One of the worst jobs...

To the left hand side of our house is a main drainage ditch which forms the boundary to our patch of land. Although it has never been mentioned by anyone we have always understood that we are obligated to keep it clear.

So every year since we have been here I have attacked the long growth with the strimmer / bush cutter... Yesterday our neighbour Antony  he said he would do the strimming this year... Perhaps he thought I was getting too old for such a task!!!

"No! No! I have more time than you, Antony, I will do it this week"...  Silly Me... When will I learn to keep my mouth shut!!

But going back to my previous comment about my age, Antony proceeded and strimmed about half.....

So this morning it was out with the strimmer... And as usual with small 2 stroke petrol powered machines of a certain age, although it started it had no power and just died when the throttle was opened. After a full strip down,  I ended up taking the engine out, cleaned the carburetor, cleaned the exhaust port and adjusted the spark plug. I had already bought and mixed some new 2 stroke mix and, Yes, it did eventually start and run in a usable manner...

It is one of the most unpleasant jobs I have to do and for the last two years it has been made worse by the fact that the ditch has never dried out... This has a two fold effect:  it makes the plants grow larger and you get wet through wading and strimming!

This is the completed work...

It will probably want another cut before the summer is over but I am glad this one is completed...

When the ditch leaves our boundary it goes off across the field and this is cleared out by our village handyman, Philippe, with his tractor...

It is such a pity there is no room for him to get between the two plots!