The end of a great run

If we are to believe the forecasters (and the clouds starting to appear in the sky), today has marked the end of a long run of gorgeous weather. All week (and weekend) long, we've been working hard with the help of Noah, our 'HelpXer' - and what a difference an extra pair of hands has made! We can barely believe he's only 19 - his experience on a couple of family farms has stood him in good stead at the start of his Help X experience, and with only a brief explanation as to what's required, he's been able to complete a number of different tasks extremely competently. Today, after a morning's strimming (or weed-whacking, as they call it in the States), Noah and I were planning to turn our attention to wood cutting and splitting.

Helen, on the other hand, had her favourite petrol-fuelled tool (the hedge trimmers) back in her hands and was set to make further inroads into the brambles on the 'hidden' terraces (a little way up the drive) in the hope that we would be able to open up an area that would be large enough, but sufficiently well hidden by tree cover to conceal a temporary goose enclosure. I could hear that she had been very industrious all morning (after having baked chocolate and ginger biscuits and made a start on preparing a rice salad for lunch, that is), and she headed back for more after lunch.

After lunch, I took Noah into the goose enclosure to help shepherd them onto a different terrace. They refuse point blank to use the ramps that I put in to aid their moving between the terraces, and as such they have largely stuck to the same terrace - and pecked it bare. We've noticed that there has been a sudden increase in the amount of feed they have been taking from the feed dispenser during the day, and we think it's because there is simply nothing left to eat on the terrace that they insist on staying on. Noah and I managed eventually to herd them down to the terrace below their house - although they wouldn't use the ramp to make their transition any easier. The minute they landed on the 'new' terrace, they started eating the grass like it was going out of fashion. Result! (Later on in the afternoon, though, we noticed they had flapped their way back up to their preferred - bare - terrace. Stupid birds!)

Thinking about using the ramp.

Nope, second thoughts.

Florence can't understand why they are so stupid.

Shepherding done, I took Noah to the other end of the drive to collect a large piece of tree trunk I'd spotted while collecting wood with Mike a couple of weeks ago. The trunk - which I had earmarked as a chopping block for wood splitting - was down on the lower donkey track that heads downwards from the end of the driveway nearest the road.

We took the wheelbarrow with us and left it on the drive, before venturing down the somewhat overgrown track to the pile of wood that included what was going to be our first ever chopping block.

It took both of us to carry it, and we had to make two stops along the way back up the track to catch our breath and adjust our grip on the huge chunk of wood until finally we got it to the top and dropped it into the barrow for the downhill trip back to the house.

Having had some prior experience, Noah started on the wood splitting while I tentatively made a start with the new (and so far unused) chainsaw, using it to cut the larger logs in the pile into smaller pieces ready for splitting.

He's done this before!

Saw horse ready. Chain saw ready.

It works (if only temporarily).

After having cut a couple of logs, I noticed that the chain on the saw wasn't oiling itself - so that put a premature end to that activity, and I will have to get in touch with Antonio tomorrow to find out why. It was thus a frustrating start, but we know we have the back-up and a warranty, so there's no need to worry - I just hope it's a quick fix so that I can get back to cutting this week.

Noah and I then took it in turns splitting wood - why has nobody ever told me how much fun this is?!! It's a very satisfying and addictive activity, and I was disappointed when the pile for splitting ran out - I could have happily gone on until the light faded. 

Firewood!

At 3.30pm, I stood Noah down for the day with a cold beer and got the chop saw out to cut up some of the smaller bits of wood until Helen appeared at about 4.15pm, having run out of fuel and having decided that that marked a good point to down tools for the day. I cleared my tools up and we went to have a look at the clearing she'd made.

Helen has definitely found her stride in this activity - I was amazed at how much she had cleared today. I only knew she was here all day by the sound of the hedge trimmers whirring away - she had smashed her way through piles of bramble and had cleared a sizeable area that will make a great spot for the geese and it's so high up and at such an angle that we think a new house up here wouldn't be visible from the drive - so after today, it seems we have a rough plan and a definite new site for the geese, which is great news!

'Goose Island 2.0'?

Feeling buoyed and a little weary from the day's work, we took a trip to the bins, driving across our new and soon-to-be-used drainage channels (rain is due tomorrow afternoon and set to continue for the rest of the week) for the first time. When we returned, we put the geese to bed, sent a couple of email enquiries about puppies and got the cats in before starting dinner, cleaning out the fire and lighting a new one with some of the fruits of today's labours.

So, as the weekend draws to a close and we take stock of the progress we've made over the course of just one week, it's easy to imagine how we could become addicted to this HelpXer arrangement! While it naturally took a little while for us all to get comfortable around each other, Noah has been an absolute pleasure to have around and we're sure we have been very lucky with our first HelpX experience. We still have Noah here until Friday, but his 'weekend' starts tomorrow, so we'll only have a couple of working days with him before he leaves. After that, it'll be a quick turnaround of the apartment for some guests for a couple of nights, and then another turnaround for our second foray into HelpX-ing - this time with a New Zealand couple who are coming for a fortnight. Looking at how much we've achieved with just one extra pair of hands in a week, we can barely imagine how much progress we might make with two extra pairs of hands!