Ducks in the woods and a new shelter roof

See, I told you the woods were flooded... we have Mallards swimming around now...

Here's a pic of the River Rother from a couple of weeks ago, which gives you an idea of how waterlogged the area around Rye is!

At least one good sign though - bluebell shoots!

The wet and windy winter had also accelerated the decay of parts of our shelter roof in the woods, so we spent some time over the last couple of weekends getting it sorted...

First we fixed some wooden beams across the existing roof:

Then wedged a few bits of wood underneath to stiffen them up - the roof bows a bit, hence the gap in the middle.

To go on top of them we had some sterling board (OSB - Oriented Strand Board), which we'd treated with a preservative, and corrugated panels to go on top of them:

And of course the solar PV to recharge the drill...

Once the sterling boards were on top, it was pretty easy to move around and screw them down:

Then the corrugated panels and the ridge pieces went on top:

They were supplied with some special caps and nails, but we opted to use screws instead of nails. The screw went through the cap:

Was then tightened until it was holding the panel firmly:

Then finally you flip the centre of the cap over and press it down to create a watertight seal:

We spent a good chunk of one day making half of the roof:

Then came back the following weekend with more power tools and got the second half done much quicker!

We went today as well to do some track repair, but no pics of that - not much to see, just mud!

Mike

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Rough seas and a flooded woodland

With the weather over the past couple of months, it's not surprising that parts of the wood are under water, such as this bit just the other side of the wayleave:

Over in Chestnut Coppice, the stream is in full flow:

The sump before the culvert has a proper little waterfall:

Although the water was all going through the culvert on this visit, the strip clear of leaves shows that it has gone over the top at times too!

Down in Rye Harbour Nature Reserve today the sea was pretty rough (for our part of the English Channel at least). Nothing like they've had in Cornwall thankfully!

Looking forward to some nicer weather, whenever that arrives... even snow would be better than what we've had I think!

Mike

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Storm surge washes road away in Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

We'd heard that there was some significant damage in the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve due to Thursday night's storm surge, so we wandered down there at high tide today for a look... What's worth knowing is that this road was built in the 1940s and this is the first time the sea has ever come over it. That tells us something about the magnitude of this storm surge and the rise in sea levels over the past 60 years (about 10cm, or 4")...

There's also a video that some of the staff took of it at high tide on Friday:

What seems to have happened is that the tide got high enough to wash over the top of the road and plunge over the other side - there are several points where there are holes created by the water:

with the scoured shingle from under the road spread out beyond them:

But in some places the scouring went a bit further...

One of the passing places has collapsed:

and in another area the scouring caused the whole road to cave in:

this of course led to more scouring on the upstream side of the collapsed road:

and then scenes like this:

Parts of the road are now some distance away...

and another slab is a bit lower than it used to be:

The force of the water had also pushed the fence over and uncovered an electricity cable:

Part of me wishes I'd been there on Thursday night to watch it happen, but it probably wouldn't have been the safest place to be... Bizarrely I may have been the last person to cross this bit of road before it fell in, as I went for a night-time bike ride down there on Thursday evening (with some very bright LED lights) and crossed this part of the road at about 9:30pm - it would have caved in at about 1am.

Mike

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High tide flooding in Rye

I went down to the quay this lunchtime to see how high the tide got... It was the highest I've ever seen it, though a I guy I was talking to said he'd been there at 1am last night and it had been at least a foot higher. Here's a short video, and then some pics:

Apparently last night this car was covered up to the top of the wheels:

How or why they'd managed to park this side of the flood barriers I don't know... I guess the windows are open to help it dry out! I was told that the water had been spraying through the flood barrier wall here, where it was still accumulating at high tide today:

The evidence of this could still be seen - silt on the pavement:

There was also some seepage going on today:

And the flood barriers were still closed:

Glad it wasn't any worse!

Mike

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Flooding in Rye - sewage water lifting the manhole covers!

This video is from a couple of hours ago in Rye, note the bits of toilet paper coming up from the manhole cover! Nasty!

Mike

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Catching up...

It's been a bit hectic the past couple of weeks, as work's been busy and we've had family visiting, so I've got a bit behind on posting photos up here. So, here's a round-up of some odds and ends.

A few weeks ago we found the culvert in the wood had got blocked again, as heavy rain had washed leaves and twigs into it:
This has happened before, but this time Tracy videoed me unblocking it, so here you go:

With all the rain and some sunshine as well, the fruit and nut trees we planted in November have been doing well, with many of them now showing blossom: Our crab apple tree has also come into bloom again, starting with dark pink buds that opened out into pale pink flowers: Down at ground level the bluebells are in full bloom in the parts of the wood with more sunlight, like this patch a neighbour owns: the flowers are slower to come out in the shadier parts of the wood. Near our camp, we now have several Violets growing - this is the first year they've come up since we coppiced there, and it's great to see them. They've been in the wayleave all along, so I guess the seeds have come through from there. My dad brought his "scotch eyed auger" with him to try putting some legs on our "shave log". It's a very neat tool, and you just find a suitable stick to use as a handle: It bites into the wood very effectively: boring out nice neat holes: Then we just had to cut some legs to fit: and we had it up on legs: OK, I know the legs aren't very straight, but I can always replace them with better ones later if it turns out to be a problem. I did a bit of work levelling off the the top of the log with a draw knife, and found it was at a good height for working. Meanwhile my nephew Joshua had a great time playing in the land rover: Here's the obligatory group photo of everyone - quite a crowd! and finally, some sunset pics from the garden of the house they rented while they were down here: That's all for now. Mike

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