Cold and busy day

Simon spoke too soon yesterday. "Not much happening", but it all happened here last night!

Mick opened his cabin doors this morning and heard our shop alarm going off. He came over to investigate, only to find that the shop had been broken into. Luckily the little rascals didn't get their hands on much, but they have still caused us a loss of about £3,000. That's made up with the stock and money that they took and the repairs that we have had to carry out.

Looking at the log on the alarm they made entry to the building at 2.22am this morning. It's unbelievable to think that they took such effort to get in, only to take so little. All I can presume is that they didn't expect our WWII air raid siren to start wailing! Anyway, they must of got cold while they were trying to make an entry as it was -13°C last night!

The biggest loss really is our new Sony digital camera that Simon and I used to take pictures to post on this blog and for advertising the brokerage boats. So unfortunately you won't be looking at any pictures for a few days, unless I take some with my mobile phone, but obviously the quality will not be as good.

Every one's been working hard to make the building secure again and to increase the security on all the areas around the yard. I think it's such a shame that you have to lock everything away even at this idyllic location, but I suppose you get rogues in all parts of the country, and especially at this time of year!

The police have luckily managed to get some foot prints and have taken most of the damaged items away as evidence. The silly sods even left their foot prints in the snow...

The ice had thickened on the canal this morning, but we broke it all as we've had a move around of boats in the basin and down the arm. It was about 5/6 inches thick down the arm and 3 inches in the basin. It's freezing hard again now, so it'll be even thicker tomorrow.

Lee's been busy painting boats in both docks, although the cold weather is slowing the job down. We've got sheets of ice in the dry dock, the size of table tops and 4 inches thick. I'll try and get some pictures for you tomorrow as it is most spectacular.

Let's hope it's a bit more peaceful tonight!!!

Until then...

David

Not much happening

Its been a quiet day, as you would expect seeing as there is snow and ice ever where! Only the usual suspects in today but we have been busy delivering coal, diesel and gas out to boaters that have got caught out in this weather, we do normally deliver coal within a ten mile radius so it is not that much different to our normal service except it isn't usually to boaters.

The lads have been busy as usual doing their jobs, some of which are running over slightly because of the weather, amazingly we have a couple of boats out this week and the cottage to get ready for the weekend so tomorrow it will be a bit busier, David has been catching up on paper work and i have been in the chandlery sorting out the stock and ordering more stock, i suspect that when the thaw happens we will be very busy.

I know that we keep saying it but the office is nearly finished and is looking superb! i cant take any photos today as the battery on the phone is dead and i only found out when i came to take some pictures this afternoon!

I'm off tomorrow for the weekend so David will keep you up to speed with the progress here at Norbury.

Simon

More snow

We have had more snow over night which has settled giving us about 4" Its was still snowing at 9.30 this morning, I love the place when its covered in snow, looks idilic but it is a night mare to work around! Some pictures from first thing this morning.

Only 3 Inches thick!!

The ice is only three inches thick but it takes some breaking, We have had to dock a couple of boats today which meant that i had to spend a couple of hours in the snow on the back of a day boat ice breaking, it is hard work and it takes all of the blacking off the hull and the noise that the prop makes chopping through the ice is horrendous! When the canal had working boats using it the canal companies had to keep the canal clear of ice and this was done with a horse drawn ice breaker with a team of horses and a team of men, they would stand either side of a bar running down the length of the boat rocking it back and forth as the horses pulled the boat along, often riding up on to the ice before it eventually broke, now that must have been hard work! You don't see that sort of ice breaking anymore! Both boats finally under the cover of the dry dock, we are fortunate that we can have two boats in our dry dock as it is a wide dock.

Its snowing like mad here and the temperature has dropped a lot since this morning so i would imagine that the roads will be bad tonight. This weather makes moving boats around very dangerous and Paul has all ready slipped today, fortunately only his leg went into the water and not all of him. Poor Bernard is fitting an engine today and hasn't got much in the way of cover, i suspect he will look like a snowman by the time he finishes today. Paul is still winterising boats and draining systems down, Fred is cleaning the two boats down in the dry dock, ready for some paint, Ange is paining the office, Amanda is still sorting through the chandlery and i have been showing people around a boat, you wouldn't believe that people would be looking at boats in this weather but they are!

As promised here are a couple of shots of Norbury from the office door this morning(you don't think I'm going out there taking pictures do you)

Until tomorrow

Simon

Its getting colder

It is amazing just how cold it has been this weekend and its getting colder! The thermometer topped a new low this year at an amazing -13 here at Norbury, it goes with out saying that the canal is well and truly frozen over,it has been reported that it could drop to -20 this week, i have seen it down to -16 here in the past, David reported that the shops water had frozen, the toilets froze over the weekend and just about ever thing froze! Every boat that we have here is frozen in solid now and this weather will have frozen any boats water system if it hasn't been either drained or protected, There will be a lot of broken boats out there when the thaw comes. We have several boats out at the moment, one has abandoned his break and is leaving the boat until the thaw, worryingly we have not heard from our hire rs so they could be stuck anywhere!

I have had a good weekend down in Southampton which was no where near as cold as up here! I was very pleased upon my return to see that the new office and chandlery are looking superb, well done to everyone who has put loads of effort into making such a good job! Amanda has been busy today painting the floor in the chandlery and the walls in the office, Jay has not been on his usual cooking duties all day but has been going through the chandlery and having a good sort out, we have all been trying to stay in the warm, poor old Paul has been outside most of the day though, i hope he has a nice big fire to go home to, Mick has been on a break down to a 1.5 BMC that would not start, Lee has been putting the finishing touches to the boat that he is painting, i have to praise him as he does do a very good job.

We have a new name here now, his name is James, he has worked here once before on a work experience scheme and he Is now the replacement for Dean who has disappeared of the face of the planet!

While typing this Eddie from the fisheries which is a large trout pool just down the road has just popped in for his diesel for his generator and reported the the thermometer was reading -15 last night, I said it was going colder!

I will take some pictures tomorrow of the place covered in its snowy blanket (it was too cold this morning)

Until Tomorrow
Simon

Brass monkey's!

It was certainly a cold one last night. Reports say that it dropped to -11°C (I can believe it!). I have never known our water to freeze within the buildings here at Norbury, but the only tap that seems to be producing water this morning is in Wharf Cottage.

That's the cottage that we do B&B in and also holiday lets. It's very popular during the summer months, but bookings do quieten down during the winter. It's really cosy in there with the oil fired central heating on and a fire roaring up the chimney whilst you look out over the canal basin and open fields.

The lanes are treacherous, so I very much doubt if we will be busy in the shop and tea room today, although saying that we have been in previous spells of bad weather!

Here's a couple of pictures that I took this morning before the sun was breaking through.




Well, we really did make good headway with the chandlery and the office yesterday and things are really coming together now. Mandy's doing sterling work sorting through a big pile of chandlery and putting it into some order on the shelves. We've had nothing but good comments from our customers that have been in since we started the refit, so for those of you that haven't managed to get to see us. Here's some of what your missing!

Firstly the new Chandlery Department...



Dedicated area for stoves, chimneys and accessories


And our new office!


Now there's just the dreaded yellow to get rid off. Whoever would of dreamt of painting walls yellow. I ask you, any colour but yellow! Must of been round the twist...

Simon told you about the new boat that was delivered by road on Thursday which came from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Well I need to get her advertised today, so keep an eye on our website for updates.

Paul's keeping busy out on the yard to keep warm! Steve is going to finish the shelves off in the office today and Mick's just off out to deliver some coal in Gnosall.

You'd be surprised how many coal deliveries we actually do by road as we do free delivery on ten bags or more within a ten mile radius. Our coal prices are advertised on our website here. We used to deliver by water too, but when I sold Hyperion back in February it left us without a carrying boat. I do miss coaling by boat, because even before I came to Norbury it was something that I did on a weekly basis throughout the winter.

Here's me steering the Midlands and Coast motor boat Jubilee loaded with 20 tonnes of domestic pre packed fuel for local distribution at Bugbrooke on the Grand Union Canal back in 2002.


'Tis time for breakfast now and a hot cup of coffee, then get some office work done!

Bye for now.

David.

Snowy Saturday

Well, it was a bit of a surprise when I got up this morning to see snow everywhere!

This was the scene as I walked down the arm this morning.


And this was the view from the bridge looking over the basin.


Some of the snow had defrosted earlier, but it has started to freeze hard again now (@ 15:50). Weather reports say that it is going to get down to -6°C tonight, which could make things a bit slippery for the morning!

We've been busy sorting the shop and office out today, it's really started to come together and will look the part!

Paul has been busy draining down our boats that aren't going out within the next two weeks and has left the heating running on the boats that are due to go out shortly to prevent burst pipes. The weather forecast is for these Arctic conditions to continue at least for another two weeks. That's something to look forward to... I must admit that I do like the snow and the ice to a certain extent, but it isn't any fun to be working or travelling in.

Working in ice and snow is something we have to take into consideration with all of our staff. It's so easy to slip on gunnels and land in icy cold water. So this slows jobs down, as it takes two people just to move a boat from A to B (that's something we do regularly!) in case one of them slips into the canal.

David