On the verge
I did some strimming out on the road yesterday.
Being a substantial landowner means I also have substantial grass verges.
Whenever I do any work out on the main road I usually wear one of those high visibility yellow luminous waistcoats. I got one a while ago in France as they are sort of compulsory over there.
Wearing the waistcoat has two effects – it does make traffic give me a wider berth, but also it slows traffic down significantly as from a distance I could be a radar speed trap. If I’m in the mood, I sometimes bring out Herself’s hairdryer too and point it at cars as they come up the road. Never fails! Heh!
Presumably at some stage in the future it will be compulsory for anyone and everyone to wear one of those waistcoats if they are anywhere near a road. It is just the kind of crap the Nanny Staters love. Until then, though I shall continue to wear one.
My strimmer is one of those weapons grade petrol driven ones. It has to be as there aren’t any power sockets out on the road which is a pity.
As it’s a petrol yoke, I usually end up working in a cloud of oily smoke. Twenty four hours later and I can still taste the burned oil. I can’t help but wonder how many pipe-fulls I would have to smoke to reach that level of pulmonary pollution? Naturally anyone who passes me while I’m working gets a good lungful too. Will their death certificates state that they dies from second hand strimming? I doubt it.
I see the old refrigerator I threw out years ago is still lying rusting in the ditch. I think it’s disgusting they way our County Council neglect the countryside. They should have removed that ages ago.
Sadly only one car stopped for directions. It was a foreign couple looking for the way back to the main road to Dublin. Naturally I directed them up to the bogs. That is only the third one I have sent up this summer.
Truly it has been a bad year for tourists.
Truly it has been a bad year for tourists.
Is it any wonder with the Irish weather being so bad.
American tourist to Irish child: “Does it ever stop raining here?”
Irish child to American tourist: “I don’t know, I’m only eight.”
Bloody hell! That’s twice I read that today! 😉
I bought one of those strimmers with a 4 stroke engine rather than the 2-stroke type. The engine is a bit heavier but there’s less noise, no smoke and has enough torque to saw it’s way through a cement post as long as I have the metal blade attached instead of the string. And you should see what it does to tires–good stuff!
Heh! I could do with one of those too. Mine is the lighter 2-stroke but it is also light enough to swing anywhere. Strimmers make excellent hedge cutters!. Not many people know that…..
Bloody hell! That’s twice I read that today!
Awfully sorry old chap!
Mossy – That’s quite OK. It bears repeating. I just wondered who was plagiarising whom.
Ma in law & sister in law get in today for 10 days. Brrrrrrrrr !!!
My deepest condolences.
I hear the bogs are lovely this time of year.
The sweet smell of heather, bracken and decomposing tourists.
Is it a catgut strimmer or one with a slicing metal wheel? I’ve always used a petrol driven two-stroke lawn cutter to good effect, although a strimmer is a great feller when the grass gets scruffy and overgrown in spring before the first cutting.
Catgut [nylon] which is a pain in the hole. I had to fill the cartridge when I was out there. I opened the new pack and was immediately swamped in a thirty meter tangle of the fucking stuff. It took me longer to rewind it than it took to do the strimming! I can’t use a mower as it is all bank and ditch.