We started the day at Ruddington with a spot of impromptu tidying-up in the mess room. "Mess" was very much the operative word, but it's amazing what a broom and a few trips to the recycling bins can do.
Down at Hotchley Hill, we had four modest jobs to work on. First, patching-up the fence at the foot of the bank. As you can see, this is is badly dilapidated and could do with complete replacement. Budgets and manpower are limited, so for the moment the addition of some new planks along the top, tying it all together, will have to do.
Meanwhile, we commissioned a new toy in the form of a mobile generator; light enough to carry in one hand, and capable of running most power tools. We expect this to be a very useful addition to the fleet.
As soon as that was up and running, it was put to use drilling a slot in the frame of the north door. As you may recall, this door doesn't lock, because modern high-security bolts are longer than the originals. The frame is surprisingly thick steel, and it took a fair amount of effort to cut away the obstructing material. It turned out that the burr we'd brought wasn't quite the right shape to clean-up the opening. That's the second job that needs revisiting with better equipment!
Next, one of the boards covering up the operating-room floor was lifted, half-turned, and refastened facing the other way. It looked as though someone had "had a go" at one side of it, and that side is now where it matters least.
Lastly, we put some effort into replacing the old foamcore sign that was ruined by vandals last month. I should be the first to say that the replacement is not authentic or permanent. It's cheap vinyl, but stylistically appropriate and not worth stealing. We found that the holes that fixed the original sign were very shallow. No more than 1/2" in some cases, so we put the backup battery-powered drill to work, deepening them. This was slow going, as the wall is made of hard engineering bricks. We did eventually get the sign up though, for the obligatory posed photograph. To complete the set, this is now the third job we need to revisit: We realised that the material could easily be torn if someone were to use it as a hand-hold to climb onto the roof. A bit of rigid beading will fix that.
