How I imagined it to be
Finca update #5
I's interesting how I had many ideas of how it would be to have my own land. Ideas that grew over the years. One of the things I've always wanted is to be able to have a place for travelers. Maybe not an official campsite and certainly not all types of travelers, but more of a "camp in my garden" kind of situation. During my bicycle trips and hiking adventures there has been so many people who offered me a place to sleep, a meal, a coffee, a warm shower. Really, it has been unbelievable and incredibly valuable. I really hoped that one day I could do this as well.
I'm not quite ready to host people here, but three or four weeks ago (I already lost track of time) a nomad friend joined me here on the finca. Yazzi, lives in her van, works as a translator and language teacher and she loves nature, hiking and climbing. Because she's completely self-sufficient in her van, I don't need to worry at all. Okay, somehow her 4G wasn't working as good as mine, but she has Starlink. Of course when she arrived it was the most cloudy week so far, so a bit of a struggle for her solar system, but I believe she managed.
Dead grass
The fun thing is that she voluntarily started to pull out dead grass tufts. And she liked doing that. Apparently this was a nice task to balance out the computer work and I totally understand. You get immediate satisfaction, because you see the area changing, the fields she layed her hands on, opened up completely. The dead grass I'll later use to cover the garden beds.
The studio
Together we emptied out the second wooden cabin. This cabin, if it's not too rotten, will be my future studio. A place to read and write and do creative things. We carried all the furniture away to a temporary garbage dump halfway the property and quickly cleaned the floor with a broom. Lots and lots of rat poop here as well. Also geckos love these wooden buildings and although they're cute, they're messy as well.
For now I'll leave this cabin for what it is, later I'll have a look at the actual state of the foundation, the walls, the roof and the floor. The roof has a big hole and because of that, the floor under the hole has rotten away. I'm not sure if it's worth saving, but again, that's not for now.
The caravan area
It's difficult to decide what to focus on, there's too many things I want to do, but surely cleaning up has been taking up most of my time. I cleared the area around the caravan, all the wood has been sorted and / or thrown away, meaning brought to the location where I collect all the wood and divide it in piles to use later or to burn. Now I'm only left with a huge pile of glass bottles and I don't know what to do with them yet. It could be nice to make a path or some kind of wall, but I haven't made up my mind. Also, I shouldn't start another project right now. So the bottles are still laying there. Ah yeah, while removing the wooden structures around the caravan, a whole new layer of junk became visible. Under and behind the caravan I found a lot of wooden planks, tires, roof sheets, old window and door frames, building blocks, tons, buckets, garbage bins and what not. It really is a never ending story.
The stone house
Just like the stone house. Little by little I started to clean and clear out that place. First sweeping out the rat poop and I removed all furniture and stinky mattresses. Then I emptied the cabinets filled with clothes, of course everything was covered with rat poop. I filled seven large garbage bags. The only thing that was salvageable were two wind stoppers, nice black jackets which I gave a water + vinegar bath before I took them to the laundry. Next were the boxes under the bed. This is where it started to be more fun. Although everything was kind of dirty and eaten by rats, there were some hidden treasures. I found a fan and a toilet seat (soft closing), both completely new, still in plastic. Lots of plates, cups, pots and pans and other kitchen equipment and three boxes with towels and bed sheets. One box still needs further inspection, but two of them are usable. And pretty, seriously most of these things I could have bought myself. A good harvest.
Garden beds
Speaking about harvest, I would love to he able to grow my own veggies, that's why I already started building garden beds. They're not finished, but I'm at the stage of filling them with tree trunks, branches and soil from the land. There's not that much usable soil, it's all very compact, full of rocks, but I found one place where I'm digging out a small hill near the pallet storage that seem to be healthy. I hope it will be good enough to at least fill the bottom part of the garden beds. Later I'll get some bags with proper garden soil, but at the moment I don't have a car and these bags are at least 25 kg each. Also, I really don't know what to buy, what to look for. It's pretty overwhelming I have to say, but hey, step by step.
The greenhouse
One of the exciting packages I ordered earlier was a small greenhouse. It really is just to get started, to try out planting seeds. Here as well I don't really know what I'm doing and I already made many mistakes, but I like the process of learning and figuring things out along the way. Together with Yazzi I put together the greenhouse which is gonna sit against the front wall of the stone house. I'm a little worried about the wind, the winds get crazy here, but this should be the most protected place. There's sun from sunrise till about two or three in the afternoon. Let's hope it's enough for my little seedlings. Or hopefully soon to be seedlings, because for now only the basil, swiss chard, some onion and one tomato seem to pick up. Fingers crossed.
How I imagined it to be
Basically I'm still doing my things and Yazzi does hers. There's some projects we tackle together and some meals we share, but it kind of feels like we are close neighbors instead of seeing her as a visitor. Befriended neighbors of course.
Maybe it's because she brought her home with her or maybe it's because she's not really a traveller. She lives like this and for three weeks she lived on my land. I would love it when people feel at home here, when my nomad friends have a place to stay. Not that I'm thinking about starting a community or something like that, no I'm happy to be by myself, but when friends and family can come and stay and feel free to feel at home here, that would be beautiful. That's how I imagined it to be :)
