When we got back from
Buddy’s first walk we were confronted with a ‘Men at work’ sign alongside our
boat and a couple of guys in high viz just beyond it.
 |
| Not what we were expecting to come home to |
As I walked up to chat
with them I passed a signboard that explained what they were doing but I still
carried on for a chat anyway.
 |
| The signboard at the other end of the boat |
Apparently, the farmer had
been complaining for some time about water leaking from the canal across one of
his fields. The guys were here to drill
42 holes and inject them with polyurethane resin which works a bit like spray
foam insulation only their resin reacts with water to make it expand.
 |
| The leakage highlighted by the dark line of marsh grass running down to the bottom |
I know it’s probably not
called marsh grass but it’s what I have always called it. Anyway, it does show where the leak is and
that it must have been going on a while.
I asked them if I could
take a photograph of them working and they were more than happy as long as I
waited until they put their life harnesses on 😊
 |
| Men at work |
They told me it was going
to take them two weeks to complete the job which seemed a long time to me. We left at 10.30 to walk to my dad’s and they
were setting off down the towpath at the same time. They were walking back to their van for their
tea break. At over ½ mile each way that
means 20 minutes on top of their break time, so I began to realise why it may
take two weeks 😉
Before we left we moved
the boat about 20 yards away from the works as they advised that the polyurethane
may leak out and form a barrier against the boat.
After seeing my dad, we
had lunch with Mum then retrieved our car as we needed to get to Ilkley for
our Monday afternoon visit to the bridge club.
It was Karen’s first duplicate bridge session, so understandably she
was a bit nervous beforehand. There were
about 50 people playing and they made us most welcome and we soon relaxed –
didn’t stop us coming last though, but as my dad pointed out later, we can’t
get any worse.
On the way back to pick up
Buddy, who we had left at Mum’s in Gargrave, Karen suggested going via the back
roads to see if there were any VR post boxes.
We were approaching a country crossroads and I was explaining that this
was the ideal location. I couldn’t believe
it when Karen shouted that we had just passed one – I couldn’t believe I had
missed it ☹.
 |
| Typical location of a country VR post box at Bog Lane crossroads in Thorlby… |
 |
| …and a close up for the geeks showing the unusual mouth |
Tuesday will see us
turning around and heading back to Barnoldswick for water and a pump out. My youngest brother, Richard, arrives from
Scotland in the evening for a short stay so I suspect our non-drinking Tuesday
won’t be!
We had hoped Chris and Sue
would visit as well but circumstances changed for all of us; we gained a week
by not getting to Liverpool and are therefore further north than planned. We heard from them yesterday and they had completed
on their house sale and have moved aboard their narrowboat joining the ever-growing
band of happy and care-free water gypsies 😉
Before I finish, here are
the people stuck in Liverpool docks – Chris and Aileen have paid to get craned
out tomorrow and will be heading our way.
This is a parting party shot they took of everyone who’s stuck there
wishing them bon voyage.
 |
| Sunset from the cratch - the lumps on the hill on the horizon are sheep |
No comments:
Post a Comment