We wake up each day on the finca around 10am, in a relaxed and mellow fashion. We generally pull on the same clothes we wore the day before, borrowed from our host, and head to the kitchen to make our breakfast. This is usually the only meal we cook ourselves; our host, Houston, cooks lunch and dinner and does all the dishes too!
After breakfast, we head outside and start work around 11am. Brian and I each have our own daily tasks. Brian is in charge of making four cement planter/protectors to surround veggie plants in the raised beds. They ward off pests and weeds. My task is to water baby pine seedlings, potted plants and growing veggies. Ocassionally, I also water the four dogs and various grape vines scattered about the finca. After that, our tasks vary greatly. In any given day, we might be planting veggies in the raised beds, building new raised beds with rocks and concrete, or hauling rocks. We could be sorting sticks for bio-char, de-seeding pine cones and planting the seeds, or weeding the property. Or we could be pruning grape vines and almond trees, shoveling, digging, cutting, spreading, and otherwise preparing for all kinds of projects.
After three or four hours of work, we sit down to a big lunch before heading back outside. Houston is very generous to cook for us. He usually cooks meals focused on carbohydrates, less balanced meals than we are used to. He might prepare pasta salad, french fries, pancakes or mashed potatoes for lunch. Last night he made really yummy burritos with beans, homemade guacamole and homemade salsa. He is just starting the veggie garden, so all the produce is delivered graciously from Houston's mother, once a week.
After lunch we head back to work for as long as we please. We set our own schedules, as long as we work 30 hours each week. We usually head back inside around 6 or 7 for tea, light reading and the ocassional card game. We don't eat dinner until 10:30, and often sit around the table until midnight, comparing Irish, Spanish, Finnish and American cultures.
We are joined here by Tom, a fellow helper from Ireland. Houston's wife, Maria, is back in her homeland of Finland for the entire month we are here. On days off, we can bike or walk into one of the nearest towns: Cadalso or Almorox. Both take over an hour by foot. Houston's neighborhood is beautful, full of good walks, great scenery and solitude. He lives near an abandoned Buddhist retreat center and still has two Buddhist neighbors, Sean and Manfred. Both are a delight to talk to, especially when discussing enlightenment with Manfred. Twenty years ago, a fortune-teller told him that he would reach enlightenment at the age of 50 (he turns 50 this October). He has been living in a 6 square meter metal box for the past ten years, meditating intently. In Buddhist terminology, one could say I'm "attached"to finding out if the fortune teller was right. Manfred is a hilarious, sweet and loving soul- it's hard not to notice that his meditations have been fruitful.
We've had excellent weather most of our stay, apart from a rainy day or two. We've been warned about scorpions, snakes and poisonous cenepedes, but I've only seen two snakes so far. Brian has yet to encounter the riskier species. We are learning a lot and also have plenty of down time to reflect and plan the next step in our adventure. We'll be here until May 15th before we head to a couple of one-week farmstays near Granada.
Brian's handywork on the raised bed:
Chuki! One of their four dogs:
Brian and Tom in Almorox:
Happily planting spinach (you can see Brian's planters in the background):
Almorox from afar:
Wow!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I will say that it sounds better than weeding or hauling rocks, I can't say how much fun de-seeding pine cones sounds.
But it all sounds much more fulfilling than your old "day jobs".
Glad to hear you are having such a great time!