0 to 5mph in how long!?

[Macca]

Am I missing something here, or is John looking like he's about to attempt what looks like The Good Life?

yes but where is Felicity Kendal when you need her?

[Welder]

Thank you all.

I want to be working and I want to be working with my hands, preferably outside.
I can’t find the work I enjoy doing in this country that pays enough.
Becoming a little rich here in England seems a lot of effort for the benefits unless you enjoy celebrity culture and consumer goods.
If I didn’t have to work I would rather travel with a rucksack than buy goods with any spare money I had.

The assumption is I’ll work on the smallholding doing what my family have to pay others to do at present and once I’ve got a grip on the language work a few hours in the evenings teaching Mathematics and Physics in the local centre my sister has established that currently runs English classes and legal assistance.

Farm policy as far as I can tell is, it works, or it gets eaten, and that should apply to donkeys

If I find myself regularly visiting internet forums then I would say ‘mission failed”.

There is electricity, running water and internet there and they do have vehicles.

I'm out of here on the 28th.

[Ali Tait]

Best of luck mate, hope it all goes well for you.

[bobbasrah]

And the very best of luck John, sounds like a good plan, and you have obviously thought it through. It will certainly be a change from UKPLC, a sense of freedom and worth...Real life...

Hope you stay in touch....

[Reid Malenfant]

Blimey, the very best of luck in your new life John

As Bob said, hope you keep in touch fella

[Welder]

Grow area



Dry storage



Local culture

[Macca]

Looks wonderful John. You are making me jealous, especially as I am back in the office tomorrow (zzzzzzz...). You better come back and see us all now and again y'hear?

[bobbasrah]

Looks like you shouldn't have flooding problems anyways John, but you'll have to make acquaintance with the local mozzies...
Let's see what it looks like when you get a crop going next year...

A fair change from a apartment block in Bristol for sure.....

[Welder]

Strangely enough Bob flooding is a major problem.
When the winter rains arrive the water pours in mini rivers down the mountain side and through the woodland above the local farms.

One of the ‘need to do’ jobs on the farm is to clear the gullies in the hillside so the water flows down them rather than onto the land used to grow stuff.
In the dry months vegetation grows in the gullies at an alarming rate and it takes about a week for two men to clear the gully beside the farm with brush cutters.
Major labour intensive jobs here are gully clearing, wood collecting for the wood burners, copse management, rebuilding the track that runs up the mountain.
Add 30 sheep, 40 chickens, fruit picking (assuming the wild boar don’t get it all during the night when they come down the mountain in packs and rock the trees to make the fruit fall off) vegetable growing etc and it’s a lot of work given my brother-in law and sister have full time jobs.

[Welder]

A bit of advice for anyone else thinking of moving from the more usual petroleum based, four wheel can, to a four legged miles per kilo traditional beast of burden; the traction control isn’t all that in the wet to be frank.

Arron, the beast in question, possible practicing unsupervised handbrake turns in a small field with a slight slope, managed to pull a tendon in his hip after a light shower of rain.
A further point worth noting is despite a very thorough search I couldn’t locate any obvious jacking points and a rolled donkey just isn’t catered for by the usual vehicle rescue companies.

A couple of hundred Euros worth of vet bills later Arron is upright and grinning slightly at this most recent work avoidance scheme and looks content to sign himself off sick for all but the lightest duties such as running across the field at the slightest chance of a few apples. I’ve been assured that the latest chip controlled Land Rovers aren’t this bright and are good to go immediately after repairs.


The original idea was to spend three months as a trial before going through the residency bit, keeping my flat on here in Bristol just in case.
Can’t imagine what I was thinking……….

The short version is it took me one third of the allotted trial period for me to decide (not that I had to consider the pros and cons for much more than a couple of seconds) that a simpler life working on the land in Catalonia had considerable advantages to Bristol city life on a limited income.
A couple of pro and con examples..
Walk out of Bristol flat and pick ones nose free of accumulated chemical deposits in order to fully engage the breathing apparatus.
Walk out of kitchen doors and pick a few grapes from the vine just above before collecting bow saw, axe etc and heading into the woods.
Listen to the constant traffic noise in the evening, or listen to the dogs shouting at the wild boar who come down the mountains to raid the walnuts.
Spend an hour with my sister improving my Catalan or a couple of hours on the internet.
It’s strange how learning a new language seems to drag up a surprising amount of knowledge of other languages one may have attempted to learn before.

At fifty something years old I had pretty much come to terms with the skin I wear turning into something a long in the tooth crocodile might be regularly be scratching off. It only took a few days of sunshine, clean air, proper food and of course higher levels of physical activity to return the texture of my forearms to something one wouldn’t consider using as a mild abrasive.

Anyway, I’m back in Bristol feverishly selling the bulk of the stuff I’ve gathered over the years, arranging the shipping of what’s left and fighting the temptation to just pack a small bag and get on the first flight back. Started with approximately 11 cubic metres of stuff; target 3 cubic metres.

Btw, anyone got a one handed adze they don’t want?