Infrastructure Maintenance

 14 - 17 December 2020

The weather has perked up and we are keen to get on with some of the infrastructure repair that we had planned for December.

This is the scene around the side of the shed.  To the right is the battery box that Dave has to check at intervals, and to the left are the brambles and prickly oak that believe the space is theirs.  I had already cut back quite a bit before taking this photo - it is usually impenetrable.

Dave was doing urgent repairs to the track before coming to help me.  So much rain in the past weeks, the track was in danger of washing out.  With barrow, pick and spade, Dave went to work.

The finished result - our concrete was covered in gravel washed down from above before Dave started, and further down he had dug out rain drains to channel water over the side rather than erode great trenches in the track.

 

Then we started on the fence posts

And the panels

Some time later - the brambles cut right back, and fence panels installed, to define our space and give the brambles a boundary.  We'll have to keep an eye on it, and trim regularly, but I'm hoping that the fence will highlight the problems as they start.

The other end of the fence runs into a cleared area under some spreading trees.  It is a very shaded area, and suggests itself as a mushrooming zone.

So it was not too surprising to come across this beauty.  Internet research claimed it to be a Pale Chanterelle - but we are still not brave enough to risk eating it.

But we did eat these - the first mandarins from one of our little trees.  It only made four in total, so this was an important moment.  Very sweet and lovely (the mandarins, as well as the moment!)