spain

[robo]

We are over in spain for a short break our field around the house is as bad as ever I had it pickadored 6 weeks ago the grass and weeds are waist high again the thing is we have 5 seperate fires burning all around us the police have closed a lot of the roads we have helecopters and planes flying over us since we arrived on sunday all bombing the fires with water it is costing millions of euros ,2 of the fires has been caused by windmills over heating ( so much for free electricity) the sheriff in our village has banned all strimming and tractors working with a threat of 80,000 euro fine if caught , our field takes me 10 days to strimm as these days I am slow moving and the weather is getting hotter each day its a good life

[robo]

Just been informed the largest of the fires is just behind us about 5 miles but its mainly mountains its burned over 400 hectors up to this morning and is still out of control, I am hoping for a strong northerly wind ,but not much chance

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Robo, fire can be scarey thing when out of control, so hope all turns out ok for you.

[WestHamRon]

You need a donkey or a goat.

[robo]

Some of the work the wife expects me to do she thinks im a donkey, if we where here permanent I would have goats
2000 acres burnt up to 4 o'clock this afternoon and still out of control then the strangest thing ive ever witnessed out of a bright blue sky came the start of a storm travelling against a very strong wind for one and a half hours it rained, hailstoned as big as golf balls and continues thunder I mean one long band none stop or so it seemed, the storm went straight over the mountain and valley where the heart of the fire was all the helecopters and planes scarpered they have just started up again about 2 hours after the storm abated most of the fire seems to be out but im only going of the colour of the sky and the sun is out and we are sweating again, there is still people in the 3 village bars that have been evacuated as we have a spare bedroom ive offered it to some of the evcues on a first come basis

[Geoff]

Hope you are making good money selling black armbands before you come home to clear your stock.

[robo]

The fire is out, seen off by the storm the good news is that nobody was killed, the bad news is a lot of crops have been desamated by the hailstone, peaches, plums , olives are all damaged and un marketable our friend over here has lost all his peaches he was due to start picking yesterday today he is going to remove them from the trees and bin them, 12 months work lost but at least the fire did not get to his farm

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Robo, it's bad enough losing a crop when it's your hobby, but a whole different matter when it's your living. So i do feel sorry for him and anyone else that has been affected.

[robo]

Its a hard pill to swallow losing 12 months work, but it could have been a lot worse he could have so easily lost his farm, the year before last 8 people died in a similar fire started by someone burning rubbish, this one was started by a windmill overheating and shorting out

[Primrose]

It's heartbreaking when you consider that some of these fires are caused by peoples' ignorance and carelessness. Those casually discarded cigarettes have a lot of answer for, especially when peoples' livelihoods are destroyed.

[robo]

Seems this one was started by a windmill overheating not as first said being hit by lightening ive also heard that 4 firs fighters, bombers over here , have died in the fire but not sure how true it is