Land Boundaries

My eldest daughter, Nikki, came out to Spain for a visit to clarify the boundaries of some land that the family owns. Recently the local authorities have taken aerial photos of the whole province, and drawn in an approximation of owners boundaries! So it is necessary for everyone to check their survey maps, and agree boundaries with their neighbours. We found that our registered documents were expressed not only in Hectares but also in archaic measurement forms! Instead of square meters, we have Fanegas, Celemin, Aranzada, Areas and Centiareas. We had no idea what their equivilances were. Thanks Goodness for Google!

The Fanega was originally an Arabic measure. It was both a dry measure of grain, like a Bushell, and also meant the area of land that can be sown with grain in a day. A Fanega of land can be about 644o square meters. I say CAN be as each province of Spain had a different amount called a Fanega ! The table we found defined an Arranzada as 4472 square meters. A Celemin as 5 Areas, 36 centiareas, 66 Decimeters. Confused enough? No wonder everyone is struggling to work out exactly what land they have!

Fire often sweep over the country. When our land was burned some years ago, the timbers of the cottage were burned and the roof fell in; leaving it a romantic ruin. Fruit trees and vineyards disappeared. Now it is all overgrown and gone back to wild nature!

ADANA kennels and Dog Show

In my last Blog I wrote about the serious fire that devastated 600 hectares of land on our mountain. The picture on the left how close a tongue of fire came to the Adana kennels. (The pink building.) Within 30 meters! That was close! I'm happy to say there was no loss of human or animal lives.




By the next weekend the Adana Dog Show was in full swing! The dogs are not judged on pedigree. This isn't Crufts, but a fun family day. The events include the best Junior Handler; the dog with the Waggiest Tail; and the Best Trick. The picture on the left shows a splendid entry for the Dog Most Like its Owner! You will notice they both have a black and white spots, and red collars!

Firefighter planes at Bahia Dorada

Brian took these pictures yesterday and today. The fire fighter planes scooped up sea water and flew on to discharge it on the huge fire on the mountain behind Bahia Dorada. It is an extremely dangerous job to fly low and load the plane, and take it up with the sudden extra weight of water, and then deal with flying conditions on the mountain, with the smoke and fire heated updaughts to contend with. They are brave and skillful pilots!

Rumours cirulate as to how the fire started. One version says it was from a carelessly left weekend barbique fire at Los Pedrogales Park. Another version that the fire was deliberately started.

I don't know if the ADANA kennels was affected. The kennels is on that mountain. It would have been very difficult to evaculate 100 or more dogs. I'll up-date when I know.