Field 1 Finished !
Jonathan & Denise >
Except for ‘tidying up’ (of which, admittedly, there’s a lot to do), the major improvement works in Home Park (aka Field 1) are now complete. Field 1 Finished at last!
We had expected the work to be carried out last autumn, but what with one thing, then another, and then something else (or was that one a somebody ? !) it wasn’t until March that things finally got under way … and then puttered along in fits and starts …
And now … well, okay, in a little while, when we’ve finished all that ‘tidying up’ … the job is almost finished.
Would you like to come along with us and take a tour ?
We start at the lovely new gates to Home Park (ah yes, those posts : we’re going to cut them down level with the top of the gates, and put wee lead caps on them), and then we’ll go from one vantage point to another, taking in at each a ‘clockwise’ panorama.
So, do come along !
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Have slowly through the years come to better appreciate civil engineers– hot and thankless work to plot, then scope out the varied grades involved in a road of any kind. And engineering combined with implementation, double everything. Looks like a nicely compacted and smoothed surface, good for wheelbarrows, walkers, bicycles, and even opinionated geese. Congratulations on another project checked off the list!
J > Thank you! It could have been better executed, but in these islands have limited options… And I have to hold myself back : it’s only an agricultural track – don’t over-engineer it!! And don’t expect too much from small island contractors with high fixed costs, limited access to machinery, and not experienced in the technology ,let alone the science
My goodness but you live in a stunning spot! And all that work makes me feel very lazy…
Looks good! Looking forward to seeing more!
The geese seem to approve of the improvements! It all looks brilliant and presumably will make life easier now everything is finished?
J > Already vastly easier. No more struggling up and down the field with heavy loads eithr on my shoulder or in a wheelbarrow. It was the unevenness and tussocks as much as the steep slope itself.
I don’t know, really, what I’m looking at but it all looks marvelous–so Scotland! What’s going on the concrete slab?
J > That’s civil engineering for you! we wrestle with and command the forces nature for the benefit of all mankind – and then bury the fruits of our labours under the earth. The only openly apparent manifestations of this work of unsung heroism is a new gate, a stretch of rough track – leading to a hole in the ground with concrete slab without apparent purpose, and a patchwork of disturbed ground. And the question on everyone’s lips : Is that it? But perhaps better that than to move on to the construction of a building on the slab : No matter the archictural merit (or lack of it) of the building – the architect always steals the limelight, and the works of civil engineering (that may well have cost more than the building) are quite forgotten, though if commented on favourably at all, are attributed to the architect. Grrr! I almost feel that we should never build anything on that slab, as a point of principle! However, our plans are – or at least were, when we started this project – to construct a shed (albeit an interesting, attractive shed) for over-wintering livestock, and specifically sheep. Even as we were still in-filling the ground on which the slab is laid, it was apparent that the combination of privacy, commanding views and closeness to the water justified building something of far greater value. (We can accommodate the sheep in another building, which is likely to become redundant in the next couple of years.) There’s talk now of building a slipway, and making the building two-storey (it would still be largely hidden from view) with living accommodation above, and the undercroft for … Well, we’d call it The Boat House.
Ah ha! I thought ‘slipway’ as I looked at that slab and it’s nearness to the water’s edge. ‘The Boathouse’…. what a setting!
Oh, poor unloved, under-appreciated civil engineers! I used to date a civil engineer and he would go on those rants, too! Thanks for the info about your plans–it sounds exciting!
J > … ‘used to’ …
😀