I jinxed myself with that last blog post.

I am walking today, but a fragile hobble.

We had a pause in the rain yesterday, a glorious sunny day. It was a joy to get out. There's a lot of things need doing. One task was to dig holes for trees. I bought a post-hole digger awhile back, and have greatly enjoyed its ability to rapidly dig holes for planting trees.

But best to do it this time of year, when the ground is wet and soft. One of the paddocks that was unusable when we moved in was originally dubbed the "Stone Paddock". It was entirely mining spoil, all rocks. In the time we've been here we have trees growing in it and now grass surviving through summer in the shade of the trees. (It's now called the "Tree Paddock"). I've has at least three goes to plant out more of that space, and have planted, and lost, more than 100 trees.

But I know that if they can get through the first summer, and are protected from grazing, they can get going. Its impossible to do the planting when the ground is dry. Now is the time. So yesterday I've dug another 50 holes for another attempt.

We are extending our house orchard and putting in a row of hazelnut trees. They will be planted in reasonable paddock soil, but need a protective fence to keep the sheep off them. So yesterday I dug the holes for the trees, dug deeper holes for fenceposts, and set about creating the end post assembly to keep the fence tight. This one was two treated pine posts set deep in the ground with right-angled cross bars to keep the frame rigid and taut. When I pull the wire tight the end piece will provide the anchoring, and the cross-struts will stop any lean that might occur with only one end post.

So, you need the tractor and post-hole digger, then wire, cutter, twitching gadget, chainsaw to cut the posts to a tight fit, and then drill, hammer and long post spikes. It's all heavy, all has to be brought to the job, then eventually all packed up and brought back.

Near the end I walked back to the house and collected the hammer, spikes, battery-drill and heavy drill bits. The drill had a small bit in it from the last time I used it. As I fumbled with the gate the jumble of iron in my hand slipped and the heavy drill dropped.

To my horror it fell on my foot, drill bit first, and went straight through my leather boot and stuck there.

I dropped everything in the mud and pulled the drill out. The bit had snapped off. My foot was hurting ferociously.

I eased off my boot. Couldn't find the broken off piece of the drill bit. I checked and rechecked my foot. I am sure the bit wasn't in my foot. There was a wound, but more like a blood blister than a puncture.

But over the rest of the afternoon the pain became more intense, as the foot swelled and bruised. By evening I couldn't walk, and we decided if it hadn't eased off my morning it might signify a broken bone, so I would go in to see a doctor.

This morning the swelling has abated. It's still horrendously painful, but so much better than last night.

I dragged myself out of bed to get out and feed the animals. Pulling on my boots was an unpleasant experience, and I was bracing myself for the journey across paddocks, hauling hay and so on. But to my delight my wife got up with me, and came with me. In the rain, she did the gates, trudged the mud, and saved me half the effort.

Post-script: It got worse, I went to the doctor, got x-rayed. No drill bit in my foot, no broken bones, just very bad bruising. Its now 10 days later. Still hurts, but I can get my boots on for half a day.