Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Monday 24 September 2012

Fun and games with a JCB

I don't know if any of you remember, but back in December last year we bought a rather old and very ropey JCB

Compostman has spent a lot of time making it work properly and we have been itching to get using it for all sorts of jobs in the wood and garden, but the ground has been just too wet to use it ( unless we were prepared to totally wreck the garden to and from the places we wanted to dig up). Now I do not mind huge ruts in the wood but  I *do* object a bit to them over the garden grass!



 Finally, the ground dried out enough to drive over so we got JCB - ing


Digging out a load of tree stumps and stuff



 

Knocking over an old tree stump which was " in the way" on the lawn




And lo! The tree is taken away!


Only problem is - the hens view the JCB as a glorified garden fork and insist on throwing themselves into any hole being dug and trying to get themselves killed at every chance. Seriously. We have to shut them away, now as they bring everything to a halt, otherwise!


As do the lunatic cats!

I cannot emphasise enough how much hard work the JCB will save us. How much potential backache avoided, time saved to do other stuff...really, unless you have tried to remove huge tree stumps by hand, you have no idea...

And it is SO much fun! ( am ashamed to admit I am obviously *still* a "petrol head"* at heart...am a sucker for a lot of horsepower and a lot of torque......despite my green credentials...!)
















*Yes yes, I know the JCB runs on diesel! Please do not nit pick...
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3 comments:

  1. Gill - That British Woman4 October 2012 at 01:49

    we could do with a JCB around here.

    Gill in Canada

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oya's Daughter4 October 2012 at 09:04

    I learned how to use one of those as a kid, as well as a Bobcat wee front end loader. Lovely bits of kit; I was damn good at it even at 12, to my father's annoyance. They're great! Yes, yes, green and so on, but shovelling a quarter mile works fine if you're a teenager, when one is *ahem* getting on in years, why court the heart attack? May it serve you well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Compostwoman4 October 2012 at 09:12

    Or the backache Oya's Daughter!

    And as Compostman is on day 4 of bed rest for just that - along with taking a load of prescribed stuff which knocks him out...anything which helps us out is a good thing in my book.

    ReplyDelete

Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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