And I have, wearily, run out of hole puns so I’ll just show you a picture of where we’re at:
Ali has done 95% of the work: he goes out there every day to do some. I am very pleased that I haven’t had to do it myself and have been able to concentrate on the [...]
OK, it wasn’t all that deep, and as Al said: “It doesn’t even really count as a cut, in ground like this,” but it happened anyway, yesterday on the vernal equinox. And actually, from that point where he put the spade in for the pic, we need to dig down a further six feet, or [...]
I had some childcare on Saturday and hence the opportunity for a good afternoon’s work. Well, two hours at least – which isn’t by any means enough for the amount that needs doing. But every little helps.
I didn’t know where to start:
Reclaiming the third deep-bed?
Cutting back more brambles?
Clearing the weeds from deep [...]
That’s how it feels here sometimes, even though we’re actually 70 miles from the coast to both the east and the west. But the path through our field is a bit like a cliff path in places, and the traffic on the bypass in the valley tends to roar in a bit of a sealike [...]
– and actually, the more things take shape, the more I realise its importance. I think that little willow tree is going to form the centre point for the expanse of green grass that will eventually (by next springtime I hope!) cover the first third of our field and surround the first two buildings. [...]
Here’s our latest, highly untechnical layout plan for the field, cobbled together by Tom and me on a whiteboard during a conversation yesterday about what might end up going where.
We’re working on the bit to the left up until next summer. The fluffy cloud shape in the middle of that section is the tree [...]
Here’s an old bird’s nest we found, perfectly preserved and turned a gaudy shade of green:
And next to the lower shed, a bath. I had no idea it was there, but apparently the older children knew.
It looks like one of those old enameled ones, and I’m wondering how best to make use of it. I [...]
Interesting things we’ve found in the undergrowth #467154219:
I do remember there being some troughing on that shed and a downpipe, so putting the sink there next to the old wartime vegetable plot would have made sense. It would have stayed fresh with regular rainfall and any overflow would have just slopped over the top. I [...]
On the plus side, it fills up the water butt (which I drained the last drop from yesterday) but on the minus side, this driving rain makes working in the field difficult, so we’ve downed tools for now. We’ve had educational, domestic and social activities to attend to as well, so the timing has worked [...]
We’ve been struggling with our old central heating system here and looking forward, again, to starting afresh with a brand new system. I always knew that designing the wiring and the piping would be a crucial aspect of the new build and we’re using our difficulties with the old system here to help us work [...]
