SUNDAY, 22nd August
The shower / toilet partition just before completion
At last, the partition is up and ready for every joint to be filled before starting on the waterproofing. However, I see another trench or two in my future!
The grey-water trench is not too bad, only about twelve meters long and not deep, since the settling tank, a recycled plastic bulk dog-food container from Christopher, is barely a metre deep.
The Biogas digester excavation is another story though, since the recycled 210 litre drum is 1,5 metres deep and has to be buried well below the level of the loo outlet. The feed pipe will also end in a small clearing amid the trees, so I’ll possibly be digging a rather large hole through a tangle of blue gum roots. Then there’s the catch-tank excavation, which has to be even lower…. Before I can actually start all this I shall have to survey the ground slopes around the hut to minimise the amount of digging.
All this should happen before I attempt to move in, since I’m reluctant to use a latrine, given the nature of the soil here. The surface soil at Boggy Pond is very sandy and porous, so I have to avoid any chance of polluting the groundwater. Below the surface there are unpredictable layers of clay which trap rainwater and seepage from septic tanks and allows it to run downhill, where the clay layer may break the surface, then… Phoo-eey!
The Bulldozer hunt has had mixed results… The driver is an ex-SAAF diesel mechanic who only learned to operate earth-moving equipment as a result of testing it. On a nearby property he took a whole day to level an area barely twice the size of Boggy Hut and take out one tree stump. At a cost of R1,500 per day I’m not about to commission a half-kilometre long road up the hill! I’ve decided to take a chance on three hours at R250 per hour and get him to clear as much of the coppice below Boggy Mansion as he can. Since he won’t have to bother about levels, nor take out any large tree stumps, it should make a dramatic difference. I await his call on Monday.
The field next to the house has suddenly filled with white Daisies
The area next to the West wall of Boggy Mansion is carpeted with white Daisies. Apparently these flowers had all but disappeared from the region about ten years ago. A couple doing research at the Caledon Botanical gardens decided to restore the flowers to the area by scattering handfuls of seed during their travels.
Just added a few extra braces today then took a nap, since it was cold and wet….. and Eskom had a “Planned Outage” all day. I’ve also had to realise that I have to take time out and not let the need to “Do Something” to justify my time here overwhelm me. This is just the start of a long-term project. At first that realisation caused a kind of despondent panic, but every time I walk around the property I realise that there is so much to do there’s absolutely no point in trying to rush. It would be as pointless as getting a speeding fine for the sake of 5 Km/H on the trip from Joburg to Cape Town.
A last wry note:
Just as I’ve become used to being hailed as “Oom”, one of the pedestrian commuters across Boggy Farm to Beutelskloof greeted me: “Oupa! Middag Oupa!”
Hmmm… Cheeky whippersnapper!
Cheers for now,
Digs