Making new oak cratch boards

Our cratch boards are rotten (surprise, surprise!) making new oak ones is proving a challenge. Here I'm giving myself a headache trying to work out all the conflicting angles and keep the dimensions

The top section has to be central and the same width as the top plank

A mixture of modern and traditional tools were used

After routering an architrave edge, and a rebate to take the oak planks in the centre of the cratches, then I'll need to champfer the rear bottom edge to allow it to clear the lip on the forepeak cabin when the cratchboard is folded forward

A nice little cruise and a beautiful evening for a barbeque

A nice sunny day to be on the river

A nice barbeque and believe it or not I'm happy! LOL!

Denford mooring at sunset

Suddenly the Earth turned upside down and I just managed to save our sausages from those pesky aliens! Or then again, maybe I held the phone upside down to take this pic, you choose!

A maintainence trip to the Friends of the River Nene's Woodford Mooring

The Friends of the River Nene's lovely Woodford mooring looking a bit overgrown

F.OT.R.N. had held a work party while I was on tour, as there were rocks and debris under water which were stopping boats from mooring close to the bank and which risked holing any cruisers that tried to moor, they even pulled a steel cattle feeder out!

My hydraulic crane is handy for lifting the petrol mower out of the welldeck

Glenda strimmed the bits that I couldn't get to with the mower

Getting there! ;o)

I mowed a path up to the gate that leads to the village's cracking 'The Dukes' pub, chipshop and convenience store. When we past by, the following day, the farmer had mowed the whole of the top field for hay! HoHum!

The FOTRN welcome sign

Not quite like a Thameside lawn but good enough for this useful mooring.

Now that's what you call a dovetail joint.

I dovetailed the long top plank into two more managable lengths and then dovetailed the oak carrier to take the end of the plank.

Fitting new windows in Christina's greenhouse

Like everything else the greenhouse windows were rotten, so I did a deal involving an old cast woodburner and my mate Louis made me these lovely hardwood frames.

Applied several coats of Le Tonkinois lacquer, added nice brass fittings, and glazed with polycarbonate.

It's Christina's turn to get a new tugdeck

All of the wooden tugdeck was rotten, now being replaced with green oak

The chicken coup will sit on this deck

We have welded 2 more crane brackets so lifting the coup in and out will be easier

After I cut two of the pieces of green oak, I noticed they looked spookily like a pair of narrowboats!

A narrowboat breakfast!

A cracking fry-up to start the day, 2 duck eggs, 2 bantam eggs, black pudding, bacon, sausage and mushrooms all cooked in the old cast iron frying pan that our friend Sinc left for us. And cooked on our gorgeous old Norwegian Jøtul 404 woodburning range.  Happy days! ;o)