Spring beckons and we know there is work aplenty!

With new owners Neil and Paul on board and plenty to do as usual we did a walk about in March to survey what needed sorting out prior to the main season on the river and lakes. On this voyage of discovery we found a large meadow gate that had given up the ghost with a rotten post and twisted body, a pontoon in a very sorry state and issues along the riverside following winter floods, not to mention trees down following one of the worst storms for decades in February.

Access to the fishing for salmon rods is across our Lagoon via a large floating pontoon which has been in place for decades following a decision that the walk around for Salmon fishers was basically too long and the track prone to waterlogging through the woods.

The hardwood decking on the pontoon was becoming rotten in places and had reached the end of its days, a decision was made to renew and replace the lot and quotes were sought for pre cut and treated decking and the correct stainless steel screws which would be a few thousand to complete the job! Alan A did a fine job sourcing the materials and in late March a team gathered. In rather chilly conditions with a nasty wind we split the work with one group dismantling another securing the replacement wood. Some of the timber proved extremely difficult to shift and the screws refused to budge from the steel connection plate and screw heads inevitably burred. After a long two days of slow we managed half of the pontoon. Our knees were hurting , necks and backs and certain tools unfortunately took a dive into the depths never to be seen again!

A few weeks later and with some clever templates built by Alan A to gauge the correct position and gaps and some new drills and screw bits we set to work again. Jim T was a great help early on with a fast track removal of the old wood and the tricky undoing of screws stuck fast on the steel plate which proved to be a time consuming task. Neil had been stuck in traffic on his journey from Cheltenham so Alan and I set to task using our new set up and methodology. With the lessons learnt and new processes we managed to complete the second half in one day including sprucing up the pontoon and tidying up the mess from the old decking.

The meadow gate has been slowly sinking causing problems for our guests when cars are allowed to the river and for us on the Estate doing work. Unfortunately the gate itself had become warped the post itself rotten low down and any work required repairs to adjacent fencing. Luckily we were gifted a 10" diameter post by Network Rail following the new crossing work. Ian S ordered a nice new 12 foot galvanised gate with all the correct fittings. Yours truly set to task removing the old post and other which was somewhat tricky and the tractor was required to life off the old very heavy gate. Disaster nearly befell the works when the 10X10 inch post collapsed part way through digging it out, fortunately I dodged this and got the new hole ready for stage 2.

The new gate had arrived on site the post and everything else needed alignment setting in postcrete ready for the adjustment and hanging of the new! I phoned a friend namely John T who kindly agreed to assist in the above. He'd helped a local farmer up in Redesdale in the past hang gates so had a fair grasp on the proceedings.

With a fair amount of head scratching and we considered the best way to get the job done. John loaded up the truck and with tools and wood aplenty we headed across. The fence connections were the first task and then supporting posts with plenty of spirit level checks we gingerly loaded the postcrete into the hole pouring water and stirring. Hey presto we set to task securing the various hinges and ironmongery the gate now fully supported and left the thing to set and settle. JOB DONE!

We had planned a long long time ago to get the new water supply onto the main estate. The problems were many and also technical in nature to ensure a safe and well thought out solution to the challenges inherent in replacing our old supply via the railway.

The 'Project' required various stages of design , approvals from Network Rail and contractors who were willing and able to work in the winter with the ever present challenges of snow, rain and ice.

With the drawings provided and routes decided along with the various services needed we set to task in possibly the worst winter for years unfortunately. Barry M and Ian S were on site with our contractors man with a very large and powerful digger. With a seriously difficult challenge ahead the first length from the container to the culvert was heading across land that could well have been fortified by material in the 1830's. As a result and having a very good machine and operator the huge igneous stones en route were safely removed !

The snows and minus 7 °C made for challenging work and stuck in London again with Covid restrictions I was being cursed daily...

The works were hindered by very boggy ground near the railway culvert and the cold wet ground was unyielding. The pipes were unravelled (no easy task) and manhandled into the deep trenches ensuring no sharp stones were left in the trenches. A few hundred metres of trenching and a weeks work the pipe sections were in situ where required with junctions off to the lodge and off west to new locations.

As a fairly dry period approached and restrictions were lifting bit by bit I headed north and with a new team Alan A , JIM T and I we built the foundations needed for the tensioned supports under the railway. The materials ordering was more than adequate (Barry !!) lets just say we will need to think of some new projects to use it up ....

Network Rail were primed to witness the drawing of the pipe under and tension wire works. Peter W did a brilliant job putting the system safely together and stage 1 allowed a sign off by Network Rail , with a final inspection when the water supply is connected up.

Alan A and I forged ahead with 9 pits to open up for Deono our plumber. This entailed backbreaking work that only man could achieve to ensure safe access and trouble free years ahead with carefully designed inspection chambers for each and every valve and connection.

In late June the whole system was pressure tested for leaks and dosed with lab tests supplied. As with everything Covid (yes unfortunately!) the whole project was probably delayed a good 3 months so our earlier lodge stayers didnt get the benefit of the new supply.

The D day arrived with the inevitable issues with new pressure and a fair amount of adjustment and a new pressure monitoring gauge means we have a good solution and the old water tank with incumbent aggro was finally retired....!

The final tasks will be closing up all the inspection pits and making good with marker posts and so forth oh and a final inspection by Network Rail where the pipe carries through their land.

Well Done All and thank you..

Its been another busy season, juggling the rods and getting the infrastructure right for us moving forward. It wasn't until June that we finally put the extension work to bed and as the season closed I drew on comments from our guests to consider what we need to achieve for 2020 season!. Once our guests arrived in 2019 season it became increasingly difficult to fit in the work without upsetting them and unfortunately one group had a day of us getting the new deck in place, luckily they were understanding and even offered us the odd coffee if we 'just sod off and get on with it and promise not to be about tomorrow with out tools boiler suits and so forth !".

Rewinding briefly we left the story back in freezing February 2019 having started out demolishing the old extension on November the 1st before a winter storm juts blew the whole thing over as it was developing into shanty town shack. At this time we genuinely thought with the frame up that the place would be up in a few weeks or ok perhaps a month ! Well this was to put it mildly optimistic.

I left the guys headed south to get back onto marketing the 2019 fishing. As I left I happened to check the the strand-board ( wrapped up neatly) but rain had made us concerned that we needed really to get it out and on the roof as we had a roofing firm waiting to get the hot felt on. Alan and Mike decided to unwrap check the board and it became obvious some water had got in so no time to waste! Only problem was the day they started to fix it up the wind decided to get up and Alan very nearly kite surfed off and into the lake!

To put it mildly we were very satisfied that the building was now looking like a building and protected as best we could. We now could wrap it in a waterproof membrane and get the cladding on. Alan was able to borrow a laser level and using this we were able to mark the first fixes for the board and ensure a professional  job. The old building had settled and adjustments were needed to ensure everything was cut to align ensuring doors and windows were square . Eventually the door and window locations were set in place time to get the nail gun out and the electric buzz saw! It was a tricky job and especially the top last sections proved complicated and troublesome.

Time was pressing on now as we had some guests fishing in March and I had promised a working toilet for new rods ….but we were far away from that ! Still no cess tank we kept phoning … contractors waiting.

The internals needed metre upon metre of carefully cut vermin mesh, masses of boring insulation for floors ceiling walls . Pretty soon we ran out of everything and one of the rods kindly dropped off some surplus board to add to our materials. Alan and I got planning the toilet layout with our toilet sink and boiler on site we did our layouts and eventually settled on what was needed to ensure we had space to dig out the pipework and so forth. Alan did a brilliant job building the soil outlet and ensuring everything was to the right configuration a professional job from a professional expert with a lifetime of building project management. Mike brought his great carpentry skills and well I filled out the shitty jobs department work and cracked on (oh how we overused that term !) on the days when the older generation sat in front of their Tv's or fires the local bar ! (as author I can say these things) to warm their elderly bodies ! I just soldiered on at the low end work stuffing insulation wire mesh and plywood inserts.

With the internal work in progress we were fortunate to acquire wholesale the plywood needed to skin the internals ensuring we used board that was not to heavyweight to be hard to cut and manage nor too thin that it lacked the rigidity for our purposes. Alan and Mike fitted in around my insulation any pipework and electrical connections. We planned to primarily supply the extension with DC power using our battery bank for lighting , pumps and chargers. One AC point was installed for vacuum and power tools.

Our flooring utilised Egger Board which is a highly durable heavyweight product  and provided an excellent base for the occupants. This was quite a task to install Mike and I had a hard two days securing it , it required accurate cutting gluing and the lipped connections required some skill to ensure the joints were butting up , needless to say once the expanding glue had set and was razored off it was a cracking job. Plenty of tea and backslapping!

The plumbers came on site ,great news as we had a lot of areas to pipe up and utilities to get working for the Estate. Colin and his son Joe methodically worked at the tasks to hand. New boiler , toilet, shower valve. gas fridge , pump and wiring. Everything worked ! No leaks and all we needed was the damn cess tank, where abouts was it ? Thankfully we had our replacement water tower in place and with the IBC properly disinfected the water was pumped around the system and all of the new piping installed last year by Peter and I worked apart from the schoolboy error of hot versus cold labelling which makes for a warm toilet break!

John Greaves a local expert in motor electrics and always ready with ideas devised an AC system for the extension which meant we had lights inside and at each door entrance with sensors for safe night access. Importantly the pressurised water system has power and the pump although initially noisy was rectified after some suppression and investigation. Guests now have DC for phone charging on USB and cigarette lighter connections for stuff like cool boxes and other. All in all we were feeling more comfortable about the build but a heck of a lot was still to be done. Charles and Juliet popped up for the weekend and they set to painting the internals with non toxic and a very warm white silk finish the resultant outcome was the room really felt warm and welcoming. We still had masses of wood strips and architrave for fix where joints needed fishing around doors and all the connections between the many plywood sheets.

With plenty to do inside I set to the outside and with the doors on the externals needed painting and with Barry we got the slabs in place meaning no more mud and a safe walkway around which had been slippery and annoying to say the least.

The glazing man installed the windows and with Mike making the doors from scratch we had a weathertight room. The insulation was brilliant it only took a small amount of heat for the place to be really comfortable. The next job was to agree the dividing wall dimensions and a bit of research told us that the internal wall would be better soundproofed using traditional insulation roll and this proved very effective the cloakroom was mercifully muffled!

We still had no working toilet and we now had fishing guests!! After many frantic calls late in a cold spring day the tank arrived and our contractor could then get the thing in over the weekend ! What a relief (excuse the pun!). Measurements were taken fall calculated and location decided upon. All materials were in place and the installation went well.

We had to think about storage inside a flooring material and a big job a new deck outside !!! Luckily (or is it the fact I've some great friends) Ian suggested large surplus carpet tiles the same type used in schools easily installed and rugged ideal for our purposes ! Mike and I worked out the supports needed for the deck and set out the dimensions and posts. Ian came up with the goods and I got the tiles laid one morning and the effect was to soften the room and it felt comfortable and welcoming.

I sat on the sofa opened the door and the view out was wonderful we had cracked it. For our guests after a heavy morning on the river they had a place for a snooze, read the paper and just recharge for the next river quest. The only problem was the precarious access which we were about to sort out with a very fiddlesome piece of work building and laying the deck. As I mentioned earlier we now had guests and had to dash up and attend to these things in between our guests fishing the river, so progress was not always what we wanted as tools had to be safely stowed while guests returned to the lodge.

Barry Tim and Chay were happy with the extension and given that Chay is a top builder we were more than happy with this !

More pictures will follow of the finished building.

 

After much planning  and draining of the business account we have most of the materials either on site or paid for ,barring the hot felt roof insulation and internal works. I keep nervously checking the monies with any added requirements as we push towards our target! Mike T and Alan A have effectively framed the structure in the gaps in the famously unpredictable British weather. Barry Mitchell and I have provided the muscle and also groundworks oh and tea/coffees, pies , rolls and so forth. The old extension housed the water tank generator building toilet , stores and so forth and it was falling over and half of the structure had to be removed two years ago with rot setting in.

In December during the Christmas period materials were estimated and ordered to be stored either in the container or under plastic near the lodge. January saw the first foray into the elements with the supporting piers set out for the fairly substantial floor frame to be fabricated, not an easy task with timber that as always can vary in size and shape.

Days of measuring rechecking and finally cutting meant that the work was carried out with no mistakes and only offcuts piling up and a testament  to having two professional craftsmen and a top bricklayer in his youth to help. It is hoped that the building will be a great asset to our guests where they can get changed without dodging furniture and other in the lodge and also have a new toilet with all modern  accoutrements. As ever it always seems never-ending but hope as always springs eternal that we can finish it in time for our first guests.

As the process moved on we decided on the size and location of the doors and windows which required a lot of careful measuring and planning by Mike and Alan. By this time Barry and I were redundant clearly not required !

Neil a good friend popped up to assist in the planning of the plumbing and also explored the estate as the weather decided to really turn into a true winter and the lakes started to freeze over.

With a short break the lads gathered and spurred on by the new helpers things really progressed

.

Barry and Neil planned the new water supply and plumbing so we have a plan and a parts list that I will be able to get arranged for his next visit and also a gas fitter to connect the gas cylinders and new boiler (yes the old boiler is still in the lodge but leaked like my waders and all the associated plumbing sadly). With this arranged we set about resetting the water tower foundations and meanwhile the main team were assembling the roof trusses which was not easy as the old lodge had sunk a fair few inches in the years its been on the site.

Next task is to finish the other half cut to size and look at soffits and bargeboards. Pray for good weather and install the OSB onto the frame and call the holt felting boys pronto! We then have the enjoyable (hopefully !) task of cladding and getting the windows installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water now in place we had some other issues that needed our attention. Firstly the loss of our lake stores with the great flood both are now basically rusting on the land and we needed to sort this out to ensure the Salmon Lodge and Trout Cabin were free of estate equipment. Secondly the road from the railway crossing to the land had become clogged with earth and drainage caused a large adjacent area to pool which only added to the problem. The carpark had also become a mudbath and was in great need of rectification. 

 

The Lake Store

 

Our existing footprint was sufficient but the supporting foundations washed away. We therefore reinstated the slabs and more hardcore which turned out to be more than originally required, the old blocks were replaced with new and instead of corrugated iron we decided on wooden frames and cladding with a like for like corrugated roof in more modern material.   Barry hard at it !

 

The weather meant that we would need to wait a few months until undertaking putting the frame, cladding, door and roof in place !

 

The Car Park