More Murphy days...

Last Wednesday I was down at the grove again, after a lovely Easter on the south coast (came home with some delicious Marri honey).  Simon the gardener came down to help with some tree skirting and chipping.  All went well until clean up time, when I saw that a cast iron plate at the back of the chipper was cracked from side to side, and a bolt was missing.  Simon noticed that the blades were badly chipped in line with where the bolt had been.  We suspect that the bolt unscrewed itself and flew into the blades, and the resulting stress fractured the cast iron plate.  I spent several hours yesterday trying to find some help, getting on line and ringing around - the chipper was manufactured in Queensland.  The Queensland guy I spoke to didn't think they made our model anymore (it is nearly 10 years old).  The local rep was a bit more encouraging, and just asked for a photo of the problem.  He seemed to understand what was wrong, and made me feel optimistic that it could be fixed.  It will of course take time, so in the interim we will have to stack our prunings into a pile for burning.  It such a waste when our soil is so impoverished and  so much in need of organic matter.  You can see the difference.  Where there is leaf litter on the ground grass has germinated from our recent little bit of rain.  Where there is no leaf litter only hardy weeds like lupins and cranesbill and capeweed have germinated.  There is no more rain forecast for a while, so even these tough weeds will probably shrivel and die.