Grave digger for a day
Published: Thu, 07/20/17
I dug a grave on Monday, and the intended occupant isn’t even dead yet. One of my local clients has a 14 year old Labrador called Pollie and a couple of weeks ago the dog got ill and wasn’t expected to make it through the night. I was expecting a call to go down the next day and prepare a burial place for the poor creature. In the event then animal must have decided it wasn’t time to go just yet and pulled through. Pollie does not move very fast any more but she still enjoys exploring the fields and woods where she lives. Her owner is certainly going to miss her when she does go and I was asked to prepare the grave since this week will probably be the last time I am available to do any work there.
So, there is now a hole, over a metre deep and as long under a mature Alder tree. Several other dogs are buried nearby already so it has become a kind of animal graveyard already. The hole is safely covered over and a sheet of plastic protects the spoil from being washed away by the rain before it is time to fill the hole in again. It really is a beautiful spot, deep in the Somerset countryside and at the edge of a paddock with vivid purple Hydrangea flowers nearby.
I guess I like doing handyman work because I never know quite what I am going to be asked to do or where I am going to be doing it. It is hard work getting the earth out of a deep hole, being under a tree there were roots to cut through, then the soil was almost like clay with a lot of stones but as I reached the bottom it got easier as I came to a layer of hard packed sand which was easy enough to scrape away. Going deeper still would have actually have been quite easy, except that getting in and out of the hole without a ladder would have become a problem.
Various thoughts went through my mind as I was digging the hole. Yes, a small mechanical digger would have done the job quicker and less physical effort. If ten similar holes had been needed then hiring a machine and operator would probably have made sense. But for the one hole it was okay to do it by hand. I used two different spades, a pick and a mattock, a rake and a small bucket to get the soil out of the bottom of the hole as it got deeper. A wheel barrow enabled me to move the soil a couple of yards so that I could heap it up neatly. These are the tools that were used to dig the canals, railway cuttings and tunnels which made the industrial revolution possible. I also found myself thinking about the trenches of the first world war which were essentially just deeper and longer versions of Pollie’s grave. Simple tools and physical effort have changed to world over and over again.
I am also grateful that I can accomplish a task like extracting a ton or so of virgin soil from the ground without ill effects. The human body is capable of a great deal, but it has to be used to maintain health, strength and vitality. I do my Stav practice and training every day which maintains a foundation of posture, centeredness and well being, then I just rise to the challenges that my work brings. I don’t think my physical capacity is just a matter of luck.
Final point, I was needed to dig the hole. When the time does come to lay Pollie in her final resting place it will be relatively easy for someone else to refill the hole with the spoil left nearby. Some effort will be needed of course but nothing compared with digging it out in the first place. The hard work in any creative endeavour is always the original digging. Those who follow can either use what has been prepared for them, or criticise if they are not impressed. If you want to be authentic and original you will have to do the hard work yourself, even then you are still standing on the shoulders of giants, just as I dug the hole using tool designs and skills which have been passed down over hundreds of years.
Talking of hard work, we are moving this weekend and lots still to pack up before we collect the van tomorrow afternoon.
When move is over I will be teaching at two camps, Druid, as I have done for over a decade now and then Spirit of Awen which will be a new experience for me. Then I have to see where I go from here, camps can be a good time to think and get ideas.
Two training opportunities in September, come and see where we are in East Yorkshire and train with Ivar on the 15th to 17th http://www.stavcamp.org/ and 30th September to 2nd of October I will be teaching in Illinios, USA http://iceandfire.org.uk/usasept17.html
regards
Graham
PS Druid Camp http://www.druidcamp.org.uk/ and Spirit of Awen https://spiritofawen.jimdo.com/