Last lake swim this year?

Saturday, work on the new boiler is drawing to a close, so after lunch I ran along the lake shore and had a quick dip - the water is noticeably cooler so my swim was a few strokes out and back. Meg's attempt was even feebler: as soon as she sees me turn back she's out like a shot. Then biked to Joanne's to see her smoke damage, Larry came too but rather slowly and it rained so together I got rather cold. Painted a door for Joanne then cycled back and Larry's bike broke so he had to be rescued. Got back just in time for dinner (thank you Caroline) so my much longed for hot bath had to wait.

Mouse under cover

Yesterday I went to get something from the bedroom and noticed a tiny mouse scurrying under our bed, so I set a trap before retiring. During the night I woke thinking something had tickled me, but assumed it was a dream and went back to sleep. This morning left early to run / walk around the lake barefoot, swimming across King's river (so warm, is the lake). Meanwhile Alison woke feeling something touching her legs, on throwing back the bedclothes, there he was looking very snug. Amazingly she managed to catch its tail and throw it forcefully out of the window. However the mouse (or an associate) lives on - it has been spotted by several people since...

Five miles

Tuesday morning I woke with the sun so, being that time of the year, I increased my normal first-thing-in-the-morning-3.5-mile-run to the boat-house-lake-shore route which is exactly 5 miles.  The lake is high-ish which means wading in places, but is doable. I passed a couple fishing that early - they think me mad to be running with no shirt and I similarly cannot understand what would possess a man to sit shivering by the lake shore holding a line in the water.

What with the high lake level which makes my full lake route not feasible, the council's work on the local roads which has left them strewn with sharp stones, and forestry work which has churched up the tracks and made them most uncomfortable under barefoot, I feel like my habit is being compromised!

Barefoot running and sand

Apparently cracks appearing in various parts of one's feet are common enough.  I do not have a callus remover. But I do have a lake shore with fairly coarse sand in places.  I have found that running through sand (only possible here when the lake level is not too high) helps in dealing with the problem.  Using moisturising cream to combat the drying effect of running on earth also helps - I use Silcocks Base.

Barefoot lake run

A new route (well, new for barefoot) - 15.5km (almost 10 miles). Some parts were at walking pace because of rocks, but it was mostly run-able although pretty exhausting for both dog and me. Finding new routes only enforces my preference to run barefoot. It is hard to explain why to those of you who wonder at my sanity: it does feel good (some people pay good money to have their feet massaged) and there is something pleasing about getting about without need for man-made aids. In a less direct way cycling is also very pleasing: even though a machine is involved it is powered by your own steam. But I have no particular wish to evangelize...

Waterworks

My title "Waterworks" could refer to a municipal division or to an older man's medical condition, but in this instance I am talking about my inherent interest in the flow of water between different levels. At the risk of loosing my anonymity I share two photos to prove my early interest:  

Now I am "grown up" I have the following recent photographic evidence of my continued fascination: the dog expressed surprising interest when the dam was breached. Indeed my definition of a satisfactory seaside is one with sand that is good for building and a water course.

Somewhere in between and closer in period to the second of these four pictures I remember an enjoyable day emptying my father's garden water storage tank and using considerable amounts of mains water via a hose pipe.  Regrettably no one was there with a camera.  The location was a hopefully unused vegetable bed in my parents garden.  I discovered, invented if you will, the venturi pump.  In my life I have invented several novel machines, most of which I discovered later had already been invented.  More of that in a later post maybe.  In this instance I discovered that I could lift water from a large lower reservoir (filled from the tank) to a higher reservoir by directing the hose jet along an interconnecting water channel.  I managed a few inches of lift and was exhilarated.

The venturi pump is an amazing invention. It has no moving parts (apart from the water itself). Correctly engineered it is strong enough to lift water from a reasonably deep well - where the advantage is that the mechanical parts can be at ground level.  Because it has no moving parts it can be used to pump stones, sand or sludge out of a sump.

The diagram below shows the principle.  The motive force is provided by high pressure water injected at (1) through the nozzle (2). The venturi effect occurs at the constriction (5).  You can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect - the theory says the pressure at the constriction here will be lower than at (3) and thus suction is created.  Or is it?  Is it the constriction at (2) that does the job? - because we want the pressure at the inlet (3) to be low, not at (5).  You will find the book explanations curiously hazy at this point..

Another wonderful hydraulic invention is the ram pump, more of this in a later post.