What What Limequat?

Last week gardener engineer Jansen saw a nice and big lemon tree at the garden center for 25€, and could not control himself.  Today he planted it.  The usual procedure, hammer drill, sifting soil, removing stones, etc.

Removed the label, as he keeps those.

Citrus x Floridiana. Oh, a hybrid. And eh.. what? It's not a lemon! It's a "Limequat"!

What the hell is a limequat?

Wikipedia Limequat says:  "The limequat (Citrus × floridana) is a citrus hybrid that is the result of a cross between the Key lime and the kumquat, hybridized by Walter Tennyson Swingle in 1909"

Engineer Jansen knows the Key lime from the very nice pie, so if this is like that all is good.  Although someone named “Swingle” does not immediately sound really trustworthy (sorry).

Oh, and "Limequats are used in cocktails and fruit salads, and can be candied whole. They can be cooked if the seeds are removed, as they impart a bitter taste, and they can also be made into conserves.". Good too, but skip the fruit salads, too healthy!

"It is a small tree that grows into a contained bushy form. The leaves are characteristically citrus-like. The limequat produces an abundance of fruit even at a young age. The fruit is small, oval, greenish-yellow and contains seeds or pips. It has a sweet-tasting skin and a bitter-sweet pulp with a flavor similar to limes. The fruit can be eaten whole or the juice and rind can be used to flavor drinks and dishes. It has considerable amounts of vitamin C and is highly acidic."

So far this is not a small citrus, it is nice and tall. 

Engineer Jansen’s Ingenious Soil Sifting System™

To plant one lime tree in this rocky stony soil Engineer Jansen uses 100 grams dynamite, a hammar drill, shovels and Engineer Jansen’s Ingenious Soil Sifting System™. Yes, that is a pile of rocks at the arrow.

Endless Margaritas in 2, 3 years time.

Do notice Pili at the top of the picture.

Lime, pile of stones, Pili and mango

One of Engineer Jansen’s piles.

 eh..

Engineer Jansen’s Ingenious Soil Sifting System™

Bouddha's Hand

Dutch "sukade" is made of the peel of a very big lime fruit, the Citrus Medica, wikipedia says: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukadeboom In English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succade

"Sukade" is made by candying the peel of the fruit: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukade as used in the Dutch new year treat “oil balls” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliebol

Not found that tree here, but readily available is Buddha's Hand, that is also labelled Citrus Medica:

We'll see!

Outdoor lights

The house has nice built-in outdoor lights. Sort of a roof tile incorporate in the wall and plaster, with a lightbulb inside. All fittings, however, made of plastic, have not survived well. 10 of these, eh. Engineer Jansen was not impressed.

Cycad - Cycas - Sagopalm

The terrace has an amazing 20 year old cycad / cycas  sagopalm. More than one meter high. But, it has to go, it's extremely poisonous for dogs.  Every part of the plant. The leaves, and the nice red nuts it produces. 

We replanted it outside the fence. An operation that has cost days and days. First, while constructing the fence we tried to dig it up, but the soil is hard, and it has a big system of fibrous roots. So, with the hammer drill engineer Jansen has spent days digging a trench around it, softening the soil with water, but it would not really budge. 

In the end we bent it every way, managed to tear is off it's roots. I hope enough roots are left to make those regrow. Currently it does not look terribly happy, the lower leaves are sagging.  But, the hot weather is over, so it has some opportunity to recover, we hope.

The top was a yellow-beige ball of fluff, that is now showing the red nuts! (Hope that is not a bad sign)

Deltawerkjes

Ingenieur Jansen managed to construct an impressive dam to counter rain water flowing down the road. Sawed a plastic pipe in half as a mould. 4 bags of 25 kg hormisac concrete, et voilà!

Small addition. Tested with bucket of water, some water sat in the corner, see below. Can’t have THAT!

Palm removal

Today we say goodbye to the palm tree. It got far too big, and it made a mess with all those seeds, that were also eaten by the dogs, and attracted flies, and sprouted everywhere. Sorry!

One guy climbs up, in a special protective suit, he then first cuts off the leaves, dropping them down on a big wooden board. That is necessary, because these leaves weigh a lot. He then slices slices off the palm with a chainsaw, dropping the blocks down on the big sack filled with the leaves as a cushion.

Very very impressive work by Nash Groundworks (Mojacar).

Video:

Alma goodbye

Today we say goodbye to Alma. She's been with us since June 2018, and left us after a short illness.

In 2018 she was posted on facebook as hanging around the Almacen del Installador. When we needed some things there we saw her. She had a chip, registered to someone in Cordoba. Phone numbers did not work. The DNI of the owner was not accessible to us, but to the police it was. The owner was an elderly woman, who gave her to her daughter in Cuevas. That daughter said she had given her away, and did not want her back. Yeah, right.

We could have left her with the police, who would then send her to the council pound. We gathered that would not mean much good for Alma, or Luna as she was actually called. So she became dog no. 4.

Alma means something like "spirit". But, as she was found at the Almacen del Installador we called her Alma.

Alma never was the easiest of dogs, always in front of your feet, and present at the slightest hint of food. Or even the possibility of food. Anything edible or inedible ended up in Alma. Fallen figs, ripe or not, olives, ripe or not, and <unspeakable things > as well. When we got her she weighed 9 kg, the past few years 12! The vet called her a "comilona".

Quite unlike Alma she stopped eating a week or so ago. She started smelling too. Kidney trouble. At 12.5 years that is not good news, and we had to let her go.

Alma playing with Papaya. PLAYING?? Alma??

New frigorífico, or not, Mediamarkt?

The house came with a nice big old Samsung fridge. It works. It has flaws. First of all, it's noisy. It whirrs, ZzZzms and hums. Loudly. Sometimes you can stop that by thumping it, but the Zzzm will come back.

Secondly, the layout. It has a compartment in the door for bottles. No idea what size bottles Koreans use, but for our bottles it's far too wide, and the bottom is not flat. If you close the door the bottle falls over. So we put cans around bottles to fix them. But, when you get a bottle out, the cans and other bottles fall over, and annoy engineer Jansen to no end. 

And there's a shelf missing above the bottles. But, if it was not missing it would sit too low, and bottles would not fit under it. Always something.

Secondly, this fridge has a cold water tap! Lovely! An internal 3 liter bottle so you have fresh water all day!  Just put a glass in the opening, press the lever, et presto! Could fill the reservoir witn white wine, rosé or Campari, too!

But, there always is a but, when you release the lever the waterflow does not (always) stop. And there's nothing you can push back or put a finger on or in to stop it. You have to open the fridge, unscrew the bottle, and take it out. Meanwhile the floor is already soaking wet.  That annoys engineer Jansen even more than the bottles falling over.

Thirdly, the bottom drawer is far too large. Can't find a thing. And the fridge has no shelf for wine bottles, so we sort of did that diy. 

And, it's old. So, it has to go.  

Oooh, this one is nice! Disponible online, entrega gratis, dia sin IVA! €825

Ordering it! Eh, "Entrega no disponible en tu direccion". Hm. Engineer Jansen is annoyed already.

Help chat. 

GEORGE

Al revisar el stock del producto, me indica el sistema que en nuestra tienda Online no hay disponibilidad en estos momentos. 

But, when I look online it's still available.

GEORGE

Actualmente el artículo no tiene disponibilidad. Lo que ocurre es que nuestra pagina WEB tarda hasta 24 horas en actualizarse y por eso te aparece como disponible Online. Pero actualmente ese articulo no tiene unidades a la venta. Te pido disculpas por las molestias causadas.

And what does Mediamarkt say when you press them?

Buenos días. A través de nuestra tienda online tienes acceso a un Marketplace. Nos puedes comprar directamente a nosotros, pero también a muchos otros vendedores y por eso tener la ventaja de una posibilidad de selección mucho más amplia. La nota en la página de detalles del producto «Venta y envío a través de…» contiene información sobre si el producto se está vendiendo por un vendedor de Marketplace y qué vendedor es. Al hacer un pedido en nuestro Marketplace, el pago lo haces en nuestra página como siempre y el producto te lo entregará directamente el vendedor. El frigorífico que nos indicas, con número de artículo 142442470, corresponde a un Marketplace, vendido y enviado por AhorroElectro. Te confirmamos que en estos momentos hay unidades disponibles para la compra online. No obstante, te facilitamos los datos del vendedor AhorroElectro, número de teléfono: 960105442 y correo electrónico: 

info@ahorroelectro.com. Un saludo.

So, Mediamarkt is sort of an Amazon, where other parties sell stuff, but looking like Mediamarkt.

Today the fridge is available via that Ahorroelectro, and on Mediamarkt:

Only double the price.  €1742

Engineer Jansen is QUITE pissed off now. 

Mediamarkt is banned here.

Moving to Aargh 16 - internets!

Aaah!

Moving to Aargh 15 - riego valvula regulador

The garden and terrace have lots of plants that are watered with micro-drip irrigation. However, that is all plastic, 20 years old, and broken, clogged, or wide open. Some plants were totally soaked, others were.. not so much.

Sorry.

Others not so sorry. I mean geraniums. We're still too young for genaniums.

So, that needed replacement. I still had about 100 Gardena microdrippers.  Mostly the 4l/h versions:

Bought 400m 16mm tube from Atecnagua, for about 60€. Not bad. You punch a hole in the tube with a drill, insert the dripper, and done.

The below garden has now been hooked up to water. There are two watertimers in the little water shed outside. And a pressure regulator with a manometer. Nice. 

 Or, not so nice:

The pressure varies between 2 and 2.5, Gardena drippers want about 1.5. Unfortunately the regulator is not adjustable. It used to be, there's a rod in there that had a key in the past, now missing. Not reachable with pliers or anything engineer Jansen had available. He also mentioned corrosion.

Replace. 

Nice and shiny heavy brass, made in Italy, tap, regulator and manometer for 27€, Aquaconfort in Antas (good shop!) 

But, despite the amout of teflon tape engineer Jansen used: leaks. The interwebs say: 3 threads of teflon. Well, no. Leaks. 10 threads? No. Leaks.

Engineer Jansen remembered they used flax in the past to seal threads. Comercial Vera has flax: €20 for a container to seal 1000 threads. Hm. Pipe dope? Ah, there is is sealant stuff. He thought for 10€, but it was €20 on the bill. Hm.  So he spent 27€ on actual hardware and €20 for a bit of goo? Dang! 

You'd think at that price they'd make readable instructions on the label, and explain the packaging.  It's a complicated squeeze bottle, with a clever seal ring that you can pull up or push down to open and close. I was about to cut off the tip to open the bottle. Not necessary. Not great for €20 Herr Henkel!

Also, the goo is not purple but yellow. (Don’t eat yellow goo.)

Re-assembled, with goo applied, waited overnight to cure. Open the main valve.. and saw another drop fall off! Grrr! It's not 100% watertight, but no drops fall off any more. If you wipe a finger under one of the connections it's a bit damp. Unsatisfactory for perfectionists. Well, maybe it will seal itself, the water contains quite a bit of sediment. The water filter turns brown in a few weeks..

Moving to Aargh 14 - HOT! More shade - curtains

Still hot. 

In the afternoon the sun heats up our back terrace, and you definitely cannot sit there. And it heats up the living, even though we have roller blinds there. Those are semi-transparent though, and don't block the heat. 

We were thinking about various types of commercial sunscreens, rolling out cloth from a cassette, etc. But, in the cellar there is a pile of "old" curtains the previous previous owners had, and the previous owners did not use.  Complete with poles. Actually they are quite nice. Red, and with a backing loth too. 

So:

grmbll

Fixed that

Tadaah!