Splitting and Mowing

It comes to something when mowing the lawn is regarded as taking a break!  Yes, pacing up and down, with the lawn mower in the blazing sun was the most relaxing part of my day. Let me explain ...

First thing this morning I set a batch of honey to warm in a hot water bath.  It takes a couple of hours to liquify, so I headed outside, grabbed my splitting axe and made a start on the smaller pieces of the huge pile of ash.

Throughout the course of the morning, I alternated between honey bottling activities and splitting logs.  It is fair to say that it was quite the hectic morning.  30% was equally busy ferrying barrow-load after barrow-load of logs up to the orchard

The weather has also turned and it is now very warm. Processing logs in the hot sun was even harder, and the weather was definitely accelerating the rate at which fatigue set in. 

Fortunately a chance encounter a couple of days ago was about to make life slightly less arduous. Paul and Deb are a local couple who regularly walk around the Three Miler.  They saw that we had had the tree felled and they stopped to chat.  During our conversation, Paul asked if I was interested in buying his log splitter, which he no longer used.

Initially I wasn't overly interested, but, after yesterday afternoon's splitting session, I gave the offer further consideration. He was offering an electric splitter with a seven tonne splitting force.  I had read a couple of reviews about the model and it received positive feedback.

30 assumed her procurement mantle and, during our lunch break, reached out to Paul and Deb to see when it would be possible to come and view the log splitter. 

We both then settled down for a well earned snooze.

An hour later I dragged the mower from the shed and made a start on the back lawn.  I was about half way through when 30% advised that Paul was in all afternoon, and we could pop over to check out the log splitter. He suggested that we should bring along a couple of large logs to test the machine.

So, half an hour later we headed in to the village with logs in the boot of the car.  After a quick inspection, and run through of operating the log splitter, Paul suggested I get a log and give it a go.  Within a few minutes I realised that this tool was going to make life a lot easier. It might not be as quick as splitting with an axe, but it was far, far less effort!

Cash was handed over and Paul agreed to bring the splitter straight over in the back of his van. Twenty minutes later we were unloading it on to the drive.  A further twenty minutes were spent giving Paul and Deb a tour of the garden before they headed home. While we were chatting my blood sugar plummeted, and an enforced break was necessary to get my blood glucose level back to normal.

As soon as I was compos mentis again, I returned to my mowing duties and attended to the lawns around the greenhouses and vegetable garden.  

As I approached the final furlong TP turned up, and, as soon as I had finished, I joined him and 30% on the patio for a well-deserved glass of wine.

So, as you can see, it was a very busy day, and lawn mowing was the light relief.