Tuesday 4/11/25 The only day Eddie and I could both go to the mill was Tuesday this week. We saw a peacock butterfly soaking up the sun in our compost bay.
We put our bridge across and took tools in two wheelbarrows down to the fallen tree we cleared recently, to bring back logs to use on our woodburner. On the way I wrote the dates of the next open days on our sign and checked the card box was full.
When we cleared the fallen tree we cut enough away so walkers could get past, but today we cut the tree further back on both sides as a mower will need to get past when the footpath is cut. A pair of swans were in the river nearby.
We cut ivy off the logs and put them in our wheelbarrows, they were heavy so we had a rest on the bench seat opposite the mill on the way back, we watched a robin on top of the fallen wall and pied wagtails on the visitor centre roof. We carried the logs over the bridge as we can't take full barrows across, we took them back to the logstore in the Gator truck.
We had lunch outside and saw blue tits and great tits eating from the feeders, that was before we filled them up. We also saw a great tit fly into the nest box we repaired last year on the opposite bank, we could see its face in the hole, then it flew out.
In the afternoon Eddie cut up the logs we brought back to fit our woodburner stove while I mowed the lawn between the wagon and river wall with the push mower.
Beryl gave us a historic fire front from a pair of cottages which were between the river and Barge Cottages on the main road through Narborough, it was found recently in the soil there. The fire front was very rusty so I cleaned it with the rotary wire brush. We’ll put it on display in the visitor centre with an explanation sign. The model village from the old heritage centre shows the location of the cottages.
Eddie put the logs in the logstore and I tightened two handrail brackets on the bridge and checked that the screw caps fitted to the bridge recently were still holding the floor in place, which they are.
We loaded up tools, screws and wood to go back and put up another of Beryl’s fallen bird nest boxes from the tree near the cottages. We fixed a piece of wood to the box and fitted it to the tree securely with two long screws.
Thursday 13/11/25 We took another of Beryl’s bird boxes and two parking signs to the mill for repair and some scrap wood from the fire site which we need for a project.
We now have an extra battery for connecting to our solar panels which Eddie charged and tested, this gives us more capacity to charge tool batteries, so I made a cable with crocodile clips and cigar lighter socket at the ends so we can now charge upto three chainsaw and strimmer batteries at once using the inverters and 12V charger.
Beryl’s bird nest box was damaged by a squirrel, it enlarged the hole so we made a new front panel and drilled an entrance hole in it, I fitted a metal plate left over from our Green Grant to prevent the squirrel damaging it again. Eddie filed a slot to fit the roof latch then fitted a piece of laminate flooring on the back to strengthen the fixing hole.
Anne Marie joined us and looked round the gardens, pink cosmos are in flower again, we saw several bees on them. Anne Marie weeded the gardens and put canes in to support the cosmos as some were falling over.
Eddie cleaned out the push mower cutter deck as it was clogged up, then sharpened the blades with a file. He cut grass on the sloping bank of the wildflower meadow as it needs to be kept cut through winter.
The area next to the compost bays is always untidy so we are going to use the old doors from displays to make a compound there to store various things which will tidy the area and make more room in our shed. I started clearing the area today.
We will cover the front of the compound with black fabric to make it look better and we’ll use the wood I got from the fire site today to make a rack in there for garden pots, and to build another logstore on the side as ours is now full and over-flowing.
Some marker posts at the edge of the wildflower meadow had fallen over so I hammered them back in. Two of the parking signs used at open days and group visits were falling off their posts, so I replaced the screws and put screw cups left over from repairing the bridge under them to stop the signs falling off again.
We loaded the signs and bird box up and went back to put the bird box in Beryl’s tree and connect the camera, we couldn’t test it as it connects to a TV which was not available. We put the parking signs in the trailer ready for the next open days.
Graham Bartlett
Interactive Plan Activity Volunteer Previous Next Projects Open Days
