Up to the task

Those who have been following my blog for a few years will recall when we purchased an old (seriously ancient) ride on lawnmower.

The cheaper ride on lawnmower we found on
Gumtree back in 2011

It was a very basic lawnmower, and, at ZAR1 500.00, it was all that we could afford at the time.

And it had it's problems.

Firstly, we battled to find a small but powerful battery to run the dang thing.

Havig finally source the battery, we discovered that the alternator was faulty, and it didn't charge the battery whilst it was working.  Plus it kept overheating - 1 hour of mowing, resulted in 1 hour of cooling off / recharging battery time.

Finally, the belt which drove the blades kept falling off - even after RMan "adapted" it to try and rectify the problem.

Spares, for an old ride-on mower, were unavailable.  Isn't that always the case...

It sat, covered with a tarpaulin, below our bedroom window providing a home for various generations of field mice who liked it's postition close to a food source - the duck enclosure and alpaca stables are nearby.  I forget how many times RMan tried to get the mower going again - and having to rewire it again, and again, due to mouse damage.

So, the old lawnmower was given to a very happy youngster who loves motors of any kind, and, with his superior knowledge and time to tinker, he got it working again. But, not to mow lawn, merely to ride on - I can't see anyone being able to fix the blade belt problem.  The youngster, having removed the blades competely, is going to use it to toddle round his father's expansive property - recycling at it's best lol  But - Yay! - no waste, and no landfill material.

So, for the past 2 years RMan has been walking behind his old heavy, petrol driven push mower - a full 8 hour day it took him to mow the grass area in front of our house.

In the heat of the summer sun.

Not fun.

Addmittedly, the excitement of mowing happened rarely - and it was a chore which took him away from other more interesting / necessary farm work.

But - long grass = ticks.  Long grass = hiding space for snakes.  Long grass = cover for mice to run around.  Long grass = other predators as well.

Such as:

The furthest pomegranate
tree down near the dam

Rooikat droppings.  We kept
removing them and they kept
reappearing - obviously
the rooikat was marking
it's territory 

Rooikat used the cover the long grass provided to skulk round at night.  We found evidence of their presence in a pile of droppings which kept being (re)deposited under the furthest pomegranate tree.  No wonder Miranda kept staring in that direction every night.

Something had to be done.

Again, I scoured Gumtree in search of a ride on mower.  For months and months.

I wrote to lawnmower places asking about 2nd hand units.

Nada reply!

Or...

...the only machines available were too far from us, and too bloody expensive.   And, too far to take back - if something went wrong.

Fianlly, in desparation, I suggested to RMan that we should stop in at the local John Deere outlet whilst we were in town for our weekly shop.

My, oh, my, they have some lovely shiny, sparkling new mowers on their showroom floor.  All with lovely shiny, sparkling new prices.

I nudged RMan and whispered - "Ask them if they have any 2nd hand models".  Which he duly did.

Guess what?

They had just traded in a smaller model for a bigger new model, and the old one was sitting in the back of the workshop.

Yeeeeeeha!!!

The price was right (less than half the cost of a new machine), they would give it a full service and a going over, and would then bring it out to our smallholding to give us a demo.

Which, 2 weeks later, they duly did.

And, for their effort, they made a sale :)

The grass was in desparate need of a mow...

And not a moment too soon either.  As you can see in the pic above, the grass was pretty high.

A bit of rust on the blade guard is the only evidence
that it is a 2nd hand machine.

Apart from a bit of rust on the blade guard, the rest of it looks in good condition and the motor looks brand new.

And we get a guarantee from the John Deere agent :)  Spares will not be a problem either :)

But, one of the features that makes RMan a little happier - he will not dehydrate during the 2-odd hours it will take him in the hot summer months when he is mowing because...

Now that is what I call a perfect machine
for RMan :)

... he has a handy bottle holder in a perfect position.  Trust John Deere to think of everything :)

Another eco-friendly solution

I've bored you all to tears with my field mouse problems.  And I lost an exasperated follower because of my constant whinging.  And probably because of our seemingly steadfast refusal to get a cat - or two - or three...

Unfortunately, Scallywag is not a fan of cats.  So, whilst he is a member of our family, that eco-friendly solution is not an option.

But, the mouse problem has spread from them just attacking my veggies, to their attacking the wiring on the ride-on lawnmower and the tractor.  Probably the genny is next...

Recycling two cooldrink tins from our trip to
Cape Town last December

So, when I showed RMan this article, he decided to embrace it - and quickly. He has already replaced the wiring on the ride-on mower a few times since we moved here, and is getting more and more exasperated with these little rodents.

Here's his version of the trap:

A dowel rod is threaded through
a hole in the centre of the tin,
which  in turn is suspended
through two holes in the paint
bucket. A couple of litres of water,
and the trap is set.
It even has an entrance ramp...

But, he didn't use anti-freeze - only water.  That way we can chuck the dead rodents into the bush and hopefully some creature will dispose of the body / enjoy the easy takeaway.  Even if it's only the ants...

Given the number of field mice, we opted not to leave the bucket empty - letting a field mouse free wouldn't help the scourge, and it would probably just follow it's urine trail right back to the alpaca's "larder".

A dab of peanut butter completes the trap

We placed the trap by the alpaca / duck food storage area- the field mice are constantly hovering - looking for the odd sunflower seed / crushed mealie / lucerne pellet which may fall when we take the alpaca's maintenance meal from the locked storage bins.

We have managed to catch half a dozen so far...

RMan's heart...

... is now also beating a little faster LOL

Chug, chug, chug - but it got the basic job of
cutting the grass done :)
But the renosterbos - not so good...

You recall he purchased a second hand ride-on lawn mower - specifically to try and control the tall undergrowth and renosterbos on our smallholding.  Removing any places where cobra's, puff adders and horned adders (to name the worst of the bunch) could hide was a priority - not only for us, but especially for our grandson and the dogs.  Hmmmm, we discovered that once we had removed the renosterbos manually (a tedious, arm and back-breaking job) it was fine for the grass that was left, but we discovered that the renosterbos is just too much for this little mower.  Far,far too tough.

So, we decided to try and find a cheap second hand tractor - that, together with a slasher attachment, should do the job :)

Gumtree to the rescue :) 

We found a Vaaljapie tractor in Port Elizabeth, 580 kms away.  No way we could collect it - our trailer wasn't big enough, nor was it strong enough, even though he is in the business of selling second hand vehicles, the agent "couldn't" find a truck that would schlep it across the two provinces to us.

So, back to Gumtree...

...there was another one in our price range - a Fiat 470DT tractor, and it came with a slasher!!.  This time the seller was located in Worcester - roughly 140kms away - and although it took the seller (another 2nd hand vehicle saleman) 22 days to "find" a trailer, and get it into the working order that the ad stated, it did eventually arrive.

Can you see what is driving up our driveway...?

A tense three weeks, where we feared that we had been ripped off, as the salesman had every excuse under the sun why it wasn't ready, and why he couldn't deliver what had been paid for in full.

Yesterday at 4.42p.m. we spotted the transport vehicle driving down our sand road. 

A red Fiat 470D tractor complete with slasher
attachment

To see that it was carrying a tractor - what a relief.  And it wasn't any tractor, it is a red Fiat tactor.  (S'funny - we have always had a red vehicle or some sort or the other LOL)

Once the tractor was offloaded RMan couldn't wait.  Even though the sun was setting he leapt onto the first tractor he has ever driven.

He couldn't wait - seriously, he couldn't

After a few tentative moves he decided to get to work...

The test drive turned into a mowing session until
the light faded

It works perfectly :)  I know not to stand anywhere near the slasher attachment, but Mandy - she just wanted to chase this foreign vehicle.

Just enough daylight left to inspect his new toy

When it got too dark to see what he was doing, RMan couldn't help himself - he started inspecting his latest toy...

Not even the slasher escaped inspection

... even to the point of checking out the slasher.  Having heard on the weather forecast that rain was expected - what to do with the new "baby"?!?

it even has working lights - not the brightest -
but at least they work :)

That's when RMan discovered that the tractor has lights - two in the front, and one at the back...

Is RMan ever coming inside - 10oC outside
and he's still bombing around... :)

Naturally, that meant a whole new trip round the property LOL

RMan finally has his toy.  He can't stop smiling :)

(Now, hopefully, he'll leave my toy, Rosie, alone.)

Happy days - now we can get shot of all that renosterbos (rhino bush) and create a good firebreak round the perimeter of the property.  And, after borrowing a plough, we'll be able to plant up the plot - we've got lots to grow... :)

(RMan went to bed with the biggest smile on his face last night...)

Mower action...

RMan needed to do a whole bunch more mowing before the family (and their pets) arrived, to make the area safe for children and animals.

Scallywag came with us for this visit - we were going to be away for too long for RSon to pop by the house, spend an hour or two and feed him.  Not being used to driving for extended periods, old Scallywag took a couple of days to acclimatize - choosing to take it easy from a high vantage point on the patio. Scallywag is besotted with RMan, and he has to have him in his sight at all times!

Scallywag on the patio watching, watching,
watching...

Eventually, RMan drove where he could no longer be seen.  That necessitated Scallywag venturing forth into the great unknown, also known as our plot. This was a strange place - no cars driving past, no dogs being taking for their daily constitutional (and thus ripe for an ambushed barking session), no children / adults / beggars / hawkers walking past the property, talking, laughing, shouting,singing, arguing.  Just perfect peace and quiet.  I wonder if silence is deafening to a dog too?


Thankfully, we had medicated him against ticks and fleas prior to leaving town, so whether he walked in the overgrown area, or the newly mown area, it didn't bother us.

Scallywag finally investigates

And RMan just plodded on regardless. Well, it's a big area to mow, and our brilliant 2nd hand ride-on mower chugs along at a steady 3.0 - 3.5 km / hour (1.8 - 2.0 mph).  Perfect for sight-seeing actually :)  Hours and hours and hours were spent driving round and round, repeating some sections which were initially resistant to those spinning blades.

Patient, plodding, persistant RMan, the mower
operator

But, finally, we had roughly a third of the property cleared of renosterbos / high grass / any snakes hiding under bushes, and in some instances, even stones went flying... (sorry about the car door WGuy)  Actually, those ruddy stones caused a massive delay. We had to clear, by hand, the stones from each area which was to be mowed - back-breaking, tedious, laborious work. And then the vast number of wheelbarrow loads of rock that had to be schelpped away.  Who needs gym...

A small part of the pile of rocks 

We know that all this work was worthwhile - judging by the fun that was had in the cleared area, the lack of ticks (on humans and animals), and the complete absence of snakes was proof of that, I reckon.


And, to top it all, RMan took MKid for a spin on the mower - I wish I could zoom in to this photo and show you the grin on MKid's face.

MKid being taken for a (slow) spin...

Well done, RMan.  You did good - really good :)  And, I can imagine that if any of the fallow deer visit out property whilst we're not around, they now have a fully prepared meal waiting... LOL

But, talking about stones - this one got shattered by the mower.  Is there anyone out there who knows a geologist, or does anyone know what type this stone could be?

Sharp, shiny glass type areas

I'm tending towards the meteorite type, but RMan reckons volcanic.  Unfortunately for that theory is the fact that we have no volcanoes in the area (the closest extinct one is in Pilansberg which is 1600 kms away).

"Air" / gas holes?

It has shiny, almost glassy-type sections within, which are incredibly sharp. And seems to be made up of a number of different rock types all bunged together.  As well as "air" (gas?) holes...