Mas Sol i Vent - Catalunya

Jan and Steve have bought a Finca in the Terra Alta region of Catalunya. They are a resourceful couple and are developing a Mediterranean Garden despite the fact that their large plot came without either a water or power supply.

                           

As well as their garden blog Mas Sol i Vent (More sun and wind) about their horticultural exploits, they have a second blog which reveals how utilising new technologies they are now harvesting power from both the sun and the wind Back to basics on a Finca. 

If you are contemplating buying that home in the sun you will enjoy reading about the challenges that Jan and Steve have had to overcome. They are willing to share their new found knowledge by welcoming visitors who wish to become familiar with the lifestyle.

Almost a Blank canvas

This was the area immediately around the house click on the photograph to enlarge it and you will get an idea how bad the land was. 

The small patch of broken earth was created with a full sized pick, we're going to need a bigger tool!

Eyes in the Sky

This photograph and the following one were taken by our neighbour who hired a helicopter to photograph his newly built house in the final phase of the construction. We had no idea who it was but realised that the chopper was paying us a lot of attention.

If I had known about the helicopter ride I would have offered to share the cost it would have been great to have an opportunity to photograph from the air.

Balloon ride in clear blue sky

....They go drifting right along

Catching your eye

And those bright colors

How they dress up the sky. 

They float about freely

With gentleness and case

Up and down they move

Catching the breeze....

Candy Roe

Awoke to find three hot air balloons hanging in a clear blue sky and passing directly over our Finca.

Soil

I used a meter to test the soil, it showed that the land has a Ph of 6.5 a neutral reading that suggests that a wide range of plants could be grown.

The granular structure of the soil is very fine almost dust like. Despite keeping three horses the land had never been manured. Horse dung was left to lie uncomposted, the waste from the stable was piled at the finca boundaries but unturned; and given to anyone who would carry it away.

Stones were embedded in the soil surface and littered the adjoining farm land. It was only when we tried to dig it that we realised just how bad the land was; so bad we may have to plough it.

In the finca the field shown in the previos post we shall probably plant more trees.

Plot when purchased.

We decided that we would buy the farm house. 'It has potential' as they say on those re-location television shows. Rural tourism may be one of those possibilities, and this is an area the Spanish government says it is keen to promote and see developed. It remains to be seen if any of that famous Spanish bureaucracy is streamlined to enable the sector to operate without unnecessary governmental burden.

The plot measures 14,000 m2. It is flat land, and up until 18 years ago it was used for the production of barley (ordi as it is called in Catalan). The needs show that the original landowner shared the name of two of the neighbouring land owners though their relationship is unclear.

For the last eight years, three horses have grazed the land and now in late spring it appears to be unimproved pasture. Maybe a good tidying up and a once over with the plough and we can begin think about how we are going to use the land.

The rural areas of Spain are protected by law which basically says that to build a big house in a rural area you must have a big piece of land, generally 10% of the land can be built upon.

We had been offered a building plot of 20,000 m2 but it was a little bit too remote for Carol who also wondered about the maintenance of the land. A neighbour offered to farm the land but because he wanted to grow artichokes on our slice of Spain we declined. Artichokes I mean they are not even a proper vegetable are they?

The plot

This old aerial photograph shows the plot with the house at the top of the picture and the land extending to the bottom of the photograph; and in particular shows how little cultivated area there is.
The dark circle to the left of the photograph is a solitary fig tree. The trees to the right are a mixture of oak, pine and the occasional olive tree. Everything else on the land is poorly maintained grassland or rock and weed.

Our Finca is surrounded on two sides by open farmland used for centuries to grow barley or ordi as it known in Catalan, the Spanish regional language. The views are tremendous, open fields dotted here and there with farm buildings yield to rolling tree clad hills, and eventually to the Pyranean mountain range beyond. Those mountains are still snow capped in late May.

We are beginning to wonder what we have taken on!