28th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

And it continued to rain all night and all day; it’s very cold, today I’ve been wearing leggings, leg warmers, slippers and a jumper – it’s just like being back in Wales!

This morning we filled all the holes on the inside of the gym and studio building; I packed the gaps with stones and Brett cemented over the top. When we come back we’re going to set up home in this building while we reroof and make the house habitable. Our job this week will be rendering the inside of the gym/studio so that no creepy crawlies can live in the walls.

Tonight we watched “Everybody’s fine” (Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore) a bitter sweet film that made me sad.

It was still raining when we went to bed; it’s supposed to improve tomorrow afternoon.

27th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Mark (& Glenn) was in the village early (8.00 a.m.), to pick up the mixer from Mark (& Pam); he came to see us too, to explain the calculations he’s done for the roof timbers for our kitchen. According to his figures if we want to use the telegraph poles we would need to put in at least eight poles; so we’re back to buying beams at 30€ a metre – shame!

We decided to take a day off today and explore Corvilha, a town just past Fundao; we’d been told it was worth a visit. Well it wasn’t!! We drove in and headed for the historical centre; there was nothing there, or we couldn’t find it. We drove up and down narrow cobbled streets for ages, following signs; then we parked and walked around, we couldn’t find anything of interest.

On our way home we saw an awful lot of smoke ahead of us, it turned out to be a fire in a warehouse (full of straw), fortunately it was well under control by the time we reached it and we didn’t have to turn the car around.

This afternoon it started raining again and continued on and off for most of the evening – it’s doing the garden a lot of good and hopefully refilling our well. Also it’s shown us that none of our roofs leak.

26th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

It rained all night, quite heavily at times, and the plants looked all the better for it; I swear the lettuces were more upright and the leaves on the orange trees looked more hydrated this morning.

I planted out leek, spring onion and onion seedlings – hopefully the rabbits won’t obliterate them.

Brett spent the day digging out the area where the donkey shed used to be; we’re going to build a bread oven there, tile the floor and make the retaining wall into a seating area which I’m going to mosaic, strongly influenced by Gaudi’s serpent bench in Gwell Park.

This evening we watched “Philadelphia”, a film I have always avoided watching as I thought it would be rather harrowing; it was, but it was also an excellent film and Tom Hanks, as usual, was thoroughly convincing in the role, I had tears in my eyes at the end.

25th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

It was cold today; really cold, I had on three top layers and my boots and was still chilly. Before class we, along with Pam & Mark, met up with Pastor Allen to start sorting out the telegraph poles. Mark used his Landrover with straps attached to the tow bar to pull selected poles out of a huge pile of discarded poles (which, of course, I was worried might roll apart and crush one of us!).

We then went to see Augusto (the salesman who sold us the truck who now works for VW); for some reason he had our documents, why didn’t they get sent to us? Anyway they were in the correct name, so we could now pay for our road tax, and be legal, we were happy ........ for a while!

We had our Portuguese lesson today, as the Pastor and his wife are away for the next few days; it was so much better than last week, we learnt about adjectives (which are gender sensitive) and adverbs (which are gender neutral) and I think I understood – how I wish I had taken more notice in my English language class all those years ago!

After lunch we went along to the Fiscal Office to pay our road tax; the good news was that it had the correct name on the computer, so we could pay the tax; the bad news was that we could also pay the fine we had accrued for late payment of road tax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How many times did we go to that bloody office to try to pay our road tax? And every time their computer said “no”; and unfortunately there was nobody we could appeal to, to right the unfairness of it all – it wasn’t the actual fine, of 25€ (50% of the actual road tax), it’s the principal that makes me so cross. Brett says I’ve got to forget about it now, but it bloody well niggles – shitty little bureaucrats!

It started raining this afternoon and carried on all evening; about an inch was forecast. We started watching “Transformers” after about 40 mins, with nearly another 2 hours to go, we abandoned it – I couldn’t tell who were the good robots and who were the bad (apart from the ice cream van – good and little ‘gremlin’ type robots – bad). It was still raining when we went to bed, about 9.30; it’s dark well before 8.00 now.

24th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We still haven’t received our car documents; so tomorrow we will have to try to sort it out, again!

We went to watch Steve, Mark & Pam’s builder, rendering their building as that is our next job; it’s getting the mix right that’s the key.

We didn’t have much focus today; we’ve done the jobs we set ourselves to do before we return to Britain and there’s not much else we can do without our tools, Brett did some tidying up around the outside of the house.

23rd September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

It rained quite a lot in the night and we woke up to grey, cloudy skies and more rainfall – it was just like being in Wales! But as we haven’t had rain for nearly five months (bragging again) we actually welcomed this weather; apart from anything else it meant we didn’t have to water the vegetable garden today.

We took advantage of the inclement weather and watched another film this morning, “The Big Bang” (Antonio Banderas); we’ve worked extremely hard for the last few weeks, concreting, we felt we deserved a bit of a rest.

This afternoon it got really, really windy; the gazebos tried to take off and some of their poles bent and came apart, so we decided it was time to take them down. It was really strange with no outside space; it made us realise how small the camper actually is, so we’ve moved the van nearer the house and utilised the space in the ‘living room’. It’s great, we’ve set up the outside cooker, table and chairs, we’ve piled up blocks (to use as side tables) and put candles on them – it’s almost like living in a house!

After we had finished all our manoeuvring we had a text from Pam and Mark “Our gazebo just blew away managed to rescue but it needs (she actually put offer but she doesn’t proof read her texts!!!!) repairing how is yours?”; so it was sensible moving when we did.

22nd September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We had a relaxed morning doing our washing.

This afternoon we took the mixer to Mark and Glen and introduced them to Pam and Mark.

Then we met Pastor Allen and Barbara (his wife) and off we went to look at the telegraph poles. We’re terribly excited; there are poles there that should work for the roof beams in our kitchen and little sitting room (we had worked out that we were going to have to pay around 450-500€ for roof beams) and these cost 17€ each!!! Which will save us absolutely masses of money. The poles could also be used for building structures outside, as gate posts and, as Pam pointed out, it’s actually cheaper to buy these poles than fire wood (which for some reason is very expensive here). Pastor Allen phoned one of his many contacts and arranged transport to our village, for ‘a load’, for 60€; some of the poles are 8 metres long so they need a big truck. Our only dilemma now is how far can the truck get towards Pam & Mark’s (no chance of it getting to ours!) and how are we going to move the poles once they’re dropped off – Brett and Mark reckon we can drag them behind the Landrover.

We watched a film tonight, “Precious”; it was very disturbing, about a young, illiterate, girl (16) from Harlem, who had been sexually assaulted by her father since she was three, and was pregnant with her second child (the first one was about four, a little girl with Down’s syndrome call Mongo – short for Mongoloid!) – fortunately it had a kind of positive ending.

 

21st September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Brett wouldn’t let me help with the concreting again; I was feeling a lot better so I spring cleaned the van. Everything gets so dusty here because it’s so dry.

Hoorah the concreting is finished!!!! And tomorrow we take the mixer to Mark and Glen, for the weekend, then Pam and Mark get it (we all own a 1/3 share in it).

It’s starting to cool down a bit; this is particularly noticeable when taking a shower, outside with solar heated water – it’s not very nice!

Friday night means pizza night at Pam & Mark’s; we met their new workawayers, who are very nice especially (this is where we really sound like expats) as they brought us a huge box of English teabags (PG Tips), one for Pam & Mark and one for us (the lovely Pam had organised it).

We’re all (the four of us) meeting up with Pastor Allen (our Portuguese teacher) tomorrow afternoon; he’s taking us to see the telegraph poles that are for sale.

20th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

As I was still feeling ill Brett let me have the day off, while he carried on concreting the gym/studio; he did 28 mixes, which makes me think he doesn’t actually need my help as we don’t get much more done when I am helping. It should be finished by tomorrow and that will be the end of concreting floors (apart from the old chicken sheds which will become the laundry and battery rooms, but we’re not in a rush to do them).

Tonight we watched “Riddick” and ate chocolate.

19th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Our second Portuguese lesson and I’m already finding it hard; today we did irregular verbs, articles to the nouns and conjunctions – I don’t understand any of this!!! Our homework is the translation of a piece of text; so far my literal translation reads: ”you what are in the shop is carpenter” – what on earth does that mean?

On the positive side they did let us use their washing machine so we have a nice clean patchwork quilt.

I’m not feeling well, I have tonsillitis, so Brett didn’t make me mix concrete today!

Pam and Mark invited us around for drinks; to discuss the purchase of 100 used telegraph poles at 17€ each, of course we stayed for dinner.

18th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

I have to admit when it looked like the mixer was broken and we might have to wait for it to be fixed a part of me thought “oh goody I can have a rest”! Unfortunately, thanks to Mark and Brett that didn’t happen; in fact it went from bad to worse. Brett said that today would be setting up for Thursday, as we have our Portuguese lesson on a Wednesday, and he needed to order more sand and cement before we could do anymore work too. So we went to the builder’s merchant and instead of saying he would deliver this afternoon he said “Agora” (now). Which meant that this afternoon we were down the gym/studio and tried to finish the studio floor (the step down 6’ x 18’); it was one of those horrible days when nothing goes right. We couldn’t level the floor, the concrete set to quickly and it all looked a mess; we put in 13 mixes and ended up scrapping it all flat so that we can cover it with a 2”-3” screed. So having learnt our lesson we mixed up another two wheel-barrowfuls and constructed a couple of rows of level mounds so that the gym floor will be easier to level.

Hoorah, we had a text from Pam and Mark “Drinks down the bar?”; they came back to eat with us (after going home to pick up their cute little puppy dog). They have more ‘workawayers’ arriving on Thursday.

17th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Happy Birthday Lily!

We had a day off today; well I did, Brett helped Mark and Glenn this afternoon. We went into Castelo Branco, via Mark and Glenn’s to pick up the receipt for the mixer; Mark and Brett played with the mixer, bypassing the ‘on’ switch (so it’s permanently ‘on and has to switched off via the extension lead)) and now it works – I’m just hoping they haven’t invalidated the guarantee (they assure me they haven’t done anything that can’t be reversed) – but at least it’s working!

We went to a ‘seconds’ tile place, where Pam and Mark bought their tiles last week; there were masses of tiles. We think we know what we want; they look like reclaimed quarry tiles (1‘ x 1’).

Mark and Glenn were ready to install their roof timbers and asked Brett to help them carry the biggest beams up to their second floor – oh dear, I didn’t have a camera with me for the first beam when Brett fell backwards up the stairs, Mark nearly castrated himself on one of the metal plates and Glenn looked like he was getting a hernia as the beam was so heavy! The second beam went up quite smoothly; which was annoying for me as I now had Brett’s Ipod!

A piece of art

Very heavy art

"Ouch"!!!

 

16th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We finished the plinth and then tried to fill some of the holes, on the inside of the shed walls, with concrete; some of them are pretty big holes, for some reason they build a shed and then, purposefully, knock holes in some of the blocks, no idea why – to let the vermin get in? Anyway the concrete didn’t want to stay in the holes, we were tired, and so we just gave up! We even threw away a wheel barrow full of concrete.

The mixer switch is also completely knackered; it doesn’t turn on/stay turned on; so tomorrow it’s going back to the shop where it was bought, it’s got a two year guarantee but I bet it gets taken away to be repaired for the next few weeks rather than replaced.

Hoorah, today I planted my cabbages (in the furrows I dug the other day that were no good!); tonight they are wearing plastic bottles, to keep the rabbits off.

We had a text from Pam and Mark saying they were going to the restaurant for a drink; we ended up eating there too. While we were there this little (stray?) puppy came up and slept at our feet; it was really sweet, Pam (with a little bit of encouragement from me!) ended up taking it home to join her ever increasing menagerie – she now has 3 dogs (one, with a collar, on turned up a few weeks ago and has been staying longer and longer, now it doesn’t actually leave much anymore), at least 4 cats, 6 chicken and 2 ducks. I’m so looking forward to the time when we can start getting animals too.

I found this beautiful feather, Mark says it’s a Jay’s; the blue colour is shaded, it looks like it’s been painted on.

Jay feather

15th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

The living room floor is finished; it took another 17 loads (so 48 in all).

After lunch we did ²/₃ of the kitchen plinth; it was an absolutely impossible task. The area we were working on was 30” wide by about 16’ long and (as we can’t use wood) the shuttering was made from a bit of Gary’s metal roof and the floor of an old wardrobe, both about 30” high; we had to lean over the shuttering to tamp down on the concrete which was only about 3” from ground level – I couldn’t even reach the back of the plinth. We were both tired, the concrete wouldn’t level out and, to top it all, the ‘on’ switch of the mixer has started playing up. We didn’t finish working until 6.00; when we went down to the Bar do Clube for a very well earned cold drink, and sat at a table while all the locals turn around in their seats to look at us! I don’t think they mean to be rude; it’s just their innate curiosity, obviously as children they weren’t taught “it’s rude to stare”.

Pam came to Portugal with lots of films on her computer, she downloaded some onto our hard drive the other day (we reciprocated with Kindle books, thanks Steph those books have been a godsend); so this evening we watched ‘Chasing Amy’ the lead actress, Joey Lauren Adams, looks very like Renee Zelweger but I don’t think she’s related. It was pleasant to just relax and be entertained.

14th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

And we’re still concreting .................. today the living room floor; we’re hoping not to have to screed over the concrete to level this floor, it’s a smaller area than the last few floors we’ve done; we managed to do about 2/3 of the area (31 mixes).

We didn’t have to cook tonight as it was Friday and that means ‘Pizza Night’ at Pam and Mark’s; unless they’re too tired, like last week, and then we just go out for a meal. Yesterday we learnt that the restaurant will be shutting up shop for the winter, probably at the end of this month, where will we eat then?

Pam and Mark are still sleeping outside in tents, though not for long as their room is nearly habitable, it only needs the floor tiling; last night Mark heard, and saw, a wild boar snuffling round the tent, he said it was quite scary knowing there was only a bit of canvas between them!

 

13th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We went to the Post Office today, on our way to the Builder’s Merchant to order more sand and cement (we’re still concreting); the documents for the car still haven’t arrived, the cover note, for the road tax, runs out in a couple of weeks – this is getting beyond ridiculous.

I was going to put the cabbage seedlings in today; around here all the cabbages are grown in furrows. So I decided to do the same; I couldn’t do it, my channels were rubbish, old Portuguese men of 80+ can do it easily (and quickly), I’m going to need lessons – needless to say the cabbages didn’t get planted.

Brett continued cementing floors; he had lots of fiddly jobs to do that didn’t need my assistance.

We had a lovely evening entertaining Pam, Mark and Rowan (their son); we ate courgette fritters (a brilliant way to use up an excess of courgettes and by varying the dipping sauce they go with practically any menu) with a chilli sauce and a Thai curry (which included more of the courgettes).

And, of course, there was another beautiful sunset.

12TH September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

So we had our first Portuguese class today: Brett says it’s exactly what he needs, I understood most of it at the time, but it’s retaining it that I find difficult. It was all very friendly and relaxed; a good teaching/learning environment. We were given homework!

We went around to Pam and Mark’s this afternoon and saw their ducklings; they’re so cute, still at the yellow down stage, they only cost 2€25 (about £1.80). P & M have a water mine (barragem) that they’re going to live by and swim in.

And yet another lovely sunset tonight.

Sunset

 

11th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Happy Birthday Gilly XXXXXXXXX

I’m so so tired; we worked until 6.00 and most of the screed is done. The kitchen is looking very big.

Our lovely friends, Pam and Mark, invited us round for supper, after drinks at the bar; it was the perfect way to end a strenuous day, it was so nice not having to cook a meal.

Pam and Mark have bought a new car which they picked up today; it’s a Renault 4, it’s fabulous and so retro, it’s in really good condition as nothing rusts out here.

Tomorrow is our first Portuguese lesson; we’ve bought new notebooks specially!

10th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

The Bee Eaters have gone!! Migrated back to Africa.

A tiring day; 28 mixes and the kitchen floor is 80-90% covered, it just needs a screed, which we will do tomorrow. And then all that will be left is the raised plinth at the back of the kitchen; this is needed as there was a slope that couldn’t be dug away because of the foundations of the building. It will hardly be noticed as it will have a large fireplace built into it, then steps up to the living room and the welsh dresser on the other side of the steps.

Yesterday in the supermarket the cashier gave us a free DVD; we have no idea why, we hadn’t spent much money and Pam and Mark were shopping at the same time and they didn’t get one, so don’t know what that was all about. Anyway we decided to watch it tonight; we didn’t know what it was as the cover was in Portuguese, we were so disappointed when we put it on, it was ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ and we’d already seen it (I didn’t understand it the first time round!). We ended up watching ‘The Green Hornet’, what a load of rubbish, but it gave us something to do.

9th September FONTE DOS CLEROGOS

This morning I thought I’d pick some more figs for drying and discovered that they naturally dry on the tree, they just need picking before they fall; so we now have two trays of semi dried figs on the table outside in the sunshine.

At lunchtime we went, with Pam and Mark, into Castelo Branco for our Portuguese class introductory lunch. There were ten students there; the four of us, Gail and Steve, and four other ladies, who have lived here 5/3/2 years and 3 ½ months. The class will be taught by Pastor Allen, who is an American; his wife and Gail had prepared a lovely buffet lunch, the most exciting part for the four of us was ice in the drinks!! It was all very friendly and we’re quite excited about actually starting to learn the language properly.

On our way home we called into see Mark and Glenn; they have cut their roof timbers and are assembling them on the ground, to check measurements etc before they’re lifted into place. It’s a work of art; huge timber beams with lovely hand cut joints, held together with laser cut steel plates (painted black) and large steel nuts and bolts – like something out of ‘Grand Designs’ – I should have taken a photo.

After tea we met up with Pam and Mark (again!) to go to the festa in Penamacor; the literature said there were artisan stalls and live music. The artisan stalls were all local crafts people, nothing commercial, it was really quaint; there was a man selling chorizo from his free range, acorn fed, black pigs – we tasted some, it was delicious; of course we bought some. There was local honey, biscuits, hand woven rugs, paintings by a local artist, jewellery, stuff made out of cork and a few other stalls – next year there will be a local glass artist, local quilt maker and papier mache artist!

 

8th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We finished another third of the kitchen floor today (twenty mixes) and, touch wood, it’s going well – though the physical labour doesn’t get any easier. I’m stationed by the mixer out in the full sun; so today I put up a parasol to give myself some shade – it stayed up for all of 15 minutes when the wind blew it over (so that didn’t work then!). We do have an awful lot of wind here; it’ll be fine when we’re in the house as that’s in a sheltered hollow.  

As I was picking French beans for supper tonight I realised that despite all my moaning about rabbits and ants we do have quite a productive vegetable garden already; I can pick beans, French and flat Portuguese type (bit like runners), basil, fennel, rocket, carrots, mangetout (not as many as I’d like, bloody rabbits), coriander, rosemary, thyme and, thanks to Mr Luis, onions, tomatoes and courgettes.

We were supposed to go to the festa at Penamacor tonight, with Pam and Mark; but we had this spectacular thunder (electric?) storm that went on for a couple of hours and, as its epicentre seemed to be over Penamacor, so we decided not to bother going. There was forked lightening but a lot of the time it wasn’t going down to earth but forking and travelling horizontally, lighting up the whole of the sky – it was rather like those balls you get in gadget shops, even similar colours with the pinks and blues. Brett managed to take a few video clips with his ipod.

Horizontal Fork Lightening

Fortunately the festa is on tomorrow night too so we’ll go then; after we’ve been for our first Portuguese class, actually it’s an introductory lunch so we probably won’t have an actual lesson.

7th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

This morning we finished another third of the footings for the living room (seven mixings); I was just washing off my feet (I always get them covered in cement) when I heard Brett shouting for me – the shuttering was collapsing. We managed to save it by propping it with blocks; but it was quite worrying for a while.

There wasn’t much I could do to help Brett after that as he had decided to put a load of rubble in the bottom of the kitchen floor, to save putting in about 8” of concrete in some places; and there was only one wheelbarrow available. It wasn’t a job I would have been any good at anyway as he was carting in big lumps of concrete and rocks and then smashing them up with a sledge hammer.

Instead I planted out the carrot seedling that I had sowed in guttering; hopefully the rabbits won’t find them. And then I tried to salvage my mangetout, which the rabbits have destroyed, by encasing them in plastic bottles for the first few feet – it doesn’t look nice but if it works I can put up with it.

This evening we went for a meal at the restaurant, with Pam and Mark; after we had paid our bill the owner brought out the ‘aguardente’ a very strong spirit made from the leftovers after making wine – we all coughed and spluttered a lot! It was a very enjoyable, relaxing evening; tomorrow evening we’re going to the festa at Penamacor.

6th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

This morning we went to Fundao for supplies; mainly for beer from Lidls where 1L costs 0€89, in the supermarkets in Castelo Branco we pay 1€15 (if there’s any of that one left) or a whopping 1€49 (if that’s all that’s there). So we picked up three packs of six bottles; when we got to the checkout we were told of by the manageress (I think, Brett’s not convinced), I think she said that the packs were limited to one per customer and we shouldn’t have three – so we played our ‘we’re foreigners and don’t understand you’ card, and got away with it!

We filled up our 5L water bottles from the fonte on the way home; that’s another reason we need to go into Fundao on a regular basis.

Early evening went to El Clube for drinks, with Pam and Mark.

Dinner was practically all picked from our garden; courgette fritters, tomato salsa (garlic and lime were bought) and French bean salad ( ingredients for dressing bought). We stayed outside after dinner and read until the light went, when we went inside – it was only 8.15!!!!! The days are shortening so fast. I was in bed by 9.30; there’s no room to do anything in the camper when the bed is down except go to bed.

 

5th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

It was one of those knackering days, mixing loads and loads of concrete (about twenty mixes in total); we’ve completed the foot well for the kitchen doors and a third of the footings for the living room wall (to be built in place of the double garage doors). The concrete behaved itself today!

We worked for a good six hours and were desperate for showers; the solar shower is a real blessing.

4^th September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!

Panic over the wine is fine (phew!!!!). Oh I didn’t sleep well; I spent all night trying to figure out (1) how to separate the vinegary cap from the bulk of the wine when it was pressed or (2) what to do with 200L of vinegar. Happily in the end it wasn’t an issue.

First thing Brett and I cleaned all the wine equipment we were going to use with diluted bleach and then rinsed it off with boiling water; we didn’t want anything we did/didn’t do to cause the wine to be spoilt.

Pam and Gail (an expat who lives the other side of Castelo Branco) came to help with the wine racking (Mark and Gail’s husband, Stephen, were back at P & M’s doing building work).

"Hubble, bubble ..........!!"

The cap definitely smelt of vinegar, but the wine underneath was absolutely fine – it smelt like very alcoholic wine in fact! I wanted to scoop the vinegary cap off (and not use it’s pressings); but Brett vetoed that, he said we’d followed the instructions so far and we shouldn’t start making it up now, just make a note of everything we’ve done this year and then, if it goes wrong, change the method next year (he’s quite sensible really!). The tap on the wine vat was rubbish, it kept blocking up so we had to scoop everything out of the vat with buckets. The press worked a treat and we ended up with a very dry ‘cake’ (skins, stalks and pips), which went onto the compost.

'Cake' left after pressing the grapes

We now have 150L of red wine in the cylinder, where it will stay until the next racking in six weeks time.

Filling the wine cylinder

150L of wine

This afternoon I picked figs to dry; I put them in the racks we bought with the barbeque and hung them from the gazebo’s roof poles. Brett demolished the concrete doorstep into the kitchen, ready for starting the kitchen floor tomorrow.

Then we went to El Clube for a, well earned, drink, with Pam and Mark obviously!

 

3rd September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We arranged the solar panel payment to Nick; internet banking is so simple, although we actually did it by phone, as we haven’t got a secure internet connection, we literally phoned up, gave a few security answers and transferred the money – took 5 mins.

We went into Castelo Branco for supplies and to meet up with Pam and Mark to buy the next bits of equipment for the wine making. We are now the, joint, proud owners of a 250L, airtight, stainless steel cylinder (fitted with an air lock) and a fruit press.

Tomorrow we will rack off the wine, pressing out the juice from the cap, and then the wine will spend the next few months in the cylinder. However, when we went into the shed with the wine in it Brett said it smelt like vinegar!!!!!!!!!!!! (I still can’t smell anything); we’re hoping that this is the smell from the cap, as we have stopped stirring as per the instructions we’re following (though earlier in the instructions it warned that you had to keep stirring the cap in or it would turn sour!), otherwise we have an awful lot of very expensive (about 3€/L) wine vinegar. And I also feel guilty about Pam and Mark having an awful lot of very expensive wine vinegar too. Still we should be able to make some lovely chutneys and pickles, if it comes to that. Oh I do hope it’s just the cap smelling; I made Brett smell and taste the wine under the cap – he says that just tastes like wine. We’ll see what happens in the morning.

2nd September FONTS DOS CLERIGOS

Sudio/gym (we're not sure which yet) floor

Brett finished the screed on the studio/gym floor whilst I planted out seedlings for the rabbits! Rocket, fennel, lettuce, escarole, coriander and parsley – they all looked very healthy when they went in, I wonder how long it will be before the bloody rabbits find them.

After lunch Brett started organising the floor in the kitchen, ready for concreting; he’s quite optimistic now that the screed in the gym worked so well. I continued weeding and planting. Then we had a very welcome text from Pam & Mark “going for drink at restaurant 5.30, do you want to join us?” do they really need to ask? We felt we deserved a break as we had been working quite hard.

Nick (solar panels man) also contacted us; there’s a good exchange rate at the moment and the panels are down from the £120 he originally quoted to £100 – that means we save £300, brilliant!

1st September FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We were woken just before 8.00 by Mark arriving with the cement mixer – oh goody!

So it was back to concreting the studio floor; we put a 2” screed over about 4/5 of the floor we laid the other day, today went so much better than last week and the floor actually looks quite good – thank goodness. We worked very hard, only taking a ¼ hour lunch break. We didn’t get back to the camper until 6.30 and I for one was absolutely shattered; the cold beer helped!

A level floor at last

Rabbits are devastating our vegetables; when we come back in the New Year we will erect a rabbit proof fence around the vegetable gardens, this will be rather expensive as we have rather large plots (bragging again). Brett says he will shoot them; but I would rather keep them out once and for all.

The nights are drawing in; it’s dark by 8.30p.m. and as it doesn’t get light until 7.30a.m. our days are getting shorter. It’ll be great once we have electricity (we ordered fifteen solar panels this week), but until then the evenings are a struggle; there’s only so much reading you can do (I’ve read 83 books on my Kindle in just over six months).

31st August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Another very windy night; the gazebos survived.

We went to the post office to collect our mail; this is the first time it’s been open for two weeks (holidays) I was expecting a few letters (mainly the documents for the car), I got a circular – very disappointed.

We went to the village shop for the first time (Pam and Mark had found out where it was); it was all very friendly, as expected prices are a little more expensive than in town, I had to pay 1€30 for a bottle of wine!

We went to the builder’s merchant, to order more sand and cement, we also ordered the blocks for our gate posts; Brett thought they would cost about 5€ each – they were 1€25 (so our gate posts will cost us all of 15€, plus mortar).

And then we were back to the track, moving the biggest stone of all; it measured 5’ x 2’ x 2’, I honestly didn’t think Brett could budge it, he moved it back a foot – the power of levers!

Shovel in photo for scale

Now about 12" back

We spent a lot of the day monitoring a fire on the horizon, about 12 miles from us; and watching the helicopters and aeroplanes bombing it with water. If the wind had changed direction we would have evacuated, fire can move at 70+ mph depending on the speed of the wind.

Scary fire

Tonight was ‘pizza night’ at Pam and Mark’s; another lovely sociable evening. We met their ‘workawayers’ who already seem to have done a load of work; planting vegetables, preparing the dough, tomato sauce and salad, and designing a compost toilet. This workaway lark looks like a good deal; you get free labour in return for board and lodging, plus a dinner party each evening – which they often cook for you too!

30th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Wow, it was windy in the night; I was up in the small hours collapsing chairs, the gazebos survived quite well (one broken pole and very loose guy ropes). We adjusted the guy ropes so that they are now tethered to the top of the frame; hopefully this will help when the wind gets up and under the roofs of the gazebos.

After his success moving stones yesterday Brett decided to move the HUGE stones that make our track access narrow; he only had a hour in the morning before we were off to Pam and Marks for lunch, to meet their builders (English) and ‘workawayers’ (American).

The ‘workawayers’ had been due at noon; they hadn’t arrived by the time we left. Their builders had done a great job; cutting doorways between their three buildings, cutting out and inserting a window, and were in the process of putting up plasterboard in the middle room, which instantly made the room look bigger and brighter.

After lunch it was back to moving the stones; Brett levered I put under small stones and then helped shift them with a spade – it was hard physical work. At one point we had this really big stone, shaped like a turtle (lying on it’s back), stuck in the middle of our track; but Brett managed to manoeuvre it after a hard struggle – he kept tackling bigger, then bigger stones (i.e. “saving the largest for last”).  Then we had a text from Pam and Mark “El Clube for drinks?”; yes, please!!!

Still no sign of their ‘workawayers’; we had a relaxing hour sitting in the shade, drinking and chatting however .................... when we got back Brett started on his stones again! Our track is now a minimum of 9’ wide; which is masses big enough for our camper.

Text from Pam to say the ’workawayers’ had arrived.

29th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

There’s a definite chill in the air in the mornings; it feels quite autumnal.

We had a bit of a relaxing morning; we did the laundry and I potted up some basil, nasturtiums and calendula.

After lunch Brett decided he wanted to move some of the large stone to make a wall at our entrance; when I say large stones they’re big (24” x 30” x 15”). I helped by putting stones underneath as Brett levered the big stones up, and pushing with all my might when he wanted them to tip over.

Entrance to our quinta

Brett noticed that we can actually see Pam and Marks gazebo from just outside our camper (they recently cut down a couple of oak trees) and ‘as the crow flies’ they’re only about ½ mile from us. I got out the binoculars and could see them sitting in their gazebo.

We met Pam and Mark, for a drink at the restaurant, after work which was a nice relaxing end to the day.

And another one ...................

28th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

I was not looking forward to another day of concreting; fortunately it went quite smoothly. We have realised that the cement becomes easier to work the longer it is mixed, it seems to release the water and become creamier but it doesn’t separate. We finished what we could by lunchtime and took the mixer to Mark this afternoon; he wants to cast some lintels and will let us have it back on Saturday – hoorah I get a rest, I am completely shattered so I’m really looking forward to some time off – I’ll do some gardening and potter.

27th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

Our runner beans have been eaten by rabbits; the beans that Joao gave us germinated really well (he told us to plant four to a hole at 18” intervals, we planted two rows), now one row has been annihilated by the rabbits – I’m feeling negative again.

Fundao was buzzing (it was market day); it has a real holiday atmosphere. We were rather excited to find lime trees (and orange and lemon). We have rethought the trees we want to grow along the drive into our property; the pretty trees/bushes we wanted originally are Oleanders and Pam tells us that they are poisonous, so we’re now thinking that it might be nice to have citrus fruits lining the driveway (pretty and functional).

Brett went off to put up shuttering in the gym/studio (because it has to have a step) ready for tomorrow’s concreting marathon whilst I prepared Gary’s vegan feast. It took ages to chop up all the veg for the gazpacho etc; I was very good I made vegan alternatives for all the non vegan food i.e. stuffed figs with goat cheese (non vegan) stuffed figs with grapes (vegan,) tortilla chips with cheese and chilli (non vegan), vegetable crudités (vegan), pears poached in red wine (non raw vegan) fruit salad (vegan), I didn't need to ..... Gary comes along and says “I’m really tempted by everything” and commenced to eat all the non vegan food in favour of the raw vegan food he even drank some wine; and a jolly god evening was had by all.

Betty had a good evening; she was fed titbits from everyone’s plates and occasionally she’d run off into the undergrowth and have a good old bark at some imaginary animal.

I can't stop taking photos of sunsets!!!!

And of course there was another beautiful sunset!

26^th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

After such a lovely high day yesterday today was a low, low, low day!

The set up (which we have to do every day)

First off we had to fill barrels (which we’d loaded into the back of the truck) with water – a bucket at a time (25 in total – I counted!).

concrete guides

We mixed a few loads of concrete but when we attempted to level it the moisture had been leach out into the soil. We tried making it wetter, then we changed the ratios (less chippings, more sand and cement), it was hopeless nothing seemed to help. Each batch was hardening before we could get to work it; we were getting bad tempered and frustrated. Eventually we managed to level some, one barrow full at a time; we’ve finished half the floor, it doesn’t look great but fortunately it is only a shed (gym or studio) not the house. Obviously the problem was with laying it over soil (well it’s rocky soil, not earth); we think perhaps we should have spent last week watering the ground, and perhaps we should have put in a membrane to stop the moisture from escaping downwards; but mainly we think that the Portuguese lay new concrete floors in the winter not in the summer.

Crappy floor

It was nearly 6.00 by the time we had finished; we were shattered and couldn’t think what to have for dinner (we’d only had a very short break for lunch and then we hadn’t eaten much just drank copious amounts of fluid). We had a text from Pam & Mark; they were going to the restaurant for dinner, did we want to join them?

So the day finished well; we had the set menu (because that’s all they do!) at 8€ per head plus drinks. We started with soup (vegetable), main course was a choice of Portuguese meats or wild boar (we had the boar), nothing for vegetarians not even a fish dish for pretend veggies. We had lots of beers and wine and paid 12€ each – that’s less than £10.

Tomorrow we’re going into Fundao to get supplies and fill up with water at the fonte; then in the evening we’re having our raw vegan feast. Well that’s what Gary’s having; I’m cooking a little too. We’re starting with Gazpacho, with garlic bread, then guacamole with crudités (for Gary) and tortillas layered with cheese and chillies (melted in oven) for the rest of us. I still haven’t decided on pudding; maybe figs, as we have rather a lot at the moment.

We are experimenting with drying techniques for the figs; laying them on a grid in the sun works, but the ants come. So now I’m trying the hanging method (using a barbeque rack), which appears to work quite well so far.

The wine is fermenting!!!!

25th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

GRAPE HARVESTING & WINE MAKING!!!

Wine vat and grape crusher set up on new floor

Pam and Mark came to help us harvest and process our grapes; we picked five buckets (of 55L each) of fruit (Brett estimated each bucket weighed 50 – 60lbs),

Half our grape harvest

 

Other half of our harvest

crushed them, with the machine we bought off Mr Luis which worked brilliantly and the wine vat was only about 1/3 full; so we decided to form a cooperative with Pam and Mark and go and pick their grapes too, we picked another four very full buckets.

Pam & Mark's harvest

The wine vat is now 2/3 full (over 200L); which is as full as it should be as the mixture will expand as it ferments. We don’t know how much volume will be lost once we rack of the wine but we’re hoping we could have around 180L (90L each, that’s 112 bottles). It’ll be a rose wine as we mixed all the grapes (and left the skins on*, how would you take the skins off?); the grape juice tasted lovely, it was quite sweet, but that will go as the sugar is turned into alcohol.

The crushed grapes & juice

We are going to start on the gym/studio floor tomorrow; we took all the tools down this afternoon. The floor has quite a slope from front to back and we spent a long time discussing how we were going to get the floor level. As we can’t make shuttering from wood; because (1) it’s very expensive and (2) it’s not terribly straight, we constructed a couple of concrete guides to work up to; it took a couple of hours as it was hard to get them level front to back and side to side, but it should make tomorrows task much easier.

* All the wine making articles say red wine is made with the skins left on the grapes (not as you would expect from the black/red grapes) and white wine is made from grapes, without the skins left on (not white grapes). I do appreciate this, as I remember that green crab apples made a lovely pink wine; but I just can’t understand how the skins can be removed (plunge them into boiling water, then peel, like tomatoes?).

24th August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We worked jolly hard today and managed to finish the first floor; one down only five to go, in fairness we have done the biggest one. We also did the footings for the little sitting room; Brett thought it would take about eight barrow loads, I hoped four, it took fifteen!

Lunch: mostly free - figs, tomatoes, eggs (Pam & Mark), onions, rocket, basil had to buy goat's cheese, Iberico ham and cucumber

We went to Pam and Mark’s for dinner; we had pizzas from their bread oven – very impressive, we’re definitely going to build one. We ate quite late (completely our fault) as we asked them not to light it until we arrived; we wanted to see the whole process, and now we know you light it before your guests arrive! We’ve seen cooks like Jamie Oliver use one, on the television, and he implied it only took about 10 mins to heat up.

Sunset st Pam & Mark's - looks like the sky's on fire!

When we got home I got out the wash bag (to clean my teeth), I pushed aside the washing up bowl, which was on top of the work surface, to clear a space for it close to the sink; the washing up bowl was full of water and it just slide across the work surface and emptied it’s contents all across the floor and over the bed!!!

Tomorrow Pam & Mark are coming over to help us harvest our grapes and make them into wine – our first vintage of Fonte dos Clerigos wine, how exciting.

23rd August FONTE DOS CLERIGOS

We decided not to continue cementing today; we’re both quite tired and Brett’s back is a bit achy.

So we went into Castelo Branco to buy wine making equipment. We came home with a 350L wine vat (we had thought about getting the 500L, but decided that this year we’d start small!). The vat is for collecting the crushed grapes and juice into, then it’s left in there for a week or so until the rapid fermentation is over and then it’s put into ............... and it’s here we get confused. It can go into demijohns with air locks, but you’d need an awful lot for 350L of wine (70 in fact), or you can put it into wooden or plastic barrels but it still has to be racked off a couple of times or they sell these stainless steel cylinders with gauges and doors and gadgets that we don’t understand – but we think these could be what you’re supposed to use, and the internet’s no bloody use. We need to talk to someone who’s done it, preferably someone who speaks English.

Hoopoe Feather found just outside camp

We walked around looking at our grapes this evening; on the internet it says you need to wait until the sugar content of the grapes has a specific gravity between 1.095 and 1.105, which you measure with a hydrometer – can we find a hydrometer here? (the answer is no!) I’ve got one back in Wales (but have never understood how to use it), so we’ll just have to guess when our grapes are ready – we’ve guessed lots are ready now.

We’re thinking that in our larder we can have several barrels of wine, rose, white and red, plus barrels of cider and perry; also we’re quite interested in making aguardente which is a spirit made from the crushed grapes and skins after they’ve been used for making wine (we’d have bottles of this not barrels).

Tomorrow we’re hoping to finish the floor and in the evening we’re going to Pam and Mark’s for pizza (cooked in their bread oven).

Another beautiful sunset

Base camp at sunset