I'm still alive...

Wow, I haven't written anything on here for ten days. Huh.

I guess last week I didn't have much to write about, cause we got a postmature dump of snow that took about four days to melt off again. Fortunately I was working in a greenhouse during that time. It was almost nice to be too hot again.

So, I have a few all-new pictures of dirt today! woot... :T  If you want something more inspiring I advise you to look for another blog - one, dirt is all you're likely to get here for a while, and two, I'm apparently too busy shifting the dirt to tell you much about it anyway.

That being said, this is what the hole looked like yesterday morning.

I found the pallet extremely useful once I got down far enough to hit clay (12 inches or less). The stuff probably weighs about 80-90 pounds per square foot, and it sticks to everything - your shoes, the shovel, your face, etc. The pallet has been great for keeping my shoes light enough to walk in. Unfortunately it can't do much for the shovel. Easily the most frustrating thing about digging in clay is when you go to toss your 30-pound chunk up onto the dirt pile and it decides not to let go.

People who think bears are dangerous
don't know how to throw an axe like this

Below is a picture I took while snowballing for deer. It's loads of fun - almost as fun as snowballing for partridge. This picture was taken about 3 minutes before the deer realized I was behind the chicken house. They stood there staring through me for ages - I think they could smell me but couldn't see me. I guess deer must be one of those animals who only see movement. Finally one of them raised the white flag and they all took off. I missed with my snowball anyway - they run a whole lot faster than they seem to.

The partridge, on the other hand, is a dolt. He's been sitting on the very same log for two weeks doing his mating call, and it hasn't occurred to him yet that there may not, in fact, be any females in the area. I got bored a few days ago and headed over with a couple of snowballs. I missed with both of them, but he didn't fly away, just stood there looking around in alarm, trying to figure out what was going on. I found the nearest patch of snow and made some more, and when I was done he'd given up and was staring off in the opposite direction. I knocked him off the log with the next one.
He was back a few hours later and he's been there ever since. Oh well - at least I won't get lonely.

This is what the hobbit house looks like now, from the northwest corner. This is (I hope) the full frame of what I need to dig. At this point I've probably put in about 20 hours of work total, and I'm somewhere between a quarter and halfway through the digging. I got figuring at lunch today and found that due to the way I'll have to build them (vapour barrier, gravel, retaining wall, more vapour barrier, straw) my walls are going to be about 2 1/2 feet thick. Accordingly, the hole now measures about 16' or 17' in diameter.

At a rough estimate, I think I'm going to need about 150 straw bales, a yard and a half of gravel, and an ugly amount of stone. I've dug up a grand total of two fist-sized rocks so far, so I think I'm going to have to find a truck or a trailer and go raid some of the blasting zones along the highway. I know I've got it pretty sweet here, but living in northwestern ontario and having no rock in your backyard is a bit ridiculous.

This... Is... Canada!!!

                              Note the hobbit feet, Mike. :P

Digging started! :D

Today was indeed productive! Well... that's the way I feel, anyway. It doesn't look that great yet - kind of like a bunch of groundhogs were looking for Blackbeard's treasure all day.

On that note, I've decided that a plain old hobbit may not be quite the vocation for me. With an eyepatch and a parrot... the possibilities are endless.

So I'm hoping for nice warm sunshine tomorrow... it's kind of like that 'Dear Liza' song. I have to shift the dirt out of the hole, but I need somewhere to put it. So I went and found a tarp, but it had dirt on it. Then I had to find a place to put the dirt, so I put in the wheelbarrow. Well, half of it - the rest is still frozen to the ground. Then I had to find Benita because it's her dirt and who knows what she wants to do with it. She didn't want it anymore - apparently four months is long enough to spend on a garden. :) So the hobbit-garden-to-be almost got a donation, but mum decided she wants it, and as the hobbit-garden-to-be is currently inaccessible by wheelbarrow, it's mum that will get it. :(
...but she can't use it until a certain somebody builds her raised beds, so...
Maybe I'd better find a new tarp.

My other productive venture today was a new glove:

The One Glove... to Rule Them All!!!

The One Glove became of paramount importance after I spent the morning using a pick with just The Other Glove.
Fortunately the blister didn't last long.

Watch out for crocs!

This beautiful little creek is over the hill and not very far away from the construction site. My four little cousins spent a good while collecting ice chunks from the creek here. After three days, nature has worked wonders - it's barely recognizable as the same place.
*Disclaimer: Special attention applied diligently by the neighbour's skidoo may or may not have contributed to said alterations.

Also three days ago, my four little cousins made their first (I think) venture into the exciting world of axemanship. They were only slightly disgruntled at not being allowed anywhere near the axe.

Well, I do need to get caught up on this, but seeing as the temperature just rose 10 degrees in the last hour and it's supposed to hit 20C today, I'll be (hopefully) putting myself even more behind today. Haven't done anything very ground-shattering just yet, but I did get two roof rafters chopped down with the help of some very strong young chaps who would pass for hobbits a lot more easily than me. Anyway, maybe I'll get that up this evening. Or maybe not.

So I acquired a new weapon of mass destruction today:

I know, the feet are too small for a real hobbit :(

The picture makes it look really small. It's not. It has a good swing to it too, which should be fairly evident from the picture below.

The weather was amazing today, 10C and sunny. It's supposed to be about the same all week, and if it keeps up I think the bulk of the snow will be gone within two weeks.
I also decided where most of the paths will be and did a little more ravaging pruning, but I'm going to leave the rest until the snow melts and I can see where the water is going to be - I'd rather not wake up one morning and find out that half of my new path is under a foot of water.

I also made the exciting discovery of why I don't like democracy, and figured out what I would like... all in about two minutes. Not bad when I've pondered it occasionally for about three years. Anyway, it's probably better I don't talk about that here, though, as it got mum in enough of a flap and she's fairly docile. :) I shall save my revolutionary ideas for the next time I'm invited to make a speech at a national parliamentary whatever-it-is-they-do.

Well, I've got a site picked out, I think. Purely for Wendy's benefit, it's along the path back by the goat house, the one that goes down and then up the hill again, which I think was used for sledding. (Going by how close those trees are on either side of it, I think kids had a lot more guts thirty years ago than they do now.) It's about halfway up the slope on the other side, right on the left of the trail. Here's what the spot looks like:

Some specs:

exposure: southeast

sunlight: full morning sun, dappled afternoon shade thanks to two big poplars

stuff I need to clear out: mostly hazel brush, which is the recommended material for anchoring straw bale walls anyway, one young poplar, which I can use somewhere, and a couple of small dogwood clumps.Oh, and a big old hunk of log that's still standing. If it isn't as rotten as it looks I may be able to use it for a bench or something.

proximity to house: creeping distance

proximity to neighbours: screaming distance

proximity to anti-hobbit-house things: 30 feet up from the (mostly) dry stream bed, so no danger of mushy floors from that. I may temporarily forget my eco-friendly attitude if it starts breeding mosquitoes, though. Safe distance from spruce trees as well, so the roots shouldn't be too invasive.

proximity to pro-hobbit-house things: lots of poplars for building in the area, and other useful plants I've already found within about ten steps - dogwood, birch, and spruce. Lots more to come when the snow goes, I'm sure.

Not very far from Grandpa's old garden behind the garage, either - maybe 100m, tops? This is what it looks like at the moment:

Anybody know if clay is any good for making retaining walls? Or if straw is still good to use for insulation if it's sat outside all winter and is currently damp? I'll see Uncle Allan again on Friday - he's going to be a gold mine of help and advice - but brownie points if you can answer before then. Oh, and lime mortar, I need to ask about that too - ie where to buy, how expensive, how dangerous to use, how long to set, etc.

I've also made a few purchases (already). I bought a mattock yesterday (three cheers for you if you know what that is without looking it up - Uncle Allan is the only one I've found so far) but ended up taking it back after I found an old pick buried in the garage. Instead, I bought a small sheath knife, which I'm very pleased about - swiss made, fits on my belt perfectly, 12 bucks. :) Apparently the forestry students come to buy them all the time ever since they discovered they can hammer them into tree trunks and stand on them. Kind of tells you something about their work ethic. Time management and TLC must not be biggies in forestry.

Apart from that, I've started my anti-chemical-product campaign by making my own deodorant and toothpaste today (If you're curious, the deodorant recipe can be found here - essentially coconut oil, baking soda, and corn starch. The lady's website looks like it's worth exploring too). Benita gave me that look that says 'I can't believe we're related' when I told her the deodorant tasted awful. The toothpaste was worse, but I didn't think she'd appreciate hearing about it. She's kind of close-minded that way. I wonder what she'll do when she finds the deodorant in the fridge.

I'm hooome...

No moose, just a few deer, a really fat black squirrel, and something tiny that ran  in front of me and then freaked out completely. I have no idea what happened to it.

I shall miss my charming cousins...

Anwyn...

...and Leora...

...and their very hospitable cats, Merry and Pippin.

*Disclaimer*

In the case that any involved third (or second) party is concerned about possible plagiarism on this blog, it might be good to explain the noble history of the title 'doogy the grape'. It began with a renowned military strategist who was called Alexander the Great. This was adopted and altered, in more recent times, by a handsome young man, to 'Douglas the Great', which he used to sign emails. However, after a time, said young man became worried that the title of 'Douglas the Great' conveyed a good deal of hubris, and thereupon changed it to 'Douglas the Grape', as he believed this had a fine sound to it and, moreover, he was quite fond of grapes. From there, it was but a small switch to the less formal 'doogy'. This particular title was chosen from the young man's list as it seemed somewhat fitting to as nobly rustic an endeavor as hobbitism.
Contrary to possible belief, the similarity of this title to 'Captain Orange' is entirely coincidental.

:D

Last Day!

I have approximately 25 hours and 15 minutes left in Saskatoon...! Then a loooong drive. With good luck I'll be home monday night. With bad luck I'll be under a dead moose in a ditch monday night.