A hedge to far?

It was time to tackle the second hedge in the garden- if anything more overgrown than the first one, and bounding the neighbours garden.
Duly bought a large board as per earlier post to mimic the professional technique of working forward on top of the hedge using the board as a support. It worked for about three feet, then came the gap with just a few spindly branches, before the next thick trunk.  Not a safe system- so the board the professionals used must have been very big indeed to span the gaps.
Went back to old system, ladders braced against one side, a bit of praying to ensure no slips, and the occasional lean over the void with chainsaw in hand to get at branches beyond normal reach. In the end managed to get everything cut down to the old height and only dropped two pieces of cutting over my neighbours boundary.

Well I said all of it, except for the bit that had what looked like an old abandoned pigeons nest in it (hard to tell when they are haphazardly built in the first place). Having done a visual check for absence of any baby pigeon I proceeded to hack the branches away to be surprised by a pigeon flying in and landing on the nest and settling down.

I proceeded to cut further along, she flew off and I checked from a higher perch (pun intended) and spotted a single egg. At this point there was little remaining of the top growth so I thought it might be abandoned, but not a bit of it, once I had done with the last of the hedge, the pigeon was back, settled down and has been there since, so the hedge top is flat except for two long upright branches with a contented mother sitting in it. Hopefully in about three weeks I can finish the job on both hedges ( 10 day old baby in the other hedge awaiting its fledging also)

Then came the fun bit- transporting the debris to the recycling center. As most of the cuttings were 6 to 10ft long, they had to be reduced in size to fit the trailer- a case of tendonitus later and I was ready to take it to the center, however the weather had other ideas- after the second load it rained very heavily so I decided as I was already wet I might as well carry on, so after the 4th load I was wet to my skin and needed a good warming bath to recover.
I am mightily relieved it is done and aim to keep it well trimmed in the future- looking to get an extendable hedge trimmer to do the job in future.

Wet day blues

Left a job for today expecting it to be dry this morning, but forecasters were wrong, and it was raining about 4 hours earlier than predicted. Yesterday new chainsaw chain arrived, fitted it and it was like chalk and cheese.

In the instructions it said, to tell if your chain needs sharpening or replacing you will notice the following:-

1) The chainsaw produces sawdust when being used (Check)
2) It needs a lot of effort on your part (Check)
3) You will have to force the blade through the wood (Check)

A new or sharp chainsaw should:-

1) Produce shavings
2) Take little effort on your part
3) Will draw itself through the wood.

Had a trial cut with the new chain fitted-it did all the things a sharp chain was supposed to do!
Zipped through cutting the branches off the next cupressus tree and then cut down the trunk.
This is where I went wrong- I left the branches and two chunks of trunk to be further cut up for transport to the recycling centre  today.

 Yesterday the sky darkened and looked about to pour down with rain. My chainsaw is electric, therefore not good in the wet! So packed up early before cutting pieces down to size.

Naturally although we had thunder and lightning, almost no rain fell.

Neither E or I felt inspired today as it was dreary outside, so late starting jobs.

I eventually worked on a new loft hatch cover as the old one is a bit battered and does not fit well. I need a turn latch to complete it- the sort of thing you have on a caravan door- just a simple handle on one side, that turns a bar in to a slot in the frame on the other side. I know, I thought, go to M&M Leisure in Mildenhall ( www.m-mleisure.co.uk/ ) they will have one- no such luck- they had bits of one as repair items, but not the fully working kit.

So fitted the hinges to the cover board, took the old one off and marked and drilled holes for the new hinges, checked it fitted OK in the space, removed it and put the old one back until I can figure out a replacement catch (the old one is a jury rigged device which looks like it is as well!) Put a first coat of paint on the hatch cover and left it to dry.

Spent a frustrating afternoon trying via Google to find the turn catch I have envisaged in my head- lots of alternatives, but a little pricey, so will keep looking!

Rosie hates the rain- her coat is very short so rain quickly soaks her to the skin- she has spent the day looking for the door in to summer - i.e. a door that when opened gives way to brilliant sunshine, but so far no luck.

Tomorrow looks to be a better day so fingers crossed.

Find the root

Waiting for a new chainsaw chain, as I have worn the current one out. I could sharpen it myself but need the right files etc. to do it, and end result might be debatable.
To pass the time after the rain had stopped, I was digging around the remaining trunk of one of the cupressus trees that was cut down (see to cupress or not to cupress) with the aim of trying to remove the stump and all associated roots - in the course of doing this I found the end of the flower bed that had disappeared under the hedge and three buried breezeblocks as well. That makes five that I have dug up from this area - I'm not sure what they were there for, but they were deliberatly buried in a row.

This pm, E and I started to replant some of the perennial flowers that had to be moved during the extension build last year in to the newly dug flower beds in the back garden.

We are hoping that Rosie does not do her usual flying leap through the beds when she thinks it is time to chase away the pidgeons or other birds, or have a bark at next doors Alsations. We had to fence off parts of the front garden until quite recently as she wanted to use the new fledgling hedge as hurdle training in preparation for the doggie Olympics.

Rain again stopped us finishing this job, but 80% of the plants are now in- we managed to split some of the clumps in the hope of increasing the number of plants, and after nearly a year in temporary containers, the root systems of some of the them were quite extensive.

Once the chain for the chainsaw arrives, two more trees are coming down to open up the part buried flower bed and allow us an area where the trees were, to use as a cold frame space for hardening off plants and also overwintering any that might need it. We will have surplus paving slabs when we reshape the path- currently there are hexagonal "stepping stone" slabs, so once dug up, they will probably form a base for the cold frame area.