For me it is a written record and something that we can reminisce on in years to come. Property
This page is really about sharing our ongoing experiences and knowledge gained on every trip out there with our family, friends and anyone else who might be interested.
22.07-02.09.24
Stina ,Raquel and G appeared for a few days..
Jobs around the homestead done and dusted by one and all.
Including strimming, veg garden cleaned and ploughed, drip irrigation relayed again, lawn cut and watered several times, new herb garden made and lots of potting and planting by all.
Luuurvley stuff.
Some of ours & neighbours production.
Check those Chilli bushes out...
Farm produce
Along with neighbors production.
Lots of figs along the way =Jam
Luuurvley chilly trees,
CJ made lots of organics teas.
Lots of testing and exploration going on....
Learning...
22.07.24-02.09.24
Stina, Raquel, Graydon for a few days and myself.
Lots of little jobs done incl
Strimming all trees outside orta G
Strimming inside orta,
Planting pots,
Watering everything regularily,
Ploughing and tilling veg garden and relaying/reparing , adding lines and taps on the drip irrigation,
New herb garden,
Water sprays set up on new compost heap,
Spraying for fleas,
Jet wash tractor,
Jet wash pots,
Drinking beer,
Evening fires,
Clipping hedge,
Chillaxing between everything
Bizzy but most enjooooyable...
10.08.24
Fencing posts for the veg garden
Discussed with Elder what we would need to complete the fence apart from 2 x100 m rolls and 20 poles purchased 2 years ago whilst up by Figs along with the car purchase.
Friday bought all material at Fruti Coop to at least get started.
Sat worked with Luis and got all the thicker principal corner posts in with concrete etc and there sister posts to take the cross members.
Too friggin hot to work so stopped at 12 and started again at 17.00.
Have now got all the 3 m posts in up one side towardd the chicken house and moving on to the top side.
Hope to finish that today and then tomorrow finish the far side along with all wire bracing and cementing in support posts on the corners.
Watering 3 hrs top sector
Lawn done
Cj doing veg garden and AR seedlings along with all fruit trees approx 1 hr
18.08.24
AR Bottom sector 4.5 hrs
Thursday Mj veg and AR
Today Sunday CJ AR and veg 1 hr
Luis checked all water reaching plants Sat
Luis Pruned all bottom fruits tress, olives, madronhya, almonds etc
Finished all new fence structure incl cross bracing and cementing support posts.
Sandy Returned water tank hopefully in working order.
Sandy moved all corner rocks near chooks today with TLB 40 mins
Painted vases from house and finished today.
Transplanted plants in today 4 vases ready to go back to the house,
Tilled veg garden and 4 rows outside veg garden for Elder to plant Favas
Re tilled yesterday veg garden.
Today relayed all the water pipes and drilled new lines.
Need another roll of gota gota 100m
15 more taps
Gota gota to 32mm pipe connections
Need to check taps bends 32mm to 32mm connections needed.
Prep for expansion of veg garden and fence 29.07.24
Main job cleaning and ploughing
Watered top sector 3 hrs this eve.
Left pump on needs to run for 3 hrs 40 mins from 09.00.
Completed scarifying across and started on up down a good 5 hrs tractor today.
Sunday Sprayed verahanda and chook house all walls and ceiling anti flea.
Tuesday
Filled tanks brimming.
Recharged batteries.
Watered all orta and trees 1.5 hrs with CJ.
All plants on veranda.
Lawn.
Let chooks out. 5 eggs incl x 1 small
Checked all trees receiving water.
Quite a few need to be replaced in November.
Finished cross rip and started piling hay into compost heap,
04.08.24
Sunday
Fed chooks and let them out for the day.
Did approx 3 hrs ploughing
Cj did luurvley lunch.
Repotted some plants.
Cut most of hedge still to do top and a bit with klippers.
Had a snooze
Set up jet wash and sprayed/removed old paint on vases.
Watered front lawn
Watered AR seedlings 1hr
Watered bottom sector AR 2 hrs 45.
All fruit trees incl 1hr
Had some beer.
Cleaned air filter an re greased needs to be blown out.
Fan belt fine
Topped up front axle needs more.
Topped up water needed quite a bit needs anto freeze.
Re connected battery started 1 kick.
Need to check pto level and gbox.
Engine oil fine.
Needs grease all over and a general l**e
Got oil filter ,diesel filter and oil to be done next trip in the car
*Quinta 03.04.24 -28.04.24*
Managed to get quite a bit done in the gaps that were available time wise.
An hour or so in the evenings and mostly Sundays.
A few days with Luis in early April and x4 days with Depaak late April.
*South Land*
X110 babies on the South Land,
Need to replace x 2
Pruned,
W**ded ,
strimmed around, made beds,
fertilised,
propped up the bent due to wind ones x 60 odd.
Didn't experiment with the water.
All looking v healthy,
*Seed beds AR,*
Strimmed all areas,
W**ded all,
Pruned most,
Fert on all,
Tested water,
All big and healthy,
*Veg garden,*
Cut and trimmed,
Tilled and prepped for planting Potatoes and veg,
Purchased 25 kg potatoes seeds late Feb,
350 odd planted now and 100 odd on new moon this Sunday,
Purchased x800 onions x500 planted and x300 to go on new moon,
12 tomotoe salad
X6 tomatoe Rosa
X6 pepper green
X 24 lettuce
X6 corgettes
X6 egg plant
Planted with a mix of horse and chicken manure.
Set up x 14 lines drip irrigation and tested,
W**ded Favas and Garlic,
Cleaned and made beds for all Rosemary bushes and trees in Orta,
*All trees outside orta*
Looking v healthy,
W**ded,
Made beds,
Pruned,
Checked water,
Fertiliser,
Strimmed,
Cut around with tractor,
*General*
Cut all boundaries and road sides,
Stimmed around the house,
Cut some wood,
Watered and W**ded all pot plants,
Pruned piri piri bushes,
A good achieving Sunday all in all,
Eeeish knackered though, a bit broken spring and no longer bullet as I think,
Laundry done, hung and away,
Back at Quinta by 09.00,
Checked in on the chooks, fed and eggs collection and let them run free for the day.
Put ash collected from my two fires on all the newly planted,
Case popped in for a coffee and chat,
Lunch purchased and cooked,
Discussed tomorrow's and this coming weeks house program with Elder so we can start tomoz on the run,
Drip irrigation sorted and tested with 20 odd lines and functioning,
A few leaks yet to sort,
Ran for an hour circa 2800 liters,
Now overhead irrigation going for an hour ,
Will measure consumption tomoz, 1909 liters for the record.
Planted circa 300 onions making 500 odd in,
Big story about planting them on a new moon,
Any one have knowledge on this?
Being atheists we planted 300 and left 300 to go in in about 2 weeks time at new moon,
Completed the last line of potatoes and circa another 100 to go in to make 430,
About to turn watering off and hopefully have a hot shower with any left overs from lighting my 'RHODESIAN BOILER' yesterday.
The water was hot and steamy by the way, luuurvley.
Then no doubt to bed .
A good busy one overall
A Sunday farm day with Elder...
Lunch today on the braai..
Pork Belly
Onions,
Butternut,
Potatoes all done in tinfoil.
Couple of coldies and some red wine, coffee and Madronhio for desert.....
Luuuurvley.
So another week just about gone...
Cooked those Favas from last Sunday last night my way.
Piri piri, Wild thyme, Rosemary , salt,
olive oil , onions slightly overdone ,garlic, peppers, tomatoes x 3 eggs ,some crumbled blue cheese and then mixed it in with the boiled favas and sprinkled with olive oil.
Luurvley to say the least and will expirement some more down the line.
Last Sunday apart from learning to cook favas managed to plant some 326 potatoes,
This Sunday implement the watering system for the potatoes and do some seed bed weeding and check over their watering system.
Also hope to install the gas boiler so can have a hot shower on demand.
It would be a God send.
Also managed to cut the lawn must be number 8 or 9 cut.
Weather warming up thank God.
A great experience today.
Cooked some Favas (broad beans) fresh from the Quinta.
Under instruction from Stina and Elder, frigging delicioooooous.
Pork fat, black pudding type sausage and Chourico type sausage mixed in with the boiled beans.
Delicious to say the least.
Have now picked a fresh batch ready for the next session peeled and ready to go where I can experiment with Chilli, garlic, burnt onions and see if it works without meat.
Looking forward....
Preping the veg patch for planting potatoes on Sunday.
W**ding seeed beds
TLC to x 110 trees, weeding, strimming, fert
Cutting boundaries.
General tidy up....
A stroll in Burgau at the end of the day....
Back to mud tomoz.
Boohoo.
Look what I got though.
Reaped all my piri piri bushes...
A busy 6 weeks.
Stina and Raquel for 4.5 weeks.
Got most and more stuff done.
Still lots to do though......
Some exciting stuff in the pipeline.
Raquel and I once again did some whispering with the chooks and dogs with good results.
C and R visited Mimado (Lena) in the outback hills for a few nights.
Lots of meetings with various entities along the way.
Agricultural Project either presented or close to being presented and hopefully we get a good green light which will open many doors.
Lawn around the homestead looking sweet and finally got top and bottom gates in.
All planted AR and seedlings cleaned up, increase the irrigation sprinklers and watered a lot, looking v healthy.
Replanted 1000 odd empty vases.
Snr Antonio Agri engineer and his madame Madelena , a proper plant fundi, handle bar moustache, who freely gives his time , friendship, knowledge and lots of plants of different species is v chuffed with all of their progress and reconfirmed for me that I was firmly on the right path in terms of pruning and caring for all plants.
Next visit will be planting another x 11 fig trees , all different species from him.
All fruit, paw paws, figs , madronhio and olive trees x 50 odd showed big growth and looking v healthy. It shows what some TLC and regular watering can achieve .
Managed to eat the 1st Mango which was sweet and deeeelicious and the tangerine trees full of baby fruit. Not to forget my Nepalise beast piri piri plants which got raided on a regular basis along with some malagetas.
Our under roof around the house pots/nursery have now produced a further x 7 avo trees which will get planted at some stage, yaaaaaay....
Veggie garden supplied onions, tomatoes, r**e, potatoes, bay leaves , rosemary and peppers the whole way through, wild thyme from the bush along with eggs from the chooks, along with a v big chicken stew (cabidela) from one of the ex c***s.
Cabbage going in and short some other bits and bobs, lettuce, garlic, sweet potatoes (underway),
Mario popped in regularily to say hi,
Check his pig baits , bring the odd fish and just generally chat, not one hair of any pig was harmed in this story for all you tree huggers out there.
Elder passed through most days doing bits and bobs or just chilling and chatting.
Rui a couple of times and a bit of interaction with our neighbors south and north.
Figs and Guida pulled in for a luuuurvley long weekend from up north at long last. A real pleasure to host them after so long.
R's PA popped over for a week giving mum and dad a deserved rest and much needed.
Out for lunch a few times for some good Portuguese fare.
Revisited the best chicken spot in the world so far after at least 30 years of testing, in Lagos.
A must for chicken lovers.
Stina and Raquel back to mud end of August and I stayed on for a further 10 odd days.
Finishing up and enjoying the solitude.
All in all a good busy busy busy time with lots achieved.
Onwards and upwards till next time.
Luuuurvley stuff.....
As requested,
Warehouse effect....
Small braaai.
Potatoes. Peppers, onions in tin foil.
Chook on top.
A delicate job over the course of summer.....
Managed without breaking anything or anyone.
Took some time though to put all support structure in place securely.
Elder is a beeeeast and thinks right out of the box , safety being one of his main priorities.
Without it soooo much more space created.
Took a bit of time to get used to it although defo the right move, now you can see the 80 odd m2 of clay roof tiles.
Have put some wood paneling up on the back wall to help as a wind break.
Beaut.
Parked and still very mobile so within 10 mins will be re sited near bye and ready to use.
One of the bigger jobs over the summer.
Tend to the x 110 AR planted in the top land..
Including
W**d each plant,
Repair/Make a nice bed for each one,
Make sure drip/water working correctly,
Strim around each plant
Redrill , compost, replace x 7 plants from stock,
Fertiliser by hand to each plant,
Water fert in by hand..
Water by drip 2 -3 hrs per session twice a week, top and bottom sectors, mostly done from about 18.00 onwards.
Mj last seen driving around in the dark turning off/on valves.
Last but not least prune each plant,
Stock take...
Twice a year job.
With two people doing this, removing all piping and using the tractor to cut weeds a two full day job.
One up =4-5 days.
Should really be done Oct -Nov and March to May
All plants looking healthy with new shoots all over them.
Luuurvley babies.....
A bit of hedge trimming done by hand.
Before and after pics.
Hard job....
Cleaned/washed and tidied/strimmed up around the solar panels.
Just makes them more efficient.
Last done with Andy in December.
A twice a year job..
Veggy garden now prepped for the next session.
Cabage
Potatoes
Onions
Who knows what else...
Lots and lots of work and much TLC given and done on the seed beds .
Temperatures being in the mid 30's,
Stina did a stock take and put it all down on paper/design.
Including weeding x 2000 odd vases.
Spray each plant with Bio fert .
Done twice early August and early Sept.
Water by hand twice a week,
Water by sprinkler at least twice a week for 1 -2 hrs if not more.
Increased the overhead sprinklers to both sides so we now get cross over spray.
Take circa 1000 seeds out of dried pods, soak and replant all empty sacks rather than moving them.
Strim around the edges and tidy up.
The end result we have noticed , nice growth going on, most if not all have little shoots popping up all over them and they all look fine and very healthy.
Luuuurvley.....
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Luuuurve
Rocks and more rocks... They grow well here...
Planting AR....
1st paid job.... Not big but a start..
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