The Miscanthus goes for pelleting

The miscanthus (elephant grass) crop, cut and baled a few weeks back, has headed off on the lorry to be pelleted and burnt as a sustainable replacement to coal.

This is a big event as it is the first viable crop we have had off the field since we planted it five years ago.  What with the wet weather in past years, tarpaulins being stolen which covered the stacks and the challenges of selling into a fledgling market, we were unable to sell previous crops before they degraded.  These previous years' crops will be composted and returned to the soil.

This year, however, we got the timing right and the weather held good.  Whether this year's sales will be enough to persuade us to stick with the crop is still yet to be seen - the figures aren't in.  We wait in anticipation.

Wisteria Update: 21 May 2013

For those in the know...:

Casita will be 'prime time' this weekend (25/26 May)

Next week for the standard wisterias (27/28/29 May)

The plants in front of the house are a little later (first week of June)

Hairstyles you seldom see; Number 101: Fern

Here, 'stone lion' sports a very natural-looking, green hat, resplendent as it catches the sunshine.

Historic Replant update - filling out...

 Phase 1 of the replant is now filling out with the warmer weather.

Garden Update May 17 2013

It's cherry blossom time at Iford.  On the terrace, Peto's last surviving Cherry is in full flow.

 The standard wisterias are a week or two away, but those on a southerly facing wall, such as the front of house are just opening up.  Hopefully we will not have any frosts as the number of buds looks enormous.

 The scent from the Daphne burkwoodii (above) on the Conservatory terrace is overpowering in the evening.  But perhaps the star of the show right now is the cherry in the Japanese garden, hanging like clouds above the 'Fuji' rock.

Hydro update

The engineers from Spaans Babcock have been on site this week to rectify the design of the bottom bearing.  Here's what remained of it after this recent breakage:

The offending beam has been removed:

 A new plinth has been cast which now holds the new bearing in place.

That hydro electric plant again

 

Disappointment at the hydro-electric plant which has been shut down again for an extended period.  Last year we had a problem with the bottom bearing which blew itself to bits in a way which suggested a design issue; but on the grounds that it could have just been a faulty bearing, we agreed to have the bearing replaced and see what happened.  (Below: what remained of the bearing in 2012).

Well, ten months after the replacement was put in, the problem has returned.  This time, upon inspection it was found that two of the bolts holding the bottom beam upon which the bearing is mounted had sheered off - that's quite a force needed to achieve that, and certainly enough to have caused the damage to the bearing.  What could be causing this?

Our system has the bottom bearing held by a very strong, steel beam (above).  We always had our suspicions about this beam as a design feature - because it is very close to the flights of the screw itself and consequently causes an obstruction to water trying to escape.  This cannot be efficient and as the water falls out of the flight onto the beam, shock waves pass back up through the shaft - these can be felt keenly in the machine room above.  

Have a look below to see the beam causing some serious disruption to exit-flow.

A re-design is required, and so in the coming weeks we shall see a new mounting for the bottom bearing.  

The good news is that it has happened during the first dry spell for months, making the work much easier, and the loss of generation less significant.