Preparing for the Season ahead

The late Summer brought us friends, construction materials, a lot of work and the beginning of a Big building project.


Click bellow to see the pictures and read the stories!



Europe road Trip

 Our friends Marie and Philipp traveled with a group of friends in 2 vans from Germany to Portugal. It was their first time here and we could enjoy some nice days together, sharing meals, little tasks and exploring the area around.

The group helped us to remove the suckers from the Olive trees. Not only the suckers reduce the vigor of the tree, they also make it harder to put the nets down for the Olive harvest.

Adventures in Penha Garcia

There are nice adventures like going climbing in Penha Garcia, a small village near Monsanto, and enjoying a nice swim in the natural swimming pool. And there are not so nice adventures when the engine of one of the vans explodes and they have to wait hours to manage things with the insurance company and finally get the van towed to a garage.

Thank God they were in a really nice spot when they stoped the car and had to extinguish the fire caused by one of the parts of the engine that jumped to the side of the road. They also enjoyed the hospitality of the portuguese family living next to the road, they brought them water, food and made them company.

All endep up ok. As the insurance company covered the costs to tow the van back to Germany and the flights back home.

The rest of the group continued the journey back home.
It was a short but intense visit. We hope to see this faces again. Thank you Philipp, Marie, Jacob, Bruno, Joanna, Marie and Jonathan!

Friends

Thomas came to visit and help us for 3 weeks. And Philipp decide to stay with us for a couple days more.
Eric and the boys enjoyed some machete work and making a bonnefire in the end of the week.

Strawbale Invasion

 Autumn and Spring are ideal season for building. And has we prepared for the Natural Building Courses that are coming in September and October, we got a loooot of materials, including strawbales. 

They are a great natural building material and also useful for the garden, compost piles and other projects.

 We got 2 big trucks full and our friends Liz and Ian came by surprise with their family. Talk about coming in the perfect time. Thanks for the help!

And more building materials: 
new roof for the Common Space

Desmanteling the Common Space and preparing for the Building Course

Before

Bromm Roof is gone! Created a nice mulch for the garden.

Putting new posts for the new Building

Goofy is not impressed but Barbara has a plann and things are going well!

After

The old structure is gone and the new roof is coming soon.


Besides building...

We had 2 great days of rain!

baking bread in the wood oven

collecting olive leaf for an amazing antioxidant tea

BBQ with friends on the weekend

Chocalhos 2015

a lovely party in the nearby village of Alpedrinha to celebrate  transhumance - the comming down of the sheep and goats from the mountains

Shepperd's traditional clothes and shelter for the mountains

traditional instruments to make cheese

Next weeks...

We are very busy building the new Common space, preparing for natural building courses and we have several other building projects we would like to finish before the rain comes and the Olive harvest begins. These are very interesting times. Stay in touch to see what's going to happen.

Thank you so much for your support, donations and sharing the word about our little community.

Have a beautiful Autumn!

Love and Gratitute from the Mount of Oaks community