Quick Dog Blog......

They weren't even lost!!

Jackie rang Hollyoaks yesterday to see how the strays were getting on.

Their owner had come forward, having rung the police, who put them in touch with Hollyoaks.

It's good job the owner spoke to the same copper, or she would doubtless have entered the same mobius strip 'twixt council and police as Jackie did....

So all's well that ends well, although I think the owner went away with one of Hollyoaks' spare fleas in her ear regarding letting dogs roam free, completely unattended, with no collars, i.d. tags or micro-chips to identify them.

Hope they charged her for the worming medicine!

Rescue Dogs.

We've had lots of fun and excitement today. No blizzards though, so the Rescue Dogs in question weren't St. Bernards.

Fortunately, perhaps.

But let us begin at the beginning.......

This morning Jackie's friend Nicola popped over from Ware for tea and cake and a chinwag. I eschewed the cake, caught up with some of the gossip, then accompanied the girls to the lock where they left me to fish out more timber salvage and went off for a walk.

By the time they got back I had had it away on my toes with another large barrowful of logs etc which will eventually dry out enough for the woodburner. I'd also emptied the Diesel tank, (which now resides in our car park as it is currently selling on ebay) of the spilt diesel and rainwater that had collected over the years between the double-bunded skins. I undid the drain plug and drew off about 6 litres of filthy, contaminated and unusable gunk. Blechh!! Straight on the bonfire!

Jackie and Nicola then returned, having chatted-up a polo playing land-owner in a neighbouring field, and seen a couple of apparently stray dogs digging for rabbits near the pumping station. They looked quite happy, if collarless and filthy dirty, but Jackie was concerned. She rang the council first:

"Not our problem. Ring the police".

She rang the local nick in Histon:

"Stray dogs are the Council's problem, ring them".

Rather than getting cross, which is what I probably would have done, Jackie broke out of the bureaucratic Mobius Strip by ringing the vets who have looked after Tom Kitten.

Hollyoaks Veterinary surgery are fab. They said it was a Police matter, but as the police round here couldn't catch a cold, never mind a stray dog, they'd come out and help.

One of the vets soon arrived, accompanied by a veterinary nurse. With Jackie's help, the dogs were found. They were very friendly, well behaved and not at all aggressive. Despite having just managed to get hold of one of the rabbits they'd spent five hours digging for, they happily responded to a kindly "Here, boy" and proffered treat, and were soon safely collared and on the lead.

Under the caked-on mud, it soon became apparent that they weren't any old Canis Mongrelis. The larger one was a labrador/poodle cross, (are they really called 'labradoodles'?), the other a Springer spaniel. Thoughts turned to the likelihood of them having been stolen for the awful business of Fighting Dog practice, or perhaps more simply for re-sale. In short, were they micro-chipped? The vets took them back to the surgery for a hot bath, thorough MOT, some much needed food and a once-over with the microchip reader.

And where was I while all this excitement was occuring?

Emmaus, natch.

(Actually I was doing our landlord a favour by taking some unwanted items up there, okay? The fact that I came away with another toolbox, for Jackie this time, and a rather super socket set, and all for a fiver, has absolutely nothing to do with it, alright?)

On returning to "Pippin", I was being regaled with the story when the vet rang to say neither dog had a chip.

A mystery then, and sad to think there will be no joyful reunion with their rightful owners.

However, both hounds are safe, and, apart from each having a galloping case of worms, seem none the worse for their adventures. Indeed, Jackie likened them to the dogs in the film 'Dean Spanley', as they seemed to be having so much fun digging for rabbits. (Though if you know the film, you'll know 'our' dogs denouement was a far happier one....).

They are both now residing at the Wood Green Animal Shelter in Godmanchester.

Although if it hadn't been for the likely objections of a certain Ship's Cat, they might well have both been safely aboard The Mighty Pippin by now............

Loo update, and an engine service.....

There's just no stopping her!

After a successful effort in staving off the inevitable with the Suzuki, Jackie has been at it again! This time, fitting the new parts to the loo and then doing an RCR course on diesel engine servicing.....

First, the loo:

A conversation with Leesan decided that the solenoid was probably not the cause of the loo filling with too much water when flushing. More likely was a rise in pressure caused by the new pump Jackie fitted to replace the old, knackered one. (We also added another accumulator tank too, and this may also have been a contributing factor). Leesan reckoned that a restrictor valve between the pipe and tank would solve this, so one was duly bought, along with the non-return valve that prevents waste backing up in the bowl, a new air vent and some descaler for good measure. Good job too! The originals could have soaked for a week in descaler and been none the better. (We would have taken pictures, but such things are probably best left to the imagination.....). Lots of pipe cleaning ensued, and really stubborn deposits removed with 'One Shot' drain cleaner.

(N.B. 'One Shot' is lethal! It's a really powerful acid-based solvent that will eat rubber seals and most pipe adhesives.

It must be used sparingly, with caution, a long way from the boat and the river!

It must then be flushed down a mains drain with loads of water.)

It also eats clothes....

Having flushed the re-assembled loo and sorted out a couple of weeps, Jackie determined that, though better, it still wasn't quite right.

Some head-scratching ensued (hands were washed first....)

We reckon the loo is probably seriously scaled up inside. "Pippin" stood, unused, for at least six months before we bought her, and for another four with only occasional visits. This, plus a possible lack of preventative maintenance under the previous owner,(understandable, really: if the loo's working okay, regular de-scaling can look rather like money down the drain....), may well have done it.

Anyway, the system is now into it's third day of a good internal soak with LeeScale. Lets hope it does the trick....

Last year I did the RCR day-course on diesel engine servicing. It's really good! Pete, RCR's top engineer, comes to you with all required spares and service items and basically, teaches you how to service your engine.

I particularly like this approach as it is theory-light and heavy on the practicals of how to do your own boat's engine in the boat itself. The disadvantage of a classroom course is that even if your engine is the same as the one used , each installation is bound to cause potentially confusing differences.

Trouble was, after a year had elapsed, my hastily scribbled and oil-smudged notes made little sense...... My fault entirely, but as a result, I wasn't prepared to risk wrecking the engine by making a simple mistake.

Do the maths:
New Beta 50hp:- c.£5,500.
An RCR service plus one-to-one tuition:- £150.

So it was that Pete from RCR turned up on Sunday to teach Jackie how to do the engine service. A neighbour who has done the course too, but felt, like me, in need of revision, kept careful, clear and accurate notes (she's a teacher...) Pete was his usual brilliant self, Jackie really enjoyed learning, and the engine is now purring.

I made the tea and contemplated learning to knit.

Cambridge has a new Rowing Club.......

The Charles Darwin Rowing Club, to be precise. (Motto: "Survival of the fittest")

To be a member of this exclusive club, you have to be female, in a single scull, and on the river Cam heedless of strong stream warnings.

To qualify for membership, you have to take your boat out in the aforesaid atrocious conditions, spin at Baits Bight lock so late that you end up all over the weir boom, then fall in the water and get swept under the sluices.

You must then extract yourself from the water and walk nonchalently back to Cambridge leaving your empty boat against the weir to cause as much alarm as possible.

Rowers, eh?

Have you had a bad day today?

Then read Rhian's latest post on Smiling Footprints blog.

Kind of puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?

Vitara Rides Again!

Yes, Jackie and Paul have done it: The Suzuki is reassembled with a new head gasket and new cam-belt. It is not just running, but purring like Tom Kitten!

I haven't driven it yet, but Jackie says it feels much lighter and more responsive. I should think it does, as the failed gasket looked so knackered I was surprised the poor old thing managed to run at all. Anyway, it's now not leaking oil, water and compression all over the place, which can only be a good thing....

Just a couple of small issues: the idiot who tinkered about with the rear bumper wired the lights up all wrong. One of the elements in one bulb has also burned out, (no doubt in protest at this oaf's heavy-handedness), so Jackie is off to the car accessory shop tomorrow to get a new one.

Oh, and a new exhaust as well, as the old one is about to fall off.......

Ah well, it's only money......

Altogether too much drama.

Wow.

No sooner do we suggest that our friends' blog is worth reading, then said friends are involved in a tsunami following the Chilean earthquake!

Relax, they're both fine. Not quite back to Condition Beige, but okay just the same.

Thank goodness. It's been a worrying 24hrs or so.

Of course, after all this serious life-threatening drama, blogging about the Cam having risen a bit seems rather lame.

Risen it has, though. The drop at the weir is now as little as 4 inches or so. The E.A. are manning the nearby pumping station 24 hours. A lot of water is whooshing through the sluices, which are cranked wide open.

The water level just upstream of the lock hasn't got too worrying. In fact when things were this bad (or a bit worse) last Feb, our parish field didn't flood. The gang plank angle has increased a bit, but that's about all.

I'm jolly glad we are using the borrowed Thetford cassette loo, though. Cambridge is properly flooded (which will have stuffed the pump-out electrics again anyway). Having to chug to Ely in this sort of strong stream might make for a record breaking time on the out-bound leg, but a long, high-rev, low knots battle back against the current on the way home.

However, there is some progress to report on the new loo front. We have removed the ply panel behind the existing loo, exposing all the pipework. We have decided to try to repair it, (new solenoid, non-return valve and one way air vent), and then save up for the Vacuflush 5000. This may seem a bit daft, but consider the following:

-it will take us a year or so to find the money.

-that's a long time to be carrying cassettes.

-the Vacuflush uses about one quarter of the water our current system uses when working perfectly

-this will lengthen our pump-out interval to about eight weeks!

-this will save diesel, money, time, the environment, and mean less chance of getting athwart the hawse of rowers or having to deal with dirty looks from used car salesmen and estate agents in plastic cruisers.

So it makes sense.

To us, anyway.....

In other news, Jackie has been busy today helping our be-winged and halo-ed friend Paul strip down the engine of our Suzuki Vitara. (Why wasn't I doing it? Well, it's got heathen devices like fuel injection, catalytic converters, overhead cams, 16 valves and a plumbers nightmare of coolant hoses, air ducts and wiring looms, and is not a nice, big, bare block with four bits of wire emerging from it and lots of space around it, so I tend to get a bit lost..........

I busied myself removing and replacing the rear bumper's plastic impact-absorbing outer skin instead. (To remove the evidence of some impact it had absorbed, since you ask....) This was accomplished fairly easily despite some 10mm bolt heads shearing off. The dent was teased out using a small amount of carefully aimed percussion engineering and a waft of heat from my trusty hot air gun. It all went back together okay, though what lights will light up at the back when the clever people working on the engine re-connect the battery is anyone's guess.

If it stays sunny tomorrow, Jackie and Paul are going to clean the head and top of the block, install a new head gasket and put it all back together.......

And so, to today's gratuitous cute cat shots. Spot the difference:-