Project: Sprout & About

The first phase has been kicked off. Yuhuu!

I have, officially, taken the first step in my action plan (see photos as proof). I am in the middle of removing the old soil from the greenhouse, and I can happily say that it is going just fine. In my last post, I mentioned I was expecting some tense muscle work and angry bugs, but finally, only one of those became a reality. As a result, my muscles are crying, and my head is hurting (because of tense shoulder muscles) but I am not complaining. This is all part of the process ❤ and I am actually enjoying it very much! And hey, I now have another positive thing to expect from the project, and that is a nicely toned upper body! Bugs were nowhere to be seen, and I am cool with that.

I recall some ambitious promises being made about the work getting done in TWO DAYS (wondering who could have said that…). I figured that a slight modification had to be made to that promise. Truth be told, I may have overestimated my strength and stamina. I found out after a few hours into soil removal that my muscles may not be capable of doing everything in one sitting. Surprise!

You know, carrying hundreds of kilos of soil takes time and energy. The buckets I emptied and carried out from the greenhouse were 9L containers, and there were over 20 pieces of those. Plus about 10 trips with a full 60L wheelbarrow with the remaining loose soil that was in the greenhouse! That adds up quickly. And until now, I have only done half of the greenhouse.

But how can I keep my word and stick to the schedule then? In my mind, there are two ways to count “two days”(for the cleaning phase).
Option number 1. Working some hours during daytime on one day and then continuing the work for some more hours on the second day. Sometimes, this is what I mean when I when I say something will take “two days”. But wait….
Then we have option number 2. Here I am counting by the hour. Two days are 2 x 24 HOURS, and according to these calculations, I would still have about 46 hours left to fulfill my promise. To me, the second option sounds a bit more…doable. I therefore propose – to myself – to refine the original plan of 2-day cleaning and say that this will take 48 hours in total instead 🙂 Can-do! Moving on!

Another fun update: The greenhouse project has been extended from the inside to the outside! The idea is to invite little birdies to the garden with a brand new birdhouse! I think it looks fabulous (and it has a super nice soft ”birdbed” inside, too). Yes, sure, some dimensions are not quite as the instructions put it. All the blame goes to a weak chainsaw that broke down during the building process. The problem WAS NOT in the makers of the birdhouse. The material we used were surplus pieces of wood from a renovation that was done in the house. Was that a good idea? At least making it was super fun, and the intention was good 🙂

Next, we have to find a place for the birdhouse and hope that some pretty bird accepts it as their new home and that the predators stay far away from it. For a first-ever birdhouse built on our own, I think it looks quite cool, to be honest.

The greenhouse cleaning will continue, and new updates are coming soon 🙂