Casa de las Estrellas

A New Web Site

2012-01-24T11:46:00.001Z

We have just finished and released the website for the following holiday cottage

Casa del Riachuelo

Holiday cottage Casa del Riachuelo, Garafia, La Palma, Canary Islands, a holiday cottage in the north of the islands ideal as a centre for relaxing holidays

Description

In the region of Garafia the canarian people make there living working the land, rearing goats, or tending vines to produce the award winning local wines.
Nestled between the vineyards and the forest you will find the holiday cottage Casa del Riachuelo, named after the ancient spring which used to flow nearby.
Casa del Riachuelo is a single storey self-catering cottage completely restored in the traditional Canarian style.

Email: riachuelo@casaslapalma.es

Website: http://riachuelo.casaslapalma.es

Making a start

2011-10-29T12:41:00.000+01:00

Finally we have made a start and poured the the first part of the lower patio. We have to mix slightly smaller mixes due to a small problem with the motor, and it’s hard work going up and down to the cement mixer but once we get the next couple of bits done we can bring the material down and the mixer, and mix at the bottom which will help to speed things up.

Just dug up a couple of the boniarto plants, and have a couple of nice ones to eat and the plants get stuck into water where they will produce roots ready to be planted for next years crop.

Then the potatoes were lifted ready to be used to seed the next crop of spuds, the beds then will be raked and prepared to take the winter bulk crops like cabbages, beetroots and onions.

We’ve got your number

2011-10-21T12:18:00.000+01:00

Finally after 4 years we have got the number on the house.

There it is we have just to paint the numbers and there it is.

Looks good doesn’t it.

And here is the chimney all blocked up with just a small gap at the top.

Quick Step

2011-10-20T12:05:00.000+01:00

The funny thing is sometimes the work seems to go on and on but every now and then things take a sudden jump.

The steps are now up to a point and we have started to put the top on the cupboard at the back of the steps.

And the painting of the east side of the house has moved on too, with both the walls and the window frames painted.

And we have made a start on the chimney, as we won’t be using this anymore with a real fire just as the vent exit for the extractor in the kitchen, it doesn’t need such a big opening, which lets in water when it rains. So with some cut bits of racillionies we are blocking it off except for a small gap at the top.

There that’s better.

2011-10-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

With all the work now done and the back of the house, the sill is now been fitted to the other window. We can put the pagoda back up for a while.

Busy Day

2011-10-14T11:34:00.000+01:00

Today was another one of those days when we go round and work on half a dozen jobs at once.

A few more blocks go on to the steps, we are almost at the point of putting on the top of the cupboard to hold the watering valves.

And a little bit of concrete to make the base of a manhole to take the cables to various places on the lower patio.

Then using the rest of the cement just set in the top of the walls. And in the top of the photos you can see the rows of spuds that we have been putting in over the last few mornings, after we paid for someone to bring there machine in a rotivate the terrace as we haven’t fixed our machine yet.

Oblique shot showing the rows of spuds which should be ready about Christmas time.

Cleared out a levelled the corner by the font of the house ready to concrete the lower patio.

The window sill under the other window has had a few offcuts of tile and cement put in to bring it up to the right level for the tiles, then the paint touched up, once the tiles are on you won’t even notice.

We aren't the only ones working, our new German neighbours are having a lot of building work done to their house too.

And Tabby keeps an eye open for what Meep is up to while she lies in the shade.

Windows on the world

2011-10-13T11:28:00.000+01:00

With the windows in and the walls painted, just a few finishing touches needed, a good example is the window sills on the outside. These are made with special tiles that you can buy which have a curved edge specifically designed to kick the water off. The are also the perfect colour as they match the paint of the woodwork and contrast against the yellow of the house just right.

Spot the difference

2011-10-08T11:22:00.000+01:00

Now it may take a moment or two to spot what has changed between this photo and the previous ones. Yes it’s the drains that run from the outflows on the roof down and under the patio. So now when you have to go outside and it’s raining, you don’t get a face full of water if the wind is in the wrong direction. Also because these drains take the water well away from the house, the rooms under the house shouldn’t get as wet as they have in the past.

Oh No!!

2011-09-30T12:47:00.000+01:00

Well it looks like the brown stuff has hit the fan, there were a couple of reports in the local papers this week about the situation between the education department and social security, and following this everything is stopped, there will be no “convocatoria” until the situation resolved, which could take years. We are now at rock bottom, we cannot at present see any way to move forward, the private teaching will give us a little bit of money to help out but not enough to cover everything.

A little bit more

2011-09-28T11:18:00.000+01:00

It may not seem like much, but the surround for the back door is now finished. It’s had two coats of paint and looks fantastic. Also the wall has had it’s second coat and is finished as well. With these walls painted, we are hoping that the dampness will not get into the walls as much as in previous years.

A lick of paint

2011-09-26T11:09:00.000+01:00

A last we are finally getting to what the whole objective of the work we have been doing is getting some paint on the outside of the house.

There that looks so much better, I must admit seeing the house now with just a single coat of paint on the western wall makes such a difference. But if you look closely you can see that at the far end there is a bit which isn’t done. We haven’t done this bit cause it drops down there and until we get the lower patio and steps done we can’t reach that bit.

And on the other side the wall on the bathroom is done.

Down the drain.

2011-09-23T11:27:00.000+01:00

With the lower patio up to a certain level the drains to carry the water from the roof away, hopefully keeping the lower rooms dry so we can use them to store things with out getting damaged.

First things first, dig a ditch, luckily due to the fact that this is largely infill material this is fairly easy.

Next a little sand to bed the pipe down and enable us to get the correct level. Also running a couple of conduits just in case we ever want to put power or something in the corner of the terrace.

Then re infill and tramp down to cover. No just the tricky bit at the other end which involves redirecting the exiting drain from the bottom of the ramp so that it flows down and joins this drain. The also involved a bit of hard work chiselling away the rock to get the out flow in the right place and level.

Then just a little infill and a few rocks to make up the wall and job done.

Odds and Ends

2011-09-21T10:51:00.000+01:00

One of the problems we have is that we have a large number of different jobs on the go at once so sometimes we end up doing half a dozen different jobs in one day, and today was one of those days.

First to tackle was some more blocks on the lower steps area.

On the back of the steps is going to be a little cupboard which will house the grey water valves and other stuff.

Next just a little trim of the concrete under the window in the dining room so that we can put on some tiles to make a nice window sill. This is something we overlooked when we built the window in the first place.

Then just a few more bits of rendering on the vent hut

And there all jobs done for today.

Renderware

2011-09-18T10:26:00.000+01:00

To finish off the vent hut we just need to put a small coat of render on to provide a good surface to paint and blend into the existing surface.

And with the left over render we can finish off one small area at the front of the house which just needed a little to smooth everything off.

with this little but of filling the front is now ready for painting.

Back of the house starting to look good.

Oh FFS

2011-09-16T12:37:00.000+01:00

It now seems that there has been a delay in the “convocatoria” and we not will not be going back until October at the earliest. We have had no news until this, both me and Helen are going spare with worry over this if we don’t get back to work we have calculated we can just about survive until Christmas. This is causing big problems, as now both me and Helen are paralysed with worry about what is going to happen to us. Neither of us want to go back to the UK, we would have to leave everything we have here, and end up with nothing.

Foam Party

2011-09-15T10:17:00.000+01:00

The normal way round here to stick the top layer of tiles on is to use expanding foam. So after yesterdays abortive attempt due to a failed can of foam we had a drive out to get another one.

Once the foam had dried we can cut back the excess and render the outside.

On the tiles

2011-09-14T10:05:00.000+01:00

with the cement fully dry after a few days, it’s time to tackle the tiles. Laying a bed of cement on which you lay the bottom layer of tiles. It’s a bit of an art to get right as you have to remember that the lowest row of tiles actually goes on the opposite way round to the rest of the tiles.

At present the top row of tiles are just laid on and not stuck down as the can of foam we had was completely solid and wouldn’t work.

And it was getting dark with possible rain so time to call it a day.

Uncovered

2011-09-13T09:50:00.000+01:00

After the few days to dry comes the crucial step of removing the frame work, and exposing the concrete. If the concrete is stuck to firmly to the wood then it could pull away and ruin the finish of the wall.

Thankfully this didn’t happen and we are left with a nice clean pour.

The tiles are just stacked on top for now, unfortunately we haven’t got enough of the reclaimed tiles so we are going to have to use new ones on this hut.

Frame Up

2011-09-11T09:22:00.000+01:00

Time to put the top on the vent hut. This entails first building a wooden frame round the out side and inside of the top of the vent hut, this is sloped of the inside to take the racilliones which will provide the base for the roof.

Embedded in the back of the wall will be two pipes which will provide an exhaust, and also an inlet for the air.

Once the frame work is complete it’s time to pour the concrete, once the concrete is up to a level the racilliones need to go on.

And that’s that, just time for a long shot to give some idea of how it would look.

4 years of work

2011-09-04T15:51:00.000+01:00

Over the last few days we have slowly been putting on the concrete render of the wall by the entrance. It has taken a while to get this far. First the roof to the water tank was added. then we built the wall round the edge. and now all it needs is a lick of paint. The photo below shows how it looked 4 years ago and how it is now.

Oh Bugger it..

2011-08-28T12:18:00.000+01:00

I have received a letter stating that due to the on-going situation between the education department and social security we will not be going back to work at the start of September as was hoped but we will have to wait for a “convocatoria” which is an official announcement of positions available and we will have to apply for our jobs back again…

What does this mean, well normally we have to cope without money coming in for the months of July and August, but we are going to have to cope for another month without any money coming in. Luckily Helen’s son had given us some money to do the kitchen but we are going to have to spend this money to tie us over. This is a very worrying development as we do rely on the money from the school work to cover the basic day to day expenses, and without this we can’t keep going indefinitely without another form of income.

Block up

2011-08-20T15:33:00.000+01:00

Just a few blocks added here and there today.

First a few blocks go on to form the wall of the vent hut.

The another couple go on to bring the steps up a little, now this is ready to make the base of the small recess in the back of the steps which will house the valves for the watering.

A better photo of the wall that I mentioned earlier.

Venting

2011-08-13T15:14:00.000+01:00

One of the little jobs that had to be completed before the painting of the walls could continue was what we call the “vent hut”. On the roof we have always had this little square block and underneath was a circular hole which we believed was for a heater before the hole was made in the wall to connect the kitchen and the rest of the house. Our intention is to use this to make a ventilation system to help keep the house cool in the summer.

Helen through the hole.

once the cover was removed from the top and with a board placed below it was time to insert the pipes that will handle the air extraction, the water feed up to the solar hot water heater that will be fitted one day, and control and power cables.

Then we built a wooden frame to make the base.

Fill with concrete and job is done for today. But there was time just to finish off a few little other jobs, like prepare the wall of the bathroom ready for the render. The blue is a mesh which is fixed on the wall to help the render stick and not crack.

Window top

2011-08-11T14:40:00.000+01:00

Once the sides of the window had dried next came the top. the top sticks out a little to push the water away and stop it seeping in through the window.

Then it was time to add a little more cement to the steps

Patching sides

2011-08-07T14:25:00.000+01:00

With the window sill cast and dried it’s time to patch up the edges of the window. So we fixed some strips of wood to make nice clean edges, and mixed up the fine white render and slapped it on.

One that was done we still had a little left so we had to find a place to put it.

So a little bit went to tidy the edge of the steps to the roof.

And a bit more to fill the hole where we found the horseshoe in the wall.

Sill season

2011-08-04T14:48:00.000+01:00

Now the window is in and set, we need to finish of the window sill. The window sill is concrete but has a step in it to allow for the rendering to be finished off at the front and to put tiles on the top.

Cast windowsill is behind the wooden former.

A close up of the bottom of the window.

And on the inside.

The window goes in

2011-08-03T19:45:00.000+01:00

Yess, today is the day when the window goes in, we had though of leaving the final fitting of the window until later in the day but after a quick test fit we decided that we would just go ahead and put it in.

The window cleaned and ready to go in. It had got a little dusty while it was stored in the bathroom.

The window in and fitted on wedges to hold it in place while the cement sets.

A view from the inside showing the cemented fixings, and under the window a load of paper just to block up the gap until the windowsill gets cast tomorrow.

Both windows and the door done…

A window on the wall

2011-08-02T19:06:00.000+01:00

Today,was going to be a big day we were finally fitting the window which we brought way back, we brought 2, one which went into what is going to be the dining room. and the other is for the new kitchen. With one thing or another we have new gotten round to fitting the other window,well this week it’s finally going to happen.

The old window removed and all marked up for cutting the new window.

A few hours later and the main hole is cut.

Helen checks the lintel after we cut the hole and quickly put it in. The lintel previously was in the kitchen supporting the concrete hood over the barbeque.

All done for today just one more job to do.

Cover the window with some plastic to keep the insects outside.

Filling in

2011-07-29T18:54:00.000+01:00

One reason why we had to get the blocks in yesterday was that today we were expecting Sheila and her husband Carlos to come and give us a hand shifting more soil, like they did before. So with Carlos, given a radio tuned to Radio 2 and a beer and we were off, several hours later, we had filled most of the lower patio and the soil on the upper level was almost gone.

But we now have a very level surface at the bottom.

A little more levelling at the far end, as this end is a little high.

The ramp now is a more gradual which is much better…

Where most of the soil came from.

A Step in the right direction

2011-07-28T18:38:00.000+01:00

Work still continues on the step extension and the lower patio. we’ve put a few more of the blocks on to bring it up to the level where we can think about putting in the all important first step, but we have now run out of big blocks.

The blocks laid and ready to get in filled both in front and behind.

The whole ramp can now be in filled up to the height.

And with the left over material finished off rendering the inside edge of the roof.

Draining away

2011-07-25T18:21:00.000+01:00

One of the tasks we have been working on is trying to divert the water off the roof to a more useable place. At the moment the water just tips off the roof and down onto the ground around the house, one side effect of this is that the lower storage room at the font of the house stays very damp. As we are laying the patio and the extension to the steps we need to put in the pipes as we go.

The pipes down all glued into place, with an access hole just in case we need to clean things out.

Helen double checking the width at the top of the ramp.

Curves

2011-07-21T18:05:00.000+01:00

Finally got the curve finished on the top of the bathroom roof parapet. Following the curve that was drawn on the wooden board at the back it was just a matter of building it up with rocks and cement

Bad News

2011-07-20T12:13:00.000+01:00

I received a letter a few days back from Social Security which seems to say that I have been registered as an employee of the Consejria de Educacíon. I seems they have done an audit and consider that use being hired as self employed was illegal and we should be treated as employees. We shall have to see what impact this has when I get back to work in September.

Watering

2011-07-17T17:53:00.000+01:00

With the two tubes laid in under the surface of the lower patio, we can now sort out the watering systems.

So from the valves the pipes go down the tubes.

Out the other side

Along the wall

And down to the crops.

And while Helen was doing the piping I was busy running the cutter over the lower terrace.

Uphill

2011-07-15T19:30:00.000+01:00

On the lower patio we have a number of pipes for the grey water irrigation that used to just sit on the surface, but with the changes to the lower patio these are now being placed in large red tubes that need to get buried under the earth as we put it in.

So having put the pipe in we needed to fill in some earth on top to make sure that the path was still useable.

OK looking from the other direction you have to go up over the pipe before you go down the ramp, but hopefully that will get in filled in the next couple of weeks.

The side wall of the ramp which is almost finished now, showing the irrigation pipe coming out through the wall instead of over the top as it used to.

A long time ago we built a small wall on top of the bathroom roof. One part never got finished this was a small curve to blend the top of the wall with the slope down to the existing wall. so with a board screwed to the side of the wall and a few pieces of bar inserted top stop the whole lot sliding down the slope this is already to be cemented next time we make some.

Another row and finishing the door

2011-07-13T18:35:00.000+01:00

Two jobs for today, the first was to bring up the wall for the steps down to the lower patio up another row. After this just one more row and they will be up to the height required to finish the infilling of the lower patio.

And once the blocks were done with we could used the rest of the wheelbarrow full of cement upstairs to finish off around the door.

That's the top done, now for the bottom, and that is where the trouble started, we had a great trouble getting the wedges out from under the door. It took close to an hour just to get them out once this was done we could then fill the holes with cement.

Inside

Outside

Framed again

2011-07-12T18:23:00.000+01:00

Having got the frame for the door fitted it was time to get on and get the surround sorted out.

First this involved cutting and sorting out lengths of the wood which were salvaged from the old water tank roof and planned and sorted at the same time as we built the frame and door step.

What’s behind the green door, well the kitchen actually once we build it.

Close up on the step, with the weather strip to stop the rain coming in under the door, now just have to get the wedges out from underneath the step.

Framed!!

2011-07-09T17:06:00.000+01:00

Have you seen this person? no it’s not a chimney sweep it’s Helen after a very tough session with the cutter. What has she been cutting? we before we could fit the new door frame we needed to widen the opening and cut out the existing concrete step at the bottom of the door.

New wider opening

Hole ready to take the new door step. What the photos don’t quite show is that when cutting the old frame out which was concrete, the cutter makes so much dust that a times I couldn’t see Helen inside the kitchen, and as the wind was not quite in the right place the dust got sucked into the house and left a thin film over everything.

OK frame in and all looks good here. Wedges underneath to hold it all in place while we wait for the cement to be mixed.

Special screws fitted to secure the door into the wall.

A little cement underneath to hold it up.

And more cement to fill the holes on the outside and there one door frame fitted and hopefully the wind won’t whistle through the back door in the future. as the new frame has strips under and down the sides, and top to stop the water getting blown in which it did with the old frame. It make look nice and simple here on the blog but it in fact took most of the day to finish.

When is a door not a door?

2011-07-06T16:43:00.000+01:00

When Helen removes it and starts to work on it….

Yep, Today was the big day when we finally got round to sorting out the back door, this is a task which has been in the works for quite a while.

Firstly we needed to trim the peg at the top of the door which goes into the hole in the frame. The problem with the current door is that you can remove the door even if the door is closed and bolted. Not any more the peg is now cut and designed so that the door can only be removed when it is in a full open position.

The bottom of the door sits on this little metal plate and there is a strip on the door which matches it and this in the main pivot of the door.

With the small modifications to the door complete it was time to assemble the frame and fit the door into it to check it would fit and also so we can make and cut the frame to length, We cut the pieces for the fame a while ago but for some reason it never made it to the blog.

Another level

2011-07-05T16:06:00.000+01:00

Last week we laid in the first level of blocks for the extension to the steps today we are ready for the next phase, we have to extend the foundation a little bit ready to take the next set of blocks. so after digging the trench it’s concrete time again.

It looks a bit strange for here, you think well why not just but more blocks in, well then maybe this picture might explain things a bit better.

Yes you can see that the ground level comes up at this point, se we would have to dig down to get blocks in.

Blocked and pipes

2011-06-29T15:52:00.000+01:00

After leaving the foundations to dry for a while today we got the first row of blocks in. These’ll need a day or two to dry before we can put the next row up.

As summer has arrived we now need to think about watering the plants, we have been doing it by hand with the hose pipe but, we like to do things the easy way, so we put in the spay and drip watering from last year, only this time we put things together in a more permanent way so that we don’t have to do a massive amount of work each year to put in the watering.

The veg garden now with watering ready for the summer.

Weird Weather, Cement and Onions (again)

2011-06-22T14:51:00.000+01:00

Every now and then the weather in La Palma can sneak up on you and do something that you don’t expect. Like this morning when I opened the bedroom window to see this sight. Yes that is the top of the cloud layer that you can see. Because the house is about 500m ( 1,640ft in old money)and under the right conditions the inversion layer can be very low and the cloud is stuck below us.

You can also see how the cloud flows up the deep ravines along the north coast leaving just the ridges visible.

Then shortly after sunrise something strange happens and the inversion layer rises in altitude and the cloud follows and before you know it you are enveloped in cloud.

And while on the root we spotted these guys working and it looks as if the lower section of our road which goes down below the main road from our house and loops back up is finally being concreted (it was just a dirt track in places).

And after harvesting here they are all 85 Onions, and considering we put in about 100 that's not a bad, they just need to dry a little on the roof and they’ll be ready to be strung and that will keep us in onions for a couple of months.

The start of the steps, and onions

2011-06-18T14:13:00.000+01:00

The main task for this summer it again to try and get the rest of the house painted, before we can do this we have to get the ground out side the front of the house up to a level, We had started this a while back just before Helen had her problems with the blood pressure.

Anyway today we finally got to pick up where we left off before. The first item on the list was to prepare the foundation for the wall which will go up to extend the steps a little wider. Embedded in this is a tube (the big red one) which will carry the pipe for the watering under the path.

Another thing is that most of the onions have done well and are starting to go over which means that they are about ready to pull up.

This weird looking structure is in fact the old wooden railing which used to be alongside the steps but needed to be taken out before we could do the work. Once we have finished this will be fixed up and made good before being put back alongside the new steps.

One down, One to go

2011-06-15T15:12:00.000+01:00

Well my SOS was answered and the blocks have arrived, so all that was left to do was put them in. Here it is the first compost bin finished.

Later on it will get some wooden slats at the front to hold it all back in, but for now it’s ready to take the compost that we have.

Looking at the side you can see part of the second bin starting to take shape, this will be finished at some point in the future.

Living on the fat of the land

2011-06-14T14:26:00.000+01:00

Well June is here and soon it will be the end of the school year and the start of the lean two months when we don’t have any income coming in, so to help with this we are growing a lot of our own veg. Here is a general view of the whole garden.

Carrots, onions and beetroot are all doing well. With another set about to go in, We have had some trouble with cut worms, a type of moth caterpillar which likes to live in the soil and then pop up and chew through your plant just at the point where the soil ends. Very annoying and hard to find and remove.

Here's a wider shot with the previous crops in the foreground and further back the peppers and then the tomatoes. The first lot of peppers we put in didn’t survive, but we think that it was due to the fact that after we brought the plants that we went to visit some friends and left them in the car and we think they got too hot.

The leeks continue to do well, but the lettuces suffered a bit from the damp weather we have had, and some pest problems (slugs and snails). Also the courgettes aren’t doing well due to the weather and the lack of male flowers, meaning they aren’t producing much at present.

Early days at present with the cucumbers, we haven't got anything from them yet.

The tomatoes are taking over and going crazy.

Meep goes to investigate the strange clumps that have appeared at the bottom of the garden, those are the Calabazas Meep.

Block Party

2011-05-26T14:15:00.000+01:00

OK, more blocks added to the compost bin, only one slight problem we now have run out of blocks, So I sent a quick SOS to our friends Ann & David and hopefully in a few days we might have some more arrive.

Also our existing compost heap seems to be growing calabazas (Pumpkins) which is good because we will just dig these out and plant them elsewhere in the garden.

Start of compost bins and underpinning

2011-05-25T14:12:00.000+01:00

Today we started to make the first of the compost bins, having poured the foundations previously now it was just a matter of laying in the blocks. Just one barrow load of cement just to lay in the first row and a bit.

Then just load of concrete just to slide in under the front of the house where over the years the water flow down the path has excavated a small hole under the foundations of the house, which they thought was on solid rock, but after a while exposed to the weather just disintegrates.

We’ve sprung a leek

2011-05-23T14:03:00.000+01:00

As we mentioned in onions, leeks and sweet potatoes, back in February we planted a load of veg, well today we picked one of the leeks for dinner and were surprised that it was over a foot long, and as a bonus it tasted good too.

A little concrete here and there

2011-05-07T18:19:00.000+01:00

Today for the first time in what seems like ages we mixed a little concrete not very much just a couple of loads, but it was enough for a couple of jobs.

The first lot went into the foundations for the compost bins, we are going to build a couple of compost bins about 1m³, made from blocks, these bins are also going the help to support the terrace wall in this area which in the past had a tree growing from it and so is a little unstable. You can see our existing compost heap in the right of the photo.

The other area was to just finish off around the drains which we put in before we laid the patio. This needed doing so we could rearrange some to the pipe work which holds up the vines, so we can later in the year put up the gazebo again.

Who’s put holes in my nice new wall?

2011-05-01T09:57:00.000+01:00

I came back from work to day to a shocking sight.. A row of deep black holes in my nice freshly painted wall.

What are all these black holes for?

Ah, it’s OK there are for mounting the shelf brackets.

Yes the holes had been drilled to start mounting the shelves that will run the entire length of one wall of the office, these shelves will hold a lot of our computing books and two racks of storage tubs. This will provide a lot of storage which is one thing that we lack in the house.

So with the shelves done the only thing left to do was to move everything back in, which wasn’t that easy as we had a lot to fit in which took a bit of fiddling to find places for everything, and still leave room to work. It’s not perfect but over the next few years we will change the book shelves and desks as money becomes available, but the office in now functional and open for business.

Helen’s desk

Theresa’s desk

The book shelves

Top Coat

2011-04-25T09:44:00.000+01:00

Well after yesterdays exertions moving all that earth, today it was time for something a little lighter. There were a couple of areas that needed a further coat of paint, I had made sure that the area where the bookshelves were going had at least 2 coats, but the other side still had a few areas that had yet to have a second coat.

There that looks better with out the crack and the flaky paint

And this corner all neat and tidy

The book shelves in, the one against the window will move once we sort out the 12v power outlet.

The door out to the kitchen.

Now where is all this going to go?

And this lot too!!!

More Help From Our Friends

2011-04-24T21:06:00.000+01:00

Today we have had Sheila and family over to help with things in the house, Sheila helped me move a book case, into the office (well I directed and Sheila moved books).

Carlos (Sheila's husband) moved soil outside to infill the lower patio. Carlos is great, you just give him a shovel and beer and he just keeps on moving soil…

Carlos with most of the pile moved.

We need to raise the level of the lower “patio” by about a meter at one end. I think Carlos and Theresa moved about 1.5 m³ and raised the level by around 20cm still a long way to go but a very good start.

And here is what they have done.

A big “thank you” to Sheila and Carlos from us, for this help.

Patch and Paint

2011-04-22T13:20:00.000+01:00

Before we could paint the office we needed to do a fair amount of patching, some of the walls and the ceiling were cracked, and had paint flaking off. One place in particular was a patch of the ceiling where in the past we have had some water come in.

The bad patch on the ceiling.

Looks better with a little plaster.

After the plaster had dried it was time , to put on some paint, unfortunately the paint was a little old and had gone a bit thick, even mixing in a little water didn’t help to much. So the paint didn’t go very far, I managed to put one coat on the ceiling and about half the walls, before I ran out of paint.

Power to the Office!

2011-04-21T13:50:00.000+01:00

The one problem with the new office is that it doesn’t have any power. The old bedroom only ever had 12v lights and we had never got round to putting in the mains power sockets. It was Ok to run the bedroom of an extension socket but running the stuff for the office wouldn’t be a good idea, so we have to put in some sockets. So time to get out the hammer and chisel and get to work, I just hope there aren’t to many large rocks in these walls.

One done, two more to go.

Should be one at this end, OK back to work

Once the holes were cut out for the boxes, which had to be done carefully by hand so as not to make to much mess of the wall. Then it was time to break out the power tools. Awhile ago we brought a tool for the SDS drill which cuts a channel ready for conduit. This made short work of cutting the channels down to the floor, where we drilled through to down stairs where the power will be fed from.

All the cutting out done now, time to fit the boxes.

Once all the cutting and drilling was done it was time to put the boxes into the wall, This is done with plaster of Paris, which sets very quickly. To make sure the boxes for the sockets are level we use our wooden jig which holds the boxes in place while the plaster sets.

Boxes in, jig also makes sure that all boxes are in line.

and the one at the other end.

As we are moving things around we need to reroute a couple of the network connections, one of these is in the dining room but we can sneak a new conduit in through the back of the wall.

A connection sneaked through the back of the wall.

All the boxes fitted and ready for cement render.

Now it time to mix up a little cement to fill in the channels we cut for the conduit. Once done this will need a few days to dry before we can apply the final coat of plaster.

All done, now needs to dry.

How does the Garden Grow

2011-04-20T15:25:00.000+01:00

I just thought I would post a few photos to show how things are doing in the garden. The leeks are doing well, should have some to eat in a month or so, The lettuces are coming a long well thought they seem to be very biter. A quick Google and the answer is, they are getting to hot so need more shade… also putting them in the fridge for a day or so before eating will help. We should have our first courgettes soon. See the photo below.

Leeks, lettuces and courgettes.

The main beds , still only toms at the back peppers in the middle and the roots under cover at the front.

The first of the summer cabbages are coming a long well and are ready to eat now although they are quite small at the moment .

Cabbages with aloe Vera in the background.

Early carrots with the next batch of lettuce seedlings

And Now For The Office

2011-04-20T10:53:00.000+01:00

Now that our bedroom has been moved we have an empty room (and a house full of stuff needing a home). So we need to do a quick change job on the old bed room and change it into an Office (it will also double as the spare bedroom when we have guests over).

We (Should I say Theresa) has given the room a good clean to get rid of all the muck (and mould), now all we have to do is add some power points, fill the cracks and paint. Once that is done we can move the shelves back in, put up some new ones (to keep stack and store tubs on) and then add make shift desks. Should be a synch in 5 days with one of us limited to directing and doing only small bits…..

South side of bedroom, now office.

North west corner of office

South east corner showing door to kitchen (will be dinning room) and old blocked up doorway

Happy Birthday Helen, Lets Move to A New Bedroom!

2011-04-16T21:29:00.000+01:00

For some time we have been thinking about moving our bedroom into what was meant to be the “Library”. We have been in the current bedroom since we moved in as it was the only room in the house that was a reasonable room. Now it is the only room that has not been redecorated, (excluding the kitchen and the new bathroom that are stopped for lack of funds).

So as Theresa is off for Easter we decided to move bedrooms and change our current bedroom into an Office/Spare bedroom. The only problem is that since I have had the heath problems I can not seem to do much so Theresa needs to do most of the work. I managed to move one of the shelving units full of books earlier this week And then could do nothing more.

But I had to help her today with all the cleaning and moving of furniture. What a nice way to spend my Birthday! But the room Does look nice.

The new bedroom

One other reason for the move is that the library had two windows one to the north and one to the east, both with very good views, wich makes the room very light and airy.

View from the east window, with Rainbow.

The new bedroom is very nice but all the junk that was in the room before is now distributed around the house.

Where did all that stuff go…

Well here are the books

Aah…. Here its all is, But how are we going to watch TV?

Now to start on the renovation work to turn the old bedroom into an office.

An Update

2011-04-12T21:48:00.002+01:00

Well My blood pressure seems a little better, but since last Friday I seem to have developed a pain in my chest. It seems to be best to do little things like walk around the garden, do a little bit of weeding ect. but not much. staying in bed does not help much ether it seems to make things worse.

The doctor is sending me to see a NEFROLOGIA which I think is a kidney specialist. we will see how long it will be before we get an appointment and then how long it is before we actually see anyone.

Its still not very good….But better than it was.

One slightly amusing thing though, the last time I was at the doctors the nurse started to take my blood pressure and as she was inflating the cuff there was a loud bang from my arm. The bladder had busted, my pressure was not that high, it did result in all of us laughing including the Doctor… The last two times I had had my pressure taken I had said that it was high enough to break the meter, this time it did!

A Bad Week

2011-04-01T19:49:00.001+01:00

I awoke at 1 am on Monday morning with my a pain in my chest like very bad muscle strain. I had to go to the loo and when I got back to bed I was not felling very good but thought that all I had done was strained something the day before with all the work we had done. But then I started to feel something like very energetic muscle twitches in my chest.

It is hard to explain what it felt like, I don’t know if you have felt those small movements that coincide with your heart beat, as if you can feel the blood pulsing through your veins (some times in your ear or on your leg). well this was like that but magnified 1000 times. Also it was not regular, there would be one beat and then a gap of a second or so and another two and then another gap. I just rolled over on to my front and tried to go back to sleep but the beats were so energetic that I felt as if I was being bounced out of bed each time.

I think I did sleep for a bit but after half an hour I had to get up and go to the loo again, and my chest still hurt… Finally I woke Theresa up, she just mumbled that I should go back to sleep, until I got her to listen to my heart and then she was up and awake and helping me up and to the local emergency centre about 20 km away.

We arrived an the staff got me in on the bed and took my blood pressure, it was something like 220/180 which is very bad after a few pills the pain in my chest started to dissolve.

About an hour later, an ecg and more pills, they said I could go home. The doctor did not think there was any problem with my heart but that I should go to my Doctor in the morning. So we went home.

Next morning we went to the Doctors my blood pressure was up again so I ended up with some pills and told to take it easy and go back on Thursday.

Well Thursday came around and our friend Sheila came over to accompany me to the doctors, I was feeling ok, and had been taking it easy. But when the nurse took my pressure she was not happy, so she tried the other arm. and then asked the doctor to take the pressure, it was back up it the very high level again something like 240/160. so it was more pills and then I was told to go straight to the hospital, we arrived at A&E about 1pm.

I think it was the shortest wait in A&E I have ever had, about 1 minute. I was taken in and plugged into a ECG and after off to a cubical where I was attached to several monitors, oxygen supply and a very large syringe of stuff… And there I staid for around 7 hours.

I think Theresa and Sheila expected them to keep me in over night but I was let out and told to get some meds from the pharmacy in Los Sauces in the morning.

Here is a chart of my blood pressure The last but one was after I had been in hospital for several hours

Well its Friday evening and things seem to be going ok, though the meds they gave me were not on the usual prescription so we had to pay full whack for them, around 50€ for a months supply I just hope that the Doc will put the next lot on a cheaper prescription!!!

Not a Nice Morning Call!

2011-03-27T18:41:00.001+01:00

This morning we had a visit from Francisco (The neighbour that we are doing the potatoes with). He informed us that some of the other neighbours (those that have the land next to use and use the track in front of the house) had said that we were not giving them enough room for there LARGE rotovator to get past.

OK I had assumed that 1 meter would be enough room to get any thing past, But no real problem. The big problem. to my mind was that Francisco said that these unnamed persons had said that they would phone the Police about it (without talking to us first) on Monday, but Francisco had said that he would talk to us first.

The thought of the hassle really upset me, but we got right down to looking what we could do to give more room, (They had requested 1.5 meters). After some work with tape measure and string we came up with what we thought was a good solution to the problem.

We would start the ramp down to the current track level from the side of the house, which would result in the whole area in fount of the house being level but we would lose the standing area for a water tank.

That done we had lunch and then started moving the rocks of the walls so that they reflected the new layout. I was still worried about the threat of the Police as we were not sure who these other persons were and whether what we were doing would solve there complaint. Luckily two of the locals came to the other land later that day and we were able to explain what we were doing and get there approval. The most annoying thing is that we know them both and they could have talked to us about the problem.

One good thing is that we now know who owns that land next to ours, when we moved in it was owned by an old guy that lived in Santa Cruz, but it now seems to belong to the guy up the road.

A Bit Late But Still Getting There

2011-03-24T17:26:00.000Z

Last year we started work on sorting out the area in front of the house, preparing to level the ground and provide a ramp to access the terrace. But due to other things we only got the main retaining walls done. The design called for two sets of smaller retaining walls closer to the house. These were required to allow the ramp to the rest of the track to not be too steep and to still allow us to have at least a meter of level ground next to the house to support ladders etc for access to the house for painting etc.

As we want to get the house painted this summer then this area needs to be finished, so this week I finally got out and measured out the location of the inner retaining walls. and there height etc.

I have also cleaned out the ground in preparation for the foundation of the walls. Lets hope that it will not be another year until it is finished.

Meep having fun in the foundations

Marking out looking from the other direction.

Time for Salads

2011-03-20T15:08:00.000Z

The lettuce seedlings have finally got big enough to be planted out so its time to get the new bed ready. The idea is to try some underground watering later when it is needed in a month or so time, so that needs to go in first. As seen below the under ground watering consists of a set a pipes some of which allow the water to seep out slowly.

The lettuce watering ready to be burred.

With the watering in, its time to plant the lettuce out.

This is not a pretty site!!!

Well that's that done. notice the second seed cover with carrots, onions and beetroot.

After a trip to the famers market we have added tomatoes, peppers and calabacíns (courgettes). Also notice the potatoes are coming a long well in the background.

The veg patch is starting to look good.

More veg

Marmalade.

2011-03-12T20:52:00.001Z

Spring is the time for oranges here on la Palma, and this year one of our own small orange trees has produced enough oranges to make all this years marmalade. Each 1kg of oranges should make 6 jars and I plan to do 3 batches this year.

The first batch is done but seems to have only produced 4.5 jars.

First of this years marmalade.

Having read a bit I think I found the problem, As I used the smaller of the two large saucepans to make the marmalade I had to keep stirring to mixture to stop it boiling over, and this cooled the mixture down allowing more of the water to evaporate before the set point was reached.

For the second batch I used the larger saucepan, and also decided to try a new recipe from The book Preserves by Pam Corbin (This one of the River Cottage Handbooks) The recipe is a little simpler and seemed to work quite well. But we will have to wait a while to taste the result.

Second batch of Marmalade.

Onions, Leeks and sweet potatoes.

2011-02-13T20:09:00.000Z

As I said yesterday we have been preparing the veg beds. Well after a trip to the local farmers market we now have 100 onions and 20 leeks planted.

At the same time we harvested two boxes of bonitos (a type of sweet potato) and planted two small rows of potatoes (the ones leftover from planting the terrace behind ours with one of our neighbours.

The onion bed

The leeks.

Now all we have to do is hope they all survive so we can eat them.

Grow Your Own Dinner

2011-02-12T19:43:00.003Z

The start of the year is always busy in the garden. February is the time to try to get the vines trimmed, even if we don’t seem to get much from them. This year I have decided it is time to do something better with the ground that the vines use. So the top terrace (well the top relatively flat terrace that is. There is one above it but that has a 45 deg slope), has been designated the main veg patch. This one has house water so we can water the veg during the summer, that is as long as we don’t use too much water.

Growing plants from seed has met with mixed results in the past. Due to ether the cat digging them up or the lizards eating the new plants the moment they decide to poke their luscious green heads above the soil. To provide some protection to the seedlings I have build a wooden frame with a fly mesh attached to the top . This goes over the seedlings and not only provides protection from the cat’s but also seems to provide a slightly damper micro climate for them. See images below:

Prototype seed protector, with lettuce and carrot seedlings.

Another view of the prototype

I am in the progress of digging the ground to provide 3 veg beds on one side of the terrace and some small beds on the other. See below. Note that the area at the rear belongs to a neighbour and we have gone halves on a crop of potatoes (we supplied the seed potatoes and fertilizer and he provided the land and man power to plant them and then we will go halves on the crop).

The veg terrace.

We are still going to use some of the lower terrace for larger crops and to plant 100 onion sets. in the bed that has been provided. The far bed is bonito that needs harvesting (a bit late I think but we should still get some).

The start of the onion plot.

Best friends, well not quite

2011-01-09T20:11:00.001Z

It maybe a rare sight, but it has got to the point where if they are careful not to get to close to each other that you can find the two cats in the same general location.

Taxes

2011-01-05T12:19:00.000Z

Just got back from our trip to the UK to discover that we had just missed a registered letter. When we tracked it down (It had been given to a Dutch couple who know us.) we found out that it was a demand for unpaid taxes on the house, now when we brought the house we paid taxes, as is required, but it seems that the government thinks that we didn’t pay enough, so they have done a valuation and are basing the tax on their valuation. Their valuation says that we have underpaid the taxes buy about €1600. It’s going to be difficult to pay this and still have enough money for the summer and savings. What really makes it worse is that it has taken four years to work this out and they have a cheek to charge us interest on the tax outstanding….

A bite out of the moon

2010-12-21T06:57:00.000Z

This morning was a lunar eclipse, unfortunately it was just as the sun was rising and the moon was setting below the ridge to the west of the house. But we got a few quick snaps which show the shadow of the earth on the face of the moon.

The weather was also a little misty so it wasn’t possible to get a good clean shot.

Meep and the Broom

2010-11-08T20:24:00.000Z

Meep and the Broom

For some reason Meep has taken to attacking the broom. So every time that Helen tries to sweep the floor, from out of nowhere swoops Meep who then proceeds to try and eat the broom. We have also been running backwards and forwards to Santa Cruz to get both the cats vaccinated and checked out ready to go into the cattery while we go back to the UK at Christmas.

Now that Does Look Good

2010-11-04T10:08:00.000Z

With all the roofs clean its time to paint them with waterproof paint. Not much to to say a bout doing it. But I do have one observation: Once you have painted the roof you need to keep a good eye on it, as if any small holes appear then they need to be patched quickly as water can collect under the paint and WILL soak through the roof.

But it does look nice when it is done, and the walls have been painted!

Kitchen end of roof, and entrance way

Main roof all red

Meep is here to stay

2010-10-21T21:58:00.000+01:00

Well it looks like Meep is going to be staying around, she has now started to come inside and make her self at home. We have been running backwards and forwards to the vets with both cats to make sure that they are vaccinated ready for a stay in the cattery over Christmas while we are in the UK. The one problem is that because she is white and when she was little she was outside and not being cared for she has lost the fur on here ears due to sunburn, so every morning we have to catch her and apply the factor 50.

Tabby and Meep, Tabby tolerates Meep a little but only if she stays a set distance away.

Meep discovers how to climb up into the vines.

Once she has the hang of it there is no stopping her.

And doesn’t she look good against the clear blue sky.

OK here she thinks she is a parrot but oh well!

Adding a bit of colour

2010-10-16T20:47:00.000+01:00

OK now that Helen has finished off the rendering of the hiding the brickwork it’s time for me to splash a bit of paint over the top.

Now it may look like it’s easy with the roller on the long poll, but I can tell you it’s murder on the arms. Also on closer examination the roller doesn’t seem to get the paint into all the little pits that these walls are full of. So it may need another coat at some time.

There starting to look good, though in this picture the colour is a little washed out.

There a different angle shows the colour a bit better.

So that is the back wall of the house painted, only 3 more to go.

There´s a Hole in my Roof… Somewhere

2010-10-16T10:52:00.000+01:00

When it rains hard the old kitchen roof leeks. But I am not sure where the hole or crack is, so it is time to do some remedial work on it.

The first job was to clean off all the old paint, there was not much of it, and any lose cement etc. Once that was done I put down some new mortar to fill in the holes.

Patching and cleaning done. Back of kitchen roof.

And the other side.

Once this is dry I will wash it over with a cement and water mix to seal all the small cracks. Then after a week or so it can be painted.

Getting away…

2010-09-05T16:22:00.000+01:00

Some time as much as we love La Palma it’s nice to get a change of scenery from time to time, and we are very fortunate to have a friend who lives in a large house on El Hierro. But I hear you cry; “why just go to another island, there all the same aren’t they?”. Well you’d be surprised all the 7 islands are amazingly different from each other and all have there own special places.

So at the end of a busy summer we took a weeks break in El Hierro. Partly it was a week because the ferry runs direct between La Palma and El Hierro once a week making a week break easier, and this time we decided to take our car as well, so that our friend could get on with her music recording while we went out exploring.

View of Frontera and El Golfo looking East.

View of Frontera and El Golfo looking West.

Me at the viewpoint from where the photo above was taken.

The statue which sits in the small shrine just by the view point, if you look closely you can see all the money on the floor which is thrown into the chapel.

There are some places on El Hierro which look almost like parts of the north of England, with dry stone walls dividing up the plains.

This lighthouse stands at what was at one time the limit of the know world..

Hiding the Brickwork.

2010-08-25T10:45:00.000+01:00

With the doorway bricked up its time to render to hole to make it all neat. I am not that good at rendering, I never seem to get it level or smooth but this time it seems to have gone well.

I used two coats, the first the standard sand and cement mortar (I would like to point out at this time, that the standard building sand on the canaries is black and made from crushed volcanic rock. So it is not very fine). The top coat was Morsec (premixed dry morter, tha comes in 25 kg bags. it comes in two types, that I know of, normal and white top coat. I like using the white one). This works very well in thin coats. The result on the door opening is shown below.

Now the wall can be painted.

I think the final result was quit good.

With the last of the Morsec, I finished off the roofs of the solar power huts. That is all the structural work done on the huts now finally the walls can be painted.

Back of the huts, showing added white Morsec.

Front of huts.

P.p.p.p.Pick a Pepper.

2010-08-24T14:51:00.000+01:00

We don’t always have a lot of luck with our produce, this year the cucumbers haven’t done very well and the tomatoes are OK but we could do with more and the lettuces we either have to many at once and they go to seed or we don’t have anything but tiny titchy ones which are no good to eat. But as usual the pepper plants have been outstanding.

Here is one load that are about to be processed ready for the freezer where they will keep for use in curries and stir fry's all winter long.

Bye bye Door way, Hello oven

2010-08-23T22:33:00.000+01:00

The last week we have been busy blocking up one of the door ways in to the old kitchen. Part of this is to strengthen the wall and to provide a eye level oven unit, though it may be a while before the oven will be fitted (although we have had it for a year or so. ) See the potos below for all the work.

First day: Get the base done with the power feed for the oven.

Inside

outside.

Day two: Build the oven unit up to the first level, this is ware the oven will sit. Below it will a set of veg racks. Work progresses, now we wait for the cement to set.

Day three: Build the next level, this is where the oven will go.

View from inside.

Outside.

Day four: First job today is to remove the old door lintel, as this is made of wood, and close up the hole. on the inside the back of the top cupboard was added, this is not as deep as the rest of the unit to allow air to vent from the oven unit.

Top cupboard of oven unit.

The final closure of the old doorway.

Day five: finish the oven unit by extending it up to the ceiling.

The finished top cupboard.

The finished oven unit.

Meeeeep Meeeeep The arrival of Meep

2010-08-18T14:41:00.000+01:00

We have noticed the last few weeks a new arrival in our neighbourhood. Living in our wood pile and eating the stale cat food that Tabby would refuse to eat is a tiny little white kitten. We think that she(We think its a she) has been abandoned by somebody and just happened to find the food the we would throw on the compost heap, she was very thing and wobbly when she first arrived but not she looks a little stronger. Over the weeks she would come closer and closer to us. So we started to put some food and water out for her and who knows maybe one day she will allow us to pick her up. We have named her meep after the noise she makes…..meeep.

Let There Be Power

2010-08-17T20:10:00.000+01:00

After a months on and off work the new solar power system is finished. Below you can see the power control hut with the change controller and isolation boxes. The main battery Isolation box is open showing the wiring to the fuses, isolators and current monitors.

Solar power Hut

The Current monitors are home made units based on a signal chip current measurement ic ( ACS754SCB-100-PFF ) . One of the units are shown below. It consists of the IC mounted on a peace of veroboard with the line contacts solders into two connecters that I removed from some fuse holders that we brought by mistake. (As normal on this island you can buy a car audio fuse holder that no one sells fuses for). All of this is mounted on a home made Perspex mounting panel.

Home made current monitor unit.

The last thing that we done is mount the current solar panels on our adjustable panel mounts and connected them to the power hut. Panels mounted on adjustable mounts

Wiring starts

2010-07-21T19:39:00.000+01:00

The solar power huts are now ready to except the components. It´s only taken 8 months to get things to this point after the make shift set up was washed out in the storm. The first parts to go in are the new (we have had it for 3 years) charge controller with the panel isolating switch and fuse box (see image below).

I will admit that as it is a 45 Amp controller and we only have 2 60W panels at the moment it is a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, but once we have some more spare cash we can get a few more panels and not have to worry about the controller.

The solar charge controller finally in its hut.

Rock & Hole

2010-07-09T14:24:00.000+01:00

With the supply of available rocks diminishing rapidly work has slowed on the wall and ramp at the front of the house.

Tabby inspects the wall for quality control

We have robbed all the stones from the floor of what was the pig pen and will some day be the observatory.

No more rocks!!!

We should just have enough stones around to just about finish this some time but that may not be for a while as other things are beginning to take precedence.

Higher, and higher

2010-07-08T19:23:00.000+01:00

As previously explained in Raising Ground and The walls are rising we are levelling the ground at the front of the house. The photos bellow show how this is moving along

As you can see here most of the ramp is complete

More cement on the ramp as the new back all starts to take shape

Digging away the existing edge for the new wall

A few rocks in

Almost there.

And that will do for now. Just need to top off and tidy up a few bits.

On the floor in the pig pen

2010-07-07T18:04:00.000+01:00

In order to build the ramp and the walls out the front of the house we needed to find some extra rocks from somewhere, and one thing we wanted to do was look under the floor in the pig pen to see what was there as someday this will become the observatory and will need a very solid pier constructing to take the telescope.

Half the floor gone

As the floor of the pig pen was made of rocks it made sense to pull them up so that they could be used in the wall and then we could look underneath.

All gone

The corn is as high as a mouse's eye.

2010-06-26T00:20:00.000+01:00

A while a go we started the experimentation with the new warring system (see post Watering 2.0) on the boniarto and corn patches. Well it seems to be working though the corn is not that high yet it seems to be growing ok.

And the boniarto seems to be thriving. Well its green anyway.

The only problem is adjusting the taps so that an equal amount of water is supplied to each tube. Well the proof is in the pudding as they say or in this case in the pot. we will just have to wait and see how the crop is.

The walls are rising

2010-06-18T00:09:00.000+01:00

Two weeks work and it does not look like much has happened. The ramp is taking shape but not by much.

The idea was that this should only take 2 weeks to get the new ramp built but I don’t seem to be getting a long that fast at the moment. Mind you it building these rock (or stone) walls can be quit therapeutic.

The main worry I have is if we have enough rocks to finish the walls.

Well we will see how it all goes.

Battle of the bulge

2010-06-09T21:36:00.000+01:00

No I´m not talking about our waist lines that is another story..

What I am talking about is the curious bulge that has always been in the wall on the front of the house. It look very much like something inside the wall was pushing it out. So one time while we were working on the lower patio we decided to chip it off and see what was causing this part of the wall to be pushed out, This is what we found Yes you can clearly see that it is a horseshoe. We have found loads of these around the place and it looks as if this one has been placed in the wall while it was being built, possibly for luck. However as this wall can get very damp sometimes the horseshoe has started to rust which is what was pushing the wall out. So we removed it and put it with the rest of the interesting things we find in the garden, there is a spur somewhere…Then we just need to patch the hole and it shouldn't get pushed out again as there is now nothing to push it.

Raising the Ground.

2010-06-02T00:00:00.000+01:00

Our house is quite normal on the la Palma in that it is built on a slope, the front of the house is two stories but the back is only one. The lower part of the front of the house consist of two rooms that in the past were used for ether storage or animals. Outside these “rooms” is what could loosely be called a yard, which is about 2 meters wide and bounder by a meter to 1.5 meter drop down to the next terrace. The problem is that this so called yard is not level in fact it drops by almost 1 meter from one end to the other.

So we plan to level this ground and use the opt unity to construct better access to the terrace below. To do this we need to build up the rock walls and add a ramp.

So the first thing to do is dismantle the rock wall so that we can build the ramp.

Once we have the walls done the we need to bring the ground level up to meet the house and convert this yard into some thing that we can use and that will not break ankles…

Making shapes

2010-05-31T18:08:00.000+01:00

Between the kitchen and the rest of the house far years there has just been a rough hole in the wall which has been there since we arrived. well with both sides now finished it’s time to finally put the last piece in place the arch itself. So we built the arch former from ply and small bits of pine. Once the former was complete then came the task of fitting it into the opening. we screwed two boards across the bottom of the opening. Then the arch former was fitted between them and secured in place. Rebar has been put in to give the arch added strength. Note also that the other side has already had the boards fitted. We poured the concrete in and added the extra boards as we went along.

With all the concrete poured in and the boards fitted it was time to cross fingers and pray that we had got the concrete where it was needed. The following day it was time to take of the outer boards and see if we had in fact managed to get the concrete into the right places. As the photo above shows it looks like most of the concrete is where it needs to be, with just a few bits needing some surface patching…

Watering 2.0

2010-05-23T19:03:00.000+01:00

Our efforts at using gray water to water our veg has hot been that successful, the first year worked ok , but after that it stopped working. The main problem is the gray water has not been filtered so that it clogs up the drip watering feeds etc.

After some web research and book reading, we cam across a method using plastic pipes with drilled holes to distribute water. These are buried in the veg plots and should provide adequate irrigation.

so we purchased some 20mm plastic pipe and added the holes.

Pipe being drilled.

All the bits ready to be assembled.

The pipe sections are 2m in length and have aprox. 20cm risers added so that they can be berried below the surface.

The water is derived by 16mm plastic irrigation pipes with a tap for each buried pipe. The main problem at the moment is getting all the taps balanced so that each of the berried pipes gets the same amount of water.

So far the system seems to be working but the real test will be through the summer.

The new irrigation system with some very young corn plants…
will it work?

Battery Box fail…….

2010-05-20T18:45:00.000+01:00

There I was happily pottering around the house when I heard this sudden crash and thud from somewhere around the house. “Now what has fallen down!!” After 10 minutes of hunting I could not find a thing that had fallen..

Well about a hour later I was hanging up the washing and spotted the following:

What seems to have happened is that the plastic in the storage box that we used to cover the battery 3 years ago has degraded to the consistency of prawn crackers and finally collapsed.

Look out…Look out…..Weather about….

2010-05-13T18:59:00.000+01:00

One morning as I was going about my normal morning routine I walked outside an was suddenly surprise to spot the following. Yes that is a water spout. It’s a little mini tornado that appears over the sea, we do see them sometimes when the conditions are right. They disappear quite quickly and don’t make it to land and also it is very rare to spot one touching the sea. which if you look at the picture below you can see this one does.

In need of support

2010-04-08T18:03:00.000+01:00

In order to build the arch between the kitchen and dining room later this year we need to get the two sides made up to about the same point so that the former for the arch will sit level. We did the other side back in January. So we finally got our act together and sorted out the other side. So once we had cut the wood it was time to pour the concrete. This didn’t take all that long as the width on this side is not as great as the other side. when we had poured the concrete all the way up to the top we put in some small lengths of rebar in to connect to the rebar that will go into the arch when we pour it. After a few days we took of the wood and here you have it another side of the arch complete.

What´s Behind the Red Door

2010-04-01T22:35:00.001+01:00

Finally after 3 months work the solar power huts are now watertight (well mostly, still need to do a bit of rendering) with the fiting of the doors.

These doors are home made out of ply (was suppose to be marine ply but I have my doubts) with air vents at the bottom.

The main problem was the hinges, I wanted nice rustic hinges for the doors that fit on the face, but could not get any that fitted onto the frames as that part was too big so had to cut them down…. which task took quite a bit of sawing with a hacksaw and some black enamel paint to stop them rusting.

The battery huts doors were fitted first about a week ago. and then today we finally fitted the power hut doors. Hurray!!!!!

They seem to look quit good… Now all I have to do is get all the bits inside them…

Here Comes the Summer

2010-04-01T12:34:00.000+01:00

In preparation for planting the veg ready for the summer we have cleared the weeds and sorted out the upper terrace. We tend to use this terrace to grow veg for the summer as it is easy access to maintain and water. Once we get the water recycling working we should be able to use the lower terraces more but for now we will use this terrace.

As you can also see we have put a number of poles in to mark out various areas of the garden. These include what will be in the future, raised beds for growing crops in an area of about a meter wide by 2 meters long.

Surprise Squash

2010-03-28T12:43:00.000+01:00

While Helen was clearing weeds at the bottom of the garden she discovered this It’s a calabaza which is a type of squash or pumpkin it had grown from some seeds which ended up on our compost heap. As our compost heap doesn’t work very efficiently at the moment it isn’t getting rid of the seeds but it does grow some wonderful pumpkins as looking at the vines which are coming up from that area we have found about 3 more potential calabazas which are only about an inch long at the moment.

Wiring a Power Station

2010-03-19T21:20:00.000Z

I do wonder if this may be overkill but it has to handle up to 100 Amps and its better be safe than sorry.

I have started to layout the main solar power switch box. This box provides for the main isolation switches, fuses and some electronics to measure the current flowing in one of three locations, into or out of the battery, into the house 12v supply and to the inverter that will provide 240v to the house. Each of these circuits can also be isolated in this box.

Front and rear of main switch box panel

There is a second box that provides isolation for the solar panels. see Danger Electric Shock Risk for the layout of the full power panel.

You’ve Been Framed

2010-02-26T21:20:00.000Z

Before the doors can be fitted to the huts on the roof we needed to make and fit some door frames

Before the door frame could be fitted the back plate which will mount all the electronics needed to be fitted as once the frame is in there is no way we would be able to get it trough the hole.

An then once fitted and the render applied up to the edges they were given a coat of paint which will match the rest of the wood work on the house (Once we paint the house this summer).

Danger Electric Shock Risk

2010-01-22T20:09:00.000Z

After water got into the previous electrical systems for the solar panels we are taking no chances with the new system. So as well as building nice brick built houses on the roof for the electronics and batteries to sit in we are building a nicely laid out panel which everything sits on.

The black thing in the top left is the heat sink for the charge controller which will take the current from the panels and feeds it to the batteries. Underneath that is a switch and fuse to isolate the panels. In the centre is the main box which will contain all the fuses and switches to isolate the batteries and the supply to the house. The blue box on the right hand side is the 750w inverter that will provide the 240v for the lighting and other low wattage things for the house. We can’t use the inverter just yet until we up the battery capacity but we need to plan the space in advance.

Removal of the Man Trap

2010-01-17T20:46:00.000Z

The entrance way has always had a large hole in one side of it (it was a drain), but since we ran the drains etc for the new bathroom across it, it has been a bit of a assort course just to get into the house.

So finally we have got around to relaying the entrance way. This involved digging up the current concrete, creating a manhole for the drain accesses and putting down the new concrete.

Casting Manhole.

Removal of existing concrete.

New concrete laid.

All Done.

So now we can get into the house without braking a leg. I just hope I got the grading right so that the rain water goes down the drain and not into the house.

Spaghetti Junction

2010-01-07T20:31:00.000Z

In preparation for creating the arch which will sit between the kitchen and the dinning room, we needed to mount all the conduit and boxes for the power and lighting for the kitchen and outside.

Once all the conduit and the boxes had been installed with a specially cut former to hold the socket boxes in place. The outside of the boxes were covered in plaster to hold the conduits firm and stop the concrete from seeping into the socket holes.

Once the concrete had been poured and allowed to set for a few days it was time to take off the mould and see what was underneath. We have 3 boxes that will hold all the switches to control the kitchen and outside lights.

So here we are we have switches to control a light in the new kitchen and one above the back door (Yes we can now go to the bathroom at night with out requiring a torch). Also one of the switches is linked to a socket which powers the hot water heater so after a long time we no longer need to have a cable that runs all the way from the entertainment room to power the heater. The sockets are only there temporarily to provide power while we work on the kitchen.