A couple of weeks ago however, we had 3 days rain preceded by a day of thunder and lightening then followed by one afterwards that whilst most welcome regards the parched land getting some relief from the draught like conditions it experiences every summer became a bit of a nuisance for us regards getting any work done.
When Quentin and Astrid (from France) volunteered to come and help us we had planned on getting some rendering of the donkey shelter done.
However, you cannot render in the rain, so we had to think of something else we could do. Now the truth of the matter is there are always a multitude of jobs on the farm that need doing, one such job was the planting of our latest plant acquisition. Two banana trees which apparently aren't trees as it is actually the largest herbaceous flowering plant we have on this planet. The trunk of the plant which everyone assumes to be a tree trunk is in fact a false stem or pseudostem made up of leaves all tightly packed together.
Apparently they love compost rich soil, (luckily we had around a cubic metre of compost just waiting for them so this was not as big a deal as it would seem on our farm) as well as love damp (not overwet) soil, so Quentin, Astrid and yours truly set about digging a hole behind our sundial planters which we could then fill with compost for our banana trees to live.
The soil was rock hard (as they say) and despite the downpours we were had/were still having when we started to dig the holes we soon saw that after the first centimetre or so the soil was as dry as an old bone. Take a look at the big concrete block structure (our house water tank) to the left of Quentin. On it you can see lots of water, this was from a downpour we had during the night so you would have expected the soil to be sodden. Nope, not one bit, this is because the ground is so hard the rain just runs off rather than settling and soaking in. It really is most annoying when that happens just as it is when the occasional flurry of rain would force us to stop work and take shelter, this we had to keep on doing throughout the morning as the sky was really heavy with rain. Mind, we were not complaining, well not too much, not when you consider the rain was doing the flowerbeds some good if nothing else. (the soil is soft instead of like concrete which means the rain can soak into it rather than just run off)
As ever our trusted friend the Azada was our main go to tool, followed by the pick as we dug down and down into the rock hard soil.
Because we do not have much soil on our farm, (remember we live on top of a mountain the surface of which has 15-30 centimetres [6-12 inches] of soil on top all of which is not very good at all regards fertility) we always try to make compost with it for use on other areas of the garden at a later date. With this creed in mind we sifted all the soil we dug out and ferried it over to the compost piles with the intention of adding equal parts of vegetable matter to poop to soil and voila you have the makings of very good compost indeed.
Shortly after lunch on the first day of digging the skies opened, and for a good hour or so the rain come down hard and fast. As they say here, "Está lloviendo a cántaros" which translated literally means 'it is raining jugs' or as we English prefer to say. 'it's raining cats and dogs'. And boy did it ever. The wheelbarrow filled up in next to no time which again we weren't too unhappy about. Well rain is good for the garden isn't it, so with a positive spin on the days outcome we began to look forward to another day and to finishing what we started.
That's the ticket as the English say, lol!
The next day we moved on to the next task in hand, this time we were over by the compost piles, sifting through the pile we were going to use for the banana trees as we wanted it to be as free from bugs (see below for the type we mean) and of course stones as possible.
Once done we wheeled the compost over, popped it into the holes and planted the banana trees.
To help keep the soil moist we then covered the top of the soil with straw.
Now all we need is sit back and wait, whilst all the while keeping our fingers crossed that our trees produce a few bananas.
But this wasn't all we did. Nope, not one bit. After Kiko and Mimo put in a complaint that they needed more paddock space Astrid, Quentin and I got to work on fencing in an area which we hoped would keep the boys happy for a few weeks (more like days the way they eat).
To help the donkeys get around better we built a path for them from one level (terrace) to the next below. This involved taking out the terrace wall (it had fallen down so half the work was done for us) creating a new wall, then filling in the area between the former wall and the new with soil and rock. Unfortunately the photos of the work in progress didn't come out too well, (I had my camera on the wrong setting, doh!) but you can see the end result looks pretty neat.
Astrid clipping the electric fencing tape in position.
Quentin clearing out the weeds from under the tape so it doesn't short out.
The boys waiting for me to open up the paddock so they could go explore.
Boy was it warm that day, but the next it was raining again, which as Mimo and Kiko will tell you is good for the weeds and grass, it helps them/it grow which keeps them happy followed by mum when they eat them/it all up.
Good donkeys!
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