I loaded Degsy up with the things a needed and went to the lottie. Degsy did not miss a beat. I parked up at the lottie and had a chat the Steve and Grumpy Dave. Steve looked a little slow on the his feet, probably the Lemonades we had the previous night. Grumpy was, as usual, leaning on the spade and grumbling about this and that. The sun was bright, the snow had melted, just, so I was keen to get on whilst the weather was fine if cold.
I decided that I wanted to empty the muck bin on my plot. The muck has been mellowing since the previous spring and I need the room. I had long decided that when I got time to empty the bin it would go on Bed 4, the legume bed. This bed has all the greedy feeders, Peas, Beans, Squashes. First I got the fork and levelled out the soil a bit. There where small heaps of spoil from where the soil had be dug to form the edging. I took my 16 foot plank and dropped it on the soil length ways long the plot rather than across the width. I always plant the Peas and Beans growing in rows roughly north/south. In actual fact they are more north-west/south-east just because of the position of the plot. I do this because I figure the sun can shine along the rows, whereas if the rows were width ways across the plot the taller plants would shade their neighbours. Since it is difficult to second guess which plants are going to grow tall, and more importantly when, the length ways row seems a good hedge bet [no pun intended]. I dug a trench the length the plank using it as a straight edge. I dug from one end to other and piled the soil to the right. Then I went back up the trench, having taken the plank out of the way, deepening trench and piling the soil to the left. From the top of the excavated soil to the bottom the trench was a least the foot. Then the best bit, I wheelbarrowed muck from the bin and tipped it into the trench. Each trench took five barrow loads. I repeated the exercise three more times creating four long trenches. The soil level has been increase massively, not only by the turning over of the soil but by adding close to a ton of well rotted manure in a little less than 20 square yards. The soil and manure will compact over the growing season but cannot help but think the soil has been replenish. The ten percent of the muck from the bin must have been worms. I cannot believe just how many there were. They are now all in the soil getting busy. Again a good thing I think. That exercise had transformed about a third of Bed 4. The picture shows how deep the trench is and how the extra depth came about.
Whilst digging the trenches I harvested the last of the Parsnips. There was a bit of canker but not enough to stop them being made into spicy Parsnip and Apple soup. I filled up the bird feeders which the birds had completely emptied in a week. Whilst in the process of emptying the muck bin a noticed it really need repairing. Having pallets sitting in damp conditions is not the best way to make then last. Mind you they have been there for five years. The bin is not quite empty so the repairs will have to wait a little longer.
Steve, with his brew, came over for a chat . We sat on the bench at the top of my plot with sun on us, watching the birds on the feeder and chatted about lottie things; the job a had just done, the vine training, damage to my netting, progress of the vine cuttings, the possibility of more vines on the other side of the plot, my bees and of course Degsy. That was about that. The sun was getting low and the temperature with with it. Even so I had worked up a sweat fettling the land and it had been very pleasant time spent.
Whilst driving Degsy I noticed the steering wheel was not on right. I had taken it off when I was trying to get the dash of earlier that day. After I got home I got the tools from teh gargare and went for a spin round the block. On a straight bit of road I pulled up. Took the steering wheel off and positioned on the splines correctly and did up the nut and crimp washer. As I drove home Degsy started to play up again. It was exactly as before. So it was not the coil! I coaxed Degsy home but it conked out again and again. I had hold of the steering wheel and hauled myself upon it move my position in the seat. The oil and ignition lights came on!! Hummm.............I moved the steering wheel left and right...light still on. I heaved on the steering wheel against the steering column...the lights went out and when moved it the other way the lights came on. Now I could break it at will. I put tension on the steering column to make the lights come on, started Degsy, and drove home. So that was it, an elecrical fault somewhere on the steering column.
It snowed again overnight so fettling Degsy was going to cold with three inch of snow on the his roof and bonnet. I made Miss L and I breakfast, got warmly dressed and set about the dash board on Degsy. Long story short I found the problem. The spade connectors on the base of the ignition switch were just about hanging on. In fact the white wire, the ignition feed wire, came away in my hand. Shortly afterward so did the negative connector. It was a problem getting at the ignition base but I managed it. I toyed with the idea of bodging a fix. I looked on the internet and found they were only a tenner, I ordered one.
It does not look like it from the picture above but a couple of hours next Saturday and Degsy is fixed for another while. The coil was good buy because when Degsy was running he ran more strongly and cleaner. Roll on next Saturday.
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