Some sage advice ...

 My maternal grandmother died when I was pretty young – I think I was about 6 years old. I can still remember some things about her pretty vividly though. I know she taught me to read before I went to school and I can still hear her voice lecturing me about working hard at reading and school work lest I end up becoming a navvy. For those unfamiliar with the word, a navvy (short for navigator engineer) is an unskilled labourer and particularly a construction worker digging canals. Until today I never really appreciated the nitty gritty of this advice. 

 This afternoon I dug up a drain trying to find its source.  After a fair amount of basic navvy work, I discovered that a series of broken concreted pipes were in fact connected to an ag drain that ran along the side of our shed. And yes, of course, until about yesterday I had absolutely no idea what an ag drain was! Now I can wax lyrical on the merits of 7 mm blue drainage gravel to stop ag drains from silting up. Okay – perhaps I am being a little optimistic about the depth of my knowledge, but I certainly know about how hard it is to dig up broken concrete pipes which were masquerading as a drain. Although Pepper seemed less than impressed, Cath was suitably appreciative of the labour involved, but then immediately decreed that I should hand dig a trench all the way along the shed so we could replace the existing ag drain and do the job properly. I think perhaps I dodged a bullet not being a navvy all my life but I doubt there is much chance of dodging this order!

Subsequently,  I happened upon this priceless information about a navvy’s diet on the internet. 

 

Breakfast: 6 slices of bacon, 2 pints of beer, can of condensed milk, tea, loaf of bread. 

Early elevenses: 1 pint of beer. 

Late elevenses: 1 pint of beer, bread and butter. 
Lunch: steak, loaf of bread, 2 pints of beer, tea. 

Late lunch: 1 pint of beer.

Snack:  bread and butter, 1 pint of beer.

Dinner:  steak, boiled potatoes, loaf of bread, 2 pints of beer, tea.

 

Although the diet is perhaps a little short on rainbow food, the culinary aspects of the job seem pretty rewarding. At least there is no mention of kale or quinoa ...