“Good Lord, are they putting a different size bolt on those things now too?” I grumble as I try to place the disc on the head, “why do good things always have to be improved? It’s rarely better, actually …”
The brush cutters have to work in May!
The temperatures are nice, it rains every now and then, so the grass and everything shoots out of the ground towards the sky. That is all well and good, because long grass and flowering plants are nice for fireflies, for example, and for all kinds of indispensable insects, but for campers it’s no good.
A few days ago, unexpected cyclists came by. They are doing the Eurovelo 2, which passes here on the other side of the valley. And they had had enough for today! “Sorry, but the grass hasn’t been mowed yet,” I apologized, “the mower didn’t have time, then rain, then the mower didn’t have time, then some more rain… and so now we’re still stuck in May with a camping field with long grass, because you can’t do all this with a brush cutter.”
They didn’t mind. They were done cycling. They had faced tougher challenges before.
“If you have a scythe, I can just mow our spot,” the father suggested, but son Broes was already at it. So they had a very soft bed under their tent, which was set up in the blink of an eye. A cold beer and juice to go with it, and I had a bag of crisps. Relaxing on a decent chair, because that’s also part of the equipment, especially for cyclists.
Doing that whole campsite with a brush cutter is madness
A large tractor comes in to get a head start every spring, and then we keep up with the rest using the “Monster Mower” and the brush cutters. We have three of them. An oldtimer, who had open-heart surgery last year, and still does a pretty good job mowing with the string.
She is called “Little String Oldie”, is already 17 years old – which is about 103 in human years – and since I am also a little oldie, we get along just fine. The other two are newer, and therefore improved. Which is never an improvement, of course. Oleomac, if you are reading this, for heaven’s sake go back to the old design, and then leave it alone, please.
Why a brush cutter of the brand Oleomac?
I buy this brand because Mário the repairman sells it. He opened his workshop when he was still a radiant young man, and has stayed there his whole life. After repairing mopeds and brush cutters for a good forty years, he’s getting a bit tired of it. But he knows everything there is to know about brush cutters.
We have three of those mowers because we have quite a bit of terrain, so they have to work hard and therefore need regular attention; so that I don’t have to keep changing the cord and the various discs all the time; and so that I can say to Mário: “There’s no rush, really, but if the senhor has time…”
That is appreciated, I can tell.
He glances at the bolt on the cutter’s head, starts laughing, and explains: “That is the bolt that needs to go *inside* the head of the cord. Look…” and he grabs a pair of pliers: “if you take that off, there is the other bolt. Take this off, put the disc on, put that on top, screw it tight, and done.”
We are both radiant. He is because he’s laughing at my clumsiness, I am because that was solved quite easily.
If the rain stops again, I can happily get back to brush cutting
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(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings. #brushcutter #Oleomac #Eurovelo2)
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa. You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.
Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.