I've had a busy few days on the land so far, with everything taking me twice as long I'd expected, ironically as I'd totally expected!
It's been a beautiful week this week - I even got slightly sunburnt on my arms today - up to 18 degrees every day in the afternoon - real T shirt and hat and plenty of water weather!
I've had to really focus on 'the basics' at first - getting the land Fire safe, which means spending most of my time clearing shrub, which will otherwise turn into death-kindling by July, of which there is a lot.
I've been getting busy with the Stihl, and trust me this tool (or something like it) is ESSENTIAL - it makes quick work of anything with a stalk up to about an inch thick, but it does take its toll on one's forearms, it's also bloody noisy.
I've so far cleared about an acre of the lower fields - which isn't a lot by professional standards I'm sure - but I'm new to this scale of strimming and I've had to spend quite a lot of time pre-clearing the land of fallen branches, stones, and some bits of metal and other rubbish before letting loose, and the surface is quite uneven which doesn't help.
Here's the first cut, hopefully the only one I'll need until late Autumn:
And further round (with a pile of dead wood in the middle I'd cleared before strimming):
Here's what it looked like before:
I'm getting a bit sick of strimming TBH, I'd rather be doing more creative stuff like getting on with building, but this has to be a priority, but I think I can probably get everything cleared within 6 weeks even if I just do an hour a day, which isn't too odious.
Compost area clearance
I decided to clear the 50 square metres or so that I had intended to use as a mega compost area, but in the process of clearing it I thought instead it was a good place to construct some Hugel Terraces - so I just layered all the brush I cut to start off the first terrace:
I think it'll work, with a total of three going up the Eucalyptus woodland - and there is going to be a lot of brush coming out of said woodland in the next few weeks and this will be the perfect place to dump it - downhill from where it's coming out.
There were a few young Oak saplings I left in, along with a Hawthorne and a large Lavender bush that I think the Terraces can work around too.
I might even turn the hugel terraces into mega compost bins after I've made them - working around the trees and shrubs I'm leaving in. Or I might leave them as terraces, we'll see: either way this is the perfect place for dumping A LOT of cleared shrub to rot down and a much better use of it that burning it.
This is to the left of of my planned water storage facility, which is a great place for it - damping down the brush is a great way to kick start the rotting processes, assuming I can get some water accumulated in the next few weeks.
And I guess in a couple of years I could plant something here loves mega-fertility!
TBH I've got no idea how to make Hugel Terraces, hopefully the guy coming to help me clear the woodland on Monday can give me a few pointers.
Olive Terrace clearing
I got the bit between my teeth today about clearing these olive terraces - the problem is they are quite large, and there's about five of them - and there's a lot of thick shrub that just needs cutting out. I spent a couple of hours rooting things out and I made some headway.
You can kind of see more of them now:
These really are going to be awesome once they're clear, or clear-ish - I am leaving some shrubs in place, I don't want total clearance!
I've located another area for some more hugel terraces just down from here where i can get rid of the brush, but I want the olive terraces and the slopes to either side to stay as they are.... olive terraces bordered by cork oak woodland eventually!
And the swimming pool at the bottom.
Nice!
General tidying
I'm still having to spend a fair amount of time just tidying up tatt - I've got the outdoor kitchen area clear - but it's so dilapidated this really is just a 'for now' area - I'm going to build something cleaner and better at the top of the land.
I've also decided this chair has got to go - I'm gradually rolling it towards the gate so I can get it into the car and dump it some time soon....
In the meantime, it looks kind of surreal under the olive tree and it'll make any passing Chavs feel right at home. Note the above is an areas yet to be strimmed!
Final thoughts - slow and steady
I'm glad I've got no real urgency to get building anything - as I'm quite comfortable where I'm renting - it's just a matter of clearing the shrub before Fire season, which is very doable in the time, tidying and then I can get to water storage, planting and building which is where the fun really starts!