5.03.2024 Levelling the living barrier.

 ~o~

  Tuesday 5th 33F/1C. The weather has turned colder. 

 6.30. Up at 5.30. My back is aching again. I shall continue to clear the accumulated junk from the dismantled dome area. The trailer is attached to the old car and well placed for filling. Sadly I have heard nothing from the farmer with children. Who suggested the green dome would make a playhouse.

 This week's cooking class has been put off yet again. It seems the ex-school kitchen is still being renovated or decorated. Many village schools have been closed due to centralisation.

 7.00 As light outside as it is likely to be for a while. Though there are signs of the early sunshine if the sun ever rises. I'd better get an early walk in to cure my back pain. The longer I leave it the more my walk eats into my busy, working day. 😉

 8.15 I had an early walk to the lanes. It was freezing and the cold wind hurt my ears. I should have worn a tea cosy fleece cap to protect my ears.

11.00  I loaded the trailer with all the wet and muddy pieces of wood. Then drove to the more distant recycling centre. Where a chap who was waiting gave me hand with the trailer. Despite being tipped right up the wood would not slide off. So we kept moving the trailer forwards until it was empty. I am just having morning coffee. Before going back out. To clear the hardcore into the sunken area beyond the parking space.  

 12.00 I am having a well earned rest. All the trees and bushes between the parking space and wilderness have been cut down to the ground. I am exhausted and sweating profusely. 

There is at least a couple of hour's work. In lopping them into trailer sized branches. Probably several trailers full. It is difficult to capture the sheer volume of felled trees and lopped branches in a picture.

 The wilderness barrier was so dense. That there was no way to reach the sunken area. Not even with half a brick. It kept bouncing off. Now I can easily throw the hardcore over the edge. Or have a lorry tip its load there. 

 My wife would be livid! She planted most of the living barrier going right back to the late 1990s. Just as she planted the wilderness of oaks and willows. From gathered acorns and pencil sized cuttings. Which she would bring on in pots before planting them out. 

 We built up the self-compacting gravel base under the observatory. Working together in our early 70s. Using wheelbarrows back and forth from the 25 tons tipped just outside the gate. Over 20 metres away from the building site. A contractor had promised to send a small front bucket loader to move the gravel for us. 

 Yet another Danish businessman who didn't keep his promises. I rang him to ask when the machine and operator were coming. He simply dismissed me. 

I was too tired to go on. So after lunch I showered and drove to see my friend. To have a rest and a chat. He too had been involved in a strenuous project. Demolishing a massive brick chimney indoors.

 The red ignition light has been coming on in the Morris Minor. He warned me that it meant the dynamo wasn't charging the battery. He was right. After driving some of the distance home some electrical items began to stop working. By the time I arrived home the engine was struggling. The battery had dropped to 9V. I immediately put it on charge.

 Dinner was chicken, mushrooms, pasta and tinned tomatoes. I cooked the whole tin of tomatoes and put most of it on the pasta. There was too much. The same was true of the pasta.

 ~o~