Sunday, February 03, 2008
XH25 radials
Big two days on the garden front. Started off tamely enough excavating the home compost heap, the one that had the rats in it. Took six half post office bags out of the back of it, dark brown, well rotted peat like stuff with the odd bone. Dry and fairly worm free so it must be a while since this part of the compost heap has been dug out. The back can only take half bags these days - maybe 50 pounds - there not being room for one of those natty orange barrows (cut price version of the things that market porters used to use. Upright things with a wheel on each side and a small shelf at the bottom to carry the load) that you can get in B&Q these days. So far so good.
Then off to the allotment and finish digging out the runner bean trench, maybe 2 feet across by nine inches deep. Erect pole at each end. Sturdy affairs, well dug in, as is my custom. One of them was one of the willow branches which took root in the ground in last years bean polery. Will it take root again, having been out of the ground over most of the winter? Barrow the six bags in in fairly short order, fairly pleased with myself. But the six bags do not make much impression on the trench, so decide to top up with a few barrows of leaf mould. Wheeling the first such barrow back when the 3/8 inch steel bolt holding one side of the wheel in place sheers off, presumably having been worn through by the mild steel axle plate. Bolt must have jumped a bit as it was nowhere to be seen. Maybe that was what all the squeaking has been over the years. Tranship mould to another barrow, empty into bean trench and decide to call it a day.
Now, for once, to save the exercise, had parked the car a little further up the track than usual, in fact, as it turns out, entirely off track. Get stuck trying to drive the more or less empty car out. Faff around with spade, bits of board and carpet but no good. The super dooper XH25 continental radials might be the bees knees for hurtling around the M25 but they are useless in mud. No grip at all. Are we going to be reduced to getting sprog 2 to get his shiny new Renault dirty getting me out? Or to getting the AA out? Do they venture their vans off road onto allotments?
Certainly not. We find the towing eye in the boot as per instructions and screw it in. There were still enough bits and peices of rope in the garage. Plus a DIY pair of blocks with three and four sheaves each, giving a useful eight fold reduction. They looked as if they had been made by the naval engineering uncle, perhaps with amateur dramatic scenery in mind. Not really heavy duty affairs but worth a try. And on closer inspection there was a suitable apple tree hidden in the blackberry patch at a suitable angle to the car and of sufficient size to take the pull. So some Heath Robinson moments later, four pulls gets the car back on the path (BH ably manning the wheel. Another job which would have been made much harder with only one of one). Needed four pulls as there was only twenty feet or so of washing line suitable for use in the blocks, so after tensioning one was only getting about a foot of progress to the pull. All in all a very satisfactory afternoon. Boy Scouts again for the hour.
Purchased new barrow from the garden centre this morning. No choice, green plastic thing on a green metal tubular frame with a blow up wheel. Fifty five pounds for a large washing up bowl with trimmings seemed a bit steep but we will see how long the thing lasts - the frame already having a fair number of rust splodges. The blow up wheel should be an improvement on the moulded plastic wheel it replaces. This last was noisy and did not grip the ground very well.
Runner bean trench now suitably full of leaf mould and half back filled. So if the weather holds and the ground carries on drying we should only be a couple of weeks late with the broad bean planting.
Then off to the allotment and finish digging out the runner bean trench, maybe 2 feet across by nine inches deep. Erect pole at each end. Sturdy affairs, well dug in, as is my custom. One of them was one of the willow branches which took root in the ground in last years bean polery. Will it take root again, having been out of the ground over most of the winter? Barrow the six bags in in fairly short order, fairly pleased with myself. But the six bags do not make much impression on the trench, so decide to top up with a few barrows of leaf mould. Wheeling the first such barrow back when the 3/8 inch steel bolt holding one side of the wheel in place sheers off, presumably having been worn through by the mild steel axle plate. Bolt must have jumped a bit as it was nowhere to be seen. Maybe that was what all the squeaking has been over the years. Tranship mould to another barrow, empty into bean trench and decide to call it a day.
Now, for once, to save the exercise, had parked the car a little further up the track than usual, in fact, as it turns out, entirely off track. Get stuck trying to drive the more or less empty car out. Faff around with spade, bits of board and carpet but no good. The super dooper XH25 continental radials might be the bees knees for hurtling around the M25 but they are useless in mud. No grip at all. Are we going to be reduced to getting sprog 2 to get his shiny new Renault dirty getting me out? Or to getting the AA out? Do they venture their vans off road onto allotments?
Certainly not. We find the towing eye in the boot as per instructions and screw it in. There were still enough bits and peices of rope in the garage. Plus a DIY pair of blocks with three and four sheaves each, giving a useful eight fold reduction. They looked as if they had been made by the naval engineering uncle, perhaps with amateur dramatic scenery in mind. Not really heavy duty affairs but worth a try. And on closer inspection there was a suitable apple tree hidden in the blackberry patch at a suitable angle to the car and of sufficient size to take the pull. So some Heath Robinson moments later, four pulls gets the car back on the path (BH ably manning the wheel. Another job which would have been made much harder with only one of one). Needed four pulls as there was only twenty feet or so of washing line suitable for use in the blocks, so after tensioning one was only getting about a foot of progress to the pull. All in all a very satisfactory afternoon. Boy Scouts again for the hour.
Purchased new barrow from the garden centre this morning. No choice, green plastic thing on a green metal tubular frame with a blow up wheel. Fifty five pounds for a large washing up bowl with trimmings seemed a bit steep but we will see how long the thing lasts - the frame already having a fair number of rust splodges. The blow up wheel should be an improvement on the moulded plastic wheel it replaces. This last was noisy and did not grip the ground very well.
Runner bean trench now suitably full of leaf mould and half back filled. So if the weather holds and the ground carries on drying we should only be a couple of weeks late with the broad bean planting.
# posted by Jim @ 9:22 AM 
