Long days

I do love these long days - shame they'll be starting to get shorter again all too soon. Sometimes the day's so long I can't believe that something I did in the morning was all part of the same day. I managed a slightly earlier start this morning so put in about twelve hours in total. Jim spent the whole day sanding the cabinsides and top, ready for me to paint tomorrow - we've decided to try and look our best for Braunston, should we make it there.

But what did I do? Well, I painted all the new nuts and bolts inside the engine room (goodness, was that really today?); at least, I primed them. I now have to undercoat them in white and paint them cream. It was only after I finished that I remembered that the new tin of undercoat is also a primer - aaagh!! Then I thought about putting another coat on the tunnel bands, but decided against it as Jim was rubbing. I sorted out all the electrical stuff to show the electrician ('The only experience I have of dynamoes is throwing them away to fit alternators') and decided that while I was at it I could clean out and paint that locker under the crossbed. So I did that, and then the bit of the swim under the stove and part of the floor in the cabin (I'm leaving the middle section unpainted but cleaning up the edges with some red oxide). Then I got the old tin of cream paint and finished it off on some of the cabin woodwork - not the best move, or at least, leaning against it and putting my feet against it wasn't, and nor was knocking over the white spirit later.

I took a brief break to wash the old rag rug which actually seems to have been quite successful. I squished it around in a very big bucket of detergent for a bit then laid it out on top of two beer crates and rinsed it with the hose. You can now see that it is made up of different colours, not just brown.

Finally we took the bulls eye off - some bits of glass flaked off the edge but thankfully nothing too major. This has been fairly leaky over its lifetime, and recently an emergency repair was made with lots of sealant, but that has all cleaned off nicely, and hopefully a. we will get it all nicely sealed in tomorrow and b. it won't rain tonight. My last job of the day (apart from tidying up and microwaving dinner) was to make a start on cleaning its brass.

So I think that's everything I did today....