Old faithful gets a service

James was helping a friend yesterday doing some building work so we didn't get to do anything at our house. Today though it was warm and we were itching to get in the garden. 

When we first moved here we needed a ride on mower for the lawn as our old electric mower wouldn't cut it (pun intended). As usual we couldn't stretch to a new mower and found one on ebay only a few miles down the road. When we got there to view the mower they said they'd always used it as a mower for in case their primary mower (super duper posh) broke down! It was an immense house and I don't think they were short of a bob or two so they were selling 'old faithful' as they called her.

James and I had a good laugh at the fact that someone else's old crap was our new amazing mower and the name stuck.

So we limped her through last year with only a new fuel pipe where the old one had split. We had so much other urgent business to attend to so she was just used and abused. Now it's time for the first cut of the year and old faithful deserves a service as she's been lonely in a barn for a few years before we had her.

Looking at the job in hand

Today was the day and she had new filters, oil and a spark plug. Wee man also gave us a hand scraping the encrusted mud off her and washing her down. When I did a quick cut the engine sounded great and hopefully she'll give us many more years service. The mower is all mechanical and so much easier to fix if something goes wrong. James used to work in a garage as a teenager and so his knowledge of old motors comes in handy with an old style engine.

Draining the oil (look at the filth round the engine)

Servicing kit

Sparkly new 'old faithful'

We also cut up a damson tree that came down in the strong winds we had this week and cut down a budleja that was growing wild in the middle of the front lawn and the evil thing was trying to scratch my eyes out and pull my hair every time I was mowing last summer. Well I got my revenge and it's been cut down. I really want to replace it with a few fruit trees so I'm going to have a look round and see what catches my eye.

I also got a few pumpkin seeds started but I've run out of propagator space so I'll have to wait until a few seedlings are big enough for transplanting before I get anything more going.

We also had my best friend and her husband and daughter over today for a takeaway so all in all it's been a great day. To continue the fun we've opened a bottle of wine we brought home from Malta, so we're relaxing in front of the tv for a few hours (watching catfish on MTV).

Have a lovely Easter everyone!