Marty

Greetings, Albert! Just in warming my hands around a mug of coffee, before heading out doing a final hour's work.

Howdy, Gary! A nice sunny, if slightly cold, day here. Getting some more ladder work done in neighbour's garden against the boundary wall. Very slow progress, but for every branch cut, however small, it's one step closer to the finish. And, anyway, I suppose the very first cut was the most important one...

I have seen that happen before with individual rams. When in a flock, the sheep (even any rams that may be in the flock) really do behave like sheep, and will be "frightened" of the sheepdog, hence enabling the dog, after suitable training, to round them up and move them in the direction the shepherd tells it to. The shepherd uses different calls, whistles and hand signals (which often made more obvious to the sheepdog by the shepherd waving his crook, or long stick) to tell the dog what it is supposed to do. But a ram, by itself, doesn't follow the flock instinct (as it's not currently part of a flock) and, being usually quite a good bit bigger than the sheepdog, will sometimes stand its ground, and may even attack it with its forehead, as seen in the video. For this reason, when a shepherd is training a young dog, he (or she) will try to make sure that it is not put in a situation where it would be confronted by a lone ram. Not just because the young dog may be physically injured when the ram charges it, but also because the mental fright to the dog may make it unwilling to face sheep in the future.

I spent a good few hours today, sanding and scraping off some of the old varnish on the wainscot to the left of my front doorway. Here's a not very good photograph showing my progress so far: You can see the damage that was caused by the water that was leaking in, due to the now fixed faulty gutter (eave run) on the roof whenever it rained (which does tend to be quite often in this part of the world). Actually, now the woodwork has dried, the water hasn't really damaged it, although the plasterwork around the doorway has been damaged quite badly, and most of it will need replacing. I think this internal woodwork originally had a layer of interior varnish, but most of that is now cracked and crazed, possibly from the water, or maybe just from old age. But that actually makes it not too difficult to scrape it off with a paint scraper, before sanding. However, as I said in another post today, I think the door itself will probably need paint stripper to reduce it back to bare wood. It's almost a shame in a way that I don't live closer to real civilisation, as there would be places which would remove the door (and even my internal doors) and dip them in a tank of chemicals to remove all the old varnish and paint. I've a nephew in Manchester who bought an old house, and that's what he had done with his doors. He claims it was quick, efficient, and not even all that expensive. But I moved to my current location 30-odd years ago largely because I had had enough of the city life.

Good morning, Albert! You seem in fine fettle this morning.

Yeah. We'll show them young whippersnappers a thing or two, eh? It's raining here today. So I've started sanding the wainscoting around the inside of my front door. The door itself will probably need paint stripper applied before I'll be able to sand that as well. I'm planning to varnish the bare wood eventually.

And the same to you, Gary! All good in Garyland?

So would that make it morning wood?

Another one who's still not too old to be spanked! #kidstoday

That old moon is not to be trusted, though. It occasionally shows up in the sky during the day, as well!

That's Dougal! Or Pollux in Le Manège enchanté (the original, French version of The Magic Roundabout). It was actually Zebedee (the one on the right) who used to say "Time for bed" in the series.

Well, it's 00:35am as I start to type this, so I think it's time to get my much needed beauty sleep. (Although I'm sure Albert will say that I'll be wasting my time. ) Night all!

Sun? What's that?

I'm actually thinking that I don't really want to use a photograph of the work on the two sheds in two consecutive weeks. Maybe in a week or two's time, when that work is basically complete...

What Val said.

There's a pile of branches starting to form in the neighbouring garden now. So it could well become: Neighbour: "Hey, Marty. Any plans for tonight?" Marty: "Yeah, I'm going to start a bonfire in your garden."

Done! But I'll be closing it again quite soon. Not too warm outside this time of year.

Good to hear things are improving, Val!

Hey, B and Val!

And apparently goats can cause serious health problems to humans... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/18/we-need-answers-why-are-people-living-near-dutch-goat-farms-getting-sick Although, reading the report it seems the problem is as much to do with overstocking than simply the goats themselves...

No. It's only a small village.

Not going to happen, clo! Goats would completely destroy the garden. They'll eat anything. Even the washing off the line. There'll be a bonfire made of the branches eventually.

A labour of love, Albert! Just a pity I don't love painting and decorating inside the house the same.

Possibly... But it isn't actually taken from inside my garden or house. All of the current ones up to now for my 52/52 challenge have been. Perhaps this one that I took from my garden this evening? There's a lot less growth above the sheds now. And a few more of the stones on the left hand gable wall have come down...