Thursday 29 January 2009

It's raining it's pouring.....

No work, no news, no pictures......hasn't stopped raining for days and looks set to continue until 4/5 February. We're all fed up, can't get anything done. Rick has made some temporary screens for the chicken house to see if being warmer will make them lay, they definitely seem different and are bathing in their sawdust bed and seem more aggressive towards each other.....lets hope it means eggs on way.

Saturday 24 January 2009

Alternative modes of transport



Sorry for absence but the truck has been off road for a minor repair and it rained a lot and I had a birthday!!
Had a wonderful day with our new friends, eating and drinking and then more of the same in the evening with extra friends and homemade pizza's, huge cake, champagne (thanx Daniela) and 78's.....
My friends gave me an electric blanket, probably to shut me up, great idea and was lovely first night, but we've had power cuts since then, looking forward to using it again, hopefully tonight if power stays on.
Started taking pictures of the kinds of transport people use here and our neigbours came up the valley today so snuck a picture in, delightful people, they are also some of the people we bought our land from, they have a new dog who seems very keen on blossom but wasn't allowed out to play.

Wednesday 21 January 2009

4 seasons in one day, well alot of cold anyway.......



Yesterday there was snow; hail; rain; thunder; lightning and sleet .
Even the Serra Lousa's were covered in snow (look it up if you don't know about them), which is quite unusual. we tried to work on the land but gave up in the end as too cold and wet.......and there was me thinking spring was round the corner......

Saturday 17 January 2009

a tree


As this is the time of year for planting trees esp. fruit trees, we just can't resist planting more. They are so cheap and we have a lot of space, so eh.........
However, I know the soil is dry and not particularly fertile so I went off in search of poo.......came across a donkey sanctuary near to where we ware renting. I called them and asked and they said yes, we could have as much poo as we wanted..........so, the trees are in, and with more on the way....well it would seem rude not to use all the manure.

Well, well, well



Although water is not an issue at the moment it will be later in the year and as i lie awake at night listening to the thoughts in my head ( and Rick snoring!), I get to thinking about all sorts. This week as the rain has been lashing down, I've been thinking about water, where is it all going and how can we have some.
We got talking about it and I decided to investigate the next day, I went off wondering up to the meadow above our first meadow and there it was, overflowing in an unused tank, I had a look and figured that there must have been a system, probably a long time ago, that allowed us to have this water as well as our neighbour. I went back to our land, following the overgrown gulley's and discovered our tank (empty) and ancient water mine.
Spent about two hours removing vegetation, quite rank and primordial, kept expecting to see toads leaping out from the wet walls. I asked Rick to come and help me, showed him what I had discovered and asked him to dig out old, overgrown trenches, with a bit of jiggery pokery and some moving of slates, we opened the flood gates and amazingly, it all worked. We had to shut it off before we left as we would have flooded our land overnight, but at least we know how it all works. Now we just need to discuss this with our neighbour, as we were sure we were breaking about 26 by-laws. But first we need to find out who our neighbour is........mmmmm

Saturday morning chores


The thing we love the most about where we are living is the contrast between modern life and the "old ways", this photo sums it up completely. The bundle on this old lady's head is chicken bedding and weighs nothing. A car is useless for this job, she has come down from the mountain on a tiny track, wide enough for a donkey, that's it.
These scenes are around every corner and are the most humbling, if you were feeling even remotely sorry for yourself you'd soon stop. It's impossible to continue in our usual westernised states of mind and not start feeling faintly ridiculous for having our thoughts, it stops you dead in your tracks, stops you from wanting to rush through your life filling it up with meaningless crap. Taking the time to enjoy the small things and feel grateful for what we have is something I am finding easier to do here as there are less distractions and lots of reminders........

Sunday 11 January 2009

Mavis, one, two, three and four




We are now the proud owners of our first chickens, we've called them all Mavis, or in Rick's case Old Mave!
They seem to be in good health and are quiet and friendly to each other.
Hopefully they will start producing eggs soon, better had or they'll be in the pot!

Still very cold here at nights, frost all over land by the time we arrive in the mornings, usually about 11ish, but once the sun hits us very warm, infact we get so warm we end up taking off most of our fleeces (i'm wearing three at the moment and three pairs of socks!). Managed to have several bonfires to get rid of vine prunings and Rick has finally finished brushcutting the meadows. Hoping to get a local to rotavate 2 of the meadows this coming weekend. We have decided to keep the top meadow for growing animal feeds and I have already planted out 40 brassica type plants for the chickens, bought them in a bundle at the local market for 4 euros, they are about a foot tall. Rick watched them coming back to life this morning as the sun heated them up.

Our neighbour came to the land today and has advised that I take more off the vines than I had, so having thought I'd finished, I now have to go back and do them again......live and learn.

Rick has been clearing out one of the outuildings for our goat.........we think we've ordered one from the local butcher and we think he understands that we want it to be alive.............should be interesting.

Language slowly coming along, the Portuguese speak so fast and rarely finish sentences and mumble alot so makes for interesting conversations.........I just stand and smile and say yes alot and then they go away and I feel like a complete idiot! oh well.

Friday 9 January 2009

Cold and frosty


You think it's cold where you are.......
Brrrrrrrrrr...........
Last time it was this cold in Portugal was 1932!! apparently people are dying and not coping at all.
Working hard on the land helps keeps us warm and when the sun is out which has been most of the week, it's quite warm, as soon as sun disappears over the mountain, then you feel it.
The rental still remains quite possibly the coldest house I have ever lived in, we're back to two hot water bottles a night again, thought we'd seen the back of that one, oh well, lets hope spring is round the corner.

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Three Kings Day and potions


Today was three kings day and the day for mixing my bio-dynamic potion (gold, frankincense and myrrh) for spraying the boundary of our farm, the whole thing took nearly 3 hours, will let you and the Bio-Dynamic Association (www.biodynamic.org.uk) know how it goes, supposed to keep all good stuff in and bad stuff out (hopefully will include local predators!), the eagle watched us from above as we did it, cool.........

Tuesday afternoon rush hour traffic jam


Forget health and safety and closing roads down and putting traffic lights in and wearing safety equipment and fifteen men standing around talking about how to cut the tree down, this is how they do it here, chop it down, leave it lying across the road, chainsaw it up and push it out the way, took about 15 minutes and nobody got cross, all quite civilised really, and not a high-vis jacket in site.

hot springs


We've had alot of rain, which is good, January is the month of rain, but today it was sunny and warm and finally got some washing done and dry. Also visited some hot springs, apparently very healing for shoulders, arthritis, rheumatism etc. we'll be visiting as soon as warmer outside

Sunday 4 January 2009

Grapes of wrath




Happy New Year to all who read my ramblings.........

The locals in Benfeita put on a yearly service and lunch for all new "estrangeiros", fairly unique initiative we are told. One that we were honoured to be invited to. Never sat through a catholic mass, apart from the church being absolutely freezing, it was very humbling, even with all the sitting and standing, standing sitting, copying the locals and not really knowing what the heck was going on. At the end I was dragged out from my pew by a very forceful old lady, to kiss the baby's head....(well plastic doll actually) and then we all went back to local village hall for enormous amounts of food and wine. The Portuguese like to play a game with their tables which Sandy calls hide the tablecloth. You will bever see so much food on a table anywhere in the world, incredible. Some of the older ladies from the community sang local folk songs and one chap sang some Fado. I finally met one of the old ladies who shouts "boa dia/tarde" at me from the road when I am working on the land, hopefully she'll become a good friend.

Whilst Rick has been clearing yet more land of weeds, mint, fennel etc. I have been tackling the grapes, which have to be pruned before end January. We're guessing the land hasn't been properly worked for some years. The grape vines had spread up to 4-5 metres. Totally overwhelming and quite dangerous. As I slowly work out what is coming from where, I cut and pull, often being whipped in the face by the vine or the thing the vine is attached to, often brambles. I'll be happy when I've finished. There are rows and rows of them, all scattered around the meadows, terraces and across the river (haven't worked out how to do them yet, need waders and harness!).