then taken to site and assembled last weekend by Fred, Debra, Graeme and David, they also moved the heap of logs into our new logstore, this is fuel for our woodburner stove in the wagon, but we also use some logs for wildlife habitat

Work continued today with Fred, Steve, David and Graeme cladding the outside of the shed with featheredge boards, fitting the door, fixing slates on the roof, lining the adjoining wall with the visitor centre, fitting flashings and trim to the roof. The shed is almost complete now thanks to all the hard work of everyone involved over the last few weeks.

Now we have the new shed we decided to change the store room in the visitor centre to an extended display of our museum, as we need space to show historic pictures and photos of the restoration which are currently displayed in the railway wagon, which is closed to visitors and used as a kitchen on open days. All items in the store room including the workbench will be moved to the new shed to free up the area for displays.

A bird nest box with camera needs to go on the visitor centre gable end, but access is difficult now the shed has been built. Fred suggested putting the nest box inside the building with a hole in the wall lined up with the nest box hole for bird access, so the box was modified to fit against the inside wall and will be fitted soon.

I was limited to light work as I was recovering from a foot injury when working up a ladder fitting the Little Owl box on 17/3/22. I took the latest grant items to site including the log splitter and bird feeding station, both of which I assembled. Several people tried out the log splitter and I filled all the feeders on the bird feeding station including the suet logs and water bowl.

I fitted two Grey Wagtail boxes on the river wall, Grey Wagtails were flying around all day and when I crossed the bridge to take pictures of the boxes they were already showing interest in them. While on the footpath I replaced the broken card box cover and topped up the cards which were empty. 

We had a visit by Ann from Narborough who crossed our bridge to look round, I explained what we were doing with the shed and said we are getting ready for National Mills Weekend on 7 & 8 May and explained our two projects, the Green Grant and Wildflower Meadow.

In the afternoon I fitted a display screen to the wall in the visitor centre and plugged in the USB stick with slideshows and videos, the screen will be powered by solar panels. I put up butterfly boxes around the site as well as Dormouse boxes which have the entrance facing the tree trunk to avoid predators. My last job was assembling the cycle rack, we will fix this in the ground ready for the open days. We now have all the cycle tools, pumps and puncture repair kits as we often get cyclists at open days.

The Saladin Box from The Maltings which constantly turned the malt was on display next to the visitor centre and had to be moved to make room for the shed, an explanation sign has been made ready for the open days. Fred found two sections of the rack it engaged with, one piece will be put back on it, to show how it worked. 

Abbie and Stuart’s Labrador, Hector kept us amused, we threw sticks in the river which he enjoyed fetching by swimming after them. He was good company, following me around wherever I was working including the other side of the river, but he preferred to go down the bank and swim across instead of using our bridge.

Graham Bartlett                

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