Another milestone

The ditch along the north side of the plot is finally finished. First I dug half of its length, but only 20-30 cm deep, cutting through bamboo roots and stuff and defining the path of the ditch...

it`s hard work digging in this heat

... and then dug deeper, knee deep in the shallow ditch, deep enough to stop the rhizomes...

cross section of my enemy

... and at last dug all the way along the north side, and knee deep all the way.

This should keep the bamboo away

 Next is to clean up, remove roots and make the first row. The bamboo slope in the north has just started spawning new bamboo shoots, so every time I am in the plot working I pay a visit up there and kick any shoots I find. The bamboo are very quick, I noticed a couple of new bamboos maybe 4-5 meters tall where there was nothing 2 days earlier. So I need to be persistent a few years and keep killing all new bamboo till the roots die or other vegetation take over. I have already started to see young shrubs peeking out where there used to be only bamboo before.
By the way there is a lot of sap coming out of the logs I lined up... not sure if it is the heat but it is beautiful

see the sap?

there, there, see?

How to get nothing done in almost 9 months

9 months is a long time. People make other people during that time. I myself turned the jungle plot into a much less jungle plot in the same amount of time. And still I did it single handed and only a couple hours in weekends. Others accomplish almost nothing in that amount of time.
If you want to find the least motivated, sorry ass individuals working anywhere, just head to any random government office. Even in Japan, the land of pride and quality of service, it seems government employees see no reason to do anything more than the absolute minimum necessary. And of course they are right.
I mean their salary is not based on how satisfied the people they are supposed to serve and protect are. It is taken by force from their customers. God help you if you are a little late or miscalculate your tax payment. They will hunt you down like the worst kind of criminal and you`re lucky if they just fine you. On the other hand if they make a mistake, and you find it out and bring it to their attention that they are over-taxing you, all they say is meh, sorry, and then spend like half a year correcting and paying you back, without fines or interest.
Also there is no competition so they don`t have to be any good at what they do. I have found that the least competent people work for government, exactly for the reason that there is no requirement to be good.
This all got proven to me once again, when I went to city office over 9 months ago after my truck got stuck in the muddy road to complain about the path next to my plot, owned by the city. I brought with me maps, papers and pictures to show what it was like.
Here is the progress...

August:
I went to city office with my documents and explained my problem. The path owned by the city is not paved, it is not even graveled, and cars get stuck in the mud etc. I also told them that it is not only me but also the owners of the neighboring plots who are not happy, plus all the people and children who use that path. The lady there called the city office engineering division and explained my problem to them, and they talked to me too over the phone and said they will have a look into it.
Not much happened, so I called them a week later and asked how it is going. After a lot of waiting while they found who is handling my errand, a guy presented himself and said the most they can do is to pave (cover) the path with gravel. I said that`s fine, and expected it to happen soon, but no....

October:
 Late October I called them again and asked to talk to the guy. He said he will come and have a look at the path first hand to assess what needs to be done. Ehm... good thing I called, who knows when they would remember to do their job otherwise?

November:
Of course nothing happened, and nobody came to assess anything. So I got fed up and took new pictures and added to my already big pile of maps and pictures and shit, and took a ride over to the city engineering office which is conveniently located in the middle of nowhere, about 20 km away from city office. Asked for the guy whom I had been talking to so far, Mr. M. And he said they will come and have a look. Just like he hadn't said the same thing before, and as if I had somehow forgotten our conversation.
I don't know... maybe they ran out of incompetent people to hire and started taking in people with amnesia.
A week later Mr.M. came and had a look and measured the path. A couple days later a bunch of guys came around and had a look. I figured Mr. M was the clerk in the engineering office, and those guys were the ones actually doing the work, like pouring gravel. They were all very friendly and cheerful and promised a lot of great things to help me. Now these visits were totally unannounced, and I just happened to be in the plot doing stuff when they came. Otherwise nobody would have bothered telling me what is going on and how things are moving along.
The day the working guys came to... assess for real what to do, was a week before the great typhoon. Weather forecast was that there is going to be heavy rain the day after their visit, so I didn't expect them to do anything right away. I asked them how long it would take for them to put gravel on the path and they said oh it's super easy, should take a couple of hours max. But tomorrow's gonna be rainy so we probably will come next week.
The rain was very very heavy, and parts pf our prefecture was flooded more or less, but the idiots came anyway right after the heavy rain, and their dump truck got stuck in the muddy path when they tried to pour gravel. Of course I wasn't told about their visit, so I just saw a patch of the path, maybe 3 meters long, was graveled. I asked my neighbor Mr. O about it and he laughed and said that the retards from city office had been there while he was working his field and that they got stuck in the mud. He said he had told them that it looks slippery and that they should back into the path and pour gravel as they moved in, so not to get stuck, but that they just ignored him and went in head first and got stuck, and had to emergency pour gravel in one spot to get their truck out, and then ran away. So much for professionalism.
Then we had the typhoon messing up the whole area, and I called a week after that to ask what had happened and Mr. M said they are super busy with typhoon stuff and maintenance of broken things. He also explained to me what had happened when they got stuck. I felt very sorry for the people hit by typhoon who had to depend on their help. Mr. M said in a month probably they will come and have a try again.

December:

End of December and still no sign of the city people.

January:

Called the office and asked for Mr.M he wasn't in so I left my name and number and he called back by end of the day. I told him that this week had been all sunny and that the path had dried up completely and that also next week forecast was sunny. Maybe they could come and have a look?

He said "Oh... yeah... since I promised that we put gravel on that road, you are calling to check when it will be done, right?" As I thought, we are not dealing with geniuses here exactly. I said yes, and he said he will check if there is material available and call me back.

The following day I got a call from his office, but not himself. It was a new guy presenting himself as Mr.S, who explained for me (as if somehow I had the same amnesia as they have) that their truck had gotten stuck when they came to pour gravel (old news, new guy, so it counts as progress in their book). He said they will wait for a good sunny day and come and pour gravel. Unfortunately he could not say when because these things are decided by the weather gods, and perfect for city people to blame their ignorance and delays on. But he did apologize and said that no matter how late, absolutely, definitely by end of February it will have been done. That much he could promise.

February:

Weeks of sunshine, the path is very dry and no sign of anyone coming to see if the path is ready to be graveled. So I called to remind them. This time I asked for Mr.S who had so kindly promised me a date. I told him that now is a good chance, and if they wait another week, it will start raining again.

He seemed to not remember who I was at all or what I was calling about. He asked for my address, not to the plot, but my home address, and my name and phone number. I gave him all that and told him that we had had a nice conversation last month over the phone and that he had explained this and promised that, I also mentioned Mr. M who had been handling my case for over half a year, but none of this rang a bell. Now I was sure city engineering division is populated by zombies.

He said he will check with the info he got from me and call back. Then he asked for my name and phone number, again. W!T!F! Great way to waste our tax money hiring these retards.

Later he called and said that they had been over once, but their truck got stuck, and that they will check the condition of the land again soon. Really? They must be very proud of the accomplishment of getting stuck in the mud as they keep telling me about it. 

Of course, nothing happened after that. 

March:

I called in the middle of March, and decided to ask for Mr. M cause Mr. S was a whole different level of brain dead. Mr. M was not in, so as usual I left my name and number and asked to be called when he came in. He called at the end of the day, and told me that... (surprise surprise) "We came to pour gravel, but it seems the path was too muddy and our sand truck got stuck." Jesus, this happened like 6 months ago, do they seriously think I forgot? 

"So due to this special circumstance we have been waiting until there is no rain for a while, and then will come and check the road. Also if those conditions are fulfilled, we need to check if there is gravel in at the moment and there is also paper work etc." It's never their fault. They always have so many things to blame their inactivity on. Basically he told me that it requires a major miracle for them to come and pour a bit of gravel on a 100 meter path. He also said "Sorry it is taking such long time for all these requirements to happen"

All I could think was "fucking retards" as I hung up and decided to wait 3-4 months before calling again.

And so today I took a walk over to the plot and noticed the path looked a bit different. Not different like someone had been pouring gravel on it. No, just different like someone had sprayed an extremely thin layer of dust over the muddy surface. Plus here and there there was an additional tiny piece of gravel added. It was first when I saw Mr.O's plot that I understood that the city "engineers" had been over and poured "gravel". They had completely missed the point with covering the path with gravel, and instead had focused on pouring all gravel they had over a 10 square meter patch of Mr.O's land that was very muddy. Good for him I guess.

I called Mr. M and thanked him for having come over and started to pour gravel. And then I asked him, so when will it finish? Cause surely it is not completed yet, right? He asked what I meant so I explained what it looked like, that they had graveled a piece of Mr.O's land, and then blown only dust over the path where they were supposed to gravel. He said he will call the working guys and ask. Then he called me back a few minutes later (Wow, he didn't need to ask my name and number for that, he must have evolved) and said that as far as they are concerned, the job is done. That much dust is supposed to stop cars from getting stuck so it should be fine. Please use the path and let us know if you still get stuck.

Whatever. I guess I will never get a properly graveled path with these monkeys. At least I got them to do something after all this time. Pushing them more will probably take another year and no result than me getting old and stressed. Which they know, and count on. They don't have to do their job. They just have to ignore people until they give up. That is how they earn their salary.

I took my mini truck over to try out the "newly paved" path, and behold, it got stuck!

And here is some pictures of the newly graveled masterpiece:

This is what they call a graveled path

There are spots that are graveled, and lots of bald spots

Basically no change from before. They must be so proud

This is where all the gravel went. Inside Mr.O's plot

They completely missed the point of what they were supposed to do

The new path. One rain, and it's all back to mud

The rest of the path. My truck in the back.

Early spring in the garden

I have been too busy/lazy to do anything in the garden. There are beds just waiting to be populated by all kinds of vegetables but I am still waiting for the carrots and daikon to come out. For some reason they just popped out a few tiny leafs and then did't grow at all. Maybe my timing was all wrong, and it was too cold. But that kind of demotivated me a lot and now there are no tomatoes or peppers or cucumbers or eggplants or any other fun things being started. In fact I decided that I had too many beds and will just keep the three-level long beds in the backyard plus the one longest and closest to the house in the garden, as well as the 2 newest ones I made in the space behind the cherry and peach saplings, plus the tiny one closest to the chicken run.
The rest (the two beds next to the blueberries, currently populated by green peas and broad beans, as well as the wide bed in the center with still some strawberries surviving in it) I will plant trees in.
I was going to order one more apple tree, to match with the new one I planted recently, but I need to first wait and see when this one blooms, and buy an apple tree that blooms the same time. So that is waiting...
In addition I wanted to plant pears. I need two. And then I wanted to add one more mikan for good measure. Not sure what else I should buy, if any.
So last week my order of saplings arrived, and I planted the mikan in the backyard, between the new peach tree which is growing nicely, and the yuzu which just keeps getting taller without blooming or anything. Actually I had that space reserved for passion fruits up till now but after two consecutive winter explosions I realized passion fruit cannot survive outside here.

mikan. May it live long and prosper

The pears I planted in the wide center bed. The surviving strawberries that were in the way I moved carefully to the backyard bed, hoping they won't die there. Also the rest of the strawberries I just left as they were, so the bed is not empty with just two pear saplings in it.

The pear saplings

One of the pears has no branches yet... the other (in the far side in the picture) has branches and actually a flower too. I bought them from the same place making sure their blooming season matches.
The rest of the garden is starting to show signs of spring...

The peach in the backyard

The peach in the garden

The soon-to-become-tree-beds with beans and peas

The winner of the "I didn't know these were here" awards

Even the plum tree is exploding with flowers. This year it is extra important for its survival to show me some proper fruits. During the winter on sunny days I have been spraying it several times with neem oil to fight off the fungus that caused the plum-pocket disease the previous years. So I would like to see some results. If not, then I am not sure if I want to keep that tree.... just for all its beautiful flowers, and then a big fuck-you in the summer in form of many many plum-pockets.

Trying to stay positive

Come on... don't get sick

Start a trench

I was going to manually remove the rhizomes that I had loosened up with the backhoe, but after trying to lift just one root by hand and feeling how heavy it was I changed my plans. Better let the roots just rot away...
Instead I am now focusing on digging a trench along the north side to stop additional rhizomes to crawl into my plot, while I deal with the ones that are already in there.

just started and got this far. Mr. K In the background 

I had to give up after just 1 hour the first day, because Mr. K came and started burning wood, which should be fine but then he threw in garbage he had brought with him from home, which included big plastic pots and planters, and within seconds the toxic fumes spread all over the woods.
He does that every time. I guess that is his way of interacting with nature. There is this beautiful and clean piece of land which he has inherited form his parents, and he seems unaware of the amazing opportunities and ways he can use it for. Also he is not willing to sell it to someone who knows. He just planted a couple saplings there I guess to be compliant with the laws and cuts the grass a couple of times a year. Other than that he just uses the land to burn his garbage. Which actually is illegal I found, with pretty heavy fines, but who's gonna report him. Maybe he is trying to save a few yen by not throwing away those hard plastic pots and planters on designated garbage days. Seems cheap...
Anyway, I was digging and panting away just 30 meters away from his fire, and had to stop when I started to smell plastic smoke. Not exactly healthy to breath in those while working your body. He noticed me starting to leave, and hurried to me to ask if I could watch his fire while he went and brought more garbage, to which I just said no, cause I was leaving. I assume he has no idea what he does cause he has no mask or anything and spends quite long time next to the fire when he is burning plastic, and inhales all that black smoke himself too.
Digging the top part of the trench and defining its path was the toughest because most tough bamboos and roots are not so deep. I had to cut through those and remove them to make the shallow trench.
After that, making the trench deeper was just a matter of shoveling dirt, with not much cutting roots.
I continued another day and got through 1/3 of the north side. Standing in the trench, the ground level is just between my knees and my hip, so it should be deep enough. Will go back and finish the remaining 2/3 soon. And after that I intend to continue the trench along east side, just between my plot and Mr. K's.

One third done

Digging Day Dos

For second day I was going to be more serious. It was cloudy and windy so just playing around would not be as interesting neither anyway.

Starting to seriously dig out roots

I began systematically to dig a trench along the north side, and cut off and out any roots there. Then I went on and moved south, digging strip by strip. The roots I dug out I just left there so I could come back another day and remove by hand.

First person view of  what I was doing

While ripping out roots I found and dug out lots and lots of tiny bamboo shoots just sitting there 10-20 cm under ground and waiting to pop out. By lunchtime I had dug the area behind the stacked bamboo.

The devastation I caused

I had 3-4 hours left before the guy came to get his backhoe. So I figured I would dig a bit further to the south, But the stacked bamboo was in the way and I started using the machine to move them layer by layer. However I was not very careful and noticed that the bamboo would break very easily when I missed. After a while I had unintentionally made quite a mess out of chipped bamboo. CHIPPED! This was way easier and way more fun than the chipper I had used before. So I started spreading the stacked bamboo all over the plot and drove the hoe back and forth on top of them...

Fun and messy

Now this is what I call flattening. It just took me a couple of hours to transform the remaining stack of old bamboo into woodchip.

All done! All flat.

I didn't get to dig more to the south but now I could see the whole plot. Next I will come back and remove the roots by hand, keep a trench to the north and make a couple of rows to plant stuff.

The obligatory picture from South East

On my way to the rendezvous point I used the shovel to clean out and tidy the path along the plots, all the way. Bonus.

After a long day's work

First day with the machine

Saturday morning 8 A.M. the backhoe arrived. It was the biggest size that could pass the narrow path to my plot so it was a mini model. Just over 170 cm wide.

Being offloaded

I got a quick instruction about how it worked and what each lever did, and the guy left me to drive the digger to my plot. I was nervous getting through the forest road with the hoe tracks almost touching the borders. But somehow I got it all the way in one piece. Driving was actually the easiest part. The digging levers were a bit more complicated to get used to...

At the "entrance"

So I started digging a bit lightly to get used to the controls, and dug around an old bamboo to see what the roots look like.

The first piece of rhizomes I took out

As I kind of already knew, the plot is covered in a net of roots. I didn't measure but I guess they don't go deeper than 1 meter into the soil.

Oh... cleaning these out will take forever

I was still driving around and digging sporadically. It was much more fun than I thought to learn operating the machine so I dragged it out, hehe.

Forgot why I took this, but I'm sure it has something interesting

It was a nice and sunny day and I just kept getting better and better at what I was doing... I didn't want to have wasted away a whole day though, so towards the end I used the machine's shovel to gather all the sugi leafs to one side of the plot. That way it felt like I had accomplished something while learning. 

The day is almost done

Get ready for the hoe

Leasing company called and said everything is fine and that I can borrow mini backhoe any day I want. Originally I wanted to borrow 1 day and see how it goes but it costs extra to bring the machine to my plot and back. So if I borrow 1 day it would cost 28000, while for 2 days it would be an additional 7000, i.e. 18000 per day. It felt like I would save money to go for the whole weekend so I did. So after work I spent a couple of hours of remaining daylight to get the plot ready for arrival of the backhoe.

Moved all the branches neatly to the front

Basically it meant making space as much as possible along the north side to dig a trench and to dig out roots.

Now only if I could get that pesky pile of bamboo out of the way

The bamboo that I had strategically piled up were not going to be in the way. There is more than enough space behind it to the north for backhoe to pass and dig. But I would eventually move that whole pile out of the way someday so I started doing that too...

started removing bamboo from the pile

Looking at the map, my plot is rectangle shaped, with a bit (3-4 meter deep) protruding in one corner. That is where I have moved all the branches but there is still space left in the part that sticks out. I will initially be using the rectangle part, and keep things in the triangle that sticks out. I measured the main rectangle, allowing a couple of meters on the sides for margins, and it is 30 meters wide, and 27 meters deep (depth distance between north side and south side)

Pile moved to protruding bit

I am thinking if I plant citrus trees, I should be able to have 7 rows, 1 meter wide each. And more than 2.9 meters between the rows, i.e. around 4 meters distance between the tree trunks.

This is what I imagine it would be like

I drew a few trees with orange circles in the map. Rows are green and paths between rows are brown. 

More or less ready for the hoe

The other plot

While cleaning the ex-bamboo plot, my mind kept coming back to what I should do next, with the other plot. Of course the first step would be to cut down all the trees, but it`s easier said than done. The sugis are more and closer together than in the bamboo plot, and a few of them have already broken and leaning onto the others, just waiting to fall over some unlucky bastard`s head. So cutting them down needs to be done with planning. Also the all lean in different directions and I need to fell many of them over Mr. O`s lands so I have to ask him too.
What is sure is that I can`t just jump into it without preparation...
Here is what it looks like right now.

This one's rather nasty. No way to reach it up there...

Another broken one

... and there on the right, a huge tree leaning over the path

Overall picture. Mr. O's land in the front

Chopping up the logs

While waiting for a backhoe, spent a couple of days to chop up the remaining logs and to move them out of the way...

This one was pretty heavy. Trace under it was 10 cm deep.

All chopped up and most of it rolled away to south border

Although the logs were divided into manageable size, it still took some effort rolling and positioning them along the south side. By the time I was done I was panting like a dog.

Only branches left now

Since there is still time, I am going to clean up the whole plot, gather the branches that also are in the way, and put them, as well as the bamboos, in the south side of the plot so that I get a bigger piece of the plot to the north to dig and play in.

Hauled all the logs to the side where they belong

Start adding the branches

I am thinking since the plot is not a perfect rectangle, I can use the south part which sticks out to store logs, branches and bamboo while I prepare the rest of the plot. That should leave a rectangle shape land which can be divided into rows etc.

It is starting to look cleaner now

Much less branches but still a little to do