Belfast sinks & Crick confuses

We've now got hold of a Belfast sink, sometimes called a Butler sink. It's the full sized version and it's to be the centre piece of the kitchen (at least until we get the solid fuel Rayburn). I can't say where it came from as it's all top secret at present. Needless to say that it hadn't been used as a planter although it's purpose was possibly worse than this. We're not thinking about that right now. I just have to make the cabinet that it should fit on and then build the rest of the kitchen around it. How hard can it be to build a kitchen!!!

I walked up to the Co-Op in Crick this evening for wine and pizza. When I left the shop I turned right and marched with authority up the road (as if I lived there) about three hundred yards before realizing that I had gone the wrong way and didn't know where I was. There being some dog walkers around and not wishing to appear stupid nor having to ask directions (huge ego), I marched on with renewed vigour getting more and more lost until I had to admit defeat and retrace my steps, head hanging low. Stereotypical man.

Another two longbows finished today. Despite the poisonous timber used, I'm still alive. Lisa's quite pleased about that. I'm also starting to get orders again but I haven't updated my English longbows website and that clearly states that I'm not making custom longbows at the minute. There's no telling some people. So if you want one, sod off. I'm not making custom longbows at the minute.

Crick

We're at Crick now. A slightly later start this time as it was raining until 09.30. The canal side is dominated by the marinas and boat brokerages but the village is quite pleasant. The problem is that there's very little internet although, unlike Welford, all other communications are fine. I've heard that Braunston communications are also dreadful so that seems to be all around the southern area of the Leicestershire Ring. Still we can't get there until the stoppages have been lifted at Braunston Locks.

The journey was about as boring as it is possible to have on a narrowboat (which is really not that boring). The farm lands on both sides merely consisted of very large fields either ploughed or pastured, hardly any buildings and no settlements. Still, I got hold of some firewood.

This boat is at the entrance (or exit) to (from) Crick Tunnel. It was a lovely boat with a good paint job but what has happened? It looks like it was just moored up several years ago and has been ignored since and is now almost entirely covered in green moss, leaves, twigs and general debris. And before anybody asks, yes it does have a valid licence. There is a folding bike on top (covered in the same green moss) and it looks like you could just fire up the boat and off you go. What's the story here?

This is BW's new security measures for their valuable equipment. This tug was spotted sporting a bent fork securing the door. Well that'll fool them. I may even try this one myself. They wouldn't know what to make of it or couldn't pick themselves through laughing.

This blog is starting to look a little like some other blogs that just state where they are, how many miles and locks they've done. I'll have to see what I can do about that. Ok, I've thought about it...

Welford

We're here at Welford now since Thursday. Lisa left at 6.30 for work and I'd up'ed sticks by 6.45. Not a very exciting journey but it was a little hill'billy until the morning sorted itself out, the current bun made an appearance and the whole thing warmed up a tad. As usual, we met no-one else (I say 'we' as in me and the dog) which suits me just fine as it was too cold to take my hands out of my pockets at an attempt at pleasantries.

The Welford Arm is very pleasant with the one lock near the basin. The basin is also very pleasing and unmodernised (ie a muddy lane beside the mooring) although we are not used to being in the near proximity of so many boats as close as they are. Indeed one give me the evil eye when I was in the front deck emptying my ash into the cut. I prefer this to chucking it in the hedgerow as that always seems to me to be rather unsightly and ugly. Ash is used to seal wooden slats that are dropped in the canal to enable watertightness for the use at dry docks so I reckon I'm doing BW a favour in waterproofing their system. I got him back later when he was running his engine whilst in gear. Those evil eyes really are effective.

Andrew Denny from Granny Buttons has never had Pickles No 2 on his blog roll and I had assumed (as a conspiracy theorist) that this was deliberate and he had something against Pickles (and Pickles No 2 has never done anything to Granny). I mentioned this to Andrew and he came back with an instant response, an immediate apology and an amendment. Bugger. I wanted a conspiracy. Cheers Andrew.

We may move to a quieter area just back along the cut at the weekend or soon after as there is virtually no signal of any kind here. I'm very conscious about engine/generator noise which I normally run well after eight o'clock as there are rarely anyone else around us (that should annoy the 'rules is rules' brigade).

One of the timbers I am working with at present is Santos Rosewood. It had been in the corner of my workshop when I cleared it out to move everything onto the boat last year so I brought it aboard intending to make bows from it but I couldn't remember why I had originally stopped using it. Well I remember now. I'm allergic to it and since I was cutting it the other day my eyes are all puffy and have swollen up considerably. There are several bowyers I know who are allergic to certain timbers and this is not uncommon but painful nonetheless. Yew nearly killed one.

No photos due to the slowest connection we have ever had. And I mean EVER.

Small lads and horses

It doesn't take much to scare Lisa. Just before she goes to bed, mention that you can hear horse's hooves. Then mention that you think that you can hear a small lad talking. Then mention that you think you can hear some knocking on the side of the boat...

Was that a rustle in the bushes...?

Foxton Top Lock

We ran out of water on Saturday, were still frozen in and didn't want to move so we just didn't bother. Anyway, we were out at some friends house as it was my birthday and Lisa insists on celebrating it (although I can't say that I'm overly keen myself) although she doesn't so much celebrate but insists on constantly reminding me of my excessive years. It was a wonderful evening except that Lisa couldn't drink as she was driving. Our hosts Peter and Angela keep a brilliant selection of expensive wines that I thoroughly enjoy tasting, guessing where they are from (I'm never right) and getting excessively drunk. Talking of driving (was I?), the heater is now fixed on her car and Lisa is a much happier bod and almost enthusiastic about going to work.

Since the ice has melted we have now filled up with the required fluids and have moved to Foxton Top Lock ready for the off towards Welford as this would seem like the next logical stop. I think I'll see if it warms up a little later in the week and the rain stops. It rained all day today when I was doing the Foxton flight and there's nothing worse than water dribbling down the back of your neck and you're looking up to see another nine gates looming above you. Still, when you're doing them on your own there's little standing around waiting. I should have taken a photo or two on the flight but there was just so many other things to do.

I've given in to temptation, gone over to the dark side and registered on Tony Blews UK waterways ranking site. I wasn't going to and have resisted for a week now but I'm weak and couldn't help myself. Every other UK narrowboat blogger seems to be already there.

Winter nights

You can just see Randolph in the distance

Foxton still

The canal has ice four inches thick, it's minus thirty two outside, the snow is six feet deep, Randolph Fiennes has just passed the boat on a sled with a pack of dogs being chased by Quinn the Eskimo and we are as snug as a couple of bugs in a rug. Our Boatman stove keeps the front half of the boat toasty and that tends to be where we live. Talking of rugs, we have decided to make a rag rug and to that end require rags. I know that my wardrobe would do the job but what would I wear? We're even off the floor as we now have a bed. Whaooo!

We crunched our way down to Market Harborough to have a look at the weekend and check out the town. Very pleasant it all was but a little too civilized for our liking. I managed to turn the boat in the basin full of Canaltime boats, with a basin covered in ice without making contact although Lisa had to resort to the pole, just a tad. Well I have to make her feel involved when there're no locks around.

We are discussing next year and wondering whether to get winter moorings or not. We thoroughly enjoy this wondering lifestyle but Lisa has no heating in her car and the journey to school is getting her down a bit. I've booked her car into the garage to get it fixed and maybe we will make a decision. Then again maybe not.

We're back at Foxton, village this time, waiting for the ice to recede, then to Debdale for fuel then up the Foxton flight and onwards to continue our journey back towards the Ashby once again in about March time. We should have enough fluids on-board to last till the weekend.

Home again

We're back on board the boat again after spending Christmas with Terri in London. The outlaws were also there and a jolly good old time was had by all. I say all, but someone was just as grumpy as normal and insisted on grumping his way through the holiday period but I am reluctant to say just who I'm talking about. OK then, it was me. What a surprise.

The boat was as cold as a very cold thing and Santa would probably have moved out on health and safety grounds if it had been his grotto. It took an hour before we were again in tee-shirts and dozing in front of the fire again We are the only people on the mooring at the minute and all the other boats seem have moved on somewhere else but we'll be quite happy here, or hereabouts, until the new year.

It was very pleasant living in a house again with unthinking use of electricity and water but we really enjoyed coming back to our home with renewed enthusiasm to get it sorted this year. To that end, Lisa is talking about going to Ikea tomorrow for bits and bobs and getting hold of a Belfast sink to start the kitchen.

Christmas and atheism

Even more bloggers have arrived in the form of Derwent 6 but they didn't hang around and made their way straight down to Debdale for the Christmas period so I don't think they count towards the bloggers numbers at Foxton.

We are a Christmas free zone here on pickles No 2. We even switched off Radio 2 the other day due to the abundance of Chistmas music (if indeed it can be called music). No imitation tree complete with LEDs, no fire hazard decorations, no tinsel hanging from the ceiling, no flashing
snowmen, no plastic santas, no nothing, not even any cards as none have been forwarded to us.

Listening to the Today programme this morning I find that Richard Dawkins is not the person I thought he was and can be found celebrating Christmas with everybody else. There's me going out of my way to give credibility to my atheist credentials when the God of atheism is singing carols, tucking into turkey, opening presents and generally having a whale of a time. I'll be putting my hair shirt away this Christmas if that's the case.

We had a marvelous couple of pints at Bridge 61 pub at Foxton Locks. We went up for a quiet Sunday afternoon pint and that's the way it started. In the bar were the crew from nb Matilda Rose, Graham and Jill, who we did not know, but earwigging, I realised who they were. It's much easier to tell who the the crew from a boat are when you see them pass earlier in the week and they have the name of the boat in big letters sign written on the side, unlike Pickles No2 which is quite anonymous and looking at the photo on nb Balmaha's blog, decidedly scruffy. Although it's nice to have anyone's admiration (thanks guys).

Anyone who knows the bar in question knows that it is quite small and without music, everone can hear everyone's conversation and as a consequence, gets to know everyone in the bar quite well. Graham introduced his dogs, Baxter and Muttley, but we said that we already knew as we read the blog. Introductions made we had a couple of pints with he rest of the Foxton Boating community and locals alike until we ran out of money and had to return home.

I have finished the two longbows I have been working on for the past week or so. The process should be easier from now on as I can now remember the measurements, construction details and I now know where all my tools are. Are these the first two Victorian pattern English longbows ever produced on an narrowboat? I'd like to think so.

I just need to find buyers for them.

We've had several visitors here since we arrived at Foxton. Both Dave and Bob bought me a pint as Lisa was not here. I would like to thank them and apologize for the fact that I never have any money as Lisa keeps such control over it.

Merry bloomin' Christmas.

More Bloggers arrive

Two blogging boats turned up today. nb Matilda Rose and nb Caxton came down Foxton flight and made their way past me to Debdale Marina to replenish supplies then passed again later in the morning returning to the Harborough Arm. I yelled greeting to the crew of nb Caxton and they returned later in the day with hounds Fletcher and Floyd for a chat. It's always good to put a crew to a boat. They are also here for the festive period so there are currently four bloggers at Foxton. Although for some inexplicable reason my name has changed to Keith on nb Caxton's blog. Hell, Keith's as good a name as any. Let's get up that registrar's office to get it changed.

Lisa and I went up to the Bridge 61 pub last night to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary. It is in fact the anniversary of out first date and not our wedding as we're living in sin (Lisa tells everyone that I won't marry her. This is not altogether untrue although not the complete truth. A bit like this blog really) We arrived in the pub and within two minutes we had broken both pub rules; no mobile phones and no coats on the seats. To add insult to injury we were talking to and sitting beside the owner. oops.

Foxton

We've made our way to Foxton and we'll probably be here over the Christmas period, both bottom and top lock with a trip down the Market Harborough arm thrown in to boot. I did the trip from Kilby Bridge yesterday and Lisa met me here. I was shocked that she actually found it as she's not much good geographically and she would be the first to admit it. She does need a satnav thingy and we'll probably get one in the new year unless anyone wants to buy us one for Christmas (hint, hint).

Sam was very good on the way here. As long as nothing out of the ordinary happens, she knows the procedures for lock operation. She gets on and off at the right places but she still doesn't help out with the locks, neither paddles nor gates. This may require further training.

I've got to say that it is very pleasant here and much changed over the past ten years or so. When I arrived, I parked at the back of the line of boats as I normally do and took a walk down the line to check out the mooring situation as I don't like Lisa having to walk too far when she gets home from work (I am a considerate sole, aren't I). Mo and Nessa from nb Balmaha (fellow bloggers) were just pulling away. I shouted, "Hello", but I think they had already recognized me.

Whether this is a good thing or not I am not entirely sure. I was looking particularly scruffy with grease splattered jeans, black hands and a muddy dog. Is this why liveaboards tend to wear dark coloured clothing and hirers can always be identified with their garish holiday coloured clothing.

We exchanged pleasantries and I said that we would speak properly over the next day or so. Then they were off to Debdale to buy coal. So I stole their mooring. Well you have to take an opportunity when it presents itself and these continuous cruisers don't own their mooring do they. They arrived back at our boat this afternoon for a coffee and I showed them around. It's bound to make people feel better about their own boat when they see ours. I took a peek at theirs and was impressed with the woodwork and as usual got some interesting ideas. It was good to meet them and I will have to introduce Lisa before we move on in the new year.

Lisa and I have been having heated discussions over the layout of the kitchen area. Lisa got up Ikea's and B&Q's kitchen planning software and tried to plan out kitchen on them. Absolutely useless (the software, not Lisa). In the end we came to the conclusion than I was to build the kitchen from scratch (I thought that was always the plan anyway). It seems to be the smallness of the space and the amount of stuff that we want to put in that throws the software.

On the way here, I found that some of the locks had contractors fitting new bollards. On one, there was already eleven bollards around the lock (not counting the lock approach bollards, some of which were up against the lock gates) and these contractors were fitting another three. I've got to say that I was a little worried that eleven would not be enough to safely hold my boat in the lock. Thank goodness that the other three were being fitted before the new cruising season starts. Any kind of disaster could befall a boater without all fourteen bollards. Fortunately the next lock already had fifteen bollards installed. Well that was a relief. You can't have enough bollards, that's what I always say.

Absolute insanity. Remind me again, how much it costs to install a bollard? How many bollards does one lock need? Answers on a post card.

BW's bollard policy is a load of bollards.

Should I be in charge? In my head, I'd be brilliant. Don't answer that.

Shower, stern gland and falling over

The shower is now working, not leaking and we are loving it. Admittedly there were a few false starts with water leaking everywhere, flooding my workshop and the bilges but that's only to be expected really. Having not had one for some time has made us appreciate it even more and ensues that we spend more time taking one. In fact it's difficult to find Lisa when she's not in the shower.

We are still at Kilby Bridge but are moving towards Foxton on Monday, maybe in one jump, maybe two. Lisa finishes school on Friday next week so we will be able to have a bit of a holiday on-board for a couple of weeks. We have had no signal since we moved 100 metres back from the 48 hr mooring to the 14 day. Absolutely no explanation for this but it is now back to normal again and we haven't moved.

I fell over on Friday night heading towards the Navigation pub. That's right. Heading to the pub, not heading back. I had just put on some clean jeans and a fresh t shirt. This is the fourth time I have fallen over in two weeks. Is it an age thing or is it that I just can't control my body and keep my feet directly under my centre of gravity. It tends to be slipping that does it and I find myself hoping for frozen ground as I tend to be able to stand up when it's solid. It was raining last night so I can't issue general assurances that I will remain upright all day today.

Lisa and I had a good day yesterday. We visited our friends, who had just bought the Springer, to repack the stern gland and for the maiden voyage. The stern gland was a messy, greasy job not helped by the fact that we had bought 8mm packing instead of 6mm. It fitted after a bit of a struggle and we were off on the maiden voyage. Nev is a natural at the tiller and completed the trip without mishap. We duly issued his official boat drivers licence on return (I'm fully qualified to do this). On the trip we met Ralph who we used to moor next to on the Ashby and who we were hoping to get a winter mooring with. He had in fact got hold of one in the place he had wanted. Good on him. It was good to see him again. We'll be back in the area around March time I should think.

Ice crunching videos

We took a couple of videos from our ice crunching the other day. We haven't mastered the video aspect of our camera yet and they are 42mb and 17mb so unless you have a fast connection, life's probably just too short.

I've stuck them in my public Dropbox account because I haven't mastered YouTube either. (I'm sure that they're not called videos either these days. Surely videos are miles of magnetic tape encased in a hard plastic case played on an unfathomable machine).

Icebreaking 1
Icebreaking 2

Iced in (no chance)

Today was a bit of an adventure as this was our first experience of travelling through ice and it ended up being quite thick ice to boot. We hadn't noticed that the temperature dropped to minus five degrees last night as several bottles of wine had been consumed (mostly by Lisa of course). This morning we were greeted with the canal frozen over. With my usual cavalier approach and disregard for weather conditions, rules of nature and the laws of physics, we were off at nine o'clock.

The centre rope was frozen solid and just perfect for the Indian rope trick. It took several attempts to leave the mooring with the ice holding us in place. Initially the ice was about 15mm thick and I thought that it would melt during the day. Oh how wrong I was. It got thicker and we rode up on to it at some points only to crash through again. The blacking has suffered in that there is none left below the waterline. It looks like it has been surgically removed. Even the rudder has reverted to the grey primer that was under the black. We are taking it out in February or March for blacking anyway so this is only a short term problem. On the up side there is no algae growth under the waterline. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if the metal was a little thinned judging by the noise we were making on the journey. We were a source of entertainment all day with people hanging out of windows and stopping on bridges to eye up our progress.

What do you call three narrowboat bloggers in a row? (I don't know, I'm asking you) Well that's what we are at Kilby Bridge, Sue and Vic from nb No problem, Geoff and mags from nb Seyella and us. And a lot of dogs that seem to accompany us all on our adventures. Funnily enough they all seem to get on very well. Sam, not unknown to be a snappy alligator at times, was playing around with the rest of them like she had met them all before. It makes me think that Sam is on the interweb when we both go to sleep, communicating with all her doggy boat bloggers.

When we arrived here we got the water as we had ran out two days previously and had to moor up on the other side from the water point. It took quite a bit of ice smashing from myself and Sue and rope hauling from Geoff in order to get us close enough to moor up properly. We also had a tour of Sue and Vic's boat. Lisa now wants our boat finished by the weekend. No problem.

My editor has told me to mention Sue's jam. And very nice it was too.