One of the outbuildings on the property, just at the end of the driveway, has been falling down since we first saw the place. I call it the Fishing Shed because it’s been full of fishing nets, mostly.
I want to move the Tile Mines into this space and decided to take the wooden structure down first. It’s been getting more and more rickety with each high wind that blows through.
Friends offered to help today, but we didn’t set a time to meet. Oops. I decided to go over this morning while the day was still cool and see what I could do on my own.
Quite a bit, as it turned out. First, I removed a big post that was dangling freely, then took out a couple of unmoored planks by shoving them into the interior of the shed. At that point realised that there was a single post holding everything up and that post was rotting. If I was strategic about it, I could collapse the whole shed into itself. So I pushed hard with my foot a couple of times in the right place and sure enough, the whole shed rocked, then leaned hard and toppled inward.
Exhilarating! I was proud that I was able to clearly and correctly visualise how it would work and use my own strength to execute the plan. Yay, me!
A few more shakes and shoves and it broke into smaller pieces that tumbled down inside. I decided that I’d need an extra pair of hands to tidy it up and safely dismantle the parts that remained intact, like the metal roof.
Before I left, I found a Japanese jewel beetle, tamamushi. These guys are wood boring so I wrecked his habitat. Sorry about that, dude. We made friends as I moved him to a safe space away from the angry termites who I also disrupted.
Iridescent green, gold, and topaz, jewel beetles are stunning. Their wings are sometimes used for art or fashion accessories. And they are a favorite natural treasure to stash in jewelry boxes.
The shifting iridescence also gave rise to a Japanese phrase, 玉虫色 (tamamushi color), referring to the ever changing and hard-to-define language of politicians. A pretty turn of phrase for something so frustrating.
