Mark and Jacky and more

Mark & Jacky left – July 2021, the month that Mark & Jacky left. Quite a thing for Mirjam and I, because we had been relying on them somehow. If we had a question, not just about the house but about anything, we could always walk over to their house and ask them. The idea that they are gone now feels odd. It is like the day your older sibling moves out or something. On the one hand we are happy for them that they were finally able to take the next step in their journey home, but on the other hand we are full of both sadness and trepidation with the idea that they have left and we will have to fend for ourselves.

The day the lorry came for their stuff we spent some 12 hours hauling items from one of our sheds – where they had stored their things temporarily – to the lorry that had parked in the riverbed. There were quite a few big items and some of them were very heavy. Mark loaded those with his digger. And eventually, the digger itself had to be loaded too.

Because of all the awkward items from Mark’s workshop and that digger, it was hard to stack thinks and make good use of the available space. And that resulted in the need for a second lorry, which came a week later. It also resulted in Mark and Jacky leaving things behind for us. It was almost embarrassing; they gave us so many things, not in the least a huge shelving unit for the garage, a great bookcase, that we put in our office, a huge dinner table and many plants, to name but a few.

Once all their things were on their way to the UK, we tried to help them out to by inviting them over for dinner a few times. Mirjam outdid herself with a pizza night, an Indonesian night and on their last night, death by cheese, with a homemade lasagna followed by a cheese platter consisting of some 8 different kinds of cheese.

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A second (hand) car – We knew Mark’s brother who owned the house next door, also owned a car. He had asked Mark to sell the house and everything in it. We declined the offer to buy the house, but we told him we were interested in the car. And we bought it! It is an old Volvo 850, which means it offers plenty of space and allows us to move larger items and pick people up from the airport, if needed. It is a UK import (with the steering wheel on the right), but with Spanish plates. We now refer to our cars with the word ‘fleet’.

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Ice-cream cone holder – Mirjam said she would like to have an ice-cream cone holder, because when she was scooping us a homemade ice-cream, she would have to hold her own cone in one hand and with the other hand close the container and put it back in the freezer, which is just not easy. So, I set out to make one and am quite pleased with the result. And more importantly, so is Mirjam.

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Table saw – With all the things that I want to make with the wood Mark kindly left, I decided that I needed a table saw. We ordered one from a Makita dealer in the next town over and it arrived within a few days. Once we put it together, it seemed a little low for me and making it higher would not only be better for my back, but it would also mean that it could be flush with the workbench, which would make the awkward front and side extensions unnecessary. Mark gave me a steel angle bar, from which I cut 4 leg extensions to the right size and used those to lift the table 15cm. The result is perfect for me.

Tabletop – The first project for which I was going to use the table saw was making a table top for the table that Mark & Jacky gave us. The steps to do this:

• Selecting the wood
• Cutting it to size
• Sending it through the planer (which I bought from Mark for next to nothing) to make sure all the boards are flat.
• Cutting the edges straight using the table saw
• Cutting splines that will help keep the boards together
• Creating grooves in the edges where the spines will go
• Putting it all together
• Creating a nice edge
• Sanding
• Installing

Cutting, not buying – One of the things Mirjam really really loves about living here is the fact that fresh herbs grow either on the property, or just outside it. Often, before starting cooking our evening meal, she goes off with a pair of scissors and comes back with what is needed for that day.

We enclosed the triangle near the pool – There are quite a few flies this time of year in Spain. They are really annoying and seem to love trying to get in your nose or in your ear. Not sure what the fun of that is, but we weren’t having it. We already have a fly-free zone on our porch, because it is screened in, but the flies were taking away the enjoyment of the pool. So we decided to make that shade-providing triangle fly-free as well. With things we had laying around:

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Swimming in the morning – Now that summer is here and the water in the pool is nice and warm, we go for a swim most mornings, before breakfast. It is a great start of the day!

Number of steps per day – Because we moved from a house of 103m² on 141m² to this house of 230m² on 7500m², we walk considerably more. My steps are tracked by my watch and compared to last year, I walk more than twice as much. Effortlessly.  It was part of the plan: be active, but with no stress.  

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No water – And then, one day, we had no water. I checked with the Spanish neighbor up the road and he also had no water. He said he was going to call the water board to come and repair the mains. Since he has livestock, they typically come out fast, but that could still be a few days. I then contacted an acquaintance who lives a few kilometers north of us and who we know is on the same water supply and asked if they had the same problem. They didn’t. So, the problem was somewhere between our house (we are the last house on that water supply) and his house.  Some of the water mains pipe runs above ground through the riverbed and we decided to go and investigate. We took one of the cars from the fleet and drove slowly north. We thought that perhaps we could see where the problem is and then perhaps even fix it temporarily until the water board people would come out. We didn’t find the problem, but we ran into the neighbor’s son who found the problem, but couldn’t fix it.

The good news is that we have a backup water tank. A few valves in the utility room switch our taps from the mains to the tank. I had never tried it, but now seemed like a good time. It worked like a charm. For about 3 minutes and then the 20,000 liter tank was empty. So, next step was to get that tank filled. There is a water truck that drives north to be filled up and then south to supply houses that are not connected to the water mains with water. It makes that trip 5 to 6 times a day and we see him drive by every day. It takes about 15 minutes for the truck to come back when you see him go north. So, I watched out for that truck and when I saw him go north, I went up to the road about 10 minutes later and waited for him to come back, so I could flag him down. When he came and stopped for me, I explained the situation and asked if he could fill our tank. He was able to come the next day, with 12,000 liters. Perfect. We could easily manage a day without water. We have bottled water for coffee and tea and cooking anyway, and we could skip 1 morning shower, surely. And taking a dip in the pool is refreshing too, so no problem.

The next day the water truck came around 10 in the morning. And the water supply was fixed about 3 hours later. But, next time, we will be better prepared with 12,000 liters sitting there waiting for us to need it.

Living room concert – One day, Mirjam received a picture of her niece Tessi’s boyfriend’s keyboard, which he had built in, in an old piano. “When is the living room concert?” asked Monique, Tessi’s mom. And that is how the idea was born to organize a get together at their house in Breda and streaming it live so we could “be there” too. On July 23^rd the concert took place, followed by a 4-course dinner for those attending in Breda. This is how we witnessed it, on our porch on the elevated tv.

We bought the house over a year ago – Hard to believe, but we bought this house just over a year ago. And we have lived here for over 6 months now. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Finding us on Google – Our address is unknown to Google and can therefore not be found on Google maps. It is not that surprising, because it seems that every other official institution has a different address for us. In order to make it easier to explain where we live, for family, friends and deliveries, I marked our house as Casa Mirer on Google Maps. Just search for Casa Mirer and you should be able to find us easily.

Flora & Fauna

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Full moon

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Thanks for taking the time to look at this. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a comment below.