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Hows The Grass Where You Are ? ( Non Herbal )


Parahandy

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Well this is us into August now and a Grass Cutter on the GU South at least where I am , appears to be turning into an endangered species . From North of Milton Keynes , down through Fenny Stratford and onwards to the Soulbury Three absolutely nothing . Mooring Restrictions are in Place South of Fenny Road Bridge for a Canal Festival from the 2/8/19 , take my advice and bring a scythe because when I passed on Sunday the Grass was knee high . After 40 years on the Canal I am know finding that the less interaction I have with CRT the better but this is pretty grim . How long before we begin to see a Flymo on the Roof of every Boat which I suppose is slightly better than the obligatory Toilet Cassette ?

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17 hours ago, Parahandy said:

After 40 years on the Canal ...

50 years ago the towpaths were never mown. You got used to walking along a narrow trodden track through waist or sometimes chest high vegetation. And indeed I can recall lengths where the towpath was completely washed away, and you had to nip through the hedge and walk through the field to continue along the 'towpath'. 

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17 hours ago, Parahandy said:

Well this is us into August now and a Grass Cutter on the GU South at least where I am , appears to be turning into an endangered species . From North of Milton Keynes , down through Fenny Stratford and onwards to the Soulbury Three absolutely nothing . Mooring Restrictions are in Place South of Fenny Road Bridge for a Canal Festival from the 2/8/19 , take my advice and bring a scythe because when I passed on Sunday the Grass was knee high . After 40 years on the Canal I am know finding that the less interaction I have with CRT the better but this is pretty grim . How long before we begin to see a Flymo on the Roof of every Boat which I suppose is slightly better than the obligatory Toilet Cassette ?

I saw someone walking down the towpath at Fenny Compton with a strimmer iin her hands.

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The problem with grass cutting is those two man teams of mowers and strimmers seem to progress at about the same speed as a narrowboat.  So if you have the misfortune to be heading the same way at the same time, your day is ruined by the racket which always seems much louder on the water than it does on land.  Then of course there are the grass cuttings which either end up in the canal to mess with your propeller or remain on the towpath to get stuck to your shoes and walked into the boat.  

 

Long grass OTOH deters most folk from mooring in nice places so those of us who carry a scythe and don't mind a bit of exercise can take advantage.  Unkempt towpaths also shield you from pedestrians on the towpath so you don't have to wave a cheery greeting to everyone you pass (yawn).  

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29 minutes ago, Neil2 said:

Long grass OTOH deters most folk from mooring in nice places so those of us who carry a scythe and don't mind a bit of exercise can take advantage.  Unkempt towpaths also shield you from pedestrians on the towpath so you don't have to wave a cheery greeting to everyone you pass (yawn).  

 

 

^^^THIS^^^

 

A further 'thing' along these lines is to carry a gang plank. Few boaters nowadays seem able or prepared to use one, demanding instead a perfectly mown, piling-edged, plenty deep enough bit of canalside on which to stop and run their engines ruining a warm sunny summer's afternoon, so having a gangplank and being willing to use it opens up loads of places to moor free from them noisy floating cottages.

 

And yes, not having to look all happy for passing pedestrians is a massive BONUS!

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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It is true that in the past sections of towpaths were overgrown, and before that there was a time when the the towrope was quite effective on keeping the grass and bushes in check.

 

Could it be the CRT do not want to upset the biodiversity of the canal bank?  

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We've had a problem with too much mowing. On the L&L last week, in a lock with another boat going up. A van turns up and out pile 2 young blokes, one pulls out a huge mower and the other a strimmer. Bloke with mower starts towards us mowing and gets closer till he gets right to the edge of the lock approaching our boats while we are waiting for the gates to be opened. 5 people standing around the top gates.

 

I asked him to stop mowing till we exited the lock, the reply was "don't worry about it" and he kept on mowing. Both guys wearing safety equipment, the people at the gates and on the boat no safety equipment, mower a few feet away.

 

On the landing of the next lock while waiting on the landing I stood right beside the back of the boat so he couldn't mow right alongside the boat without running me over. So he moved to the other side of the path and kept going, throwing 2 stones into my paintwork. Probably the same for the second boat ahead of me.

 

In the lock again he mows almost on the side of the boat next to me. Maximum of 2 feet away, again no one with any safety equipment. The strimmer bloke did stop but only once asked.

 

I put in a complaint to the local office, in their reply they tell me they are getting onto their contractors about it. I did point out the likelihood of significant legal action if someone had, for example, lost an eye to a stone or some other calamity happened.

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Having moved off the boat and into a small village we have observed serious obsessive verge cutting round our house. When we got back to it the vegetation was 4 feet high, and having been used to doing the nature strip in Aus put it on the to do list. It stayed on the to do list for a few weeks then the council slashed it to about a foot. A week later it was cut again, and now it seems every week. I have checked and there does not appear to be a tory mp living in cloud cuckoo land resident.

Maybe my laissez faire attitude has shamed them, in which case i shall stop entirely.

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15 minutes ago, matty40s said:

At least that widebeam will have cleared the overhanging vegetation through there. ?

I saw it the weekend before last outside the Globe at Linslade , noone aboard apparently it had been moored there unoccupied for some time . You would need a Holiday after all that abuse from fellow Boaters . ? Why do they do it ?

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3 minutes ago, Parahandy said:

I saw it the weekend before last outside the Globe at Linslade , noone aboard apparently it had been moored there unoccupied for some time . You would need a Holiday after all that abuse from fellow Boaters . ? Why do they do it ?

 

Hubris. 

 

They simply MUST have been advised again and again by everybody they spoke to about getting such a monster built, but felt they knew better and had it done their way anyway.

 

An uncharitable view perhaps, but can anyone imagine a different scenario leading to them having the ABSUMUS built to those dimensions and launched into the GU, with that trip in mind?

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Hubris. 

 

They simply MUST have been advised again and again by everybody they spoke to about getting such a monster built, but felt they knew better and had it done their way anyway.

 

An uncharitable view perhaps, but can anyone imagine a different scenario leading to them having the ABSUMUS built to those dimensions and launched into the GU, with that trip in mind?

 

 

 

I totally agree with you Mike and I am pleased you have the honesty to say it like it is . they are the sort of People who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing . I also believe that CRT have indulged these People 

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