Dyno-Rod

20th December 2025

Ok this happened on Thursday but I was motivated to tell you about finishing the ensuite yesterday and not want to overload you with excitement 😜

Thursday was gardening day. Our gardener has been hiding his light under a bushel and we found out his hidden talents, (apart from the garden) this afternoon, but more of that in a later post. Nevertheless we were the full throttle, gardening team on Thursday. The gardener and the undergardener were busy tackling the overgrown Bajan Cherry tree that has hardly borne any fruit this year much to my disappointment. I (the second undergardener) was lopping anything loppable that looked vaguely weed like. In the shipping container (which arrived in October) came my Dad’s, razor sharp, long handled, very useful, ratcheted loppers. I love them. Lop lop. Out you come nasty weed, dead branch, fertile tree growing in the wrong place, lop lop. I was having a lovely time leaving a trail of newly lopped vegetation behind me. The Gardener, the first under gardener and Mr Bebb all following in my wake picking up the mess. 🤣😜 (Obvs large amounts of artistic license to be applied)

Interrupting all this activity, the first yelp from the cherry tree area took me over in a saunter, to see what was going on. To be fair it was a minor yelp and not one of high distress. The under gardener had a very large centipede under his boot. Quick as a flash out came the cutlass and one vicious biting machine became two halves and then several pieces. I’m sorry to say it was all over so fast, the spectacle did not get photographed.

Very shortly after, given the almost non-event of the first yelp, I initially ignored the second yelp. However the alarm calls got louder and were accompanied by the noise of water falling, as in …..a lot of water. Hells teeth what is that? Making my way to Dovecote cottage, the noise got louder and then I saw it…. water …. Hot water …pouring off the roof. You guessed it, we had another Mosi-oi-Tunya situation ….the solar panel had corroded and was leaking all the water in the tank off the roof and onto the patio, making it into a heated hot tub.

Mr Bebb was dragged away from his new most favourite toy ……

…. To climb into the roof to investigate.

Whilst he’s doing that I managed to isolate the supply and shut that off. The patio was getting a hot wash, but the water was pooling in the centre of the patio. Poor design?, subsisdence? Why would water pool in the middle of the patio. A vague memory of this coming up on the survey gradually surfaced. well that was way down the action list…all of a sudden it needed to be dealt with. Then I spotted it ….

An odd tile.

”I think this is a drain” says me, to myself, while Mr Bebb is on the roof clearing away leaves, leaf litter and thick loam from rotted leaf litter, trying to get tot the source of the leak.

…. Picking up first pokey thing I could find, after clearing the debris, mud, leaves and probably slug poo away. I shoved it in the hole. Then once again back to my most played song of 2025 … I attacked it from both sides.

Get me … Mrs Dyno rod. An undiscovered talent.

So we have to get the solar heating people back in the new year, but hey, the patio had a hot wash, the roof is now cleared of debris and I’m basking in the glory of clearing the hole with my new most favourite rod.