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Cleaning the old workshop of examination of the ammunition
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In June during days 18 and 25,
members of the tourism sector Valley Aezkoa who wanted do things despite the cuts and the lack of grants administration, met in the munition factory for Orbaizeta to improve accessibility and provide a more appropriate image as it is
one of the main attractions of the Aezkoa valley.
With the approval of the council of Aezkoa Valley, owner of the ruins,
we organized an auzolan or community work with the first goal of cutting the grass, cleaning trash, shut off the most dangerous areas and create on the slope some steps to the river Legartza, and people can admire the 21 stone arches that separate the coal from the rest of the factory.
But undoubtedly the most important goal of all was to start doing things like tourist sector of our valley,and begin to believe by working together, it is possible to do things if we unite wills.
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| Making steps down |
To make the descent to the river was necessary make a channel for a small but steady trickle of water that made the descent a something dangerous for the constant mud that formed there, chiseling the steps with a hoe, and make a handrail which eliminate the danger of the side more height.
The posters were also being cleaned, by the time had gone dark with algae, which looks like this kind of material.
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| Cleanliness posters |
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| Cut, collect, carry. |
The amount of grass and brambles to grow over time did take us all day, and that we were about 8 people.
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| Taking the grass with the "sarde" |
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| Cleaning the patio of carpentry workshops (right) and locksmith (left) |
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| The "hamaiketako" |
Around 11 am we stopped for brunch all, what is here called Hamaiketako, which in Basque means literally "the eleven´s one".
The council of Aezkoa Valley paid the lunch, besides petrol to brushcutters, and a accident insurance for the whole day
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| Garbage accumulated mainly in the Bokarte |
In bokarte area, a large stone arch in the middle of the factory, we collected a lot of garbage accumulated during many years being used the factory as a dump . The typical attitude of "if you do not see it, does not exist and is not my problem." We could find plastics in perfect condition as if they had thrown yesterday, and some much older things like shoe soles or bits of leather, certainly with many years but were decomposing smoothly.
The next day at work we find much more trash under a mixture of soil, leaves and stones.
The following week we decided to focus our efforts on cleaning the bokarte, where the collapse of a wall had covered much of the stone bath where was a wooden wheel that moved a machine to crush the slag from the two furnaces.
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| The bokarte, before cleaning without water |
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| After the cleanup. Would you want a shower? |
As this machinery was moving as all others by the force of water, the water is still falling to the bokarte from the Iturroil brook, channeled for it, and whose entrance I show you below.
A detour causes some of the water can get through a secondary channel and go to bokarte.
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| Channeling Iturroil brook. |
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| The second day team |
There is still much work to do, to be able to leave as many years was after the labor camps developed almost 30 years ago.
No doubt we will meet again to do all that we can without money ,
hoping that one day, we can get financing for real consolidation of the ruins, which are falling apart a little more each year.
I want to thank everyone who worked, and somewhen they will work, their volunteer work, which shows that if not always, sometimes where there is a will, there is a way.
