Humanure Drainage done

After the update yesterday that took me so many hours to write I'm going to try and get THIS one done quickly; let's see.

Getting stuff done early this morning

A butterfly on a thistle flower

Lots of dirt pulled out by Robbie the Robot

Big spider with three missing legs

The day started in the garden as we all went outside before the major heat hit to get some stuff done. Angela was weeding and tidying up while I helped by digging some thistles out (though I did get distracted by a butterfly on one of them). I also pulled Robbie the Robot out of the pool where he had done an excellent job cleaning the pool up. Finally we found a five legged spider that was pretty huge and getting around fine without its normal leg count.

Drilling through the wall for a pipe

Thomas arrives with stones

Lots of stones in Thomas

Pipe in the trench

Burying the pipe

Bekir drags stones out of the truck bed into the trench

Filter material in the empty collection point

The dissipation bed is built and finished

Bekir and Halil tidying up

Mesh onto which they spread sand

Bekir hanging out outside clock

Clock hung and very nicely visible

The bulk of the pictures today tell the story very well; Bekir and Halil spent today basically completing the immediate work on the humanure collection points to allow them to drain properly. This involved lots of digging (and today was HOT!) as well as drilling out through the base of the collection point to fit the pipe in. They also headed out to buy a load of stones to use as filter material for the dissipation bed we are building. They pulled Thomas onto the lawn to make unloading very easy; smart. With the pipes in place they covered it over with soil then dragged the stones into the trench using a rake, direct out of the bed of the truck. They also shoveled a fair amount into the collection point itself to prevent solids from draining out. With the trench full of stones they covered it with polythene to prevent it getting swampy and then covered over with soil, raking out stones as they went. Inside the collection point they put some fine mesh over the stones and then put sand in place. A great day of progress indeed. Before they left they also fitted the new outside clock that will mean we know what the time is when we're in the pool; it's nice and big and very clear to read so it's perfect.

Getting set up for our game today

Rosie gives leaves to the ants

Xena and Steve - best of friends

Really strange looking creature

Rosie and Angela play swingball

For the rest, today I played a game with Steve (we haven't actually finished yet) which has been a lot of fun. We also spent quite a really nice time in the pool, all of us today, which was awesome. After that I went to hang some washing out and Rosie came with and she spent a lot of time watching the ants and feeding them loads of leaves; she's so awesome. We even took some leaves down to the burned area so "the ants could find them". I also managed to finally get a shot of Steve and Xena; they are best buddies now! I had bought a swingball set which arrived today so we put it together (I saw this crazy insect that looks like some alien spawn while I was setting it up) and Angela filled the base with water then we all had a go; Rosie was having great fun, though she's not fully got the hang just yet. This will be a really fun toy for all of us for years I hope.

So there it is; Steve heads home tomorrow and next week I'm back to work (boo) but I'll be back on Monday with another update. Thanks for reading.