Easter Bank Holiday

We are having a very lazy day here at number 9 today. Amelia has watched around three movies which is doing my head in.. Why do girls have to like musicals so much?!!!!

I know a way to get her attention though. I decided to tie some flies this afternoon ready for the next fishing trip and as always, Amelia wanted to have a go. It's great that she's interested and I gently encourage her, she hasn't been fishing yet but now the weather is warming up she will be able to come out with me on the boat.

I left the house at 7 o'clock this morning and jumped in my van for the 15 minute drive to Eyebrook Reservoir. Jimmy and I bought our fishing tickets, paid for the boat and booked ourselves in. A quick coffee in the fishing lodge and then out we went to tackle up and load the boat. The weather was overcast but calm, a very nice morning in fact - especially considering we nearly didn't go due to the weather forecast...

We had to wait until half past 8 before boats were allowed out and we were the first to leave! Jimmy knew exactly where to take us...

We arrived at our fishing spot and dropped the anchor. I started with a Diawl Bach while Jimmy started with a Buzzer. We both caught our first fish at the same time, within 10 minutes of dropping anchor! It wasn't long before I had another and Jimmy had another 2!
The fish seemed to stop feeding for a while after that before picking up again an hour or so later. It rained on and off during the day but nothing too bad - at least the wind stayed down! In all Jimmy caught 8 fish and I caught 6. I lost 2 fish that managed to spit the hook out as I was bringing them in and I also missed quite a few pulls... Jimmy also missed a few. 4 of mine were caught on Diawl Back with 2 being caught on bloodworm. Jimmy's were caught on Diawl Bach, and buzzers.

At around half past 4 we hadn't caught any fish for an hour or so and it was starting to rain heavily so we headed back to the lodge. We both had a great day and I was impressed with my first visit to Eyebrook Reservoir. I hope to catch many more fish there in the future but one things for sure, if I'm to continue boat fishing I need to invest in a boat seat with a backrest!

My pallet wood workbench.

Last week my dad kindly gave me a number of wooden pallets so that I could use the wood from them. I have several projects which I need wood for including the edging for my veggie patch, a chicken coop and I also need to fix my gate which the wood will be useful for. The first thing I have built though is a workbench. I should really have sanded down each plank before I started but I'm too lazy!! I quickly sanded down the edges only and then got the box of screws out!

First I made the legs and screwed the sides onto them. I reused the blocks from the pallets as well to give the legs some strength.

I then selected planks of the same thickness to use for the top. I screwed them on using four screws for each plank - two at each end. Rather than drilling pilot holes I gently tapped the screw into the wood with a hammer before screwing it in the rest of the way. I also added at this stage a plank at each end between the legs for added support.

Once all of the top planks were secure I simply measured the width and marked a line down each side leaving a 5 inch overhang on either side. I then cut along the lines removing the ends to leave me with nice straight edges.

Next, I screwed three planks on the leg supports going the length of the table. This adds more rigidity at the same time as providing a ledge for my toolbox!

And that's it, my free workbench all finished. It took me a few hours but you could do it quicker if you have a cordless screwdriver.. I don't own one so had to do it the old fashioned way screwing each screw into the wood by hand.