Weekend stuff

My last post was called "Life is Good", and I guess the weekend just went to prove it.

Saturday saw Mrs RC and the boys head off to buy new summer clothes, while my daughter went to town with her friends. 

This left me "home alone".  Yeah, doesn't happen often, I can tell you!

Started off by popping to the shops on my bike to get meat for a barbeque that evening.  The weather was amazing (see photos in previous post!) and I did not want to waste it.  Returning home I got some dough going for bread rolls, made some burgers and basted the chicken that I had bought with a concoction that I cannot quite remember now.  The chicken was going to be done on the barbeque, the first time I have attempted anything big like that.

While the rolls were rising I set to on my next task - sorting out a wargames board for my game at Barnet against my Canadian wargamer friend next month.  I had a sheet of board that I wanted to recycle and cover with a sheet of fake grass that can be bought from model shops.  First I had to take the board back to the wood (removing some scenery that I had previously glued on to it for another game).  This was much more stubborn than I expected and I ended up with the router and electric sander to make it smooth!  I had just cleared up the mess when Mrs RC and the boys returned...  phew...

I then glued the grass onto the board while Mrs RC relaxed in the sun to recover from her trip.

Then it was time to start the (slightly larger than intended) chicken going.  I let the coals settle down and then put the chicken on and closed the lid.  A while later I turned it over.  And turned it again.  I was aware that there wasn't much heat, so I added more charcoal, putting the chicken in the oven until the coals were ready again.  This time things really seemed to get going and the smell was wonderful.  I left it going for probably 2 hours in the end, turning it from time to time.

Then it was time to cook the other stuff, so I moved the chicken back into the oven to keep warm and make sure it was totally cooked.  Sort of cheating I guess, but who cares?!  It was wonderful!  Next time I will make sure I get smaller ones so I can be sure that it is cooked completely on the barbeque.

That evening I worked on some more scenery - a couple of hills and woods.

Sunday morning saw me helping Number One Son choose a new bike.  We walked down to the shop, had a look and chose one.  He had set himself a very strict budget, so when the guy said it would cost £20 to assemble it we said we would do it ourselves.  I think I know how a bike goes together by now!  So we carried the large box home between us and then settled in the garden to bolt it all together.  Turned out great, especially when I got the front wheel the right way round  :-)

Then I joined Mrs RC to "trim" the trees in the front garden.  These were supposed to be dwarf conifers (max 8 feet high).  When they reached double that we decided the had to be stopped...

I started with cutters on a long pole, but the trunks were too thick.

Then I got up a ladder and tried a hand saw.  OK at first, but the sappy wood kept gripping the blade and making it hard to cut.

So then the Man in me came out - I headed to the tools and found my electric saw...

Mrs RC kept saying I was about to become a statistic - this is one of the busiest times in A&E...

A "friend" told me he would look up prosthetic limbs for me...

But I won!  Those trees knew they were beaten...

Not wanting to let all that wood go to waste, I saved 2 lengths of trunk.  Once they have matured a bit I will make them into a pair of walking sticks!

By now we were all getting hungry...

Colonel Sanders has just opened a new place a couple of miles from us, so I grabbed Number One Son and we both cycled over to get dinner. 

The evening was short - I was exhausted, so I had an early bath (where I found that my arms had been scratched to hell by those trees - mega pain when I dipped them into the water!) and then crawled into bed....