Bagga Machine Day

What. A. Day.

I am starting this blog before the men have left (though not early; it's after 6 here now) as if I don't, I'll still be typing it tomorrow. I have upwards of 120 pictures taken today and I'll have to thin that down quite substantially. I can barely remember this morning so much has happened so it's a good thing I have so many pictures; they will remind me of things to write about.

Dozing sheep dog

The day dawned misty, and early for me, I was up half an hour before my alarm and, after brewing up, jumped in Thomas and drove down to by the gate. I had decided that I was not going to risk any more incursions into my property and taking my wood by the little old man; I would just move it all before he woke up. I was so early that the sheep dog was still asleep on the lane outside the gates. You can see how misty it was as well in this picture.

Wood, saved

I worked quickly to demolish the remaining pile of wood and load it into Thomas and then turned to the chopped down trees and loaded them as well. I completely filled the bed and had the branches hanging down on both sides of the cab. I pulled him up round to the front and unloaded it all into the pile I had made the previous day of the trees I had manually dragged over. All this was done before 7am and I had the cuppa with me the whole time, sat in the passenger footwell and not spilling a drop.

Bekir removing the lintel frame

I then repaired upstairs to drink the rest of my brew and wait for the men, and had such a pleasant surprise because people were early rising today due to mistaken alarm setting. It was not long before I saw Lucy bouncing along the lane and they were here. I gave them a few minutes to get changed and then went down to discuss the plan for the day. As far as I was aware I had two digger machines due, any moment now, and I needed to be sure of what they were doing. I also had the target set of a gate and fence around the garden (which will be the hen run this year) however first of all the decision was made to remove some of the wooden forms from the lintel done last week, and the concrete base for Rambo's cage.

T at his craftsmanship

I had pointed out to T that the birds were still coming in (indeed three were flying around when he arrived) and that the plastic had torn, and another window had broken, and I was tempted to just leave it until the new windows were in however he was not as easily defeated as me and set to with hammer and nails to resecure the plastic sheeting, and then put the netting over the other windows. He even went so far as to fashion, from some scraps, a bird net to chase them out with. He is learning from Bekir and Sally.

Soaking the skewers

My task was to use the vinegar I bought the other day to soak the BBQ skewers to get the rust off them. I raided the chemistry lab and got a (slightly broken) but tall enough test tube and cleaned it out. I then dried it and filled it with the vinegar, dropping the skewers in carefully until they were all but submerged. After an hour or so I pulled one out and rubbed it with the wire scrubber I had bought; the stain was definitely coming off. I will leave them until tomorrow and see what results.

Digger driving along the lane

All this time the men were working on the double gate for the garden, and I was getting impatient that the digger machines weren't here yet. It was starting to get close to 9.30 and I had expected them at 8.30 when I noticed Bekir had disappeared down towards the gate. I went down there and found him talking to the young one. I was able to get a bit of peace between us I think so that is good. A short while later we heard a loud engine and suddenly a huge digging machine drove towards me down the lane. Now this is a proper piece of kit!

Bagga Machine takes his first bite

We had a bit of a conversation about what would be done first and decided that the drive way into where the garage will be would be the best place to start as this machine is good at moving large amounts of loose rubble, and the other machine (for digging through bedrock) apparently wasn't actually coming today. After a few minutes of conversation (and followed by the young one all the time, nosy so and so) the man jumped into his machine and went for it.

I grabbed those two videos as he was going and I like them so much I couldn't chose between them. It was like the building site had finally arrived and I must admit I was a bit amused by just how much it was churning everything up; I know it will be like this for a year or so but still it is a shame to see so much damage where I wasn't planning on having any. I know I'm a big softie and don't worry I'm just verbalising small thoughts. Now that the machine had arrived I was able to have breakfast and toast with bacon and eggs on it fit the bill perfectly. I did feel bad for T who was out doing the bird netting just by Room 13 but he didn't complain out loud. The toaster showed off a new skill by propelling the toast right out of it and onto the desk. That amused me a bit.

That's a lot of rubble

All this time the digger was going for it and when I went out again the pile of rubble and soil that was being built up just by my clothes line was getting impressive. He was digging down so that when the garage door is in the cars can drive straight through without any step; the machine (that is coming tomorrow now) for digging the actual narrow drainage channel will have to dig a bit lower here but we'll concrete over it all eventually so that won't be a problem. He was doing really well and, after being a bit frustrated that he was so late, I was really pleased with his progress.

A gaggle of men, not all working (only Bekir actually)

At some point during the morning I was hailed to the fence by my little lady who had brought coffee for everyone, including the bagga machine operator. This caused a pause in proceedings and, as you can see from this shot, it really is not just the people I am paying to be here who gather around. We have quite a crowd on site at times.

What an awesome machine

The bagga machine operator did not stop for long and as soon as he had finished his coffee he headed back to work. After I had done my little bit of being a good host I went to see what was going on and he had started on the extension to the parking lot that had been decided on just now. I was so impressed by the super extending arm on his rear-digger that I got loads of pictures but this one was the one I liked the best; you can see the dust exploding from the stone as he drags it back towards him; the noise was quite incredible too.

An excited Rambo

All the excitement was getting to Rambo who wanted to be in the centre of it all; obviously with all the heavy machinery it was not possible to let him out really during the day however T did take him for a good walk (they both came back soaked as Rambo had decided that going in the water was the thing to do) and he has also been let out this evening (he's outside running around somewhere now).

The tree, with digger behind

One thing that I have been particularly paranoid about (and doubly so after I saw that he had just ripped the tree out below the garage) was my favourite tree. I made it really clear (I think Bekir was getting fed up of me saying it) that it was not to be taken down and, fair play, the man was really careful with it. I really really can't get bored of looking at this tree and I'm very tempted to get one of these to hang from it at some point. Myself and Bekir headed to town for cash, and then the building merchant to get wood and other metal work for the gates (he is also going to fix the main vehicle gate tomorrow) and I was really worried while we were out that he would just go for it and destroy it. He didn't.

One of three loads of wood in Thomas

While T was out walking Rambo I revered Thomas up, past the digger (he waved as I went, two men in working vehicles sharing a respectful moment) past Rambo's run and to the big pile of trees that had been cut down last week. Now I had started gathering my wood I decided I would try and get it all together to split between hugelkulture (of which more later, much more) and chopping for the petchka. I loaded a comedy amount of wood on, it was hanging down both sides and I really don't think I could get any more on) and drove him over towards where T had been moving the other wood. I had decided the location for my hugelkulture earlier and, after he had done the windows, set him to sorting the wood closer to that location. The men were neverendingly amused with me driving Thomas around with huge amount of tree draped all over him and laughed and gave thumbs up every time I did a trip.

Completed task by the garage

This time I parked him up and left him for a bit, going for a chat and a rest and a tea break and then wondering around to check on the progress of the machine, and the men. The men had been doing their usual excellent job of making a gate and this was taking good shape; I had an idea for the next task for the digger which I cleared with Bekir and he agreed with me which was good. Not long after the machine finished doing the garage digging out and he was looking for more work so Bekir explained my idea.

Reversing up the slope

The only way for the digger to get round to the back door was to reverse up the steep slope and I was poised with my camera to capture this moment. The manouvre was completed without any incident and then he drove slowly across the top field and down again towards the target area. We had a few discussions about what to do and then he set to again, without much of a break. He hadn't even stopped for lunch.

Extreme gardening (picture and video)

The job for the bagga machine now was to dig out by the back door down to the foundations and this started off with some extreme gardening, ripping out the brambles and small tree that were there using his biting shovel scoop attachment. The video hasn't turned out great but hey, I'm no TV presenter or camera man. It was awesome to watch it happening though. I really want one of these big diggers!

These are my foundations

It did not take long before there was a dirty great big hole right down to the foundations. This is how deep it will have to be round the entire back wall of the house and you really can see why big machines are needed for this. There were a few moment when, as I was sat in Room 13, I rushed out as the whole building shook when he was breaking through some concrete slab but he was super careful of the building and didn't cause any damage that I am aware of.

A small amount of damage to the lawn

The same cannot be said for the effect of the tyres on the ground; he was chewing it up and I snapped a shot for posterity. The thing is all of this will be dug out tomorrow by the other machine anyway. I'm so intrigued as to which machine will turn up. I suppose tomorrow will tell.

Once again it was not long before he said "I've done" and so we waited a minute for Bekir and Sally to stop hanging the gates and then pointed him at the big pile of sand and gravel that needed dumping over the fence. You are so lucky to have so many videos today aren't you, this was pretty brilliant to watch too and we stood there the entire time it took him to complete the job, then smooth down the remaining sand (my rent, I'm considering it) to make a slightly smoother driveway.

Making a start to speed tomorrow up

With that job complete (and now there is only some hay left in the green building which will be removed tomorrow) a short discussion occurred and the bagga machine was sent back up the slope and round to start digging out the narrow drainage channel which will be finished by the other machine tomorrow. He got all the way along the flat roof balcony section and dug out a chunk more of by the back door before he left at 5pm, pretty much on the dot. I suppose I can't complain as all the time he was here he only took breaks when we disturbed him for a coffee, and he was so grateful for each cup, performing a small bow after he finished them.

Beginning the hugelkulture bed

And so to what I was doing all this time. As previously mentioned I had picked a location for two hugelkulture beds to go in and, with nothing else to do, I decided that me and T would dig them out. This was a task that was totally not on the radar for today (indeed, I thought I wouldn't get to do this til next year)  but with the huge amount of rotting wood on hand, and an afternoon with no paid work for me and T free to do something, what a great opportunity this was. We set to with our shovels and the Special One grabbed a pick axe to help cut through the roots we encountered, and we set to.

The first bed is dug

After an hour or so digging (with some bemused looks from Bekir, Sally, The Special One and Usmivka (particularly when I tried to explain that I was going to bury a load of wood in the trench) we managed to dig the entire chosen length out to about one spit depth. There were so moments at the near end where we had to resort to the axe to cut through the hefty roots from the tree stump that was our end marker, but all in all the soil was far easier to dig than I expected it to be. That doesn't mean I wasn't exhausted by the end of this and very ready to sit down and rest, then have a shower.

Fuel into Lucy

Sadly there was one more task to be completed which was to fuel Lucy up. She had been down in the red when I was out earlier and so I decided to use up one of the large cans of fuel that had been brought on the journey over. Again, I helped and T didn't do all the pouring and we got her measuring to half full again with this jerry can.

Testing the properties of vinegar

After this it really was time to relax so myself and T went up to Room 13 and chatted for a bit. I was pleased with the progress of the skewers and T pointed out that the green was even coming off the gold handles. Now earlier I had been a bit careful to not overfill and therefore cover those as I didn't know if they were plated and therefore would get damaged. With this observation I decided to completely submerge them and I poured more vinegar in. I am not lying when I say I didn't spill a drop but if I had put one more drop in there would have been spillage. This is about as full now as it could possibly get.

The mushroom burst through

All this time the men had been cracking on with the fencing and it was obvious that they were not going to stop until it was complete. About 6.30 or maybe even 7 they finally twisted the last tie and headed inside to change, after of course tidying everything they had used for the day. They are excellent workers. I headed down with T to the entrance gate as I wanted to talk him through where he was planting the silver birches tomorrow (now the sand is gone they can go in, and tomorrow I will be much more constrained as I need to do a fair amount of paying work). While we were down there I spotted a mushroom which had burst through the hay with such speed that most of it was still attached to the head. Nature is amazing.

No more raids by the little old man

T got Lucy started and drove round with Sally in the back, while Bekir came down to keep the weight down in Lucy while they drove over the bumpy bits and the young one appeared making final arrangements to get the hay out of the green shed. I waved goodbye to him, and the men, and it was all smiles so maybe it is better with him. I then wrapped my new chain around the gate and padlocked myself in.

Beautiful evening

I immediately let Rambo out to run around and I have seen him a few times doing circuits of the land. It is now pitch black (and it rained briefly a minute ago) and I'm going to have to go and find him and put him away I think; I'm not totally confident of him over night on the property though he would almost certainly be fine. I went outside to have a bit of a fuss of him as the sun was setting and got this stunning shot across the valley from stood up on Thomas' flat bed. He is now parked round the back on the car park as I wanted to make use of him.

Nommy dinner

As I've been writing this blog (which has taken a bit of time I can tell you) I have cooked and eaten and absolutely outstanding dinner where I fried mushrooms, onions, bacon bits, some REALLY hot green chili (blew my head off when I munched a slice to see the heat) and a bit of the left over chicken in butter, and then made some pasta as well. I ate it all and now I am really full but very satisfied.

And so I will sign this off after an incredibly busy day and a stupidly long blog post, to refill my beer and get onto my evening chat and then go to bed and probably wake sore and stiff tomorrow morning after all the physical (but really enjoyable) exertions today.