22nd May CASTELO BRANCO

So we went to OUR new property at 11.00 to meet with Mr Luis; we walked the boundary – it felt just like we were viewing the place again. We had gone with notebook, tape measure and camera hoping to determine the size of the buildings we have to work with – Mr Luis came too! It was all a little bit soul destroying – we’ve paid for the place but it still felt like Mr Luis owned it.

The bad news: His chickens, pigeons and donkey are still there and he didn’t give us the keys!!! It was quite hard to communicate as he has no English, just Portuguese and French and we have a little French and a little less Portuguese. We agreed that it would be a good idea to communicate through the estate agent.

The good news: Our well water is drinkable, this is extremely good news as it means we don’t have to dig a bore hole – which will save us a minimum of 3000€, and even then there’s no guarantee it would be drinkable. We have two wells both are full of pond weed and frogs (so it doesn’t look particularly drinkable) however, as the water is pumped from 7m down, it comes out is crystal clear and pure – it tastes just like ..... water! He said the wells haven’t run dry in thirty years; which is absolutely brilliant as water is a huge asset around here.

Good news cont.: Brett saw an animal’s route under one of our boundary fences and asked what animal it was – it was wild boar; Mr Luis said that recently he had seen two large boars with ten piglets on the farm. Brett asked if the boar was edible, he said yes it was very good to eat! (Brett is already planning on buying a shotgun!).

More good news: the vines are growing now and there’re a lot more than I had a first realised; Mr Luis said that there was enough vines for 200L of wine!!!!!

Mr Luis had done some tidying since we were last here and one of the rooms looks quite habitable already; the roof is sound with a concrete floor so we’ll have somewhere to live (camp) whilst we’re doing the place up.

We have agreed to buy the water pump, which can fill one of our water tanks or, as I like to call it, the plunge pool (8’ x 8’ x 4’ deep), in an hour; we’re also buying a machine which separates olive leaves from the olives and a machine for crushing grapes; all three for 140€, a bargain as a new water pump is about 350€. Mr Luis is leaving us some tools, nets (for collecting olives), some barrels and a few other bits and pieces too. He also gave us some freshly laid eggs and a couple of lettuce – can’t wait until the potatoes are ready!

We went to see the estate agent; she said that because the sale had been so quick Mr Luis hadn’t had time to move and that we need to give him a week to move his belongings (they’re so laid back here, that wouldn’t happen in Britain once you’ve got your money you have to be out). Mr Luis is a lovely old man so of course we agreed to give him a week to move; so now we’re hanging around and window shopping for all the things we’re going to need to buy – generator, barbeque, roof, tractor, trailer ................ we’re also trying to think of ways we can use 500L of olive oil (you definitely can’t sell it in Portugal) – so far we’ve come up with: Siop Laria (how many litres do you think you can sell Will & Jess?), Christmas presents (we’ll be making Fonte dos Clerigos  Hampers!), running our tractor, and perhaps a central heating boiler. There won’t be any problem getting through the 200L of wine!!!