Rubble, toil and trouble

Whilst laying our paths and beds we had the builders in to convert the laundry / utility room into a family bathroom, and relay the kitchen floor. The work lasted five weeks and produced copious amounts of waste building materials which were deposited right on the spot where we were working. Why is it when builders are on site they seem to require your tools and materials to operate? Even the boards for our raised beds were used to support cabinets while they replaced tiles. Some the work had to be redone as it was not up to standard, despite the protests of the tiler. This meant that I became an unpaid project manager again having to be on site every minute they worked.



The gravel paths we were laying were strewn with small bits of rubble which had to be painstakingly cleaned. Whilst cleaning the gravel I took the opportunity to get back into the gardening instead of supervising builders, by clearing away some of the leaves and dead vegetation which was lying around the paths. It was then that I got a bit of a surprise.........

Project time - Pergola

This is a simple outline plan for a wooden pergola measuring 450cm x 360cm.

Tanalised (pressure treated with preservative) wood should give a life expectancy in excess of 20 years.

Posts 12cm x 12 cm x 300cm. (A)

Cross Rail 6 cm x 12 cm x 360 cm. (B)

Long Rail 7cm x 14.5 cm x 450cm. (C)

Those timber sizes are taken from locally available materials though you should be able to find equivalent lengths of timber.

Posts should be inserted into the ground around 50cm to stabilise the construction and concreted in the case of soft ground.

The long rails can be fixed to the top of the posts with bolts for additional strength.

Fixing the cross rails to the long rails could be accomplished by utilising half lap joints, joint hangers or similar devices.

December

Winter nights are spent pouring over the gardening books and seed catalogues back in England.
The scale of the building work we have to carry out means that, we will not have any money for the garden.

The delays in the house alterations after the flurry of activity we experienced in early September, have disappointed us to say the least you can read more in 'Gloom'.

Still no rain!

Building work

The Spanish holidays are over and the three different teams of builders arrive; the garden is now like a construction site. Every day large wagons drive over the ground dropping off their supplies of building materials and equipment adding to the degree of compaction caused by the three horses.

Inside the kitchen units have been removed in preparation for ceramic tiling, the lounge walls are to be plastered.

The weather is still hot 40 degrees most days, with no sign of rain. I approached the neighbouring farmers about ploughing the land, they were unwilling to do so unless we remove more rocks from the finca. The land is also unworkable without heavy rain as the plough can not cut through the soil

I will leave the builders to finish their work and return to England until October. When I return with Carol it it will be a different place new windows, new kitchen etc.

Piedra

These are just a few of the field stones, which were embedded in the soil, that we removed by hand.

Barrow load after barrow load. It might be possible to utilise them in the creation of paths and garden features.

Piedra the local name for the rock is derived from Peter the rock on which Christ would build his church.

Many local builders utilised the rock in their construction technique. The rock which is quite soft crumbles in time making some of the buildings look even older than the are. Many of the villages can trace their history back to the middle ages which were also known as the 'dark ages'. I prefer to use the term 'dark ages for the present time because we have a dodgy electricity connection.