Fixing a hole

I’ve not been very productive on the blogging front since my return from Poland, even though there’s lots of things I’d like to write about. Not all of the ideas that are buzzing around in my head are related to my  visit to Krakow either, as there’s plenty of things occurring back home, it’s just a simple case of not having had the time.

It’s not work this time that is the problem, but rather a case of making hay whilst the sun shines, whilst at the same time taking advantage of the glorious September sunshine we’ve been enjoying. To elaborate. My garden shed is in urgent need of re-roofing, so the fine weather we’ve been blessed with, is ideal for such outdoor DIY projects. Consequently, since my return from Poland, it’s  been a real case of making use of every available daylight hour outside of work.

However, as DIY tasks often do, the renewal of the shed roof is taking longer than anticipated. I had to remove the old boards first, as they’d rotted through in places, but with rusty nails and screws to remove, this hasn’t proved an easy task.

This is the second time I’ve had to do this, the previous occasion being 13 or so years ago. The replacement roof lasted well until a storm earlier this year ripped much of the felt off.  This exposed the rot that had set in underneath. Neglecting to clear all the dead leaves out from the gutters, was the primary cause of this, as their presence had allowed water to accumulate and casing the damp to spread upwards, underneath the felt. It was only when the protective covering was removed that the true extent of  the rot was revealed.

The garden shed we inherited when we moved into our current property, 25 years ago, is quite a structure. For a start it’s much taller than it needs to be, and the height is compounded by the shed being several feet off the ground on concrete blocks.

As I said the shed came with the property, and whilst I have enhanced it over the years, replacing the roof involves working at height. Now I’m not a huge fan of working off a ladder, but with son Matthew helping me, you have to ask why it’s me up the ladder rather than him? 

After all, such tasks should be easier for someone in their late twenties than they are for a person like me in their mid-sixties. Matthew claims he is scared of heights, but doesn’t consider that I’m not keen on being up a ladder either, but someone has to see the job through, and by working most of last weekend, and every evening this week, the old roofing sheets have been removed and the new ones are in place. Now it’s just a question of  renewing the felt.

I must admit I’ll be glad when the job’s done, so I can get back to writing and other enjoyable pursuits, such as beer drinking, but with the weather due to break this coming Sunday, it’s been a race against time.

I gave the shed a miss tonight (Friday), as I’d literally run out of steam. This is not unusual for the end of the working week, but this particular one has been exceptionally hectic. With a key member of my staff on holiday, our monthly management meeting to prepare for, visitors across from Japan and attempting to secure a Russian-speaking interpreter for an audit we’ve got coming up next month, I was glad to close the door on the garden and retreat to the comfort of my home office and bash out this piece of trivia.

Normal service should be resumed early next week!

"Fixing a Hole" is the fifth track on the Beatles seminal album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," released in May 1967; the so-called "summer of love."  It's quite a catchy number, but at the same time quite an annoying one. I'm sure most people of my generation will know it. 

It seemed an appropriate title, even though there was more than one hole in my shed roof! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPBd8eHQqIw