Lots of digging

It has been a super busy day today, with lots going on. There are three videos for this update however I know that for some reason videos do not show up on mobile so if you want to see them then follow this link to the YouTube channel for the blog and you can find them.

Early morning frost

Angela marking the extend of the garden digging

The digger arrives through the fog

Frosty weeds in the orchard

It was a cold frosty start to the day and I had the pleasure of dropping Rosie off to school; I had to warm Thomas for a fair while to make sure he wasn't covered in ice. The men were driving up the hill as I was driving down and when I got back it was nearly time for the digger to arrive for the day; Angela first of all got the marker paint and marked out where she wanted dug for the new raised beds. Shortly after our digger arrived; this is the same guy who helped me so much yesterday. It was still very misty and frosty when he arrived but he got pretty much stuck in straight away after a short explanation of what we wanted. He was VERY impressed with Rosie's little digger as well.

The first trench is done in no time

Making his way up the back bank

Halil on the roof terrace

Clearing a path past the rubbish pile

The chicken wall foundations are complete

The first task of the day was to dig out the foundations for the new wall around the chicken enclosure. I was very busy with work and other things today but did get outside for videos and a few pictures as it was an exciting day. It was about lunch time or just after when he finished this job, including having cleared away some of the rubble that was stopping me driving up behind the chicken house via that ramp; of course he also made another ramp the other side of the orchard so maybe I don't need to plan for access at the back there any more. Halil did spend a fair amount of today grouting on the roof terrace; I honestly don't know how far he got as I was too busy to check much.

Carefully removing the Walnut sapling

The digger hard at work

Broken water pipe

A big pile of the spoil is collected

Putting in a temporary repair to the water pipe

Such an accurate cut, next to Rosie's flower bed

With that done the digger drove round across the front lawn and made a start on the garden area. The first task was to dig out the triffid tree that keeps coming back really badly, so that has been uprooted, but then he carefully dug out the walnut that self-seeded and has grown really well. Now we just really need to hope it can survive being transplanted. With this done he really got to work and there was a LOT of soil dug out, so much it is piled really high out of the way blocking access to the fenced garden now. However the results are brilliant and it has saved us a huge amount of time. We did accidentally dig out the water line (we marked where we thought it was but were not careful enough to check) however Bekir and Halil have already put in a temporary fix and the new pipe will be buried properly next week. Bekir has also temporarily planted the walnut tree into the huge pile of spoil, and it will be planted in a big hole the digger dug when they are back on Monday. It was a very exciting day and Rosie got back from school in time to see and she watched and was very impressed.

Rosie loves the play area

I decided to take Rosie to our favourite restaurant this evening as Angela has headed off for a very well deserved break at a spa hotel for the weekend. We had a great time and she was very good, enjoying her dinner and playing in the play area really nicely. It was a lovely way to spend the evening.

And so there you have it; time for Daddy Saturday and Daddy Sunday so I better get some sleep. Thanks for reading.

PS one thing that just occurred to me; this is the end of the Hugelkultur; all that soil is now mixed in that big pile on the side. What a journey that was, and I'm kind of sad it is gone but it's going to be replaced with better options for our garden. So long, hugelkultur. You were awesome.