Junction in Neschwitz.

Bautzen in the sun.

There was not much progress this week. The materials bought to arrange gas heating in my van were either wrong or improper at first. Some corrective action was taken and that does cost time. I am not absolutely sure but I think to have everything in order now, yet to be installed however. From the local blacksmith I ordered some items needed to tow my carriage with two horses. Also these items where not quite what I had asked for. Modifications were made and now I am happy with them, even though my advisor Peter did have some remarks. Getting these modifications done, does take time and attention. Then came a very positive event: Peter brought me the last wheel with tyre. I now have 5 wheels with good tyres available. At the end of the week all five are serviced and painted. Four wheels are fitted and tested. There appears to be no play in the fitted wheels, meaning that the bearings are all in good condition. Both axes do roll very easily. Most of my time was spent on the turret. When the carriage was delivered the turret worked absolutely fine, it could be turned around 360 degrees without problem by hand. Some time later, after I had taken everything apart and after welding the connecting tube to the girder, it appeared to be virtually impossible to move the turret. It did cost me so much trouble that I decided to go and search for advice.

Front and rear axis with wheels again.

First of all I wanted to understand the construction so I took a cover plate off. Behind that plate I saw a clean slit and at the back of the slit a neatly greased and curved steel surface but no roller bearings. After showing this to some people they concluded that the bearing and rolling is arranged with a sliding steel band. Now the issue was still to get this system going again. I suggested towing the carriage behind Peter’s tractor and slaloming around for a while. After some consideration, especially the fact that the system had been working properly, we came to the conclusion that some how the turret must be under stress. So we loosened every connection to the upper ring. After that Peter took a sledge hammer and banged firmly onto the upper ring. Surprise, surprise: all of a sudden the turret could be moved around again quite easily. When turning, some areas appeared to give more resistance, which again disappeared after banging with the hammer but then reappeared somewhere else. Anyway, after a session of banging and turning around it ended up very satisfactory, with some resisting areas of minor importance remaining. Now that I know this, I could get going forward again. I pulled both central tubes very into each other unto the point where they belong. To do this on your own, I used two spanners and the sledge hammer. After getting the spanners under tension I banged at the back of the tube causing it to move into place. The carriage is now pointing towards the large doors into the world.

Problematic turret.

Rear axis with rust prevention applied and carriage pointing towards the world. 

I applied the first layer of rust preventing paint at the rear axis which is for me highlighting a new and big step forward. With that painting I finished on Saturday morning the work for this week. During my work I had a distinct feeling that something was watching me. At a certain moment when sitting at my table, I saw what it was. A mouse. The little thing is crawling around the steel parts stored at my side. By now I call it “Micky Mouse Fearless Mouse. The little thing is coming very close, urgently seeking food which is usually available at my table. Most of the time there is a bag of peanuts laying around. I placed two peanuts somewhere at a steelbar. Mister Fearless appeared after a while. It took one of the nuts and moved away not sure where to go; to the left or to the right. It choose to go to the right. After a short while Micky came back, picked up the second nut and this time it went to the left. Obviously Micky does have two storages. Tommy is aware of its existence and is sometimes urgently seeking contact, but does not get it. Then appeared a large cat, which came through a gate in the large doors. The cat sneeked up the stairs whilst Tommy was sitting next to me. Even as the cat came back down the stairs and disappeared, Tommy did not notice. Neither the cat nor Tommy have so far managed to hurt Micky. The other day, whilst I was sitting in the doorway of my car, I saw Micky climb up the legs of my chair, appearing high up the back, coming down the seat and jumping at least 30 centimeters to get onto my table with the bag of peanuts. After having seen this I inspected the peanut bag and noticed quite a view shells opened up, with one of the two nuts disappeared. I decided to remove any food from the table, which of course is not very nice for Micky. Bollucks for Micky. They are my nuts.

Micky Mouse drinking from pot with brushes.

Micky on its way to my table with peanuts.

Happily I walked with TNT for a long while. Tom found again a spot where he had to roll himself into the stinking shit. That is not so nice, but it is then funny to see how Tommy is picking up this smell. Tommy then starts to push his body against Tom and he also starts to lick off Tom. Tom does not very much like that and they start running around, Tommy chasing Tom. After this daily walk I moved to Bautzen and strolled over the Christmas market.

Christmas market in Bautzen.