Sunday 25 April 2010

Hedge trimming

I have about 90 metres of Cotoneaster hedge around my house. The hedge is high and thick, and I have to cut it two or three times a year. It's a big job, and to make my life easier, I bought a new hedge trimmer the other day.

It has a long handle so I can cut the top of the hedge across its entire width whilst standing on a trestle to one side. With the old, short-handled trimmer, I used to have to do half of the top from one side, and the other half from the other, and the far side of the hedge is not a safe place for standing on a rickety trestle.

Here is a picture of it. It's electric: plus points: quieter and lighter than it would otherwise be, and it doesn't blow spent 2-stroke fumes all over you, your hair and your clothes while you use it. Negative points: you have to deal with the cable of course, but when you're dealing with trestles as well, it's a small part of the work. And the cable keeps pulling out from the impossibly short plug lead. And what are those strange orange plastic add-ons on the back of the motor for?




















Ah! A Homer Simpson d'oh moment. I can explain the purpose of those wierd orange plastic things, and solve the cable-pulling-out problem in one go. Perhaps I should have read the manual a bit more carefully :)




















P.S. I went to the Stihl website out of curiosity, and discovered that they have an "entertainment" section, where you can download the sound of a Stihl chainsaw, in the form of a ringtone for your phone. Am I alone in finding this a bit.... odd?

5 comments:

Tim Trent said...

Great for birds in a hard winter, and a solid hedge, but the wood is so tough I don't envy you that hedge. We just took a very much smaller one out.

Mark In Mayenne said...

I did discover a blackbird nest in the hedge as I was trimming, complete with fledgling. I kept as far from it as I could.

The hedge was unkempt when we moved in, and it took a couple of years to get it under some sort of control. It's not too bad now, and i'm waiting while the gaps and thin patches slowly even out.

Lia said...

I love the fact that men don't do manuals, it makes me laugh.

I recently watched my boys argue over how to build a coffee table for their sister.

She sat there quietly reading the manual and then sent them off to make a cup of tea.

While they were is her kitchen she assembled it and sat back down.

Both the boys came back and put their cups on her new coffee table and one of them stuck their feet up on it as well.

It was about 2mins before the penny dropped and they realised what she had done.

All rather funny.

much love
Lia
xx

Rosie said...

our blocal stihl shop is a bit odd.
And the salesman only has two fingers on one hand...

Anonymous said...

Sound of a chainsaw as a ringtone? Not just odd - horrible.

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