Flatlining

If it's not one thing it's another!
Having got the Broadband working again, and the Weather back to updating every 15 minutes, the Console that picks up the signals from the weather station seems to have had a funny few hours, hence a very flat graph until I realised that it might seem to be the same weather as usual, but there's usually a few peaks and troughs.
I think it's fixed, but I'm waiting to see what else will go wrong

Easier to find us

For over 4 years James and Michelle have had a hastily hand written board at the end of the lane, with Wellbank in (now) faded marker pen.

But no more, while Michelle was away last week James carved out an impressive sign (on a lump of sandstone he happened to have lying about) as an early Birthday present. And with the Strickley sign repainted, there's no excuse not to find us.

It really is GOOD NEWS!

At last we are connected!

For those who have missed their regular weather fix, it's running now with the current status, and it will upload the past 11 days' statistics tonight.

It's been a funny 11 days cut off from the virtual world.

Looking For Good News

Firstly, apologies to regular Weather Watchers. As we are still without Broadband (10 days now) I can't give you an up to date view of the weather at Strickley. It is still recording and saving the data on the computer, so if anyone is really really interested, when everything is back to normal, all the graphs and trends will be uploaded.

I've been in daily contact with our ISP and BT (except over the Bank Holiday when everyone shut down except us) and have the possible promise of an engineer on site tomorrow. I will be at home for the next few days so there's also a possible threat that I will lock the door and not let the engineer escape until it is fixed. We thought at first it was the lightening that struck us down, but it has been suggested that the line was too fast for us (at 2 mb) and we were "on the limit". So while everyone gets upgraded to amazing speeds, we get downgraded to a lowly 512 kb. I'm tending to think that this is our ISP's last chance and I'm looking at other options.

And now the Good News (and proof that I'm getting older). Elliot started his new school today. In Leicestershire they move on at 10 (rather than 11). Victoria took his photograph first thing today (before he's played football in the playground or lost his tie). If you want to read Victoria's Blog, get in touch with her as it's by invitation only.
And next week Robert starts "proper school", having been to Pre-school - and Chris moves onto Pre School.
Fletcher is walking and Izzy almost riding a bike, so there's no stopping the younger generation.

And finally, I'm sorry for not replying to emails since 18th - I can read them online (courtesy of other people's computers) but I'm saving them up to reply when we get ourselves sorted.

All (well some) is safely gathered in

So far mostly good news.

On Friday we mowed about 47 acres - fields that weren't actually standing in water, and enough acres to get in one day. By 6.30 on Saturday it was all in the pit - and James had even had time to judge at the Wensleydale Show.

Not so good news - we had a puncture on the Manitou while rolling the pit (have you tried to get someone to come out on a Bank Holiday Sunday?)

Bad news - it's raining again!

Good News, Bad News

Well the Good News 1 is they've identified the problem and it will be fixed. The Bad News? Not till next Wednesday (27th).

Good News 2 - we're being refunded 3 months charges.

Good News 3 - we've started mowing again - this time for clamp silage
Bad News - none yet, but there will be if it rains before the grass is picked up.

And, many thanks to James & Michelle for letting me do these updates from their computer.

Frozen In Time

If you look at our Weather site, you'll see the time the clock stopped, or rather the time the broadband line went down - 19:45 18th August. There's still no news on when this might change. Today an BT Broadband engineer came out. He confirmed (by plugging in his laptop and modem) that the line is indeed dead. So he went down to the pole at the end of the lane. Dead there also. He then went down to the "Green Box" at Oxenholme. (There always seems to be a BT van there and someone fiddling with the wires). He says the problem is the line from the Exchange is too fast (at 2mb - not that we ever saw anything over 1mb) and we are "on the limit". He is going to pass his findings onto FOL and ask them to reduce the speed. The lightening may have been a red herring, or caused an already feeble connection to give up. I will be contacting FOL later.