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If you are coming here for the first time, welcome! In this article you will learn about our abandoned farm in Spain and the Eridu Life project.
This article is a kind of guide to help you understand what we have at the Finca and our plans for the future of the Finca.
Furthermore, this article will help you follow the updates on the progress of the various projects we are doing at our abandoned farm in Spain
NOTE:
I’ll always be posting updates to this article, so keep an eye on the Project Updates section at the bottom of this page, so you don’t miss anything.
A Little About Us
Before I explain more about the Eridu Life project and our abandoned farm in Spain, let me introduce ourselves.
I’m Ricardo dos Santos and I am the creator of the Eridu Life project. Those in the photo below are me “Ricardo”, my wife “Agnes” and our little dog “Kala”.
For you to get to know us better and to learn about our history and how we got here, I recommend that you read the article About Us.
As you know, I am responsible for planning, executing, editing and posting content on YouTube and in the Blog.
As I still don’t have much experience recording videos or posting articles, there’s a lot of content behind.
That’s why I ask you to be patient with me, because I’ll be posting all these content for you soon.
The Eridu Life Project
This is a project that deals not only with the restoration of an abandoned farm in Spain, but also with the restoration of a 300-year-old stone house.
Our intention is to transform this abandoned land in Spain into a homesteading using the principles of permaculture. And to restore the 300-year-old stone house to be our permanent residence.
Bear in mind that we are completely newbies and that we don’t have any experience in this sort of off-grid project 🙂
Planning and Research
As we have no experience, the key to making things moving forward is planning and researching.
So, before undertaking any project at our abandoned farm, no matter how small, I spend lots of hours, if not weeks doing research.
I watch videos on YouTube, make notes and drawings of the projects, and only then I buy the necessary materials and venture to get started.
Most of the time what I plan always goes wrong. As Winston Churchill once said, “There are no plans that survive first contact with the enemy.” So true!
About Our Abandoned Farm
Our abandoned fam in Spain is located in the Baix Ebre region of Catalonia in a valley that lies between two mountains.
We are very close to the Ebro River.
The land is a little over 11,000m2 (about 3 acres), and it is formed by stone terraces due to the mountains slope.
In addition to a 300 year-old-stone house that is partially in ruins, we also have a rainwater collection cistern and a water well that are empty at the moment.
Due to the shape and cutting of stones and style construction of the cistern and well, it could be related to the phoenicians, as there are similiar structures on archeological sites around the Finca.
Most of these archaeological sites date back to the iberic neolithic period around 2,600 BCE, as this is the time the phoenicians was living in Spain.
Why Eridu Life?
There are many unanswered questions about why we chose Eridu Life as the project name.
We chose the name Eridu Life for our abandoned farm in Spain in honor of Enki or EA. He was one of the so-called “Annunaki gods” in sumerian or assyrian mythology.
Enki was an architect and helped to built the first settlement on planet Earth in the Mesopotamia (today`s Iraq) which was named Eridu.
How Old is the Finca?
It is difficult to estimate the age of our abandoned Finca, as we do not have documents or photos that could give us a more accurate date.
The only reference we have is that it is recorded in the deed that in 1887 the farm was donated to the son of the family who lived there.
This son inherited the farm from his mother shortly after his father’s death. The date of this event was recorded on 12/12/1887.
Isn`t this information amazing?
The deed also states that in addition to inheriting the Finca, this son also inherited a specific amount in coins that were classified as ardite.
Interestingly, ardite were used as currency in Catalonia during the reign of Felipe IV between 1622 and 1655.
Plans for the Future
Our main goal is to restore the 300 years old stone house, together with the cistern and the water well and move permanently to the Finca.
Unfortunately in Spain we cannot do this structural part of the project ourselves, we need an architect. Luckly we found a local architect who is working on the restoration plans.
Other Projects
While the restoration plans and building licenses are not ready, we are working on the other projects that we can do ourselves:
The off grid water system;
The raintwater system;
The camp base one;
The shelter with a caravan;
The beds for planting vegetables;
The solar system;
The composting system;
There are other parts of the project where we decided to hire professionals, instead of doing ourselves. Such as the tractor driver who cleared the land and openned the access ramp.
The Contents
Since we started the Eridu Life project, I started documenting everything in video and photo format.
As I have no experience editing videos, I have approximately 2 years of content to be edited and posted.
Nothing about this Eridu Life project is simple and straight forward.
Everything requires a tremendous amount of research and study. And with content creation there is no difference.
Eventually I’ll be posting all the videos on Youtube and all articles in the Blog. So, I ask you to be patient with me.
The contents of the Youtube or of the Blog are not necessarily in chronological order and this has caused some confusion.
I know it is frustraiting.
That is why for you follow the progress of the project both on YouTube and in the Blog, I came up with this sort of solution:
On Youtube
If you watch the videos through the playlists, they are more or less in chronological order.
Somes of the playlists are season one, season two, going to off the grid, living off grid, etc.
In the Blog
If you read the articles from the categories (on sidebar), these are more or less in chronological order.
Some of the categories are: homesteading, off grid in Spain, permaculture, rainwater, etc.
I believe that organizing content into playlists and categories that act as seasons like in Netflix makes it easier for you to follow the content.
NOTE:
Once I’m done editing and posting all the videos from each playlist or season, I’ll create a really long video of everything we did in that particular playlist or season.
Questions and Answers
As there are hundreds of comments and questions on Yotube videos and in the blog articles, from time to time I will make some “Q&A” or “Questions & Answers” videos and articles, like this one.
This way I will be able to answer most of your questions and also share updates on the Eridu Life project. What you think?
Other Topics
There are other topics that I consider important but I don’t talk about them as much in the videos.
In the future I will record videos or write articles on each of these other topics, as I consider them very important:
Astrocartography;
Iberian Neolithic Period;
Living Off the Grid in Spain;
Rainwater Collection;
Starlink for Off Grid Living;
How to Find Good Land;
Solar System for Beginners;
Buying a Used Caravan;
Project Updates
As I said at the beginning of this article, it is in this Project Updates section that I will be posting updates about the Eridu Life project.
So, keep looking for updates in this section as I will always be adding updates with links to YouTube videos or to blog articles, ok?
Conclusion
It’s been a while since I wanted to write this article about our abandoned farm in Spain.
I believe that if you follow the Eridu Life project the way I recommend through playlists or categories, things will become clearer and easier for you to understand.
And if you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment below. I will always answer all the comments personally.
That’s it for this article. Did you like it?
Leave your comment or suggestion below. I love responding to all comments and I always do it personally.
Talk to you soon 🙂
P.S. If you would like to help us build our dream home, you can do it here. Or if you would like to help us continue recording videos, you can do it here. Either way, your support is very much appreciated.
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I’ve been following your project for some time. I’m also looking to go live off grid in Spain. I live in the Netherlands. Kind regards, Matheus
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Hello Mathews. There is a lot of dutch people living in Baix Ebre region. Best of luck on your search. Thank you for following our journey 🙂
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My wife and I are planning to embark on this type of project and way of living. We live in Germany and Spain has always been a country we visit and really like. We have friends who live in the Baix Ebre region, they are probably your neighbors. Great article.
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I am very to hear that you guys are looking to embark into the off grid living adventure. Baix Ebre is a fantastic region. Lots of Germans here. Thank you for following our journey 🙂
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Hi Ricardo. What an interesting project. I was reading the article about the Phoenicians and the possibility that the buildings were connected to this forgotten past. I also didn’t know the history of the Annunnaki or Enki. I’ll research more about it. Anyway, I want to wish you good luck in this endeavor.
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Hello Roger. No many people knows about this forgotten past. It is worth to learn about it. Thank you for your comment 🙂
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Hi Ricardo, Agnes and little Kala.
I was fascinated to read about the reason for the name ‘Eridu’ Life. I’m nowhere near as educated as you are about such things, but far from being what they call ‘mythology’ I wonder if the experts aren’t starting to find that stories about the most ancient of ‘civilised’ peoples on earth are fundamentally true, and that it is quite possible these people did not come from this planet.
You may well have seen the Youtube videos of Ben Van Kerkwyk on ‘UnchartedX’, showing items that were made by beings which modern man would very much struggle to do. The superb granite containers, made of the hardest rock on earth; the 100 tonne stones cut precisely and removed from the ground intact (to cut the stone would have required a 7m dia. diamond-bladed cutting wheel driven by a very powerful motor), the superb sarcophagi so perfectly and precisely engineered that they leave modern archaeologists scratching their heads raw, the list is very long and the dates can only be speculated upon – 10,000 years ago, 15,000 years? They just don’t know. The Pyramids may well be Annunaki technology, as may the astonishing underground use of water from the Nile. The Pyramids could be part of a sophisticated means of harvesting electricity from above us of the sort discussed by Nicola Tesla. Quite obviously something very sophisticated was happening around the modern Iraq region that modern man has not managed to figure out yet. The well on your beautiful finca seems to date back into pre-history, and it must be very inspiring to be sat next to such extraordinary archaeology. I’m so envious!
Your homeland has similarly astonishing archaology, with stone cutting that baffles modern masons. I’m sure you know of many examples of the work of your ancestors.
I believe your respect for the ancient history of your finca will stand you in very good stead – the local officials could well be similarly interested in this subject, and will be extra helpful to people with such profound respect for a place within their professional district. My dad was an environmental health officer around Winchester, Hampshire, and loved working with the city archaeologist when dealing with ancient, protected buildings in his district. It was what made him really come alive, and he would come across things that archaeologists would love to when investigating ancient buildings around Winchester and into the countryside.
Your permaculture philosophy and desire to work alongside nature will win you many friends amongst the locals, and will be the subject of many related discussions, I feel sure.
Sorry this is such a long message!
All the very best to you as you progress with your wonderful project there in your little paradise. Dave, UK.
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Hello David. I have spent many years studying the Anunnaki and the origin of mankind according to the Sumerian tablets. A fascinating story, and yes, the name “Eridu Life” was given in honor of lord Enki “EA”. Unfortunately, main stream archaeologists and scholars will never recognize the stories of the Sumerian tablets as more than myths. Thanks for visiting the blog. All the best