August 2017 
We’re back! It’s bloody hot and very dry. Fortunately we find an old net, which has been used for the almond and olive harvest. We hang it above the front door, to create a bit of shade. The facade above the door looks the worst of all; every time we go in or out we’re afraid it might fall down on our heads…
The Figs are full of fruits! We eat as much as we can, delicious they are. The rest we dry so we can eat them later. First we dry them on the table, soon there are so much of them that we have to dry them on the old bed spirals found in the house. We soon discover that dividing the figs into halves makes them dry faster.
The driveway we used the first time to get to the garage and the house turns out to be the perfect choice. You can’t see straight into our ‘little paradise’, it gives a safe feeling. So we turn it into a ‘real’ entrance…
We clean the kitchen cabinets thoroughly. Many rats and mouse droppings. With a little bit of imagination we can still make something out of it… At least it’s enough to get us through this first month.
We brought daddy’s hammock. Very comfortable once you’re in it, but not so easy to hang. First Marc is laying with his butt in the grass, then he falls straight down when one of the branches breaks….
We wash ourselves under the shower at the small beach nearby…
We meet Mateo, the local shepherd.
We discover a cosy terrace in El Perelló, some 14km away from us. A nice village with shops for our basic needs and even several construction markets!
Also one with used material. But you have to search for what you need yourself.
We’ve got a scaffold so we can repair the facade. We support the beams of the roof as much as we can and carefully take out the old facade. We can smell the poop the building was cemented with once! Quite scary to do, we both never did such a thing. But the roof remains intact…
…and the new supporting beams can go in! After a week drying the end result. Hooray, the entrance is now high enough for us and we don’t need to be afraid any longer that it falls down on us!
We collect as much almonds as possible in such short time. For our standards the harvest is big, compared to our neighbours a tiny bit…. Nevertheless we’re totally proud and sell a part to the local cooperation.
We take samples of the soil from different parts of the land. We take it home, maybe we can research it’s quality more once we’re in the Netherlands.
On the last day before leaving we protect the old walls against the autumn rains. Although it never seems to rain here. This way the earth and poop within the walls won’t seep further out, we hope.
August 2017
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