Guest blogger, Tim

What is Tim doing all this time Lynne is busy brewing succulent stout, concocting 300 gourmet meals, growing tasty veggies, and working with her fiber? When he isn’t napping, he’s out cutting tracks (trails to North Americans). We have 7 of them totaling 15 kilometers. They need attention in varying degrees, using 5 methodologies: mowing, weed whacking (whipper snippering in Australian), sawing, pulling, and lopping. We tow a 3 blade mower behind our little toy truck for the compound and the longest part of 4 tracks.

Little Squally track

Truck and tow behind mower

When it gets too steep, I resort to a Stihl weed whacker, just like the one I bought for home and used on Bakers and Seguin Islands. It’s an art learning how to cut the ubiquitous and extremely tough grass tussocks and the metal blade attachments need sharpening with some frequency.

Tussock Grass

One of the tenets I live by–words of wisdom if ever I’ve read them– is written on the wall of the shed by some bored lighthouse keeper: “Time spent sharpening is time saved.” S. Maples, 1991.

Whacker Man

Pulling sea spurge is a Sisyphian task. The seeds are water born from the south coast of Australia and just keep coming. Come to think of it, all trail maintenance is endless. But I love the solitude and exercise and sense of accomplishment I get maintaining tracks even though Lynne and are the rare ones who actually walk all of them.