Grand Design

 Flush with the success of my latest DIY project where I managed not only to fit a new safety gate between lounge and dining room. The previous one became an unsafe gate when it nearly castrated me Wednesday night as I walked into it. We had already spotted that the end clipping up thing was at toddler eye height so bought a replacement, what I failed to notice both theoretically and literally was that the same metal post was at the exact inside leg measurement of yours truly causing intense pain when the impact occurred and a previously unrealized ability to sing falsetto. So out with the old, in with the new (gates not testicles) and being keen on improving things this one is supposed to be dog proof, as in its too high for them to jump (lets hope so because if a 55kg dog clears this and lands on a 12kg toddler then there will be a mess to clear up at least) its also level and the wooden supports fitted are almost equal length, are securely fitted to the walls and even have recessed coach bolts in properly drilled holes rather than screwed up so the pressure caused the heads to disappear. So happy was I with this job I set about the next DIY project, building a 5 bay dog kennel. Clearly a bigger task than hanging a safety gate but some of the skills are transferable.

 Step one in building is clear the site. In this case not having done any gardening in the space now destined to be built on has added a few minutes to the task.

 From the other end it looked equally bad, but at least amongst this mess is a very accurately measured out plot, albeit the corner markers are a walnut tree sapling, a bamboo cane, a broken pot and an olive bush.

No real time for building today as it was the first meeting of Red Kite Riders which despite the heavy rain had a good first meeting turnout of 6 with a mixed range of ability ranging from first time on bike in 20 years to triathlete. Naturally the start of the 15 mile fun ride started with a puncture repair. Full commentary of the RKR will be on the training blog and most likely a face book page will be started so all can keep in touch.