So last week saw the arrival of the 'DIGGERS' as Maisy calls them. First stage in our renovation project is Demolition...so here goes:
First out was the old lavoirs - in less than 5 minutes the twin tubs which have long since been abandoned were uprooted. Next was the poorly fig tree…blown over in a gale last year and far too close to the house this was easily extracted. You may recall we cleared most of the overgrown trees a year ago well I saved the fig tree but this time alas it had to go…mind you the root is enormous and still in the ground so if I am lucky it may well grow back again but I will be careful to train it away from the house.
Next job was to clear all the tree stumps left when we cut back the garden last year and to try to level it off a bit.
In case this doesn’t look like we have done much, here’s what it looked like a year ago:
Shocking to some people...but the reason for cutting everything back is clear...we are installing a puits canadien (as recommended by fellow SFNer Andrew Hearne (Thanks AH) so we have to get all the roots out and clear the site. Oh and we've got to dig a great big hole to sink this bad boy!
No it’s not a fosse septique it’s a wine cuve and we will be using it as a rainwater recuperator to supply water and grow our own little veg patch. It’s 15000l, so that’s a fair bit of rainwater…essential though as even though most of you have had your fair share of flooding we’ve been lucky and not had much rain again.
So having cleared the site last week now the DIGGERS (pelles) have moved indoors...