Livestock

Saturday 9 April 2011

The scene of devastation the following morning.

One thing guaranteed to get you out of bed the morning after a party is the sudden realisation that you received three chickens during the previous evening's festivities.

So 7am: we're up and about.  Dave opened the henhouse and they emerged.  We'd already decided to name our two Thelma and Louise - as they are unlikely to reach a ripe old age (if you haven't seen the movie you won't get this).  When Rob appeared from his tent he said his chicken was called Bob.  I hope it doesn't put her off laying.

Despite her madness in bringing the chickens during the party, Helen had thoughtfully provided chickenfeed and a feeder.  We found a bowl for water and the chucklings were happy.  They examined the run, and then casually stepped through the wire to explore further afield.  We chased them back in a few times, until Tina turned up and suggested we put green netting around to keep them in until they grow.  We also made them a shady space at the end, as the day was turning warm.

Bobstock

Friday 8 April 2011

We made an early trip to Lefkas town for cheap beers, a large bin and some ice-cubes, and by lunchtime were back on the land just ahead of the first helpers.

Rob, looking happy on his birthday, and Sue, enthusiastically entering into the spirit of the thing.

I got the sewing machine out and turned a pair of Dave's old jeans into 1960s style 'loons'.

Dave and Rob taking a moment to check out the sound system - looks like they're happy with it. 

 Dave tried on the loons - look at those flares.

A couple of sheets and some spray paint - and I'd made fancy dress for the camper truck, a vast improvement on the red, white and blue stripes and germanic stickers lurking underneath.  Rob was very pleased - the largest birthday card ever!

Then I revealed my outfit!  Like the flowery jeans?  They'll be a hoot in the boatyard on Monday!  The wig is sewn into the denim hat - at last, flowing blonde curls, an excuse to go ditsy ... (yeah, okay, already ditsy, I know!)

The ground crew take a break and test the beer bin.

Mad Robbie brought face paints, so I kept going with the flower motif.  Soon everyone wanted one.

More arrivals, tent city starts to take shape.

The stage is set ...

Sue and I - having a jolly moment

Dave 'Hendrix' Hodge in full regalia: tie-dyed shirt, wig, bandana, loons and an eye-pencil moustache.

Vicky and Dave turn up with placards: 'End animal testing - they only get the answers wrong'; and 'They are watching us - wear tin foil hats' - which explains Dave's strange headgear










Below: Mad Robbie set a few flares, no casualties except my washing up bowl which gained a large hole

Later that night, Rob received the most unlikely birthday gift - a live chicken.  Helen had decided to deliver the livestock at Bobstock!

At least it didn't get it's head bitten off - the usual fate of live chickens at rock gigs.

 Dancing through the night

Surprisingly, sometime during the evening Dave metamorphosed from Jimi Hendrix into Douglas Fairbanks Jnr - weird!

Then we wrapped up the night with a little camp fire and some acoustic tunes.

Preparing for Bobstock

Thursday afternoon, 7 April 2011

We had an early dart on Thursday afternoon, and met up with the band at Goat Bottom, to review the logistics.  This involved a lot of standing around deciding where lights and power leads should go (the lads) and frantic clearing away of wood and other clutter from the decking (me).

Rob and Dean, meanwhile, had scrumped some plywood and were making a toilet surround for a simple earth closet at the foot of the field.

I'm not sure where that plywood came from, but I hope the Nidri Star wasn't planning to reuse it ...

The other earth closet was even simpler.  Vince had used the tree from the Panto set, and installed this comfortable seating arrangement (over a hole in the ground).  A little exposed, but handy in an emergency.

Working out how to deaden the generator sound using big pieces of yacht foam (still with 'Bavaria Yachts' printed on them).

The first visitors:  Neil with his son, Ben, laughing at Tina avoiding the camera.  They'd turned up early to pick a good spot for Ben's tent - just visible in the background.

I wrote some signs to help the madding crowds find our remote location - modelled here by Vinnie and Dave.

The view from the bottom of the field.  Bobstock, you will have realised, is a tribute to Woodstock, another great open-air live music event.

Dean, demonstrating the structural integrity of the new toilet.  It uses the old chemical toilet surround from the Camper Truck, but is located over a hole in the ground.

Six o'clock, and Patrick turned up for his lesson with Dave.  Lilias and Helen arrived too.  We sat round chatting, while I painted flowers on my jeans and tie-died a shirt for Dave - aiming for a 1969 look for Bobstock.

Oh, and Ben found this chrysalis while trimming some of the long grass.  How lovely.

Rattling through the week

Monday 4 - Thursday 7 April 2011

Lilias had been on the phone all last week, trying to find out for us when the internet might get connected.  We'd been unplugged since Saturday 26th, which was putting a strain on our work and personal communications.  I'd made one foray into the world of internet cafes: I started out in George's, after work, thinking I'd check emails and do some blogging, but my firewall for some reason refused to connect, I went on to Biblos, with the same effect, then to De'Vine, again with no result.  In each location I'd ordered a beer when I sat down.  I stayed an hour in George's, struggling with it, twenty minutes in Biblos, and five mins in De'Vine, leaving more and more of the beer each time.  I eventually found a connection in Cafe de Paris and did some urgent work emails and got some blogging done, but CdP is essentially an open air venue and my hands soon got too chilled to type.

So the good news from Lilias on Friday last was that she had heard that the work of putting in the columns would begin 'early next week'.  In Greece, that could mean anything, so imagine my surprise on Monday morning, nipping back to GB for something we needed in the yard, to see all this sophisticated machinery at work on our columns:

On Tuesday there were no developments and life went on in the yard, with proper union tea breaks occurring with startling frequency: 

Tuesday the 5th was, of course, Upside Down George's birthday, so we went to celebrate with him - lashings of free food - and Rob, Dave and Viljan playing guitars

By Wednesday the phone line had reached us, via enough columns to hold a full frieze of Elgin Marbles ...

... including a connection all the way to the shed.  It appeared while we weren't there.  Lucky, really, that they got the right shed!  The junction box had ten wires sticking out, eight of them tied in a bundle, leaving a red and a blue like little antenna.

I nipped into town to the electrical shop, and asked for a telephone socket.  This was produced, then I asked for the cable.  'Two core?' he asked.  'Um, I have ten core', I said.  'Only use two', he said.  'Do you have some cable?' I repeated.  'Yes, use this four core', he replied, bending two of the core wires out of the way, to demonstrate.  'What about this socket?' I said, 'it is designed for four wires'.  'Just use those two', he said, pointing them out. 

After this crash course in telephone wiring I got home, we tried it, and hallelujah!  it worked.

On Thursday we were up bright and early, to haul Tropi into the yard, having been warned by the Skorpios pontoon that they were launching on Friday

The boatyard boys pressure washed her as she came out of the water - the result, I think, of a new policy that lasted only that day - for once we struck really lucky.

A home for everything

Weekend 2-3 April 2011

We had so much still to do, to get things unpacked or stored away.  Next Friday was ‘Bobstock’ – Rob’s birthday and our land-warming, so the pressure was on to get the decking clear. 

Dave had made this great table for the van on Thursday.  It lifts up to create a bit more space if we need it.  When we're sitting at a meal it feels like being in a railway carriage,

And I was committed to shelving everywhere I could, to take the pressure off the kitchen and clothing storage areas. Here's a spice rack, plate store, and computer shelves, with t-shirt shelves in the background.

All the shelving is difficult, because I'm not confident about screwing into the side of the van, so I have to find ways to fix brackets to the wooden partitions - which is why the spice rack right hand end is suspended from the shelf above.

 

All well and good.  Dave had run out of plumbing, and had even got most of the wiring under control; and looked set to help with the shelving.  But I didn’t realise a new obsession had him ‘under its wing’.  One evening last week, he’d been talking to ‘dead-dog’ Morgan, now known as ‘Killer’ as she had not only accidentally closed one of the dogs’ heads in the electric gates, but had had a chicken eaten by another of the dogs, and finally had given Kelvin a headache tablet to which he reacted with anaphylactic shock and needed to be rushed to hospital (he's fine now).   Not someone you’d want to mix with, you’d think?  Anyway, ‘Killer’ Morgan had agreed to get Dave a couple of chickens, as she knows a reputable supplier who has them all inoculated and properly cared for.

So Dave built a chicken house.  He used up every piece of suitable scrap wood, and patched together this great triangle coop, which did us a favour in clearing much of the wood cluttering about.

 Also over the weekend we spotted this interesting flower springing up around the place, a tassel hyacinth

and noticed that the wisteria has survived the transition to the land and is putting out flowers.