Back in Laranjeiras

Since we’ve been back on the boat after help-xing we’ve been on the boat in Laranjeiras where the boat was moored while we were away. We’ve had a Spanish man called Jesus (pronounced ghe-soos) on-board to do some welding on the bowsprit and done some other maintenance on the boat.

In Laranjeiras there are only a few kids including Patricia (patree-cee-a), Juan (not sure how to describe the pronunciation) and Roberto (Robert-O). Patricia and Juan are a bit younger than me and Roberto is 18. Roberto’s stepdad (Paul) is the owner of the mooring that our boat is on!

Jay and I go round to Roberto’s finka in the evenings sometimes when his parents have gone out to there little boat on the river for the night and watch films, play cards and play football.

A few minutes down the river from Laranjeiras is another village called Guerreiros do Rio with a bar, a cafe, a pontoon, some people (obviously) and lots of barking dogs! The cafe is run by an English family of 3. They have limited wifi but it's the only internet around apart from going up to Alcoutim which is about 45mins by bike up-river. Also, I helped Shona (the lady who works at the cafe) to weed the little garden they have and Joseph (Shona's son) wrote me a letter of recommendation for any other jobs/work-experience things I try to do.

We've been up to Alcoutim a couple of times and the second time there was a sardine festival on. I was there with Jay and Roberto and we just hung around a bit and ate some meat and bread which was being sold while looking distastefully at the sardines being cooked!

As most of you will know by now, we are coming back to Scotland for 2 months or so on the 17th of May. Until recently, we thought Paul was going to take care of Oz while we were back as we can’t (easily/cheaply) take him back with us. Unfortunately, Paul decided not to because Cami, (his wife) got bitten by a fierce dog recently so she was a bit off dogs for the moment. Because of that we had to find someone else to do it and fast. In the end we found a couple living in between Laranjeiras and Guerreiros do Rio with two dogs of their own. They have a big fenced off garden which the 3 dogs can run around in for exercise and they are nice people.

Lastly, I have been working a lot with web design using CSS and HTML code to make a few practice websites of my own. They are not online at the moment as that would cost money, but I hope to do something with them in the future.

Speak soon,

Sam

Please send comments, suggestions and anything else to me at samhermiston@hotmail.com

Extremadura help-X

While Jay was at Caballo Blanco, Mum, Dad and I help-Xed in the Extremadura area of Spain. Our Help-X host was Dutch and was called Sikko. We were there for two weeks and spent most of the working time felling pine trees and then near the end we chipped it all in a machine to be spread on the land as a type of fertiliser. We also looked at a few properties in that area to. The funny thing was that every time we went to a finka (a Spanish house), we were fed wine and chorizo by the owners as is the Spanish way of getting to know each other. Sikko had no electricity in his house so we had to charge my medical gear using his big car battery and an adapter. For internet, there was a camping site nearby which had wifi so we went there a few times. The house was in the woods so there was LOTS of pine trees around to burn for firewood and Sikko said that if we were to come to live in the area he would give us a years supply of wood for all the work we did!

There were two parts to the house. The main part which had two rooms, the kitchen and a bedroom as well as a mezzanine with another bed on. The other building was a wee cottage thing where we (Mum, Dad and I) slept. It was quite homely in there although it did get pretty smoky when the wood-burner was going!

Now some photos (Sikko is the one in the blue t-shirt):

		Extremadura help-X VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The pictures of with all the pine needles on the ground is of us chipping up the chopped pine trees…… and the dogs name is Goyo.

Also, here is a bit of wobbly film of us felling a tree:

lastly, mum took lots of photos of Sikko’s 35 sheep which she helped take care of them so I picked out the best ones:

		Sheep VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Note: the one with the brown legs and head is called Lily!

Caballo Blanco

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. We’ve been help-Xing and haven’t had a good internet connection for a while. Hopefully I haven’t lost to many of my regular blog readers. Anyway, we are back on the boat now for a few weeks before we go back to Scotland in mid-May.

Now for the interesting bits. After Nana and Grandad left from their visit with us, Mum, Dad and I stayed in Neil’s house for about 2 weeks and Jay went of to a separate WOOFing place on her own! She stayed there for one month and then we all came back to Sea Warrior on the Guadiana.

The Name of the place Jay WOOFed at is Caballo Blanco (i.e the name of this post). Caballo Blanco means White horse in Spanish. This is because it is a horse trekking place where people come for horse-riding holidays. Jay really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. She learnt loads about horses and working with other people as there was always other WOOFers there. Also, I went up one Sunday and helped with feeding the horses and some other things. I even got to ride one of them!

		Caballo Blanco VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Video for Granddad

Here is a video of Jay doing some gymnastics while Nana and Grandad were here:

Plastering

At Neil’s house, I have been helping to plaster a room which is being built at the moment. Mum, Dad, two other young people help-Xing alongside us and me have been working on it and I took some photos.

A finished wall.

 

A comparison between an un-plastered and a plastered piece of the wall.

 

A yet-to-be-done piece of the room.

Nana and Grandad’s visit – part 2

Here is the 2nd post about Nana and Grandad’s holiday with us. Enjoy!

 

While staying at Neil’s house in Orgiva we went out for Piella (a traditional Spanish meal). It was  very tasty and looked great….

Piella is made with rice and many other things thrown in with it depending on your preference such as prawns, peas, meat, fish etc.

 

Together, Jay and Grandad made this gate for Neil’s vegetable patch.

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Here are some photos from the rental house near Pitres:

This is Dad and I on our way up from Orgiva to the rental house for the first time.

 

Nana out the front on the patio.

 

Nana and Grandad playing swingball!

 

Nana standing next to an almond tree in blossom… beautiful!

 

Dad and Grandad sitting in the garden of the rental house.

Nana and Grandad’s visit – part 1

As you probably know, Nana and Grandad came to visit us in Spain for two weeks. They arrived on the 13th and left on the 27th of March
In total, we stayed in 3 different houses during their stay. First, we stayed in the house in La Vinuela which we did our first house-sit in.  We stayed there for 4 warm, glorious days before going back up into the colder Alpujarra to stay in Neil's house for 3 days. From there, we stayed the next week in a rental house further up in the Alpujarra near a town called Pitres. The house was at 1000m(ish) and about 30 minutes by car from Orgiva (although it took Dad and I 4 hours by bike as there was so much uphill).
During the holiday we did so much stuff including showing Nana and Grandad the area by car,  we had 2 BBQs, went cycling, visited Trevelez where they make Jamon Cerano (it is also one of the highest towns in Spain), eat out a lot as well as stopping for countless cups of coffe! Also, I wrote a peom for Nana and Grandad:
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Our Holiday
To Nana and Grandad:

It's been great having you here in Spain,
although there has been a bit of rain,
with Grandad wearing his holy hat,
and the tartiflette making us all fat,

And Nana's jamon expedition,
as well as the Chinese checkers expedition,
the things we did... we had such a crack,
I wonder what you'll say when you go back?

Well as I said, it's been really great,
and as you can imagine I can't wait,
till May when we will meet again,
and I will miss you until then.
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I will put another post up soon with pictures and more details about some of the stuff we did.