Hello Everyone!
The dastardly throttled internet connection, Costume failure, Adding vegetation to the hugel mound, Worms everywhere & Preserving the slope!
Alright, it is not all that long before dawn and I am running about an hour behind schedule with my writing routine due to letting myself sleep in... and then being in slow motion ever since I woke up. Part of me, kind of wants to skip writing today altogether... because I am out of hotspot data again and doing all the posting over my throttled internet connection is nothing short of infuriating.
Not that I really get that 'mad' over it all or anything... but trying to do anything online with that sort of throttled connection often results in either flat out failure... or having to repeatedly try until things eventually work... or I give up on trying. I know that folks whom have never had to get by on some dodgy cheap phone that barely gets signal to start with (even un-throttled) have no clue what kind of challenges are involved there... so let me say it in as few words as possible: It fucking sucks!
On a related note, I am still no closer to getting real internet service here... because aside from it being a financial hurdle (and me not being able to take on another monthly bill) I also need to get the electrical done on the new building. I am unsure if I mentioned it before... but I need to get an electrician to visit so that they can add a new breaker to the existing panel at the power pole... and then run a new wire (probably underground) to either a sub-panel... or to the single outlet that is already wired up inside the building.
Sure I could easily add a male extension cord plug to the end of the 'pigtail' coming out of the building... and then connect that to my existing system via an extension cord... but that just will not cut it in this scenario. I have a few reasons for that, which basically amount to wanting to 'do things right', not run afoul of the electrical/fire code enforcement... and since the building is so close to the road... not have one of my bad neighbors see it and call the county (or whoever) on me... just because they can.
Anyways, yesterday was really hit or miss for me with being productive... because I kept overheating every time that I started working on stuff... which of course meant that I had to keep stopping and trying to cool down. A big part of that happening, was due to my clothing because I have to tuck my pants into my boots (due to the mucky areas I am working in and how my boots are already covered in clay that would get all over the inside of my pant legs) and because all the 'clean' shirts that I had available were made from non-breathable synthetic fibers.
That has actually been an ongoing problem for weeks and months now, and although I had previously been making the best of it all... I hit an absolute wall with it yesterday given how frigging hot it was all making me. Having just recently shuffled a bunch of stuff around from the storage tent... and into the building... I could finally get to some of my other clothes... and amazingly I was able to find one pair of shorts and a few cotton shirts.
Once I made a 'costume change' and was not burning up due to my clothes, I was able to dive into working on stuff with real gusto. The main thing that I wound up working on was that hugel mound terrace... and although I did not follow the exact formula that I had intended to follow (with the mound's layers) I did wind up getting a bunch of vegetation planted in it.
At first I was going to dig up lots of 'plugs' of soil and vegetation from around the property... but I quickly decided that I should start with using the potted plants that I have (along with the soil in the pots) and then fill in the empty areas with the plugs. I am really glad that I caught that when I did, because the potted plaints wound up filling in almost the entire terrace.
Surprisingly, I noticed a heck of a lot of worms when I was emptying the flower pots out... and was further surprised by spotting what I think was a bloodworm. I am unsure just how well all the soil (that does not have stuff growing in it) will hold together on/in the terrace during a heavy rain... but I did my best to block the areas it could get washed away at with a combination of clay and sticks.
When I was done with all that part of things, I added a long pole to the base of the slope (below the hugel mound terrace) like I mentioned wanting to do in a previous entry. Although, I did not take too much time to turn said pole into a new terrace... I did marriage it as close as I could to the ground... and did my best to fill in the voids with small sticks, clumps of clay and lots of sandy silt... so that it would all make for an effective 'catch' for any soil being washed downhill from the slope above it.
Overall, I am unsure how the lower part of that slope is going to turn out in the long run... because I keep shuffling around a ridiculous amount of ideas in regards to what to actually do with it. Eventually, I simply need to settle on what the heck I am going to do there... because it definitely needs something to act as a retaining wall at the base of the slope.
The main thing that I am considering for that is using a bunch of either oak or sweet gum logs to make a retaining wall... that would most likely (if I am lucky) produce oyster mushrooms. My other idea is to figure out how to either build an 'underground' house or root cellar there... but I am hesitant to commit to that idea because it would use up all (or too much) of the flat space that I have available there.
Well, I have already meandered on here longer than I should have... and the sun is well up over the horizon so I best wrap this up so that I can get outdoors. It is going to suck trying to get this all posted over the fucking throttled internet connection... and I might delay doing it altogether if it looks like it is going to waste my entire morning.
On that note, I hope that folks are doing well. Ta ta for now.