Doghouse's Garden

Fantastic that.

Now some 45s go for "silly money" on eBay.

I bought a lot of mine from the States. They're "mint" from the "Collectables" series of re-issues. They are quite cheap, but with the airmail postage they work out about £6 each.

I've now reached the stage that I'd have to take out something I like if I decided to buy something new.
However having said that, the machines have a mechanical "popularity meter" (a mechanical marvel in itself) and I can tell that some of my "favourites" I hardly ever play.

 

Great garden Doghouse love the pagoda good job.:thumb:

 

Thanks for all your kind words.
It might go to "wrack and ruin" for a couple of months as I'm going into hospital in two weeks for a new hip.
Too many years playing squash, rather than the golf. That's why I'm on boards more than usual as it's too painful to play golf at present, which used to take up the best part of three days a week.
Still, I've promised myself a new driver for Christmas as a "treat for my pains."
I hope to be back playing by then.

To be truthful, our youngest son will be coming round to cut the grass every week for a bit, it won't need much more doing than that.

 

Thanks for that, I'm not really thinking about it at the moment.

I learned in business years ago, that "If you worry about something all night, will it be any better in the morning? Yes? Definitely No!"
So I won't give it a thought until the day I go in.
I leave that for others.

It was discussed last night on the phone by my wife with "nursey daughter," and youngest son's "nursey other half." I'm sure they'll have a list for me of questions to ask when I go for my pre-op next week, but at the moment, "I'm not getting involved."

Several of my golfing friends have had the same op and it doesn't seem to be a big deal according to them.

We've an olive tree on order, I've already got a big patio pot ready for it and I'm hoping it'll arrive before I go in.

If you want a reason for all the rain, blame my wife. She got me to order two posh reclining sunloungers, as they were reduced to less than half price and they arrived today.

 

"It might go to "rack and ruin" for a couple of months as I'm going into hospital in two weeks for a new hip"

My Father in law had one a few years back, and the Father of a school friend of my daughter just last year. I am really surprised how quickly they were back on their feet, and that they both got rid of the stick to help them walk in less than a month.

My Father in law (had his new hip at about 65 I suppose, now early 70's) resumed skiing within a year of his OP ...

 

Thanks for that Kristen, I'm quite fit so I'm hopeful to be mobile quite quickly, but I've been "threatened" about trying to do too much too soon, which is my nature. So I've planned to err on the cautious side.

 

Riley,your garden is beautiful and all credit to you with the time you have put into it and how it has progressed through the years:gnthb:.We have an Acer which we have had since it was a young seedling and it is at least 28 years old so is part of the family.When we moved house as it was in a pot it came with us and it is still in a pot in case we move,although it is in it's fifth pot over the yearsand is getting to large and heavy to cart around:D

My hubby is like you can turn his hand to anything.He just reads the instruction or reads about what he needs to do in a book and off he goes and does it.I always say he should have been a builder instead of getting into IT but he lacked the motivation he needed at the time and has even less now that he is getting older{58}:p

Hope all goes well for you with your op and hope that you will soon be back to full health and back on your feet so to speak

Thanks for sharing your garden and hobbies with us:gnthb:

 

Thanks for your kind words.

I may be a bit different to your hubby as my wife always says I don't read the instructions.

As for turning my hand to anything, all it needs is a bit of confidence and pre-planning.
We've brick pillars at the entrance to our house drive and eleven years ago I px'd my sporty model saloon car for our first "soft roader." I know people don't like them, but because my wife has MS we really needed a car with seats at "bum height" and some headroom as she was having difficulty getting in our "headbanger" and other cars as she calls most modern saloons. The choice came about as we were in the showrooms and I was eyeing up a new even more sporty saloon, but she wasn't too keen and said "I'll never get in in and out of it, but I could that" turning to look at the car behind. So the choice was a bit forced upon me, having said that we both like the car and I kept it seven years, twice as long as I would normally keep a car and we're now on our second of the same model.

Anyway...enough of that...

I needed to widen the entrance of our drive, so I took down the brick pillar and part of the retaining wall and re-built it to give me another foot and a half gap to drive in and out. A neighbour came across as I was finishing and said "That's a fantastic job, I didn't know you could do bricklaying?"
"Well.. I couldn't before, but I have stacked enough cans of beans in my time."
(actually that was a lie, I just swanned around for most of the day in a sharp suit, smoothing down a few feathers I'd made others ruffle. Oh the joys of management!)

But there's a lot of jobs men can do. I'm a mite miffed now over electrical stuff. The regulations now mean I could not do any of the complicated stuff I have in the garage/pool filter room/shed/tea-house, because as from 1st January 2005 you aren't allowed to put more than a plug on lamp, or near enough.
I can understand why, because even some people can make a lethal hazard just doing that.

 

Hi D/R. Very neat and tidy, but also a sense of serenity. VERY nice :thumb:

Cheers...freddy.

 

Here's an update.

So far this year I've added these pavers to edge the border, they're set in concrete and pointed up (no grass can grow between them) it means I can run my flymo over them and no longer have to strim the edge. They will stop the border creeping into the lawn. I've linked them up with the brick semi-circle round the Japanese acer.



This is a month or so later when the "newness" of the pavers had worn off a bit.



Edit June 2010.

I got sick of watering the lawn. Our soil is a bit sandy and doesn't hold water for long. It can rain as much as it likes and there's never any puddles. Even the patio which has a low retaining wall around it drains off very quickly through several soakaway holes between the patio and the bottom bricks of the wall.

So I've recently added two "pop up" sprinklers, controlled by a valve on the wall of the garage. The lawn's a bit bruised, but it'll have recovered in a couple of weeks. The supply goes under the path, which I've re-made. It's all plastic "speedfit" pipe and connectors, but the pipe passes through a bit of
1.5" plastic drain pipe between the valve and where it goes underground to prevent damage. I got completely soaked adjusting the heads to get the required area coverage. "Speedfit" must have seriously reduced work available to plumbers. No need for Yorkshire joints, a blow lamp and flux. Nor compression joints, olives and spanners. Or a spring to bend the copper pipe as the pipe bends any way you want it to. All you need is a saw to cut the pipe and the connectors you just fit and secure with a twist of the hand. You can just as easily undo them and tighten them up again.

"simples."










I've also a "leaky hose" which is operated from a tap outside the kitchen window, which keeps these azaleas happy. The supply follows the pool drain under the pool collar and re-appears behind the rockery. I had the foresight to provide a mains water supply to the area behind the head of the waterfall before I laid the concrete collar of the pool. I've put in a couple of Hozelock valves to control the feed to either one, all, or any combination of three sections which cover the whole of the borders and rockery.
There's also attached to the tap, a mechanical Hozelock water meter, that allows me to determine how many gallons pass through the hose and then turns itself off.




I've made a few alterations in the tea-house. I've got rid of the old kitchen lightfitting and fitted five downlighter spots in the ceiling, easier on the eyes.
The fridge/freezer's gone, replaced by a small Budweiser fridge (there's also some Peroni and a couple of bottles of wine in there) I got the fridge second hand on ebay for £32. It sits on top of the cut-down stand for our old "32" "elephant in the corner" TV which turned up it's toes a couple of months ago and had to be replaced by a new one.
I fitted castors with brakes to the stand so I can wheel the fridge out onto the verandah if I wish. Like this.



I've also fitted a cupboard (saved from the old kitchen after the last new kitchen) over the fridge. The pictures of different jukeboxes are from original brochures I've found on the net and printed off. The frames are from a charity shop, averaging about 75p each. My wife wants to know if I'm going to put a fold-up bed in there. Cheek!

I had a hard job finding a bit of "black ash" Contiboard to make the frame for the freeview box under the TV. Storage units in black ash were very popular at one time. Now, no one wants it.
The adjustable TV support bracket was £2 from a charity shop, ('cos they didn't know what it was). I get a really good picture with just an aerial in the roof void.










Added June 2010.

I'm well pleased as I've just managed to get hold of a remote control for the smaller jukebox, similar to the one I have for the first one. A fellow enthusiast who I met "on-line" had a spare one and kindly connected the length of five-core cable I required to a plug and sent it to me for twenty-five quid. All that is necessary for these to work is to unplug the lead to the control on the back of the machine and plug this one in.
These would be on long leads and in pubs or coffee bars would have been positioned behind the bar.

They're on the wall just above each jukebox.
It enables me to adjust the volume if I wish, without having to grope around behind the back of the machines for the volume controls. This is occasionally necessary as EPs play much quieter than singles. (smaller grooves.) Jukeboxes of this era were advertised as having AVC, "Automatic Volume Control" it's supposed to balance the volume, regardless of what record being played, but it never worked that well.
I can also if ever I want to, by pressing the button, reject the "record now playing," instead of waiting for it to finish. (This was commonly known amongst jukebox engineers I understand, as the "bar fight switch!") The machine will then move on to the next record selected. Previously, it meant opening the machine with the key, leaning in and lifting up the tone arm by hand, moving it to the centre to activate the reject mechanism and at the same time quickly getting your hand out of the way before the gripper arm snatched the record to put it back in the carousel. Not an easy job without scratching the records. The other jukebox, being younger, (a mere thirty-three years old, whereas this one is forty-one), has a remote with sliding volume controls for each channel.



My "Rock-Ola 468 Grand Salon" was pretty nigh immaculate when I bought it, the cartridge was a bit dodgy which I replaced with a S/H original from a jukebox supplier and I replaced the turntable motor support grommets which harden over time as the very sensitive cartridge was picking up some of the vibration and transfering it into a slight background noise (a common fault).
I replaced the illuminated graphic over the machine, a copy of Monet's "Sunlight under the Poplars" with a "new" old stock replacement, still in its original packing, from another jukebox spares supplier (£5 plus postage) and at the same time I removed thirty years of nicotine from all the glass, the reflectors and laminated surfaces.

The "443" when I bought it, was looking a bit tired as you can see and developed a slight amplifier fault a few months after purchase (as it would, wouldn't it?), also the light fitting behind the selection buttons was shot, but the cabinet and particularly the chrome (horrendously expensive to have any pitting removed and the castings re-chomed) were first class. It had been in private hands for 27 years and hadn't been messed with. Suffered a bit from lack of use, but they are built like tanks and respond to regular usage.




I had the amplifier repaired.

A fellow enthusiast on a jukebox message board sent me f.o.c. some replacement end-caps for the light fitting (which was very kind of him) and I was able to obtain that record card insert next to the titles from America. (one of only seven "new" old stock left in the world), the original had faded and lost most of its colours over time, as had the graphic above the base speakers.
I also replaced the fluorescent tubes with the correct (odd) size and wattage. They're only made in Canada now, but they were quite inexpensive from a specialist lighting wholesaler.


I re-made the graphic above the base speakers firstly using printer paper and the colours that come with Excel on my computer, but it looked a bit naff as well as me getting the colours in the "wrong order."




So I decided after experimenting, like this,




Using a combination of coloured and frosted acetate A4 sheets, cut to size, over-laying some of the colours to get the gradual change through the spectrum. I finally got it it near enough right for not a lot cash, about a fiver.



The record titles, I can type out and download to print off in a multiple of styles and colours, up to twenty at a time, free, from a site on the internet.

I have a 60 watt inspection lamp sitting in the bottom of each box, as well as a box of water absorbent crystals, like they use in caravans. The lamps come on during the night with a timer, they produce just enough heat to prevent the interiors becoming damp.


You have to have it "as near right as you can get it," don't you?

My wife heard this tune on a TV show and talked me into buying it for one of the jukeboxes. I found a mint copy in Germany on eBay. She played it twice this afternoon whilst we were in the garden.
Now I can't get it out of my head!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPStMNs73Wo

I've no more projects "on the board" since the "pop up sprinklers" Although my wife would like a self-contained "rock water feature" on the patio, but we're still negotiating that one. At least she doesn't want one with animals birds or frogs etc., (you can get 'em now with naffin' meerkats you know!) just led lights, I think they look naff, so I'm hoping she forgets about it.
So no projects then, other than those which can be described as; "planned maintenance." This will include replacing the felt on the tea-house roof. I'll also replace three of the fence panels behind it as they are pretty much shot and won't take much messing about and with the old ones out, it'll make sorting out the roof easier. Some of the other fence panels are getting tired and ruined by next door's (but they are in their eighties) uncontrolled creeper, so will need replacing, I'll also have to replace the two support posts for the pergola over the French windows, but that really isn't a big job.


Talking of panels, security is always an issue isn't it?

As well as a six-foot post and panel fence round the garden, we've four security lights and one porch light operated by PIRs. There's also all the lights in the garden controlled by the switches in the lounge. I don't count them as "security" as we rarely use them.
I considered the most vulnerable point was the gap between the end corner of the house and the garage.
We did have a trellis fence and gate there, but about three years ago I changed it for this. There's a base of two courses of bricks either side of the door and the frame is rough-sawn "3 X 2". There's a double length of it above the door and one over the tops of the trellis panels, one of which I had to cut to size. The frame is secured to the back wall of the house inside the corner drain (so the drain isn't inside the garden) and to the wall of the concrete garage.
The door came ready-made from B&Q, the arch is just for ornamentation. The double 3" X 2" timbers pass behind the curved bit at the top of the door.
The frame is panelled with "featherboard." The height to the top is just short of eight feet.
Fitting doors in fences is dead easy. You make and fit the frame round the door first and then fit the frame with the door into the fence, so you get a perfect fit.



I'm sure others have gardens just as nice as mine.

For anyone new to it, hard landscaping isn't "hard" and small building projects are mostly just common sense. So get plenty of advice and "go for it." The most important thing is to have a "long term plan" and do a bit at a time. I did the major stuff each time, using two of my six week's annual holidays in each year. I prefered to do it that way rather than a bit each week-end.

I've no "trades skills" other than what I've taught myself.
I've always described my occupation as "walking around for most of the day in a sharp suit, smoothing down the occasional ruffled feathers that I'd made other people cause."
What skills I have, I've passed on to my youngest son, who's far more adventurous than me. This was one of his "projects" he completed last year.




Fifteen years ago in his first house, after he helped me split a bedroom into two rooms and install a bathroom for him, he talked me into taking out a chimney breast with him. The idea frightened the life out of me! But we managed it.

So as I said, "give it a go!"

 

We've nothing in our garden you'd call "exotics." This is as close as we get. We've four of these; Loropetalum Chinensis Black Pearl which we bought at the end of last year and transferred to two large patio pots. The leaves are attractive and they flower continuously. They're really small blooms but non the less for that.






We bought this Sorbus earlier this year to replace a little prunus tree that didn’t survive the winter. I think it will look well in front of our bamboo “stand” next to the pagoda. It has already produced lots of berries.




There’s always room for something isn’t there?

We bought two Albertine roses at the beginning of last year from a newspaper offer to put in pots on the patio. One turned out not to be, when it bloomed in the summer, so I wrote and politely complained and they promised to send me two more in the autumn, which the did. My wife dislikes red roses, so it “had to go.”

She’d previously talked me into buying a large elaborate bird feeder for the bed near the French windows. But the wood pigeons immediately regarded as their own (we’ve since organised a feeding tray on the steps of the patio with a cover which the birds from “blackbird size” down can excess freely, but frustrate the pigeons so we don’t see them very often now) so that “had to go too.”

I found a place for both the rose and the stripped down feeder at the bottom of the garden in front of the quince, next to a camellia and behind two rhodos and lots of lily of the valley. (that’s “next door’s jungle” you can see over the top of the quince and the camellia, it constantly tries to invade our garden, but I keep “fighting it back.”)
I’ve no idea what variety is this rose but I like it. It’s done very well in its new situation.

 

I enjoy a good thread that makes me smile.:thumb:

Brilliant stuff, and loving it all.