Fog patches floating in the dark, wind howling but yet I will have to go outside again, and again, and again. One of the windows is ajar and gives space to the wire of the loudspeakers set up outside and every ten minutes I hear an additional howling: the growl of a bear tearing wild boars to pieces… intended to keep unwanted visitors away.
At the end of this Monday morning we discovered the ravage left behind on their last visit: all tree lines in the lower area bulldozed from start to finish leaving nothing but empty acorn skins behind. The hours of work put into finding good trees, picking and seeding acorns literally gone to the pigs. Fortunately they stuck to the lower area and ignored the fully seeded lines higher up.
Gijs and I take off at once but it is already getting dark when we finally find a shop that does sell electric fences but the electrical unit is not in stock and can only be delivered on Wednesday.
So here I am, on my first night shift, making an attempt at scaring them away. Walking around bouncing a pan lid against my aluminum water bottle. Flashing a flashy flashlight. Marking the limits using a watering can topped up with our own urine and imitating the barking of a big angry dog. In three hours Gijs will take my place so I can get some sleep. And on and on.
On Tuesday we bought poles and metal sticks and start preparing the fence - the total length to cover will be almost 300 meters. Luckily a large part has a fence already. Another restless night follows but this time we add a fire to the mix and got a bit more sleep.
Wednesday at half past six, it is getting dark again, the fence is completed. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. Fingers crossed the fence will do its job.
The electric fence is a temporary solution as it requires structural mowing of the grass and herbs below the wire. I feel sad because of this setback: the time and energy put into this can not be put in seeding more tree lines. At the same time I feel lucky that we had both Luis and Miguel around these three days. They helped install the fence and also kept up the good pruning work. I feel proud of Gijs and me for being such an effective team in such unfamiliar circumstances.
As an afterthought I am grateful that we do not depend on the land and can easily choose to slow down or set different priorities now the renovation of the yellow house and the plans for the white houses will require our focus too.
