Autumn 2006

Its quite nice to be able to look back at the first entries on this site; we were waiting for the JCB man and otherwise enjoying the annual feria. This year's feria has just completed with us all feeling knackered again although it was seemingly quieter this year. An unfortunate footnote to the feria was a forest fire that started on the road above our finca. Luckily for us, but not so for others, the fire swept up the mountain away from our finca. The speed and ferocity of these forest fires is frightening; the result devastating. About 40 hectares destroyed of mainly pine but also chestnut and grand old oaks. Penned livestock obviously perished. Interestingly, I also mentioned last year that we obtained a fire plan. I need to ensure that we put the recommendations in place!

One of my brothers arrived mid-September and really wanted to build something (didn't you Alan!) So up went the housing for the batteries and solar control kit (Drax D). Not a bad effort. He will be allowed to come again! Yeah OK, I'll finish it off, roof, doors, rendering, painting.

Here are a couple of photos of the house as at November. Not massively different from the photo taken in mid-August but rather than play spot-the-difference, I'll tell you. The structural construction for the first floor is complete with a reinforced concrete ring beam in place and the opening structure for the stairs ready (no stairs yet though - later).

Meanwhile what about the water I hear you ask. Well (ha, ha), we are now in possession of a lined well having managed to stuff down 120m of PVC tubing. Well done James and me (lots of wells in this). We managed to extract 6m of water which equates to around 180 litres and, in a day, the replenishment was around 50 litres. Based on that recovery rate and the fact that the water is so high in the ground we have decided to go ahead and invest in a submersible pump. We hope the water from the well will supply us with drinking quality water (kitchen and bathroom sinks only) so we are not looking for a massive amount from the well.

As for the river water, we did have the tubo buried by combining the job with a re-build of the broken down terrace path. This means that the path is now usable to allow me to keep an eye on things up river, the tubo is kept cooler and it is also out of the way of rampaging wild pigs.

We now have someone to rent our second house in the village (reformed earlier in the year). This has meant that our time in October has been taken up by doing the final preparations. This has nicely coincided with our enforced wait for the vigas as well as a spell of heavy rainfall. Not so bad then. It has also meant a trip to Sevilla to Ikea - ugh!

As mentioned, we had fantastic rainfall for about 7 days. The river is flowing again and remarkably the ground is greening up already and mushrooms are sprouting up all over the place.

Late October: vigas (joists) have arrived - about 2 cubic metres of chestnut. There are 31 beams in all so that will keep Anne busy for while getting that lot prepared and me putting them up.

Hooray! Water pump installed and running nicely. We appear to have around 300 litres a day which, for domestic use, is good. We need to pump it out a few times to clean the well and then get the water quality analysed. 

Another hooray! Solar equipment now installed in Drax D. This means that we will be able to use the solar system instead of having to put the generator on all the time. Obviously, for longer, heavy duty electrical usage, we will still need it. But it will be nice to have some free (we'll ignore the set up costs!) and quiet power for a change. It also means that we see just how much is generated over the coming winter. I'll insert this shot just to show you how I cunningly disguised the power station as a ladies and gents outside lavvy....

If you are really interested in the actual equipment side then go to Electricity.

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