It seems to be the majority of my time in late March and early April – on the rota for mowing the grass in the community green space and spending my time finding where the key was hidden by the previous mower, lugging fuel down to refill the empty can, working out why the mower won’t start (flat battery) and charging the battery. Which took three days. At the end of which, Himself came down to help lug the battery and repair the snapped battery strap and then see that the mower fired up.
It did. I got an entire 110 minutes mowing before the mower clunked to a halt. A bolt had loosened and dropped out, which left the key locking the pulley to the rear axle unsecured. I stopped the mower to check the Supervisor was awake and suddenly it wouldn’t drive forward or back. When we pushed the mower forward, we found the key had worked loose and dropped out.
Here’s the thing. It takes a minute’s carelessness to not drop a dob of Loctite on the threads of the bolt securing the key in place to let the bolt work loose and fall out – after which, a session of bumping over rough ground will knock the key out of place. It takes three or four hours to disassemble the mower engine enough to slot the key back into place and get the mower fulfilling its purpose again. Hours of fun and puzzle for the two engineers shown digging in the innards. Much more fun than mowing.
I’ve stood down from committee duties on the local woodland trust, though it seems it might take a while for the message to filter through that the committee work should really be assigned to – actual committee members. I’m hoping that by the end of May I will have sorted through all the overhanging worl and will be free to put more time into other hobbies. I will press on with getting the trees in the orchard labelled correctly, however long that takes. The current labels are plastic, cracking and sometimes illegible, but a committee member has suggested that he can help with supplying wood scraps for labels and some ideas on marking them. It would be the final step in getting the orchard open to everyone.
So after a long wet day working in the woodland and a committee meeting, that’s me out. Must be some writing I need to get on with?
Julia Chalkley 