Winter preparations

It's that time of year when we start preparing for winter on board the Vereeniging, and I greet it with something of a wistful sigh.
  

A baby coot

It's time to make sure the rowing boat is completely empty and the seats and floorboards are stacked so they don't sit in pools of water and rot. We haven't used it much this year because we had our coot squatters in it for so much of the time.  Here is a link to a post I wrote about them before. They set up quite a production line and Mama Coot continued to produce eggs to sit on throughout the summer, which rather effectively prevented much 'spuddling'; no one wanted to risk Papa Coot's ire and I can't say I blamed them.

Spuddling supreme...pulling a mast through the harbour

It's also time to put the little electric outboard motor away too and make sure the battery is regularly charged and in a dry place. I have to say the motor hasn't been available much either this year as there was a problem with the wiring, but that's been fixed now. Our brilliant neighbour, Bas the man of electrical means, has untangled the mess, so it will at least be ready for next year.

As for all the painting jobs I haven't done, well, there's still the odd warm day when some work might be possible, but I fear they will mostly get left until next year now.

And lastly, it's time to light my oil stove. The weather is turning cold and wet, so I must look around for things to do inside. Ah, now that has promise!

Now the welding is done in my back cabin, I want to put vlakvet (grease) on the hull below the floor and get the rest of the new floor down. To my dismay, when I was removing panels for fire watching when we were on the helling a couple of weeks ago, I found the woodworm had returned (or perhaps they had never really gone away - see this post), so that needs to undergo treatment again. At least it's not the floor this time, but the framework to the cupboards has been attacked...ho hum.

I have sprayed (again) and have another fumigator on order, but I need to work in there, so I'll avoid anymore pesticides until I'm satisfied with the floor. I really don't like that stuff at all. Still, I've read that woodworm aren't as active in the winter; I hope that's true. I've also read that if you cover the worms' bore holes with masking tape in the winter, you can see if they are still busy in the spring as the beetles will break through the holes to get out. I'll be using a lot of masking tape, I think! In addition, they (the experts on the internet) recommend those sticky strip fly traps. Apparently, they are also quite good for getting rid of woodworm beetles; they will be going up in the spring too. I really hope I can get rid of the evil worms this time. So far, in terms of their ability to survive my attempts at obliteration, it's woodworm 2, me 0.

Another thing I want to do is build a partition in my living space between the bed and the lounge area. I have an idea of how I want to do it that will not make it too dark there, but I hope it won't be too difficult. I'll keep that simmering for a bit.

And then the last job is to get the engine going again. It's been a long story, hasn't it? Koos is working on solving the mystery of why it refuses to run now, but if (or what if) what he has in mind still doesn't work, I'll have to call an expert in (and that could be a euronormous job). Keep fingers, toes and thumbs crossed everyone!

Well that's all my Vereeniging jobs, so what about the Hennie H? Perhaps I'll tell you about that next week. Have a good one allemaal!

Up and Down...stairs, ceilings and other jobs

This past week I've been up and down to Rotterdam like a yoyo, yet somehow I've managed to get a few things done besides the normal paid job.

I don't know if any of you remember, but this time last year, I wrote a post reflecting on my watery life, in which I described how I would just gaze around my barge looking for all the ways I could improve it. Funnily enough, it's become my most-read-post ever and still gets a steady trickle of views as the months goes by.

Anyway, in that post, one of the jobs I said I wanted to do was to neaten up the panelling above my bed and re-paint it. There was a gap in the middle where one of my offspring had removed a section but not replaced it, and following a shuffle round with the wall that covered the water tanks, the electricity cable was left running across the middle of the ceiling where previously, it had been behind said wall.

Rather a noisy photo, but the gap is now filled

It's taken me all these months since then to decide how to sort it out, but I've finally done it. Over the past few weeks, I've moved the cable to the edge of the ceiling, repaired the gap in the ceiling with a nice piece of trimmed wood, filled in the plethora of screw holes and painted everything a creamy colour instead of the green it used to be. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, like most things boaty, it took a lot longer than I thought it would, and was much more work and much less efficiently done than my  imagination had...erm...imagined? Even now, I might say it's finished, but it isn't really. I would still like to have a conduit or housing for the electricity cable, but I haven't yet found one big enough. I might need to improvise, though, as I did in fact buy one, but it wasn't deep enough for the cable which is quite thick, and I haven't seen another one with the right dimensions.

Everything is now painted a creamy white instead of green

Another job I've managed to do is to put a shelf in the top part of my hanging cupboard. I realised fifteen years down the line (I don't rush these things, do I?) there was some wasted space in there as I don't wear long coats and dresses. It occurred to me (better late than never) that an extra shelf would come in really handy. So, after lowering the hanging rail, it was a quick matter to find a piece of left over wood in my store and make this shelf. And guess what? It's already fully occupied and it's only been there a couple of days. What's that they say about always filling your environment to capacity? As a footnote to this, I've also repaired one of my stair treads which had virtually collapsed under a long ago visitor's weight. For several months, I've been harping on a bit like the London Underground's 'Mind the Gap' man with my own version of the mantra called 'Mind the Step'.  I even thought of recording it and setting it to play any time anyone opened the hatch, but I didn't get round to that either. As a result the hammer and nails were out in full force this week and not before time.

Last but not least, I was inordinately excited to receive a package in this week's post containing a very small, but hopefully powerful fumigation 'bomb' to finally put the mockers on the woodworm in my little back cabin. It probably sounds a bit sad to be so excited about something so utilitarian, but believe me, this is a problem that's been occupying my mind and energy for so much time, I'm hugely relieved to have what I hope is a real solution to the problem. Even better, I activated it this morning with much ceremony, aplomb and coughing. After a couple of hours of letting it all penetrate every part of the cupboards and ceiling (during which time I beat a hasty retreat),  I now feel I can get on with replacing the floor and putting the room back in use. Before that happens, however, I think I'll have to give everything a detox first. I've used so much woodworm killer in it I'm risking ending up like a doomed bug myself...on my back with my legs in the air! I actually hate using persticides, but it was really necessary in this case as I have already completely lost the floor to the little burrowers and was in danger of losing the original cupboards and panels as well. This will, I'm praying, be the end of it.

So...are you all now totally enthralled with my Mrs Fixit activities? Yes? Haha, I know the real answer to that. Suffice to say, it all fits in with my aim to make sure I do something for the barge every week. In a way, I'm glad it's never finished, and never will be really. Planning, preparing and doing all these small jobs is my relief from work. While I'm teaching, I rarely have time to write, so these DIY efforts are my relaxation and also my reward. And did I mention that I love my barge? I do, and with something approaching fanaticism, but I try not to be too noisy about it.

Just to finish off by looking back to my last year's post, I now wonder what I'll have done by this time next year? I have so many plans it'll be interesting to see how many of them make it to reality!

Have a good week everyone!

From fighting to faring in a week

I expect you're wondering what I mean by the title and it's not as bad as it sounds - well, the fighting bit isn't. To you, anyway.  My fights are not against the world, or countries or even people. As anyone who has read my recent posts knows, I have taken on the task of beating the beetle, lambasting the larvae and thoroughly whacking the woodworm on the Vereeniging.  Little bugs in the greater scheme of life, I know, but boy can they cause some (brain) damage.

As I mentioned last week, I'd ripped out the floor of my small aft cabin (we call it the roef) as it was riddled with woodworm. I've now cleared everything else out of the room, only to find they have started attacking the old cupboards and seats too. Luckily, these are all varnished, so they haven't got too far, but it's awful - a nightmare in fact. I have just now managed to order a smoke bomb from the UK to get into all the nooks and crannies that I might have missed, so I hope that once I have it, it will be the end of the little blighters.

Other than that, I've been working, as in teaching some very nice courses at the university, and also continuing with operation paint pot in my sleeping nook  on the barge. It's becoming almost smart now, so I'm really pleased about that. More photos soon, but I forgot to take any this week.

Now I'm back in Zeeland again, and there are other jobs to do. At least that was the plan. Today, we intended to go to the Hennie Ha where it is moored up and give her a good clean. But roads and good intentions have a way of getting diverted down a slippery slope. We arrived at the marina, and the sun was shining, the sky was what skies in holiday brochures look like and the canal called. What could we do? There really was no choice, so we took ourselves off for a bit of a faring fix. It was just wonderful as these photos will testify.

leaving the marina

Himself in relaxed mode as always

A regular at the Cargill plant

large commercial heading towards Terneuzen

Us steaming across the canal

to s small side branch harbour

where we watched the ships pass

Also heading for Terneuzen

Coal barges being pushed south

following the biggies

for a distance up the canal until we turned

And headed back past the regular visitor
and back to base

We managed some cleaning when we got back to the marina, but it was a half hearted affair. We were much too euphoric over our faring forth! Hoping you've all had a good week and wishing you some continued sunny weather.

Another one of those weeks

Yes, I know, it sounds as if I never stop, but I do. Not much of the time, I'll admit, but it does happen. This last week has been another one of those weeks that I had the week before. Got that? Good, because I'm not sure I have. The point is that it seems - the week that is - to have been more than usually busy (I think I said that last time too, didn't I?).

However, I can readily confess to being a very non morning person, so don't imagine for one minute I'm up with the lark. I never am and I cram everything into the day that's left after crawling out of bed at the weekend at somewhere around 10:00, sometimes later if I'm especially tired. During the week, it's earlier of course as I have to work, but I'm definitely not one of these 6a.m. risers. I'm not at all nice to know until I've had at least two cups of coffee and time to haul my brain out of the sludge that was sleep. But it was ever thus, so I'm used to it now.

Anyway, I digress. On Monday morning, we had to shoot up to Rotterdam from Zeeland horribly early to meet the man from the energy company so he could check the geyser in Koos' little flat (that he rarely visits but keeps as security), at which time we discovered the upstairs neighbour's loo was leaking into the bathroom and had ruined three towels, which were black and rotten. Not nice. In fact, fairly yuk. I'm a bit squeamish about such things, I've discovered. This unexpected crisis entailed meetings with the neighbour, phone calls to the owners' association, and attempts to make appointments with the plumber to come and assess the situation - none of which were immediately successful, but that's another story. Meanwhile off I went to work on my bike. Yes.

The autumn had sneaked in over the weekend and the temperatures had plummeted. It was simply cold. And the wind was blowing a hooley. But it was all rather deceptive because the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day and I wasn't expecting to struggle so. I battled over the Erasmus bridge this time and to give myself some breathing space, I took a few photos.

Then the next day, I had to brave the big Brienenord bridge again. Once more, it was a struggle and all the pleasure I'd had the previous week in climbing it without too much effort was over. It's the wind, see. It's a demon in this city and like to put anyone in a foul mood. One of my friends admits to swearing at the wind as she cycles. Well, I almost do too. The only solution is to stop and take some more photos; lovely isn't it?

Whatever I have to say about the wind, though I just love this city and its fabulous river. On Thursday afternoon, I was free, so I lured Koos into helping me remove the last floorboards in the back cabin of the Vereeniging. It's all gone now, and I'm just praying the woodworm have not burrowed their way into the old, varnished cupboards. I'll have to keep a close eye on them. The bare steel floor needs some cleaning and oiling before I put a new floor in, so there's quite a bit of work to be done still.

Worm-eaten floor removed

Koos manfully chopped all the wormeaten boards into small pieces. They are destined for a fiery demise.

Chopped into small pieces

A manful task

I also managed to give a second coat of paint to the ceiling above and the panels next to my bed.  I had to fill in a number of holes created by moving and removing screws at various times during the games with musical beds the various family occupants of the Vereeniging have played over the years. It'll all need another coat of paint before everything is smooth and even, but I'm pretty pleased with the result so far. And at least woodworm don't like paint...Am I getting paranoid about woodworm do you think? I probably am.

So that has been the week that was. Tomorrow, I am off to The Hague to take part in the second of our English Writing Festivals. There are six speakers altogether, and I will be talking about my Skipper's Child as an example of a Young Adult book. Wish me luck allemaal!