8 – 11 March 2011
On Tuesday the sun finally came out, although it was still very cold. Dave couldn’t resist going to check the water heater, so we darted up there before going to the yard. The sun was on the panel and warm water was coming out of the taps – glorious!
We started work in the yard, and realised we had left all the tools we needed back up on the land, so I went back for them. I took this photo on the way up the hill, thinking how very Alpine it looked with snow on the peaks (if you ignore the olive trees in the foreground).
On Thursday we heard from Tina and Shrimpy that they were back, so after work we went to their place in Geni to pick up the batteries. They are small but extremely heavy, 27 kilos each. Dave and Shrimpy loaded the van, and then we sat in the evening sun and had a glass of Tina’s home brew. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but may have contributed to what happened next. While reversing down the hill, Dave missed the edge of the road and crunched down on to the chassis. He couldn’t drive back out, Shrimpy’s van couldn’t pull him out, and in the end, we just had to build up the verge with big stones until he could get back onto the road.
Well, we weren’t going to get to the yard on Friday – not with those batteries begging to be installed. We ran into Mad Robbie on the way, and he decided to come and see what we were up to. Engineers, huh? He was fascinated by the generator. Still, if Bobstock is going to happen ... Have I mentioned Bobstock? You’ve heard of Woodstock. We’ve got a field, and a stage, and power – so we have to have a concert: Nidristock, I thought. Dave’s son Rob got hold of this idea and revised it – his birthday is on 8 April – lets have Bobstock!
The batteries fitted nicely into their box, and Dave started wiring.
Meanwhile, Michael and Alison and the kids were also set to move to Goat Bottom. They had variously considered and rejected an old wooden boat and a Mongolian yurt, and had eventually settled on a Winnebago. More practical, but less romantic. The Winnebago was there on Friday morning – much huger than we could’ve imagined.
They asked if they could bring in a ‘bobcat’ mini-digger to level the site. Well, we’d had a digger put in our driveway and level the top edge of the field, so it didn’t seem right to refuse. They also wanted to put in a soak-away for the toilet, as the Winne was equipped with a chemical toilet which isn’t very nice. Apparently the bobcat could do that too.
Kieran’s contribution to the building site.
Thirteen hundred hours on Friday 11th: we have power. It’s not easy to show electricity flowing – but that jigsaw was buzzing!
It was far too late to get motivated for the yard, so we stayed at Goat Bottom for the afternoon, too. We built this plinth for the gas cooker to stand on and to store oven trays in.
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