So I looked at the grass, and thought "I can skip mowing it this week" - it had not grown that much. So instead I thought I would clear up a patch of undergrowth, saplings and brambles that were slowly encroaching onto the lawn, and were a pain to mow past.
So being professionally lazy I thought rather than lug chainsaws, and all that clobber over there with several trips, I would cheat and stick the trailer on the mower. So dragged that out, inflated its tyres, took the grass collector off the mower and went to attach the trailer... erm, the tow bar was missing!
Note sure if it fell out some place and is laying in wait of a mower blade, but it was a bit of a show stopper.
So next thought was make another one... it is a simple square hollow bar with some holes drilled in it. Can I find some 1.25" square hollow bar to fit? Nope, nothing close. Then I found some 3mm angle iron that was about 25mm. So I cut a couple of lengths of that, arranged them opposite each other and put a spacer between them, then welded up the edges!. That got a bar about the right side. Made pretty with a flap disk and drilled, we are back in business.
Got some stuff cleared (and hacked to bits by brambles as usual - hate the things with a passion!). Then went to set about a big stump left over from a tree I felled, only to find the chain on the long bar blunt. Went to sharpen that and then managed to get the chain brake jammed on so I could not refit the side plate of the saw. Gave it up as a bad job at that point! (took it apart and fixed it later)
Anyone know of a supplier of decent robust thorn resistant trousers available in fat bastard sizing?
Also has any one tried one of the woody brush attachments for for use on the end of a line trimmer style power head that they would recommend (needs to fit a Stihl Kombi power head)? Currently I find the most effective way is to approach form the side, with the battery top handle chain saw and lop off the things at the bottom, pull them free and repeat. The main problem with that is lots of stooping, and getting rather too mixed up in brambles. I like the idea of something that can "reach in" to the base and cut from a safer distance.
(I guess an old Allen scythe type of machine would do a decent job, but that seems a bit excessive for something that only gets done every couple of years)