Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[atdc21]

 

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1st of September.
I usually cut my hedges in September so I thought I would make a start today while the weather is fine.

I got my ladders, loppers and other paraphernalia ready, then I mixed up some 2 stroke, (Had to use my calculator to work out how much oil to put into 2 liters of petrol to make a 50-1 mix, sigh)

Poured the petrol into my new hedge trimmer, (I actually bought it 25 years ago but I bought it brand new and I still think of it as my new hedge trimmer)

Click to see full-size image.

Anyway,  I poured the petrol into the top of the tank and was horrified to see it pour straight back our of the bottom.

Couldn't see anything without taking the tank off so I retired to my shed to figure out how to do that. (Why do so many of my days end up with me struggling to get back to the point I was at the day before?)

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I've learned from bitter experience that things taken apart easily and hastily can be difficult or impossible to put back together again, so I was ultra careful to tear no gaskets, damage no linkages, lose no screws, and remember where everything went.

The leaky bit was a rubber grommet that connected the filtered fuel inside the tank via a thin tube to the carburettor outside the tank.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

The grommet seemed fine, but there was no doubt that it was no longer forming a petrol-tight seal, I could see the fuel pissing past it.

Cue a trip to Sharnford Horticultural. Why a village as small as ours should have a place as comprehesive as Sharnford Horticultural is beyond me, but if my neighbours avail themselves of it's services as often as I have to, then it's location was a stroke of genius. They must earn a fortune.

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It's a modest looking place at first glance....

Click to see full-size image.

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....but they have a vast range of stock.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

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Guess what they didn't have?

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Correct! A new grommet for my hedge trimmer.


Fair play to them though, they can get me one by Tuesday for the princely sum of £2.19. (Plus VAT of  course).

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I didn't fancy waiting until Tuesday to start hedge trimming, so I decided to try a makeshift repair using PTFE.

I had no idea if PTFE would work with petrol, for all I knew it might instantly dissolve but I had nothing to lose....

Click to see full-size image.

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Works like a charm. Sealed as tight as a gnat's chuff 

So, I'm back to where I was yesterday.

Roll on tomorrow 

[tikay]

Please don't tell us you cancelled the grommet so you can get your £2.19 back?

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Please don't tell us you cancelled the grommet so you can get your £2.19 back?

No, but only because he didn't charge me up front, he ordered it on trust. How can I not collect it?

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Fast forward 15 years.

Now, where did I put that grommet?

Click to see full-size image.

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It's not obvious to to untrained eye, but I have a system.

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20 odd years ago I planted some trees and shrubs to screen my caravans and to give a little privacy, everything flourished and I had to start cutting things back every year.

About 15 years ago whilst giving a laurel a particularly heavy prune I exposed a scrawny little conifer that had become swamped and hidden by the laurel's broad leaves and thick branches.
How it survived there in the dark with the laurel sucking up all the nutrients from the ground I'll never know, but there it was, with its spindly little trunk and single green frond, no bigger than a sparrow's feather.

"The next time I cut this hedge it will be dead" I thought, but the next year and the year after that there he was, no bigger or greener, but still desperately clinging to life.

Now I know it sounds daft, but I I felt sorry for him, so I cut a silly chunk out of the laurel so that he could have some light.


Today he's miles ahead of where he was back then. He probably weighs in at about a pound now, so he's still a long way behind his half-ton brothers who were planted at the same time.

His spot is at the back of the hedge. The rest of the family  don't know about him, I didn't tell them because they already think I'm an idiot. (I'm sure you lot think I'm an idiot too but I don't have to live with you).

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

It probably survived thanks to the extra nutrients provided by the moles.