60 more bags of trash were collected my this weekends’ Saturday cleaning brigade. The former wretched meadows at the front of the shelter are starting to look civilized and welcoming!
The sun smiled at the ninja-volunteers and shone on them whilst they battled with an astonishing amount of wrappings, glass and all sorts of unimaginable trash – sunken into the ground, twisted about the thorns, hanging, dragging, flying about…
This time the group was even bigger. The people needed a few hours to be able to scratch out an unexplained combination of dirt and trash just at the front doors. And the amount of the glass collected is astounding – we hadn’t imagined it is so badly “mined” for walkers about the Farm.
The battle ended with a blowing success for the volunteers and the dung-hill was moved from the meadows to bags of ECOPACK, which are slowly taken into the city for recycling. It turned out that most people with cars in the shelter live in places where there is no recyclable collection of trash, so if you would bring a couple of bags with you back to the city – we’d be obliged.
To the organizer – Theresa and all the enthusiasts and volunteers who came to the call on this nice day off – our full-hearted thanks and appreciation! It’s a whole other story to meet the Spring’s light surrounded by soft grass that is no longer disgusting, nor dangerous to walk on – both for humans and dogs.
Meanwhile art the Farm we have finally began the true renovations – the construction plans are finished, the permits are at hand, we know where and at what degree to place our pipes and cesspit, we chose the company who will do the work, the materials too (what a floor we will have!), the iron-workers are making the complicated doggie-doors and forms of the cages, a half-finished WC/bath is the first thing to look somewhat finished, and all in all – the real work has begun. Reconstructions, as you know, will be done in stages, starting with the dog-building where we want to place our dogs comfortably, whilst we look for financing for the clinic (it will cost a lot if we are to have the highest category).
Although we cannot say our work is one of the easiest, we are honestly shocked by how difficult it was to even start to turn the Farm into a shelter. It is surprising anything actually manages to function in this country with the insane bureaucratic rules we have set up for ourselves. Thank god for our magic-man Svetlio who carries most of the weight on his back, the rest (the women) are in shock and astonishment. We hope to be able to get back to the work we do best – helping dogs in distress – sooner, it’s only been 2 months of reconstruction details and we already feel like 2 years have passed…