ardbol

During our first week of summer holidays we could finally revisit Barcena. With my four kids I took the train to first pick up a large car, then we would all pick up Maaike from the ARTIM Festival. She had been there for a week already so we were happy to be reunited. We could immediately get to know the extreme heat as it was about 40 degrees. Luckily there was a river where we could cool down.  On Sunday we drove to the little village and we looked around. This was our second time but the first time for my big kids. They still do not understand what we are doing and why.  Maaike told me what she had learned in the last week from the ARTIM Festival, her meeting with the major and the visit of Barcena with Marjolein. I took the opportunity to take some photo's, which I will post below. The rest of the week, we used to get to know the neighborhood. We went to Bilbao, Vittoria Gasteiz, Mirande de Ebro and Briviesca. 

So that afternoon after interesting conversations in the car - first with Ruben and then with Marjolein - we arrived at the peña to meet with the mayor (Amparo) and the representative of Barcená (Juan-Carlos). The idea was that I would do the introduction, Yasmin the questions that we had prepared and Marjolein the questions she would come up with during our conversation. Although I think that during the rehearsal moment it went better, this all went well. We got all the information we needed and even more. For example, we got to know that the brother of Juan-Carlos is the owner of one of the lands that were listed by Marcelino (list of lands we would be able to buy). In their eyes, the most difficult part would be the access to water, although we know that there are a lot of possibilities out there that we could implement. When we asked our final (and maybe most important question), ‘What did they think about the project?’, the answer meant mostly ‘bears on the road’ (Dutch saying, me...

So I left on Friday the 8th of July to Spain, together with Yasmin and her son Leonardo. Unfortunately the night train to Hendaye had a delay, which caused us to miss the scenic train route to Espinosa de los Monteros and even worse we couldn't find another way to get there with the public transport. Luckily we were able to take a taxi. And so we arrived at the festival. A tent with a bar and tables for eating and theatre. Near a river (with a natural swimming pool!), between the trees, a place for camping. No courses yet during the day on Sunday, but there were other activities: a hike in the mountains and theatre in the village. I went for the hike and Yasmin for the theatre. For me the hike was the first trial for speaking Spanish all day, which went alright. Talked to an English lady who had been living in Spain for 10 years. We spoke Spanish but I could ask her for words if I didn't know them. And I even spoke with another data scientist. In the beginning of the evening wa...

Back home, our normal lives went on, with work, kids and yoga. Besides that, we worked with the parents of Maaike to build them a new home. So time went by fast.  And we continued with Ardbol. Together with Yasmin we created a presentation. Making more clear what the goals of Ardbol are. I will add a copy to this site soon. In short: we want to create a place, built around trees, where all what humans need, comes together. Instead of the specialized world we usually live in; where work, leisure, food, energy creations, nature, healthcare and sport is all in different places. We want to combine them with the tree as the basis.  Marcelino, the owner of the village Barcena, talked to land owners and found about 6ha of land around the village. He sent us an image with some black crosses, for which we assumed that this is the land we could buy.  With this addition it became an interesting option. So we started the price negotiations with Rafael, the real estate agent. The hou...

In Poza de la Sal we went to a tiny tourist office. There we met Sergio for which we are very grateful as he connected us to the Artim festival and to some Dutch people living in the area who are also interested in helping the environment. Some lived in small empty villages as well.  Nowadays getting into contact is as simple as adding the phone nr and sending a WhatsApp message. So we did. We had contact with Eva which unfortunately was in Holland at that time but connected us with Marjolein and Ruben. They responded enthusiastic and we could visit them for lunch.  We went on a site seeing tour and did a nice hike from Oña.      A bit later than expected but still welcome we arrived at the nice house of Marjolein and Ruben.  As luck goes they were really friendly and studied water management in Wageningen (Holland). They also had a lot of experience in empty villages and are working in regenerating soil. A perfect match! We were really looking forward to w...

Thrilled with our first empty village visit we went on to number two. It was about two hours drive and as we had some spare time we stopped at a small nearby village, Poza de la Sal. A small but nice middle aged village. With a tiny square with one bar and a tourist office. I went there and asked Maaike to join so we could ask about the place in Spanish. Luckily the nice guy spoke very well English. So we told him we wanted to build a food forest. He looked really happy and told us he was setti a festival Artim. Which was about regenerative farming and community building around new ways of growing food and taking care of the land. Besides that he gave us about five phone numbers of Dutch people living in the area which were also living in empty villages and or working with land.  After that amazing coincidence we drove on to village nr 2.    An older man came by car and started to talk to me, I redirected him to Maaike as I could not speak Spanish, and she could. He said ...

After two Corona years we finally could go to Spain. From our online search we had two empty villages on our list. Both about 10 ruïnes big, at least so I thought. As Vitoria Gasteiz is in the middle we rented a b&b there. Of course an empty village does not have public transport so we first needed to pick up our rented car. And that is easier said than done. It was half an hour walking to get there, luckily our little ones had a step with them. Although I had my creditcard, drivers license and ID with me, we could not get the car; I also needed my creditcard pin code which I had never used before. I pay with my watch or online without it. The creditcard company could give me my pin code, within a day by post to my home address. So that did not work. We went to another company which on the phone sounded more relaxed. While walking, Maaike discovered a rental app for private renting. As I had all my cards with me Maaike could fill in the application within minutes. While waiting we ...