Done with Digging

Well it is mid afternoon and I'm cracking on with this now as I'm out for dinner later with my friend.  It has just started tipping it down, with some awesome rumbles of thunder (one of the least of which I captured on camera and you can enjoy later) so it isn't a bad time to be inside.

I begin this post with a video taken last night of the darkness in Julian, and very VERY faintly the sound of a strange bird (I presume) which was flying around outside for quite a while. It had a very regular, almost mechanical sounding, peeping call. Does anyone have any idea what it might be? Apologies for the rubbish sound quality, I don't have any tools on this laptop to clean it up.

After a few minutes it headed off and anyway I'm not sure anything would have kept me awake last night; I was really tired. The whisky (though I really didn't have that much) probably helped me to be sleepy too. I woke up this morning desperate for a brew and dragged myself out of bed about 7.30am to sort this lack out. I was expecting the digger man this morning but I didn't know which one and I had also psyched myself up to have a conversation about how I had only agreed to two days with the big machine and this was the third.

My present from my best mate

The first thing I did, however, was look for the whisky that had been bought me as a present by my best mate. I had stopped worrying myself the night before but it was still the highest priority thing on my list; I hate losing things and I particularly dislike the fact that I had lost a present from a good friend. My first place to look was in the locked room with my whisky in it; I took all the bottles out of the first packing crate; nothing. Then started on the second. And then I saw it! I had been looking for a white bag however this was in a white box and that was why I didn't see it last night. My relief was huge and I immediately went and facebooked my mate to tell him I'd found it. It looks a really interesting bottle and I'll open it at some point, but no time soon I don't think.

Routine maintenance

With that stress out the way I grabbed a big bowl of cereal and waited to hear the engine fire up on the digger. It wasn't long before I did so I popped down to have my chat with him. This also went well with me explaining myself and him replying "I'm just the driver; talk to my boss) so I left it at that. He had a few bits and pieces to do maintenance-wise on the hydraulic drill attachment so I watched as he swapped out a bolt which was a bit worn, then he was back to it as per usual, with skill and efficiency.

I returned to my desk to do a bit more paying work (catching up on having yesterday off, y'see) and my phone rang and it was my friend who was playing piggy in the middle between me and Bekir. Apparently the kmet had said that I should get my "canalisation" (sewage) dug now that I had a bagga machine in. My point is that I don't want any as my black waste goes into humanure, and my grey will go into a reed bed. They just don't understand these concepts at all though. Anyway, I headed back out to have a quick chat with the driver and again he just smiled and said "OK, not my problem; yours and the kmets" so there we are. While I was there I grabbed another quick video of him at work for those of you who appreciate this kind of thing.

I was again inside and at my desk when I heard a knocking at the door and it was the little lady with a bowl of hot milk with sugar, and some socks. She handed them to me saying they were a present for my birthday. Bless her! They probably won't get worn though; I am hoping (again) that my last sock-wearing til winter has occurred.

Hugelkultur getting more complete

I had another hour or so behind my desk and then the lure of the sun proved too great. I have come here to get outside and not be tied to a desk and I'm going to have to ensure I take the opportunities this time to get outside a bit. The task I set myself was the hugelkultur which I would really like to get completed this weekend if possible. I set to trimming down branches and piling them up into the trench. After a bit my little lady neighbour came over, once again concerned that I was burying and not burning this wood. She also expressed concern that my axe wasn't good enough and sent Usmivka Mush off to get their axe. It was a bit heavier but not really any better than mine; I think it is more technique that they were tutting at because after a while I was able to go through most of the branches with one swing with either axe.

Clearing hay from my barn

It got to just before I was expecting my friend to arrive for our lunch date so I went in, had a lovely (but very quick) shower and changed into clean clothes. I then went to check on the digger man and saw that the young one from the farm below was in emptying his hay finally. He had come to see me earlier when I was doing the hugelkultur to say he'd be bringing his cart in and sure enough he had; the herder was stood on top of the hay in the cart stamping it down to make more space, and the girl who I presume is the young one's wife was standing watching. They did two loads that I saw, and then stopped; the last I saw the cart is currently parked below that window so I don't know when they expect to come back to finish the job. We'll see.

What a gorgeous flower

I had noticed the other day that the Flags were starting to show flowers; this is the reason I have stopped digging out the flower beds by the entrance. I am going to wait for these to finish and then try and move them while I prepare it, and then plant them back in. Anyway, today I saw that the first one had burst into bloom and it was REALLY amazing. I snapped loads of pictures of it; it is such a stunning plant. I hope my transplantation of them is successful. This is only the first of about ten blooms that are preparing to open.

Cloudless blue sky while I read

As it was really lovely I pulled a chair out, got my kindle, and sat in the sun to wait. There was not a cloud in the sky and I really enjoyed my time sitting there however I was getting more hungry all the time so eventually I gave her a quick call and we rearranged for a meal this evening which will, to be fair, be more relaxing than the lunch plan which involved shopping. I am looking forward to getting back to the little cafe again as I've not been since S was so helpful with taking me to get Thomas from the garage. Talking of which, it is a week til he gets here; I bet he is climbing the walls with excitement right now. Big shout out to you mate!

Making his way through the soil

I finished the chapter of my book and headed upstairs for my lunch; cold chicken salad with HUGE amounts of mayonnaise to counteract all the rabbit food. It was really nice and I'm appreciating my current technique of boiling too many tatties and saving half for a cold salad the next day. I have been keeping a really close eye on the little tortoise and for the past 24 hours he has moved an inch or so at the most around his little shelter so I was very pleased to see, when I came in this time, that he was on the move and heading towards the water. He is obviously still very young and maybe his sleeping is just because he was disturbed by the wall building and he is still building his strength.

Lubo called me as I was finishing my lunch and had good news; he has spoken to Sofia and they are still on for getting the PuP approval through, with only a few more bits of paperwork to be waited for. It is so frustrating that this has taken all this much hassle, negativity and strife but now I think that maybe I am finally on track. I can but hope.

Nearly completed it

All this time my digger man was cracking on finishing off the smoothing of the car park, alternating between using the drill, and then clearing out the spoil with the big shovel. I now wish I had grabbed more videos of him going for it; at times he had the digger up like a bridge and was driving it with just two wheels because of the power he was putting into trying to dig out the spoil. He finally accepted a coffee off me and when he jumped down to drink it he rang his sister who is living in Liverpool and handed the phone to me. I then spoke to the husband for a few minutes about him being there and me being here. Very strange, but very nice.

Tortoise thinks he's a turtle

As I was no longer going out, and the digger man was so close to needing his final task of the day, I got changed into shorts and my dirty clothes and went back to hugelkulturing for a little while. I am thinking that I will need more soil than I dug out for the trench so I started shifting some of the boulders out of the spoil from the trench then stopped; we may need these for T to do the wall tomorrow for the chickens so we'll get what we need, then tidy it. At one point I went upstairs to get myself a drink of water and saw that the tortoise had made it to the water and was actually sat in it! It looked like he was having a bit of a bathe after drinking some of it (either that, or he had tipped it getting in) anyway, I snapped a picture and put a bit more water in for him.

Completed carparking area

Then I heard the sound of no digger machine and popped down again and there was the digger machine man saying he was done and I should come and look at it. It will probably need a little more work when we come to concrete it however I'm pretty happy with it to be honest. I will be moving the trailer round there tomorrow probably so it is out of the way and, with this reorganisation of vehicles, I'll probably also back Julian up a bit to where I want him to stay til next year at least.

Holes ready for the trees

I had decided that the fix I put in place for Rambo's Escape Tunnel were sufficient however, with a bit of foresight (as it turned out) I would get my bagga machine to get to work on the holes for the silver birch trees. He was very happy to help out and I marked each spot with a stick stuck in the ground while he switched attachments on the digger arm and then brought the machine down. The foresight was because of just how rocky this ground is; about 18" max below the surface you hit rock and even the power of the digger couldn't get through it easily. It took no more than 20 minutes for all the holes to be dug and now I need to get manure from the village, mix it with soil, replace MOST of the spoil and then put the stakes in really carefully before finally planting each tree. It turns out that until I remove the tree to the left as you're looking down I will only be planting five trees this time. I'll have to work out a location for the other one, or considering removing the scrub bush with help from T.

This task completed the man pointed to the time, said "make sure you remember this is when I stopped working" and then went to get ready to leave. I make no apology for the length of this video as I was fascinated by the control shown to manouvre the arm to pick up the different attachment. Half way through he shows me a plant (which is all over my land) which he says you can eat and not need to drink (or at least I think that is what he says). Anyway, he was a lovely bloke and I would be happy to have him back.

Impressive cloud display

As soon as he had gone I went and let Rambo out to have a run around, gave him some more water, and then went to do a little more work and start this blog. After a while I went down to check on him, and to do a burn of the rubbish I had collected, and I noticed that it was starting to rain; typical with me wanting to light the outside fire. No matter, I lit it anyway as it was only a small amount and it burns very quickly. It was then that the first rumble of thunder occurred. I looked up and saw a glistening cloud approaching fast.

I took Rambo to his enclosure and headed inside myself, with the first spots of drizzle coming down but the sun still shining. As I was sat writing this (indeed, I mention it at the beginning) I grabbed the camera and attempted to capture the impressive rumbling. The one that I recorded was pretty feeble compared to the others but I couldn't be bothered to keep recording so here it is.

The storm passed pretty quickly and now it is still a bit cloudy, but the sun is still breaking through mainly. Little Tortoise is still sat in the water, though he is moving around a bit still, and I'm about to do the same as I need to have another shower before going out for dinner tonight. I'll not publish this til I get back so I can bore you with more pictures of food and tales of my adventures, but for now, ciao.

--------------------

Beautiful light towards distant mountains

So I am back from my meal and a very pleasant one it was too, though now I am really tired so going to head to bed as soon as I hit publish on this. On the way over the sun was setting and it was really rather gorgeous driving towards it, with distant mountains silver and the road stretching ahead in a very beautiful way.

Sun beams and hill sides

As I went round the corner a bit further on I stopped again, once more demonstrating why it is important to take the camera and leave enough time for stopping more than once for photo opportunities. The sun was still behind the clouds at this stage but its rays where radiating down in such a stunning way, with small clouds on the horizon silhouetted. There was another opportunity for a picture as the sun just started to emerge from behind the clouds but by the time I spotted it, it was too late to stop and get the camera out.

Kyufte, pileski drop and kartofi serenai

I was beaten to the cafe by my friend and went in to find she was chatting to the owner, who greeted me as he knows me as well and then we took a table in the corner, chatted, and ordered the traditional order of 2 kyufte for me, cheesy chips, some salad, chicken livers and chicken wings. As always here it was really well cooked, fantastically tasty, and cheap as chips. I had a couple of beers which probably is part of my tiredness. We chatted about loads of things including possibly getting chickens from the main town market this weekend with help from Bekir, so that is now on the cards. I do have T back tomorrow so the wall will get finished then and all I'll need to do is build the chicken coop (that I have an envelope-design for already).

So there it is; another busy day and done. Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.