IT'S A LONG TIME SINCE I POSTED ..........................

31st October

Looby seemed ok this morning, until I gave her her breakfast, she just wasn't interested in the biscuits (usually she's knocking her bowl over in her enthusiasm to eat); she did eat a couple of digestives and a (mini) bonio. We bought her some meat and she ate that quite happily, and she seems fine, a bit clingy but that's probably her feeding off my worries - I just want the next few days to be over safely so I can stop all this worrying.

We went into Penamacor to pay our fee for the toll road we used on Saturday (to catch the train), then went to the supermarket (to get Looby some meat); we met Chris and Di. They had just been (on the spot) fined, 30€, by the GNR (the scary police force, we also have the Policia - local friendlier police force) for parking outside the gas shop - we often park there. Last week we heard of someone who had a tent up, on their land, for visiting relatives and they were fined (by GNR) for having an illegal campsite!!! We're keeping our heads down.

I put up a mug rail on the kitchen wall, actually Brett put it up as I couldn't hold it straight and drill at the same time, pathetic!! But I designed and fashioned it with the jigsaw, and put the cup hooks in it. 

It's supposed to look rustic that was my design!

Mark came to dinner, he stayed overnight on the sleep platform; he said it was very warm up there (the stove is underneath it and we have on in the evenings now).

1st November

Mark stayed for breakfast, then went off to visit P&M ......... poor bloke bet he wished he hadn't; he texted us this evening to say he had been stopped three times by the GNR today, the worst time being at the end of P&M's track where they kept him for 45 minutes and wanted to confiscate his generator because he didn't have papers for it (you have to carry receipts for all items that you are transporting in your vehicle, even old stuff) - like Chris and Di he is driving an English plated vehicle.

This afternoon we picked olives for eating; our trees are so big we can't reach the olives very well Brett is itching to prune them.

P&M came round for dinner, we're doing all the evening cooking on the stove nowadays - we love it (so does Looby, she lays in front of it when it's alight, but she gets a bit hot).

2nd November

It was a bit dismal today ......... which was great as it was a good excuse to light the stove early!
Does anyone know if this is Wild Rocket (it's growing all over our quinta)? 

It's quite hairy/coarse and tends to have a red stem but apart from that it looks like Rocket to me (it tastes peppery too) - I'll be able to tell once it flowers - but is there anything poisonous that can be mistaken for Rocket is what I'm really asking?

We've bought a plastic device that will score the olives (they're supposed to cure quicker if their skins are cut); it's rather time consuming you push the olives, one at a time, through a tube with four blades which slash each individual olive. So we are experimenting with one batch of scored olives and another of intact olives which will be cured in a strong brine; if it makes an appreciable difference to the speed of the curing we will use it again, otherwise it will go into the drawer of gadgets that looked useful at the time of purchase (like the apple corer and slicer).

We have masses of fungi appearing around the quinta but we're finding it hard to identify them; there's a Boletus which, unfortunately, isn't Penny Bun (Ceps) as it's bright yellow underneath (the spongy bit), Puffballs which could be edible, when young, but we're not confident to eat them, Inkcaps, and some big Bracket Fungus, to mention a few; I mean to take photos but keep forgetting to take the camera.

3rd November

Brett started preparing the olive trees for harvesting; strimmering away undergrowth and cutting off suckers - they have been neglected for a good few years. It took him several hours to do 35 trees - we have between 200 - 300 (he's counting them as he goes), so it could take him quite a while!

I carried on with the olive processing; I made a couple of jars of Tapenade with some of last year's olives; it'll make an easy meal when we can't think of anything to cook - just mix it with hot pasta and serve with grated Parmesan. And now I have another device to go into the drawer full of looked useful at the time of purchase gadgets - my olive pitter (pipper?), the whole olives just pushed straight through the hole the  pips are supposed to get pushed through! So I had to pip them by hand (rather time consuming). Then I made another 5L of slashed olives, this time they're just in water - there's so much contradiction, on the internet and from everyone you ask, so I'm trying out as many methods as possible (or as I can be bothered with) and then we can chose which ones work best for ourselves.

Tonight we watched the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy The Fellowship of the Ring, I took much more in than the first time round but it was quite a marathon.

4th November

Brett continued to prepare the olive trees, he did another 27 today (with the 'help' of Looby). Then Looby went 'walk about', he found her down at Gary's playing with Betty!

While I went into Fundao with Pam; it's good shopping with females as you can ... browse, buy things that aren't on the list, and go into shops that you went into last week (but didn't buy anything) just in case they have fresh stock! But I hate clothes shopping, so I'm not a proper female! I bought everything on my list bar Spot On (which we know we can get in CB tomorrow) - fly curtain, dustpan and brush, LED torches, plus a few bits not on my list ... herbs (to plant), onion and leek plugs (goodness knows where I'll put them as I have no dug over soil spare), 1K of garlic (to plant, so ditto previous comment!), a door mat, candles and a lovely purple tub (for dirty washing).

I thought I had done really well with my purchases until I got home; the fly curtain was only 90cms across and our door is a metre and I bought it in a 'China' shop where they don't give you receipts! Now I've got to dig up some ground to plant the onions, leeks and garlic - but they were so cheap I couldn't resist! The door mat only fits in the door well if the door is left open (the door won't actually pass over it so we'll have to lift it out of the way any time we want to open and shut the door).

While Brett trained I made the runner beans that were left over from yesterday's lunch into runner bean chutney - I managed to find my favourite recipe on the internet (from an old W.I. cookbook 'Unusual Preserves') so I'm happy about that.

5th November

Looby woke me at 6.30, to go out  to the toilet, and at 7.30, to be fed, so at this point I got up to have a shower. Showering is quite a rigmarole, especially for me; first you have to heat water on the stove, then I have to wash my hair in a bowl on the table (if I wash it in the shower I get water in my ear, which isn't a good idea as I have another ear infection, and shampoo in my eye, because I can't shut it). Next you mix water to the correct temperature in the watering can and then fill the solar shower bag. The shower bag has to be heaved up to head height (we have a pulley system) and then finally you can wash!

Tuesdays come around exceedingly fast L; which means we have only a few hours in the morning to do stuff, then it's off to CB to shop and then to class.

Brett did some chain sawing, while I did some weeding in the herb bed; until I unearthed a nest of centipedes!!! There are poisonous centipedes in Portugal so I decided that it might be prudent to buy some gardening gloves before I continued with that task.

Looby was quite eager to go into her shed, which makes us feel better about leaving her. We picked up Pam and did a couple of hours of shopping before class.

Pastor Allen is trying much harder with the classes, but I'm still feeling out of my depth (I'm just crap at languages!). Brett on the other hand is really good (although he doesn't believe it). Pastor Allen said we shouldn't pick our olives, for oil, until about 80% have gone purple/black - probably not until the end of November, apparently we're about 2 weeks later than usual this year (thank goodness he told us, we'd have been picking them too soon and the people at the olive press would have said they were no good).

By the time we came home Looby had been shut in the shed for 5 hours (and it was over an hour late for her dinner), she was so pleased to see me. Her shed is about 250m from our house and it was extremely dark (I didn't have a torch), Looby was very keen to get home (for food and to see Brett). She was pulling very had on the lead (usually she doesn't pull at all), she managed to pull me over (I kind of tripped over a deep rut in the track) and now I ache from head to foot; especially my right boob, because she was pulling on the lead, I fell with my arms forward right onto my chest (ouch!).

6th November

Looby loves to play with acorns on her walks, she tosses them up in the air, jumps on them and then run round and round like a lunatic with one in her mouth - it's a pleasure to see her acting like this.

So today I had to plant my plugs; Brett strimmered one of the beds for me, then he turned over some of it, then I had a go, then he finished it off (I did about half). I weeded it and raked it flat - by then I was knackered! Then I planted 54 onions, 77 leeks and 36 cabbages (grown from seed by me) ..... and then I ran out of room and energy! So tomorrow I will have another go and plant the garlic.

Brett continued with the olive trees but ........ he didn't count what he did today. So after we'd finished work we went out to count how many had been done so far, an impossible task; unfortunately we were concentrating so hard on the olive trees we stopped watching Looby, who we're periodically letting off the lead - she ran off, one minute she was with us, next minute she was gone. We shouted and shouted, Brett drove off in the truck to look for her, I texted Chris & Di and P&M. Brett came back and just as he arrived, by the top track, Looby arrived by the bottom track (phew); naughty girl she was gone about 30 minutes, we have no idea where she went (we won't be letting her off the lead again for a while).

I'm not sure that I don't have a cracked rib (of course Brett thinks I'm exaggerating!) because every time I breath in it hurts and I can't lay on my right side in bed (which is my preferred side, needless to say!).

7th November

I had an awful night's sleep, I couldn't get comfortable and to top it all I woke up deaf in my left ear - NOT happy!

Lobby and I always go for an early morning walk (before Brett gets up, to be fair he has done the late night walk on his own for the last two nights), and she did her 'acorn thing' again - I must try to remember the camera tomorrow so I can film a little clip, she's so cute.

Brett went off with the strimmer and left me to do (as he calls it) 'crafty stuff', I need to get my Christmas cards made in the next week or two.

I was still feeling rotten this afternoon so, while Brett continued strimmering, Looby and I watched 'Mama Mia' and relaxed in front of the (unlit) stove.

8th November

Hoorah I can hear again today and I was feeling much better, so perhaps I haven't got a cracked rib after all (yes, Brett was right!). I didn't care that it was raining when I got up (it's good for the garden); I donned my wellingtons and my waterproof coat and took Looby for her 7.30 walk but, when I got home, I couldn't get my boots off - I always have a problem with boots as I have a high instep (or as Brett puts it 'stumpy feet'!). Brett wasn't up, I just had to stay in the boots ........ so I decided to make a boot jack, and I did (make a boot jack) 

and it works brilliantly (as you can see in the photo, the boots are not still on my feet), so I'm very pleased with myself and am busily looking around for more woodworking projects.

Brett's task today was to get rid of all the olive trimmings, so he lit lots of smoky, crackling bonfires (it all looked very autumnal); there was no risk of wild fires as everything is so lush and green. He is excited about broom (the plant) it is, as he puts it, natural kindling it just lights if you set a match to it (it's a 'boy'/pyromaniac thing), so his bonfires were really easy to light and the oil in the olive cuttings meant they burned well too. Broom is an easy way to lit the stove too, you don't even need paper (now I'm beginning to sound like Brett, but it is pretty handy - and free).

9th November

BUT IT'S NOT SUNDAY!!!!!

After being woken by Looby, for her toilet break, we were re-awoken by her barking loudly and persistently (as if someone was at the door). We both got up to check (it wasn't even 7.00 a.m.) and suddenly all hell broke loose - shooting all around us and very close, it was continuous and very loud .................. we tried going back to bed, I couldn't sleep so got up. Pam (who I texted at 8.00) suggested I went out with Looby and she would bark at them - ha, I didn't want to get shot, I was cowering in the house and flinching every time there was a particularly loud, nearby, shot (even Looby flinched a couple of times). The hunters come onto our land, they are very rude they don't acknowledge us; we have up signs to say they can only come on with our permission (we think that's what they indicate) but they come on any way. It lasted about 5 hours and then it was over, such a relief.

10th November

It was Sunday but we had no hunters. I sat outside in the sunshine with Looby to have my morning cappuccino - I froth the milk in my cafetiere (a trick that Hen taught me).
We went to P&M's for lunch, Jamie, Vince and Claire were also there along with Rowan (P&M's son); it was lovely, very relaxed, good food and good company.

11th November

Brett counted the olive trees he's done to date, 188 and we think there's another 25 or so to go; so we have about 213 trees and they are BIG trees, Brett is now working out how he's going to prune them - we have to make them so they are easier to pick, at the moment you couldn't even get a ladder into them, and fruit grows on new growth - so the higher, outermost branches.

When we first got the dogs they were scratching, so we bought flea collars from the vet which should protect against fleas, ticks, lice and mosquitoes (there's a really nasty illness, Leishmaniasis, dogs can get from mosquito bites here). After three weeks Looby was still scratching, so we ditched the collar and bought Frontline spot-on, after six days her scratching seemed a lot worse so tonight we took her to the vet. He thinks she has an allergy to .................. meat!!! She has been worse the last week or so, since we started feeding her meat? We are only to feed her on dried food for the next ten days to see if she improves (she has to have daily injections too, we think they are anti-inflammatory). How can a dog be allergic to meat? I have to say I think it's more likely that she's allergic to our concrete floors, I can understand that; but we'll give the meat thing a go.

We received a short email this evening reminding us that there was no class this week (first we knew about it!) and it completely lifted my spirits (that's not good is it?).

12th November

What a fabulous day, could it be because language class was cancelled? It's also a lot to do with the weather which is lovely, sunny and warm; perfect weather for gardening, which is what I did this morning. Brett has nearly finished the olive trees.

Pam and I went shopping to CB (Pam had agreed to give someone a lift to the train station so had to go in anyway). We went fabric shopping; there's this very old fashioned shop that seems to sell everything (a bit like William's Bazaar in Ammanford only more so!); it sells wonderful cottons, linens and lace - we were like 'kids in a candy store'! And then I spoilt the day all by falling over; bloody hell what is it with me and falling over? Of course I had to do it in a busy part of town so there were lots of people to see my humiliation (but that stopped me crying!). So now I'm all achy again, but I do have some nice fabric and lace!

13th November

We do our washing regularly, by hand, but we can't really manage duvet covers and sheets so, as we were getting rather a big backlog, we asked Pam to put them in her washing machine (she's kind like that); one day we might have a washing machine, but you need running water and water pressure, which we don't have yet.

14th November

Today I made mango chutney and bread & butter pickle (cucumber pickle, I don't know why it's called bread & butter) and continued weeding the herb bed - there are lots of arum lily type leaves coming through which I am trying to clear, they are very deep rooted.

Brett cleared scrub land with the strimmer.

15th November

Pam texted this morning to say that we had a parcel from England J; it was from Debbie and David. There was a Dutch hoe (you can't get them here, all they use is the encharda and I wanted a hoe to weed), these clever lids that fit the 5L water bottles that can be fitted with a standard airlock (I had to leave all my demijohns in Wales) and saffron (I haven't been able to find it here and have been using turmeric as a substitute - the taste is wrong!), so absolutely brilliant presents - thank you!

Wow, we invited Chris and Di for a curry tonight and they, kindly, said they would cook and bring it with them; so all I had to do was make starters - spicy fish cakes and curried courgette fritters served with mango chutney, raw onion relish and raita.

We invited Mark over too. We served this year's red wine, which must be ok as it all went (it's still a bit dry for me, but it's much better than last year); we didn't get to bed until one-ish.

16th Nov

We're having a weekend off - yay!

We are going to look at walking tractors when we go into Castelo Branco on Tuesday - it will make the vegetable garden so much easier to manage.

This afternoon we went to visit Patrick & Lara, a couple we met last year who live near Monsanto - they bought a walking tractor last year, we texted them to ask for advice and they invited us over. So Patrick gets out his tractor and drives off to this virgin piece of ground and the tractor just chews through it, within 5/10 minutes he had a workable plot - I'm soooooo excited, roll on Tuesday!!!

I've been thinking it for a while, and Brett voiced it today, we're not getting much out of our language class, we both felt relieved when it was cancelled last week, so we have decided if this week's class is true to form (Pastor Allen just speaking at us in Portuguese for an hour and a half) we'll stop going. Mark (and Glenn) has loaned us a box thingy so we can get Portuguese TV which we can watch for half an hour every evening (sometimes there are even English speaking films with Portuguese sub titles) and we'll get just as much from it.

17th November

It's getting decidedly cold at night (we still have a lot of sunshine in the daytime, and there was snow on the mountains yesterday. But that's fine by us, we just light our stove and it's all snug and cosy in our little house/shed.

We had a lazy day today, the dog got lots of walks, while we carried buckets to collect fire wood, and we watched a film 'Con-Air' with Nicholas cage and John Cussack - lots of blood and blowing things up, but quite entertaining.

18th November

We started our olive harvest today, we worked for about 5 hours and picked 85 kilos of olives from three trees; we had a simple method, Brett pruned out the wood from the middle of the tree, then we stripped the olives off (it was easier than trying to pick them off a ladder, and it was wood that needed taking out anyway). 

Mr Louis sold us a machine for removing the leaves and debris from the olives, you turn a handle and these large paddles create a draught which blows the waste away - very simple but very effective.

My goodness I ached this evening, especially my back, I could hardly move; we spent the evening snuggled up in front of the stove.

19th November

It was COLD last night, not as cold as Wales gets but below freezing (and we're living in a single block shed) tonight we put on our winter duvet.

We only had time for an hour and a half of olive picking this morning as we had to go into CB (Tuesday = language class). Chris and Di dog sat Looby, which was brilliant as she likes them, so I feel relaxed leaving her. On our way past Mr Louis's son's house we saw Mr Louis, we had to stop as he wanted to talk - he's coming to see us tomorrow to advise us on our olive harvest, he's already told us that we shouldn't prune until March so we're a bit worried that he might see where we've cut off branches (that needed to be pruned) in order to harvest the olives!!! We're going to set up in another part of the quinta before he comes!!!!.

We looked at lots of walking tractors and now we have decisions to make 7.5 HP Chinese engine at 695€ (the same one we test drove on Sunday and were impressed with) versus 5.5 HP Honda engine at 854€ or even a complete Honda machine, but smaller (same 5.5 engine), for about 800€ = do we go for Honda reliability or Chinese cheapness?

We, reluctantly, turned up for language class today and the building was all locked up, we phoned Pastor Allen, apparently had he tried to call us but he has our old telephone number, so he apologised and said 'something had come up'; however ...................... Pam says he only left her message at 3.00, that is very late notice as he knows we travel in from 25 miles away and he cancelled last week too, so I don't think he'll be very unhappy, or surprised, if we stop attending.

20th November

Mr Louis arrived early, before we had time to set up! Brett was getting stuff from the shed, so we kept him talking there. In fact he did agree that it was done practise to cut off upward growing branches at harvest time, which was a relief. He told us he would come up when we wanted to buy weaners and advise us - apparently they bring them to your quinta to choose, so that's useful. I think he would have loved to have seen in the buildings, but we'll wait until the house is finished and then invite him up.

We continued with our olive harvesting, 

yesterday we bought net sacks to put the olives in and quite a bit of today was spent separating the olives from the leaves and filling the sacks but we still managed to pick 89 kilos today, we have picked more than 200 kilos so far. Mark (and Glenn) is coming Friday morning, to help for a couple of days so we should easily reach our quota.

We spent the evening watching 'Friends', in front of the stove; it's getting quite cold in the evenings we're seriously contemplating getting a little stove for the living room (otherwise it won't be used in the winter).

21st November

We went into CB this morning and bought a walking tractor, the one with the Honda engine - when we got home we tried it out ................ it made awful scrunching sounds when we tried to put it into gear (like a learner driver) and once in gear wouldn't stop moving until the engine was switched off, after a while we realised that the clutch cable and reverse gear cable had been put on back to front!!!! We spent most of the afternoon fixing it so didn't get any olives picked.

Tonight we went for pizza night at P&M's, (Pizza night on a Thursday?) later she confessed that she had thought it was Friday! While we were out we left Looby in the 'house' (we thought it was too cold in the shed), it's the first time she's been left in the house on her own - she was very good, nothing chewed or disrupted (I made Brett turn off the inverter just in case she chewed any cables!).

Our Guests Have Gone

26th October

Happy 3rd Birthday Lawrence XXX

We were up at 6.00a.m. to take Debbie and David to the station in Fundao, we left the house at 6.50 to catch a train at 7.50 (the journey usually takes 40 minutes), putting Looby in the shed (she didn't want to come in the truck, we tried but she was not comfortable) took a few minutes and then it was foggy - we missed the train by 30 seconds, we know this because Rich (the pig man) had just put Nicky on the train and he was just getting into his car, he suggested we try to catch the train at Castelo Branco, it left there at 8.24 ....... 30 minutes to travel  38 kilometres - we took the toll road!!! And arrived at the station at the same time as the train (phew), then Brett told me we'd travelled most of the way on fumes, we were completely out of diesel (phew x 2)!

We went home and buried Tess, we put her under the olive tree just down from the house.

Brett cemented in the flue, so we should be able to light the stove in a couple of days, which means that I might be able to dry some washing - even though it got quite sunny today the washing hardly dried (perhaps I need to wring it out more?).

We were invited to Pastor Allen's wife's (Barbara's) surprise birthday party today but we didn't feel in the mood to go, P&M came round afterwards (it was a lunch party) with some cake.

27th October

We ran out of gas last night, so I had to wait for Brett to get up before I could have coffee (so that he could drive to get more gas, as I still can't see properly to drive on the real roads!) and of course the clocks went back last night so I had to wait for the shop to open too. Not a great start to the day!

I officially HATE our vacuum cleaner; why do they make them nowadays so that can't you turn off the beater bar? When I'm using the accessories it just spurts dust all over the place as the beaters rub up the concrete floor (hopefully it will be better when it's tiled), so I have to carry around a piece of plywood to stand it on, how annoying/ridiculous is that? Not having a good day!!!!

We've brought our gold sofa (which is what I was trying to clean with the vacuum's tubes and brushes) into the living room, so that we can put our small leather sofa in front of the stove - we won't know where to sit, so much choice!

We were invited to Mark's (by his builders) for a celebration barbeque (on completion of his wall rendering) this lunchtime, but we were just not in the mood for socialising; a shame as we had been looking forward to it earlier in the week and it would have been good practise for our Portuguese.

In fact today wasn't that bad a day (the weather was fabulous, we had full electricity and the house is getting more and more comfortable), so it would have been pretty good if we'd still got both our dogs, but as we didn't it was miserable.

This evening we lit our stove; heated water for our showers on top of it, cooked a roast dinner in it and sat on our sofa in front of it!!!

28th October

Showers and rain today, but the solar is full so we should be OK.

We are training Looby to 'sit', 'stay', 'come' etc; we have a few dog biscuits in our pockets as rewards. However Looby thinks is training us to give her treats when she sits, she comes up to us, sits and looks expectant!!!! She goes into her shed, where we leave her if we go out in the truck (it's big with a chicken wired open front, so she gets lots of fresh air and can see outside), quite happily and sits waiting for her reward, she doesn't enjoy going in the truck.

Chris and Di came for dinner; we mulled some of our last year's wine, it was very tasty. They said they will look after Looby when we go to class tomorrow, which is great for ....... us, as we won't have to worry about her ..... Lobby, as she won't be locked in the shed ....... Chris and Di, as they'll have a dog to take for a walk - so everyone's a winner.

There was a beautiful sunset tonight ...........

29th October

Hoorah Tuesday is language class!!!! We dropped Looby off with Chris and Di, she seemed quite happy to be left with them which was good.

Language class was fine, Pastor Allen had obviously prepared a lesson plan and we had a worthwhile lesson.

After class we went to the rescue centre to pick up the dog's documents and tell them about Tess - they said Looby could be vaccinated against seven different types of gastroenteritis, so we're bringing her in tomorrow. They then offered us a free dog!!! They couldn't understand that we were still mourning Tess.

Looby had a wonderful time with Chris and Di, they had taken her for a mammoth walk, she was shattered! But she voluntarily got into the truck when we were leaving them, she wanted to come home with us, bless her.

I found some pickling onions in jumbo today (quite expensive 1.49€ for 500g), but I bought some anyway so that we could have pickled onions at Christmas (they're a must on Boxing day!). You can't get malt vinegar here so I spiced up some Balsamic vinegar to pickle them in.

30th October

Brett chain sawed for the third day running; he's getting a good pile of wood in the shed, he's very pleased with the saw horse he and Dave made.

While I made bunting, out of doilies, for the window in the living room (we've temporarily put a piece of Perspex in it, so we can have the shutters open without a draught)

 and the cupboard bed

 - it looks very pretty (Brett doesn't approve!).

We took Looby into CB for her injection and she was sick in the truck! By the time we got home she was looking quite sorry for herself and of course we didn't know if she was feeling queasy because she was car sick or if she was coming down with what Tess had. She didn't want to eat her tea and she just lay on the floor looking ill, so I gave her a digestive biscuit (dry biscuits are good for nausea!), she ended up eating nine, a handful of crisps and some of her tea!!!! So we're praying that she was feeling ill because she was car sick, it's going t be a long night.

On our way home from CB we popped in to see Mark, his rendering id absolutely fantastic. It's internal rendering (it's not going to be plastered over) the top coat is made with soft sand, cement and hydraulic lime; it's really smooth and the colour is lovely, a kind of soft mushroom - Brett is considering using it for the outside of our house (shed), which means we might not even need to paint it.

It's the end of the month and we still have internet; this is probably because we only have one working computer between us so we are sharing it. Tomorrow I will post my blog, I don't want our allowance to go to waste!

                         

RIP Tess

26th October

Our lovely Tess died last night. She had been fine all day, she ate her tea, went out to the toilet and Brett found her standing out in the rain completely confused. She was in a trance, wouldn't/couldn't walk, didn't seem to know us (she was much like she was when she first came to us but even more so) - we didn't know what to do, so we took her to the vet; he said she had viral gastroenteritis, he gave her several injections, we took her home but she died. We are so very sad, we'd only had her for nine days but we had bonded and we loved her dearly.

DOGS!!!!!

8th October

Our genet is getting quite bold, it explores our truck (tearing open any rubbish left in the back overnight); we know it's the genet as it leaves it's footprints all over the truck! It's front paws prints look just like miniature hands.

Tuesday is a weird day, we hang around, then go into Castelo Branco to shop, then on to our Portuguese class but, as often happens, today didn't go as planned. We were literally (in the truck) just about to leave the quinta when we got the call we'd been waiting for - the plasterboard was in the village; so we had to deal with that before we left, so then we were late into town (we'd gone via Mark to drop off the cement mixer too). We hadn't done much of our shopping before it was time for class (there's not enough hours in the day).

The class was just as frustrating as last week, Pastor Allen speaking in Portuguese, us kind of getting the gist of what he was saying (mainly because he was miming as well as speaking!) we've got to say something L.

After doing a bit more shopping we went back to Mark's and from there into his village restaurant for dinner; we had olives & bread, soup, main meal, pudding and wine/beer - with tips it cost 15€ (about £12.75 real money) per person.

9th October

Today's job was putting up the plasterboard for the bathroom and cupboard bed; plasterboarding is a quick job with instant gratification, suddenly everything is coming together. And our living room looks so tall as we now have a wall reaching into the roof, it's 11 foot 2 inches.

This afternoon we went to help Mark take down a tepee, it came down much quicker than it went up!!!

Brett moved the truck so that we could see it from the kitchen and baited the bed with chorizo (we don't know what genets eat!) nailed to a plank, we turned the lights off in the kitchen and waited - not much point really, we couldn't see a thing!!! By the time we went to bed it was still there.

10th October

OK so genets don't eat chorizo!!!

We spent the day crawling around on our knees screwing down the floor of the sleep platform.

11th October

Lots of sweeping, hoovering and dusting today - and that's quite hard on the sleep platform when you can't actually stand up completely straight (it's designed to lay down on, not stand on).

Tomorrow we'll put the mattress up there and then we're ready for our first visitors - Henry and Claire, I'm so, so, so excited!!!

12th October

Nooooooo .......... we woke up to a dull overcast sky, typical; fortunately the forecast said sunny intervals and the batteries charged fine (we must get our extra panels set up soon).

Making the beds on the sleep platform and in the cupboard bed is no fun and quite a challenge. And, as Brett suffers from a dust allergy (how convenient!), it's down to me to do it, both beds have to be climbed onto, to make them, so how then do you lift up the mattress, to tuck the covers in, if you're kneeling on it?

Hen and Claire arrived early eveningJ, it was fantastic to see them (now I want Will and Gill and the kids to visit, then I'll be completely happy).

Goody, Hen and Claire chose to sleep on the sleep platform, so we stayed sleeping in our cupboard!

13th October

We took Hen and Claire to Monsanto today, and climbed right up to the top where there's a castle with fantastic far reaching views (it was a tough climb).

We bought a range cooker (wood burning) last year which has been in shed waiting for a kitchen to live in; today Brett and Hen were on a mission to give us an oven to cook in - the range is now installed outside our house and it works, we had roast potatoes tonight!!!

'Arty' photo by Claire

We'll buy flue bits this week and then we can put it in the kitchen (who cares that the walls need plastering and the floor needs tiling?).

Claire picked some quinces which we cooked and left in a jelly bag overnight; tomorrow we're going to make quince jelly, with the liquid, and quince paste (membrillo) which you eat with sheep's cheese (you'd love it Mel!), with the pulped quinces.

14th October

We took a trip to Fundao market today; it wasn't nearly as lively as in the summer, but it made an interesting visit, we could have bought live chickens, pigeons, turkeys,  ducks and rabbits; I presume they were all for fattening up and eating (not the laying hens!).

We decanted out red wine into 30L water carriers (we found some that we could fit airlocks onto), we filled three, that's 90 litres of red wine plus our share (half) of 225L of white wine AND tomorrow we're going to try to make some perry/cider (a mixture of pears and apples) using the fruit press.

I made the quince jelly while Claire made the membrillo - I got the best job she had to stir hers constantly for 40 minutes!!! They both went a lovely pink colour, very pretty.

 Quince Preserves

15th October

Pam came back from her trip to the UK, we picked her up from CB; so we left Hen and Claire to pick the apples and pears - they filled a 50L drum. We processed the fruit (the same way we made the wine) and (we haven't measured it yet) we think we have about a gallon (pity we haven't got pigs yet, they would have loved the pulp); we've left it in a bucket to start fermenting.

Brett cemented the area where we are going to install the range cooker, while Hen, Claire and I picked more quinces to make into chutney - another pretty pink preserve, the store cupboard (shelf) is looking quite impressive.

Tomorrow we're going to the animal rescue centre to enquire about getting a couple of dogs; we're very excited, but mustn't get our hopes up I don't expect we'll actually be allowed to take any tomorrow.

16th October

WE HAVE DOGS!!!!!!!

We went to the rescue centre in our, three seater, truck - Hen and Claire squashed into the back (one of them illegally!). Then we chose our dogs (which we had already decided shouldn't be too big) and managed to squash them into the cab with us too - the smaller one on Claire's lap and the bigger one on my lap, she was supposed to be in the foot well!

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work out their names; we now have:

Tess: medium sized, black and white, the centre reckon she's about 18 month old (she has already had puppies, quite a few litters from the looks of her and I thinks she's a lot older than 18 months), 

Our beautiful Tess

and Looby: about twice the size of Tess (!!!), two tone brown, the centre said she was about a year old and was fully grown - we think she's nearer 6 months (she's very puppyish and has HUGE feet!) and has quite a bit of growing to do (oops).

And lovely Looby

They are both spade, vaccinated and we take them back on Saturday to be chipped and have a booster and they cost us 15€ each.

Already they have their own personalities and, we don't think we're imagining it, Tess is very like Winnie and Looby is like Molly, how weird is that? Tess is quite quiet and laid back, eats slowly and leaves food when she's full, Looby bounces everywhere, eats like she's starved, wolfs her food down then tries to eat Tess's (big fight!!! so now we feed them separately); which is almost identical to when we got Winnie and Molly, if they grow to be as nice as Mol and Win we'll be blessed.

We've got a couple coming to visit us tomorrow who have pigs, they have breed from their sow and had in a Portuguese butcher to slaughter and butcher the off-spring, so we're really looking forward to their visit and asking them lots of questions.

17th October

Yesterday we cut a single duvet in half, for dog beds; Tess took to hers immediately and spent most of the evening curled up on it and then slept soundly on it all night. Looby didn't ever lie on hers and spent all night curled up on the floor outside our cupboard bed, at 6.45 she became quite animated so we decided she might need the toilet (we walked them to the gate and back before bed but she did nothing) so Brett and I got up and went outside with the two dogs, it wasn't light, the dogs disappeared into the gloom but they both responded to their individual names and came back when we called them, ah bless!

Unfortunately the dogs don't recognise boundaries, Brett had to retrieve them from Gary's!! So poor old Looby spent all day tied up, Tess doesn't tend to wander on her own. 

Brett and Henry spent the day making frames for another six solar panels (we'll need them for the winter, and next week when rain is forecast).

Me and Claire had a couple of adventures going to the village shop; it's brilliant they are so nosy and ask you lots of questions, and we try to answer in pigeon Portuguese. Our second session, in the evening, was hilarious; the lady behind the counter is so slow we were in the queue for ages, we were so long Brett thought we had gone to Penamacor - they have no concept of rushing!!!

Rich and Nicky came this afternoon; they are a lovely couple who have lived in Portugal for ten years. They have pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and geese, and they grow lots of vegetables - so completely our type of people.

18th October

OK so Tess does wander off on her own too, so they both spent the day tied up - hopefully this phase shouldn't be for too long. Tess has been very subdued all day, so I'm a bit concerned about her, but it's early days yet, we've only had them a couple of days.

Henry and Claire left today L so I'm sad; it was so, so lovely to have them here.

Brett made the supports for the solar panels which we should be able to wire up in the next couple of days.

19th October

We were woken up at 7a.m. by Tess, paws on bed, tail wagging, licking my face - she's been so much happier today, it's been so nice and such a relief.

The solar panels are now wired into the battery bank, so we have twelve panels and fourteen batteries - bring on the rain!!!!

We took the dogs back to the centre to be chipped; Looby was already chipped (they held a scanner over them both first), so she's been reregistered to us - it makes you wonder about her original owner though. Tess's pet passport has her down as Tessa - Brett forgot her name when he was filling out her registration form!

Tess was car sick, she vomited twice while we were travelling (nice!), fortunately Brett had put a tarpaulin over the seats to protect them from dog hairs.

Debbie and David are arriving tomorrow, we're a little worried about the weather forecast - but hopefully we should have electricity! How exciting, I do hope they have a good holiday with us.

20th October

We were woken by the dogs at 7.30a.m. (Brett hates it, he goes back to bed after their walk), we have to take them out because they both do a complete toilet at this time (and personally I would rather get up early than clear up a mess!). But ....... I don't like Sundays this time of year (Oct - Feb), the hunters are out; we could hear them shooting in the field next to our quinta - we couldn't see them because of the mist (which means they couldn't see us and I worry about stray bullets). They could just have easily been on our land (they were later), hunting is a law unto itself; the hunters seem to be allowed onto your land unless you put up fences, all around the boundary, high enough to keep them out (there are 'no hunting' signs, but they pretend not to have seen them, they'd have to be at ever feasible way onto the quinta to be effective).

I dyed my hair, in honour of our guests, and it didn't work!!! It was cheap, from Home Bargains, and I have a mass of them I bought, when we were back in Wales, as hair dye is expensive here (ho hum!).

At least I've worked out how to make the bed on the sleep platform - you work from the top down, all layers at the same time.

We picked Debbie and David up from Fundao station, the train was bang on time and they said the journey was great; we haven't done it, it's on my wish list - trip to Lisbon, they went through lots of little stations with lovely tiling.

We collected water from the fonte at Alpedrinha (just so they could see what a typical day in our life is like, i.e. we were showing off!!!).

We left the dogs in the old chicken shed, they were really good and very pleased to see us back.

Dave let it slip that it was Debbie's birthday tomorrow, she kept that quiet - so we've invited Mark and P&M over tomorrow evening.

21st October

Happy Birthday Debbie!!!!

We were a little worried about our solar, we have six extra panels and the batteries were going down, so we got in touch with Nick; he suggested we take off our extra six panels (as the batteries have been going down since we connected them), but that didn't make any difference, so we turned the inverter off for a while, the batteries went up a little bit.

There was lots of secret texting between me and Pam to organise a present and cake  for Debbie (thank you Pam, we couldn't have done it without you).

Debbie and I spent the morning designing and painting cartoons for the swimming pool mosaic; Debbie cut up paper into 6" squares (to simulate tiles), then stuck groups of them together so that we could paint on the life size designs - we've gone for a mixture of blues and green for the main body of the floor (to go with the painted walls) the subject for the mosaics will be in yellow/orange/red (three feature goldfish, and some little ones plus, in the four corners, a sun, moon and two stars) - I'm getting excited, it's going to be a rather impressive feature.

We had a nice walk down to the river with Debbie, David and the dogs; we met and talked to a local shepherd, he was very friendly.

Debbie's impromptu party was very relaxed and enjoyable: Mark stayed overnight in his truck. It absolutely poured in the night, the rain was very noisy on our roof, which was louder for Debbie and David as they were on the sleep platform; Mark said he felt like he was in a washing machine as the wind was buffeting his cab too.

22nd October

Nick came around and checked out our system he says our system is fine and we're not charging because the weather is lousy, so much for having the extra panels!!!

Tuesday is language class L . We went into Castelo Branco early to look at tiles for the swimming pool mosaic ............. I'm so disappointed the tile man said ceramic tiles are not suitable for a pool, we need (expensive) glass tiles which would cost about 200€ (and he only had them in blue) - so that's not going to happen! We dropped Debbie and David off in town to explore for a couple of hours, while we were at class; it was just as bad as usual (I was already in a sulk!), so we had a word with Pastor Allen and he got all defensive and now we feel mean! We did some shopping in Jumbo then came home and cooked Paella. The dogs were left in the shed again, they were very good - we're so lucky they have really adapted well to living here.

23rd October

Debbie came up with another idea for the pool floor - bottle bottoms; so we (me and Debs) spent the morning having great fun playing with bottles (beer, wine, Worcestershire sauce etc) and our electric tile cutter - it would take an awful lot of bottles to cover the bottom of the pool, but we made some candle holders and vases that were ok - we just need some nicer coloured bottles.

Brett and Dave put the stove on the plinth and knocked a hole through the wall for the flue.

The afternoon was rather wet and no electricity was generated again.

Debbie and David took us out for a meal (thank you Dave's mum!) this evening, unfortunately the (meat on a skewer) restaurant that we wanted to go to was shut so we went into Penamacor to the Pizza restaurant (but we now think the pizza bit was further upstairs as we didn't have the choice of pizza). We had olives and bread to start then main meals (2 x mixed meats, 1 x chicken, 1 x fish) all served with chips, rice and salad, 1L red wine (house), 1 x bottle of beer, 4 x pudding, 3 x coffee and it came to 30€, that's 7.50 each (that's £6.40 real money, ridiculously cheap). It was still raining when we got home and Dave and I had to walk the dogs back from the shed, as we were the only ones who had taken coats out!

24th October

It rained all night, and continued for most of the day - but we decided to go out anyway. We went to Monsanto, unfortunately you couldn't see the views; but we did find a bar where we were treated to lunch (thank you again Dave's mum!), we had hot chocolate (perfect for the wet weather) and a mixed board of meats (3 types of chorizo) and cheeses (goat and sheep) served with bread and honey - very tasty. Debbie says to say that they thought Monsanto was amazing, despite the weather, we'll take them again next time they come.

We had a lull in the rain this afternoon and took the dogs for a walk around the boundary; we hadn't realised that the river we walked to the other day passes really close to our land, it is very impressive at the moment, quite wide and flowing very rapidly.

This evening we went to P&M's for a meal; it was lovely and their house was so cosy, they had lit their wood burning stove and, because they had not used any electricity during the day, we had electric lights!

25th October

Another rainy night and dreary day.

Brett and David designed and built a huge saw horse, while Debbie and I made name tags for the dogs out of copper clay but ....... I was too impatient and we fired the tags before they had completely dried out, Tess's one broke! So now I'm trying to dry out Looby's a bit more before refiring it and Debbie is a going to make her a new one when she gets home.

PREPARING FOR VISITORS

1st October

Tuesdays are shopping and language class day. We picked up Pam and spent several hours trawling the shops looking for something to use in the bathroom as a temporary shower (utilising the solar shower, which we can fill with warm water) ....... we can't expect visitors to shower outside or 'strip wash' in the kitchen! We bought a 130L grape drum (to stand in and catch the water), two shower curtains (self explanatory) and a hula-hoop (to hang the shower curtain from)!

Language class was a challenge, Pastor Allen conducted most of it in Portuguese; I thought I was the only one who was struggling but talking to Pam and Brett on the way home I wasn't as bad as I thought, I'll give it a couple of weeks before I admit defeat and go back to the beginner's class!.

2nd October

Nick came round, he said the reason one of the repaired inverters blew up was because they (the Chinese engineers) had neglected to reattach the fan - so it couldn't cool down; Nick was very cross, understandably. He has taken the second repaired inverter to look at (hopefully we turned it off before too much damage was done). He says the inverter from the second batch we ordered is working fine at his place (I think that was the one that we turned off when the charge controller was peaking - I've lost count!).

Nick says we can reattach our battery bank - hoorah.

We constructed our shower - as Brett says it's rather 'Heath-Robinson' but it should do the job until we install running water.

The shower works brilliantly; it twists around constantly, as it's hanging from a piece of cord, so you have to follow the nozzle!!! But apart from that it works; we boil up water on the hob and then mix to the right temperature in a watering can which we use to fill the shower bag, then Brett (it's very heavy 20L of water = 44lbs) hoists it up to the right height.

3rd October

Brett finished the last two joists for the sleep platform, then wired in the circuit breaker and attached our electricity supply to a 2 amp fuse so that we can check all our appliances (nothing has blown so far - we haven't tried the new fridge).

The rain finally gave way to sunshine; we've been turning off the inverter throughout the day so that we can have lights etc in the evening, hopefully we won't need to do that again for a while.

I made chutney with vegetables given to us by P&M (aubergine and peppers) and Chris & Di (tomatoes, given to them by their neighbour), so I felt quite productive.

We (Brett) ordered plasterboard for the bathroom and cupboard bed walls.

We picked a couple of drums of red grapes this evening, to make some red wine; there's masses more but we ran out of drums (they're at P&M's), so I'll pick more tomorrow while Brett carries on with the studwork for the bathroom/cupboard bed.

4th October

Brett didn't need my help today, he was doing carpentry work, so I picked a whole load more red grapes for wine (another three drums); we made the wine this afternoon, about 125L pulp, I'm hoping it will make 60 - 90L of wine.

5th October

The sun was out, the battery bank was full - we had electricity!!!!

Brett was still working on framing for the plasterboard.

I did a HUGE pile of washing by hand - the joys of primitive living!

6th October

FREE BAMBOO!!!

Brett still framing, me at a loose end, so I went pea stick hunting - my seedlings are ready to plant out and some of the peas grow up to 6 foot, so need support. I started by cutting off olive suckers, but they were covered in easy to pick olives, so I quickly stopped that practise. I walked around the lower boundary and found Bamboo growing in our ditch!!!!! It's very tall, at least 15 foot and some of it is way over an inch thick - perfect for pea wigwams.

It's been too wet to get a tractor in (and we haven't actually asked Joao if he knows anyone who can do it) so I'm filling up the area that Brett dug over for me to put herbs in - it's going to get quite full (I planted lots of seeds).

7th October

We spent all day waiting for the plasterboard to arrive - it didn't! So Brett laid out the floor for the sleep platform; not an easy job as the planks varied (enormously) in width - we had 2 x 13cms, 1 x 17cms, 1 x 21cms, 5 x 20cms, 7 x 25cmx, 7 x 29cms and it needed 2.5 planks for the whole length of the platform. We spent ages working it out on paper first (and of course the planks varied in thickness, but that goes without saying). But it's all in place (not fixed down yet as they're still slightly damp and he wants to sand them (individually, he'll remove one at a time and take it outside) before they're screwed down) and the platform looks HUGE, it measures 20' (to under the eaves) x 6'.

And I'm taking photo through trap door, there's still 6' behind me!

I continued my preserving and made some delicious (even if I say it myself) Lemon Curd

I have it in Greek yoghurt for breakfast, yummy!

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!

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.