Sunday, December 16, 2007

In the beginning


I bought a farm in October 2003 called Cortijo del Zapatero, from 2 men called Bernadino and Antonio. I have discovered that it was last inhabited about 70 years ago, but I still don't know who lived here and who the Zapatero/cobbler was. The farm is well known in the area as a good farm with plenty of water, however this is now not the case. The farm has been reduced in size over the decades as parts have been sold off and the springs are currently dry (as of 2 years) as are many in this part of Spain now. The farm is now 5.8 hectares, or about 14 acres.


My intention originally was to live there in a caravan and use the rest of the money from the sale of my Somerset home to re-build the ruin, however I chose a different path and bought a house in the nearby village of Torvizcon and then borrowed funds to re-build the ruin. This didn't really amount to much though, so I decided to downsize and bought a smaller house which I renovated and moved into.

It then took 3 years to sell the larger one, by which time there was little cash left over for the build as finding work in the Alpujarras was proving more difficult than I imagined and I had borrowed more and more money!