A year on...

On the first of May last year I took delivery of this wee robot lawn mower, and started it off cutting the large expanse of grass at the front of the house for the first time.

A year on and it is now cutting all the grass (save the bits we leave for "no mow" reasons) including the orchard.   The sit and ride we had used for many years is about to be sold   and not only are we able to keep on top of the cutting tasks, the grass itself is in much better condition.

When we moved to Feorlean in 1992 Archie McNaughton our neighbouring farmer  who sold the house  to us had  given us six and a half acres along with it.   I remember him telling me we could have more "if we wanted it" but that size seemed intimidating enough .  

Over the years we have left the wooded and hill bits largely alone, but Cathleen has established a small orchard as well as a reasonably sized poly tunnel and fruit cage.    That has still left quite a lot of grass to be cut, and the more so since we flattened the little walled part outside the house  some years ago.   However we have been increasingly aware that keeping it in order was only going to become more difficult as the years passed.  

Even so I  agonised long and hard about getting one of these (It is a Luba 2 from Mammotion) but  it was clear that we needed to have some help and this seemed the best way to secure that at this stage. .   

There are a lot of different robot lawn mowers on the market now but so far I am happy with this one , though it takes a wee bit of effort to keep it clean and maintained.