After the excitement of the snowplough arriving and taking the crust off, things have slowed down again, the contracter is unable to start before the 18th April, hopefully this will allow the plot to dry out a bit more before we turn it into something resembling a trench from WW1


We took delivery of some stuff from the suppliers, namely the drains and pipes that have to be put down at the begining




DRAINS AND PIPES, FOR SEWAGE, RAIN AND SEEPAGE, GREY PIPES ARE SEWAGE, BLACK AND WHITE ARE FOR THE SEEPAGE DRAINS, BLACK AND ORANGE ARE RAINWATER.





Into the swamp, at present it is terribly muddy, due to all the snow and freezing conditions we have experienced this year, an exceedingly long winter that has effectivley put us back by 3 weeks. Also the water does not drain so well due to the clay underneath, have to rely on evaporation as opposed to draining.




STARTING POINT



















EVERY PLACE HAS A STARTING POINT, The town surveyor arrived and marked out the corners of the house and garage, using his GPS system he was able to accurately position the house, this small post with the nail in it exactly points out where one corner of the house will be.







Welcome to my swamp, at least there are no alligators.




Hope it can dry out a bit before we start, makes things a lot easier if your feet do not become stuck in the ground.


DESTRUCTION OF HABITAT.




















We wanted to save these trees, we have been looking at these trees for the past 3 years, it is quite astounding the amount of wildlife they attract, most prolfic are the Pheasants, every year the cock has been making this his ´´des res´´ with a couple of hens soon arriving the place filled up with chicks in no time, also seen occasionally were deer, though one has to get up early and they are not so visible in urbanised areas anymore, but as this is on the edge of the village they still appear now and then.
We have to take most of these down, some are dead or pretty close to it, others are in the way of the building and we have to put our driveway there, we tried to save them but there was no leeway with the townplanners, they were very strict allowing no changes to their ´´masterplan´´ So much for all their talk about the envirionment, just bullshit.


MORE MUD AND OUR TREES




















BEFORE THE DESTRUCTION






















AND AFTER




We still have to tidy it up and probably take 2 or 3 of the trunks that are leaning down as well, not able to do that until the towns gardner makes an appearance, asked him to come two weeks ago, this week he is on holiday, I love council workers, trying to get them out of their offices is an art form, when you succeed you are generally unsatisfied with the result.
If they ever decide to form a pop group, I have the name ready for them.
THE UNDERACHIEVERS.