Little Old Man Weekly

 In the year 2011

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 20    8 December 2011

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 19    1 December 2011

Storage for the bow saw

The bow saw was one of the first things to be added to Cribbit's inventory. A vital piece of kit, in constant use in the winter to reduce the dimensions of every bit of firewood so that it will fit into the stove. The current one has had several handles and even more blades.

It has always been a nuisance as it is sharp and has never had a proper home, sometimes lurking behind the stove and sometimes in the rain in the bow well. Now we have our own resident little old man, we can have a handy little old man solution for it.

The obvious place to store it is behind the stove but the only place where it would fit, missing the frying pan and the wok, is high up under the window. Wok and frying pan hang by the stove to reduce their propensity to rust so they had to stay where they were. The problem with the space under the window is that the saw teeth would be just in the right place to gash the knuckles of anyone operating the curtain. The solution, hang it under the projection of a piece of angle iron.

Bow saw hanging between frying pan and wok

Of course, if you do gash your hands on the saw, Mr. Fowler has the remedy.

 Little Old WoMan Weekly:   Issue 18    5 November 2011

Little Old WoMan Weekly

Just occasionally, the Little Old WoMan exhibits Little Old Man tendencies and this bumper issue contains two of them.

The first is a directive to the Little Old Man that his profligate use of paper from the refrigerator shopping list pad MUST be curtailed. From henceforth, all shopping lists are to be written from the bottom of the pad upwards and just the length of paper occupied by the list to be torn off.

Economical shopping list

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 17    27 June 2011

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 16    14 June 2011

Plant protector

Following on from yesterday's report of the antics of one little old man in Greece, here is a manifestation of the same phenomena in little old ladies in Whitegate.
Here in Pat's own words, we have a handy plant protector:

The wire frame

The urn

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 15    13 June 2011

Washing Machine

I'm just back from a week in Greece with Terry which enabled me to observe at first hand the antics of yet another old man.
Now Terry has an automatic washing machine that has done stirling work for over 20 years but which lately has taken to automatically opening its door in the middle of a cycle, usually when the the drum is full of water.
To me, a machine that automatically washes clothes and the floor as well sounds like a good amenity but Terry had other ideas.

Terry fixes the door

His method is revealed, a luggage strap and a wooden batten secure the door.

The luggage strap and wood batten in place

  Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 14    14 May 2011

Bouser 2

Some time ago, the little old man was delving in a skip, a favourite occuption, and recovered a very handy plastic tub. On the way home with it he was musing as to how it came about that someone could throw away such a handy item. When he got home, he realised why, it had two splits in the plastic rim. No matter, it was still completely functional. Of course this tub has now become an integral part of my allotment bousering system and is subject to a bit more wear and tear so the splits were likely to get worse. Clearly it needed a little trip to the workshop.

Two pieces of plastic waste pipe slit along their length, clipped over the rim and pop rivetted in place did the trick.

Ready to 'carry on'

This dry weather has meant that the bowser has been getting a good workout and numerous trips over the bumpy allotment with the tubs full of water have tested it well. The wheels are well tucked under the body and the narrow wheelbase makes it a bit unstable so it came for a 'little trip to the workshop' also.

Inserts were turned for the rear wheel axles to extend the wheels slightly wider than the body.

Inserts

Axle ready for its insert

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 13    9 April 2011

Bouser

In the dry conditions last year on the allotment, it was quite evident which plot holders watered their charges and which did not. I am afraid that I was one of the latter group, proclaiming that "I didn't want to develop a dependancy culture in MY plants". Now to a certain extent, this was true but it was also partly determined by the distance from the water supply and the difficulty of carrying sufficient water to make any difference.

I was quite pleased with my two plasterer's buckets for carrying water but if I filled them to the brim, I could hardly lift them and the water slopped out all over me as I carried them. This left a meagre third for the plants. I soon cottoned on that just filling them a third full would enable me to carry them and to stay [relatively] dry. Of course, this meant three times as much trekking to the tap.

The previous year, Margaret bought an antique bowser which had seen duty at the garden of some stately home. This was doing good service for her especially as I suspected that it had come with the ancient retainer who operated it.

What I needed was a bouser.

The Bouser

I'm very pleased with this arrangement. Most of the water reaches the plot and when it does spill its not on me.

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 12    29 March 2011

Even more Red Stripe
Or
'You really don't have to be a little old man to behave like one, Number THREE'

When I took the pic of the cans and a 'random' piece of Red Stripe fabrication last time, I had an inkling that this might be a part of a project in gestation. And so it turned out to be!

So in this week's issue we see how the raw materials are transformed.

Cans are flattened and holes drilled ready for pop riveting

This is also a good way of producing an artistic arrangement of small holes in your kitchen worktop. Could be a feature for future issues of Little Old Man Weekly.

Little Old Man inordinately pleased with his handiwork

The finished article installed on The Growler

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 11    19 March 2011

Red Stripe
Or
'You really don't have to be a little old man to behave like one, Number TWO'

This issue features tw in the guise of the Little Old Man, so that covers both my children in two consecutive issues of little old manliness, and its about the use of available resources.

Now it may be that the resource we are speaking about here is in more abundance at his house than at others across the land, so this hint may not be of universal application to those households not so well enriched with a thick seam of Red Stripe lager cans.

He has used them for all sorts of things, Tin Man fancy dress outfit, bike mudguards and so on.

A rich seam of Red Stripe cans

One might think that the latest application extends their use beyond the mundane. Here they are craftily beaten into an electronics panel to hold the cut-off switch for the central heating boiler.

Little Old man controls

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 10    11 February 2011

Calendar
Or
'You really don't have to be a little old man to behave like one'

I got this e-mail from sj the other day:

 Little Old Man Weekly

 In the year 2010

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 9    24 November 2010

Handy handles

I am trying to keep the lawnmower going though it tries its hardest to fall apart quicker than I can mend it. Managed to scrounge the push handle off Frank's derelict mower and used it to replace the original when it succumbed to metal fatigue.

The recoil starter has been through several succesive re-builds as more and more of the original has fallen to pieces. Each time the repair has been a bit more substantial than the original, baked bean tins being in short supply in England.

The last re-build gave the opportunity to add a handy handle to help lift the mower in and out of the car when I take it up to the allotment.

The handles

A 'andy 'andle

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 8    23 November 2010

Car wash

This morning, Rosemary suggested that I should clean my car as she was getting dirty when she got out of hers when parked next to me. She didn't appreciate being told that this was the little old man's way of getting a nice clean car and could she park on the otherside next time as the driver's side also needed cleaning with her winter coat.

Washing the car by hand is not a job much beloved by the little old man. The car wash is his preferred method for having a cleanish car.

Now one advantage of the car wash is that you have to sit still for a few minutes while it does its work, this is fine as it gives time for deep reflection on the universe and your place in it.

Last time my deep reflection was on pondering how good it would be to develop a similar machine for cleaning the inside of the car, for a moment the little old man even considered buying a convertible.

Well to-day he was able to give it a try as the silly little old man was unaware that he had left his window open and great spurts of sudsy water cascaded all around him before he could get the electric windows to operate.

As he always keeps a supply of kitchen roll in the car, this wasn't too difficult to mop up AND the inside is cleaner now than it has been in years. The little old man got a bonus shampoo as well so it can't be all bad!

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 7    21 November 2010

Muddy Boots

For some reason, the poor little old man is excluded from the house when he is wearing his muddy gardening clogs. He has been told that there is a simple solution to this which is to take them off. Now this is alright except that when it rains his left-outside-shoes get wet!!!

Not any more they don't, the little old man has made a shoe rack under the catslide roof, where his shoes stay dry, but cold.

Shoe rack under the catslide

Muddy boots

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 6    25 October 2010

Webcam

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 5    23 October 2010

Letter of complaint

Call yourself 'Little Old Man Weekly', you should be ashamed of youself! No issue for months, just what sort of Little Old Man do you call yourself, Sir! It's high time you regaled us with more of your little old man tales AND there had better be lots of them if we are to believe your assertion that you have been too busy to write them up.

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 4    8 May 2010

Little Old Man Weekly roving reporter Ann Shirley reports that her Little Old Man has made her a very nice strawberry cage out of Father's old frame tent.

Two generations of Little Old Men conspire to keep Ann's strawberries safe

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 3    28 March 2010

The Little Old Man is busy planting seeds at the moment and needed some seed trays this morning. What better than a plastic milk bottle cut along it length. A quick stab or two with the trusty Swiss Army Knife for drainage and away we go! You may laugh now but wait until you see those strips of sweet peas.

Ready for the cold frame

Some seeded directly and one strip with delphiniums in individual newspaper pots

 Little Old Man Weekly:   Issue 2   March 2010

Do you have an old broken kitchen knife that is just too good to throw away? If you do, here is what to do with it. Turn a replacement handle, hone it up on the grindstone and you have a handy tool for use around home and garden.

Riding on the rotavator

What better tool is there to clear the tines?

 Little Old Man Weekly:    Issue 1    23 March 2010

This week's handy invention has been in almost daily use for over 15 years and has been a constant source of pleasure. When a certain person saw this for the first time, he was most concerned that its addition might make the boat un-saleable and that a prospective buyer would to have its use explained.

Installed on Cribbit

A close up

And here it is in use!

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