Planting the orchard

Sunday 8 January 2012

We had a lovely day, very sunny, lugging the trees down the slope and deciding where to put them.  They need to be about six metres apart, so the orchard will cover quite a large proportion of our acre when (if) it grows.  Three of the trees (as well as the two figs) are very young, and may not put out roots due to being moved when we bought them.  We had them at a discounted price as they are a bit of a gamble.  We staked them up well with rebar, and will keep our fingers crossed.  The apple, pear, apricot and almond are last year’s trees and have a good root system already.

 I think this one's the peach

 It wasn't long before some helpers arrived.  We put them in charge of collecting stones to put round the trees so they were easy to see (just in case our build starts and the digger driver is uncontrollable - a recurring nightmare of mine!)

 The tree planting team

 Ruby the dog, inside the Winnebago compound, finally given up barking at us when she realised we just weren't going to go away

 Job well done.  All trees planted, horse-mucked, and watered, just at sundown.

 There's our full moon again, coming up over rosy mountains, and below, a little later.

Figs on the Boundary

Saturday 7 January 2012

It really has gone cold.  Look: snow on Walton’s Mountain – very close to home (west of us, shot taken from the generator box).  We are mostly peeing outdoors, Dave on the compost and me in a hideaway in the bushes, this saves the loo from getting overwhelmed with liquid content that we don’t have the electricity (yet) to evaporate off.  It is now very chilly for exposing one’s delicate areas to the elements.

Dave’s Christmas present finally arrived from the UK on Friday, it’s a small RC helicopter, great fun, but the slightest breath of wind takes it for miles.  The first time he tried it out it crash landed high up in a cypress, and had to be retrieved with a chair and  several poles strapped together.  Here he is returning from another rescue mission.

After playtime, Dave got on with planting the fig trees.  We thought they would be good on our exposed North boundary: as you can see, there is only a wire fence between us and the neighbours, and that land is for sale.  We thought figs, which are treated almost as weeds here, would be fast growing, fruit producing, potential coppicing trees, and so Dave dug them in.  In Greek, figs are sika; one fig is a siko – so the photo below shows Dave burying a siko with a spade.

Full moon rising.  Glorious evening skies this time of year.

Change of Cob Floor Plans

Thursday 5 January 2011

Absolutely tipping down, and set in until midnight tomorrow, with force 9 winds forecast.  So Dave wasn't boatyarding, and we went to Lefkas, as Dieter had rung to say he had the panels.  First, though, we called on Constantine to discuss the floor plans and foundations.

There are lots of questions hustling around our inexperienced brains about this process, and we're trying to learn as much as we can, and remember everything we've read.  We have to live with the decisions that are being made now, so we want a healthy input if we can.

We've been trying to marry a 30cm regulation-width concrete ring beam with a 60cm cob wall, which also needs a masonry stem wall.  Also, how will the wood and the cob react in an earthquake?  Okay, the wood is designed to stop the roof falling on our heads (v. important) but will the cob and the wood shake themselves apart by moving differently?  So we took our questions to Constantine, and he was due to have a meeting with the structural engineer so it was all very timely - no answers, but at least the questions are being asked.

As a result of all this focus, I found myself looking again at the proposed floor plans, and seeing where the problem lies.  I'd always been a bit worried that the south facing living space was too long - there was a middle area between the conversation pit and the eating area that I couldn't think what to do with. (See 'Floor Plans' 29 Aug 2010)  Then the epiphany!  I realised we didn't need it at all.  If the pit and the dining area are moved together, the front of the house is shortened and the out-on-a-limb entry/porch can come under the main roof, like this:

The main roof area stays the same, but the separate entry walls and roof disappear - a potentially significant saving in time, effort and money.  I'd already made a minor internal change to create a music alcove by shrinking the pantry, and taking the kitchen round the corner.  It all feels more compact and cosy now.  Hope Constantine won't be too annoyed.

While working on this in the shed, I find myself under surveillance - the cats know this is where we keep the cat food, and watch my every move.

Oops

A fine start to the year: I woke up bright and early ready for a new year of work and interest, and offered to do the chores while Dave got a rare lie-in.  So I went off and started the generator.  I was just lighting the wood stove when the genny coughed and died.  Dave was out of bed in seconds, dressed and checking it.  Apparently I'd turned the fuel tap off, instead of on.  I do these things by rote - find fuel tap, turn it.  Not what Dave or any reasonably competent mechanic would do - find fuel tap, discover it is already on, leave it alone.  Two hours later, fuel system completely stripped, checked, cleaned; Dave's feet frozen in his slippers, and with diesel spills on his decent clothes (thrown on in a hurry); the generator coughed back into life.  I am in disgrace.

Meanwhile, the trees were delivered.  Yesterday we went to Lefkas to a garden centre and bought nine trees to start an orchard: Apple, Pear, Apricot, Nectarine, Peach, Almond, Pomegranate and two figs.  The delivery man had terrible trouble finding us, and after a three way conversation with the garden centre owner who speaks good English, I eventually had to drive up into Paleaokatuna to find the delivery van.