Look how they shine...

WOW! I had to blog right away before going to sleep.

You know i live on a farm in Ibiza that's in the middle of nowhere, right? Well, before I hit the sack tonight, i thought I'd quickly pop up onto the roof to check out the night sky as it looked like it was going to be a clear sky.

Oh. My. Life!

I was not disappointed. I've never seen so many stars on display and to top it off, i saw 2 of the longest and most vivid shooting stars that I've ever seen! They were like rockets in the night sky. When I see the heavens and the stars twinkling, it's hard not to be in awe and wonder at creation, but more than that, at the Creator behind the amazing spectacle before my eyes. I don't stop at thinking how amazing the stars are; I keep going and think how amazing is God who created all that I see. The stars speak of something deeper...

Check out how Psalm 19 begins - how cool. (This is C.S. Lewis' favourite Psalm in the Bible btw).

'The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech of language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.'
Psalm 19:1-4

My conclusion tonight: God is awesome and most worthy to be praised!

Fruitfulness!

So i was chilling out the other day whilst sitting under one of our Fig trees. It's one of my favourite places to think and to journal and above all to reflect. I actually took a picture of this tree a few months ago. It was bare, ugly and didn't have much life to it whatsoever. Yet check these pictures out! I sit under a different tree, surely? This tree is full of life, large green leaves everywhere and now loaded with fruit. The fruit is not ripe yet, but in a month or two we'll harvest the figs.

One thing strikes me - if you were to look at the surrounding area you'd see that it is extremely dry and there's no water around. The land is unforgiving. Yet there is life in this tree. It seems a fig tree can grow in the harshest of conditions. How true of my life. At times i feel dry, lacking water and lacking in life, yet life is there, with the promise of fruit to come. How exciting!

We have life!

So check out our potatoes. At least i think they are the plant of the potato. Am i right? They seem to be spaced equally apart and if i remember, Helen planted them like that. I'm so excited! My friend Ruth (who is here for 10 days) helped with the farm chores. We chopped wood (Ruth's first time using an axe) and we watered the plants and veg.

Our crops are growing!

The Onion Cam

Keep updated on how well we're doing with growing onions. I'll post a photo every few weeks with their progress. Here's the onions after about 4 weeks of TLC. They were just small seedlings when we planted them, and now look at them. Spring onion anyone?

Fig Trees

We are so lucky to have a number of beautiful Fig trees on our land, and none more so than this fine specimen. Although this tree looks empty and bare, there's the tiniest hint of the fruit to come. From looking at it, you wouldn't think that life could come from such a tree, being so gnarly and grey and old. It looks weary, and completely messy. Branches hang everywhere and grow in a thousand directions.

Yet as an observer, i only see the outside. I wonder about its roots. Are they healthy? But the big question is: will this tree bear much fruit, and good fruit at that?

I feel a bit like this tree. All messy and a little empty. Yet i hope...

Planting

Today, the four of us set to work on a corner of our land and planted 4 rows of Spuds! It took us the best part of the morning to dig - in the rain i might add, and after some back breaking digging, we put down two lots of manure (very smelly), and then laid the precious seedlings to rest and covered them over.

We now have to let nature do its thing. There's nothing more we can do apart from help to water the crops, and some prayer. We're not sure when they'll sprout or when we can harvest them. It's all very nerve-biting and exciting all at the same time.

Pictures of our farming endeavors will come soon - i promise!

The Elements

Water. We need it. Desperately! Not for drinking, but for the land. Our cisterns are pretty empty - so we're really wanting it to rain. Lots. (I wonder how people who have NO water cope - not even fresh water to drink).

Sun. We need it. Not as desperate, as it's sunny most days here, but we're still very dependant on the sun for our power. If we can get through the day and night without switching to the generator, then it's been a good day.

So we need it to be sunny during the day and for it to rain at night. Ummmmm....that's a big ask. Is it possible?

Finding Caves

The six of us thought it was high time that we explored some more unmarked territory around our land, so out we all popped for a wee walk. However, it quickly turned from a ramble in the countryside to a proper trek, at times scrambling up hills and over huge boulders. To be more precise, our mission was to find some caves that are apparently dotted around our land. Sadly, we never found any, but we have on good word from our landlady that they are out there. So the search continues...

Planting Seedlings

We now have 5 rows of freshly planted Onion seedlings! At one point today all 6 of us set about the task of digging and planting our Onion seedlings in the hope that in a few months, with the help of some lovely sunshine and water, we'll be harvesting a crop.

I'd never have thought that I'd be actually thinking about things like irrigation, seedlings, and fertiliser. Yet today we went to buy some Sheep's manure to help the growing process. I feel such a learner, yet we're managing to get by. When i was asked a question today, my answer was either, 'i don't know', or 'I'm not sure'.

I hope our hard work pays off. I'll put up a photo of our lovely handiwork.

Rosemary

Rosemary grows EVERYWHERE in Ibiza. Every valley and hill and cliff is covered in it. It seems to have completely gotten out of control, and best of all - it's all over our land. It's great to just pop out and go and pick some to go with your food, or bash up in a pestle and mortar to go on some spuds. Love it!

Bob and Claire came round this lunchtime - they run the Anglican Church here in Ibiza. They both used to live and work as missionaries in Mexico for many years and Bob is a qualified expert in agriculture and farming, so we picked his brain all day! It's actually one of the reasons we invited them round, that and that they're awesome people! He's helping us identify the best areas to plough and plant; what is what when it comes to spotting trees and veg, and how best to tackle irrigation. I'll keep you posted on how the farming goes.

The Peugeot is nearly dead!!!

The road up to our farm is so bad that the exhaust came off the Peugeot about 3/4 of the way up the hill. So we tied a rope around it and i followed behind running and lifting it off of the ground. Talk about nightmare.

We're going to get our path sorted as we know someone who knows someone who can do it for us for a fee. There are large potholes and huge indents which take it's toll on our vehicles. Helen and i are praying for a 4 x 4. At present we're looking into which is the most economical and value for money. We'd love a pick-up, but any old second-hand 4 x 4 will do.

Chainsaw King!

With all our internal heating coming via our wood burner and the open fireplace, we thought we needed to invest in some decent wood cutting equipment. And guess what? I'm getting to grips - literally, with how to use a chainsaw. It's great fun, but also very scary. But i am feeling like i'm mastering the art...

So this past two weeks we've been seeking out fallen trees on our land, cutting them up and collecting and storing the wood, and it's such a pleasure to heat the house by lighting fires...but i feel i'm constantly smelling of smoke.

Day Sixteen on the Finca!

So we've been at the Farm for over two weeks now...and it's going really well. It is such a blessing to now be connected to the outside world with the installation of the Internet! To be honest I've liked the time away from it all...

We've just said good-bye to two of the most fantastic, generous, gorgeous and funny people that you'd ever have the honour of meeting. They're called Robb and Sally and they came on Tuesday for a few nights to hang out and see our place. They're good friends with Brian and Tracy, but now i get to call them friends. They also came for some rest and relaxation too too, which i think they got, being as far away from any desk and office as you can on our hill. They are a constant source of blessing to us all, and i hope they visit again for more fun and laughs.

Today was full of searching out for fallen trees, cutting, chain-sawing, dragging and axing. It was great fun, and we have tons of wood to keep us going for at least a week or two. The day finished with a meal together and then we made our way home.

This place really does feel like home for me. I feel like I'm still settling though, and i know it'll take time to adjust. But it's so much fun!

Silence

Sorry for the lack of blogging. We still have no telephone line nor internet connection. We're still waiting, and as some of you know, things can take ages to happen here.

So i'm at the Centre at the mo, and hope to come down over the weekend and share some more of our adventure about all living together. My latest news is that i'm a bit of a pro at using our new chainsaw! It's such good fun...
Brian is the axe-man and i'm the chain-boy...but i've told Brian i'm not too happy with that name that he gave me!!! It sounds a bit wrong if you ask me.

Moving House

Tonight I moved 2 car loads of my stuff up to the Finca. The roads were really quiet and although at night the bumpy roads up the hill aren't great, I managed with a full cargo. I'm really pleased with my room, and the house in general. I cannot wait to get into our kitchen. There's a bread oven, an open fireplace and lots of seating area. I'm sure that'll become the place we all want to hang out in during the colder winter nights.

God is totally providing us with all that we need too. People are really supported this new phase in soo many ways, but particularly people feel like that if they cannot physically come out to help us move, they want to give financially. We are being totally blessed as there are several key things that we need to really make this Finca our home.

For me, the main thing we need is a decent second-hand 4 x 4. The road up to the Finca at present is dreadful, and i know the car that Helen and i share is about to give up the ghost. If you have an old 4 x 4 kicking about and not being put to good use, then I'd love to hear from you!

'River Cottage' in Ibiza

Brian, Tracy, Ellis and Dan gave me my Christmas pressie today. I can't tell you how excited i was to find out it was a cookbook, and nothing other than Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage Cookbook'. How lovely of them!

I nearly wet myself. It looks amazing, and its main idea is to cook your own-grown vegetables and animals. How cool is that? And what with our new farm, i am already dreaming of great home-grown, home-cooked food.

Bring on the celebrations. I'm sure this book will be the first of many 'cook your own...', 'grow your own...', and 'build your own...' books. I'm not sure about the latter one, but the former two - bring it on!

The Finca

The Land

Today, the 6 of us drove to our new Farm and checked out the land and did some walking. As our house in on the top of a hill, there is alot of land that takes you down into the valley. We were like, 'Where does our land end?' It's pretty crazy to think that we'll have use of so much space.

Unfortunately we weren't able to look inside the house as we weren't given permission. But it was great to walk, or trek around the hill. The views across the Island are stunning and i know it'll be great to finally move in and make it our home. We are already talking about what we'd like to grow and what animals we'd like to keep. It's going to be very exciting!

Helen and i then took a trip up to the very small Chapel on top of the neighbouring mountain. It is possibly the smallest Chapel I've ever seen, and it looked like a 24-7 Prayer room, with writing scribbled all over the walls. Some of it might have been graffiti, yet you couldn't help but think they were prayers or names of people remembered and loved. There were several large notebooks in there too, with pens and paper available. It seems like it's a popular place with local Spanish as there were many Spanish prayers written down.

We could clearly make out our farm from up the top and I'm sure we'll be visiting this place many more times.

Community House

It's been a very exciting week so far, with some new developments unfolding at quite an incredible rate. Since the end of the summer, the 6 of us who live and work here for 24-7 Ibiza have been speaking about living together, with the possibility of owning or renting a large house somewhere in the country side being dreamt about.

For me, the desire to live in one place has slowly grown over the last few months, with the shared meals, the hanging out at The Heasleys place, and the general sense of togetherness and unity. Not that i've been unhappy with where i live at present, but just that the idea of community excites me and the thought of being all together and living and eating in one place is something that i'd love to try.

We've spent a decent amount of time giving this thought and prayer, and talking about how it would look, and for me it feels a good next step in our adventure. One thing you need to know is that the 'countryside' here in Ibiza is not that far from where we work, or the airport, or the capital. Ibiza being the size that it is means that wherever you live, you're not that far from civilisation.

We all would love this place to be a place of retreat too, and not just for us, but also for people that we meet in the summer who seem like they need some space and time to get away from the craziness of life.

I'll keep you posted with how this chapter unfolds.

Ibicencan Finca

Over the last few months i have had the privilege to be a part of a small community that live and work here on this beautiful Island. Some of these guys have been living here for nearly 4 years now. Some people have come and gone, and lots of great work has been done and strong foundations laid. At one point, there were 9 or so people part of the community here. But However, the desire to share not only the work of 24-7 Ibiza but actually a house, has grown day by day. It seems the journey is becoming increasingly shared, and we have been talking and thinking of all living together for some time.

We've been dreaming. Actually, before i set foot on this Island, alot of people have been dreaming.