Grapevine

I don't make New Year's resolutions but I was determined to get rid of my grapevine in the greenhouse.
 I guess it was about 10 years ago that my italian friend gave me a few cuttings of his grapevine all which took. Naturally I only needed one so I asked my mate if he would like one and naturally he told me he would.
 To be honest we both found the grapes wanting. They had tough skins, very small and had plenty of seeds in them. They were however sweet to the taste if you left them on the vine long enough though they some of the grapes tended to wizen.
With that in mind I did do some preparation to remove the plant. I first took the gravel off and removed the weed suppressant then dug a hole outside the greenhouse about 15" deep and left it for the lad to assist me.
 I saw the lad on Friday off the bus and asked him if he would help me the next day. Naturally he told me he would so I asked him if he would like dinner, this he told me he would.
 On Saturday soon after 10.00.am. the door bell rang, it was the lad, I told him I was pleased to see him early for we had a lot to do. First thing I did was make sure he was suitably dressed with overalls a wooly hat and a pair of my old shoes.
 I explained what we were going to do and he understood but when trying to explain just how deep and how at right angles we had to go he wasn't so sure. I got the spade to go down another 6" or so then told him to use the hand trowel to remove the soil from the base, I then went into the greenhouse to remove the soil from the vine.
 It seemed to take us hours to get down to the depth where the grapevine went from inside the greenhouse to the root outside. What one has to do with a grapevine is to plant the vine root outside and then persuade the vine itself to grow inside the greenhouse as most are not hardy, well they weren't then but there are a few now that are capable of performing outside, in fact the one I am going to replace is an outdoor variety but it states that it will perform better in the greenhouse further north. So I will plant it outside and train it inside.
Eventually I managed to remove the vine and did more digging in the greenhouse making the hole larger. Meanwhile the lad was working well with me telling him what to do, eventually he understood what we were doing, meeting about 20" under the greenhouse and meeting outside with a hole.
 I went to look for a metal pole and knocked it in with the hammer to where I thought the holes should meet. Suddenly the lad told me he could see the metal pole so I then told him to keep tunnelling towards the greenhouse. After a further 15 minutes or so, suddenly his hand trowel appeared so we had a hole at last.
 Needless to say we were both covered in mud and the first thing I told him was to clean the tools this took about 10 minutes then I let him know that we must cover the hole up so that no vermin was allowed in the greenhouse.
 By the time we had completely finished it was around Noon. As I had promised him a mixed grill I had to immediately start preparing the meal. Naturally this took about an hour . While I was cooking the meal he was playing on the computer. What I had done for him and me was sirloin steak, Pork loin chops bacon sausage and chips in the Phillips Airfryer.
 He called me in whilst my bacon was under the grill informing me that my Internet Security had paced a warning. When I managed to get to the Internet all it informed me that my updates needed to be on as the latest virus was being protected by Windows so I went to see the Updates and sure enough it was downloading. By the time I had just checked the smoke alarm went off, the bacon under the grill was well done but after a minute or soo with the door open it shut down again. At least I know it is working.
 I then put the chips on and got everything ready, the chips look after themselves and take about 20 minutes from turning on the Airfryer. I buttered the bread rolls knowing full well that almost certainly he would make a chip buttey. I called him to tell him to turn off the computer and come out for dinner was about ready. He told me it looked nice but I did point out to him that the rashers of bacon we both had were well done and probably had to eaten by hand which in fact we did. It tasted very nice indeed. It took him some time to eat his dinner and I told him that if he didn't want any pudding I would understand but he told me he would want pudding.
 I only had a few chips and finished my dinner wat before he did. It did give me chance to wash some of the pans and while I was washing up he told me that he would only have Christmas Pudding alone and no custard as he was getting full. I was still finishing off when he had finished so I told him to do his usual, that is make the coffee. I had shown him how to use the new microwave and he made them very nice indeed.
 Needless to say I was absolutely tired out. He stayed for some time and I lay down on the sofa and he played on the computer. More soon.