Successes and Failures

The. Trusses. Are. Up.

Okay, 3 of 10 trusses are up but it was an epic moment. Three giant pieces of artwork being lifted into the sky and settled in their truss posts, which seem like toothpicks under the weight of these twenty seven piece structures. B would never speak of his creations with such awe, but because I have mostly observed the construction of ten, ten meter wide trusses and helped modestly by holding measuring tapes and holding levels, I feel I can give B and all of our workawayers who have been a part of the truss building the round of applause they deserve.

Part of what feels so beautiful is that with the three trusses on, the house is beginning to take shape. We started building a little over a year ago in the beginning of winter, 2019. Though there are usually around two-three people working on the site at any one time, there has been a rotation of builders, “woofawayers” (as H calls them), backpackers, and inspections and phone calls with engineers, electricians and plumbers. We have been so lucky to have some expert brains around as well. It seems as though we should be further along compared to the houses in town that are basically finished. But, we aren’t. Much of the time spent is time researching, learning, practicing, watching videos, taking courses, talking to people who know what they are doing! The other time is spent  triple checking measurements, drilling each hole, sawing each piece of wood, scrubbing rust off steel plates (me!), oiling steel plates and wood pieces and countless other things that go into a project of this scale. Luckily, all ten trusses have been built and within the next couple of weeks, the rest will be up!

In. The. Garden.

*Big Sigh* I was feeling pretty hopeful about the progress of our garden because, just like the house building, it is slow going, but we had a few terraces beginning to take shape and the beautiful trees were budding with signs of life. One day, I came to the terraces and wondered when B had harvested the kumara because the lush bushes of kumara leaves had disappeared. Then I looked at my sweet little kale and pak choy seedlings I had planted just days before, except they weren’t there. I noticed big hoof marks in the slippery boggy mud at the top of the gardens and then realised that those big squelchy hoof prints were all over the place! We sometimes allow a couple of cows in that area to let them eat the grass that otherwise grows tall. We have had a few hungry cattle in the past that liked to taste the good stuff but this… this was carnage. These two cows had acted like drunk, destructive teenagers, completely demolishing our patch, stomping through our terraced gardens, eating the kumara leaves, kale leaves, broccoli leaves, and whatever scraps of life were on the raspberry bushes into extinction. They weren’t interested in eating the garlic but had a nice stomp around in there as well. Expanding my view, I looked over the steep slope of land and saw the pohutukawa trees roughed up with branches knocked down, and muddy hoof prints through our sub tropical tree orchard. With a heavy heart I asked B what the hell happened, even though it was obvious. He said they had raided the guava tree also, which had dozens of little green fruit on it, which we were peaking at every so often to see if they were ripe. We have a few balls up in the air with the build, the garden, the livestock, work, housework and children and a few of those are bound to fall sometimes, if not often. My potato garden also didn’t take off that well and what I did get growing, the chickens somehow got in and stripped it!

                                                                Before and After

So, what do we do now? I have stepped away from gardening for a couple weeks, feeling discouraged by the digression and overwhelmed with the idea of squeezing out some time to do something about it but I’m beginning to get inspired again. I am learning more about how to properly compost and how to get the soil right. Perhaps this is a good thing, an incentive to get back to the basics. I often cut corners and think I know more than I do, so it’s a good thing B is building the house or we’d be living in a poorly constructed tent.

It’s all learning. We celebrate the hard work and successes and learn from our failures. Life, in the form of creating land.  Damn cows.