While it has always been a good idea for me and Daniel to give our digestive systems a rest every once and a while eating only small amounts of healthy food in a day, the woodland days will no longer be those days. We started very early this morning. The cockerel gave me a bit of attitude which I almost missed and had to ask Daniel if I’d just been attacked. Apparently he did the same thing to Daniel yesterday which is that he ran up flapping his wings, jumped and gave a little peck to the wellie. To be clear, I’m not taking bad manners from a bird. He’ll see. We ate a light breakfast, me with cereal, Daniel with a bagel and an egg. Jan wanted to get to the woodland early because he had some business with a blue tractor. He gave us two jobs; one to cut down and buddle willow trees that grow in front of the cabin and we shall replant next to the woodland driveway, and one of unloading a trailer full of firewood. He referred to the latter as “A Man’s Job”, however to me that meant, “A Warm Job” so that is the one I took. And it worked; sometimes I’m so thankful to be sweating. It took me almost an hour and then I had to rebuild the fire in the cabin which I had neglected. After getting that going again –I’m still honing my Fire Starter skills -Stephen King for you, Nellie- I joined Daniel out front for some Willow cutting and bundling. We worked on this project together almost an hour before Jan returned. That’s when our first break came and we partook of a cup of coffee with Jan and Andrew. I was going with the flow, coffee wise, as I do not like the drink. Worry not coffee lovers, more for you. Mistakenly I thought Daniel and I were almost done with the Willow task set before us and asked Jan to check our work. He showed me everything we had missed. There was a lot, haha. So as he and Andrew left to use their chainsaws on huge trees, Daniel and I went back to work on the Willows. We worked another couple hours on it and I could feel myself running low on energy. You have to keep moving though, or you’ll get chilly. Luckily I had music playing in my head to keep me company. First it was Bob Marley, and then Eminem, and lastly Daniel hummed Michael Jackson, so there was that. I estimated that we cut four thousand branches of Willow; Daniel guessed six hundred. We gave each other the “You’re crazy” stare. We then had another cup of coffee in the cabin which by that time was quite a bit warmer from the awesome fire that Daniel and I began before Jan built it up. He already is a fire starter; from where I sat I swear he only used his eyes.
Now I understand why caffeine is a drug. Two cups is more coffee than I’ve ever had in my entire life and I was feeling, rrrr, off. Plus, it made me have to use the loo more than I cared to do. I don’t mind going in the woods, who does? I just mind going anywhere more than once in an hour. I was hoping we were done working when Jan had us go back into the woods to pull huge branches down the hill again. I thought at any moment I was going to fall over. Not in an entirely dramatic way, I was pretty certain I would remain upright, I just really felt insane. Oh! I must add we did eat. It’s just that all we ate was an apple, a carrot, and an orange. And the truth is; we split the carrot and the orange. No judgment, I said we won’t do it again. And Daniel wants me to mention that he threw a tree at my head today. Not on purpose, but if you’re in the woods cutting and moving tree trunks, you’re going to get dirty and might get a tree in the eye. We’ve had some funny close calls. Let me say, for the parents, I’m only being half serious and I’m definitely exaggerating for fun reading. Obviously Daniel didn’t throw a tree at my head, that’s just what I told him he did in the woods. It was a branch and he tossed it in my general direction because I was going to bring it down the hillside. I just wasn’t ready or expecting it. Even on a bad high I’m still totally stealth. *wink* Finally Jan called it a day and we dragged our last branches down the hill and prepared to leave.
During one of our breaks a man called Greg stopped by the cabin with his son Aaron. They came in and joined in our second cup of the stuff that was about to mess me up. Greg is an old friend of Jan’s and hadn’t been to the cabin in a couple years. He and Andrew are both surfers and we listened to them talk about their glory days on twenty foot waves. Aaron is leaving tonight for Japan. He’s going to teach there for a year. He taught English in China the year before last so he knows what he’s in for. It was neat meeting them. On our way home we met another of Jan’s friends on a walk. Apparently last Tuesday he had surgery for his prostate cancer and he was thankful for NHC which is still good here in Devon. Also, he was on a walk! He is big into politics so the boys had a small discussion while I sat in the backseat of the car listening, and also envisioning dinner.
Once home we washed up and made garden burgers. We waited the two and a half hours for our water to heat up and took a bath. At last Daniel has his own bath day so if I want, and I do, I can now wash my hair twice a week.
On Monday we went into Crediton to have Jan’s bike fixed so Daniel can ride it. I got myself some ladies gloves at a hardware store. Here’s the thing about my hands, they are small, although I have very long fingers. Sometimes I look at them and they look freakishly long to me which usually means I need to cut my fingernails. I strongly dislike cutting my fingernails and I like filing them even less. It just takes too long in my opinion and on occasion I have wonderful friends who volunteer to do it for me. I’m not vain about what they look like as long as I don’t have to do it. My point is, gloves are hard to find. I bought women’s gloves and the fingers of them are not long enough. Seriously, I just realized I could go on and on about this and it’s starting to bore me. Sorry, dear reader. Daniel says now that I’ve gloves my chores on the farm will be five percent more efficient. Go me.
Yesterday –do you like the order of things here? - Daniel worked a lot and I visited the gentlemen in the conference room downstairs. It’s a fantastic room; huge with a big bay window, a fireplace, and a dining room table that can seat twelve comfortably. One of the greatest things about yesterday was dinner. I made rice with faux chicken and vegetables. I know I write a lot about food, we just enjoy it. Daniel is currently experimenting with pickling beets in apple cider vinegar.
We have big plans for the weekend and I think I’ll wait until it happens to write about it; so as not to project. I will though manifest adventure. And so you don’t think I’m just temping to lure you into another read here, I’ll tell you we’re meeting new people, going into Exeter and seeing a show. Our friend, Andrew is in a band. They cover Beatles’ songs, Led Zepplin and the like. So see? No secrets.
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