Planting Paulownias

Finally we could start planting the trees!

Well almost, because first we needed the excavator. the delivery came a few days after we arrived in Bárcena so that was quite in time. The truck driver stopped and asked, how are you going to get the excavator from the truck. And we were like 'what', you are the delivery man, you tell us. But he didn't have anything to do it with, so we needed a plan B. First we thought, maybe run the truck backwards against a higher part and searched for that. But then Maaike thought: "there's somebody working at the mine, they have a lot of big machines, maybe they can help"

So we went there and immediately Diego who was working there came to the rescue in his big tractor. And with some ropes they managed to get the machine off of the truck!

First we did some try out holes, before we went on the quest of digging 120 holes. When we started doing that we soon found out that digging the holes 1.5 meters deep, as Carlos said we should do, would take us 1.5 hours per plant. With 120 plants that was not a viable option. So we started with digging 0.5 meters deep. Since Carlos really was afraid that that wouldn't be enough, because maybe the roots would only go sideways and the tree would fall, we decided to do some experiments. Some holes we filled with water and after some days were able to double the depth easily. Some holes have extra drilled small holes. We bought a ground drill that could be used with the drill and made the holes deeper with that. Most of the holes were made by Tibor, but Maaike, Fiona, Trisa and Riva gave it a try as well.

The trees are all around two of the fincas, so in the meanwhile I connected many 50 meter water tubes, to be able to water all the plants.

Of course we have measurements of the depth of each hole, to see in the future if there are any differences.

But there were some more quests to fulfill: 

the quest of the 'abono': where were we going to get that? We wanted to put that inside the holes before we put the trees in. 

Carlos knew a company wo sold it in Briviesca (well I thought sold), so I had an awkward conversation about buying and delivering the 'abono'. Until I realized it was an egg factory who had the chicken shit as a rest product, which we would use as 'abono'. Sanny volunteered to come with me with their car and our trailer. She had never driven a trailer. After five minutes of theory she was confident to drive. 

The manager there thought we were a little bit weird, but nevertheless showed us the pile of shit at the back of the factory and told us we could pick it up any time we want, as much we wanted. 

Luckily one trailer was enough as the smell was hard to bear. We spread the abono over alle the holes we digged, while avoiding the flies, that were attracted by the shit.

The next quest: finding hay. 

Where were we going to get that? The egg factory had hay, but I thought we should be able to get it from a place closer by, because at the moment we needed it, the farmers around us were harvesting grain. I thought I could ask one of the farmers from Abajas, who were working around Bárcena. But from that moment we didn't see them anymore. Carlos called a farmer from Castil de Lences, who said yes, when I have collected the hay. Then someone said to Carlos there is some at the left when you drive to Abajas from last year, you can use. But there was nothing on the left. There was a lot on the right which we asked about once, so I thought let’s ask again and yes we were allowed to use it now. So my dad, Ricardo and I drove three times with the trailer to collect they hay.  My mom and I spread it all around the trees. The hay is added to avoid herbs growth and to keep moisture around the tree.

The quest of making the excavator work all the time. After digging a few holes the excavator stopped working. We didn't know why, we had a manual but not everything was in there. We had a meter that was supposed to say how much energy was left in the machine but that didn't work. We thought that maybe we had to fill the hydraulic oil, but could not find a lit or some place to put the oil into. A bit stressed with the not working machine and many tries needing to go into the ground we drove around to find oil. But we could not. In the end we bought 20 liters of oil on amazon. 

Waiting for the oil to arrive we tried to charge the excavator and it turned out that the battery was empty. After some days of working with the machine the caterpillar got lose (one of the tires), of course there was nothing about it in the manual. So we called the seller but they could not help us. 

Luckily we have youtube and Tibor and Carlos managed to put it back on. By first removing the grease from the wheel. Then we needed to refill but we did not have a tool to do it. As we had no experience and it was not delivered with. We went to Obramat and bought a grease tool and we could get it working. 

Once the machine stood still on a sloop for too long and therefor the hydraulic oil leaked and the machine stopt working. We needed to fill it, luckily we had the 20 liters bought last time ready but we still didn't now were to put it in. At that moment Gonzales from Burgos came te help planting. We decided to put all the earth back by hand instead of the excavator.As we were almost done with planting the trees.

After we where done and Gonzales being a native speaker he called the seller. But still they could not explain where the input for oil was. Tibor just started to remove parts from the excavator. After taking apart almost all of the machine, Tibor found the oil thank behind a metal plate!

Finally and right on time, the last bit was done on the last day we were in the village this time.

Back home we had another discussion with Carlos about the watering of the plants. Carlos thinks it should be done every 4 days, but of course we weren't there to do it. So that was no option. We arranged that one day Ricardo would come while he was still in Burgos. And it took him 4.5 hours to water all the plants. But after that we run out of options. Carlos also didn't have time and then we thought ok, this is part of the experiment, we do not even know how much water the plants need.

When I arrived at the village again 3 weeks later, for the festival, we were anxious about the trees. When Maaike was almost in the village Tibor called here. While on the phone Maaike walked toward where the trees are and sent a picture. There was hardly anything to see on the picture so that did not help. After an extra minute or so Maaike cheerfully called out they are alive and kicking. The even have grown a lot!