The perfect pre-summer work camp!

It couldn’t have been more perfect, not in any sense!

Some years now Trouble & Trouble and I have had work camps here at my place at the end of the road. A couple of days during pre-summer and another set of days more towards fall. I make a list of small and big things we need to attend to. I write with a green pen and pimp the paper with colourful flowers. This will be fun!

Attitude is everything! Because a lot of times it isn’t all that fun. It can be cold and so rainy most of the things on that list are impossible to even get to. And often times the point with highest priority are anything but fun. Two years ago, for example, we spent the pre-summer days clearing out the coach house/wood shed from four generations collection of everything. It was 27°C (80°F), so the opposite to cold and rain, and my brave and totally exhausted sons filled a full size truck to the rim for later unloading at the recycling center. Gosh. I still feel bad thinking about it.

That cleaning out was the start of Project Saving the Coach House/Wood Shed. The coming fall The Men With their Big Machines from my village lifted the building which had sunk down about a foot into the moist grassy soil at the front. It should have been done 25 years ago, but that’s how it goes.

It’s been a slow project including taking out the rotten parts of the wood at the bottom front of the building replacing with fresh new. And digging out a foot af soil and grass from the ground at the front, replacing it with gravel not allowing the moist to get to the wood. The last piece in the puzzle happened these last few days. Digging away a jungle of bushes at the beautiful stone foundation of the long gone barn, facing the wood shed, replacing the area with topsoil for becoming a piece of lawn. And in-between the gravel and the lawn-to-be, a sturdy 6x6 inch square wood in the ground separating the two areas.

For our work camp, my list is essential. And it’s important ta have the mix of big and smaller tasks to attend to. The smaller ones you can go through fairly quickly and cross them out from the list. Check, check! To gain energy for the bigger assignments.

This weekend the really big one was the finishing up of the coach house/wood shed project. Trouble 1 has spent hours raking the gravel into an even area to walk on. Trouble 2 painted the fresh new wood at the bottom of the front. And together they transferred the two piles of topsoil into an even ground ready for receiving grass seeds. Including trampling the soil to make it more firm. The latter looked really funny, two penguins who I bet will have really soar buttocks tomorrow!

Finally, Trouble 2 painted the 6x6 inch square wood in the ground separating the light grey gravel from the the lawn-to-be black. It looks stunning!

We have had such a flow this weekend, and in addition the weather  couldn’t have been more cooperative.  After a really chilly week the sun was out again, a perfect work temperatur of 18°C (65°F) and a refreshing light wind. On top of that, no insects, not even mosquitos in the shade! And already at our first set of summer work days, most of the points on the 2018 summer list are crossed out!

In the evening the wind has calmed down. Birds are singing their busy  songs and I think I have a swallows nest under my roof. The north sun is dazzling me through my window. Tonight it will go to bed behind my forest at 9.45 PM. It will set at 10.56 PM. To rise 2.21 AM again.