Monday, February 4, 2019

Winter's coming, Jon Snow

And then suddenly one morning everything was covered in white again...
The tunnels are weighed down by the heavy snow
And so is the chicken run roof, again.
I was too busy/lazy to open up the tiny holes in the net above the chicken run, so that the snow can fall through... and as result the snow accumulated above and turned into ice in the morning. Heavy heavy.
All the snow melted away in a couple of days though and the tunnels and the nets went back to their original positions.
The morning of snow was nice and sunny so I took a trip to the forest plot to see what it looked like.
Covered with snow as expected
Some of the bamboo in the neighboring plots were leaning over my plot because of the snow/ice making their tops heavy.
I did continue in the following days to flatten the plot. But kept being interrupted by Mr. O who also likes to cut trees in his plot next to mine, and we stand around and chat more than we work it turns out. So I go there in the morning, work an hour if I'm lucky and then he comes and we talk an hour, and then I work another hour and then have to go home to eat and do other things.
One morning I was chopping and hacking away at the branches, and missed and hit my own finger. I was very lucky that the same blow that cuts off centimeter-thick bamboo branches didn't chop off my finger top. I would have to hang it around my neck like Davos Seaworth. Instead lots of blood kept flowing out onto the ground and I had to call it a day, put pressure on the finger and go home to patch it up.
The scar looks like "tear along the dotted line"
After that day the progress of the plot cleanup was thus much:
Still, the difference is visible
After my finger felt better I came back equipped with a thicker glove and went at it for a couple more days. I also made a clear path along my plot. The thing is, there is a path next to my plot, which gradually tends to be pushed into my plot because my plot is flat and clean, and the land on the other side of the path is not. So cars tend to keep to my side, and their tracks kind of have defined a path which is halfway into my land.
What I did was I cleared out weeds and bushes from what seems to be the plot on the other side but in fact is the path itself, and I also leveled the far edge of the path so it looks less like it is forest.
So now cars can keep away without feeling like they are running in a jungle.
At the same time, I put bamboo alongside my plot's edge to define the actual path's edge, making passing cars create a new correct path with their tire tracks.
When I say cars, I mean Mr. K's because no other car passes there as far as I know.
The narrow road. Mr. O said it is the correct path
The line I made with bamboo actually runs between two big trees so it is correct. Mr. O also seems to think so because he urged my to lay more bamboos into what I thought was the road, and kept saying that the actual road is halfway in the jungle, and that the jungle needs to be cleaned by the owner so it doesn't invade the road like it has.
Anyway, after my week's work, this is what the land looks like:
Just a week or 2 more...
And I also ordered a new truck, finally.
It's a Subaru Samba kei truck, and the closest color I could get to red was orange... lots of haggling and I think I made a bargain, because comparing with other makers' dealers it is way cheaper, for practically the exact same hardware. About 20% cheaper, and the other ones claimed to give me their best deal with rebates. When checking their details it seems the biggest difference is not the car price itself, but the costs around it, lots of imaginary services and high handling fees which are completely different for different seller. And when added up they cost maybe 1/3 of the price of the car.
The Subaru guy cut off 10% from the car's price, and the more I negotiated the more he removed handling fees and agent fees etc, and finally it seemed like more human prices.
It's a tiny car for tiny jobs
The truck will arrive beginning of April, but could be earlier too. Then I can use it to contribute to defining the new path, every time I go to the plot.
The color I picked

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