Surprise At Ground Zero

Our luck with the weather has yet again held out for us with another cracking week being enjoyed and allowing us to progress even further with clearing the old pond site in an attempt to reach ground zero.

Although we were all up very early, by the time we'd enjoyed croissants and coffee (there seems to be a routine developing here i think - not that were complaining) we'd allowed sufficient time for the rest of the neighbourhood to get up and about before we started clanking around with spades and wheel barrows. After a deep breath, the first of umpteen shovel fulls of gravel made its way to the wheel barrow which duly made its way to either AREA 51 if containing a substantial amount of soil or a separate pile if more or less pure gravel. We did try counting the number of barrow fulls we moved, but we'd soon lost count and so carried on taking deep breaths, filling and moving until we'd shifted the majority of gravel from the area. Based on the amount of gravel we had delivered in the first place, we estimated we moved somewhere in the region of 4-5 tonnes during the day. We also managed to remove the 3 inch posts from the area, well apart from one which succumbed to my stomach and broke off at the base.

We'd finally reached Ground Zero!

Following a few measurements .... then a few more .... followed by some re-measuring .... then some more ..... we finally marked out the site in paint ready to commence digging next weekend.

Ground Zero

Looking back, the past few weeks have been a blur and even we're surprised at just how much we've achieved. It's been very, very hard work and many a time we've simply had to grit our teeth, bite down and get on with it. It's been a hive of activity and extremely hectic at times, so imagine our surprise when we discovered this :-

She's nesting in the Korean Fir which is currently situated near Ground Zero and right by the dog pen, not to mention the radio blasting out Planet Rock!

We hope that everything works out for her and of course we'll be keeping a close eye on things in the coming days/weeks whilst also keeping our fingers crossed that our fortune with the weather continues for a few weeks more. The mini digger and skip arrive this coming weekend so who knows what news we'll be bringing in our next blog entry.