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Saturday 30 June 2012

29th June CASTELO BRANCO

Two days off in a row!!! We mooched around Castelo Branco in the morning, I bought some really nice glasses (I’m allowed now we’re not travelling), 1.95 each, they’re much nicer to drink out of than plastic (everything in camper has to be plastic to keep weight down).
I like bubbles in glass

Then we had lunch, sitting outside, in the square; we both had ‘menu de dia’; grilled fish (no idea what it was called but we’ve seen it on the fish counter), boiled potatoes and green beans – every time we’ve had vegetables in Portuguese restaurants they’ve been over cooked, but it was cheap 4 each plus drinks (and we could have had soup and fruit salad too).
After lunch we went up to the very top of the town to the Castelo (a ruin); the views up there were spectacular, you could see for absolutely miles right into Spain, and we saw swallow tail butterflies again.

Me being Rapunzel!
It was a bit hazy but you could still see for miles

Swallowtail butterfly
It’s been lovely having some time off and now I’m quite ready to get back to work again – as long as it’s not at the same pace as before. This week I’m going to concentrate on getting some vegetables going and seeing if I can find some trees and herbs too. We have looked at fruit trees; there appears to be only one place you can buy any in town; there’s not much choice and the lemon trees were, I thought, rather expensive – 10 for a very spindly tree about ¾ “ thick X 3’ high so it won’t produce any fruit for several years or 64 for quite an established tree 2” X 4’ tall; I want something between the two for about 20 - 25, so I can buy two or three. I might post a question on the expat forum and see if anyone has any ideas.

Tomorrow Glen has suggested that we all take a taxi into town and have a few drinks and a meal out; it will be enjoyable to do a bit of socialising, he also wants to ‘pull some birds’ – I don’t know about that bit!




28th June CASTELO BRANCO

We had a lie in; which meant I was wide awake before 7.00 a.m.!!! I made a cup of coffee and just read for a couple of hours – and I didn’t feel guilty.

It’s was still hazy outside but the temperature in the van was down to 35°C which is much more bearable – I complain about the rain in Wales and now I’m complaining about the heat in Portugal, there’s no pleasing me!
Today we purchased the ultimate in laziness, an electric citrus squeezer. It’s absolutely fantastic, it took me 10 minutes to juice 30 oranges (over a litre of juice); this usually takes me more than half an hour and leaves me with aching wrists and thumb (the one I broke before Christmas). I picked these oranges a couple of days ago and have been putting the job of squeezing them off, now I don’t need to make excuses.
We watched another film tonight ‘Mrs Henderson’ with Judi Dench, Bob Hoskin and Will Young – it was o.k. (Brett started reading the Portuguese phrase book halfway through, so it obviously wasn’t a male’s film).

Thursday 28 June 2012

27th June CASTELO BRANCO

Bloody hell .............. last night we went to bed around 10.30/11.00 p.m.; we were woken, just after midnight, by a knocking at our door. It was Mark asking if we’d seen the fire; we went outside and there was a massive fire a couple of miles away (rather like the mountain burning, March/April time, in Wales). Mark had binoculars and you could see the flames quite clearly – it was all rather scary. Over the next hour or so it spread, but didn’t come our way, thankfully there wasn’t much wind; and then it started moving away. We went back to bed; I, of course, stayed awake until nearly 4.00 a.m., checking on the fire’s progress every few minutes (I wasn’t going to be taken by surprise). By 3.30 it had moved a fair distance and I surmised that it wouldn’t come towards us again as it had burnt a natural fire barrier, so we were safe.

We drove to the quinta and although we could smell smoke we couldn’t see where the fire had been, all day has been very hazy with clouds that look like smoke on the horizon, but still extremely hot.
Today was a lazy day/day off, so we took our loungers with us. There were two frogs in the large tank when we arrived, so one had made it’s way up from the lower tank! We finished filling up the tank; we really need to paint it as, although the water is crystal clear, the grey colour of the concrete render makes it hard to see through (so it doesn’t look particularly inviting!).
Our 'plunge pool'
Yesterday, after half filling the tank, the well had gone down about a metre and a half (it’s 7 metres deep), this morning it was back to it’s original level, which it brilliant, for us; Mark and Glen aren’t using their tank and it’s receding daily.
The track, through the olive grove, between the house and gym/studio, which we've made by driving it daily
At lunchtime I had a bit of a hissy fit; I’d forgotten my fork and that was it. I was tired, hot and not enjoying myself, I’d had enough – we’ve agreed to take a few days off from working. Meantime Brett whittled me a ‘fork’ out of an olive twig, so I was able to eat my lunch – which I hadn’t eaten the day before because I forgot the salad dressing.

After lunch we went for a swim in our pool; it was fabulous, you can actually swim in it (if you don’t mind going round in circles!) it really helped to cool us down. So I’ve decided, I don’t care about cost, we’re going to have a proper pool – I think it’s essential here.
Brett swimming in our pool

Me swimming in our pool
We spent nine hour at the quinta just relaxing and doing a bit of tidying up (Brett dug over another vegetable bed too, while I relaxed!); it was wonderful, I can’t wait for this to become our ‘norm’, it’s the relentless physical work that’s wearing me down.

The camper van was only 39°C when we got back, woohoo!  Apparently tomorrow it starts getting cooler.

26th June CASTELO BRANCO

Another really hot day and tomorrow is supposed to be 42°). We moved the camper before we left; hoping that the new pitch would give it more shade from the sun. We checked emails (on the Kindle); there was one from Gary saying he was in Madrid, had been held up at gunpoint and robbed of all his money, credit cards etc. and could we send 2000 to cover his hotel bill; it was a scam, his email account had been hijacked!

Brett continued digging behind the house and then started clearing one of the vegetable beds for me. Unfortunately once I’d watered all the plants and dug a few drainage ditches the heat got the better of me and I didn’t get my seeds sown.
I completed my quest to empty the large water tank by wasting it!!! I figured if I poured it onto the ground it would seep back to the water table anyway. We re-homed two of the three frogs that lived in the tank to the smaller tank (the third frog refused to be caught). The bottom of the tank was covered in a thick layer (6”) of stinky ‘primordial soup’, which Brett scooped out, and into the wheelbarrow, then I wheeled (slopping over my feet) and deposited behind the small tank, so that anything living could climb into the tank in the night. We managed to fish out the large newt thing, about 10” long, wide head, marbled body, that we’d seen coming up for air, and re-homed him in the smaller tank too;
Newt thingy
Then, as we were flushing the remnants of the soup out of the tank another newt came through the tube (so we put her with her mate). We half filled the tank with fresh water; it took half an hour with our super duper water pump but we didn’t want to run the engine for too long in the heat. And then we got in, up to our thighs; it was exceedingly cold and it made our ankles ache; but we got used to it after a while and it did a good job of cooling us down. When we got out we noticed the third frog swimming around; we have no idea where it had hidden while we finished cleaning out the tank, as the whole of it was scrubbed with a wire brush.
When we topped up the small tank, it leaks slightly so needs a daily top up, five of the green tree frogs were washed out of the spout; they obviously live in it.
Tree Frog - it looks greener in real life
On our way back to the campsite we saw two fires; one between Castelo Branco and Fundao (nearer Castelo Branco) and one in the distance. The estate agents said this wasn’t a fire risk area, I’d hate to live in an area that was!

The van was only 41.4°C, when we got back, so the new position seems to have helped a little bit; but not enough, so we went into town and bought a fan (which we left running all through the night). We cooked outside again and then realised we didn’t even fancy hot food; we’re drinking litres and litres of water; including some from our well, Brett more than me, we have been assured that it is drinkable.


25th June CASTELO BRANCO

Today was HOT, 40°C in the shade (in fact when we got back to the camper it was 43.5° inside the van) and it’s draining to work in this heat.

Our first job was checking on Betty as Gary had cycled into Fundao at about 5.00 a.m. – she seemed very pleased to see us.

Brett continued digging, this time access around the house so he can render it when the time comes. And I did some gardening, clearing a bed to put some vegetable seeds in. I tried to continue using the water from the large water tank but Mr Luis’s hobbled together pipes burst – he had joined a 19mm hose to a 50mm pipe by shoving the hose into the pipe and filling the gap with concrete, and then wrapping the joint with tape!!!!

Today we saw our female grouse again; she was making quite a racket so we went to investigate. She was standing under one of the orange trees calling and as we walked towards her these little baby grouse scattered around our feet!
I had hoped to capture the chicks too, but they are so well camoflaged that I can't tell if I have!
So we left so she could gather her family together. Brett saw this huge bird circling over the farm, it could have been a Golden Eagle we couldn’t quite see it clearly enough, it was jolly big.
We picked and ate oranges and peaches today, and a few figs but they’re not quite ripe yet. The trees are literally dripping with fruit and we’ve been told by quite a few people that lots of the fruit trees fruit twice, if not three times, in a year!! The orange trees, for instance, have ripe oranges on them and small (about 1” diameter) green fruit forming from the March blossom (and we were picking oranges when we first viewed the quinta in February, so it looks like orange trees produce fruit, more or less, throughout the year.
Orange

Peach

Apple

Pear

Plum

Grape

We used our plunge pool!!! It was quite cold when we first got in; it did a brilliant job of cooling down our core temperature; we could float in it but our heads and feet touched the walls.
We checked on Betty again before we left for Castelo Branco and then went into town to buy seeds (endive, French beans, mangetout, spring onions and radish) and the bits to fix the irrigation system (they cost about 2€ in all, so “why Mr Luis why?”).
It was so hot in the van that we had to cook dinner outside; unfortunately we’ve taken our chairs to the quinta so we still had to eat in the van. We’ve got to find a new parking place; the van is obviously getting the midday and afternoon sun on it (as Brett says it’s just a big metal box, exactly what is put on the roof to heat the water, in fact the ‘cold’ water in the van is warm).

Monday 25 June 2012

24th June CASTELO BRANCO

Yesterday we left the tap open on the smaller water tank (watering the onions); so our first job this morning was to clean it out. Brett got inside it and shovelled out all the smelly leaves and gunk and then we refilled it with fresh water; seven little green frogs came flying out of the water spout and had to be rescued, as the water come out so fast and powerful – our water pump is fantastic, it filled the tank (5’ x 5’ x 4’) in about 15 minutes. And now we have a clean ‘plunge pool’! Though we are really waiting to use the big one near the house as we’ll be able to swim in it (or at least float); I’m using the water in it as quickly as I can (it’s a sacrilege to waste it), today by watering the fig and orange trees. We think that Mr Luis must have taken a lot of the irrigation hoses with him as we only have a couple of short crappy hoses fitted to the tanks; so to water anything I have to take the hose as far as it will go and then use it to fill buckets and watering can and walk with these to the trees – which is rather tiring in 39°C.

Brett spent the morning digging out the walkway behind the animal shed (I did offer to help, but he said it was in full sun and I would complain all the time, which is probably true).
Around 11.00 a joyous Gary came whooping into our quinta to tell us that Betty was back. He was cycling into Fundao and she was walking along the road, just imagine if he had decided to go to Castelo Branco today he would have missed her. She seems none the worst for her adventure, she’s a little bit thinner (but she was a bit tubby) and very thirsty, but she appears to be fine; I think she might have puppies in a few months, Gary still thinks she was taken from his quinta – perhaps we’ll never know.
Gary had come with his pruning shears and offered to do a couple of hours on our vines, so of course I had to accompany him and learn how to do it; it was bloody hot work (in 39°C).
Gary stayed for lunch; we always bring a picnic with us, but it wasn’t suitable for Gary (he doesn’t eat cooked/prepared food) so he grazed on about 30 fallen oranges, I said he could pick some fresh from the tree, but he was happy eating the windfalls. He actually did a good job clearing under the tree (it was one of my jobs today anyway), so all I had to do was rake the leaves and rotten fruit and that area looks much tidier.
Thank you Steph for identifying our mystery fruit as Quince; we did think it might be that as Mr Luis said it was used for conserve – can you eat it raw? Gary identified our other unknown fruit tree – Persimmon (Sharon fruit). We going to rename our quinta ‘The Garden of Eden’ there is so much growing here; today I munched my way through oranges, loquats, apple (not ripe yet), fig (nearly ripe), peach (hard, but sweet and tasty), plum (one that the birds had pecked, so ripened early – delicious), and we’ve got so much more to come – we’re so very very lucky!
These are the bastard birds that eat our fruit - Magpies
Azure Winged Magpie or as Brett calls it a flying rat!
This is what our Golden Oriole looks like (photo from internet)
We didn’t get to use our plunge pool today, Gary was still pruning when we left (we think he’s lonely, he was with us for 5 1/2 hours); I did sit on the edge and dangle my legs in (and got very wet shorts), it was lovely and my shorts dried very quickly in 39°C!.
As we drove back to the campsite we watched a helicopter dumping water on a fire close to Castelo Branco – we’ve seen three fires in the last three days, it’s a little bit worrying.
Tomorrow is going to be 40°, so we’ll definitely be using our plunge pool.

23rd June CASTELO BRANCO

We had an easy morning; Brett dismantled the fence around the vineyard close to the house (ready for digging out the walkway behind the shed) and I pulled up ragwort (in the scorching sun). Then we went to our neighbours ....................

We arrived around 11.30 and parked the truck outside their gates; Ilda came along, with the keys to the gates, and ushered us through. We were shown around the quinta (they have a least one other, plus a casa in Castelo Branco). They have some lovely calves (they have more calves, cows and his prize bull whose semen he sells over the internet, we think that’s what he was saying, at the other quinta), sheep and lots of vines, olives and vegetables. We were then shown where we could park the campervan (under cover), with electricity and a bathroom opposite – the roof was too low for the van (about 9’, we need 10’). So then we were shown a couple of bedrooms, with ensuite bathrooms; we hadn’t got it wrong at all they were inviting us to either camp out at their quinta or stay in a bedroom, because we were their ‘comrades’. They also offered to look after our tools etc, at their premises, when we came back to Britain to sort out moving (which we intend to take them up on, we can leave the truck there).
We had lunch; first a homemade soup (a bit like Scotch broth), followed by salad (lettuce), bread (baked in their bread oven), warm rice (what’s that all about?), omelette (warmish and cut into strips), olives and cheese, accompanied with beer (Brett), wine (me & Ilda) beer & wine mixed (Jony). Dessert was cherries and a drink made from 3 parts grape juice and 1 part fermented something (some kind of spirit) – rather sweet, Brett enjoyed it.
We left about 4.30; as we were driving away Jony was practically leaning through the window saying “Brett, please you bring your caravan here”. It was all a little bit intense and uncomfortable; they don’t know us but they are being very generous/too generous (maybe it’s the Portuguese way?).
We checked on Gary; he has had his locks changed, so he’s feeling a little bit more secure; though he’s still grieving for his dog. He offered to come and prune our vines (for free) I suggested he came and taught me how to do it (which would be far more useful).
When we posted the blog this evening we did a ‘google’ search to find out what the yellow bird is that I keep seeing – it’s a Golden Oriole, and we’ve got one living on our quinta!

Saturday 23 June 2012

22nd June CASTELO BRANCO

We’ve done as much as we can to the living room floor; by the end we were digging to a depth of 18’’ into the rock strata. I thought brilliant, that’s the end of digging for a while; I asked Brett what our next job would be, he said digging a walkway out behind the old animal sheds – that’s at least a metre in depth and probably a metre width for approximately 3 metres i.e. at least 3 cubic metres of soil and stone!!!!
One of our unidentified fruits - it looks like a furry apple (any suggestions welcome) we have masses of these trees

While we were having lunch we heard a car horn ‘tooting’, Brett went to investigate; it was some of our neighbours come to introduce themselves – Joao (he said we can call him Jony) and Ilda. They came with a box of goodies  - cherries, loquats, lettuce and a big jar of their own olives in brine.
Goodie Hamper
We had a long conversation with them; he said he studied English, but it was as good as our Portuguese! And he kept lapsing into Fench! Anyway this is what we think he said ........

·         they have a swimming pool that we are welcome to use
·         why didn’t we bring our campervan to our quinta, we said the track was to narrow, so then they suggested we could park it at their place/they offered us their spare bedroom, saying it was too far to travel daily to and from Castelo Branco and it was expensive
·         come and visit us, tomorrow, for something to eat. He then drew a clock and said not to come between 2 – 6 p.m. as that was siesta time, but we don’t know if we’re to come before 2.00 or after 6.00!!!!
They were really, really friendly and they definitely asked us to visit them “amanha” (tomorrow) – but the rest we’re not sure about. So we’re going about 11.00 a.m. and if they wanted us later we can always come back – and we’re not taking our swimming costumes!!
We walked across to check on Gary’s quinta (about 150 yds from our house) before we left (we check when we arrive, after lunch and before we go home) everything was quiet and orderly. As we walked back we noticed a large fire in the Fundao direction; we had already planned to finish early and go to Fundao, to visit Lidls so Brett could buy tea (we were also buying it for Mark and Glen). Brett commented that we didn’t have insurance on the quinta, which is a bit worrying.
So we bought our tea and some lidl’s ‘Greek’ yoghurt which I love and on the way back to the campsite called in on Mark and Glen, to check that the third joist had been put into place – it had. They told us that they had been watching the “Bombeiros” (firemen’s) aeroplanes on their way to put out the fire. Everything is really dry here; some of the Portuguese (not all, there’s plenty with pastures just like ours) plough in any land which isn’t being used (e.g. between and around olive trees etc) as a precaution against fires (Mr Luis keeps trying to get us to do it, but at 35 an hour for 6 – 7 hours we can’t afford it and, as Brett says, we want to encourage the grass to grow as we want to graze animals).


21st June CASTELO BRANCO

Mid summer’s day; and the weather forecast for the next few days is 25° (Fri), 29° (Sat), 34° (Sun), and 38° (Mon) !!! So over the weekend we’re hoping to get our plunge pool (sorry, water tank) cleaned out.

Well I’ve had a very lazy day sitting in an olive grove painting;
Mark & Glen's Olive Grove in watercolour & pastels
Occasionally I would wander over to the workers to check that their health and safety was up to scratch.
The work went smoothly today; they got another joist into place. Before we left Brett helped them position the frames and a joist, so that Mark and Glen can hoist the third into position tomorrow. I don’t know how they would have managed if they hadn’t got Brett to help them, there’s no way the two of them could lift a joist between them. The last joist is going to be difficult as the A frames will need to straddle their boundary wall and will obstruct the track, which means that if any vehicles come along they won’t be able to get past.

20th June CASTEL BRANCO

Happy Birthday Mel XXX.
We didn’t finish the floor; but we worked very hard and there’s not much left to do now – as it’s on a slope and we’re having to dig more and more away as we work our way across the floor.
Living room
Gary came and invited us to go for a drink when we’d finished work; we said ok but we didn’t want to go to the Policeman’s son’s cafe as there’s a bad atmosphere there. So we went to one in the middle of the village; a lovely lady came up and spoke to Gary (she knew him and all about his problems). She was quite animated in her denial that his troubles could have anything to do with locals; from what we understood she was saying that crime doesn’t happen in Pedrogao. She really latched on to Brett; she was talking to him, touching him and gesticulating – Brett sat there saying “Sim, sim” but we could only catch a little of what she was saying (we really want to start Portuguese classes).
I picked 24 oranges and squeezed a litre of juice for tomorrow – we’re so lucky!!!
Tomorrow Mark and Glen want Brett’s help with their joists again – which means I have a day off!!!

19th June CASTELO BRANCO

As we were driving into the village this morning the lady we were talking to on Thursday flagged us down; she asked my name (in Portuguese) and said she had a letter for me – it turns out she’s the post mistress. She’s really friendly and is determined to communicate with us; she told us her daughter is called Sandra (Sandra and Laura are Portuguese names). We are going to find Portuguese classes once we are settled here which should make conversations a lot easier.

Gary was back when we got to the quinta (he returned last night); and thankfully all’s well, nothing else untoward has happened. He’s made a new friend who lives a couple of miles away and he’s stored all his valuables, including his car, with him – so he’s much happier, and more positive.
We’ve had another day of hard slog; we’ve dug out about 2/3rds of the living room floor, so hopefully we should finish it tomorrow. When we first started working on the quinta we were there for about 5 – 6 hours a day, today we did 7 ½ hours; this was mainly because Brett lied to me and told me that the time was an hour earlier than it really was!!
On our way back to the campsite we were stopped by the police; he was very severe, he just said “documentos” and “driving licence” he then took everything off to his car, gave it all back and waved us on.
It’s just like being back at work; we’re up at 7.00, work hard all day, come ‘home’ have dinner, make our packed lunch and we’re in bed by 10.30.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

18th June CASTELO BRANCO

We had a day off, we deserved it!!

Yesterday we picked some of our oranges, which I squeezed and chilled overnight; we had our own fresh orange juice, with bits in, for breakfast – so much better than what you can buy in the shops!
Our Orange Juice

We didn’t do much today; we took a trip to Jumbo, unfortunately I forgot the computer so we couldn’t update the blog.

17th June CASTELO BRANCO

Hoorah, we’ve finished digging out the kitchen floor; well we’ve done as much as we can until we have all our tools on site.
The Kitchen!

Boo, we’ve started on the next floor!!! The living room; it’s not as daunting as the kitchen as it’s only 12.5’ x 20’ and Brett seems to think it’s easier going than the kitchen. There is a strata of rock at one end and to dig that out might compromise the foundations so we will leave a raised area and construct a window seat if necessary (but it won’t be noticeable).
The Living Room!
We had an email from Gary; he’s coming back on Tuesday to “fight his corner”, good for him. We really don’t feel that this is a vendetta against foreigners; we’ve had nothing but friendly overtures from the villagers we’ve spoken to (so William you can stop worrying!) – it’s something he has done to upset someone.
Our grapes are swelling daily (and that’s without us watering them) and some of the peaches are close to ripening; we’ve got at least fourteen different types of fruit growing here – loquat, grape, peach, nectarine, orange, fig, tangerine, olive, plum, apple, pear, blackberry and two fruits we have yet to identify. We’re going to put in lemon, lime, cherry (we’re surprised there aren’t cherry here already), avocado, and kiwi.
We feel very lucky to have found this place, it really is idyllic. I saw the yellow bird again today, so it must live on or near the farm. And look at the caterpillar I rescued out of the water tank – it’s about 3” long and ¾” thick, what size will the butterfly/moth be? I didn’t touch it as it looks poisonous!
Don't look at my short, dirty, unpainted nails!
I can’t wait to get all our reference books here there’s so much flora and fauna that I want to look up.
Tonight we watched ‘The Town’ (Ben Afleck), it was ok.

16th June CASTELO BRANCO

Well, today has been good and bad. The good news is that Brett thinks we only have one more day left on the floor, we have worked jolly hard today; Brett breaking up the floor, me shovelling and wheeling. The other good news; after seeing Mark and Glen’s joists yesterday we think we shouldn’t need a pillar in the kitchen, Mark is going to work out the figures for us.
The bad news: Gary was waiting for us when we arrived; he had another incident yesterday (typical we should have been away) this time it wasn’t robbery it was sheer vandalism. Somebody had driven around his property, uprooted four cast concrete posts (probably by tying them to their car, they are really heavy), destroyed vines, broken glass windows (stored outside for installing into his shed) and stolen some metal and an old bike. He’s had enough; he’s packed his van and has driven back to North Portugal (where he was living before) and he’s putting his quinta up for sale. He is convinced that Betty was dog-napped, and is probably dead.

It’s not fair; ok so he’s a bit eccentric but this vendetta to terrorise him is totally out of order. We feel so sorry for him, he’s been here less than three weeks and he’s been driven out. He could be back once he’s calmed down a bit, he was very emotional today (understandably); and obviously it would be better for him once we are living there full time.

Saturday 16 June 2012

15th June CASTELO BRANCO

We were at Mark and Glen’s for nine hours and almost got one joist in! It wasn’t all physical work, a lot of the time was spent discussing the logistics of manoeuvring and lifting the joists; even though Mark had already planned how he wanted it done, everyone had an opinion, including me.  And more time was spent building ’A’ frames to support the joists whilst they were being lifted.

The problem with replacing joists is that they are longer than the gaps they are spanning (initially joists are put in place as the walls are built up); so, to put these in, a hole had to be made for each joist, going through the wall, so that they can be fed through from outside the building across the room into a gap in the opposite wall. Next problem; alongside the outside wall the joists were being fed through is a below ground level water tank (precisely where beams, structures, people etc need to be).
1st joist lifted to hole
Joist poking through hole into house

The highlight of the day, for me, was when Brett, Mark and Glen were carrying the first joist into position ready for lifting up to the hole (8 or 9 foot high); Brett lifted the joist, Mark fell over and Glen was shouting “don’t push me in the tank” – you had to be there!
The worst thing was that they don’t stop for lunch!!! Well they did today, at 3.00, (and that was only because I commented on being hungry).

It looks like we’re going to be spending another couple of days there; which is all good – it’s favours ‘in the bank’.
I’ve found this really nice rose wine (12%), at 115 a bottle (so it’s quite expensive!); it’s quite dry and slightly fizzy – I like it.


14th June CASTELO BRANCO

Hoorah, we can check our emails on the Kindles again; it must have been a problem with AOL, we didn’t do anything to correct it.

We went to what we thought was the Correios (post office) first thing; so that we could register for post. It’s in the same building as the medical centre and didn’t open until 9.00; by 9.05 it still hadn’t opened so we went to talk to a couple of ladies who were sitting outside, of course they didn’t speak English. A few more ladies appeared; first off they didn’t believe we had bought Fonte dos Clerigos (Brett says they didn’t like not being up to date with the gossip); they told us (we think) this wasn’t the post office anymore and that we needed to go to Penamacor to rent a PO Box; we discussed this with Gary later and he said we could get our post delivered there and that he’d been in and arranged it for himself last week – we’ll try again next week!
After all the strenuous work yesterday we decided to take it slightly easier today; Brett took down some more fences and I cleared Ragwort (I thought of you, Tamsin & Simon as I pulled it up!), there’s isn’t too much but I wanted to stop it seeding.

Gary came around his dog, Betty, went missing two days ago. He fears the worst and is convinced she’s dead; we’re hoping she’s wandered off because she might be on heat. The poor bloke obviously needed company so we spent the rest of our day with him; first we went to admire the work he’d been doing at his quinta, then he came and helped Brett with the fencing – he seemed a little less distraught when we left, it’s hard to know what to say in these type of circumstances.
Shortly after we arrived back at the campsite we heard this hammering and went out to investigate; Mark was trying to straighten his lorry, he’d gone under a small tree and caught the rack behind the cab, it had quite a bend in the upright strut – he wasn’t happy!

Tomorrow I have a day off; Brett is going to help Mark and Glen lift their floor joists into position. Brett’s quite pleased as it means he’ll be able to ask them for a favour in return.

Thursday 14 June 2012

13th June CASTELO BRANCO

As we are getting up early (so that we can work through the ‘cooler’ part of the day) we go to bed between 10 – 11p.m.; we read for a bit (I’ve read over 50 books in four months) and then go to sleep. Just past midnight the phone rang, it was Emily and Beri; they had been trying to call us all evening and refused to give up (I knew the bloody phones weren’t working properly). It was lovely to chat with them, even though I don’t think I was very coherent as I was half asleep! It did me good as I’ve been feeling a bit homesick this week.

On Saturday, on our way to the quinta, there was a dead cat in the road and it’s been there every day since; this morning there were two dead kittens, about ¼ of a mile apart. We think, and this is complete conjecture on our part, that perhaps the first cat was a feral female and that, when she did return, her kittens came out looking for food – it was really sad (to see one dead kitten is bad, but two seems so much worse), not a good start to the morning.

Yesterday Brett kept complaining that dirt was getting inside his boots, as he was smashing up the floor; so today he fabricated himself some gaiters (out of cling film!).
Disposable gaiters!
Unfortunately they didn’t work for long, so he won’t be patenting his design!

We spent all day on the floor; Brett breaking it up, me shovelling and wheeling away. We are so very very tired.  Brett keeps mumbling on about buying a log cabin for £20,000! But it is definitely coming along and the sheer size of our new kitchen is becoming apparent, the back wall will be 11’ high, which will be fantastic after our low ceiling at Pentwyn – I can have a hanging clothes airer!

We will be doing lighter chores tomorrow, there’s no way we can do a third day of the floor.

12th June CASTELO BRANCO

We arrived in the village just before 9.00 and the monthly market was in full swing all along and blocking the road we drive to get to the track to our quinta; no problem we thought there must be another way to get to our track. We browsed the market; there were chicks being sold out of the back of a lorry (we couldn’t see what type as there was such a crowd around the lorry), we found a stall selling animal food (by the sack or litre, they sell by volume here rather than weight) and we think some of the seeds were for growing too (different beans, cereals and corn), there was a stall selling basket ware, it was really cheap e.g. log baskets for 20€, there were some crappy stalls too – clothes, shoes, sunglasses, cheap kitchen stuff and a meat van. There was no fruit and veg stall, maybe there will be when things are in season.

Whilst we were looking around the market we were being ogled by the villagers; so we walked along politely saying “Bom dia” to all and sundry. We don’t know if we really stick out like sore thumbs (I understand that saying now!) or whether they have so few strangers to the village that they knew we were new – anyway they were all very friendly and smiled and said “Bom dia” back to us.

So now we had to find a route to drive to the quinta; we walked through the market and entered the village from our end; we walked through a maze of narrow twisty roads and realised there was no way we could find a navigable way to our track. We got into the truck and, using Google Earth, drove out of the village to a track that seemed to come out a little way down our track (beyond the market) – it was hairy, to say the least, the camper van wouldn’t have made it; it had boulders protruding from the stone walls and was really narrow – in fact it made our track look easy and accessible (a big sigh was heaved when we finally reached our track). Note to selves: Don’t plan any morning excursions on the 2nd Tuesday of the month!

Brett borrowed a big crowbar from Mark which he used to move a massive stone from the edge of our track – we gained about two foot.
Big rock

Brett moved it the length of the crowbar

We constructed another compost bin from the asbestos sheeting (stop worrying Steph we’re sure it’s not really asbestos, it just looks like it; anyway it’s too late for me I took ‘A’ level Chemistry and we used crumbling real asbestos mats all the time!); then we started digging out the floor – the job I have been dreading! We dug out ten wheelbarrows of composted hay before we got to the ground level (actually it’s good stuff which will come in handy next year). The floor itself isn’t too bad to dig out, though it’s got quite a few stones in it, but there’s an area in the middle of the floor (about 2m x 1m) of solid stone; instead of being flat in the ground the strata are vertical (and they go quite deep), so it’s going to be a bloody big job!

After lunch we explore a couple of the tracks that run off the track to our quinta; there were a couple of nicely maintained smallholdings (one might have had a liveable building on it, but there was no sign of people). Then it was back to the dreaded floor!

Poor old Brett had to do most of the work today, I shovelled dirt and pushed wheelbarrows but I can’t shift big rocks or break up stones – I’m still achy and tired though.

11th June CASTELO BRANCO

We had a day off, it was so relaxing. First off we went to Jumbo for the free internet and I updated the blog. While we were there we joined a Portuguese online expat site; we can ask questions and get advice from people who have been living here for a while.

Then we went to look at strimmers, again, we keep looking at strimmers but can’t actually bring ourselves to buy one as we have a really good one back in the UK.

We went in to Castelo Branco for lunch; I asked for a salad and chips and that was exactly what I got, lettuce, tomato and chips – I thought it might have been mixed salad, still it filled a hole.

We’ve been really pleased with our Kindles, and an added bonus has been the free internet access (even though it is very slow); we’ve got into the habit of checking our emails on it in the evening (it saves on trips to Jumbo). Tonight we couldn’t log in to AOL, we got an error message 420 unused, we’ve no idea what it means apart from the fact that we can’t check our emails any more on the Kindles – what a pisser!

We watched a film this evening; we started watching ‘Sanctum’ and Brett, who always gives films far more chance than me, said “I can’t watch this it’s crap” – the acting was atrocious and the characters were so clichéd; surprisingly the executive producer was James Cameron, who directed ‘Titanic’, so you would have thought it would have been good. So then we put on ‘Moon’ which started quite slowly, with me saying “I don’t understand what’s happening”, but it actually was quite good in the end.

Tomorrow we’re back to work; but I’m quite excited as we’ll be going to the village’s monthly market when we arrive (last month we arrived just as they were all clearing up).

Monday 11 June 2012

10th June CASTELO BRANCO

We really should have taken the day off! When we got to the farm neither of us could contemplate digging up a floor, we had no energy; so we decided to do some ‘light’ chores and definitely take tomorrow off.

First off we put down the rat bait; I feel really mean killing them but there’s no way we can live with them so close to our house – so they’ve got to go. I did look up (on my Kindle) humane methods of deterring rats but there isn’t really anything else; dogs and cats are no kinder, they still die (and we can’t have animals until we come back from the UK and we want rid of the rats now).
Next Brett took down the fence running along the drive to the ‘house’; it’s good getting rid of all the old fences as it means we’ll be starting with a blank canvas when we come to put up our own fencing and we won’t be influenced by what’s already here. Meantime I cleared up another of Mr Luis’s rubbish areas; it’s right at the entrance to the farm and rather an eyesore. There was a mass of plastic that disintegrated into little pieces whenever I tried to pick it up; who says that plastic takes years to decay? Obviously the sunlight has caused the plastic to break down (plastic bags used to do the same in the polytunnel). There was also baler twine, it’s all over the farm, kitchen foil, drink cans and piles of half burnt wood. It all looks much neater now.

On the field side of the fence, not the drive side, Mr Luis had cut down masses of broom, and of course he had just left it where it was – another blot on the landscape! It needs to be burnt, but our bonfire is quite a way from the broom and it would take forever dragging it/wheeling it in a wheelbarrow; then I had a brilliant idea – the Ute, after all it was bought as a farm vehicle. It only took two journeys and now I have a 6’ pile of broom ready for burning.
By 11.00 we were starving; so we had our lunch! That was it I didn’t want to do any more work! Brett decided he wanted to move some rocks, which make our track awkward to navigate, before we left for the day. They were HUGE rocks, but Brett was undeterred he went at them with a crow bar, pick axe, sledge hammer, chisel and mallet. One he actually managed to lever out and roll into a gap the other side of the track, one he is gradually reducing in size by repeatedly banging it, and the third one he will work at each time we go to the farm until it’s no longer in the way (he needs his tools from home). So, apart from this section, there is really only one part of the track that is extremely narrow and we can’t do anything about that as there’s a stone building one side and a stone wall the other (neither of which belong to us).

Before we left we picked loquats, courgette and lettuce (well we are watering them now!).
Harvest
Today we saw a very colourful bird; it was about the size of a woodpecker, dark underneath (brown or black) and a bright buttercup yellow back and I think it had some yellow on the wings. It’s not a bird I have ever seen before (i.e. not a British bird) and we didn’t see it for long enough to get an accurate description so it’s nigh on impossible to identify it. Let’s hope we see it again.
We’re having a lie in tomorrow – I bet I’m awake at 7.00 a.m.!

9th June CASTELO BRANCO

So tired!!!

Quote of the day (Brett) “I’m beginning to hate Mr Luis”. Our next job is to dig out the kitchen (well the shed that’s going to become the kitchen) floor. Mr Luis had left us some bales of straw; he stored them directly onto an earth floor, baler twine side down. This meant that the baler twine had rotted, the bottom of the bales had started to compost (therefore the whole lot was useless) and we had to move it all, with pitch forks and wheelbarrows (30-40 trips) – it took hours! We’re going to have to burn it; I lit a bonfire but only managed to burn three wheelbarrows worth (fires here have to be under control).
Halfway through moving the straw pile 
You need imagination to see our 'kitchen', fortunately we have it!
Brett also had to demolish one of Mr Luis structures it was in the corner furthest from the light. It was an animal enclosure, two, cubic meter cages made out of blocks and wood with cement floor; we identified the animal by the piles of pooh that was left behind – rabbits.
Demolishing the rabbit enclosure
It was a hard day, six hours of strenuous labour; and the next few days will be gruelling too – digging out the floor. But hopefully these should be the worst jobs we’ve got to do.

I was rather homesick today, missing my family and friends, I suppose it’s because I’m so tired; still we’ll be back soon and we’ll be able to visit everyone – I can’t wait for the farm to be habitable and we can have visitors here.


8th June CASTELO BRANCO

We’ve had a shitty day, literally – we mucked out the chicken and pigeon sheds, they hadn’t been done for years and they are full of rats!!!! We hate rats; we were always very careful not to encourage rats in Wales and if ever we saw one the dogs were put to use – Winnie was a fantastic ratter (must have been the terrier in her), Molly was enthusiastic but nowhere near as quick. Anyway we have now removed their food source, next we will fill in holes and then our last resource will be rat traps/ bait – there’s no way we’ll be living near rats. All the sheds are much more salubrious now.
We had an exciting occurrence this morning; we saw a dragonfly shed it’s exoskeleton, it even shed it’s legs! The original body was half the length of the new one. We took a photo at the start of the process and then watched it as the wings were pumped with colour (it was green so was it blood?); we monitored it for about an hour, it was happening very slowly and then we went and missed the final stage – it just flew off!
If you squint you can see the exoskeleton under the front legs
We met Gary as we were coming into the village; he was off cycling somewhere but said he would be back later. He and Betty, his dog, came to visit after lunch; he brought us a map of the area, which he’d got from the Tourist Information, which was very thoughful. 

We visited Mark and Glen on our way back; they’re cutting out holes for floor beams – it’s hard work.
I’m happy as I ‘spoke’ to Hen on facebook this afternoon, when we went in to Castelo Branco to update the blog.

Friday 8 June 2012

7th June CASTELO BRANCO

Another day without Mr Luis; it’s so much more comfortable doing all the tidying up without him around. We don’t want him to feel that the work we are doing is a reflection on his housekeeping – even though it is! We’ve realised that although he is a lovely man he’s also rather slovenly; today I was clearing up rubbish that had just been dropped on the ground, there was masses of: disintegrating plastic, lids from tin cans, tin cans, sweet wrappers (he obviously has a sweet tooth), batteries, baler twine, whisky bottles (hidden in the vines!), broken glasses, jumper, old shoe, bits of plastic pipe and electrical cable (there isn’t even any electricity there).

Brett mucked out the ‘Donkey shed’ floor while I mucked out outside the shed – we half filled the compost bin. The muck is very dry so Brett is peeing on it to get it activated (it’s a recognised accelerant for compost heaps); and I’m pouring on buckets of water.
Compost bin
Wood from 'Donkey shed' and other pile around farm

We ate some of our loquats; we’ve got to get in quick before the birds eat them! They have a sweet and sour flavour, with four large pips  in the middle (a bit like a lychee) and a thick skin (which I spit out, but Brett eats) – they are rather fiddly to eat but they can be made into jelly (maybe next year). The birds that are eating the fruit are not a British bird, so I looked them up on my Kindle! They are shaped like a magpie but with different colouring; a black cap, and a blue back (pretty) – I think they are Azure Winged Magpies, unfortunately the Kindle is only black and white but I’m pretty sure that’s what they are.

When I first started gardening in Wales I bought lots of unusual vegetable seeds one of which was Tree Spinach (Chenopodium giganteum); Brett absolutely hates it as it seeds everywhere, any patch of bare earth (it loves plant pots and seed trays) and it’s covered in these pink tipped seedlings. I like it; it’s edible (like spinach, it’s lovely in a quiche with cheese and onion!) and it’s fairly easy to weed, but it grows quite tall 6 – 7’ if you leave it (chickens and pigs eat it). Brett said I was not allowed to bring any seeds to Portugal! All over our new vegetable garden we have an edible weed growing, Fat Hen; it’s Latin name Chenopodium album, it’s just a shorter, less pretty version of Tree Spinach!!

Our evenings are spent picking the grass seeds out of our socks and boots! Brett more so than me as he is still wearing his walking boots, I abandoned them after one day in favour of my best boots (they’re longer); they really are my favourite boots and they are being ruined which I’m not happy about.
6th June CASTELO BRANCO

I’m utterly shattered; I could hardly climb up the steps into the van when we got back from the farm this afternoon!!

We arrived at the village about 8.30 and met Gary leaving; so we stopped for a chat. I asked him if he knew anything about the village WIFI (as he speaks Portuguese) and he said he didn't know as he doesn’t have anything to do with microwaves or satellite signals.

First off Brett took down a fence (it was very slack and no good for stock), he wanted to reuse the re-bar (that had been used instead of fence posts) and I transplanted about twenty plants from in front of the ‘donkey shed’ to the potato patch (the dug up one). I don’t know what they are, some type of squash/cucumber/melon (I hope they’re melon) – they have obviously germinated from seeds dropped from something that was fed to the animals last year; it will be interesting to see what grows. I’m not going to buy anything to plant yet as we will be travelling back to the UK soon (well perhaps some herbs).

We built a large compost bin using the corrugated asbestos (I’m sure it’s just stuff that looks like asbestos) sheets and the re-bars and then proceeded to demolish the ‘donkey shed’; all the components had to be carried to their separate piles it took absolutely ages which is why I’m so tired; but it was a job well done and it helps with the general appearance of the place.
Tidying up

Mr Luis didn’t come today! Yesterday he made Brett show him that he understood how to use the water pump (he likes Brett and he’s always showing him stuff); then he showed us how to fill another smaller water tank which is used to water a lower part of the vegetable garden (where he has onions, beans, cabbages, and courgettes growing). He showed us how to water the citrus trees (and his salad and onions); apparently we don’t have to water the vines, peaches, figs or olives. He then told us that if we needed anything to visit him at the ‘grand maison’, he said that he would keep an eye on the place when we weren’t there (most of this was sign language and mime). We think that maybe that was him actually handing over to us (now that he’s got his potatoes out). What we don’t know is whether the rest of the vegetables are now ours, or if we’re watering them for him! We do know that there’re still potatoes growing for him to pick; but we don’t know if he’s coming back for the other vegetables too – it’s all very perplexing.

Just before we left I watered Mr Luis vegetables! Then I went to look at my squash plants – they didn’t look good, maybe they’ll pick up overnight?

On the way back to the campsite we bought some more cherries; these are the black ones and they are very fresh and delicious.

Nick came back tonight minus his dog; but the awful thing is he lost him, literally, the day before he was due to take him to the vet. He was staying at a festival site (no festival was taking place so I assume it was like a hippy camp) and the dog wandered off, Nick and about sixty volunteers searched for him for three days to no avail. So the poor bloke is bereft, as he said, he didn’t even get to say “Goodbye”.

5th June CASTELO BRANCO

I drove to the farm today (in the Ute); I feel my road positioning is much better, but I’m still trying to change gear with my left hand. I suppose the problem is with being right handed – I prefer to have my right hand in control of the steering wheel. The drive up the track was hairy; it gets very narrow at times (and the Ute is quite wide) – and it didn’t help having Mr Luis’s daughter and wife following behind me! Mr Luis was already at the farm harvesting more potatoes.

It was really sad; after we had all got out of our vehicles and greeted one another (in Portuguese and French) the daughter went off to help Mr Luis and we were left to talk with Mrs Luis – She told us that she had fallen over and hurt herself, she was welling up (it had obviously just happened), she’s a rather frail old lady – I gave her a big hug.

While they were digging up the potatoes we went and pulled up a couple of wheelbarrows of lupins; Mr Luis then told us that the lupins were edible! We’ve looked it up on the internet and there is a ‘sweet lupin’ which is supposed to be edible, but then other sources say that it can still be poisonous. Lupin seeds are also put into animal feed, as they are a good source of protein – I don’t know, there’s so much contradiction on the internet; now we don’t know whether to pull the rest out or leave them – I would like to leave them as they are pretty plants, we found some yellow ones today (the others are purple).

When we were getting rid of rubbish yesterday I took apart (and threw away) one of Mr Luis’s ‘assemblages’; I thought it was for keeping the chickens off the vegetable garden, it was made from wood, loose saggy wire tacked to a frame, old plastic blinds and sticks – whoops, apparently it was propping up the branches of the peach tree (as Mr Luis pointed out to us), which are heavily laden with fruit. So we made some suitable props from cleft poles (it looks much better!). He showed us a fruit tree with small yellow fruit which are nearly ripe; we think they’re loquats, but we have no idea how to use them.

Mr Luis is obviously a bit upset about our tidying up; all around the farm he has piles of wood (and rubbish) which we are trying to organise, today he showed us a pile of sticks and indicated that they were needed as supports for the tomatoes (i.e. leave them alone!).

We started to demolish the ‘donkey shed’ today; we took off most of the roof, which is a mixture of concrete tiles, corrugated asbestos, sheet metal, corrugated iron and some plastic sheeting. Inside the shed is a mishmash of bed heads, doors, shutters, carpet, feed sacks and anything else which might keep the weather out – I know we’re smallholders but this was ridiculous (unfortunately Mr Luis will not be pleased!). Once the shed is down Brett is going to use salvageable bits to make compost bins, then we can start mucking out (we’ve bought masks).
'Donkey shed'

Today I saw a swallowtail butterfly (just like on your wedding cake Will and Gill) and then I saw a yellow butterfly with orange splodges on it’s wings, I have no idea what it was but it was very pretty. There’s so much wild life around us; today we had a stork circling over the farm, there were frogs, including those little bright green ones, lizards (I rescued one that was floating in one of the tanks on it’s back), geckos, dragon flies, slow worm (Brett found it under a rock), hoopoes, and masses of birds we don’t know the names of.

We think we have free internet in the village; there’s a Pedrogoa WIFI Hotspot we can access at the farm, we just need to get login details – how brilliant is that? At the moment we’re using the free internet at the cafes in Jumbo (a shopping centre) in the Zona Industrial.