Dog Eat Dog?

Well, I think I over did it... one wheelbarrow full of stones too many.. and got a nasty bug which put me in bed for a few days. But I have started building the wall, the stone foundation for the studio. I decided to use lime mortar and it's not hard at all to mix.  I still need lots more stones. But for now I am just letting it all wait.

Before the wall

Mixing the lime and sand.

Meanwhile, the good news is that the water tank that R made so lovingly last summer is now working. No leaks! It will hold 9 cubic meters, which is a lot! We can now take water from the roof (rain) and take it down to the big tank via the 'elephant' tank. It is connected to the mains and the garden so it is multifunctional, for fire fighting or gardening, or eventually, household use.

Another piece of good news is the 'Alascan mill' (a way of cutting boards from felled trees in situ) works. The chainsaw is only just strong enough but R made some fine sturdy planks from the pine tree he felled last year. It was far too heavy to move and also at the bottom of the very steep hill. Taking it up in slices is much easier! This also means that we may have chestnut planks sometime, too.

Of the two chicks that finally hatched, one turned out to be a cock. He just started to try and crow the other day and big daddy cock sent him out of the flock. Nature is quite adamant about some things. So I did a swap with Gail, who was short of a cockerel. In exchange we now have another red hen. It was fun trying to catch him. I did it with grain and a piece of string tied with a slip knot. That was the first time. Then he escaped and so I had to be very cunning and watch his moves for a while. Eventually Big Daddy cock helped me by scaring the living daylights out of it. It almost jumped into the sack!

In the garden we have favas and peas ready to eat. And lamb's lettuce is nearly over. So tasty. Carrots and onions coming up and cabbages ready to eat. Some cabbage seedlings which I planted on the site of an old compost heap are doing so well it tells me just how fertile I need to get this ground. A lot more than it is. The Fig trees are just coming into leaf and the red kiwis which I moved to grow under the fig have come to life and looking really healthy. I moved them this winter as they were doing nothing. They are beside some cumfrey which is a great companion plant. The garden is full of flowers. Freesias ,Gerber daisies, teatree bush, poppies, blue daisies, and other stuff. It looks colourful.

Bonnie has been coming up from the cistus patch with various bones, of a dead sheep, we thought. Until yesterday. I was sitting looking at an old jaw bone she had been chewing away on for weeks and I suddenly realised that it couldn't be a sheep... wrong kind of teeth. Hmmm... Dog? Oh my God... could that be Ginger?!! That was a rather shocking realisation. I took the jaw bone away and buried it (in the compost, of course) and thought about my old faithful friend. These life cycles. Dog eat dog?

Mad Rock Lady

I have been on the look out for good stones. Whenever I take Bonnie out for a walk I look along the sides of the road and into the fields where new wheat is coming up. When I spy the glint of white I go and investigate. Anything bigger than my fist gets carried to the roadside and piled up for my return with the car. I got caught in the act the other day when a car load of locals passed... I tried to look nonchalant but all heads were turned in my direction as they headed off to the bar. The stones around here are beautiful white quartz with crystals locked in them.

Today I decided to look closer to home, on the field next door. I found a lot and chucked them over the fence. Later, I took four wheelbarrow loads down to the site. Patience. Step by step, I tell myself.

There is already double the amount that is in this picture.

While waiting for the track to dry out I did the plumbing, to get the mains water down to the site, and to have another stand pipe in the garden, so as not to drag a hose all over the place. (I hate that.) The new plastic pipes and fittings are relatively simple to use, but I did have to have a couple of goes before I got the knack. You have to shove the tube right into the thingy before you screw the thingy up. So, now I have water at the site, and stones.... next, hopefully, I will get the gravel and the sand delivered, maybe even this week, as the weather report looks promising.

This is the dresser that R made for the kitchen. It puts my brick shelving to shame... It works a treat, and I love the wooden branches that he has put in for mugs.

It looks like I will have to dig more ground for the tomatoes and beans, and I desperately need manure for the ground. I will go and see the riding school, soon.

Finally, this is how green the fields look when the sun shines. It is not cold and the days are getting longer and the blackbird sings in the evenings... Heaven.

February is a Hard Month

Every year I forget how challenging the months of January and February are. The rain keeps coming, just when I think it is drying up enough to order the gravel and sand for my studio. The mud stays sticky and slippery. I have got fed up with knitting and craft work... I want to get on with my building project! Sigh. Still, I have been collecting more rocks for the foundations and still need lots more.

This is a photo I took when all the big wet clouds went away to the east and I thought, ah, good bye rain, but it was a false hope as they sneaked round the back and squeezed themselves out once again.

I had a nasty cold last week which has knocked me back a bit.

Here is a cardi I knitted for Olivia, using scraps and oddments of wool.

The garden is producing green stuff. We have lamb's lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and pak choi i nearly ready. The coriander is coming up and the peas have pods, but not enough sun to fill them with yummy peas.

My green house was blown to bu##ery in the storms, the plastic torn. I will have to reconsider the situation when the weather calms down. I do have some tomato seedlings coming up, and a courgette, I noticed. I have put them outside as it is not so cold.

So that's the story of February.

Cobsessed

So here is the trench, dug and lined with weed stopper in the weedy bit. It looks tiny, but it's five meters across.  I still don't have enough rocks to make the foundations. I am gathering them while the weather continues wet and muddy. The gravel will have to wait and so will I. I still have lots to do while I wait. Whenever I go for a walk I see potential stones, and then I go off in the car or get the wheel barrow and haul some home.

R has offered to make the door and window for the studio.

I made some trial bricks using mud and sawdust which worked very well.

When I'm not building or digging I sit in the chair R made and look at the lovely view. This afternoon there was a burst of sun and the birds were chirping in that Spring-like way and it felt like heaven. Bonny found some sheltered cabbages to lie next to and snooze (after she bit off the top of the kiwi plant...). I weeded the onions and transplanted some cabbage-type seedlings.

R had laid down a huge sheet of black plastic over six months ago and yesterday I took it off and started to dig... All the bramble weeds are dead and most of the couch grass, and the soil is quite easy to dig, even though it's quite steep!!!  I am making long strips so I can grow a bigger crop of onions or beans, for storing. Most of the beds in the vege garden are a bit pidley for large crops. I am now excited about putting the black plastic down in the bit of land next to it. It is such a good way to get the ground usable without resorting to chemicals, and you can use it over and over.

The nectarine tree has bright pinck flowers coming out all over.

The Trench is Dug!!!

I was feeling a bit defeated by the trench I have been digging for the past month. I began to think that I needed a pick=axe with a man attached to it...

But today I went at it with the giant crowbar and broke up the stones and dug it out and then went round fine tuning it with a level, so it runs down to the outlet.

 I even put the yellow drainage tube in, just to see how it looked. Oh it looked fine! This feels like a major break through.

Now I am impatient for the gravel to arrive. Since the men were working on the eucalyptus at the bottom of our land, there is good access through a big valley/field, and I am hoping the gravel and sand will be delivered to the site, so I don't have to take it load by load from the top of the hill... It's a long way and very steep.

But the ground has to be dry so that the lorry doesn't get stuck with two tons of materials.... Exciting. I can hardly believe I am really doing this.

Next, I will fill the trench with gravel and then start on the foundations. Big stones. There is an old, abandoned, quarry near the village, where there are some very good stones for the taking. I have already collected big stones from around here. Lovely white quartz, I think. Big and round and some of them are full of crystals which glitter in the sun.

While I built the foundations I hope that the carpenter can make up a door and a window for the south side.

Meanwhile, the rest of the stuff goes on. The baby chicks are looking like mini grown-ups. The cabbages are filling out, and the broccoli is nearly edible. I have moved the strawberries to the fruit bed under the black fig. I think they will do well there. I ate one this morning. Not bad for January.

Where are the swallows? Usually they arrive around now.

Isabella riding bare-back. That's ma girl!

And Like Magic, They Appeared

We had Isabella to stay the night, after an afternoon of riding and getting to know Mr T. Sunday morning we took the dog for a long walk and when we returned there was a pile of long straight poles at the top of the hill! Fourteen of them. It felt like a gift. Isabella and I immediately got down to a bit of peeling, and managed to do four before lunch, even though there was a blisteringly cold wind from the north. I finished them off the next day and they are now stacked off the ground and covered where they can dry out for a few months.

The men are still cutting the trees down below, so today I went down and asked them how much they wanted and they said they were in exchange for having access to the trees! That made me very happy.

I have been digging more of the trench. Slowly cutting through the rocks.

While it was raining I went down to my house in Sao Luis and started to give it a Spring clean, ready for the new season. It is such a nice house. I whitewashed the kitchen area. And since Laura lives opposite I had the pleasure of her and Olivias company for a while, upstairs on the lovely wooden floor in the sun.

The chickens are doing well, despite the marauding pigs... and R has made a beautiful dresser for the kitchen, using olive wood branches here and there. How lucky am I?

Things begin to happen on the borders..

I had asked the neighbours if we could cut down a couple of eucalyptus trees, to use as roof beams, but it was complicated. Anyway, they are now all being cut down and sawn into 2.20 m lengths for pulp mill... It will make a big change to our view, and it is quite noisy and messy. We had said that it would be all right to use the bit of land just above the trees, so now it is covered in brash and branches. I had asked them if they could keep back a few poles for me... so we shall see.

I have been planting potatoes and peas and sowing carrot, leek, cabbage, coriander. You never know, they might come up. We have had a lot of heavy showers but when the sun shines it is warm. The compost is steaming away. I am a bit concerned as my source of used straw may be using it all herself! Well, for mulch for her potatoes... So I have been working up the courage to go and make inquiries to buy some. It can be straw that has got wet or has grass growing through it, it's still good for compost.

The days are getting longer and the little daffodils are popping up and smelling sweet. The baby chicks look more like chickens now. They eat what the rest eat and wander around the hillside peeping and cheeping. The other day I found a large mother pig near the hen house. She had been inside and had eaten all the food and knocked over the water and eaten the eggs... Hmph! I don't like that. We chased her and her three babies off the land, but no doubt they will be back. They are left to forage and the owner doesn't seem to care.  R has suggested we take one of the babies and turn it into sausages, etc. but I don't think we will...

The grass is growing and I have been busy weeding. We planted some trees just before Christmas and they are looking well. They have buds on them.

The digging of the foundations is continuing... It is hard work. sometimes it feels hard work just to get down there and get started. But when I get into the swing of it, time passes and mud has been moved (and rocks). I have made it a bit narrow and will probably have to widen it to be bigger than the walls I intend to build on top... Oh, just to think of all the gravel we will have to shift down the hill to fill the trench makes me tremble. But I have collected some larger rocks and think I can use some of them, too.