Druidic Dabblings and General Twaddle !!

[diggerjones]

I'm 82kg, half man half lager

 

[Left hooker]

Bloody weighbridges say I'm 100kg

 

[pettsy]

85 last time I checked

 

[V8Druid]

Brilliant , one slight critique...would of looked better in your factory colours

there's time yet ......... ......... trouble is i've broken me bloody step ladder ..... and 'she' might cut 'em off

 

[V8Druid]

non std. early start this morning ... had Harper 'til after three o'clock ... Vicki had a job interview for a sixth form college locally .. utterly PO-ed with having to put up with the little tw*ts she's dealing with in the comp. she teaches in ATM ... at least the kids'd be motivated there ..
Pam got out of bed first thing and nearly fell over .. must've slept awkwardly and trapped her sciatic nerve (at a guess) ... could barely stand or move, so I had a full on morning with the little un. My suggestion of a tramadol cocktail got abruptly declined and she popped a couple of Nurofens, which eventually kicked in after a couple of hours, but still hobbling about with a stick half the day.
Been threatening rain all morning and I'm praying for it not to ... grass was as dry as it'd been in weeks and I'm watching the clock, to get at it .... and then it lashed it down for ten minutes, 'bout half two
Harper left at three with mummy and I was out coaxing the Dane into life in minutes ... not a bad start for a nigh on 6 month rest ... look out lawn-here we come ... rain or no rain
got about a third of the way round and it stopped cutting and started smoking

thought I'd done the first belt of the season ... cover off and it's fine, so hoisted the deck up and shot back up me patch and put the arse up on ramps, to get a look underneath ..
huge solid clod of cuttings jamming the one blade ... fought it out with a small pry bar and we were back in business ...
finished the lawn and did the grass beside the drive, in an equal state of over-growth, plus the bank the other side of the drive, which wasn't quite as bad .... parked the Dane and headed down the lawn with a barrow and a rake to start collecting it all up ... to find Pam hobbling about with a.n.other rake

she'd been at it whilst I'd been mowing the rest (thankfully) and having barrowed up all she'd piled up, didn't take the two of us much more effort to finish it off

been a lovely afternoon, sunwise ... cold, blowing like fook and drying it all nicely ..... it's gonna get the Countax round it tomorrow, once the frost has gone ('kin cold here tonight) and see how it looks after that ... found one spot to be avoided and dug a gert trench with the herring bones ... will deffo keep the Countax away from that tomorrow
Fair play to the Dane, it did a sterling job today of massacring some serious growth .. now to get it back to looking like a lawn

 

[6feetdown]

non std. early start this morning ... had Harper 'til after three o'clock ... Vicki had a job interview for a sixth form college locally .. utterly PO-ed with having to put up with the little tw*ts she's dealing with in the comp. she teaches in ATM ... at least the kids'd be motivated there ..
Pam got out of bed first thing and nearly fell over .. must've slept awkwardly and trapped her sciatic nerve (at a guess) ... could barely stand or move, so I had a full on morning with the little un. My suggestion of a tramadol cocktail got abruptly declined and she popped a couple of Nurofens, which eventually kicked in after a couple of hours, but still hobbling about with a stick half the day.
Been threatening rain all morning and I'm praying for it not to ... grass was as dry as it'd been in weeks and I'm watching the clock, to get at it .... and then it lashed it down for ten minutes, 'bout half two
Harper left at three with mummy and I was out coaxing the Dane into life in minutes ... not a bad start for a nigh on 6 month rest ... look out lawn-here we come ... rain or no rain
got about a third of the way round and it stopped cutting and started smoking
View attachment 59603
thought I'd done the first belt of the season ... cover off and it's fine, so hoisted the deck up and shot back up me patch and put the arse up on ramps, to get a look underneath ..
huge solid clod of cuttings jamming the one blade ... fought it out with a small pry bar and we were back in business ...
finished the lawn and did the grass beside the drive, in an equal state of over-growth, plus the bank the other side of the drive, which wasn't quite as bad .... parked the Dane and headed down the lawn with a barrow and a rake to start collecting it all up ... to find Pam hobbling about with a.n.other rake
View attachment 59602
she'd been at it whilst I'd been mowing the rest (thankfully) and having barrowed up all she'd piled up, didn't take the two of us much more effort to finish it off
View attachment 59601
been a lovely afternoon, sunwise ... cold, blowing like fook and drying it all nicely ..... it's gonna get the Countax round it tomorrow, once the frost has gone ('kin cold here tonight) and see how it looks after that ... found one spot to be avoided and dug a gert trench with the herring bones ... will deffo keep the Countax away from that tomorrow
Fair play to the Dane, it did a sterling job today of massacring some serious growth .. now to get it back to looking like a lawn

Don't bet on it

 

[V8Druid]

first job of the day ... deck off the Countax and clean it ready for its first cut of the season ...

and back together

took me two cuts and three circuits to get it all down and all collected up ... yet another major pile of grass

but worth the effort
then ran down the side of the drive for four lengths to get it down and collected

bum hanging off the uphill side, keeping the wheel on the deck and forward momentum going .... any further down the slope is just hard work maintaining traction
thought I'd give her an oil change while it was nice and warm so headed back to me patch and the tool box ... flipped the bonnet and it damned near fell off

the plastic has obviously succumbed to the inevitable and given up the ghost ... no choice other than get its support system off and inspect the carnage ..... pretty poor design really, but has survived for the 14 years I've had it and many before that too ... having found the bar code label this afters, its two days short of its 27th birthday (was mint when I bought it s/hand)

bit of head scratching and decided it was gonna need some re-enforcing to get it to go back in place ... so stripped the ironmongery off and duct taped it all back into place to set it up to make a template of what was needed ..

...
drawn around and snipped out .. set it in place for a further suss

now just need to replicate this in steel, shape it up and fix it to the offending beast

watch this space gonna take some creating and attaching


stripped for racing

 

[Smiffy]

Have you seen the plastic welders. A mate has one for repairing the plastics on his quad bikes every time the farm staff crash into something.

150W Plastic Welding Machine Car Bumper Repair Kit, 800Pcs Hot Staples Welding Repairing Machine, Plastic Welder Hot Staple Gun for Car Parts/Kayak/Canoe,Plier,Flat/Outside Inside Corner/Wave Staples https://amzn.eu/d/5ozAmXR

 

[Lancs Lad]

first job of the day ... deck off the Countax and clean it ready for its first cut of the season ...
View attachment 59664 View attachment 59663 View attachment 59662
and back together
View attachment 59661
took me two cuts and three circuits to get it all down and all collected up ... yet another major pile of grass
View attachment 59658
but worth the effort
then ran down the side of the drive for four lengths to get it down and collected
View attachment 59659
bum hanging off the uphill side, keeping the wheel on the deck and forward momentum going .... any further down the slope is just hard work maintaining traction
thought I'd give her an oil change while it was nice and warm so headed back to me patch and the tool box ... flipped the bonnet and it damned near fell off

the plastic has obviously succumbed to the inevitable and given up the ghost ... no choice other than get its support system off and inspect the carnage ..... pretty poor design really, but has survived for the 14 years I've had it and many before that too ... having found the bar code label this afters, its two days short of its 27th birthday (was mint when I bought it s/hand)
View attachment 59670 View attachment 59671
bit of head scratching and decided it was gonna need some re-enforcing to get it to go back in place ... so stripped the ironmongery off and duct taped it all back into place to set it up to make a template of what was needed ..
View attachment 59669 ...
drawn around and snipped out .. set it in place for a further suss
View attachment 59667 View attachment 59666 View attachment 59665
now just need to replicate this in steel, shape it up and fix it to the offending beast
View attachment 59672
watch this space gonna take some creating and attaching


stripped for racing
View attachment 59673

27 aint bad at all tbf. Like to see some of these modern ones last that

 

[diggerjones]

You should have cleaned the deck before you parked it up last year. Naughty boy

 

[V8Druid]

Have you seen the plastic welders. A mate has one for repairing the plastics on his quad bikes every time the farm staff crash into something.

150W Plastic Welding Machine Car Bumper Repair Kit, 800Pcs Hot Staples Welding Repairing Machine, Plastic Welder Hot Staple Gun for Car Parts/Kayak/Canoe,Plier,Flat/Outside Inside Corner/Wave Staples https://amzn.eu/d/5ozAmXR

I've got a Weller heat gun I've had since I was a teenager, with plastic welding heads for it .... this is gonna need more than a bit of welding to keep it in once piece .. has the entire weight of the bonnet attached to those two points, plus all the leverage as it's opened

 

[V8Druid]

You should have cleaned the deck before you parked it up last year. Naughty boy

I did ....... then did one more cut .... remarkable how much gathered in that one cut .... it's usually a lot worse after several weeks mowing ..... good job it has the plastic mulching liner, but even with that the deck is looking fairly sorry in places.

 

[Powerfab]

I did ....... then did one more cut .... remarkable how much gathered in that one cut .... it's usually a lot worse after several weeks mowing ..... good job it has the plastic mulching liner, but even with that the deck is looking fairly sorry in places.

Is there any reason you run it with the muching liner Gra?
I found mine lifted better when it was laying down a swathe of a longer grass blade for the brush sweeper to collect.
The brush sweeper had more trouble with the fine clippings, especially when it was wet, they rolled up in balls and rolled in front of the sweeper.

 

[V8Druid]

Is there any reason you run it with the muching liner Gra?
I found mine lifted better when it was laying down a swathe of a longer grass blade for the brush sweeper to collect.
The brush sweeper had more trouble with the fine clippings, especially when it was wet, they rolled up in balls and rolled in front of the sweeper.

was in there when I had it and have never thought about taking it out ...
TBH it's probably holding the deck together these days ...
when I can get around it regularly it's not an issue and I could do with replacing some of the combs in the collector too

 

[V8Druid]

usual 7 o'clock alarm this morning - kiddy day - kitchen prepped ready for their brekky - drinks poured - on me second coffee and the phone goes at 07.30 ... Vicki ... just been told the school is closed for the day - don't come to work, so we weren't gonna be having the kids -- burst water main in Aber - half the town off, including the school -- apparently the 'fountain' could be seen from Gilwern about 3 miles out of town bet they had fun fixing it - 18" main - wonder who opened it up ?

so put everything away and thought sod it - went back to bed for an hour --- didn't have the greatest of nights last night for some reason and the extra hour went down well .. ... and it was raining -AGAIN!!

felt more like it at half nine and it'd dried up (well stopped raining anyway) -- brekky and all the usual things to get sorted ... go get some milk - hadn't quite made it 'til a bit of a shop tomorrow and then turned my mind to some triple M

masterful metal manipulation bit of a horseshoe for the Countax's bonnet repair

took a bit of persuading into shape in all three dimensions ... but got there slowly
middle of beating this all into shape and the phone rings - Serge ...

" cast your mind back ............... about 30 years Gra .. do you remember making me some exhaust spigots for me Bonny, when I put that Morgo barrels and head that you got me, on it? " ...
" vaguely Serge " ...
" have you got any 1-3/4" x 2.5mm wall tube there you could knock out a few over sleeves with for me to suit some new pipes I just bought it ?... 'bout 35mm long "
" howabout some 43mm with a 3mm wall - could always bore it out a bit if you give me a size and length "
" sounds spot on -- no rush - as and when you have time "

heard that before with his bearing drift a few weeks ago

a lot of tweaking later and got the hinge back in place

and everything fixed in place ... did consider giving it a coat of summat, but time was pushing on to tea time and really did not want to be coming back to it .. so thought sod it .. it lives indoors and could always give it a touch up again

and the bell tolled -- for tea
so it was a back to it job - tidy up and then enlist Pam's help to get it back in place

went on a treat and is the firmest it's ever been ......... and back in its stable

any one wanna buy an F650 Beemer, or a go cart, or a piano? ... could do with finding them some new homes for some space creation

 

[diggerjones]

Whats a f650 beemer

 

[JerryRtilt]

Whats a f650 beemer

Two wheeled devise, lurking behind the Countax, not the one with white front forks

 

[Furniss]

Two wheeled devise, lurking behind the Countax, not the one with white front forks

Countax prob goes better

 

[craig]

Where they like an early GS?

 

[JerryRtilt]

Countax prob goes better

Could try the go-cart or piano ?