A Frugal dream in Portugal.

Introduction

This diary is all about what we are trying to do here on our land. We came to Portugal to find peace, tranquility, and a healthier, better life. To get away from the violent, dirty and stressful lifestyle of the UK. We are Rick & Pat, we moved out to Portugal to live a frugal but better, simpler and peaceful life Our house is a very basic, semi ruin, up in the hills and forest outside Figueiro Dos Vinhos, where we work our land, enjoy life with each other and our dogs, and hope to make the smallest carbon footprint we can, We live our lives as simply as we can, we enjoy working out a frugal yet happy lifestyle, we're renovating our home as we go, we have a miniscule amount of money, we feed ourselves from the land and tend to live as frugally as possible, make our own wine, olive oil and drink water from our well. That doesn't mean we go without... we have a far richer, more varied lifestyle than ever before, it's all about real quality of life... and we have that in buckets full!!

We bought Bouça Da Figueira in central Portugal almost three years ago now. We are bikers, we own a Yamaha Venture and love it!! We both have spent all our lives involved in some way with motorbikes, Rick was a custom bike and trike builder and I was editor of 100% Biker Custom Bike magazine, we decided we'd had enough of the UK weather, politics and the general idea that the loons had taken over the asylum, so we got out while we could. It wasn't easy, but we wanted peace and quiet and loads of trees!! We have our 5.000sq metres of our own land, we grow our own food, drink water from the well, make our wine and try to leave as little carbon footprint as possible. Having said that, While I'm fully prepared to work my socks off collecting wood, chopping logs, growing food, ect etc, we won't be too radical I'm afraid. I will not do without certain electrical stuff that I feel are necessities of a decent life, like the freezer ( vital to store our food surplus) and a washing machine,( vital to my sanity) although we do use the cement wash tank in the yard during summer. We do hope that soon (money permitting) Rik will build our wind turbine and we'll manage most stuff off grid. We don't have TV or internet at home, our power supply is often erratic, but we are happy with that. I also will not be having animals, apart from a few chickens in the future and the dogs. Again, we feel life should give some time for enjoyment, we work hard but do not want to be at it from dawn till dusk every day, although we want to be as green as possible, we are looking for balance in our lives . We still want to enjoy life and ride the bike!

We renovated an old barn at the bottom of the garden and turned it into a small but comfortable rental cottage with the most incredible views across the forested valley. It took the bulk of our savings but we hoped it would give us a small amount of financial stability … sadly that wasn't to be. Things have slowed right down now. The economic crisis in the UK has made the cottage rentals quiet, money is just not there at the moment, so we are battening down the hatches for a tough winter and trying to do things around the place that cost us nothing.

So there you have it....

October 31st

Well, here we are then, welcome to Living the Dream Portugal. I don't quite know where to start, this blog diary has been set up because we've had so many requests from people to hear about what we are doing and how things are going. So here it is. I'm going to use this as a basic diary just to say what's been going on, if nothing happens... then there will be nothing to write, it's quite simple.

So to start... The weather has finally turned.... wet... It's still not too cold but bear in mind I feel cold now when the temperature drops below 70degrees... but luckily for us we used more or less all our savings on buying a log fired cooking range for the kitchen, although it was a massive investment for us and worried the hell out of me to spend most of our available cash I believe it was the right thing to do.

This lovely stainless steel giant of a thing is now the heart of our home , it not only cooks our food for free but is keeping the kitchen/dining room lovely and cosy with the added bonus of drying the washing on the drying rack that hangs above on a pulley system . The chimney pipe goes up through the ceiling to the upstairs room which will be a lounge one day and takes the chill off up there too. The wood is free as we've worked like trojans all summer to collect it from the forest and cut & stack it in the barn, we still aren’t sure we'll have enough though. This is a steep learning curve for us we haven't quite mastered yet . It does mean we will be greener,(its scrap wood and would be left to rot if we didn't pick it up) and 20 euros a month better off as we save a bottle of gas for the cooker every month now.

The garden growing work is finished now for winter, I made a decision not to grow anything this winter, the chest freezer is jam packed full, I've made preserves, pickles & chutney, we have pumpkins and loads of squashes put by and I feel the land needs to rest for a while, we have plenty of food to last us through so more would just be a waste. The patch did us proud this year, mountains of food, if I can remember all of it.. : new spuds, the main crop failed though but so did a lot of our neighbours round here, lettuce, cherry toms, salad toms, plum toms, peppers, spring onions, normal onions, broad beans, french beans, dwarf green beans, and loads I dried for soup, 3 crops of peas, sweetcorn, tons of cabbage, spouts, parsnips, swedes, beetroot, tons of pumpkins and butternut squash and cauliflowers. All the surplus squirreled away to feed us during the winter of no money that's to come . At the moment we are spending hours of hard, back breaking but so satisfying work picking olives and hope to get enough oil to last the year. Next year we won't get any at all as we are cutting the trees really hard as they are far too tall to pick properly. There is so much maintenance and recovery work to do on this land, as it wasnt farmed for many years before we came.

Well I think that's a good start to this diary for today.

Tues 4th Nov.

Homemade frugal soda bread recipe.

9oz plain flour

3-4 oz SR flour

half oz cooking marg

half teaspoon bicarb soda

1 teaspoon salt

one teaspoon sugar.

dash of milk to mix.

sesame seeds

Put all ingredients in a bowl, rub in marg, then mix with knife with dash of milk till soft dough, gently form ball, flatten, brush with milk, sprinkle with sea salt and sesame seeds, slash a cross on top with a knife and put in a moderately hot oven for about 15 mins or until its cooked...you can add a pinch of mixed herbs or a sprinkle of grated cheese, but if you do, it's not as good next morning as toast

Well it's still wet.. to be honest it has stopped once or twice, but on the whole it's been wet for quite a few days now. It's also pretty chilly, the kitchen range is going great guns though and I'm cooking on it all the time now and havent burnt anything for about a week so I'm feeling quite accomplished . With money being non-existent at the moment, I'm making soda bread every morning. It takes me about half an hour from the flour bag to the breadboard... not bad eh. Rick is actually eating it and loving it, which is quite a result as he's extra picky about bread. One small loaf gives us lunch and his morning toast the next day all for about 10cents. As we are living on no income because the cottage rentals have ground to a halt these kinds of things are vital to our survival . We certainly won’t starve, we have tons of food stashed away, water from the well is free, cooking and heating is supplied by the range, so we don't do badly, we actually eat magnificently and healthier than ever before in our lives. The trick will be to see how long we can actually survive like this. We have friends in the same situation, most living in either ruins or semi-ruins on next to nothing financially, but most enjoying really fruitful happy lives. So I have high hopes for our future . I'm hoping with this diary/blog to share tips, recipes, and any other kind of ideas on frugal living, eventually even to set up a kind of barter system for people living as we do in our area.

We are picking olives still, it seems at times that it will go on forever, this wet weather is unrelentless. Peter and Teresa , some friends came over today to help out, a bowl of soup, some bread, a glass of homemade vinho and a cold wet day was made a lot better by sharing it with good company by the kitchen range .

Friday 7th November

Oooh how heavenly! a day off from picking olives... it's been fine, dry and cold for a couple of days so we have been hard picking and really cracking on with it. Now, today it's wet again, so I get a day off to catch up on being a domestic goddess rather than a farm labourer. I’ve time to bake a cake, make some biscuits and maybe even sit by the fire and read a book for a while... Bliss. Thanks to the help of Peter and Teresa again, we have managed to fill 8 barrels of olives so far which is already more than we have ever picked before, and looking ahead to still about 12 large trees to go is rather daunting to say the least.

Rick is busy using some odds and ends of the spare insulation board we had to insulate part of the roof. We then plan to move the small log burner we originally had in the kitchen( before the range arrived) down into the rental cottage. We've had an electric oil filled radiator in there but it really hasn't been up to the job, the cost of electricity here is high and with money tight, this way will be far better for everyone, and cost us nothing !!! I've had a little interest from people about the barter/swap system of skills, seeds, produce etc that I wanted to start, but will need more to make it work. So I’m re thinking about how we could make it work.

Monday 11th November.

Beetroot Surprise Recipe.

The quantities are a little vague as I tend to just sling things in. Enough cooked beetroot to cover the bottom of a suitable ovenproof dish.

Good handful mushrooms, sliced.

1 small green pepper. sliced.

About a pint of good strong cheese sauce.

Put chopped beetroot in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with chopped pepper and cover with mushrooms. Pour on cheese sauce and bake in hot to medium oven till all is nice and brown and bubbling.

We usually have it with Rice 'n ' Beans.

Rice 'n' Beans

One cup (coffee mug size) Rice.

One cup dried black eyed beans.

one stock cube

dash mixed herbs

Remember to soak the dried beans the night before. ####

Boil beans for ten mins then simmer till soft.

Boil rice in water with stock cube and herbs added, when rice is cooked add cooked beans to warm through, drain and serve.

School today, I attended classes in Portuguese at our local library in Figueiro Dos Vinhos. It's hard but I seem to progress, though sometimes I feel I'll never get it...we have an amazingly kind and funny teacher Ms Teresinha who’s patience I try each week I think. As language classes go, It's really cheap, although now a struggle for us but I badly need to be able to chat with my wonderful neighbours and join in with the community life of the village nearby. So I persevere each time.

So far we have picked over half a ton of olives... still eight trees to go though, so yesterday we went to the lagar (mill) to try to get the first batch pressed as we just have no more storage space, the appointment they gave us to take our olives in is almost three weeks away which is a disaster . We are not sure what we'll do now but I'd rather not wait as although they say the olives will keep in the sacks, I'm not sure I fancy that. The sun is shining, the weather has really picked up, yesterday we had a great day picking, we sat outside in the garden eating homemade bread and eggs and salad, all topped off with home brewed wine... I love this country!!

Dinner tonight was Rick’s absolute favourite meal, considering he’s a raving carnivore converting him to eating veggie meals as often as possible has been an uphill slog but he’s really been open to change and its challenged me to make our veggie meals as interesting as possible to tempt him with. Beetroot surprise, served with rice ‘n’ beans was on the menu today, a simple but absolutely delicious healthy meal that we truly love . It's called beetroot surprise because the surprise is how tasty it is ..

Tuesday 12th November

Hey hey .... We have oil!!

Well by the time I got home from school on Monday clever old Rick had managed to find a new Lagar ( mill) and chat to the very nice couple who run it plus organise to take our olives to be pressed that very afternoon.

For me the very best bit.... It's an old fashioned traditional press, complete with coir mats and steam driven crusher... we had our very own cold pressing, we waited and watched the whole process from start to finish, absolutely wonderful, we got 32 litres!!! We still have more to pick and hope to finally finish over the weekend and take the last bags next monday... I'll probably have enough oil to keep us going for two years or so, plus a few bottles to barter with...I’m over the moon.

We went to pick again today, it was warm, sunny and really lovely, tee shirt weather. Well from about 10.30am to 4.30pm it is.... then the temperature drops like a stone. We've had quite sharp frosts up at the Bouça the last few nights, but it's generally burnt off by 10ish. I love these crisp mornings though, we go for our morning walk in the forest and it's truly stunning, the view over the valley always seems so much clearer first thing in the morning with the sun just coming through the trees... by the time we get back home it's warm too..

Food at Bouça.. Just to clarify a few points, some people have mistakenly thought we were veggies, well not really. While we lived in the UK, both Rick and I suffered with IBS, and had various kinds of stomach and health problems. We feel this was a mix of stress, bad eating habits and unhappiness with our situation in general. Since we've lived here, we have made a real effort to organise our eating to improve our health. Our well water has made an incredible difference, we have found if we do not drink tap water (its highly treated here just like UK water). If we stick to our well water, then our IBS is very rare, added to that we have cut down or out every kind of chemical or additive in food that we possibly can, we eat a small amount of meat now and again and we are really healthy. Of course it saves us a huge amount of money.

We do like and eat meat but just in small amounts and maybe once or twice a week at most, we love veggie food, and to be honest when we grow such a huge variety of it in the garden for free.... Why buy meat? Our wine is our own brew, and now we have our own oil.... what more could we ask…

Tuesday 19th November.

Free, free, free at last...

Thank god... the olive picking is finished. We finally managed to pick just over 900kilos.. almost a ton!!!! We have 54 litres of our own fantastic, greeny gold, deliciously healthy, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil now. Which means I can slurp it about in everything in gay abandonment... I'm soooo pleased. For all those who have never picked olives and fancy coming over and buying a grove and making money... don't do it, it's not an easy option. It’s not actually just strenuous, it’s bloody exhausting, it took us about three weeks, from early morning to dusk, it's repetitive and you get aches and pains you never imagined in places you’d never mention in public. To us it's really worth the effort, and I loved it, but also couldn't wait for it to be done.

Well Rick has almost finished putting a log burner in “Mara's cottage” room, and maybe then we'll be able to do something more to my kitchen, money is so difficult at the moment, so it will have to be things that cost nothing. There are always things that need doing, finding work to do is never a problem here. We have some spare paint, so I hope to get going on that at least. The great thing is the weather is still beautiful, cold clear nights and bright sunny days, wonderful!! It lifts our spirits and revitalises our energy levels, to helpus face the challenges of life here.

Wednesday 20th November

A meat recipe at last.

Marinated Pork Chops.

As pork is cheap and of such excellent quality over here we do tend to eat pork more than any other meat. Generally good chops workout about 50cents each...

My marinade..

1 Large onion chopped quite fine.

3 big cloves of garlic chopped fine, or squidged.

A really big slurp of olive oil.

2 tablespoons of massa de pimento (red pepper paste)

A really good slurp of Balsamic Vinegar.

Mix together, completely coat all the chops and leave as long as possible. I tend to prepare in the morning and leave it in the fridge all day.

Fry in a heavy bottomed pan, over gentle heat till all liquid has gone... all the onions will caramelize beautifully.

Having finished the olives, has given me so much free time, bliss! Just a few days of cooking, walking and long cosy afternoons sat by the warm range reading or sewing. I also have more time for making Rick his favourite meals. One of the simplest but tastiest frugal meat dishes we eat is pork chops, so adaptable and full of flavour.

Friday, 21 November

Quiet days..

Hmmmm lovely, I am really enjoying this time of year, it's still lovely and bright and sunny, cold and often frosty nights but now we have the kitchen range it's really not a problem. I can stay in bed till Rick has lit the range and then I come downstairs to a lovely warm kitchen and a coffee all made ready for me... yes I know he spoils me… Then I'm still making bread first thing every day, the soda bread with caramelized onions and topped with cheese is a real stunner... I'm just having quiet days, relishing the peace and calm of winter before the hectic long working days of spring planting. As we try to not throw anything away that has even an ounce of life left in it, I’m catching up on a ton of mending, darning and patching of work clothes at the moment. It's so soothing just sitting by the fire sewing, the dogs at my feet snoozing in the warm glow of the kitchen range. It feels timeless, I feel a real connection with generations of women who have lived in this old house and spent their winters doing the same things I’m doing . I’m enjoying having time to spend on trying out new recipes and trying more veggie food, especially recipes with the many varieties of dried beans, as I grow and dry my own, plus they cost pennies to buy and are full of protein.

We had a slight problem the other day... Our entrance cubby, or hallway or whatever you‘d call it, decided to spring a leak... Yep, suddenly from nowhere came a huge puddle of water, or fluid of some kind, I obviously blamed 'his' dog, well there was so much of it. Doberman dogs do have a considerable bladder capacity . We’d had no rain, the “ puddle“ dried up overnight so I complained and thought no more about it until two days later it was back. I was furious! Rik was all for moving the large old fashioned store cupboard that we had inherited with the house. It originally held small wine and oil barrels . It now contains my jams and preserves and stored pumpkins and squashes on the lower curved shelves. His plan was then to dig out the wall and floor to find out where the leak was coming in. We were in mid move when we realised the fluid was actually dripping out the bottom of the cupboard, hmmm bugger. Yep, upon further investigation we discovered that Grandad, the biggest of my pumpkins, a huge great thing of outstanding beauty and something I was immensely proud of had been slowly rotting away from the bottom. It had cleverly disguised the fact by doing it from the side that faced the back of the shelf, so all that was left was a huge hollow crust...

Monday 24th November

Windy....

Yep I spoke too soon, we were woken in the night by the sound of the wind howling outside. Being quite high up on the hillside, we get some lovely wild weather. We chose this part of Portugal especially because we wanted seasons, not too cold obviously but we did want some winter. We get spectacular storms, with howling gales and sheets of rain, we can see it coming right down the valley. We love to sit upstairs and look out the big double doors to watch the bad weather. It was lovely this morning snuggling up warm in bed and knowing we didn't have to get up.... except I did, today was Portuguese lesson day, but at least I didn't have to be there until 10am. I could sit by the fire and enjoy my morning coffee at leisure. The forecast doesn't look too inspiring for quite a while, I don't really mind, we get so much splendid weather here and the land needs the rain during these times to replenish itself and our well of course.

On a different note, I've discovered a small patch of self set potatoes, they must have been some I missed from last years new spuds, well they are already six inches high and growing well, so if the frost doesn't get them we are hoping for at least one meal from them as early, earlies...This land is always giving and full of surprises.

Rik hopes to make a start on the floors in the spare bedroom in the next week or so, we have the blocks and beams so it's just the hard work that needs doing now. It still only has three sides, with the fourth being open to the elements. We hope that sometime in the future we will work out a way to build big full height doors and then to afford the glass for them. As always, creating and rebuilding our home here means we have to work with what we can salvage, reuse and make with our own hands. Which is satisfying, frustrating yet rewarding all rolled into one package.

Friday 28th November.

Wood, wood, tons of it...

As the weather has now definitely changed to winter, with good hard frosts four nights running now and temps below 60 during the day, (yeah yeah I know.... but to me it's very cold! ) We have been working on the log situation, luckily for the first year since we've been here, we seem to be doing really well. We have plenty and are able to share them around a bit to our friends who are not so fortunate or fit enough to drag them out of the forest themselves. Rick went out into the forest yesterday and managed another large, very full trailer load which he chopped and I stacked. We've been using the range now for about two months and actually have more wood than when we started... What a result. Logs are the most vital thing to us during winter.

We set aside a day here and there all throughout the summer to get the barn filled and continue each week as long as the weather allows. We use an amazing amount of logs, it fuels the kitchen range which heats the kitchen dining room, cooks all our food, dries our laundry and gives us an endless amount of comfort and a continually hot kettle. We have Big Bertha upstairs now, a huge old cast iron log burner which heats the whole top of the house. We only light her when it's really cold though. We have managed to start putting next year's wood aside too, it's really green stuff that needs the whole year to season and dry out but it makes me smile just looking at it all... I bloody hate being cold.

Anyone thinking of buying here, think about your heating and how you plan on doing it... we are fit and healthy and it takes up an enormous part of our time to amass enough wood to last us throughout the year. But on the other hand, we heat our house and cook for free 7 or 8 months of the year....

I should have said earlier, that as Rick is a Pagan, he'll never cut down a tree unless it's vital to us to survive, e.g on our veg patch. The wood we burn is always wood we've salvaged from the forest, scrap wood that's been left by the loggers, or that's just fallen down, we feel it's not being wasted this way, and there is so much wasted wood in this country. I just wanted to make it clear we don't go chopping down trees willy nilly...

Oh and it's raining, pouring cats and dogs, the forecast says it's set for a week, so I won't be straying far from the fire in this weather …

Saturday 29th November

Wild Weather .

Wow, was it wild up here at the Bouça last night, we had howling gales, torrential rain, giant hailstones, then thunder and lightning and joy of joys the roof didnt leak once. Excellent ! Each winter we manage to eliminate more holes, draughts and leaks. It takes constant vigilance, mainly on Rick’s part to improve and repair the weatherbeaten fabric of this 250yr old building. One day soon we may be weatherproof completely, but until that day comes it's amazing how resilient we have become. Things like this, woodworm, unknown bugs munching in the ceilings, snakes in the roof and the never ending battle against outdoor wildlife that seems to prefer indoors don't faze us at all anymore. A warm range, a dry bed and decent food makes such a difference.

Saturday 6th December

Let There be light…….or not !

Well after reading a blog about a guy and his efforts & exploits in trying to bring down his power bills, I've been inspired to work on ours. Our electric bill is just about the only bill we get, and to us without an income at the moment, it's huge, a bi monthly continual worry... So we made a (for us large investment in low energy lightbulbs, you know those ugly looking things that don't actually fit in a lampshade...)

We paid 13 euros for 6, and those are the 11 watt bulbs. we've fitted them in all our sockets except the strip light in the kitchen work area, and the place is like a black hole now.... Hmmm, the good points are that they last for years, and the whole damn lot only adds up to the equivalent of one of our old high power bulbs.. which must save us a lot.

The downside is, they are bloody ugly to look at, and they are only equivalent to 55 watts, which means the place is a tad on the gloomy side, plus the light they give is a whiter light which is harsher than normal too. But what the hell, we just have to get used to it... Also, I unplugged the fridge. Yep, we are now fridgeless.... I took a long look at what was actually being kept in it and it wasn't much. Our fridge is in what we call the cubby, which is kind of like an entrance hall. It's used as a utility space, and it's stone built, with a concrete floor, which makes it cold. There is a store cupboard where I keep most of the veg, and the milk (its long life so doesn't need the fridge), so actually in the fridge was.... a lump of cheese, some olives, a handful of carrots, and a couple of opened jars of mayo and pickle. Believe you me that fridge was off in a trice and not to be switched on again until it's hot, very hot.... and even then I have a cooler box ... heheheheh

The cry of 'switch that light off' echoes right across our valley now....

Wednesday 10th December

Life with low energy bulbs is getting better, Rick moved the light sockets around and things seem a little better, well downstairs at least, upstairs is still gloomy but he'll get around to changing that soon. Life with no fridge is not a problem though, I haven't missed it at all, so it really shows how little we needed it.

I do have a large chest freezer which is jam packed with all our home grown veggies, a little meat and dog bones etc. I seriously couldn't get by without it, it stores all our winter food. I also have learnt to keep a well stocked winter store cupboard. All throughout the summer when we usually have cottage guests or Rick does odd building jobs I buy an extra bag of pasta, rice, dried beans, loo roll, flour and anything else we can’t grow or barter for. So when the winter comes and money dried up we have plenty of stores in. The bread making is still going well, saving us loads of money, and we have lovely fresh bread everyday. As the weather is quite cold we tend to eat a lot of homemade soup, especially at lunchtimes, it's cheap and filling and very healthy, tomorrow I will write out one of our best recipes.

So at the moment our total energy use is - daytime, two 11 watt bulbs and one normal strip light over the work area, (our downstairs kitchen is an old converted adega and very dark) plus the freezer which is on full time. On Sundays we have half price electricity so I do our weekly washing then, generally two loads. And then in the evenings we have three 11 watt bulbs upstairs and downstairs obviously goes off. We have no TV or other electrical items and just watch a DVD occasionally. So I'm expecting a drastic reduction in the bills, Rick is now using the generator for any power tools he uses outside so that will help. I'll report back when we get our next bill.

The kitchen/ dining room is still an ever changing place, now the wood fired range is definitely staying in the same place, Rick is beavering away building me a workstation around it. Rough rendered bricks with stone slab worktops which I'll stone varnish, it's cheap, clean and efficient. In keeping with the rest of the house, which is very ermmm “rustic“ we also have a large absolutely gorgeous chunk of polished varnished wood as a worktop. I can also keep more or less a whole week's supply of logs stacked under it all nice and dry and I don't have to keep trekking up to the wood barn carrying heavy bins full of wood.

Rick has been as busy as ever, he's also built a kitchenette area in the rental cottage. He added a sink, cupboards and also a nice two ring burner, so yes, although I said I'd NEVER do it.... the cottage is now semi self catering, in this economic climate it would be stupid to lose income through not being able to appeal to as wide a market as possible. People just don't have the money they did , and there is a bigger need for self catering... so we've done it, it does look lovely now with the log stove as well. So warm and cosy in there with the original wooden beams and our stunning old traditional Portuguese furniture.

I'm getting organised for Christmas, although Rick, as a Pagan doesn't celebrate Christmas, he's happy for me to do it. We also are having a Winter Solstice Celebration for him this year too, a few friends, a lovely absolutely huge bonfire, lashings of hot soup, homemade bread and some golden rice pudding, all made from our produce and coloured golden to celebrate the return of the sun and the start of the longer days... (and a few glasses of red wine too of course) My Dad arrives again on Solstice day so can join in the fun.

I'm going to be busy tomorrow making my christmas puddings, really bloody late this year, but that's just how it is, it sort of got away from me this year with the kitchen work going on .

Teresa made some beautiful homemade mincemeat for pies, and gave me a jar. I've tasted hers before and it's wonderful! I've stored some brussels, parsnips and swede so we'll have a very traditional dinner for dad this year. Sadly, I've even splashed out and bought presents for the dogs....chewy bones and squeaky toys.. It’s also time to plant the garlic. I've decided to do it in old buckets this year, as the last two years it rotted in the ground. Also Rick gets a tad over enthusiastic with the tiller at times and forgets where I planted it. The spring cabbage is planted, so is the beetroot, and soon some early spuds. I always look forward to the growing season, I really miss the time I spend on our patch...peace, quiet and the hot sun on my back. The feel of the earth on my hands and knowing Im being productive and helping us to survive and revive this land is such an amazing feeling.

Thursday 11th December

Carrot & green bean soup.

One of our best and as we grow tons of beans of every size , shape and variety it's super cheap too.As always, no precise quantities sorry, as I never measure... I use a big old cast iron soup pan for this...

A large splurge of olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.... go on, it's good for you!

1 medium chopped onion.

2 or 3 cloves of garlic chopped.

a couple of large carrots, chopped into small chunks

a good couple of handfuls of green beans chopped, can be used from frozen.

1 small tomato, again I used a few cherry ones frozen from the freezer.

1 small potato chopped, or a couple of tablespoons potato flakes (Portugal- batata flocos)

A good pinch of dried thyme

1 veg stock cube.

Black pepper to taste.

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil till transparent, crumble in a stock cube, add the carrots, potato and beans and stir till all nicely coated with olive oil, add tomatoes and thyme, simmer covered for a few minutes till the juices start to run. Add water, enough to cover all the veg by about an inch.

Bring to the boil, then simmer till the carrot is cooked, blitz with a hand blender just leaving a few little chunks.

Season to taste… Lovely with cheesy herb soda bread.

Sunday 21st December

Solstice Greetings!!

We had a really great time, we enjoyed these community celebrations . We built a rustic sort of hut in the garden, from the framework of our old trade stand we used at shows in the UK and the remains of Eucalyptus trees and branches that the loggers cut down. Rick rigged up some lights, we added a few borrowed plastic garden tables and chairs. There was a magnificent bonfire, a homemade fire pit for roasting chestnuts, all topped off by a few glasses of Vinho. We shared the evening with a handful of good friends and neighbours from various countries, we enjoyed a nice home cooked meal by the fire at the house, it was wonderful, we had a smashing time and hopefully so did all those we invited... My dad arrived in time to join in and seemed to enjoy himself too, judging by the amount of our Vinho Tinto he drank....

The weather the last couple of days has been stunning, absolutely balmy, at least the middle to high sixties with not a hint of frost for three nights either. It won't last long I know through experience but it's beautiful while it does, at least dad can get some sun on his bones.... Now the Solstice celebration is over I can put up our Christmas tree. I never do it until we have celebrated the Winter Solstice, this year is so special for me as it's the first year I am spending Christmas with my dad for about 30 years ....

Feliz Natal, Boas Festas.

Boxing Day

Christmas our way...

Although we had a pretty busy run up to Xmas here, the event itself was very low key for us, as Ricky is a Pagan and doesn't do Christmas, we have a bit of a mix that we have developed over the years that suits us both. We generally have a party for Winter Solstice and that starts off our festive season.

Although weather suddenly turned very wet. I made sure I decorated the house with greenery and pine cones from the forest to make it festive but 'natural' too. No trees are hurt (by us) as I go and collect branches from where the latest logging has been happening, that way at least some of the beautiful trees are not wasted...

After Solstice Celebrations I add a few homemade Christmas decorations and some ribbons etc and it becomes my xmas decorations. This year I made xmas tree garlands by cutting tree shapes from old christmas cards and stringing them together it was childlike but very pretty. Also my old xmas tree made its annual appearance (plastic) . It was decorated by loads of coloured cellophane flowers made by me from shiny chocolate wrappers and strung on cotton. Rick thinks I’m bonkers but then again, the wrappers do not biodegrade, so to save just throwing them away, I’ve recycled them in my own way, they really do look pretty and as they are silver in places they really sparkle ... hehehehe well it works for me....

Christmas day is a very quiet day for us, we generally have a lie in until the dogs can’t wait any longer, about 8am at the best. Then Rick lights the range, makes the coffee and we walk the dogs in the forest . This year Ricky went strimming down in the 'orchard to be' until mid afternoon when lunch was ready, I prepared lunch and spent my time stacking and re-organising the log shed.

For our lunch we had a nice shoulder of Lamb, roast potatoes, our own roast turnips, roast butternut squash, peas, Brussels and cauliflower. Gravy and a glass of wine. A fruit parcel with ice cream each and that was us done.... then we curled up in front of the roaring log burner and watched DVDS till bed...

A nice peaceful day, no stress, no cost, wonderfull...

December 28- January 15th.

Rain, rain, rain and yet more rain. We have discovered the small stream that used to run through the dining room and out into the kitchen that we really thought was fixed …. Isnt, it made an appearance again a few days ago. So its mop and bucket at the ready half a dozen times a day and wellies on in the house again. The dogs are not impressed! Our new most pressing problem is becoming dry wood for the range, the prolonged cold wet weather means we have used an immense amount of our stored wood.

Wednesday January 25th

Well, the weather seems to be improving a little, we have had two days now without rain, and also some days when it stops sometimes. I suppose you could say they are showers but the showers are still longer than the breaks. We are seeing the odd sunny periods too, I keep telling myself “never mind soon be summer“ then we'll be asking for rain !!!

The spare bedroom is moving along nicely, the blocks are in, and Rick is now building pillars to take the weight of the lovely balcony that we plan for that room. He’s having to repair some of the stone wall under there too as we have a bit of erosion, he assures me it‘s nothing to worry about so I won… Hopefully one day soon he'll get time to put the door on the downstairs adega, which leads off my kitchen, that will stop so many drafts...keeping warm and dry is becoming something I think about so often , this winter seems to be everlasting.

Hoorah! Rick worked a day for some friends yesterday so we managed a few euros shopping today. I spent 11 euros!!! Wow not bad eh? . I’m also trying to persuade Rick to splash out some more on another low energy bulb for the dining area, but an equivelent 100watt one as the others are just too dim. We are living downstairs at the moment as the range is always alight all the time for cooking and it means we save dry wood in not lighting Big Bertha upstairs, sadly it just means the bedroom is freezing.... Dry wood is a bit of a bugger at the moment, I’m drying logs in the oven before we can burn them, luckily that oven is so efficent on a good day I can get ahead and am slowly building a little store of dry stuff now....

Sunday February 4th

Cheap Soup recipe

Quantity of veg depends on how many you are cooking for and how many days you want it to last. I make a biggish pot and we eat it till it's gone, generally 2-3 days (lunch with bread) and the dogs finish off the dregs ..

Potato and Onion Soup.

3 med Potatoes (either scrubbed and cubed or peeled if you like)

1 large onion, peeled and chopped.

As much garlic as you like chopped very fine.

Any odd ends of veg, or 1 carrot chopped. (I've used an odd outer cabbage leaf, or turnip tops or a leek)

a veg stock cube.

a dollop of olive oil.

Fry off the onion and garlic in the olive oil till soft, add the cubed spud and carrot and odd veg, stir and cook a few mins till all is nice and coated with the olive oil. crumble in a stock cube, stir again, add enough water to cover the veg by about two inches and simmer till the spud is very soft...

Blitz with a hand blender for a few seconds, this will thicken it up (always use spud as thickener for soup) taste and season if needed...

Serve with soda bread . This works just as well with the addition of some leftover cabbage, leave out the veg ends, I do the same thing with carrots and green beans, or soak a few dried beans overnight , cook and add to make a big soup, pearl barley does just as well and no soaking…

Saturday 21st February

Oooh the weather has been glorious ever since my last update, the sun has shone every day and although it's generally only 65-67 degrees it's so good to feel the warm sun on our bones again. Night time and morning are still quite chilly, and we've had a slight frost a few times so I'm not getting complacent . Winter isnt over yet and could still come back and kick me.

Rick has worked extra hard and rototilled the whole veg plot for me, plus a new area on the upper level, as I'm going to seperate the overhead watering areas from the ground watering areas to make life easier. During the last few days we have planted a few early spuds, cabbage, garlic and Jerusalem Artichokes. This week in will go the early peas, broad beans, parsnips, swedes, beetroot, maybe caulis and brussels too. I'm going to put the squashes into seed pots this week to start them off.

I have to buy tomato plants and pepper plants as it's never warm enough early enough for them to germinate without a greenhouse at Bouça. This year I hope to barter some of my stuff for plants instead...

The rental cottage is picking up a little, a couple of bookings are coming in now, and of course our biker friends who come in the summer have rebooked. This gives us some hope that an income wont be far away now and we will be able to restart building work and maybe use the van.

The spare room work has come to a halt due to all the other stuff going on outside, but the floor is in and the room is huge, it gets the morning sun and will be a smashing place for family and friends to stay or even paying guests in the future

Wednesday 4th March

Work,work, work...

If anyone ever tells you retiring from the rat race is easy.... forget it... we work so much harder now than we ever did. The weather until today has been beautiful. which means planting the veg continues, the ever needed wood is still in short supply which means loads of work to drag it out of the forest, loading the van, cutting stacking.... It's a never ending job really. But don't take this as a complaint, it means we heat the house and cook for free.... It just means tons of really hard work. We plan to save up and buy 100 little eucalyptus saplings in the autumn to plant on our bottom patch of land, it's good for nothing much as there is no water, then we hope that will be a source of firewood for when we are too old to work so hard collecting as we do now. Eucalyptus renews itself, it sort of coppices so cutting down doesn't kill the stump and you always get new growth.

We've also resurfaced the front of the cottage area, concrete with pressed gravel, it looks lovely now so neat and clean. Rick will be starting work on building a summer kitchen area for the cottage in a few days so our guests can eat outside more easily. Rick did a few days labouring work so we now have the blocks and materials for building the sun deck next to the cottage pool too, so that will all be done by the start of the summer. It's great, each year we manage to improve things a little. He also plans a small covered motorbike parking area before the hot weather. Luckily we have access to huge amounts of wood for building so most things cost very little, just elbow grease....

No electric bills still.... it really seems ages, I'm actually eager to get one to see what difference the changes we've made have done.... oh God please let it work... I'll be p##sed if there is no difference...

We've painted the floors in the house with watered down paint, to stop the dust, it worked and looks so much cleaner and brighter, cement floors are the pits. But at the moment it can't be helped, until we can afford tiles, that's just how it is. Im happy with it now, nice and fresh looking.

We've also cleared another garden terrace, the next one up above the veg plot. It will still be quite a while and much more work until it's plantable, but hopefully by the end of the summer we'll be able to plant another eight or so olive trees up there. We still have so much land to clear and make use of. This land lay unused and uncared for for over twenty years before we came. Its like clearing a jungle of brambles, bracken and saplings. I have plans for almond trees, an orange grove and some more mixed fruit... and of course olives... I love olive trees... they are immortal... look into it... you'll see!!!

Thursday 5th March

Wild Winds...

Wow! We certainly are having some wild weather! All day yesterday and all night last night we had howling gales. It was so loud last night we couldn't sleep much. It calmed a little this morning but seems to be building again now. This old house creaks and quivers but stands strong and safe if a little drafty at times. I do love wild weather and boy do we get it up at Bouça during the spring and autumn. We are at the point on the hillside where the two valleys seem to funnel the winds across and both meet together at our house . There is nothing to do but batten down and stay by the fire.

A quiet day tomorrow, I must wash and dry my hair by the fire as we have been invited for a meal by an elderly neighbour. I must also make an Egg Custard Tart to take with us as she has a sweet tooth and really likes them. We are looking forward to it so much , it will be a challenging evening as there will be no-one there who speaks a word of English so our Portuguese will be put to the test. I spoke too soon in my last update. We had an electricity bill yesterday, 25 euros cheaper than the last one, and half of that was estimated as we changed the meter halfway through the cycle...I'm encouraged but not overjoyed, we'll wait for the next one for a true reading.

Friday 6th March

The lovely warm weather returned after a couple of days of rain, but has brought with it the bloody nasty caterpillars. They are so dangerous to our dogs, and to us if we touch them, we've set fire to 5 lots in 10 days now, it's the only way to safely destroy them. We always keep medicine in the house especially labeled with the exact dosage for each dog just in case, luckily, we do as a couple of years ago, if we hadn't had the pills my lovely Bonny would have died. As dogs are attracted to the smell of the nastythings,she ate one and very nearly died in my arms. The trouble is we cannot leave the dogs in the garden for long at a time at this time of the year as we have pine trees near the garden fence and the caterpillars travel quite a distance, and if you leave it too long before treatment is given the dog will die.

Meanwhile we have continued on with the planting, 200 onions, tens of rows of green beans, french beans, coriander, and parsley. The spuds are showing through the ground already as are the peas and beetroot....

Friday 20th March

Planting, planting, planting...

The lovely weather continues, it's gorgeous, yes I know it's not especially good for the land as it increases the threat of forest fires later in the year when we have such hot weather so early.... but I can't help it! It's beautiful. We are BBQing out on the terrace, eating salads... it's just like summer but in March. The trees are now starting to leaf up and the grass is a gorgeous rich lush green again, all my spring bulbs have flowered and gone, even our vines are starting to bud up now....

The work in the veg patch continues. I spent two hours hoeing yesterday morning while it was cool. We now have 60 caulis in and flourishing, all the leeks, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. The broads beans are 4 inches high and the peas are shooting up way beyond that. All the beans are now coming through, another week and they'll be up and away... I love it... the sight of everything sprouting and looking so lush and fertile...I’m just waiting for my squashes to get going and then the okra and then I'm done. Well the easy bit is anyway, the hard bit is keeping it all tidy and weed free. I generally spend 3-5 hours a day down there during the main growing season, I love the peace and time to enjoy working on the land.

Work on the house has come to a halt again at the moment as Rick has had a few days work here and there helping other people, but that's finishing soon so he'll be able to crack on with the BBQ area for the cottage and complete the sun deck by the pool for them too. Advertising that should help to increase this summer's bookings and our guests' satisfaction.

I've had to stop taking Bonnie with me when I go for my early morning walk, I came across three lots of bloody caterpillars the other day all within a 50 yard stretch of path, she's good and doesn't seem to go near them (the vet says she remembers the last time) but I cannot take the risk, I couldn't carry her that far home by myself. Never mind, only another few weeks and the main threat will be over.

We are still trying to find time for wood collecting. We are still using the range for cooking, but only lighting it early in the evening just in time for the meal and then letting it go out. I hope to keep this up right into the summer till it gets too hot to bear doing it. It saves us a fortune in gas. We are still not using the fridge, it's not a problem even now although it's much warmer. Our cubby is stone built and still lovely and cool, later in the year I will need to use the cooler bag I think but I'm sure we'll manage . The cost of electricity we save is great, and if the weather stays like this, I'll be doing most small washing in the concrete tank in the garden so that will help savings too. It seems daft to use the automatic when the tank in the yard works so well. But I'm not doing that in winter!!! I see poor old ladies in the middle of winter with their hands in freezing water washing clothes....That's not for me.

Saturday 20th March

Friends.

Living out here has really made us focus on who our friends really are.... or were....When we were planning and working towards this dream we obviously told all our friends what we were hoping to do, many were supportive, some dismissive (oooh you'll never up sticks and leave.. )but a few were very actively excited for us and the challenge it involved. Those very few friends have been fantastic, they have kept in touch and visited when all the others have fallen by the wayside. So much so that we can now list our friends back in the UK probably on the fingers of one hand, but those that do remain have made up for all the others...

One of those friends has just gone home after popping out for a few days, it really was a joy to have her with us, the casual acceptance of our now somewhat different and unusual lifestyle to what we once had. The ease with which she fitted into the household, her eagerness to help with any work that was needed, and just her general enthusiasm for our life here was just wonderful. And of course it was great for us to have her company for a while too. We also have another couple who have come out every year since we came here, the first time just a matter of months after we arrived they have really helped, mucked in and supported our decisions with friendship ever since. Our friendship has grown even better as a result.

It really does make you appreciate people, it's not easy for them to come and stay when, how we live is so different from what most people are used to. Our last friend had to sleep in our three man tent, put up in the ruin of what will eventually be our second bedroom, but she didn't even bat an eyelid. She enjoyed waking up to the views of the forest as the ruin only has three walls at the moment... These people have and hopefully will continue to enrich our lives with their friendship for many years to come.