KEEPING MYSELF BUSY IN THE HOLIDAYS
I was lucky this year and managed to avoid the hustle and bustle of overcrowded areas and consumerism. This is a bit to do with careful planning and lame excuses on my part, but mostly to do with Julie being organised and doing most of the festive running about for me. This of course left me more time to do what’s important…. Keeping on top of the garden.
Earlier on this year I cleared an area in some trees to make way for a trampoline. The only area that was flat enough in the garden was in the middle of some conifers (apparently it’s no fun trying to do a somersault on a surface that tilts 45 degrees as you end up being caught like a fish in the protective netting that goes around the side of the frame). The trampoline was a great hit hidden out of sight of prying adult’s eyes but the prep work left a mountain of leftover branches
WILL IT SHRED?
So this Christmas, I decided to invest my money from Santa on a new shredding machine. It’s quite a big electric one and it needs to be. We couldn’t have wished for better weather over the Christmas and New Year periods to do gardening work. (All the usual good intentions of Christmas family walks actually happened this year which dragged the lads away from their computer games for an hour or two every day to spend time in the fresh air and get some sunshine vitamins).
So, time to play with my new toy. The shredder is one of those designed to suck in the branches and spit them out in small chunks suitable for using as a mulch. I am having great fun and am amazed by just how little room a well-shredded branch takes up.
INSTANT RESULTS
A couple of hours later, I can see a big difference. I now have somewhere to stand without sinking into the cut branches. Like most repetitive tasks though, I need a wee break, or at least to vary the way I do things. I have got the urge to see exactly what this ferocious machine will do. So, it has been designed to shred twigs and branches, but what about other things in the garden… or house.
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME
Firstly I have to tell you not to try this at home… most of my tools in the past have been broken, not because they were not well made, but because I use them for things that they were not designed for. Take the spades for example, all of mine have been snapped because I use them for levering big rocks out of the ground. Brushes break because I use them for moving soil when I am building new vegetable beds and tree loppers have been ruined because I use them as wire cutters. Still it’s good fun testing the equipment to its limit and I will be sensible with the shredder. The recycling centre in town has a machine that can shred pallets but it has something I don’t… a big magnet to get the nails out, so I won’t be trying that. I won’t be trying to shred plastic either, I am not a recycling centre so I will leave that sort of stuff to the big boys.
I’ll only try soft things that won’t blunt the blades. Firstly I have some Christmas cards. They are a bit shiny but here goes…
The motor doesn’t even miss a rev, shredded pieces of Christmas cheer come flying out of the end…..success - although it’s a bit hit and miss throwing the cards into the machine and I am sure that the glossy paper will still be hanging around in the summer.
At this stage the boys come over for the craic and start making suggestions. There is no way Julie will let them shred the Christmas jumpers from Aunty Francie and their cousin’s teddy bear is a definite no no.
We get out the cardboard from the pressies. I have been responsible and taken off the plastic and steel ties that hold things in place I might add……Wow! Straight in and out. The boys let out a cheer. Now for something more challenging, all of the vegetable waste from the festivities. If I can shred this it will rot down in no time, and with the aid of a pointy stick I get it into the blade area ….Euuggghhh the boys groan making sick noises. The shredder doesn’t like it either. Huge clumps of brussel sprout, turnip and spud peelings are clogging up the machine. I turn off the shredder to clean it out and the boys slope off to check out if there is anything worth salvaging at the bottom of the roses tin. I think I’ll leave the worms to it. They do a far better job in the compost bin….
I was lucky this year and managed to avoid the hustle and bustle of overcrowded areas and consumerism. This is a bit to do with careful planning and lame excuses on my part, but mostly to do with Julie being organised and doing most of the festive running about for me. This of course left me more time to do what’s important…. Keeping on top of the garden.
Earlier on this year I cleared an area in some trees to make way for a trampoline. The only area that was flat enough in the garden was in the middle of some conifers (apparently it’s no fun trying to do a somersault on a surface that tilts 45 degrees as you end up being caught like a fish in the protective netting that goes around the side of the frame). The trampoline was a great hit hidden out of sight of prying adult’s eyes but the prep work left a mountain of leftover branches
WILL IT SHRED?
So this Christmas, I decided to invest my money from Santa on a new shredding machine. It’s quite a big electric one and it needs to be. We couldn’t have wished for better weather over the Christmas and New Year periods to do gardening work. (All the usual good intentions of Christmas family walks actually happened this year which dragged the lads away from their computer games for an hour or two every day to spend time in the fresh air and get some sunshine vitamins).
So, time to play with my new toy. The shredder is one of those designed to suck in the branches and spit them out in small chunks suitable for using as a mulch. I am having great fun and am amazed by just how little room a well-shredded branch takes up.
INSTANT RESULTS
A couple of hours later, I can see a big difference. I now have somewhere to stand without sinking into the cut branches. Like most repetitive tasks though, I need a wee break, or at least to vary the way I do things. I have got the urge to see exactly what this ferocious machine will do. So, it has been designed to shred twigs and branches, but what about other things in the garden… or house.
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME
Firstly I have to tell you not to try this at home… most of my tools in the past have been broken, not because they were not well made, but because I use them for things that they were not designed for. Take the spades for example, all of mine have been snapped because I use them for levering big rocks out of the ground. Brushes break because I use them for moving soil when I am building new vegetable beds and tree loppers have been ruined because I use them as wire cutters. Still it’s good fun testing the equipment to its limit and I will be sensible with the shredder. The recycling centre in town has a machine that can shred pallets but it has something I don’t… a big magnet to get the nails out, so I won’t be trying that. I won’t be trying to shred plastic either, I am not a recycling centre so I will leave that sort of stuff to the big boys.
I’ll only try soft things that won’t blunt the blades. Firstly I have some Christmas cards. They are a bit shiny but here goes…
The motor doesn’t even miss a rev, shredded pieces of Christmas cheer come flying out of the end…..success - although it’s a bit hit and miss throwing the cards into the machine and I am sure that the glossy paper will still be hanging around in the summer.
At this stage the boys come over for the craic and start making suggestions. There is no way Julie will let them shred the Christmas jumpers from Aunty Francie and their cousin’s teddy bear is a definite no no.
We get out the cardboard from the pressies. I have been responsible and taken off the plastic and steel ties that hold things in place I might add……Wow! Straight in and out. The boys let out a cheer. Now for something more challenging, all of the vegetable waste from the festivities. If I can shred this it will rot down in no time, and with the aid of a pointy stick I get it into the blade area ….Euuggghhh the boys groan making sick noises. The shredder doesn’t like it either. Huge clumps of brussel sprout, turnip and spud peelings are clogging up the machine. I turn off the shredder to clean it out and the boys slope off to check out if there is anything worth salvaging at the bottom of the roses tin. I think I’ll leave the worms to it. They do a far better job in the compost bin….
