What's going on here??

Today, the weather is appalling. I must be mad, yesterday I agreed to go on a 5 mile run which I felt I had to honour. It was not the weather for running or blipping afterwards.

So, I thought if you have shown an interest in this blip, you may want to know what on earth is going on here.

The main water flow here is an overflow which usually has about one inch (2.5 cms) of water in it. Recently we have had a great deal of rain. If I don't get rid of excess water that the watermill does not need, we would flood. It is now a raging torrent. If you fell in, you would not last long!!!

I have an overflow weir and two sluice gates which protect the mill in the background. One is large and the other a quarter of the size.

To give you an idea of just how much water there is, the water in the foreground is coming through the large sluice which is about 10% open. Towards the rear beyond the weir, is the the small sluice which is about 25% open. If I were to open them much more, the water going to the hydroelectric plant in the mill would fall and power output would fall.

Essentially it is a guessing game to get everything just right!!

In normal weather, I open the sluice gates fully to let all the water bypass the mill so that I can inspect the turbine and fish screens.

The mill leat in the background is about 600 metres long, 8 feet deep and was hand dug from the river about 200 years ago. The mill itself has been there in various forms since about the 13th century.

Well, that's given you a bit of information you didn't want!!!

Have a great day.