Trelis battens pegged into the soil and levelled to a 1 in 100 gradient. I found they were so close to the gradients already there that I didn't bother with anymore than this and pulled them back up. I can easily get the rest by eye. It's more a matter of flattening the surface now than adding a gradient to it
Tool, tool, tool, and yea... that's another tool. I shot the trelis sticks to the pegs with the TacWise nail gun using some staples. They don't hold very well if I need to pull the pegs back up a bit, but it's good enough to tack them in place. Sprayed the battens with SurveryLine to make them stand out. Two helpful spirit levels, one a basic 1800mm edge and the other is shorter but has a number of pregraded vials in it. I just choose the gradient vial I want (1:100) and follow that, sitting it atop the 1800mm to increase it's reach. The gradient level also has a laser that'll do dots on the level axis, at 90 degrees or fan the beam out into a line along the axis
VICTIM! I found his head a few weeks earlier
More rotovating & raking later, yea...
The soil is taking on that nice earthy, hollow thud you hear under your feet in woodlands, as opposed to the clunk of solidified clay. It's also draining so quickly in some spots I can barely keep it drenched with the hose
Decided to start adding some acid to the topsoil to get the pH down below 7. This won't be enough, but it'll help the bacteria and fungi start attacking the chicken poo and sawdust; both prefer slightly acidic conditions. Here's something for all tree hugging, nature loving hippies like myself to consider. In my sample of soil, the amount of acid I need to add represents the amount I need to entirely neutralize a liquid sample. I can't reduce the garden to the same swimming pool. Ultimately, this acid will have to sit on the surface of the clods and gradually work it's way in over the months, accelerated by a little more rotovation. This means I can't simply dump all the acid I need straight on, because I'll end up with caustic clods covered by acid that's too strong for anything to live in. I started by spraying 500ml of neat battery acid from this 3 for £2 bottle. As expected, it was broken before I'd gotten through the 500ml. I also discovered the magic of wind and drips, which makes spraying it neat a pain in the ass I won't be re-experiencing. I'm hoping to fit an auto-watering system to the garden. If I feed it from the big 210l butt I have I can add the acid and liquid nutrient gradually and let it feed in over the years - ala hydroponics, but with soil
Acid down, I needed to soak the garden to dilute and help it spread out. I wanted the garden sodden mud again for a number of reasons. Firstly to sort the acid, secondly to make the clay stick to the sawdust (so I'm not rotovating and raking pure dust), thirdly to mushy up the chicken poo into a squishy state where it'll spread, forthly to expose all the remaining bricks, hardcore and rubble and lastly, to encourage it all to settle down and subside rather than doing so after I start relying on the levels for decking and paving
A hose, and the decade old Hozelock spray gun that's been kicked around and repaired more times than I can count. It's still far better than the super expensive versions they've started making. If it brakes, I'll get a brass and rubber version from Toolstation for all of a fiver
The random orbital polisher. I had Toolstation order this one in for me because it was about £6 cheaper than anywhere else (£18.99 I think). But a few things about it are already annoying me. The plug is a US plug with no earth and the US to UK adaptor that comes with it is weird, the US plug snaps into the back of it and then you close the cover. But the cover routinely snaps open again if the lead is pulled on and the US plugs disconnects. That's an issue because it interupts the work and it's easy to forget to switch the polisher off on the handle. When you plug it back in, off the polisher goes, potentially killing it's self or the paint finish. Add to that, I don't mind messing around with electrics, but continually snapping the US plug back into 240V live pins is just plain stupid. Especially with water everywhere. And with respect to the cable, it's about a metre long. I mean wtf!? Of all power tools, this is one I'm obviously going to want to wander around a car sized object with, and the flex will barely reach the roof? I'm close to finished with my complaining, but now I want to talk about the polishing bonnet, which ties on with a draw string. The string it's self continually undoes, frays unless knotted at the ends and then decideds to hide inside the guide around the rim of the bonnet, like a belt getting stuck in one of those pairs of trousers where it has a band that runs the whole way round the waist with no openings but where it fastens. Last but not least, although slightly more acceptable, it's like hanging onto the worlds most powerful vibrator. My hands were going numb after two panels. But it sure brings the paint up nicely after a run with the Autoglym Super Resin polish. Oh wait, I'm not entirely done... I discovered some curious chipping on the roof of the car after running it. How that got there I have no idea, but it seems similar to the 'random orbit' of the polisher - perhaps it was when I discovered the plugging it back in without switching it off first problem. The polisher won't go right up to the edges and, to be fair, it's far easier to cut these by hand with a pad. In fact, the paint comes off quicker by hand, but it's time consuming work for the larger flat surfaces. Luckily, a lot of the issues with the polishers are things I think I can fix. For instance, I have a ton of old flex lying around that I can replace the stock cable with. I can velcro the bonnet on and I could even modify the switch so it only stays on while I'm holding the polisher. A lot of arguably frivilous tweaking, but it shouldn't take long and I doubt the more expensive versions from places like Halfords are any better
............. I only just finished cleaning the interior and it's already been Autoglymed. I'm forgetting my own top to bottom mantra with the excitement of having a vibrating thing to do it for me
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