as an aside, i was at a car rally on sunday, what with it being fathers day, i went by myself.
lots of cars old and new, including an MG Midget just like the one I had, with the clothes peg in the same place. thanks to the nice old bloke who let me sit in it, not that he will be reading this, but....well....i should have stole it. apart from that my fav car was the escort mexico. very nice.

burning bushes

well i eventually managed to burn the pile of hawthorn bushes. you would think with a further education in fire related studies, I would have found this easy. but no. I think I was over exuberant, poured petrol on it, fitted in some matches and.......nothing
well, the petrol burned, but the bushes didn't, even when i squirted more petrol on.
of course, petrol burns quickly, so the wood dint get a chance to heat up and combust. idiot. diesel is better as it burns more slowly, and especially good if you soak something in it, then burn that at the base of the huge pile of bloody bushes.

all done now, was a good fire. Sorry for not filming it Colin.

twiddling thumbs

So the kit comes in July, contractor on site in June.

here is a short video of my driving today, back from a job.

garden plans

Now that we have half an acre to play with, it's time to think about what the hell to do with it. Of course there will be the obligatory vegetable patch, but how big? There needs to be room for the septic tank and soakaway, but other than the lids etc, thats a lot of ground.
I want to put an area aside for a garage/workshop, but thats likely to be a few years, and as its generally flat at that bit, maybe that's the place for the veggies to start with. Maybe if I put a poly tunnel there the neighbours will think a garage will look better?. That said, I can probly do what I want under permitted development, so WHO CARES?
But mostly it will be grass, which leads to a lot of options. There is the expense consideration, and I'm tight as I've said before I'm sure. Also I've been reading re grass and lawns
Lawns as we know them are barren as far as biodiversity and creepie crawlies are concerned. So I read. So then you progress down to rye grass mixes. Rye grass being a hardier species, and we have dogs. But you get dwarf rye grass which is mixed with...erm...other wee grasses, then you get pasture mixes and stuff coos and sheep eat, which if left and cut becomes like most of the grass you see on hills and stuff.
Anyway, the long and short of the prices is this
turf = £7500 per 1/2 acre
fine lawn grass = £850 per 1/2 acre
other stuff seen on hills = £50 per acre

have you figured it out yet?

kit-a-coming!

We have been given a kit delivery date of 10th July. I met with my contractor today and asked if this was fine, which it is. I emailed the kit company and got this back, which is great.

"That's great. I can now confirm that your confirmation confirms our
confirmation for 10 July.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further queries."

I do like a sense of humour. Not a lot else has happened. One of the neighbours is after some of the hawthorn, so i've told them that there's a section at our access which they can have otherwise it will just be getting hauled out and burnt.

I can't wait for the burning!

Hedge 2

I spent another few hours today hacking...cutting...trimming down the hedges to the front of the plot. Hawthorn, which meant when I finished I looked like that pinhead bloke from the horror film...
Anyway, that's all done now, the hedging left will come out completely as it's on the access, a neighbour has expressed interest, as their garden needs some vegetation after their ground source heat pump system went in. They are welcome to it, otherwise it will add to the very large bonfire pile of bush I have.
I broke my handsaw today, but fixed it with some cable ties I had to hand. It wont fold and lock, but it still cuts very well. A couple of the neighbours came out to chat. Very pleasant, including the ones who objected to my planning application. All seems friendly.
I also had three offers of the use of a chain saw, which I turned down, and explained that this was a fun exercise and was washing away the work stress for the holiday weekend. As I said to the Minister, I will sleep the sleep of the righteous tonight. Not sure how much he liked that, but he did laugh as he walked away.

Laughing at what though?

hedge trimming

School fete this morning. We raised over £1100, which is good considering there are only 30 odd kids at the school. Well done us.
Lunchtime we spoke to our contractor and gave him a cheque for the kit order. He thinks he will be on site in a couple of weeks, with new machine I think. Discussed one or two things we need to pin down later on. I've great faith in him. Everything I've seen he's done has been good, and he is very professional and friendly. A find, no doubt.

I've decided it's too late to move and replant hedges, so am resorting to plan A, which is to trim the existing hawthorn hedge down to get the sitelines for the access onto the road. I'll fill the gaps with new hawthorn in due course. There is a handy gap in the hedge which may be usefull for access for the contractor.
As I am generally unfit, I used a handsaw to trim the hedges. Hard work, but satisfying, and I can feel I've moved the project on a wee bit myself.
Bonfire soon. I'll film that. Which is worrying.