19th & 25th Sep 09

Dad's birthday

My dad has come to visit so as an extra special treat we thought we'd put him to work on his birthday! No, we're not heartless brutes, as it's almond picking time we thought we'd show dad around the 'ship, pick a few almond trees then hot foot it to the nearest village for a birthday beer and lunch. Little did we know that the weather had had other ideas...

A few days before our visit the rains had come to Spain, and boy did they come. We measured 4cm rain in 30 mins - that's nearly half of our expected annual rainfall! When we got to the 'ship a lot of this rain had collected in the black plastic on the roof and had started to leak through to the ceiling - yes through to those lovely painted planks - I'm hoping that the water stains will enhance the rustic feel of the place.

There was no way we were going to waste all that water so we set about transferring it into a couple of butts and gave the satsuma tree a good soaking. Then we had to completely redo the plastic, trying this time to avoid any rain catching nooks - shame really.

At last we got to picking 5 almond trees and were very ready for a cool beer and some food.

25th Sep

Not one to hide from work (not even behind that column) dad came back with us today to help Dave screw in some more ceiling planks. We've got to the second skylight so nearly done the main hut area.

I pruned the almond trees we'd picked last week and picked a few more. I'm quite pleased with the pruning attempts I made a year and a half ago, most of the trees have had a much better crop this year - not up to local farmer standard yet, but we're getting there.

Dad was determined to do some tyre work, we forgot to tell him you're meant to fill 'em not chuck 'em.

We thought we deserved an ice cream treat on our way home - well it was our first full days work back at the 'ship after a lovely long summer break.

Save the Rainforests

I don't need to go on about why we should save the rainforests of the world, less talk more action is what's needed, so please go to this web site and sign up to save the rainforests. Thank you.