Monday 5 June 2023
I had an impressive over-achievey day yesterday, which also doubled as a satisfying-exercise day. It was a Mitch day so I had decided to do chores for the duration of his working day; someone else being busy and working around the house/garden is an incredibly good motivator for me to get on with things. I finished my comprehensive, varied list soon after Mitch had finished and left and I rewarded myself with a nap in the sun on my beanbag.
The most noticeable work on the house and garden yesterday included the changing of the water filter (it started out white but the photo shows the colour of all the sediment coming into the house – clear as, well, water when it’s been filtered through that and the UV light though).
The photo below was the pig/dog shed. Mitch had already removed all the outer panels, keeping just the basic frame and wire, then fixed the roof and put panels on the side. Inside, the ground was full of shed-type rubbish, tens of old nails, bits of metal, plastic, all kinds of stuff. I forgot to take a “before” photo but it was a lot of work clearing stuff from the floor and I’ve now put things back in an order of sorts.
The previous owners had made a willow arbour. To me, that is unnecessary work, maintaining it, but now that Mitch has trimmed and tied it, I actually quite like it, though I foresee it growing wild again within a few weeks, by which time I will probably get annoyed with it again.
One of my jobs incorporated taking lunch up to the edge of the forest. I had contacted the land manager again about cutting down the trees around our spring and on Friday they had cut the trees around it down, including willows, which would have been drinking up gallons of our limited spring water supply. Mitch had suggested hammering copper nails into the willow stumps to fully kill them off. There are now copper nails in all the willow stumps. I am also convinced that, since the removal of the water-draining trees on Friday, there is now more water around that area.
Which leads me nicely onto the big issue of the past month, the drought and our water. Until yesterday and since Wednesday, our tank was seemingly miraculously filling with water and things seemed fine indoors. Yesterday, Mitch confirmed something I’d been slightly concerned about, that there is air coming through with the water. Our neighbour had spoken to the previous owner of our house about the water supply and he’d said that every now and then, when there were water flow issues, they’d turned the water supply off at the tank, so no water going into the tank from the spring. For three days. Last night, I turned off the water supply with the plan to turn it on again on Wednesday evening. Yesterday morning, the tank was at about 65cm. Since then we have used the washing machine, dishwasher, two showers and a few toilet flushes along with washing dishes/hands/teeth. I haven’t yet gone up the hill to measure the depth in the tank. Last time the tank emptied, we had no water in the house because of air locks in the house. I am thinking of turning the spring supply back on to the tank once the tank level is below our outlet pipe to try to avoid airlocks indoors. I am, to put it mildly, apprehensive about measuring the water today. I don’t think there’s enough in the tank to last until Wednesday. Chris, meanwhile, got back last night from three days in London, where he’s had full access to water.
Another issue in Scotland at the moment is midges. They are most definitely here and multiplying. I have more midge bites than I could begin to count. I cannot comprehend how something so tiny can cause such an irritating bite. They are mainly out and about at dawn and dusk (I can vouch for dusk in particular as I made the mistake of having an outdoor shower last night at dusk. I put down my bar of white soap and it was covered with midges by the time I’d finished using it and had put it down; ugh) and they like mild, wet weather, which probably includes my outdoor shower. They do not like hot and dry weather or any wind above a breeze and apparently can’t really keep up with humans when we are walking. Chris can vouch for their enthusiastic quest for human contact early in the morning. This morning before 8am, he hung out some washing, standing in the grey, breezeless, slightly damp air, and was bitten all over his forearms in particular. Considering how little empathy I felt from him when I came back from my outdoor shower last night, announcing bites in all kinds of annoying places (eyelid, middle of abdomen, back of head), he is now pretty much as keen as me on tackling midge issues (I have a delivery today of midge-related weaponry). In fact, I have just looked out the window and seen a backpacker taking a break. He’s wearing a hat and has been flailing wildly around his face. I assume midges. We knew we’d have them and we know they’re horrid, but they really are a menace. I am now refusing to go outdoors until the sun comes out.