THE VERY TRUSTING WELSH FOLK - May 2014

Will has a new toy. . .  a John Deere lawnmower - not one of those sit-on-jobbies (as much as he would have liked one, our money wouldn't stretch that far), a petrol powered one. He bought it and a strimmer from a local shop. There was a problem with spare parts for the strimmer. The shop told Will that he needn't pay for anything until the issue with the spare parts was sorted.

That was months ago. Since then, the mower has mowed several small lawn areas, a path across the big field up to our picnic bench and the whole of the smaller field, many times. 

It has also developed a damaged wheel! The culprit - a small roll of barbed wire hiding in the long grass curled up waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting John Deere lawnmower!

And we still haven't paid for it.

We bought a LOAD of fencing and gates from another place. We (ie Will & Richard) have nearly finished building one fence and tried hanging one of the gates.  

We still have a number of gates to put in place and several more fences to build. Despite us telling the supplier that it will take us months to complete this work, they won't take payment for it until the work is done in case we wish to return any unused pieces or wish to buy more. 

So, we have 2 machines to pay for PLUS a whole load of wood, and the lovely local trusting Welsh folk are in no hurry for payment!

In addition to this, we decided that we needed some tools, machines and eldest son to help with the outside work. 

So we hired a digger ...

a rotavator . . .

and a hole borer for putting in gate posts.

The son came free, but the tools, machines, etc. were to be paid for. No payment was required beforehand and the bill eventually appeared some weeks later. Despite having used a good amount of diesel, the rotavator fan-belt breaking, and  the caterpillar track becoming dislodged, the only cost was for the hire - nothing for damages or for diesel.

We needed a post basher to help get posts solidly into the ground. So we borrowed one from a neighbour, who subsequently realised he needed it for his fencing, so rather than ask for it back, he borrowed one from the farmer. The farmer then discovered some damaged fencing bordering on to us and needed a post basher to repair it, so he borrowed the neighbour's basher from us!

It's not hard to cope with the pace and style of life here.

Next blog - The Summer Solstice