Good timing

With the 2016 man test looming closer its prudent to make sure the steed that will be responsible for safely transporting me over the 480 odd miles is a good one. Last nights training was interrupted by a catastrophic wheel fail which meant the rear wheel ended up pringle shaped and broken. New ones have been ordered and it was a good job it happened only 2 miles from home and not on Monday's 150 mile bike ride.

Sheep botherer caught on camera.

 I will point out I am fully clothed but here I am caught bang to rights hand feeding a militias sheep who seems to have adopted us

or rather knows what a soft touch we are particularly since I am now vegetarian.

You hum it, I'll sing it

 True to form nothing is ever simple and the non Steves who were originally tasked to move the old bathroom out of the cottage came over all weak once they found out that in order to save a kidney I had taken the liberty of cutting their pay by doing most of the donkey work myself. One thing I could not do was lift the cast iron bath out.

 They who originally were going to do the task now decided that one of them had a weak arm and couldn't lift and the other had a bad back which meant he never stopped talking about it.

 The final insult was them telling me that if the presence of the bath meant they were delayed they would charge me extra.

Luckily I had a cunning plan and when offered a cup of tea and slice of cake a very good friend non Steve popped round and helped me move the offending sanitary ware. I obviously had bathroom movers Tourettes and could not help myself from asking "Do you know the baths on my foot" to which the only lawful response is "You hum it, I'll sing it".

Man Test 2016

In case anyone needed reminding yours truly has set himself a massive man test for 2016 and the link to donate to raise money for Myeloma UK is now in the margin somewhere to your right. Give what you can I'm trying to raise £5000 this year :)

Progress

 Orla

 suitably

 relaxed

 in fact

 she does

 little else

bless her.

DIY

 In order to save money yours truly has decided to take on some of the lets rebuild the bathroom project himself which is why I was found with a sledgehammer, drill and small screwdriver making

 substantial adjustments to the environment.

 At the end of play things looked a lot different

 if not improved.

Somehow I now have to get a cast iron bath past a big dog and down the stairs.

It has been said.

 So a big day starts in your's  truly's world with a big breakfast, and we can see that I am still on the wagon as far as not eating meat goes.

 When I finally got going it was three hours later than planned so I did initailly think a slightly smaller ride was on the cards and so by lunchtime I was half way along the Rhayder Aberystwth mountain road following the Elan Valley, in the far far distance you should see with good eyesight the massive bulk of Cadir Idris.

 The site of special scientific interest draws tourists from far and wide but for the most part I was alone, save for the attention of suicidal sheep who timed their road crossing as I passed.

 To say I enjoyed this section of the ride would be an outright lie, much easier in the car!

 Eventually under threatening skies I made the Arch

 and further on could see the sea which provided a much needed morale boost as it was downhill to the beach.

 Once their the sensible option would have been to take the massive hill route back and end the day at 118 miles but being the non sensible type I steered a course for Machynlleth and made it in time to find the cafes all shut so had to make do with a shrink wrapped sarnie from the local Co-op where my student ID card givning me 10% discount was scrutinised closely as they obviously don't get many fat lycra clad over 50 year old students in this town.

 Outside my steed made small talk with a pack horse.

 Refreshed and refueled with 76 miles done and 74 to go we find yours truly much further on after the last substantial hill before home watching  the sun set.

 It had been a good ride, lessons learned, the longest ever done without a support vehicle or other riders but useful for the man test that is now 23 days away.

In total I did 150.2 miles in 10 hours 55 minutes including stops, an average speed of 13.7 mph with a maximum speed of 44.4 reaching the giddy heights of 1598 feet above sea level, a total of 10006 feet of climbing and a massive 13,808 calories burned off according the the gizmo. I was told I was mad doing this. I has been said!

Sloppy Monster

 This is Thunderpaws our biggest ever Berner

 at a mighty 75kg when he arrived he has slimmed down a tad but is still massive

 and messy.

 Big dogs have big appetites

 so here he is emptying the pond

 before giving yours truly the sloppiest ever

dog kiss. Love you too.

The joy of goats

Autumn having a bad start to her day.

Making friends

 This is Mindy, our Mediterranean donkey who is where she shouldn't be, in the garden.

 Whilst this is Orla who is where she is supposed to be, exploring the garden but unfortunately their forst meeting didn't go to well as seconds later Mindy chased poor traumatised Romanian dog all around the garden.

 Luckily she wasn't hurt and soon found her way back into the sanctuary of the cottage where she discovered sofas, a sea change from living in a wood fending for herself last March.

The Tie fighter obsessed apprentice is branching out 3d. This is a yellow one in a secret base.

As good as new!

 The nice man has fixed Gerry, again, so now the window has been reassembled and the twin showers removed. Some Land Rover Discovery's have two sun roofs that are so inefficient at keeping the water out they are known as having twin showers.

 Talking of showers, heres a rum bunch on the sofa watching (read ignoring) yours truly beasting himself on the cross trainer.

Heres Noel and Sven growing on the lounge floor.

Its genetic

 The apprentice has started building Airfix models.

 You just place a box in front of him.

 And he does the rest.

 This is his latest effort.

 All by himself.

 He seems happy, I didn't tell him it was supposed to be a Spitfire.

His nerdy father on the other hand....