Mega mowing

We are still preparing the area on top of this bank to be a bit more area for growing veg as well as more space for the ducks. You can see one of the new beds there prepared with cardboard and then horse poo on top ready for squash when they plants are ready.

 

The neatest!

The lawn grows so fast in Spring and early summer it is hard to keep on top of it! I have just kowed it and Isaac as strimmed the bank in front. This is probably the neatest it is going to look all year!

Maybe you can’t make it out in the photo, but there are some daffodils at the top of the bank looking very Spring like.

 

Trees trees trees and mowing

First lockdown we spent plenty of clearing up trees and mowing.

So far second lock down has some similarities!

Here is Daisy ‘helping’ me tidy up branches by standing so it is impossible to out them on the wheel barrow. Thanks Daisy!

Nice mown lawn

Here are the branches before Doug cut them up

My fire refused to light as those branches were still damp. Doug burnt 3 other bonfires we had around the place waiting for sunny weather. Now we have non left for bonfire night! I am sure there will be more by then...

Fixed the lawn mower!

Tried to fix the lawnmower we were given a while ago, decided it needed a new carb which arrived before 'lock down', finally found the time to fit it and it works. So pleased to have diagnosed and fixed the problem. Now we have a dud streamer to look at next...

No photo, so here is one of one of our other lawn mowers...

Lawn Mower fix attempt

Someone gave us a lawnmower. They said it had some problems running, but had been serviced recently. It wouldn't start at all, so I took it apart.

The filter sponge is a bit melted

I took it apart and feel this can't be normal in the carb float cup

This is the carb float needle it was kind of welded in to the hole it blocks and opens with black gunk like in the carb cup. I cleaned it up, but it seems a bit deformed at the end.

I put it all back together having cleaned it, it worked better but still not right. It would start but only run for a few seconds and then stop. The petrol also slowly leaked out - not ideal.

I have ordered a new carburettor (ideally I just needed the needle, but you can't buy just that)

Leaves and strimming

An awful lot of leaves seem to fall on the drive and other places we don't want them. Many thanks to David for the useful leafblower that helps keep them under control.

At the same time I have been doing that, Doug has been strimming everything in site. Autumn is a good time to do it as the weather is nice but not as hot as in summer. It is nice when things are dying back rather than growing madly as ones work lasts longer.

There was a taste of winter also in the midst of all this autumn work

New Lawn Mower

We have a lot of grass cutting implements and we decided we needed yet another one. The flymo is good on the steep bits - well kind of good, it is hard work but possible and gives a neater finish than strimming - but it is hard work on the lawn and other areas as you have to push it and it gets stuck on lumps and bumps. So we have bought a self propelling lawn mower. It has reasonable size wheels and is rear wheel drive, so not to bad on slopes.

I hope you are loving the outfit too :)

It was pretty exciting having the lawn mower make some of the effort and having it collect the clippings instead of wildly spray them everywhere as the flymo does.

Drive work

The ditch is key to the drive staying in good condition, so Doug has been fettling it some.

You can hardly see it before he started!

Trees

No trees

Mowing the sides with the flail head on the mini digger

He then dug out the ditch with the smallest bucket on the mini digger.

The cows have also grazed it some, and the middle has been mown three times already.

Still milking, mowing and fencing

I haven't got many varied new things to blog about because at the moment mainly Doug is struggling to keep on top of the mowing strimming and twice daily milkings.
We have cut down to once a day from this weekend and get about 6l in a milking. It will not be long until Venus can keep up with this herself as she is growing fast. More out than up at the moment which is good because she was a bag of bones when she was born.
It is hard to find things to do with that much milk so we have been drinking it, skimming the cream for raspberries, having icecream, kefir, kefir cheese (made by straining kefir and leaving to sit for a day and adding salt before refrigerating), butter, soaking wheat in it for the chickens, the dog drinks a bit - but we are getting worried too much is not good for her, fattening and too much liquid and finally I have been putting some on plants in the garden (! it is meant to be good for them... mostly this has been the left overs from butter and kefir cheese, so not the best stuff!)

Doug has redone the sheep fence on the top field. I don't have photos but it was a big big job. The sheep mesh gets grown in to the brambles and it has been a while since it was last done. He has also rerouted it some so they have a bigger area which is great. We are going to join the two flocks together for now with just the Ouessant ram and eat the other one. This will mean a bit less work refencing and moving sheep.

More and more mowing

The fields have been getting more and more infested with brambles. The animals will eat them when they are new shoots, but if they manage to take hold they won't eat them and then they grow in to massive balls that the animals cannot force their way through.

Doug has spent some of the spring mowing them with the sickle bar on the walk behind tractor.

These brown patches are all that are left of the big big ball of brambles they used to be.

This is the bottom field

Owen's field (there are still some big patches here - the plan is to nibble away at them over the years)

The corner field

This is by the potager where the hops grow.

This is the lawn that I mowed with the hover mower. Doug normally does it but I felt he needed help with the amount of mowing that needs doing at the moment!

I mowed the potager too

The rabbits are busy trying to help out too