Yet more rain!

Sign writing in the workshop on yet another rainy Saturday.

Al's legible signpost in 2010

What with weather constraints, Christmas preparations for Swiss Family visitors and now even more rain; the gardeners have been somewhat confined to barracks.  The ground is utterly saturated and is just singing. Much of Worcestershire is under water as the Severn has flooded for the umpteenth time. I dread having to walk down to the chickens as the grass at the Hen Pen entrance is looking so worn and muddy.  Luckily all the wood chip we put down for the girls is keeping them free from trench foot!  There has been absolutely no opportunity for any much needed border work for weeks and weeks now - sigh.

Not to be outdone, the gardeners have been busy in the workshop with sign writing!  Al's sign post which he had made using and old oak gate had become so weathered that few of the places or distances were legible.  How could we easily engrave place names on to and old signpost?  We gave the matter long and serious thought.  Pyrography using a soldering iron had failed as had using a black permanent marker.  Chiselling out so many words was beyond us - even if we could spare the time.  If we used the router, we wouldn't see what we were trying to write.  

Eventually Chris came up with a brilliant plan.  Why not put the router bit in the pillar drill and one person (me!) operate the drill while the other (Chris!) manipulated the sign beneath?  After a few practice runs, we decided to give it a go.  Even if we were capable, we didn't want a perfect machined precision finish.  A rustic look is so much more at home in this garden and a rustic finish is what we achieved!  At least it should remain legible for a little longer.

A partially restored & legible signpost in pieces

Using Google Earth to measure the distances means that we have amazing accuracy.  The measurements are literally taken from building to building.  In fact, the distances depict a far greater accuracy than the layout of the engraved letters!  Let's hope we don't make any spelling errors!