KW-48 Aboard the Hesperus

with a nice cup of tea

This last week, the pirate ship has been sailing itself. I feel that all things are going in the right direction and I did indeed finish making the jam - currently spread before me on barracks-grown toast - and wood chopping things did get done, but this time of the year, weeks can frequently float by unnoticed, the sails in tatters, horizon barely visible, and someone has definitely stolen the rum

This was full of wood, which I chopped up and moved inside. This photo is from a couple of days ago, when Captain Jack Barrow and I were cleaning up the detritus. It is now full of wood again, from a pile which has been stacked nicely for over a year, but was getting a bit wet and miserable from being snowed on. This week, I shall chainsaw it all, chop it with the axe, carry it all inside and make a big mess that Captain Jack and I will clean up again. Then, I shall pile some more wood up.

I was just having a quick look through some KW-48s from years gone by (this is the 4th newsletter from the 48th week of the year. And the 175th in total), and apparently, the slow start of winter proper, maybe along with the time spent ferrying wood from outside to inside, frequently gives me too much time to think of crazy project ideas. The one in my head at the moment is to build a brick retaining wall behind and to the left of the wood burning range in the kitchen, in order to enclose the space behind it, and to fill it full of sand. It should take about half a tonne, I would have thought. For thermal storage. Is half a tonne significant? Is there a good practical reason not to fully enclose the back of the stove? Am I really that desperate to find any half degree extra warming for the winter?

Many questions that are best answered just by doing the thing, I reckon. Except for the last one. Yes, every half degree counts!

I am going to be doing the windows today. I was waiting for a couple of dry days back to back and yesterday hit a mighty 8 degrees, and today is rumoured to be looking towards the 10 mark. So today it is. I am as excited about this as I was last week, and I am going to do a few windows in putty and the rest in silicon. Or at leat, until the glue gun gives up the ghost. The study is still painfully cold, and if this works, then we are looking at a much happier Pirate.

The Firepit needs some action. Does anyone want to escape the city for New Year? You can come and hang out with me if you like. We still have potatoes and kale and beans, and we will always have Stockbrot baking on a open fire!

This week, I am going to prune the lilacs. I know I have got a good photo of them, but apparently the search function cannot help me find them in my stupidly large collection of tree pictures, so you’ll have to trust me. For the last couple of years, mowing underneath them has been getting harder, and I have been toying with the idea of tying them back. I have no idea why it took me so long to hit on pruning them. They feel like they would respond well to it.

Most flowering shrubs should be pruned right after flowering. Think of it as an extreme dead-heading. But we’re going for a more of a rejuvination cut than that, and will be following the rule of thirds - that is to take out one third of the oldest stems, and leave the rest alone. The run of this is that I will only have to wait about 6 months to find out if I have done a good thing, or murdered one of the more decorative elements of what is mostly a very functional garden.

I will be growing more flowers next year, though!

Four Years Ago

Almost inconceivable, not so much that the piggers used to be so so tiny, and so colourful, more that that pallet and those to lumps of wood propped up against it were enough to keep them safe and sound in their house

And then, four years ago this week, they got their first electric fence, the freedom to roam in a considerably larger space, and all the troubles started!

Adorable.

Great news!

This happened this week. We hit 50 paid subs. We’ve been on the cusp of this for almost a year now (I should get better at promotion… ), but each time someone new signed up, someone else left us.

Finally, there was a slight imbalance tilting towards the positive, and the landmark milestone was reached. I was so excited to see it, and I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who like, comment and share, for this helps me to carry on. And for those who are able to support with that fiver a month, thank you an extra thank you on top. The Barracks is always right on the brink of going under, and moments like this give me hope and the means to keep it up a little longer.

I found a thing this week which is basically a subscription link that doesn’t go over Substack. It uses the same (Stripe) backend, but means you don’t have to sign up to Substack to show your monthly appreciation and support. I think it is mostly meant for mobile, as it goes over Apple or Google Pay, but I guess it works on desktop as well via credit / debit cards. Click it here:

And with that, I shall sign off, refill my cuppa and get started with the day.

Please do take care of each other, especially with the long cold nights, and I will see you all again next week

Much love,

Your Pirate Ben

xoxo