March '12
Finca Work
Having finished pruning the base of the olive trees on the hillside, we have started working on the tops of the trees. So far we have managed about 50 trees at the bottom of the hill and are working our way up the hill terrace by terrace. It's hard going and I'm suffering from bad tennis elbow from all the one-handed chainsawing.
We also had our first real rainshowers of the year which gave me the opportunity to get some ploughing done. Luckily we had just had the purina (pig shit) sprayed on the terraces, so I was able to plough it all in.
No. 11
The roof was finished this month and the plumbers are hard at work putting in the pipework for the kitchen and bathrooms. We have decided to use a dark red colour for the kitchen units and a gray Silestone work surface which incorporates crushed bottles to give it some flecks of colour.
Asparagus Thieves
The annual influx of Asparagus rustlers has gone upmarket this year. We were surprised to see a Can-Am trike parked in front of the moli one Sunday. The owner (a Swiss guy) was happy to let me take some pictures in return for scavenging rights.
The Birds and The Bees
Spotted this Griffon Vulture cruising over the village and was surprised to see that it had been tagged. I would not fancy having to put those on him myself. PG took a lovely picture of our bees having a drink from the dogs' water bucket as well as our first poppy of the year.
Hi-Lux goes East
My Toyota Hi-Lux has been gathering moss since we got the tractor as it was not road legal and the tractor was better suited to finca work. I mentioned that I wanted to get rid of it and one our Romanian friends asked around to see if anyone was interested.
The next week another Romanian came to look at it as his father needed a pickup for his cattle farm in Romania. After coming back with a couple of batteries (the originals had been stolen) the Hi-Lux started first time and was driven off by a very happy Romanian. He had it trailered out to his father's farm and it is now working well, helping round up cows and take them their hay rather than rusting in our finca. "Exit" as they say in Catalan (Success).
