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Monday 30 September 2013

THE CURSE OF THE INVERTERS ....................

24th September
The inverter stayed on overnight!!! We started to have hope; had Nick diagnosed the problem with the spiking charge controller?
Cesar came with our wood order; the inverter still stayed on!
We left for our language class; the inverter was on!
We left home about 12 noon and got back about 8.30 - we did a bit of shopping, updated blog, had a two hour language class, then a cup of tea at Mark (and Glenn's), went round to P&M to pick up our frozen food and when we got home ................. the inverter was off!!! Of course it was L.
So it wasn't the charge controller then; though Nick still thinks it was faulty (we've got to take readings tomorrow - they're both reading zero now). We've tried everything we can think of, eliminating everything we think might be making it short (basically clutching at straws), we've swopped extension cables, turn off all appliances (so that only one is using the inverter, in the end just a lamp with a 15w energy bulb) - we're totally fed up, the inverter will stay switched on for about 5 mins then switches off.

25th September
Good Luck with your job interviews Helen!
Our frozen food is back in P&M's freezer and I'm sulking!
Nick came around, he's as flummoxed as us; he suggested today that (1) we reduce our battery bank by 50% i.e. from 14 to 7, because the more batteries the more (or is it less?) impedence?!!! (2) we don't use my lovely new fridge, because it could be causing a surge (we can use it again once we have circuit breakers) (3) and we've already changed the charge controller. So now we have another (is it the seventh? I've lost count) inverter which we are nursing!
We started making slots for the joist hangers and then we had to stop because the disc got blunt so we went into Castelo Branco to pick up a fuse box and circuit breakers and a new disc - we've kind of lost our will for the moment.
When we came home from Castelo Branco the inverter was ON!!!!! J Shock horror and fingers crossed.

26th September
We got on quite well with the sleep platform  today; we cut all the slots for the joist hangers (Brett using the angle grinder and me standing below with the vacuum cleaner tube, trying to suck up all the dust) and put four joists (25%) into position.
We invited Mark and Glenn and their friend Jules (who in Mark's words is a solar nerd!) for dinner tonight. Oh dear, Jules is not impressed with our system! He says it is extremely dangerous as there is nothing isolating components (no way of turning things off if you need to work on it) and no circuit breakers; he has given us a shopping list of what we need - we're going into Castelo Branco first thing to buy it! He doesn't think there's anything intrinsically wrong it just needs tweaking to make it safe. He doesn't know why we're breaking inverters either; he suggests we prove it isn't any of our appliances by running them through a 3 amp trip switch (one by one) before they reach the inverter - and if one trips it that might be the culprit.

27th September
Well the solar debacle just gets better and better; whilst going round Castelo Branco trying to get the bits Jules says we need we went to a place that installs off grid systems. They consider that (1) a 12 volt system (which is what we have) should only be for a couple of panels and batteries, greater numbers should utilise a 24 volt system (we have potentially 12 panels to go with the 14 batteries) and (2) our cables should be 50 - 70mm thick ........ that's 2 - 3"!!!!  And on top of all that today we've had torrential rain and thunderstorms which meant that our seven batteries soon used up their power (running the fridge and one energy bulb) and the panels didn't generate enough to replace it; the annoying thing is we have 7 fully charged batteries we're not allowed to add to our system (for the time being) - but having said all that the inverter is still working so it's worth the compromise.
P& M came round for dinner and we used the last of our power watching a film by candle light! Oh dear you have to laugh (or cry!). We had to turn the fridge off before we went to bed.

28th September
It's rained on and off for most of the day, but we did manage to put our fridge back on (the panels generated some electricity between showers).
This morning we (us and P&M) strained the wine and put it into the stainless steel cylinder - we have 200L.
Unfortunately it wasn't worthwhile setting up the generator and chop saw (outside), because of the rain, so we didn't get any of the sleep platform done - tomorrow is supposed to be better.

29th September
We had an extremely busy day finishing off the joists for the sleep platform; the joists are supposed to be 50mm x 150mm, huh, they vary between 142mm to 156mm - the majority of our time was taken up with cut back or packing, so that we have a flat surface to lay our floor boards on (and don't get me started on the floor boards!!). We are extremely tired with all the climbing up and down ladders; it's times like this when it would be good to have a take away in the village - it's not something the Portuguese go in for, there aren't any in the towns either (perhaps in the Algarve and Lisbon).

30th September
Raining again, and it's forecast for the next few days ........ so we had no electricity this morning (should be some by this evening), but we do still have internet (which restarts tomorrow) so I will update blog this evening to take advantage of the last of our allowance .
Brett decided that he didn't like the idea of me (or any guests) climbing onto the sleep platform from the front (with the potential of an eight foot drop if I slip) so he has redesigned the entrance through a trap door in the centre of the floor - it feels much more secure. All that's left now is to lay the floor boards.

It rained on and off all day so the batteries didn't receive much charge; we'll be sitting in candle light tonight! We need to set up more panels (six was fine for the summer) and to get the whole of our battery bank back ........... but the inverter is still working!

Tuesday 24 September 2013

41/2 WEEKS LATER AND WE'RE ON OUR WAY HOME ....................

8-9th September
So after lots of tests (MRI scan, blood etc), masses of medication (steroids, anti-virus, antibiotics - at one point I was taking 36 pills a day plus ear and eye drops! it turns out I'm fine (still look freaky though), it's just a virus which will hopefully improve given time.
It's been great catching up with family and friends (and my crafty bitches did us proud in the cottage, thank you all so much) but we were ready to return to Portugal so after my 'all clear' we tried to book the ferry for today (8th Sept) but the crossing was full, so we had to settle for the 15th and hope that we might be able to get a cancellation for the 8th. Will and Gill have (conveniently) moved close to Plymouth; so we went to stay with them .................. Sunday morning came with no cancellations (we've been checking the website regularly), so we phoned Brittany Ferries at 10 a.m.; the lady said she would ring us if there was a cancellation .............. 11.00 she rang - we had to be at the ferry for 3.00. It was fantastic news, but equally it was a blow as we'd got used to the idea that we'd be with Will, Gill and the children for another week.
The crossing was uneventful - we're seasoned travellers now, we just take the ferry crossing in our stride!
We had a six hour drive (poor old Brett doing all the driving) from Santander to Pedrogao and then we were back.
Good old Pam & Mark fed us, it was so good to see them; they had so much news we couldn't take it all in!

10th September
So now we're back and we have so much work to do (1) as we have visitors (so excited) arriving soon and they'll need somewhere to sleep, (2) the grapes are ripe and the wine needs making, (3) we still have to order windows and doors before the winter ...................... the list goes on and on!!! We also want to get dogs, cats, pigs and chickens (we'll need housing and fencing for the pigs and chickens) - so we shouldn't be bored (and neither should our visitors!!!!)
First things first, we picked up our new inverter (hoorah), set it up and plugged in our lovely new fridge (at last), I even filled the ice cube trays.
Then we started work reorganising our living accommodation, so that we can build a sleep platform in the kitchen; first we took all the tools from the living room and put them onto shelves in the kitchen (we've sectioned off an area so it doesn't impede into the room), we dismantled the bed we've been sleeping on and moved ourselves into the cupboard bed, we moved all the sofas and coffee table etc into the living room then rearranged the kitchen space, we are actually eating at our large kitchen table at last.   
It was a full on day and we didn't finish everything we set out to do; after work we settled down to a nice cold beer from our fridge!!!!
Then before we went to bed we sat outside with mugs of hot chocolate and watched shooting stars (we have a huge sky overhead with practically no light pollution).

11th September
Happy Birthday Gill!!!
This morning we finished rearranging the kitchen; our living space is so much more homely now (it's looking less and less like a shed!); all we need now are doors and windows, plasterboard on the walls and tiles on the floor ... oh yes and paint on the walls etc etc.
Our swimming pool was disgusting after five weeks, the water was thick and green!!! So we emptied  it out overnight then I spent the afternoon scrubbing it clean (while Brett organised the water tank for the house); the paint is coming off the floor quite badly (the walls are fine) so we're thinking we might tile it (just the floor) when we empty it for the winter; but for the time being it works so we can live with a bit of peeling paint.
The work we've been doing doesn't sound like much, once it's written down, but we are absolutely shattered by the end of the day!

12th September
Today we took a trip into Castelo Branco to get supplies and do a big food shop (which is possible now we have a working fridge and freezer) so that we don't have to use the truck too often - we're getting into 'smallholder mode'!! We would like to limit trips in the truck to once a week; it's probably not practical but we can give it a go.
The weather is perfect, about 27  which is very comfortable, night times are still too hot and sticky, we sleep with two fans going. Everywhere is still dry and golden, but the fire risk is down to green - Pam and Mark were evacuated from their quinta, whilst we were away, as one of the wild fires got perilously close, their outside fire alarms were going off!!! The scorched earth is highly visible from our quinta, it's very close - I would have been petrified (and panicking!). Today when we drove into Castelo Branco the Bomberios (firemen) were stopping cars to sell raffle tickets - we gladly gave them a donation! We can't believe that in a country with such a high risk of fires the firemen are all volunteers.
We had a relaxing evening watching Dr No (the first of the box set of twenty seven James Bond films I bought last year), it was very cheesy and the acting was atrocious; but it was quite nostalgic for me as my great uncle Ted worked at Pinewood Studios, as a fireman, and he was responsible for the pyrotechnic (and water) stunts in the early James Bond film - he used to regale us with tales of all the stunts that had gone wrong when he came to visit.

13th September
P&M came over this morning and, while Pam and I had a natter, Brett and Mark emptied the wine vat (into 5L bottles, not onto the ground!) in preparation for next week when we make this year's wine.
We finished filling our swimming pool, it looks so very inviting - but it's bone achingly cold at the moment!!! It will warm up in a couple of days.
This evening we entertained P&M, we brought garden furniture back with us from the UK so we can now sit comfortably outside(as long as we remember mosquito protection) which is lovely (before we were sitting on cheap fold up chairs that had a tendency to collapse, so you were on tenterhooks the whole time!).

14th September
We had a good day today, we went to Alpedrinha festival  with P&M; the festival has grown up around the tradition that on this particular weekend all the sheep are brought down from their mountain grazing. The villagers open up their homes to sell food, drink and crafts, there is music from local bands, lots of which consist on one person playing a bagpipe and the rest playing drums - it's actually really good, the music vibrates deep within you.
Fighting with sticks?
 There was cheese tasting with cheeses made from sheep's milk, our favourite was one that was runny at room temperature, a bit like a baked camembert; unfortunately they were priced at festival prices so we didn't buy any. We met up with Josh and Jamie, Nick's great nephew and his friend plus another couple (Kieran and Jamie) with their daughter (Gypsy) who have recently bought land locally - so it was quite a party atmosphere. Unfortunately we missed the sheep as they don't arrive until tomorrow morning!!!!! You are invited to join the chocaderios (the translation is rattlers, I think they make noises with bells) in a three hour walk up (and back down) the mountain to fetch the sheep, but we might go for just their arrival in the village.

15th September
We did go to Alpedrinha this morning to see the sheep herded into the village and we have decided that next year we'll do the three hour walk to fetch them in from their summer grazing; it was quite an impressive spectacular with the sheep, bells ringing, drums beating, men with sticks and the magnificent dogs. 
Traditionally the herds were guarded by Serra Estrella dogs, fabulous looking beasts with hair like a lions mane
 (I want one!!!) they are fierce animals and their job was to fight off wolves; nowadays they disappointingly use border collies to herd the sheep, though some of our local shepherds still use the Estrellas. The Estrella is obviously popular in this area as there were lots being paraded around on leads, there was even a dog show
and I chose the winner correctly. I'm so glad we went back.
I went for a dip in the pool this afternoon - it was still quite cold!!

16th September
Brett started building the pillars for the sleep platform in the kitchen.
We (us and P&M) have decided that this year we're going to make white wine between us (we're going to start this Wednesday); so today I have been trying to find ways to make use of the red grapes. I made some grape jelly, which will do the job of redcurrant jelly, it's a fabulous deep purple colour and it would make a terrific dye for fabric (I know this to my detriment as it's all over my top!). And then I found the juicer I bought from Lidls about 10 years ago, I used a few times and since then it's been sitting in the cupboard along with the popcorn maker, sandwich maker and deep fat fryer!!! Anyway today it came into it's own juicing the grapes (it made hell of a mess!), the juice it absolutely delicious, it tastes a bit like a smoothie (it's frothy and cloudy) and I think it would make a fabulous drink mixed with sparkling wine.

17th September
I woke up in the early hours muttering "shit we haven't paid our road toll" (what made me think of that?), we incurred it on our drive from Santander and you're supposed to pay it within five days (or so we've been told); so first thing we went into Penamacor to pay it - it was fine (phew).
Brett finished his pillars, tomorrow we'll order the joists and floor planks.
A few days ago we found a purple fig tree
 quite close to the house; we were very excited as all our other fig trees are yellow. The figs were ready to pick so, as I had found my ice cream maker at the same time as the juicer, I decided to make some ice cream - caramelised fig ice cream to be precise. It took me most of the morning to make the caramelised fig jam, which is absolutely delicious, and an egg custard - they're cooling in the fridge waiting for me, to buy some thick cream tomorrow, to finish the recipe. Then I'm going to experiment with fig chutney, I'm going to buy Kilner jars (or their Portuguese equivalent) tomorrow.
We picked 2 buckets of red grapes this afternoon and made 5L of grape juice.
I went in the pool this afternoon the temperature was perfect!

18th September
We ordered the wood for the platform today, then we went into Fundao for a bit of shopping (we were more than halfway there at the wood merchants).
I finished the ice cream - it is rather tasty, though the pieces of fig were a bit big; I will experiment.
I started picking grapes, while Brett trained; I picked the ones growing around the pool whilst I was in the pool! I picked 21/2 50L drums just from around the pool.

19th September
OK I have to admit it we're having problems with the inverter!!!!!!! It was installed last Tuesday, on Thursday we went out leaving just the fridge on, when we came back it was off and the light on the inverter was flashing red and it was beeping - we switched it off, unplugged everything, waited 20 mins switched on and it came on again. Then this Tuesday we were sitting with a fan on and it stopped working, the fridge light was flickering but after a while it all started working fine. But then last night .................... we went to bed with the fan on (and the fridge) we were woken at 1.30 a.m. by the fan making a strange noise, and the fridge clicking on and off, we turned on a lamp (energy bulbs - we're very green here) and it flicked, then was ok for half a minute, flickered, ok, flickered, ok, so we turned everything of, waited for 20 mins and it wouldn't turn on again !!!!!! We managed to get it going at 6.45 a.m.
Then we made our wine, we have over 300L of crushed grapes in the drum and we fished most of the stalks out this year, so we think we could have twice as much as last year.
While we had bodies here (P&M and their workaway Joss, plus Chris and Di) we got the beam for the sleep platform installed (it's a very impressive beam).
We went to the pool this afternoon, when we came back the inverter was off - we are more than pissed off! We have spent over £800 purchasing two inverters and we don't have one working one - it's absolutely ridiculous, and of course our fridge is no longer working and the freezer is full of food - shit, shit, shit, not happy.
While we were at the pool we collected half a bucket of broad bean seeds (from the bed where we grew broad beans last year), so we won't have to buy seeds. And, does anyone know, if you buy dried beans and pulses from the supermarket you can sprout them - so presumably that means they could be used for planting? I will experiment, apparently a popular legume to grow in Portugal is chickpea, can you eat them fresh? Yes you can (googled it), it says to use like petite pois; and I found out why they are popular - they tolerate drought conditions.
We spent the evening in candle light, which is not nearly as romantic as it sounds!!
I put a post on facebook this evening asking for olive pickers in November, and fingers crossed, we have a possible candidate ....so pleased.

20th September
So we unplugged everything, including the leads attaching the inverter to the battery bank - it's back on (for the moment) and we think we have worked out how to reset it (it's the unplugging from the battery bank), but we daren't use it for anything but the fridge (Brett plugged in an extension cable with a lamp on it and it blew!!); what a ridiculous situation a 4000W inverter and all we dare switch on is an A++ fridge.
This afternoon I'm going to start planting vegetable seeds (in trays) for growing over the winter; we have been practising how to ask Joao if he knows someone who can plough our land for us to grow vegetables in ....... "conheçe alguem que pode cultivar o nosso campo para podemos plantar uns legumes". Our language classes start back this coming Tuesday - I'm actually quite looking forward to them.
The wine is fermenting vigorously and already smells winey - even I can smell it!
This afternoon the inverter started making strange noises (like it was about to burst into flames noises!), so we turned it off. Nick has been away all this week and isn't due back for another week so we're in rather a fix - we are questioning our sanity ordering another cheap inverter via Nick (in our defence it was from another source) when we're having so many problems with the first one we purchased (well two if you count the fact that we had a replacement that broke too); now (at last, I hear Mark (and Glenn) muttering!) we are contemplating spending money on a proper reliable inverter (Victron, Sterling or the like) which will cost well over £1000, but will be worth it just for peace of mind (and a functioning fridge). Our BIG problem is - will we get back any of the money we've already invested in the crappy ones (over £800)?
Our kind, generous friends, P&M, have loaned us their travel fridge again; I don't know what we'd do without them. We have stored as much frozen food as they had room for in their freezer and the rest we'll have to eat as soon as possible or throw away (like my ice cream!!).
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow ......... when we went round to P&M's this afternoon we saw this massive twister;
 I was so excited I couldn't manage to work the camera for ages so we haven't got a brilliant photo, but you can see by the trees in the fore ground how large it was.
I planted masses of seeds this afternoon - mange tout, french bean, sweet pea, cabbage, onions, leeks, swiss chard, lettuce, scarole, comfrey, sweet cicely, florence fennel and all these will grow this time of year (amazing) ...... now all we need is someone to turn over the land to plant the seedlings in.
Our wood (for the sleep platform) was supposed to be delivered today - it wasn't.

21st September
Happy Birthday Helen
I have been suffering quite badly with cramp; hands that get stuck in a claw position and my calf muscles when I was stretching up on tiptoes to reach grapes - so I 'googled' it and apparently lack of Potassium salts can cause it (and I know I'm low in Potassium as I had blood tests last month!), so I'm making a concerted effort to eat more bananas. I had a smoothie for breakfast (banana, grape juice and yoghurt); delicious and very, very filling ........
 I might leave out the yoghurt tomorrow - unfortunately we have rather a lot of yoghurt which is not going to last long as we can't use our beautiful new fridge!!!! so it needs using up asap.
We ate with P&M tonight, Nick came round and in his car was the replacement for our original inverter!!!! It's been back to China and repaired; let's hope this one lasts longer than the last one - like a few years.

22nd September
So for the umpteenth time we have a working inverter, it's running the fridge at the moment - please, please, please let this one work! We are a bit worried that the fan doesn't seem to be working ..........................
2 hours later ................. we went out for about 10 minutes, to stir the wine, we came back opened the door to an electrical burning smell!!!!!!! Yet another inverter bites the dust; it's not us, our 400W inverter which we had in the camper van works perfectly well on this system - it runs our fans over night quite happily.
Mark (and Glenn) arrived back today, he's here until mid December; he came for lunch.

23rd September
Nick came to check our inverters, he says one thing we haven't considered is that one of our charge controllers might be the problem; it looks like one is spiking and therefore blowing the inverter - I'm not convinced but we changed the charge controller and fitted yet another inverter .................. watch this space!
WE NEED OLIVE PICKERS MID NOVEMBER!!!!
We've had a few positive replies to the 'Olive Pickers Wanted' post; but so far no one has confirmed that they can definitely come. We have nearly 300 trees, fully laden with olives, it would be such a waste if we can't get them picked; and if you pick enough you get your own olive oil back rather than some of the communal product.