The drain has drained me!

I am well and truly drained today. The cause - a drain! Going back to the conservatory rebuild at the beginning of this year, a drain was installed to take one half of the roof water. The other part went into an existing drain. When the guy installed the new drain it was a horrible wet and cold day and I guess it was not conductive to doing much digging. The result was that the drains position was such that I did not have room to put a foundation in for a step to the doors.

I have been planning to move it for some time but with this continued winter weather I guess I felt like the ground worker did when he put the drain in - I just wanted to be in the warm and dry! However until the drain was moved just about all the other jobs to sort the WMD HQ garden out could not get done. So this morning it was dry and warmish so I decided today was the day. However the job was bigger than I thought it would be. Where the pipe goes through the lawn it only had about 3 inches of cover. I could easily have put a fork through it and in a dry summer the grass above the pipe would just die. 

So the whole pipe was exposed, removed and the trench dug down another 9 inches. That doesn't sound much but it will be enough and it was a tough dig in clay so I think that its is about as much as my back can stand! Anyway my back lasted long enough to put the pipe back into its new deeper home and backfill. 

I did have a bit of an audience who were probably bemused by what I was doing just as Mrs. Woody was when I told her what I was doing!

The foundation for the step will need a bit more digging out but that can wait for another day and a better back!

Back in the comfort of my Man Cave I was able to remove the various weights that I had placed on the sub-assembly for the gardens to the thatched cottage and shop on my OO9 narrow gauge layout that I glued down last night. I have used PVA and whilst it gives a good bond once dry it does take its time to go off and during that period it is best to weigh down the surfaces.

Everyuthing apart from the kitchen sink weighing the car base down!

The sub-assembly now well and truly flat and stuck down!

At least I won't have to dig any drains for the 4mm scale houses on the layout!