October '12

No.11
Well, it looks like we are not going to get in this month as promised at the start of the project. Things seem to be moving at a glacial pace and everything that we ask about is "The last thing to be done". The bannistairs are in, but the top rail still needs to be fitted. The stone walll on the front of the house has been finished and the carcasses of the kitchen units are now in position with some of the end panels fitted. There is still a lot of work to be done on the electrics and solar water panels as well as fixing the roadside excavations

Cleo
Looking cute amongst our flowers and chillies

Olive Picking
The time has come to find out if we can manage to get some decent oil from our olives this year. The goal is 1,000 litres, but that is really just a guess at what we can manage. Thsi year we are collecting from the pale green terraces in the diagram below. The are a good number of olives on the trees, but not as many as in other fincas.

We started collecting in the last weekend of October which is very early in the season, but I was paranoid of having a storm knock all the olives to the ground where they are no good for my purposes. With the help of some Romanian friends, we managed to collect 1,200 kilos that weekend which turned into 168 litres of Extra Virgin (0.4% acidity) oil. It was very hard work, but now we know what we are doing and what to expect.

The journey down to Soldebre for the pressing was another first. 1/2 hour each way. I'm not looking forward to the first journey in the cold and rain.

Barranc in flood
Well for a couple of days, but that is better than nothing.

And finally, our tractor (Mr. Pink) is now officially twinned with Romania and more specifically, the area around Beius which is where our friends Florin & Ramona and their families come from. Check out the local area website here.

September 2012
November 2012

PB