Hard Labour

So, the first week in Sweden has been pretty energised. Apart from getting used to living in a completely different, even alien environment, we have kept ourselves busy by jumping head first into some essential manual labour. This comes part of the package when you live fairly remotely and have a bit of land to look after.

First job was to cut back and clear any debris, such as twigs, branches and trees from the electric fence that surrounds our property. Presently, this is used to stop unwanted creatures in, i.e. the wild boar! They have been burrowing in one of the fields, so keeping the fence live to prevent entry is key. This job gradually turned into a tree felling exercise, so brandishing a saw we started to remove some of the trees that were too close to the fence. Fun! We still have a way to go but the pile of logs is pretty big and should make for a good Easter bonfire celebration.

Second job was to start thinking about the Produce Garden. This is a key element of our self-sufficiency plans and we want to be ready to transplant the seeds and seedlings come the beginning of April. We agreed on a perfect location; slightly sloping ground facing south and within close distance from the house. We set out the beds in 7.5m x 1.5m bays and started to dig. The actual technical term is 'double digging' but we'll go into more detail on that in another post. Anyway, this turned out to be really hard work, as the top layer, just beneath the surface was littered with large stones and the odd boulder. We persevered and reached halfway along the bed. Unfortunately the weather turned for the worse, so we will be hitting it hard again this coming week when the freezing rain disappears.

All in all a good first week and the sign of times to come, my body has that satisfied achey feeling all over. Bring it on!