Thursday, March 26, 2015

The hummingbird-bicicycle and other lifting.

I have learned a new thing about bicycles. They are not naturally creatures of the air, any more than sheep are. I believe they can achieve flight, but I needed them to hover. This they displayed absolutely no talent for. I feel sadly let down, and I did ask them nicely. Well. Sort of nicely. In a very descriptive way.

I was attempting to hang a pair of them from the roof-beams of a lean-to shed, on the 'they will stay dry, out of the way, and remain there until needed' theory. I regard bicycles with considerable distrust, and as a 'form of fun' on a par with enemas, but then some people like the latter, I believe. James's bike is a good mountain bike - or was. The best we could afford for him in post-Matric, it's probably so old fashioned now, as to be a virtual penny-farthing. The other is a dirt-cheap heavy old road-bike I bought at a garage sale - on the theory that it's more fun to go riding and suffer together, and it's something else visitors can do if I am trying to cook, or write, or do something boring. Anyway, They haven't been much used, but who knows, I may be forced to it one day. So I thought I'd lift them up, out of my and harm's way, nice and dry. I really wasn't prepared for how heavy holding 2 of them above my head on a ladder with one hand and trying to tie the rope with the other. Really, it would be much easier if they learned to hover. Does anyone know the contact details for Harold the clever bicycle? I guess doing one at a time would have been cleverer.

My pick-up and carry (to say nothing of lift, especially bicycles) seems to be taking strain the last few days - the container is now roofed, and as it is now safe and dry, and a perfect place to keep things... I'm emptying it. Admittedly this is partly because I need some floor-boards - which are the lowest thing in the container - to fix the other little house on the prairie's floor, and also to make shelves, to put the stuff I am taking out onto. In the end, we'll be a lot better sorted out, work and and life will I hope be much easier and less chaotic. Right now, it's move two things to do one! I have to move a huge bookcase with a storage cupboard under it next. Only before I can do that I have to move one bookcase from where it is to the hall (and the books) and another and a small cupboard across my study... and then I have to do some small surgery to get it in to the house, because it is 10 centimeters taller than the door. And the gun-safe will have to be unbolted, moved and then put back, because it is in the way of the turning bookcase, and then re-bolted. I think. I'm going to wait until I try. (which will inevitably make it squeeze through the gap and balance on my nose while doing it. Situation normal).

Then once the container is emptied, I can put in a door and window, and a lot of shelves and two workbenches and vices (I love vices. And not only the kind they speak of in sermons.) I only have 3 (excluding the fly-tying ones) the which is not really really enough. And then I can fill it all up again. The contents of a 3X2 shed and a couple of meters of the carport can move into the 3x2 + 6x3 and the existing 3x2 can just be for garden stuff and some of the bits we're collecting for our future house. (light fitting, bathroom fittings, kitchen fittings. All throw-outs garage sales etc.) The containers (the little house on the prairie) and the 'new' one both are fitted for power, and I am thinking about a water-tank, as the new roof has a lot running off it.

The other thing I've learned is that my little DeWalt cordless is a treasure. I couldn't have done the job in three times the time without it. But it has enough torque to break my wrist I reckon. Smashed my hands against things, twisted out of my grip (I have a leash on it). It's an 18 volt one and I've (being poor and cheap) only had littler ones before. That was false economy.

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