A walk round the garden this afternoon

I had twenty minutes spare this afternoon, and the sun was shining.  So, armed annoyingly with the less good camera, I set off into the garden to see what I could find.  Leaves, mostly, and the odd berry.

 

Archimedes screw update - sluice gate arrives.

Last time I brought you up to speed to the point where the screw had arrived (all 8 tonnes of it), and we had successfully negotiated the 1 mile journey from the A36 down the hill across fields and along tracks, to its resting place in the ready-prepared concrete cradle:

Since then, the bearings have been connected up, and a shed built on top of the concrete platform in which the gear mechanism and control unit are housed.  This is seriously solid kit.

 The shed:

You might recall that there was a large tree root which needed to be removed from the mill leet wall before repairs to it could be made.  This was the result (it came out with quite a bit of wall attached - all of which will be reused in some project or other).

The enormous 360 excavator gave the remaining stones a hefty shove back into the hole created by the tree roots.

And then shuttering was applied in order to create a concrete replacement to the top half of this wall, which will withstand attack by fast flowing 'torpedo' tree-roots and such much better than the old stone wall would have done.

More shuttering props are added:

 The results were excellent, and the plan is to tie this into the new beam (look back at previous updates from first weeks of the project) on the weir to give greater strength on the corner by the piles blocking the leet in the image below.

Some significant site tidying went on at this point, and we suffered from our first rain delays.  Fortunately this coincided in part with a delay on the arrival of the all-important sluice gates.  In the image below you can see the sluice gates have been installed finally, and the shed has also received its cladding which tones it down a bit.

We have been astonished at the speed that the entire project has been moving along.  I am touching copious quantities of wood as I write this, but hopefully all will run smoothly for the final fortnight.  Boy, will be pleased to see the project completed - not only because we are excited to generate the electricity, but furthermore because we are experiencing some pretty determined river flows just now, and a flood this month really would set things back!

This was the river taken this morning:

Hydro update (about 2 weeks behind where we really are)

After some weeks, I can update you in pictorial form on the progress of the hydroelectric scheme.  Sorry for the delay during the most exciting phase of the project, but I'm afraid we've had quite a busy time of it down at Iford lately.  Nevertheless, here is the update!

Endless shuttering...

 And this was the shuttering mould (upside down, here, and about half built) for the cradle for the screw itself.

 And then, one Monday morning, the procession arrived:

 The screw weighs about 8 tonnes.

 And it somehow had to go in here:

 There was a tree in the way, but this proved no problem for the enormous crane, which simply lifted the steel screw clean over the top of the tree!

 And, at 22 degrees, or thereabouts, the descent into the trough was achieved.

A second update to follow shortly, to bring you up to date with the most recent fortnight, then they were able to put in the gearing system, build a shed to house all the clever control gear, and prepare for the arrival of the great sluice gates and grille for the front.

A visit from the Harley Owners Group

Apologies for the lack of updates recently... it has been "all go" at Iford.

To our great delight we had a visit from the New Forest Branch of the Harley Owners Club.  Jim Murphy, Communications Manager of the branch, kindly sent through these photographs of the group riding away over the bridge, and in front of the house.  We hope they enjoyed their visit as much as we did.

We're always pleased to welcome car and motorcycle owners clubs, so if you would like to bring a group for a a visit to the garden, or just a cream tea, why not make us the excuse for a club outing?

Stormy day, sunnier evening

Today was one of those days, when the garden visitor's intrepid nature truly showed itself.  Just after opening time, the heavens opened.  Torrentially.

Some minutes into the downpour, we were visited by a lady in a motorised mobility scooter, who was being kept very dry indeed by her plastic covering, which enclosed both her and also her scooter - a brilliant solution.  Her walking companion was less fortunate, as he was wearing a mere raincoat.

Armed with the accessibility map they headed back out into the rain to negotiate the sloping paths and the accessible back routes to the upper levels of the garden.  An hour or so later I saw them return through an upstairs window, seemingly in good spirits - it says a lot for the determination and hardiness of the Great British Garden Visitor to negotiate the vagaries of the September weather.  These hardy pioneers certainly deserved their cup of tea - I hope they enjoyed their visit.

This evening, by contrast, was a stunner, and I was able to pop over to the kitchen garden to collect some rhubarb and apples for a crumble.  Some shots of the garden around 5.30pm.

 The last vestiges of the painted meadow, still just about in flower:

 Apples ripening in the distance behind the sculpted box bushes on the lawn. 

Onwards and upwards

Now we're motoring - the weather is starting to be less amenable, and so time is of the essence.  With seemingly endless steel reinforcement going in, the shuttering is being erected in haste to form the frames into which the walls will be poured.  Here are the latest update pictures.

Yet more concrete

Apologies to anyone not in fact interested in civil engineering or hydro-electric power... I appreciate that the project has rather taken over the blog as though nothing else is happening at the moment.

I am nevertheless conscious of the wide interest that the hydro scheme has created amongst the local residents, walkers through the valley and visitors alike.  On my walk from the house to my office over the river, I regularly get stopped and asked questions about the scheme, which is great - I'm pleased people are intrigued.

Indeed, yesterday I had a very enjoyable chat with an environmentally involved lady about our shared belief in  using our sustainable natural resources, especially where it doesn't impact negatively on other elements of the environmental system - since this scheme actually enhances the environment, especially for fish, she was very bullish about it.  Encouraging news all round, I'd say.

The photo above is a spot-the-difference with the one from last time, because they managed to get enough of a break in the weather to pour the next load of concrete today - exciting, because it is nearing the big moment when the screw arrives in 4 weeks time or so.