Epic-Adventures

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society

2012-03-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

At the moment Spain looks just like a picture postcard image, beautiful almond blossom everywhere that I feel the need to comment on every five minutes... "Just look at how beautiful it is!"... I think I might be driving Gaz round the bend. Then I remembered a book I read a long time ago - The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society by Chris Stewart. There are another two books in the series - Driving Over Lemons and A Parrot in the Pepper Tree.

Driving Over Lemons is the book that originally made me want to live in Spain, I read the book and wanted to move there right away! The book is wonderful and gives a great insight into the realities of living on a Finca in Spain, both the good and the bad. I think Chris maybe has a little bit more time on his hands than Gaz and I do because he seems to get up to a heck of alot more random stuff than us and possibly a bit more money!

Anyone who is thinking of moving to Spain should definately read all three books alongside one of the 'Buying a property in Spain' books for a little inspiration. Thinking about it now I'm sure I'm going to read them all again!

NEW PODENCO RESCUE PAGE by Morgana

2012-03-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

My name is Morgana and I am a Podenco (even though I look like a wolf!). I am 9yrs old and I came to live with Kate and Gaz last year when their beautiful little Podenco Sandi died. I'm so glad they rushed straight out to the nearest rescue centre to look for another little doggy with sticking up ears! I had lived in the kennels for 8yrs since I was 3 months old and was absolutely terrified of everything, I was basically wild.

Well now I am not wild at all, although I do like to randomly bark at people. I like to wear a nice little fleece coat at night and my favourite place is a comfy sofa. Although when I am outside I like to run around like a maniac I am very happy just to snooze the rest of the time.

The reason I am speaking to you is that their are many other doggies like me in the kennels in Spain. We are bred as hunting dogs and often get lost and our owners never come to rescue us. Many people think that the rescue centres here shouldn't keep dogs like me for so long but if they hadn't I wouldn't have the wonderful life I have now, infact I would have never had any life whatsoever.

If you would like to have one of the best doggy friends in the world please contact Kate and Gaz and they will help you look for a doggy like me. Sandi was their bestest doggy in the whole wide world and she was a Podenco and now I am their new bestest doggy (no offence Ted!)

Hope to see you in Spain one day when you come to find your own Podenco!

Mog

Catch 22 - Time V Money?

2012-03-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

I think this is the same old story for everyone and the same question that everyone tries to weigh up, very few people getting the right balance. Gaz and I (mainly I) have now been on pretty much a three year holiday in Spain with poor old Gaz returning to England on a monthly basis to work. Right now I feel I ought to contribute seen as the poor guy not only has to keep me but my horses as well!

Munching on grass!

So after a long time debating (and I mean a longggg time) we have decided to spend the summer in the UK so I can contribute towards our funds. I'm just trawling the internet searching for a nice natural livery place for Joe and Oliana to have a little holiday. Arco and Elsa are coming to the UK to have some endurance/ jumping fun and hopefully for Elsa to find a nice new home.

We will be travelling back to the UK in March/ April via the Ariege and Fontainbleau where Gaz is coaching with Positive Climbing. I believe there is still one place left on the course due to an injury so anyone interested please contact Adrian Berry.

My biggest piece of news is that I have just enrolled for the Equine Sciences Academy Hoof Care Certification course. My intention is that with as much learning as possible I will not only be able to trim my own horse's feet but I will be able to trim professionally as well. I think there is potentially a big demand for barefoot trimming/ natural hoofcare in Spain and qualified trimmers in Spain are rare. I will keep you posted with how I am progressing with the course.

The Soul of a Horse, Kindle App and Awesome Phone!

2012-02-29T04:01:00.004-08:00

I have just discovered a whole new world of Android phones. I´ve never had an ´all singing, all dancing´ phone before (mainly because I didn´t think any of them were) but since being off grid I decided to look for a phone that maybe could do everything so that I didn´t need to carry every gadget around with me (and charge them all). So eventually found the Samsung Galaxy S2 and decided to take the plunge into the world of technology.

I got this phone on contract with o2 because they do a great deal called ´My Europe Extra - Spain´ (they also do ´My Europe Extra´ which covers most of the rest of Europe) for 5GBP per month with which you can receive calls for free in Spain. This means anyone can call me on my normal English mobile using their normal minutes and it doesn´t cost me either.

So with my new awesome phone (not so new now) I have an mp3 player, can watch films, can store anything useful I like, can take pretty damn good photos and videos and can go anywhere with my Sygic navigation app. And now I have a Kindle app too! So with my first obsession being barefoot trimming and my second obsession being books I now have lots of PDF downloads about horses hooves and a few new kindle books! It really is so easy to use and read the books and the phone is perfect to hold in my hand.

The book I have just finished ready is ´The Soul of the Horse´ by Joe Camp. He has a blog you can visit http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog/ to read all about him. Even though I have had my own horses for 29yrs and Joe has only had them for two I found it very interesting to learn things the way he learnt them in such a short time.

No matter how someone tells you a horse should be treated we can all take our own slightly scewed slant on each method but I think the key is that we try to learn as much as we can to improve the lives of our horses. I think that is the point of Joe´s book. I´m sure we´d all love to live in an ideal world of horse-keeping but the fact is that for most people thats impossible due to many factors including, space, time and money.

Joe´s book actually shows that you can still do the best for your horses with what you have by keeping his on 1.5 acres. Now you might think ´well have less horses´ but maybe these horses were still better off with Joe than in their original lives. How many people do you know who actually keep one horse per acre or two?

I have worked in many versions of the horsey world and the one thing that all (and I do mean all) that these places has in common was that they always put the success of their business before their horses. Keeping horses well definately isn´t about how pretty they look, how clean they are or how well they perform, it really is about how happy they are - in my opinion. I have 4 horses on land that is perhaps is the perfect place for 2 but then what would the place be like where my other 2 horses went to live? Probably not as good as where my four live now. So although perhaps 2 of my horses are for sale I won´t sell them unless they go to somewhere that their lives will be the same as they are now or better.

Sorry to babble so long, I definately could babble for longer when it comes to horses! I´m sure if you take to reading this blog whether to read about horses or read about off-grid you will end up reading alot about both as you try to skim read through my babble to get to the relevant part! As Gaz would say ´the condensed version please Kate´.

So until my next babble

Kate

Welcome

2012-02-24T13:27:00.001-08:00

Anyone who has visited the Epic blog before will notice that something strange has happened... I realised that Gaz and I may have some interesting experiences to share about our off-grid/ horse-riding/ rock-climbing life! And so the Epic blog has had a fresh start.

Right at this moment Gaz is busy working in the UK and I am making use of the free wifi service at a local bar, currently our prefered method of internet access while living in a van. We tried internet dongles which work if you can cope with the speed and I'm now researching into satelite internet (I'll let you know how that works out).

Horses chillaxing naturally

We are currently living in a horsebox/ campervan on our field and building a feedroom/ tackroom/ wooden house out of recycled pallets. We have four horses who I am trying to keep as naturally as possible along with two dogs (who pretty much do what they want) and two cats who sleep on the luton with us.