OMFGWHATISTHIS?

Yuckyyuckygetitoffme

I was minding my own business brushing my teeth when I turned my head and saw this thing at eye level (minding his own business I am sure)
With shivers up and down my spine I got rid of it quickly but I need to come to terms with having gigantic radioactive insects sharing the first floor with us. Just the other day I had to kill 2 huge hairy spiders crawling in the kitchen (not the floor, not the walls but on the ceiling) Imagine if they had fallen in our cooking or even worse on us!!!!!!!!! Ewwww! Really they were the size of tarantulas and I could swear one of them started fighting back.

Tree is a crowd

The big tree, before I started

So my chainsaw with extension arrived the other day, and I booked my Sunday morning to cut down the evergreen tree which was in the middle of the land and pretty much in the way of everything. It didn't provide any practical shade, neither did I find it useful in any other way. Just a huge obstacle.
I started by cutting down the lower branches until I got to a point where I could secure the tree with a rope.

A few chops later

After cutting the forth branch from below, I noticed a small egg had fallen down and cracked. Unbeknownst to me, a pigeon had made a nest in the tree and had laid eggs in it.

God damn it!

I figured pigeons usually lay more than 1 egg, plus the pigeon in the nest was not moving despite the extremely loud noise from the chainsaw, so I guessed there must be more eggs in the nest. I stopped my cutting and packed the chainsaw and went in for a small break as it was getting too hot. I decided I would let the tree with its pigeon nest be until the chicks had hatched at least...

Super scared parent, but still not escaping

Parenting instincts must be very strong as the poor bird stayed in the nest all the time although it looked like it would get a heart attack from fright. (Haha, not flight)

Nest and egg in same shot

When I came back out, I started cleaning out the fallen branches, and that is when I saw the second egg under them.

After the cleanup: 2 eggs. So sorry.....

At the same time the pigeon had noticed the nest was empty and had flown away. I checked inside the remaining half-nest and there were in fact no more eggs. So the operation could commence. I brought out the chainsaw again, noticing that the pigeon was observing my every movement from nearby. I felt so mean for having destroyed its home.
Anyway, I chopped down a couple more branches and fastened a rope to the tree.

Tree - branches + rope

The rope was supposed to stop the tree from falling on me while I was cutting it from the south side. It was a bit tricky because the only direction it should fall was north. On south there was the fence which belongs to the train company so I could not risk the tree falling on it and breaking it. On west side I had planted lots of saplings (bad planning I guess) and on east side there is the narrow slope which is too dangerous to work on. So I stood on south side, which is a bit higher ground allowing me to reach high, and made a cut on the south-west side of the trunk, so that the tree would fall to the north by its own weight (it was already leaning toward north anyway) but just in case my calculations or way of thinking was wrong, and the tree would fall the opposite way, I used the rope to hold it back a little bit at least enough for me to leg it.

Before the final cut

It worked out fine, the tree fell to north, its top missing the recently installed water tank by a mere decimeter (phew, that was lucky) and the rope still holding it in place so it didn't continue rolling and bumping onto the house.

Tree is gone

The tree fell exactly at 12 o'clock noon. Now I just had to break up and clean out the fallen tree. Probably the sweatiest work so far, but I wanted to finish as much as possible.

From another angle.

I left the lower part of the tree intact as I think the roots will help keeping the ground stable. Plus I assume I will need to hang a picture or a hammock or something from it someday. Plus I want to see if it is the sort of tree that grows back branches from its stump.

How much wood would I chop chop chop

I didn't manage to clean up everything yet, but I have a big pile of logs to burn now. BBQ soon?

Tank you

Not gargantuan: 120 L

I got reply from the town hall that they will give me grant to buy the water tank up to 120 liter size. So I did just that and installed it next to the house. I will use it along with my 6 liter watering can to water the garden. Next I will apply for grant to buy a compost bucket, which is pretty expensive being more or less just a big bucket.

Bug report

stop making holes already

holy moly

Something has been digging tiny tunnels (3-5cm wide) all over the garden. The tunnels are shallow and the ground along it gets raised a couple of centimeters, and there is an exit and sometimes an entrance. Looks like whatever it is, it starts digging a hole and makes a tunnel maybe 1 meter long and then comes out from the other end. At least that is what it looks like.
I thought first that it must be moles or voles or whatever, but many of the exit holes don't have a corresponding entrance, which makes me think the perpetrator originates from underground. The entrance holes might actually be exit holes that happen to share same tunnel with other exit holes. Now it is middle of rainy season (albeit with almost no rain, but the extreme heat is there) and the cicadas are singing like crazy. I think a better theory is that the holes are made by cicadas that are coming out of the ground...

The other day I was cleaning the small yuzu tree in the backyard from crawling leaves, when I spotted some bird poo on one of the yuzu leaves.

Mr. Hankey

Further investigation (yeah, I usually look closer when I find poop. I am special that way) turned out that it was in fact a caterpillar in disguise. Yucky but I guess it works.
Here are some more caterpillars I found 👲

caterpillar eating parsley

caterpillar eating yuzu leaf

Slopes

Walls for dummies

OK, after 3 weeks it is clear that without fixing the slopes I cannot do any serious planning or design for the garden. We got these problems:

1. The large drop at the most south-west corner of garden.
2. The long large diff between land levels of house and garden.
3. The long steep uphill on the south side of the house, currently terraced.
4. The long slope on the north 1/3rd of the west side.

All nicely marked in below MAP

The MAP is useful

Number 2 was easy and is already fixed by pros. They put in a nice block wall.
Number 1 is the most tricky... the drop happens right at the border between the neighbor and me. So for example putting in a retaining wall would mean building on both sides, unless I want to remove lots of soil from my side in order to back the wall and construction into my land. The area surrounding it is also a bit of jungle, so it is not easily accessible to for example transport a big concrete wall there. There are a couple of old tree trunks, almost rotten, holding back the earth. As alternative I can leave it like it is more or less. I can try to reinforce that area with piles and vertical wooden boards, and fill in between them with stuff. And I can avoid adding load on top of the earth at that area and maybe plant something to strengthen the earth with its roots... Really not sure yet. I am still waiting for estimates from pros as well. If it is realistic and within my budget, I may ask them to put in a wall... who knows.
Number 3 is currently terraced. But the terrace retainers are almost giving in and rotting. And on the topmost terrace the earth has become hollow, and just stepping on its surface without care my foot would sink in half a meter maybe. Also above that whole area is steep and it is real hard to pass it in order to reach the east side. I need to stabilize that area, and also make it possible to pass over. Probably I can do this by making wider, fewer terraces. Now there are 3 terraces, which maybe would be more stable if reduced to 2 terraces with wooden walls replaced with blocks...
Number 4 is not in the way of anything but seems like a waste, and is a bit ugly as it is near the front side of the house, so I may need to think up something for it. Not the highest priority though. It is pretty steep.

Last weekend

Imagine this, times 10

First of all early in the morning we suited up with a anti-mosquito fan each, and one more to place on the ground just to be sure, with gloves and boots and everything to avoid the sting of some unknown bug, and headed for the blueberry bushes in the garden.
Our quest was to harvest all the blueberries that were ripe to see how much we would get, plus to avoid the waste. It turned out to be a loooot of berries. We are not pros so it took maybe an hour but it was fun, and after that we are up to our elbows in blueberries. I even took some time to get rid of the weed growing all around the bushes. No mosquito bites.
However, I did get more than my share of bites later in the evening when the construction guys came around to discuss the front gate design and plans. I didn't have the anti-mosquito machine with me and was just wearing sandals, so the bugs helped themselves to as much me as they could eat.
After 30 minutes or so the head construction guy had enough and fled the scene. 5 minutes later I had without noticing it myself scratched my calf so much that blood had started flowing down my foot. Noticing the red stream I too excused myself while washing my leg with the water hose outside. We kind of concluded the talk with the builder-agent-middle-man-guy and he said he would send me some estimations.

I removed two tiny trees that I didn't like in the garden. I also ordered a mini-chainsaw which should be arriving soon, so that I can cut down the big tree.
We took a bicycle ride in the roads nearby and found an old shop that sold saplings and garden supplies. We bought a pomegranate and two seedless grape saplings and they are now part of the garden collection. Let's see which of them actually survives.
I also bought plastic mulch sheet and more netting. Will look around to see where I can buy some cow manure to build up my garden and prepare for vegetables.
I also found a small 120L water tank for collecting rain water and using in the garden. The city gives a bit of economic support to those who apply when purchasing tanks, so I did apply. Hopefully I will get some of the price paid by my tax money.

It is super super hot out almost all the time so I didn't risk being outside for too long in the sun working. Hence not much progress on the reshaping and fencing...    

The main map

Good, no?

OK, so I got tired of sucking at drawing, took the official map and painted over it so the shapes and sizes are all correct now. This is the whole property, and I will try to explain my revised plans using it. In coming posts I will also use the same map hopefully.
So, the garden is basically two parts, one is the flat area (the green) and the other is the big slope (the purple area)
I have already used plastic nets and poles (Did it all during the weekend, very proud of myself. I managed to make a straight net without having to cut any trees that happened to be on the border.) to fence in the west side of the property (Bright green line on the right side). I decided to leave out a small triangular bit that will not be any additional benefit if fenced in. There is a big tree trunk there and the ground goes down suddenly. I will try to fill that gap with vegetation and soil over time, to get a little bit of stability, but other than that I would have to put in a retaining wall, which now after having consulted with the builder guy (who keeps trying to sell me improvements of all sorts) seems like a bad idea (even the builder guy looked surprised and puzzled how a wall should fit there, and didn't even bother trying to sell me a solution for it)
On the south I already got the tall fence (black line on top)
What I now need to get is a bit of metal fencing plus a gate big enough for people to separate the car port and the house. (House is the blue area, and the fence+gate shall be somewhere along the purple line. Then I will be able to draw a net between that fence and the already in place net (dark green line at the bottom), as well as include the shed (grey) in the area using a net (dark green line on top left)
Then the cats can go out and play. And it will not have been as expensive as fencing in everything using metal fences and concrete. I will have to do a bit of maintenance of the netting but that should be fine.
By the way, Tora snuck out for a minute by himself the other day, and sat in the corner between the shed and the house in the yellow area. Luckily he was too surprised that he had made it out and was dealing with the shock, and did not run away. That gave me time to crawl in that narrow area and fetch him. Just a reminder that we need the fencing.
Once the fencing is finished, or during, I shall get me a chainsaw and get rid of the big tree. Plus I will cover the flat garden with black mulch to control the weed, and get some cow dung to prepare and make raised beds. Also I definitely need to do something about the purple area. The slope looks bad. The patio is falling lower and lower on my todo list, but is not forgotten.
Then I shall build a little coop for the chicken area, and also add some more trees. I am thinking pomegranate, mullberries, maybe mikan, cherry and walnuts. I shall also see if I can get a grant from the city to put in a 120 litre rain water tank somewhere.
That is my revised plans.

Name that tree

As mentioned, I have a couple of trees in the garden that I am not sure what they are. I will post the pictures in case someone knows... Otherwise I will use this site:
http://www.tree-watching.info/study/study1.html

Actually this one I already know is Yuzu

There are two trees next to each other, one is an evergreen at a corner which I really don't feel comfortable with. It doesn't provide any shade or protection or stability, but seems to gather bugs... I'm thinking about chopping it down.

The two trees next to some of my garbage

zoom in to the bottom part of the evergreen

The second tree. Not sure but the old guy said it is American something or other with very nice flowers

There are also a couple of trees that seem to be alive but sleeping right now. The old guy told me it is perfect time to prune them now, which I did. Not much leaves on them though so no point in putting up pictures and trying to identify them yet.
Here is one with leaves though:

What is this?

Zoom in of leaves

And here are some other trees...

Zoom out

Zoom in

 And one last one:

Zoom out

Zoom in

That is it for now.
I bought some saplings and planted here and there, maybe they will survive the coming few years and actually become trees.
Apart from the already ant-infested Kiwi, I have now red grape, fig, peaches and passion fruit.

The wall

The construction guys showed up in the weekend in order to fix the wall and prevent the impending landslide. Here are some before pictures.

On this part the provisional wooden fence has already given in and soil is rolling out

Not easy to see the huge slope behind the bushes. The old guy just starting to cut them down

And after pictures follow here

The wooden structure is gone and replaced with concrete blocks with metal enforcement.

Bushes are gone and wall protects the house, or something like that

I know maybe the after picture is not so good for showing how the most terrible part changed (i.e. the wooden fence part), it may show up in future posts though.
The old guy doing the job must have been like 70 but real lively. I happened to get locked out of the house for the entire day (yeah, that was brilliant not to bring my keys and wallet with me when I go out to the garden for a second), so I had no other choice but to just hang out and watch him work. Occasionally I had a drink of water from the garden hose, or poked into the dirt with a stick. The nets and some of the tools where inside so I couldn't do much work.
The old guy took small breaks from time to time, and I showed him around in the garden, he got to try some blueberries, identified a couple of trees in the garden and gave me some useful hints about what to put where and what to remove. He was real impressed with the size and situation of the garden and said it has lots of potential. I told him about some of the mini projects I have in mind and he liked most of it. He especially lit up when I mentioned the chickens.
Anyway, the wall is done now. I will have to wait a couple of days until it has settled properly and then back fill it with sand and dirt.
  

The ugly

After coming home, I also had time to get rid of the ugly at the entrance.

Before

After

I think I need to do some serious pruning though, the area is overgrown with what once must have been ornamental bushes.
After removing the side handles that were almost rotten wood, the orange fence thingy just stood there with no support, investigation showed that it was held up by the vegetation that had crawled into it and behind it, using it as protection from prying eyes. Cutting it away revealed a mini jungle that was just about to start penetrating the soil under the water and gas pipes and the gas boxes.
We will be repainting the house in a couple of months anyway, so all these will probably be cut because they are in the way of scaffolding. 

Hooray for Posts!

I don't know how or why but it seems the post managed to get my posts (heh) to me one week ahead of the delayed expected time. So I actually get to mark the jungle like I originally had planned.
I took 8 of the posts plus my mighty war hammer and a tiny saw and packed it all on my new bicycle and went to the forest plot. 5 minutes walk and I was surrounded by green.

This is where I enter the forest. The grass field is my neighbor's

None of my neighbors showed up during the time so I didn't get the chance to introduce myself yet. On the other hand, being alone I could just get on with what I wanted to do. I would say undisturbed but that would be a lie.

This is my bamboo plot. It is clearly distinguished with its untidiness.

And here is its other side, along the "road". Looots of bamboo to go around.

I think all the mosquitoes in Chiba had been invited there to a party right at that time. A big party with all you can eat feast. The problem was I was the main dish. These were not your ordinary town bugs but giant beasts with no fear and no matter how much I waved and ran around more and more of them kept coming at me (it was actually good that my neighbors were not there, or I would have looked like a total idiot running around and waving and swearing)
After 10 minutes or so I just gave up and tried to finish what I had come for and get out of there as soon as I could.

I just say wow

Amazingly almost all of the red painted markers were still intact. And I could put my green posts near them. I made sure though to allow at least 20-30 cm between the markers and my posts as margin just in case my neighbors thought the markers were unfair or something.

One of my 2m posts. Huge improvement compared to red grass, yet dwarfed by the surroundings.

After the posts were installed, I went into the bamboo grove to harvest me some wood. I needed 3 long poles, almost 3 meters long, with almost same radius at both ends (4 cm) and after a bit of searching I found a couple of young ones to cut down. The rest were either too thick or with very narrow endings.

Here is my other plot with a recently installed post. Much less bambooey

"road side" of the same plot. It extends from the post till just next to the tall tree on the left.

With all that done, I loaded the poles on my bike and could hurry home away from the bugs that were eating me.

One of the friendlier bugs came to say hi

And here is the result. She was happy and could hand our big laundry on them without problem, yeah!

Took this before I wiped the poles. They are still covered with jungle...

Farmers almanac

I am not sure what the Japanese correspondent is called. But right now I happen to be ready to plant something, except I have no idea what. The reason is that now is middle of summer and everything I know how to plant is sown either in spring or in autumn. So now I am feverishly googling for things that are planted in summer.
Actually this weekend was supposed to be the weekend when the retaining wall between house and garden would go up. But with my usual luck it seems the concrete blocks coming from Kyushu got stuck thanks to typhoon. The same typhoon also apparently hindered my fence posts that I ordered to arrive this week. So with those off, I was going to plant something instead, but now being summer I guess the most exciting that will be happening this week is the arrival of my new bicycle.
Maybe I take the bicycle to the home center and buy me a couple of fruit tree saplings and put them in the ground, just to have something to do. Also, after throwing away my drawers, I basically live out of my carton boxes. Maybe a trip to a nearby mall to buy a small drawer for my clothes.
I also had promised my other half to get a couple of large rods (3-4 meters) to use for hanging laundry in the balcony where there is already holders installed. Will take a saw to my forest plot and cut down the nicest bamboos for this purpose. Only I had hoped to be able to mark the four corners of each plot with posts, instead of the now red painted tiny grass straws... wonder what genius came up with that idea.

How borders are marked apparently

There is not much to it when the land has no official markers unlike the house and the garden. The only official document for the forests' boundaries is a map from city office with measurements from a nearby boundary marker. But no one is going to measure couple of hundred meters from that marker with the correct angles in the woods unless they are a surveyor with proper equipment. I was told lots of forest plots are like this. Neighbors simply agree to a certain boundary and live with it in harmony. They said one can always ask a surveyor to measure and then register a boundary marker for the plot, making it all official, but that would not only cost money, but also agreement from neighbors on all 4 sides. The problem is that the narrow strip of jungle behind mine belongs to not only one or two persons but is shared between 120 people, according to the registry. Finding and getting everyone's agreement is not realistic, and they have no incentive to agree because with proper measurements they may run the risk of losing part of their land. That is if they are still alive.
All I got was these red painted grass straws as markers of the corners, measured by a half professional sensei of some sort. I assume that is another name for old guy in farty pants. Better than nothing, plus I should talk to my neighbors anyway and make sure we have an understanding. I can always use the photos I got which are hanko:ed and signed which makes them half-official from farty point of view. At least they indicate near which tree a certain corned may be found. However, not all the pictures are useful. My favorite is this one, which also happened to already gotten its grass straw eaten up by some animal or gone with the wind.

Aah, now I know exactly where this picture was taken. This patch of grass looks totally different from the rest of the wild.

But even if that fails, the plots are more of less already marked with vegetation. Mine is a clear square, un-maintained and overrun with bamboos. The other one is a jungle plot between a flat square farm with clear boundaries and a similar jungle plot. I just wanted to put posts there to show someone new is in charge of the old plots, or something like that. Well well, maybe later.

Back to the topic, so to summarize I will go get me some bamboo and maybe I bump into the next plot farmer and strike up a chat. If not, I can get back home sooner with the bamboo and start working on the backyard patio, plus removing an old ugly handrail from in front of  the house door.
And plant some trees maybe, and cut some weed and tidy up the garden maybe.

The ugly can be seen just to the right of center. It prevents all access to the garden plot behind.

If still there is time, and the weather is nice, maybe we'll have a barbecue in the garden. Whatever.