Weekends work

I plowed my first field this weekend, sorry no photographs. I will post some soon.

Due to the kindness of my blog readers we were able to buy a rotivator, it's a back breaker and a shoulder maker. I have felt like I have done a 4 hour upper body workout. The biggest thing is that it tries to run ahead of you and you need to hold it back as it churns up the land, this is easier said than done. Stones are another problem the blades chuck stones out which can kill the shins and it will also leap in the air if it hits a big one, you end up with this 60 kilo machine bucking in the air. All good fun.

Bruce cranked up the bread oven over the weekend, check out his photos. I asked Pepe our landlord how old the bread oven was and he said "older than us". We are enjoying getting this place working again.

We talked to our land ladies mother and asked her about the house. It is the oldest house in Benimussa and was built by the Moors (Arabs) over 500 years ago. It then fell into the hands of the Serra family, who where very religious. This house became renowned in the area as a place you could come if you needed food or somewhere to sleep for the night. She also said "they prayed to much" they where always praying. During the civil war they provided refuge for 10 people on the run from the army and hid them in caves in our hills for months, sending a donkey up with food. They would often let people sleep in their hay barn and had massive fiestas up in these hills where they fed many people.

So the history of this house is that it was a place of hospitality and prayer, how weird is that.

We are off to buy some potatoes this morning to plant in our fields, then I need to put some fences up around the plowed land before we plant anything else, as the rabbits will try to eat everything. I nearly shot one on Saturday I fired a round off and missed, it ran under a bush, I followed it, couldn't find it, then I noticed it moving, it was 3 feet away, I panicked and shot from the hip, totally missing it, then it ran off to safety.

It's probably going to eat all my lettuce in revenge.