Life at the Molino

We thought we'd give you all another peak at our life here on the Molino Taponero. It's been good, hard, busy, fun. Our hosts are fantastic folks, and we feel fortunate to have landed here with them. They have been extremely accommodating and have taught us a lot about Spanish culture and about running the wool mill. Wow, it takes a lot of work to keep this Molino going! 

Here is part of the showroom at the Molino. Sooo much lovely wool! We spent several hours in here picking out a couple of nice things for ourselves and for family as a way to remember our time here. 

A close-up of one of their soft and cozy blankets. The colors are a perfect reflection of Andalucia...

This photo was taken at the large gate where we cut our very first portion of the fire break. Molino Taponero was previouslly  a flour mill along the Rio Genal and there were many donkey tracks connecting it with nearby villages and with other mills. Sadly there was a fire in the 1970's and it fell into ruins. Later on, Paul purchased it with a vision of creating a wool mill. After years of renovation and rebuilding, the WWII-era looms we brought in from Yorkshire and the weaving began! The looms are now electric rather than water-powered, but the original waterways that run underneath the Molino can still be seen. It is truly a magical place.

We spent most of our work time cutting firebreaks on steep hillsides. The pic above was taken near the end of our stay, on one of the last few days that we were cutting firebreaks. boB is standing under a cork oak, which grow very well here, and shows off the day's work - a pile of foliage to be burned! 

Firebreaks, by Spanish law, have to be twenty meters wide and run along all the property lines. In our case, a firebreak had been previously cut several years prior and thus required trimming of new growth. Much of this firebreak was only ten meters wide, so we had to widen it by stripping and additional 10 meters of virgin growth to the ground. We figure we cut well over two hundred meters of new firebreak, and we cleaned up a total of four hundred meters of old firebreak. Well, something like that. Anyway, it was a lot and sweaty hard work that resulted in many an injury!

But no injuries from the chainsaw, thankfully!

Break time! Cutting firebreaks is hard work, and we stop frequently to refuel. Here's boB digging in the backpack for treats to eats!

 Nutella and crackers, Nutella and strawberries, Nutella and chocolate, Nutella and .... Just about anything! 

Cutting firewood. These are eucalyptus logs. 

We got creative stacking firewood one day. There's a LOT of it to stack, and we had to go around a bed that has a poppy planted in it. We built it a wee too high, and the whole stack collapsed about twelve seconds after we snapped this pic! We set it up again, but a bit lower. It's a little bit of firewood artwork for our hosts to enjoy until they need to burn it.

Part of cutting firebreaks is disposing of the cut foliage. Funny thing is that the way to get rid of it is to burn it! We had lots of "burning days" in different parts of the property, and one of the most frequent was in the lower car park by the house. The pic above shows us burning a huge pile of eucalyptus and cottonwood branches. That fire went for hours and hours, and the pile stayed hot for several days afterward!

It was a lot more exciting to burn on the hillsides. You see, the areas that we cut are somewhat remote, ad hauling the cut foliage out is much too difficult. So we built the burn piles in strategic locations where adjoining forest wouldn't be burned, and we made sure that the ground around the burn pile was completely scoured of flammable material. For the most part, it worked well. There were a few fires that got too high and actually scorched the oaks and olives uphill. Oops! Well, they'll recover next year...

One one of the biggest burning days we had a total of fourteen burn piles going. We'd let one of them die down a wee before starting another, but we typically had three or four going at the same time. We  were busy hopping back and forth to tend them, add more material, contain any escapes, and grab a drink of water! 

Burning was hot-hot-hot!! It's scorching work, and we even ended up with burn holes in some of our clothes! It all went well, and we didn't have any out of control situations that we couldn't tame. 

Here's a burn on a perfect burning day - it was drizzly and cool, and the ground was flat and covered in green grass. 

Burning is filthy work! We normally looked like this after burning days!

And at 2pm, after a hard day of hot work...

Cerveza española! Què refrescante! Qué rica!

And we did have some fun, too...

In our off time, there was lots of time for music study, and with the good weather, plenty of wide open space to play in. 

We had some furry company at the molino: Frankie. She's an ancient kitty, and not too good at grooming herself. We brush her a fair bit, give her lots of food and love, and she loves our company. 

We like having her around, and we'll miss her when we go!

We bought work clothes at a second-hand shop, and they got pretty used-up. boB's shirt got to smelling so bad that washing it didn't really make a difference, and we decided to celebrate our last day of work by using the shirt as a rag for starting a fire!

Ta da! Next stop for the shirt is a bucket of diesel fuel, then a pile of dead trees, then a match! A fitting end...

A little ways from here is a village called Algatocín, and there is a brilliant store that Paul and Dawn have affectionately named "Harrod's".

 Harrod's, if you don't know, is the famous department store in London that sells a absolutely everything from sushi to pianos to diamond rings to couches, and everything in between! 

Our local "Harrod's" isn't quite that fancy and doesn't have pianos, but it does have everything else, including salt cod. We didn't try it, although we were curious. We were in there one day when a fellow walked in with a chainsaw. He walked out with part that he needed for his chainsaw, as well as a bag of tomatoes and a leg of ham!

This is the vinegar section. Just down the aisle is the cleaning products, and those shelves go on for miles! 

Paul and Dawn love to go hill walking, and they invited us pn several walks with them. They like to explore around Gaucín, stopping first for a coffee and pan tostada (delicious Spanish toast often served with garlic, tomato, and olive oil) before heading down a hill into the woods. 

These are cork oaks. Notice how the lower part of the tree is dark and smooth? That's where the bark was harvested, probably last year. The recently harvested trunk has a coppery appearance. 

Go that way.

Here's a magnificent view to the south-west of Gaucín. 

boB and Paul on a road north of the village. 

There was a fellow herding goats while we on the walk with Paul and Dawn:

This is looking to the north, roughly. Over boB's left shoulder is the valley that we rode through on our way home from our weekend bicycle adventure to Ronda. 

We took a hike one day to the village of Genalgaucil, and on the way we discovered that we share a unique talent:

The road where we live is inhabited mostly by English expats who've retired to southern Spain, and we got to meet quite a few of them on Easter weekend. Lots of the English expats from the village came down when the neighbors, Kit and Penn, hosted an Easter Bakeoff contest. It's a delight day of delectable yumminess! 

Here's the table full of goodies, overseen by one of the two judges:

Our entry is on the square rectangle pan second in from the front corner. It was a made-up-on-the-fly mixture of meusli, honey, chocolate, and nuts. We called them "mud balls." Aaaaand we didn't win the bake-off...

Kit (Paul and Dawn's neighbor) is a musician, so lots of his friends came bearing instruments! We joined in and sang along to old David Bowie songs and all sorts of other classic pop songs! 

One of the neighbor girls dressed up the dog. Super cute!

Here's our wonderful hosts, Paul and Dawn. What fun folks, and if you are ever in the area you must look them up for a visit. 

We biked to Casares one Saturday for coffee. Long way to go for coffee, but totally worth it. 

Casares is one of the most photographed white villages in Spain. It's a very old town, and the remains of the moorish fort are located on the highest point (on the right). There's also a church built over the mosque, which is quite common for this area. When the Catholics evicted the Muslims from Spain they built churches over the mosque sites, often times using the minaret and converting it to a bell tower. 

Back at our own village...

Here's boB overlooking Gaucin. 

We're going to miss our little corner of Southern Spain. It's beautiful here, the people are wonderful, and the weather has been lovely! We hope we can come back again sometime....

Casita en Andalucia

Good times have fallen upon your intrepid travelers ... We have SUNSHINE!

Ahh.... Warm southern Spain! Ah, que nos encantan, Andalucía!

We departed Amsterdam at a ferociously early hour on Thursday, February the 18th, trusting our bikes to the baggage handlers and crew of Transavia. We didn't even put them in boxes: turned the handle bars, took off the pedals, and that was that! That's what the ticket agent told us to do, and it worked out perfectly!

Originally we had planned to take trains from Amsterdam to Spain, but because we were held up in Amstrerdam for longer than expected (for dental work (sigh)), we decided to fly instead. And it was the right decision: we were across Europe in one day with no stops, no shuffling of baggage while trying to make tight connections, and no worries about finding Melinda soft foods for several days of travel. So, yeah, flying was the way to go. 

We arrived Màlaga at 0930 in the morning. And, if you can even believe it, it was RAINING when we arrived. Perfect! Welcome to Sunny Spain???

We threw the bikes in the bottom of a bus, and headed to Estepona for an early afternoon arrival. After checking into a nearby hostal (cheap hotel) we called our HelpX hosts and arranged to meet on Friday.  We thus had a day or so to play on the beach. In the rain...

Luckily the rain wasn't too bad, really, and we explored Estepona in the afternoon. It's a beautiful wee seaside town with a huge beach and lots (and lots) of seafood restaurants. 

Pretty cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings (great at deflecting the sun), narrow streets ... It's really a pretty town. Such towns are known as "pueblos blancos" (white towns), and the architecture reflects Moorish ancestory. Such whitewashed houses are often made of baked clay.

Estepona is filled with flowers: the old part of town is festooned with pots on walls, and each street had a color-scheme.

It is really pretty and very welcoming. It's the slow season here now, but in the summer one can imagine throngs of people on holiday. 

Narrow winding streets, and more flower pots!

We shared a beer at an "Irish Pub." Notice the head on the beer? (They don't really know how to pour a pint very well here...luckily, the sangria is REALLY good!) 

Notice the straw? That's how you can tell Melinda is having a beer! She's still going easy on her teeth, but appointments are set up with a dentist and we'll keep working on her teeth here. 

On Friday Paul, who runs 'Lanas del Rio' with his wife Dawn, picked us up and took us their place in the SerranÍa (mountains). This is Casares, a small village we passed through to arrive at the mill. It is one of the most photographed villages in Spain- and one can see why- it's quite charming!

 Our nearest village is Gaucīn, in case you want to find us on the map. If you want to check out Paul & Dawn's website, visit www.lanasdelrio.com to see some examples of the luxurious wool textiles they make here on their restored Dobcross shuttle looms from Yorkshire. 

The map above pretty much shows where we are relative to Estepona (we are where the red dot is located). What you can't see is how mountainous it is! 

The scenery here is very dramatic! 

We relaxed for a couple days and got settled into our casita. 

And, don't ya know, the weather became BEAUTIFUL! Perfect temperatures, just enough sun, a light breeze. Exactly what we need after gloomy wet Glasgow!

We are in love with his place! In the coming weeks, we'll take some better pics and post them. 

Our casita is complete with a woodstove, a kitchenette, and a patio with a lovely view of the river Genal. The wifi signal isn't great at the casita, but if that's what we're going to complain about then, well, life is pretty darn good!

Paul and Dawn took us up to Gaucín for a look-around a few days after we arrived. It's a small and gorgeous mountain village located at approximately 600 m. The name Gaucín is derived from the Arabic word (gauzan) for "strong rock" and has an interesting history- it's narrow and winding streets were apparently once used by smugglers of tobacco and brandy!  In the 19th century this village was also frequented by British officers en route to Gilbraltar! 

A small street in Gaucin. Well, all the streets are small!  There are just enough small shops that we won't need to go to Estepona too often. 

This is the Gaucin cemetery, just below the ruins of the Roman/Moorish castle. Bodies of the recently departed are placed in the crypts, and are allowed to remain there as long as the descendants pay the rent. The cemetery is quite large, and all of the remains are stored this way. It's beautifully kept, and that speaks to how the people here revere their ancestors. 

A bell in the ruins of the castle. It's official name is Castillo del Aguila (eagle's castle), and was built and used by the Romans because of its strategic location. Later, the Moors made several additions. 

The clapper has been removed. boB was bummed about that. 

Looking down from the castle to our place. If you can zoom in, the house is located right in the center of the image. If you can see two houses, our place is the one that's to the lower-left. 

A panoramic shot, with village of Gaucin on the left, the castle ruins in the foreground of center-left, and our place is probably just out of the image to the right. On a clear day you can see the Rock of Gilbraltar and the northern coast of Africa from here. 

This photo was taken while walking back down to the village from the ruins:

And now, for the obligatory Dog-Don't-Do sign!!

Here, as in every other place we've been, the take seriously the business of doggy-doo (though we hear they're not terribly strict on enforcement). This one looks like a large gorilla picking up M&Ms while his wee Scotty terrier looks on. 

Chips! We got chips! There's a market on Sundays in Gaucin, and we got a wee plate of chips and mayo. And, I'll point it out once again, it's SUNNY!

Back at home, here is Queeny, one of the two cats.  She is super friendly, and has taken to hanging out in our casita. 

And this is Frankie. A sweet geriatric special needs cat.

We had two days to play, and then on Monday we got to work... The  arrangement is that we each work 25 hours per week in exchange for rent, and most of our groceries. Quite a deal! We can determine our working hours, and can shuffle hours around in case we want a three-day weekend, or whatever. They also have a spare truck we can use from time to time, though we really don't want to drive much. 

Our first task was to start clearing fire breaks.  On steep hillsides. With many poky shrubs and vines. It's a LOT of hard work, and there's a lot of it to do here. After a couple of days of it we were beat! It's hard to tell in the pictures just what we're doing and how challenging it is.

We're out of shape because our life-style in Glasgow was quite sedentary - we spent most of our time playing music there. Now we're working hard and making up for so much sitting around! It's good to work, and we feed good (and sore) from all the effort. 

The big trees in these two pics is cork-oak; the bark is harvested every 11 years. We don't have to cut those, thankfully. There are also creosote bushes, thorny bushes, fig trees, spiky bushes, lavender bushes, vicious vines, olives, sticky vines, carob trees, ironwood. We are happy to report that the good news is... there are lots, and lots, and lots of orange and lemon trees! 

We can easily hike to a nearby abandoned mill further down the river that has a huge orchard and carry home a backpack full of oranges and lemons. We're in heaven!

This is boB infront of a large pile of to-be-burned brush- one of many such piles!

We're going to be sore for a while: we have decided to temporarily rename the band from "The Advil Highlanders" to the "Andalucian Advilliados"!!  We have other tasks, as well: weeding, general yard cleanup, helping out if they have a show where the selling their textiles, that kind of thing. It's quite a large property, and there is never a shortage of work.

This place is really amazing. The scenery is stunning, the weather is just what we need after spending 6+ months in the UK and Ireland, and the work will do us some good. Paul and Dawn are two of the nicest and most accommodating folks we've met, and we're happy to have the opportunity to help them run their place in exchange for room and board. 

Here's a view from the drive in front of the main house & mill. 

Not to shabby, eh?

Stay tuned, and we'll share more about our great adventures soon! Keep in touch  & send us a line from time to time- we'd love to hear what you all are up to!