Yeso Spraying

Holiday time is over and my daughter has returned to the UK so back to some serious work. Due to my inability to stay on my feet without breaking them, we have got a little behind with the work on the cave. We are due more visitors at the beginning of August, and I do not mean the odd one or two I mean a lot, mainly teenagers, who are all rock musicians and are doing a tour of France and Spain. Before you think we have taken leave of our senses, the group are being brought by a good friend of ours who is a Youth and Community Worker from the area where we used to live. One of his functions in life is too help young people to help themselves and explore every facet of who they can be. One of 'Joe's' project is a recording studio and providing the young people somewhere they can receive tuition, suport and advice. We believe in Joe's work 1000% and will support and assist where we are able. My other half's son Rick will be in this party of musicians.

Now given the volume of people, who will mainly be camping on the top of our mountain, and also given, that we only have one bathroom, my thoughts are.......this is going to get messy. Our great need was to get the additional living accommodation finished or somewhere near and at the very least get another toilet and handbasin functioning. This is where the panic set in as we knew that we had no way in hell of getting the place covered in yeso, in such a short space of time. Let alone get the tiling done and the bathroom fittments in. Our savious came in the guise of a spanish builder who, as it turned out also was a yeso sprayer. Now we had heard of this but for some reason had not been able to locate one, until now.

180 bags of special yeso were ordered for the job, this yeso is specially made to be used with the yeso spraying machine and it is called yeso de proyeccion. At 8.30am yesterday the yeso sprayer and his crew arrived to commence work.

This is the machine, it is quite large, and has a constant feed of water and yeso, which means that there is someone with the machine all of the time. It looks like a big blender, and the bags of yeso are poured into the top through a grille where it is mixed with water and then fed into the the long hoses.

This is a top view of the grille, the inside looks a bit like the inside of a twin tub washing machine with paddles constantly mixing the yeso and the water

This is the yeso sprayer in action. He does small sections at a time and keeps the nozzle of the hose close to the wall, which greatly minimizes the splash back effect.

He was very careful around the electrical sockets, although we have not connected the power yet to this area. He was also very careful around the door frames and window frames. We removed the window, shutters and doors before he began.

This is a view of the bathroom showing that the contours of the rock were still visisble but well covered.
This is a view of the larger bedroom showing the effect that was acheived.

More views of the bedrooms.

These are views of the cave lounge and where we have had to stregthen the ceiling at one point. The void that can be seen will be blocked up and we will hand yeso this area, when it is completed.

This final shot is the other end of the cave lounge which has a tunnel/passage way that leads into what will eventually be the office. The area to the right near the tunnel/passage way it where the TV etc will go we are going to dig a shelf out to house the various other bits and pieces and then finish with yeso by hand.

We are delighted with the finish as the newer addition to the property has the same finish as the previously unrestored caves, so it all ties in very nicely. So there you have it Yeso spraying, not exactly cheap but we did have five rooms sprayed and it only took one day. Worked out at about €500 per room including materials.

Pedaloes, Lakes and Sunburn

A day at one of the beautiful lakes in this area, is a real day out. Not only are you surrounded by a very beautiful backdrop, but it is so quiet. There are a few lakeside restuarants who sell the most delightful fish dishes, and of course the odd drink or two.... There are also shingle type beaches where there is no overcrowding.

We took out a pedalo which cost us €5 for an hour which I thought was very reasonable and very good excercise. Having said that I know that we were out for a grat deal longer than an hour and I offered him more, but he would not take it.

The lake is full of fish, don't ask me what type, I just know that there were big ones and little ones in Negratin, and I was swimming with them. The lake is very cool, and the deeper you get the cooler it gets. Very, very pleasant when it is baking hot and it seems there is nowhere to get cool. The day we were there was a scorcher, and I was delighted to be in the water, even though it did take my breath away.

We will be going back again soon as I had a great time despite the sunburn. I will be taking food this time to snack upon, and plenty of sun cream.

Granada and Alhambra Palace

We decided that it was a must to visist Granada whilst my daughter was here and although had kind of planned the day in advance we managed not to get a very early start, best laid plans of mice and men... We stopped for some food just outside Granada and decided that in view of the late start it would only be possible for us to take in one of the tourist attractions and that would have to be the most famous. Alhambra.

The little specks that you can see are my daughter and myslef, just before the batteries died on the camera....Doh! I have to say to anyone who has not yet visited Alhambra, do it now it is well worth the visit. You will need a good day to do this, and make sure that you are fit, have sensible clothing, as you will struggle otherwise. We took my mother, and because she has a heart condition and we knew there would be a good bit of walking, we took her wheelchair, just as well as she would never had made it otherwise.

This is my daughter posing again, taking photos here is an art form and a lot of patience is required as there are so many people milling around doing exactly the same. It is often difficult to get a clear shot, oh and take more than one set of batteries for your digi cam. I did but my camera is a bit fussy about batteries and just will not operate if you load the ones it does not like.

Beverley looks somewhat bored on this one, well she was, mainly because her Gran insisted looking around all the gift shops, whereas Bev wanted to go to the main attraction and we were running out of time. If I went again I would not be taking anyone in a wheelchair unless they were quite happy just to sit and admire the gardens as the whole thing is not wheelchair friendly including some parts of the gardens.

The gardens are stunning and extensive, very ornamental and very tranquil, with lots of water features and shaded areas, which were very much appreciated as it was a very hot and humid day.

Sadly these were all the phots that I managed to take before the camera died which was such a dreadful shame as there was so much to see and lots of ornamental plaster work, the like of which I have never seen. It cost us €10 per head for the full tour, you can also hire electronic guides which tell you all about the areas you are in, very handy indeed. With a bit more forward planning a guide book would have been most helpful, as most of the time we did not know what we were looking at as there is not much in the way of information around on the tour.
We got caught in a terrible downpour and mother got soaked. My other half, Rob, took her back to the car and Bev and I finished the tour. I have to say we were both exhausted and dripping with sweat by the time we had finished as there were lots and lots of stairs to climb.

I have enclosed a link so if any of you plan a trip to Alhambra you will at least have some idea of the scale and also the history. I will go again but this time with batteries for my camera and also a guide book.

Guide to Alhambra de Granada

Rooftop Ramblers

It is amazing what or who you find on your roof when you live in a cave house. It is not unusual for people to stroll around on the roof whilst they are making their daily journeys. Personally I think I would find it a little uncomfortable as we consider a roof of a property to be a bit private and you would not think of walking around on someones roof. In the Uk it would not normally be possible, so I guess the concept is very strange to us.

These evening visitors are not unusual as such but it still makes me giggle, I never considered having sheep roaming and grazing on my roof. They are well managed with a couple of sheep dogs and a shepherd and most of them have large cow bells around their necks which makes a melodic clanking sound, very pleasant on the ears.

It has to be said that the dog is more than a little bemused. I suspect he has never seen a sheep in his life, and for good measure there are few goats too. The only time he barks is when he catches a glimpse of the sheepdog. I suspect he knows that the dog that used to visit us before we moved in, that I so wanted to adopt, was one of the sheepdogs......lol