Mangos

The spot next to the water tunnel and the garage is where the 3 riego (irrigation) water pipes issue their water into the irrigation channels. They're not too careful with that, and the channels leak, so it's always quite wet there. And nice and green. Apparently mango trees use a lot of water, so that's the spot. Bought two, 16€, var "Sensacion". Well, that sounds promising.

Mango nr. 1 (var "Especiosa")

Mango nr. 2

Original planting hole of mango nr. 1

That is because I underestimated how big a mango can grow. They can, apparently, grow 10-12 m in size. Well, in the tropics. To be sure I dug up mango nr.1 again and replanted it a few meters further on.

Granadas

There's a pomegranate tree at the back of our land that has fruit with dark purple juice. Vrery good to make the Antas cocktail (half pomegranate juice, half tequila, ice cubes). Took some cuttings. (start of November)

Aperro

End of October: lots of excitement among our dogs, woof woof, bark bark. Usually that means: cat. Or hedgehog. Or an airplane (Zoomba). Not this time. Two pups in the riego tube in front of our house. Quite shy. hm.. Not very approachable. Put down a saucer with some dog biscuits, and some water. That did get eaten when we were not near.

Contacted some near charities. To no avail. Patas had the usual story: we're full. Others advised us to wait and see if the mother was around. Indeed, the next day we saw her. And the (possible) dad: a big white labrador-ish one. They looked quite happy, and were rummaging around. A bit of a relief.

Till November 16-17th, when there were heavy rains. The neighbour Spanish lady came to our gate that there was a puppy in the lemon grove that was not doing well.
"He was sitting down all the time."
You don't catch him?
"No, I go to Jaen today."

We went over there, but nothing. An hour later there was. I heard faint squeals. And there he was, lying on the ground, soaking wet and cold. Picked him up, took him home. He smelled a bit odd. Garlic? Towels to dry him off. Into the bench. Two bottles with warm water. Covered by towels. Hope he recovers.

But, he did not.

Bye beautiful dog we will not know, or him us.

And the other one?

Is it life? Nature? Destiny?

I do know it is sad.

Fixing the road, again

Let’s not replace the washed away sand with new sand, as that may wash away too.

The wall of the field that was demolished in the past was still lying around in loose stones. Ingenieur Jansen put them to good use. Nicely cleaned up the field too.

Then cover and fill with the sand that was washed into the lower garden. The Delonix Regia will be happy to get rid of all the sand on it's roots.

Filled in with sand, and watered.

Removing the sand around the Flamboyant tree (delonix regia).

And this is what Ingenieur Jansen did with the bigger stone blocks of the demolished wall. The main reason our road is damaged when there's a lot of rain is that the water from the hills eventually flows onto our land, and exits via the road, for a big part. In the past it all exited through a lower bit in the wall, 20 meters further down the road, but the new bypass is even lower, so it gets washed away. Use these blocks to extend the wall, and hopefully contain the water, and force it through the proper opening in the wall.

And surprise surprise, we went to the ayuntamiento yesterday to ask them to fix the (public) road to our house. They said they'd await the weather forecast, and they'd come next week. In fact, they meant "mañana"! In the proper sense, that is.

Rain. Again. Back to the drawing board.

We're back where we started. Another heavy rain, again a waterfall in our back yard, again the road washed away, and the Endesa electric cable visible. But the deltawerk at the back has held! No water through our back gate! Oh, and the steps to the upper orchard are washed free from soil too. Which enables me to put the second one really horizontal, this time.

(Vain) attempt to direct the water off the road.

Another vain attempt.

And the result a few hours later.

But this one held! No water entered our back gate.

At least I can now put the second step horizontal.

Rain, again. But the Deltawerkjes!

Rain. Again. But, the Deltawerkjes worked. No damage to the road at all.
And the water did not reach our back gate either. Success!

Prediction. 26mm is 26 liters per square meter.

Buienradar / rain radar

The upper campo (neighbours at the back of our land)

And that water continuously seeps through this wall, in the past flooding our road, but now neatly drained away.

The water did run along the road, but as it was a lot less than before it drained off to the side.

oooh

But stopped.

Planting trees

2 variegated lemons, 2 blood orange, 2 grapfruit, 2 limes, 2 silk trees, 2 jacaranda, 1 poinciana. Lost count. But it already looks a lot greener!

Found two large lengths of 10-20 m water tubing, that I used earlier for watering the trees on the other bit of the garden, and installed them more or less permanently, with two taps. We also had a roll of bigger diameter garden hose, so now I can reach every bit of the orchard with quite a lot of water. No more carrying around watering cans!

Blood oranges. Ready in February!

The biggest hole remains unused. But we'll think of something.

Car lock locked

For more than 30 years I’ve had an anti-theft lock in my car ("AutoBlock"). An iron bar between steering wheel and brake, with a lock. Meticulously I applied it when parking the car, ALWAYS. Even for 5 minutes. Today it did not want to open any more, while at the shops. So there I was, fiddling a lock, in my car. No one looks, no one sees.

Anyway.

Called the insurance, and they sent a grua. He tried to call a colleague to bring a cutting machine, but it was a quarter to 2, so almuerzo. He then put my car on his lorry, and took me to a friend’s garage, that was still open despite it being 2:10, and him not picking up the phone. There he borrowed a machine and took the bloody lock off in 5 minutes.

Great service, Seguros Reale and Gruas Azor! Many thanks!

All done within an hour. I wonder if they’d have been so efficient in the Netherlands.

Now what to do.. Buy a new anti-theft device, or..?

Ring the Door

The right front door scrapes the floor a bit. So, it needs a bit taken off on the underside, or simple be lifted about 1-2 mm.

Move the hinges? No. Since the new plaster we cannot lift the door off it's hinges any more without damaging the new plaster. The pins of the hinges are longer than the space available above the door.

Challenge: put a ring in between the two parts of the hinges without taking the door off.

Solution: cut a segment out of a proper ring, and hammer it in between.

Voilà!

Kitchen Drains

A long standing irritation: the kitchen sink drain. It was never great, and with the outside plaster replacement the drains were put in the wall with flexible tubing. They got sort of blocked a month or so ago. Two packets of caustic soda did not unclog them. Nor did a dash of sulfuric acid. So lets replace the in-wall pipes with a tube behind the kitchen cupboards. And simply connect it up to the loo drain, where the washbasin was connected.

Pity that is 32mm connection while I need 40. So I had to saw it off, and sanded the protruding bits off with a Dremel. It took about a day.

Yes, I’m quite knackered. I’m too old to fold myself into kitchen cupboards all day.

But the good thing is that we can wash away things like teabags as we were used to!