Bertha's New Hips

After a number of weeks with problems about parts and postponement due to the weather. Bertha our Berlingo finally has new suspension ball joints. Thanks to our friend Sheila's husband Carlos. Now hopefully once we have had the alignment checked we should stop going through a set of tires every 3 months.

No Soldering Required

I was going to make a small electronic circuit called an EQMOD which would allow the computer to talk directly to the stepper motors inside the EQ6 telescope mount. However with the latest version of the firmware for the mount handset there is what they describe as a "PC Direct Mode".
This can be found in the V3.21 of the handset firmware. With this mode you can just connect the PC to the handset and then the handset to the telescope mount as normal, but use the EQMOD software which gives a major improvement over the standard controls contained within the handset.

On other news I have contacted Nick Hudson at Tru-tech about my filter wheel and he has promised to put some replacement chips in the post

Hole in the Wall Gang

This week I came home from work one day this week to discover that not only had Helen put some rendering on the wall in the dinning room but also a large hole had appeared in the corner of the room through to the bedroom.


Why is there a hole through the wall from the dinning room to the bedroom? Well the trick is that where this hole is there will be a wood burning stove. The hole will house a grill and a fan which will push the hot air from the stove through into the bedroom.

Helen has made a plywood frame to sit in the hole with a correctly sized hole and mounting points to take a standard PC case fan. The PC fan will be powered using a peltier element attached to the stove so that as the stove heats up the peltier will start to generate current causing the fan to run .

Plywood frame ready for fitting.

Fitted in the wall And finaly the wall made good

Oranges & Lemons

One thing we have noticed living here is that every now and then you have various items of produce turn up. We have had potatoes, pumpkin and other things like that, but the other day as we were sorting out some things outside the house to go to the dump. We heard a "hóla" coming up from the steps to the lower terraces, an then appeared the farmer who owns the large house a the top of our pista. On his shoulder was a large bucket full to the brim of Oranges.

It's Broke

As I am typing this I am at Sheila's.

Carlos is outside trying to put the suspension back together on the Berlingo. We took it in last week to get the tires changed as they were badly worn (even though they were only 6 months old) and to check the alignment. However they discovered that the ball joints on the bottom of the suspension were badly worn and needed replacing. Hence why the car was eating tires. We got the parts and this weekend we stayed overnight so that Carlos could change the parts today, however like most things on our berlingo it would seem that the parts are non standard so we are having to put the old ones back until next weekend when the correct parts should be here.

It's not the only thing that I have discovered broken this week. While trying out some of my astronomy equipment this week I discovered that my tru-tech filter wheel is broken. I have been in contact with Ian King who I brought the wheel from and luckily there is somebody else on the Island that I know who also had a problem with his wheel and might have some spare electronics to help me repair it.

What does 2 cubic meters of Gravel look like?

What does 2 cubic meters of gravel look like? Well if you look at the photo below you can see.
This is Helen with her shovel moving the pile a bit so that we could get the car in after the lorry had been. In order to get the gravel delivered we talk to our friends Ann & David from La Casita over at the other end of the village and they then speak to Luis that delivery driver who then if he doesn't forget (which he has a habit of doing!) comes along with his small dumper truck and delivers sand, cement, gravel and what ever else you have ordered.

Why do we need so much sand and gravel? This is the second delivery we have had in the last few weeks. The reason we need so much is that while the weather has been fine for the last week or so and as it has been half term we have been working a lot on the steps and ramp out the front. This is now taking on such gigantic proportions that we have now named it "The Franceses Bypass"

Save Our Astronomy

Now you know that I don't get that political unless it is something that I really feel strongly about.
Right now I am fuming at the stupidity of the current suggested cuts to astronomy research facilities across the UK.
This has come about due to a £80millon budget shortfall in the budget for the Science and Technologies Funding Council (STFC)
Not only will this entail a 25% cut to all physics grants, but several important UK Science facilities are under threat. The most stupid is the withdrawal of the UK from the Gemini north 8Meter telescope on Hawaii this now leaves UK astronomers with out access to a large telescope in the northern hemisphere. Also the funding for most of the UK Telescopes here on La Palma looks like it will stopped as well.

Update, My friend Sheila has put it much better than I ever could on her blog here


To find out more and to find out how you can help visit the following site.

A matter of Balance

After a number of weeks procrastinating I finally got round to drilling and tapping the holes that I need to do in order to mount the LX200R OTA on to the dovetail for the EQ6 Pro mount. However having done this and mounted it all up I discovered that when I tried to balance the mount I could not achieve balance with the existing counterweight bar.
What I needed was a longer bar, the question is

where on the island could I find a cheap solution?

I finally found what I needed in one of the local DIY stores, an 18mm threaded rod about a meter long. In order to fit the retaining ring from the original counterweight bar I would need to cut down the end of the bar in order to make a M10 thread or the other option which Helen came up with was to drill and tap a M10 hole in the end and us a M10 bolt cut down to join the two pieces together.

Below is a photographic explanation of the modification. Enjoy :

The first step was to mark the center of the bar by using a square to draw lines across

Then having worked out the center this is then punched with a centre ready for drilling

Drilling downwards with the hand drill trying carefuly to keep the drill streight. The hole is only about 1/2 inch deep.

Moveing up to a bigger drill meant moving on to a different clamping method

The Hold drilled out to 8.5mm and ready for tapping

Helen tapping the hole to M10 thread

The hole tapped and ready to take the bolt

The M10 Bolt inserted

And cut to the required length ready to take the retaning ring from the original counterweight bar

The retaning ring in place

The new counterweight bar fitted to the EQ6 pro mount

The mount fully assembled and balanced. On the whole the system works very well with the longer bar. The only down side is that after a slew it can take a secound or to for the mount to settle due to vibrations in the counterweight bar.

Tried to do some observing this night but with lots of fast moving clouds and bad seeing ( very unusal for La Palma, but the weather has been funny here for a few weeks) it was almost impossible to get aligned and when I did it was very hard to see much anyway. But it was enough to convince me that the scope and mount combination would work quite well.

A YES for the Roof and a Bad Back

YES we have finally got the permission for the roof on the water tank so now all we have to do is get the builder in, its going to cost €2000 just for the roof and to get the door cut in the wall but once that is done we can start work on converting it to a bathroom. The main problem will be running all the wast pipes. I have not found out where they have to end up yet! It's not like the UK where all you have to do is connect the pipes to the nearest main drain, Some ware near the old loo in the back garden is a very big home covered with concrete, and this is ware all the waste from the loo mysteriously disappears....!!!!
We have not been sitting around ether this week, the steps are progressing onward and upward, we only have one small step to do, it seems that all we are doing at the moment is poring concrete, and this is where the bad back comes in. Thursday It seems that while we were working on the steps Theresa pulled a mussel in her back and she has been in a lot of pain, but still manage to help me today to get another step cast.
I am hopping to get the steps finished next week, and then its just the 10m of ramp that needs doing, but a lot of that is just one large amount of concrete.
We also manage to get the first of the vines pruned, only the ones at the front of the house but as these are in the way of the work on the new roof, I felt that these needed to be done.

I Feel a Rant Comming On

I think the local postman is nuts, and does not like foreigners. In the past I gave him the benefit of the doubt as it was possible that he left the mail at the bottom of the road and someone on the pista brought it up as they walked up. But know I know that he comes up the pista on his scooter. So why does he want US to put a mailbox at the bottom of the pista and not everyone else! He says that it is because our drive is dangerous for him to park his bike. Well I would agree with him there - its not flat! But the drive for next door is only a yard away and that is flat! There is another house that has had to do the same thing and they are Dutch... So I think he just does not like foreigners.. (though from what I hear he is not that popular as he is from the mainland)
The other problem is that I don't have enough Spanish to tell him what I think of him.. Oh well I think we will end up giving in - maybe with a little not on the box, like:

This box has been placed at the bottom of this hill as the postman can not walk 5 yards....

End of Rant... I think I may feel a little better...

Finaly We Have a New Room

The Library is now finished (OK there are still a few things to do, the odd fitted cupboard etc but it is usable). For the next few weeks it will be the temporary dining and computer room while we are working on the dinning room and turning it into the temporary kitchen so that we can actually start work on the kitchen.. Complicated isn't it..
We have to get it sorted out for the middle of Feb as One of the kids is due out to stay for a week and he will need somewhere to sleep.
Work has also been progressing on the steps and ramp (though the ramp is starting to look like a minor road). I would like to get the steps and ramp all done in the next few weeks, It would be nice to just be able to tick it of the list of things that we are doing.

The end of a hard but good year

Well we almost finished the room for the end of the year. all the painting is done, and the lighting is up but we just did not get the floor finished. it needs one last coat of varnish. But it is a very good job, just look at the before and after pic:
Not bad..
This time last year we were in London watching the fireworks from the back door of the Streatham flat and wondering were we would be in a year. Well here we are living in a house in La Palma, I don't thing we ever believed that we could do it. OK, the place is bit of a dump but it is improving and by the end of this year we may even have an inside bathroom and a kitchen that is not from the middle ages. But this is our place and in a strange way it is home. My only hope is that we can make a go of things here. This new year will tell. May it be a good one for us here and for you all out there.

A Happy New Year
to all you out there in the world.

T'was the night before the night before Christmas

And we are in bed listening to the radio, having spent the day working on the house, we got the ceiling painted and all the wood work tapaporoed (that's the first coat of varnish), and all the work on that walls is done... Tomorrow is the day to clean the house (Doing all the sanding of walls creates a lot of very fine dust that is covering everything in the house) and cook a cake... Then it is time for a day off, no work on the house for us, on Christmas day, we will be spending most of the day with our friend Sheila and her family. The plan for the day is to wake up (well we have to do that) and have Breakfast in bed (Normal Christmas breakfast of Bacon sandwiches), then its present time... After that it's get up and go have lunch on the beach (I hope that its not raining), Why - Becuse we can. And finally arrive at Sheilas for the rest of the day and a Very nice Christmas dinner.
So all I have to say now is to wish:

A Very Merry Christmas to all you out there

Well Plastered

Something finished at last .. All the plaster (Render) is done on the ceiling. Looks good!Now all we have to do is clean the rafters, paint the ceiling, finish patching the walls, clean all the wood work, varnish it, paint the walls, and do the floor. And we want to get that done before Christmas!!!! It may get done this year though.

Geeko Rescue Service

Hi All. Well the the room is progressing very well, we are hopefully that it will be mostly done for Christmas but it may not be quite finished until the new year. We have got the first coat of plaster (render) on the ceiling and in doing that I have so far had to rescue 3 Geekos, one from under the wood before putting the render on, I just don't like the idea of entombing them under the render.
Geekos are quite little lizards that walk across your ceiling and scare the living daylights out of you with there laughing (their calls sound just like someone violently laughing).

Power to the people

Well things move on and finaly after 6 or so months we have finaly added the second panel to the solar array. And in doing so messed up the state of charge of the controlar so ended up not having any solar power for two days.

The Rain Has arived

Last week the first rain of winter arrived here in La Palma, not to heavy, only about an inch a day or so but it does mean that the place has started to sprout, ( this should have happened about a month ago but at least it is here now). The funny thing is that it is December and the place is starting to look very green like spring. The seasons are slightly messed up here..... The other thing is that it is Cold (OK only around 17 Deg C), time to get the jumpers out...
On the House front things are moving along, the walls are mostly done in the front room and so is most of the wood stripped, now it is time for the ceiling .... We hope to have the room done for Christmas.
The garden is going OK, We have Collies, Cabbage, Potatoes, carrots etc all growing well. Repairs to the retaining walls of the terraces are OK.. but on hold until we have a few dry days to poor some concrete.
I have also been working to get the second solar power panel up, This requires the construction of two junction boxes with copper bus bars and cables to connect these to the panels, should have these all done by the end of the week.
Thinking back on what we have done on the house and have still to do I have realised that it may almost have been quicker to start from scratch and build a new house . When we finished we will have replaced or put in all the services for the place and that is something I have never done before - not from scratch (OK I did rewire a house in the UK completely for a friend once)...
I do wonder if we will get this place done.... or when we do how long it will take ... But we do do a good job...

Slow going

I have been ill recently with a terrible head cold. But on the positive side some things have been happening. Work on the front room has been going on slowly but the walls are almost complete and a lot of the wood work has been stripped. The windows have been re glazed.

We have also now exchanged our UK driving licenses for Spanish ones. After the normal chase around to get all the required bits of paperwork. We just left it up to the hestoria to got to the traffic office and do the paperwork. So we now have two little pieces of card that will do as driving licenses until our proper ones arrive.

We have also paid all our bills at the town hall. Only on slight snag was the fact that we should have gone to the town hall and changed them when we arrived. But this wasn't a major problem. Our town hall bills were as follows Rubbish Collection 38€, Water , Council Tax 16€

Would you like to find this in the Bath

Yesterday we noticed this little visitor to our garden.. It is 6 cm long with an abdomen of 2 cm... for a spider living in our garden I think it is the biggest I have seen. If you found this in the bath I think it would run off with the soap!
We also had some very nice visitors to our small home to day, Sheila and her son Julio, Norma (a good friend and local singer songwriter) and her friend Phil, who was over visiting Norma. It was the first time Norma had come over to visit.

Plough the Fields and Scatter

Although we have not blogged for a few weeks we have not been shirking the work. We have done two weekends on the steps and have what is starting to resemble a ramp....see below: Mind you we have another 10 meters to go to get it all finished.
Inside the house things are moving along as well, The entertainment room is mostly finished and working, so we have a nice place to sit of an evening if it is only on two sun loungers - must look at getting a settee one of these days but are waiting till we have the door way cut for the bathroom. We have started on the front room on that side of the house, designated "the Library" or the guest bedroom. All the old paint has been scraped off the walls (along with some of the plaster) and most of one wall filed. slow going but it is progress especially now Theresa is at work 4 mornings a week.
I had a go at making jam this week end - It was all I could think of doing with the small amount of Grapes we were able to heaviest, 90% of the crop was cooked on the vine by a very hot spell a few weeks ago, most of the grapes ended up looking like raisins. The Jam ended up OK but the first try did not set so had to boiled it all again and add the juice of a lemon.. and that seemed to work. Next it will be having a go at Marmalade with all the Oranges.
Today we finally got started on preparing the ground for the winter crop, the growing seasons seem to be reversed here, manly due to rain, it manly rains in the winter so unless you can water during the summer you grow in the winter. An hours struggling with the rotavater and we have some very nice ground ready for potatoes etc.Just a note to say the Tabby (our cat from the UK) is having a great time here. Here she is hiding up the vine: