Little Old Man Weekly
In the year 2014
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 75 18 October 2014
Rain
Back in the summer, when I was moored at Bulbourne, I tried to straighten a bent bracket by banging it with the hammer on the concrete pilings. My efforts were rewarded by the bracket leaping into the cut, and I nearly followed it. No matter out came the fishing magnet again, but try as I might, no luck in retrieving the bracket BUT I did get a rather nice, old iron spike.
Gave it a good wash and put it on the stove top not knowing what else to do with it.
Then comes the October rainy season and the Little Old Man gets a bit wet and needs to dry his hat.
The heavy end of the spike perfectly balances the hat
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 74 11 September 2014
Boating
Boating requires ingenuity to deal with its vagaries. This year's trip on NB Wolf was no exception with plenty to keep the little old man watcher entertained.
Just find me a Little Old Man who would climb THAT ladder
The diesel tap from the day tank leaks a bit. Fix it or find an alternative?
Keep your mop on the roof? Keep it dry with a plastic bottle cover
Does its handle damage your paintwork? Protect it with a handmade rope mat
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 73 5 August 2014
Compact toilet
This just has to be the ultimate in space saving and such a good idea! Actually, this post is just an excuse for me to link you into a website specialising in estate agent promotional photographs. Its well worth the mouse click.
Just remember to put the lid down if you are brushing your teeth.
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 72 13 July 2014
Gang plank
One wonders just what sort of creature this contraption was meant to assist aboard.
Welcome aboard
Sagging fence
Well if its sagging clearly you need a prop. But is this really a good idea I asks?
WARNING! TRIP HAZZARD
Beautifully handcrafted
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 70 1 July 2014
Canalside store
An old shipping container makes a handy and secure shed. It is also a good idea to raise them up off the ground so that the bottoms don't rust. Usually a couple of sleepers or concrete blocks are quite adequate for this job. Of course if you just happen to have a length of tree trunk and a few wobbly bricks then I suppose this will do the job too. Only problem is that if the tree trunk is rather long then the door of the shed might just be a bit high for ease of entry. Easy solution, just build a staircase up to the door.
Little Old WoMan Weekly: Issue 69 16 June 2014
Car cratch
We are out and about on the canals at the moment and experiencing a rich seam of Little Old Man improvisation. The Little Old Man has often considerd building some sort of cratch cover for Cribbit and this certainly looks like it could be a good model. Trouble is that Cribbit's cratch is a bit small and Reliant Robins are now hard to come by.
Little Old WoMan Weekly: Issue 68 3 June 2014
Stargazy slugs
This is turning out to be yet another 'year of the slug' and little old men and women across the land are devising ways to keep their precious plants free from them. This week's issue shows how they can be defeated by giving them an array of telescopes so that they spend their time star gazing instead of plant grazing.
Well done Pat, slugs defeated
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 67 1 June 2014
Hardly a LITTLE old man but more a big OLD man
I'm doing this post as a link and I hope you will take the trouble to follow it. It will lead you to an astounding story and remarkable photographs.
Just click on the pic below and see what I mean.
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 66 1 April 2014
Another slicer sliced, a guest post from tw
The offending slicer
But look, a handy door stop
Perfect for resting the mop against, which is craftily stored next to the slicing device.
The genius moment; defeating the slicer!
No good if you want to sit down!
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 65 30 March 2014
Summer house
Do you fancy having a nice summer house at the bottom of your garden but that there is a large tree just where you want to put it? No problem, leave the tree where it is and build your summer house round it.
Tree house or house tree?
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 64 21 March 2014
The slicer sliced
When Jim stayed with us last year we had a get together with some of his other UK friends at Catslide. Inevitably, a [male] member of the party needed to use the toilet and on his way there Jim exclaimed: 'Watch out it is a SLICER' now I hadn't heard this expression before but I knew well what it meant as the propensity of the toilet seat to fall down at the wrong moment had been annoying the Little Old Man for some time.
What makes this especially annoying is that you think the seat is well up and then with infinite, but rapidly accelerating, slowness the seat lid comes crashing down. The Little Old Man had tried several little tricks to cure it, by removing the spacers in the anchor points and by cutting back the cover for the pipework at the back so the cistern lid would sit back a bit further. All to no avail. The real cause was the spring in the flush mechanism which slowly pushed the seat beyond its equilibrium point. He spent half a day yesterday fabricating a new flushing mechanism but even though this was better it still didn't solve the problem. Then the light dawned. Just remove the little plastic buffers between the two lids and the seat can stand more upright.
The flushing mechanism slowly pushes the seat beyond it equilibrium point
The spacer moves this point further forward
No spacer and it, just, balances
Soon after this little modification was made, the Little Old Man got caught out by the return of the slicer's slicing pathology. To his surprise, the little buffers were back in place. This was a little puzzling but he decided that perhaps he was getting as forgetful as others were asserting.
Rosemary read this post a few days ago and said: 'Ohh! I wondered why they had come out so I put them back'
Ear plugs?
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 63 24 February 2014
Gaffer tape aka Little Old Man tape
I had rather a nice email from my sister the other day:
Having installed our super dooper squirrel wood burning stove just lately it had been drawn to my attention that the coal bucket we are using is not up to scratch (see photo) so I have been looking in shops to find an elegant replacement but with no success... Telling Jim this today his reply was'
Well I could always cover it with black masking tape if you like...
dear dear husband!!
Well we do agree that yes, just perhaps, it might be better covered in black tape
We have seen plenty of uses for this wonderful tape in these pages over the years and when Alex set off to leave this morning, we discovered that Little Old WoMan that she is, she is making full use of the very same stuff.
She proudly points out the major collision repair
Perfect!
Just why is she grinning?
She is grinning because thanks to gaffer tape she can listen to the wireless in her car
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 62 24 February 2014
Car boot organiser
Now Little Old Men like to be organised AND they don't like throwing things away, especially when they are useful.
So when you buy a new car and it has nice clean carpets in the back and you like carrying bags of cement and other good stuff which might just make a mess of that carpet.
............
That is when you need a protective boot cover. It is helpful if your previous car had a similar sort of thing and just because it is too big for the new one, it doesn't mean it can't be suborned into service.
Protective boot cover in place
See how the old wheel arch recess restrains all the stuff you just have to carry in the back of your car at all times
Our Little Old Man points out that this 'feature' has not been retained on the port side where he has used 'cut and paste' to eliminate the recess
'Cut and bolt'
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 61 16 February 2014
Not so simple
Comes the moment when the Little Old Man wants that handy box featured in Issue 60 and it is nowhere to be found. Well that is NOT quite right it was somewhere to be found. In the re-cycling bin to be precise. The Little Old Man is no stranger to skip diving so it was easily retrieved. Though not so pristine as before.
A long time ago, probably when the Little Old Man was still at school, he came across a poem that has haunted him ever since and he has never been able to find again. It sounds like a Buddhist sort of thing but the gist of it is:
I was walking in high places,
when I saw far below me a man castrating a yak.
I descended to remonstrate with him,
then I continued to walk in high places,
but not so high as before.
Box redux
Little Old Man Weekly: Issue 60 14 February 2014
New boxes for old
Recently, the little old man had a need for a small box AND he had just bought a small spotlight that came in a box of exactly the right size BUT that it was covered with product information on the outside. Solution, take it carefully apart and re-assemble inside out. Simple.
New box
for old
Boing Boing
SF Weekly
Last word on nothing
Wise words
Questionable content
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