New Year - New Problems

Well, off we jolly well go then. Full steam ahead for an exciting New Year. First up, getting the bore hole drilled. What a start. The drillers managed to manoeuvre their great big trucks down our track and above the spot marked 'X' by the water diviner. We drew up a couple of rocks and watched with tingling anticipation, camera at the ready to capture the water spout that would signal the end to our water concerns. After half an hour our interest began to wane. After around 8 hours and 120 meters of dusty, noisey drilling, we called a halt (and failed to take a picture). No agua but a huge pile of fine gravel, dust all over the place and a bill for €2500. We were pretty inconsolable. A huge disappointment for us. Although we do get water from the river, its not actually 'ours' and it would have been preferable to have our own supply. Additionally, when we eventually sell the finca, having your own water supply is a major bonus. For this reason and others that will take too long to explain, we have decided to reduce our build size. Obviously, we also need to consider our water management and just how we are going to store water. Last summer was the driest for many years and it has coloured our view on what is available. Maybe this year it won't be so bad. 

Continuing with water: Wow! We really do have a river now raging away down below us. We've had some reasonably heavy rain (and snow!) and the river is a churning white water experience. On the down side, our water tube has been blown away by the torrent so we haven't any water on the site - no water, no building. There's no chance of getting down into the gorge until the river quietens down a bit. The rocks in the pictures on the Water, Water page are now totally submerged.

This waterfall is about 3m high.

Having spent all our time hoping for some decent rain, we now wish it would push off. It has now caused a collapse of the main rock face on the site and has completely buried the footing that we had put in. Additionally, it means the construction of the back wall will need to be reconsidered from the original design as it didn't call for a retaining wall. I now think we will have to reinforce behind the wall and fill with concrete. Quite a huge task since we have to get the concrete up there somehow and the sheer volume due to the wall face collapsing away. Talk about one step forward and two back. Secondly, the ledge above the wall, which fronts the threshing circle, needs to be reduced in height: this is turn makes the threshing circle wall unstable and it keeps collapsing (too much wine syndrome). Yet another task to build a new wall and, once again, the problem of getting stuff up there. Anyone have a spare helicopter?

On a brighter side, we have come to an arrangement with another erstwhile building friend (Alan) to use his mini-digger. We're going to need it. Here is a shot of the JCB balancing rather precariously on the second ledge.

The spill in the front will be removed later with a much larger JCB.

Maybe February will bring some real progress, other than yet another retaining wall challenge, and a little something to cheer about like a footing for the house ?

We do manage to have a few breaks - the workforce likes to sneek away and stare at the view sometimes. Caught here daydreaming at the bottom of first retaining wall....

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