Plumbing

This last week was productive both at home and at the Park.

First off, I collected the diesel fuel that the driller of our new borehole at the Park had borrowed. True to his word, Mr. Lee has donated the borehole in the interests of furthering the aims of Scouting in Zimbabwe and for this, I on behalf of Scouting thank him most sincerely.

Now I will need to have the hole tested to ascertain its yield, which I am informed, may not be as good as that predicted by the diviner. Only then can I look at procuring a suitable pump. Hopefully we will be drawing water from the hole before the end of the year.

My work on refurbishing Land Rovers continues. I am gainfully occupied with Jon in rebuilding, at last count, seventeen Landies. This exercise is two fold, in that I need to learn as much about Land Rovers as possible to enable me to repair my own when Jon retires and secondly it will broaden my mechanical knowledge that can be used the future in a number of fields. I am also enjoying the work.

The monthly hike was held last Friday/Saturday, and for that report you will, as usual, have to wait for the next edition of Pioneer Trail, due to be published in September. All I will divulge, is that the route, for security reasons, was kept within the confines of the National Park, as post election disturbances in certain areas must still be taken into account when planning activities.

Sunday morning saw four eager beavers rising before sun-up to climb Shumba shava. It was a clear morning, with a chilly breeze blowing until about 9 a.m. After a filling breakfast of oatmeal porridge, homemade bread and a cup or two of tea, we commenced with the duties of the day.

Christopher and Dale took the trek cart and axes to the 'Skipper' Knapman Training Ground to continue with the removal of two non-indigenous trees. This exercise took the whole of the day. Brendon and I continued with installing the new water-main from behind the Rough store to the kitchen, where we are connecting it to the existing reticulation system. Unfortunately, we did not have all the pipe joints and so had to be content at breaking in to the main, which is a galvanized iron pipe, at the kitchen end, by installing a 'T' joint to take a plastic nipple. this will be necessary for us to plug on the plastic piping we are installing. Brendon had great fun in cutting the pipes and then threading the ends before connecting in the 'T' joint. This was the first time that Brendon had done any plumbing work. It was so funny watching him threading the pipes, as he had to use his full body weight to work the stocks and dies. A great experience for a young Scout.

All too soon the week end was over and after having a shower we locked up and returned home.

Cheers Norman
Bulawayo, 7 July 2008