The Great Clear Up

Well, the house has been empty for 3 years, so there’s a lot to be done. First of all, we need to remove about 5 years worth of pine needles from the front. They are a huge fire hazard, so this is a priority. It turns out, that there are a couple of helpful chaps, who will do the job, for a reasonable day rate. Needless to say, the Spanish speed of work is somewhat slower than hours, but then again, that’s exactly why we’ve moved here – to slow down a little.

We’ve had a huge laugh with the needles and debris. We found out where the local tip was, so went there on the Tuesday with lots of stuff the previous owners had left behind. (Old washing machine, cooker, children’s broken toys etc.) The lady was really nice, and showed us which items should go into which skips.

What a revelation. There are 5 or 6 huge skips in a semi circle, with a ramp to drive up, recesses to reverse or drive into, so you can drop your stuff into the skips really easily, then you just drive back down the ram, and leave. They take everything, ‘fridges, tyres – you name it – they have skip for it, or so we thought…

On Friday, we took a huge load of cut branches to the tip (Ecoparc). There was a man on duty. He took one look at Ed’s double cab, tipper truck and shook his head. We ignored him, and drove up the ramp, and stopped at the garden skip, and he shook his finger at us. No way! I shrugged and asked where, and he just wagged his finger at us again. Ooops. We left, with our load still on board.

The next day (Saturday), someone showed us where the unmanned tip was, in a nearby village. Off we went, but it was shut. No problem, there’s another one in the next town. Shut. So back home again, with the rubbish still on board. Monday, 10 am, off to the tip again, shut! This time, there was a policeman on guard. Mañana he said, ald told us that it shut at 1pm. Home again, with the same load of rubbish! The locals must think that we’ve chopped down a whole forest, we’ve carried that much around!

Tuesday – at last, the unmanned tip is open, and we can get rid of the branches! Not only that, the skips are the right height for Ed to use the tipper action, so the rubbish goes straight in. I was sad to see it go – we’ve travelled so far together.

Hooray, empty truck at last, time to load up with pine needles. Trek down to the usual Ecoparc… no way. This time, it was because the load was too combustious. They were not willing to take it. As previously, no alternatives were given. On Wednesday, we had a plan. Peter, the groundsman went with Ed to all of the local tips, and managed to get rid of one load – although with some persuasion. He reckoned that one day to one tip, and another day to an alternative one might work. Then, later on, he had a brainwave – get the local skip man to drop off a skip. This seemed like an obvious idea, but apparently his is so busy, he never arrives when he says he will. Ah well, desperate needs call for desperate measures… Shock, horror, the skip arrived on Thursday morning

The front garden is now well on the way to looking tidy…