Planting a Vineyard #6: Day of Action

It’s begun! After eleven months of planning and analyzing, debating and writing, suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, the day of action arrived! Like some corn maiden, a strange excitement surges through me, causing me to run aimlessly around the field, unable to believe it’s all actually happening.

But the specifics. The first is the removal of two overgrown terraces. Once natural plot boundaries, now they’re just unwanted barriers. Fortunately, the adjacent ravine partially belongs to the plot; otherwise, we’d have a real headache storing all those wild bushes torn from the boundary. And if we don’t, there won’t be a trace left because nature will take its course. The second specific step is to transfer the excess soil from the demolished terraces to several “holes” to level the ground, which will make life easier when erecting the scaffolding. Fortunately, the field has been cultivated until now, that now famous corn, so weeding or other soil conditioning is out of the question.

The excavator and loader hired for this purpose should handle everything within three days, and although the first day isn’t over yet, I’ve already learned one thing: if you want peace of mind, arrange with contractors for specific tasks, not hours. It’s probably just my paranoia and inexperience, but it still feels like the work is progressing slowly and the hours are “inexorably ticking away.”

Of course, the truth is that I can’t sleep from excitement anyway. I don’t know why, but only the chapter from Gibbon’s book about the fall of the Roman Empire, in which Alaric the Goth invades Italy (408 AD), instills a bit of relaxation in my mind. But maybe it’s just exhaustion, because my eyes are sticking shut. I also check the weather forecast for weathernce.pl#atfp_close_translate_span# praying with all my remaining energy that the current “summer” weather will last until the end of the week. After that, it’s just darkness.