Let there be light!

This was the scene first thing this morning, all quiet on the western front. This soon changed.

Its been an incredibly busy day here at The Rock. Adrian Hope, a very nice man, turned up first thing to end the eternal darkness caused by the ash trees in the yard. I am so glad he was recommended to us because he and his team made it look so easy and did so much more than I thought they would. I had just asked for the trees to be felled but they made sure they were safe on the ground so when yours truly started blundering around with a chainsaw that was far too big for him he shouldn't hurt himself too badly. Work had to stop several times as stray sheep and goats wandered into the danger zone in search of free food. Luckily the Stable Sprite and his sprog came over to watch the spectacle and in return for bacon sarnies were put on sentry duty and kept the marauding vegetarians away.

The felling went smoothly, no sudden ventilation was caused in the stable or any of the out buildings. Text book stuff. Soon Adrian and his men were on their way and we were left bathed in glorious sunshine. Once we took stock of the new view Tracey and I had a massive clear up to get on with. Priority went to the tree felled in into the lane, blocking the footpath with an impenetrable tangle of foliage and broken branches. The goats and sheep were put to work to help clear the greenery, as were the horses. William took it into his head to bolt down the lane and was frogmarched back and shut in the stable where he had to watch his companions munch happily. Apollo and Trevor then shot off the other way round the hill, their return had to wait until we had fought our way through the new jungle blocking the lane.

Thankfully a friend had lent me a huge chainsaw and it made short work of the tree blocking the lane. Its a heavy beast though and an hour was more than my arm with its space age mecanno could cope with so we ended the tree clearance and went and captured our ponies. As a diversion I took Rene around the hill to a holiday cottage where we liberated 60 pounds of apples and plums for the pigs who are scoffing their way through them as I type.

By 5pm it seemed that we were about to call it a day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, all was well in our world. Apart form one minor irritation, no, not the fact we had no beer, it was the root of all evil which still taunted me by its presence. I took a few tentative swings at it with my mighty chopper. It goaded me further. That was it the red mist descended and to the encouraging cry of "Be careful with that axe you idiot!" the air was full of wood chips as I fought the evil holly root. Half an hour later I was on my knees, literally, and with a final swing the axe severed the roots grip on Terra Firma. In slow motion it toppled over, narrowly missing an inquisitive goat.

To the victor the spoils! The root of all evil is no more!

The impossible is nothing!