Rodent proofing completed

On a showery Monday I finished off making the Konoba vermin proof for the winter.

Last week I completed filling the gaps between the stone walls and my doors with expanding foam. There was one remaining problem, a gap under one of the doors.

I thought I had been really careful when I measured how much to cut off the bottom of the door to make a tight fit with the new floor.

What I hadn’t appreciated was that the new floor was slightly uneven and close to the wall, it is about 12 mm higher than in the centre.

So when I measured, I used the hinges which meant that the door fits perfectly at the wall but there was a gap in the centre which a mouse could easily squeeze through.

I had a length of draught excluder brush, which after cutting to size, I elongated fixing holes in the centre and outside edge. This allows the brush to move up and down.

 

When the door is open, the brush rises with the floor by the wall. When the door closes, the brush falls so it maintains contact with the concrete.

 

I needed to do a couple of adjustments to get the rise and fall just right.

But now I have doors which are completely sealed against any small rodents which are looking for somewhere warm for the winter.

Hibernating moths

I made an unusual discovery this week.

The days are still sunny although it has felt cold as a Bura wind swept in from the north east.

It is pleasantly warm in the strong autumn sunshine, but cool as soon as the sun dips behind the southern hills.

As the days shorten and the temperature drops, so insects and mammals look for places to hibernate over the winter.

At least I don’t have Brown Bears coming out of the Maquis trying to find food and a bed for the winter… . The Brown Bear is depicted on the back of all Croatian 5 Kuna coins.

Early in the week I was preparing to move a refrigerator from the utility room into the Konoba. This is so I am ready for doing more work on the inside of the building.

This machine has a top freezer compartment and a large, lower normal fridge. I opened the top door just to check that the fridge was completely empty before it was moved.

As I opened the door some movement in the corner, by the hinge caught my eye.

Looking closely there seemed to be some small pieces of cloth but one was moving, albeit very sluggishly. I recognised it straight away from its colouring as one of our Hummingbird Hawk Moths.

 

I know these moths overwinter by hibernation, seeking somewhere inside a building, but out of sight.

By September they are coming in through open doors and windows, looking for the right place. However I have never seen, nor heard of moths hibernating together in a roost.

So I deliberately didn’t take a photograph so as not to disturb them and carefully shut the door again.

 

My quick impression was that there was not less than six and perhaps 10 all huddled together. They were neatly packed between the doors, around the hinge.

I am aware that there are a number of species here which do find hibernation roosts, things like Bats and some species of snake.

The North American Monarch butterfly migrates to overwintering grounds in the Morelos and Puebla regions of Mexico. But the Monarchs don’t actually hibernate.

So this practice is completely new to me.

 

Heath and Robinson

When I looked last Sunday at the blog readership statistics for the weekend, 37% of readers were in the USA.

The software records the country where the device logged in from, the operating system and the kind of device used. Almost 50% of readers view the blog on a mobile device or smart phone.

I have an Idiomatic dictionary of English, because especially in the USA, the main language is English, but not as we Europeans know it!

For example, what on the east side of the Atlantic is known as a rubber, used by kids as small missiles in the classroom, are called erasers in the USA.

Sometimes though there is no common term.

If I use “Heath” and “Robinson” together in a sentence to describe something, to an English reader it will immediately conjure up an image of twine, Sellotape and ingenuity used in equal proportions to create a temporary fix.

In Australia and New Zealand, it will probably be the same, but elsewhere? I doubt the drawings of W. Heath-Robinson are very well known .

Even there in my last sentence, what is universally known in the UK as “Sellotape” is in North America called “Scotch Tape”.

Both are brand names. W Heath-Robinson was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, best known for drawings of whimsically elaborate machines designed to achieve simple objectives.

 

This week I have had a problem with my solar water heater.

I took the panels off which prevent ⅔ of the fierce Mediterranean summer sun from reaching the high efficiency tubes. Only to find that I had a weeping leak from a couple of the seals around the pipes.

 

I contacted the makers in Italy who expressed concern that it might be something more serious than a failed rubber seal and I needed to do a pressure test. They even kindly sent me a drawing.

 

Up on the roof, I removed the vent on the top of the tank and found the thread was ¾”.

Going through my plumbing parts, I had all sorts of connectors, but no ¾” with a link where I could connect a pipe.

I had a selection of half inch and one-inch connectors, but no three-quarter inch.

So this is where Heath-Robinson comes in.

I cannibalised a plumbing fitting I did have, to get the ¾” joint. Then I used an irrigation tap connector, reversed, to fit the metal fitting.

Then I added a tap connector and another couple of irrigation bits to connect the length of hose onto the vent.

 

It does not look very elegant but it works. This is the essence of a Heath-Robinson contraption.

Probably if I was to describe it for an Idiomatic Dictionary, I would say a Heath-Robinson device is a temporary fix, using ingenuity and whatever you have to hand, all cobbled together into a single contraption. But when complete it must work.

There is no leak between the low and high pressure sides of the solar heater, so it is just a failure of one of the seals. A new set is on order from Italy.

Before refitting the pressure release valve, I added water to the tank to bring it up to the correct level.

As soon as there are a few cloudy days in November and once the new seals arrive, I need to drain and flush the tank, then install the new ‘O’ rings.

 

Beans are out

I’ve been waiting for the right moment to plant out my Fava (Broad) Beans.

These are the ones which I started by soaking overnight on the 5th September. After they germinated, I planted them in cardboard tubes on the 8th September, in the greenhouse.

I am a great believer in rain being the best irrigations system you can have. But until last week, we have had no rain at all, so the ground has been as dry as dust.

I prepared the bed, dug a trench to take the tubes and have been waiting for some rain.

We have now had over 100 mm so the soil is nicely moist, down to a reasonable depth.

Picking the right time to plant them has been important. Too early and the roots will not take to the soil. Too late and they will be too big. They are verging on this now, with some plants being 30 cm tall.

 

I waited until the heavy rain has finished, at least for the time being and planted them on Monday morning.

Not long afterwards there was a nice shower of rain. Just enough to water them in, but not so heavy that it damaged the tender young leaves.

I have put some canes and string in as well, so there is something to support them as they grow.

Although there is some cold forecast for this week, it will be followed by warm weather again. This gives me hope that there might be fresh beans ready for Christmas.

For good measure and as a successional crop, I have also planted a row of beans directly into the soil too. NCG

 

Looking back – Week 41

This is the start of the weekly section, with links to past issues of the blog.

2014/41 A door for all seasons

2015/41 The curse of the Packers and Stuffers

2016/41 How to be an instant expert

2017/41 Hedgehogs in the garden!

2018/41 Well clarted boots

2019/41 Never feed them after midnight

 

2020/41 New kit on the block