Recycling anything and everything! Part 1

I wanted to do a post on recycling because even in our previous lives in England we were avid recyclers. In England we had 2 open fires and we used to make our own paper bricks to burn using old newspapers and any junk mail that came through the door. The problem is that I think I could write about 6 blogs on this subject as the recycling / reusing has developed as we have changed things in our life.

When we first bought the house we went out an bought 3 plastic bins to enable us to continue our recycling of rubbish from the shopping we bought. We were amazed at how much rubbish we bought. The 3 bins were being emptied every week so we decided to try to buy less packaging.

As we went along and began planting seeds we began to use the plastic containers as seed trays. We started to keep them for this purpose. We also used yogurt pots to plant the runners of strawberries. When they had rooted we could cut them off and plant them where we wanted them.
When we planted seeds outside we needed to keep the birds away, so we used plastic bottles on metal poles. The wind  blowing the bottles made a rattling noise and the birds will not go near it.
When we planted the trees we used 2 litre plastic bottles as watering aids. We buried them right next to the root ball. This had 2 advantages for us 1. we could measure the amount of water each tree received, 2. the water went directly to the roots. The only problem that we have found with this method is that sometimes the  neck of the bottle gets blocked and we have to bang it out with a metal pole.
We have also used plastic bottles as green houses over seedlings in the garden. These work fantastically and allow us to plant seedlings out earlier. They keep the frost off the plant and recycle the water evaporated by condensing it on the inside of the bottle.
A Spanish friend told us about using plastic bottles as fly catchers. Since we suffer in the summer with a massive amount of flies we decided to give it a go. Using a plastic bottle you burn 4 small holes in the neck of the bottle. Place in a small amount of water and some uncooked meat...we used chicken feet. Then hang outside. Within 2 days the bottles were full. We hung them all around the garden and just kept topping them up with a little water as the summer moved on.
This years plan is to make a plastic bottle greenhouse. http://ana-white.com/2011/04/plastic-bottle-green-house-build-guide We are in the process of asking all our friends to save their bottles for us. We will let you know how we get on.

Next was glass. We knew we wanted to make wine and so saved all the wine bottles that we bought. We store them in the shed until we want them. This way we only have to buy the corks for them. We made a conscious decision to buy bottled beer too, as Kev wants to make it. All we will need to buy are the caps.
We save all jars so that we can bottle things. I have made jams, chutneys, sauces, pickles and stored them all in old jars. Again we tend to purchase things in jars rather than plastic bags just for this purpose. This year we want to bottle more fruits and vegetables. We have asked friends to save their glass jars for us too.

Then comes paper. We used paper and cardboard to help light the fires in the winter. Any boxes that we have deliveries in are stored for this purpose.
I have made paper seed pots from newspaper that we plant seeds in. We have found these do not disturb the  roots when planting out so giving the seedling a better start in  life. http://www.greenlivingexperiencespain.com/information/making-paper-seed-pots
There are downloadable instructions on this page for the paper pots.
We also use toilet roll tubes for seedlings too. We fill them with compost, plant the seed and when the time come plant out in the garden. The tubing rots down and the roots spread.

We then went one step further on the recycling quest without even realising what we were doing really. We needed a kitchen and a friend knew someone who was selling one. For speed we bought it and within a week it was fitted. We bought new worktop and the tiles but from local sellers to keep our money in the community.

Recycled kitchen

We had another friend with a second hand wood burning stove. He was going to take it to the tip so we bought that from him and cleaned it up.

 

As we went along our journey and tried to do more things reusing materials came in very handy when we needed things fast.

I wanted to make hard cheese and we needed a cheese press. So this was made and it actually works very well but the cheeses are small.

 

You add the bricks for the pressure. We worked out that about 4 bricks is the right pressure to press a small cheese. I have not bought any for at least 2 years now as I make all my own.

Then we wanted to make bigger cheeses. Kev made the cheese press mark 2 and this makes about a 2kg cheese and again works brilliantly.

 



 



This is just a few of the things that we have done in the last 3 years. We now have next to no rubbish to go in the bins. The only thing is plastic bags, the little clear ones that you get from the fruit shop. We think we have now found a use for them too but that is another story.

Water ... the source of all life!

As we live off grid all our water comes from rainfall. We have a system that feeds into tanks from the roof of the house. It all works brilliantly and in one rainfall we can collect up to 10,000 litres (if it rains hard enough!)

When we bought the house we thought that 60,000litres of water was a lot. It is a lot in the short term, but not when your trying to grow fruits and vegetables and live a normal life!
After the first nine months of living here, visitors and watering through the summer we had to pay for a water delivery as we were running out. 10,000 = 90 euros. We realised that we had to become very careful with our water if we didn't want to fork out for more deliveries!

We were already watering our plants with the washing up water. We had to think of new ways to cut our water consumption and save every drop that we used to water our plants.

One of our main culprits for using water was the toilet. We decided to try to find a compost toilet that would not use water at all and help us with improving the soil in the garden.

This was what we bought. It is actually really good. The stench pipe runs up the wall and out at the top of the wall. It has no smell with it at all. I would highly recommend this to anyone thinking of living off grid.

Next was the washing machine. We used to collect the water from the washing but the automatic was playing up anyway. We think it has something to do with being off grid and electronics but not sure. Anyway we decided to buy a twin tub.

This way I could control all of the water going in and out. We have 25l plastic containers to collect the water in. For a weekly wash we have the use-age down to about 200 litres...not bad for a weeks washing. This is watered down with clean water and then is used to water the vegetables. Depending on how many beds we have planted this water can last 4 days.

Next we considered collecting all the water from the showers. Again the 25 l containers come in very handy for this. We dug holes in the garden and ran pipes to it. We place one of the containers under the pipe to collect the water. We have boards over the top to cover the hole. We have worked out about 3 or 4 minutes in the shower and the container is full. People who come to visit are not too impressed with this idea. As they are used to standing in the shower for 20 minutes or more. But they all try and by the end of their stay they are normally managing easily to shower in this time!

 

Kev had built himself a workshop and the roof of this produced runoff too in the rain. He placed drain pipe along the back and into the blue water butts that are all connected. Once full a larger piece of drain pipe is added that runs straight into the water store.

 

 

 

Once we had the pool built, we needed to clean it. Every so often the filter needs cleaning out and this uses water. So we got a 1000 litre container to back wash the filter into.

We then wait for the dirt to settle out and pump it back into the pool. We estimate that we have saved about 3000 litres of water since starting this. We used to put it into the water butts and leave it for the chlorine to be evaporated  and then water the plants. Trouble with this was we had to keep topping up the pool. The first year we had the pool we had 4 water deliveries...so far this year we have had none!

Now the only water we waste is in the normal toilet. We have kept it for those too squeamish to use the compost one. Although it is only used for visitors now!

Trial and error on our quest.

Self sufficiency, if your a meat eater, means producing your own meat (as much as you can.) Living here in Spain...in the middle of no-where, we were going to the local (5km away) butchers and buying the local meats. We found that their sausages had aniseed in them and we didn't like this. We also found that after a while without eating them, that we were craving for them. Sausages can be made from any meat but you need to tools to make them. I started to research sausage makers and finally settled on a manual one. All of the electric ones seemed to use too much power for us to entertain and I had also read that you can get into a right pickle with them as they are so fast. I bought a machine that holds 5kg of meat. This makes about 50 sausages if using sheep skins and about 30 if using hog casings.
Sausage machine

Next we needed a pork supplier that was relatively cheap, compared to the butchers. Pork here is about 8 euros a kilo so to buy it from the butchers was going to be expensive. We talked to our friend the shepherd about buying a whole pig. He knew a pig farmer that would slaughter a pig for us as and when we wanted it. It was arranged that it would be delivered when I had a long weekend from school so that we could spend 4 days making all the things we wanted to.
Planning is so important when your doing something like this. We made lists of things that we wanted to make, ensured that we had all the ingredients and holders before the pig was delivered.
The pig turned up at the house on a Thursday morning. We were given everything except the back bone.

The carcass

 

The first job was to cut up the pig into joints for roasting. Kev worked in a butchers many years ago, he was a bit rusty but gave it a good go. We got loads from this including chops and steaks as well as the joints.

 

 

 

We decided with the belly pork to have a go at making bacon. We found a recipe from the Internet with various herbs and spices and left it for a week, adding more salt mixture every day. We also did this with the hocks and hung them until we wanted to eat them...which was about 2 weeks for the first one. One thing to note...if you make your own bacon and you can't get pink salt, your bacon will not be pink. This salt adds colour to you bacon.

 





 

 

 

 

We took about 12kg of the pork meat and minced it up, with a hand mincer. This took hours! We were doing shifts as it makes your shoulders hurt. We spent in total over 2 days about 8 hours mincing the meat and the fat for the sausages and chorizo. This was a big learning curve...one never to repeat...for the next pig we had an electric mincer!

 

With the meat minced, we set about making the sausages and were very surprised at how easy it was. I made pork and apple and pork with sage.



While the sausage machine was out we also made chorizo and morcilla (Spanish black pudding).

 

Using the liver, kidneys and heart, we made faggots, meat loaf (to be eaten hot or cold in sandwiches) pate and had some left over just for slow cooking in the oven. I also had a go at making a pork pie. This is something we really missed from England.

 

We were also given the pigs head. Not really knowing what to do with this the trusty Internet was used again. I found an old recipe for brawn...meat kept in jelly and set about making that. Another learning curve for me as a cook...it was a bit bland and the second attempt was much better adding more herbs and spices to it.

 

All of this made us realise that we want to raise pigs in the future. Before we can do this we need to find a reasonably humane way to kill them. I don't want to send them to the abattoir as I have heard horror stories about the ones here in Spain. We are discussing the idea of building our own room to use specifically for the purpose of killing and preparing the meat. Until that time we will keep on buying from source and enjoying having a full freezer!



 

Yeah...electricity!

When we first bought this house we had no electricity other than the generator and that costs money to run as petrol has been at an all time high here. We knew that we wanted solar power but we knew absolutely nothing about it. Luckily for us we came across a second hand system that we had installed and this was the beginning of our journey.

We had everything installed in the cupboard of the spare room. At this time we were still living 200km away and visiting at weekends. While we were away we had the panels on the roof stolen. This was a major problem, no electricity again, no running water again! A friend lent us 2 small panels to ensure we had electricity for the pump.
We had to go to the Guardia and report the theft. This was difficult to say the least as mine and Kev's spanish was not very good. They were very patient with us, we drew pictures and used our pigeon spanish and within a hour they were at the house looking at the damage.
Luckily for us when we bought the house I took out house insurance with the bank. Now knowing the bank manager on a first name basis, all we had to do was go to the bank and they sorted all the insurance out for us.
Within 4 weeks everything was sorted. The insurance had paid up and now all we had to do was find some solar panels.
We used to frequent a bar and the owner had become our friend. One day when we went up there he gave us a card of a man selling solar panels cheap. We rang him and that afternoon he came out to see us. He checked over our system and advised us to buy 180w panels. We bought 2 there and then. Within the week we had them fitted and we were up and running again...so we thought.
Every so often the alarm would ring and the power would go off. We put this down to having visitors as normally this happened when people were here. We were running the generator any time anything was plugged in except for the laptop, but it still happened on a regular basis. Unfortunately because we didn't really understand the system and how it worked we didn't ever question why.
One day we rang the supplier of the solar panels (as he had now become a good friend too) and questioned why this kept happening. He came out and checked the system and advised us to buy a battery charger...similar to a car one and use that with the generator to charge the batteries direct to stop it from happening. He thought it was to do with the invertor as they don't last for ever!
We carried on happily for about a year with this set up, but we were still running the generator for everything, except lights and laptop.
We had talked about getting a wind turbine. We did lots of research about start up speeds and dump loads. I found one that had an automatic shut off if the batteries were full, so as not to over charge them. My parents came to visit and my Dad and Kev installed the turbine on the roof. It is only a 400w turbine but it works most days even in the lightest winds. This means that most nights we have a trickle feed of electricity going into the batteries.
About 6 months ago we decdied to double the power by buying 4 new panels to go on the roof. We had to wait to have them fitted as we wanted to get a frame for them. Trouble was last time we were robbed they took the frame as well. This time it was agreed that they would be welded, bolted and concreted to the roof. If anyone wanted to steal these they would have to bring a disc cutter and generator with them!
While we were waiting for the frame, we were robbed again. They took the batteries this time. We had 2 banks and they took only one. We think they were disturbed or perhaps our German Shepherd had seen them off. What ever happened we were very worried that they would come back and take the other bank. Kev set about changing the space above the generator cupboard into Fortnox. It took him a week but again it will take someone a while to get into it and they would need to bring good tools with them.

Cupboard blocked up

 



Metal door fitted

 



block work rendered...one day it will be painted white

 



We also chose to have CCTV installed around the property. Now we can watch as people go past and I can access it remotely while I am at work or off the property. I think it is sad that we have to go to such measures but living alcampo as we do it is a must.

Chickens... it all gets out of hand

If you have read my last blog post about how we came to keep chickens, you will know that we had 2 and one (Pots) turned into a cockerel. We actually thought that this was a good thing as we had been considering breeding our own for meat.
In the February of 2011 my brother came for a visit. As we didn't see each other at Christmas we did the present exchange on his visit. He bought Kev 3 chickens as his Christmas present. Brilliant!
The 3 hens were placed in the chicken run with Pots and Roastie and the pecking commenced.  One of the hens at dusk flew over the fence and we lost her.  So now we had 2.
We went down to feed the chickens the next day and over night Pots had turned from this placid creature into the cockerel from hell. As the time went on he got more and more aggressive, jumping for our faces most of the time. Kev used to go in with a big board...like the police shields, to stop Pots getting him. We considered all of the pros and cons of keeping him but realised with the possibility of Grandchildren visiting he had to go! That next weekend he was our Sunday roast! I thought I would be funny about this  but obviously I have come to accept that this is how it is for our self sufficiency life style.
In the August the Grandchildren did come to visit and we took them to buy another 4 chickens to go in our flock.

Now we had six chickens. About 2 weeks later they started to lay and we have had eggs ever since!

 

Obviously we still wanted to raise our own chicks so that we had a supply of fresh meat, but this would mean another cockerel and to be honest we were worried that we would get another monster! We went to the shop in our local village and saw a lovely little cockerel all on his own. So without hesitation we bought him and put him with the chickens. The hens picked on him relentlessly for about 3 days. He wouldn't go into the coop preferring to sleep behind it instead.

We read on the Internet that if you want a cool cockerel you must be the boss. So you need to shoo him away from the food when you feed them, and stop him from mating if your in the pen. This is how he would behave towards another cockerel and so in his eyes you are the boss and not to be messed with. It worked and he has never attacked us.

Within 2 weeks of getting him all of our eggs were fertile. We decided to see if one of the hens would go broody. We stopped collecting the eggs and waited. 12 eggs and no sign of a broody hen, 24 eggs and no sign of a broody hen. We gave up when we reached 35 eggs and bought a small incubator that runs on 18w of electricity!

 

In May 2012 we hatched our first lot of chicks. It was a steep learning curve as the Internet and books make it all sound so cute and easy. They are easy to raise as in they really look after themselves. As long as they have food and water and a brooder to keep them warm they are happy.

 

What they didn't tell us was the amazing amount of poo they produce. We cleaned them out twice a day and they we still paddling in it. They also are not fussy about where they poo...in their water...food...anywhere seems to be the rule.

At 2 weeks because it was very warm here they were outside in a little run we made for them. But the books didn't tell you they can fly at 2 weeks and so getting them to the run and back turned into many candid camera moments with us chasing them around the garden!

 

All this said and done...breeding chickens is one of the most rewarding experiences we have had to date. We have hatched 4 lots of chicks now and  all our chicken meat is now home reared. We are considering keeping one of the cockerels we have raised and starting a second flock. Originally the idea was just to have eggs...now we are breeding and wanting 2 flocks. Be warned once you start keeping chickens it takes over and you always want more!

 

We kept one of our chicks and added her to our flock. This week she went broody and is sitting on 9 eggs. Hopefully this will mean we wont need the incubator any more, but we will keep it as a back up just in case!

Want some turkeys? Collect them tomorrow!

We hadn't thought about keeping turkeys, perhaps because you never see it for sale in the local shops. We knew we wanted chickens, ducks and geese. We had spent time researching the needs of these animals and were well on the way with the chickens, having 6 already and just having bought a cockerel. But turkeys! As far as we were concerned they are one of the ugliest birds you could have. You never see turkey eggs for sale so all they are good for it meat and we don't really like turkey that much. How things can change...

In May 2012 our friend Antonio came to visit and have his regular cuppa with us of a morning. He was telling us that one of his friends had given him 2 turkeys, a male and a female. He said that he already had a female and she had reared 6 chicks so he didn't want them. So he asked if we would like them. He explained that the females are very hard to find to buy here so we could just have the female if we wanted. He also dropped into the conversation that he was going to kill them if we didn't want them! We ummed and arghed for about 30 minutes and then agreed to having them. His next statement was 'fetch them tomorrow'.

The next day Kev walked over the bridge to Antonio's house and was shocked at firstly the size of the 2 birds and then the state of them. Antonio caught the 2 birds, tied their feet together, put them in a wheel barrow and covered them with a sheet. Kev was a bit stressed about this treatment but we were getting very used to the campo treatment of animals for food. Kev left as soon as he could to get the birds home and set free.

All we had to house them in was the old goat shed that Kev had built.

 

We thought that this would have to do until we could build them their own house and fence off some of the land for them.

 



This is Paxo our Tom as he was when he arrived. He was so fat he could hardly walk and he had no feathers on his chest at all. His feet were covered in callouses, to say he was in a bad way would be a bit of an understatement.

 

In the goat shed we put a high platform for the hen and a much lower one for Paxo as he couldn't get up on anything too high.

 



Our hen Cranberry sitting on her platform.

 

In the beginning they were very wary of us. We put into place a regular feeding routine and encouraged them to leave the goat shed and free range on the land. It was sad to see...they didn't know how to forage at all for food. They just used to sit by the gate waiting for us to go and give them their food.

 

Kev built them a new house and fenced of a run for them. This was to give them some respite from the chickens that seemed to pinch all the food from them. The last feed of the day was and still is in this pen with all the chickens shut out.

 

 

This is only half of the run

 

Another reason to build them a pen was to ensure that Cranberry had somewhere quiet to sit on eggs as and when...or if she laid eggs.

 

Within 6 months Paxo was totally slimmed down, with full plumage and his feet were much better too. He could fly over the  fence and they both roost on top of the house rather than inside it.

 

This is Paxo now...oh my how he has changed!

 

They are both very happy with their lives. They have started to forage, Paxo can now run too. Cranberry has started to lay eggs this month so very soon we should have babies all being well.

 

In the beginning I told you what we thought about turkeys. Well that has all changed. Paxo is a gentle giant. He is very protective of his hen but is very friendly with us, which is just as well because he could do us some real damage if he turned. It is a pleasure to see how they have changed, becoming confident and happy in their surroundings. A far cry from how they were kept before we got them.





The story of chickens.

One of the many reasons we wanted a house in the middle of no where was so that we could keep animals. Chickens were always going to be the first on the list, keeping them for meat and eggs, even though I am allergic to eggs!
We had owned the house for 8 months and been living in it full time for 4 the house changes had been done but nothing much else. A friend turned up one afternoon with a chicken he had found wandering along the roadside. Obviously he had thought of us, caught it and so we had our first chicken. The next day we went out and bought her a friend, as we knew that chickens are social birds. These two lived in a cardboard box with  palletes around them until the weekend when a proper pen was built for them.

 

Our first chicken, we called her Roastie

 

 

The chicken we bought...we called her Pots

 

We had a decision to make about where in the garden they were going to live, but since we had not begun to plan out the garden it would be pot luck (excuse the punn) if it was in the right place.

We chose the furthest corner of the garden, away from the house, so hopefully the dog would not pester them too much.

Kev set about building a pen for them. We used old fencing and posts that we had left over from the original garden when we moved in.

 

The run almost done

 

We planned on letting them free range in the garden, but knew the dog would have to get used to them first. This is the reason the run is quite big. We were going to have to keep them shut in for a few weeks or longer until we were sure George (the german shepherd) would not eat them.

 





We put log piles in the run and every week or so would move them around so that the hens could scratch for the bugs.

After 2 months...we got a big shock. Our little Pots had grown up...and was not what we thought!

She had turned into a cockerel and was crowing. If you can see in this photo, in the background the cardboard box. These 2 birds lived in these through the winter and into the Spring before we could get the recycled plastic hen house over to Spain.

 

We now have 7 hens and one cockerel. We have bred 4 lots of chicks using an incubator, as the hens just didn't go broody. We are going to keep 2 of the smaller hens this time around hoping that they will go broody and sit on eggs for us. We will keep you posted on that one.

 



Planters along the Pergola

Its funny how when you do one thing it always sparks an idea for another. Building the path and terrace at the front of the house was no different. We put up the pergola knowing that we wanted to grow grapes, kiwi and possibly Vanilla pods if we could find the plants.

This was what we had to work with. Initially we thought about making the blocks into the planters and we may still do that with the ones left over.  The idea of using the stone theme and trying to take the straightness off  gave us the idea of building round, rock planters.

This was my first ever attempt at building anything. It is normally Kev's job if it involves cement...I just mix it for him!
The first thing I had to do was make a template of the shape I wanted to build. As the planters were to be round, using a string would be impossible and we wanted them to look rustic anyway so not to worry if they weren't perfect!

I dug out the soil to follow the shape of the template and then made a foundation using big rocks. Hopefully the smaller rocks would sit on this foundation without moving.

So far so good...half way up. Now to make the complete circle.

 

First planter finished.

 

 

To a trained eye this most probably looks like the pits, but to us it is perfect. The planter being built down the front of the path will allow the roots of the plants to spread and not become root bound. Ok so one finished 4 more to go!

 

 

Number 2

 

I got three finished last year with 2 more to build. The weather turned extremely hot, very early on and so all work stopped. The mortar was going off too quickly and we were wasting mixes. So this next month is the time to finish the job.

 

We can't wait to see these planted up. The plants will provide shade for the front of the house, give us grapes to eat and will look beautiful too.





Starting off the soft fruit

Trees were planted, vegetables were growing too, next was the soft fruit. I love soft fruit...all types, it was just a natural progression to start growing it.
We made a list and set about trying to source the plants locally. This seemed to take forever as no where stocked the currant bushes we wanted. While we were searching we also tried to sort out the patch of land that the plants would go on. This was a big task for such as small area!

 

 

As you can see from the photos, we had fencing everywhere. There were posts concreted into the ground and posts built from concrete filled blocks. There were 2 beautiful pear trees right in the middle of the plot. We had to choose to remove them otherwise the soft fruit would not get enough water to grow well. We planted new so this made us feel a little less guilty.

 

Ground ready for planting

 

Black currant

 

Red currant

 

white currant

 

raspberries red and yellow

 

 

As we moved though the Summer months we realised we had a big problem. The ground still sloped slightly (even after all our effort) and so the water was running away from the bushes. This had to be remedied otherwise the bushes would surely die from the heat. We carried the rock theme on into this part of the garden as it had worked so well with the trees.

 

 

 

These rings contained the water for the bushes and they survived their first summer.