Work began in 2006 on 9 January laying the irrigation pipes along the tracks and terraces to the plan (above) that Ian had prepared in December. Ian, however, was unable to be of much help at the beginning of the month as he broke his arm on 5 January whilst out walking the dogs!

Patrik and Tomas had a second, more successful, attempt at fixing the roof on the chicken house.

Araceli, a friend who has campo nearby, offered us 10 mature fruit trees from her campo to plant at the Finca. She needed to remove the trees to make room for a track and a small wooden house. But we only had 2 weeks to sort out the move as the construction work was beginning at the end of January.

Scarlett quickly arrange the hire of a small digger and a plan was hatched to make sure we had the water deposit connected to a basic irrigation system in time to plant the trees. Justin, a friend and gardening expert, worked with the boys to prepare the trees for the move and to get the land ready for planting them.



Antonio, the plumber, had done a quick-fix to get the water deposit connected to the water supply and get a basic down-pipe in place so we could make sure the ground was watered enough for planting the mature trees.

As expected, when we filled the deposit there were a few leaks from some of the joints. This was not a problem for the next few weeks but the boys would need to drained the water deposit and properly seal all the joints in February.

Saturday 21 January was the big day! Everyone chipped in to uproot the trees on Araceli's land and move them over to la Finca. By the end of the day we have planted the first few orange and lemon trees on the land.



Whilst we had the small digger we also used it to dig holes on all the terraces ready for planting trees and also to dig trenches where we needed to run the main irrigation pipes.

By the end of January the boys had dug holes on all the main terraces and the irrigation pipes were all aligned up in place ready to begin connecting them together.

We had several set-backs in January trying to get Iberbanda, a satellite phone and internet provider, to visit the land to do a site survey. Every week one or two meetings were arranged but the engineer failed to turn up. What was particularly frustrating was that they never cancelled the meetings - they simply just did not turn up! But as they seem to be the only company who could provide any coverage at the land we will just keep trying.



Scarlett visited several garden centres in January to compare prices and the variety of trees they had in stock. She placed an order with one of them and we took delivery of over 100 saplings on 31 January. These were all planted in a trench along one terrace where they can be easily watered whist they are individually planted during February.