Saturday, March 21, 2009

Long day.

Up and out there by 9am today, a mechanical day planned so couldn't really start any earlier.
Took my chainsaw and long handled loppers, plus a rudely awakened Hacken-Slash, who has been bought a set of diddy tractor wheels with axle extensions. The digging rotor pins were fine for the axle extensions, but the wheel "dish" was too small for them to fit the wheels, so into my workshed went I and after some rootling and hacksawing I had two bolts the correct diameter cut to fit. As I was fettling the chainsaw my son turned up and asked to be given some work to do, after I had come round I set him to rolling up the carpet from Plot 17 and piling it and all weights etc in a specific place, while I went tree felling.
A ten inch diameter tree has been overshadowing more and more of plot 9 and now that David has given up half of it and cleared that half, a golden opportunity was hovering, so I took it. Barbara knows someone with an open fire, so the logs are sorted and the branches were publicised by me as "get your pea sticks here before the council takes them away". Son helped stack everything neatly.
Back to Plot 17 where son had neatly stacked everything in the wrong place, part due to be rotovated, so we moved it all and he volunteered to weed the coldframe, managed to stay concious! Gave him some tools and he got cracking, while I cranked up Hacken-Slash and got rotovating.
When son had finished and had a drink he announced he was off to "do some revision".
When I had done all of plot 17 that needed doing in two directions I cleaned Hacken-Slash and put all the tools away, then took Hacken-Slash home on his nice new wheels and woke up Slicen-Dice, who had a little operation last year at the garden machinery hospital to install a new coil, as a result he woke up fairly quickly, but needed quite a bit of oil beforehand. I think he could do with a new exhaust some time soonish as he is getting a bit LOUD. Minced up plot 17 with varying success.
These two photo's show it pretty well.
The lighter area close to camera was last years potatoes, easy digging but some weeds, the darker middle ground with a paler bit to the right was under carpet till this morning and was last years squash, no weeds hard and wet difficult digging.

The paler square middle right was last years sweetcorn and the plants were left as overwintering nature habitat, they were dug in, hence the paler colour, it's maize straw. The top bit before the barrells was two years ago's potatoes plus barrell installation overspill and was again easy digging, bar the last two feet which were waterlogged with runoff from the terrace.
Left at two fifteen to garage Slicen-Dice and go for a freecycle pick-up.
Back at three thirty to show a prospective tenant plot 9, it went.

Terry had used some of the decking he won off his sister, very neat.

Took both my newly aquired blue barrells home and cut out a tractor seat hole in the base of each.

Mooched around and chatted to a few other plotholders.

Tidied up all the mess I had generated and assembled the Emperor of the Daleks down by the path, starting his 660L stomach off with 75L of woodchip and all the weeds and redndant stuff son had removed from the coldframe.
Took these pictures for the blog, last one is my new asparagus bed, just have to wait a few years now.

Retired to a hot bath via the greenhouse, which was parched, all that lovely sun had dried out all the seed tray, so gave them a soaking.

Cucumbers, peas, brassicas all pushing up, no sign of the peppers though.


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