Mow mow mow your lawn....

So anyway i threw in the towel yesterday, being tired with  a vengance.


This was Taliesin' cue, he who managed to get the mower running when Iwas a sweaty profane mess after lunch, off he went. I am not sure what he did but he managed to snap the drive belts for the cutting deck.


To be fair to him the belts were right on the end of their adjustment making me wonder if the guy wot sold us the mower last year was telling the truth when he said he had changed the belts.  Since there are three in total and we have now changed all of them.

But anyway, 

This was my excuse to run off and get new belts, then change them which is turning into a job of technical complexity that makes building a nuclear reactor as easy as, well, easy anyway...

The student meanwhile has nearly done another module of her ECDL.

Could even be a pass tomorrow.

R



 

Big acres....

We don't have masses of land, 6 acres, thats more than a lot of parks in town mind.


Of course we are having another annual bash sometime in July when it will be Branwen and Taliesin's "official" 18th party.




Bethans last year was a simply fantastic do, lots of people who hardly knew each other, of course that is either a recipe for success or pugilism. It was really good as it turned out, the weather could not have been better. The company was great, all in all one of the best parties ever.

I am thinking we need to find an excuse to hold one every year.

Of course it had to happen somewhere and in the house would not have been a good idea.

So we made room in our bottom field, the one that looks out over cardigan bay, where about 8 years ago we planted a semi circle of shrubs and dug a fire pit in the middle.

Ran power down, borrowed a small PA system, set up the barbie and had the fantastic party.

It started about 4 pm Saturday and sort of wound down about 10 pm Sunday. 

Of course it meant having room for people to run about  and for people to camp.

Which in turn meant short grass.

We have a big ride on mower for all the use that is, they are fine on flat lawns but stick them in a proper field and what you get is lots of noise chipped blades and snapped drive belts.

So last year we got a Hayter Condor with 11 hp honda power and Hydrostatic drive. Basically is scythes it's way through long grass with you tripping over clumps of mow behind it, then lunches it's way through short stuff with you hanging on for dear life.

After lunch today we got it out and got it going, then I set to and mowed an acre in about an hour and  half.

If you think thats a lot you are barking up the right tree.

The student came along behind with a rake collecting the grass into piles for composting. The field being a mix of grass mowed last year and 18 inch high stuff that has not been mowed for 10. Several one ton sand bags are completly full.

Which will be great for the garden next year, but the mowing has left my shoulders on fire and she has had to go in the bath and apply medicinal whisky to ease the pain. Me, I opened a botle of Lambig, that should do it.  
R

 

Children can save your life....

One of the children just reminded me it's the students birthday this week.



Something I had completly forgotten. It's amazing how children can save your life, she would not have mentioned it but there would have been silent hell to pay.



I must get myself organised to get her a romantic present, but what, she allready has a big mower, a rotivator, a strimmer and lots of wheelbarrows.




Maybe a scythe would be the right thing to get her.


R

Boing spring is nearly here

The fire was out most of the day, how good is that??


Gardening got done, the student is fed up, she needs to do the huge essay but the garden is calling.



I need to get the lawn mowers back on the run, sort the flatbed, bring Gloria back to issue state.

Firewood needs to be chainsawed so we can start next winters stock.

The house next door is really starting to come together.

Could be done in a week or three.

That would be a real result.   

Getting that place sorted with a tennant in residence would be a good part of our finincial plan,

Well of course that implies we have a financial plan......

Other than muddle.

Muddle has worked for us.

R 

Ie dros Gymru

Well we got through the big day yesterday, went down quite late to vote and cause a bit of a sensation. Turn out had been low so three people arriving together counted as a "surge" as far as the electoral officer was concerned.

I am rewriting this post as it struck me, after I posted that half the world might not have the blindest idea what  I  was on about.  For a very long time people have been campaigning for greater autonomy in the "principality" of Wales. This dates back to the 50's but key dates have been referendums in 1979 which voted no and one in 1997 which voted yes but by a whisker.

I have always been part of the campaign for greater power to Wales and it was odd to think that I had been campaigning at her age for what Bethan was voting on yesterday.

The clever bit of the campaign has been the no vote, people "real Wales" it was clear at the beginning they were unlikely to win it so they did not register a campaign which meant that the government sponsored TV ads and posters and broadcasts the yes campaign should have been able to screen were not allowed to go ahead.

I think they rightly worked out that a full on campaign would have increased turnout and they would have got an ever bigger drubbing than the one they collected. Lets remind ourselves voters voted nearly 2 - 1 for increased powers.

Now of course you have the likes of UKIP saying that the 70 percent who did not vote were all no voters. Really? It had been on the news all along that there was likely to be a comfortable majority voting yes. So people really were that keen they would have made a point of getting out to vote no.

If anything the low turnout might be indicative of people thickening it's in the bag anyway.

But anyway, we are at the stage where we have won, Wales gets to make it's own law in  many areas.

The white paper on social care is a completely different animal to the English plans and the NHS will not be recognisable to English people in a couple of years.

I think we must give thanks to  Cameron  and Clegg too, people are so fed up of the coalition there was an element not so much as sticking 2 fingers up to Westminster as dropping their jeans and mooning at them too....

R

Tourism

Apparently the new tourism minister is looking to boost tourism. Nothing wrong in that, The tools will be some wedding and a jubilee of some sort.



Yup that will definitely boost tourism, give me the dates, I am off to Brittany....


R

Being Welsh

Gobeitho fod gan fy nghenedl yr hyder i bleidleisio dros ei hynan heddi.