Leylandii Hedges - Another one bites the dust!

I love Leylandii Hedges, especially as they disappear into the chipper!

This week I had a nice job for a fellow BNI Networker. Ann Merrick of Infineo wanted her Leylandii hedge removed and replaced.

I first met Ann through Karen of The Best of Newbury. Ann's company Infineo provide Tech support to small and medium businesses, including remote support and backup. This has helped us on many occasions, including a total machine failure which would have meant disaster if Infineo had not been doing our daily remote backup. They charge a small monthly fee - its worth it not to have the hassle of dealing with PC's and backups.

This was the Monday after my stag do and I was not feeling particularly great still. We decided to get to site very early and crack on. Then disaster struck. My very reliable Landrover decided today was the day to spring a diesel leak - not just a drip or two but a major split in the pipe, spraying diesel everywhere.

I called a mate to come and take a look to see if it could be fixed at roadside - not a chance! It was still drive able, so I drove to Lancaster Landrover in Thatcham. I have been using these guys for about 15 years and know most of them, but even they couldn't sort this one out quickly - the tank needed to come out and parts to be ordered.

This really screwed me up. You cannot hire anything with a towbar. So I got a lift home to pick up my shooting truck, a beat up old Suzuki, just to recover my helper and tools. It was then my neighbour Cliff Pursey of Snelsmore Shetland Ponies came to my rescue. He has an old Ford Sierra with a towbar which he lent to me - what a Diamond Geezer!

Having lost half a day, we really had to move to get the trees down, and chipped to keep on schedule. My Landrover was fixed by lunch on the Tuesday, so we worked until 6:30 to get the stumps out, which were a bit stubborn to say the least! Its not the first time we have worked in the dark - I must buy some floodlights as its becoming a regular happening!

We have re-planted a new Leylandii hedge which we will hopefully keep under control. One thing I forgot to do is the "before and after" pictures of this job - its a shame because the change was so radical - you cant remember everything especially when suffering with hangover and car failure!