Maintenance

LongDay__3
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

This is my new hedgerow. As you can see it is cunningly disguised as a thin strip of grass so the big maintenance task for the next few days is to cut all the grass out from between the "whips".

I found out I should have double dug the area before planting out the whips. In lieu of that I'll have to wait for a calm day and spot spray some weed-killer between them.

In the pub, in the evening, Hobo mentioned that my neighbour approved of my strimming of the orchard area by the phrase of "Jó munka" or 'good work', which, considering how hard they work in the village is high praise indeed! ( With the caveat that I'm not fluent so he could have said the opposite.)

Return of the Strimmer

This morning I fitted the air filter back on the strimmer and, after 5 minutes pulling the starter cord, got it going. I gave it a few revs and it seemed to be working so I decided to do a bit of strimming to see how long it lasted before it conked out. An hour later I'd strimmer most of the orchard. I'm trying to do it once a week as the grass is so quick growing at the moment but with the strimmer out of action, it hasn't been possible. Who'd have thought the air filter was the cause!

After that I started on a maintenance job for the hedge. cut down all the grass around the plant. Can't do it with the strimmer so it was a manual job with a sickle. managed about 3 metres before it started raining.

In the pub in the evening, I told Hobo the good news

Long Day

I woke up with a blinding headache in the back of my head and a sore shoulder. Must have slept awkward. Felt better after applying some deep heat and a couple of aspirins.

First I had to water the plants. I deliberately planted the bamboo next to the hop bines as they're thirsty plants too.

The second job was to take the machine apart and re-build it in rotavator mode.


The tar on the old Christmas tree trunk was almost dry so another job was to use a ground auger to dig a hole for the trunk. I guesstimated about a metre which would mean the augur handle would end up about 8" above the ground. Before that, though, I'd need to attached some string for the bines to climb. It would be a bit silly to put the trunk in the hole and then cry "Doh!".

I could have used trig and measurements to work out the length of string but I paced out the distance from the hole to the bines and went back to the shed and paced out the same from the bottom of the tree. Tied and cut them off when János the Scythe came in. (Pronounced a bit like "yah-nosh")

He's very, very good with a scythe but, unfortunately, he does like to chat. I say unfortunately as his accent means I get about one word in ten which means I don't even get the gist. He had me put another set of wheels on the rotavator (which later one, as Hobo pointed out, turned out to be on the wrong sides) and re-arrange the handles on my Austrian scythe.

He went to work with his scythe and I went off to drill a hole. I put the trunk in, filled the hole in when Hobo turned up. He pointed out the problem with the wheels and swapped them over.

Hop Support

He had a problem and said that we'd need the brush cutter to clear the land first. This is when I discovered that there were some parts missing from the strimmer. No idea where the nuts and bolts are or if I received them.

Next problem we had was that the strimmer didn't work. It would start up, race then cough and splutter to a stop. We spent the next hour trying to get it to work, even changing the petrol for new stuff. Nope, nothing. Out of any other ideas, I washed and cleaned the air filter and hung it out to dry.

Hobo then said he'd go see someone about ploughing it. (One of the new words I've learned is the verb "plough". Amazing how many times I've heard it since!)

In the meantime János the Scythe went off for a break. He's quite frail and can only manage about an hour before he knocks off.

János came back as I started weeding. I managed to finish off all of the weeding in my kitchen garden just as János started to attack my hedge! I told him to stop and he carried on with some other bits and pieces of high grass around my kitchen plot.

Shortly after that, Hobo came back and said the tractor would be ten minutes. 20 minutes later and the top end of my land was ploughed. One of the neighbours popped his head out to have a look. I guess he was checking that we didn't accidentally plough up his land too. (no fences on that side. Yet)


Tractor behind Hop Support.

All in all a good 8 hours work. Oh, and I got sunburn on part of my neck!

Bambusz...

which is Hungarian for bamboo.

Hobo came around and did a few minor jobs and planted the Bamboo for me. He told be it needs a large can of water every day when it doesn't rain.

More rain

Its like May was. May being the wettest on record here. I'm not surprised. This explains why there appear to be no pears and why all the carrots have disappeared.

Anyway, too wet to plant the Bamboo but tomorrow morning looks like it will be dry enough.

Since the next week or so are well under 20C (tomorrow is 13C! Winters back!) I decided to have a go at brewing more beer. The other indoors job was making brine for the walnuts. I didn't realise that they could stain china!

It was bin day today. I make a point of mentioning it the blog so I can keep check on the dates!

Rain

Still raining but it had let off enough for me to plant out the last lot of seedling I had on my windowsill; 3 Kale plants and 2 Celeriac. The Celeriac was unfortunate as I hadn't managed to germinate many at all. Next year I'll just sow them direct.

Went to the pub for a quick drink and then Hobo turned up and a bit later, Steve too. Don't know quite how it happened but I ended up with a bamboo plant for the garden. Not a decorative one as I'd imagine but one that grows about 12' high or so. Will be handy next year, supplying me with beanpoles etc. I'll have to get it in the ground when the rain is less than hammering down as it doesn't look dry for a week.

Kormend

Went shopping today for essential supplies. Got a smallish chicken and a couple of pizzas. Started rainging when I got back so that was that, basically.

Tomatoes

I've got about 11 tomato plants on the go at the moment and have another 8 that I'll want to plant when they're ready. The 8 are really slow to grow but I re-potted them today so maybe that will spur them on. The other variety I planted at the same time, and are now planted out, are Ukrainian and have purple fruits. The slow lot are American and are supposed to be near dry inside and are used to make tomato paste or concentrate.

I tied off some of the plants and pruned the leaves of the large ones I have growing in a container.

I made some French Onion Soup in the evening. Forgot just how much work is involved. Well, the only work is chopping the onions but you then have to caramelise them and then simmer them in stock for an hour. I was late to the pub!

Chores

Usual stuff. Water all the plants, especially the tomatoes. Its so hot now i have to water them in the evenings and the mornings. My 1st batch of tomatoes that I planted are now starting to fruit. With luck my Marmande variety (A type of Beef tomato) won't be far behind.

Walnuts

I got up early and was in the garden before 8am to beat the heat of the afternoon. Did about and hours weeding and managed to clear all the weeds from the onion patch.

Oddly enough, the weeds seem really prolific near the onions while the other plots weren't nearly as bad. According to John Seymour's book, weeds like onions. He weeds them then uses the dried weeds as a mulch in or about July.

I noticed that the walnut tree was in fruit and i remember reading about pickled walnuts last year but I had arrived too late as the nut was starting to form. I checked on a few recipes and then harvested about a pound in weight and started the process. Basically you have to soak them in brine for 2 weeks (changing the brine every so often, recipes vary on the amount), dry them then pickle them.

Checked the potatoes and still no Colorado beetle.

In the evening Hobo mentioned he's had a word with the village plough bloke and I'm on the list but he doesn't know when he'll turn up.

Mower mode

Mower mode
Originally uploaded by A John Walters

Spent the morning converting the rotavator into a mower. Pretty easy no I have a small set of ring spanners.

Mowed the lawn and did a bit of weeding on the onion patch before it got too hot to continue.

New Machine

Well not really, the same transformer machine but I spent a good part of the morning taking the shield off, adding the claw wheels, differential gear etc to make a plough. The only bit that didn't work was the "deadman's handle" that controls the wheels. When the handle is closed the wheels turn and when its released they stop. Unfortunately the only mounting available leaves a 2" gap so I'm going to have jury rig something.

Another no show by Hobo so I drunk all his beer!

Bin day

Ccaught me out today. i was in bed thinking I ought to be doing something when I heard "rumble, rumble, rumble" and realised that I should be putting the bin out! As they only turn up once a fortnight, it's a chore that can't be left.

Planted out my Ukrainian tomato plants. Apparently, this variety has purple fruit rather than red. The American ones that I planted at the same time are barely 2" high. even so I'll probably pot them on, especially as planting the Ukrainian ones has freed up some pots.

Went to Town with the object of getting some ring spanners (for the transformer machine) and some 10W-30 oil (ditto). In Tescos they had the ring spanners and, as extra insurance, I got an adjustable spanner too. The oil I didn't get. Seems like the only type I can get is 10W-40. Given the temperatures in the summer I guess this will do?

Later on, in the pub, I explained to Hobo the problem with the wheels and the shield thingy and he said he'd turn up tomorrow evening to take a look. I'll have to get some beers in, just in case.

Day of Rest

Well not really.

More strimming today. I did the right hand neighbours boundary then waded into my fenced off kitchen garden as the grass was almost long enough to lose cows in. Then did the other neighbours side but when the petrol ran out, so did my enthusiasm. Its about 25C in the shade and where I was, there's no shade.

I noticed my potatoes have lots of holes in the leaves but I didn't see any orange maggoty things so it doesn't seem to be Colorado Beetle. I'll do a closer inspection later this week.

The onions Steve gave me for seeds are starting to flower and the onion sets I planted are starting to look like real onions. The radishes (again for seed) are in flower so I better keep an eye on them to get the seeds.

I attempted to fit the "claw wheels" to the rotavator chassis but the wheels went tight against the shield thingy that stops you getting clods of earth chucked in your face. Need to get some spanners to help me take it off.

Oh, its my fathers birthday today so happy birthday, dad!

Mowing

Its been a week so I decided to use my transformer machine in mowing mode. It was a bit difficult getting the release clamp on to bind the two bits together. When I worked for an NCB subsidiary, I remember watching the mechanics at work, which gave me an idea. I got a lump of wood and a hammer and tapped the clamp into place. (Well, smacked hard then)

Took me a while to get the thing started, I had to read the manual at one point, thats how desperate I was! Bloody hell, does this thing shift!

The blade was obvious spinning far faster than my dwti electric mowers as the grass was being blown out as a fine chaff. Another benefit was that there was none of this cowboy lassoing nonsense with the flex or moving the extension lead so I think I did the job in record time.

I should take photos of the machine in each of its incarnations.

Strimmering...

or something.

Hit the garden at 10:00 and had a bash at the pumpkin field. If I have to do it again I'll use the brush-cutter blade. Those thistles are tough buggers to cut through.

Once I'd done that, I went to the end of my hedge closest to the house and then strimmed my way back up to the pumpkin field. once I'd done that, only losing (NB NOT loosing, a common mistake which gets my goat!) 2 more hedgelings. Then I strimmed on my side of the hedge to cut done any rivals for sunlight etc.

All in all, 5 hours work. Quite chuffed with that.

Rain

Its been persistently raining since Saturday so hardly worth blogging. Tomorrow is supposed to be fine so crack on then.

Next door had a bloke come around with a strimmer. Made me a bit nervous as theres no boundary between my land and hers so I thought it easily possible that he'd stray across and strim my hedge down for me (rather than me do it myself piecemeal). Luckily it started raining so he packed it in.