The veg patch is not looking its best, as a serious amount of weed growth has sprung up since last year's crops were harvested.
I took my first step in rectifying this situation when I sprayed the weeds a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have been waiting for the weeds to wither and the ground conditions to be suitable to get the Rotamatiser out.
Today looked like it could be the perfect day. The weather was forecast to be fine. We had had some rain in the preceding week, and the weeds were yellowing nicely.
I still remember my first experience with the Rotamatiser and I'm really not sure whether I am looking forward to this job ... I know, let's find a diversion to occupy us for a couple of hours.
The diversion was actually pre-arranged, as we needed to pop over to Cheltenham to drop the 5 Series off for the replacement of its EGR Cooler. There was an abortive attempt to do this in early February and today was the day it should finally happen.
As a side note I should add that I was bloody annoyed at the service I received from the BMW dealership and made my views clear in the customer satisfaction survey I submitted. I did receive a few follow up emails from BMW, but the Cotswold BMW Service Manager steadfastly avoided giving me a call about my feedback.*
Right, back to the narrative. 30% and I headed down the M5 in tandem and soon had the 5 Series abandoned in front of the workshop. We then headed back home and I had no excuse. It was time to haul the Rotamatiser from the shed.
Part of me hoped it would fail to start after ten months in the darkness, and it appeared I might be lucky at first. But a quick clean of the spark plug and a couple more depressions of the little rubber carburettor primer bulb had the damned thing grumbling in to life!
I had no choice but to spend an energetic hour wrestling the beast over the top half of the veg patch. It looked much better, but I felt like I had been trying to restrain a large feral pig that desperately wanted to be somewhere else.
Fortunately lunch then intervened and I did my best to ensure I took the full hour.
The second half of the veg patch was equally physical, but I have to admit that a) it looks much better and b) I definitely have a great sense of accomplishment. Let's not ponder too much about c) is the Rotamatiser any easier than hand digging? At least a garden fork doesn't attempt to fight back.
I managed to find time for a recuperative kip, before we headed back to Cheltenham in the late afternoon. The Service Assistant was very apologetic and stressed that the EGR cooler had definitely been replaced on this occasion. She added that a few "goodies" had been left on the passenger seat.
I returned to the car to find that I had been given a rather nice umbrella, a cooler cup and a collapsible boot box.
Do you think they realised how pissed off I had been?
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* I wonder why?
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