We've had people from France, Germany, Denmark, Peru, Brazil, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, Ireland as well as from Japan.
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| Miyako (aka, Mia) |
As per usual this time of year involves the trimming back of the suckers from beneath the Olive trees so that the nets we lay beneath them would lay flat as well as undamaged by the tangle of twigs and branches.
Mia, proved to be a whizz with the short axe or as we call it a hatchet when it came to trimming back those suckers.
Not to mention the putting up of new electric fencing so Mimo and Kiko (our Donkeys) could have a new area on which to graze.
Of course there are always the Carobs to pick. A task Mia did with a smile on her face throughout.
She also proved to be a dab hand (as we call it) rendering the interior of our donkey shelter.
But the icing on the cake if you want to call it such had to be the lovely meals she cooked for us. Oh my, genuine Japanese cuisine, nom, nom, nom. Delicious.
Of course our American volunteers, Andrea and Athina were stars too not only at picking Carobs.
But rendering too.
Painting didn't phase them either.
They even turned their hand at making little pasties for Mia's dinner party. Christopher our son also helped out, mmmm they were delicious.
As well as cooked a delicious meal for us one evening.
Saying goodbye is never easy, but before they Athina and Andrea left us we took them out for a now famous hot chocolate.
Parting is such sweet sorrow as they say but thankfully we are lucky enough to get to say hello in equal amounts. This time to Becky and Jason (from the UK) They arrived just before Athina and Becky left so for a few days we had a house full of lovely volunteers. So just before they left Athina, Andrea, Jason and Becky helped us with the clearing of the old branches, twigs, and grass which we cut last year but had to wait to burn due to the weather conditions. (it must be perfectly still weather in order to burn off the trimmings as the risk of fire is an ever present danger).
Wood is of course very precious and if we could we would burn everything we cut back from the trees in our home, unfortunately most of what we cut off is too small so when we were offered palm trees (cut down because they were diseased) we said 'yes please' and were not disappointed when they arrived.
Jason and Becky kindly helped us clean off the stump ends of the palm fronds. (as a palm grows it pushes out palm leaves from the trunk these are trimmed off as they die off leaving behind a kind of stump attached to the trunk, these we pulled off and set aside seperately so we could burn them, they burn fantastically by the way). It is a messy job but one the guys got stuck in too without any trouble.
Christopher then set about cutting the palm tree trunks into manageable pieces so that we could make troughs and planters out of them.
The guys then helped us collect up some firewood that a friend let us have.
After which we tackled some of the olive harvesting.
Nice legs lol!
Jason was a dab hand at climbing up to get those pesky olives on the high branches.
Of course Mimo and Kiko had to check the quality of the olives we were picking.
Although the olives looked ready they proved very reluctant to come off so we left them for a few more days and chose instead to go on to another task.
Tiling. Using reclaimed tiles from an old cassita (they are over a hundred years old)
Followed by some more tiling (this time we used floor tiles)
All too soon we said goodbye.
Followed by another hello
this time to Carmen (from Austria) and Sam (from the UK) who got stuck in to both a hot chocolate, LOL!
And some painting.
As well as wood collecting from our friends finca again.
Toby of course was on hand to supervise.
As well as act as co-pilot.
We then started to pick the olives.
Christopher took a selfie, lol!
Don't they look so yummy, just like grapes.
In total we picked 550 kilos over a five day period. Well done guys.
Sometimes we have more volunteers come to help out which means we can tackle some of the really big jobs that need doing on our farm. One such job was the repair of Hughie, (I give all the walls that have tumbled down names so I can refer to them and folk know which wall I am talking about).
In total Hughie probably measures in excess of 30 meters. (93 feet or thereabouts) As there was really no way we could repair it all in the time we had we set about repairing one small stretch. First order of business was to clear away all the loose debris,
Carmen and Sam were positioned at the top of the terrace, armed with a rope they hoisted the buckets full of soil up onto the terrace top so that when the wall was being built we could drop the soil back down behind it. Now I am sure you are wondering why do that, well when the wall is only 30m tall it isn't a problem lifting soil to pack behind it. But when that wall is a metre or more, it starts to get pretty heavy and difficult. So to make it easier we move the soil up to the terrace above and drop it down.
As we dig out the fallen wall stones we sort them out into different shapes and sizes.
Once we are ready we then start to put back the large base stones where they belong, at the base of the wall.
As you can see some of the stones were quite big, but thankfully the boys, Sam and Cal were up to the challenge of moving them.
The large stones at the bottom are called "Primary stones" or "base stones" for obvious reasons because they are the first stones and form the base of the wall. Essentially they give the wall a fighting chance of staying put if and when the weather turns bad and it rains heavily. We then follow up the building by placing the "Secondary stones" on top of the "Primary's" then we put into place the "Tertiary stones" and so on till the wall is built.
Because Hughie is a very tall wall, almost 3 metres we decided to step back the stones. In essence we created a shelf. This was for 2 reasons. Firstly a wall that is taller than the persons building is no joke to build. Secondly the stones in this part of my land are all pretty small. Small stones don't make for a solid wall, well not one that is 3 metres high it doesn't. So we stepped the wall back, collected a few stones from a different area for the "Primary's" and built up the wall before you knew it.
Toby was on hand at all times to supervise.
Didn't he do a good job.
Guys you should be rightly proud of what you built there. I am sure it will stand for many many years to come. Thank you for all your hard work.
Of course we soon had to say farewell to Same and Carmen but thankfully Cal and Fay stayed behind to help continue the work.
Cal turned his hand to cutting down a pine that was starving our olive trees of all the soils goodness as well as causing far too much shade for their well being.
He loved swinging the axe as well using the chainsaw.
Nice shades you have on there Cal.
Fay proved a dab hand at firing the branches too small to keep to one side for burning in the fireplace in the house.
We would often pop a few potatoes into the ashes at the base of the fire to eat for lunch. Mmmmm Jacket or as some people call them Baked Potatoes. Delicious!
One day we realised we had forgotten to bring down plates off of which we planned to eat our potatoes. Not to be beaten we used old egg boxes. We had them with us as we were using them to light the fires with. Well the next day the butter soaked egg boxes went up a treat. I think our make do plates made the whole experience that much more enjoyable, and I think the guys agreed with me.
After lunch one day Cal tried his hand at tossing the Caber.
Best you don't give up your day job to become a Highland Games Champ there Cal. Nice try though!
Whilst Russell chilled out in the sun.
It's a hard life, don't you agree.
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