Right, we have nearly reached a safe planting point, but there are one or two little points to be addessed first. We are having this local chap come over and put some drains in, after the wall/cash fiasco, so that the excess water goes out into the fields. The Headman was really nice about it, but he didn't want nasty blue pipes poking out of the high wall, into the bit that he is still trying to sell. The rubble drain around the tree was doing that already, albeit unobtrusively. This was working well untill one super rain storm......
Oh, B*gger, there must be a big bit missing. A closer inspection, revealed a hole.
There was nothing for it but to break out the Isaan style digger and go down a bit.
After some time, we reached the tree. Here you can see that the water, and soil, have a clear path under the horizontal wall support.
I decided to do it myself. I had had enough of workers that did not understand simple translations. The family were all off visiting some outpost. I had food, fags and some clean clothes left, so I started digging. I needed a hole large enough for me to get in, but it was wet and I had to go down a way. Eventually I had to fall back on the 'five finger spade'. This had a flexible joint at the end and it was easier to get the mud off again. Scraping the spade/jod/planter every time was a bladdy nightmare.
After what seemed like a week, I had enough space to kneel in the dirt and see what I was doing. It only hurt when I got out again, so I had to be a bit carefull. Having rammed some 'used building products' into the base, I made up a bit to take a couple of blocks long and recycled the last of the plywood to make some sort of former.
Now it was getting exciting. This was the last usable bit, that was long enough, of the rebar, from the spares box.
We'll just knock up some stone and cement, in our trusty wheelbarrow,
...spoon it into the former, bung the support in, pannic when the mix runs everywhere and stuff a few blocks down at the last minute.
Then we squidge it down, top it off and wait for it to set. I pack up for the day as there's no one around to complain.
