Well it finally happened – over the course of 13 & 14 May the olive press & mill stones were removed from the house!!  The Mayoress and a helper turned up on the Saturday morning – before a kickstart coffee, ready to start work on preparing the area for the full removal on the Sunday.  This involved digging up the concrete around the base of the mill.  The Mayoress mucked in and was helping to remove the rubble outside.  It had been a busy week before, knocking a few dwaf walls down in the stable area so that the stones could be removed – which saved them a job, and also taken out the door frame to the room the press was in.   I think they finished sometime during the afternoon and then retired before the big removal day on the Sunday.

Sunday arrived and again no time for morning coffee!!!  Bright and early at 9.00am they arrived ready to start work!!  Much to my surprise no donkeys were involved – instead they reverted to more modern means – a forklift truck!!  Which in light of the size & weight of the stuff involved, was a good move.  They removed the stones pretty sharpish and then nipped off for their coffee break – which gave time to get a shot of caffeine!!  Then they returned and worked hard removing the olive press.  This was laid to rest in the street at lunchtime when they all disappeared for the usual Spanish 2 hour lunch (very civilised if you ask me!).  Duly fed & watered they returned for the final leg of the job – loading everything onto the lorry.  Trouble was the way they had the press resting on the forklift it wouldn’t fit down the narrow streets so it had to be repositioned in a precarious up-right fashion and moved to the church square where the lorry was waiting.  Once everything was loaded onto the lorry it set off to deposit the press and stones in their temporary resting/restoration place and we now await news of when and where the new museum will be in the village.  The Mayoress said something about the press and stones being on display for all to see as people drive into the village but we’re not quite sure.  Sure enough these can now be seen on the entrance into the village from Restabal (Press) & the Mirador looking down towards the lake has the Millstones.

The space in the stable now looks huge after the press & stones have gone and all that remains where the press was is a crater in the floor.  There’s also a large pile of bricks stacked up against the stable wall awaiting removal into a skip.  At least this has now cleared the way to prepare the floor area and lay a new solid base on which to stand workshop machinery.