Fire

The last few weeks have been extremely hot and for some of that time we were oven in Tenerife having a short break way from things. Just before we went there was a Major forest fire over there and now not only do we have one on La Palma, there is also a very bad one on La Gomera.

When the wind was in the right direction some of the smoke blew overhead.

Strange Weather

Sometimes living on a small island in the Atlantic can lead to some interesting weather. None more so than when we have the hot dry weather, this can trap the cooler damp air underneath, and therefore also traps the cloud.  So what you end up with is sometimes the  top of the cloud comes right up almost to the house and you look out over a sea of cloud…Now this is very common at the top of the mountain but very very occasionally we get it at our level. 

View out over the north coast showing the cloud tops

As the cloud come closer it get pushed up the ravines…

Weird Weather, Cement and Onions (again)

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.

A bite out of the moon

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.

Look out…Look out…..Weather about….

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.

Storm Warning

I'm sitting writing this blog entry on my old PDA in bed, I'm doing this because at the moment this is about the only room in the house that's got any light. It has now been about 27 hours since the power went off at about 3 yesterday. We did have power briefly for about 10 minutes just now before it went again. Why the power has been out for so long we're not exactly sure but we have just had some very serious storms come through. In fact last week we registered a wind gust of 104Km/h. We have suffered some minor damage the worst being that water had got into the charge controller for the solar system (because we hadn't sorted out the new enclosure) which means that we are limited on our solar power, we do have another charge controller but to get that working we have had to buy some new batteries and will need to get a few things done before we can install it.

Another problem is that we have had a wall collapse on the lower terrace which we had to clean off the road.

We were lucky with this storm as in the north we were sheltered from the worst which came up from the south east.

PS We have had power back on for a short while this evening but its only on for about half an hour before it drops out again. But it was on long enough to get the freezer back up to temperature which meant that we were able to check that it was all still frozen. Which it was thankfully.

A new home for the weather station

The old location for the weather station temperature and humidity sensor used to be the front of the house. The only down side of this location was that at certain times of the year It would get direct sunlight which would upset the readings and not give a true reflection of the current ambient conditions. So once the sensor had come back from repair (having given up after 2 years the replacement only last 3 months so we sent it back under warranty) we decided to construct an new home to protect it from the sun. But it still needs airflow in order to get a correct reading. So what we needed was a Stevenson Screen.

So here it is. In fact it is made from the plastic bases that sit under plant pots. Construction details can be found here

Spring has sprung

After what has seen like an eternity and like some one just flicked a switch spring has finally arrived in La Palma. Overnight we went from it being cold and rainy to clear blue skies and sunshine. OK at the moment we have calima which is when we get the wind from off the sahara along with a lot of dust. This generates very warm dry conditions and you also get a misty effect like a mild fog.
But with the warm weather arriving we can finally start to get some things done on the outside of the house. One of the major jobs we have been doing is the annual trimming of last years growth off the vines. And as part of this job this year we have been re arranging many of the poles which support the vines top bring them a little bit lower. This has also opened up the area around the old pig pen to the sky which is kind of good considering that I will hopefully be turning it in to an observatory later in the year.

The future home of the telescope the old pig pen!!!!!

The other thing at this time of year is to asses the damage that has been done over the winter.

What last year was just a small collapse!!!

Believe it or not this was just a small area of wall which had collapsed last year however the winter rains have made it a lot worse. so this will need to be cleared so that we can pour concrete in the base and start rebuilding the wall.
The other thing that has started recently is work on the walls outside which eventually become part of the outside kitchen but at the moment they are just mainly there to hold the earth in place and enable us to have a more usable space outside.

The first of the support columns for the wall goes in (and Tabby investigates)

The wall has now been raised to the same hight all along the house terrace

One of the problems we have is that now we only have the small car it is difficult for us to get some of the materials that we need but this week luckily help was at hand from our friends Anne and David from La Casita who kindly offered to pick us up some building supplies while they were out.

One nice pile of reinforcing bars thanks to Anne and David

A White Christmas

Well just in case you miss it I can confirm that here in the Canaries we do have a white christmas Ok it's only above 2,500 meters but as you can see there is snow on the mountain top. All we got at our level of 500m was a lot of rain and a thunder storm which took the power out for a short while. Now this morning the sun is out as the sky is blue with just a few clouds out to sea.Snow at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory on Xmas Day from the webcam on the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT)

The view from the window here with clouds out to sea

Merry Xmas

Review 2008

Well as the end of the year draws near it's time to review what progress has been made over the last year, and also what has gone wrong.

In January we finally finished decorating the front room which we are calling the library, and the permission came through from the town hall to enable us to put a roof on the old water tank which we are going to turn into a bathroom. Then in February we got the builders in and in 3 days they had the roof on and finished. Meanwhile we got started on the dining room inside which up to this point has just been bear concrete walls. On the outside the mild weather meant that we could finish the steps and ramp down the side of the house. March saw a trip back to the UK to see Helen's grandson Theo. This trip was not as relaxing as I would have liked due to flight delays and missing bags. Also in March we had a scare as Helen fell from one terrace to another requiring a trip to the hospital for an x-ray on suspected broken ribs. Luckily she was OK just badly bruised. April saw work on the area for the water tanks as part of the preparation for the permanent drainage systems.

In May the doorway was converted into a window and the plastering of the walls and ceiling in the dinning room continued. Then in June the first part of the drains went in and the dinning room got painted and woodwork varnished. Then in July the miracle happened we finally got indoor plumbing and the tiles went down in the dining room. Which soon lead in August after a trip to Tenerife to the temporary kitchen going in and finally after 18 months I had a gas cooker with more than 2 rings and sink where the water went somewhere when you pulled the plug out this now means that work can start on the old kitchen which needs the old work tops demolishing and the drainage putting in and also the drainage for the bathroom needs to run through there. Since then it has been crazy I have gone from last year of only having 1 hour of teaching outside of school to having to turn people away as I don't have any more time to give classes. It has not been helped by having a bad head cold which refuses to go away, November and December have also been very cold and damp which has not made things easier. But at the moment the sun is shining.

Recently we have been demolishing the old kitchen. which included a large concrete chimney over what was the old fireplace. Hitting this with a large hammer enabled Helen to get rid of some of her frustrations. All that is left is a very thick concrete beam which goes form wall to wall and will have to be gut out with the angle grinder.

The only bad thing of real note is the continued problems with the car. We have had to have the clutch cable replaced, the ventilation fan is on the blink and I have just been given a price of nearly 400€ to replace it. Without the fan you get a smell of petrol into the car so it has to be replaced soon. The car still has wear on the front tires due to the corners here. And to top it all she still has the intermittent problem where she over revs at idle and despite us cleaning everything it is still happening so I will have to take the car into the workshop early next year and see if they can sort it out.

Catching Up

The last few weeks have been quite, both me and Helen have been ill at one point or another. Despite this, things are progressing on the house at a slow pace, this is mainly due to the fact that we cannot buy any new materials until we have built up a bit more of a cash reserve. Over the summer the job at the schools ends and I don't get paid for July and August which makes life difficult for a couple of months, and last year I didn't have that many after school classed. How things are different this year, I now have at least 2 hours of English classes every afternoon except on Monday and weekends. These don't pay that well for individual classes but some of them are groups which means that the amount per hour can get quite interesting.
We have been able to do a little work on the house and we have built a set of steps going up from the terrace where the house is to the next level up which will make accessing and maintaining that terrace easier, as the existing access was a breeze block balanced half way up a slope which meant that getting any of the gardening tools such as the petrol strimmer up there could be interesting.



We have gotten most of the crops in ready for winter this year, winter being the wettest part of the year is the main growing season over here and the temperature very rarely gets below double figures, so you don't have to worry about frost. So far we have cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, carrots, swede, turnips out in the fields and soon potatoes and onions should be on their way once I have brought the seed potatoes.

Helen has just got back from El Hierro where she had been staying with our friend Norma. Norma made a mistake last week and managed to miss the only direct ferry from La Palma back to El Hierro, So she flew back on the Monday leaving her car behind and Helen drove her car over on the ferry the following Sunday and then Helen flew back this Tuesday.

We Plow the Fields

But we haven´t got round to scattering yet.

Yes it´s that time of year again when the rotavator gets it´s annual outing. During the summer not a lot grows here, in fact there is very little or no rain from April through to September. But once September arrives down comes the rain and everything starts to grow. So Finally to day we got round to digging over two of the plots on our land. We got the first one done before the rotavator started to play-up so off up to the workshop under the house where we took the thing apart and managed to get it going again to finish the other patch. We should be planting some cabbages, turnips, carrots & swedes this weekend.

We have our Bag...

Well our bag did finally arrived at Sheila's and we have it back with all the bits that were in it. Apart from that we have done nothing this week, it has been raining everyday since we got back and I have been working on the Ruido FanZine Layout most of the time, but that should be all done with by Monday and I hope that the weather will be better next week. We plan to order the new windows for the Dinning hall and Kitchen tomorrow, nothing special just the cheapest we can get.
If the weather improves I need to drill some holes in the roof for all the solar power feeds and lay a concrete base for the battery housing, its only been waiting to do it for 6 months, just haven't been able to get round to it with all the work on the bypass.

The Rain Has arived

Last week the first rain of winter arrived here in La Palma, not to heavy, only about an inch a day or so but it does mean that the place has started to sprout, ( this should have happened about a month ago but at least it is here now). The funny thing is that it is December and the place is starting to look very green like spring. The seasons are slightly messed up here..... The other thing is that it is Cold (OK only around 17 Deg C), time to get the jumpers out...
On the House front things are moving along, the walls are mostly done in the front room and so is most of the wood stripped, now it is time for the ceiling .... We hope to have the room done for Christmas.
The garden is going OK, We have Collies, Cabbage, Potatoes, carrots etc all growing well. Repairs to the retaining walls of the terraces are OK.. but on hold until we have a few dry days to poor some concrete.
I have also been working to get the second solar power panel up, This requires the construction of two junction boxes with copper bus bars and cables to connect these to the panels, should have these all done by the end of the week.
Thinking back on what we have done on the house and have still to do I have realised that it may almost have been quicker to start from scratch and build a new house . When we finished we will have replaced or put in all the services for the place and that is something I have never done before - not from scratch (OK I did rewire a house in the UK completely for a friend once)...
I do wonder if we will get this place done.... or when we do how long it will take ... But we do do a good job...