A Homestead in Spain - Getting started PART 1 | Cleaning up our land!
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- čas přidán 11. 08. 2023
- Renovating our homes and land in Cantabria, Spain, will entail a very long and difficult process. But there are a few things that should be taken care of as soon as possible, and we couldn’t wait to get going. In this video we take you along as we start cleaning up our land. Spoiler alert: we spent most of it fighting the overgrown thorn-bushes that had overtaken everything.
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#movingtospain #renovation #ruralspain
You got all the right intentions it seems - just need the theoretical knowledge for actually doing good.
You guys are doing all the things you are NOT SUPPOSED to do.... you WANT the water to stay/travel on your land as long as possible.
Leave all the rocks and "collapsed bridges" in the stream - it`s all PLACED THERE ON PURPOSE TO SLOW DOWN THE STREAM - a fast running stream
will take nutrients/water away from your land - a slow moving stream will replenish groundwater storage and leave deposits of soil/nutrients on your land.
STUDY - land swales - permaculture and water retention/ponds/stream erosion....it`s all about directing and saving the water where it`s needed - not getting rid of it as fast as possible.
All is apparently good. Nature is wise and obviously, more knowledge is needed.
You are such an outgoing and beautiful couple. People love you without knowing you personally. Your land is also lovely with the water flowing through. I would love to visit with you someday. I’m 70 and really don’t travel anymore. After watching your video I just might change my mind. Thank you for sharing and good luck. May God bless your new adventure.
Aw thank you Mary for being so kind! Hopefully we'll have a place to receive visitors like yourself one day. Take care ❤
Hey guys, congratulations to a beautiful place! Just a little advice stone's you took out are to slow down the stream so the water doesn't leave the area to fast.
Well done, so satisfying seeing the brambles being removed 💪 It's soooo green there 🌳🌳🌳🌳 The mountain views are amazing 😍
I like how honest you are.
Keep doing it. You are an example and motivation for people like us.
Thank you so much for saying that, it really means a lot. We're trying our best to show our experience with all its facets ❤
I would urge you to spend time thinking about why the 'swamp' is so damp and whether you really need to make such significant changes.
The trees you have been cutting are alder (alnus glutinosa) which grows very happily in damp soils - we often say "it likes its feet wet". Unfortunately, if you are hoping to kill the small trees by cutting them down, you are unlikely to be successful - alder responds very well to coppicing (cutting off at the base) and will regrow quite happily. It will, eventually, weaken and kill the trees but you'll have to cut them regularly.
The tough 'grass' you have growing in the damp areas are rushes. Rushes typically grow in acidic, waterlogged soil and are usually an indication of water-retentive, clay soil. The fact that there are so many of them suggests to me that the cause of the water is more than just the stream spilling over its banks.
Taking a look at the shape of the valley, the stream sits right at the bottom of a pronounced U-shaped feature. I would guess that all of the water is collecting there as it runs down the slopes and then filtering into the stream. If you clean out the stream bed it will, of course, be able to flow more quickly to remove water from the surrounding soils. I think the stream is a drainage solution though and not the source of the water.
In my climate, the way people drain fields is to lay pipes under the soil at regular intervals, feeding into a nearby ditch, river or stream. This is an effective solution but its both expensive and invasive - you'll probably need a digger to do it.
Another question to consider is how many species of plants, the dependent insects and the birds that feed on them you might be displacing by draining or drying out that area. It looks to me like it may well be one of the richer, more biodiverse areas of your land (I bet those old stone field walls have a good variety of things living in them too!).
Can't wait till move in day. It's nice meeting your family. Great to have their support. It's coming along beautifully.
Just found your channel and love it so much. Your property is stunning and I can't wait to see your progress in the months to come.
Thank you so much!
Seeing landscapes and where you buy your tools...I can say we are neighbors !!
Welcome to Cantabria Infinita, I'll keep an eye to your videos for sure.
That's great! Hi! We love Cantabria! 😀
So inspirational! Here for all of it. ❤ from the U.S.
That is a lot of work, in time you will start collecting all the right tools. This is my first video, and I am praying for you both and in the end it will all be worth it.
Thank you!! Yes, we’re slowly but surely getting everything we need to make the work much easier 😊
How exciting! The area looks lovely
A beautiful part of the world, looking forward to learning more as I go through your channel.
you have a good style of partnership for-homesteading. My partner and I did the same thing in Vermont in 2008. We are still here!
Kudos to you! 💪❤
Absolutely beautiful
Thank you! 😊
Beautiful spot, previously written slowing down the water will be beneficial for land regeneration, might be worth checking out some CZcams videos on it
Looking good, beautiful land.❤
😀😀😀😀😀😀Mucho trabajo amigos pero al final tendréis una bonita recompensa!! gracias por el video!!
Gracias por tu apoyo! ❤
Beautiful piece of land! Great work
Thank you! Cheers!
You both are my heros !😂❤
Hey guys i am so glad to see you are doing progres in your land its beautiful i visited potugal last year i can say its so simillar look like there i loved it all the stone house and clean water
Thank you! Portugal is so lovely, yes
Such hard work and commitment. As an older person, I would highly recommend planning for your future self. Keep in mind how you can modify or keep it habitable when your bodies might not like to do so much climbing. That way you will be able to stay there as long as possible. All the best.
That is great advice!! We're also taking it into account because for our parents. We want to make sure our home is comfortable for anyone, as we have no idea how things will evolve ☺
Thanks for your vid 😇💟💟💟 Love and bless you guys, good work guys 👍😁🐔 chicken's like tick's.
Fantastic work very hard but look at your results, it looks amazing guys. sending regards from Australia xxx
Thank you for the support! ❤
Beautiful place. So serene. You are a lucky couple
We are!
Best of luck in your journey.
Thank you so much!
Good luck with your new project. Looks an amazing area and I’m sure it will be amazing when you start your renovation. Good idea to solve water issues first as it will help longterm .😅😅😅
Thank you for your support!! It will all take time, but we think it'll be worth it 😊
I really love the thumbnail 🎉🖼️
Thank you! I (Ale) love having fun when taking the photos for the thumbnails and am particularly proud of this one ☺️
@@WaleandMe Cantabrian Gothic 🙂
@@MoutinhoNuno Thank you , finally I found the original painting again...
Congratulations. What a fantastic job you have done. In english (Canada) we. call the other bush you purchased Red Currants and I agree with Whale, they are delicious :)
My husband and I have been considering retiring in Spain, specifically in the north around Galicia and have already been searching and looking at the whole process and it appears very cumbersome and time consuming and then there’s the taxes. I enjoyed your video and I wish you all the best in your journey. ✨🙏✨
Yes, it can be a difficult process if you're being a conventional finished home. Personally we hope its worth it, but totally understand that it can be a huge deterrent. Hope you're able to find a lovely spot to retire that is relatively hassle free 🙂 And thank you for the support! ❤
Wow you guys bought a great property. It needs lots of work but that's a great investment. A good tool for your new grass would be a reel push mower. You guys seem down to earth and easy to be around. I am very envious of your property!!
Yeah, we love the place. Thank you for your kind comment.
This was one of your best!! Often thought you should slow down a bit and enjoy your moments!
Congratulations on a wonderful property with gorgeous mountain view’s. And good work on thinning out the trees!
Alejandra, a back brace would very good to protect your spine while doing hard manual labor.
Thank you for the support and the helpful tip! I'll get one for sure.
I think that it really funny to watch city people in the campo.
Ya need to work on the water problem around the house. This round stemmed grass is called WET GRASS it indicates standing water and the animals will not eat it. The grass you clipped with the new clippers is WET GRASS.
There is a fly drench that you put on the cows. It is sold in hardware or feed stores. Keeps them healthy.
Good luck with all your repairs. The farmers cows need fencing off. They can make alot of destruction. Good use of their manure though in the garden. The brambles are a pest but are they blackberry bushes? They need constant restraining for a few years to get rid totally.
The plants you have brought sometimes you need two to pollinate the buds in spring.
Its all hard work but enjoy your journey. 😊😊
Hola, un gusto conoserlos. Nueva suscriptora 🤗
Gracias!!
just came across your channel, Wow huge job on your hands, will enjoy watching you progress, take your time and get a chain saw! )) Best wishes!
Thank you!! ♥️
This is so great looking forward to seeing how it goes :) My husband and I want to do something similar
Hope you get to do it. It's a lot of work but so worth it for us! Thanks for following along ❤
De bessenstruik zijn aalbessen,straks een net erover,want vogels zijn er gek op. Heel veel succes jongens, het is een geweldig avontuur,met ups en downs ,vast en zeker! Met een hoop liefde,en doorzettings vermogen gaat het zeker lukken. Ik blijf jullie volgen.😊
how much was the property please ?
We are in the process of searching a property in northern Spain as well and it seems that we have went the similiar road as you. We started in Galicia and Asturias and now we're leaning towards Cantabria. The process your talking about is a bit discouraging, but we will see if we continue this direction. Keeping our fingers crossed for you guys.
Ah cool! The nice thing is that Cantabria has other areas that are not a complicated for permits as the Valles Pasiegos (I think). And if you don't want to start from scratch there are also some renovated options that are still very worth it. Wishing you the best of luck in the process 😀
Look for a pistol saw to cut the smaller trees, it works easier.
Thanks for the tip. Yes, we need to slowly get better tools to make our lives easier 😊
Need a 6 inch power saw, power by gas. If you battery operated you need two sets. It will last longer. You can also by solar operated with battery storage. Just some thoughts.
Guess your east of Santander and south a little by the style of your Cabanas . Love the style with the steps and lovely Coins . Good luck with your project , so you are getting building permission , be interested to see how you go through the process .
I have cabins near Infiesto .
Ah, nice! Infiesto is a nice area! We looked for a finca around Arriondas (and east Asturias) for a while, but ended up where we are now 😀
If you do not want the trees to re go row that you have chopped down
Either use a copper nail in the root or drill a hole and fill the hole with woody wood killer so then the tree root will not re grow
An awesome video. I get the feeling you are two very cool people who are not afraid of a lot of hard work. It will be fun to how your progress goes....
The cattle will eat the leaves of threes you chop down and then you can cut the bare branches up for kindling for your future fires
Beautiful place. A whetst9ne to sharpen blades is crucial
I would think making a ice big house of all three buildings would be great
The cabañas are highly protected here so the only thing permitted is to renovate them. They have to remain in the same spot and with the same outer facade, and can only increase 20% in volume, so the options are really limited.
You are doing very well, but I am not sure allowing the cows to have free range, they can churn up ground and the stream pretty fast. They bring with them horse fly whose bite is very painful so I would slowly limit their access to your place. Water is God sent to have just be sure that any future drinking water is tested , so there is no harmful stuff present. By the rush type of grasses it might get boggy at some time and soil might be on acid side, all very exiting😊
Yeah, you're totally right. We will eventually slowly move the cows off our land but at the moment we're trying to take into account the 'politics' of this area until we're more settled... And thanks for the advice about testing the water. We'll definitely look into that the moment we use it for drinking (and we'll place proper filters and purifiers in any case) ☺
Looking forward to your journey…you ve done some great and necessary work already. Some you ll need some larger tools to help you be more efficient..
Thank you! We know, we really need some better tools. Hopefully we can buy them with time 🤞😀
You need(ed) a quality petrol brush-cutter and a small handheld chainsaw
👌👍
Be careful that some of the overgrowth/plants are not poisonous. That's why your skin might be itchy.
Ah good point! We'll have to do some research
I would much prefer the sound of the birds and countryside than music !
What u needed at first was a large herd of goats n they would have cleaned that up for u in no time blessings from North Texas ❤
Hi back from the North of Spain 😀
The swamp : why create a pond for wildlife ? Wet lands are the best for wildlife. Look into permaculture swales and ponds to create drainage and habitat for mosquito eaters
A tour of the buildings and extent of your land would be very interesting. Is that electricity on the pole by the house ?
We have a video showing a tour of the land here: czcams.com/video/7VgcgA4fajE/video.html One of the cabins has electricity going to it. In the future we'll let it run underground from where it enters our land.
Hi, don't know if your land is fenced, but a few goats would make a big difference with the clearing of the bushes and trees.
There are some goats entering our land now and then, especially around this time of the year. Also, a local farmer has his cows on there, but they don't tend to eat the plants that most annoy us unfortunately 😅
Chase you not thought of setting the weed hedges on fire to get rid of the growth ?
The thumbnail looks like it it’s from a horrormovie
😂
The hard thick grasses grow where is boggy
I know this is counter intuitive but instead of clearing the canal / stream, making check dams to infiltrate lots of water on your land is important.
The thing is we have waaaaay too much water on our land. Like we have 5+ sources of water, making everything soggy and difficult to navigate. The locals all tell us that the canal system used to be clear and helped drain better, but that it got ruined with the cows braking the walls down. We're just trying to follow local knowledge to make parts of our land easier to manage.
Just joined your Chanel what a lovely property you are doing great work why are all those cows on your property greetings from ireland
Thank you for joining us! The cows are put in by local farmers. We’re slowly trying to get them out without upsetting anyone; it takes time to understand the “politics” of the area 😅
Beautiful landscape. Do you have objections to using chain saws and brush wackers, wood chippers? Take it easy on you bodies.
If you have the time and are willing, it may be an idea to get the professionals in for the bigger jobs. Help and observe and you may be able to do some smaller jobs yourselves. That would save on costs, but if you can afford it, then the time saved is well worth it because you can go on with other things. Budget is everything isn't it? Best wishes from Australia.
Yeah, budget is everything, especially at the moment 😬 When we have saved up a bit again we'll get contractors in for sure! Hi back from Spain!
Ref. the building permits I thought villages in rural northern Spain are desparate to get people living there as most people are leaving? You read about many villages becoming abandoned. Looks like you have a lot of work on your plate with the thorn bushes but well worth it after seeing the results.
By 'cabana' do you mean these were structures used for housing animals or were they inhabited by humans?
Yes, it is a bit ironic how difficult they make it to renovate these homes when most of them are abandoned and crumbling. As it turns out, the authorities are more keen on people living in villages and towns, and not in the countryside. As for the cabañas, they were/are used for both humans (upper floor) and animals (downstairs). The people here had multiple cabañas in different spots of the mountains and valleys and were nomadic between them depending on the time of the year.
i think you pulled all the rocks out of your french drain... i think those big rocks are supposed to be there
You need to be careful around cows because they can easily walk over you and hurt or even kill you . I live near cows in England and there has been several accidents with a bunch of cows killing people .
Hello, just found you. Is that the Pyrenees in the distance?
No, it's the picos the Europa, a beautiful mountain range located in Cantabria and Asturias.
You need to be cover to keep ticks off. Both use a belt that wrap around your lower back in place with would help with straining your lower back. You may also take asprin before you start working and if needed to asprin again when done for the day.
P.s. you need small hand shears or weed eater battery power.
Why did you pile the rubbish at the power pole? If you burn it you will damage it
It's not going to be burned, so there's no issues there 😀
You should rented a brush cutter
curios to know: any encounters with snakes yet?🙈 hopefully not though🌚
We've only seen one but it was definitely more afraid of us than we were of it, so it quickly slithered away.
Maybe you should wear a long sleeve shirt!
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lol...i love the thumb nail.
did he just go to the store and steal those equipment?
make sure he checks you and vice versa for ticks. one ting you dont want to get is lyme disease.
Hey guys, buy an electric Stihl or Metabo chainsaw …, awesome and will save you hours.
Be very careful with cows if they have calves
Hola me parece apasionante.Podiais traducir al español?
Hola Victoria. Desafortunadamente traducir todo nos llevaría demasiado tiempo, pero hay una solución. Nosotros hacemos el esfuerzo de asegurar que los subtítulos en ingles estén bien para que después cada una pueda activarlos en el idioma que prefieran. Esto se hace pulsando en el icono de engranaje. Desplázate hasta Subtítulos. Pulsa en Traducir automáticamente. De la lista de lenguas que te aparecen, pulsa en tu idioma para realizar la traducción.
No es perfecto pero funciona bastante bien ❤
Man bun. Enough said.
Picos de Europa?
No, pero cerca 🙂
Building permits? This is probably a, what they call in Spain, "rustico", property, of which you will be allowed to upgrade and restore the existing buildings, but you most probably won't get a permit to build anything new.
Unfortunately, this area does require a building permit to renovate the existing cabañas. It will take a while, but we're patient.
@@WaleandMe But the existing ones you will probably get permission. If not, ask a lawyer or somebody who knows the law. I am pretty sure it's within the law.
@@WaleandMe Tip: And, you said you don't have a lot of experience. Maybe look at Martijn Doolaard's channel, he is renovating 2 of such stone building's. You could look at it and learn from him, or reach out to him. He is restoring 2 of such buildings in the Italian alps.
Unfortunately also not.. We discussed it with multiple local architects. Because this is in a specific building/heritage zone, it requires permission for each renovation and there are also quite strict guidelines on what is allowed and what isn't. It is what it is, we have time.. We have seen quite a lot of Martijn's videos and really like them. He has a great video style as well.
Why are you doing work if paperwork is not complete?
The paperwork is only for the renovation of the stone buildings. The land needs a lot of upkeep in the meantime.
I don`t understand why you "clean" the little river? The trees are so important for the nature. Before you do so much hard work, please find out more about nature! It hurts me to see this.
You are a beautiful couple. When are you getting married? ;)
Haha thank you! We got married in the town hall during covid actually. We always wanted to do a big celebration for friends and family on our land once we had it, but seeing how all our budget is going into the works that need to take place, I'm not sure that dream is realistic anymore 🙊❤
@@WaleandMe You guys are already living the dream! Love watching your videos!!!
I look at all your things. You say in all the things we but your partner do the stuff. You must show everyone how you do things too. He is a very hard working guy
Perhaps you should work harder on your poor English. 😂
Perhaps she doesn't need to learn English at all. You would be surprised in how many places around the world you don't need to English to develop a plenty life. 😂😂😂 In fact I could tell you about how many English speakers don't learn Spanish once they arrive to live here, which is even more upsetting for locals because we can't assimilate them as fully members into the community. No word about learning Galician, Catalonian, Euskera ir whatever language spoken there. So selfish....😢
@@s.c.9107 I agree with you. My comment was aimed at @annafargher1289 who I felt was unnecessarily critical of the lady in the video. She suggested that the lady should work harder. I felt that was unfair and suggested if anybody needed to work harder it was her on her English. If you are going to be a troll like her then make sure you can write properly.
Dreadful English. Obviously your not 🤔
What an offencive comment..
You don't know what she is doing in the meantime .. and why ..
Iff you judge so easily I feel sorry for you and the people around you..
Good luck with the bureaucracy, nothings straightforward in this banana republic😁
jajaja thanks, we'll need patience for sure 🙂
Your Own Country is a real banana Repúblic.....NOT Spain silly fool...
😂😢😮😅😊
Everything IS streight forward if the Law Allows It IN SPAIN....
AND if not there is nothing you can do about It.....
Spanish BUROCRACY Will not give you anything you aren't entitle to....
You have to Go to your banana Rebulic Country for that......
STARTING with Visa....Residence Permits...Taxes etc,etc.....
UNLESS YOU ARE a E.U. citizen your time limits in Spain is 90 days only......
Soon to be 30 DAYS MAXIMUN...
Spain is an OVER REGULATED Country indeed....
Stay where you belong....
You have your Country....don't you....
If not try Australia.....IS AKIND to silly you there.....
WHICH Spain isn't AT ALL.
😂😢😮😅😊
@@WaleandMeIt isn't a question of patience....it's a Law ISSUE.....
If those cabañas are to keep cows.....hoping that the Spanish Authorities are going to grant you Human habitation rightsfor them is absurd....wishful thinking....
.
IN YOUR own Country perhaps....
IN SPAIN.....NO.
😮😅😊
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