About Me

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 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,

Friday 31 October 2008

Hmmmm I forgot...

I suppose I really should give a brief outline of what we are doing at Bouça just for those that dont know us...
We bought Bouça Da Figueira 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, Rik 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 wasnt easy, but we wanted peace quiet and loads of trees!! We have 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, Im fully prepared to work my socks off collecting wood, chopping logs, growing food, ect etc, but, we wont be too radical I'm afraid, I will not do without certain electrical stuff, like the freezer, and a washing machine, although we use the wash tank in the yard during summer, and do hope that soon (money permitting) Rik will build our windturbine and we'll manage a most stuff off grid. We dont have TV or internet ect 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 futire 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 . And although we want to be green as possible.... we still want to enjoy life and ride the bike!
Things have slowed 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 for winter and trying to do things around the place that costs us nothing, working on the trees and cutting brush etc.
So there you have it....
Pat