West Coast
Discovered on a wall in a backpackers hostel on the west coast of New Zealands north Island (anonymous)
It rained and rained and rained,
the average fall was well maintained
and when the tracks were simply bogs,
it started raining cats and dogs.
After a drought of about an hour,
we had a most refreshing shower
and then the most curious thing of all,
a gentle rain began to fall.
Next day was also fairly dry,
save from a deluge from the sky,
which wetted the party to the skin
and after that the rain set in.
So we're in our little Welsh house, surrounded by boxes and very little space, we're eager to get cracking with all the work the land requires but.... it's raining.
In fact it rains for weeks. There is the occasional dry day and then we rush over to Cym Deri and get started, hit a problem and have to stop.
First job was getting the grass and rushes cut. It had been left for over a year so badly needed it.
First problem was getting the flail mower to run for more than half an hour. Tried changing the fuel, cleaning the tank, new fuel filter, cleaning the carburetor, new spark plugs, no progress. Took the carb to a local mower shop and returned with cleaned jets, ran wonderful. Until the belts snapped. Bought new ones which took two of us hours straining on pulleys to fit, but once on, it ran wonderfully. Until one tyre went flat, slowly at first, then a tad quicker so I decided it had to be changed. A new inner tube which took two of us hours to fit but once in and inflated, ran wonderfully. Until I ran through some Blackthorn and got multiple punctures. This time we took the whole wheel back to the mower shop and asked a neighbouring farmer to cut the big field for us.
Tyre mended, I managed to cut the small field and at long last we felt like some progress had been made. Then it rained again, so we're back to getting our house in some kind of box-free order.
Transport issues have been occupying our time of late. Finding a vehicle which enables you to get stuff done with the lowest environmental impact you can manage, on a shoestring, is a challenge.
I used to run a Ford P100 pick-up, the 1.8l diesel engine was far more economical (and lower emissions) than the more modern monster trucks and Chelsea tractors but it died a rusty death so we decided to look for a replacement for that and the Micra. The answer came in the form of a Ford Focus diesel estate, will be fitting a towbar and getting a trailer. More fuel economy and only slightly higher emissions than the Micra, but a lot more useful.
Of course running a car on hydrocarbons is not great, and given our low carbon aspirations, perhaps a little hypocritical, but in rural Wales and until we get ourselves completely set-up, seems unavoidable. I reconcile this by considering our carbon footprint hasn't changed since giving up work and moving to Wales but the oil we are currently burning is being used to establish an situation in which we can drastically reduce our emissions for a long term future. Well that's the plan anyway.
