The French Renovation

Renovation work on the buildings continues, but this is the time of year when the outdoor world demands attention. The motoculture store staff were as good as their word and replaced the shredded belt for the sit-on mower. I'm treating it gently; that means no more than two hours' mowing at a time. And no long grass. I dragged out the old petrol push mower to stripen the top lawn. As you can see, I have two out of control bay bushes against two of the south-facing walls. You wouldn't believe that I've already spent hours cutting them back! Seeds in the cold frame and in the kitchen are are poking their heads up in most cases... Broccoli beginnings... Beef tomatoes, cornichons and chillies gifted from Sue. She's very strict and warned me at least three times not to put them outside yet! Kevin's not impressed that I'm using his paella pan as a tray. Kevin built me a cold frame/propagator in the stone trough next to the well. It made sense t...

Last week, we decided to replace the belt that drives the three cutters in the nether regions of the sit-on mower, as, while straightening out my metal warps, Kevin deigned the existing belt to be 'worn'. It cost 60 Euros from our local 'motoculture' store. Pricey, we thought. While carrying out my second mow of the 'golf course', I smelt burning rubber and sensed a new and unhealthy-sounding vibration in the cutter region. I then spotted chunks of rubber and cloth arrayed on the grass behind me. Not good. We had taken along the original belt to ensure we replaced it with the correct size. It did look quite chunky compared to ours, but we assumed that ours was just very worn down. When Kevin put on the new belt, it seemed to fit nicely. Removal of 'new' belt Suddenly, perfect-looking old belt! The little splits that brought about the original 'replace' judgement The new 60 Euros belt Close up So, what did we do? We t...