The move to Tuscany : Project planning and preparation

Benjamin Franklin famously said "if you fail to plan, you are planning on failing", and with that in mind (and as spring pushes ever forward), we have done a fair bit of planning and preparing in recent weeks.

Most significantly we have begun to move forward in the planning and preparation stages for the mammoth project of shoring up the banks of the terraces beneath the house. In our last post we mentioned that we had decided on a reinforcement strategy using chestnut posts and logs, and since then we have: bought (in conjunction with our friends Paul & Kathy) a petrol-powered auger to help with making post holes, ordered 100 large chestnut posts, felled several trees and cut them into logs of 1m lengths, stripped the bark from those logs, and taken delivery of 10 large (1000 litre) containers which will eventually become raised beds for growing vegetables (not part of the terrace reinforcing project, but the ultimate aim is to put these on the newly secured terraces). Stuart has also nearly finished building a beautiful set of steps that will make access to the lower terraces during the project infinitely easier and safer.

The auger is Reggie-approved.

A nice clean post hole.

... and a post held firmly in place.

10 tanks for future use.

We are now just a few more trees' worth of logs (and the delivery of the chestnut posts) away from having everything we need to embark on the project. It's a big project, but it feels good to have a plan coming together and the preparations in place. We intend to do it in stages - hopefully finishing one terrace this spring and moving on to the next one in the autumn.

A beautiful set of steps - and Reggie approves.

We have also taken advantage of the spring weather to plant some more fruit/nut trees, putting in three more almond trees, two walnut trees, a hazelnut, another persimmon and two blueberry bushes as well as a beautiful decorative (not for fruiting purposes) mimosa.

Almond tree planting.

Reggie's contribution to the tree-planting.

Mimosa

A mini orchard is taking shape.

The spring-like weather has even afforded us our first opportunities to eat lunch al fresco and to enjoy a glass of wine in the late afternoon sun. Having said that, as I write this the rain is hammering on the skylight and the wind howling in the flue, so you can rest assured that we are still having our fair share of inclement weather!

First outdoor "cheers" of the year!

From one side of the valley...

... to the other. The view from our friends Mara and Franco's house on the hillside opposite us.

The other form of planning/preparation we have been doing is building up some of the most basic stocks in our store cupboard. One could hardly fail to notice that Italy has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus and we have been keeping tabs on the situation. While the worst affected areas are much further north of us (Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romana), there has been a confirmed case in our local town - news of which threw the local population into panic and the supermarket shelves were quickly stripped bare. The patient here in Pescia (who had been on a business trip to Lombardy and who quickly isolated himself once he felt ill) is reported to have recovered already, and none of people he came into contact with (who were quarantined as a precaution) have shown any signs of becoming ill, so it seems as if here at least the case has been well contained and dealt with effectively and efficiently.

For now, we are mainly only concerned about the possibility of the area ending up on lockdown (as has happened in other communities in Italy) should there be more cases reported locally and thus potentially having short supply of the essentials, but we have stocked up on store-cupboard items, and (most importantly!) wine, so we are not greatly concerned. Of course, like the rest of the world, we follow the news reports and we hope that the situation sorts itself out quickly.