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| Nuthatch |
I spent some time in the hide yesterday trying out my new microphone and earphones, listening to the woodland activity and was amazed at how much the thing captures - and from such a distance too. The only issue I had was that I had forgotten to take the furry windsock to put over the foam, and so there was a low level buzz in the background which was a bit annoying. Will try again next week. Also only realised after taking this picture of a Nuthatch that the winds had brought down yet more debris scattering the floor and ruining my shot. Must remember to scan my backgrounds and not get lazy - hot spots like this pale arch-shaped stick just don't leap out at me when I am looking through the viewfinder at this gorgeous bird - but it's massively irritating me now. Grrrrrr.
Not a lot of sleep and a crick neck started my Sunday a bit worse for wear. Still, it made a change from working through a hangover.
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| pegged-out clay oven base & new fire pit |
A mid morning start saw sunshine and clouds and a fairly chilly 5 degrees which wasn't for standing around in too long. Thankfully as the day wore on it did warm up at bit and the amount we got done was certainly testament to the lack of idle time.
Tracey and I started on levelling off the base for the clay oven, removing the reeds and foliage currently growing in the way, whilst the boys set to work fitting my new luxurious seat in the Immac hide - I say new.... it's the old passenger seat from "Bee", our well travelled, 1972 VW campervan which is currently undergoing another overhaul. The new seats going into the bus will hopefully allow me to reach the pedals and finally drive her, but instead of getting rid of the old seat that has travelled 11,000 miles round Europe with me sat atop, we decided it would make the perfect, if not the comfiest, hide seat ever. It is being fitted in full working condition too, so I will have tilt action in the backrest as well as the ability to slide forward and back on the runners when needed. Can't wait. No more numb bum, backache or wobbly-log-perching for me.
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| Extending the bank bench seating in-line with the new campfire |
The plan for the day was to get the piles of rhodie brash passed through the chipper and spread as mulch along the paths. So the very heavy "Beast" was dragged over toad bridge ready to get chipping and the idea was to have the rest of us chopping the brash into manageable lengths ready for Flee, who would feed it in, thus making the most of the fuel and not having long periods of machine idle time. The first barrow load came through no problem, then it was almost as if the Beast had remembered last week and simply said... uh oh... not doing that again and just stopped and refused to start again. We had to remind ourselves that the thing had stood idle for 5 years and last weeks first run had been so easy - we should have known it was a little too good to be true. So the big yellow rhodie-muncher had to be dragged back across the bridge, all the way back up to the Landy and will be taken back home for some much needed TLC. With any luck she will be purring and chipping again before too long.
Meanwhile, back at camp, Ant was focused on moving the camp-fire. He dug a new fire pit, used the turf to fill in the old one, and removed the hazardous tree stumps from the walkway. Tracey and I later added a long log bench to minimise the trip hazard en route to the wood pile - all we need now is another weekend to christen it.
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| Chloe-Anne and Fynn |
After lunch of steaming bowls of chilli-come-spag-bog and bread rolls, we set about working on some odd jobs that needed doing round camp... clearing away the A frame beds, finishing off the steps up to Fox ridge and making a start on extending the bank bench seating now that the fire had moved. Flee installed two new shelves inside Immac... one for my camera and another for my wine and I reset the trailcam over by Trap Number 2.
My brother and 7 year old niece spent the day camped out over the Eastern side in their favourite spot, getting a cooking fire going and exploring the streams and waterfalls over that side. Chloe made friends with Fynn almost instantly and they spent the day following each other around and occasionally passing by the Yardarm on circuits of the wood or to show us that her second front tooth had finally come out!
So much done, so much to do, but feeling really quite pleased with the progress so far. Slightly nervous about making the clay oven, but chuffed we have at least started and have a plan starting to come together. Slowly and thoughtfully is the way forward.... we only want to build it once!
