Adios Duruxa!

Group photo at sunset.  Left to right top: (us), Carly, Jillie, Dane, James, Owen (new arrival helper) l to r bottom: Mali, Joel, Asa)

Austin here with a quick quick update.  Even with very uneven weather this last week (rain, cold, some sun), we have so enjoyed our last week in Duruxa.  Planting corn in a HUGE field, rebuilding a fallen stone wall, another epic pizza night with lots of sidra and laughter, and wrapping up.  We leave sometime this week for a hitchhiking adventure along the north coast of Spain, through France, and finally arriving in the Tuscany countryside of Italy to visit my band director from high school at his summer apartment.  We wherever you are it is blossoming into summer, and your life is filled with enjoyment of the many blessings around you!

Ps- the kittens are getting bigger and cuter!

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/Spain

Cows and other Adventures

Our neighbor's cows in foreground, with Duruxa's mountain in the distance.

Another amazing week has past at Duruxa, and I (Austin) am back with more adventures to share.  First, I would love to fill you in on some interesting nuances of the Austurian culture (Austuria is the region of Spain we are in).  Most locals in the foothill regions live in pastoral communities, where shepherding animals (goats, sheep, cows) is incredibly common.  Tradition was that families grew up working the farm together, and only recently has the presence of cities and modern Western culture caused many young people to find their lives outside of farming, leaving many farm properties in Austuria for sale or abandoned (hence many foreigners looking for an alternative lifestyle moving out here and buying land, like Duruxa).  Still, there are many of the older generation who work their land faithfully to this day, and even some of the younger family who stay behind.  One example of this is our neighbors, who run a massive raw blue cheese operation (raw, what?!  you might say; most cheese in Europe is made from raw cow and goat’s milk, hence its amazing taste and health benefits).  I have no idea what the family name of the neighbors is, but they have a son named Carlos who is built like a varsity American football linebacker and can drive a tractor backwards with his eyes closed.  I had met Carlos a few times before while shoveling manure or picking up the milk they give us from their cows, but we hadn’t talked much (nevermind the language barrier and his bellowingly quick and rough Austurian accent).  All that changed when I was cheerfully selected by Dane to join him on an epic cow walking journey.

Dane, Carlos, and Francisco chasing the cows.

In the summer time, most Austurian farmers walk their meat cows from the valleys and foothills to the high altitude grazing pastures of the picos.  This gives their home grass a chance to rest and be prepared for hay as winter food, while giving the cattle (or vacas, in Spanish) opportunity to graze on grass ten times more nutrient dense in the mountains.  Often friends and neighbors will help each other move these animals (the amount of interdependence in the communities out here is amazing).  Our neighbors were moving their cattle this past week, and Dane invited me to join him in helping out. 

Dane and I at the end of our journey.

Traditional Austurian food: steak, tortilla, and chorizo.

Dane enjoying some fried milk, a sweet and delicious treat.

Together with Carlos and his friend Francisco of equally impossible Spanish to understand, Dane and I herded about twenty five vacas (and two teenage bulls) over ten miles of valleys, hills and mountains to the local National Park Covadonga pastures at high altitude where the cows have their summer home.  It was absolutely fun, muddy, and a bit tiring.  Cows keep a good pace, and so we had to run at times to keep up, dragging our herding sticks with us,  in case a renegade cow need be encouraged to return to the pack.  One bull freaked out in the beginning and charged around the local interstate, but Carlos (being a bull of a fellow himself), managed to get the toro back into line.  In the high peaks, Dane and I discovered a massive cave entrance near some lovely green birch trees, and we made a plan to return later to spelunk.  FInally, the cows were put to pasture, and all of us feasted on traditional Austurian foods, like homemade tortilla (not what you think, more like a potato loaded quiche), along with loads of neighbor’s homeraised, high quality chorizo, steak, and cheese.  Topped off with fried milk (can’t even describe, but so amazing!), we feasted ourselves silly, and I enjoyed so much practicing my broken Spanish and getting to know this wonderful family.  What a time!

So you’re probably thinking, what about that fearsome cave you found?  Well, Dane, Kindra, Carly, Jillie and I explore that sucker yesterday!  We drove back to Covadonga and found ourselves in a huge cavern that went deep underground.  A decent ways in we discovered some ropes to help traversing a narrow entrance, and we followed this excitedly, hearing the sounds of rushing underground water ahead.  Just meters beyond our roped ascent there was a cavern with a sudden drop off of a couple hundred feet, with ropes leading down.  Unfortunately, real technical gear was needed to continue, so we reached our end and savored a few minutes in pitch black with our headlamps out. 

There are masses of underground caves and lakes in the region (hence all the natural springs), so we hope to do some more spelunking in the future!  Especially since it is raining like crazy again, and probably won’t let up for a awhile.

We are still having a blast here; Kindra continues to do lots of gardening projects (like weeding potato beds), and I have been helping James build another wall out of stone.  The food is so delicious and natural, with loads of harvested food like cherries, chestnuts, and walnuts.  We went to the sauna in town on Friday, and I had my first real shower in a few weeks.  :)  Until next time, hasta luego!

In the upper garden, looking off towards Viking Peak.

Our mailbox!

More pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/117860913937238604610/Spain

Settling in to Duruxa Life

Kindra at the local market in town.

 It's been a week and a half since our arrival to Duruxa, and so much has happened!  (Austin here bloggin' again, by the way.)  We started formally WWOOFing last Monday, and it is lots of physical work.  I helped James finish a huge stone wall that he has been working on for three and a half years.  We cleared bushels of stinging nettles (which are a major pain of a weed!), threw huge logs of firewood down a hill to dry out, and shoveled tons of cow manure from barns for the neighbors.  That last task, shoveling poo, is Duruxa's payment for the raw milk that the neighbors give us.  Raw milk is soooo delicious; I thought it would be super gross, but actually it tastes amazing.  Kindra also spend a decent amount of time harvesting and replanting carrots in the circular garden. 

Slugs on the chopping block; these pests are a major nuisance for the garden.

The beautiful view from the circular garden,

James in celebration over the wall we finished.

To top it off, Kindra and I rescued a kid (young female goat) with a hurt leg on the nearby mountain!  Once we found it, James came and helped us carry it down to Duruxa for the goat's owner to come check it out (the goats on our property belong to someone else).  James has been incredible to work with; he is very dedicated but incredibly kind at the same time.  Really, the whole community is amazing; it has been so special to see how they make decisions and work together on tasks.  One task coming up this week is planting a huge field of corn!

Our rescued kid at Duruxa.

There are a few new additions to the farm: first of all are two babies kittens from a wild mother cat that nests in the barn.  We nicked (to use a British term) the kitties from the mom, and they reside a black cardboard box and drink cow's milk mixed with water, although they are getting constipated and perhaps need a different kind of milk.  Also, Dane's sister, Carly, just arrived Wednesday from Santa Barbara to take up residence at Duruxa for a while.  Kindra and I have known her a little from IV Church in SB, but are so excited to get to know her better. 

Dane and Mali have fun in a "tribal" dance one evening.

We also took an epic hike with Dane and Jillie Saturday over the ridgeline of some amazing montanas nearby.  Saya, the Duruxa mountain dog, joined us.  It felt so good to hike for a good portion of day, drinking all our water from local springs and climbing along beautiful views.  We had amazing conversations with Dane and Jillie during this time; we feel so much more connected to them.   

On our epic hike.

Go Kindra!

Group effort.

Dane and Saya near the summit of the ridge.

Dane and a local farmer chat it up in espanol.

I am sure much more happened, but it is hard to remember it all, and time is flying!  This region of Spain is unbelievable.  More to come...

Photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/117860913937238604610/albums/5874570106035095985?banner=pwa

Spain

Our new WWOOFing home, seen from up the mountain.

Austin here, with a quick update on our current happenings.  Very currently, Kindra and I are in a cafe in the medium sized Spanish town of Cangas de Onis, with our good friends Dane and Jillie, who also happen to be our WWOOF hosts this month!  They are incredible people, very close in spirit to us.  Their story are how to they got to Spain is inspiring: being young loves like us, and also travelers at heart, they WWOOFed across Europe before getting married and settling down in Santa Barbara (they ran a beekeeping business there, story for another time).  We befriended them in SB and connected with them easily.  Feeling the call of the wild again, Dane and Jillie decided to move in early 2012 to Northern Spain, to live on a farm called Duruxa (doo-roo-sha) that they had WWOOFed on earlier.  When they left the states, we were inspired by their choice of lifestyle, and it was part of our journey to where we are now!

Dane and Jillie relaxing on the local beach.

So flash forward to a week ago, we left our hosts in southern France via bus headed towards our friends in Spain.  One long overnight bus ride and several bus-layovers later, we found ourselves in rainy Northern Spain, surrounding by mountains and within a few miles of the Atlantic coast (to our north).  Duruxa is a farm on a mountainside, with little truly flat land, and filled with sheep, horses, a young donkey, chickens, a sweet, huge mountain dog named Saya (after a local river), and a wonderfully fun and loving community.  It is Dane and Jillie, James (from England, another UK host!), and Joel and Asa and their daughter Mali.  Joel is from Portugal, specifically from the Azores islands, while Asa is from northern Norway.  Both of them have spent the better part of a year biking across Europe, much to our excitement!  Everyone is incredibly kind here, full of tenderness.  While it rained the first night, we ate homemade polenta and played the "superfun game" in Joel and Asa's yurt.  It was super fun indeed, and it involved a lot of laughter.  The rain cleared up after a few days, just in time for Chapman and Peter (some friends of Dane and Jillie's) to arrive from their art schools in Florence for a few days of R&R.  We originally thought this would be exhausting with so many people there, but in truth Chapman and Peter both became close friends to us both right away, and we had many adventures together going up the local mountain or taking a day to the beach (which is absolute paradise, and it is only May!).  On Friday night, we had unlimited pizza night with sidra (a fermented apple juice drink made on the property), which consisted of baked endless amounts of various pizzas in their limestone oven!  What a blast! 

Kindra and Asa talk as our pizza oven warms up!

We are both loving our time here so far, and can't wait for the fun times ahead with our friends.  We can only get internet in the local town, so we won't be able to get updates up quite as quickly.  Love you guys back at home!

In Dane and Jillie's van on the way to the beach with James, Peter, and Chapman (left to right).

 More Picasa pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/117860913937238604610/albums/5874570106035095985?banner=pwa

Printemps a la France-Spring in France

Kindra speaking- There is so much to tell from our past few weeks here in Izaut de l’Hotel, where do I begin? I suppose introducing you properly to our hosts is a good start.

First and foremost, it is our first time living with a child at the property! There is a wonderful 8 yr old boy named Rowan, who brightens up our day every moment we spend with him! He has been our partner in crime, jumping into freezing cold rivers/waterfalls, walking to markets with us, picking up his baby chicks with us....always up for an adventure.

Rowan and Austin preparing to jump in the waterfall by our house

One of which was Austin taking some family portraits (where these pics of the family are from) which the mom, Karen, is using for her website hoping to attract nearby elementary or high schools to come and learn more about chickens through hands on experience here at the farm. We have certainly learned a lot about chicken care from Karen, who is a laid back, empowering, and tireless worker and mother. Her French is impeccable, and she makes killer salads.

Enjoying a long, beautiful hike with Karen on a weekend

The husband, Lee, is extremely knowledgeable about vegetation and sustainability. In fact, he is so much oriented towards always considering the environmental affects of every decision of the family life that we have found it even difficult at times to cope with. That being said, he has a tool and an exact process for everything, which makes a lot of sense when you're producing on a commercial level, and I have learned a significant amount about gardening and farming from him.

Working with Lee on planting hundreds of seeds in the sun

Our French WWOOFing home is overall proving to be a yet another completely different experience from any we have had thus far. It is spring time! And we are at the base of a mountain! Which translates to: the weather changes more dramatically than anywhere so far, and it has been HOT. While we are doing new jobs that come with the season-making veggie beds and planting into them, pruning raspberries, etc.-they are all being complicated by a part of spring that I didn’t see coming. Bugs. Lots, and lots of bugs. Hornets getting trapped in our house, bug fuzzy bumble bees following us as we prune their favorite flowers, wasps making nests in our car, ants invading our house for a single crumb left out, lizards sun bathing on our windowsills, spiders multiplying in our bathroom like they’re in a math contest-you name it. Not so fun-talk about having to deal with my previous flying insects that sting phobia!- but part of the deal.

One of the many unique flowers blooming in our village

Planting potatoes in the hot sun. About 800 potatoes, to be precise. 

On the way to the remote chickens, as the flowers bloom.

We are also using compost toilets-not as gross as you might imagine, and no, it doesn’t reek any worse than a standard toilet-which help produce humanure!! Yep, it’s just what you’d think-human manure, mixed with other organic wastes (like egg shells, veggie leftovers, nut shells, etc) and used as compost for the garden. Gotta say, it makes a lot of sense if you’re doing it on a commercial level, maybe not so much sense if you’re doing it for a small house garden. Certainly a novel experience for us. This is also the first place we have WWOOFed in which neither of us are fluent in the local language. While I took French in high school, that was about 7 years ago....so not so hot there. But we’re learning together, and Austin has been making new village friends with ease basically playing games of charades in attempts to communicate.

Chicken time! Breakfast for 1 group of chickens every morning

We have more than fallen in love with French wine, cheese, croissants, and chocolatines-we have become addicted. We find excuses to walk to the local store, which sells freshly baked croissants, chocolatines, and breads, as often as we can. It’s got to be the best way to spend 85 cents in the world. So between the local cuisine, and the Wood family making outstanding vegetarian meals from mostly their own garden, we are being fed extremely well.

Playing the 'twirl' game with Rowan and his friend we've been close with, Felix

That being said, this has also been a very difficult place for us in some ways. Something that we perhaps did not foresee or think through when choosing this location is the inevitable added stress that having a child around brings upon a family, as there have been many moments of tension and arguing in the house, leaving us uncertain of our place in the whole situation. We have also had some car problems (aside from the wheels needing replacing, the shifter coming out, no AC, wheel bearing needing replacing...) -the timing belt snapped a week and a half ago, never what you hope to happen, let alone in the rural countryside of France. Thankfully it happened just by our house and not on the open road, but the final blow was given to us today by the local mechanic when he said it is beyond repair. Or, repair to the tune of about 2500 Euro, aka, beyond repair.

This has hit me especially hard, as I was beginning to experience the Multipla as a home away from home, a travel buddy, and vehicle of unforgettable experiences not easily come by any other way. It has been like saying goodbye to a comforting friend, in some ways.The memories we have had with it are almost endless-from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland in the winter, through France in the budding spring along the unforgettable Loire Valley, it has certainly been a blessing. And while we have absolutely NO idea what our journey will look like from this point forward, we have confidence that God will continue to surprise us with His provision, blessings, and kindness.

What has already been a God send for us both during this time is a book we found in our house, called Legacy of the Heart. It talks about facing your fears, finding places of calm and peace within the storms of life, and looking at how you deal with adversity, pain, and difficulty. While it is a big New Age-y for my taste, it is full of truth, and has been perfectly timed to come into this difficult time of our trip.

We are scheduled to leave next Monday-1 week from today-as we head to our next WWOOFing location, Bilbao, Spain!! We have friends from Santa Barbara that live and host WWOOFers there, and we are thrilled to see some familiar faces. On our way, we are contemplating doing a backpacking trip through the Pyrenees mountains-I mean, we have to cross them anyways-or doing part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail, but most of that is car dependent, despite how well we have picked up hitch hiking.

So there you have it, our time in a nutshell. Or, as Austin Powers would say, “No, this is me in a nutshell., ‘Help! I’m in a bloody nutshell! How do nuts come with a shell like this!’”.....We have also watched Star Wars episode I and II while here, and they really are just as bad as I remember, possibly worse. Since when are the jedi so lame and incapable of dealing with or foreseeing anything well? Anyways, I digress.

T-1 week left in France! And who knows what lies ahead, across the mountains.

Snuggling with one of the "Fluffy Puffy" cats, 1 of 2 identical and impossibly fluffy cats on the property

Beauty

Rowan examines a rainbow through his binoculars.

 As of today, it has been exactly one week since our arrival at our Izuat-de-l'hotel, France WWOOFing location.  And what a week it has been!  Kindra and I have been absolutely blown away by the beauty of the region we are in.  Our little French village (complete with only three hundred people, a school, church, and small market) is in valley of foothills that lead to the Pyriennes mountains.  One small foothill beside us heists up the ruins of an eight hundred year old castle, and that area is soo fun to explore and enjoy views from.  That is, when it isn't raining buckets.  The last seven days have rivaled Ireland in rainability, and that is saying something.  So our projects have been mostly indoors: feeding the hundreds of hens here, be they young chicklets or older, professional egg-layers; or various odd projects, like making plum jelly!

Our finished jam product!

 It was my (Austin) first time making jelly, and it is a blast.  First, you have to mash up and weigh out the plums (in the ten kilogram range!), then add about ten kilos of sugar, a little lemon and pectin, and boil the monstrous lot.  Then, sterilize the forty odd jars needed to contain the jammy goodness, and voila!  Jelly by the caseload.  Kindra and I were pro jelliers by the end of it all.

In our free time, we have been getting to know our host family.  Rowan is an absolute star wars fan, so Kindra and him especially bond over this shared passion.  It is great living with a family that is so environment and organic focused; seriously, the meals are ridiculously healthy (and tasty)!  Just last night, we have these French style dinner pancakes (gallettes) made out of egg, parsnip, onions, cornflour, then topped with homemade spicy chutney.  My stomach and my bowels have never been so happy (or active!).  Speaking of bowels, we use compost toilets here, which are not too shabby.   Just take care of business and add a scoop of sawdust to cover it up.  :)

Our hike last Sunday was a "date" hike, where I surprised Kindra with where we were going and later shared a written story of how amazing and loved she is.

As far as adventures go, we have done one major hike up to a foothill ridgeline over the weekend.  It was a strenuous and view filled one, and a taste of the many hikes to come.  Following a hike like this, or a full work day, it would not be unusual to find us relaxing in our house (called the LivingBarn), reading a book while the wood heater crackles in the background.  So far, time and life is flying in France!

 The two panoramics (above and below) are some examples of our regions breathtaking beauty.

road trip theme songs

suuuper quick update! Kindra here, and I've finally updated our road trip theme song on Youtube to include our more recent additions, starting all the way back around Christmas time. I thought I'd give a brief description of why we've selected the recent songs we have, to bring you more fully into our experiences.

It was a very emotional time for us this last Christmas of 2012, knowing it was our last holiday season in the states for not sure how long. Because of how nostalgic we felt at the end of that time, we felt drawn to the song 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' to represent that whole period of goodbyes, last times of this and that, and Christmas time.

Once we got to Ireland, it was so....Irish! The song that stood out to me the most by far was while we were visiting the Cliffs of Moher (or cliffs of insanity, if you're familiar with the Princess Bride movie.) We had biked there from our hosts house, were sopping wet and freezing, and had just stepped into the visitor center before they were closing. There was an interactive part, telling you different things about the area, and I pushed a button to play the song entitled 'Cliffs of Moher' that was inspired by the very same cliffs we had just seen. The song seemed perfectly representative of the cliffs somehow, and the whole Irish culture at the same time, so it was an easy choice to remind us of our time there.

Scotland was a totally different time! The song 'Skyfall' by Adele from the recent James Bond movie Skyfall is more of an uncanny fit for particular memories we had while there than anything else. Our host owned a helicopter company, and as we understand it, some of his helicopters were used during the filming of Skyfall in the Scotland areas. On top of that, we also watched 'Casino Royale' and 'Skyfall' with our fellow WWOOFers while there, Scotland is mentioned several times during the movie (we drove on the A9 all the time, which is mentioned in the film!), and the land of his estate Skyfall is just like land we consistently drove through. As if that wasn't enough, the Oscars took place while we were there, when Adele won Best Song for 'Skyfall'. So it was more like "How can we possibly pick any other song in the world besides this one?" by the end of it.

So there you have it! Youtube list updated, and hopefully we'll get that map updated with our most recent France driving soon too.

Until next time, au revoir, and happy listening!